Sunday, March 20, 2016

#MarchMagics - More Books


I've read a couple more books that I want to mention to you --


I listened to an audiobook of The Lives of Christopher Chant as a (bajillionth time) reread. We talked about bad covers just the other day and I didn't include this one because I went with "so-bad-they're-strangely-good" but this one from the audiobook is "so-bad-it-hurts-my-brain". It's obviously supposed to be The Place Between but this Christopher is just so 1990 (I bet that's a silk shirt!) and the fonts are awful! But please, don't let this affect your desire to pick up this book. It's the second of the Chrestomanci books but I think you could start with it if you happened to see it. It introduces you to Christopher and Millie and Tacroy and, best of all, Throgmorten (the cat).


And this is the actual bad cover that I have on my copy of Archer's Goon that I reread. I had forgotten quite a lot about the plot since this was only my second time reading it and so there were a lot of fun surprises. This time through, I really noticed Awful's thoughts on sibling dynamics and birth order. Being the oldest of six, I really enjoyed how right she got it. Also, since I had just been through a 12 hour power outage, I really felt for the Sykes family having their utilities shut off. If you aren't familiar with this book, it's basically about warring supernatural siblings and the family that gets stuck in the middle of the battle.


And finally, I just finished listening to Nation, which is probably now one of my favorite books of all time. I absolutely loved this book. I didn't actually expect to even read this book right now but it was available on audio and I needed something to start on my walk. I loved the Victorian-ness of the story even though it takes place in a parallel world. I loved Mau and Daphne and all of the other characters. I loved spending the entire length of a book on an island. And Pratchett's thoughts on science and religion are so similar to mine that I couldn't help but love him more after reading this. I think that's it's marketed as a YA book but that's probably because it has teenage protagonists. I don't see any difference in thought and language level between this and his adult books.

With just eleven days left in March, do you still have a DWJ or Pratchett book you want to start?
(Also, don't forget the Dark Lord of Derkholm read-along discussion will be on Thursday!)

Reading and rereading and rereading again,
K

6 comments:

  1. Okay, I now prefer ANY bad original cover art to horrendous digital collages (look, I can copy this image and make it transparent!). That one is definitely the worst I have ever seen.
    I need to read Nation again, thanks for reminding me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have audios of House of Many Ways and Howl on hold and they both have these bad "covers" too. I don't know who made them but they are BAD.
      And Nation was so wonderful. I wish I had picked it up sooner!

      Delete
  2. *cries over the Christopher Chant cover* That is just sad. o.o I have that same Archer's Goon cover! I want to reread it--all those plot twists are amazing, and the siblings--ha! XD

    I am incredibly annoyed at March for flying by so quickly--it is positively NOT ALLOWED to be two-thirds over! I keep meaning to jump in on the fun, and life has been eating my time. But! I made it to the library today and picked up DWJ's Deep Secret, which I haven't read yet, and my first Pratchett, Guards! Guards! I'm looking forward to hopefully devouring them this week if I can get a breathing moment, and I simply must do a post or two! *flails at ticking clock*

    That being said, I've been enormously enjoying the posts going around! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought March was only half over and then another week had flown by. :/
      Deep Secret is great! You'll love it. Good luck getting to your books this week!

      Delete
  3. MILLIE! Christopher Chant is one of my all-time favorite DWJ books, although it gets lost in the shuffle of some of her more flashy (to me) books. I love that she wrote a book about an utterly loathsome kid who doesn't realize he is -- it's such a unique kind of an unreliable narrator, where he's unreliable about himself. Gah. Why did Diana Wynne Jones not live forever!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know. That moment when he gets told off and he's like "what?! I'm like that?!" I love it. And yes, she should have lived forever. There are so many characters that I would have loved to read more about.

      Delete