It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This is a blog hop hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for today, and just answer the three questions.
- What are you currently reading?
I have just started The Rook by local author Daniel O’Malley. The tag line is “On her majesty’s supernatural secret service” and it sounds quite fun, and comes highly recommended. IIt’s been described as “supernatural public service” among my public service colleagues and even in the first 30 pages, there have already been a couple of moments where I’ve laughed out loud because the bureaucracy element is too real.
On audio, I’m listening to Tallow by Karen Brooks. This is a fantasy inspired by Italian culture – the main city is basically a fictional, magical version of Renaissance-era Venice. Enjoying it so far!
- What did you recently finish reading?
I finished Am I Black Enough for You? by Anita Heiss. I really appreciated the renewed understanding of racial identity that this book gave me.
Reviews of The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Paper Daisies by Kim Kelly went up this week.
- What do you think you’ll read next?
Probably Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell. This is a challenge item – “A book you intended to read last year but didn’t”. It is set on Christmas Day 2015 and I had grand intentions of reading it that day, except then I didn’t manage to get a copy in time. I’m actually pretty excited that there’s a DW novel set in Australia. 😀
So I made a list of all the books I own in various forms that I have to read before I’m allowed to buy any more or go to the library again… there are ten on it, and that’s not counting the books that have been on my Kindle for years, for example, just my most recent purchases. Sigh. What’s that quote about dying next to a pile of books I intended to read?
And now for WIPpet Wednesday. This is another blog hop in which writers share excerpts from their current WIP that somehow relate to the date. Clicking the blue guy on the right will take you to the linkup for this one. I’m going a bit backwards from last week’s excerpt, this is when Grace first returns home after leaving her job in Frederick Merrow’s household (which was a maid in this draft, but will be governess in subsequent versions). Claire is one of her younger sisters, aged about elevent. Ten paragraphs for the 10th day of the month.
“I’ve come home, Claire.”
“You lose your job or something?”
“Well, yes. Is mother home?”
“Yeah, she’s here. Mum! Grace’s home! She’s been fired!”
Grace cringed. She would have preferred to deliver a gentler blow to her mother. She heard her mother’s footsteps approaching the door a few moments later, and found herself looking down at the ground under her mother’s hard stare.
“Hello, mother,” she said quietly.
“Is that true? Fired?”
“Yes.” Grace’s voice was nearly a whisper.
“What the bloody hell did you do?”
Grace cringed again, this time at her mother’s language. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, she grew up with it, but after six months living among people who spoke properly, it grated on her ears.
Even though I’m still sharing from Lessons Learned, I’ve actually been revising Operation: Sugarplum over the last couple of weeks. Most of the stuff I’ve bene working on is really similar to stuff I’ve shared before, though, so for the moment, I think I’ll continue with Lessons Learned. I might switch it up when you least expect it, though! Who knows! 😛
All right, better finish this up! See you all later!
I’ve never read a Doctor Who novel! I’ve only watched the TV series, which I really enjoy. To be honest, I’ve never indulged my self in a written version of Doctor Who because I didn’t know much about them. Happy reading and thanks for some of these recommendations 🙂
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The novels are essentially standalones. They churn out six or eight a year (there’s a few authors doing them) and they sort of roughly tie in with that year’s series, but you can pretty much pick them out in any order, which is what I do. They can be a bit hit or miss, though; some are definitely better than others.
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Great, thanks for the info, going to check out some of those. Would you say that the books are better than the show or vice versa?
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I think the series is still better, though the books do give them the opportunity to do things that they wouldn’t be able to do on TV (monsters and effects that even CGI wouldn’t do very well, for example).
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I’m glad you liked Am I Black Enough For You? It sounded really interesting. Happy reading and thanks for participating in WWW Wednesday!
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It took me a while to get into it properly, but once I was able to actually devote some decent chunks of time to it (rather than a few pages here and a few pages there), I really enjoyed it.
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I absolutely love Doctor Who (the show) but have never read a novel. Hope you enjoy it!
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Thanks! I’ve read a few now and while they are definitely a bit hit or miss, there are enough hits that I am willing to give them more chances.
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The Rook sounds a bit like the Peter Grant series, which is the Met Police with supernatural bits and, yes, the bureaucracy and petty hierarchy squabbles are very real and some of the best bits!
Thanks for visiting my WWW (https://clairehuston.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/www-wednesday-10th-august-2016/) and happy reading!
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I made the same connection to the Peter Grant series, though this one has a female lead, which should mean that the issues I had with Peter and his sleaziness shouldn’t be an issue. There was a great line about her getting a promotion because of how good she is at admin, and I related so much, lol.
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Ouch. her mother sounds kind of harsh.
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Yeah, she didn’t have much time for Grace going off and being all highfalutin, and doesn’t have a lot of time for her now she’s back, either.
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I only know of Doctor Who, the TV show but didn’t even know about the book. I hope the book will be interesting.I am glad to hear that Am I Black Enough for you had such an impact on you.It did sound like a good, insightful read. Enjoy your books this week. Happy reading.
Here’s my WWW:https://ahavenforbooklovers.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/www-wednesday-august-10th/
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There are dozens of DW books, though I’ve only read a few. They brought out a lot in the 90s when the series was no longer showing, and since the revival they’ve continued bringing out the “New Adventures” series, too. It is a good way to fill in the time between series, especially at times like this when it’s going to be over a year between new episodes!
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I am curious about Doctor Who, since everyone seems to be enchanted by him nowadays. Thanks for sharing…and here’s MY WWW POST
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I often joke that I was a Doctor Who fan before it was cool (for my generation at least). I started in 2001 with episodes from the 70s and 80s, but it was definitely nice when the new series started and I could finally talk about it to other people without them thinking I was weird. 🙂
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Love the snippet and how Grace reacts to being back in a very different culture from where she was working.
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There are some huge differences and it’s funny how quickly you forget after being away for a while.
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I’ve never heard of any of these but I hope you’ll enjoy reading them. http://www.curious-daisy.com/www-wednesdays/www-wednesday-august-10-2016/
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Thanks 🙂
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I watched some of those old shows (I blame and thank Eden!)
I’ve read more than a few of the Star Trek novels. Some are brilliant, some are….a far cry from anything anywhere close to brilliant…
I hope you enjoy your read!
I get the feeling that Grace’s family life isn’t exactly all sweetness and light.
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Yeah, the DW ones are much the same. There have been ones that I’ve loved, and some that have barely scraped 2 stars. I’m not sure I’ve read any of Gary Russel’s other ones, so I’m hoping that this one is good.
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Since it’s set in your country, I hope it exceeds your expectations! =)
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The Rook sounds like such a great read! I will be looking forward to your thoughts on it.
Happy reading! Here’s my WWW.
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It’s definitely impressing me so far! You can expect a review at the end.
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I will be looking out for it! 🙂
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As a DW fan from well into the 80s (yes, that does age me just a little), I have to agree with your assessment of the novelizations. Though… it was very interesting reading The Genesis of the Daleks (which was just a novelization of the show like most of those first run books were), since the “world” the author portrayed was so vivid and real, and so different than the show creators created.
Have you read any of the Torchwood novelizations? There were some fun ones there too.
My son loves reading the DW novels… the originals, and then comparing them with the episodes.
As for the WIPpet… I SEE how Grace ended up working for someone like Frederick. Poor Grace.
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I haven’t read the Genesis of the Daleks one, but I did read… I can’t remember the title right now, but it was a 4th Doctor and Romana I story, and there was a sea monster/kraken-type thing? That was quite a while ago, though, but I agree about being able to portray so much more of the world.
I did read a couple of the Torchwood books when I was at uni, though I was never as into Torchwood so it hasn’t been as much of a thing for me as the DW ones. I’ve listened to a few of the audio books, which have been rather good because they have managed to get narrators who can really pull of the speech mannerisms of the characters, which is really good. And then there’s the audio adventures, too, which I really need to listen to more of.
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I know the one you mean… it was one of the Key to Time series. Meh! 😉
And yes, I meant the Torchwood audiobooks. They read rally well, imho.
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Poor Grace. Her mom sounds like a real gem.
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So, Grace and her mother don’t have a loving mother/daughter relationship. How sad.
Have a nice weekend.
Shalom aleichem,
Patricia
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