The final pair of books I chose to read for BookTubeAthon 2013 were Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Shannon Hale’s Austenland. I should disclose upfront that in preparing this blog post I rewatched the Mr-Darcy-wet-shirt scene multiple times – only in the interests of research, you understand. Both novels are romantic comedies and both explore the theme of overcoming character flaws in order to be open to love. In Elizabeth Bennet’s case that of prejudice and in Jane Haye’s a tendency to ignore the real for fantasy. P&P is of course also a wonderful character study and exploration of Regency mores. Austenland doesn’t attempt to live up to Austen’s standard here, choosing instead to explore the blurred line between romantic fantasy and reality. Elizabeth Bennet is a stronger heroine than Jane Hayes but the latter wins the reader’s sympathies precisely because of her vulnerabilities. She knows she has a weakness and is taking action to work on it. Other than their love of Mr Darcy, the heroines of both P&P and Austenland share a witty sense of humour. I was pleasantly surprised how well Austenland stood up to P&P in this case. Of course Hale can’t match Austen’s subtle wit…
The final pair of books I chose to read for BookTubeAthon 2013 were Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Shannon Hale’s Austenland. I should disclose upfront that in preparing this blog post I rewatched the Mr-Darcy-wet-shirt scene multiple times – only in the interests of research, you understand. Both novels are romantic comedies and both explore the theme of overcoming character flaws in order to be open to love. In Elizabeth Bennet’s case that of prejudice and in Jane Haye’s a tendency to ignore the real for fantasy. P&P is of course also a wonderful character study and exploration of Regency mores. Austenland doesn’t attempt to live up to Austen’s standard here, choosing instead to explore the blurred line between romantic fantasy and reality. Elizabeth Bennet is a stronger heroine than Jane Hayes but the latter wins the reader’s sympathies precisely because of her vulnerabilities. She knows she has a weakness and is taking action to work on it. Other than their love of Mr Darcy, the heroines of both P&P and Austenland share a witty sense of humour. I was pleasantly surprised how well Austenland stood up to P&P in this case. Of course Hale can’t match Austen’s subtle wit…
For this week’s reading roundup I read Rick Riordan’s short story The Son of Sobek in which Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series meets Carter Kane of the Kane Chronicles. It was a fun read, if nothing majorly exciting. I was disappointed that the enhanced ebook version with narration from author Rick Riordan was not available for Canadians – indeed, I purchased it on Kobo. It also contains a sneak peak at the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, House of Hades, which I am really looking forward to. I also read The Companions by R.A. Salvatore, which I received as a free copy from Netgalley. I plan to write a full review of it later, so I will save my thoughts for then. Suffice it to say, I wish I’d discovered R.A. Salvatore much sooner. The final book I read/listened to was The Lost Colony, the fifth in Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series. This is a series I much prefer listening to on Audible, mainly because of Nathaniel Parker’s wonderful narration. His accent work and general excellent storytelling make this series a joy to listen to. Check out a sample. The Lost Colony…
For this week’s reading roundup I read Rick Riordan’s short story The Son of Sobek in which Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series meets Carter Kane of the Kane Chronicles. It was a fun read, if nothing majorly exciting. I was disappointed that the enhanced ebook version with narration from author Rick Riordan was not available for Canadians – indeed, I purchased it on Kobo. It also contains a sneak peak at the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, House of Hades, which I am really looking forward to. I also read The Companions by R.A. Salvatore, which I received as a free copy from Netgalley. I plan to write a full review of it later, so I will save my thoughts for then. Suffice it to say, I wish I’d discovered R.A. Salvatore much sooner. The final book I read/listened to was The Lost Colony, the fifth in Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series. This is a series I much prefer listening to on Audible, mainly because of Nathaniel Parker’s wonderful narration. His accent work and general excellent storytelling make this series a joy to listen to. Check out a sample. The Lost Colony…
For this week’s reading roundup I read something I don’t often read – a play. I was fortunate enough to catch via NT Theatre Live Helen Mirren’s wonderful performance as Her Majesty The Queen in Peter Morgan’s witty play about the weekly audiences between Queen and Prime Minister. It always wonderful to watch a well written play performed by skilled actors, and this was no exception. I enjoyed picking up on a few things I’d missed – like the explanation of why Peter Morgan opted to avoid a chronological narrative – he didn’t want to have the audience counting off the Prime Ministers on their fingers. It’s certainly worth checking out. Morgan also wrote such excellent screenplays as The Queen and Frost/Nixon. Pick it up on Kindle, Kobo or iTunes. I also recommend that you take a look at the NT Theatre Live’s programme of events – this is a truly excellent series of plays and I applaud the theatre’s commitment to bringing them to a wider audience. I am coming to the conclusion that I’m not really so fond of the grimdark genre. This week I read/listened to Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. There are some interesting characters –…
For this week’s reading roundup I read something I don’t often read – a play. I was fortunate enough to catch via NT Theatre Live Helen Mirren’s wonderful performance as Her Majesty The Queen in Peter Morgan’s witty play about the weekly audiences between Queen and Prime Minister. It always wonderful to watch a well written play performed by skilled actors, and this was no exception. I enjoyed picking up on a few things I’d missed – like the explanation of why Peter Morgan opted to avoid a chronological narrative – he didn’t want to have the audience counting off the Prime Ministers on their fingers. It’s certainly worth checking out. Morgan also wrote such excellent screenplays as The Queen and Frost/Nixon. Pick it up on Kindle, Kobo or iTunes. I also recommend that you take a look at the NT Theatre Live’s programme of events – this is a truly excellent series of plays and I applaud the theatre’s commitment to bringing them to a wider audience. I am coming to the conclusion that I’m not really so fond of the grimdark genre. This week I read/listened to Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. There are some interesting characters –…
This week I finished The Gem Trilogy by Kerstin Gier, which I absolutely adored. I will say though that it is one long book divided into three parts rather than three separate books with an overarching storyline – the first two novels don’t really have a strong ending. For this reason you may wish to wait before starting the trilogy as the final book, Emerald Green, is not due out in English until October – unless you read German, that is. There were several twists in the final volume, some of which were clearly signposted along the way, others more surprising – I found that Gier had a nice balance there. I continued to enjoy the character of Gwen and her adventures. The fact that the subtitle of “love throughout the ages” can be applied to more than one couple was very appealing to me. I would certainly recommend this trilogy, although I recommend waiting a few months until the English translation is available! Check out the Gem Trilogy on Kindle, Kobo, iBook and Audible formats. The next book I read/listened to was Brandon Sanderson’s new YA novel The Rithmatist. As an aside, I would not recommend listening to this…
This week I finished The Gem Trilogy by Kerstin Gier, which I absolutely adored. I will say though that it is one long book divided into three parts rather than three separate books with an overarching storyline – the first two novels don’t really have a strong ending. For this reason you may wish to wait before starting the trilogy as the final book, Emerald Green, is not due out in English until October – unless you read German, that is. There were several twists in the final volume, some of which were clearly signposted along the way, others more surprising – I found that Gier had a nice balance there. I continued to enjoy the character of Gwen and her adventures. The fact that the subtitle of “love throughout the ages” can be applied to more than one couple was very appealing to me. I would certainly recommend this trilogy, although I recommend waiting a few months until the English translation is available! Check out the Gem Trilogy on Kindle, Kobo, iBook and Audible formats. The next book I read/listened to was Brandon Sanderson’s new YA novel The Rithmatist. As an aside, I would not recommend listening to this…
This week could more easily have been described as “listening roundup” as I’ve been listening more than reading – or rather I have been listening and reading along on my brand spanking new Kindle Fire. Here is what I have been reading and listening to this past week. I recently finished Siege and Storm in both Kindle and Audible by Leigh Bardugo, the followup to Shadow and Bone. To be honest I was rather disappointed in this book. I loved the Russian-style setting of the first book, and my enjoyment of this continued into the second book. However, I found the pacing of this second book rather slow. After a promising start, the story slows down to a crawl. It also annoys me when young protagonists suddenly find themselves in a leadership position with no training or experience, just because they have some unrelated power. On a positive side some new and very interesting characters were introduced, especially Sturmhond. Also the ending picked up again dramatically and I will certainly read the final book in the Grisha trilogy to see how it all ends. I listened to Graceling by Kristin Cashore from Audible which was marked as a full…
This week could more easily have been described as “listening roundup” as I’ve been listening more than reading – or rather I have been listening and reading along on my brand spanking new Kindle Fire. Here is what I have been reading and listening to this past week. I recently finished Siege and Storm in both Kindle and Audible by Leigh Bardugo, the followup to Shadow and Bone. To be honest I was rather disappointed in this book. I loved the Russian-style setting of the first book, and my enjoyment of this continued into the second book. However, I found the pacing of this second book rather slow. After a promising start, the story slows down to a crawl. It also annoys me when young protagonists suddenly find themselves in a leadership position with no training or experience, just because they have some unrelated power. On a positive side some new and very interesting characters were introduced, especially Sturmhond. Also the ending picked up again dramatically and I will certainly read the final book in the Grisha trilogy to see how it all ends. I listened to Graceling by Kristin Cashore from Audible which was marked as a full…