For the longest time (certainly for the lifetime of this blog, at a minimum), I have been anti-series. I talk about it in this post back in 2015 when I picked up Percy Jackson against my better judgment. Since then, I've picked up Game of Thrones (oh excuse me, A Song of Ice and Fire), the Jack Taylor novels, Bright Empires, and maybe one other? I forget now.
So I'm officially giving up on my anti-series postulating. Here, I lay it to rest.
Mostly because I've started two new series (and restarted an old one) and I don't need to hear about it!
I finally picked up The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. It has been on my list for a little while after seeing a friend put it on their list. I finished it in a few days, and I fell in love almost as soon as I opened it. Irene is a junior librarian at The Library, and most of her job involves going into alternate worlds to obtain specific books, either to preserve the link from The Library to that particular world or to prevent "inappropriate technology" from causing trouble in the world. I tried to beg, borrow, and anything else short of actually stealing to get my hands on the next book as soon as humanly possible. I ordered it from the public library, through interlibrary loan at the office, AND as an ebook through the public library's digital collection ALL at the same time. I've read the first three and have to wait until December for the fourth. THIS is the reason I used to despise reading series. The wait. The worst. Ugh.
On a whim (and in post-The Invisible Library slump), I picked up a book called Evil Librarian. After reading about librarians (mostly) being the good guys, let's get a baddie in the mix. It felt a bit sophomoric (I mean, it does take place in a high school, so totally appropriate), but the story was still very good. Recommend it to the theatre/book nerd/Buffy fan in your life. You won't be sorry (and neither will they). I didn't realize it was a series until a passage in the book made me think, "There's no way they are just going to end this after one book...Oh great. Well done. You've picked another series. What other life long rules can you break in a month?" It wasn't nearly as good as The Invisible Library (in my opinion), but I'm still probably going to go after book two when I have time.
In TV news, I've started The West Wing and holy crap. How have I not seen this show before now? It is GOLD. I mean, pure gold. It is smart, it is funny. It is quick and witty in a way I was not expecting. The characters are strong, and the story is good. I cry at least once a season, mostly during the Christmas episodes. I'm only at the beginning of season 3, but I've started trying to ration my episodes, so I don't finish too quickly. In an effort to keep the show from really ending, I've also started listening to The West Wing Weekly podcast. The guys (Josh Malina and Hrishi Hirway) go through each episode in exquisite nerdy detail. Josh will join the cast of TWW soon, but I haven't gotten to his part yet. They ask on actors from the show to guest and talk about their time on set. They also talk about some of the political points that are brought up on the show and have real life congressmen and people in the political world come on and speak to how things actually work.
I love love love it and the show and recommend y'all get moving on this so we can talk about it!
Believe it or not, that basically catches you up on the reading I've been doing this month. And will you believe it? I'm still ahead of my reading goal! Pro-series. Ahead of my reading goal. Look out. Something big is coming!
What are you guys reading? Anything so good you've lost sleep because of it?
As much as I loved doing a quarterly update for you guys last month, I don't know if I can wait until next quarter to do another update! I've been blazing through books and I'm afraid I'll forget everything until I hit the next mark. So let's do this, shall we?
First of all, I want to share a quick story that has nothing to do with anything but absolutely everything to do with books. Toward the end of this last semester, one of my Occupational Therapy students asked me for a book recommendation. Now, I know our OT program is tough. It hardly allows for any non-OT classes outside of GenEds (and even then, they are looked at as a hindrance to getting all their classes in.) and you can just forget about study abroad. I did the whole, "Promise me you won't read instead of studying for finals" thing and then we got down to business. I gave her "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" because Neil Gaiman, and also, because it was short. I figured if she liked it, she could finish it quickly and if she didn't, well, it wasn't too long.
Anyway, she loved it. I knew she would. Neil Gaiman is always a winner. Thankful (as it usually is) the Gaiman was a gateway drug. Last week, we spent probably 20 minutes going through the books I've read and she took home a stack of at least 15 books on my recommendations. She is tearing through the stack and comes to the counter to give me her review. It is the best part of my summer.
Anyway, on to the show.
As promised, I've been reading the Miss Fisher's Murder Mystery books to see if they are anything like the show. How do I saw this? They are and they aren't; both have merits. Okay I like that the books are no more than 160-200 pages a pop. That doesn't seem like much at all, but compared to the TOMES I've been reading, it is rather refreshing. (Also, it isn't so heavy on my shoulder for transporting it between home and work.)
Book Phryne is just about as glamorous and Show Phryne. Of course, in the show, we get to see all the fabulous outfits she wears instead of just reading about them. I give that point to the show. I do like watching Book Phryne's thought process, especially about her many lovers. She speaks about each with such poetry that you can almost forget there is a new one in each book. (Don't take that as a judgement. I appreciate her openness and her ability to know what she wants and what she doesn't want AND that she doesn't hide it from anyone. Ahem. Okay. Moving on.) I've read the first four books in the series and while I enjoy them, might hold off on the others. There are twenty odd books in the series and, well, I don't need to remind you all about how I feel about series.
I read most of Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death on a flight home from California. That's neither here nor there, but it did make excellent plane reading. This is another one that reeled me in with the TV show before realizing it was based on a book. The book was well written, each chapter was a single story that showed you the troubles of the town of Grantchester and the trials of one, Cannon Sidney Chambers. There are a lot of differences between the show and the book, but I enjoyed both. I started the second book this week. It could be me or it could be the fact that I'm only reading a little in the morning or evening and not in one six hour stretch, but I'm not thrilled with it. The stories have been used in the second season of Grantchester so I'm familiar with the characters, but the stories in the book--well, something is missing. In the first book, each chapter was an entire story arc. Sidney helps local police detective inspector Geordie Keating solve crimes. In the second, Sidney did most of the crime solving all on his own. The story lines didn't seem as clear; this could have been done intentionally, to mirror Sidney's struggle with his chosen profession and solving crime.
I have the third Sidney Chamber's book on order from the library, just to see if things get better. I've already given myself permission not to finish it if things don't improve. I am putting a hold on the Phryne Fisher books at the moment. They aren't bad, but you all know my aversion to series so that one should speak for itself.
What has your experiences been with TV shows based on books? Do you usually prefer one over the other? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
