Tuesday 23 May 2017

Musing Mondays - current reads & where I like to read


Musing Monday, May 22, 2017

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:


  • I’m currently reading…
  • Up next I think I’ll read…
  • I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
  • I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I can’t wait to get a copy of…
  • I wish I could read ___, but…
  • I blogged about ____ this past week…

I’m currently reading…


The Hidden Past (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #3)
by Jude Watson 

When Angie and I were packing up for our weekend of adventure in London on Friday night I decided I wanted to take a book along just in case since my apps were acting up on the airplane ride over. So I raided her bookshelves and saw that she had a 19 book YA series about Obi-Wan Kenobi's life as Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan learner. They're under 200 pages each making them novellas, so I figured I would try and get through as many of them as I can while I am here.

Since they're so short I figured I better take 2 along just in case, so I did I took Rising Force and Dark Rival with me. I ended up finishing Rising Force in the hotel room before bed on Saturday night after our tour of the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio. And then on Sunday on the coach ride back up north, I started and finished, Dark Rival.

This morning I grabbed books 3 (Hidden Past), 4 (Mark of the Crown) and 5 (Defenders of the Dead) off of her shelves and started reading number 3. The goal is still to see how many of the 19 books I can finish before I go home next week:

After Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn are hijacked to the planet Phindar, they find themselves trapped in a world gone mad. The ruling Syndicat controls the people by erasing their memories. The planet's only hope lies with a band of thieving rebels.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are caught in a mind war. And if they're not careful, their own pasts will be wiped out forever.-- via Goodreads


City of the Lost (Casey Duncan #1)
by Kelley Armstrong

Since I finished Dark Rival while we still had about an hour and a half left on the coach (see the video on Angie's Youtube channel for more on that) I decided to give my apps another try and see if any of them would play nice. And the Kobo app did! Which meant I could read some more Kelley Armstrong! I did not read the blurb for this book before I bought it. Armstrong is one of my favourite authors, I have yet to meet one of her books that I didn't enjoy so I bought this one without finding out anything about it. So far that's working out well for me because I was sucked in from minute one. The main character admits that she murdered someone in the first paragraph! It's almost like a Superhero origin story. 

I have of course read the blurb now and I'm really glad I did because it is such an interesting story. This book was originally serialized as 6 volumes in ebook format. The edition I'm reading is new, the first time all the volumes have been published as a single novel. I have to admit I was kind of ignoring this book when it had been released as volumes and I am glad I did that because I wouldn't have enjoyed waiting in between volumes at all. It's hard enough to wait for sequels to get published!

Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again.

Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want: She's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.

-- via Goodreads

        THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What is your favorite place to read in?


I really don't have a "favourite" place to read. I am an equal opportunity reader. I will read anything, anytime, anywhere. Preferably somewhere comfortable obviously. Most of the time I read sitting at my computer while I talk to Angie. But I also enjoy curling up on the couch, or laying stretched out on my stomach on either the floor or my bed to read. I'll read in a moving vehicle (as a passenger only obviously haha), or listen to an audio book while working away at something else. I used to read in class, I vividly remember one time in grade 8, the final year of Primary school in Canada, I was in French class and I was really into the novel that I was reading, so since I was in the back row I pulled it out and started reading it during the lesson. Well I must have been totally and completely absorbed because the next thing I know all my clasmates are looking at me, some are snickering, and my very intimidating french teacher is looking at me sternly. I'd been caught, and apparently she'd been trying to get my attention for 5 minutes to answer a question. Needless to say she took my book away from me, which meant I had to get ahold of another copy in order to finish my book report.


Tuesday 16 May 2017

Musing Mondays - up next on my reading list & travel reading


Musing Monday, May 15, 2017

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:


  • I’m currently reading…
  • Up next I think I’ll read…
  • I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
  • I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I can’t wait to get a copy of…
  • I wish I could read ___, but…
  • I blogged about ____ this past week…

Up next I think I’ll read…


Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir (Star Wars Disney Canon Graphic Novel)
by Jeremy Barlow & Juan Frigeri 

I got an unexpected email last night, a holds notification from the Kitchener Public Library. I had a hold available for pickup, this book. Until I saw that I had totally forgotten that the week I was off sick last month I put a hold on this after watching the Darth Maul arc in Star Wars Clone Wars. It's a good thing it came in yesterday and not later this week or I wouldn't have been able to get it.

Thankfully though it's short enough that I can most definitely get through it before I leave on my trip on Wednesday and then while I am away my mum can take it back for me. It's not due back until June 6, and I'll be back before that, but I'd still much prefer to read it before I go.

So this book is based on the uncompleted Darth Maul story arc on teh Disney cartoon Star Wars Clone Wars, which is fantastic, if you like Star Wars I highly recommend it. All 6 seasons are on Netflix if you subscribe. I'm still working my way through the last season, which is called the Lost Missions. Apparently if the show had gotten a full 6th season this story would have been resolved on screen, I'm glad they chose to finish it out as a comic because it's a really compelling story arc. I tried to see if I could buy it at first because I would love to own it, but it was impossible to find when I looked, so it must have gone out of print. Maybe I'll try at a comic shop, that was the one place I didn't try. Any way I searched every library around and finally found it at the KPL, it was checked out so I put my hold on it and waited, and now I am rewarded for my waiting:

Getting cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi and being rejected by his former Sith master Darth Sidious isn't going to defeat Darth Maul. In fact, it only makes him mad enough to take on the galaxy--with an army of Mandalorians!

After forming the Shadow Collective--a criminal organization composed of the Hutts, Black Sun, the Mandalorians, and the fearsome Nightbrothers--Maul wages war against Darth Sidious and his generals, Count Dooku and General Grievous! 

Adapted from unproduced screenplays for Season 6 of The Clone Wars television show, this is the final chapter planned for Darth Maul's saga!-- via Goodreads

        THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: How do you review your books? Do you review them right away as soon as you finish reading them? Or do you let them wait a bit and do you ever fall behind? We already did that one recently I remember so I will substitute one of my own: How do you read when you travel?


My question is more pertinent to my current situation since I will be travelling to England on Wednesday night to spend two weeks with Angie. We're both mega excited for it. For this trip, I am changing up my reading habits from past trips that I have taken. In the past, I always just stuffed my suitcase, carry-on and messenger bag with as many books as I thought I would get through on the holiday - usually between 3-6 depending on the length of them. But I would inevitably never get through them all due to being busy, which meant they'd just have taken up valuable real estate and added unnecessary weight. This is especially true because without fail I always end up coming home with at least 1 more book than I left with. Even when Angie and I went to Disney with my mum last year, I came home with like 5 books that I didn't have when I left. It's just the way I work.

So like I said, for this trip to see Angie, I am changing it up. I am not taking any physical books. I am going to get by solely on audio books and ebooks. Between audio book apps and ebook apps, I have 6 reading apps on my phone. On the flights I plan to listen to audio books, I can probably get through 2 shorter ones or one longer one because I listen to them at 2x speed, and play video games on my DS and tablet. Then if I want to read at any point while I'm at Angie's (I usually read for a bit in the mornings because I am usually up before her) I will read the many ebooks in my Kobo and Kindle apps. The only thing I'll miss is graphic novels but if I want a fix, I'll just reread the Questionable Content archive again haha.


Sunday 14 May 2017

I'll Be There For You - A look Back at F.R.I.E.N.D.S



Three boys, three girls, New York City, a coffee shop and lots of laughs.  F.R.I.E.N.D.S was a huge phenomenon in so many countries.  I always seem to remember a time when it was on, even now it’s constantly on repeat and it’s nice sometimes to just turn on the tv and catch a random episode.  It’s like coming home to family, remembering the crazy antics of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Ross (David Schwimmer), Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler (Matthew Perry).


Everyone had their favourite Friend, the one they either related to or just found the funniest.  I always considered Chandler to be my favourite, his one liners were legendary and he always found something funny to say or in some cases it was funnier when he didn’t say anything, just because you expected him to.  However once I watched every episode (yes I have the box set and yes I watch it from start to finish) I found myself with a new favourite Friend.  For me, Chandler became less funny once he started dating Monica and eventually got married. He still had his one liners but he grew up, he became normal, or as normal as one can be living with Monica.  I still have a soft spot for early seasons Chandler but my favourite Friend has to be Joey Tribbiani.  He’s the struggling actor, the womaniser, the food fanatic.  He comes up with so many madcap ideas that you just have to love him for it.  He was kind and caring towards the others, he was always there for them in a tight spot, and although he was less intelligent than his peers, he knew the important stuff. His character remained pretty steady throughout the whole ten series, the only time he ever changed was when he fell in love with Rachel and even then I wanted that relationship to happen, they were just so sweet together.  


The other four characters whilst all funny in their own way just have flaws that drive me crazy.  Rachel is too self centred, but she does mature as the series go on especially when she becomes a mother but even then it’s all about her and her baby.  Phoebe is just crazy, I mean it’s funny to start with but after a while she kind of gets on your nerves.   Monica, she’s probably my least favourite character, her funniest scenes are the flashbacks when she was a fat high school girl.  Ross is better when he’s not in a relationship.  Whether it’s Rachel, Emily, Elizabeth, Mona or Charlie, he’s just annoying. He is a good character however when he’s just Ross, not Ross and whoever.


The series featured many locations but the primary locations were Monica’s apartment, which became the meeting place for most of them, Joey’s apartment across the hall which all six characters lived in at some point during the series. The other primary location is Central Perk, the local coffee shop where they all hang out and somehow seem to snag the main couch more often than not.  In fact it’s even highlighted as a joke when they all walk in chatting away then see another group of people all sitting there so they turn and walk out again.  There are other locations, we do see Ross’ apartment regularly either his first apartment after his divorce from Carole, or after he moved into Ugly Naked Guy’s apartment across the street from Monica’s building.  We also see Phoebe’s apartment occasionally especially after Rachel moves in following Chandler moving in with Monica.

Apart from the main cast of six, there are notable recurring character such as Carole (Ross’ ex wife) and Susan (her new wife), Jack and Judy Geller (Ross and Monica’s parents), Janice (Chandler’s most annoying ex girlfriend), David (Phoebe’s scientist boyfriend), Richard (Monica’s most serious relationship before Chandler), Mike (Phoebe’s boyfriend and then husband) and Gunther (the manager of Central Perk).


Tuesday 9 May 2017

Musing Mondays - Lords of the Underworld & reading while sick


Musing Monday, May 1, 2017

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:


  • I’m currently reading…
  • Up next I think I’ll read…
  • I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
  • I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I can’t wait to get a copy of…
  • I wish I could read ___, but…
  • I blogged about ____ this past week…

I’m currently reading…


The Darkest Torment (Lords of the Underworld #12)
by Gena Showalter

I've been waiting to get my hands on this since it was first announced in 2015. So why am I only getting to it now? Well first, I had to wait for it to get released in paperback which took absolute ages after it was first released. And then I made the mistake of reading the blurb on Goodreads and became very unsure because of the female protagonist.

See, I've been daydreaming up my own story for Baden since I first read the fourth book, The Darkest Whisper back in 2013. My story that I'd written in my head was massive and super involved and evolved with each subsequent book I read in the series. In other words I had a mental fanfic going, that maybe I will actually commit to writing one day haha. Needless to say - I like the story I had in mind for Baden and I was now a little wary of seeing his actually story after having built my own up so much. Oh the life of a fangirl haha. But I did finally buy the book at some point, and then for the last couple of weeks it's just been calling to me from the shelves to finally read it. I had to wait until I'd worked my way through The Gunseller though so I wouldn't feel guilty about setting it aside a second time. I did finish it on the weekend, so then I immediately picked up Darkest Torment.

I'm up to page 152 as of this morning. Here's the summary:

Can Beauty tame her Beast? 

Driven to his death by the demon of Distrust, Baden spent centuries in purgatory. Now he's back, but at what cost? Bound to the king of the underworld, an even darker force, he's unable to withstand the touch of another and he's quickly devolving into a heartless assassin with an uncontrollable temper. Things only get worse when a mission goes awry and he finds himself saddled with a bride just not his own.

Famed dog trainer Katarina Joelle is forced to marry a monster to protect her loved ones. When she's taken hostage by the ruthless, beautiful Baden immediately after the ceremony, she's plunged into a war between two evilswith a protector more dangerous than the monsters he hunts. They are meant to be enemies, but neither can resist the passion burning between them and all too soon the biggest threat is to her heart.

But as Baden slips deeper into the abyss, she'll have to teach him to love or lose him forever.-- via Goodreads

So far, I am still not 100% sold on Katarina as Baden's love interest but she is growing on me a little. I still absolutely adore Baden though, and not just because he's a redhead even though redheads are totally my weakness. He's probably the most complex and even most sympathetic of Showalter's Lords, which is saying something because they have ALL been complex and sympathetic so far.

        THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you like to read when you are feeling under the weather?


 I was just sick in mid April there. Super-duper sick. Like off work for a a week, drag myself into the doctor to get meds, couldn't breathe properly, actually went back to bed in the mornings sick. I got hit very, very hard with a nasty sinus infection. It made my nose become about 99% non-functional for a week, and it took about 2 weeks before the pressure finally cleared from my ears. During this time I was trying to read The Gunseller because I had it on loan from the library, but I found it near next to impossible to concentrate on reading due to my lack of being able to breathe properly. I wanted very much to be reading though because reading does help me feel better. That was why I ended up picking up Stardust finally/ I love to read while I'm sick but when I'm as ill as I was a few weeks ago what helps is reading something where I don't have to focus/think as much/hard. Stardust fit the bill because it's short, simple, and I was already familiar with the story because Angie and I watched the film together during one of my previous visits. What I mostly did during those sick days though was plow my way through 5 out of 6 seasons of Star Wars Clone Wars on Netflix.


Saturday 6 May 2017

#Review - The Handmaid's Tale (Audible original, special edition) - audiobook narrated Claire Danes

The Handmaid's Tale


Author: Margaret Atwood
Edition: Audible Original, special edition
Narrator: Claire Danes
Publisher: Audible Studios
Published: April 4, 2017 (book originally published 1985)
Runtime: 12 hours and 12 minutes
Genres: science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopian fiction, feminist fiction
Awards: Man Booker Prize Nominee (1986), Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (1986), Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel (1987), Audie Award for Fiction (2013), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (1986), Prometheus Award Nominee for Best Novel (1987), Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général for Fiction (1985), Commonwealth Writers' Prize Nominee for Best Book in Caribbean and Canada (1987), CBC Canada Reads Nominee (2002)
Date read: Friday, May 4, 2017
Number of times read: 1


Summary

"Are there any questions?" The final line in Margaret Atwood's modern classic, The Handmaid's Tale, has teased and perplexed fans since the book's original release more than 30 years ago. Now, in this Audible Original production, listeners get some of the answers they've waited so long to hear.

Featuring an all-new interview with Professor Piexoto, written by Atwood and performed by a full cast, The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition is a must-listen for both fans and newcomers alike. Emmy Award winner Claire Danes (Homeland, Temple Grandin) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, where the message (and the warning) is now more timely than ever. In addition to rich sound design that honors the audio origins of Atwood's classic, the special edition also includes a brand-new afterword from the author and an introduction written by author Valerie Martin (Mary Reilly, Property).

After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name. Despite the danger, Offred learns to navigate the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life for mere glimpses of her former freedom, and records her story for future listeners.

Whether you're a fan of the original novel or someone who has recently discovered it, The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition will shock, impress, and satisfy all those who listen. -- via Goodreads

Review


I have been wanting to read this book for about 2 decades. Seriously, since I was about 15/16 when people I knew were assigned it in high school English classes. See, being Canadian, getting assigned a Margaret Atwood novel in high school English, at least when I was growing up, was somewhat mandatory, but our teachers had a choice of which one they assigned us. Most people I knew were assigned either Alias Grace, The Handmaid's Tale or Cat's Eye. All of which I had heard of before, my class, however, got assigned one I had never heard of: The Robber Bride. It was interesting and engaging, especially being set in Toronto, which is where I went to high school. But we were teenagers and the main character were all middle-aged women, so it wasn't a book I could relate to at the time. Plus it wasn't my usual genre, it was contemporary fiction, which isn't something I often select by choice. So those two things combined to put me mentally off Margaret Atwood for a few decades. Even though I liked it I wasn't sure I wanted to read more of her.

But my mind had always kept coming back to her stuff, specifically The Handmaid's Tale. So last year I saw that the library I work at had one copy that was in, so I snagged it and brought it home where it has been sitting on a shelf for about the last six month. I flipped through the first few pages, wasn't sure about the style of the writing, and set it aside again. But after reading, and loving, The Penelopiad and Angel Catbird v.1 I started thinking about it again. Then the hype for the new Hulu tv adaptation really started in earnest and I couldn't stop thinking about it. And then I heard about the Claire Danes narrated audiobook and decided that since I like Claire Danes - I may as well try listening to the book instead of reading the physical copy. So I used my April audible credit to get it.

I am SO glad that I made the decision to read this book in the audiobook format - especially this particular edition of it. Once I started listening, I kind of had a hard time stopping, which is why I listening to the entire thing in one day. Caveat, when I listen to audiobooks I listen to them at 2x-2.5x speed (in this case 2x) because I find the narration way too slow at anything less. In the case of this book, I actually think listening to it at double speed really added another layer of complexity to the story. It's revealed in the historical notes section at the end of the novel that the story came to light in the form of tape recordings found in a chest after the fall of Gilead. To me then, listening to the story, and listing to it at the furtive almost frantic double speed, makes it feel authentic in that context.

This book is terrifying - especially now, in 2017 after the election of Trump. It's terrifying because it's so eerily possible like things that happen in this book are actually happening in the States right now and that's heartbreaking. That's one of the aspects of dystopian fiction that has always fascinated me, seeing what parts of the dystopia I can see in the world around me. But The Handmaid's Tale is almost too on the nose which is what makes it scary. But also what makes it an amazingly good novel. The new Afterword by Margaret Atwood that is included with this edition does a much better job of talking about that than I could. She discusses the context in which she wrote the book compared to now, and why the book is so timeless, but so incredibly relevant and important right now.

If you've never read The Handmaid's Tale before now really is the time. If you have, you should consider doing it again. I wholeheartedly recommend this edition to first-time readers and re-readers.


Overall Rating


5 bolts

Tuesday 2 May 2017

Musing Mondays - Nelvana of the Northern Lights & fiction vs. non-fiction


Musing Monday, May 1, 2017

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:


  • I’m currently reading…
  • Up next I think I’ll read…
  • I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
  • I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
  • I can’t wait to get a copy of…
  • I wish I could read ___, but…
  • I blogged about ____ this past week…

I’m currently reading…


Nelvana of the Northern Lights
by Adrian Dingle, Hope Nicholson (editor), Rachel Richey (editor)

This is yet another book that I came across while perusing the comic/graphic novel/manga collection at the library where I work. I've probably been sitting on the book for about a year. I have term loan privileges at work, so if something catches my eye I check it out and bring it home and then just kind of horde it until I get around to reading it on my own, or until someone puts a recall on it and I get spurred on my having to read it before it's due back.

It caught my attention for a few obvious reasons. First being that it's a superhero comic, I love superhero comics! Secondly because not only is it a superhero, it's a CANADIAN superhero which is just rare enough to ALWAYS be exciting. And lastly because I had never, ever, heard about it before and the best way to find out more is by reading it!

I decided to start reading it this weekend in particular because I got on a bit of a comic kick again. I'm still trying to get through The Gunseller, which I've ended up having to renew because I had no brain capacity to read it the week I was sick, but it's going slowly because while I like it, I don't like it enough to not let myself be distracted by other things. So I'm being distracted by other books, but I don't want to commit to a second novel at the moment. Enter me trying to renew all my books from work on Friday and finding out that I couldn't renew Guy DeLilisle's Jerusalem because someone had placed a hold on it. That meant I had until May 15th to read and return it. So I decided to just read it this weekend. On Friday night I finished DeLilisle's Shenzen which I had started on the previous Sunday and then left sitting on my desk all week. Then on Saturday, I spent most of the morning, and a bit of the afternoon starting and finishing Jerusalem (which is, REALLY good!). After that, I decided since I was on a role I might as well finally finish off the last volume of Akira so that I could finally take it back to work too (that one ended weirdly to me...). Once I hit that point I just decided to turn the whole weekend into a comics weekend again and grabbed Nelvana off the shelf where I keep my library books:

Nelvana of the Northern Lights returns from the lost pages of Adrian Dingle's Triumph Comics! Nelvana was one of the world's very first superheroines, predating Wonder Woman by several months, and is among the ranks of the first Canadian superheroes to emerge after Canada placed an embargo on US luxury goods during WWII. First appearing in 1941, Nelvana was tasked with protecting Canada's northern lands. Using the powers of the northern lights, Nelvana could fly at incredibly fast speeds, become invisible, and even turn into dry ice! She used her great powers to ward off Nazi invaders, shady fur traders, subterranean mammoth men, and interdimensional ether people. For the first time since her story ended in 1947, Nelvana's complete adventures have been collected and reprinted in one single volume, with over 320-pages of artwork by her creator Adrian Dingle. Also featured is an Introduction by editors Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey, and a Foreword/Afterword by Dr. Benjamin Woo and Michael Hirsh.-- via Goodreads
So far, at the time of pre-writing this part on Sunday morning, I've read the editors introductions and the foreword, and those three things have got me primed and excited to read the actual comics!

        THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?


Fiction, oh gods fiction. I have always preferred fiction to non-fiction. Especially genre fiction. I've always had a hard time getting into non-fiction. Some notable exceptions to that are trivia books and collections short anecdotes/cases like this one book floating around my house with profiles of evil dictators. I keep saying I'm going to try and get into more non-fiction but every time I try it doesn't work. Lately, though I have discovered one area of non-fiction that I do enjoy: graphic novel memoirs. I've read most of Guy DeLilisle's and also Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.


Monday 1 May 2017

Calendar Girls - May 2017 - best sequel - #CalendarGirlsBooks




Calendar Girls is hosted by bloggers, Flavia the Bibliophile and Melanie Noell Bernard – both have amazing blogs full of fun, bookish posts. Calendar Girls is a brand new monthly blog event inspired by Neil Sedaka’s 1961 song Calendar Girl. Just like in the song, we decided to use a specific theme for each month and choose a book based on these themes! The event is meant to incite discussions with other bloggers about books we’ve read and loved, is meant to help bloggers meet other bloggers, and also for bloggers and readers to find out about blogs which they normally may not have come across! Want to know more? Click on the links above! And it’s not too late to jump on the Calendar Girl train! Join now!


Best sequel


When the found out that this month's category was the best sequel I got a little overwhelmed. Most of what I read is series - which means I read A LOT of sequels and sequels to sequels. Which means a lot of choices. I'm never sure how to choose when I have such an abundance of choices. My contrariness always makes me want to pick something that I don't think anyone else is going to pick. So I thought to myself, okay let's try and find a way to narrow down the options. What is the actual definition of a sequel? Can it be ANY book in a series or does it have to be the second book specifically? After crapping out with a dictionary of literary terms - which I had been sure would have a definition of sequel, but didn't - I turned to dictionary.com to see what it would tell me. Here's the definition that pertained most directly to literature:

A narrative or dramatic work complete in itself but designed to follow an earlier one. Through the Looking-Glass is a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. -- via The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition

That is a great definition, but it doesn't at all help narrow down my choices. Although it does make it clear that It's more correct to say, for example, Specials is the direct sequel to Pretties and a subsequent sequel to Uglies rather than just Specials is a sequel to Uglies. Sure, they're part of the same series, and Specials does follow the story of Uglies, but it was designed to follow directly the storyline that takes place in Pretties.

Now, after all that let's see which sequel I chose: