“When they came to kill the Zed, it was a nice day.”
First line in Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
Hi, guys. I hope you’re all doing well. WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words, and it’s meant to give you all a little insight into my reading this week. I’ll answer the 3 questions:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish?
- What do you think you’ll read next
What did you recently finish?
I finished the non-fiction book I was reading, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I’m not sure you can rate non-fiction but I did give it 5 stars simply because I think it’s a book every introvert should read. It’s educational of course, but it’s also such a confidence-boost for those of us who’ve grown up in very extrovert societies. It’s very based in the US, but I could still draw parallels to my own country and how our school system really doesn’t want introverts to succeed. Like how we have something called a participation-grade, meaning that it’s practically impossible to become something like a lawyer or doctor if you don’t participate in class discussions a lot. The exact thing that’s very hard for introverts to do, and Quiet really explores why that is and why it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s covers a lot of other topics surrounding introversion too, like what goes on in the brain of an introvert compared to an extrovert, which was so fascinating. Generally, I could probably talk about this book forever.
I also completed Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater, which I gave 3 stars. This series is just not doing it for me. There are too many characters I don’t care about and it’s a very character-focused book so that obviously a problem. But then when it’s actually about that one character I love (yes, Ronan), then I am completely immersed. But those snippets are so short! I’m so sad this isn’t a single POV story because that would have been glorious.
What are you currently reading?
I’m 46% into A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan, the third book in the Onyx Court series. After the little setback that was book two, we’re back on track with this book! It’s so good! There’s a POV character in here who’s very lighthearted and I really think that did this series some good. It has been very serious so far, which isn’t bad, but this character helped brighten things up a bit without making it outright comedic. The more political aspects that didn’t really work in book two also aren’t as prevalent here, making it easier for me to follow the story. Everything is a little bit less complicated but still intriguing.
And now I don’t know what to do because I’m also reading a Danish fantasy book that isn’t translated into English. It’s Djævlens Hjerte (Heart of the Devil) by Lars Kramhøft, but I really don’t know whether to talk about books in Danish here on my blog. I do want to give Danish fantasy more of a chance in the future, so do you want to hear about them? If any other international bloggers want to give some advice on this, I’d very much appreciate it.
Right now, though, it might not be as relevant because I’m seriously considering DNF’ing this one. I haven’t even read 100 pages, but the main character is truly channeling his inner Kvothe so far as he constantly needs to make it clear how he is so much better than everyone else. And then you have the many, many, many vulgar comments made about women that I’m not sure I can stomach for another 300 pages.
What do you think you’ll read next?
I took my time browsing my library the other day because it’s been so long since I’ve been able to do that, and they had a book I often forget is on my TBR: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. I remember adding it to my TBR because it was pitched as “for fans of A Little Life”, so I’m reading it and excited to see how they compare.
First Line Reader 
Those participation grades were the bane of my existence back in school 😫 Technically, it is “the quality and not the quantity” of what you say that is supposed to matter, but an overwhelming number of my teachers apparently never got that memo… Maybe I’ll have to check out Quiet just to get some validation for those years of frustration for being forced to talk 🤔
I’m also very happy to hear you like A Star Shall Fall so far! I just started Deeds of Men and am not super invested yet, so I was a little worried the rest of the series might just not live up to Midnight Never Come 😅
And I would totally read your thoughts on Danish fantasy! I always like seeing what’s out there and what people are reading, even if I can’t read it myself 😉 I always include the German books I read in my wrap-ups, and so far, no one has complained. (Then again, I’m not sure if people actually read my whole wrap-ups, so it might just be that 😅) I’m also not opposed to writing more reviews in German if I stumble across something I have very strong opinions on – I’ve done that once and it was kind of fun, so my English-speaking audience would just have to deal with it 😁 So if you ever feel like posting in Danish, I wouldn’t mind! (I would probably try to read the post anyway and see if I can understand more than “his hair looks like noodles”, if I’m being honest 😄). So if you want to feature those books on here, I’d say go ahead and do it! I already thoroughly enjoyed your rant about that main character channeling his misogynistic inner Kvothe 🤣
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School definitely missed out on teaching me about the values of introversion, so I’m very happy that Quiet exists to correct that. And Quiet is perfect for that validation you’re talking about!
And I understand your apprehension about Onyx Court because I was there too. Although, as much as I like the third one, a part of me thinks that nothing will ever top Midnight Never Come. A Star Shall Fall is different, but a different I like more than the different in book two (did you get that it was different? 😅)
Thank you for your input on Danish fantasy! I’ve considered maybe talking about them in these WWW Wednesdays but maybe leaving them out of my wrap-ups if they don’t have an English translation. A lot of Danish fantasy writers actually write their books in English and not Danish because there’s not much of a market for those, so I might gravitate towards those to solve my problem 😄 But I probably won’t post anything in Danish though. I’m 99.9% sure you’d be the only one to read it because of course you’d read something in a language you barely understand 😆
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Haha, yes, I think I understood A Star Shall Fall is different 😂 Hopefully, I’ll also think it’s a good kind of different rather than a mediocre kind!
I’ll never understand why other people don’t like reading stuff in languages they barely understand 😪 It’s so fun to try and guess the meaning of things! My brother actually introduced me to this website a while back where you had to guess languages from audio samples, which was probably a horrible idea because I got so invested playing the game that I kind of neglected university for a few days 😅 But it was so fun! (I still have loads of difficulties telling Danish, Swedish and Norwegian apart, though, so a bit of Danish practice might not hurt 🤔🤣)
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That sounds like a very fun game but also very, very difficult! 😮 I’ve heard you can tell Danish, Swedish and Norwegian apart based on how much the person “sings” when they speak. Norwegians do that the most while Danes don’t do it all and Swedes are kind of in the middle 😄 But if you really want that Danish practice I guess I’ll just have to write my comments on your posts in Danish from now on 😉 😁
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Now I obviously have to head over to the game and try out this “singing” theory – thank god I’m already done with exams 🤣 (If you ever happen to have too much free time on your hands, the website is called “Language Squad” 😉)
And gosh, I probably wouldn’t understand a thing 😂 But there’s always google translate, so I’m sure I could manage 😁
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Enjoy your reading!
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