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Reading the End Posts

Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.22: Books for Travel and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder and Scarlet

We couldn’t think of a good game for this episode, but we think you’ll enjoy it anyway. As we head into summer, the Jennys take some time to discuss the types of books you want to read when you’re traveling, and we review the fun and silly books Cinder and Scarlet, the first two in a planned quartet of fairy tale retellings by Marissa Meyer (not to be confused with Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo). You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 22…

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Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

In Fangirl (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), identical twin Cath goes off to college and finds that her sister, Wren, no longer wants to do the twin thing. Adrift, lonely, and anxious, Cath tries to navigate the waters of college on her own: her intimidating roommate, Reagan; Reagan’s cheerful friend?boyfriend? Levi, who walks Cath home from the library; and Nick, one of Cath’s classmates, with whom she partners for an assignment in their creative writing class. Meanwhile Cath continues working on her most enormous writing project ever: Carry On, Simon, a fanfic completion of the as-yet-unfinished, hugely popular series…

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Lady Audley: Not quite as cool about her secret as I initially thought

The third section of Alice‘s Lady Audley’s Secret readalong starts with a bang. Or, I suppose, a resounding well-falling-down. (I’m not a hundred percent sure about this, but like — he fell down the well, right? That’s obviously what happened. Right?) Robert wakes up and discovers that George Talboys is nowhere to be found. In some anxiety, he makes inquiries and establishes to his satisfaction that George must have gone back to London by train. Oh, foolish Robert! George is beyond help! In the face of George’s new deadness disappearance, Robert forgets about his crush on Lady Audley and realizes…

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The moral of the story

I just finished Juli Zeh’s book In Free Fall (Dark Matter in the UK, and although I’m not doing a cover comparison because this post isn’t actually a review, the British cover wins and will be counted as such in my end-of-year tallies), a book that seems to assume a moral stance I can’t get on board with: If you are being blackmailed to do a murder, the fact that you then do murder doesn’t count. In my opinion, yeah, it definitely still counts. I had other problems with the book (started very strong; ended less strong), but I had…

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Book / Art Pairing: The Town in Bloom, Dodie Smith

It occurred to me the other day that although I like both books and art, I only ever talk about one of them here. Perhaps I am not the only person around the blogosphere of whom this is true.  Hence, I’ve decided to try a new thing with some of my book posts where I pair the book with a piece of art that I’ve liked. Please let me know in the comments what you think about this idea for a new feature: Good? Indifferent? Hopelessly pretentious? The Town in Bloom, Dodie Smith’s third adult novel, was a gift from…

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Lady Audley, belatedly

Sorry I missed the first batch of readalong posts, readalong friends! I have no excuse. I got distracted doing something else. I promise to faithfully post every Thursday from here on out. Sorry, lovely host Alice! Have we already established the number of readalong participants whose awareness of Lady Audley’s Secret prior to this readalong was limited to / originated from that time Tacy’s father burned the copy of it that Betsy had borrowed from her maid and lent to Tacy? If not, can I get a show of hands in the comments? & some critical remarks about Mr. Kelly…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.21: B-side Books, The People in the Trees, and a Mad Scientist Game

In this edition of the Reading the End Bookcast, the Jennys talk about authors and their B-sides: the lesser books that we love and hate. We review Hanya Yanigahara’s The People in the Trees, because once just isn’t enough, and we play a game of my own invention about mad scientists of fiction. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 21 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We…

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Review: Two thirds of the Last Policeman trilogy, Ben Winters

Note: I received review copies of The Last Policeman and Countdown City from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Important question if you have read the two existing books in the Last Policeman trilogy: Does the meteor actually hit the earth in the third book? Or do they find a way to avoid the impending disaster? I say it’s a cop-out if the meteor doesn’t strike. The Last Policeman is a series about a man who has always wanted to be a police detective. Just because there is a miles-long meteor heading straight for the Earth to destroy…

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Reading the End [Pod]cast, Ep.20: A Review of Captain America: Shield of Dreams

Here is an experiment me and Randon did! Testing out some new equipment, we here have a podcast review of Captain America 2. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, leave us a review! We appreciate it very very much). Episode 20a Credits Producer: Captain Hammer Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee Song is by Jeff MacDougall and comes from here.  

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