Author: Lee

First Lines Fridays: September 7, 2018

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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:

Ma had six sons. The eldest was big like his father, the middle boys were middling. By the time Razo was born, all the family’s largeness must have been used up.

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

 

QuoteLeeLeave a comment
Why had the counterfeit timbre of his voice rung true to me? What had prompted me to believe a man who spent most of his life dissembling? Why had I, usually so suspicious, become so credulous and simpleminded in his presence? Was it just that I had wanted to hear someone tell me he loved me? Was it just that the words he spoke, the vows he swore, were so freighted with sweetness that they would have seemed true no matter who spoke them?

– Sharon Shinn, The Truth-Teller’s Tale, page 108

Version:
Paperback, 276 pages
Published April 5th 2007 by Firebird

QuoteLeeLeave a comment
Father carefully built the piles of kindling and put the bigger logs on top, then started the fire with a coal brought from the kitchen. So small, at first — a flicker, a tendril of yellow, a fugitive lick of untamed gold — and then a fire, and then a blaze, and then, as more logs were added, a true inferno.

– Sharon Shinn, The Truth-Teller’s Tale, page 69

Version:
Paperback, 276 pages
Published April 5th 2007 by Firebird

August 2018

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Ah, the end of another month of reading. I hope everyone had a good August!

Non-Reading Stuff

Had a bit of an odd month for my mental health with my meds being messed with, but it seems to have been sorted and I’m starting to do better again. And my therapy has been going well so that’s the main thing.

We also got the washer/dryer hooked up finally so I can do laundry without driving 40 minutes! Hurray!! I kind of love doing laundry, it’s so relaxing.

Reading Stuff

I finished 5 books in August!
Check out my list of books and my fave/least fave things about them.

There’s a part of me that feels I didn’t read as much as I’d like this month, but I’m ignoring that part because I’m still on track for my Goodreads goal and I did more than I expected to with the reaction to those meds being what it was.

Blogging Stuff

This is an area I’m not so pleased with. I post plenty of quotes, which are my favorite things to take from books, but I haven’t done much else and I’m not happy with that. At least I’ve been doing something with my Dedication Spotlight tag!

I’m thinking of starting a new sort of post. One thing I do when I read is write down any new, great words I find in the book. I collect them in notebooks with the definition and the sentence from the book where I found it for context. I’ve recently considered putting that on the blog too. After all, words are what make books so lovely, and who doesn’t love learning new ones.

Is there anything y’all would like to see more of on the blog? Let me know!

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