ROOTIN TOOTIN 2015:Hairballsrus Joins the Fight

Forum2015 ROOT Challenge - (Read Our Own Tomes)

Melde dich bei LibraryThing an, um Nachrichten zu schreiben.

ROOTIN TOOTIN 2015:Hairballsrus Joins the Fight

Dieses Thema ruht momentan. Die letzte Nachricht liegt mehr als 90 Tage zurück. Du kannst es wieder aufgreifen, indem du eine neue Antwort schreibst.

1hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Mai 18, 2015, 6:47 pm

Hello, my name is Hairballsrus (Paula) and I'm a bookaholic. I'm a long time member of LT and have participated in the 75 Books Challenge for several years. I'd like to read a least 50 of my own books in 2015. I hope I'm up for it!

Each book towards the goal earns me one point. Five points earns me a new book. :)

Current Points: 15

Current New Books Earned:3

Current New Books Bought: more than three.....;(


2hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Okt. 5, 2015, 11:24 am

BOOKS TO CHOOSE FROM:

Anything I list here before Jan 1rst will be available for the challenge. Feel free to vote for Your favorites. All of these are currently languishing on my shelves. There's a lot of YA on this list, but I have grown disenchanted with the genre. I need to either read the books this year, or give them the boot. My other addictions are science fiction and fantasy. Also magical realism is dear to my heart. Basically if it's quirky, I'm interested.

Another thing: I REALLY NEED TO FINISH SOME SERIES IN 2015!

1. The Office of Mercy
2. We are All Completely Beside Ourselves
3. Happy Hour in Hell
4. These Broken Stars
5. Dreams of Gods and Monsters
6. The Oversight
7. The Troupe
8. Two Serpents Rise
9. Artemis Awakening
10. Jackaby
11. The Cure for Dreaming
12. The Pilgrims
13. The Flight of the Silvers
14. The Brothers Cabal**started**
15. Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler
16. House of the Rising Sun
17. Freezing People is Not Easy
18. Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies and the Making of a Medical ExaminerZ**gave away**
19. Crown of Embers
20. Bitter Kingdom
21. S.
22. Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits
23. Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English
24. Hidden Things
25. Cold Magic
26. The Glass God
27. There is No Dog
28. The Dog Stars
29. Never the Bride
30. Driving with Dead People
31. Burning Paradise
32. Talker 25
33. Your Hate Mail will be Graded
34. Final Empire
35. The Ophelia Prophecy
36. Child of a Hidden Sea
37. Wool
38. Ruin and Rising
39. Stolen Songbird
40. Ghost Planet
41. The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving
42. The Dust of 100 Dogs
43. The Mad Scientist's Daughter
44. The Taking
45. The 57 Lives of ALex Wayfare
46. Hitchers
47. The Lost
48. The Candy Bombers
49. The Winner's Curse
50. Don't Look Back
51. Red Seas Under Red Skies
52. Between Two Thorns
53. Scarlet
54. Chalice
55. The Name of the Wind
56. Who Fears Death
57. The Last Dragonslayer
58. Of Bees and Mist
59. Conversion
60. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
61. The Ghost Bride
62. Alif the Unseen
63. Dreadnought
64. Between Shades of Grey
65. Tooth and Claw
66. Blue Lily, Lily Blue
67. Railsea
68. Man made boy
69. Emperor of All Maladies
70. The Brothers Cabal
71. The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth
72. The Thorn and the Blossom
73. The Immortal Rules
74. The Dark Between
75. Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom
76. If You Could Be Mine
77. A Hole in the Heart
78. That Book About Harvard The first trick would be to figure out where I put this! **started**
79. Alienated
80. The Diviners
81. Beauty Queens
82. Pure
83. The Secret History of Moscow
84. Origin Lux Series
85. Opposition Lux Series
89. The 13 and 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
90. The Evolution of Mara Dyer
91. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
92. Cats in Cyberspace
93. Waiting for Gertrude
94. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
95. How Shall I Tell the Dog?
96. Plain and Normal
97. Welcome to Higby
98. Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny
99. The Postmistress ABANDONED NOT MY CUP OF TEA
100. Voodoo Season
101. Delia's Shadow
102. The Infinite Sea
103. Promised Land
104. Jenna Starborn
105. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
106. The Kingdom of Gods
107. Green Rider
108. Days of Cain
109. My Real Children
110. The Enchanted
111. My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places
112. Blood Red, Snow White
113. Tender Morsels
114. Rebel Belle
115. Cast in Shadow
116. Searoad
117. Gods Behaving Badly
118. The Passage
119. The Dead Father's Club
120. Battle Royale
121. Ultraviolet
122. Vessel
123. All Men of Genius **started** DULL!
124. First Comes Love Then Comes Malaria
125. The Sky is Everywhere
126. Indigo Springs
127. The Perseids
128. Dearly Beloved
129. I am Half Sick of Shadows
130. The Company Car
131. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf
132. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
133. Neil Simon Rewrites
134. The Collected Plays of Neil Simon
135. Then We Came to the End
136. Night
137. The Wednesday Sisters
138. The Things They Carried
139. Riding on the Bus with my Sister
140. From the Dust Returned
141. Abracadaver
142. Falling Kingdoms
143. The Legend of Eli Monpress Omnibus of three books
144. The Spirit War
145. Spirit End
146. Bone Season
147. Partials
148. The Rithmatist
149. Phoenix and Ashes
150. Raw Shark Texts
151. Anubis Gates
152. City of Pearl
153. The Gates of Sleep
154. Spindle's End
155. Zodiac
156. City of Dark Magic
157. City of Lost Dreams
158. The Mercy of Thin Air
159. The Bean Trees
160. So You Created a Wormhole
161. A Street Cat Named Bob
162. The World House
163. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
164. A Fire Upon the Deep
165. Fire
166. Bitterblue
167. Just One Damned Thing After Another
168. The Gates
169. The Infernals
170. The Creeps
171. Fated
172. Raiders!
173. The Gone Away World
174. Songs of Willow Frost
175. Dark Mirror
176. The Magicians and Mrs. Quent
177. Jellicoe Road
178. Carter Beats the Devil
179. The Wild Ways
180. The Only Ones
181. The Stranger: The Labyrinth of Echo
182. Etiquette and Espionage
183. School for Good and Evil
184. Starters
185. How to Lead a Life of Crime
186. The Solitudes
187. Landry Park
188. Princess of the Silver Woods
189. Nevermore
190. Enshadowed
191. The Blue Girl
192. Roswell, Vegas and Area 51: Travels with Courtney A Connie Willis chapbook. A Christmas present from my wonderful hubby!
193. Soul Screamers Vol. 1
194. Soul Screamers Vol. 2
195. Too Many Ghosts
196. Unholy Magic
197. The Lesser Kindred
198. Song in Silence
199. Peach Pies and Alibis
200. A Natural History of Dragons
201. Starcrossed
202. Darkwood
203. Urban Shaman
204. White Hot Kiss
205. Haunted
206. Bitten
207. Pretty Monsters
208. The Children of Green Knowe
209. The Namesake
210. Being Sloane Jacobs
211. Pantomime
212. A Madness of Angels
213. The Romance Readers Book Club
214. The Girls Who Went Away
215. The Coolest Race on Earth
216. A Confusion of Princes
217. One Good Knight
218. Dark Triumph
219. The Black Jewels Trilogy BOOKS 1 and 2 Read.....
220. The Winter People
221. Once Upon a Winter's Night
222. Reserved for the Cat
223. Fortune's Pawn
224. Snake Hips:Belly Dancing and How I Found True Love
225. Beauty and the Werewolf
226. The Stars My Destination
227. Algonquin Cat
228. No one Noticed the Cat
229. Spellcaster
230. The Lighthouse, the Cat and the Sea
231. That Old Flame of Mine
232. Ghost of a Chance
233. Revelation Space
234. Her Fearful Symmetry
235. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
236. The Daughter of Time
237. The Improbable Cat
238 Rebecca
239. Rhubarb
240. Son of Rhubarb
241. Firelight
243. Shadowdance
244. Blueprints of the Afterlife
245. The X-Files Classics
246. Johnny Hiro The Skills to Pay the Bills
247. Where's My Jetpack?
248. Sun of Suns
249. Lord of Light
250. Terror Firma

3Tess_W
Dez. 20, 2014, 12:07 pm

Welcome, Paula!

4rabbitprincess
Dez. 20, 2014, 1:10 pm

Welcome aboard and good luck! Of your selections I would recommend Don't Look Back and Jackaby; the latter is a relatively quick read.

5hairballsrus
Dez. 21, 2014, 2:20 pm

Tess and Rabbitprincess--

Thank you for your welcome and advice! Oh, so many books, so little time.

6Amberfly
Dez. 21, 2014, 6:10 pm

Welcome to the group! I remember Chalice being rather good, but most of the others I haven't read. Happy reading!

7MissWatson
Dez. 22, 2014, 4:23 am

Welcome! The only title I recognize is The name of the wind and I was a little underwhelmed by it.

8avanders
Bearbeitet: Dez. 23, 2014, 9:15 am

Welcome Paula & Good luck in 2015!

ETA: I really enjoyed #62 (Alif).. otherwise, we seem to share a few TBRs! Look forward to your thoughts!

9cyderry
Dez. 22, 2014, 7:51 pm

Welcome to the group. If you need some help with a ticker, just let me know.

10kaylaraeintheway
Dez. 23, 2014, 3:51 am

I absolutely loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (I received it as an ER book last year). I also have How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe on my wish list; I've heard nothing but great things about it.

11Caramellunacy
Dez. 23, 2014, 7:36 am

I enjoyed The Name of the Wind, but didn't realize that it was very much a set-up book when I started it. I haven't yet picked up the next in the series, but plan to.

12connie53
Dez. 23, 2014, 5:28 pm

Welcome to the group, Paula! And good luck!

13Tallulah_Rose
Dez. 26, 2014, 2:04 am

My husband and I loved The Name of the Wind and the sequel. Unfortunately the last part is not published yet :-( But I would heartily recommend to read it.

14hairballsrus
Dez. 26, 2014, 6:25 pm

Thank you all for your suggestions; they're very helpful. The one thing that scares me about The Name of the Wind is how large it is! I need get some short books under my belt before I tackle that one. :)

Back to adding books to the list.....

15bragan
Dez. 27, 2014, 3:04 pm

>14 hairballsrus: I'm reading The Name of the Wind right now! And for all that it's a massive tome (and not exactly packed with action), it seem to be going by quickly and pleasantly enough.

Good luck with all your 2015 reading! It looks like a really interesting list. I see a number of books I've enjoyed, and quite a few more that are still on my own TBR shelves.

16hairballsrus
Jan. 1, 2015, 6:39 pm

I'm currently working on my first ROOTS, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.

Meh. At this point, half way through, this book seems destined for the culling pile.

17Jackie_K
Jan. 2, 2015, 12:20 pm

I've heard varying reports of Her Fearful Symmetry. I absolutely LOVED Time Traveller's Wife, so haven't dared try HFS in case I'm disappointed!

18melonbrawl
Jan. 2, 2015, 1:22 pm

>16 hairballsrus:

I had such a strange reaction to that book. For whatever reason, I couldn't stop reading it, but after I finished it I felt like I'd woken up from an unpleasant dream.

19hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Jan. 4, 2015, 2:32 pm

1. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger Well.....it got better. And worse. As a cat lover, I was definitely annoyed by one plot point. Still, now I can say goodbye to the book because I"VE FINALLY READ IT!!! ROOTS appears to be good for my self esteem.

17> Jackie Kirkham-The Time Traveler's Wife is definitely better. Keep your innocence.

18>melowbrawl- I'm not sure how I feel about it either. For the first four-fifths of the book, nothing really happened and then wham, bam, thank you mam! The last pages went whoosh! I can appreciate how the plot tied up into a bow and the ending was just, but the book still left a grimace on my face.

Onward to an audio book of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves... I actually have a physical copy of this book on the ROOTS bookshelf, but I downloaded the audio to my phone and I like the narrator, so I'm going to go that route. I think I'll pick out something else from the bookcase for my carry-around read.

20connie53
Jan. 4, 2015, 2:30 pm

I loved both books by Niffennegger. Tastes differ a lot.

And I loved De naam van de wind and thought it was a big book but an easy read.

21hairballsrus
Jan. 4, 2015, 2:34 pm

Connie53-I think I just disliked the characters. Most of them were so manipulative.

22connie53
Jan. 5, 2015, 4:04 pm

>21 hairballsrus: That could be true!

23hairballsrus
Jan. 5, 2015, 6:17 pm

2. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler Loved this!
3. The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth Cute graphic novel. I only wish they'd done a bit more with it.

24cyderry
Jan. 6, 2015, 9:41 am

>>16 hairballsrus: I loved Time Traveler's Wife and was really looking forward to Her Fearful Symmetry but was very disappointed. Amazing how you can love one book and dislike another both by the same author.

25hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Jan. 10, 2015, 12:01 pm

I find myself dragging along with ROOT #4 Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. Not that it isn't good, but it's slow and I keep finding other things to do besides picking up the book. :) Guess it's time to start reading more than one book at once.

26hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Jan. 11, 2015, 2:58 pm

4. Roswell, Vegas and Area 51 by Connie Willis Okay, okay, maybe it's cheating counting a 37 page book, but it's a hardback! Basically, it's the travel notes from Connie and her husband Courtney's vacation. Sort of a Terry Pratchett feel with the footnotes and footnotes for the footnotes. Cute and quick and she strikes me as someone I would like to take a roadtrip with. :) It's also from my TBR shelf, so it's a win win!


My scary TBR pile...

27avanders
Jan. 12, 2015, 10:28 am

>26 hairballsrus: sounds interesting! and fun... :) I think it's okay to count the book... a book is a book! And some count children's books, so I say if it's a ROOT, it's a ROOT :)

I like your little reading gargoyle ;) (or... am I seeing it wrong?)

28hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Jan. 12, 2015, 1:05 pm

>27 avanders: Yep, he's reading. A Christmas present from my hubby. :)

And finally.....I figured out how to post my TBR Bookcase. Double Deep of course.

29hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Jan. 12, 2015, 7:19 pm

5. Tooth and Clawby Jo Walton Yes, it's slow to start but once I got into the flow of the words I really, really, enjoyed this book. Dragons die, court, seek treasure, sue each other, fight each other, eat each other and argue about religion in this extremely novel...novel. :) Winner of the World Fantasy Award. I thought it was going to be dry, that it would be a book I SHOULD like rather than I DID like, but that wasn't the case after all.

Alright, I have a confession to make. A package from Book Outlet arrived today. Now, technically I bought these books on December 26th; they just didn't arrive until now. This year or last year's purchases?

Books in the Box

1. The Waterproof Bible by Andrew Kaufman
2. Born Weird by Andrew Kaufman
3. The Red Queen Dies by Frankie Bailey
4. Far Far Away
5. A Case of Exploding Mangoes
6. Above All Things
7. Omens by Kelly Armstrong
8. Romance is My Day Job
9. California Bones
10. Wide Open by Deborah Coates
11. A Barricade in Hell
12. What Makes This Book so Great
13. Three Parts Dead Read in 2014
14. The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook
15. The Secrets of Lost Cats: One Woman, Twenty Posters and New Understanding of Love
16. Chinese Whiskers
17. Unwholly
18. 11/22/63
19. Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home

I know, I know, I'm weak but it was a 50% off sale.

30avanders
Jan. 13, 2015, 9:47 am

>28 hairballsrus: looks like a fun TBR shelf!!
And ooooh, The Passage... I really enjoyed that one!!

>29 hairballsrus: lol I say they're 2014 acquisitions ;)

31hairballsrus
Jan. 13, 2015, 11:50 am

>30 avanders: Bless you.

32Caramellunacy
Jan. 15, 2015, 8:27 am

Oh, tell me what you think about Romance is My Day Job (when you get around to it)! It's on my pile as well :)

33connie53
Jan. 15, 2015, 2:20 pm

I always go by day of arrival, but it's your list and your books. So whatever works for you is excellent!

Nice haul by the way.

34hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Jan. 15, 2015, 11:35 pm

32> caramellunacy Will do! :)

33>-connie53-I'm thinking I only earn a half point for reading them, but they also don't count towards the 50.

35hairballsrus
Jan. 16, 2015, 11:30 pm

6. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner Audio book on my phone. A YA guilty pleasure with a gorgeous cover. Titanic in Space!!! Follows the standard romance route for the first three quarters of the book, but has a nice sci-fi twist towards the end. Another one off the TBR pile.

7. The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst This urban fantasy annoyed me in a couple of ways. 1. It was touted as adult, but really was "new adult" in flavor. I got really tired of the main hero walking around with his shirt unbuttoned. And the feather tattoos...what was the point of those? 2. I thought this was a standalone! I bought it as a standalone! I read it as a standalone! It ain't a standalone. Bummer. It's a neat idea though.

A young woman with a dying mother, decides to drive straight instead of turning left on the way to work one morning. She drives and drives, away from her life, away from her troubles, away from the world. She winds up in the town of Lost, where all lost things and people arrive eventually. Now she's trapped and must learn to survive and how to also make it home. But does she really want to go home?

36avanders
Jan. 20, 2015, 4:48 pm

>35 hairballsrus: Titanic in Space sounds interesting!
Congrats on your progress!

37hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Feb. 5, 2015, 8:54 pm

8. The Ghost Bride I really enjoyed this. It reminded me of the animated film Spirited Away.

9. Jackaby by WIlliam Ritter Another from the TBR Mountain This felt like the author's NaNoRoMo project. Neither fleshed out nor ready for publishing. The back cover blurb pulled me in, comparing the character to both Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. I think my favorite character was the duck. Or maybe the stench inducing toad.

10. The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison audiobook from Plano Library/also on the the TBR mountain Since I was stalled on The Dog Stars, I decided to try something completely different. I went into this book blind, expecting a comic novel based on the title. I got the comedy, but also a dose of tragedy at the center. There's a complete story arc for the main character, but the book still feels too short.

38Caramellunacy
Feb. 6, 2015, 6:43 am

OK - I am now very intrigued by both the duck and the stench-inducing toad...

39rabbitprincess
Feb. 6, 2015, 8:40 am

The toad was hilarious! I also liked the duck.

40avanders
Feb. 6, 2015, 2:37 pm

>37 hairballsrus: interesting re Jackaby... I kept hearing about it so I thought I might want to read it, but maybe this is one I can skip. ;)

41hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Feb. 7, 2015, 5:55 pm

38 39 40> For all you Jackaby fans, there's a sequel coming out this year. Sigh. Most likely I will read it. I have no self-control. Otherwise I wouldn't belong to this group. :)

42hairballsrus
Feb. 8, 2015, 2:46 pm

11. Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny I really like Garrison Keillor normally, but eighteen chapters of Guy Noir are seventeen chapters too much. Juvenile and just plain annoying by the end. Two and a half stars for making me snort occasionally. Going on the donation pile.

43avanders
Feb. 9, 2015, 12:21 pm

>41 hairballsrus: lol I suppose that's true ;)

44hairballsrus
Mrz. 2, 2015, 7:54 pm

So February was the month of not working on my TBR. Here's hoping I get back to the bookcase in March. I did give one of the books away. Does that count? :)

45rabbitprincess
Mrz. 2, 2015, 8:29 pm

I say count it! It's a ROOT off your shelves! ;)

46avanders
Mrz. 3, 2015, 9:49 am

It's March, Spring, the time of new beginnings... I'm sure you'll do better w your ROOTs this month! :)
But don't forget the 5 you've already read... just think about it as building on your success so far!

47hairballsrus
Mrz. 21, 2015, 12:00 pm


12. Johnny Hiro: The Skills to Pay the Bills by Fred Chao Graphic novel about an aspiring sushi chef's life in NYC. No, seriously. This sequel wasn't nearly as amusing as the first. Solid performer. Still love the way the author illustrates cats. A book off the TBR pile!

13. The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke I got duped on this one. It's science fiction, but it's really a love story. Young girl falls in love with an android. Yep, they went there. BUT! Finn, the robot, is always true to himself. Kudos for never making him more than the machine he is. If she's going to love him, she has to accept him for who he is. And the last few chapters made me sob. Good emotional, sniffling read. Another off the TBR. Woohoo!

14. Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson What if, the radiosphere, where all television and radio signals go to travel the world, was a living entity. An actual hive mind. What if that mind gently adjusts the signals and farms violence out of mankind. What if it's doing it for its own purposes? What if humans wish to revolt? Okay, this science fiction novel has a sufficiently out there plot, but it suffered from pacing and quite frankly not that much happened. And the ending was just a speed bump. When Wilson is on, he's a mind blowing read, but when he's off......his books sputter. Another TBR book. Doing the Snoopy dance.

15. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde This didn't go in the direction I expected, but it's all the better for that. Another TBR. Making progress...

48hairballsrus
Apr. 4, 2015, 9:30 am

I've taken the approach that if I'm not in the mood for a book, rather than struggle through, I just start something else. That of course leaves a lot of books in my wake, but it also helps me finish a lot of things too. I'm digging my TBR pile right now, but that being said, I've got a lot of goodies in the mail recently. :)

Seriously, I need to show some restraint. Not all of the books are new reads, however. I've fallen in love with the new hardback editions of Discworld being sold by The Book Depository. They're so pretty! Terry Pratchett, you will be missed.

We now return you to your normally scheduled programing....

16. Waiting for Gertrude Where do I even start with this one??? Do you like cats? Do you like graveyards? Do you believe in reincarnation? Then this is the book for you. Ultimately, I didn't love this as much as I'd hoped, but it was still entertaining. I now really want to visit Paris just to visit this graveyard. Another book booted off the TBR.

17. The Oversight by Charlie Fletcher Fantasy novel with a Dickensian flavor. Might I have some more please??? First in a trilogy. But bugger, only the first book is out. The main romance is a bit shaky, but I'll withhold my opinion until the next book. Jed the dog and Cook are my favorite characters. Another TBR kicked out of the nest.

18. The Things They Carried A Vietnam war mocku-memoir. Very powerful. The only thing that bugged me was the constant repetition. I realize it was done on purpose, but a little went a long way. Another TBR baby.

18 books off the TBR. Yippee!!!!! My goal of 50 is doable.

49Tess_W
Apr. 4, 2015, 10:27 am

>48 hairballsrus:, I use the first and last chapter of The Things They Carried in my history class when I teach about the Vietnam War. It is very powerful for high school students. (Of course, I've had to white out the f-words in the copies they get!)

50hairballsrus
Apr. 4, 2015, 12:26 pm

>49 Tess_W: tess : What a chore that must be! I should point out, that the repetition I was referring to was the same story being told again and again, not the "things they carried" theme from the first chapter. That was fabulous.

51rabbitprincess
Apr. 4, 2015, 12:51 pm

Book Depository is so dangerous! That and AbeBooks are constantly trying to rob me of my limited shelf space ;)

52hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Apr. 11, 2015, 12:39 pm

>51 rabbitprincess: Tell me about it!

19. The Gates by John Connolly Why do you need to read this? Nurd the Scourge of Five Deities. Enough said.

53hairballsrus
Bearbeitet: Mai 18, 2015, 6:42 pm

Work in Progress......I have read . Daughter of the Blood Book 1
and
. Heir to the Shadows Book 2

Okay, these take some explaining. First of all, had I not been forewarned, I might have DNFed the first book due to the ick factor. There's a lot of violence and a lot of gratuitous everything else. There are only two types of characters in the first novel in this dark fantasy series: bitches and bastards. The bitches, as far as I could tell, were just bitches; the bastards, were bastards because the bitches had gotten hold of them. A lot of stuff is done for the shock value (the Ring of Obedience around a man's "organ" OUCH!) but the second book tones it down.

You can approach this world in one of two ways; it's either a society where feminism went over the top and down a dark path or where all the characteristics normally attributed to women are instead attributed to men. Although, come to think of it, there are some really nasty men as well. Did I mention all the bad guys are the good guys? Saetan, Dark Lord of Hell, is by far the nicest person in the books.

And the main female character is a Mary Sue. Things come way too easy for her. In fact, because she's a Mary Sue I'm capable of accepting the seriously crappy thing that happens to her at the end of Daughter of Blood. She needed something she would have to overcome.

This is a fantasy series told from all of the side characters points of view. Yes, you see inside Saetan and all of the villainesses, but never the witch, excuse me, Witch Jaenelle.

I have some minor quibbles. Yet again it's a world where miscommunication leads to all sorts of misunderstandings that drag problems out and some stuff is just unbelievable. How long could you hold a grudge? Could you hold one for 1700 years? One characters does.

Still, the world is well fleshed out and I want to see what happened when Jaenelle and Daemon finally meet again. So I'm definitely in for the third book, although I don't know if I'll read the following six. We'll see.

Favorite character so far: Surreal the hooker/assassin. Don't piss her off and make sure you pay her in advance for all services rendered.

I have the omnibus of this trilogy on my TBR so while I'm counting each book as a read for my 75 book challenge, the omnibus will only count as one for my 50 book TBR challenge.

20. Fire by Kristen Cashore I was on a fantasy kick, so I read this companion novel to Graceling. Very enjoyable. Another TBR book.

21. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey Not that much happens in this sequel to the The Fifth Wave, but it has a good ending. Take that TBR!

22. The Ophelia Prophecy Average science fiction romance. I do not for one minute buy that these characters are "made for each other". Please. They spent most of the book apart.

23. My Real Children by Jo Walton I'm sorry, did I miss something? This book would be good for book clubs, because it's going to leave you sputtering and annoyed at the end of it. Personally, I really like alternate histories and parallel universe stories, but I don't appreciate being pressured into choosing between the character's happiness and world peace. Either way you go, you're going to feel like a slimeball. And it's obvious these worlds didn't diverge at the point Walton's pushing, that's just where the character's life changes. And yet, it was still an engaging read; I basically inhaled it in one day, dag nab it.

24, Hitchers Horror fantasy?

25. The Improbable Cat Not so scary, scary tale.

Half way there! Woohoo!

I'm also at 51 BOOKS read for the year.

54MissWatson
Mai 19, 2015, 4:26 am

Congratulations on your progress!

55avanders
Mai 19, 2015, 2:45 pm

>53 hairballsrus: huh... sounds like it was good you were forewarned... And seems like it was worth it if you're in for the 3rd book! :)
& Congrats on all your ROOTs!

56hairballsrus
Aug. 12, 2015, 12:42 pm

I haven't been on this page for ages! I'm currently at 31 ROOTS read and 76 books total. I'll have to do a little research to get the titles.

As for not buying new books, that's a complete failure. But I really didn't expect a different result!

57connie53
Aug. 14, 2015, 3:30 am

>56 hairballsrus: And you are not alone on the bookbuying thing!

58avanders
Aug. 14, 2015, 10:58 am

>56 hairballsrus: and >57 connie53: lol nope! ;)
Congrats on 31 ROOTs read! I think you are exactly on pace to make your goal for the year!