Senlin Ascends | 
My ambitious January TBR
Top left are books for book clubs I am in (minus 1 which hasn't picked one yet)
Top right are the picks for my reading challenge (2 ebooks, 2 physical)
Bottom row are new releases I am hoping to dive into.
#readyourkindle #readyourebooks #readyourtbr
My books for #roll100 with @PuddleJumper my #10 has already been read this year. Fun fact, I got the tagged book in Savannah, which is part of the title of the second book 🤣
Exceedingly disappointed in this one. I finished it, but didn't enjoy it.
#Roll100 @PuddleJumper
pickI like well written epic adventures and this steampunk fantasy did not disappoint. I normally don't like the hero rescues the damsel in distress trope, but this protagonist was a teacher who liked things just so and was a unique character. I really got into the story and the female characters fortunately developed more as the story went on. I will continue the series. I want to find out what happens next.
pickI read most of this today. What a original action packed read. It was great not knowing much about this book, so I will keep it simple. A couple goes to The Tower of Babel for their honeymoon and she gets lost, he starts an adventure to find her. To say the trip was not what they expected is an understatement. Now this is book 1 of a trilogy, so while it isn‘t exactly a cliffhanger ending, the story is not over. 5⭐️
#BigJuneReadathon
#wondrouswednesday
1- Laurell K. Hamilton, Riley Sager, Dean Koontz.. Those pop into my mind for now.
2- Frost, Winter, Asher, Alexion, Marceline Rousseau
3- Tagged
Wanna play? @Tera66 @Blueberry @5feet.of.fury @BookDragonNotWorm @persephone1408 @damselsgotballs @Bklover @TheRiehlDeal @TheNeverendingTBR @LeslieO @Bookworm.Babe.on.a.Budget @eanderson @Bookjunkie57
pick🎧 This book is a melding of genres … there‘s a little bit of all of this: fantasy, steampunk-lite, sci-fi, torture/horror, Charles Dickensesque, Mystery, Narnia, Pirates, LOTR, Discworld, Fury Road, Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy.
Thomas Senlin is on a delayed honeymoon to the Tower of Babel with his wife Marya. He‘s a mid-30‘s headmaster at his school in a small fishing village & Marya is at least 12 years his junior.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️9/10 👇🏻
#Audible is having ANOTHER even better $5-$7 sale for Prime Plus members … sci-fi & fantasy … once again I‘m having a difficult time choosing …. I started with 67 … down to 36 … need to get it under 10. I need a lucrative side hustle … where I can listen to books … don‘t we all …
Well, I got nowhere close to 24 hrs, but my true goal was to get out of my own head a bit and with that in mind, it was a total success! #stayathome24in48
Late start on this month‘s Sci-fi and fantasy book club pick. Need to hustle through this one...
pickThe first book in one of my all time favourite series. There is nothing like this out there. Completely unique and brilliantly written. A must read for any book lover, no matter what kind of genre you enjoy!
pickAside from Harry Potter, this is my first real fantasy series I‘ve undertaken and it‘s amazing! A newlywed couple travels to the Tower, a place where each ring of the Tower is its own fantastical world. A Tower that has many rings, but how many exactly, no one knows. Upon arrival at the bustling Market that surrounds the Tower, our hero, Senlin, gets separated from his bride and from there his search begins. Now on to book #2 in the series!
pickWhen Senlin, a school headmaster, finally takes the plunge & gets married, he wants nothing more than to honeymoon in the Tower of Babel, a place he feels he knows well since he‘s read about it in books...in real life, the Tower is nothing like it is in books. Within hours of their arrival, Senlin loses his bride. Vowing to find her, he must start living outside his books if he is to succeed. Odd, adventurous, fun read with great main character.
❤️
Honestly, the best thing about reading a book with a headmaster as the main character is all the fabulous bookish references.
Next from the depths of my vast & sprawling TBR stack(s). I picked this one up a few months ago, read a couple of chapters and just wasn‘t feeling it. More me than the book I suspect. So, trying again. Must shrink ⛰📚📚📚⛰!
pickThis ticked all the boxes for me! Senlin Ascends tells the story of a man who loses his wife on their honeymoon to the Tower of Babel and desperately tries to find her. It's a literary fantasy that's beautifully written and Thomas Senlin is an everyman hero you can't help rooting for. Bizarre, slightly unsettling, and full of dark humour.
Happy Halloween! I'm pretty chuffed with my low key costume this year - bin bags and duct tape were all I needed. And the wings lasted a whole day of teaching 😂
Week 3 check in for #BFCr4 I didn't get to the gym as much this week as I had a stomach bug at the end of the week 😷 but I'm chuffed with the amount I've read considering this is a very busy half-term! How's the rest of my crew doing? @lapreader @4thhouseontheleft @rsteve388 @wanderinglynn
It's been a long week and I can barely keep my eyes open 😴 two hours towards the #24B4Monday readathon is a bit disappointing but I'm honestly pooped! Fingers crossed for lots of reading time tomorrow 🙏
pickBook one of a planned 4 book series from what I can tell. Book three was only released at the beginning of 2019, so be forewarned.
I liked the concept of the Tower and I liked the development of a mild-mannered headmaster getting a bit out of his depth. The author also does a good job of tying in seemingly loose ends as the story moves along.
I plan to read the next books, but maybe not right away. No hurry if the series isn‘t done yet.
Dreary, rainy Sunday. I have the start of a cold, so I am curled up with my comfy blanket and this book. It is slow-paced, but it is an enthralling world he is building. 🤓
Thank you @MaleficentBookDragon for all of the fun things you sent with the #SFMBC book! I've wanted to read the tagged book, and I haven't heard of the other 3 but they look good! I tried to get my cat in the picture but he wouldn't pose 🐱 @Avanders
pickI rather adored the book. It managed to cover a lot of ground without feeling rushed, and it really flowed into the next novel nicely. The characters seemed realistic as well as relatable, and I enjoy the descriptions in the book because the use of adjectives and similes were not abused. They were to the point and simple so as not to interfer with the story. Fantastic read, truly. Recommend for fans of Yahtzee Croshaw.
pickA coworker lent me Senlin Ascends because of our mutual love of fantasy lit.
This was really a strange book, but I enjoyed it. I couldn‘t put it down because I needed to know whether Senlin found his quarry. The character development was great and, surprisingly, I loved the handling of the female characters.
This is an adventure/fantasy/mindf*** of a book, and I‘d highly recommend it.
I‘m glad your self-righteousness has given you some exercise, but you forget: We are not such a tidy, reasonable, and humane race. Our thoughts don‘t stand in grammatical rows, our hearts don‘t draw equations, our consciences don‘t have the benefit of historians whispering the answers to us. Oh, stuff your outrage!
He believed true love was more like an education: It was deep and subtle and never complete.
so-soThis wasn't for me. The beginning was interesting, but then I struggled. Bad things happen, scenery and characters change, bad things happen, repeat. After a third I googled for spoilers to decide if I should hang in there. I did, and it got better, but it wasn't the kind of book I like (although it's well-written and it's clear the author has a plan). I didn't like the main character much, and I would have found his wife's story more interesting.
pickHad a slow start for me, but once I got more comfortable with the weird world of the Tower if Babel, the faster I was reading it. I really enjoyed the story, but I wished we saw more from Marya‘s perspective. Will be starting Arm of the Sphinx immediately after.
Went to the park today, got some walking and reading in since it was so sunshiney and nice! 🤗📚💕 I even saw some deer in the stream! 🦌
Thanks to the wonderful @GrilledCheeseSamurai and his glowing recommendation I am now the happy owner of these books! 🤗💕📚 I just couldn't resist! I love love love discovering new awesome fantasy series, so I am super excited about this! Also, I'm kinda already in love with the covers! 😍 #bookmail #blameitonlitsy
pickThis is such a weird premise but it was executed so well! I can't kept the concept straight in my mind really but the adventuring is just so much fun and the characters are just so enjoyable and continuously evolving.
I've heard so much praise for this book so I'm finally going to start it
so-soI was left feeling very meh about this book. Granted, I was sick for the majority of the time I was reading it, but with the stakes as high as they were, I never felt a sense of urgency from senlin to find his wife. After reading the first book, I know that isn‘t what the series is going to be about really, but that‘s the premise this book was set up on and in that respect, I don‘t feel like it succeeded. Will continue though.
I have also been thinking about what I might send for #LMPBC #groupN #weneedabettername
Not knowing if we have genre preferences, here‘re some thoughts... as you can see, I have a genre-bent anyway 😆
Anyway, @TK421 @cobwebmoth @Chrissyreadit let me know if you‘ve read any of these and/or if you want me to scrap the whole things and start over w a different focus 😁😁.
It is also possible (definite) that I‘ve already read 1 of these ...
Started this a couple days ago but I‘ve been sick so I haven‘t made a lot of progress. I haven‘t been sucked into this yet like I thought I would, it‘s been this slow meandering thing more about the society of the tower and how horrible and different it is from what senlin thought it would be than about the search for his wife. Hoping this changes soon.
Solution: I‘m reading the first chapter of each book and whichever one captures my interest the most is the first one I read. I have another hold in that I‘ll be picking up tomorrow. I‘ve got quite the stack going for this month.
pickWhat a fantastic book! When Senlin starts his ascent Squidapus wondered why a woman like Marya would marry such a straight-laced stick in the mud, but as each ring of the tower strips more and more away from Senlin and the core of who he is as a person shines through you begin to understand just what is so special about him. A whimsically dark adventure that asks if one can climb up without being dragged down into selfishness and cruelty.
It‘s Friday and we are headed into a snowy three day weekend—5-9 inches tonight with up to another 5 tomorrow—and I am ready. I don‘t know if I‘ll finish everything in this stack, but since I have plenty of reason to stay inside, I‘m going to give it a go.
Squidapus is starting this one next! He hopes it's a little lighter in tone than Baru Cormorant; he could use a little levity!
Ooooh 😍😍😍 What a perfect #jolabokaflodswap package!! Thank you so much @taraWritesSci (did I guess that right?)!! I can't wait to read this book!! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 And the See's chocolates 🤤🤤 Thank you!!
And thank you @MaleficentBookDragon for creating such a great swap! It's all hyggeligt 😉😘
1. Senlin Ascends and The Lies of Locke Lamora. I can‘t pick just one!
2. 100 - met my goal!
3. First kid-less vacation since the second child was born three years ago.
4. Colder weather and cozy reading time.
5. Hi Littens!
