The Singer of All Songs

September 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

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Neon Gods by Katee Robert
(Dark Olympus, book 1)
Rating:  N/A – DNF
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates: Aug 19 – Sept 7
Read Count:  0.5
Favorite Thing:  Interesting premise
Least Favorite Thing:  This book made me feel oogy?

I tried to read this for Katesbookdate‘s patreon book club and… I swear this was almost porn-without-plot, it was barely not that. I felt so uncomfortable the whole time, not about the sex, but about how every single thing – good or bad – brought on a new sex scene. Also…the way he talked to her was shudder inducing.

My Posts About Neon Gods

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  Sept 7
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  The oracle!
Least Favorite Thing:  Why can’t people just tell other people things?

I probably won’t ever read these books again, but because I feel like I’ve really aged out of them. But it was a nice little throw-back.

My Posts About The Last Olympian

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 7 )
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 1 – 7
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Telepath Teamup!
Least Favorite Thing: I can’t even think of anything, I take these books as they are lol

So I’ve read this before, physically, but I listen to music or audiobooks while I work now and I needed something fluffy so of course I went for the Sookie Stackhouse books. I’ve been trying to slowly work my way through, but once I start one I just can’t turn it off!

My Posts About All Together Dead

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 8 – 9
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I love the way everyone talks. No the accents, but like the word choice and the…cadence maybe?
Least Favorite Thing: She’s so painfully selfish, the movie definitely took some of that out.

I love this movie so much, and I have listened to a different audiobook version in the past, but I think this one was better.

My Posts About Brooklyn

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 8)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 10 – 11
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I like that a major real life event was included, makes a fantastical story feel more real.
Least Favorite Thing: Stop, I’m never going to have a least favorite am I?

These books are so relaxing for me. And occasionally quite funny.

My Posts About From Dead to Worse

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 9)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 12 – 13
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Shifters out!!!!
Least Favorite Thing: How many times is Jason going to be accused of some kind of horrific murder? Examine your life, bro.

Ok, fine, I picked a least favorite thing. Except it’s not even really a least favorite thing, because it’s kind of hilarious?

My Posts About Dead and Gone

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 15 – 17
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: TEETH!
Least Favorite Thing: Special girl is so special.

I had been wanting to reread these, specifically via audiobook, for so dang long! I finally broke down and joined audible just for the time it would take to listen to these books.

My Posts About Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 17 – 20
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: Ziriiiiiii
Least Favorite Thing: Mr. White Wolf himself obviously.

You know I’m just now realizing how little the covers have to do with the story…

My Posts About Days of Blood & Starlight

The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 22 – 23
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: I just love the magic style!
Least Favorite Thing: Does she have to love the first man she’s ever met?

Don’t ask me why, but I suddenly became convinced that this was the book I needed to listen to ASAP… Anyway I bought it and I listened and the background sounds were strange…

My Posts About The Singer of All Songs

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: July 23 – Sept 28
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Uh….I….can’t think of one…
Least Favorite Thing: SHE’S SO INCREDIBLY STUPID I CAN’T HANDLE IT

Could it have taken me any longer to finish this book? Gawd! I honestly did not enjoy it at all. I wanted to, I tried really hard…. Blah.

My Posts About Lock Every Door

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 20 – 28
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: Things finally happen!
Least Favorite Thing: I wish I could care at all about the main characters’ romance, but the only romances I give a shit about are side characters lol

WHAT DOES THIS COVER HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING??

My Posts About Dreams of Gods & Monsters

In Progress

January 2017 Wrap-Up

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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Reading Dates:  January 9 – 12
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The books Jake finds when he explores the bombed shell of the home. He remarks the titles of ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘The Secret Garden’. I laughed so hard I lost my place!
Least Favorite Thing:  Jake does not think about things enough! He supposedly went over his grandfather’s last words constantly, but he doesn’t catch when people say things that might allude back to it? That freaking apple rots overnight into dust and his reaction is literally: “puzzled, I shrugged it off and went out”! What the hell, Jake!?

If you love adventure and amazing descriptive language in your novels, this is definitely a book (and series) you need to read. I genuinely had to pause several times just to absorb the imagery. (And once to scrub my brain of the mental image presented by the imagery…)
If you saw the movie and decided this book wasn’t worth reading, I urge you to reconsider.

My Posts About Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  January 12 – 14
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  “Nowhere am I deadlier than in a field of wildflowers,” Hugh said, enjoying the attention.
(Also can we talk about how cute Fiona and Hugh are? She grew flowers for his bees so they could kiss! I’m dyingggg!)
Least Favorite Thing:  The menagerie… Something about the peculiar animals just… Bleh…

My Posts About Hollow City

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  January 14 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Jacob’s Hollow!!!! Precious little killing machine!
Least Favorite Thing:  The defeated feeling it gave me around halfway through… I accept that adventure novels have to have a “progress, set back, progress, set back” sort of rhythm, but sometimes it gets to a point where it feels like more set backs than progress and it leaves me feeling hopeless. Luckily, it didn’t last too long in this book, so don’t let that be what keeps you from reading it.

My Posts About Library of Souls

The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  January 24 – 27
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Talk shit get…..all the saliva in your mouth frozen solid.
Least Favorite Thing:  Trout whines too damn much… (And Samis gloats too damn much…)

My Posts About The Singer of All Songs

WWW Wednesday: January 25, 2017

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable (Chanters of Tremaris, book 1)
I’ve read this series once before, but I realized the other day I was having trouble remembering some details. And the details I did remember made me want to reread it so I could remember them all!
Plus I always love the idea of magic through language (in this case song). And of course it’s elemental magic for the most part, which is always fun.
Calwyn almost seems boring in the beginning, but I’m not sure how exciting you can make a convent girl who does nothing but chores or singing at a wall to keep it frozen solid all day long really seem…. She get’s more interesting after she meets Darrow.

Recently Finished:  Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 3)
I am never getting over my affection for Jacob’s stupid Hollow! I literally cried over that thing for heaven’s sake… And the ending really got me. Like I knew there had to be some way to make the ending happy, but at a certain point (I won’t say specifically in case some haven’t read it) I was feeling just as desperate and hopeless as Jacob and almost in tears.
I did have some trouble around the half-way point with this one because everything just seemed to be going wrong over and over and nothing going right, but I got past it and I’m so glad I kept reading.
Did I mention the Hollow? 😦 I miss him….

Reading Next:  Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink (Prophecy of the Sisters, book 1)
I’ll probably be reading this next, unless some miracle happens and the copy of The Waterless Sea that the public library ordered comes in and I can continue with the Chanters of Tremaris series.
Also if I have any luck at all, I’ll manage to read some more on The Tale of Oriel since I just stopped part way through a while back and never got back to it! It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that I hit a reading slump while I was reading this one and now I’m having trouble making myself get back to it in case the slump comes back!

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: January 25, 2017

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What Are You Reading Wednesdays #WAYRW is a weekly feature on It’s A Reading Thing. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Grab the book you are currently reading and answer three questions:

  1. What’s the name of your current read?
  2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
  3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

  1. The Singer of All Songs
  2. Calwyn felt suddenly very solemn and serious. Usually during lessons and lectures she felt only a fierce desire to be elsewhere or an irresistible urge to fidget, but now she sat as still as a statue, sensing that what Marna was about to tell her was more important, and certainly more interesting, than herb lore or weaving patterns.
  3. I think I might, but only if I could be just a regular little background character doing my own thing, just enjoying my magic, while they went on the dangerous adventures.

Teaser Tuesday: January 24, 2017

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Calwyn stopped in her tracks, and her song faltered on her lips. For the space of a heartbeat she thought she must be dreaming; the steady chantment she’d been singing without pause since dawn jerked almost into silence.

– Kate Constable, The Singer of All Songs (The Chanters of Tremaris, book 1), page 8

Version:
Hardcover, 297 pages
Published March 1st 2004 by Arthur A. Levine Books

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

Update: T5W, Nov-23-16

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I was looking in my old Top 5 Wednesday posts and saw this one for Books I Want to Re-Read and I just realized I can actually cross 2 of them off the list!

  1. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
  2. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
  3. The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
  4. Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt
  5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Hurray for me!

UPDATE January 27, 2017: 3 down, 2 to go!
UPDATE July 2017: 4 down, 1 to go!

Top 5 Wednesday: November 23, 2016

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Books I Want to Re-Read

Though it seems like we are all constantly chasing the next upcoming release, let’s take a trip down memory lane and talk about some books that we’d like to re-visit.

  1. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
  2. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
  3. The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
  4. Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt
  5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, just head over to their Goodreads Group and join the fun!

The Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy

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I’m seriously about to stab someone right now…

I bought these two books (part of a series I’d never read and they just looked interesting) from Recycled Books last Thursday, because I had a massive credit account and needed new books to read.

Well I finished them.

FUCKING ASDFGHJKLFGHA;LSDFGHJK;LKJFYI

*sob*

That is not how you fucking end a book KATE CONSTABLE you fucking Australian BITCH I’m going to come to your house and punch you in the fucking face!!!!!!!!!!!!

I seriously have no words… At first I was actually forming coherent sentences, but now my ranting has deteriorated into meaningless irritated sounds punctuated by punches that Robert is bad at dodging…

I googled the FUCKING BITCH who wrote the books and it turns out it’s a trilogy (The Singer of All Songs, The Waterless Sea, and The Tenth Power), which is lucky for her because I already told Robert, there better be another fucking book or I’m going to beat her up and then lock her in a room and force her to write another one with a DECENT FUCKING ENDING!

But now the problem is: HOW THE HELL DO I GET THE THIRD BOOK!?!?!?!?

I bought all the ones Recycled Books had, that’s why I had two of them. And there’s no way I could afford to order a new one online or something… And Barnes & Noble is so out of my price range that I don’t even bother to go in there anymore because it’s just depressing…

FUCKING FUCK FUCK FUCK GOD DAMMIT I HATE MY LIFE SO MUCH RIGHT NOW AND I NEED THAT FUCKING BOOK NNOOOOWWWWWW