Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Tell Me Tuesday #5: In which Elizabeth is not-reading lots of books



What's that you say?  It's not a Tuesday? It is in fact...*gasp* a WEDNESDAY?? The shock!  I don't even care I'm just a big, bloody rebel, I am!

...I may have had three cups of coffee, all before noon.  But that's what happens when nasty people come into work.  Your attempt to ruin my day failed you haters MWAHAHAHA!  

In any case, look at this! Two posts in 24 hours - I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD!  But sadly, as May is the month of blog hiatuses, apparently June is retaining it's hold as the month of reading slumps.  I'm in the middle of quite a few books...that I have done no reading in for probably a week. Even the audiobook was on hold since I drove other people/rode in other people's cars for my gigs this week.  *sigh*.  So here's what I'm NOT reading:

Micro

I have a friend who is OBSESSED with Douglas Preston and Michael Crichton, and he was really excited about this one and shoved it into my face.  I think this maaaay be a big part of my slump.  It's not that the book is bad exactly, but character development is pretty much essential for my enjoyment in a book.  I don't even have to like them! They just need to be more than stock photos, and I have to say this doesn't even capture characters as well as a stock photo was. I called it before I started when I saw there was a list of characters - "this one's going to be the slutty one, this one the leader good guy, the weird annoying one, etc."  And I may have been wrong about which character was what, but I WAS right about all the stereotypes.  In fact, the book pretty much just says what I just did in the first couple pages when the characters each get two sentences devoted to their description.  They're all pretty interchangeable, I can never remember which one is who.  That being said, the science behind the story and the description of the world they're in is FANTASTIC.  And it's very action-oriented.  So if you want a fun thriller, I'd pick this up.  It's just not the book for me.  Half the characters have died and I don't even care because I can't remember who they are.  If it was just about the bugs I would love the crap out of this book!  


Beauty Queens

The humor and snarky, sarcastic tone of this book is REALLY similar to Going Bovine (so LaLa if you like the tone of Going Bovine and want something a bit less trippy try this book!)  ...that being said I'm only 16% of the way through so it might get weirdly trippy, I don't know.  And I don't know why I have no urge to read this because I've LOVED everything about it so far! I have a feeling it will be making it to my top ten of the year list whenever I do finally finish it.




A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)
Listening to this on audiobook was an EXCELLENT idea. I picked it up for our road trip, but ended up putting it down mostly so we could listen to Harry Potter.  Which was a shame because this narrator is really, really good and my mom definitely was enjoying this one more despite the fact she knows nothing about GoT.  (But she NEEDED to read Harry Potter!!)  So it was more than a little confusing for her haha.  In the meantime I've been listening to it on my commutes.  I'm probably a third of the way in now and I have a feeling STUFF is about to go down.  All the characters are settling into happier places, and we know what THAT means.




I'm also reading Half Magic with the kids  - we're only through the first chapter and it's already a big hit!   I've been carrying Akata Witch in my purse all week too since I keep thinking I'm ACTUALLY going to finish Micro and want something else to read. Shows what I know.  I'm planning on going to the library to pick up A Darker Shade of Magic on Shannon's recommendation, but I still have library books checked out from April, another book a member of the gym loaned me, and a review copy...plus I'm in a slump.  So I'm not sure I'll get to it any time soon, which I hate because that and A Court of Thorns and Roses were BIG priorities for me to get to in May (I preordered ACoTaR for pete's sake!) and here we are in June...so we'll see. I've been super excited for both, so hopefully I kick this slump in the shins and make it limp away soon!

12 comments:

  1. I definitely will check out Beauty Queens from the library when I take Going Bovine back! I am going to wait and hope that A Darker Shade of Magic is a $1.99 ebook special after Christmas. I am so look spoiled with ebooks. I think I bought 10 books after Christmas last year, including the horrid Dorothy Must Die I started reading last night. ACOTAR is another book I am hoping show up on special after the holidays. I am chomping at the bit because the book I traded for, The Dream Thieves, is supposed to be delivered today and I really want to read it! Half Magic? Is it Children's or MG? Thanks for TMTing!

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  2. Reading slumps are the worst. I have really been wanting to read A Darker Shade of Magic - it looks fantastic - so I'll look forward to hearing what you think! Hope you shuck the slump soon!

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  3. Everyone should read A Darker Shade of Magic! I'm keeping my eyes out for it to go on sale!

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  4. I hope you can kick your reading slump soon D: they are the worst, I'm also sort of in one, but only because of study *sigh*

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  5. Your bestie in the whole worldJune 8, 2015 at 7:32 AM

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  6. Your bestie in the whole worldJune 8, 2015 at 7:34 AM

    Also, Richard Preston, not Douglas. Douglas is his brother. Also, you're a loser.

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  7. It's one of the most unabashedly feminist snarky books I've ever read and I LOVED it! It's funny, I actually think I like Bray's more "contemporary" works than I do her historical fiction which really surprises me! (And the styles are SO different in both!)


    I've heard pretty mixed things about Dorothy Must Die, I have to say haha. You do seem to always know about the best ebook specials! And yay - you haven't read The Dream Thieves right? I know you liked The Raven Boys but I think The Dream Thieves might be my favourite of the lot? I'm not sure, they're all pretty fantastic books.


    And I'm fuzzy on the line between children's and MG in books, but it is a fairly lengthy chapter book (as in not two or three pages per chapter and like 3 chapters in the book) so I'm uncertain. It has it's moments where things get a bit uncomfortable, but it remedies this (sort of, but definitely much better than one expects in the 1950s). Overall it's a REALLY fun book and it's been just as much fun reading it to the kids as I remember it being when I read it as a kid!

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  8. Shannon has been shamelessly plugging it, so I have been excited for it for AGES. I WILL read it by the end of this summer (which considering how contrary I can be about book recommendations is practically light speed for me)

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  9. At least you have a decent reason!! I...sort of have one? Not really, June has been positively silent in comparison to May as far as busyness goes. Do Australians have semesters or trimesters? It occurs to me that because your summer is during Christmas that it would make so much more sense for your semesters to be backwards to ours (a la taking November - January off instead of May - August) but I'm not sure if that's the case or not?

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  10. Damn it! I think I've been using their names interchangeably for years and totally thought they were one person....and I ended up liking the ending a lot! So it wasn't a total lost cause for me!

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  11. Semesters at university, you can do trimesters but I don't know anyone who has! School has terms but two terms are a semester, so it's the same thing I guess.

    And yep, we have summer break, mid-November to late January/early February (pretty long for us uni students, the school break is shorter though, they finish later than us and start earlier) :)

    The break over Christmas is the only good part about Christmas in summer lol

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  12. See, I have my Christmases in California and I have to say I'm totally ok with not having a white Christmas! But I know a lot (all?) of Australia gets way hotter than California in your summers, and I can't say I'd want to have the equivalent of South Carolina in August during Christmas haha

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