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Post by Mikauzoran on May 13, 2015 0:50:18 GMT
So Anne of Green Gables was a fantastic book. I just thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were so likable, and I could really relate to them. I adored Anne. She reminds me of myself when I was younger and how my cousin Willow is now. It was a slice of life book that was really touching. It was such a joy to watch Anne grow up and develop as a person. It was just such a good book! I can see now why it's such a classic, and I really do think that all young girls should read it. It has such good life lessons and fun adventures.
Now I'm reading the A. J. Raffles series by E. W. Hornung (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law). I read the first collection of stories, and I really like them. I don't like Raffles as much as my darling Arsene, but I loooooove his chronologist, "Bunny". Raffles is a burglar, and Bunny is his assistant. They're so cute together. Raffles never tells poor Bunny anything, but the guy just has this blind trust in Raffles.
Some of the stories I'm not really satisfied with the resolution, but...well, the characters are so awesome, and the misadventures are so fun and interesting. I love the bromance going on between Raffles and Bunny too. It's a lot like how I often write Haku-chan and Kaito. They're just such good friends. So much so that Bunny gets jealous of this girl Raffles is seducing as part of one of their thefts. Bunny actually admits that he's jealous because his friend is spending all of his time with the girl and not with Bunny.
Bunny's such a cutie, and I really am enjoying this series.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 13, 2015 21:26:50 GMT
Wow, I've been growling a lot these past couple chapters . . . And yes, I do mean growling literally. You get like that when you have a dog, love animals, and play pretend with your little sister a lot. My specialties are hissing and growling. But yeah, I'm about two-thirds of the way into the final book of the Books of Umber and I am really not liking Larcombe, the things he's joyfully reporting, and Loden, from whom those things came from. . . . I'm also wondering how on earth they're going to wrap up everything that's happened in the final third of the book. It seems like there's not enough time. Hap's not ready. He rarely ever sees the filaments, and barely knows what they mean when he does see them. *shakes head* I guess I'll find out as I read more.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 14, 2015 11:44:02 GMT
Finished the whole Books of Umber series last night. I have to say, not many books can make me cry when a death isn't involved, but this third book managed it. It was really good though. And I think I spent at least five minutes whimpering after I finished it, not necessarily because it was finished, but because of how it was finished. *sighs* And as I was falling asleep I tried thinking about all the adventures that happened throughout the whole series . . . Anyway, now I want to read more from this P.W. Catanese. And it seems there are references from his other books that are in the Books of Umber. I want to see if I can catch them. Already I saw something mentioning a beanstalk, which I think is a reference to the one titled "The Thief and the Beanstalk". I think I'll read that one next.
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rainbowcupcake
Full Member
JA is so absurdly gorgeous it's not even funny anymore. It's ruining my life
Posts: 142
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Post by rainbowcupcake on May 15, 2015 1:03:22 GMT
You guys seriously need to stop putting so many books on my to-read-list .. it's too long as it is.
I'm currently reading the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi, just finished the first book today. It's mostly your typical dystopian YA with a corrupt government and some superpowers thrown in. And the customary romance, of course. So far, I'm enjoying it, but it's more of a "okay, this is decent, let's see where this is going" and not "oh my god, best book ever, I can't stop reading!!" It's written in first person from the view of Juliette, a girl with some mysterious ability to inflict pain and kill people just by touching them - and that's about all you learn about her power in the first book, though I have a feeling there's going to be some explaining in the second book. What I like most about it is being in Juliettes head. The way she thinks is interesting, sometimes a little contradictionary, and a lot of methapors and just a very..visual way of thinking, if that makes any sense. I heard that some thought there were too many metaphors and I can see why .. I'm not always a big fan of that either, but I think it works for Juliettes character.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 15, 2015 18:25:29 GMT
Guys, I started writing an email to P.W. Catanese . . . I've never written anything to an author before, so I'm really nervous, but he encouraged it. He encouraged people to send him their interpretations (so basically, fanart), too! So I'm planning on sending him a drawing of the scene that impacted me emotionally the most, which I had actually started drawing before I found out about him wanting us to send them to him.
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Post by StarlightDragons on May 15, 2015 18:31:04 GMT
oh, good luck! I hope you get a swift response! ^^
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 15, 2015 18:46:10 GMT
I do, too *figets* I haven't sent it yet, though, since I'm not done with the drawing *mutters about forgetting the stupid tunics* I plan on sending it as soon as I get it done, though.
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Post by Mikauzoran on May 15, 2015 19:06:36 GMT
Yay!! That's super exciting! Good luck! I wish I could talk to the people writing the books I'm reading... :c Well, I suppose I could hold a seance. :/
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 15, 2015 20:16:09 GMT
*inserts pjo/hoo reference* Or ask Nico.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 15, 2015 20:22:55 GMT
Oh, and I was wondering if it'd be alright if I could tell him of this scene I have in mind of Umber meeting one of the main characters in one of my original stories. I mean, I wouldn't actually write out the scene, but I'd just tell him that reading it made me think of what if the two met. What do you think? A friend of mine said that I should do it, and I kinda want to do it as well, but I want more advice, just to be sure.
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rainbowcupcake
Full Member
JA is so absurdly gorgeous it's not even funny anymore. It's ruining my life
Posts: 142
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Post by rainbowcupcake on May 15, 2015 20:30:41 GMT
Good luck, Natsumi!
So, I've finished the first short novella of the series and started on the second book. The novella was really refreshing, since it was from the pov of the main antagonist of the first book and it made him a lot more human. Which I think is great, because it was all a little too black and white for me, you know, the "bad" government and the "good" rebellion, when there are actually so many more shades in between.
The second book so far is .. honestly not that great. It's practically a big self-pity feast for Juliette. I mean, yes, she's been through a lot and I know it's hard to readjust afterwards, but it really was starting to annoy me. Thankfully, one of the other characters told her as much, but I have yet to see what she's going to do with that. Not that I expect her to be perfectly fine overnight, that would be just unrealistic, but I do hope to see her at least try.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on May 15, 2015 23:44:20 GMT
I've always thought of writing a story from the antagonist's perspective . . . Has yet to happen, though.
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rainbowcupcake
Full Member
JA is so absurdly gorgeous it's not even funny anymore. It's ruining my life
Posts: 142
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Post by rainbowcupcake on May 17, 2015 15:32:41 GMT
Okay, I've finished the Shatter Me series and overall I really liked it. The second book took a turn for the better after the whole self-pity-party was over and it got a little more action packed. The second novella was okay. It's from the pov of Juliettes love interest from the first book (and kinda the second one), and it wasn't anything ground-breaking, but it did provide some details on events where Juliette wasn't present and it was kind of interesting to see Juliette from his perspective and to learn about some of her habits and ticks that she (probably) wasn't even aware of herself.
I really liked the last book. There was quite a bit of drama with Juliette and her lovers, but I thought it was actually kinda well done, because it was really more about the fact that she was becoming her own person and learned to stand up for herself. Looking back, I really think that Juliette has grown a lot over the course of the books - though maybe it was a little fast paced near the end .. then again, maybe that's what happens in war, either you grow under the pressure or you break. I've never been in a war, I wouldn't know *shrugs* Warner really grew on me too. He was the antagonist in the first book, and there it was basically just "he's the bad guy" period. Part of that was of course due to the fact that you're in Juliette's head all the time, so you only ever know what she sees and thinks and feels, and from her perspective I guess he was the bad guy. And I mean, he was kind of a jerk, even though he had his reasons. But the first novella already helped to shed some light on his character and showed that there's more to him and that continued in the second and third book. We gradually learn more about him and his past and why he turned out the way he did, and with every bit of information he just became more human and less 'the bad guy'. He still was a bit of a jerk sometimes and I actually liked that .. I don't think a complete bad-guy-turned-good would have been very satisfying.
I would have loved to learn a bit more about some of the other characters, especially the "really bad guy", because I'm just not a fan of these "I'm evil, just because" types, and he kinda came across as one of those. But I guess you can't have everything. But yeah, overall I enjoyed the series. And geez, I didn't even mean to write this much..oh well *shuts up*
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Post by Mikauzoran on May 28, 2015 3:22:02 GMT
I finished reading all of the A. J. Raffles books, and they were really good. Raffles and Bunny are such bros! It was super heartwarming. I really enjoyed their friendship. It was even better than Watson and Holmes. The Holmes stories still had more satisfying endings, though. What fun is it if your protagonist loses half the time? Anyway, I still enjoyed the series.
Today I finished up reading The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. It was a really quick read, and pretty interesting. I didn't really like Griffin. He wasn't very sympathetic, so I really wasn't sure how to feel at the end. It was only okay, though some parts were cool. It was neat reading the original Invisible Man story since there are so many spin-offs like other "monsters" like Frankenstein and Dracula in our culture.
I also started reading A Tale of Two Cities. I don't know what I think of it yet. It doesn't really grab you, and the first seven chapters or so it really didn't hold my interest. It really failed to establish a set of characters I identified with and cared about. There were a few people that were mentioned here and there again and again, but the book didn't really follow any specific person or persons, so it was kind of like you were adrift in the novel.
It was sort of like when someone you haven't known for very long invites you to a party, and there are some people there that you know from one of your classes or something, but you've never really talked to them. And you're there at the party, wondering what you should be doing, looking for someone familiar, and really wishing you had a popular friend around that could make introductions for you. That's what the first six or seven chapters of A Tale of Two Cities was like for me.
But then the trial happened, and that was really interesting for me for obvious reasons. It seems like the plot is finally kicking into gear, and it may be interesting, but we'll see. It was just so slow to get started! I'm listening to it in audiobook format, and three hours in, I'm just now getting to the main characters and the plot. :/ I'm kind of disappointed in Charles Dickens at this point, but I'll have to get back to you once I've read more.
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Post by ichthyophobia on May 29, 2015 22:39:11 GMT
I'm not personally that fond of Dickens. The way he treats female characters is not really something I enjoy. I've lately been re-reading the Howl's Moving Castle series by Diana Wynne Jones. (YES IT'S A BOOK, and I know I can get thrown out of an anime forum for saying this, but as brilliant as Miyazaki's version is, the book is better.) The first book is brilliant; Sophie is my absolute favorite. It's not really a traditional romance, but it plays off a lot of fairy-tale tropes and manages to make a fairly cohesive world with them. It doesn't take itself too seriously, though, which is where I get hung up on a lot of more serious fantasy. The second book, Castle in the Air, is good too, though it took me a while to forgive it for not being the first book. A bit of cultural appropriation, but again, it's playing off fairy tale tropes, and the second book is more of the Arabian Nights type thing. Flower-in-the-Night really impressed me; she's introduced like she's going to be very much a shrinking-violet character but then she proves to have more of a spine than the protagonist. Way more fun to read the second or third time, though, since knowing the twists makes all the dialogue much funnier. The third book, House of Many Ways, did not impress me as much. I know a lot of people think this one is the best of the three, but I don't really see it. It's more of a coming-of-age thing than the others were, and the protagonist is not that likeable at the beginning of the story. She does develop in some good ways, and the book doesn't make you wait as long for Sophie to show up as Castle in the Air did, but the ending just felt very rushed to me. It resolves literally everything in the space of about half an hour, and considering the speed of the build that just felt way too fast. I did enjoy all three though, and the ideas about doors were interesting.
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