The Very Secret Diaries

As I am a good, hard working university student I was diligently working on an essay when something was brought to my attention. Apparently some people (Caitlin, I'm looking at you) have been living under very large rocks, and have never experienced the awesomeness that is the Very Secret Diaries of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Excerpts:

Legolas

Day Ten: Gandalf fell into shadow. In other news, I think I am developing a spot on my nose. V. serious situation, as Elven spots likely to last for 500 years or more.

Still prettiest, despite blasted spot.


Legolas pt. II

Day One: Whee!

Day Two: I like to run!

Day Three: I look good when I run!

Day Four: I also look good standing still. Running across Riddermark v. good excercise. I swear my butt has just gotten firmer. Is that even possible?

Day Six: Is Gimli staring at my butt?

Day Seven: No wonder he's always lagging behind.

Aragorn

Day One: Ringwraiths killed: 4. V. good.
Met up with Hobbits. Walked forty miles. Skinned a squirrel and ate it.
Still not King.

Top Five Books of 2009

I like reading, which will come as no surprise at all to anyone who knows me even a little. If I don't have an actual book on me, I have about fifty or so on my iPod touch to keep me occupied in case in I ever feel like reading. Over the course of 2009 I made a point of writing down which books I read, as I was curious as to how many books I would read in a year. Despite being in university for a good chunk of this time I managed to finish 64 books, 62 of which were for fun. These books averaged anywhere from 300-1300 pages in length and the vast majority of them were in the fantasy genre. I thought I'd post a list of my five favourite books that I read over the year.

Top Five

1. The Virtu by: Sarah Monette
It probably isn't fair that I'm including this book, as it's been my favourite for well over a year. But, I did read it in 2009 and I still think it's amazing. It's the second book in Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinth series and follows the story of two brothers: Felix and Mildmay. My favourite thing about this book would be these characters; they're stunningly written, and are anything but cookie cutter. I'm pretty sure Felix would be cast as the villain in any other story, and rightly so. He's awful and I hate him. Mildmay however is my favourite literary character ever. The world is fantastically detailed and I love how ever single character has their own unique voice.

2. The Gargoyle by: Andrew Davidson
This book is a bit of a departure from what I'd usually read, but it's definitely one I really, really liked. I had seen the book around work (Chapters) and loved the cover, and the description on the back while it was still in hardcover, but couldn't rationalize spending the thirty bucks on something that I might not end up enjoying. So, when I saw it finally in paperback, I figured I'd pick it up.

The prose in this book is great. The book is told from the first person point of view of our (unnamed) protagonist. He spends the first portion of the book confined to his hospital bed in the burn ward, contemplating suicide and briefing us on his life up to this point. We get a lot of interesting information from here, including a whole bunch of random, but interesting facts on everything from burns to the physical structure of hell. I have a huge weakness for interesting information, so I found these meanderings fascinating. However, it was when Marianne entered the story that things got strange.

Marianne, a schizophrenic patient in the hospital, claims that she has known our protagonist since the 13th century Germany. From Marianne we get to hear the intriguing history of their life in Germany, as well as other historical stories set in Iceland, Italy and Japan. At the end of the novel it is left up to the reader to decide whether these stories are a hallucination of Marianne's or whether that maybe, just maybe, this actually happened.While I will admit that I didn't quite like the ending, this was a fabulous book that I highly recommend. Plus, the author is Canadian, which is always nice.

3. Fool's Fate by: Robin Hobb
Loved this book, and loved the entire 6 book series leading up to it.

4. Warbreaker by: Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson is generally good for three main things: an awesomely creative magic system, cool characters and some nifty plot twists so it's no surprise that this book had them all. The book is centred around three main characters: Vivenna, the Idrian princess who has spent her entire life being groomed to marry the Hallandren God King, her impulsive and loud sister Siri, who actually ends up marrying said God King, and Lightsong. Lightsong is the reluctant God of bravery who enjoys being useless and witty. The gist of the plot is that these three work to prevent a war between Idris and Hallandren, with varying degrees of success.

Have to say that I didn't really care much for Vivenna, but Siri and Lightsong more than made up for it. The book was interesting, and kept me entertained throughout. Although I bought the hardback, Brandon Sanderson has put an entire copy of novel online here.

5. The Lies of Locke Lamora by: Scott Lynch
I really, really enjoyed this book. Not only was it witty and entertaining, but more than anything else this book was clever. The twists and turns of this book were fantastic, and there were times where I was honestly in fear that we would be left without a main character. (well, as in fear as I could have been knowing that there were two hundred odd pages left, and a sequel, but still). The characters were also really great, and quite believable

Book Review: Men of the Otherworld

Title: Men of the Otherworld
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Number of Pages: 384
Year of publication: 2009
Genre: Supernatural
Rating: 4.5/5


Summary

"As a curious child, Clayton didn’t resist the bite—he asked for it. But surviving as a lone child werewolf was more than he could manage—until Jeremy came along and taught him how to straddle the human-werewolf worlds, gave him a home…and introduced him to the Pack. So begins this volume, featuring three of the most intriguing members of the American Pack—a hierarchical founding family where bloodlines mean everything, and each day presents a new, thrilling, and often deadly challenge. For as Clayton grows from a wild child to a clever teen who tests his beloved mentor at every turn, he must learn not only to control his animal instincts, but to navigate Pack politics—including showing his brutal arch nemesis, Malcolm, who the real Alpha is..."

Ahaha, so the end of that summary sounds a little lame, but the book itself is fantastic. While this is not the type of book I would usually read, I have a soft spot for supernatural books. Prequel to Kelley Armstrong's 'Women of the Otherworld' series, this novel gives some insight into Clayton's life before Elena came along. I've read it three times now since purchasing it in January and have throughly enjoyed it every time. Clayton is an interesting character, and his narration is humourous and very self deprecating. I'm not usually a huge fan of the werewolf/vampire genre, but this book and the entire series, is well worth the read.


Excerpts

"At the time, it seemed to me that Jeremy was spending a lot of time with a piece of plastic pressed against his ear, talking to himself. Which was fine by me. We all have our eccentricities. Jeremy liked talking to plastic; I liked hunting and eating the rats that ventured into the motel room. Or, at least, I did like hunting and eating the rats, until Jeremy caught me and promptly kiboshed that hobby. Some of us are less tolerant of eccentricities than others."

"Nick had managed to make it down from the tree easily enough. The trouble was finding his way out of the forest. You'd think that anyone who had been visiting Stonehaven since he was old enough to toddle would know his way around the woods there, particularily when that someone had werewolf blood, but Nick often had trouble finding his way out of the forest at his own house.
He obviously needed more practise, but no matter how often I abandoned him out there, his sense of direction never seemed to improve. That, of course, only increased my resolve to keep leaving him there. What are friends for, if not to help you overcome your weaknesses?"

Photos With Alley and Vie

Last Wednesday I got together with two of friends and did a mini photoshoot. Lot's of fun was had by all and I got some practice in with shooting human subjects, which was nice. Here's a few of my favourites from the day.

Book Review: The Way of Shadows

Title: The Way of Shadows
Author: Brent Weeks
Number of Pages: 668
Published: 2008
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5

Summary:

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.


I really, really enjoyed the first half of this book. It was well paced, and the story was different enough to keep me interested. I found the second half lost me a little though (probably because there was a substantial gap between reading that first half, and then finishing the book due to Christmas/working). I'll be the first to admit that the big epic fight scenes in books usually bore me, and that's pretty much the gist of what the last couple hundred pages of this book were. There were a few good plot twists, but there were also a couple others that I felt were almost unnecessary?

Overall though the book was worth the read, and I'm hoping to start the second one tonight.

(On a side note, I loved the acknowledgements in this book - it made me laugh. I can usually judge how much I'll like a book by how awesome the acknowledgements are, and yes I realize that makes me weird, but I love reading them)

First Post

Hello people of the internet. My name is Kiera, and I have a beautiful blog that I share with a couple of my friends from school, where we post about various arty things we like, or are doing. This blog will still include that stuff, but having my own blog allows me to post stuff of a personal nature as well. (I also intend to use this blog as a I-just-read-this-book-and-this-is-what-I-think space.)