My last 5 books: Fantasy, comics and some real-life advice

1. Rule of Wolves, by Leigh Bardugo. This book is just... I can't even... Wow. I love Nikolai. I love Aleksander and I adore Kaz Brekker and they're all in this together and I can barely contain my joy. I've never liked Zoya (although the author makes it clear time and again that she does) but in this book Zoya kind of grows on me. I never enjoyed Nina's POV in Six of Crows but in King of Scars and especially in Rule of Wolves she really grows on me and she has gone from being one of those character POV that I just had to get through, to being one of my favourites. Shu Han becomes an actual place in this novel and stops being a mythical land. I had so much fun reading this book and I really didn't want to put it down ever. There were so many instances when the real battle started that I thought that Nikolai wouldn't make it, we were getting close to the end of the book (and duology) after all... I was just sat there... "If Nikolai dies, I'mma riot." The ending was just perfect. Redemption for the Darkling. Nikolai gets to keep the throne without being on the throne. My lovely, relatable Hanne gets to live her best trans-life in the best way possible and Nina gets to be the queen she deserves to be. We've come a long way from the Little Palace, haven't we? I can't wait for the next Grisha-book. 

2. The Lives of Saints, by Leigh Bardugo. A little anthology of fairy tales. This is the Istorii Sankt'ya from Shadow and Bone. I kind of expected more, but at the same time it's exactly what I expected. Mostly it's a bunch of tales about how much humanity sucks and how we always manage to make the choice that will end up being the worst for us. Most of the stories were only two pages long and this book is a great example of how you can say a lot with few words. My favourite stories were Sankt Nikolai, Sankt Vladimir, Sankta Yeryin, Sankt Lukin, Sankta Magda, Sankt Dimitri, and The Starless Saint. Absolute favourite would probably be Sankt Dimitri because of the pure preposterousness of that ending. The only one of these stories that made me chuckle. Definitely recommend if you're a fan of the Grishaverse, but only if you have read the rest of the books up until Rule of Wolves because the last story in this book could be considered a spoiler. 

3. The Wisdom of Crowds, by Joe Abercrombie. I did not see that coming. But my boy Glokta is still my boy. Not so much boy anymore, though, but don't you dare kill him! How to talk about this book without spoiling everything? There's so much death and one, specifically, felt like a gut-punch. Honestly, after the events of this book I wish Orso had gone through with the execution at the end of The Trouble with Peace. It would've saved him so much trouble. Already before Savine pointed it out herself I noticed how she had ended up married to her father in a way. But Leo is a washed out, diminished version of the gloriousness that is Sand dan Glokta. What this book does, and does brilliantly, is pointing out that the people, the masses, don't really know what they want. They clamour for freedom, but once they get it they need someone to hold their hand and tell them what to do. People as an entity need their leaders and their government, people as individuals need their freedom and differentiating the two is a delicate balance - which Orso and Pike and Judge and so many more all find out. The irony of the title is that crowds don't have any wisdom. This book is full of references to the original trilogy and now I feel like I need to re-read it. It has been like ten years after all... I need to rediscover the origins of Old Sticks. I need to re-experience the sarcasm of young Inquisitor Glokta. The trilogy of this new generation has been a wild brilliant ride and it will take me weeks to get over this.

4. Very Good Lives, by J.K. Rowling. This short little book is just the commencement speech Rowling gave to Harvard's graduating class of 2008. I finished it in something like 15-20 minutes. It's very short and half of it is pictures. But what struck me in this (and what always strikes me in anything non-fiction she does) is how eloquent she is. She knows precisely which words to use and if words is a superpower, she definitely has it. And she makes a very good point throughout this whole speech, without being the boring adult who tries to tell a group of fresh graduates that she knows better, she tells them to live their best lives and not be afraid to fail. Reach for the stars and don't be afraid to fall. A lot of adults will tell you what you can't do, that some things are meant to remain as dreams and not reality, but how can you know without trying? One part of this speech struck a very personal chord with me: "I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself and what those closest to me expected of me. I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was write novels. However, my parents, [...] took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension. So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree." This is only 80 pages (and half of it pictures) but it still managed to make me smile and chuckle and even brought a tear to my eye at one point. If you want to truly discover Rowling's masterful way with words - this is it. I would very much like a collection of essays and non-fiction writing from Rowling in the future. 

5. The Sandman vol 7: Brief Lives, by Neil Gaiman. It has been way too long since I read the previous Sandman volume. Years and years ago, but in true Gaiman spirit the story is simple enough to be easily remembered but intriguing enough to never get old and still intricate and complicated enough to generate so so many questions. Layers. The master of layers. I love Delirium in this. Everything she says is like talking to a small child; you know all the words but they don't fit together in your mundane adult mind the way they do for a child. And in this volume in every interaction between Dream and Delirium Dream is a perfect personification of how I feel interacting with children. They are colourful and whimsical and quirky and I'm mellow darkness. The end to Orpheus's story was fitting. Delirium and Dream set out to find Destruction, but in the end, what Dream discovers on their journey is that even if they are Endless they aren't static and change is inevitable. Dream and Death remain my favourites, but Delirium was an absolute delight (pun absolutely intended) in this volume and Desire was just *chef's kiss* Barnabas's claim that dogs don't make fools of themselves made me chuckle all the while remembering how the old family dog used to trip over her own feet while trying to catch a thrown stick before it hit the ground. I had a great time with this volume.