So many books, so little time (and space)...
The original plan was to work through the piles of unread books in my flat, not to mention the e-books I have and the audiobooks I bookmarked on Spotify/lismio. But somehow, those keep growing. Also, I re-discovered the library. ;)
I mostly read Sci-fi, Fantasy and historical fiction. Also non-fiction (mostly history of one kind or another). I read in English and German and occasionally French.
Posts in English and German
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The Lotus Empire brings Tasha Suri’s acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy to a heart-stopping close. As …
I think I've started too many books at once so putting this on the back burner until later this month.
Wollte ich schon seit Ewigkeiten lesen. Endlich ist es soweit!
Eine Beerdigung führt 2016 den Rostocker Kay und seine Clique aus Schulzeiten wieder zusammen. Erinnerungen werden wach: an die unbeschwerte …
The Lotus Empire brings Tasha Suri’s acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy to a heart-stopping close. As an ancient magic returns to …
In »Was bleibt« gerät eine Ostberliner Schriftstellerin durch ihre berufliche Tätigkeit in den Fokus der …
Sehr beeindruckend #2025reads
In »Was bleibt« gerät eine Ostberliner Schriftstellerin durch ihre berufliche Tätigkeit in den Fokus der Stasi und wird offen überwacht. …
Egypt, 1912. In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between …
Nice little noir-style story set in an intriguing, complex urban fantasy world. The scope of the story and the richness of the setting would have merited a bit more length. I'm looking forward to the other stories set in this world (my book club will read "Master of Djinn" later this year).
Egypt, 1912. In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) …
Egypt, 1912. In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) …
STEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.
Kell is one …
Captivating #2025reads
"Familie heißt lügen bis tief in die Nacht" – sagt Karla. Deshalb ist sie von …
Locker geschrieben, hat mich sehr angesprochen. #2025reads
"Ich habe gesehen. Das Ich ist ein Zeuge. Es spricht, und doch hat es keine …
Packend und bewegend. Zeigt eindrücklich, dass ein Genozid nicht so einfach vorbei und dann alles gut ist. #2025reads
When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find …
I loved it. I enjoyed the general setting - a quiet seaside town in a fantasy world - a lot. The characters are great, too. They have their outlooks and motivations and their little quirks and it's all presented in a well-paced manner that doesn't feel forced. I loved how this is also a book about books and bookshops. The excerpts of the books from this world were fantastic and were woven well into the overall story. That story was also really nice and captivating. I adored the cozyness and how accepting everyone was. An early highlight of the year for me! The audiobook is narrated by the author who does a great job with it.
The first book in the duology, "What the River Knows" had its flaws but was captivating and entertaining overall. It ended on a cliffhanger and so I was waiting quite impatiently for the sequel and read it almost as soon as it became available at my library. Unfortunately, it disappointed. It is quite a page turner as it lives off the many twists in the story. But those twists sometimes come off as rather constructed for the sake of the plot and are sometimes downright absurd. The latter does have some entertainment value of its own, I admit, but is not why I picked up the book. Some of the aspects I liked about the first book (e.g. the excavation, Inez's exploration) aren't present in the second. And on top of that, Whit, the other main protagonist, comes off as a horrible person everyone should stay away from.
Flauschbuch
boosted
Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.
Wounded during …
This was a fun prequel to Legends & Lattes. It was a much stronger book for me with much more depth; Viv is stuck injured in a small seaside town and has to figure out what to do with herself while she's recovering. It's a cozy book about finding new directions, supporting friends who are stuck, and connections even when they're temporary. These are very different books, but it made me want to go reread Bujold's Memory, which is also a book centered on sorting out your life when its expected trajectory has been suddenly altered.
It's also a book about loving books and caring for a bookstore, which immediately endeared itself to me. Fern (the foul-mouthed rattkin who owns said bookstore) recommends Viv a series of books from different (in-world fantasy takes on) genres. The snippets from these books are entertaining but each one ties implicitly and explicitly …
This was a fun prequel to Legends & Lattes. It was a much stronger book for me with much more depth; Viv is stuck injured in a small seaside town and has to figure out what to do with herself while she's recovering. It's a cozy book about finding new directions, supporting friends who are stuck, and connections even when they're temporary. These are very different books, but it made me want to go reread Bujold's Memory, which is also a book centered on sorting out your life when its expected trajectory has been suddenly altered.
It's also a book about loving books and caring for a bookstore, which immediately endeared itself to me. Fern (the foul-mouthed rattkin who owns said bookstore) recommends Viv a series of books from different (in-world fantasy takes on) genres. The snippets from these books are entertaining but each one ties implicitly and explicitly into the themes and plot. Mystery! Action! Romance! Friendship! Local authors! Maybe it's a little too on the nose, but it worked really well for me.
(As a super minor aside here, it's also interesting to me about where the tension in this book comes from. Certainly, there's a larger necromancer in the background that creates the larger plot. Secondarily, money in the book is also a concern, but it's less that any of these characters will starve and it's more an emotional worry--Fern is concerned that her bookstore will fold and she will have failed her dad and her own dream. There's a lot of discussion of Viv paying for baked goods and her room and board, but despite being a young mercenary there's never any "how am I going to support this lifestyle of staying at this inn all summer" worries. It reminds me of the kind of cozy worldbuilding that Zandra Vandra does, where there's emotional tension but the normal grinding terribleness of the world has been softened at the edges.)
