The Proper Choice

This month I decided to read the first book in both of Gail Carriger's series.

Finishing School - Etiquette and Espionage
The Parasol Protectorate - Soulless


At first I wanted to read Soulless first only because I have owned it for so long, but then I heard everyone comparing the two novels. Overall what I got was that E&E was poor in comparison to Soulless. Surely it was just the jump from Adult fiction to YA that caused the change in style, but either way hearing this changed my decision. Maybe I am just weird that I did not want to read the better of the two novels first, I don't know what other people would have done honestly.

Here was my thought process: If I read the weaker of the two novels first, it might not seem so bad. If the novel was a strong novel on it's own, but only weaker in comparison to Soulless, then I would be satisfied with it. Having not read Soulless yet, I would have nothing to compare the novel to. If the novel were in fact a weak novel all on it's own then I would have the stronger novel to look forward to. I would just have to make my way through E&E to get to the novel everyone enjoyed.

I think I was right to make this choice. E&E was not poorly written by any means, it was just slow. The story was there even if it did drag at the beginning and go too quickly at the end. I will be picking up the second one when it is released, but I was definitely glad to get to Soulless. Now I am only about a third of the way through Soulless, so I can't say much just yet. So far though I am much more satisfied with this novel, just as everyone said. I will wait to see how it finishes out before I make my final judgement though.

Number Fifteen (Audiobook)

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak
Publication Year: 2006
Publishing Company: Knopf Books
Number of Pages: 550
Part of a Series: No
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 5 out of 5

Number Fourteen (Audiobook)

Title: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Publication Year: 2009
Publishing Company: Putnam
Number of Pages: 451
Part of a Series: No
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 4 out of 5

Number Thirteen (Audiobook)

Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publication Year: 2011
Publishing Company: Doubleday
Number of Pages: 387
Part of a Series: No
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 4 out of 5

Including Audiobooks

I have decided that I will include all the audiobooks I am listening to in my 50 Book Challenge.


Today I will add all of the audiobooks I have completed so far (there are three) to by book posts.

Sorry for the overload, I just made the decision.

Number Tweleve

Title: Etiquette and Espionage
Author: Gail Carriger
Publication Year: 2013
Publishing Company: Little, Brown Books
Number of Pages: 307
Part of a Series: Yes - book one
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 3 out of 5

Supergirl Vol. One

Let me start off with the fact that I loved this!

Once again I had no prior knowledge of Supergirl. Honestly, I am not very familiar with Superman either, so the back story of Krypton was new as well.

This Vol. One is probably one of the best I have read in regards to back story and forming a solid foundation for a series. Most of this trade was in fact just Supergirl's background information. That can turn some people off, especially those already familiar with the character, but for me it was a true selling point. I feel like I learned everything I need to know in order to appreciate the story arc that will come with the next volume.

Let's get on to the emotions of this volume. Supergirl wakes up on a new planet with no real memories of how she arrived there. She then bumps into her cousin, finding him a man when only yesterday (or so she thinks) he was a baby. Superman informs her that her planet is gone and all of her family is dead. These are some pretty heavy things to wake up to. Her emotions are just right to make the whole story believable. The reader almost goes through all five stages of grief with her. This realistic portrayal only made the story stronger.

Then there was Superman. I thought that when he came into the story near the beginning he might overshadow Supergirl, but that was not the case. Superman was used almost as a tool. He informed Supergirl about where she was and what had happened to her family, but he did little else. He tried to explain his beliefs on humans, but he did not push Supergirl towards any one path. I appreciated this because sometimes in comics the more popular characters can overshadow lesser known ones.

Supergirl herself feels like a well founded character. She acts appropriately for her age and situation. More than that though, she is just likable. I wanted to follow her story, because I wanted to know what happened to her.

Overall I give this one a five out of five stars. I read the entire thing in one sitting because I just did not want to stop at all. This is definitely something people should go pick up.