Nathalie

Ultimately very basic and incredibly easy to summarize. If you ever read any other self help book there won't be a lot of new things here. It's a good idea, and one I already did myself anyway, but outside of a few sentences that I thought “huh, never really thought about it that way”, I didn't gain much from this.

A very interesting, albeit frustrating, followup to Blood, Sweat And Pixels, in which we get another look inside the video game industry and how some great games were (or weren't) made. It's actually a wonder how many even get released at all, and even more that they still turn out good! Well done research and well written. Ideal as audiobook as well.

Timing wise it was fun to listen to the Ken Levine and Bioshock story and that they were still awaiting news for his new game, and then the trailer for Judas came out at The Game Awards.

Though this is a fictional novel, it is heavily inspired by Carrie Fisher's own life and issues, with the names changed. There's a couple of scenes in here that she references in terms of her own life in some of her memoirs, so it was nice to recognise those.

It however didn't really engage me all that much, and I can't quite put my finger on as to why that is exactly. I liked the first part (the first 30 days), but then it lost me somewhere after that. It isn't a really long book though, so that wasn't a huge dealbreaker.

Some “huh, didn't think of it that way” parts, but overall very obvious. Maybe great if you really have no idea on where to start when it comes to getting better sleep and nutrition, or when you wonder where all your time goes to do anything productive.

I have also learned that I have an irrational dislike of the word “biohacking” lmao.

This book definitely was more of a random pick-up, as I know Claudia Gray mainly from her ventures into the Star Wars galaxy and I wasn't a fan of the one YA novel of hers that I did read. This however, was a pleasant surprise. Very enjoyable story, and anything that makes me not mind a romance is a-okay for me. (She IS pretty good at getting characters to start liking eachother, even if they start out from an inseemingly possible place).

If I had one gripe, it's more a nitpick about the audiobook version. The book switches POV between each chapter (so you alternate between Noemi and Abel), and each of them had their own voice actor. So it's just a little weird to have both actors have to do several other characters you were already used to from the other actor. (And Kasey Lee Huizinga's “male voices” all kinda sounded alike.) But this is of course, details!

I have a few YouTubers that I enjoy and follow, but not a lot I'd buy books for. Emma Blackery however, I find to be worth it. She's also around my age which makes her more “hashtag relatable” to me.

As good as a book this was, I wasn't the targeted demographic for it. Teens and young teens will get a ton out of this, while I more enjoyed the personal anecdotes and just the general motivational messages in it. Still very enjoyable and interesting throughout.

Considering I got through this relatively sized book in 2 days (an evening, a day, and a morning), it's safe to say that I greatly enjoyed it. Even moreso than Fool's Errand. Whereas the latter really tugged at my heartstrings at a certain point, this one felt more exciting and yet at the same time, its strength lied in its quieter moments. It starts strong, and it continues to be strong until the very end.
Though this might be the first of the books that doesn't really have an “ending” ending. It sort of just stops, and the only caveat I have about that is that it makes it harder to not immediately jump to Fool's Fate. But I shall resist the urge!

Oh, man. I had been looking forward to getting into Robin Hobb's books for a while, and my first venturing in it certainly did not disappoint. I love the writing style in which the simplest line almost reads like poetry. I love the world building and how it's a lot of information but yet easy to consume. I also love the characters and I'm excited to see where they go next.

I also was amazed that this book managed to make me feel things. Of course, that's what a good book is supposed to do, but I can't remember the last time one single line on a page almost made me tear up. Most of those moments were with Fitz and Burrich and I've grown very attached to that relationship throughout this book. A lot of times too Fitz was able to find out something, and I was surprised along with him, feeling the same things he felt, and wanting to go back a few chapters to see if it checked out and how I even missed it. That was great. (This made me glad I went with the eBook version of this instead of the Audible one!)

Though I felt that the climax of it felt very... chaotic. Which the situation in itself also was, but I sometimes found it hard to follow during that part of it what exactly was happening or who was talking to whom and I had to reread those parts a few times.

Now more than ever I wish Goodreads had a half star system. I feel this book definitely deserves more than four stars, but I'm not sure about five stars either and I'm not sure why. I might up the rating later when I'm going through the other novels in the Farseer Trilogy as they will probably make me appreciate this book even more since I'm not sure yet what in it might pay off later or what might not.
Needless to say though, I am now very excited to get through the other novels!
EDIT: I'm changing the rating to five because honestly I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book ever since I finished it, and that's quite a feat!

While there were some interesting ideas in here, it is just another self-help book with tons of references to its website and telling you to recommend it to your friends, while the advice itself could have been shortened into a nice article without losing much. It is a more elaborate and actionable “fake it till you make it” strategy, and it can work if you're open to it. But you don't need this book to help you with that. A short list of bullet points will do the same.

Even if there is a lot of fluff, I was interested in most of it and never wondered when it was going to be over. There's a bit of repetition at times, but as I listened to this as an audiobook, this wasn't as noticeable as it otherwise would have been. It's pretty much ideal for listening to while you're doing something else. But if this has 100% of your attention, I imagine you'd get bored with it quickly.

I feel like all the Carrie Fisher quotes that have been shared all over the Internet ever since she died, mostly came from this book. And it is a very quotable book, perhaps the most out of all her other ones.

Wishful Drinking focuses more on her mental health, her mother, and her own relationships. Though there's a bunch of less fun things being described, the tone is much more uplifting than in the other two, and it made for a very pleasant read. It was also great to go back, from newer to older, and see what had changed in the meantime.

For some reason I always expected this book to be very action-packed and be very fast in pacing. Truly it was neither of those things, but that isn't at all a bad thing.
The book focuses a lot on its world, the characters it inhabits and just its rules in general. Even having finished it, I still have no clue what this trilogy is supposed to be about, but I do know what these characters are about and in what state the world is in, which is enough for me for now.
And though the characters are pretty much all assholes, they're interesting assholes, and they have true potential to be lovable assholes. So I'll very likely get my hands on the sequel eventually.

The first sci-fi book I read in ages and I enjoyed it a lot! I watched the first season of The Expanse a few years ago but remember not being too interested in it. The little I remembered helped a bit here because I had immediate images of the characters and knew of certain moments that were coming. For some reason the book version made things click more into place than the show did, so I might give that another shot soon.

I found the start very promising. The narrator warning us of what was to come was pretty cool. And that scary night at Elena's house I found to be genuinely scary. I tend to read right before bedtime and I had some pretty wild dreams during the nights I was in the middle of this.

Unfortunately this didn't come into fruition for me. The fantasy was a bit too classic for me and the more grimdark aspects didn't affect me too much as I didn't really care all that much. There are a lot of characters that get introduced, even over the halfway point, and at times I had to remind myself who was who again. Not everyone got a chance to shine or enough focus to get myself to care about them.

I expected more from Elena as well. This is also perhaps the fault of the book's summary, that promises an “unforgettable heroine”, in a book where she spends a lot of time needing to be saved. I'm sure that promise becomes true in the following books of the series, but not yet in this one.

Then at the end the narrator that warned us comes back, just to tell us that the scary part is yet to come, which feels like a cop-out.

All in all, it feels very “old-school” fantasy, with lots of different creatures and races, and if you like that I'm sure this book will be a blast.

Growth. Decay. Transformation. Pretty much a continuation of the first book, with further developments for both characters and story. And especially the characters went places I didn't quite expect (but were great!). Very curious how this series further develops though, since this one did have sort of a definitive ending.

I had pretty high hopes for this book, so it might be partly my own fault, but I'm a bit disappointed.

In theory I should have really loved this. The world is great and wonderfully detailed, and the characters all sound interesting, but for some reason it never fully clicked for me. Events were unfolding and I found myself struggling to care much, even if I knew that what was happening was exciting.

Though there were a few parts I really liked, and they were all around the first half of the middle and the very end. Especially the last few pages (excluding the epilogue) I really liked and was one of the first times this book made me feel something. Aside from a certain other absolutely terrible event.... Poor fellas :( I do love the Locke/Jean relationship, but it's not enough for me to love this book or to check out its sequels, unfortunately.

This trilogy has been very hard to rate, and this final entry may be the hardest of all. The first half lacked most of the characters I had grown to like and love, was painfully slow, made the main character even more passive than before, and spent most of the time with characters I didn't care for.

But at some point in the second half things picked up and there managed to be a pretty good resolution. The story itself goes places and has ideas that I never quite come across in other books, and the writing is still as great as ever. It just doesn't really come together as a whole. It doesn't leave me feeling empty or fullfilled or anything, I'm mostly just indifferent. I'm relieved of the fate of certain characters and how certain issues were resolved, but I can't quite say I really liked the book (or trilogy) as a whole.

I liked The Lies Of Locke Lamora overall, but I did have to slog my way through it at certain parts, and I was only really invested in it at certain parts of the story. So originally I wasn't going to check out its sequel.
I'm really glad I did anyway.

I can't pinpoint as to why exactly, maybe because I was already used to the characters and the style, but this one just clicked for me. Aside from exciting, it was also humorous and tragic at times, and it worked. During the second part of the story, the flashback chapters were dropped and, as interesting as they were, the story did flow better as a result.

There is however a lot going on, and at times it feels like you can't keep up with all the different parties that are either seemingly against them or with them, but it does all come together in the end. Also I'm just really glad that they took Regal with them :) That kitten won me over in one sentence!

Did I barely have any idea what was going on? Yes. Did I enjoy it anyway? Also yes.

This book is a lot. Characters keep getting introduced up until the very last chapter, and even if you managed to keep track of all of them, there is still the story and the world and the alliances and the conflicts to remember. Gardens Of The Moon throws you in its world with very little context, but gives you more information bit by bit, and things do start making sense. I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on things up until around 60-65% in - that's when things started getting just a bit too chaotic and grand for me.

The story has a lot of unique elements here that I hadn't come across yet in other fantasy fare. There's a few developments that happen to characters that really caught me by surprise, such as deaths that are actually way more than just a simple death.
As far as fantasy elements go, this combines so many of them. The story has mages, dragons, shapeshifting, gods, puppets, possession,... as well as so many revelations about characters that it can feel very overwhelming. I don't feel I have a good grasp on what is and what is not possible in this world yet.

I am not super into military fantasy or just fantasy that is very epic and big, unless everything is revealed a little more gradually. This might start making more sense in the rest of the series though.
I however enjoyed the arcs of some of the characters and even though they were many, they all had a role to fill and had something interesting going on, which is a pretty rare feat.

Apparently when it comes to the Malazan series, in order to give it a fair chance you'd have to read the first 2-3 books, and I am eventually going to check out the second one. Right now I am not convinced I will read the entire series, but I am still intrigued enough to at least give that one a try.

As per usual with Robin Hobb's start of trilogies, or in this case quadrilogy (?), this series is off to a slow start. A lot of what happens is this book is strictly setting up the characters and the situation they find themselves in, and you can clearly see that this was originally supposed to be one big book that was cut in half.

That doesn't mean that it's uninteresting or boring though. I actually really like the dragons in this one, whereas before they were just a part of the story and not one of my main interests in it. The characters are great too, but they all have much room to grow and I can't wait to see what becomes of them.

This book was the weirdest rollercoaster I've ever been on.

The first part where every character was introduced was great and interesting. I liked that we got solid long chapters from everyone's POV, while simultaneously getting to know the world a little.
Though I don't personally agree that this is a character-driven book (as it's often described as). Though quite a bit of time is spent on the story of these characters, they are nothing to write home about. The plot and whatever needs to happen for it still takes center stage.

Even if some of the chapters were long, they were easy to get through and so this book was quite an easy read. The way it is set up means you're not immediately thrown into the thick of things, which is nice! I prefer getting to know the world bit by bit instead of spending the first half of a book super confused.

Now let's talk about when my rollercoaster started going downhill.

With the entire world being in danger from demons, and people frequently dying, offspring and children are important. So there is a lot of focus on babies and sex and how you only mean something as a woman if you're also a mother. So girls that are old enough to do these things are cast off to a man so they can make some babies.
That of itself is a bit what we've come to expect from your average fantasy world, and while it's not something I like, it's something I can be alright with as long as the characters (and especially the female ones) get to rise above that.

WELL.

There is, as far as I could count, exactly ONE woman whose story isn't focused on sex and motherhood. And she was also the most enjoyable character of the bunch - Bruna.

Leesha, although plagued with bullying from her mother and her ex and her town, seemed to rise above it. She found it weird, didn't want to take part in that, just wanted to focus on healing people. Never even has sex.

And then the narrative punishes her for it. She gets gang-raped while being robbed.This isn't even the worst part.She spends maybe a few days being traumatized by it. Up until she meets The Warded Man and oh, she's in love and they have sex and she is absolutely fine with all of that even if she was raped only a few days before. All is fine and dandy!Why did the rape even have to happen in the first place?? I legitimately got mad while reading lmao.On a sidenote, I read a few reviews from the next few books, and apparently this becomes a common thing? Virgin characters getting raped?

Yeah let's just say, don't think I'll be checking out the sequels.

RATINGS ARE TOUGH. First 3/4 was a solid 4 stars, maybe 3. Last 1/4 is either 2 or 1.
Overall this deserves 3 stars, which for me would imply “it was fine”, but I also wouldn't ever recommend this book to anyone or think it's worth checking out based on rating alone, so I don't know. It's harsh but I think I'm going with 2 stars and maybe upgrade it sometime in the future after I've had a while to think about it.

I recognize that this setting and plot is pretty cool (and it's so much more than its cover would suggest), but unfortunately this never really grabbed me. The first 10% I even considered DNF'ing it, but I ended up liking it a bit more as I pushed through. Caine is alright, but everyone else I couldn't really care less about. I mostly just wanted to be done with it.
Granted, I'm not one for fast-paced action books (which this was), but it also didn't give me much else.

The actual equivalent of 2,5 stars! I literally just finished it now and based on how I'm currently feeling I fear I might have to round down.

Oof, okay.

So this was a weird one. There was a lot I really loved, and there were a few things that I really didn't like at all, especially towards the end (and perhaps the ending itself). It kind of leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth and that saddens me because I loved everything else a whole lot.

My favorite book of this trilogy is probably Royal Assassin, with this being last. Other than the end, I didn't have that tense feeling I had during the first two, and certain twists that happened were sometimes so obvious that I wanted to scream at them for not seeing it. But good god, I loved the beginning so much and most of the middle but I'm so sad about it overall.

Still, I'm completely in. As much as the turn of the story sort of disappointed me, I still am in awe of all these characters, who are each so different and fleshed out in their own ways, and I care for them and wish well for them. I'm glad to be able to spend some time away from them though, and move onto the Liveship Traders trilogy for a while.

I just wanted Fitz and Burrich/Molly/Nettle to reunite, damnit :(

I liked this! It took a while to get going, but it got very easy to read as soon as Nevare arrived at the Academy.

I think it's unfair to compare this to anything from The Realm of the Elderlings, so I won't. This still has plenty of things I like from Robin Hobb - her characters, the way she introduces us to the world, and her writing in general. Those things remain my favorite to this day.

I have said it before, but everything at the Academy was my favorite. I needed Nevare to interact with friends and other people in general outside of a family setting. It reminded me a bit of Inda by Sherwood Smith, which I have also recently read, but I found it more engaging here. In the background there was also magic looming, but I found that part only interesting sometimes. I was mostly here for the camaraderie.

The only thing that I was missing was a real emotional connection. It's hard to care about our main character Nevare. He is very obedient, to a fault. Very traditional, also to a fault. He's very comfortable with the way things are and does not see a need for change, and some of his comments (especially regarding his female cousin) are very eyeroll-worthy. Luckily there are other characters there to call him on his occasional bullshit, and he does get a chance to grow. There is still more room to grow, but he has changed for the better by the end, so it's a start.

I'm very curious about what the rest of the trilogy entails. You could in theory stop reading here, as there isn't a cliffhanger or anything, and I'm not sure about what story threads still remain unsolved.
I'm gonna check out at least the sequel anyway, so guess I'll find out eventually!

Considering this is about a crew with very different people and members who have to learn to trust eachother and it's all just very pirate-y... I didn't love it. It's very Firefly-esque (sometimes eye rollingly so), but I didn't come to care for the characters as much. I found Jez and Bess to be pretty interesting, as well as Crake, but that's all still to an extent. Enjoyable book overall, even if it took me way longer to finish than it should have, but I wouldn't say it convinced me to check out its sequel.

As I was in a bit of a reading slump for quite a while, I hadn't kept up with any of the new Star Wars canon, so this wasn't even on my radar really. But the Star Wars Badonkagonk podcast hosts decided they were going to read this and then review it by the next episode, so here I am!

From the very first chapters it's clear that Mike Chen has their voices and relationship down. These characters are Anakin and Obi-Wan, with a fun and entertaining storyline to boot. The prequel trilogy and The Clone Wars will always be near and dear to my heart as they were the ones I grew up with and the first I ever saw of Star Wars. After all the content we've already gotten, it's still surprising to get even more stuff. Even the new characters were great.

I spent a lot of time highlighting quotes because I just wanted to take them in for a bit. Even if it was just a dig at sand lmao.

Very much recommended if you're into this era!