ABBA and Books

Matthew loves dancing to music. Especially to ABBA but don't tell Erik. We often turn on Dancing Queen and bust a move (I wonder if that sentence has ever been written before...). He would be happy with music and blueberries. He's a pretty happy guy.

I like music and reading. On to some books I've recently finished:

We finished our COO* book club book Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. This book was good but not as good as the Name of the Wind, and certainly not as good as the Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Thus I was surprised to see NPR's rating of the top Sci-Fi & Fantasy books and the Kingkiller Chronicles was number 8: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books above many of my favorites. The writing is superb in Rothfuss's books, bordering on poetry rather than prose.

Here is a little excerpt from The Name of the Wind "

On the edge of the water were a pair of waystones, their surfaces silver against the black of the sky, the black of the water. One stood upright, a finger pointing to the sky. The other lay flat, extending into the water like a short stone pier.

No breath of wind disturbed the surface of the water. So as we climbed out onto the fallen stone the stars reflected themselves in double fashion; as above, so below. It was as if we were sitting amid a sea of stars.

We spoke for hours, late into the night. Neither of us mentioned our pasts. I sensed that there were things she would rather not talk about, and by the way she avoided questioning me, I think she guessed the same. We spoke of ourselves instead, of fond imaginings and impossible things. I pointed to the skies and told her the names of stars and constellations. She told me stories about them I had never heard before.

My eyes were always returning to Denna. She sat beside me, arms hugging her knees. Her skin was more luminous than the moon, her eyes wider than the sky, deeper than the water, darker than the night."

Isn't that beautiful? The writing is witty, descriptive but not overly so, and engaging. Even so, the story is not one that I just can't put down like the Way of Kings.

I also finished A Dance With Dragons by GRRM. He did not fail to deliver! This book was excellent and stretched wide geographically. We had several POV chapters from Jon, Dany, Bran, Arya, and Tyrion which were excellent. And of course, there were cliffhangers and plot twists. I'm anxious for the next book! And who are Jon Snow's parents??? Lots of theories about his lineage that is sounding very interesting....

74 points on Quiddler today