"Among Thieves" by Douglas Hulick

The saying goes, don't judge a book by it's cover. However, we all do so. That's why cover art is such a big deal in the publishing world. This is especially true for a new author. Good cover art gets your book noticed.

Good writing gets your book read, reviewed, blogged about, tweeted, shared on Facebook, etc. (Of course, really bad writing does as well, but it's the good I'm talking about in this case, so the statement stands.)

The cover art got me to pick up Among Theives. As did the title. The blurb from Brent Weeks on the front put this book in my "buying now" stack. I'm really glad I picked it up.

For a first novel, the setting is fantastic. It's definitely urban fantasy, but not your typical modern day urban. Instead of vampires and werewolves, we find ourselves surrounded by Noses (people within a criminal organization that "sniff" out information) and Mouths (people within a criminal organization that use Glimmer (magic)).

Our anti-hero is Drothe, who is also our story-teller. He's a Nose for an Upright Man (Mob Boss) named Nicco. The story really begins as Drothe heads into Ten Ways to determine what is happening. And, he finds more than he ever thought, and gets himself in the middle of a War. Which I made sound much less complex than it really is. This story has more twists and turns than a really good roller coaster.

I'll admit, this was a book I did put down during "the middle" but once I picked it back up, I had trouble trying to put it back down again. It kept me up way past my bed time more than once. I'd say, push through, there is some "info dumping" of character/world info that you probably need setting up a location for a series of books. (This is "A Tale of the Kin" so I'm assuming there may be more than one.)  As a first novel, I think it does just fine. It's not epic in length by any means, so forge on to the action and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I highly recommend this book to any who like the more down and dirty types such as The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch or The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. There is no good or evil, right or wrong here. There is intrigue, fighting, betrayl and everything you'd want out of a good mobster movie, with a little bit of magic thrown in.

The "TBR" pile & Reading multiple books at once.

So this week, I wanted to look at a habit of mine that is both helpful and a hindrance. I read a lot of books, and several times, I will be reading more than one book at a time. Usually this means, I start one book, then start another, and possibly a third, before finishing the third, then one of the others I'm part of the way through. Sometimes this works just fine. Other times, I'm not sure how much I remember or where I stopped. (BAD HABIT WARNING: I DON'T USE BOOKMARKS!! BAD JADA!)

Most of the time I have a reason - for instance, needing to switch to read the book club book of the month before the meeting. Or, I buy a new book I've been waiting for, and jump right into it. Or the more likely scenario - I get bored. This isn't always the case. I've done this to books that are very good books. Books I liked when I finished them. So what makes me put the book down? Usually confusion, or the dreaded middle. Everyone knows the middle of books, even good books, can drag a bit. It's the Middle, it's meant to drag. It's the "LORD OF CHAOS" of the book. It's the part of the movie where you go, "if you'd just speak to each other, the movie would be over by now!" It's past the exciting beginning, where you are meeting or greeting characters, and absorbing a setting. It's not the conflict resolution (and usually interesting and quick) ending.

I also have, what I've casually coined, an ADD addictive personality. I don't really have ADD, but my addictive personality means just this: I tend to get obsessed about certain things very easily - and sometimes those "addictions" change rapidly. I think this "addictive personality" is addicted to new books. Doesn't matter if I finish the book. But of course, it does matter. Reading a book means finishing the book, unless I find that impossible. (There have been a few, and it's usually writing style.) But sometimes it's nice to have something "I can't control" to blame for my quirks.

So, does anyone else read more than one book at a time? Or am I the only one?

And, ironically that leads me to the TBR pile. TBR stands for "To Be Read." This is the pile of book that one buys at a bookstore, planning to read, and sit while you finish reading others - because one can buy more books faster than one can read them. Currently I have about 50 books in the pile, but I'm only reading about 3 right now (2 + next month's book club book.) Do you have more books or less? Are you good, and don't buy books until you are need of new things to read? Or do you stock pile in case of an emergency? (Book buying money all taken up by unexpected expenses.)

*For anyone who does not know, the sixth book of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (finished by Brandon Sanderson). Lord of Chaos is several times quoted as being the longest book of the series (even though it's not), and the hardest to get through.

"Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett

**This was a Book Club Book Selection**

Guards! Guards! is my very first Discworld Novel. I wanted to hate it. I really, really did. The first few pages, I thought I would hate it, I thought about skipping the next Book Club Meeting, I thought about not actually buying the book (I read the first few pages on Google Books). Well, I found a "buyable" copy at Half Price Books, and I read again.

First - let me interrupt myself if I may - I don't buy books that look like crap. If I am buying a book at Half Price Books, then it must be in near mint condition. No spine creases (or at least not any major ones). I want my books to look like they've never been read. I hate when I accidently crease a spine. It physcially pains me when someone "dog-ears" a page in a book. I'm a book snob. I did buy a book once that wasn't up to my standards. I read it. I sent it right back to Half Price Books.

Now, let me also explain why I pick up ANY books at Half Price? Am I not, lowering the royalties of authors, am I not contributing to the pirating problems? Am I not making it harder on traditional book publishers?

Yes, I am. I am aware of the issues. I still pick up a good number of books at traditional book stores or on Amazon. But, part of the magic of books is sharing the tales, and while I refuse to lend out books to anyone - The two books I did lend out most recently were returned to me as brand new copies because the lendees destroyed the books. One was actually dropped in the Ocean! - There is a sense of community around books. I buy older books, or books of authors I haven't read from Half Price Books at times, because it gives me a chance to go in at a low invesetment. If I pay $4 for a book and don't like it, I don't feel like I wasted my time and my money. If I spent $24-30 on a hardback copy at a traditional bookstore and I didn't like it? Well, honestly, it's not much different from borrowing it from a friend.

But back to the topic of Discworld.

So, this was my first travel to this place. And as I said before I was prepared to not like it. Halfway through the book, I cursed the selectee of said book for Book Club and was actually a bit upset that I would now have to start reading Discworld novels.

There were some laughable lines. (I like it when a book can make me laugh out loud.) There was an interesting and not quite predictable story and plot. There were very interesting characters. And it all felt sort of... organic. Like it just grew there. I like it a lot when a book just sort of comes together because that's exactly what the characters would be doing and while there were some predictable points, nothing felt exactly forced.

For a book in a series, it did an admirable job of not needing to have read the books that came before it to be understood. (Not all series work like this - Wheel of Time for instance, while covering some reminder basics, isn't something you can just jump into at any point you wish.) And while some of the humor relied upon one character's naivete, it was still fun.

So, what has been your experiences with Discworld? Good, bad, indifferent? And where did you start your journey?

Who am I and What am I doing here?

Well, I'm a reader, mostly in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Genres (though I am branchng out.) I'm going to be blogging about every single book I read. Why? Because A) It'll let me know which books I'm reading as well as what types of authors I favor, and B) I don't always read "new" books, and I think older books - those which didn't just arrive on the shelf - deserve a look by those who have never read them and C) I like to read books by new or less established authors, which is a nice way to find someone at the beginning of their career, instead of waiting until they are super famous and everyone loves them.


Many of the books I'll be disussing are chosen by membes of my Book Club, and so occassionally there may be a discussion regarding a book I've read before. I think this will be great because sometimes you don't get everything the first time you read a book. A second look can be worth a thousand words.


A little about me - I am a budding writer (but honestly, who isn't these days?), and have always been an avid reader. I collect books, really just to collect them. I do prefer to read all the books in my library, and while I have given up some books, I mostly give up those that I couldn't get thorugh. However, if there is a book I am unable to get through, I will be posting it on here and explaining why.

A little about this blog - I am not the best at reviewing a book. What I'm here to do is get all my thoughts out, get my impressions out, try not to give out any spoilers, and basically work out how the book as changed my point of view. If I can't finish a book, I need to know WHY I couldn't finish it - was it the writing style, the story, the characters? Let's find out together! If I love a book, I also need to know why - and I need to know what I'm going to do next - am I going to pursue the series (most Fantasy/Scifi books do tend to run in series)? Am I going to be a loyal follower of the author from this point forward? Am I going to try again? Am I going to never again pick up a book from this author? IF so on any of the above - WHY?

So, let's begin!