Hello Friends,
How's the weekend going? I hope all is well for you guys. So today I decided to hit you with a long overdue Library post. Of course I've not had many books to write on lately, but I've finally managed to read enough to warrant a post. I'll go in more depth about that later. Today's post is themed around people in the tough situations.
Getting Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next Book Two) by Jasper Fforde
So I'm continuing the Thursday Next series now that my digital library provider got book two! We once more go into the alternate 1985 universe of Thursday Next, where extinct things have been brought back to life, airships are common, and time travel and going into your favorite books are possible. Well you can go into your favorite books if you have the skill, or your uncle makes a device to do so. Well Thursday finds herself dealing with old foes and relatives of foes from the first book. It's a mess and their all out to kill her, or at least make her life a living nightmare. You know usual day in the life of a heroine. Well Thursday has had her husband taken from her for ransom, and her father warning that the world is going to end, all of which she's gotta solve.
I love how we get to see the world of books, basically how our favorite classic characters live when their not being read. We have a whole group in charge of keeping the literary world running smoothly. I love how the author breaths life into the written word. There's actually a funny battle between two characters in the real world that takes place in like a black Friday of book sales. I love this world has people who are fanatics of books and/or authors. I mean peoples lifestyle and looks surround their favorites.\Now I know this is a series and you leave some things open to keep the series going, you can do that with a series, but in my mind there was two main problems our character faced that I figured would be solved this book, well one was, but the other wasn't. Plus the end of the book ended with the main character still kinda in the middle of the adventure we've been on this book. I mean like in the first book we had illusions to more minor mysteries that you feel would play bigger parts in future books, but all the main issues for that book were tidied up and given a proper book ending. With this one I felt like this book was just part one of the story we were on.
Another thing we have a minor event that gets brought up off and on in the book, then suddenly during the last fifty pages or so we find out that event is actually a major problem, then next chapter we're fixing it. I just felt like it all just happened too quick. Seems like that background event and the true problem it involved should have been introduced earlier then made part of the mysteries needed to be solved in the book, not tossed at us toward the end of the book after we're getting to were we should be solving the problems that have been in the books already, I mean it's okay to do if it is part of surprise twist and it turns out it's part of one your stories problems all along and didn't know it, but this twist didn't really have anything to do with the problems we've been trying to solve in this book. I mean awesome twist, but I felt like it didn't really do anything to the big events that'd we'd been working on in the story, just this atmospheric event, is that a thing?
But if you love book based literature check this book out. I'll definitely be continuing the series, because I gotta see it she fixes things, and mainly cause it's a great series.
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
I'm not sure how this one ended up on my radar, and I didn't know it was a children's book, well older children's book until I started reading it. It's the story of Mona a 14 year wizard baker who's powers only work with bread products. The story opens with Mona discovering a dead body in the kitchen of her aunt's bakery when she comes in to work one morning. Soon Mona finds herself in a plot to rid her city of all magic people and to overthrow the ruler.
As I mentioned earlier no clue this was a children's book, but it actually proved a good book to get me back into reading. In the latter half of 2020, my attention span due to my anxiety, or we are thinking could be ADD/ADHD, started falling off. I missed my Goodreads goal that year. I started with a goal of thirty then I lowered it to twenty went I saw I was struggling and missed completing by one. Then last year I tried 20 again and only managed five books. So this was a good book to ease me back in to the swing of things and remind me of why I love reading.
This was a really good book. It was Funny, thought provoking. I was making notes of so many great quotes. I definitely recommend this for an older child, or the young at heart. My only thing was the fourteen year old protagonist kept referring to herself as a a child... I could see her saying she's a teenager, but not a kid, I mean what parent hasn't had the being called a kid argument? But that's just me. Though this could be cause they want to keep this aimed at kids. I definitely had some Shrek 2 vibes with the wizard being able to animate bread.
But it was a short sweet read, definitely gave me confidence and hopefully the willpower to try to focus my attention to reading again.
You know how they say the first line should grab your readers? It's very true, especially this book. When I read the first line "Never mix vodka and witchcraft", I knew I was in for a good time with this book. It is the story of Vivi, one of the magical women of the Jones family of Graves Glen, Georgia. Vivi is going through a break up with Rhys Penhallow, a magically gifted man from Wales who's ancestor founded the town and made it a haven for witches, apparently all magical people, men and women, refer to themselves as witches, the term warlock for men is only used by older generations, specifically Rhys's father who refuses to let go of the old ways.
Well, Vivi and her cousin Gwyn the night Vivi breaks up with Rhys, decide to make a vodka induced decision to "hex" the guy. It was never meant to be an actually curse, no real magic, as Gwyn would say, was involved, more like just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to help Vivi feel better. Of course, they'll learn why their matriarch's advice of never mixing magic and vodka is very true, especially when Rhys returns to their town nine years later and they learn how fake drunken spells can lead to magically drunken consequences.
I'm happy to report this book was a good time. It hit all my marks magic, romance, and saving the world, well town. I love the characters, they made me smile as I read it. I couldn't put the book down. I now see why there was a waiting list at the library to get this book. I love magical families who have a long history, like Charmed, Practical Magic, or The Good Witch, this book fulfills that nicely. It also fulfills my love of strong magical women families.
There were great memorable quotes in this book that made me laugh. I always love a good book you want to remember the words from. I'm totally adding this to books to add to my permanent library, because I'll definitely want to revisit it in the future.
I'm So (Not) Over You by Kokoso Jackson
This is the first contemporary romance by the author. The book book follows the escapades of Kian who is approached by his ex of three months Hudson to go to his cousin's wedding. Seem he's neglected to tell his family they'd broken up. Hudson sweetens the deal by offering him a glowing recommendation to a job he recently had been looked over for. What could possibly go wrong.
I had to give this a three on Goodreads. It wasn't like Robin Sloan's Sourdough that was just average and kinda forgettable. It was more of mixed bag of feelings about it. I liked the main character was a fellow North Carolinian, and suffers from similar mental health issues I do. I also loved when his geeky side came out. There was parts of this book that made me laugh so hard I had to tell my mother about it. It also had very humorous and humorously quotable moments.
That being said I don't know why but it was hard to warm up to the characters. I sometimes found that they grated on my nerves for some reason. It was hard to love them, even the ones we're suppose to like, such as the main character. I get having an irritating secondary character, or a villain, but when a good portion of the characters, including the main character has me cringing in annoyance most of the time, yeah hard to really enjoy. Keep in mind though this is just me and how those personality types came of to me when I read. It could be you read them and will find them delightful, so don't pass the book up just because I'm not crazy about the character types.
If you love a gay Romantic Comedy I totally recommend it. It's funny, has a gay leading couple, and a hint of the geeky, we love the geeky here. If that sounds like your thing then give this book a read.
So we came through those tough situations to reach the end. I hope the rest of you weekend is good, read a good book, and God bless.
*Thrifty Geek*
