Sakuko’s Comments (group member since Feb 09, 2017)

Sakuko’s comments from the Bookish Nerds :D group.

I sometimes go to conventions in them, or to weddings etc. I simply enjoy the style.

I play a lot of games, boardgame or computer games, sometimes roleplaying games or tabletop miniaturegames.

I also sew plushies and fake-victorian costumes, I enjoy cooking and baking, mostly exotic cuisine and sometimes I do weight lifting.

I've finished it now. I thought the second half was not nearly as interesting as the first. It's mostly just Agnes story in the end, and I thought it started to be fairly obvious what was going on at some point.

Also, I thought the people stayed pretty one-dimensional. Their feeling where not portrait all that well and they fell kinda flat after a while.
Also, I did not understand why the author decided that the priest trying to help Agnes needed to be out of the way for the end of the book. He fell ill and did not visit for most of the last half of the book until the end.
There where a few plot points that there brought up, that never got addressed decently.

I wasn't a big fan of the end. It was already clear, what will happen, this is based on historic facts, after all, but I though it was handled quite abruptly and not very well. It lacked emotion, it probably lacked emotion for most of the book. I felt a certain detachment to most of it, like a documentary.

I'm a bit disappointed in the book, since it started very strongly, but could not keep the momentum going and got stale soon enough.

So, I'm about halfway though and I like it a lot, though it can be a bit exhausting, since there are so many characters and especially character names.

Island uses a system to name the child after the father, so everyone has different surname, but sometimes you have no idea if the people are related, because some names come up several times. So is Jonsson the son of this Jon, or another one? Who knows?
Also the author scatters islandic poems and sentences around, with an translation after, but still, what's the point? I can't even read it out lout, the letters are different from ours.

Besides that I find the story of Agnes pretty interesting. I like that the book start with other peoples perception of her and only afterwards we get to know her. Most of it is told through other peoples eyes as well, there are just a few glimpses into her head.

It does a good job of keeping the tension up. I have no idea if Anges did those things she'd been sentenced for, or if it's something entirely different, though I have the feeling she didn't. There's at least more to the story than is told, that much is clear.

Loved it.

The Machine Stops?

I think fantasy tends to have more male protagonists than female, but I really don't care. I like a well thought out, realistic person, with flaws and talents and opinions, regardless of gender.
I'd say I find it usually easier to sympathise with the guys rather than the gals. I guess I can't follow the "typical" female thought process very well.

If I want romance, I read romance novels.
I don't like if authors feel forced to add romance into every book regardless of the theme (urban fantasy is pretty bad for this).
I don't mind if a book has some romance as a side note, as long as it doesn't take over the plot and as long as it's done well.
A very blatant or silly romance can kill a book very easily for me. I especially hate when otherwise competent, strong characters get all uncertain and indecisive, as soon as the love interest is around.

Hi, I'm Sakura, 34 and a software developer from Germany.

Reading is my main hobby besides playing all kinds of games (board, computer, rpgs). I also like to sew and cook.

I prefer my books to be fantastical, that can be fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, weird fiction or horror. I also like to read classics and the occasional crime story.

I put down 150 which might be a bit high. I'm at about 71.
I usually net somewhere above 100, but I've had a bunch of pretty bad books and some really long ones, which slow the progress down.
But I won't press myself for it. Reading is supposed to be fun, not work, after all.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Are there any rules for the suggestions? Age, availability etc? Please point me to the post, if I missed them somewhere.

I really really like the "The Thief who..." series by Michael McClung. I used to call it female Harry Dresden in a unique fantasy universe.
It has an awesome female lead that I just adore. I love her pigheadedness and dry, dark humor. Also fights against unbeatable odds, an interesting setting with all kinds of magic, demons, gods etc and a pretty good partnership. And the author manages to one-up himself every book.

The worst book I read was Here I AmHere I am. It's basically a regurgitated, pointless Jewish sitcom.
There are 600 page of no plot, just dialog, so much dialog and verbal conflict, but nothing ever comes of it, no one ever acts.

I don't really have favorite books, or alternatively way too many, but The Giver is reserved a special place as the first english book I read that got me into reading english exclusively. And it is still a favorite.

I'm a big fan of Lovecraft, Poe, the Brontes (with the single exception of Emily, sorry Emily) and Jane Austen, but since I've read everything by them ages ago, it's not very relevant for my reading.

More current authors I favor are Steven Brust, China Miéville, Harumi Murakami, Rainbow Rowell and Ann Granger.

Least favorite is hard, since I rarely will read another book by an author if I hated the first one.
Jonathan Safran Foer managed to write the book I most despised to date.
Also, pretty much anyone called a "Man Booker price winner" or "Pulitzer Price winner".