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Noll's 2015 Book Blog


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Good to see you enjoyed the Frances Hardinge book, Noll.  I'm going to read The Lie Tree after my current book, but it'll be my first of hers.  I can't say I'd come across her before, but one of the authors I follow on Twitter had raved about The Lie Tree, and we've liked a lot of the same books, so thought I'd give it a go.  I had no idea she'd written six other books!

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Good to see you enjoyed the Frances Hardinge book, Noll.  I'm going to read The Lie Tree after my current book, but it'll be my first of hers.  I can't say I'd come across her before, but one of the authors I follow on Twitter had raved about The Lie Tree, and we've liked a lot of the same books, so thought I'd give it a go.  I had no idea she'd written six other books!

 

I think I only randomly came across The Lie Tree on Goodreads, then checked out her other stuff and decided to pick up Fly By Night as I was intrigued by it. I wasn't sure it would be my thing, as I'm so fussy about fantasy, and it was a bit draining at times but I'm actually dying to go back and re-read it now that I know all the twists! I should probably just move onto the sequel though... :lol: I have no idea how she's gone under everyones radars all these years, she's such a talented writer. The two I have now read by her are extremely different from each other, so The Lie Tree may be even more different again, but I'll be reading it shortly myself! :)

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Wow, a whole week since I posted in here. Clearly, I am behind. :P

 

An an aside :party: THIS IS MY 10,000TH POST  :alc:

It's not really, I had 10,000 a couple of years back before something happened and I lost a couple thousand posts, but I've done it FOR THE SECOND TIME. I feel like a real long-term old-timer here now :D

 

I've six book reviews to catch up on, so I'm gonna start on those this evening.

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Wow, a whole week since I posted in here. Clearly, I am behind. :P

 

An an aside :party: THIS IS MY 10,000TH POST  :alc:

It's not really, I had 10,000 a couple of years back before something happened and I lost a couple thousand posts, but I've done it FOR THE SECOND TIME. I feel like a real long-term old-timer here now :D

 

I've six book reviews to catch up on, so I'm gonna start on those this evening.

Wow that's incredible! Congratulations :D

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Fly By Night - Frances Hardinge

The characters are phenomenal, the writing is sharp and endlessly quotable, the plot is intricate and has so much to say on the topic of free speech, the power and beauty of words and the press, herd mentality and independent thinking, and it has a few choice comments on the topic of religion to boot. It is set in a historical context, imbued with just enough fantasy to make everything magical. The settings are so beautifully evoked by Hardinge's mastery of words that I am immensely relieved to hear there is a sequel because I am not ready to let go of this world. I don't want to spoil a single thing about it, but I also want to convince everyone to pick it up and read it. The more I reflect on this book, the more I fall in love with it. It is an absolute must for all true lovers of storytelling, books, and words.

 

Rating: 5/5

 

This one sounds very good Noll, definitely one for the wishlist. On another note, congratulations on 10,000 posts (again). Some achievement.  :alc:

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Wow that's incredible! Congratulations :D

 

Thank you! :D

 

This one sounds very good Noll, definitely one for the wishlist. On another note, congratulations on 10,000 posts (again). Some achievement.  :alc:

 

Hey Ben, good to see you! I think you'd actually REALLY enjoy that book. I'm waiting on the sequel to arrive in the post, any day now...!

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Congratulations on making so many posts!   firework_zps1be3b356.gif Penguin%202_zpsjd4f0ron.gif

 

Until I hit 'Post' when I finish typing this, I have absolutely no clue how many posts I've made.  It could be 4,000, it could be 7,000 - I don't suppose it's anywhere near 10,000!

 

Edit: 8,750 - not too shabby!

Edited by Janet
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Oooh where did the confetti and penguin come from?! They're not in the usual set are they?

 

And thank you! I only noticed earlier today that I was on 9997, so I posted twice elsewhere and came here for the grand finale! :lol:

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Hey Ben, good to see you! I think you'd actually REALLY enjoy that book. I'm waiting on the sequel to arrive in the post, any day now...!

 

You too. :friends0:

 

It definitely does look up my street. Good to hear you're getting the sequel. I hope you enjoy it as much as the first one! ;) 

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Tee hee hee thank you. :D

 

Mini rant following...

 

I ordered two copies of Fly By Night from the Book Depository - two different editions, with two different covers. First one arrived today, and it's neither - it's the unappealing edition I could have picked up in Waterstones and chose not to. Looking at the publication dates, I suspect that it's the image on Book Depository that's actually wrong, as both this copy and the site listing say its from 2006, so they might have thought they were sending the right one, but either way I'm not impressed. The other one I ordered does actually have a different year (2008) listed on it, so if I receive a second copy of the 2006 edition I will be extremely unhappy. On the upside, I guess this 2006 edition (its cover is seriously the b-movie CGI of book covers) does match the sequel's cover art, so I guess that's something.

 

I know I probably sound really pernickity but really - you'd have thought a website dedicated entirely to selling books would at least have their stock images correct!!

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Oh gosh not - not pernickity at all.   :irked:   It would annoy me too.   :empathy:
 
I don't know where I got those smileys from, Noll.  I've got loads saved on my computer that I found years ago but I didn't bookmark the site and I haven't been able to find it for years.  :(

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Oh gosh not - not pernickity at all.   :irked:   It would annoy me too.   :empathy:

 

^ I second that! You should definitely get the cover they show in the listing! Maybe they'll let you exchange it for the correct cover? I'm now going to go and look for the pretty covers myself, since your review made me want to read it :D

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^ I second that! You should definitely get the cover they show in the listing! Maybe they'll let you exchange it for the correct cover? I'm now going to go and look for the pretty covers myself, since your review made me want to read it :D

 

If I do get the same edition a second time, I'll hold a little giveaway for one of the copies, because there seems to be quite a few people interested.

 

These are the covers I wanted:

 

post-4797-0-57813800-1441837051_thumb.jpgpost-4797-0-97820000-1441837088_thumb.jpg

 

Basically the same, except one has 'Banned' across it - one for a reading copy, and the Banned one just because its cool (books are largely banned and extremely regulated in the novel.)

 

Here is the one I got:

 

post-4797-0-43543700-1441837583_thumb.jpg

 

Eventually I would also like to get the hardback, but it seems difficult to find:

 

post-4797-0-48863100-1441837613_thumb.jpg

 

:lol:

 

That would annoy me too. Just as how it annoys me when the publishers randomly change the cover art of a ongoing series of books when you actually would like them all to match. Wheel of Time...grr...

 

Fortunately that hasn't happened to me, but it would drive me nuts. There's a series I love called The Coldfire Trilogy, and I specifically bought an expensive set of editions from America that cost about three times as much as if I had just bought the standard editions on UK Amazon,because I adored the cover art and wanted it. (The other editions didn't go together very well, I thought).

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That is so annoying, that you got the wrong cover :(. It always really annoys me when the cover images aren't correct and instead mislead you! I was lucky one time, when I actually liked the cover I got, better than the one of the image :giggle2:. I hope it works out with your books :(.

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The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

 

Synopsis: Milo mopes in black ink sketches, until he assembles a tollbooth and drives through. He jumps to the island of Conclusions. But brothers King Azaz of Dictionopolis and the Mathemagician of Digitopolis war over words and numbers. Joined by ticking watchdog Tock and adult-size Humbug, Milo rescues the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason, and learns to enjoy life.

*** 

Review: I picked this one up despite not being sure it would be the kind of thing I'd like, because it was a group read on this forum, and some of the concepts sounded really clever and I liked the idea behind it. Unfortunately I have to admit that's about all I can say for it. It did make for an interesting read, and many of the puns were fiendishly clever, which I enjoyed because I can be quite pedantic and fussy about accurate grammar. All of the locations and characters in the story pertaining to puns were fun and occasionally even made me laugh out loud.

As an overall story, however, I just felt none of the individual components gelled to make anything coherent. It's a fantasy story, so naturally it's going to be full of random imaginings that need have absolutely no basis in reality, but the whole thing felt, to me, like an excuse to make a bunch of puns, and unfortunately, no matter how good those puns are, that's not enough to make me like a book.

That said, I am glad I read it, because it was an entertaining experience, but it's not one I would read again or heartily recommend to anyone else, I'm afraid.

Rating: 3/5

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Beyond The Great Indoors - Ingvar Ambjornsen

 

Synopsis: Elling has a wildly overactive imagination and has been molly-coddled by his mother all his life, so when she dies he is left completely incapable of taking care of himself. After a stint in the very helpful Broynes Rehabilitation Centre, Elling returns to Oslo with his room-mate Kjell Bjarne in tow. Together the odd couple embark on a free-spirited new life.On a quest to live like normal average people, Elling and Kjell's friendship grows - kittens, girlfriends and terrorist poetry enter the equation - even fame beckons. But there are fears to conquer before that, answering the telephone for one, leaving the house for another and the journey outdoors is by no means an easy one. A touching and hiliarious comedy of anxiety.

*** 

Review: This is a book I had been dying to read for ages, and which I couldn't find in bookshops, nor online in hardcopy for (what I consider) a reasonable price. The Kindle version cost closer to what I would expect to pay for a hardcopy, so I had put off getting it, but eventually I relented and bought the Kindle version. I'm pretty happy that I did, because it turned out to be a very funny and occasionally slightly surreal read. I did feel at times that it didn't really seem to be going anywhere, but overall by the end I found I had become quite attached to the characters and wanted them to end up happy.

This book has a lot of heart, portraying its two eccentric leads as kooky but loveable people with severe quirks that make integration into the real world very difficult. In their discovery of their new life living together in Oslo, we are introduced to a small but interesting cast of characters (including a pair of kittens, who we didn't get to see enough of) and across a series of unlikely events we're shown how everybody is actually a little bit weird.

Very very funny at times, and painfully relatable at others (I found myself relating massively to the mindsets induced by anxiety in this novel) this is a novel that is as honest as it is strange. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever suffered from anxiety, or even just felt a little bit strange.

Rating: 4/5

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