Bearshorty's musings

I finally finished Luke Cage today.
( Luke Cage Season 1 )

Book Meme
19. That book with a twist that felt like a blow to the chest. Tell me about it. (But warn for spoilers if necessary!)

I will be super boring here and say I can't think of one. I rarely react to books super emotionally - although I do cry a lot easier lately. So there wasn't a twist that ever sent me reeling. Maybe the end of Book 6 of Harry Potter. My favorite twist ever was in the book by Agatha Christie which was written in a first person, and that person turned out to be the killer. Very unexpected and clever.

I'm back home. I probably won't go to my parents until November, so it will be nice to just be home for a while. Bear made the mistake of coming home right at 12:30pm, right when Tanya was about to go nap. She hasn't seen him all week, except on Skype, so needless to say, there was no nap today. I put her to bed early but that usually means that she wakes up around 9 and needs me to lay down with her a little while she falls back to sleep. I still needed to do some grading, but that "Mama alarm" did make time to watch the second episode of "Luke Cage" on Bear's Amazon Fire - I actually like slow pacing in shows, and I'm liking it so far, mostly for the actors. I have also been reading Naomi Novik's "His Majesty's Dragon" this week and I'm completely in love. That book/series were made for me.

When I have grading and deadlines I tend to be cranky and next week will be busy in general so I'm stressing preemptively. I really just need to breathe.

Since it's October (already!) and the Jewish New Year starts tomorrow night, which is another time of renewal, I figured I can do the book meme that's been floating around on LJ. I'm going to do one question a day, or I will never have time for it and it should make me post a little more often. Plus the first question was what I was going to write about anyway.

Book Meme
1. What’s the last book you read? What did you think of it?
Last book I finished reading was Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle . She wasn't an author I knew as a kid but her books are right up my alley. I'm glad I read her as an adult. I absolutely loved this book. It was funny, with great characters, and just a fun poke at fairy tales as well. I loved Sophie as an old woman as she felt free just to say and do anything. And get everyone in trouble with her unintended magic. This was the second time in a month I was reading a book about a witch who didn't realize she was one until someone else finally told her (Uprooted was the other one) but it didn't bug me in this book, probably since it's in 3rd person. Howl was hysterical with his tantrums and being sick drama but he was also smart. I didn't really care about the ending and romance; I didn't need Sophie to be paired up, but I didn't mind it. What made this book for me was the portal into Wales. When I got to that point, that was the point I went from liking the book a lot to just loving it. I like alternate dimension and it gave a new dimension to Howl too. And it was just such a pleasant read.

I read this book because Neil Gaiman spoke so highly about the author in his non-fiction book that I read this summer. I think I did see the movie but it was merely ok and I didn't remember much at all. So I was just really surprised by this book. I want to read the sequels now.