Bookish Thursday - September TBR Update

 So my TBR (To be read) list for September was the following - 

• Organize Your Genealogy
• Odyssey of Love
• Dare to Be a Green Witch
• What Should be Wild
• The Prison Healer
• Dune - House Corrino
• For the Wolf
• The Near Witch
• Fire With Fire
• The Widow Queen
• Craft in the Real World

So 11 books. 

I managed to finish 4 of them so far. So I am really pleased. 

Now my opinion of them - 

What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine - The premise is a girl born with a strange 'curse'. Her touch can kill or bring back live to something which just died. She spends her life away from the world, studied by her father.  Then one day, her father disappears.

I enjoyed the start of the book and the curse Maisie and the mysterious woods by her house. There are moments where the POV switches to a hidden part of the woods and strange women who live there. Once Maisie's father disappears and she goes on a search for him, things get a bit dark and somewhat uncomfortable for me to read. But the ending is satisfying.

Overall, I would give this 4 stars.

The Near Witch by V. E. Schwab - Set in a very small town, the legend of the Near Witch is something told to children as a warning. Then children start disappearing. And a stranger comes to town. Are the two connected? The townspeople seem to think so, but Lexi doesn't.

I listened to the audio version of this book. And I really loved the book. This is V. E. Schwab's first book and I am enjoying her writing. The world she has created you can see the windy moors and the two old 'witches' who live outside of town. I found myself wanting to rush through the ending as things got really exciting in finding out who or what is taking the children.

I give it 4.5 stars.

Dune - House Corrino by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson  The last of the 'House' prequels to Dune which ends with Paul's birth and bring several threads together to start the book Dune.

So, I watched the movie in 1984 and enjoyed it. I am eagerly anticipating the movie being made now and it's release. In fact, I set up a tentative 'date' with a friend to watch the movie in a theater when released. But this triggered me wanting to actually read all the books in the series. Hey, I read the Wheel of Time series and a couple of Brandon Sanderson's series, so why not want to read (or listen to) massive books set in the same world. It's called 'epic fantasy' for a reason!

It builds up to a point where there are half a dozen 'things' - huge things - going on and you are on the edge of your seat to see what happens. And this is even knowing certain characters will be fine because they are in the next book in the series! The last third or quarter of the book left me exhausted, but satisfied. 

Another 4.5 star rating. 

The Widow Queen by Elzbieta Cherezinska - "The epic story of a Polish queen whose life and name were all but forgotten until now".

Well...

I abandoned it after about 100 pages. The book started out well, but then you got into all the politics of the age - all the Harolds and Svens and Thorkels set on reclaiming or claiming lands. Who was fighting for or against whom and I just said 'forget it'. 

It's not a bad book, but I felt like I needed a program to keep track of all the characters and where their lands were. It was exhausting to try and keep up. Or at least it was for me. Maybe I'll come back to it one day when I feel like I need a bit of Danish and Vikings in my life.

My rating 2.5 stars.

But for now, off to work to earn more book money!