7. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Completely forgot to post this yesterday when I finished it. Finally managed to find some time to knock this book out. The first official novel of the series was just like the short stories a.k.a. fantastic. I'm super excited for the second book. I'm not sure when I'll get to it, but hopefully, I'll be able to start it sooner rather than later.

8. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

My first big leap into African literature and what an enjoyable leap. For a while, it feels like nothing is happening in this novel, but it's still enjoyable during those moments. Then once something happens, the ball keeps rolling and rolling. I understand why this is such a pinnacle of African literature and just plain old literature. Apparently, this is a trilogy, so maybe I'll work on reading the other two books later this year.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Pretty good; funny in the way most Terry Pratchett books are and probably sharing qualities with Neil Gaiman's other work only I haven't read any. I've read enough of the former that a few of the trappings felt a little too familiar but it is what it is I guess

Also an 18,000-word collection of Azumanga Daioh fanfiction called Azumanga Anonymous. It was alright.

Finished 7th book The Midnight Girls - Alicia Jasinska

Really loved this book. Fantasy based kind of on Polish history and myth. Two narrators. Had a hard time putting it down, each chapter flowed well into the next.

I remember my brother had that as assigned reading back when we were in Nigeria. It was a great book, according to him. I had to leave before I could get it as well but I feel like I really should get around to reading it one day.

Did I completely forget to join this year or what? I guess if possible, mark me down for 6 books this year

Just got done with reading Animal Farm. My challenge was to finish it in a day, and that I did. I start at 5 pm and ended at 11 pm. It was like a slope that gets steeper and steeper as you go fall father and faster down. It kept me entertained all throughout and I rather enjoyed the symbolism of different political parties and dictators through the imagination of animals. Benjamin the Donkey was a mood.

7. The Coming of The Fairies – So Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories, which are still popular. However, in his later years, Doyle heavily believed in the supernatural and the paranormal. Specifically, he believed in the Cottingley Fairies and refused to believe that they were a hoax made up by some kids. In his not-a-joke published notes on fairies, he calmly explains why these fairies are real, how the photos are not manipulated, and why adults simply cannot see them. Doyle also has letters from experts and trusted individuals to claim the photos were valid and that fairy folk are real if hidden. If this was a fictional book, it could have been a funny satire on cryptozoologists and their obsession with nonexistent animals. But this is a very sincere book written by a duped crime fiction writer. It's bizarre.

8. Nettle & Bone – Winner of Hugo Award for Best Novel. It is a dark fairy tale about a former princess trying to assemble any kind of magical aid to help her sister, who is married to a wicked prince. It is well written, and I did like how the eventual team connected despite their paths in life. Which is summed up in this one line, “I’m surrounded by lunatics, and I love them all.”

9. All The President's Men – Nonfiction work about the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Nixon, which all started when reporters investigated how the burglars were paid and where the money came from, which led to reports of how Nixon allies committed political sabotage and unethical conduct during the 1972 election, as well as how it relates to other scandals that happened during the Nixon years.

The 50th Anniversary edition also includes an opening essay that compares President Nixon’s attempt to disrupt the 1972 election with the attempt made by President Trump in the 2020 election, noting that Nixon was more discrete while Trump was more open.

I remember the Cottingley Fairies from a past issue of this photography magazine I subscribed to back in college.Cryptozoology is a fascinating rabbit hole dive even on unplanned expeditions.

15) Simply Knitting Issue 248

I wasn't planning on reading another crafting book thanks to the unexpected additions of surprise projects but the cover caught my attention. This issue surprised me because there were interesting tidbits included that were engaging reads. As an added bonus, I encountered a project (striped cardigan) that even noob-knitting me can do.

In fact, I've already started working on it but I'm doing the solid color version as the striped version is beyond my patience level. I'm slowly but surely working on the back panel.

Took a light break from reading this month but might get something in by the 29th if not sooner.

So fun story, I finally gave audiobooks a try. Turns out adding story time to my existing commute is a great way of multitasking. Now I'm 5 books up.

It seemed like a good opportunity to get some of the traditional classics off my list, so you'll be seeing many of the "should have read in school" books coming (in part because they're included in Audible for no extra cost):

Mike Madden - Fire Strike (physical)

John Steinbeck - The Moon is Down

Viktor Frankl - Man's Search for Meaning

Neil Gaiman - Coraline

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

7: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Finished this audiobook. It was definitely something. It's very self serious and they chose a Scottish narrator so to me it felt like highlander on Mars. But it was more like a darker, more violent, and serious Hunger Games. Anyway the spousal unit liked it so we've queued up the next in the series.

A Hat full of sky by Terry Pratchett

The Last Laugh by Michelle Dorey

Exile by B.V. Larson

The Haunting of Lakespur Farm by Michelle Dorey

The chronicles of Conan Part 1/4 by Robert E Howard ( it was a little over 10 Hours)

Covert Manipulation by Robert Leury

The Ajax Protocol by Alex Lukeman

Living in the Heart by Drunvalo Melchizedek

Currently Going over

Animal Farm by George Orwell ,read by Steve Parker

Factotum by Charles Bukowski

Done reading these books:

11. The Lies We Tell – Niemand ist ohne Schuld (The Lies We Tell), Jane Corry, 528 pages

12. Die Mitternachtsbibliothek (The Midnight Library), Matt Haig, 320 pages

13. Die erlösende Klinge (Redemption's Blade), Adrian Tchaikovsky, 416 pages

14. Der Donnerstagsmordclub oder Ein Teufel stirbt immer zuletzt (The Thursday Murder Club 4 - The Last Devil To Die), Richard Osman, 432 pages

15. Erinnerungen aus der Sackgasse (Dead-End Memories), Banana Yoshimoto, 288 pages

16. Todesglut, Cathrin Moeller, 528 pages

17. Kleine Dinge wie diese (Small Things Like These), Claire Keegan, 112 pages

The Lies We Tell:

Sarah and Tom both carry heavy baggage from their lifes before they met. Though their pasts were challenging in different ways it made both of them develop the same dream for overcoming their past: build a perfect family. Both try to make that dream come true but numerous miscarriages make this more and more unlikely and take further toll on the couple. Then, when hope is almost at zero, Sarah gets pregnant again and this time, their first and also only child, Freddy, gets born.

Through the following years, Sarah and Toms relationship is getting rockier as both continue to withhold things that happened in their respective pasts from their partner and Tom and Freddy also grow further apart. All of this escalates when Freddy, now a teeneager, comes back home late one night and proclaims that he killed a man.

Sarah takes Freddy with her and after some early struggle, manages to find a place for her and Freddy to live under the radar. But guilt is brooding for both of them and they need to ask themselves how long someone can run away from their past.

Great book. Very detailled characters with tons of backstory to explain how things turned out this way for Sarah and Tom and ultimately, Freddy.

The Midnight Library:

Nora Seed is unhappy with her life: she got fired from her job, didn't make her dream of becoming a glaciologist nor the one of making her music band a succes and to make things even worse, her beloved cat was killed in a car accident. As her despair lingers the next few days she decides to kill herself but things go wrong as she finds herself not dead but rather stuck in a place where time is halted: the Midnight Library.

The lady in charge of the library tells her how the Midnight Library works: take one book out of the shelf, it contains a life where Nora made a different life choice, Nora can enter this life and when she is truly, from the bottom of her heart happy and content with it, she can stay in that specific life. The only catch is that the Midnight Library is not quite a stable place - so Nora has an unknown amount of tries to find a life she is happy with.

And so Nora, usally rather indecisive, jumps right in and chooses her first life : one where she can continue to live with her cat.

Solid book. Basic idea is great but the formula mostly repeats in the same vein (like this aspect of the chosen life is great ... but as a tradeoff someone close to Nora is dead in this life and Nora always takes personal blame for it and bounces into the next life and the same thing happens again).

Redemption's Blade:

Ten years ago, the cruel reign of the demigod known as the Kinslayer began: a ruthless man so bent on inflicting as much cruelty as possible, that it becomes his only weakness as it creates weak spots in his otherwise perfect structure of crushing any sort of hopes of ever getting to him and so one day, Celestainee, with the help of two Yorughan, who flipped sides after being sick of the depraved depths that the Kinslayer would sink to, first cuts the Kinslayers hand of with her sword that can cut through (mostly) everything and then manages to kill him.

Now, the whole land is in ruins, weird creatures summoned by the Kinslayer from other dimensions still roam the world and everything is frigged up, basically.

This is where the story begins, as Celestainee and her comrads try to bring some light into these desolated lands.

Great book. Always wanted a story where the big baddy is gone and the surving people need to deal with the longterm consequences of trying to rebuild things.

This is the first book of the series and it drops a lot, and I mean a lot of lore on you at all times so it can be a bit of a dense read at times but I like that kind of stuff so I had a great time and look forward to the next entry.

The Thursday Murder Club 4 - The Last Devil To Die:

One year without a murder - that wish gets crushed quickly when antique dealer and old friend of the Thursday Murder Club, Kuldesh Shamar, is found dead - killed in his car with one gunshot to his head. It looks like he was involved with smuggling an object containing drugs.

Soon more and more groups set their sights on the drugs, most shrugging the death of Kuldesh to the side as collateral damage. Unacceptable for the Club - as Kaldesh was Stephens best friend. But Elizabeths husband is further falling into dementia and thus the other club members need to step up - to do right for Kaldesh and afford Stephen end Elizabeth the chance to share share the councious time they can have toghether.

Great book. As usal lots of humour but also heartwrenching parts.

Dead-End Memories:

Collection of five short stories revolving around grief, growing as a person. I overall liked this a lot, even though the very first story "House of Ghosts" was pretty boring to me but the story "Mama!", a story about a young woman revovering from almost dying from a poison attack and the story "Dead-End Memories" were great.

Todesglut:

Henry Zornik, a former police officer, has accepted to hold lectures for the "Academy of Crime", an institute aiming to prepare students to become investigators. After his first too theory-heavy lecture falling through, he changes things up and is using a cold case in the lecture : a woman dying cruesomly in a fire in the city library, her identity unknown to this day. Zornik believes that, unlike what is claimed in the case file, this was infact a murder and he gives his students a strong incentive to find clues: whoever solves the case before Zornik will pass the course witout an exam.

What seems like a fun game at first becomes serious when Zorniks caravan gets burned down and he himself gets attacked - it seems like numerous groups want the case to remain cold.

Very good book. Not available in english.

Small Things Like These:

1985, New Ross, County Wicklow in Ireland: Billy Furlong, a man in his forties, has managed to become a succesful coal merchant and has a wive and five daughters. One of his customers is the monastery which also functions as the cities laundry. For a while there have been rumours about the monastery, that the girls working there get worked to the bone, that they come from questionable backgrounds, like being abondened by their family, etc.

When he delivers coal to the monastery one day and arrives too early, he gets a glimpse of the truth and has to question himself: can one walk through life and call himself good while turning a blind eye to abuse?

Great book. For how short the story is, the atmopshere is fantastic throughout. Story is based on the real Magdalene laundries. Highly recommended.

Dorohedoro Volume 2 by Hayashida Q

We've landed on the secret bonus square on the monopoly board of life, woah, anyway if anyone else has updates for Feb get 'em exposed before it's outta here.

@argile @Asandir @Atlas @AxolotlGav @CappyCatII @Darklion0 @detergent1 @door88 @DrSevenSiezeMD @Frontlined-Backend @Ganon-Dorf @Gimmick @GonzaloAtWork @Haggard @JerseyWildcard @JJBoltonNG @Joltopus @Malachy @OlTrout @OneThousandMeeps @Pingu @Prinzy2 @Sheik13LoZ @SlutasaurusRex @TecNoir @TehPoptartKid @The-Great-One @TopazAzul @UnderWhirl @Urichov @Yomuchan @ZJ @CarterSterling

What do you mean by vertical text? Like, narrow columns or straight up Japanese style? Most epub readers have a multitude of display options & if you're on a phone or tablet you could hop to another app. I'm basically format-ambidextrous but I do prefer a wider screen than most current phones if that's what you mean.

Also, read a novella.

2. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Good ol' 19th century Russian misery. Started reading it while in a hosptial waiting room (diagnosis: 🤷🏻‍♀️) without knowing how relevant it would be and found it remarkable how little some things have changed. When Ivan recalls "driving" to the doctor I had to stop another sentence over and remind myself he's referring to horse and sled there. The last ten pages or so were loaded with that transendent literary magic that's impossible to adapt.

This edition also had a much shorter story included, 'Three Deaths,' which was lighter but quite a clever choice for a companion piece and has stuck in my mind just as firmly. Impressed enough with both that I might have to take the full Tolstoy pill and crack open War & Peace - in which case I'll see you all next year I guess.

The latter. My reading speed basically doubled or tripled when I changed the epub reader to format it horizontally. There's apparently certain eye exercises that I can do in order to improve my vertical reading speed (independent of practicing reading more vertical text, that is) but for the time being I think I'd just like to read more, rather than "proper" when I have alternatives.

Sorry, February been a little crazy, with the end of this month being batshit insane. Thankfully I picked a short book for this month. I intend on giving my reviews of these on a quarterly basis.

I picked up my favorite book of all time Mind at the End of Its Tether by H.G. Wells for February.

I also just finished George Orwell's Animal Farm so that's #6. New 2024 goalpost shifts to 12 books.

He was, donkeys live a very long time and he lived through some shady stuff. They should name a windmill after him...

3: Dune Messiah

An exciting sequel after Paul became emperor. The main plot is his assassination by his figurehead wife, the daughter of the displaced emperor, the reverend mother that subjected him to the gom jabbar, and a couple others. They also 'resurrect' a character from Dune as part of the assassination plot.

The only reason I'm one this month is because I'm struggling to read another book a friend lent to me about the crusades and jihads for Jerusalem. While it's an excellently written book, it's a boring read to me because it still reads like a history book. It literally sucks my will to read right out of me, and it's a good 600 pages.

6 this month!

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

A fun slice of life historical fiction following a band of "contractors" who are delivering relics found in a burnt down temple. In the background, there is a war between the Protectorate (the British) and those who would oppose their interest Malaysia. I might read other books by Zen Cho

Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf

Yes, this is what the movie is based off of. No, the movie is not a faithful portrayal- but yes the "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way" is in there. In this world, a tired detective is tasked to help a toon (literal cartoon if you don't know) Roger Rabbit solve who killed him and who is trying to frame him for a murder. Things like words appearing in word bubbles, the ability to summon duplicates, and other reality warping abilities are very relevant to both blot and tone of the book. Wasn't too into the occasional the Persian slander and how Eddie the detective treats Roger with an air that says he is "one of the good ones". But heeeey it was the 80'ssss c'moooon.

White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton

Estranged brother Bobby sends a cryptic text to protagonist Adam. Adam, who is looking for information about his father, travels out of the trailer park and to the nice, ugly neighborhood of his brother to figure out what kind of possession has taken her. Theres bad blood for reasons beyond Bobby initially not buying the whole magic thing, but turns around after taking a trip to the spirit world. Old lovers return. New lovers are bound by thread. Hatchets get sharpened.

Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki

Short speculative fiction stories. If a world where all men are locked up, interplanetary politics, disaffected youths, confused aliens, and talking furniture sounds interesting to you, you'll like this collection

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura

A slice of life story about finding the job with the right fit with people who are pleasant to be around. I think. I read some reviews and analysis of the book to see if there were any symbols or stuff I missed and I'm starting to doubt my reading comprehension.

Medieval Myths & Mysteries by Dorsey Armstrong

I love reading these books the look at the History Channel and say "lol, no." Never realized how expansive the Mongol's reach was. Learned that Ethiopia was confused for the mythic kingdom of Prester John who is so humble and so holy and his kingdom is so friggin sweet and awesome because everyone is great Christians.

Volume II of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, this one being called Jonathan Strange. I enjoy how quickly Strange establishes himself as the real main character despite hardly appearing in the first volume. With him being far less reserved than Norrell it gives it a markedly different feel from the first volume. Looking forward to volume 3; think I'm gonna read some Moomin in between though.

Only got through 3 books in February. I was sick yesterday and instead of reading I played a vidya games.

February (3)

5: Chimera's Star by Glynn Stewart

6: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

7: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Honestly the first time I read Animal Farm during assigned reading in school, most of the symbolism flew over my head. I legit thought that they were taking the horse character to the vet and they had just forgotten to renew the labels, lol.

Now consider that I was in 4th grade at the time and that's a pretty uncannily eerie parallel for how easy it is to indoctrinate children to cults and whatever batshit insane nonsense you wanna toss to em...

My first post in nearly a year. Time flies.

@Jackho could you put me down for 12 books please? I'm off to a slow start this year but I've had a sudden enthusiasm to read fiction again, so hoping this thread helps keep me motivated.

I read Fairy Tale by Stephen King in February, which is my first book of the year. Pre-ordered this ages ago so I've have had it since release but just never got around to reading it. Really enjoyed it, although to my surprise I found myself enjoying the first half (which is set in the "real world") more than the second half which is set in the fantasy world. For some reason I expected this one to be quite a bit darker than it was, but was good enough to make me want to read again.

Also just re-discovered my local public library system, which I haven't used in 10+ years. We must have almost 20 small public libraries scattered throughout region, including the high school libraries. In the past, I would look up books via their online cataloguing system and be disappointed to find that they had the book but it was in one of the high school libraries that I didn't have access to. Turns out you can reserve books online, request collection from whichever library you want and they will transport the books between libraries. Game changer! Think I'm going to be a regular user of the library from now on.

Went in to get a new library card and saw Hyperion by Dan Simmons in the sci-fi and fantasy section. Recognized the title as something that I'd been meaning to read for years, so currently have that checked-out.

I don't think I ever read it as my school did 1984 for the dystopia choice, but I have a vague memory of one of the movies. I most definitely would have missed the deeper symbolism beyond "haha the pigs are commies".

That's part of why I'm trying to go back to books I either missed and want to experience (currently, Brave New World) or that I remember brushing off (The Giver)

LITFAM UPDATE: BONUS ROUND EDITION

Time to emerge from that winter cave and get sprung homies - though I can't imply you've been sleeping on the reading hammock after yet another swood month in the log with 64 books across 21 active readers.

The 100% club is already open for business with some initial goals already hit by resident mass-reader @Asandir and @Pingu who slaughtered a sixer through the discovery of recorded sound only to throw it away and double down for the chance of even loftier literary legend. That's how we roll.

Top Fam

1. @argile (8)
2. @Asandir and @Sheik13LoZ (7)

@argile @Asandir @Atlas @AxolotlGav @CarterSterling @CappyCatII @Darklion0 @Dean @detergent1 @door88 @DrSevenSiezeMD @Frontlined-Backend @Ganon-Dorf @Gimmick @GonzaloAtWork @Haggard @JerseyWildcard @JJBoltonNG @Joltopus @Malachy @OlTrout @OneThousandMeeps @Pingu @Prinzy2 @PudgieDaFrog @Sheik13LoZ @SlutasaurusRex @TecNoir @TehPoptartKid @The-Great-One @TopazAzul @UnderWhirl @Urichov @Yomuchan @ZJ

#2 - Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Went into this one fairly blind and now it's up there as one of my favourite reads. Because of how it's structured, this book seems like it would have something for everyone, regardless of whether you're into sci-fi. Seven people mysteriously selected to go on a journey to an even more mysterious destination. As they journey, they decide to share each of their back stories in the hopes of understanding why they've been chosen for the journey and to figure out the purpose of it.

Each back story feels completely different and even made the characters that I thought would be a bit bland come to life. There's an exploration/mystery back story with a focus on religion, a war/love story, rags to riches, the impact of time travel / family drama, a detective story and a final story that has quite a mix of things going on.

My only disappointment came when I realised that the book ends without finishing the actual journey. Instead, it leaves things hanging for the sequel, The Fall of Hyperion. For whatever reason I went into this assuming that I didn't need to bother with the sequel, but now I'm almost definitely going to have to read that at some point.

Finished reading "Kaileb's Dream". It's the book currently read on the podcast "372 pages we'll never get back".

This book is 264 pages I definitely wish I could get back. It's the worst book I've ever read. I wish I could tell you what this book is about, but I honestly don't know. I think it's about a war between demons (two of them are named "Slayer" and "Monchi") and humans, but somehow a "Council of the White Blades" that apparently exists in another dimension called "Tteilqua" (or "Tequila", I don't know) also plays part in it. But this council gets less and less mentioned the more the book goes on. And this is my major complaint: Nothing in this book makes any sense whatsover. The timeline is so messed up, it's really hard to keep track. At one point it is mentioned that "school starts again in 3 weeks" (yes, the main characters of the book are 15 and 13, respectively. And they are in a relationship, but only "married as warriors, not mortals". Creepy), but then the "school is about to start" plot point is never mentioned again and instead they spent months in this stupid realm. Oh, and the war is stopped during the winter months, because "tradition". I could go on ranting about the poor grammar, weird spelling mistakes and missing/inconsistend punctuation, instead I just present you this small excerpt. Any errors you see are from the book:

---

"without warning a spear met my chest, I heard the bones break and felt as it pushed through my heart. I gasped for air, finding none, my lungs burned and I fell uncontrollably from the sky. My only source of blood was miles away, White Eagle I needed her now! What little air I had left, escaped as I hit the ground. All was dark, death found me!

Suddenly I saw him, my dear husband lying lifeless among hundreds of demons, and I also saw her, that waste of a female, who I now lusted to kill. It would be painful, excruciating. She will suffer that much is certain!” I left my army, in the hands of General Owl and Arch Mage Nilrem, I had a demon to slay. My lungs begged for air, my heart was racing to supply my muscles with the much-needed oxygen, though I went with much haste. Adrenaline fueled me, pushed me I had to save him! Only moments had passed, and now I was overhead of my companion and the demon witch who had taken him from me. Without regards to anything else I descended, landing hard behind her.

“Ah, you’re…” I cut her off as my fist met her face, she flew back skipping across the ground living small craters in her stead.

“Well I see I have offended someone.” She smiled."

---

Yes, the narrator changes after "death found me". This narrator switch happens throughout the book. Always without any indication whatsoever. Also, this is the third time the main character dies, and he's always brought back to life, either by "Zoser" (don't ask, I don't know either), by "an old trick an old man taught me in the past" (what trick? I don't know) or by a magical necklace.

You could also check out the sample on Amazon (it's the whole first chapter), but it's best to stay away from this utter piece of garbage.

Rating: -3000/10

Dungeon Meshi Volume 1 by Ryōko Kui