So... I joined all these reading challenges and haven't read what I intended, so I feel a bit... like a failure.
Then I went to see what I have actually read:
His Majesty's Dragon
The Unmapped Sea
The Long-Lost Home
The Prince and the Dressmaker
Girl Genius 4 first books
Norah
Daphne
The Gilded Wolves
The Prince's Captive Virgin (DNF)
Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den (DNF)
The Missing of Clairdelune
A Room of One's Own
The Christmasaurus
Daughter of Smoke and Bone,
Days of Blood and Starlight
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Mariel of Redwall
The Medallion
Carter and Lovecraft
A Pilgrimage of Swords
That's 5953 pages, plus Girl Genius that I didn't include and the DNFs. About 200 pages a day. Not bad.
I just wish I had read what I planned to read :-D
I was SUPPOSED to read
The Great and Terrible Beauty
Winter of the Witch
Catcher in the Rye
I Capture the Castle
The Talisman
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Satanic Mechanic
Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (and the previous titles; The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra; The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown; The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star; and Inspector Chopra and the Million-Dollar Motor Car)
Foundrysite
The Ninth Rain
The Bitter Twins
The Poison Song
Priest of Lies
The Poppy War
The Dragon Republic
The Night Circus
The Starless Sea
Ninth House
I'm currently reading
White Fragility
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story
Anna Karenina
Beloved
After Alice
The Essex Serpent
WORST BOOKS
Now, the worst book hands down was Norah. It was even worse than the DNF books and Medallion, which was pretty bad.
What made Norah the worst was the emotional abuse Norah put Seamus through for no acceptable reason, and that was supposed to be OK, we were supposed to feel for her... One of my most hated tropes: a woman is right because she's a woman, not because she's right.
The Prince's Captive Virgin had a bit of that, too, but it was mostly: "A teen-aged woman who knows nothing about anything schools all the adults around her about proper morals, ethics, habits, values, standards, and manners, is wrong about everything and people look at her as if she was so very wise and amazing." Aka YA Mary-Sue.
I didn't wait for everyone to fall in love with her simply because she's Mary-Sue. I especially hate it when the authors makes someone else's employees fawn for this girl. For no other reason than they can see immediately what a suberb human being Mary-Sue is. She just has this air of loveliness, as if Maleficent had put a spell on her that makes everyone love her.
Probably someone was going to take liberties with her because she's just so irresistible. Because men are like that. Sex crazy.
Probably this someone has a girlfriend who is being nasty to this girl, just because she's a bitch. That the author makes her boyfriend/husband unfaithful to her has nothing to do with anything, because she should KNOW Mary-Sue is so above her and her stupid boyfriend that she has nothing to worry about, and also, if she was any good, she'd see Mary-Sue's amazing qualities and would love her. The fact that she doesn't shows just what a stupid, conceited, self-centered, evil bitch she is.
Another trope in this book that made me DNF it is the "Americans know best". We have this young college student who goes to Europe to explain how life and world works for the stupidsavages degenerates. Oh, we are SOOOO grateful, oh wise USonian, let us worship the ground you walk on and change our degenerate ways. Not.
Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den was DNF because of yet another trope hate of mine. A child thinks he knows best, adults are stupid, acts rashly, disobeys, causes plot problems, makes everything harder, and we are supposed to see him as a hero. No. I don't want asshole kids like that in my life. So DNF. Next.
The Medallion was bad because... Uh. Unbelievable plots, unlikable characters, boring story.
And then Christmasaurus. Bullying. Oversimplified solutions to problems. Someone dies and everyone's happy. What?
BEST BOOKS
Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy - that was amazing. I really loved it. There were some stupid bits, like "why the heck don't people communicate!!!", but all in all it was lovely. I even liked the ending.
His Majesty's Dragon - wonderful. I adore the relationship of the dragon and his man. And I love the dragon. Temeraire is... the best. The best dragon ever. Better than Saphira and Falcor. (Now, why did they rename Fuchur is beyond me. What's wrong with Fuchur? That's still his name in the Finnish and Swedish translation. Is it because English speakers would have pronounced the name "fucker"? They could have remedied that by naming him Foochur.)
The Prince and the Dressmaker - this one was delightful! Absolutely delightful!
Now, The Gilded Wolves and The Missing of Clairdelune were good, too. Not the best books I read in January, because The Wolves have some problems and Clairdelune is #2 in a quadrology. So, how ever good it is, it gets valued up or down depending on the last two books, and I have heard #2 is the best in the series... That kind of scares me a bit. (Now, Wolves is the first of a series as well, so it should also be judged after having read the rest of the series...)
I like the Incorrigible Children series (even though it makes me very, very sad to know Katherine Kellgren is dead, and now that will always be associated with the series and make me very, very sad every time I think about the books.) But it too has some problems that makes it not my favorite.
A Room of One's Own is, of course, in a category of one's own :-D
P.S: Best and worst couples of January 2020 :-D
Best couple: Ziri and Liraz <3 p="">Worst couple: Norah and Seamus
Then I went to see what I have actually read:
His Majesty's Dragon
The Unmapped Sea
The Long-Lost Home
The Prince and the Dressmaker
Girl Genius 4 first books
Norah
Daphne
The Gilded Wolves
The Prince's Captive Virgin (DNF)
Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den (DNF)
The Missing of Clairdelune
A Room of One's Own
The Christmasaurus
Daughter of Smoke and Bone,
Days of Blood and Starlight
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Mariel of Redwall
The Medallion
Carter and Lovecraft
A Pilgrimage of Swords
That's 5953 pages, plus Girl Genius that I didn't include and the DNFs. About 200 pages a day. Not bad.
I just wish I had read what I planned to read :-D
I was SUPPOSED to read
The Great and Terrible Beauty
Winter of the Witch
Catcher in the Rye
I Capture the Castle
The Talisman
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Satanic Mechanic
Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (and the previous titles; The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra; The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown; The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star; and Inspector Chopra and the Million-Dollar Motor Car)
Foundrysite
The Ninth Rain
The Bitter Twins
The Poison Song
Priest of Lies
The Poppy War
The Dragon Republic
The Night Circus
The Starless Sea
Ninth House
I'm currently reading
White Fragility
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story
Anna Karenina
Beloved
After Alice
The Essex Serpent
WORST BOOKS
Now, the worst book hands down was Norah. It was even worse than the DNF books and Medallion, which was pretty bad.
What made Norah the worst was the emotional abuse Norah put Seamus through for no acceptable reason, and that was supposed to be OK, we were supposed to feel for her... One of my most hated tropes: a woman is right because she's a woman, not because she's right.
The Prince's Captive Virgin had a bit of that, too, but it was mostly: "A teen-aged woman who knows nothing about anything schools all the adults around her about proper morals, ethics, habits, values, standards, and manners, is wrong about everything and people look at her as if she was so very wise and amazing." Aka YA Mary-Sue.
I didn't wait for everyone to fall in love with her simply because she's Mary-Sue. I especially hate it when the authors makes someone else's employees fawn for this girl. For no other reason than they can see immediately what a suberb human being Mary-Sue is. She just has this air of loveliness, as if Maleficent had put a spell on her that makes everyone love her.
Probably someone was going to take liberties with her because she's just so irresistible. Because men are like that. Sex crazy.
Probably this someone has a girlfriend who is being nasty to this girl, just because she's a bitch. That the author makes her boyfriend/husband unfaithful to her has nothing to do with anything, because she should KNOW Mary-Sue is so above her and her stupid boyfriend that she has nothing to worry about, and also, if she was any good, she'd see Mary-Sue's amazing qualities and would love her. The fact that she doesn't shows just what a stupid, conceited, self-centered, evil bitch she is.
Another trope in this book that made me DNF it is the "Americans know best". We have this young college student who goes to Europe to explain how life and world works for the stupid
Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den was DNF because of yet another trope hate of mine. A child thinks he knows best, adults are stupid, acts rashly, disobeys, causes plot problems, makes everything harder, and we are supposed to see him as a hero. No. I don't want asshole kids like that in my life. So DNF. Next.
The Medallion was bad because... Uh. Unbelievable plots, unlikable characters, boring story.
And then Christmasaurus. Bullying. Oversimplified solutions to problems. Someone dies and everyone's happy. What?
BEST BOOKS
Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy - that was amazing. I really loved it. There were some stupid bits, like "why the heck don't people communicate!!!", but all in all it was lovely. I even liked the ending.
His Majesty's Dragon - wonderful. I adore the relationship of the dragon and his man. And I love the dragon. Temeraire is... the best. The best dragon ever. Better than Saphira and Falcor. (Now, why did they rename Fuchur is beyond me. What's wrong with Fuchur? That's still his name in the Finnish and Swedish translation. Is it because English speakers would have pronounced the name "fucker"? They could have remedied that by naming him Foochur.)
The Prince and the Dressmaker - this one was delightful! Absolutely delightful!
Now, The Gilded Wolves and The Missing of Clairdelune were good, too. Not the best books I read in January, because The Wolves have some problems and Clairdelune is #2 in a quadrology. So, how ever good it is, it gets valued up or down depending on the last two books, and I have heard #2 is the best in the series... That kind of scares me a bit. (Now, Wolves is the first of a series as well, so it should also be judged after having read the rest of the series...)
I like the Incorrigible Children series (even though it makes me very, very sad to know Katherine Kellgren is dead, and now that will always be associated with the series and make me very, very sad every time I think about the books.) But it too has some problems that makes it not my favorite.
A Room of One's Own is, of course, in a category of one's own :-D
P.S: Best and worst couples of January 2020 :-D
Best couple: Ziri and Liraz <3 p="">Worst couple: Norah and Seamus
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