Kingdom of Knuffel

"The Poppy War" by R. F. Kuang

I figured this thing would be grim. But it is considerably MORE grim than I'd hoped. Good enough that I'm going to finish it anyhow, but I won't be rereading it or looking up more by that author.

I’m not really reading it.. but I’m listening to it. Im listening to The Selection Series by Kiera Cass. I never read the last two but I have them all in my audible account to listen too.

I am starting "The Thousand Names" by Django Wexler (which I have shamefully owned for at least 4 years by now and haven't read yet)

The Victorian Fairy Tale Book

Boy, I haven't been on to post but I've been reading a bunch. Went through a slew of paranormal romances by Nalini Singh, then read through the "Nice Dragon" series, by Rachel.... what's her last name? Bother. Rachel Morgan? No, Aaron! Rachel Aaron. (From the library, so they aren't here for me to check. First one is Nice Dragons Finish Last, then One Good Dragon Deserves Another (I think), maybe second one is No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished.... anyhow I forget all the titles, but I read through them and then passed them on and my father read through them and then they went to one of my Elders and I need to get them back to return them to the library here...)

There were others.
Oh!

A really cute children's book called "The Duchess Bakes a Cake", it had a wonderful meter and rhyme scheme to it. Although I'm still really aghast at the thought of putting squill into a cake. Squill. That's a rat poison! I'm hoping I'm thinking of the wrong thing....

Then there was another children's book, that one I'm having trouble remembering the name of, it was a Rosh Hashana book about the world's birthday, title was descriptive, so some mashup of that.

Mandeville's Travels, the EETS version. Fascinating the way they cloaked fiction as nonfiction at the time. At least I assume that was the convention; you won't convince me it's actual nonfiction.... maybe nonfiction with license to exaggerate? Yeah, that I'd buy.

Then I just got hold of "The Wise Men of Helm and their Merry Tales", by Solomon Simon. So that's the one I'm reading right now.

Fun enough I passed it onto family members, not so fantastic that I want to track them down and own a copy.
So... better than a lot of what I read, anyhow.

I had viewpoint issues, but that's a personal hangup, mostly. I can get thrown out of books really easily by that. I found myself far more interested in some of the stories that were implied as happening in the background, off-stage as it were, rather than told. The universe is a good set up for a number of potentially interesting short stories.

What've you been reading lately, Alice?

The Toll Gate