THERE AND BACK AGAIN…

Hello everyone! Not unlike Bilbo Baggins I’m back from my much less adventurous journey: luckily, no trolls or spiders made their appearance, and even though the car trip to and from my destination – amounting to almost one thousand kilometers each way – was not without stress, such small discomforts were more than compensated by the delightful company of my friends, and the antics of the two very rambunctious dogs they share their lives with.

Once more I discovered that, due to the unreliability of the internet connection in such a remote location, the impossibility to visit my usual online haunts turned out into something positive: while I was sorry to be unable to follow the usual updates of this community, I was able to relax my attitude toward blogging – and this led me to wonder if this yearly “disconnect” is what has saved me, until now, from the dreaded blogging fatigue that has plagued some of my fellow bloggers in the past few years. Only time will tell…

On the other hand, I did not manage to read as many books as I planned to, preferring to spend my time relaxing, chatting with my friends, and occasionally gathering the delicious figs from the two different trees that stand on the grounds where their home is located. 

So I can only account for two and half books: I finished Melissa Albert’s Our Crooked Hearts (which I began before leaving for my vacation); I completed Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers trilogy with Record of a Spaceborn Few, and I finally started the Dune re-read that I’ve been promising myself since I watched Denis Villeneuve’s successful movie translation of the first book.

And that’s all for my month of August: energies replenished (I hope…) I’m eager to get back into the usual rhythm of reading, reviewing and fattening my TBR with books I hope to read soon…  It’s certainly good to be back 🙂

She drew a deep breath. “Well, I’m back”, she said

(and hopefully the Professor will not be annoyed at me for appropriating his famous closing sentence…)

Hello, dear fellow bloggers and book lovers! Clearly, what was meant to be a two to three weeks’ vacation turned out to be a far longer stay, not that I regret a single day of it, since this time was spent with dear friends who are as close as family, and in a place that’s both beautiful and, well, magical, as you will be able to se from these pictures.

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And that “magic” was indeed more than compensation for the lack of reliable means of keeping in touch, which forced me to forgo the blog hopping that’s become such an important part of my daily activities.

Many times in the past I’ve read posts about taking a break from blogging as a way of renewing one’s drive to go on, and while I did not feel such a need to distance myself from what I consider a labor of love, I must admit that staying away for some time did renew my energies and my commitment to reading and reviewing books.

Which also means that I have a HUGE backlog of your posts and reviews to explore, something I hope to do in the coming weeks. For now, I’m very glad to be back and to be again part of one of the best communities I’ve encountered in my… travels.

See you around! 🙂

MY 2020 IN BOOKS (and not only…)

Time for some statistics, as it’s customary when the year approaches its end: this year I managed to read a round 60 books, which does not look much when compared with the amazing feats of some of my fellow bloggers, but it’s a nice goal for me – and as long as I can enjoy what I read, I’m more than happy.  Moreover, only 3 of those 60 books ended up in the DNF category, which is a comforting number. Here is a “parade” of the covers, in all their blazing glory 🙂

This year I decided early on to keep an Excel file listing my books, totaling the number of pages read and keeping tracks of genres, ratings and so on, and since I’ve been oh-so-well organized  😀  I even managed to turn some of those data into nice-looking diagrams, which makes me feel quite accomplished!

For the record, those 60 books averaged a total of 20.269 pages read, and the first detail I was curious about was the subdivision of those pages into genres, so here is the first diagram:

Science Fiction and Fantasy are of course at the top of the list, being my favorite genres, but in 2020 I decided to “branch out” into crime/thrillers for some variety, and it seems that a good portion of my reading material went into this genre, particularly because I’ve been very lucky with my finds.

The second diagram I would like to share concerns book ratings: again, I’ve been quite fortunate in my choices because 46 books obtained a rating between 4 and 5 stars, and only 7 were below the 3-star rating.

And last but not least, I also enjoyed fiction in visual form through a number of TV series:

Season 4 of THE EXPANSE – 5 star rating

Season 1 of PICARD – 4 star rating

Season 1 of THE WITCHER – 3,5 star rating

Season 1 of LOCKE & KEY – 4 star rating

And a complete rewatch of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA for an overall 4,5 rating

Now all that’s left is to see what 2021 will bring, so my wish to you all for the new year is for a time with less stress and more good books to enjoy 🙂

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

THE MID-YEAR FREAK OUT TAG

In my newly-discovered enjoyment of book-blogging tags, I’ve seen this one pop up on several blogs I follow so I decided to thy my hand at it. After all, every opportunity to talk about books must be enjoyed, right?  😉

 

BEST BOOKS YOU’VE READ SO FAR THIS YEAR

Looking at my five-star ratings, I would have to give this prize to Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy: I’ve come somewhat late to the party with this series, but I’m glad that the publication of the first book in his new saga inspired me to go backwards and enjoy learning about the “roots” of this world and the back story of its characters.

 

BEST SEQUEL YOU’VE READ SO FAR THIS YEAR

 

Since I mostly read SF and Fantasy, I’m going to nominate a best sequel in both genres, and the Oscar goes to…

Gareth Powell’s Fleet of Knives, second volume in his Embers of War saga

John Gwynne’s A Time of Courage, third and final volume in his Of Blood and Bone series

 

NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET BUT WANT TO

There are several of course – you all know the book lover’s lamentation about too many books, too little time, don’t you?  Anyway, just to mention one, I’m looking forward to Jade War, the second book in Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga.  It’s been sitting on my TBR for a while now, and it’s starting to look at me with some impatience…

 

MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR

Given my answer to the first question, I’m more than looking forward to Joe Abercrombie’s The Trouble with Peace, the second volume in his new series Age of Madness. Can you blame me?  😉

 

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

This dubious prize goes to Andrew Maine’s The Naturalist: from my fellow bloggers’ review I had come to expect an intriguing thriller but it’s clear that this book was not meant for me – once I started finding some inconsistencies in the story and the characterization I knew that the “magic” was lost and that this book and yours truly were destined to part ways…

 

BIGGEST SURPRISE

The Institute, by Stephen King. I used to be a huge fan of the Master of Horror, but in later years I had been disappointed by some of his works and stopped reading them. When I decided to give this one a chance, on the strength of a very intriguing review from a fellow blogger (what would I do without you guys??), I discovered that the Master still has several aces up his sleeve, and that this book brought back the old enjoyment in his stories.

 

FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR

Vivian Shaw.  I read two of her books in the UF series focused on Dr. Greta Helsing, physician to London’s supernatural creatures, and I enjoyed them immensely: I would never have thought that an author would make me feel sympathy for mummies or ghouls, but Ms. Shaw managed that with very little effort!  🙂

 

NEWEST FICTIONAL CRUSH

Sorry, I’m too old and crusty for crushes of any kind…

 

NEWEST FAVORITE CHARACTER

Sand dan Glokta, from Joe Abercrombie’s First Law, which gains the third mention in this meme and shows that I might be just a tiny bit obsessed with this world…. Glokta is the opposite of the inspirational character: he’s crippled, embittered and earns his living by being the master torturer for the King’s inquisition, but he’s also gifted with a sarcastic sense of humor and a strong sense of self-mockery that went a long way toward endearing him to me.

 

BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY

I don’t cry easily, so it would be hard to fill this bookish slot, but I can mention a book that held a big – and somewhat unwelcome – surprise for me concerning a particular character: John Scalzi The Last Emperox, the final volume in his Interdepency saga. And no, I was not expecting THAT Mr. Scalzi, not at all…

 

BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY

Network Effect, by Martha Wells, the fifth installment in her Murderbot Diaries: it made me happy because every new story about Murderbot is a joy, and because it was a full-length novel instead of the previous novella-sized works – and of course more Murderbot always gives me a chance to celebrate.

 

FAVORITE BOOK-TO-FILM ADAPTATION

None so far, but hope keeps me going…

 

MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK YOU’VE BOUGHT THIS YEAR

   

Since I read ebooks, I have a chance to look at the actual covers only when search for them online: my e-reader does not do colors… so far, the covers I found more intriguing have been those for Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennet and for Moontangled by Stephanie Burgis.  I love the first because that background fire against the darkness in the foreground is very dramatic, and the second because those gorgeous dresses and the color combination are a feast for the eyes.

 

WHAT BOOKS DO YOU NEED TO READ BY THE END OF THE YEAR?

Far too many for the time I have, far too many…

 

Join the fun, let’s freak out together! 😀

REAL NEAT BLOG AWARD

While I love tag posts, particularly those that help me know my fellow bloggers better, my record in fulfilling them once I am tagged is far from stellar. I hoped to be able to fit this one into my Wyrd and Wonder 2020 schedule, but as usual I’m traveling on the path of good intentions – and we all know where that leads…

Anyway, with many thanks to Lashaan at Bookidote for calling me to task 😉 , here are the answers to the questions he posed:

 

1. IF YOU COULD DO SOMETHING BETTER THAN YOU’RE ALREADY DOING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

That’s a tough one for a first question, when I still need to warm up… 😀

Jokes aside, I would like to be able to be more productive in my blogging activities, so that I could prepare some non-review posts in advance and participate in more book-related memes as many of my fellow bloggers do. For now, I will keep on enjoying theirs…

 

2. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THIS NEW DECADE (2020-2029) TO BRING TO YOUR LIFE?

Some traveling to new places – which right now sounds more like a fanciful wish than anything else: there are a few destinations that I’ve been thinking about along with my friends, like touring Australia (and New Zealand as well, why not? The Tolkien fan in me would like to see the place that became Middle Earth in our collective imagination). Hopefully one of these dream holidays might turn into reality.    

 

3. IS THERE A SEQUEL TO SOMETHING THAT YOU LOOK FORWARD TO?

**Looking meaningfully in the direction of Mister George R. R. Martin**

Enough said…

 

4. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE STORIES IN ANY MEDIUM (COMICS, BOOKS, SHOWS, MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES, ETC.)?

This might call for a long list, so I will try to keep it down to a maximum of three in any category – except for comics, which I don’t read, and video games, that are well beyond any ability of mine. And of course I will stay within the confines of SFF, otherwise this would turn into a *massive* list…

SF Books: The Expanse, The Vorkosigan Saga, Dune

Fantasy Books: The Lord of the Rings (of course… 😉 ), The First Law trilogy, anything by John Gwynne

Tv Shows: Babylon 5 (which I love to quote at the drop of a hat), Farscape, Firefly

Movies (the ones I always rewatch when the opportunity arises): Alien(s), the LOTR Trilogy, Galaxy Quest.

 

5. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR LEAST FAVOURITES STORIES IN ANY MEDIUM (COMICS, BOOKS, SHOWS, MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES, ETC.)?

Well, let’s say that I don’t enjoy reading or watching stories where characters are cardboard cutouts, plots cliché and predictable and where the readers’ or watchers’ intelligence is insulted.

 

6. WHAT DOES BLOGGING BRING TO YOUR LIFE?

The opportunity of sharing thoughts and recommendations with like-minded people, to see unexplored angles in the stories I’ve read – either those I loved and those I didn’t, because a widely different point of view can be as illuminating as one which agrees with mine. Oh, and of course an ever-growing, totally unmanageable TBR – but who’s complaining?

 

7. IF THERE’S SOMETHING YOU COULD CHANGE OF THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I would like to do away with the extreme polarization that seems to affect every field of social interaction nowadays, and to poison any kind of discussion, no matter the subject at hand.

 

8. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD EAT RIGHT NOW?

Mango-flavored ice cream.

 

9. IF THERE WAS ONE MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE THAT COULD EVER EXIST IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I’ve always been fascinated by the fabled inhabitant of Loch Ness…

 

10. DO YOU THINK THERE’S A CURE FOR STUPIDITY?

Sadly, while I enjoy speculative fiction, I know there are limits to what I’m able believe… 😉

 

 

Ok, that was fun! If you enjoyed this tag, please feel free to join in – the more the merrier!

GET TO KNOW THE FANTASY READER TAG – Wyrd & Wonder 2020

Image by Tanantachai Sirival @ 123RF.com

 

Always in search of ideas to share my love of all things fantasy, I encountered this tag on the  blog of JESSTICULATES and immediately saw that it was very intriguing, so I borrowed it: thank you so much Jess!

I made some small changes from the original set of questions, to adapt it to my own personality, but I hope to have kept close enough to the overall spirit of the tag.

If you find this interesting, dive in and enjoy! I will be thrilled to read your answers. 🙂

 

1. What is the first fantasy novel you read?

Unsurprisingly, it was J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and despite the long time elapsed since then (I read it in the late ‘70s) I still remember vividly how engrossing it was, how it opened my mind to the perception of this amazing world and its various peoples.  Since then I have re-read it several times, finding new details and new shades of meaning as the years passed, but still every time I renew my acquaintance with the story I feel as if I’m going back to a familiar place and well-loved friends.

 

2. If you could be the hero/heroine in a fantasy novel, who would be the author and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story?

I guess I’m a bit too… seasoned to imagine myself as the heroine of a story, but if I had to choose, I would ask  G.R.R. Martin to depict me as an enigmatic character whose actions leave everyone puzzled about her plans and goals. Maybe with a touch of darkness… 😉

 

 

3. What is a fantasy you’ve read this year, that turned into a huge revelation?

Joe Abercrombie’s FIRST LAW TRILOGY: I started it a long time after its appearance, but it totally won me over, especially because of its amazing characterization and the perfect blend of drama and humor that keeps the story engaging despite its connotation of ‘grimdark fantasy’.

 

4. What is your favourite fantasy subgenre? What subgenre have you not read much from?

This question compelled me to look online and see how many fantasy sub-genres are listed, and I was amazed at what I found, including some sub-genres I did not even know existed, some of them quite outlandish, like Bangsian Fantasy. One of the realms I have been wanting to explore for some time is that of Arthurian Fantasy, and one of these days I will start on that particular quest…

 

 

5. Who is one of your auto-buy fantasy authors?

That’s an interesting question, because until a short time ago I would have said George Martin: his Song of Ice and Fire caught my attention in 2002 and marked my return to the genre after a long period in which I read only SF, but the long dry years between books have eroded both my patience and my enthusiasm and I moved to greener – and more dependable – pastures. There is not a single author whose books I acquire as soon as they come out, but having to choose only one I must mention my most recent discovery, John Gwynne: his epic fantasy series won me over from the first book I read.

 

6. How do you typically find fantasy recommendations? (Goodreads, Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram..)

None of the above: my best… pushers  😀  are my fellow bloggers. Just by blog-hopping and reading their reviews I immediately see which books might work for me and pile on top of my already unmanageable TBR.

 

 

7. What is an upcoming fantasy release you’re excited for?

That’s an easy one: Melissa Caruso’s THE OBSIDIAN TOWER. Her Swords and Fire trilogy was an instant hit and it became a favorite from the very first book.  This new start to a different trilogy is set in the same world, but with different characters, and I look forward to learning more about this universe and its peculiar brand of magic.

 

8. What is one misconception about fantasy you would like to lay to rest?

That fantasy readers (and speculative fiction readers at large) are people with no connections to the world, that their minds dwell in a different reality and are therefore unable to deal with everyday issues. These detractors don’t seem to understand that our minds can dwell on both sides of the ‘fence’, that we might escape for a few hours into these imagined realms, but we are still firmly rooted in the ‘here and now’ and that the possibility of being elsewhere for a short while is a healthy exercise for our minds and souls.

 

 

9. If someone had never read a fantasy before and asked you to recommend the first 3 books that come to mind as places to start, what would those recommendations be?

Oh, I would recommend Dreamer’s Pool, by Juliet Marillier; Promise of Blood, by Brian McClellan, and Kings of the Wyld, by Nicholas Eames. They are very different from each other, in concept and mood and might offer a good starting point to understand what kind of fantasy one might enjoy – a classical story, one with a peculiar brand of magic, and one where humor plays an important part.

 

10. What’s the site that you like to visit for reviews, author interviews and all things fantasy?

My latest discovery was The Fantasy Hive: a site where you can find, besides information on books and authors, interesting short stories you can read online. I can certainly recommend a visit…

 

What about you?  Let us know what kind of fantasy reader you are!

My 2019 in books

 

Happy New Year!!!

 

As a new year begins, it’s customary to look at the one that just ended and see how it went, book-wise. While 2019 went reasonably well, at least according to my usual reading range, this time I did not manage to read as many books as in previous years, and I believe the “culprits” are both the usual lack of time and the number of DNFs that did not even make it to the point where I felt comfortable enough to express an opinion – even a negative one. There have been a few false starts of this kind which meant some lost time between books, but who’s counting?  😉

Anyway here is the list of the 48 books I read in 2019:

 

 

The titles were fairly distributed among my favorite genres, with 19 for Fantasy, 16 for Science Fiction, 7 for Urban Fantasy, 4 for Horror and 2 Thrillers. All in all a good overall sample.  As for ratings, the lion’s share goes to the ones who gathered from 4 to 5 stars, which means that I mostly enjoyed what I read and reviewed, and only one book received a 2,5 rating. Not bad.

A separate groups of books includes the seventeen novels in the Vorkosigan Revisitation I started in November for Sci-Fi Month – always an amazing and delightful experience – and ended on the last day of the year: I did not actually re-read these (lack of time, what a surprise…) but simply re-acquainted myself with them, also thanks to a re-read I had managed a few years back, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I still remembered. But well-loved stories do indeed tend to stay with you… 🙂

 

 

My projects for the new year? Well, since no reading plan survives contact with the enemy  😀  I always try not to make any, but at the very least I’m set on finally reading Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy, because his new novel A Little Hatred finally led me to dust off those books which had been long languishing on my TBR, and also read the stand-alone books in this series. And to balance out the Fantasy with some Science Fiction (I’m a Libra, I love balance!) I would like to finally sample Neal Asher’s Polity series, since all of my fellow bloggers who mention it, do it with great enthusiasm.

And I guess that’s enough. What about you? How did your 2019 fare, book-wise? And what are your 2020 projects?

 

The Finished Book Tag

Thanks to Bookforager for tagging me for this interesting meme: much as I love these “get to know us better” tags, I rarely manage to fulfill my role due to a chronical lack of time. These days, however, I am enjoying a brief holiday respite, so what better occasion than to finally get around to enjoy a book tag?  And here we go…

 

Do you keep a list of the books you have read?

Oh, indeed! Being cursed with a sieve-like memory, I need to keep track of what I’ve read so I don’t overtax my struggling memory banks. For some time I kept the list of my yearly readings on GoodReads, but for the past year of so, due to something annoying that happened there, I moved to Library Thing, which looks a bit more efficient, at least from my point of view.

 

 

If you record stats, what stats do you record?

Stats are not something that I take active interest in: the only exception might be at the end of each year, when I list the books I read to see how they are divided between genres and to get an overall score of my ratings, but that’s all.

 

 

Do you give star ratings for books and if so, what do you score books out of and how do you come about this score?

Star ratings are indeed a way to show how much we liked (or disliked) a book, but I’ve always thought that being a graphic representation of a complex set of parameters they are not as flexible as I would like. I’ve been thinking for some time about adding a sort of… recap of my evaluation to the star ratings I place at the bottom of reviews, and will try it out soon to see how that works.

 

 

Do you review books?

Indeed!  😀

 

 

Where do you put your finished books?

Interesting question! I’m glad you asked… 😉
Since I choose to read only ebooks (for a lot of practical reasons), I have also transformed my… well, shelving habits: there is a folder on my computer where I store the current books (my TBR, so to speak) waiting to be downloaded to my e-reader, and there is a dedicated USB drive where I back them up regularly and where, in a separate folder, I place the read books. All in their own folders with the author’s name. Neat, isn’t it?
Granted, if I want to take a peek at a much-loved book, it’s not as easy as taking it out of the book-case, but it’s not all that difficult either, and I also have far less problems with accumulating dust!

 

 

How do you pick your next book?

Mmmm… Much depends on my current mood and/or the level of concentration I can put in a story, so I pick the less demanding ones when I feel tired or I know I will be distracted by other things. Of course any plan can be subverted by the appearance of a much-awaited book on the horizon. In that case I’m totally unable to resist but… who would?

 

 

Do you have any other rituals for when you have finished a book?

Most of my reading happens during the long commute to and from work, so the most likely scenario is that I move from one finished book to the next in line, much as a chain-smoker lights a cigarette with the stub of the old one. With the difference that chain-reading is NOT harmful to our health!

 

And since I firmly believe in… sharing the wonders, I’m tagging a few more fellow bloggers – no pressure, no obligation, but if you can participate I hope you have as much fun as I did with this tag. The lucky winners are (in alphabetical order):

 

the folks at Bilbliosanctum

Tammy at Books, Bones and Buffy

Bookstoge

Sarah at Brainfluff

the Tattoed Book Geek

 

 

GRR Martin’s ASOIAF: A Gentle Nudge from New Zealand…

It’s no news that readers of GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire have been dealing with the author’s long gestating times between books with varying degrees of patience – or lack thereof, and the not-quite-satisfactory way in which the overall story was wrapped up by the TV series Game of Thrones did little to assuage the readers’ curiosity and their need to see the story and the characters’ journeys developed with the depth they expect from the books published until now.

Over the years some voices have been raised in a less than civilized way, literally demanding the next book in line as if it were their unalienable right, and lately I heard that a silly rumor was being circulated that Martin had actually finished the saga but was keeping the books under wraps as a favor to the TV show, which sounds totally foolish but still needed a public rebuttal by the author.  Which proves that rumors spread faster than a pandemic, and are just as dangerous.

Replying to such absurdity with humor is always the best choice, to the point that playful creations like this one go a long way toward keeping the tone light:

 

 

And that’s the reason I enjoyed immensely this video created by Air New Zealand, which encourages George Martin to find a place where his creativity would flow uninterrupted, inviting him to visit their country.  It’s a delightful way to express the readers’ eagerness to see the next book hit the stands, and it’s full of amusing tongue-in-cheek quips, my favorite being the one about “being nervous as a Stark with a wedding invite”.

Enjoy!  🙂

 

WORLDS WITHOUT END: Reading Challenges

 

Many of you will know of Worlds Without End, a fantastic site dedicated to books in the speculative fiction genre that can be browsed by title, author or publisher. The site also contains a lively forum where members can discuss any kind of SFF-related topic – and not just limited to books, since it involves threads about movies and TV and other media.

One of the most interesting features of WWE is the section devoted to reading challenges: every year a list of these challenges is published, allowing the site’s members to pick the ones they feel most inspired by, or to propose one of their own.

This year – as in previous years – the list is rich and inspiring: just take a look HERE to see for yourselves…  I have been intrigued by two: the first a list of the books I plan to read in 2019, with no limitation concerning genre, the other is a sort of promise to myself, i.e. to move forward with some of the series that have piqued my interest with the first or even second book, but that I’ve been unable to see through the end of the cycle.

  

 

As you will see, there are several levels to each challenge, with the possibility of adjusting them upwards if we manage to exceed our expectations: I choose 50 books for the Books Read challenge, and 9 for the Read the Sequel challenge. Of course a few books in the first challenge will be eligible for the second one, which might improve my chances for an upgrade in goal. We’ll see…

No matter what, this is going to be fun, so I’m ready to start.  Anyone else interested?  🙂