Jane Austen

Musing Monday: October 2, 2017

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Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ____, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What do you do with your non-keeper hard copy books?

I blogged about ____ this past week…

What do you do with your non-keeper hard copy books?
Well, I know a lot of the online book community members are major e-reader people, but I am not. I don’t actually have anything against them, I’m not one of those people. I actually like them, I love how available they’ve made books to everybody and I have noticed I read faster on e-readers (or it feels that way because I can’t mark my progress the same as with a physical copy), but I have a little trouble with reading on screens and let’s face it, there is nothing like holding a book in your hands. The weight, the smell, the texture, everything about physical books appeals to me.

All of this is to say:  I have lots of hard copy books. Not as many as some people, but considering I have so little money, I think 600 books is quite a stash.

I try to stick to the rule of only buying copies of books I already know I like. If it’s a book I haven’t read I like to just get it from the public library, and if I like it I’ll put it on my list of books to buy. That way I don’t spend my extremely limited book buying money on books I don’t like.

However, I am pretty terrible at following my own rule… I go to my favorite bookstore, Recycled Books, and I start off looking for books from my list and next thing I know it’s been 3 hours and my my husband (or mother) is standing over me where I’ve sat down on the floor with at least 2 stacks of books, probably more, and lost myself in some book or other. (Tip: If you tell yourself you’ll just read a page or two to see if you want to buy a book, don’t believe yourself. If you are anything like me you will read several chapters before you even realize it.)

AND NOW THAT I’VE TALKED ABOUT A TON OF STUFF LET ME ANSWER THE ACTUAL QUESTION:  When I do wind up with physical books I don’t want to keep, either because I got distracted from my list or because I hit up some garage sale where they had books for a quarter and I couldn’t stop myself, what do I do with them?

I take them back to the aforementioned favorite used bookstore and trade them in for store credit! And then I get to go shopping for more books!! Hurray!

(I’m so sorry, I really didn’t stay on topic even a little bit today…)

September 2017 Wrap-Up (Part 2)

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Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan
(The Lynburn Legacy, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  September 15 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Rusty. Perfect Rusty.
Least Favorite Thing:  Rob Lynburn is so skeezy I need 10 showers every time he talks…

Welp, I’m not mad about the thing I was mad about at the end of the first book anymore because it was explained and resolved in a very satisfying manner. However! I am frustrated because I have made several connections based on information Kami has already that she has not made and I have no way of climbing into the book to tell her!

My Posts About Untold

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 17 – 20
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  That fucking fruit basket/note thing!
Least Favorite Thing:  Thiago. Obviously.

The close second for favorite thing was the trio of Akiva, Liraz, and Hazael. Sweet murder siblings.

But it was deeply infuriating waiting for Karou to figure out that Thiago and Ten were playing her! It seemed so damn obvious!

One thing that bugged me about the book though, there was a mention when explaining the whole “Angel-lover” insult where it says “in all Karou’s human languages, there was no insult so loaded with disgust and contempt, no single word that cast such a pall of filth” and I actually had to stop for a minute because I was annoyed. I mean… It’s really obvious what real life insult it resembles and yet it’s supposedly worse than anything in any human language. Ok Laini. Sure. (To clarify, I by no means think this was some intentional slight intended by the author, it’s just something that really bothered me personally.)

My Posts About Days of Blood & Starlight

The Runner by Cynthia Voigt
(The Tillerman Cycle, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 20 – 21
Read Count:  3  (Pretty sure I’ve read it more than that, but only 3 that I can be sure of.)
Favorite Thing:  Reading him running, of course.
Least Favorite Thing:  The Phone Call. I’m still crying even though I always know it’s coming.

I want to warn potential readers, for a good half of this book Bullet is a racist. Not a “death to all black people” kind of racist, you won’t have to read depictions of him committing violence against black people, but an “I don’t mix with them” sort of racist, and you will see his thoughts about it several times. Part of his journey in this book is him learning that he’s wrong to just arbitrarily dislike people who are black. I didn’t want anyone getting blindsided by that in the beginning of the book.

My Posts About The Runner

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 23 – 27
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  We Haven’t Been Introduced
Seriously this is easily my favorite part of the whole book. I grin like an idiot and squeal internally just thinking about it. Like just now, I briefly recalled parts of the book I enjoyed to evaluate them for a favorite and when I came to this one I actually hid my face and giggled so I feel like it’s really no contest.
Least Favorite Thing:  Morgan Toth’s pillowy lips…

I actually raised my rating of this book from 4 stars (from back in 2014) to 5 because it’s definitely the best of the trilogy for me.

My Posts About Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Come A Stranger by Cynthia Voigt
(The Tillerman Cycle, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 28 – 29
Read Count:  3  (Pretty sure I’ve read it more than that, but only 3 that I can be sure of.)
Favorite Thing:  Mina’s laughter.
Least Favorite Thing:  Racist teachers, blech.

I learned so much from Mina back in middle school when I first read this book. So much was changing for me and reading a book where that was happening to a character who was dynamic and strong was so helpful at that time.

My Posts About Come A Stranger

In Progress

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Week 9

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Lee is on page 142 of 260

Chapter III

Riddle:  What has two thumbs and has a weird feeling that Mr. Elliot is totally not to be trusted?
Answer:  This guy right here!

Seriously, he’s too perfect, something is not right here. Which is a shame because he’s basically the only person to immediately appreciate Anne…

In this post I explained my plan to finally work my way through Jane Austen’s Persuasion (the only book of hers I don’t like at all).

At the end of each week, either Friday or Saturday, I will post an update of my progress and any thoughts, should I have them.

Musing Monday: September 25, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ____, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you like book clubs or not?

I blogged about ____ this past week…

  • Monday, September 18 – Musing Monday, showing off a new book I got & talking about background noise, and a review of Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan.
  • Tuesday, September 19 – A progress update for Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor, then Teaser Tuesday (also using DoBaS).
  • Wednesday, September 20 – A rating post for Days of Blood & Starlight, a belated WWW Wednesday, WAYRW, then a bookstagram for The Runner by Cynthia Voigt.
  • Thursday, September 21 – Thursday Quotables, using The Runner, and then a rating post for the same novel.
  • Friday, September 22 – As usual, First Lines Friday & Friday 56 (the latter using Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor).
  • Saturday, September 23 – I managed two chapters of Persuasion this week, and I posted my usual progress update for that.

Do you like book clubs or not?
Uh… In theory?

I’ve never actually been in a book club, so I can’t say for sure. I like the idea of being in one, but I’ve never seen a book club of adults who read a ridiculous amount of YA novels!

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Week 8

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Lee is on page 134 of 260

Volume II, Chapter I & II

Damn. All the enjoyment I had is basically gone now… I only read two chapters in a row because I was in a good mood, not because I was actually enjoying the reading. I wasn’t actively suffering, mostly I was just bored. I had to reread several bits over and over because my mind kept drifting.

I think Wentworth and Anne are meant to get together in the end, but honestly I’d rather Anne just move on to that Benwick guy, at least he’s nice to her!

In this post I explained my plan to finally work my way through Jane Austen’s Persuasion (the only book of hers I don’t like at all).

At the end of each week, either Friday or Saturday, I will post an update of my progress and any thoughts, should I have them.

First Lines Fridays: September 22, 2017

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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:

About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park encompasses not only Jane Austen’s great comedic gifts and her genius as a historian of the human animal, but her personal credo as well—her faith in a social order that combats chaos through civil grace, decency, and wit.

At the novel’s center is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin,” brought as a child to Mansfield Park by the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a loving heart. As Fanny watches her cousins Maria and Julia cast aside their scruples in dangerous flirtations (and worse), and as she herself resolutely resists the advantages of marriage to the fascinating but morally unsteady Henry Crawford, her seeming austerity grows in appeal and makes clear to us why she was Austen’s own favorite among her heroines.

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Week 7

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Lee is on page 119 of 260

Chapter IX

I have just officially, for the first time ever, enjoyed an entire chapter of Persuasion!!!! (I even took a quote from it! Whaaaat!) I hardly know what to do with myself now!

Chapter X – XII

I can’t believe how much I just read all at once! It’s a freaking miracle!

After enjoying Chapter IX, I decided to ride that enjoyment as far as it would take me and kept going all the way to Chapter XII, the end of Volume I. I didn’t enjoy these three chapters like I did Chapter IX, but I wasn’t impatient to be finished for the week like I have been every single other week of this project, so I think that’s good enough really.

I’m now officially ahead of schedule and I can genuinely say I enjoyed one chapter of this book which has given me years of trouble!

In this post I explained my plan to finally work my way through Jane Austen’s Persuasion (the only book of hers I don’t like at all).

At the end of each week, either Friday or Saturday, I will post an update of my progress and any thoughts, should I have them.

First Lines Fridays: September 15, 2017

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:

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherine’s love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their fathers mysterious house, Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney.

With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, this is the most youthful and and optimistic of Jane Austen’s works.

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Week 6

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Lee is on page 70 of 260

Chapter VIII

I just…. I’m so bored!

The only thing keeping me going (aside from my determination to finally mark this book ‘read’) is the hope that something will happen between Anne and Frederick. But it’s a really weak little hope…

In this post I explained my plan to finally work my way through Jane Austen’s Persuasion (the only book of hers I don’t like at all).

At the end of each week, either Friday or Saturday, I will post an update of my progress and any thoughts, should I have them.