venal
/ˈvēnl/
adjective
- showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery
“It would have been so much easier to cooperate!” He shrugged, looked back at us. “But pride, venal pride, got the better of you.”
– Ransom Riggs, Hollow City
Hollow City
October 2019 Reading Wrap-Up
Betrayed by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
(House of Night, book 2)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: September 28 – October 1
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: I’ve been enjoying my casual liveblog of the series.
Least Favorite Thing: Every non-homosexual male she encounters instantly wants to bone her like…why? It better be some magical power because otherwise I refuse to accept it as remotely logical.
Guys I’m just… I’m so…
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 6)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 1 – 3
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: SOOKIE FINALLY FOUND OUT THAT BILL IS TRASH GOD I HOPE THAT MEANS SHE’S DONE WITH HIM NOW
Least Favorite Thing: Do these people have any control over their libidos??
I am really enjoying these books and I get more and more surprised by that every time I finish one lol
My Posts About Definitely Dead
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 7)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 3 – 6
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: lol Everything was so ridiculous I loved it so much.
Least Favorite Thing: REALLY THERE’S A BOMB THREAT AND YOU DON’T FIND THE MYSTERIOUS SUITCASE EVEN REMOTELY SUSPICIOUS???
To be honest this book didn’t leave as much of an impression as the others, but I still enjoyed it.
My Posts About All Together Dead
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 7 – 8
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: Creepy Hollowgast descriptions.
Least Favorite Thing: Stupid movie cover kept making me think about the stupid movie.
I really wish I had a different copy of this book…
My Posts About Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 9 – 12
Read Count: 3
Favorite Thing: They BONDED lol I can’t believe how cute I find that shit.
Least Favorite Thing: The kids met a lot of annoying people/animals in this book.
I totally forgot about the twist at the end! How could I forget that!?
Chosen by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
(House of Night, book 3)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 13 – 17
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Aphrodite is my problematic fave.
Least Favorite Thing: Three boyfriends. Hey, did you know Zoey has three boyfriends. Zoey has three boyfriends, by the way. THREE BOYFRIENDS.
Literally how many more times did they mention that she had three boyfriends and the publisher was like “please edit some of these out” because they mentioned that shit A LOT.
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 3)
Rating: ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 17 – 22
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: STILL JACOBS HOLLOWS
Least Favorite Thing: Jacob’s parents are rude. Like even if he was mentally ill, that is not how you should treat mentally ill people…
Now I can finally get around to reading Map of Days!
My Posts About Library of Souls
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 8)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 23 – 24
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: ERIC REMEMBERS AND NOW HE’S CALLING HER “LOVER” AGAIN AND ALSO I AM TRASH
Least Favorite Thing: I actually can’t think of anything I didn’t like this time around…
I’m enjoying this series more and more the further it gets from being anything like the tv series lol But seriously this junk food series is definitely one I recommend.
My Posts About From Dead to Worse
A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, Novellas)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 20 – 24
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: The Christmas one had me dying laughing! What a gift!
Least Favorite Thing: The joke of “Bubba” is getting a bit old…
I hadn’t even realized there were novellas with this series so I had to go back and get them from the library… Oops.
My Posts About A Touch of Dead
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 9)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: October 24 – 31
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: lol Accidental marriage.
Least Favorite Thing: Arlene, I think. That kind of hate just strikes me as worse than all the supernatural stuff that happened, especially given their friendship previously.
I’m like four books from the end of the series! Oh crap!
In Progress
First Lines Fridays: February 23, 2018
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:
We rowed out through the harbor, past bobbing boats weeping rust from their seams, past juries of silent seabirds roosting atop the barnacled remains of sunken docks, past fishermen who lowered their nets to stare frozenly as we slipped by, uncertain whether we were real or imagined; a procession of waterborne ghosts, or ghosts soon to be.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 2)
September 3, 1940.
Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters.
And only one person can help them – but she’s trapped in the body of a bird.
The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.
Hollow City draws readers into a richly imagined world of telepathy and time loops, of sideshows and shapeshifters – a world populated with adult “peculiars”, murderous wights, and a bizarre menagerie of uncanny animals. Like its predecessor, this second novel in the Peculiar Children series blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.
December 21 Book Haul
January 2017 Wrap-Up
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…
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…)
Darkestwings Reads