One imperfect letter, one missing page

140. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (384)

A British ship captures a damaged French vessel which is carrying a dragon's egg back to Napoleon.

I like this book very much. Temeraire, the dragon, is a fantastic character, Laurence is nearly as interesting, and as much as I am not a history buff, the setting is fascinating - the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons (the ariel corps).

141. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (432)

Laurence and Temeraire travel to China to see Temeraire's homeland and meet his kin.

Temeraire is still a fantastic character in this book, but Laurence gets on my nerves some. I understand why he does and says many of the things he does and says, but it's very frustrating to me (and to Temeraire, although he is loyal to a fault).

142. *Black Powder War by Naomi Novik (400)

The way back from China is a frustrating and frequently dangerous journey.

I only made it halfway through this book the first time around, and I realized this time that it's because the middle section is all about war and battles. All these books are about war, of course, and there are battles in all of them, but His Majesty's Dragon is really about Temeraire's youth, Throne of Jade is about traveling to distant lands and seeing new and amazing sights. Black Powder War really is about war. I skimmed a lot of the middle so I could get past it and get on to the end. I really liked the end.

142 / 150 books. 95% done!

68 / 75 *new books. 91% done!

7 / 10 ^non-fiction. 70% done!

38523 / 40000 pages. 96% done!

First books of November:

131. Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (212)

Old favorite. Picked it up when I wasn't feeling well.

132. *Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (192)

Nick sees his ex walking toward him and asks the girl standing next to him if she'll be his girlfriend for five minutes. Norah sees someone she hates walking towards her and decides to take him up on it. Unfortunately, it turns out to be the same person...

My sister recommended this book to me and I really enjoyed it. It alternates chapters between Nick's perspective and Norah's perspective - and they aren't just one after the other, they overlap a little, or sometimes a lot, so you get to see what each person is thinking about the same situation. Which is really interesting when, for example, they're having a conversation and one of them thinks it's going really well and the other is wondering what the heck is going on. The voices of both characters felt very genuine, very real.

133. ^*Bogus to Bubbly by Scott Westerfeld (224)

I'm classifying this as non-fiction even though it's about half non-fiction and half fictional non-fiction. In Bogus to Bubbly, Westerfeld talks about how he came up with the idea for his Uglies series and for various things in the books, including the slang, the names, and the technologies. He also includes "instruction manuals" for some technologies, like the hoverboards, and "history" passages, such as how future generations would view what happened in the books. It was an interesting, if quick, read.

134. Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (242)

Another old favorite, sequel to Dealing with Dragons.

135. The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld (304)

Sequel to Peeps, or at least, a related book that happens at a later time. It's about different characters and a different aspect of the vampire parasite. I like it, but Peeps is far superior.

136. *Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover (410)

This book was fast-moving and action-packed. It was dark and intense, with many deaths and frequently no clear right or wrong answers - even the questions were unclear, which is often true in moral dilemmas. The setup made sense, some of the characters had interesting stories and motivations, and the end worked and was satisfying, even if it wasn't exactly a happy ending.

It all seemed a bit heavy-handed, though. I can't really remember any happy or funny or even really very neutral scenes in the book - almost the whole thing is depressing, stressful, angry, horrifying, or some combination. Anything positive gets cut off pretty much before it starts. And it also seemed to happen rather fast, although granted there is a lot that happened prior to the beginning of the book - the setup I mentioned - that we only hear about.

137. Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (244)
138. Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (255)

Third and fourth books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. The first two are definitely my favorites, but I like all four, and Morwen in particular (main character of Calling, along with her cats) is a wonderful character.

138 / 150 books. 92% done!

66 / 75 *new books. 88% done!

6 / 10 ^non-fiction. 60% done!

37287 / 40000 pages. 93% done!