Since we’re now into July – halfway through the year! – and I’m 50 books through my 100 book challenge for this year I thought it was time to stop and review my top picks from the first half of 2014. So without further ado, here they are. [book-info title=”The Empire Striketh Back” author=”ian-doescher”] My first pick for my top books of 2014 so far is Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. This includes Star Wars: Verily a New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back. For those of you who have not read my reviews, Doescher has taken George Lucas’s epic space opera and rewritten it in the style of William Shakespeare, compete with iambic pentameter and nods to Shakespeare plays. It’s incredible how well the Lucas’s epic saga works in Shakespearean language. The audiobook by Random House Audio is a full cast radio play complete with John Williams music and sound effects and is a must-listen. It narrowly missed out on the Audie audiobook award. The Jedi Doth Return is released on July 1st and I’m fairly confident it will make my top audiobooks list, too. Check out Doescher’s Educator’s Guide for more background info. I wish these had been…
The One by Kiera Cass is the final book in the Selection trilogy which tells the story of America Singer and her participation in the Bachelor type contest to win the heart and hand of Prince Maxon. I absolutely ADORED this book and would have happily read it had it been three times as long. Cass continued to develop the things I loved about the earlier books and my minor gripes about the series were all resolved. Before I start I would like to reecho the comment I made in an earlier post about the Selection Collection – the ebook compendium that includes all three novels plus the two novellas, The Guard and The Prince. I honestly don’t know what the editor who put it together was thinking: they have the two novellas following on after The One which makes zero sense. The Prince is set before The Selection and The Guard is set between The Elite and The One. If you read them in the order presented in the compendium you’re going to end up frustrated because all of the great character development of the later books is reset. What I liked The blend. In The One, Cass…
First of all, I have a confession to make; I’ve not read very much this week. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’ve become engrossed in the Lego The Hobbit game on my Playstation. I wouldn’t consider myself a gamer at all, but these Lego games are so much fun – all the fun little details. Anyway, I digress. The two books I have been reading/listening to this week are Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist and Lockstep by Karl Schroeder. i am actually reading Silverthorn in French. It would appear that ebook rights for the English version of Feist’s earlier works have not been granted. Since I much prefer to read electronically, that leaves me with the French version. Sigh. I look forward to the day when you can buy an ebook from a different market with as much ease as you can a hard copy. I am listening to Lockstep in audio and so far am very much enjoying it. Reviews will come soon. Added to my library this week There have been some interesting deals on the Audible daily deals this week. I picked up Jennifer Worth’s Call the Midwife narrated by Nicola Barber. I love the BBC…