the outlander series

A few years ago, I began reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I really liked the books, although I remember being annoyed by a few characters and that the series seemed to get bogged down somewhere, and that by the time I finished The Fiery Cross, I needed a break before reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Unfortunately, the break never ended and I still haven't read it, and now An Echo in the Bone is out. Damn.

So I re-read plot summaries of the first two books on Wikipedia, but I still don't feel prepared to read the sixth book. I think I am going to have to re-read the whole series if I want to read on, and I definitely do. According to Amazon, this is a total of 6,882 pages in mass market paperback format, not including the newest novel, which is a hefty 832 pages in hardcover. So, in other words, I have a LOT of reading to do.

I wonder if there are any other readers with the same predicament as me. Perhaps an Outlander challenge is called for? We could have a year to re-read the whole series and by then the newest installment will probably be out in paperback! I'm a super new blogger with just one follower (hello, Diane!) at the moment, so I don't know if my challenge would attract much attention, but I think it would be fun.

review: the hunger games by suzanne collins

I think I am the last person in the whole world to read The Hunger Games. I have been holding out because I couldn't figure out when the paperback version was coming out and I am cheap as hell. However, I got a good Borders coupon last week so I decided just to buy it. Anyway, I just finished it- like ten minutes ago. And I am not sure what to say, exactly, other than, "Holy crap!"

If I hadn't had plans today, I would have read it straight through. I started it very late last night and only went to bed because I had to be up early. I read pages whenever I got a chance throughout the day, and I devoured the remaining chapters when I got home. I did not expect to be grabbed like that by this book- like I haven't been by any book in quite a while. The lady at the bookstore told me I would want the next book immediately after I finished the first, and she was right. If I hadn't already spent a ridiculous amount of money on books this month, it would be on its way from Amazon right now... instead, I will give myself a week or two to really want it.

If you, like me, have been living under a rock for a while now, The Hunger Games is kind of like Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" meets The Giver meets Lord of the Flies or maybe Battle Royale, combined with the addictive, compulsive readability of Harry Potter.  At first, the dystopian world is fascinating and you want to keep reading so more details will emerge, and after that, the action is nonstop. It is, in a word, gripping.

Ooh, and I get to knock one off of my list for the two YA Dystopian lit challenges I'm involved in now. Bonus!

review: affinity by sarah waters

I just finished Affinity, my third Sarah Waters book. I don't love it as much as Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith, but I did love it and can wholeheartedly recommend it to you if dark and creepy prisons, mysterious spirits, secrets, death, madness and obsession are up your alley. It's a dark book, really well-written and at times the pervasive sense of dread crept off of the page and into my brain. And with my attention span- a book HAS to be good to keep me reading until 5 am. I think it was a good choice for October. I also think that Sarah Waters is now officially one of my Favorite Writers.

reading progress

The night before last I finished Philip Pullman's The Ruby In The Smoke, which I enjoyed for what it was- a nice little Victorian YA mystery story. I guess there were a couple of plot issues that I found confusing, and characters kind of seemed to appear and disappear at random- like, "Oh, here I am, revealing a key plot point but now I have worn out my welcome in this novel so I will disappear and you will find out 50 pages later that I left and then died." 

I still liked it, and I'm going to read the next installment, and I think I'll do a proper review when I finish the series. They're quick, enjoyable, easy reads, and I would have loved them if I'd actually read them when I was a kid, but I had a weird edition and for some reason was perpetually turned off by the cover. Lesson learned!

Anyway, the Victorian setting helped paved the way for my next read, Affinity by Sarah Waters. I lovelovelove Sarah Waters. Affinity is wonderful and perfectly dark and spooky for October. I'm feeling a serious lack of Halloween spirit right now, and I don't know why. I need to watch some scary movies and read some more Poe and Lovecraft. I decorated the apartment for Halloween back in September, and I keep baking pumpkin bread and wearing cozy autumnal sweaters and doing all sorts of dorky fall things that should make me feel happy and Halloweeny, but it's not working! Affinity might be doing the trick, though. I dunno.

audiobooks

I've never really liked audiobooks. I think the last time I listened to one was when I was about 12 and just getting into Harry Potter (by which I mean I was in the early throes of full-blown obsession). After I read all the books available, I needed MORE! So I checked out the audiobook versions from the library and would listen to them around the house and at night before I went to sleep. I remember it being very relaxing. As I got older, though, I guess I lost patience for being read to. Part of me also feels like listening to an audio book shouldn't count as reading. But right now I am taking a Library Assistant class out in the suburbs, and because of the time of the class I end up having to drive about an hour and a half in boring-as-hell rush hour traffic to get there. I hate the radio and I'm sick of just listening to music, so I've decided to give audiobooks one more try.

Right now I'm trying to load Augusten Burrough's Dry onto my iPhone for today's trip, but if it doesn't finish syncing soon, I'm gonna have to go without. I picked Dry because I'm doing a long and crazy awesome challenge on Goodreads and I need a book that has a one-word title, a book that starts with a D and a book that deals with issues of addiction, and this book is a triple threat! I can fit it in a variety of tasks for the challenge, which gives me a little more flexibility. So come on, iPhone! Hurry the hell up!

In the meantime- what are some really good audiobooks? Books that just really WORK in this particular format?

weekly geeks 10/14

This is my first post participating in Weekly Geeks. This week's assignment is to ask for and give recommendations!

So, I'm looking for recommendations of Victorian literature- as in, something actually written during and set in the Victorian era. I'm sure I could easily find a list somewhere, but I'd love personalized recommendations and descriptions. I read a

 lot of contemporary fiction with a Victorian setting, but I've read very little of the real thing!

That said, I've compiled a list for you of a few of my favorite novels with a Victorian setting. 

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

This is one of my favorite books ever. Sarah Waters evokes such a remarkable sense of time and place that you feel you are there with Nancy at her parents' seafood restaurant, watching the object of her affections on stage at the theater and making her way through London's seedy sexual underworld. It's an exploration of Victorian sexuality and the place of women in Victorian society

 and just a damn good book. It's sensational, in more ways than one. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray

I've read a lot of criticism of these books, but to me they were just delicious brain candy, an elaborate Gothic fantasy set at a Victorian boarding school in the form of big thick books that I never wanted to end. The series has its ups and downs and the first book is probably the best, but I really, thoroughly enjoyed them.

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

I just read this, and I think the series is going to quickly become a favorite. I wish I'd read these as a kid. The book opens with a mysterious death and the deception and mystery just keeps piling up, and I love the gloomy Victorian setting.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

I don't love Fingersmith quite as much as Tipping the Velvet, but I still love it lots and lots. Sue Trinder is an orphan and a well-trained pickpocket who is enlisted to take part in a sleazy scheme to con a lonely young girl in a dark, mysterious mansion. It's like Oliver Twist meets Jane Eyre meets something a million times more awesome. Once again, I love the exploration of the seedy London underworld and the creepy Gothic elements and the touches of romance.

dystopia!

Today I learned about two YA dystopian novel challenges that are going on at Bart's Bookshelf and Books on the Nightstand. This genre has been a favorite of mine since I read The Giver in fifth grade. I probably read that book thirty times. I'm not sure what about it captivated me so much, but it remains one of my favorite books to this day.

So, I need to read at least three books set in dystopian societies and written for a young adult audience. My three are:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. Uglies by Scott Westerfield

3. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I have Uglies in my possession as we speak, but I'll need to get my hands on the other two.

I'll continue to update this post throughout the challenge, reporting on my progress.