Top 5 Wednesday November 30th: Favorite Villains

Top 5 Wednesday is created by Gingerreadslainey. Each week there is a new bookish topic, where everyone can join and create their top 5 list. You can find more information on the Top 5 Wednesday goodreads group. This week’s topic is:

Favorite Villains

-It’s been a little while since we’ve done the villain topic, and this one will definitely be a recurring one in the group as there are always new villains to talk about. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO AVOID HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS!!!!

I love a dark Villain, and I love to read from their point of view. They are often so fascinating and complex.

Sebastian from The Mortal Instrument by Cassandra Clare

He is crazy. The way he speaks towards his Clary makes me shiver.

Capa Barsavi & the Gray King from The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Capa Barsavi is the ruler of Camorr’s underworld. One day the mysterious Gray King shows up trying to destroy Capa Barsavi and his criminal empire. They both are powerful ruthless criminal masterminds.

AIDAN from Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Is AIDAN a villain? He does some bad things, and for the people on board the starship he is definitely bad. (I know AIDAN is not a he, but ehhh).

Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

I love Count Olaf, to me he is the ultimate villain for a kids book. It’s funny every time he appears in the books, and none of the adults believes the children when they tell them that the new person is Count Olaf in disguise.

Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

She is the crazy ruler and queen of Luna. She is power hungry tyrann that goes to war against earth. Like all Lunar people she has the power to manipulate bioelectrical energy (had to wiki that haha). The Lunar Chronicle is based on fairy tales. Queen Levana is based on the evil Queen from Snow White, she is obsessed with power and staying young and beautiful.

❤ -Rakel

Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Published: July 27th 2006 by Bantam Spectra

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Thieves

Pages: 500

Language read: English

Format read: Audiobook

Rating: 5+++ stars 

Synopsis: In this stunning debut, author Scott Lynch delivers the wonderfully thrilling tale of an audacious criminal and his band of confidence tricksters. Set in a fantastic city pulsing with the lives of decadent nobles and daring thieves, here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival that is one part “Robin Hood”, one part Ocean’s Eleven, and entirely enthralling… more on Goodreads.

– I recommend to not read the rest of the synopsis –

Warning! Warning! This is one of the best books I have ever read!

I wanted to read this book because the synopsis sounded interesting, I really like thieves and the criminal underworld. I got a big association to the thieves guild in The Elder Scrolls games, and that is one of my favorite parts to play through in the games.

In the beginning of this book I was very confused and didn’t understand what was going on. That was until I figured out how the book was structured and that the story is not linear. It alternates between Locke’s childhood, and when he is an adult and The Gentleman Bastards are trying to steal from one of the richest men in Camorr (this might be more clear in the written book than the audiobook). After I figured out this, I loved the story, from the beginning to the end.

I love the story, I love the characters, I love the world, I love the writing and I love Scott Lynch.

The writing style is very descriptive, and that makes for a highly rich world building. The atmosphere in this book is incredible. I love the city of Camorr where the story takes place. In my head the city isn’t very vibrant but it is dark and mysterious. I know the city is based on old Venice, and you really get the feel of that in the book. There are also a lot of details about life and politics in Camorr, especially in the city’s underworld where the majority of the story takes place.

An example on the world building is that the author has made his own religion. It has details about the priests and the different gods, and how people practice this religion (or religions?).

I also loved the story, it has so many twists and turns. The Gentlemen bastards find themselves in so much trouble. This story is highly entertaining and suspenseful, I couldn’t stop listening.

The Gentleman bastards, the group of characters in this book, are now one of my favorite characters. I love that we got to see a lot of backstory for them. That made them so much more real and detailed, and it gave so much to the character development.

A weird little thing I appreciated is that there is female priests and fighters. It’s typical that there are only men in those positions/characters.

It was a pretty long audiobook, but I didn’t want it to end. I wasn’t even halfway through when I started to dread for it to end. I want to start with the second book asap, but also save it for later, haha (as of publishing this review I have started reading Red Seas Under Red Skies). I really want to know more about Locke and Co and this amazing world Scott Lynch has made.

I fell in love with this world and the characters. If a person is asking me what my favorite book is, I now have an answer. I will definitely re-read this book when I’m finished with the rest of the Gentleman Bastards books.

❤ -Rakel

A Trip To The Library + Library Haul

Yesterday I went on a trip to my city’s main library. I really love the library, I used to go there all the time to hang out and to borrow books. Unfortunately the last years I haven’t been able to use it at all, because it has been difficult for me to get there. Now I’m finally healthy enough to go, and that brings me so much joy.

I also wanted to write a post about it to remind people to use the library if they can. Libraries are awesome, and I think it is very important that we use and support our local libraries. From now on I’m going to borrow more and buy less books, especially if my library has a copy of the one I want to read.

The library is located right by the river, in this beautiful building they call Papirbredden. Papirbredden was open for the public in 2007, and the area around has grown since then with a lot of new modern buildings. The building contains not only the library but also a cafe, a bookshop, and it is the school campus for the university college in town.

I don’t have a picture of the other side of the building, so I borrowed one from their wiki page HERE. This view of the building from the other side of the river is beautiful.

Papirbredden is one of my favorite architectural builds in the city. I love the mix of the bricks from the old paper factory that used to be there and the new modern glass building.

My final test for the library is to check out their fantasy section. I was pleasantly surprised that they have a good amount of fantasy books in English.

Before I found the fantasy section, I found the section with books to learn languages. I’m currently trying to learn french by myself online. I grabbed the biggest book on the shelves, and looked through it. It is a book on french grammar, which is just what I needed. I didn’t have time to look through the rest of the books because I was so eager to find the fantasy section.

I borrowed The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, because I want to read it now in December. I also want to read Morning Star the last book in the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. It was already loaned out, so I’m on a waiting list for it.

– Do You Use Your Local Library?

❤ -Rakel

 

Top 5 Wednesday November 23: Books I Want to Re-Read

Top 5 Wednesday is created by Gingerreadslainey. Each week there is a new bookish topic, where everyone can join and create their top 5 list. You can find more information on the Top 5 Wednesday goodreads group. This week’s topic is:

Books I Want to Re-Read

-Though it seems like we are all constantly chasing the next upcoming release, let’s take a trip down memory lane and talk about some books that we’d like to re-visit.

This is my first T5W in a long while, and the first one I do in November.

I rarely re-read books, I think it is because I don’t have many books I want to re-read. I wasn’t a big reader until 3 years ago, and a lot of the books I have read are pretty fresh in my head. The only books I have re-read are the Harry Potter series. This week’s theme made me realise that I actually have some books I want to re-read. I thought it would be hard to find books for my list, but it actually was pretty easy.

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

It would be fun to re-read the hunger games books, and watch the movies after. I haven’t watched the 2 last movies. I need to watch them soon.

The Ugliest series by Scott Westerfeld

When I read these books a few years ago, I really liked them. I’m not sure I would like them as much as I did, if I read them now.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

This is my favorite book. I only read it a couple of months ago, I fell in love with the story, characters and the world. I’m currently reading book 2 the series. I’m 100% sure I’m going to re-read this book i 2017.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy 

I read this book back in high-school. I remember that we were going to watch the movie in class, but I liked the synopsis so much that I bought the book and read it instead. My teacher allowed me to read by myself instead of watching the movie, hehe. I remember liking it, it would be fun to re-read it in the future. If I can find my copy, I don’t know where it is.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

I really loved this series when I read it. I had a bind up of all the books in one. The bind up was really big, I never finish all of the books in it. It would be fun to re-read and finally finish them. Because the books are hilarious. Sadly I don’t know where it is. All of my books from high-school have disappeared after I moved.

-Which books did you choose for this week’s T5W?

Down The TBR Hole

I read Imaginaryplacesonpaper’s Down the TBR Hole blog post. I thought it was such a good idea that I wanted to do it myself. I think she is the maker of this TAG/book meme and HERE is her post.

I’m not sure how often I will be doing this, maybe once a month. Currently I have 256 books on my To-Read shelf on Goodreads. Some of the books I own a copy of, but majority of the books I don’t own. There is a lot of random books on this list, I bet there is some that I don’t want to read anymore.

“Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!” –Lost In A Story

The Rules:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

1 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I don’t need to read the synopsis to know that I still want to read this book.

Keep

2 The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Before I read the synopsis I was like, what is this, why did I want to read this book. But now I kind of want to read it. I’m not sure.

Keep (for now)

3 Hunger by Knut Hamsun 

Norwegian title: Sult

This is a Norwegian classic. I still want to read it. 

Keep

4 Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Norwegian title: Ut og stjæle hester

Another book from a Norwegian author. I might read this some day, and I will always remember the title, but for now it has to go. 

Go

5 Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

I don’t remember this book. After reading the synopsis I’m interested in it. This is a book that would be great to read on my kindle I think. This is also written by an Australian author. 

Keep

 

 

❤ -Rakel

The Goodreads TAG

This is a fun TAG to do because I love Goodreads. I probably use it every day, either for logging my reads or adding new books. If you want to add me you can find my profile HERE. 

What was the last book you marked as ‘read’?

The Sea of Monster by Rick Riordan. I gave it 4 stars.

What are you currently reading?

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

What was the last book you marked as ‘TBR’?

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

What book do you plan to read next?

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons

The 2 books I chose to read for the Tome Topple Readathon

Do you use the star rating system?

I do. I pretty much use the Goodreads star rating system. I want to start rating with half stars, and not only full stars.

Are you doing a 2016 Reading Challenge?

My challenge for this year was originally 40 books, but I changed it to 50 halfway through the year I think. I have read 46 books so far.

Do you have a wishlist?

My wishlist is so long. Probably every book on my To-Read shelves on Goodreads. I also have a wishlist on Bookdepository and amazon haha.

What book do you plan to buy next?

The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. And I’m planning on getting a lot of books for christmas.

Do you have any favorite quotes, would you like to share a few?

I’m not a quote person. The only quote I remember is this because I found it very funny.

“Even a strong man can succumb to the wiles of a pretty girl with pointy shoes.”
― Joseph Delaney, Attack of the Fiend

Who are your favorite authors?

J.K. Rowling obviously

Jules Verne

Scott Lynch

Marissa Meyer

Have you joined any groups?

I have joined:

Top 5 Wednesday

Tome Topple Readathon

Norway

+++ some more groups

I must say that the only group I use is Top 5 Wednesday

 

❤ -Rakel

 

15th Favorite of the Moment #3

15th Favorites of the Moment is a monthly bookish favorites TAG made by me. Instead of doing the monthly favorites at the end of the month. I’m going to do it half way through the month on the 15th with 15 questions.

1 Favorite Book

Red Seas Under Red Skies, book 2 in The Gentleman Bastards series. Book 1 The Lies of Locke Lamora was my favorite last month. I’m not far into book 2 and I already loving it.

2 Favorite Book Character

I don’t have a new character. It is still Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen from The Gentleman Bastards. 

3 Favorite Book Cover

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff & The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore & Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco & Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh & Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

4 Favorite Book on Your Wish List

Heartless by Marissa Meyer & Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan & Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

5 Favorite Book Genre

I was reading thrillers and more spooky books at the end of October. I really enjoyed reading thrillers, and it’s not a genre I usually pick up and read.

6 Favorite Place to Read

In bed, and listening to audiobooks while doing things.

7 Favorite Food

Persimmons. It is my favorite fruit, I can eat several of them every day. I ❤ PERSIMMON! Sadly they aren’t being sold a lot in the stores here.

8 Favorite Drink

Hot chocolate, same as the last 15th favorites.

9 Favorite Random Thing

I fell in love with this dark blue bookcase from IKEA. I want to have a bookcase at my boyfriend’s place, but sadly I don’t think he has room for it. I need a place for my books if I’m going to live with him. 

10 Favorite TV Series / Movie

Me and my BF have been watching Luke Cage on Netflix. The show is good, but Jessica Jones is still my favorite in that universe.

11 Favorite Youtuber / Twitch Streamer

Deligracy. She is a Youtuber and Twitch streamer that mainly plays the Sims. She is really good at building and interior design. I love her personality, she is such a sweet person. I also really love her Sims Letsplays, they are always full of drama and have fun and dramatic story lines.

12 Favorite Music / Podcast

A lot of youtubers have been talking about Hamilton, and I’m like ehh I don’t really like musicals. But there is one song that got stuck in my head, and I have been singing it constantly lately. Now I actually like some of the Hamilton songs.

Another random song that’s been stuck in my head is Jolene by Dolly Parton haha.

13 Favorite Game / Board Game

City Living expansion pack for The Sims 4. I have written more about it in my Life Update #3 post HERE. The update has a lot of pictures from my game, if you are interested.

14 Favorite Blogger or Other Pages on the Internet

I don’t have one.

15 Favorite Thing You Have Done Lately

This is easy, my birthday party that I had last Saturday. I had a small party with 3 girlfriends. We ate a lot of food and cake, and talked for hours. It was so much fun.

I’m the one to the right. I was wearing a dress, but you can’t see because of the blanket haha, yeah I was cold. 

Tome Topple Readathon To Be Read

Hi I’m participating in the second round of the Tome Topple Readathon. This readathon is all about the big books, where the main focus is to read or start a book(s) with over 500 pages. You can get more information from the Creator of this readathon Thoughts on Tomes HERE or the Goodreadspage HERE. The readathon runs from November 18 to December 1.

I love readathons they are so much fun. This might be the last one I do in 2016. Let me know if there is a readathon for December, a Christmas themed one would be awesome. I’m looking forward to read some big books at the end of the year. I’m not being too ambitious with this list, but remember these books are long.

1. Read more than 1 tome

Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons & Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

2.Read a graphic novel

I would love to read a graphic novel but I don’t own one that is over 500 pages.

3.Read a tome that’s part of a series

Both Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons & Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are parts of a serie.

4.Buddy read a tome (use goodreads and twitter to find buddies!)

I really want to buddy read with you guys. Leave me a comment if you want to buddy read with me.

5.Read an adult novel

Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina is an adult novel.

-Are you planning on participating in the Tome Topple Readathon?

Life Update #3

Life Update are personal posts I do once in awhile to update you on what’s been going on in my life recently. What I have been doing, my interests and what is currently happening in my life. You can find the other Life Update posts under “Personal” in the archives.

-My mom and dad is on a business trip to China with my dad’s brewery. They are there for over a week. Finally I got some alone time with my boyfriend, we have had some nice days for ourselves in the house.

-A little update on the blog design. I have made some new buttons for my social media. You can find them on the right side of the blog. Let me know if you like them.

-As you guys might know, I love The Sims games. The new expansion pack to the game City Living came out November 3rd, and I have been obsessed. Sims 4 now has apartments and a whole new beautiful world, the city San Mayshuno. It is so much fun to play! My sims has now moved to the big city and is renting an apartment. 

Mika’s apartment, the love interest for one of my sims. 

I also made an Indian inspired restaurant on one of the rooftops that came with the expansion. 

Wow this was a lot of Sims, but as you can see I have been playing it a lot lately.

-I made a profile on Netgalley to test it out. I have read my first book, Digital Idols. I didn’t really like the book though, but you can find the review here. I’m thinking about maybe reading one Netgalley book each month or something, I don’t know yet.

-It has been snowing a lot here in Norway this week. I really need some warm shoes and a new winter jacket. I think it’s weird that we always are shocked when the first snow is coming, like it happens every year. People haven’t changed the tires on their cars, even some police cars got stuck because of that.

-My grandfather’s funeral is today, he died earlier this week. I’m very sad he is gone and I can’t attend his funeral, It’s impossible for me to go. My grandparents live on the other side of the country and it is a 9 hour drive. I’ll be thinking about him a lot today.

-It was my birthday yesterday, I’m 24 now. I got a few books as presents, from my parents I got Gemina and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and a vegetable cooking book. Plus some other small things. From my boyfriend I got two notebooks, flowers and the book The Romanovs: 1613-1918. I also got some other things from friends etc. Thank you so much everyone for all the gifts.

-I’m having a little “party” tomorrow with some girlfriends. We are going to eat some good food and cake. I feel a bit weird about celebrating but I have been looking forward to it for so long because I haven’t celebrated my birthday in years.

-One last random thing. I fell in love with this blue bookcase from IKEA. The bookcase I’m using now is my parents and it is crammed full of books. I don’t know where to put this bookcase but I really want it. Actually I want it to be in my boyfriend’s apartment so I can have some of my things there. He doesn’t have the biggest apartment so I don’t think it will fit anywhere.

-What has happened in your life recently?

Review: Digital Idols by Jon Frater

Published: September 2nd 2016 by Desperate Measures Press

Language read: English

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 246

Format: Ebook

Rating: 1/5 stars 

Synopsis: In the depths of the Tarterus Corporation, a unique experiment in bioengineering has gone wrong . . . and right. The world’s economy is controlled by building sized “Megabrains” which can only be controlled by cloned “Genetics.” A young pair of twins, specially created by the world-regulating Bioengineering Guild, has just discovered their roles in a plot to micromanage the world’s population . . . and want no part of it. Blade Runner meets Barbarians at the Gate as Norma and Cloris go head-to-head to decide the fate of the world–and settling their family feud is the only way to do it!

In a call-back to “The City of Iron and Light,” which appeared in Chronicle Worlds: Feyland, Digital Idols is the story of Norma Phastlight, the only Genetic to ever walk out of the Tarterus Crop.’s laboratories and try to navigate the cold, hard, world of 22nd century hypercapitalist America. – Goodreads

---

 

I was curious about Netgalley so I made a profile. This book looked interesting so I choose it for my first read and review for them. I’m planning on reading more books from Netgalley, maybe one book a month. I don’t know yet.

I’ll start by saying that I didn’t like this book that much. I had problems with the writing style, I was confused a lot when I was reading it. It took me half the book to understand some things and get into the story, and even then I got confused. I felt like a big question mark throughout the whole story.

There was a lot of new futuristic words and things in the book, like Datalink, Neuro-Tail, Megabrain, Genetics, etc. The author didn’t explain well enough for me to understand all of it at first. I kind of figured it out, but it took me a while.

I also had problems understanding and envision when Norma(the main character) was “Linked Up”, and how it worked. I wish I could tell you more about it but I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like being uploaded to the internet and the mind somehow materializes inside it.

I kind of felt that this book was all over the place and that it was very messy. The story line kept changing and I had no clue where the story was going.

I must say though that the story had some interesting elements, and I wouldn’t have finished this book if it wasn’t for the story. I liked the futuristic world, I love good worldbuilding so I want to know more about this world and its backstory.

In the beginning it wasn’t hard to follow the side characters, but then we got introduced to so many characters. For me they all blended into each other due to lack of character development. I had problems distinguish them from each other. The only one we got a bit of backstory on was Jack. I think that made her my favorite.

In conclusion, I only finished this book because I was curios about the story. I wanted to see how it was going to end, and hoped it would grow on me. Sadly it didn’t, so I gave this book 1 stars. I didn’t like the writing, poor character development, confusing, and the only redeeming part was the potential of the world and the story. This book was just not for me.

One more thing. I guess it isn’t that important, but I really don’t understand the title of this book. I understand DIGITAL, but what’s up with IDOLS? I don’t get it.

 

I received this copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.