Saturday, October 20, 2007

Hour Three



First off, so that everyone realises why I went through Tithe so quickly, here's a random page shot. Note the gloriously large text and the rather square pages. I don't usually read that quickly.


This hour, I finished up Tithe; I'm uncertain as to whether to award it three or four stars. Parts of it were very good, other parts not so much. Overall, I'd recommend it for people who enjoy urban fantasy, and don't mind a somewhat clunky writing style and teens who engage in sketchy behavior (lol-like sixteen-year-olds smoking and hooking up). After I was done with that, I decided I wanted a complete change of pace, so I went with The Kitchen Boy, a historical novel by Robert Alexander set in Russia when it was becoming the USSR. It recounts the last days of the Russian royal family's lives. So far, I'm in love with Alexander's style. He captures the Russian tone really well; also, since I speak Russian, I adore the Russian words and phrases he scatters around. I can hear various Russians I knew speaking them. I can already tell I'm going to be sad when this one ends (it's barely 200 pages)!

Finally, here's a really neat mini-challenge over at Taylor the Teacher. I opened my book, and the first words I saw were "Russia's black ingratitude." I'm not a writer, but I'm supposed to write a few lines about that (what a heavy phrase!) So here I go:

I can't always understand
Russia's black ingratitude for what it's become.
When it rose, out of the ashes of communism,
didn't we capitalists take it under its wing?
And if that led to the oligarchs, who spend Russia's wealth buying football teams, and a falling life expectancy, and dissatisfied youth,
well,
then they must still be commies.

(Note: just in case it isn't clear, this was *ironic*; I'm bashing neoliberalism, not Russia or communism...just wanted to cover my bases)

Books Read: Tithe by Holly Black, The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
Pages Read (cum.): 379
Books Completed: 1
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 3

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that's fantastic! What a tough phrase to start with. I don't think I could've done it.

But you did! I like it!

Thanks so much for playing. I love this Read-A-Thon.

Anonymous said...

Damn you, Eva :) Now I feel really stupid for my mini challenge offering. You're doing great today, large font or not!

chrisa511 said...

Great job! I didn't know you spoke Russian, that's so cool! I'd love to learn a language like that. I speak French fairly well after studying it for 10 years, but it's a fairly common language...now Russian, that's cool! ;)

Eva said...

Taylor, I love the Read-a-Thon too! Thanks for being so generous with your prizes.

Claire, I went over and read yours and I don't think it's stupid at all!

Chris, yep-I studied abroad in Russia for six months. I think knowing French well is cool; I studied it a little (I'm pretty comfortable reading it), but I couldn't speak it to save my life!

Literary Feline said...

You're doing great so far! :-) Happy reading!

1morechapter said...

Great progress!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review on Tithe. That looks like one that may have to be added to my list. :D

Ana S. said...

379 pages! You're doing great!

I'm with Chris, I wish I knew Russian. Slavic languages fascinate me for some reason.

Eva said...

Nymeth, Slavic languages are pretty cool. Way different from English, Latin, and French (the only other languages I've studied)!

Imani said...

One of the reasons I've avoided the Holly Black books so far is that I can't stand the large type. Your read-a-thon does sound like a whole lot of fun though! I regret not joining in.