Spencer's Bookcase

Monthly Wrap-Up: January 2022

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Monthly Wrap-Up where I give updates on my reading and other things I’m up to in the past month. So let’s get to it!

Books Read: 5

While I definitely read less than I did back in December, it was something that I was expecting. As I took some time off work for the holidays where I had more time for reading. This was still a decent month for reading as I managed to read over 1,500 pages this month! And I feel reading five books is a good start to the year!

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

This book was a wild but great ride! This book felt so much better than The Eye of the World and after reading this book, I’m excited for what’s to come in this series!

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

This was a fun Fantasy Adventure. It was very readable with a very strong main character in Lyra and had plenty of good action scenes. I’m interested in seeing where they go next with this series.

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield

This book was a disappointment for me. I have a lot of respect for Chris Hadfield as he is a very accomplished astronaut. While it did have its good moments, the technical details overwhelmed me and it didn’t really add much to the story.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

This was quite a funny book to read. While I didn’t like it as much as the first book, but it was still quite enjoyable.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

I was disappointed by this book. The first two were good books, but this really disappointed me. It feels more like a rejected episode of Doctor Who than The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And it’s getting a bit too formulaic for my taste to be honest.

Currently Reading:

I’m continuing my break from Fantasy by reading something from the Horror Genre since it’s been a while since I last read a real Horror story.

What I’ve been Watching and other things:

I managed to finish watching the first part of Stone Ocean and I really enjoyed this part! Jolyne Cujoh is a great protagonist and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s is still really good!

I think I may have a new favourite tv show in Around the World in Eighty Days. A series based off of Jules Verne’s novel. It’s very well casted with David Tennant playing Phileas Fogg, the eccentric but brilliant traveller, his Valet Jean Passepartout played by Ibrahim Koma and the Journalist Abigail Fix Fortescue played by Leonie Benesch. The Cast is great and the writing is really good. I look forward to every episode. After watching this series, I need to read the book. So I’ve added Around the World in Eighty Days to my tbr list.

In terms of Magic the Gathering, I was able to finish my Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca EDH. Now I got a Merfolk deck in Modern, Legacy and EDH!

Plans for next Month:

I’m expecting my reading to go down even further next month as next weekend I won’t have too much time to read as I am in a virtual conference all of that weekend.

Next month is also when my most anticipated novel of the year is coming out! Elle McNicoll’s next book Like A Charm is coming out on February 3! And I am looking forward to reading it! I’m going to try and get my hands on it as soon as I can. So expect to see a review of this book very soon!

I haven’t gotten to The Office Season 9 this month but I hope I will in February.

See you all next time!

Life, the Universe and Everything

Title: Life, the Universe and Everything

Author: Douglas Adams

Genre: Science Fiction, Comedy

Series: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #3

Pages: 142 pages

Synopsis:

Following a number of stunning catastrophes, which have involved him being alternately blown up and insulted in ever stranger regions of the Galaxy, Arthur Dent is surprised to find himself living in a cave on prehistoric Earth. However, just as he thinks that things cannot get possibly worse, they suddenly do. An eddy in the space-time continuum lands him, Ford Prefect, and their flying sofa in the middle of the cricket ground at Lord’s, just two days before the world is due to be destroyed by the Vogons.

Escaping the end of the world for a second time, Arthur, Ford, and their old friend Slartibartfast embark (reluctantly) on a mission to save the whole galaxy from fanatical robots. Not bad for a man in his dressing gown . . .

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

We are now three books into this series and honestly, I am getting a little disappointed with this series.

There are still things I like about this series, there are still some funny moments, but the moments where I’m bursting out laughing is becoming less and less. I find myself more smiling than laughing now. And some of the situations are still absurdly funny such as Ford and Arthur appearing on top of a couch out of nowhere during a cricket game or a party that never seems to end. I’m actually very interested in the publication history of this book. As apparently many of the ideas for this book were scrapped ideas for Doctor Who. Since Douglas Adams was a writer for Doctor Who.

I also just love that immortal alien Bowerick Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, whose life purpose is going around the universe and insulting people. That to me makes him an S Tier character for this series.

My main criticism of this series now is that it’s very formulaic. Our main character Arthur Dent gets into an absurd situation and the rest of the book is how he keeps jumping from place to place trying to deal with whatever situation he is in. And not much else. There is no real plot, no real character development. I also had a few moments where I was a little confused or had a hard time visualizing the scenes. Back to the Doctor Who connection, the book didn’t really feel like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but a rejected Doctor Who episode.

This was a disappointment for me, as I did like both of the first two books of this series. This is the first book in this series that I do not recommend you read.

Rating:

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Title: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Author: Douglas Adams

Genre: Science Fiction, Comedy

Series: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #2

Pages: 152 pages

Synopsis:

If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the end of the Universe?

Which is exactly what Arthur Dent and the crew of the Heart of Gold plan to do. There’s just the small matter of escaping the Vogons, avoiding being taken to the most totally evil world in the Galaxy and teaching a space ship how to make a proper cup of tea.

And did anyone actually make a reservation?

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

So we return to the Universe of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And we return to more absurd humor and existentialism that I’ve come to expect from this book series.

This book right from the start was funny as the opening line is: “In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” This book had plenty of funny moments. And the scene where they meet the ruler of the universe was just hilarious!

I also just love the Existential moments that this book has, there was this machine that was supposed to show how insignificant they are in the universe. Talk about Existential Angst. It also keeps on the theme of trying to figure out the answer to “Life, the Universe, and Everything”.

My main criticism of this novel though is that the story just kind of felt all over the place. I feel like you are reading this book, you are reading this more for the humor, the journey, and the entertainment the scenes give you not for the story.

While I liked the book, I don’t think I liked it as much as the first book but it still gave me some good laughs. I recommend this book if you do need a quick laugh (it’s a very quick book to read). I don’t recommend this book though if you are a person who focuses on the story.

Rating:

The Apollo Murders

Title: The Apollo Murders

Author: Chris Hadfield

Genre: Thriller, Historical Fiction

Pages: 463 pages

Synopsis:

1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help.

NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras “Kaz” Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it.

But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue.

Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

So I decided to take a break from Fantasy, and I decided to give this recent release a read! The Apollo Murders is a Cold War Space Thriller about the final mission to Space on the canceled Apollo 18. The book comes from a very qualified person to talk about Space: Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield.

The book definitely has its moments as there were a few scenes that had me at the edge of my seat. The action scenes were definitely gripping here. Those scenes were definitely the turn-pagers of the book. I also did like the political scenes that happened in the book (I guess I just like Political Intrigue in general). The book definitely had the bones of a good thriller and its premise was what kept me reading the book.

However, this book was kind of a disappointment to me. The Technical details just overwhelmed me because well I know nothing about the technical details of a spaceship/rocket, plane, helicopter, etc. If you are into that sort of thing then good for you as you will probably like this book better because of it. And to me, it just slowed the plot of this novel and didn’t really add much to the story. I get that Chris Hadfield wanted to show his knowledge but it just turned me off a bit.

I also felt like the characters were kind of flat, there was no real character development to any of the characters. Some of the character motivations didn’t even make sense such as: Why did Chad kill Tom? And I wasn’t overly attached to any of the characters in this book. The only character I liked was Michael for at least having a sense of humor and the closest to having a real personality.

I’m giving this the rare two-and-a-half star treatment, as I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it either. I’m just kind of indifferent to the book. I think you can find better Thrillers/Historical Fiction books though.

Rating:

The Golden Compass

Title: The Golden Compass or The Northern Lights

Author: Philip Pullman

Genre: Fantasy

Series: His Dark Materials #1

Pages: 351 pages

Synopsis:

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want–but what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

I never read His Dark Materials when I was a kid growing up. I never read any of the books nor did I even see the movie at the time. Ever since I started getting back into Fantasy again, this book series caught my eye. While I may no longer be the target audience for this book, this book was a good Fantasy Adventure Novel and definitely a good book to read during the winter months.

The book flowed very well making it very readable. And I have to say I wasn’t bored by it. Lyra is a very interesting character: she is very clever, fierce and a liar but at the same time she has a very good heart and is a very compassionate person. Lyra’s relationship with Pantalaimon (her Daemon) was one of the closest and feels the most real relationship in this entire book. It’s a simple story: a little girl going on a quest to save other children, but it’s written well enough to keep me reading through it. Also seeing Sentient Armoured Polar Bears doing battle? That is cool!

Now I do have some criticism of this novel. I feel like some of the world-building was a little weak compared to other Fantasy Novels. For example, there is a Kingdom of Polar Bears in this world and the Novel was very vague on where this Kingdom was. It said it was in “the North” but wherein the North? The North Pole? Scandanavia? Somewhere else in the Arctic? And not having a Map of the World certainly doesn’t help. Fantasy books kind of lose points to me if they don’t have a map of the world they are in. If there was a Map in the book, it would have helped improve the worldbuilding somewhat.

Again, as I said it’s a good Fantasy Adventure and it’s a good read especially for the Winter months. Very well-paced, with great characters and cool action scenes. If you are looking for a Fantasy Adventure to read during this winter, this is definitely a book that you should consider.

Rating:

The Great Hunt

Title: The Great Hunt

Author: Robert Jordan

Genre: Fantasy

Series: The Wheel of Time #2

Pages: 633 pages

Synopsis:

The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and go. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

For centuries, gleemen have told of The Great Hunt of the Horn. Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages.

And it is stolen.

My Thoughts:

The Great Hunt is Robert Jordan’s second book in his Epic Fantasy series, where he greatly expands the world that he creates from the first book. I went in wondering where does the story goes from here? And in my opinion, I actually liked this book more than I liked The Eye of The World.

I really liked the plot in this book, it was an escape, a chase and, then a Heist, and, bizarrely enough it all made sense within the context of the story. The Flicker Sequences in particular to me was just brilliantly written.

The World-Building continues to feel natural and very well done. As we explore this world the more we learn and understand what kind of world this is. In this book, in particular, we get to meet the Aiel, a race of people who live in the Aiel Waste. Who are known to be exceptional warriors. We learn more about the Aes Sedai and how they work and learn about the different Ajahs. We also get to see the White Tower. We learn that Darkfriends can be people in high positions in addition to just being normal people. We explore Cairhen where we learn that politics is alive and well through Daes Dae’mar or the Great Game. I also just continue to be interested in the lore. Give me any lore that can be fascinating and I’ll probably like it.

I also feel like the characters are much better in this book. In the last book, I hated Nynaeve. In this book though, I think she is a fine character. Her point-of-view chapters help us understand her a little better and her test to become an Adept also gave her character some humility. We also get some character development for Moiraine through her point-of-view chapters (something that I wanted the moment she showed up in the series!). Right now, my favourite Character has to be Loial the Ogier. He has the best one-liners, reactions and his knowledge are what makes him such a useful member of the team. I know he isn’t the fighter of the group, but his loyalty and knowledge make him such a good asset to the team. I also love the scene when the Inn was on fire and he was worried about his books. That scene sold me on his character.

Now I do have some criticism for this novel, I kind of felt like the ending was kind of rushed. Like they really wrapped everything up all very quickly, which to me seems strange considering there are still 12 books left in the series (13 if you count A New Spring). I still liked the ending regardless, but it did not need to be rushed.

Overall, I liked this book a whole better than The Eye of the World. The characters feel more developed, there was good world-building and lore. I also feel that the Plot and Pacing were much better in this book, as there was never a part of this book where I felt bored. The action scenes even feel better. I know I’m only two books in but I’m starting to think I have a new favourite Fantasy Series in The Wheel of Time. And I look forward to reading more!

Rating:

My TBR List for 2022

As I said in my Year in Review post, last year was a good year for my reading and I want to expand on that. Today I want to share with you my TBR List for 2022, these are the books that I look forward to reading this year (expect a lot of Fantasy for the coming year):

Series I Intend to continue Reading for this Year:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series:

I teased about this recently but I definitely intend to read the rest of this series, since I really liked the first book in the series.

The Wheel of Time Series:

I really liked the first book in the series and I want to read on! I received books 2-4 of the series so here we go!

Series I want to read:

There are several series I want to read over 2022 (most of them are Fantasy surprise, surprise).

The First Mistborn Trilogy By Brandon Sanderson:

The first Mistborn Trilogy is a series that I am definitely hyped for! It looks so good and the premise looks great to me!

His Dark Materials Trilogy By Phillip Pullman:

I’ve been eyeing this series for a while and I’m looking forward to giving this a read.

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb:

This just looks like a fun series to get into and I would like to read this as well.

The Dunk and Egg Novellas by George R.R Martin:

I’m mostly want to read this to help fill the void from reading the ASOIAF Series.

The Rest:

Horror:

I actually like Horror, so there will be a few horror books I plan to read this year:

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

The Troop by Nick Cutter

Pet Semetary by Stephen King

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielwski

Books by Canadian Authors:

I do want to read some books from Canadian Authors (the two I’m thinking of reading right now are recent releases):

The Vinyl Cafe Celebrates by Stuart McLean

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield

Philosophy Novels:

Philosophy Novels were a reoccurring theme during 2021 on my blog and I still intend to read a few more Philosophical Novels.

All Men are Mortal by Simone De Beauvoir

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

Science Fiction:

I intend to read some Science Fiction because I love Science Fiction

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

The Martian by Andy Weir

20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

Historical Fiction:

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

Heresy by S.J. Parris

Conclusion:

Well, that’s the list of books that I hope to read for the year 2022! I hope I can read all of them!

2021 Year In Review

Books Read: 30

Pages Read: 12, 165

Average Pages Read: 406

Wow, what a year it is! I managed to read about 30 books this entire year! I know I failed in my original goal to read 35 books, but I feel satisfied with reading 30 books. I still feel like I achieved my goal: which was to simply read more this year.

I’m really glad that I created this blog back in January of this year. I love reading and I, of course, have opinions on the books that I read and I feel like this has been a great way for me to express my opinions. For these reasons, this blog has a special place in my heart.

And I am very grateful that you have given me your time by reading my posts. This past year, I got 17 followers and 184 likes (as of the date this is posted)! That’s a lot more than I expected for some new blog that just started this year. I want to thank you all so very much for your support this past year. Thank you.

I look forward to reading even more in the new year! Happy New Year Everyone!

Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2021

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Monthly Wrap-Up where I give updates on my reading and other things I’m up to in the past month. So let’s get to it!

Books Read: 8

This was a great month for reading! I was actually able to read 8 books all this month! Reading over 2,500 pages this month. And I think I owe it all to my two-week break from my job at the end of the month as during this break I was able to finish reading 5 books. If only if I can do this as a full-time job…

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

I talked enough about this book. It gave me some laughs but I’m still disappointed in the book’s ending.

Christmas at the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean

This book is a book that I enjoy coming back to almost every December. Stuart McLean’s Christmas stories are some of the most heartwarming, hilarious but also capture the Christmas spirit.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

This is a Christmas Classic. And it’s timeless. What else can I say about it?

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

This was probably the second favourite book that I read this month. I love the Tolkein references, the quest story, and I liked the Lore and the worldbuilding in this book. It’s a very solid first book and I look forward to reading more Wheel of Time in the new year.

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth

While I’ve heard the audio of the story as told by Alan Maitland almost every Christmas Eve. This was actually the first time I read the book in paper. And I still think it’s a decent and very quick story for the Christmas Season.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune was probably the third favourite book that I read this month. It has a great story, great worldbuilding, the politics scenes were great and it had decent fight scenes. The only issue that I have are our main character being kind of a Gary Stu and the pacing at times rough and a bit of a slog to read through.

Show Us Who You Are by Elle McNicoll

This is my favourite book that I read this month. I loved the Neurodivergent representation in this novel, the science fiction concepts were terrifying. And it even gets deep on its many themes. I look forward to reading her next book in 2022!

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

This was the last book I read for this month and the entire year. I did like the short story format, good characters, and decent dialogue. However the world-building and the Magic System, I found lacking. Not to mention the misogyny in this book was a turn-off for me.

Currently Reading:

I want this to be the first book I review in 2022! I just started reading this and I look forward to reviewing this! It’s time to go back to the Wheel of Time Universe!

What I’ve been Watching and Playing:

This month I finished watching The Office Season 8. I’ll probably watch Season 9 real soon. I’ve mostly watched some Christmas movies and specials including: A Merry Friggin Christmas and Christmas with the Addams Family (something I really liked!).

I started watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean and I am loving it so far!

An illustration of the main cast standing in a staircase

In the past month, I’ve been playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and I am having a blast playing this Fantasy RPG game.

In terms of Magic the Gathering, I’m finally building my Kumena Merfolk EDH Deck. When I’m done with this deck I’ll have a Merfolk deck in Modern, Legacy, and EDH!

Plans for Next Month:

Since I’m going back to work next week in January, I think the amount of books I’ll read will decrease. But I will try my hardest to read as much as possible.

I do want to watch the rest of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and watch The Office Season 9. I’ll also try and get my Merfolk EDH deck done as well.

I look forward to reading more in the new year!

The Last Wish

Title: The Last Wish

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

Genre: Fantasy

Series: The Witcher #1

Pages: 359

Synopsis:

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good… and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

So I recently got into The Witcher franchise. I recently got both The Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 Games. I have been having a blast playing the games and when I found out that it was an actual book series for this, I decided to give the first book in the Witcher Series a read!

As for the format of the book, it’s done in short stories. Which I think is a good way to introduce us to The Witcher Universe. All the stories involve our main character Geralt of Rivia having flashbacks of his recent life while he’s recovering from his injuries from a previous adventure. Geralt of Rivia is a very mysterious character. He is a Witcher, a person who goes after Monsters in exchange for money. He is shrouded in mystery as we get a vague origin story, we don’t know for sure his age or what his intentions always are. However, he is a very quiet but competent figure with some attitude. In the short stories, Geralt often goes traveling through this world, enters towns to solve problems.

The main character growth that we see with Geralt in this book is learning that things aren’t always so black and white in the situations that he encounters.

I also just love the diversity of Fantasy Creatures in this world. I love Fantasy Creatures and this story is full of them: Vampires, Dragons, Dwarves, Elves and Wizards, etc.

I find the world-building a little lacking here and leaves something to be desired. For example: the nations and the languages weren’t explained very well. I had so many questions: Can you tell me more about this nation? What’s the culture of these nations? What’s the history of these nations? How is each of these nations differ from one another? What’s the history of this language? etc.

There was this faction called the Order of the White Rose, and I still don’t know what this group is. I know it’s a group of knights, but what’s their mission or goals? What’s their structure like? How do you become a member of this order? What’s its history? One of the things I liked about the Children of the Light from the first book of The Wheel of Time is that it has a clear identity and purpose. The Order of the White Rose I know next to nothing about them except their Knights and have a very vague code.

I also just found the Magic System in the Witcher very vague. I personally feel like it’s going for a Soft Magic system. But even then I have questions. There are some complicated spells and I’m wondering: How do these complicated spells work? Where is the source of magic? How does the Magic system even work in this universe?

I also don’t like the casual misogyny that goes on in this book.

The Last Wish while it has a good story format being a compilation of short stories, good characters (Geralt, Dandelion and, Yennifer) and, decent dialogue. I think the Worldbuilding and the Magic System are lacking, and the thing is I really want to learn more about this world and its magic. I just wished they would give us just a little more information about this world and its magic. And makes me not likely to rush out to read the next book in the series. I think I’ll just stick with the games personally.

Rating:

Wow, I think this is the last book review for 2021! I look forward to posting more book reviews for 2022! See you all next time!