WWW Wednesday | The Fifth

Good day one & all!

Another Wednesday. Another WWW.

As always, thank you to Sam at Taking on a World of Words for hosting each week! It’s an absolute joy to share my love of reading with you all and share in yours in turn!

Before I leap into this week’s reading recap, I just want to remind everyone that tonight marks the end of my giveaway. If you haven’t entered yet you can HERE!

The prize? A book of your choosing!

The catch? Absolutely none!

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Now back to the main event:

Want to take part in WWW Wednesday yourself? All you have to do is answer three questions:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What have you recently finished reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

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WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING

Stardancer (The Song of Forgotten Stars, Book 1): by Kelly Sedinger

BLURB:

While on their first space voyage, two Princesses from a small backwater planet find themselves hurtled across the Galaxy to a world that sees them either as saviors, come to rescue their world from a ten-thousand-year confinement, or as the greatest threat their world has ever seen. As they search for a way home, Princesses Tariana and Margeth learn things about themselves, and their universe, that they never dreamed possible.

I mentioned this book last week. I have it as an ebook, which is a format I struggle with reading if I’m not in the right mind frame, but I’m making a conscious effort this week to get to it because Kelly was incredibly kind to give me a free copy.

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris:

BLURB:

With his notorious reputation for trickery and deception, and an ability to cause as many problems as he solves, Loki is a Norse god like no other. Demon-born, he is viewed with deepest suspicion by his fellow gods who will never accept him as one of their own and for this he vows to take his revenge. From his recruitment by Odin from the realm of Chaos, through his years as the go-to man of Asgard, to his fall from grace in the build-up to Ragnarok, this is the unofficial history of the world’s ultimate trickster.

This book has been on my shelf for two years now. I have a love for anything mythology and with the latest season of Vikings showing I’ve been itching to read this tale.

WHAT I RECENTLY FINISHED READING:

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett:

BLURB:

Insurrection is in the air in Ankh-Morpork. The Haves and Have-Nots are about to fall out all over again. Captain Sam Vimes of the city’s ramshackle Night Watch is used to this. It’s enough to drive a man to drink. Well, to drink more. But this time, something is different – the Have-Nots have found the key to a dormant, lethal weapon that even they don’t fully understand, and they’re about to unleash a campaign of terror on the city. Time for Captain Vimes to sober up.

This is definitely my favourite of the Discworld novels so far! I am completely in love with Sam Vimes! Actually, the whole Night Watch is such a brilliant collection of eclectic characters. The level of satire in here is just incredible. I was laughing throughout the novel. Pratchett is a genius of this writing. He excels at blending in emotional moments amidst the comedic jabs at politics and government inefficiency. There is no one else quite like Pratchett.

The Sandman, Vol 8: Worlds’ End by Neil Gaiman

BLURB:

Reminiscent of the legendary Canterbury Tales, THE SANDMAN: WORLDS’ END is a wonderful potpourri of engrossing tales and masterly storytelling. Improbably caught in a June blizzard, two wayward compatriots stumble upon a mysterious inn and learn that they are in the middle of a “reality storm.” Now surrounded by a menagerie of people and creatures from different times and realities, the two stranded travelers are entertained by mesmerizing myths of infamous sea creatures, dreaming cities, ancient kings, astonishing funeral rituals and moralistic hangmen.

But seriously, Neil Gaiman, WHY??

Another masterful volume full of short narratives, tales that haunt and inspire profound consideration of the world. His characters share their moral failings and those of others, and relate stories that reveal the goodness in some and the tendency towards evil in others. It’s always thoughtful, it’s something heartbreaking, it’s never dull. I really enjoyed it. But then the ending…

I finished reading it on Friday and I still can’t get my emotions in check. I bought the 9th volume Monday, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to it. I’m not sure that I want to.

But really, GAIMAN!!

The Best is Yet to Come by Anne Mazer

BLURB:

After thirteen books, Abby is finally graduating from fifth grade. There’s a lot to do before the big event, including finding the perfect graduation outfit. Once the ceremony is over, Abby plans to spend a quiet summer preparing for sixth grade. Then Abby’s mother college friend, Laurie, and her young daughter, Wynter, arrive for an extended stay. Laurie–a musician–is trying to get her career back on track. She expects Abby to care for Wynter while she’s out. Will Abby be able to salvage her summer?

I know I said the last one was the last one, but then I remembered I had one more so this is officially the last one for a while! It was an interesting read, I had forgotten about it honestly.

Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar:

BLURB:

Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible’s answer is yes.
Pearl in the Sand tells Rahab’s untold story. Rahab lives in a wall; her house is built into the defensive walls of the City of Jericho. Other walls surround her as well–walls of fear, rejection, and unworthiness.
A woman with a wrecked past; a man of success, of faith…of pride. A marriage only God would conceive! Through the heartaches of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true source of one another’s worth and find healing in God.

There’s a lot I want to say about this book, so I think I’ll post a review sometime down the line. For now, I’ll say that it took a while to get into, but left me feeling rather inspired by the end of it. I have read the Red Tent by Anita Diamant which also takes an obscure female figure in the Bible and gives her a larger story. It’s one of favourite books and I had hoped to be moved in a similar way by this one. I wasn’t, but it was still a good read that I would recommend if you enjoy Christian Historical fiction.

WHAT I’LL READ NEXT:

I have the next three books lined up already 🙂

Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders #1) by Robin Hobb

BLURB:

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships—rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. The fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia.
For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy unjustly denied her —a legacy she will risk anything to reclaim. For Althea’s young nephew Wintrow, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard ship, Vivacia is a life sentence.
But the fate of the Vestrit family—and the ship—may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit seeks a way to seize power over all the denizens of the Pirate Isles…and the first step of his plan requires him to capture his own liveship and bend it to his will….

My reasons for reading this book are twofold. 1st: it’s the next in the Realm of the Elderlings larger series. 2nd: I want to see how it compares to my own pirate fantasy 🙂

O Jerusalem (Mary Russell #5) by Laurie R. King

BLURB:

At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England, Sherlock Holmes and his nineteen-year-old apprentice Mary Russell enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes’s enigmatic brother, Mycroft. Their arrival coincides with a rash of unsolved murders that has baffled the authorities and seems unrelated to the growing tensions in the area among Jew, Moslem, and Christian. Still, no one is too pleased at Holmes’s insistence on reconstructing the most recent homicide in the desert gully where it occurred.
What they unexpectedly uncover will lead Russell and Holmes through an exotic gauntlet of labyrinthine bazaars, verminous hovels, cliff-hung monasteries—and into mortal danger. In the jewel-like city of Jerusalem, they will at last meet their adversary, whose lust for power could reduce the city’s most ancient and sacred place to rubble and ignite a tinderbox of hostilities just waiting for a spark.…

This installment is actually set during the first book and I can’t wait to find out more about the mystery that King only glossed over. I’m hoping it’s a little more exciting than the last. If reviews are anything, I think I won’t be disappointed.

AND…

The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman

BLURB:

A love story wrapped around a murder mystery, set in seventeenth-century Manhattan.
In 1663 in the hardscrabble colony of New Amsterdam—today’s lower Manhattan—orphan children are going missing and residents suspect a serial killer. The list of possible culprits is long and strange. Among those looking into the mystery are a shrewd young Dutch woman, Blandine van Couvering, and a dashing Englishman, Edward Drummond, whose newfound romance is threatened by horrible accusations.
In this spellbinding work of historical fiction, Jean Zimmerman relates the harsh realities of life in early Manhattan, re-creating the sights, smells, and textures of the rough settlement surrounded by wilderness and subject to political turmoil. Compulsively readable and filled with New York history, The Orphanmaster will delight fans of Caleb Carr, Hilary Mantel, and Geraldine Brooks.

I recently bought this book at Chapters where it was on sale for 80%! How could I refuse! The story seems interesting enough though looking up reviews after warns me to go in with low expectations…

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That’s it for me!

Thanks for stopping by 🙂 Please feel free to share your WWW with me in the comments. Or let me know what you’re reading, have read, will read. Books are gems. Treasure them and share the love ❤

May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,

Faith