First of all, I’d like to share my thoughts on the Emmy nominations which were announced earlier today – congratulations to all nominees.  No Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black?  That is very disappointing.  She has done incredible work portraying all these different clones and it would have been great to see her gain some recognition for that.  Another name I would very much liked to have seen was Pedro Pascal’s for his work as Red Viper Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones.  His performance was wonderfully nuanced and consistently excellent.

Representing Game of Thrones we have Lena Headey and Peter Dinklage and supporting actress/actor roles. Dinklage has been nominated several times and won once, this is Headey’s first I believe. My gut feeling is that Headey will have to wait a year for her win – knowing the books, Cersei has some wonderful material coming up next season, which I think will clinch it for her then.  She faces competition from fellow Brits Dame Maggie Smith as Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess of Grantham and Joanne Froggatt who plays Anna Bates – Anna had some very strong storylines this year, sensitively portrayed by Froggatt, but I’m not certain if that will be enough to win the award from the Americans.  Game of Thrones also is represented in the guest actress category by Dame Diana Rigg – another Brit – playing Lady Olenna Tyrell.  I really enjoyed her portrayal, but I don’t think it will be enough to win the Emmy, unfortunately.

There are more Brits in the miniseries category – Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman for Sherlock.  No Adventure in Space in Time?  No David Bradley? That was disappointing, although I’m certain Sherlock will take home more than one award.

So… onto more bookish matters.

This week I’ve been continuing to enjoy the audiobooks of Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy.  I’m still around half way through book two, Royal Assassin.  

Added to my library this week

Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen.  This YA fantasy novel was my most anticipated release of this week.  I’ve started reading it already, but so far it’s not quite grabbed my attention as I’d hoped it would.  I picked this one up in both Kindle and Audible format.  

Landline.  Rainbow Rowell’s latest adult contemporary romance.  This one is the story of a couple in a strained marriage – the wife then finds she can phone her husband through space and time to a much earlier and happier point in their relationship.  I’ve loved everything I’ve read so far of Rowell’s – she writes such quirky, endearing characters – and I’m looking forward to listening to this one.  This is one I picked up in Audible format.  There’s a Landline giveaway going on at Kindles and Wine – why not go ahead and enter?  

A Plunder of Souls. This is D.B. Jackson’s third book in the genre bending Thieftaker series.  Part crime mystery novel, part historical fiction, part fantasy, these books are a lot of fun to read and I look forward to reading this next installment.  I picked it up in both Kindle and Audible format.  

I had completely forgotten that the two other short stories in the Divergent world told from Four’s point of view were released this week.  I’ve not read them yet, but they have already downloaded to my Kindle.  Sometimes that’s great fun when you forget when a book is due!

I also went a bit mad and finally added the German and Dutch versions of The Lord of the Rings to my library.  I had them in hard copy but they got lost in one of my moves.  That’s the beauty of allowing Amazon or another provider to store your books for you.  Assuming you trust Amazon that is!  It’s weird that I was unable to find ebooks of the French versions.

I did borrow one book from the library this week – Anthony Ryan’s Blood Song.  I started reading it and haven’t been able to put it down.  This is a fantasy novel very much in the vein of Name of the Wind.  It’s garnered a lot of interest in the UK, but I’ve not heard so much about it here in North America. A review will come at some point.   

This weekend I will be away visiting with family in Ottawa so there will be no posts on Monday.  I look forward to catching up with you next week!