Neil Gaiman

December 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 1
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I was going to lie, but seriously it was Alan Alda’s part.
Least Favorite Thing: The movie lol

Been a minute since I read this last, but definitely still enjoyed it.

My Posts About World War Z

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 8
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: It’s so bizarre-o.
Least Favorite Thing: Literally nothing.

I basically read this one a second time to see if the audiobook was as unsettling as reading it physically. It was.

My Posts About We Have Always Lived in the Castle

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 10 – 13
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Weird.
Least Favorite Thing: Weird.

A friend at work read this recently and I realized while talking to her about it that I still wasn’t sure what this book was about. Now having read it a second time, I can definitively say… I still do not know what this book was about.

My Posts About American Gods

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
(The Twilight Saga, book 1)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 14 – 16
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: At least it wasn’t The Host?
Least Favorite Thing: It was Twilight.

Ok do not judge me for rereading a book I hate. I wanted to experience the audiobook version because I’ve always read it physically before. News Flash! It was equally terrible having someone read it to me!

My Posts About Twilight

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
(Strange the Dreamer, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★★ – loved it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 21 – 22
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: Wait do I find Lazlo attractive?
Least Favorite Thing: Gimme a second, I’ll think of something…

I have wanted to listen to this one for a while because I just knew it would be excellent, and my library happened to have it available for me so I listened to it while I worked and it was so calming (the narrator’s voice) and beautiful (the prose).

My Posts About Strange the Dreamer

White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Rating: ★★★★★ – loved it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: Oct 23 – Dec 22
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: So beautifully written it makes me want to cry.
Least Favorite Thing: Actually makes me cry because so much bad stuff happens.

This was my car book. That is, this is the book I left in my car to read on lunch breaks and when I have to wait for something. As you can imagine, it was a bit heavy for a car book lol

My Posts About White Oleander

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour
Rating: ★★★★★ – loved it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: Nov 6 – Dec 28
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: The writing was so beautiful!
Least Favorite Thing: Literally nothing. Maybe I’ll pick something next time I read it.

Nina LaCour is officially on my favorite author list now. I will read a book, regardless of the premise, if Nina LaCour writes it.

My Posts About Watch Over Me

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
(The Twilight Saga, book 2)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 27 – 28
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: [cricket sounds]
Least Favorite Thing: I actually hate the audiobook narrator…

Edward wasn’t even in this book and yet I had to hear about him every 10 seconds. Blech.

My Posts About New Moon

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
(The Twilight Saga, book 3)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Dec 28 – 29
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: It was over quickly.
Least Favorite Thing: It was still torture.

Seriously, these characters are so much more insufferable when you have to hear them out loud! Like they were annoying people before, but then hearing their words aloud? Oh my gawd, I wanted to slap people who don’t even exist.

My Posts About Eclipse

In Progress

First Lines Fridays: May 3, 2019

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

It was a very old house — it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

March 2019 Reading Wrap-Up

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Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  January 4 – March 6
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Witty-funny.
Least Favorite Thing:  Just dragged a little bit.

This book was strange for me. I would go from loving it and completely engrossed to bored out of my mind and back again. I can’t quite put my finger on the issue I had, but there definitely was one. I was supposed to read it along with the discord server Books & Tea in the month of January, but it wound up taking me until March to get through it!

My Posts About Good Omens

Girl, Stolen by April Henry
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  March 8 – 13
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I found the depiction of her blindness and the way she did things despite it to be fascinating.
Least Favorite Thing:  I can’t actually think of something I didn’t like…

I loved the way this book wrapped up. There was just enough closure and just enough left to wonder about.

My Posts About Girl, Stolen

It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  March 24 – 28
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  He’s so weird and introspective.
Least Favorite Thing:  There were a few things that didn’t age super well…

I first read Fulghum’s books back in middle school and I figured it was high time I reread them, so I’ve been working my way through a little at a time.

My Posts About It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It

In Progress

August 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  July 28 – August 14
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The cat, obviously.
Least Favorite Thing:  Those damn button eyes are so creepy…

This book managed to simultaneously creep me out more than I expected and less than I expected. Either way it was good and I recommend it.

My Posts About Coraline

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
(Enchanted Forest Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  August 1 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Cimorene does not have time for your nonsense.
Least Favorite Thing:  Telemain is actually pretty annoying?

Man this series is great! I already got book 3 from the library because I have to know what happens next. If you haven’t read these books yet, get on that ASAP!

My Posts About Searching for Dragons

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Ratings:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I really like the cadence of their speech in this book.
Least Favorite Thing:  Nobody knocked T. Ray out… Disappointing.

I was worried I’d be disappointed in this book, but I really wasn’t. The writing style really suited me and the subject matter was a good combination of light and heavy.

My Posts About The Secret Life of Bees

The Safe Keeper’s Secret by Sharon Shinn
(Safe-Keepers, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 21 – 24
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The Truth-Teller
Least Favorite Thing:  The romance-ish thing…

I read this book because I had read the second book in the series a long time ago without realizing it was part of a series at all. I remember liking it so I figure it’s time to go through the series. Especially since these books are on my list of books I own, but never managed to read!

My Posts About The Safe-Keeper’s Secret

The Truth-Teller’s Tale by Sharon Shinn
(Safe-Keepers, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 25 – 31
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Roelynn, I think.
Least Favorite Thing:  All the damn secrets intentionally kept from the protag by people who said they cared for her and she’s just supposed to be fine with it…?

I remembered some of this, but not much, mostly I remembered thinking it was a cute story and it was. I preferred the first book though I think.

My Posts About The Truth-Teller’s Tale

In Progress

 

QuoteLeeLeave a comment
The light that came through the picture window was daylight, real golden late-afternoon daylight, not a white mist light. The sky was a robin’s-egg blue, and Coraline could see trees and, beyond the trees, green hills, which faded on the horizon into purples and grays. The sky had never seemed so sky, the world had never seemed so world.

– Neil Gaiman, Coraline, page 137

Version:
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

QuoteLeeLeave a comment
She found herself to be quite worried that something would jump out at her, so she began to whistle. She thought it might make it harder for things to jump out at her if she was whistling.

– Neil Gaiman, Coraline, page 108

Version:
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

QuoteLee1 Comment
For a moment she felt utterly dislocated. She did not know where she was; she was not entirely sure who she was. It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.

– Neil Gaiman, Coraline, page 67

Version:
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

 

First Lines Fridays: August 10, 2018

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough, and looked don’t-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!