Lisa's 2019 BFB Challenge

I saw a reference to this group on Majkia's thread over in the 2018 Category Challenge and was a lurker last year. I read 6 BFBs last year and have identified 10 that I want to read in 2019: nine books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and one in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series.

Something else might slip in, if I'm lucky!

Welcome Lisa and good luck with your big book reading !

Hello Lisa, nice to see you here. Good luck with your BFBs!

>2 bryanoz: Thank you!
>3 MissWatson: Thanks - nice to see you here too, quite a few familiar folks here!

Welcome Lisa to the group my dear, hope you have a good year with the BFB's.

Welcome Lisa, have a good reading year.

>5 johnsimpson:, >6 connie53: Thank you John and Connie!

So glad you joined us!

I'm new this year too. Happy reading!

>8 majkia:, >9 JayneCM: Great to be here!

#1 Lord of Chaos
716 pages

Phew, finally finished a BFB. Lord of Chaos is the sixth book in The Wheel of Time series. I have to say I found it to be a slog until exactly page 418 - then bam! There were so many threads to follow and so many characters to remember and try to keep straight but then Nynaeve did the impossible and cured Logain, a man who could channel but who had been stilled by the Aes Sedai . I raced through the remaining 300 pages and it didn't disappoint.

Funny thing about this one is that I thought for sure I had already read it back when it came out (1994), it looked like it had been read, but I definitely do not remember some of the stuff that happened. I wonder if I stopped reading mid-way?

Anyway, I'm excited to start the first totally new-to-me book in The Wheel of Time series, A Crown of Swords (another BFB).

>11 LisaMorr: Ohh, I need to get back to that series too. According to my lists on LT I read up to part 8. So Hart van de winter should be the next book to read.

>12 connie53: I look forward to seeing your thoughts when you get there - and maybe I'll be catching up!

#2 A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
684 pages

This one picks up right where Lord of Chaos ends - in fact, there is a little bit of overlap where we see what happens from Sevanna's point of view when Rand escapes the White Tower's grasp (described in the previous book). Elayne and Nynaeve continue their search in Ebou Dar, with Mat helping out, while Egwene marches to the White Tower. Rand bounces around between Camelyn and Cairhien, involved in all kinds of palace intrigue and an almost deadly meeting with Padan Fain. And he goes to Shadar Logoth again to battle Sammael. Big cliffhangers at the end of this one, with the Seanchan coming to Ebou Dar.

Can't wait to start the next one!

#3 Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
763 pages

Four novellas by Stephen King: The Langoliers; Secret Window, Secret Garden; The Library Policeman; and The Sun Dog, which I rated as 4* or 4.5* each. I liked The Langoliers best and The Sun Dog least, but at 4*, still very good. Vintage Stephen King, looking at different fears - fear of flying, fear of past transgressions catching up with you, fear of forgotten childhood abuse remembered, and fear of admitting the supernatural exists.

#4 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
607 pages

Really enjoyed this trip into Murakami's world. A great example of magical realism where everything is normal, but not exactly. Starts off with Toru, a young, married man who currently works taking care of the home, getting a phone call from someone he doesn't know but who supposedly knows him. Then he goes off into the back alley to look for a lost cat. From here we explore the origins of Toru's marriage to Kumiko, Kumiko's family, things that happened during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and the puppet state of Manchukuo, the history of a bad luck house, what happens at the bottom of a well, and well, just a whole lot more! Another very good book by Murakami.

#5 The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan
604 pages

I really liked this entry in the Wheel of Time series. Even though we didn't see Rand until ~300 pages in, I really liked seeing what was happening with Elayne, Nynaeve, Brigitte and Lan and the Kin from Ebou Dar, Egwene marching with the rebel Aes Sedai, and Perrin and Faile in Ghealdan. And then Rand appears with a mis-matched army anchored with the Asha'man ready to go to war against the Seanchan with their collared women who can channel. It was really evenly-paced, except for the surprise ending as the Shaido kidnap some of Perrin's folks.

I'm ready for Winter's Heart, another BFB!