A story aimed at children, focusing on living life at a normal pace and not trying to grow up too fast.

I read Howl back in college and didn't like Ginsberg's work or Beat poetry in general, but studying them further and disconnecting the meaning from the shocking and raunchy poems, I really like them. A lot of them are unfortunately still relevant today. the various poems are about: the government's mistreatment of the working class, anti-consumerism, and anti-war.

So far I liked this one the most, it felt like it took a page out of Tolkien's Hobbit. There was a grand-scale adventure with an end goal in mind and the adventure felt natural rather than “we have to do this because the plot demands it“. This would have been a solid 4-star hands down, except for the sexism that came out of left field at the moment.

“The school was bad because a woman was in charge, by the way“ isn't exactly a gotcha.

I didn't particularly like or hate this one. This had the skeleton of a good nautical story in there but a lot of it felt unpolished. Lewis drew from Homeric influences as well as Norse and Irish mythology and folklore, so that was interesting.

I have to keep telling myself that this is children's lit, and not judge the lack of... everything too harshly, but then The Hobbit exists. but I digress. It just doesn't have that “ummph“ moment.

The soft void creature is overseeing my work #catsoflitsy

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧Lud in the Mist
🎧Rise of the King
🎧Dawn Treader

Progress:
Really needed to catch up on my reading goal so I started the Narnia books and have been getting through one of them a day. Hoping to finish Dawn Treader later today. Lud has been a delight to read through and i'll get back to Drizzt novels after Narnia in a few days. Will probably finish all of the remaining Narnia books this upcoming week.

I was really hoping I would like this one, but it was really disappointing. It started off strong but it kind of fell apart in the middle, and then Aslan was doing some weird stuff towards the end that no one bothers to explain.

The plot of the whole book is so gross. What do you mean the rightful king of Narnia has to be human, despite every creature being sentient? What do you mean those who are nonbelievers are 'relocated' ???

Aside from the blatant racism and an array of problematic things, this was a neat little story. The horses were so sassy and proud, and it was a bit amusing.

I think an unintentionally funny sentence was “And then they get married but not to each other“ and Lewis made it sound like Cor and Aravis got married only to quarrel more easily with each other. not gonna lie both got a snort out of me.

I just started this and boy oh boy has this aged poorly...

The religious allegories were a little bit more toned down in this one, but it still suffers from antagonists lacking any real motivation.

what kills me is sentences like “Battles are ugly when women fight“ as if women haven't been serving in the military alongside men. Men feeling like women beat them at anything (including war) is a whole different can of worms and has been around for longer than this book.

I told myself I would never read these books, but here I am. The story was simple and to the point. While there is nothing wrong with Christian values, this book feels like it wants you to blindly follow and trust in those values, without questioning, and that's where the problem stems from.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧Lud in the Mist
🎧Rise of the King

Progress:
Glad I got back to the Drizzt novels, maybe I can finally catch up by next year. Been making slow but steady progress with Lud in the Mist. I am really loving it. I might pick another short audiobook between those two, but we shall see.

I was finally in the mood to start these again. I think at this point I've made peace with the fact that I only really read these for the B plot with the dark elves, and to see what my favorite assassin is up to and his character development through the series. if it were not for those things I would not bother with this series at all. When Salvator wants to be good, he is SO good, but most of these books feel like mediocre shlock.

Technically not a book but I do love rewatching this little gem annually.

I'm not too far into this, but I found it a bit hard to follow, so I've been annotating it, and taking notes on it. Found a nice Reddit thread and taking my time with the text. It's helped a lot.

It's almost the end of the month, so it's time for another installment of my #2024bookbracket. I accomplished a lot more reading in October compared to September. Both Sep/Oct were tough to compare as well as the bonuses as they are completely different books but I managed to make my picks with careful consideration.

Only two more months!

(the template is by @/CSeydel)

#bookbracket2024
#ReadingBracket2024
#TopRead2024

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧Lud in the Mist

Progress:
last week was pretty productive, even if I wasn't feeling my best. Finished my #Victober read, Haunted House, and my palette cleanser; The Little Prince. Looking forward to hopping into Lud in the Mist, I'm quite fascinated by pre-tolkien fantasy novels.

The title felt like a bait and switch, which was a letdown. It wasn't so much of a haunted house story (Hill House/The Woman in Black) but more of a possessed doll story (Chucky/Annabelle/Robert the Doll), with a hint of generational trauma and healing themes.

The main characters bickered like children for a lot of the book which also irritated me. At first, I only found one of them insufferable but quickly the other joined into that category.

Read this delightful work as a palette cleanser. I really enjoy children's books that treat their audience with dignity, maturity, and respect.

My last #victober read is pretty underwhelming, unfortunately.

This book felt a bit too drawn out for the amount of plot it contained. It opens up an interesting conversation about abuse and abused women and their reasoning for going back to their abusers. Although I can sympathize with Helen, I also think she shouldn't have gone back to take care of her abuser and still be abused by him because “maybe he'll redeem himself in the end“

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧How to Sell a Haunted House
🎧The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Progress:
I have mostly been focusing on my #victober read, and thus I did not finish anything last week. Will definitely finish the tagged book this upcoming week and resume HTSAHH

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧How to Sell a Haunted House
🎧The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Progress:
I finished two books last week. Will continue onto my 3rd #victober pick, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it before the month ends. I have also been making my way through HTSAHH and I'm having mixed feelings about it, definitely not what I expected it to be.

The format of this novel was very different from the other Gaskell works I've read and am used to. It isn't very stimulating to read. The book isn't plot or character-driven but is formatted as vaguely connected vignettes.

There's always something about these types of “expedition gone wrong“ stories that's sadly fascinating to me. They are so tragic and hopeless, but the indomitable human spirit really shines through. I enjoyed most of the book, though I am not a fan of racial slurs being used, even if it's “accurate“

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧The Terror
🎧Cranford

Progress:
Last week has been a bit chaotic so I haven't finished The Terror like I initially planned, but hopefully this week it will be finished. Picked up Cranford and it has been delightful but a bit uneventful so far.

My second #Victober read, probably gonna stretch this out to a chapter a day.

The first #Victober read of the year is done. I honestly had no memory of this but it is a nice little short story/novella. Very simple story that is probably inspired by Frankenstein in some aspects.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧The Terror

Progress:
I put down WFTD and AK because I just cannot find the time to sit down and read. Will come back to them at some point in the near future. I have been listening to The Terror and I might finish it this upcoming week, on top of my #victober read.

I'm so excited for #Victober this year, and I think I'll start with the tagged

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧The Terror
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:
I finished two novels last week (plus a short story) and I'm pretty happy with that. I plan to do reading sprints with one of the detective books (I have just been too preoccupied with other things to really make time for physical books) I will try to get some reading done either way.

I haven't read a lot of true crime, but this particular Angela Carter short story is fascinating in terms of the negligence and incompetence of the justice system.

Thank you for tagging me! #wondrouswednesday

1. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - spooky and haunting, I find myself thinking back to it often.

2. Functionally I enjoy audiobooks most, they help me get so much done. But also I like all forms.

3. I think that might be classic lit. But fantasy is a close second.

Might be in the minority here but I really loved this!

This was a very interesting read. It is one of the few pieces of literature in which the ambiguity adds to the experience and atmosphere rather than hinders the narrative. The prose was very beautiful, although I think a lot of people might find it too “wordy“ Overall it was a solid ghost story with hints of feminism. Definitely a classic for a reason.

This was such an interesting read. The Targaryens are such a fascinating house, the illustrations in this are also quite lovely. I don't really know what to say except I am looking forward to Blood and Fire and to learning about more of this wild, dysfunctional family and its history.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:
Not a very eventful reading week, but I am very close to finishing F&B, so possibly I will finish it this week. After that, I will hopefully be able to focus on the two detective books.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:

Didn't listen to a lot of F&B last week due to the construction noise of our roof, but I did manage to finish one book. I hope to jump back into F&B this week.

Definitely an interesting read, but like Jackson's other work seems to be that I've read, it's very bare bones in terms of plot, even for a short book. I feel as if it gave us a bit more it would have been far more interesting. What I mean is instead of developing the plot points, the author leaves them as statements. The atmosphere was chilling and the character study was fascinating. I found myself wanting to read it more.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:

I Didn't read at all last week due to headaches and eye strain, but I am feeling better this week and jumping back into F&B

I'm almost 500 pages in and things are growing more and more chaotic. I knew a civil war was breaking out and it affecting the smallfolk greatly but I didn't expect it to get so messy. 😅 I'm sure it will get far far worse though.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:

Almost forgot to post this week.

I Finished both of the Michelle Paver books. Dark Matter was far better than Thin Air but they were both enjoyable enough. Been making very good progress with F&B though I am trying to pace myself a bit to not finish it in a few days.

It has been two months so it's time to post the new installment of my #2024bookbracket. I read a lot more in August than I did in July but I still struggled a bit to decide which one is my top read for August. Looking forward to seeing what I pick for September.

(the template is by @/CSeydel)

#bookbracket2024
#ReadingBracket2024
#TopRead2024

The setting was interesting, though this was a bit less character driver than Dark Matter was. I can't say the characters were completely flat but they felt a bit more trope-y than the other book.

My main gripe with it is that a lot of the plot was copy-pasted from Dark Matter and followed the exact same story structure. You can literally draw direct parallels from both, it's a bit too on the nose if you read both.

overall it was good, though.

I'm gonna finish this tomorrow. I'm really liking it so far but some plot elements feel directly copy-pasted from Dark Matter which is a bit disappointing.

I think I tried to pick this up years ago, but didn't get into it. I now finished it in two days.

I really enjoyed how atmospheric it was and the profound feeling of loneliness persisted so well when I got deeper into the book. It definitely echoes Man vs Nature with a sprinkling of Man vs. Himself. In essence, it is a story of survival and perseverance.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead
🎧 Thin Air & Dark Matter

Progress:

I didn't finish anything this week but I am sure that I will finish both of the Michelle Paver books as they are on the short end of things. Made good progress with F&B, I need to stop being tired in order to read the physical books.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:
last week was super productive in terms of books I've finished. 4 anthologies and Project Hail Mary was a delight. I moved on to Fire & Blood, but I still need to pick something lighter to listen to between F&B and detective fiction. Hoping next week will be similarly productive.

These were really interesting. This one included some sketches as well.

These are getting harder to find, but I am really enjoying the variety in these complications.