tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44964478904759703302024-03-13T00:47:09.659+01:00Take A Walk On The Write SideAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-13397989081844819922014-11-11T10:28:00.004+01:002015-09-12T17:08:58.788+02:00Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten characters who should get their own novel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" /></a></div>
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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list is of the top ten characters who should get their own novel.<br />
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<b>10. Thorne from "The Lunar Chronicles" by Marissa Meyer</b><br />
I didn't like "Scarlet" at all, so much that I wasn't even able to finish it. However, Thorne, was the only thing that kept me reading as long as I did, and I'd totally love to read about his adventures.<br />
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<b>9. Jenna from "Hex Hall" by Rachel Hawkins</b></div>
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Jenna is Sophie's best friends in Hex Hall, she's a vampire who was turned by her girlfriend. Her girlfriend was killed a short while later, and Jenna was left to fend for herself. She's a great friend, she kicks ass and I'd love to read about her adventures. </div>
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<b>8. Dustfinger from "Inkworld" by Cornelia Funke</b></div>
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<a href="https://tinyobsessions.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/lesmisstill-013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://tinyobsessions.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/lesmisstill-013.jpg" width="320" /></span></a>Dustfinger is my favourite character from the "Inkworld" novels, and I'd love to read more of his adventures. Perhaps about how he spent his life before coming to our world, or about how he got by in our world for ten years, or even his adventures after the novels.<br />
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<b>7. Les Amis de l'ABC from "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo</b></div>
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I would love, love, love a novel about how they all met and became friends, especially Enjolras, Courfeyrac and Combeferre (whoo, it took me only three tries to spell them all right, go me!)</div>
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6. The Marquis de Carabas from "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman</b><br />
The Marquis is the awesomesest character in the novel (and I don't even care that awesomesest isn't even a word). I'd love to read anything that focuses on him. He's recently gotten a short story, and I can't wait to read it!<br />
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<b>5. Nico di Angelo from "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" by Rick Riordan</b></div>
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I can't believe that eight books after his first appearance, and his continued role as one of the most badass demigods around, Nico has never even gotten a pov chapter, never mind a short story or a spin-off novel of his own</div>
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<b>4. The Four Founders from "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling</b><br />
I'd love to get a story about the founders of Hogwarts met and founded the school, and about the challenges they faced.<br />
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<a href="http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140218191333/thehungergames/images/0/00/Quarter_quell_finnick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140218191333/thehungergames/images/0/00/Quarter_quell_finnick.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></span></a><b>3. Annie Cresta and Finnick Odair from "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins</b></div>
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Finnick and Annie's story is romantic and tragic, and I'd love to read how they fell in love, and maybe their experiences during the games. </div>
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<b>2. Death from "Discoworld" by Terry Pratchett </b><br />
I love when Death makes an appearance in the "Discworld" novels, because he's always hilarious. There are some books in which he his more prominent than in others, but he's never the main protagonist.<br />
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<b>1. The Marauders from "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling </b></div>
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This is pretty self-explanatory. I mean, who doesn't want to read about the Hogwarts year of the Marauders? </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list of the top ten characters I'd like to be for Halloween. </span><br />
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<b>10. Katniss Everdeen from "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins</b><br />
Katniss is a total badass, and I'd love to be her for Halloween. Additionally, it's a super easy costume to do, and great if you're lazy/have to come up with a costume at the last minute. The only things I'd need that I don't already have in my closet are a bow and arrows and the mockingjay pin.<br />
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<b><b>9 The Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll</b></b></div>
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The Cheshire Cat is by far my favourite "Alice in Wonderland" character, and it's a bit more original than Alice as a costume.</div>
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<b>8. Irene Adler from"Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle </b></div>
Irene Adler is a total badass. Only woman to ever outwit Holmes, everyone (and one of something like three people to ever outwit him period). Holmes also thought she was far superior to a member of the royal family. She totally deserves a spot on this list.<br />
Sadly, she doesn't exactly have a distinct look, so it's not that much fun to dress up as her. Which is why she's so low on this list.<br />
<b>7. A Shadowhunter from the various "Shadowhunter" series by Cassandra Clare</b><br />
This is another one for lazy/procrastinating people. It's even easier than Katniss, but it's really cool. Everything needed are: black clothes, a couple of weapons, a cheap black eyeliner and a steady hand. Ta-da, instant Shadowhunter. <br />
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<a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/c1/d4/bc/c1d4bc0963d9a0367f645cba9330daf5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/c1/d4/bc/c1d4bc0963d9a0367f645cba9330daf5.jpg" /></a></div>
<b>6. The White Witch from "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis</b><br />
The White Witch is the first (but not the last) villain on this list. Why would I want to be her for Halloween? Because she looks super-cool. That's it. I have no deeper reason that that.<br />
<b>5. War from "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett</b><br />
If you've read the book, you get why I'd want to be her for Halloween. If you haven't read the book, you should stop reading my blog and go read the book. Go on, I'm waiting.<br />
War is a horseperson of the apocalypse, and, being the red rider, she wears all red. And carries a word. I'm all for costumes that involve swords.<br />
<b>4. Arwen from "The Lord of the Rings"by J.R.R. Tolkien</b><br />
I have actually dressed up as Arwen once before, but I'd love to do it again, because the dress was so beautiful (I was nine the first time around, so I'd sadly wouldn't fit in that dress again).<br />
<b>3. Mina Harker from "Dracula" by Bram Stoker</b><br />
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Dracula characters are definitely a Halloween classic, and I always have had a soft spot for Mina. I'd love to dress up as her when she's halfway between human and vampire, when she has the cross burned into her forehead.<br />
<b>2. Luna Lovegood from "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rolwing</b><br />
As soon as I started doing this list I knew I wanted to include at least one "Harry Potter" character. I eventually choose to list Luna. She has some really strange but fun clothes, and I'd have fun impersonating her, and skipping my way through the night.<br />
1<b>. Queen Mab from various incarnations</b><br />
Mab is a dark queen of the fae, and I'd love to go as her on Halloween. She's also known as "the queen of air and darkness" and if that description isn't enough to get you hyped over he character, then I don't know what should be.<br />
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What about you? What characters would you like to be this Halloween? Let me know in the comments!
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<a href="http://bookriotcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/8514686765829546_uYphFM3q_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://bookriotcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/8514686765829546_uYphFM3q_c.jpg" height="264" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thanks to the lovely Cambrie for tagging me to do the Book Cake Tag! You can find her post <a href="http://andsothebookbegins.blogspot.it/p/about-me.html">here</a>!<br />
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<b style="color: #20124d; font-size: x-large;">Flour: A book that was a little bit slow to start off but really picked up as it went along.</b></div>
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"The Golem and the Jinni" by Helene Wecker (you can find my review of it <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/02/review-golem-and-jinni-by-helene-wecker.html">here</a>, if you're interested). The very beginning of the book is actually quite engrossing, but after the first couple of chapters, the plot disappears, to be seen again only after a couple hundreds of pages. The rest of the book isn't exactly fast, but after the two main character meet there is something interesting to move the story forward and to make the reader want to keep reading. </div>
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<b><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">Margarine: A book that had a rich, great plot</span></b>.<br />
I'm actually very picky about plot-driven novels: I expect am highly engrossing plot, with little to no slow moments, coupled with at least some character development.<br />
One novel which I have read recently that does this successfully is "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan (you can find my review <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2013/12/review-house-of-hades-by-rick-riordan.html">here</a>).<br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">Eggs: A book you thought was going to be bad but actually turned out quite enjoyable.</span></b></div>
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"Cinder" by Marissa Meyer. The premise is frankly ridiculous. I love fairy tale retellings, but... Cinderella as a cyborg mechanic in a futuristic, semi-dystopic world? Evil moon-people? All this coupled with a terrifying plague?</div>
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These things just don't match. So when I first heard about the book, I laughed, shook my head and thought "yeah, right".</div>
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But I kept getting this recommended. And so I thought that I could give it a chance, thinking that with such a stupid premise it was at least going to be entertainingly bad.</div>
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And I liked it. It wasn't perfect or anything, and it definitely was kind of silly, but it was part of the book's charm.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">Sugar: A sugary, sweet book.</span></b><br />
"The Summer I Became A Nerd" by Leah Rae Miller definitely fits this here. It's pure, glorious fluff. All problems are resolved easily and with no consequences whatsoever, the main character is humorous and likeable and the romance is sweet.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">Icing - A book that covered every single element that you enjoy about a book (funny moments, action moments, sad moments, etc.)</span></b></div>
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I'm going to go with "Runemarks" by Joanne Harris. It's not a perfect book, but it did have everything I wanted to read. There was action, and magic, and Norse mythology, and great characters, and a fantastic unlikely friendship (seriously, Loki and Maddy are my Brotp). Not to mention, my favourite depiction of Loki in modern literature. If you are interested in an in-depth analysis as to why this Loki is great, you can check out my review of "<a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/10/review-gospel-of-loki-by-joanne-m-harris.html">The Gospel of Loki</a>", which is a prequel to "Runemarks" and focuses solely on him. </div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"><b>Sprinkles: A book series that you can kind of turn back to for a little pick me up when you're feeling down.</b></span><br />
"Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling. Every year, like clockwork, I get a huge wave of nostalgia and end up rereading all seven Harry Potter books (and watching all the films). </div>
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It's a wonderful series, and it definitely is a comfort read for me.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">The Cherry on Top - Your favourite book this year so far.</span></b></div>
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This one was though. Not because I had too many books to chose from, but because I actually had few books I thought qualified for this spot.</div>
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I have read many good books in 2014, even great books, but few that deserve to be added to my favourite list.</div>
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In the end I think I'll go with "City of Heavenly Fire" by Cassandra Clare, because it's the conclusion to a series I loved, and, although it wasn't as good as the first books in the series, it still was worth five stars.<br />
If you're curious about what I thought about it in a greater detail, you can find my review <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/06/review-city-of-heavenly-fire-by.html">here</a>. </div>
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I'm tagging the following people:<br />
Amanda @ <a href="http://book-badger.blogspot.it/">Book Badger</a><br />
Tressa @ <a href="http://www.wishfulendings.com/">Wishful Endings</a><br />
Irene @ <a href="http://www.icecoldpassion.com/">Ice Cold Passion</a><br />
Val @ <a href="http://innocentsmileyx3.blogspot.it/">The Innocent Smiley</a><br />
Allison @ <a href="http://hardcoversandheroines.com/">Hardcovers and Heroines </a><br />
And anyone who might want to participate!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source of the photo: http://bookriotcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/8514686765829546_uYphFM3q_c.jpg</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-54939870215699600252014-10-21T17:52:00.001+02:002014-10-21T17:52:28.952+02:00Review: "The Gospel of Loki" by Joanne M. Harris<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7m0EU29CH8bGifeVRzNZiGHRpbALiSgcCGWboHDlYlececumP-4_TlU6cLL-qVcYhyZEyx-nXO7rKHBmHOHYPTzfDkkbNQhQxIgWzPUrxdRe95zoQrEprO5XREUM4iEXUZJZzX6tm9r8/s1600/18665037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7m0EU29CH8bGifeVRzNZiGHRpbALiSgcCGWboHDlYlececumP-4_TlU6cLL-qVcYhyZEyx-nXO7rKHBmHOHYPTzfDkkbNQhQxIgWzPUrxdRe95zoQrEprO5XREUM4iEXUZJZzX6tm9r8/s1600/18665037.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a>Before I can adequately explain why and how this book is awesome, we need to take a step back and look at the subject matter. As in, Loki, the Norse god of trickery and treachery.</div>
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Loki is currently going through a moment of huge popularity, due to the "Thor" movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with good reason. Tom Hiddleston does a wonderful job with the role. However, there is one problem with his character, on a writing level: he is very clearly not to be trusted, and when the other characters keep trusting him and falling for his schemes, they look like total idiots. </div>
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And, if you think about, that's the hardest part of writing Loki right: he's supposed to be a skilled manipulator, to win all his battles by treachery, but he has a reputation as someone untrustworthy, so his opponents ought to be expecting a trick, unless they're a bunch of incompetent goons. </div>
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How do you reconcile Loki manipulating everyone around him with his adversaries being intelligent? Is it even possible?</div>
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Harris does it and does it very well. The other characters don't trust Loki at all. In fact, they're more than ready to accuse him of any trouble ( and more often than not they're right). He still manages to trick them, not because he simply tells a lie and they believe him, but because he thinks outside the box, so that while they are expecting him to try something, they never are looking out for the right thing. </div>
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<i>Loki, the Light-Bringer, the misunderstood, the elusive, the handsome and modest hero of this particular tissue of lies. Take it with a pinch of salt, but it's at least as true as the official version, and, dare I say it, more entertaining.</i> </blockquote>
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Loki does also manage to be a skilled liar. He accomplishes this by being mostly truthful, by twisting the facts so that the he is painted in the most flattering light possible. He admits his faults, but his quick to shift most of the blame onto someone else.<br />
He is a good manipulator, and this is evidenced not only by his ability to manipulate the other characters, but by his ability to manipulate the reader. </div>
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Despite the fact that most of his actions are questionable as best and awful as worst. All those of you who know Norse mythology know what he's responsible for (I won't spoil it for those of you who don't, but suffice to say this: it's really, really bad).<br />
All the same, he succeeds in making himself sympathetic. I truly pitied him for the things he was put through. He is depicted as someone who used to have a kind of innocence to him, for all his chaotic nature, until the people who were supposed to be his friends stripped it from him. </div>
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<i>Till then, I bided my time, and smiled as sweetly as my scarred lips would allow, until the day I would take my revenge and bring the gods down, one by one.</i></blockquote>
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At the same time, it's Loki who's telling the story, he's casting himself in the role of the victim, and the reader never finds out how much of it is true. </div>
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The other characters are not as well fleshed-out as Loki is, but they still manage to be complex and layered, especially Odin. I also liked this novel's interpretation of Sigyn, Loki's faithful wife, which was quite unlike anything I've ever seen before.<br />
One thing I didn't like in how one of the myths in particular was handled. I won't spoil it, but Odin does something really awful to Loki. I was really looking forward to that story, because I expected it to have huge consequences on Loki's character development. And the build-up to it was actually handled really well. And then it happened and then it was never mentioned again. </div>
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The dialogues sometimes contain instances of modern speech, which I don't like, since it's set in a medieval-like world. However, the prose is gorgeous most of the time, especially in the first few chapters, which contain some great paragraphs. </div>
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<i>"Sticks and the stones may break my bones", as they say in the Middle Worlds, but with the right words you can build a world and make yourself king of it. King, or even god - which brings us back to the Old Man; that master storyteller; keeper of runes; lord of poetry; scribe of First and Last Times. Creationists would have us believe that every word of his story is true. But "poetic licence" was always the Old Man's middle name. Of course, he has a lot of names. So do I. And because this isn't </i>history<i>. but</i> mystery<i> - </i>my<i> story - let's start with me for a change. </i></blockquote>
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The novel retells Norse mythology, which I am quite familiar with, so there aren't any unexpected twists, at least not for me. The way they are retold, however, is really entertaining, so it's definitely recommended even if you're a Norse mythology expert.<br />
If you're not familiar with the original myths, then it's recommended for you too, this can definitely be a way to get into them.</div>
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In short, I think you, all of you, should read it.</div>
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<i>Let<br /> there<br /> be<br /> light. </i></blockquote>
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<span lang="EN-US"> </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"><i>Rating:</i></span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-1195969566304235512014-10-15T09:46:00.001+02:002014-10-15T09:46:06.957+02:00Waiting on Wednesday 15/10/2014<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"><br />“Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted at </span><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: center;">Breaking the Spine</a><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"> that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. This week's pick is "Every Day" by Claudia Gray</span><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"> and it's scheduled to be released November 4th 2014.</span></div>
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<i><b>Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.</b><br />Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.<br /><br />Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.<br /><br />A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-52874347894393975612014-10-14T07:18:00.000+02:002014-10-14T07:18:54.878+02:00Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want To Visit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list of the top ten places books have made me want to visit, fictional or not. I only picked fictional places because I apparently like things I can never have. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">10. The Desert from "Vessel" by Sarah Beth Durst: I was a bit disappointed by the book, but the world-building was beautiful. It made me want to see the Sky Serpents and the Sand Wolves and the Silk Worms (even though all these creatures are not particularly friendly at best and out for your blood at worst).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">9. The Forest from "</span><span style="color: #20124d;">The School for Good and Evil" by Soman Chainani: the dark fairy-tale world the main characters spend the whole book terrified of is not a place where I'd like to live, but I'd totally want to visit it, with its vast array of strange creatures.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">8 London Below from "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman: it's a dark and dangerous place and going there means giving up everything you've ever known, which is why it ranks so low on this list - I'm not sure whether I'd be exactly happy to find myself there. It's however, an incredibly fascinating world.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #20124d;">7. Phantasia from "The Neverending Strory" by Michael Ende: a place where all stories come true? Sign me up! There's that downside of forgetting who you are and being blocked there forever, though, so, again, it's pretty low on the list.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">6. The University from "The Kingkiller Chronicles" by Patrick Rothfuss: lo and behold! The first magic school in this list (and definitely not the last). And you don't only learn magic, it's also the place where pretty much all the knowledge in that world is kept and taught. You can learn <i>anything </i>there. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">5. Narnia from "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis: if as a child you didn't want to go to Narnia, you're lying. Aside from being a metaphor of paradise, it's every child's dream: a place where you can escape to to have adventures, vanquish foes and make wonderful friends, and be back in time for dinner. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">4. Discworld from the "Discworld" novels by Terry Pratchett: I can't pick just one location to visit in Discworld, since it's so multi-faced and bizarre. I want to go to Ank-Morpork, and I want to go the Ramtops and meet the witches, and... you get the idea. Discorworld is awesome.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">3. Camp Half-Blood from "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" by Rick Riordan: I have never been much for summer camps, but even I can't resist the charm of Camp Half-Blood. You learn to fight monsters, and your teacher is the centaur that helped shape the greatest Greek heroes. You also get to participate in a really awesome (and pretty violent, but still) game of capture the flag.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">2. Middle Earth from "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien: I was originally going to go with the Shire, but then I realized there wasn't a place in Middle Earth that I didn't want to visit (except Mordor). The Shire would be the first place I'd go to, though.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">1. The Wizarding World from "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling: the whole Wizarding World (because I really really couldn't pick just one place), but especially Hogwarts. Don't lie, you're all still waiting for your letters.</span><br />
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What about you? What fictional places would you like to visit? Let me know in the comments!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganmtfs5_N_mm6__mjpWMi4CtZrNuWx_lvKYJcJhO07ITR6UxoQMfMdzHLfk89Tkzk3xXMmFMsBjA5MyVIHkLwVFqjH0_FXNdf4yIfEnLt4rC-drFBjCDMKz8D95fDfOEFqFhH2KpLAVrI/s1600/BB.Button.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganmtfs5_N_mm6__mjpWMi4CtZrNuWx_lvKYJcJhO07ITR6UxoQMfMdzHLfk89Tkzk3xXMmFMsBjA5MyVIHkLwVFqjH0_FXNdf4yIfEnLt4rC-drFBjCDMKz8D95fDfOEFqFhH2KpLAVrI/s1600/BB.Button.jpg" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
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Book Beginning is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.rosecityreader.com/">Rose City Reader</a>. To partecipate, you have to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading,<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></span>along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. </div>
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Friday 56 is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.fredasvoice.com/">Freda's Voice</a>. To participate, you have to post one or a few sentences from either page 56 or 56% of a book of your choosing. </div>
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Today, I am using "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman for these two memes.</div>
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The beginning:</div>
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1392528568l/12067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1392528568l/12067.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a><i>It was a nice day. </i></blockquote>
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<i>All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet. </i></blockquote>
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The first sentences are okay, but the rest of the first chapters is brilliant, and it took a lot of restraint to keep myself from quoting the whole thing. </blockquote>
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56% on my kindle:</blockquote>
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<i>He had heard about talking to plants in the early seventies on Radio Four, and thought it an excellent idea. Although </i>talking<i> is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did.</i></blockquote>
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<i>What he did was put the fear of God into them. </i><i>More precisely, the fear of Crowley. </i></blockquote>
What do you think of these quotes? What are your Book Beginnings and Friday 56 this week?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-58827703116332272052014-10-04T09:24:00.001+02:002014-10-04T09:24:13.000+02:00Stacking the Shelves 04/10/2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/STSmall_thumb2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img border="0" src="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/STSmall_thumb2.png" height="181" width="320" /></a></div>
Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/">Tynga's Reviews</a> all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!<br />
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This week I have added to my shelves:<br />
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<b>"Runelight"</b>by Joanne Harris (e-book, currently reading)</div>
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Yeah, it's a small haul this week, since I'm trying to go through the books I already own before getting new ones (the key word being trying, I'm kinda bad at this, hence the fact that I still bought another book). </div>
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What about you? What do you think of this book? Have you read them? Do you want to read it? What have you added to your shelves this week? </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-72205449839061112312014-10-03T12:20:00.000+02:002014-10-03T12:20:01.025+02:00Book Beginning and the Friday 56 3/10/2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganmtfs5_N_mm6__mjpWMi4CtZrNuWx_lvKYJcJhO07ITR6UxoQMfMdzHLfk89Tkzk3xXMmFMsBjA5MyVIHkLwVFqjH0_FXNdf4yIfEnLt4rC-drFBjCDMKz8D95fDfOEFqFhH2KpLAVrI/s1600/BB.Button.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganmtfs5_N_mm6__mjpWMi4CtZrNuWx_lvKYJcJhO07ITR6UxoQMfMdzHLfk89Tkzk3xXMmFMsBjA5MyVIHkLwVFqjH0_FXNdf4yIfEnLt4rC-drFBjCDMKz8D95fDfOEFqFhH2KpLAVrI/s1600/BB.Button.jpg" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
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Book Beginning is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.rosecityreader.com/">Rose City Reader</a>. To partecipate, you have to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading,<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></span>along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. </div>
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Friday 56 is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.fredasvoice.com/">Freda's Voice</a>. To participate, you have to post one or a few sentences from either page 56 or 56% of a book of your choosing. </div>
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Today, I am using "Runemarks" by Joanne Harris for these two memes.</div>
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The beginning:</div>
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<i>Seven o'clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the End of the World, and goblins had been at the cellar again.</i></blockquote>
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I really like the beginning, actually. It's definitely intriguing and immediately gives some really important information in an effective way.</div>
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Page 56:</div>
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<i>"The language of Chaos?" said Maddy. "But I don't </i>know <i>it. I've never </i>heard <i>of it-"<br />"Yes you do,", said One-Eye. "It's in your blood."</i></blockquote>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-80539076196325086472014-10-01T10:59:00.001+02:002014-10-02T13:26:31.611+02:00Waiting on Wednesday 01/10/2014<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"><br />“Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted at </span><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: center;">Breaking the Spine</a><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"> that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. This week's pick is "The Orphan Queen" by Jodi Meadows and it's scheduled to be released March 10th 2015.</span><br />
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<i>Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.<br /><br />She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.<br /><br />She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.<br /><br />She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.</i><br />
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What are you "waiting on" this week? Let me know in the comments!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-26534611032267273192014-09-27T09:48:00.001+02:002014-09-27T16:02:52.442+02:00Stacking the Shelves 27/09/2014<br />
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<a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/STSmall_thumb2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/STSmall_thumb2.png" height="181" width="320" /></a></div>
Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/">Tynga's Reviews</a> all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!<br />
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This week I have added to my shelves:<br />
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<b>"The Jumbies"</b> by Tracy Baptiste (review copy from netgalley, currently reading)</div>
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<b>"Runemarks"</b>by Joanne Harris (e-book, currently reading)</div>
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What about you? What do you think of these books? Have you read them? Do you want to read them? What have you added to your shelves this week? </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-18089650666412392632014-09-24T09:43:00.000+02:002014-09-24T10:37:27.467+02:00Waiting on Wednesday 24/09/2014<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"><br />“Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted at </span><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: center;">Breaking the Spine</a><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"> that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. This week's pick is "Hellhole" by Gina Damico and it's scheduled to be released January 6th 2015.</span><br />
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<i>A devil is a bad influence . . .</i><br />
<i><br />There was a time when geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore would never lie or steal or even think about murder.<br /><br />Then he accidentally unearths a devil, and Max’s choices are no longer his own. The big red guy has a penchant for couch-surfing and junk food—and you should never underestimate evil on a sugar high. With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max is racing against the clock to get rid of the houseguest from hell before time—and all the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos this side of the fiery abyss—run out. Gina Damico, author of the Croak series, once again delivers all the horror, hilarity, and high-stakes drama that any kid in high school or hell could ever handle.</i><br />
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I haven't read this author's first series, "Croak", but I have heard many good things about it, and the concept to "Hellhole" intrigues me. A lot. It's a shame the release date is so far off, though!<br />
What are you "waiting on" this week? Let me know in the comments!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-21567836562556209092014-09-23T07:13:00.000+02:002014-09-24T10:37:16.999+02:00Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books On My Fall To-Be-Read list<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list of the top ten books on my Fall to-be-read list.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">"A Little Something Different" by Sandy Hall</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">"The Glass Sentence" by S.E. Grove</span></div>
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"<span style="color: #20124d;">Tigana " by Guy Gavriel Kay</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">"The Burning Sky" by Sherry Thomas</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">"Talon" by Julie Kagawa</span></div>
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"Spell Bound" by Rachel Hawkins</div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">"Runemarks" by Joanne Harris </span></div>
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What about you? What books are on the top of your to-be-read list this Fall? Let me know!</div>
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The main character of "Vessel" is Liyana, a young woman from the Goat Clan. She and her people live in a desert, and during the last few years, they have been plagued by a drought. Things should get better soon, though, because Liyana is a vessel. Vessels are people who are picked to give up their bodies to their clan's god or goddess, so that the deity might walk upon the earth and help the clan to survive. When this happens, the vessel's soul is dislodged from their body and they die. The body lives on, but with the deity's soul inside it. After a year, the god or goddess leaves the body, and the body dies as well. </div>
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Not only are vessels condemned to die young, they aren't awarded the same freedom that is given to their peers even when they are still alive: they can't take part in risky activities, they can't scar, they can't have sex, they can't attempt to practice magic…</div>
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So, basically, being a vessel sucks, but it's considered an honor, so out of all the characters we meet in this book, only one vessel resent her fate. </div>
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And that's the book's first fault: the vessels are a really interesting idea, but they are not exploited to the fullest. The moral ramifications of the idea that it's okay for one person to die if it saves a whole bunch of other people are never explored. This is especially true because of a revelation that comes late into the book, and which should change things a lot in the characters' view of the world, very quickly (key word being "should").</div>
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Another fault the book has are the gods. They are dicks. There's not another way of putting this. With the exception of one god (the first we meet), they all spend their time bitching and moaning and being disrespectful to the members of the clans. They also have done some really questionable (if not outright evil) things that are never explained. The least spoilery thing of which is that they created sand-wolves, monsters made of sand that run inside sand-storms and attack people who are on their own. Why did the gods create these monsters? Who knows! Maybe they were bored and decided: "hey, let's make the desert people's lives more difficult than they already are!".</div>
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The first part of the novel is pretty good, if a bit monotonous. The characters travel from one clan to the next, finding more and more vessels to add to their ranks in a rescue mission to help some entrapped deities. They travel to the desert. There's a lot of sun, a lot of sweat and a lot of sand. Magic might be involved somehow. Yawn. </div>
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However, the author does a good job at using the pages for character development and to set up the relationships between the characters.</div>
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If only any of this payed off. </div>
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The second half of the book focuses on entirely different relationship, and a good chunk of the characters changes. Time is no longer devoted to character development, though, since the plot is now moving forward at breakneck speed. Oh, if only I cared about the people doing these things.<br />
I wish the book had been longer by a hundred pages or so. That way, the build-up to the final battle would have been bigger, the final battle itself would have been longer and more epic and the ending better explained. I still can't figure out why some things happened the way they did.<br />
Also, a new love interest was introduced in the second half of the book, and we got a love triangle that had no reason to exist whatsoever, since the new guys has so few scenes with the main character that I could count them on the fingers of one hand.<br />
On the other hand, the relationship between Liyana and the trickster god Korbyn isn't much better. While there's a lot more build-up to the two of them falling in love (it's not a spoiler, you can tell from the first time she describes him that he's going to be a love interest), there are a several factors that make it kind of creepy. For example, he's the lover of Bayla, the goddess to whom Liyana was supposed to give up her body and he's thousands of years old.<br />
I was slightly disappointed in the character of Korbyn in general. Trickster gods are usually the most interesting of the bunch, so I was excited when the blurb promised me a trickster main character. I was expecting someone smart and mischievous, always three steps ahead. Korbyn's not like that. He even sucks at being a trickster. Everyone sees through his schemes. We only know of one instance when he managed to trick someone and get away with it. One. Oh, and he showed up at an important meeting with a donkey's head in order to make fun of the other gods. Most of the time, he doesn't have a clue as to what is happening. You know his people are tricksters because they lay out traps for their enemies. Wow. They aren't even ingenious traps. It's not trickery, it's common sense!<br />
On a more positive note, the mythology is interesting and, for the most part, very well-done. I liked the way the myths and stories where interwoven with the main narrative, and the magic system is also quite intriguing.<br />
The first part of the book is worthy of four stars, but the second half only deserves two (and barely at that). So I'll give "Vessel" three stars and call it a day. I still recommend it, if you don't know what to read and like mythology, but there are a lot of better books out there.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-75391568747028175262014-09-20T08:29:00.000+02:002014-09-21T13:24:51.899+02:00Stacking The Shelves 20/09/2014<br />
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Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/">Tynga's Reviews</a> all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!<br />
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This week I have added to my shelves:<br />
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<b>"Vessel"</b> by Sarah Beth Durst (e-book, read, you can find the review <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/09/review-vessel-by-sarah-beth-durst.html">here</a>)</div>
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<b>"Demonglass"</b> by Rachel Hawkins (e-book, currently reading)</div>
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What about you? What do you think of these books? Have you read them? Do you want to read them? What have you added to your shelves this week? </div>
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Book Beginning is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.rosecityreader.com/">Rose City Reader</a>. To partecipate, you have to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading,<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></span>along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. </div>
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Friday 56 is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.fredasvoice.com/">Freda's Voice</a>. To participate, you have to post one or a few sentences from either page 56 or 56% of a book of your choosing. </div>
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The book I chose to use for this two memes is "The School for Good and Evil: a World without Princes" by Soman Chainani.<br />
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The first sentence(s):<br />
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<i style="text-align: justify;">There's an uneasiness that remains after your best friend tried to kill you.</i></blockquote>
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It's pretty good, as far as opening sentences go, since it immediately captures the reader's attention. </div>
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Taken from page 56 of the book:<br />
<i>Hearing the skimming of arrows again, Agatha swung her head between paths, burning trees growing nearer… nearer… </i></div>
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What about you? Let me know in the comments!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-58046070605094275662014-09-17T09:19:00.000+02:002014-09-21T13:23:51.409+02:00Waiting on Wednesday 17/09/2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400098639l/18705209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400098639l/18705209.jpg" width="211" /></a><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;">“Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted at </span><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: center;">Breaking the Spine</a><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"> that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. This week's pick is "The Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan and it's scheduled to be released October 7th 2014.</span><br />
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<i>Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.<br />The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps.<br />The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.</i><br />
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It's the last book in the "Heroes of Olympus" series, and I'm so excited! Have you got any theories as to what is going to happen? (I've given up on trying to predict things in Riordan's books since I read the original series, to be honest).</div>
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What are you waiting for this week? Let me know in the comments!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-81702128639802054052014-09-16T08:51:00.000+02:002014-09-16T08:52:26.224+02:00 Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I've Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #20124d; text-align: justify;">Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list is </span><span style="text-align: justify;">of the top ten</span> authors I've only read one book from but NEED to read more.<br />
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10. Eva Ibbotson </div>
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I have listed one of her books in last week's <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/09/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-underrated.html">underrated fantasy books list</a>, and that's actually the only book by her I've read. I have found out that she has written several other novels in the same vain as "The Dragonfly Pool". Count me in!</div>
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9. Stuart Hill</div>
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He's another author from last week (the last one, I promise). He has written "The Cry of the Icemark", which I loved, and which has a sequel. The only reason I haven't already read that is that it's set several years later the first book, and I was worried about my favorite characters having died in the meantime. </div>
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8. Leah Rae Miller </div>
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"The Summer I became a Nerd" was such a cute, fluffy book. I can't wait for more from this author!</div>
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I read the first book in her "Enchanted Inc." series, which was pretty good, but still haven't gotten around to the sequels. I'll remedy to that soon!</div>
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6. Michelle Harrison </div>
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I read "13 Treasures" several years ago, before I started reading almost extensively in English, and the sequels never got translated, so I never finished the whole series. I remember loving the first book, though, so the rest of the trilogy is definitely on my to be read list!</div>
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5. Jasped Fforde</div>
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I loved "The Last Dragonslayer", but for some reason never got around to reading the sequels. </div>
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4. Helen Wecker</div>
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"The Golem and the Jinni" is really good (you can find my review of it <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/02/review-golem-and-jinni-by-helene-wecker.html">here</a>), so I'm on the look-out for any other books she might write!</div>
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"The Reece Malcolm List" has hold on to the title of "favorite contemporary" for a while before Rowell's "Fangirl" came around and stole that prize. However, I am still definitely going to read Spalding's second book, which came out earlier this year.</div>
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2. Soman Chainani </div>
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"The School of Good and Evil" is really good, and it ended in a way that definitely had the reader yearning for more, and I actually own the sequel, so I'm definitely going to read that one soon!</div>
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1. Joanne Harris</div>
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I just finished "the Gospel of Loki" and it's such a great book! Also, this author has two more Norse mythology books to her name. As soon as I'm done with the books I actually already own, I am definitely going to buy "Runemarks"!</div>
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What about you? What ten authors have you read only one book from but desperately want to read more? Let me know in the comments!</div>
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Book Beginning is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.rosecityreader.com/">Rose City Reader</a>. To partecipate, you have to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading,<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></span>along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. </div>
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Friday 56 is a meme hosted on <a href="http://www.fredasvoice.com/">Freda's Voice</a>. To participate, you have to post one or a few sentences from either page 56 or 56% of a book of your choosing. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7m0EU29CH8bGifeVRzNZiGHRpbALiSgcCGWboHDlYlececumP-4_TlU6cLL-qVcYhyZEyx-nXO7rKHBmHOHYPTzfDkkbNQhQxIgWzPUrxdRe95zoQrEprO5XREUM4iEXUZJZzX6tm9r8/s1600/18665037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7m0EU29CH8bGifeVRzNZiGHRpbALiSgcCGWboHDlYlececumP-4_TlU6cLL-qVcYhyZEyx-nXO7rKHBmHOHYPTzfDkkbNQhQxIgWzPUrxdRe95zoQrEprO5XREUM4iEXUZJZzX6tm9r8/s1600/18665037.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
The book I chose to use for this two memes is "The Gospel of Loki" by Joanne M. Harris</div>
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The first sentence(s): <br />
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I know a tale, o sons of earth.</div>
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I speak it as I must.</div>
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Of how nine trees gave life to Worlds </div>
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That giants held in trust. </div>
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<i>Ok. </i>Stop<i>. Stop right there.</i></div>
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That <i>was the Authorized Version. The Prophecy of the Oracle, as told to Odin Allfather by the Head of Mimir the Wise, and dealing, in thirty-six stanzas, with all the history of the Nine Worlds, from "Let there be light" to Ragnaròk.</i></div>
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<i>Pretty neat, don't you think?</i></div>
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<i>Well, this </i>isn't<i> the Authorized Version. This is my version of events.</i></div>
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I actually really like this beginning. It does a wonderful job at setting the tone for the rest of the novel, and it teases the reader with what will happen next enough to make them want to keep reading. In fact, the whole first chapter is one of the better written in the entire novel. </div>
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Taken from page 56 of the book:<br />
<i>Nevertheless, I approached the four smiths and gave them my most winning smile. "Greetings, sons of Ivaldi," I said, "from the gods of Asgard." </i></div>
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<i>In the light of the fiery forge, they turned their faces towards me. The sons of Ivaldi are almost identical: sallow-skinned, hollow-eyed, stooped and scorched with labour. </i></div>
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What about you? Let me know in the comments!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-27924036101966528592014-09-11T19:51:00.001+02:002014-09-11T22:58:16.463+02:00Blogiversary & Liebster Award It's my blogiversary today! Yeah!!! I've had so much fun and had the chance to meet some great people over the course of the last year, and I hope I'll get the same from the next year!<br />
And now let's celebrate with this drawing of a cupcake I did.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSo1-lBIbE-oMxCrI98VTHiNCmtXqoLCWC_XpLfwvJAUqrf_Jzh5klr2XOEt8qDmGxTSokjfPhox4bumHDNc2EX8c6ebZKwbU2HlalY9ccjonHWoFt_XnXvVXESOr_vFvnJY5KSwcwVpg/s1600/Happy_Blogiversary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSo1-lBIbE-oMxCrI98VTHiNCmtXqoLCWC_XpLfwvJAUqrf_Jzh5klr2XOEt8qDmGxTSokjfPhox4bumHDNc2EX8c6ebZKwbU2HlalY9ccjonHWoFt_XnXvVXESOr_vFvnJY5KSwcwVpg/s1600/Happy_Blogiversary.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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On other great news, the lovely Maggie Wilson from "<a href="http://threecheers4butterbeer.blogspot.it/">Three Cheers Four Butterbeer</a>" has nominated me for the Liebster Awards! Thank you so much, Maggie!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S17vDn0o3YY/UvOHUo5f63I/AAAAAAAAA5A/MOZCHpxkQ1Y/s1600/LiebsterAward.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S17vDn0o3YY/UvOHUo5f63I/AAAAAAAAA5A/MOZCHpxkQ1Y/s1600/LiebsterAward.png" height="289" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>The rules to the Liebster Awards are these:</b><br />
Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to their blog!<br />
List 11 random facts about yourself.<br />
Answer their 11 questions.<br />
Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers.<br />
Ask them 11 questions.<br />
Let them know you have nominated them<br />
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<b>Eleven random facts about myself:</b><br />
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1) I used to be really tomboyish when I was a child, but I've grown into a girly girl. </div>
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2) I'm ambidextrous</div>
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3) When I was a child, there was a book I loved so much that I had it memorized, and would tell my mother when she had to turn the page. </div>
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4) I got my ears pierced the week before I turned thirteen </div>
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5) I have an older sister</div>
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6) I know how to knit</div>
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7) If I'm stressed, singing always makes me feel better </div>
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8) I am a huge mythology lover, I have favorite gods and everything</div>
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9) If I could pick any historical period to live in, I'd stay in this historical period</div>
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10) Sometimes I think that the "Italians are fixated with pasta" cliché is an exaggeration, but then I remember that I was distraught when I found out that the house I spent a week in in England didn't have the utensils necessary to cook pasta. </div>
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11) I have always loved to read, as far back as I can remember. </div>
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<b>Maggie's questions are:</b><br />
<b>1) What is your favorite book cover?</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.gollancz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/gospel-of-loki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gollancz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/gospel-of-loki.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a></div>
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Right now I really love the cover to Joanne Harris's Gospel of Loki (which by the way is a fantastic book and I will be doing a review of it soon!)</div>
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<b>2) What was or is your most anticipated new release of 2014?</b></div>
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Probably <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/06/review-city-of-heavenly-fire-by.html">City of Heavenly Fire</a> by Cassandra Clare, since it's the last installment of a series I loved. <br />
<b>3) E-books or physical books?</b></div>
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E-books, since they take up less space, they weigh less and I can buy them whenever I want.<br />
<b>4) Buy your own books or go the library and why?</b></div>
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Buy my own books, since I reread the books I like several times.<br />
<b>5) Favorite contemporary and why?</b></div>
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<a href="ttp://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2013/09/review-fangirl-by-rainbow-rowell.html">Fangirl </a>by Rainbow Rowell, it really made me want to start working on my novel again, and it's so heart-warming!<br />
<b>6) What genres of books do you most enjoy reading?</b></div>
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Speculative fiction, definitely, mostly fantasy.<br />
<b>7) Where are you from?</b></div>
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Italy<br />
<b>8) What is your favorite place to read?</b></div>
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Any place that allows me to change my position often.<br />
<b>9) The weirdest book you have ever read?</b></div>
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That's a though one, I'd say probably Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman<br />
<b>10) Fast reader or slow reader?</b></div>
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Fast reader</div>
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<b>11) What is your favorite animal?</b></div>
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Either the hawk or the cat</div>
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<b>My eleven questions are:</b></div>
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1) What book would you like to see turned into a movie/tv series and why?</div>
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2) What is your favorite fairytale?</div>
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3) What book made you fall in love with reading?</div>
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4) Who is you all-time favorite author?</div>
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5) Do you sometimes judge a book by its cover.</div>
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6) What was/is your favorite school subject?</div>
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7) What made you decide to start a blog?</div>
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8) Do you like taking personality quizzes?</div>
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9) What's the last book you read and loved?</div>
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10) What do you like to do when you're not reading?</div>
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11) If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?</div>
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I nominate:</div>
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<a href="http://rhapsodiccuriosities.blogspot.it/">The Rhapsodic Curiosities </a></div>
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<a href="http://pinkavengerprime.blogspot.it/">Pink Avenger Prime</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bookaholicsanonymousonline.com/">Bookhaholics Anonymous </a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?blog=12602453&group=0&frame_type=b&frame=1&click=0&user=0">A Book Lover's Ramblings</a></div>
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<a href="http://thepaperback-reader.blogspot.it/">The Paperbacks Reader</a></div>
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<a href="http://imogenelvis.blogspot.it/">Imogen Elvis: Gossiping with Dragons</a></div>
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<a href="http://thebooksthethingreviews.wordpress.com/">The Book's the Thing</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sparereads.com/">Spare Reads</a></div>
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<a href="http://taraletsbehappy.blogspot.it/">Tara! Let's be happy!</a></div>
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<a href="http://brunettebooknerd.blogspot.it/">Brunette Book Nerd</a></div>
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<a href="http://booktasticfinds.blogspot.it/">My Booktastic Finds</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-33705288359812463952014-09-11T12:15:00.001+02:002014-09-11T12:15:47.949+02:00Review: "The Hundred" by Kass Morgan<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/The_100_book_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/The_100_book_cover.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></a></div>
The novel is told from the POV of four characters: Clarke, Wells, Bellamy and Glass. The first three are on a suicide expedition to earth, to see if it's still habitable, while the fourth remains on the ship where humanity has spent the last three-hundred years.</div>
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The members of the expedition are teenaged convicts, offered a second chance, since on the ship even perpetrators of petty crimes are put to death. If they survive the experiment, they will be pardoned and given a new life on earth. </div>
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The only problem is that last time they checked, the level on radiation on earth meant a slow and painful death. None of the main character, at least one of whom knows this fact, seem particularly concerned about this.</div>
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Another problem might be how to survive in the wildness after having lived their whole lives in a place where there was exactly one tree and meat didn't exist. No problem, though. Bellamy's on the case, and he clearly has great learning skills, since he learns to hunt in a matter of days (never having held a bow before in his life, ladies and gentlemen), and the kids somehow manage to cook the deer he's caught without burning it or leaving it raw. </div>
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Also, there seemingly are no predators in this forest where they have landed and the kids don't immediately catch a bunch of earthly viruses their immune systems are not shielded against. Lucky them!</div>
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So, you'll ask me, what is this book about, if none of the characters are trying to get off the earth/get lead suits to fight off radiations and all survival problems are either swept under the rug or resolved in annoyingly easy ways?</div>
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Well, my dears, it's all about love.</div>
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Everyone's constantly worrying about their love lives, and not about impending doom. And if only the love stories were actually interesting. There's no chemistry between these people, no reason why I should believe that they'd value this person's life more than they value the lives of innocent bystanders. Yeah, you heard me right. Not one, but <i>two</i> main characters (that's fifty percent, you guys), knowingly cause the death of other people in order to protect their loved ones. In one case, the survival of the human race is but in jeopardy. Why should I like these people, again?<br />
And yet, despite all the terrible things they do, the point of view characters in "The Hundred" are not allowed to be flawed, not really. We are not meant to hate them, despite the fact that they are terrible human beings. There are always circumstances that are meant to make their actions excusable. I don't want that, not when the book takes on some really challenging issues. Simplifying things means doing things half-ways, and that never works.<br />
The only character I thought was really interesting was Bellamy's sister and I wish she'd been explored more. I would have loved to have her as a POV character.<br />
I also didn't hate Clarke. She was definitely the best out of the four main character, although that's not really saying much.<br />
There are two good twists at the end of the book, but it's too little, too late. It definitely doesn't make me want to read the next one.<br />
I am really conflicted about how to rate this book. Don't get me wrong, it's really bad, but I don't think it's terrible enough to deserve a one-star-rating. I usually do that for books that I found painful to read, and this wasn't the case. Also, Clarke's chapters are bearable, and Bellamy wasn't all that bad in the beginning.<br />
So a star and a half it is.<br />
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<span lang="EN-US"> </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"><i>Rating:</i></span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★1/2</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>I received this book as an eARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.</i></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-13243333868087462262014-09-10T07:32:00.000+02:002014-09-11T23:02:19.689+02:00Waiting on Wednesday 10/09/2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSUaXGm1z0hsI-YFCf-PM4qyPw4RdcdVINCnIyrSHpgRoY6xiDPrNjBtJyHQFR3Q8M4Gbs6xQTfroNzCmux7ZenIgGsrl6egrgGOh0cZxa3nqOidZnOxrlw-svMNZPIpYSKmZ190x77c/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;">“Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted at </span><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: center;">Breaking the Spine</a><span style="color: #20124d; text-align: center;"> that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. This week's pick is "Stray" by Elissa Sussman and it's scheduled to be released October 8th 2014. </span><br />
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“I am grateful for my father, who keeps me good and sweet. I am grateful for my mother, who keeps her own heart guarded and safe. I am grateful for my adviser, who keeps me protected. I am grateful for the Path, which keeps me pure. Ever after.”</div>
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Princess Aislynn has long dreamed about attending her Introduction Ball, about dancing with the handsome suitors her adviser has chosen for her, about meeting her true love and starting her happily ever after.<br />
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When the night of the ball finally arrives and Nerine Academy is awash with roses and royalty, Aislynn wants nothing more than to dance the night away, dutifully following the Path that has been laid out for her. She does not intend to stray.<br />
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But try as she might, Aislynn has never quite managed to control the magic that burns within her-magic brought on by wicked, terrible desires that threaten the Path she has vowed to take.<br />
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After all, it is wrong to want what you do not need. Isn’t it?<br />
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2014 is a great year for retellings, apparently. And I couldn't be happier, since I love a good retelling. </div>
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The premise for "Stray" is really intriguing and not something I have seen done before quite like this. </div>
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On a side note, I am not really a fan of the cover. </div>
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What about you? What are you "waiting on" this week? Let me know in the comments!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4496447890475970330.post-41018010838249323522014-09-09T09:16:00.000+02:002014-09-09T13:01:50.917+02:00Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Underrated Books in the Fantasy genre. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hr8m3ejOWGy6S5Aw3XnqpHniI7s-jHKI2EpGL1_sczvTSCQiVHB36IlNMaUDFhIPspRlOVqF3GtDakX6vizKv365eb4BMRbrZaMioZ-QUGdqsTsXMMxYnRAt4yWX2I5gTlEkOGIQWEs/s1600/toptentuesday.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list is </span>of ten underrated fantasy books.<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b>10. "Cloaked" by Alex Flinn</b></span></div>
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This author is best known for "Beastly", but I think "Cloaked" is definitely worth checking out, as well. It's more fun than Beastly, and more imaginative.</div>
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<b>9. "The Dragonfly Pool" by Eva Ibbotson</b></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">I'm kind of cheating with this one, since the fantasy elements are so faint that you can barely tell they are there. It's more absurd than fantasy, in fact. However, the book's fantastic, and definitely worth checking out. Since it's not really fantasy, however, I've put it rather low on the list. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">This is a really wonderful book, and has really imaginative world-building. I have just noticed it's by the same author as the "Winner's Curse", so that one's being pushed up the TBR list quite a lot. </span></div>
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<b>5. "Conrad's Fate" by Diana Wynne Jones</b></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">This is, without a doubt, my favorite book in the Chrestomanci series. It's also one of the less-known books in a series that's not very famous as it is. I really can't recommend it enough. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b>4. "Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman</b></span><span style="color: #20124d;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">I did a <a href="http://takeawalkonthewriteside.blogspot.it/2014/01/review-odd-and-frost-giants-by-neil.html">whole review</a> on why this book is amazing, so I don't think it requires further explanation. Moving on!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">It's very imaginative, as this author's book always are, and it's really well-written. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">On the childhood nostalgia department, this blows "Castle in the Air" out of the water. This is the book I read the most as a child next to Harry Potter. My copy is not battered, because I treated it with reverence. It's a truly wonderful book. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Yeah, I'm cheating and listing the whole series. Yes, I cheated twice in the span of one list. I'm such a rebel!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Seriously, though, the series is great. It has wonderful characters, amazing world-building and a good story. What more could you want? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">What about you? What underrated books are you recommending this week? Let me know in the comments!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by <a href="http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">the Brooke and the Bookish</a>. This week's list is of characters that would be sitting at my lunch table.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">10. Madelyne Summers from "The Summer I became a Nerd" by Leah Rae Miller: she's a total nerd and by the end of the book she's owned up to her it. She'd be fun to hang out with.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">9. Tessa Gray from "The Infernal Devices" by Cassandra Clare: Tessa and I would definitely get along, book obsession and all.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">8. and 7. Sophie Mercer and Jenna Talbot from "Hex Hall" by Rachel Hawkins: while I didn't like the first book in the series all that much, I am currently reading the sequel and I am enjoying it infinitely more. I love Sophie's sense of humor and Jenna's really likable. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">6. Kyle Kingsbury from "Beastly" by Alex Flinn: I mean the person he is at the end of the book of course, not the jerk that he is in the beginning. He's well-read and an interesting conversationalist. And, I know it goes against the moral of the book, but there's always the hotness factor to consider. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">5. </span><span style="color: #20124d;">Bilbo Baggins from "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien: he's very likable and enjoys the simple pleasures of life. He'd have a lot of interesting stories to share, too.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">4. and 3. Aziraphale and Crowley from "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: life would never get boring with this dynamic duo. Also, they have centuries worth of interesting stories to share. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQu5r12SqJDWdwRUnUsjP-KqF1KUlJ_EsvsxDwTaBSK075mf6XuAi2KV22sMcozA52k8JZ69Pufoi1U-NjYCUKHIEudqwxI1Xg8WVwy4KUfAKgGe_GVRQpDXApgkxUxqhzLcq_XC7twlc/s1600/862041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQu5r12SqJDWdwRUnUsjP-KqF1KUlJ_EsvsxDwTaBSK075mf6XuAi2KV22sMcozA52k8JZ69Pufoi1U-NjYCUKHIEudqwxI1Xg8WVwy4KUfAKgGe_GVRQpDXApgkxUxqhzLcq_XC7twlc/s1600/862041.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">2. and 1. Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger from "Harry Potter by J.K Rowling: I don't really think these two need any introduction. They are both awesome, and that's that.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;">Which characters would be sitting on your lunch table? Let me know in the comments! </span></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLg_OwViZ2dGlNngJLXjwjnd_E6q1K9lujyZ_UL8wty6xDBvLDgF3u-g87_An5vZAWk54StO2l72GerZPIY3CiLXubqHp7HWDt8RkJ3OWRQpLAOfvtqk1dzHIjeFyQTmPFlBhlrR_asB0/s1600/15713880.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLg_OwViZ2dGlNngJLXjwjnd_E6q1K9lujyZ_UL8wty6xDBvLDgF3u-g87_An5vZAWk54StO2l72GerZPIY3CiLXubqHp7HWDt8RkJ3OWRQpLAOfvtqk1dzHIjeFyQTmPFlBhlrR_asB0/s1600/15713880.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The main character
of “Throne of Glass”, Celaena has become the world’s greatest assassin at the
ripe old age of seventeen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Wait, what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">That’s
ridiculous. Seventeen is way too young to be the world’s best anything unless
it’s something that specifically requires to be very young to be skilled. And
since Celaena thinks this of one of her competitors, we can rest assured that
that is not the case with assassins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span lang="EN-US">Assassin indeed. His voice hasn’t even deepened
yet. How did he wind up here?</span></i></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But way
more importantly than that, how can anyone be the world’s greatest assassin? And
that’s not a personal opinion of a couple of people, that’s common knowledge.
First off, who measures these things? You would be hard-pressed today to have
people give the same answer to the question “who is the world’s best fashion
model?”, and the performances of fashion models is something anyone can access.
A good assassin shouldn’t be someone everybody has information on. But in this
world, apparently, being a good criminal means being really famous and having
people know your name. I don’t think there are words to describe how idiotic
this concept is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then,
there’s the little matter of this fact: we wouldn’t be able to decide today who
the best in the world at something is (world’s best lawyer? Does anybody know
who that is?). Today, when we have the Internet, and you can circle around the
world in a matter of days. Try establishing that in the world the story is set
in, where they have medieval technology and magic has been outlawed (so they
can’t use magic to communicate or travel any faster), where crossing a country
takes weeks. There’s not enough communication possible to decide with any sort
of accuracy who the best assassin in the world is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For these
reasons, Celaena’s character could only be more over-blown if her name actually were Badass McAwesome. She’s a Mary Sue at her finest: she’s
beautiful, she’s physically strong, she’s intelligent, she’s musically gifted.
Her abilities never, ever fail her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Her
arrogance might actually have been an interesting character trait, if it had
been exploited more. If she’d made a huge mistake because she didn’t think
anybody capable of beating her. But, nope. Infallible Celaena. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Also, she’s
judgmental as hell. She thinks of the king of Adarlan as a murderer and a
monster. Which I am sure he is, but so is Celaena. She kills people for money.
She thinks of all the pretty dresses she could buy with her salary as the
king’s personal assassin. And this is never portrayed as problematic. When I
read a book about assassins, I expect them to be anti-heroes. Or, if they
aren’t, if they do this to keep themselves or somebody they care about alive,
to hate having been coerced into this line of work, to feel remorse for their
killing. Celaena never feels remorse for what she’s done. No, she’s a good
assassin. How do we know this? Well, she doesn’t kill children. That doesn’t
make her good. It just makes her a little less of a monster. But she’s still a
monster. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The romance
was actually quite light, for the most part, and the love triangle didn’t
bother me at first, until the she started flipping back and forth with her
feelings for the two guys. Then it definitely started getting on my nerves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"> Also, while Celaena does not fall into
insta-love, one of her two suitors does. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US"><i>Still, the
image haunted his dreams throughout the night: a lovely girl gazing at the
stars, and the stars who gazed back.</i></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">He thinks
this two weeks after their meeting. He knows she’s dangerous. He knows she
resents him and his family for what happened to her and to her kingdom. He
knows that her attempted suicide involved killing several people with a pickax.
He doesn’t know <i>her</i>. He’s enamored of
her anyways. What an idiot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span lang="EN-US">He loved her, and no empire, no king, no
earthly fear would keep him from her. No, if they tried to take her from him,
he’d rip the world apart with his bare hands. And for some reason, that didn’t
terrify him. </span></i></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This is
after knowing her for three months, and they really only start spending time
with each other after two months have already passed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The bad
guys are utterly ridiculous. They practically prance about wearing sparkly
signs with the words “I’m EVIL” around their necks. And Celaena, who is supposed
to be smart, somehow manages to be surprised when the villain’s identity is
relieved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Also,
there’s a castle made of glass. Of actual glass. What the hell? I suppose that
it’s really thick glass, but it’s still not going to be as efficient as stone
when it comes to defending it. A couple
of hits from a catapult and it’ll be smashed into little sparkly bits. And it’s
the capital of a kingdom focused on warfare, too. Why would you build this
really inefficient, expensive castle that’ll guarantee boiling summers and
freezing winters? How do you manage a fireplace in a castle made of glass, a
material that melts really easily when put in contact to flames? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
writing’s fine most of the time, but sometimes there are some rather weird
phrases, like:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span lang="EN-US">Her blood grew warm and glittering. </span></i></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But maybe
Kaltain is a Twilight vampire, that’s why her blood is glittering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There are
some sudden POV shifts, which is an amateur mistake (I tried to edit the
spoilers out as much as I could, but if you want to avoid all spoilers, then skip this bit):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span lang="EN-US">Carefully putting his arms around Celaena,
Dorian glanced toward [Characters A and B] In doing so, he missed the look
exchanged between [character C] and [character D]. [Character D] pulled out his
dagger.<br /> </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US">But Chaol saw.</span></i></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">However,
despite all its flaws, this book managed to keep me entertained and intrigued.
It’s not a good book, by any means, but it’s a fun book, and not of the
so-bad-it’s-good variety. So it's still getting two stars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"> </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"><i>Rating:</i></span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: 48px; line-height: 72px;">★</span></div>
<br />
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12747689171127112618noreply@blogger.com2