The Hangman's Daughter | Review

The Hangman's Daughter was published in 2008 and is the first in a quartet written by Oliver Potzch.  This book chronicles a witch hunt that takes placed in Germany during the 1660s after a boy mysteriously dies at the town's dock.   This sets off a series of children's deaths that are complicated by local economic and political conflicts, as well as the ethical and moral implications of a witch hunt.  The local hangman, his daughter, and the town physician set out to unravel the mystery of the deaths to ensure the right culprit is punished.

Source Image: Goodreads

I purchased this book on my Kindle on accident - it was on the Daily Deal and I thought I was purchasing The Madman's Daughter, a YA spin-off from The Island of Doctor Moreau.  Surprisingly,despite what I thought I was originally reading the plot of The Hangman's Daughter was really intriguing.  I enjoyed getting the local politics and folklore of Schongau and unravelling the mystery of the murders.  The plot frequently changed perspectives- first a third person perspective of the town, and then a first person perspective from the mysterious murder.

The first 80% of the book was great, the plot was fast paced and it was detailed enough to understand the conflicting relationships between all of the townspeople for really fleshed out characters and culture.  However, once the mystery started unravelling the book fell flat for me and I wasn't interested in finding out who the murdered was.  To be quite honest, this might not be the book's fault- I have the same problem with other mystery and horror novels that I read, where the build up is more exciting than the resolution.  Some of the mystery may have been lost in the translation as well (originally written in German).

 Overall, the end I ended up only giving the book 2/5 stars on Goodreads but despite that low rating I would still recommend it to anyone looking for a well developed, character driven plot. I do not plan on reading the other three books in The Hangman's Daughter quartet.

Waiting on Wednesday | Library Edition

Hi friends.  Today for Waiting on Wednesday I am going to discuss a crazy habit I have- requesting interlibrary loans on books in my county.  It's like an addiction, I just browse through my TBR and put in requests for all of the books I want to read to be delivered to my nearest library for pickup.  In this post I'm going to focus on the physical books I've requested because the available e-books from my library is a whole different monster.  I have five pending requests (!!!) at my library and I just recieved an email today letting me know these two books are available for pick up.  I will have them by the weekend!

Hosted at Breaking the Spine

The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith - I recently saw a review of this on a blog last week (if it was your blog, please let me know! I can't remember who it was and I want to link you!).  This book is a collection of ghost stories and Vietnamese folk tales that sound interesting because I've never read anything about Vietnamese culture and it will count as one of my five committed books for Once Upon a Time.

The Most of Nora Ephron - I love the movie You've Got Mail, which is the first introduction to Nora Ephron that I had at 10 years old.  Unfortunately,  Nora passed away last year and I have never read any of her books so I am starting with this compilation before moving onto more of her movies and story collections.


Do you use your local library's request and borrow system? What do you have on hold?  Let me know in the comments!  I am always looking for additions to my TBR.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I hope everyone is having a great Monday! It's raining here again (I feel like everytime I write a post it's raining).

Hosted by Sheila at The Book Journey

This past weekend I participated in the #24in48 readathon hosted at Home Between Pages and finished two books- The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson and Attachments by Rainbow Rowell.  I didn't make any progress on The Name of the Wind or Peter Pan so *hopefully* I will finish them sometime this month.

In My Mailbox this week are two new books. Dreams of Gods and Monsters, the conclusion of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor will download to my Kindle at midnight.  I also picked up a physical copy of Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I was debating on buying or borrowing this book from the library but the first few lines had me hooked and I had to get it:

"I first discovered I was trash three days before my ninth birthday - one year after my father lost his job and moved to Secaucus to live with a woman who lived with a woman named Crystal and four years before my mother had the car accident, started taking pills, and began exclusively wearing bedroom slippers instead of normal shoes."

This week I have a few posts already planned - a review for The Hangman's Daughter and for The Amityville Horror as well as a Waiting on Wednesday post for some of the books I've requested at my library.

Here's to a good week! Let me know what you've got going on in the comments.

Friday Reads - 4/4

Happy Friday everyone! I can't believe how quickly and slowly this week went, if that makes any sense?

I am really excited for this weekend to relax in the beautiful spring weather that finally arrived in Philadelphia and to finish some of the books I've started in my book-ADD phase.

Since my March Wrap Up post on Monday, I've started reading two more books! Here is my reading progress so far:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss- 31% complete 

Peter Pan by JM Barrie - 43% complete

The Amityville Horror - 43% complete

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell - 21% complete

My goals this weekend are to finish Attachments and The Amityville Horror (which I can only read during the day!) and participate in the #24in48 readathon hosted by Home Between Pages here on Blogspot. I will be posting updated on Twitter using the #24in48 hashtag.

Happy reading!

Once Upon a Time | Reading Quest

After successfully participating in RIPVIII last fall, I kept my eye out for more themed reading challenges from Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings and he did not disappoint! The Once Upon a Time readalong starting on March 21 (the first day of Spring) and runs through June 21.  Carl describes the event much better than I can:

 This is a reading and viewing event that encompasses four broad categories: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology, including the seemingly countless sub-genres and blending of genres that fall within this spectrum. The challenge continues through June 21st and allows for very minor (1 book only) participation as well as more immersion depending on your reading/viewing whims.

I wanted to participate in this event without too many constraints (and without too much hunting into book genres).  I am embarking upon Quest the First.  I will read at least five books in the Once Upon a Time categories, with a focus on mythology and fantasy.

I mentioned in my March Wrap Up that I am currently reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss which fits in perfectly with this challenge, as well as Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor which releases next week.

Here are a few potential books I have lined up:

• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
• The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Titan's Curse and The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (books 3-5 in the Percy Jackson series).
• City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Last year I read Deathless by Catherynne Valente which would have fit perfectly into the Folklore portion of this challenge.  I highly recommend this to anyone participating in this challenge!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? And March Wrap Up

Good morning fellow book lovers. This weekend was a rainy, dreary, curl up with a book and don't get out of bed few days. I loved it!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? Is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at The Book Journey.  I'm currently reading The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss and let me tell you it is GOOD.  More than good, amazing, wonderful and fantastically written and I am only 24% of the way through (currently reading it on my Kindle because it was an impulse purchase and 600+ pages). I purchased this book from a recommendation on Literary Disco's podcast about Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (which I also picked up).  I have no idea what it is about apart from what I have read.

The Name of the Wind is a fantasy for beginners - did I mention that the writing is SO GOOD? That the fantastical elements and world building seamlessly fall into place.  As far as I can tell this is a trilogy and the third book isn't out with no rumored publishing date, so I want to read quickly to find out what happens but not too quickly because if I don't want to extend the wait for the third book.

"He called himself Kote.  He had chosen the name carefully when he came to this place.  He had taken a new name for most of the usual reasons, and for a few unusual ones as well, not least of which was the fact that names were important to him. (The Name of the Wind, page 10)"

March Wrap Up

While enjoying the gloomy weekend weather from my couch, I read Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor and gave it give stars. This novella took about 45 minutes to read and was a great escape back into the world that she created in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy.  It described the first date/love story beginning for Mik and Zuzana from their perspectives, a perfect blend of romance, mystery, and magic - I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and already preordered the third book, Dreams of Gods and Monsters - 8 days until it arrives on my Kindle.

Earlier in the month I read The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter #1) by Oliver Potzsch.  I am going to write a full review for the book this week.  Overall, I enjoyed it but there were a few flaws that detracted from the story for me.  Unfortunately, just 2 stars.

I also read my first comic book/graphic novel (ever) - Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman.  It was incredible! I will definitely be purchasing the second volume The Doll's House.  What a scary ride into the Dreamworld (figuratively and literally!).  I love everything I have read by Gaiman so far and will continue with his comics and novels.  4 stars.

Image Source: Amazon

The last book I kind of read this month was Judging a Book by Its Lover: A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers by Lauren Leto. I kind of read this book because I only got to page 126 before I gave up, handed it 1 star, and put it down. I did not intentionally purchase this book, it came in my Quarterly Co box from Book Riot.  Leto created the website Texts from Last Night, which I loved when I was in college, so I had high hopes that this would be a humorous light read to reflect on readers everywhere.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be a list of pretentiousness and is headed straight to my "donate" pile.

My reading this year has definitely slowed down - I read 7 books in March last month compared to the 3.5 I read this month.  I was bummed at first - why couldn't I make time for reading? But with limited time came greater selectiveness on what I am willing to read.  If it's not good, or well written, or intersteding, I put it down and focus on someting else.  So while my quantity of reading is less, the quality is greatly increased. Overall I think it's a good thing.

That's all for now - what have you read this month? Tell me in the comments or find me on Twitter!

October 2013 Wrap Up - Late!

So- I realize it is not longer October and that this happened quite a few months ago. I found this post in my backlog of drafts that I didn't get to publish before my blogging sebbatical but it's good stuff so I wanted to share anyway! It's fun to look back at what I was thinking almost six months ago.

Enter the Stacks and Shelves time wrap back to 10/2013:

 I can't believe October is already winding down and my favorite time of the year is in full swing.  I experienced a slump in my normal reading habits in September (mostly because of my wedding!) but I bounced back in October and had a wonderful reading month.

I read a total of nine (!!!) books and I wrote posts for almost every book.    I also participated in The Historian readalong, the Doctor Sleep readalong and Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon.  (Click on the book title's name to link back to the original post).

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen Kind
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman
• The Selection and The Elite by Kiera Cass
• Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron by Jonathan Strahan
• Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
• Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Unfortunately, There will not be a review for Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor.  This is a young adult high fantasy series that is definitely out of my comfort zone, and I am not completely comfortable with writing my thoughts about a book I don't fully understand.  Plus, it has been a long time since I read the first book in the series so it would be an unfair assessment on the progression of the story line.  With that being said, it is still an enjoyable series to read and I will definitely be buying the third book that comes out next year (March 2013 update: this book comes out in 2 weeks!).

In August I wrote out my Fall 2013 TBR and I am surprised to say that I actually read books from that list.  Four of the books I talked about were read (one in September, the other three this month) and I am still interested in the remaining books so I might actually read all of them!

Overall, I have read 73 books towards my goal of 80 books on Goodreads (bumped up from my original goal of 60) and I am considering bumping my goal up just a bit because I am going to start reading a lot of middle grade fiction for Middle Grade Mondays and those books take significantly less time to get through.

I also managed to acquire an obscene amount of new books throughout September and October so I am going to try my best and not buy anything new throughout the end of the year.  I recently discovered this new e-lending program at my library which will make my "buying ban" easier to manage.