Weekly Review (3 October - 9 October)

In Weekly Reviews, I summarize the posts I've published over the week, as well as the books I'm currently reading, books I've finished over the week, some upcoming reviews, and any comments I'd like to include about the past week. The weekly review feature was inspired by Small Review and Butterfly Feet Walking on Life.

In case you've missed anything, here's what I posted from Monday, October 3rd through Sunday, October 9th.

Reviews

The Iron Queen, by Julie KagawaSummer's Crossing, by Julie KagawaZombies vs. Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier 

Memes

In My Mailbox, 14th Edition

Features

Guest Post by Jamie at This Writer's World

Interview with Ishita from The Reading Fish

Books Completed

I was a little bit under the weather this weekend, so I stayed in bed a lot and read. All of these books, with the exception of Brightly Woven, were finished Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Brightly Woven, by Alexandra Bracken

The Clockwork Three, by Matthew J. Kirby

I really liked both of these books. Brightly Woven came highly recommended, and I ended up really enjoying it. It was reminiscent of many other books, especially Howl's Moving Castle, but overall it managed to create a unique story exactly to my taste. The Clockwork Three was yet another FOOF book. It was the first book I read in 2011, and I still enjoy it now. I consider this book a turning point in my reading/blogging life, as I reviewed it right as I started to get the hang of blogging, and it was the first (and only) book that I know of that the author had read and liked my review (yay!). I was a little bit nervous that I remembered it being better than it was, but happily, it was just as good now as it was ten months ago. 

In the Hand of the Goddess, by Tamora Pierce
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, by Tamora Pierce
Tris's Book, by Tamora Pierce
I've been plowing through Tamora Pierce's books recently. I think I'm going to take a break once I finish the Circle of Magic books and the Alanna books, but I would like to reread all of her books eventually, and get to the ones published since I was in middle school. In the Hand of the Goddess was good, and although Alanna: The First Adventure was better, I really liked it. Of the two series, its one of the best. The Woman Who Rides like a Man felt very much like 250 pages of filler. Alanna had a lot of character development to go through before completing her journey in Lioness Rampant, but it was bored by much of The Woman Who Rides like a man. It felt like set up for the next book, but not much interesting was happening in the book itself. It redeemed itself in the last 20 pages, though. Tris's Book was good, and although I did not like it as much as I liked Sandry's Book, Pierce did a good job with it, and I'm glad there are more books about the Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar to come. When I finish all of them , I want to do a combined review for the Song of the Lioness Quartet and a combined review for the Circle of Magic Quartet.

Currently Reading

Tales from Grimm and Andersen, by The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian AndersenLioness Rampant, by Tamora PierceDaja's Book, by Tamora Pierce
[EDIT: From what I read tonight, I believe the Tales from Grimm and Andersen are edited. I've heard here and there some of what happens in the darker, original tales. It seems that the editors of this volume kept most of the original text, taking out anything too "PG-13." Although this is good in some ways, I wish I could read the original tales. I know the library has a different edition of works of The Brothers Grimm - I'll have to see if those are any different.]

General Updates

I'm happy to see that I'm steadily getting though my to-review pile. I'm posting on average two reviews a week, and although I'd like tho see that number jump to three in the coming weeks, I'm happy with two. Also, I've gotten though a lot of the books that were worrying me. If I wait too long after reading to book before I review it, I often am left with a bunch of strong feelings, but nothing specific enough to write a whole review on (this is what happened to all the books I read over the summer).

Also, I'm slowly but surely getting through my FOOF books. I haven't been rushing to finish them in the past few weeks, as I don't have any money to buy books with anyway, but now I'm getting toward the end of the stack. Since Bitterblue is coming out on May 1, 2012 (yay!), I've decided to postpone Graceling and Fire until April, replacing them with The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials, since The Death Cure is coming out at the end of October (yay!). I also have to read Across the Universe, The King in the Window, Crown Duel, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret (which I have been saving for last intentionally, so that I can read it at the same time as Wonderstruck). And then my ban will be over! Yay! I'm guessing it'll be about three weeks if I keep the same pace as I have for the rest of the post-fortnight FOOF books.




What's going on this week for you?