The information above is for the paperback and ebook edition. I listened to the free “podiobook” version from podiobooks.com. Since this is the 2nd book in the Shadowmagic series by John Lenahan, I’m keeping this review short, as I will do for any books after the 1st in a series.
There isn’t anything different to say about The Prince of Hazel and Oak that I’ve already said about Shadowmagic. I’m still a huge fan of John Lenahan and his books, and the “podiobook” format. The third book in the Shadowmagic series, The Sons of Macha, isn’t available as a “podiobook”, and I haven’t seen it offered as an audiobook anywhere, either, so I was a little sad when The Prince of Hazel and Oak came to an end. My next audiobook has some fierce competition.
If you’ve already taken my recommendation to listen to Shadowmagic, then listen to the “podiobook” version of this book as well. You won’t be disappointed. I’ve already got The Sons of Macha as an ebook, and I can’t wait to find the time to read it.
As promised in my Sunday’s Sundries post, I’ve created a Survey. I’d greatly appreciate it if all of you could take a couple minutes to answer the survey questions. Thank you in advance! I’m looking forward to making this the best book blog it can be. 🙂
On a side note, I wanted to let all of you know what my current blog schedule is:
Monday’s Minutes – Weekly
Tuesday’s Tunes – Monthly
Wednesday’s Words – Monthly
Thursday’s Things – Monthly
Friday’s Fairy Tales – Monthly
Saturday’s Sit Down – Whenever I have author interviews. I’m thinking about changing this to add blogger guest posts, so if you’re interested in doing a guest post, send me a message through the Contact The Reading Wench page with your idea!
Sunday’s Sundries – Whenever I have something to write that doesn’t fit into one of the other features.
#FitReaders Check-Ins – Weekly, usually on Tuesdays.
On the “off” days throughout the month, except Sundays, I’ll post reviews. Sunday’s Sundries will be suspended during read-alongs.
My book for the Classics Club Spin #9 is The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, and as with the last Spin, I’m doing a read-along. You don’t have to be a member of the Classics Club, but if you are, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your list! Below is the chapter breakdown that will take us all the way to May 15th. Each week, I’ll do a recap, and at the end I’ll do an overall review of the book. If you’d like to join me, please add yourself to the linky!
April 6th – 12th: Chapters 1 and 2
Apr. 13th – 19th: Chapters 3, 4, and 5
Apr. 20th – 26th: Chapters 6 and 7
Apr. 27th – May 3rd: Chapters 8 and 9
May 4th – 10th: Chapters 10, 11, and 12
May 11th – 15th: Chapter 13 to the end of the book
This check-in is for March 30th – April 5th. My back is mostly back to normal, but to get it there, I didn’t push myself on getting my steps. I walked to and from my car on campus instead of taking the bus, and I took the stairs instead of the elevator whenever I could, but I didn’t go on any extra walks.
I did considerably better than last week, but I didn’t meet my goal of 8K steps. My schedule has changed slightly, now that I’m done with one of the two research papers for this semester, so I’m not sure how that’s going to affect my step count. I’m still going to try to meet my goal this week.
If you’d like to add me as a friend on FitBit, you can find me HERE.
The Classics Spin is a “lottery” game in which each participant makes a list of 20 books from their Classics Club reading list, and the book that corresponds with the randomly chosen number on that list is the one that has to be read by a certain date. In this Spin, the number is 2, and the book has to be read by May 15th. Below is my Spin list, with a link to Goodreads for the book I’ll be reading. As with the last Spin, I’m going to do a read-along. For now, if you’d like to join in, leave a comment, and I’ll get a linky up before the end of the week, along with all the details of the read-along.
1. Albee, Edward: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 2. Allende, Isabel: The House of the Spirits
3. Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan
4. Baum, L. Frank: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
5. Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo
6. Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
7. Smith, Betty: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
8. Fitzgerald, F. Scott: Tender is the Night
9. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
10. Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Tarzan of the Apes
11. Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland
12. Yeats, William Butler: Irish Faerie Tales
13. Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
14. Wells, H.G.: The Time Machine
15. Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
16. Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
17. Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans
18. Crane, Stephen: Red Badge of Courage
19. de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: The Little Prince
20. Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club
Currently Reading: The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, The Essential Feminist Reader, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Finished:The Prince of Hazel and Oak by John Lenahan and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I’ll be reviewing both some time this week.
SF/F Bingo: I put The Prince of Hazel and Oak on the “2nd in a series” square.
Total pages read for the week: 474
Total number of books for the year: 18. I’m behind on my review books again, mostly due to school. I had an exam and one of my two 20 page research papers to finish. I’m also still looking for a part-time job, but I took a much needed break to relax. The strange part is that my relaxation included catching up on emails, chores, and errands, in addition to reading. After finishing The Prince of Hazel and Oak, I started another podiobook on my way to school, but it was horrible. The narrator sounded like he was reading an instructional manual and his character voices sounded like amateur Renaissance fair actors. It was so bad that I’m not even going to mention the title, because the book might be decent enough to read for some. I just couldn’t handle the podiobook version. I asked the world of Twitter for suggestions, but while I waited, and since I already had Ender’s Game on my phone, I decided to listen to it instead of continuing to suffer. I also have a physical copy of the book, so I’m going to try alternating back and forth between listening and reading.
Yesterday, April 4th, was my 1st blogiversary. It’s hard to believe that a blog I started so I could participate in a read-a-thon has turned into a blog that has so much more than read-a-thon updates. I really had no plan. All I knew was that I wanted a way, other than Goodreads or Facebook, to get socially involved in an activity that, up to that point, had been a solo venture. However, someone read one of my updates and was interested in what I had to say about a book I was reading. In the spirit of socializing, I wrote a review for that book, and then I realized how much I enjoyed writing about what I had read.
After that, I started learning more about the book blogging community, as well as how to improve my blog. I liked the idea that people were reading what I had to say. I was also a little surprised. There are so many book blogs out there to choose from, so I’m grateful for every single one of my readers, and I want to continue giving you what you come here to see. I’m constantly thinking about or writing new content that I think most of you would be interested in, and that hasn’t been easy with all the day to day stuff I have to do outside of blogging.
Any of you who have read my “Monday’s Minutes” posts know that I’m a full-time student with only a couple semesters left to go before I graduate. Senior courses are the most difficult and matter the most when it comes to grad school, but they’re at a time when the average student just wants it all to be over with already. I’m not the average student, but I’m still ready to move on with my life. I want to be making real money again, and have a job that I’m happy about going to on most days, if not every day. I still want to go to grad school, but I need a couple years to breath before I take another plunge into the world of academia.
With all of that being said, I’m going to do the best I can to keep this blog going. The rest of this year is going to be tough. I’m taking courses over the Summer, looking for a part-time job to get me through to graduation, and I’ll be spending the Fall semester looking for a full-time job for after I graduate. However, no matter how busy I get, I will write and publish at least one post every week, even if it’s just to check in with all of you and tell you how swamped I am, and I had no time to read, and OMG I’m going insane. I hope it won’t ever get that bad.
To help me keep this blog filled with content you want, I’m working on a survey that will hopefully be up within the next week, and I’m open to any ideas or suggestions you have. Feel free to comment below, or send me a message through the Contact the Reading Wench page.
This month’s #ShelfLove topic is all about how well we’re sticking to our goals and what we’re doing to refrain from caving to the temptation of buying books.
Honestly, I feel like I’ve got it pretty easy so far. The Boyfriend has been buying me one book of my choice, as long as it’s not a full-priced hardcover or new release, every week that I get all of that week’s writing finished for my research papers. Not only is the agreement motivational, but it’s keeping me sane. It’s also making this No Book Buying Challenge a breeze. So, check back with me around mid-May, when I’m not getting a book every week.
Besides the Boyfriend’s amazing gift of books, I’ve been making do with the books I already own but have never read, as well as the books I get through Netgalley, and I just recently used up the last of my gift cards. I’ve also done quite a bit of “buying” and downloading of free books offered around through so many different websites besides the major book sellers, and checking out the occasional book that grabs my attention from the library. Other than that, I don’t have any special strategy, which is why I’m a little worried about what I’m going to do when the semester is over and the Boyfriend is no longer enabling my habit.
The problem is that I’m addicted to bookstores, and not just to books. Bookstores, with their mostly quiet and peaceful atmospheres and organized shelves, calm me down, but I have difficulty leaving them without buying at least one book. Even when I lived in South Korea, I would find something to read in the smallest of sections dedicated to books in English. It doesn’t matter if I’m also buying a magazine or something to eat or drink from the store’s cafe, I will come across a book that will call out to me and beg me to take it home. After this semester is over, if I want to make it through this challenge, I will have to stay away from bookstores, unless I have adult supervision. I have no idea how that will affect my mental health, but I plan on trying to mitigate any craziness by making frequent trips to the library, since it has a similar calming effect.
This check-in is for March 23rd – 29th. My back is still bothering me a bit, so I’ve been taking it easy. I took the bus to and from my car on campus, and I didn’t do any unnecessary walking.
I’m going to try to at least get more steps than I did this past week, but I doubt I’ll be able to meet my goal of 8K steps.
If you’d like to add me as a friend on FitBit, you can find me HERE.
The Classics Spin is a “lottery” game in which each participant makes a list of 20 books from their Classics Club reading list, and the book that corresponds with the randomly chosen number on that list is the one that has to be read by a certain date. In this Spin, the number will be chosen on April 6th, and the book has to be read by May 15th. Below is my list. I’ll post which book I’ll be reading after the 6th, and, as with the last Spin, I might do a read-along.
1. Albee, Edward: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
2. Allende, Isabel: The House of the Spirits
3. Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan
4. Baum, L. Frank: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
5. Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo
6. Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
7. Smith, Betty: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
8. Fitzgerald, F. Scott: Tender is the Night
9. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
10. Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Tarzan of the Apes
11. Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland
12. Yeats, William Butler: Irish Faerie Tales
13. Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
14. Wells, H.G.: The Time Machine
15. Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
16. Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
17. Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans
18. Crane, Stephen: Red Badge of Courage
19. de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: The Little Prince
20. Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club
