I can't believe it is Friday already! Where has the week gone???
Today I am only going to talk about two books. Truthfully, I read about 10 more but they were all picture books that I read with my nieces and none of them were really worth talking about so I'm just going to skip over that, with one exception:
The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem
This book contains four short stories all about the colony of mice that live in Brambly Hedge. This book was ridiculously adorable. Think Beatrix Potter but with the addition of illustrations of the insides of the trees where the mice live, like dollhouses in trees, complete with circular staircases and well stocked pantries. The girls begged for more stories when we finished. I believe there is an even bigger collection of stories that I will have to hunt down.
The only book I finished on my own this week was Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan. This was the gift I received from the Christmas book exchange my book club did. I had said that I was looking for some new fantasy to delve into and my santa (who also happens to be one of my best friends) delivered! I had a bit of a funny experience with this book. I sat down last Sunday afternoon to read (I was about 150 pages in) and as I read, it dawned on me that I had no idea what was happening or who half of the characters were. As I thought through the previous week I realized that this was the book I had been picking up when I was distracted or not fully engaged in reading or when I only had a few minutes. I had read 150 pages without really taking in any of the story. I had a choice. I could persevere and hope I figured it out or I could go back and slow down and truly absorb the story. That's what I chose to do. I started rereading, I looked up the words I didn't know (thanks to the handy glossary in the back), I made sure I understood the world, the clans, and the different races. It was a much slower process the second time. But it was so worth it! This is the beginning of a six book series and Sullivan did a great job establishing the world and the relationship between the different people and people groups. (Also, shout out to Michael Sullivan who wrote all six books before he published the first one, take note Patrick Rothfuss!) I'm not going to give you a synopsis but if you like epic fantasy definitely give this one a read. It is worth your time (even if you have to read it twice) and I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
I have declared this weekend (Friday-Monday) a "Catch-Up Readathon" because my library book stack is getting out of hand and I went to the used bookstore on Tuesday to buy a birthday gift for one of my nieces. I didn't buy a birthday gift but I did walk out with a stack of books for me. So...that happened...anyway, point being, I have a lot of reading to do. So here is my plan for the long weekend:
I have very possibly overestimated my abilities but I am going to give it my best shot!
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