Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[GraceKrispy]

I just finished KC May's book "The Kinshield Legacy" and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! A very well-written and gripping read (and this coming from someone who normally isn't super keen on fantasy). I'm sure I gushed in my review, but my reviews are rarely "gushing" like this. This was warranted.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I have a question for Her Majesty's subjects here: what is the difference between "Lady Elizabeth Ravenscliff" and "Elizabeth, Lady Ravenscliff"? I assume that one must mean that she was born a lady and the other that she merely married a lord, but which is which? Or is it even more complicated than this?

Not sure, i got a headache trying to work that one out looking at Burkes Peerage and other references. Interestingly none of them referred to the second example. Perhaps the second is only for close friends/family ....

or perhaps I'd better shut up and genuflect accordingly .... whilst doffing my hat and keeping my eye level to the ground in the hope I don't get whipped.

What ! they don't whip the peasants any more - shocking ....

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Not sure, i got a headache trying to work that one out looking at Burkes Peerage and other references. Interestingly none of them referred to the second example. Perhaps the second is only for close friends/family ....

or perhaps I'd better shut up and genuflect accordingly .... whilst doffing my hat and keeping my eye level to the ground in the hope I don't get whipped.

What ! they don't whip the peasants any more - shocking ....

Wow, sorry Geoff, I certainly didn't mean to give you a headache. But if British subjects cannot keep these things straight, how is a poor French woman supposed to? I had a look at the wikipedia pages about peerage, lords and ladies, and my head is starting to hurt too.

The only reference I find is this:

In the case of younger sons of a duke or marquess, who by courtesy have "Lord" prefixed to their given and family name, the wife is known by the husband's given and family name with "The Lady" prefixed, e.g. The Lady John Smith. The daughters of dukes, marquesses and earls are by courtesy ladies; here that title is prefixed to the given and family name of the lady, e.g. The Lady Jane Smith, and this is preserved if the lady marries a commoner, e.g. Mr John and The Lady Jane Smith. The predicate 'The' should be used prior to "Lady" or "Lord" in all cases, except after a divorce for women who do not hold the courtesy title of "Lady" in their own right, e.g. or Jane, Lady Smith (the ex-wife of Lord John Smith).

"Lady" is also the customary title of the wife of a baronet or knight, but in this case with neither the article nor Christian name: "Lady" with the surname of the husband only, Sir John and Lady Smith. When a woman divorces a knight and he marries again, the new wife will be Lady Smith while the ex-wife becomes Jane, Lady Smith.

But that doesn't quite make sense in the case of Elizabeth, as the lady in question is the widow of an earl, not divorced.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by rlparker

I'm trying not to download samples--they just clog up the plumbing!

I keep all my samples in a "Samples" folder. Keeps things neat.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Wow, sorry Geoff, I certainly didn't mean to give you a headache. But if British subjects cannot keep these things straight, how is a poor French woman supposed to? I had a look at the wikipedia pages about peerage, lords and ladies, and my head is starting to hurt too.

The only reference I find is this:



But that doesn't quite make sense in the case of Elizabeth, as the lady in question is the widow of an earl, not divorced.

I think in your case it might be distinguishing between the dowager (widowed mother still living) and the the wife of the present title holder (son of the widow now with his father's title).

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I think in your case it might be distinguishing between the dowager (widowed mother still living) and the the wife of the present title holder (son of the widow now with his father's title).

Ah yes, it might... except that this earl was the first of the name, therefore his father and mother were commoners... I think.

Anyway, the book is progressing nicely. I finished the first part, and the second part seems like it will be a different take on the same story or at least characters, seen from a different viewpoint. Sounds yummy

[rlparker]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'll let you know how it goes! The music is listed song-by-song on the Amazon page where you buy the book. I right-clicked on each song and downloaded it into a folder, then imported the folder into itunes. I was also able to drag the whole folder into the "music" folder on my phone, and it automatically named it as an album called "Third Wish Companion" and seems to include all the metadata.

I was hoping that the music would be hot-linked right in the text of the book. Too much to ask I suppose? As an alternative, I could side-load it to my Kindle. I've never used my Kindle to play MP3s, but this might be the time to try it. Have you gotten far enough along in the book to know if the text suggests when to listen to a song?

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'd have to factor in the length of the book -- I love long books! And I won't pay a lot for a little bitty short book, no matter how insightful it may be.

Yeah, same here.

I had a roommate in college who selected books by how they smelled! Whenever I went to the bookstore with him, he'd get the strangest looks from other customers when he cracked open a book and sniffed long and lovingly (Hi Tom)

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Ah yes, it might... except that this earl was the first of the name, therefore his father and mother were commoners... I think.

Anyway, the book is progressing nicely. I finished the first part, and the second part seems like it will be a different take on the same story or at least characters, seen from a different viewpoint. Sounds yummy

I suspect it is a simple case of "artistic licence" ....

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I suspect it is a simple case of "artistic licence" ....

I need to remember that 'clause' for when my wife is gnawing for days over the technicalities of some stage in her book . It's not unusual for her to stew on such matters for a long time - then I suppose a lot of authors would be the same.

Paul.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

I need to remember that 'clause' for when my wife is gnawing for days over the technicalities of some stage in her book . It's not unusual for her to stew on such matters for a long time - then I suppose a lot of authors would be the same.

Paul.

Probably, yes. Sometimes my poetry flows and I can get something within minutes, other times it'll take months just over a couple of words.....

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by rlparker

I was hoping that the music would be hot-linked right in the text of the book. Too much to ask I suppose? As an alternative, I could side-load it to my Kindle. I've never used my Kindle to play MP3s, but this might be the time to try it. Have you gotten far enough along in the book to know if the text suggests when to listen to a song?

I was hoping that too, but it doesn't seem to be the case. You could set the Amazon page for the book as a bookmark, and then jump over there and play the song right from the page without downloading it -- maybe? I'm not sure it would jump to the music player. I agree, I thought about loading it on the Kindle, but music takes up so much more space than text that I just put it on my phone.

And yes, so far I've only been prompted to play two songs, when I saw the music notation of the song in question. I am assuming this will be the case all the way through. It doesn't do like a children's book, though, and say, "Stop and play song selection #3 here." It would probably be more helpful to me if it did!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And so now onto another interesting looking freebie Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.

That was quite fun. An interesting take on Fairies. I'm not sure I'm interested in others stories along the same lines though, so not a big hit.

Next: The Girl Who Played With Fire

I really liked the first one, so I've been saving the second for a while.

[birdbrainbb]

Well, I managed to finally get a hold of myself and finish reading The Prisoner of Zenda on Saturday, and I really liked it. Plenty of fights, intrigue, and romance-- just the sort of thing to relax with on a weekend.

Yesterday I read Grey by Jon Armstrong (a freebie download from Nightshade that I've been saving for a few months). I was disappointed by the ending, but it's one of those "the future is going to be a bit weird if we continue on in this vein" sort of books that I love (think Transmetropolitan or the movie Blade Runner), so I didn't entirely mind. And it was very well-written, too! I was absolutely enthralled the entire time I was reading it.

And now I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. Probably a cozy mystery, since I've got a lot of those stockpiled up. At any rate, I'm taking my Kindle out with me today, so we'll see how it fairs in light other than the regular sort of household bulbs.

[ficbot]

Just read 'Room' by Emma Donoghue (thank you, Kobo discount code!) I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. I can't quite put my finger on why. I think that because the narrator was a small child, other characters did not get very developed because he only saw surfaces and was much more into his own egocentric self Interesting concept for a novel, and I think she pulled it off as well as anyone could, but I don't think it will go in my top books of the year.

[naql]

I'm a little over halfway through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (book three of Stieg Larsson's The Girl... series.) The books aren't bad although there are some things that annoy me about them. Salandar comes off as very Mary Sueish to me and I find the product placements to be pretty annoying and a few other things. All in all they read as a bit amateurish to me.

I'm thinking after I finish this one I'm going to go on to Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. According to the description it is a steampunk novel with zombies. How bad can it be?