The Sunday Post #8

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, and share news.

On The Blog Last Week

• On Monday I reviewed The Purgatorium by Eva Pohler.
• On Wednesday I reviewed Song of Susannah by Stephen King.
• On Thursday I played reading habits tag.
• On Friday I pretended to be fictional.

On The Blog This Week

• On Tuesday I list the top ten books on my summer TBR.
• On Wednesday I review The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.
• On Thursday I show off my latest book haul.
• On Friday I get a (hypothetical) tattoo.

In My Reading Life

It took me all of last week to finish The Narrow Road to the Deep North. I liked the book a lot, but it was so dense that I had trouble reading more than 50 pages a day. That put me even farther behind on my reading schedule. I just started Smoke by Ellen Hopkins. Hopefully I can get through that one a little faster. Smoke is the sequel to Burned, and I loved Burned, so I think I’ll enjoy this one.

I hope everyone had a good week. See you later!

FF Friday: In Which I Pretend To Be Fictional

Feature & Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

This week’s question: If you could step into one character’s shoes and be them for a day, who would it be and why?

Answer: I don’t know! The worlds in many of the books I read are dangerous and depressing. I don’t want to be any of the characters who live in those places.

If I had to pick, I’d be someone who could time travel or go to parallel universes. How about Kell from A Darker Shade of Magic? He travels to parallel Londons, and it seems (somewhat) safe. That’s my answer. I’ll be Kell for a day.

~*~

The follow part: If you are a book blogger and you leave a link to your blog in the comments below, I will follow you on Bloglovin’. I’d love it if you also followed me. If you want to be friends on Goodreads, Twitter, BookLikes, or G+, that would be awesome, too. Click the links to go to my pages on those sites. I’m looking forward to “meeting” you.

Reading Habits Tag

This is the Reading Habits tag. If you want to participate (or have participated), leave a link to your post in the comments. I’d love to see your answers.

1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

In my bed. I read for a few hours every night before I go to sleep. I don’t really read anywhere else.

2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?

Either one. Right now I’m using some bookmarks that I got for free from a bookstore in Denver. They have advertisements for the store all over them.

3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter / a certain amount of pages?

I can just stop, but I don’t like stopping in the middle of a page because then I have to remember where I left off when I start reading again.

4. Do you eat or drink while reading?

Not usually.

5. Multitasking: music or TV while reading?

No. I need silence. I get distracted too easily.

6. One book at a time or several at once?

I prefer one at a time. It’s less stressful that way. When I was getting my B.A., I would have to read 2 or 3 at once, and I hated it.

7. Reading at home or everywhere?

Usually at home. I have a hard time concentrating on the book if I’m in public.

8. Reading out loud or silently in your head?

Silently. I’m crazy enough as it is. I don’t need to be reading out loud where everybody can hear me.

9. Do you read ahead or skip pages?

I only read ahead if I think I’m going to DNF the book. I skip to the end and skim the last chapter.

10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?

Most of my books are used, so they already have broken spines, but I try to keep my new books looking new.

11. Do you write in your books?

In college I annotated a lot of them because we were allowed to use our books during our finals. Other than that, no. I don’t have a reason to write in them.

12. Who do you tag?

Anybody who wants to do this tag.

Review: Song of Susannah – Stephen King

Song of Susannah – Stephen King

The next-to-last novel in Stephen King's seven-volume magnum opus, Song of Susannah is at once a book of revelation, a fascinating key to the unfolding mystery of the Dark Tower, and a fast-paced story of double-barreled suspense.

To give birth to her "chap," demon-mother Mia has usurped the body of Susannah Dean and used the power of Black Thirteen to transport them to New York City in the summer of 1999. The city is strange to Susannah . . . and terrifying to the "daughter of none," who shares her body and mind.

It falls to Jake, Oy, and the fallen priest to find Susannah-Mia, who, in a struggle to cope with each other and with an alien environment "go todash" to Castle Discordia on the border of End-World. In that forsaken place, Mia reveals her origins, her purpose, and her fierce desire to mother whatever creature the two of them have carried to term.

Eddie and Roland, meanwhile, tumble into western Maine in the summer of 1977, a world that should be idyllic but isn't. For one thing, it is real, and the bullets are flying. For another, it is inhabited by the author of a novel called 'Salem's Lot, a writer who turns out to be as shocked by them as they are by him.

These are the simple vectors of a story rich in complexity and conflict. Its dual climaxes, one at the entrance to a deadly dining establishment and the other appended to the pages of a writer's journal, will leave readers gasping for the saga's final volume (which, Dear Reader, follows soon, say thank ya).

This is a review of book #6 in the Dark Tower series. The review is spoiler-free, but you might want to check out my thoughts on book #1 (The Gunslinger), book #2 (The Drawing of the Three), book #3 (The Waste Lands), book #4 (Wizard and Glass), and book #5 (Wolves of the Calla).  

Review: Roland’s group splits up after Mia hijacks Susannah’s body and vanishes through a doorway to the future. Jake and Father Callahan go after her while Eddie and Roland continue their search for the tower.

I admit that I was slightly biased against this book before starting it because Susannah is my least favorite character in the series. She has four different personalities living inside her body, and I’ve never gotten a good sense of who Susannah actually is. I know the other personalities better than I know her. This book didn’t help because Mia is in control of the body for most of it, so I still don’t feel like I know Susannah.

Song of Susannah is somewhat amazing and somewhat disappointing. Like the previous books, the worldbuilding is awesome. I love the scenes that take place at Castle Discordia. They’re so weird. I also love the name “Castle Discordia.”

Another awesome scene is the gun battle with Roland and Eddie at the gas station. It has all of the action and suspense that I missed in Wolves of the Calla (book 5). I was so happy to see the pacing of the series pick up again.

Unfortunately, I’m a little let down by Song of Susannah. Like the previous book, this one feels like it’s just setup and explanation for what’s going to happen in the last book. (The end of this series better be incredible if it requires 1,000+ pages of explanation.) My biggest problem with Song of Susannah is that nothing really happens. The story becomes more convoluted instead of clearer. The plot doesn’t advance very much, and the book ends right when things get interesting. Basically, it takes Susannah 400 pages to go from a hotel to a restaurant. I know that New York traffic is bad, but damn, that’s a long time. I was getting impatient.

Stephen King makes himself a character in this book. I have mixed feelings about that. It’s hilarious, but it’s also too meta for me. Seeing the characters interact with their creator really pulled me out of the story, and I had a hard time getting back into it.

Even though Song of Susannah disappointed me, I’m going to continue with the series. I love this world, and I’m way too invested in it to stop now.