Books I bought in May

I've made a video, and I can't speak properly.

Thanks for watching!

The Books (affiliate links):
Pirate Latitudes: http://www.bookdepository.com/Pirate-Latitudes-Michael-Crichton/9780061967702/?a_aid=catstale
Fangirl: http://www.bookdepository.com/Fangirl-Rainbow-Rowell/9781447263227/?a_aid=catstale
Blackbirds: http://www.bookdepository.com/Blackbirds-Chuck-Wendig/9780857662309/?a_aid=catstale

And finally a link to my TBR series-of-posts that you can find here somewhere. I post these the first friday of the month, so there'll be a new one the 6th of June if everything happens as it normally does: http://catstalebookclub.blogspot.no/search/label/Kiwie%27s%20TBR%20pile

Tipsy booktalk: Veronica Mars, Thousand dollar tan line

Hope you enjoy this video and let us know if this is something you would like to see us do again.

Kiwie's TBR #4: May

Hello, it's May already. April was endless, yet suddenly over. April was also a good reading month for me. I did NOT buy any physical books that needed to be put into any TBR pile. I did get that ebook humble bundle though (this month they've got comics), so I am actually 10 (!) books (or bookish documents) richer... Nevermind that though, because this is primarily about the physical TBR pile that got out of control and that I paid lots of money for (really, books are pricey in Norway and that pile is mostly the result of me just buying stuff when I was younger and had money).

I read a lot in April. I, of course, read The Thousand Dollar Tanline (we did film a video, it's coming sometime) as that was the book we read togheter here. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin was everything I wanted it to be and more, I absolutely loved it. I listened to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files a lot, I heard both Fools Moon and Grave Peril. I like this series a lot, it's fun. I also went to the library and checked out another urban fantasy book Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green, read and liked it enough to go back and borrow the next two in the series (there are 12 in total). So I'm definitely on an urban fantasy binge, but that isn't all that I read. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld was also a book that I read. I liked it, but tought it was too long and the way the last pages were just made the whole thing in front a bit meh. It was a good book, and I really liked some parts, but other times I felt it was uninteresting. Maybe it was too long? Don't know. I've somehow misplaced the Norwegian contemporary I was reading (I took it to the cabin for easter, and I know I took it back down with me, but I don't know where I put it when I unpacked!) so that I didn't finish. I hope it turns up soon.

Last month's TBR to the left and this month's to the right:

I had already removed Dracula from the pile when I took the May photo (from the back pile, you can see it in the April photo, it's the blue one that is mid-pile), so the photo is a bit of a liar, but not that much. There is actually space above A Clash of Kings now, there wasn't before (well there isn't now either, but that's because the cover clearly has some size issues). So today I can happily declare progress. Huzzah!

Since I've taken to reading the Nightside series the pile probably won't shrink much in May (I also have an exam and am stressing madly about getting a job! HELP!). For my immediate TBR I am mostly finishing stuff I've already started, one of which I pulled from my minimalist hipster TBR-jar:

World War Z was actually a book we were supposed to read for the Cat's Tale last summer, but I never finished it and so when I made my jar I put it in there (along with a bunch of other books I just didn't finish for some reason or other). I have this as an audio book and I have listened to parts of it and I did like it, I just wasn't in the mood for audio last time, but I've been listening a lot this year so I think we'll be compatible this time around.

The rest of my TBR pile looks like this:

There's Dracula our monthly pick (which Kat gave to me as part of a gift once, because she's awesome) and Nightingale's Lament by Simon R. Green (book #3 of Nightside) and the thing on the bottom is my Kindle where I've started Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw, which was one of the ebooks from the Humble Bundle I bought.

Book review of Doctor Who: The Sleep of Reason

At long last, here is my review of The Sleep of Reason!



Keep a look out for a tipsy book talk with both me and Kiwie, where we discuss the Veronica Mars book The Thousand Dollar Tan Line

Come what May: Dracula

In May we decided to read a classic (apparently that's a thing for us, because last May we went for Lolita, which is also part of the western canon as it stands today) and this May we are going for Dracula, another horrifying tale (albeit for different reasons).

Bram Stoker's Dracula is told through letters and diary entries (and more I believe) from various characters' point of view, that together tell the story of a strange count, a wasting illness and death. I don't think the story needs further introduction. You would think we had already read it. We love horror. We love vampires. We really should have read it, and we have, but not in its original/full form. I've read an illustrated, shortened children's version, and of course, seen numerous versions in TV and film, sometimes the whole story, sometimes just characters thrown into something else (Dracula did show up in Buffy once, right?). Some good, some bad and some deliciously so.

So, in May we will flip our way through Dracula, and hopefully we won't be disappointed, or should I say that hopefully we won't be bored seeing as we know the story so well already.


Find it on Goodreads. Buy it on Bookdepostory

Kiwie's thoughts: Shada

In March I read Shada, which is based on scripts by Douglas Adams and turned into a book by Gareth Roberts. It i about the fourth Doctor, you know, the one with the ridiculous scarf...

I didn't quite know what to expect from this, with about 400 pages I had hopes of it being a fleshed out story with more behind the dialogue and the timey-wimey. There was, but only a little. The Doctor, Romana and K9 arrive at Cambridge University because of a distress call they recieved, sent out by The Doctors friend (and fellow time lord) Professor Chronotis. Throw in two Cambridge scientists and one bad guy and we've got our main characters.

We start this story knowing that something is wrong, but not exactly what. The story of Skagra (our baddie) unfolds next to the ones of our heroes. There are lots of funny bits with The Doctor biking about, a very talkative space ship, two somewhat one-dimensional and totally in love with each other scientists, one time lord professor who bumbles about and forgets things as well as the guy who lets people in and out of the college where the proffessor works, who's seen a lot and is never surprised, but is very, very wrong (and eventually quite upset by a certain disturbance in the status quo).

There's a lot of fun stuff here, and the plot is a little twisty, with information being revealed at a fairly good pace (I have to admit, it slows down a little too much for my liking in the earlier parts, but not dramatically so). I did like the bad guy, or rather, I liked his sphere (which I can't tell you about without spoiling it). It was quite terrifying really, in a really quiet way. My favourite character was Professor Chronotis, and his naughty ways, and his constant tea-making.

Douglas Adams' style shone through in the dialogue and in some parts of the story, adding that whimsical flavor, but the story never got extremely random or out of control, and the plot tied neatly together in the end. The Doctor was very much The Doctor (i.e in character) and this read like a great, fun, timey-wimey adventure. Just as it should be.

Kiwie's TBR Pile #3: April

I have scanned all the books in my tbr-pile and added them to Goodreads and stuck them on a shelf called: Physical TBR pile. So if you want an updated book count, that's where you go! Well, there's two that didn't make it to the list due to lack of bar code, but other than that it is correct!

So, how did March go? Well... I got A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Goodreads | Bookdepository), it was a gift from Katastrofekat (thanks!). I bought the The Thousand Dollar Tanline AKA The Veronica Mars Novel (Goodreads | Bookdepository) by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham. It came in the mail the first day of April, but I'm counting it since I pre-ordered it and it did come out in March even though it didn't land in my mailbox just then:

The Thousand Dollar Tanline is also our book of the month for April, so I don't even have to feel guilty about adding it to my TBR!

In March I didn't quite read as much as I thought I would, but I did read Broken Homes (Goodreads | Bookdepository) and I absolutely loved it, it was awesome and had a very character-like bulding, which is fun, and then it got serious and my heart hurts now. This is the fourth novel in the series and it is urban fantasy set in London and it's awesome (& funny). The first book is Rivers of London (Goodreads | Bookdepository). I also finished A Game of Thrones and Shada, but didn't get to of The Evolution of Mara Dyer so I'm letting that go into April's TBR. I also started the tiny Norwegian book, but didn't finish it, so that moves forward too.

My giant TBR pile(s) looks different now. When I scanned the books I naturally reorganized my books, I think it looks neater now, even though it isn't actually shrinking... I'm terrible at this! I feel like I'm getting somewhere and then I go to figure out my next month and wham: No progress. This month's pile is to the left and last month's is to the right... Sigh:

I also discovered that a lot of the books on the bottom of the piles had bookmarks in them. So I guess I just suck at finishing books. I already knew that. I couldn't read the last 20 pages of The Virgin Suicides because I liked it too much... That's years ago now, I still have a bookmark in it. These other books I might have just lost interest in. I don't really know. Anyway, this time around if I don't want to finish them I won't. I'll stick them in my "give away" pile and donate them somewhere or pass them along to friends who might like them more than I did. I'm getting really good at getting rid of books I don't really need. Because I don't have space.

Immediate April TBR:

So the top two are transfers from last month and I am looking forward to that. Veronica Mars I've already talked about. Then there's the one you haven't seen before, because I got it out of the library just now. It's a Norwegian translation of Prep by Curtis Sittenfield. So April, please let me get through all of this.

I also have only ONE thing I might buy this month, and it's MIGHT. Staying out of that library with all the free books too... Wish me strength and desire to tear through some books.