Since my last post I finished the first six Ranger's Apprentice books and Stranger at Stonewycke. Then I read Still Life by Dani Pettrey in less than 2 days. It was great, although I should have sat down to write my review for it sooner after finishing it. But life has a way of happening and I did get my review written. After Still Life I read Shadows Over Stonewycke and Treasure of Stonewycke. That was most of my February reading.

A couple days ago I finished reading Treasure of Stonewycke by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella, so it was actually a March read. I thoroughly enjoyed rereading The Stonewycke Legacy, not sure how this is possible, but I had forgotten how awesome the series is. Michael Phillips and Judith Pella are a great team.

I received a complimentary copy of Recruits by Thomas Locke, which I have read almost half of. I also started Death by Living by N.D. Wilson this week, only one chapter in so far. I have a mini stack of library books to read next, a mere two books, Shaken by Tim Tebow and Because You're Mine by Colleen Coble. I thought I would have finished Recruits over the weekend, but I only read about 100 pages.

SnowAngel

There is a prequel, First King of Shannara, and then three later ones written 20 years later - have you seen those?

I BELIEVE I have read First King of Shannara, but it obviously didn't make an impression on me if I did. I am also aware of many other sequels but those I have not read.

How did you like the first six RA books, SA? I hope you enjoy Death by Living.

I'm still working my way through The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun, though I'm now in Gudrun's Lay, and am probably close to 3/4 of the way through the book overall. There have been two quite interesting things I've noticed about the book. One is a number of roots for LotR/The Silmarillion; nothing huge, but things like (light spoilers)

I haven't decided what I'll read next after finishing Sigurd & Gudrun. I've been interspersing it with old, light children's books that I own but haven't read (Bobbsey Twins & Happy Hollisters, anyone? ) while at home, though it is a funny mix. My goal is to get enough books finished off my to-read shelf to actually be able to move Women's Letters and then Words of Radiance on to it. I've almost got enough room for the former.

I picked up The Ruins of Gorlan on audio from the library this week after all the hubbub in here about it. I've had the series on my book radar for a while, but never got around to it before. Once I've finished listening to The End, I'll start this one up.

Hope you enjoy The Ruins of Gorlan, stwin! If I remember correctly, the first book or two are a bit weak plot-wise, but then it gets better. But it's been probably 9-5 years since I started reading/last read one of the books, so I am far from an informed opinion.

I finished The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun. I really enjoyed it, once I got past the unexpected

Spoiler

incest (like really??? though that was something else that reminded me of Sil, since that caught me off-guard the same way there )

I'm currently reading The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and Susannah of the Mounties by Muriel Denison; I picked them up at library booksales (several years ago and last year, respectively, I think), both on a bit of a whim. The first has been more about football than I expected (...to be fair, I actually had no idea what to expect) but has been interesting. I've only read the first chapter or two of Susannah of the Mounties, but so far it looks to be a (hopefully fun) story about a young girl charming her uncle and his fellow Mounties. Of course, this impression is helped by the fact my copy is a Shirley Temple movie edition.

I have also moved Women's Letters onto my to-read shelf, and there is the start of a space for Words of Radiance.

I finished Susannah of the Mounties, and my impression was correct. There were a few product-of-the-time bits, but not too bad for the most part, and several frustrations born of the protagonist being a nine/ten-year-old. But overall it was pretty fun; it's definitely a Mel story.

I also finished The Blind Side; I picked up a bit about football, though I was far more interested in the human side of things. It was a bit rough in places (as is life), but overall was quite interesting.

Additionally, I read Moonblood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. I wasn't too enthused about the first two books in the series, but I spent most of the time reading this book wanting to throw it against the wall. It had some good moments, but I had way more frustrations, mostly a mix of characters, semi-forced Christian themes/parallels, and the Christ-type/figure.

I am currently reading A Man Called Intrepid by William Stevenson and The White Feather by P.G. Wodehouse. Jo has talked about the former before; I'm just south of 70 pages in and it's been full of interesting information. The latter is a school-story; I'm wondering if it's an earlier story, because it definitely has flavours of typical Wooster & Jeeves or Monty Bodkin nonsense, but not to that level yet. Alternatively, it just might be he toned it down for the shorter story.

I just moved Words of Radiance onto my to-read shelf, and I misjudged the space because I've got room for another book or two. I also went to the uni library yesterday and checked out My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell, Chesterton's Daylight and Nightmare, and two translations of Antigone. We'll see if I can keep up momentum and knock a couple more books off my to-read shelf before the next library booksale gets here (end of April?).

Soooo... anyone read the new short story in the newest edition of King of Attolia yet? I lucked out and the library ebook had all the extra goodies as well as the new cover. (Unlike the first two, which only had new covers.)

But overall [Susannah of the Mounties] was pretty fun; it's definitely a Mel story.

Oooooh, sounds intriguing! (I'm assuming this is a reflection of the more pleasant side of my reading tastes and no mountains were exploded on poor characters? )

In addition to working my way through a reread of the Attolia books, I picked up a book called Engineers, Far From Ordinary: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis by Damon Manders. It's a fascinating overview of engineering practices and flood control and river depth and the history of that particular area.

I really enjoyed the first 6 books of the Ranger's Apprentice. I look forward to reading the rest of the series one of these days.

Since you mentioned Susannah of the Mounties, Valia, I checked for the books at the library and they had one Susannah of the Yukon. It's sitting on my dresser now, should make a quick, fun read this weekend. I am the last one at my house to get to read it, I let my younger sisters read it first.

Oh, a book on the Engineers that sounds very interesting, Mel.

I haven't made much progress reading Death By Living, I have been planning to read it on the weekends...but that hasn't been working out lately. However I am planning to pick back up again this week. *fingers crossed* Hopefully I can find 30 uninterrupted minutes to read when I open it up again. That book is like a magnet for my brother to want to play a video game or watch a movie.

I just finished reading Murder On The Moor by Julianna Deering. It's the fifth book in the Drew Farthering Mystery series. It was really good, not the strongest entry in the series, but it has a solid plot and of course it is Drew and Madeline. And Nick. I am so happy there will be a sixth book. Although I am hoping there might be more than six, at least a girl can dream.

I am trying to finish The Returning (Seers #3) by Rachelle Dekker. I really enjoyed reading The Choosing a couple months ago, and so naturally I was excited the library finally got the second and third books in the trilogy. So wrong, I made it through The Calling and was still mildly interested the last book. But as soon as I started The Returning my interest tanked. I am only 40 or so pages in, but I am seriously think about skimming the rest of the book.

SnowAngel

Well, now I'm reading As Old As Time in the Twisted Tales series. It's a Disney book even though it's a more mature/darker version of Beauty and the Beast (not too dark though - it's still Disney). The big twist - which is not a spoiler since they put it right on the cover of the book (!) - is that the enchantress is actually Belle's mother.

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of all the Disney animated films so I though I would speed through it. It's taking me longer than I though. It's good but not great. I'm going to have to speed-read a little through it. It might be because I just know the basic story so-well, it's not edge-of-my-seat must find out what happens type of thing.

I'm rather partial to 'Beauty' by Robin McKinley. I'm thinking a reread might be in order as I've been wanting to read something but nothing has piqued my interest.

Mel, I haven't read the new short story. Do all the new editions have new stories? I keep forgetting those are out.
The engineering book sounds interesting.

(I'm assuming this is a reflection of the more pleasant side of my reading tastes and no mountains were exploded on poor characters? )

It mostly has to do with how some of the characters/subplots are written and how things unfold, etc. It just makes me think of the sort of stories you like. Perhaps needless to say, but I think this book will be showing up for you to read soon, unless you don't want to read it.

Oh, fun, SA! I didn't know the Susannah books were a series. I hope you like it; please let me know what you think! I hope your sisters liked it too.
Sorry to hear that The Returning isn't holding your attention; I would probably skim too.

I haven't heard of Twisted Tales series before, mm1991. That does sound like an interesting twist with Belle's mother being the sorceress! I hope the story picks up a little.

Oooh, Beauty is fun, fk! It's been on my mental list to reread too, but it hasn't happened yet.

I'm still working on A Man Named Intrepid; there have been some fun stories so far. I finished The White Feather, which was pretty fun, and I also read Spin and Marty: Trouble at Triple-R Ranch which went in directions I wasn't expecting, but was still fun. I also started rereading Antigone - actually both translations I picked up. I'm glad I got two translations, because the first one I picked up feels much more modern.

Hope you enjoy The Ruins of Gorlan, stwin! If I remember correctly, the first book or two are a bit weak plot-wise, but then it gets better. But it's been probably 9-5 years since I started reading/last read one of the books, so I am far from an informed opinion.

I enjoyed it, but as you said, it was weak plot-wise. The "main" plot seemed to be very bland. Just descriptions of some of Will's Ranger lessons without much actual conflict. Even the

Valia, if I remember correctly, there are two new short stories appearing in Queen and King (but (different!) excerpts from Thick as Thieves in all four books.)
Oooooh, a personal library loan of Susannah of the Mounties?

It's funny Ranger's Apprentice should be coming up now... my little sister is listening to the series for the first time and I'm catching bits and pieces when I'm around. (My initial assessment of Ruins was Alanna: The First Book but for boys, and... I'm going to stand by that analogy. ) The first few books are a bit episodic, and the characters hew closely to well defined types. I wonder if that is because of the author's background in television writing?

I've been eyeing the new editions of The Queen's Thief books with envy over those shiny new covers and knowing there's new material in them makes me even more covetous. If I didn't have more self-control, most of my bookshelves would be filled with multiple copies of the same ten or so books.

stwin, I remember being rather interested in Horace's subplot too. Do you think you'll pick up the second one at some point?

Mel, huh, okay. Thanks for the info on the new QT editions.

Oooooh, a personal library loan of Susannah of the Mounties?

That's the plan!

Booky, I still end up collecting multiple copies of the same books. Tolkien is the worst for me, though, for some reason. Though I also have multiple copies of Lewis, and random other duplicates. I'm trying to pare down, but...

Not much has changed on my end reading-wise. Still reading A Man Called Intrepid and Antigone.