If you're looking for my reviews of a certain author or genre you can check my tags list. You can also see my list of book reads in 2007 & 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The question this week is...

What's the largest, thickest, heaviest book you ever read? Was it because you had to? For pleasure? For school?

Probably the books by Diana Gabaldon. I think that all books, except Outlander, are more than 1000 pages. Fiery Cross, the fifth volume which I haven't read yet, is 5cm large! My Portuguese edition of Anna Karenina is also huge and heavy but it's a hardcover copy. I couldn't read it, since the subject was also pretty heavy at the time I tried to.

The question this week is...

Even I read things other than books from time to time... like, Magazines! What magazines/journals do you read?

I subscribe the Portuguese edition of the National Geographic. I started buying it while at college and decided to subscribe it when I couldn't find it at stores. I think the articles concerning History, Archaeology and Anthropology are very interesting. The Science related ones aren't really my thing, but the pictures are amazing. Though I subscribe it, I don't read them very often but, when on vacations, they travel with me along with books. :)

I also buy a Portuguese weekly magazine called Sábado (it can be translated to "Saturday" in English) which deals more with politics and other social stuff, but I buy it mostly because of my brother. He's the one who reads it.

The question this week is...

Do you remember the first book you bought for yourself? Or the first book you checked out of the library? What was it and why did you choose it?

I remember the first book I've read but can't remember the first book I bought or checked out. I think they were both from portuguese authors - Alice Vieira and the pair Ana Maria Magalhães and Isabel Alçada - but I can't really recall the titles. I think they were Caderno de Agosto and a book from a series of time travel adventures that took place in the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

Edited to add: As I said I'm not certain about the titles, but if it were the books stated above it was because I enjoyed the books by Alice Vieira and was curious about the series by the others.

January:
1. Gloria in Excelsis - as mais belas histórias portuguesas de Natal edited by Vasco Graça Moura - 4/5 [read in portuguese]
2. Crime for Christmas edited by Richard Dalby - 3/5 [read in portuguese]
3. The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton - 5/5 [read in portuguese]

Rating:
1- hate it or did not finish / 2- don't like it / 3- it's ok / 4- like it / 5- love it

PS: Titles in english, except the ones I can't find an english edition of.

(*) - marks a re-read.

I've seen this weekly meme everywhere and since some questions are really interesting, I decided to participate as well.

The question this week is...

Any New Year's Resolutions reading?

This is not exactly resolutions, but a statement of intentions. So I would like to:

• read 50 books, something that I managed to do in the last two years, but I'm not really worried if I don't achieve it, I just want to read good books;


• read Portuguese-speaking authors, because I'm Portuguese and I've seldom read anything wrote in Portuguese *shame on me*;


• reread North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, as it was the last book to blow me away with such wonderful story, characters and superb writing;


• read anything by Oscar Wilde, whose works have been consistently relegated to the shelf, despite being an author who really has me curious, not only because his works but because of his personality.

I think this is it. I don't say I will read the books I own and won't buy/lend more because, to tell the truth, other people libraries' are always more desirable to me than my own. I don't understand why. :P

Also, I'll try to review and post here my opinions, something I neglected last year. I was considering entering some bookclubs and it might be useful to update my LJ once in a awhile. :P

January:
1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman - 4/5 [176 pages, read in portuguese]
2. Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard - 3,5/5 [256 pages, read in portuguese]
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 4/5 [966, read in portuguese]
4. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, read by Orlagh Cassidy - 1/5 [audiobook]

February:
5. The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon - 3,5/5 [400 pages]
6. The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, Book 1) by Guillermo Del Toro e Chuck Hogan - 4/5 [560 pages, read in portuguese]
7. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen - 4/5 [278 pages, read in portuguese]
8. Guenevere, The Knight of the Sacred Lake (Guenevere, Book 2) de Rosalind Miles - 3/5 [392 pages, read in portuguese]

March:
9. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, read by Alyssa Bresnahan - 1/5 [audiobook]
10. Guilty Pleasures (Guilty Series, Book 1) by Laura Lee Guhrke - 4/5 [384 pages]
11. Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, Book 4) by Julia Quinn - 5/5 [370 pages]
12. Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer - 4/5 [284 pages, read in portuguese]

April:
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - 2/5 [301 pages, read in portuguese]
14. To Sir Phillip, With Love (Bridgertons, Book 5) by Julia Quinn - 5/5 [372 pages]
15. Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 1) by Charlaine Harris - 3/5 [272 pages, read in portuguese]
16. Through a Glass, Darkly by Donna Leon - 3/5 [336 pages]
17. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - 4/5 [270 pages, read in portuguese]
18. Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 2) by Charlaine Harris - 3/5 [256 pages, read in portuguese]

May:
19. The Duke and I (Bridgertons, Book 1) by Julia Quinn - 4/5 [371 pages]
20. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - 4/5 [496 pages, read in portuguese]
21. Snow Country by  Yasunari Kawabata - 3/5 [179 pages, read in portuguese]

June:
22. D. João V - poder e espectáculo by Rui Bebiano - 4/5 [read in portuguese]
23. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 5/5 [107 pages]
24. Stranger in My Arms by Lisa Kleypas - 2/5 [320 pages, read in portuguese]

July:
25. Shogun by James Clavell - 4/5 [1248 pages]
26. The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, Book 2) by Julia Quinn - 5/5 [376 pages]
27. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips - 3/5 [277 pages]
28. An Offer From a Gentleman (Bridgertons, Book 3) by Julia Quinn - 3/5 [358 pages]

August:
29. Silk by Alessandro Baricco - 4/5 [148 pages]
30. Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 3) by Charlaine Harris - 4/5 [e-book]
31. Tonight and Always by Nora Roberts - 2/5 [e-book]
32. Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 4) by Charlaine Harris - 4/5 [272 pages, read in portuguese]
33. A Matter of Choice by Nora Roberts - 3/5 [e-book]
34. Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 5) by Charlaine Harris - 4/5 [254 pages, read in portuguese]
35. Definitely Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 6) by Charlaine Harris - 4/5 [288 pages, read in portuguese]

September:
36. The Physician (Cole Trilogy, Book 1) by Noah Gordon - 4/5 [520 pages, read in portuguese]
37. Kushiel's Dart (Kushiel's Legacy, Book 1) by Jacqueline Carey - 5/5 [1015 pages, read in portuguese]

October:
30. Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, Book 1) by Richelle Mead, read by Stephanie Wolfe - 3/5 [audiobook]
39. Just Like Heaven by Marc Levy - 3/5 [239 pages, read in portuguese]
40. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - 5/5 [976 pages, read in portuguese]
41. Frostbite (Vampire Academy, Book 2) by Richelle Mead, read by Khristine Hvam - 2/5 [audiobook]
42. Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, Book 1) by Robin Hobb - 3,5/5 [382 pages, read in portuguese]
43. Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, Book 2) by Robin Hobb - 4/5 [752 pages, read in portuguese]

November:
44. Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy, Book 3) by Robin Hobb - 3/5 [848 pages, read in portuguese]
45. The Marriage Bed (Guilty Series, Book 3) by Laura Lee Guhrke - 3/5 [374 pages]

December:
46. Flashman (The Flashman Papers, Book 1) by George MacDonald Fraser - 3/5 [256 pages, read in portuguese]
47. The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt - 3,5/5 [512 pages, read in portuguese]


Rating:
1- hate it (did not finish) / 2- don't like it / 3- it's ok / 4- like it / 5- love it

PS: Titles in english, except the ones I can't find an english edition of.

(*) - marks a re-read.

Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I was hoping this book would be so much better but it was too long for its own sake. It dragged, it bored and the characters annoyed me so much I really considered giving up this book. But I persisted only too see this series arrive to... a Deus Ex-Machina kind of ending!



I think everyone got what they deserved, even Fitz. Can't really say I was sad with how the things ended up for him, he had it coming for being so annoying, whining and stupid.



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Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book picks up roughly where the previous one ends and we continue to follow Fitz. The story focuses mainly on the winter period when the coast is no longer so besieged by the Red-Ships Raiders (the part of the story that really got me interested on these books). This part is therefore relegated to a second and much hidden plan. However the events in Buckkeep start to get interesting. The city finds itself on the sight of the Forged ones, which converge to the keep, and the political intrigue thickens, coming close to a civil war that leaves us wondering what might happen next. We have a new king, a king-in-waiting on an impossible demand and a queen-in-waiting pregnant and in unknown whereabouts. But other issues also gain prominence, especially the Skill and the Wit, which really surprised me.

Despite its surprising end, it still didn’t won me over. It's one of those books that you feel like you can't stop reading while you have it opened on your hands, but when put aside picking it up feels like a chore, just like what happened with The Name of the Wind. However, while The Name of the Wind had a somewhat musical writing (I can't describe otherwise), this one hasn't and there are things that really annoyed me. To begin with, Fitz. Okay he's a teenager who has hormones jumping around, I had no problems with that, but he's so blind that I felt like slaping him and drawing him a picture to see if he would wake up and understand what the Fool was trying to tell him or what was happening around him. It wasn’t that hard! The Fool was basically telling him to find the Elderlings (are they dragons with wings, scales and tongues of flame?) and to look for those who previously had the Skill (and from whom he could probably learn something, besides assisting the king-in-waiting). Furthermore, we see little of the royal assassin, but he’s still a good character to follow, since he leads us to the center of the action, the intricacies of politics and let us know of the magic in its two aspects. Oh, and here the author manages to make the first-person narration work! As I said in the first volume, this series is told by Fitz himself years after these events take place so some of the suspense (particularly in cases of life or death) is lost but fortunately, in this book, the author chooses another situation that I really couldn’t foresee. So, applause!

As far as the rest of the characters, the secondaries are still, for me, the most interesting ones but it annoyed me a bit what the author did with Kettricken. Apparently we have a woman with cojones, someone who leads when her husband doesn’t, and instead of giving her a more predominant role on politics, she gets to tidy the house? And her husband only sees her value through the eyes of others, and then seems to forget her again? *head desk * Characters and situations could be so much better used but we end up moving from one place to another, doing basically nothing, when the story could move faster.



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Aprendiz de Assassino by Robin Hobb

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Rating: 3,5

Having read so many positive reviews, I must have picked up this book with very high expectations because in the end I was hoping for much more than what it was delivered.

The story in itself is interesting. We have the Six Duchies dealing with assaults by the Red-Ships Raiders from the OutIslands, who attack the coastal cities, kidnap people and offer strange ransoms, pay and we kill the hostages, or don't pay and we free them. The worst is that when the hostages are set free they cease to be who they were and become Forged, a kind of zombies that attack everything that moves for wealth and/or food. As if this wasn't enough, there's a political crisis resulting from the abdication of the crown prince due to the fact that he had a bastard son. This causes others to put their eyes on the throne.

Without any doubt this is a good plot, but it seems to me that it wasn't very successful. First, the narration is done in first person by Fitz, the bastard mentioned above, and we realize that he's narrating it several years after the story takes place. Well, this mades situations of life or death something boring because I already knew he would survive! I mean, he's telling the story years after it took place! Where's the danger if he survived it to tell his story? That's why I hate this kind of narration, it takes uncertainty of survival out of the equation. If there are some successful examples of narration in first person that leaves us in hanging in suspense, this wasn't one of those.

Second, the story has a pace so slow that it seems nothing happens. It could be used to do some character building, but unfortunately this also seems not to be accomplished because the names of the characters already reflect part of their nature, the part that stands out, and we see little more than that. But still there are interesting characters, case of Verity, Kettricken and the Fool, the only one that really is somewhat mysterious (but not so much his puzzles, in my opinion, and which makes me thing that our protagonist isn't very bright).

Finally, I liked the magic, the Skill and the Wit, although I haven't yet realized why the Wit is something that the protagonist isn't supposed to do. Sounds very similar to the Skill and if that can be studied and controlled, the same should happen to the other and not be rejected.

Despite it all it's a book that one reads well and left me with curiosity enough to pick up the second volume (which I'm almost done), mainly to learn more about the Forging and what's behind the assaults by the Red-Ships Raiders.



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Frostbite by Richelle Mead

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


After reading the first volume, I was hoping this one would also surprise me in some way but unfortunately it didn't. To begin with, I wasn't thrilled to see that the narrator had been replaced, since Stephanie Wolfe had done an exceptional job in the previous volume, especially when it came to represent the different characters going so far as doing accents according to the nationality of each one. For example, with Russian characters we had a Russian accent. This made a big difference while following the story because the characters sounded very similar.

In addition to that, despite having an appealing synopsis which promised to have confrontations with the so feared Strigoi, the story was even more predictable than the previous. But that's not all, since the character Rose still leaves something to be desired. It's true, she grows a little but it's amazing how can she be so blind when the answers to some questions are right in front of her. The only positive aspect of this book, in my opinion, was to learn more about the fifth element, the spirit, which is part of the Moroi magic and that more Moroi use it even if they don't fully understand it, since it was an unknown power until the previous volume.

While many levels below the previous one, it still entertained me on a boring afternoon doing various household chores but I don't think that I'll continue following this series.



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