Discussion Post #44

[empressearwig]

Since I'm not sure if torigates is around to do another poem discussion today, I'm going to go ahead and put up another general discussion post. You all know what to do with these by now, right?

In case you missed it, our rec post for December, went up last night, so make sure to check that out.

Have fun!

Comments

[katayla]

I mentioned Ready Player One by Ernest Cline in the rec post, but yeah! That was awesome! So was The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne. Definite rec if you like historical romances and there are spies, so if you've been missing Lauren Willig, check it out!

I didn't like The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson as much as I've liked his previous books, but it set up some interesting things for the world. Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay itself wasn't that great, but OH. The things it set up for the sequel! WANT IT NOW. I struggled some with the writing in Cold Magic by Kate Elliot (too much description and backstory), but it was an interesting story with good characters. Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman was annoying. And I ended up not even finishing Love Unscripted by Tina Reber, after liking the beginning a LOT. It's self-published (I THINK?) and I would've loved to see what a good editor could do with it. And then I read Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace for belovedbooks.

And now I'm reading The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima,

[empressearwig]

Haha, look at you making progress on your in progress reading! That's awesome.

And I am still so pumped you liked The Spymaster's Lady. THANK GOODNESS.

[katayla]

Haha, that's kind of my goal for the end of the year, though I'll probably let myself slide on The Writer's Tale, since that's a different kind of book.

YES. Now I just need to resist acquiring too many library books so that I can actually read the rest of them, haha.

[empressearwig]

That reminds me, I don't think I ever finished A Writer's Tale. I should do that at some point.

Haha, I am suddenly binging on books, both library and otherwise. Oops?

[katayla]

I made pretty fast progress when I was reading it? But then I put it down and I guess I haven't been in the right mindset to pick it back up.

Heeeeeeeee. I've been checking out some ebooks here and there, discovered a new series (this one!) that I want to try out RIGHT NOW (but am resisting for now) and I'm looking up all the books on my Christmas wish list to see which ones I can get from the library if Santa doesn't come through, haha.

[empressearwig]

Yeah, same. Also, I shelved it, which is not something I should do with in progress books because I think that I'm done with them, haha.

Well, part of it is that I want to have lots of reading options on hand for over Christmas. So it's a good idea in that sense. A bad idea because I have no more room for books. Oh well.

[katayla]

Haha, see, I come up with elaborate systems of where I put books depending on if I'm still reading them/which ones I want to read next/if I'm still reading other books in that series.

Yeah, that makes sense! And YES. I don't think I have many books I want to get rid of, but it's getting to the point where I need to at least box some up or something . . . although I'm not sure where I'd even put the boxes, lol.

[katayla]

LOL. I'm down to just four! Well, five with the Chima, but that's new! And I think I really should get through most of them. But the library books keep trickling in, lol.

[katayla]

It is hard! I'm not entirely sure what I want to read after the Chima. I probably should do Night Circus, but I don't wanna! :P

[beth_shulman]

I read The Spymaster's Lady since I saw you liked it! (Even though I'm not a big romance reader!)

The VOICE in that book is FANTASTIC. I read another book by the same author to see if it was a fluke - the one about Hawker, I don't remember what it's called) and it was great there, too. She has a gift.

Both books were really charming.

[empressearwig]

If you liked those two read The Forbidden Rose too. Skip the other one she's got out. It's not nearly as good.

But seriously, isn't the voice fantastic? You can practically hear the language shifts and that never happens.

[beth_shulman]

Is it part of that whole world, too?

Yeah, I was really, really impressed. Especially because I am a terrible book snob and tend to think that a lot of romances have zero literary merit - which in all fairness is an opinion that many romance novels enforce. But her writing was fantastic.

[empressearwig]

Yes, it's Doyle's story and has young Adrian and Justine in it, too.

Yeah, I gave up on being a snob about books a long time ago. It's not worth the mental energy to me, because why does something have to have literary merit to be enjoyable? A lot of things that do have literary merit aren't. And romance is really the only genre that's judged by those standards, at least by the entire world. Book snobs bitch about Dan Brown, but no one else does.

... Sorry, pet peeve of mine. But I'm glad you liked it!

[beth_shulman]

Ooooh. (Adrian is one of my favorites.)

I totally understand! But I always look for good writing first (as opposed to, say, wish fulfillment), and a lot of romance novels are really disappointing in that regard.

(Ugh Dan Brown. Pet peeve of mine.)

Thanks for mentioning the books! I think you told Katie to read them?