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My life has sped up quite a bit in the last few weeks, what with starting working and the long-distance traveling. My reading has reflected that a bit: I went on a splurge of rereading books recently, just because I could..
Books
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger - because I loved the Time Traveller's Wife. This was a good book but I found it dragged on a bit and the characters were a bit too uneven for me. I have to admit, I didn't see the twist coming, though I should have.
Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (reread) - and so begins my rereading.
Night Broken by Patricia Briggs (reread)
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Stolen by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Broken by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Redoubt by Mercedes Lackey (reread)
Bastion by Mercedes Lackey
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (reread)
to be fair, I've also been reading Uncle Tom's Cabin (and am nowhere near finished) off and on, as well as prepping madly for various things.
Movies
Divergent (2014) - I had heard good things about this, and I have read the books and enjoyed them. Sadly, I didn't like any of it: not the casting, not the imagery, not how they adapted it to the screen. Overall disappointment.
2014 RECAP
Much better year for reading, even if a lot of it was light and fluffy. 85 books read in total, one of which was in French (I'll take what I can get) and 8 of which were non-fiction. Traveling always increases my time to read, which is nice.
This year's stand-outs are the following:
* Feed (well, the whole trilogy, really) by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire). Already one of my favorite authors, I hesitated before I picked it up: zombies and horror aren't my thing. But it was Seanan McGuire, after all, and she can make anything good. So I grabbed the first volume to bring on the trip to Greece, based more heavily on the fact that it was a pocket-book I could shove into my bag and carry around than anything else. Except, once I started... I couldn't put it down. I sat in my hotel room in Athens, surrounded by a foreign city, and I had to force myself to put the book down and go outside. Mind-blowing. Simply mind-blowing. I loved every single word, character, and twist. And when I got to the end of the first book, sitting there in a foreign country, all I could think about were the characters, the cliffhanger ending, and how long I would have to wait until I got home and could go buy the second one. I cannot recommend this enough.
* The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - yes, I know. Everyone has read this, gushed about it, marveled at it. Which is precisely why I hadn't read it until now. But a friend had it, so I borrowed it, intrigued. And oh my, this is so good. Just SO GOOD. I haven't seen the movie because I know it can't stand up to it. But the book, oh, the book. Read it.
* Much Ado About Nothing (2012) - I waited so long for this to come out. Joss Whedon promised us Shakespeare and oh, how he delivered. I was stunned how atmospheric just filming in black and white could make it... and I loved watching some of my favorite actors cavort around (particularly Alexis Denisof, though Amy Acker did a fantastic job as well). Admittedly, I probably wouldn't have thought it was that good if I wasn't such a fan of Joss Whedon's Reusable Characters, but there it is.
* Winter's Tale (2014) - another one that took me by surprise. I was vaguely interested in it and noticed that I could watch it on the plane, so I did. I didn't realize it was a fantasy novel. I didn't realize it would be so beautiful. And I loved it.
Books
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger - because I loved the Time Traveller's Wife. This was a good book but I found it dragged on a bit and the characters were a bit too uneven for me. I have to admit, I didn't see the twist coming, though I should have.
Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (reread) - and so begins my rereading.
Night Broken by Patricia Briggs (reread)
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Stolen by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Broken by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong (reread)
Redoubt by Mercedes Lackey (reread)
Bastion by Mercedes Lackey
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (reread)
to be fair, I've also been reading Uncle Tom's Cabin (and am nowhere near finished) off and on, as well as prepping madly for various things.
Movies
Divergent (2014) - I had heard good things about this, and I have read the books and enjoyed them. Sadly, I didn't like any of it: not the casting, not the imagery, not how they adapted it to the screen. Overall disappointment.
2014 RECAP
Much better year for reading, even if a lot of it was light and fluffy. 85 books read in total, one of which was in French (I'll take what I can get) and 8 of which were non-fiction. Traveling always increases my time to read, which is nice.
This year's stand-outs are the following:
* Feed (well, the whole trilogy, really) by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire). Already one of my favorite authors, I hesitated before I picked it up: zombies and horror aren't my thing. But it was Seanan McGuire, after all, and she can make anything good. So I grabbed the first volume to bring on the trip to Greece, based more heavily on the fact that it was a pocket-book I could shove into my bag and carry around than anything else. Except, once I started... I couldn't put it down. I sat in my hotel room in Athens, surrounded by a foreign city, and I had to force myself to put the book down and go outside. Mind-blowing. Simply mind-blowing. I loved every single word, character, and twist. And when I got to the end of the first book, sitting there in a foreign country, all I could think about were the characters, the cliffhanger ending, and how long I would have to wait until I got home and could go buy the second one. I cannot recommend this enough.
* The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - yes, I know. Everyone has read this, gushed about it, marveled at it. Which is precisely why I hadn't read it until now. But a friend had it, so I borrowed it, intrigued. And oh my, this is so good. Just SO GOOD. I haven't seen the movie because I know it can't stand up to it. But the book, oh, the book. Read it.
* Much Ado About Nothing (2012) - I waited so long for this to come out. Joss Whedon promised us Shakespeare and oh, how he delivered. I was stunned how atmospheric just filming in black and white could make it... and I loved watching some of my favorite actors cavort around (particularly Alexis Denisof, though Amy Acker did a fantastic job as well). Admittedly, I probably wouldn't have thought it was that good if I wasn't such a fan of Joss Whedon's Reusable Characters, but there it is.
* Winter's Tale (2014) - another one that took me by surprise. I was vaguely interested in it and noticed that I could watch it on the plane, so I did. I didn't realize it was a fantasy novel. I didn't realize it would be so beautiful. And I loved it.
