Tag: Owls

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The Bookish Owl – Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone Leigh Bardugo

In case you’re not sick and tired of these posts yet (this is the 40th!), here’s Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.

I committed hubris by only bringing a single book with me on my trip to Budapest last week. I always bring 3 or 4 for a five day trip where I’ll get little time to read, and I only ever get through half of one, so I figured I was safe.

I was not.

So obviously I had to scour the guidebook and find the address of an English bookstore in Budapest. The one I found had an excellent selection of Fantasy books. I know this, because I had already read half of said selection, and as such had a hard time picking out a new book. I ended up with this one, because the cover was pretty and it sounded moderately interesting.

As I’m behind on these posts, I can tell you that I already read it. It took me a day. I enjoyed it immensely (and hopefully not just because I was drugged up on painkillers after a chaotic trip through airport security with a sprained wrist) and I’m definitely getting the other books in the series the next time there’s a good sale.

Shadow and Bone
by Leigh Bardugo

Soldier. Summoner. Saint.

Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold―a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite―and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

Shadow and Bone Leigh Bardugo

 

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The Bookish Owl – Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Feet of Clay Terry Pratchett

Here’s Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett.

I’m actually already done with this, because I started it just before going on a trip to Budapest, and as I had already dropped off Artemis at his new owl-sitters (who have now been cured of any desire to get an owl of their own), I did not actually have an owl available for a photo.

So while Artemis was busy traumatizing my friends’ cats, I was rereading another of my favorite Discworld books. I think this might be my second-favorite City Watch book. Not sure what I love most: Vimes setting traps for assassins for sport, Vetinari being absolutely delirious from arsenic poisoning, or Nobby being frantically convinced that his boss will cut his head off if he, Nobby, is made king (“Mr Vimes’d go spare!”).

Feet of Clay
by Terry Pratchett

For members of the City Watch, life consists of troubling times, linked together by periods of torpid inactivity. Now is one such troubling time. People are being murdered, but there’s no trace of anything alive having been at the crime scene. Is there ever a circumstance in which you can blame the weapon not the murderer? Such philosophical questions are not the usual domain of the city’s police, but they’re going to have to start learning fast…

Feet of Clay Terry Pratchett

 

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The Bookish Owl – The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Ladies and gentlemen, I will now be reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman.

Let’s hope it’s not filled with invisible words.

This series was recommended to me on Twitter (see, Twitter is good for something) and the author is new to me… meaning I don’t really have anything to write for this post. It’s so much easier to come up with stuff when you have expectations.

So I’ll just give you a random owl fact:

Did you know that you can tell whether an owl is nocturnal or diurnal by the eyes? If they got those scary, totally black eyes, they’re nocturnal. If you can see a yellow iris, they’re diurnal. Meaning Artemis, the fellow featured on all my book photos, is diurnal.

However, no one’s told him that, so I still have to deal with night hooting.

The Invisible Library
by Genevieve Cogman

One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction…
 
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it’s already been stolen. 
 
London’s underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.
 
Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself…

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

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The Bookish Owl – Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Men at Arms Terry Pratchett

Today’s owl photo features Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett!

And yes, I’m still alive (hurray!), but both my reading and my blog maintenance is suffering from being extremely busy. When I haven’t been working on making my writing deadline later this week, I have been fending off drunk guys at renaissance fairs and blowing stuff up in Dungeons & Dragons.

I wish I could say real life has been keeping me busy, but as you can tell, I have been going all-in with the make-believe.

Back to the book:
This is yet another Discworld reread. Men at Arms is the second book in the City Watch storyline, and while it’s not as great as ‘Guards! Guards!’, it’s still pretty damn great. I love the mismatched duo of Cuddy and Detritus, and Vimes, Colon, Nobby and Carrot are their usual wonderfully dysfunctional selves.

Angua is great as well, but the poor girl is really a bit too sane for her new friends.

Men at Arms
by Terry Pratchett

The City Watch needs MEN! But what it’s got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), Lance-constable Angua (a woman… most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving).

And they need all the help they can get, because someone in Ankh-Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas – about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny. And the problem with destiny is, of course, that she is not always careful where she points her finger. One minute you might be minding your own business on a normal if not spectacular career path, the next you might be in the frame for the big job, like saving the world…

Men at Arms Terry Pratchett

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The Bookish Owl – Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

Tempests and Slaughter Tamora Pierce

Next up on my reading list is Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce.

I have heard a lot of good things about Tamora Pierce, but I have yet to read any of her books. I fell in love with the cover of this one and my friend told me it could easily be my introduction to this author, so I’m not just reading it because I’m the type to judge a book by its cover.

(It really is pretty, though, isn’t it?)

All joking aside, it really is time for me to read more new authors, so I’m hoping this one will be good.

Tempests and Slaughter
by Tamora Pierce

Arram Draper is a boy on the path to becoming one of the realm’s most powerful mages. The youngest student in his class at the Imperial University of Carthak, he has a Gift with unlimited potential for greatness–and for attracting danger. At his side are his two best friends: Varice, a clever girl with an often-overlooked talent, and Ozorne, the “leftover prince” with secret ambitions. Together, these three friends forge a bond that will one day shape kingdoms. And as Ozorne gets closer to the throne and Varice gets closer to Arram’s heart, Arram begins to realize that one day soon he will have to decide where his loyalties truly lie. 

In the Numair Chronicles, readers will be rewarded with the never-before-told story of how Numair Salmalín came to Tortall. Newcomers will discover an unforgettable fantasy adventure where a kingdom’s future rests on the shoulders of a talented young man with a knack for making vicious enemies.

Tempests and Slaughter Tamora Pierce