Hello, everyone! It’s Wednesday! That means it is time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. I’ll be answering the following questions:
- What did you read last?
- What are you currently reading?
- What will you read next?
What did you read last?
This was a bit of a slower reading week compared to last week. I haven’t been feeling that great, and I’ve had a lot of things to do that have kept me away from home for several days. Despite these setbacks to my reading, I’ve still managed to finish three books this week. First, I read The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, which was a stunning and unique fantasy tale. It took a bit to get used to the strange narrative structure, but the patience was worth it because the story was beautiful and compelling. Next, I read A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. I meant to have my review up for this yesterday, but between being out of the house quite a bit and not feeling that great, it still isn’t finished. I enjoyed the yearning of the MM romance A LOT, but I was let down by some of the other elements that didn’t feel as fleshed out as they could have been. Finally, I listened to This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. This was a quick listen at only four hours long, and I really enjoyed the beautiful prose and unique premise and format of the book. It was also my last book for the Magical Readathon. So, Padwin has officially earned the required scores for his courses during this term at Orilium!
What was my favorite of the week? My favorite was The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. I’ve never before read a book that went from being a serious DNF to a 5-star read, but somehow this one pulled it off. Check out my review to see what I thought of it!
What are you currently reading?
I’m still currently listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This is a really long book, and it proceeds at the pace of molasses. lol. Oddly enough, though, I’m really enjoying it. It just feels classic, and the characters have really stuck with me. I also just started reading The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper. I’m not far enough into it to have an opinion yet, but if it is anything like the first book in the series, I’m sure I will love it.
What will you read next?
I’ve kind of given up on getting most of my ARC reviews completed on time. I haven’t been in the mood to write reviews, and I’m a few books behind where I wanted to be at the end of August in regard to my ARC pile. I’m just going to keep going at a steady pace and hope that I catch up one day… These are the next books I’d like to read this week, two ARCs and a book I need to read before getting to another ARC of its sequel.
I hope you’ve all had a great week! What have you been reading? Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments!
From a DNF to 5-stars sounds like it’s an incredible book. Will definitely have to check it out. I can totally relate to not feeling up to writing reviews because it’s been a mood for me too lately. I hope you feel better soon and happy reading!
The mood must be contagious. lol. I’ve heard that from some other people too. And yeah! I’ve never had a DNF to 5-star before. It was a weird thing to have happen.
I’m having a hard time wanting to blog at all right now, too, so I get the not wanting to write reviews. And I loved Taste of Gold and Iron, but I do wish there had been SOME spicier scenes. There was a lot of longing, and not a lot of pay off. In my opinion, but it’s still a 5 star for me — I just loved the characters soooo much.
I’ve just been super tired, which has made it hard to focus on reading or writing. I disagree. lol. I loved the longing even more than the spicy scenes. I really liked the scene where they finally did get together in the garden too. So, I didn’t mind how their story ended. The conspiracy plot on the other hand was seriously underwhelming.
I totally understand that! It felt silly after a bit — like it’s OBVIOUSLY the BIL but no one wanted to believe Kadou at all!
Hallo, Hallo, Chris,
Unfortunately, for me my DNFs staid DNFs this past week, if you visit me and read through my #WWWeds post you’ll find out why… however, one in particular was given a HUGE nod of appreciation about the narrator which blessedly has been understood by those who visit with me as even though the story wasn’t exactly my cuppa, the narrator – wow. She had me @ hallo and those accents! (*big smiles*) Sometimes you just have a narrator in your ears who not only gives you a wicked good listen but pulls you into the character(s) in such a lovely visceral kind of way its like you’ve become them for a bit – similar to reading (of course) but sometimes audiobooks feel a bit more immersive like you can have that kind of effect from watching a movie,..
Hearing that a DNF to a 5* read is very impressive – glad for you, it just wasn’t my experience this week, except I did re-discover my love of that narrator, of course! 🙂
Of your list, Jonathan Strange is the tomb of a book I’ve been eyeing to read for YEARS. Even a bit before I became a book blogger (as this is my 9th Year)… one of these days,…
Enjoyed your post – because you blogged about the stories and also included a bit of a life update, too. I do the same and I tend to gravitate towards those who are similarly minded about making meme entries interpersonal. Some just give titles/book covers but that’s not helpful to me as I like to know *something!* about why a book was chosen, being read or not someone’s cuppa. Will be back round — happy reading this week!
Thank you for stopping by my blog! I completely agree that a great narrator can bring the characters to life in an immersive way. I’ve never had a DNF to 5* before. It just clicked for some reason. I struggled for the first 20%, but then I just got it. Once I realized what was going on, I recognized it for the truly great work of art that it was. I’m sorry your DNFs didn’t turn out that way this week. I hope you have a great week of reading this week! 🙂