Library Card January 2022 & Weekend Book Friends #26

Posted January 7, 2022 by elzaread in Library Card, Weekend Book Friends / 28 Comments

Greetings you guys! It’s January and all the humans that I know are full of new years resolutions and good intentions for 2022. My Mommy is no different. Not that she has any new resolutions, she just wants to make good on all her previous good intentions. Like sticking to our monthly Library Card.

We might be paving our way to hell with all these good intentions, but perhaps by really putting some effort in, we might just end up on the straight and narrow. She has a brand new diary that she plans on using this year. Mostly to keep track of reading and blogging and my feeding schedule. Okay, maybe the last part is not quite necessary. She never forgets to feed me.

Let’s see what are pavers are for this month:

Book Club

We had Book Club beginning of December and we will only have Book Club again in February. Mommy finished all her English books and now she’s left with only the Afrikaans books.

The good thing about the Afrikaans books, is that she reads them quite quickly. I guess it is normally easier if it’s your mother tongue. I need to find a book with meows and purrs.

Update: I’ve read all three of them. Still owe you one review.

state of the ARC

Oh what a state it’s in…. In our Monday Bloopers post, my Mommy talked about some of the books she didn’t review last year. We will do our utmost best to do better this year.

We are done with Love and Retribution. It was a lovely read and our review should be up within the next week or so. We’ve started with Music shall untune the sky last night and at this stage, it’s still a bit deurmekaar (this is where you can use our lovely new translate button). We feel terrible that we haven’t started with In another life yet and the same about A Suffragette in Time. Both of these are books that we really look forward to. Hopefully still this month. The Dangers of an Ordinary Night is our biggest embarrassment. It’s a Netgalley read and I don’t need to tell you that our ratings are just terrible at the moment. But we will pick it up this year. Watch this space.

Update: We loved Love & Retribution and you can find our review here. Music Shall Untune the Sky didn’t work for us at all and unfortunately ended up a DNF. We’ve read and enjoyed The Dangers of an Ordinary Night and still need to review it. Gosh, we are a bit behind on reviews. Will get to it soon.

We haven’t read the other two books, but they will be carry overs.

Audio Books

Update: We are done with A Court of Thorns and Roses and we are in the minority with our rating and review. If you are interested to find out why, you can read our review here. 

Seeing that it’s Friday, we might as well do our Weekend Book Friends post and say hi to all our friends here on the blogosphere.

For our first stop, we will pay a visit to Gilion over at Rose City Reader to share our Book Beginnings. We’ve also decided to join Carrie over @ Reading is my Super Power for First Line Friday.  Every Friday you can link up and share the first sentence of your current read (or the one you plan to devour over the weekend), as well as your initial thoughts and impressions.

So what are we going to read this weekend? We love our latest Afrikaans read, Marilyn, but know that it’s not going to be very interesting to you guys. Let’s take a look at our Kindle read that is still a bit deurmekaar (messy and no idea what’s going on) to see if we can figure out what’s going on there.

Library Card January 2022 & Weekend Book Friends #26Music Shall Untune the Sky by Lou Kemp
Genres: Steampunk
Pages: 354
Format: ARC
Goodreads

In 1866, the three protagonists set off from Prague on the train the Elizabeth to retrieve Professor Xiau Kang's wife in Singapore. Along the way, Celwyn's magic becomes the central focus. Everything is based upon the question, "what if?"
The trip is fraught with unexplained occurrences, murders, magic, and more adventure. Along the way, the author Jules Verne crashes his hot air balloon next to their train in order to join their entourage. Once they arrive in Singapore they are attacked, and eventually end up on the Nautilus with Captain Nemo. It seems that Professor Kang, automat and book lover, is also one of the few experts in the world on the basics of building a flying machine, something very much desired by Nemo.
Months later, after their return to Prague, Celwyn is wounded again and dies just Kang rendezvous with the Nautilus and Captain Nemo.

Music Shall Untune the Sky starts with a prologue and from the prologue I think we gather that we should actually have read the prequal.

Without touching it, Jonas Celwyn pulled the knife out of Annabelle’s hand, away from Zander’s neck, and turned it on her, plunging the blade into her stomach as the crowd around them erupted in screams. As Patrick rushed to her side, a thin stream of blue mist escaped Annabelle’s lips and disappeared into the throng.

For our next stop, we will pay a visit to Freda’s Voice who hosts the Friday 56. Don’t show up empty handed though!

  • Grab a book (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading)
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader
  • Find a sentence or two (your other Friday activities might determine this)
  • Post it!
  • Remember to post your link on Freda’s Voice and to visit the other guys in the linky.
  • And  last but not least, don’t forget to list the title of the book and the author as well.

If I look at what’s happening at 56%, it might just get really interesting and we will keep on reading for sure.

This close, Celwyn got a good look into the man’s eyes. Curious, he entered Nemo’s mind, again finding the maelstrom of bloody images and violence. However, this time he felt the man’s deep empathy and sadness. The ugliness of the world had seemingly left its mark on him. On a hunch, Celwyn asked without speaking, “was it Fogg’s idea to shoot at us; and kidnap Elizabeth?”

This is definitely a strange read and not something that we are very used to, but it’s a new year and time to try new things.

What are you reading this weekend?

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28 responses to “Library Card January 2022 & Weekend Book Friends #26

    • elzaread

      Hi Suzie!

      It actually ended up not working for me, but I am sure there are a lot of people who are going to love it. I will just strongly recommend that you read the prequel first.

  1. Happy Friday!
    I’m currently reading A Heart Adrift by Laura Frantz. It is AWESOME!
    I’m just beginning chapter 23, so I will share a line from there.
    “Henri was on the verge of saying nay to the proposed mission, and he sensed that the governor’s council, a body of astute, shrewd men, knew it.”
    I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

    • elzaread

      Hi Nicole!

      Sounds quite intriguing with that first sentence of Chapter 23. I hope you are enjoying your book and your weekend!

    • elzaread

      Here in South Africa a second or third language is really nothing strange. I speak Afrikaans and English fluently and love reading in both languages. I actually want to learn a third language this year.

      Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a good weekend!

    • elzaread

      Hi Yvonne! Aaah, I’m so glad you enjoy our posts. That message brought a smile to my face.

      I really want to try to improve my Netgalley ratings. I know I can, just need to do it.

      I ended up DNF’ing Musing shall Untune the Sky. It was a bit too messy and I had no idea what is happening there. But I might still try Steampunk again at a later stage.

    • elzaread

      Hi there Cindy! I have also decided not to take any ARC’s until I am done with the ones I currently have. I honestly hope I get to stick to that decision. I fell behind with my Book Club reads last year and I love the books in our Book Club. Not to mention my Kindle! It’s a mess!! I did start sorting it out, but need to start reading the books on there…

      I hope you are having a good weekend!

    • elzaread

      Hi Ashley!

      I actually think that Music Shall Untune the Sky is more your type of read than mine. Take a look at it and if you get to it, let me know and please tell me what do I miss!

  2. I hope the new diary works well! I seem to have good intentions when it comes to journaling, but it always seems to fall by the wayside. Except my spreadsheet. That is habit enough that I always fill it out when I finish a book. I’m happy to say I got my review written for my first book of the year and posted it in a timely fashion for a change. Go me! I will be playing catch up with my ARC reviews for the next couple of months. I got so behind last year. 🙁

    That’s quite an opening scene in Music Shall Untune the Sky! It has me wanting to read more.

    I hope you have a great weekend! (My two cats have been extra playful this morning–something must be in the air. Or maybe they know it’s Friday.)

    • elzaread

      I also do hope that the new diary will really help me this year. I also always have good intentions, but they fly out of the window by the Easter Holidays. Review spreadsheets… Ha, maybe I must look at that!

      Yay for you and first review!! I also just posted my first review, although it should have been out end of last year already. My bad….

      I hope your kitties are still being entertaining today!

  3. Paula Shreckhise

    My first line is from Never Leave Me by Jody Hedlund:
    I’m dying, and we can’t change that.” Even though Ellen Creighton spoke as softly and gently as possible, she could do nothing to soften the harshness of the truth.

    • elzaread

      Hi there Paula! Oh, that first line will sure draw me in. I am hopping over to you now to take a closer look.

      Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend!

    • elzaread

      I NEED to get more organized, otherwise reading and blogging is going to become a drag and I so don’t want that!

  4. Juli @ A Universe in Words

    Even though Dutch is my mother tongue I actually read way quicker in English. I am hoping to get back into them this year though! ‘Music Shall Untune the Sky’ sounds like quite an intriguing read, but I can also see that it would be quite confused 😉 Fingers crossed you get all your books read, but rest assured you’re doing a lot better than I am! I hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂 Juli @ A Universe in Words

    • elzaread

      Hi Juli! I always forget that you are Dutch, a language so close to Afrikaans! I remember that Maureen is Dutch as well. I definitely read faster in Afrikaans, but I still read more English than Afrikaans.

      Music shall untune the sky ended up being a DNF for me. I have no clue what’s going on there! I think if I read the prequel, it might be a bit better. Let’s see if I get to it or not.

      I will keep my fingers crossed, but also know that there will probably be one or two still left behind…!

      Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a good weekend!