Mansfield Park

November 2017 Reading Wrap-Up

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Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 3 – 4
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Ripred being a little shit.
Least Favorite Thing:  Henry. Blah. Dickhead.

I woke up in the middle of the night with an urge to reread this series, and seeing as I have poor impulse control, I immediately arranged for my husband to go get them all for me from the library.

I know these books are Middle Grade so a few things are a bit silly, like a guy called Sandwich, but the story itself is quality and I recommend it to anyone who likes a fun fantasy adventure.

My Posts About Gregor the Overlander

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 5
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Twitchtip. I miss her already.
Least Favorite Thing:  Please read this in your most disgusted tone, while screwing up your face as if you smell something foul:  Shiners.

Gregor has a lot more self-restraint that I do when it comes to not yelling at people…

I have to admit though, reading this book is a bit more difficult once one knows what’s going to happen in the next books!

My Posts About Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Gregor grooming Lapblood.
Least Favorite Thing:  The descriptions of some of the grosser things like plague victims and Gregor’s acid toes…

I read this whole book in like 2 hours! I surprised myself lol I didn’t intend to read it that quickly, but since it’s middle grade and the story is pretty engaging, I zipped right through it.

My Posts About Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Boots’ fucking princess scepter lol
Least Favorite Thing:  The Bane. He skeeves me out.

Oh man I had forgotten that this book is way sadder than the others! 😦

My Posts About Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6 – 7
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Ripred and Lizzie. It’s too sweet!
Least Favorite Thing:  I hate one very specific thing about the ending, but only read about it if you don’t care about spoilers.
[start] I just hate that they go back to the Overland permanently as if they don’t obviously and completely belong in the Underland! That has literally always bugged me.  Sometimes I just pretend that and the thing with Ares never happened. [end]

I really love this series, I’m so glad it was recommended to me back in high school.

My Posts About Gregor and the Code of Claw

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 8 – 14
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The end when Jane wraps everything up. I like the way she does it.
Least Favorite Thing:  The way literally no one ever listened to Fanny about her own feelings?????

I’m glad I reread it, I think I even liked it more than Sense & Sensibility now.

My Posts About Mansfield Park

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 13 – 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Puppyyyyy!
Least Favorite Thing:  Come on, as if I was going to say anything other than Gabe? Please.

It’s been a long time since I first read this book and I admit to not enjoying it as much this time around, but I think that’s only because it’s geared more for younger readers and sometimes I have trouble with the rhythm of Middle Grade books. I’m glad I’m going to finally get down to going through all of Rick’s books though.

My Posts About The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  lol Tyson
Least Favorite Thing:  Clarisse not knowing when to shut her damn mouth…

Oddly enough I remembered almost nothing from this one except for Tyson… So rereading it felt more like reading it for the first time. I have a feeling the rest of them will be like this too.

My Posts About The Sea of Monsters

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Bessiiiiiiie!
Least Favorite Thing:  I actually find Nico incredibly annoying…

Would it kill anyone to stop being cryptic? Like wow. Just answer a question somebody!

My Posts About The Titan’s Curse

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15 – 16
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Poseidon showing up for Percy’s birthday just to be a drama queen. “Blowfish?” lol
Least Favorite Thing:  STILL NOBODY CAN JUST ANSWER A FUCKING QUESTION OR SHARE INFORMATION!

So far this is my favorite of the series. I’m wondering if they will just keep getting better or what.

My Posts About The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 16 – 17
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Percy being like “acknowledge your fucking children assholes” at all the gods.
Least Favorite Thing:  Guess what. It’s still the fact that no one will answer a damn question. I’m so annoyed.

Honestly, if someone doesn’t directly answer a question I’m going to scream.

My Posts About The Last Olympian

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 17 – 18
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Leooo! Precious little fireball.
Least Favorite Thing:  It took them way too long to figure certain things out… Like everyone who spoke to them alluded to 2 or 3 specific things and they didn’t get it until the very end? Oookay.

My Posts About The Lost Hero

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 18 – 19
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Ella/Tyson lololololol
Least Favorite Thing:  When Octavian talks I roll my eyes so hard I get a headache…

I’m not sure if this one was better than the first one (Lost Hero), but I was really glad to be back to Percy so I enjoyed it more.

My Posts About The Son of Neptune

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 19 – 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  “If they’d let women warriors into their cult, the might have learned some common sense.”
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally only Leo talks about things, everyone else is like “I’ll explain later” and “we can talk about it later” and “I hope it’s not what I think it is” but they never talk about it!!

My Posts About The Mark of Athena

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 20 – 21
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Bob + Small Bob (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Gaea is so fucking annoying…

IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR LITTLE NICO TO GET A DAMN HUG????? My poor little spooky baby…

My Posts About The House of Hades

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 21 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Nico gets to be happy!!!!!
Least Favorite Thing:  Zeus the douche…

I’ve got all the warm fuzzies from the ending of this book. Thanks, Rick.

My Posts About The Blood of Olympus

In Progress

Friday 56: November 10, 2017

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The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice and the rules are simple:

  • Grab a book, any book (I, personally, prefer to use my current read.)
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
  • Post it

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Mr. Rushworth was eager to assure her ladyship of his acquiescence, and tried to make out something complimentary; but between his submission to her taste, and his having always intended the same himself, with the super-added objects of professing attention to the comfort of ladies in general, and of insinuating, that there was one only whom he was anxious to please, he grew puzzled; and Edmund was glad to put an end to his speech by a proposal of wine.

WWW Wednesday: November 8, 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:  Mind Games (Mind Games, book 1) by Kiersten White

I meant to finish this last week, but to be honest I only read about a chapter before I got distracted by other things! Oops!

So this week I’m determined that I’ll finish it I just hope it gets less depressing than it was last time. But I’m hopeful because it seemed like some real action was about to start up.

I still haven’t quite figured out the whole powers thing. I think only women have powers? But it’s never actually explained outright how any of this came to be or how it works, I’m just putting it together as I go along. Or maybe it was explained and I just missed it somehow, who knows.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I decided earlier this year after rereading Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility that I might as well go through and reread some more of Austen’s novels. So now I’m starting on Mansfield Park.

I didn’t realize this until just now, but I’m actually rereading them in the order I like them. (With the exception of Persuasion which I actually read for the first time ever, so I’m not counting it here.)

Despite all the annoying Bertrams and Crawfords, I really enjoy this one a lot. I think it’s because Jane is so subtly snarky about everything.

Recently Finished:  The Underland Chronicles // Suzanne Collins

I literally just woke up with the urge to read these and couldn’t stop myself from getting them all from the library. I also meant to space out the reading a bit, but if considering I read the last three in one day I can’t really say I managed that either…

Reading Next:  The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1) by Rick Riordan

For a while now I’ve been wanting to get back to Rick’s books, but it’s been so long since I read the Percy Jackson ones that I only remember parts of them. I feel like it would be best to just start all the way over.

I’ve got the ebook version of The Lightning Thief from the library so I can start it as soon as I finish Mind Games.

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: November 8, 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. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  2. The earliest intelligence of the travellers’ safe arrival in Antigua after a favourable voyage, was received; though not before Mrs. Norris had been indulging in very dreadful fears, and trying to make Edmund participate them whenever she could get him alone; and as she depended on being the first person made acquainted with any fatal catastrophe, she had already arranged the manner of breaking it to all the others, when Sir Thomas’s assurances of their both being alive and well, made it necessary to lay by her agitation and affectionate preparatory speeches for a while.
  3. Uh…no… I kind of hate the Bertrams. Kind of a lot, in fact.

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.