And I saw the first butterfly of the year.

Have finished Hogfather, which is book 20 of 41, so now I am halfway through. Next up is Jingo. I hope Sybil is in it; she wasn't in Feet of Clay.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/35074.html

The first book you read in 2016:
Republic of Thieves. That feels like more than a year ago.

The last book you finished in 2016:
Interesting Times. Fitting, no?

The first book you will finish (or did finish!) in 2017:
Hamilton: The Revolution

How many books read in 2016?
60.

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
Just the one about the Irish famine.
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This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/34665.html

Fantastic Beasts was adorable and the new Anne of Green Gables was terrible.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/34430.html

100 non-sff books by women
Bold = read, italics = read another book by the same author, strikeout = didn't finish, underline = plan to read

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This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/34150.html

The Amazon ads on Tumblr really want me to buy the Gormenghast books.

Also Chernow and the Hamiltome, but that makes sense; I reblog Hamilton posts. I don't know why Gormenghast.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/33979.html

1. The thing about Grey's Anatomy is, even if De Luca had raped Jo, that wouldn't make what Alex did okay. Alex insulted Jo by implying that she's incapable of doing her own punching and I'd glad she dumped him. I was neutral about him before this but now I hate Alex. And I don't even care for Jo; it's the principal of the thing.

That said, I enjoyed his surgeon-in-the-clinic scenes.

2. I will watch Fantastic Beasts out of a kind of fannish obligation, but I'm not excited about it. In fact I don't think there's a single movie coming out this or next year that I'm excited about. Well, there's Wonder Woman, but that's again more out of obligation than any actual investment in the character.

3. I can't bear the thought of not having Internet at home on election day. I don't want to find out the results from TV; I want to have Tumblr and FFA and chat open in different tabs.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/33557.html

The more time passes, the more I don't just hate the Hound. I regret that GRRM didn't have Sansa hate him. The more I think about it, the more unrealistic I find her lack of loathing him. I wish she had explicitly decided that his verbal abuse was worse than any beating. I wish she had killed him, or at the very least, daydreamed about it.

You don't deserve any praise for refusing to hit a child if you mock and insult that child. No forgiveness.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/33289.html

What I read this week

I had an urge to reread Issola by Brust, which is my favorite of the series because of the constant interaction between the relationships I like best, Vlad and the Dragons. It has particularly excellent dialogue, and I confess I kind of ship Vlad/Teldra. How can I not when he notices her dimples?

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I only wish the library had Iorich so I could reread that one.

What I'm reading now
The Discworld journey continues with Small Gods. It started out slow, but it picked up once Brutha and Vorbis got to Ephebe. Brutha is adorable and Fri'it is interesting.

Although Pratchett does like the sheltered, good-hearted, sexually inexperienced young man. I'm not saying Mort, Nijel, Victor, Teppic, Carrot, and Brutha are the same character, but they are variations on a theme. On the other hand it's a character type I generally like and one Pratchett writes super well. EDIT: Okay, Teppic isn't sheltered, but he's pure of heart.

I love that CMOT Dibbler shows up, and I was pleased that Djelibeybi was mentioned.

What I'm reading next

READING ABOUT SUSAN STO HELIT, FINALLY.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/33275.html

Howl's Moving Castle was published in 1986, and I was born in 1991, so I could have read it before but I didn't grow up reading fantasy, much to my regret.

Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters and in Ingary "where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist" everyone knows that the eldest in doomed to fail at seeking their fortune. One day the Witch of the Waste visits the hat shop that Sophie's stepmother runs and turns Sophie into an old woman. Sophie sets off to fix the spell and ends up at the home of the wizard Howl, who has a reputation for stealing girls and their hearts. ( Read more...Collapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/32579.html

1. The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (reread)
2. Beyond the Western Sea by Avi (reread)
3. Manners and Mutiny by Gail Carriger
4. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
5. Career of Evil by J. K. Rowling( Read more...Collapse )

I read Sourcery out of order because it was in an omnibus of the first four Rincewind books. And I read Eric out of order because I wanted to read both Goethe and Marlowe first. My favorites so far are Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters, and Pyramids.

I didn't really care for An Old-Fashioned Girl. The way Polly never messes up and Fanny is always wrong annoyed me. But the Rose books are still enjoyable.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/32298.html

You know how you pronounce a word wrong because you've only ever read it in a book? Yeah, I learned from last week's episode of Outlander that the s in viscount is silent.

(I'm not watching the show – just that one episode. I couldn't resist young John; he's one of my all-time favorite characters.)

Right now I'm reading Reaper Man, the second Death book, which is very good so far. The “esprit de corpse” joke made me laugh out loud. I thought Susan would be in it but turns out she doesn't appear until Soul Music. So I have that to look forward too.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/32221.html

If you're reading this on Dreamwidth, I edited my default icon a little. I think it looks better, but I'm not certain.

Back in January I started this series of books called Discworld. Against all recommendation I'm reading them in publication order, partly because I don't like making decisions and partly because I wanted to see how Pratchett developed as a writer. (Spellcheck appears to recognize his name!) Last week I read Wyrd Sisters, which is my favorite so far. I love Death, all the witches, and Twoflower.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/31917.html

Happy New Year!

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/31621.html

I finished The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. I have A Conspiracy of Kings checked out but I'm not in the mood for it, partly because it's from Sophis's POV. Gen and Irene were so amazing in TKoA. My favorite scene was ( Read more...Collapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/31465.html

I don't suppose I'll be able to participate but here it is!

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/31206.html

I thought today was my 10 year LJ anniversary and then I looked and turns out it was yesterday. I had this post written:

Happy ten year LJ anniversary to me!

Oh and my birthday is tomorrow but that doesn't end in 0 so who cares. The fact that they're a day apart isn't a coincidence. My birthday is near Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving weekend movies come out. The Goblet of Fire movie came out in 2005, and I couldn't bear the thought of only discussing it on the Nickelodeon message boards. So I made a journal with my Cox.net email address that didn't even work, and a week later I finally worked up the courage to make a Yahoo address. I was scared that my dad would get mad if I made my own email. He thought I wanted it to email my friends, but I only wanted to join websites, but I was paranoid that if he knew I was talking to strangers online he would never let me use the computer again.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/30734.html

I've always wanted a butterfly to land on me and today it happened!

I'm reading The Queen of Attolia. I quite like it. I know Gen/Attolia is canon but I was kind of shipping Eddis/Gen until Gen and Eddis brought it up.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/30619.html

From Dickens' Fur Coat and Charlotte's Unanswered Letters by Daniel Pool. Dickens was touring America in 1868.

When a twelve-year-old admirer named Kate Douglas Wiggin (later to be the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm) materialized beside his seat on the train from Portland, Maine, to Boston, a brief light moment was provided. After rhapsodizing over Dickens' novels, she admitted that she did now and then omit "some of the very dull parts." Dickens roared with laughter and pressed for details as to which parts were the the clunkers. She helpfully enumerated them, she later recalled, "dealing these infant blows, under the delusion that I was flinging him bouquets."

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/30075.html

Wow, there's another new American Girl - Maryellen from 1954. When I was first got into the franchise, Kit was new. Her treasury was a fourth grade Christmas present and Kaya's first 3 books were fifth grade. I read Rebecca's books and liked them.

Also, who has 2 thumbs and is finally about to read The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla? Me!

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/29815.html

I am attempting to write another Gentleman Bastard fic for New Year's Resolution. I bought a new notebook and started it yesterday.

I love new notebooks. Just like I love new pencils with unused erasers.

Currently rereading The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, Pink Carnation #10. I can't say how excited I am to finish the series.

This entry was originally posted at http://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/29529.html