Category: Autumn’s Favorites

Book Review of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

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IMG_1813.jpgI always feel hesitant to write reviews on my favorite books because I feel like I won’t do them the justice that they deserve, but I feel like trying is still better than not doing it at all. I’ve decided to review this book at this point in time once again to write the review within season, since this book has very much a winter setting to it.

Spinning Silver is just as good as Uprooted to me. Each book is great in its own unique way and each book is a stand alone book with roots in Russian fairy tales. Spinning Silver in particular is a sort of a modern day retelling of the story of Rumplestiltskin. I’m not interested in giving away too much of its plot line, if you happen to want to read this book I want you to be able to savor it and let it unfold for yourself.

What I’d rather do is tell you some of the things that I enjoyed about reading this book:

1.) There are many strong leading female characters that are self-reliant, intelligent, and that don’t rely solely on beauty to carry them through life.

2.) There is a very interesting abandoned house in the story where a witch (quite likely Baba Yaga) once lived and it is almost a character in and of itself. What makes this house so interesting to me is that two people can be staying at the house simultaneously and never notice each other’s presence save for little things being changed around the house: some eaten food here, some new foods there, some sewing completed more than the last time it was picked up by a character, or a chair moved from its prior place the night before, strange little things as these. I loved this concept from the book and probably could sit and read a book all about a house like this.

3.) I love that the character Miryem was able to harden herself and enable herself to pull her family out of poverty as well as improve their overall situation and find creative ways all along the book to get herself out of a difficult situations.

4.) There are many cozy little touches in the book of warm food and gathering beside the fireside that make me want to dive right into the winter world that Naomi Novik painted for her readers.

5.) I know there are many more things, but I’m not trying to give too much away and maybe I’m even simply forgetting some of the other things that I loved about this book, but either way I think I’ll stop here in my review.

And with whatever books you happen to decide to pick up and read, happy readings fellow readers.

Book Review of Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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IMG_1812.jpgAutumn Wood’s late fall book recommendation.

I’m a little nervous about writing a book review because if I make a review of any books it must be because I like them and I could only hope to be able to give them some due justice; I likely won’t bother with a review of any books unless I either love the book or find it very useful. I don’t want to write about books otherwise. So if you ever find me reviewing a book I probably enjoyed reading it a great deal or found it quite useful.

Uprooted is in the really really enjoyed it, loved it category. I must say though that I read this book about a year ago, but it’s also how I came across a more recent book I read that I’ll review at a later time.

Reader I don’t know what your tastes in books are, so I have no idea if you’ll love the same books that I do, so if you end up disappointed with the way I make Uprooted sound to you or if you read it and it doesn’t meet your expectations then I apologize ahead of time for your wasted time, but reading this book wasn’t a waste of my time.

I’ll get on with the review now.

Hopefully I’ll have a strong enough of a remembrance of the book. I’m not saying I don’t remember it well necessarily, but it may not be fresh enough in my system for as good of a review as I’d like to give you. When I read this book I lived in it, I was looking at my own world through rose colored Uprooted glasses.

One of the reasons why I like this book is because it’s a fantasy book that involves magical powers and at this point in my life when I came across this book I was craving for the fantasy genre and this hit just the right spot.

What was very different about this book from other books I’d read in the past though was that it was the first book I’ve read with a Russian setting other than one children’s book from elementary school which I don’t count.

I don’t feel interested in revealing too much though because I enjoyed letting the story unfold for myself as I read and don’t want to take that from you if you end up choosing to read this book. I’ll just say a few things about it. The protagonist is Agnieszka who you get to see develop more as a character through the course of the book, there is a “dragon” in this story as well, and the villain of this story is the woods (one of the most interesting concepts to me of the story since the woods is it’s own entity that is trying to envelop the world around it in darkness). Overall it’s simply an enjoyable rollercoaster ride of a book with a setting that I didn’t ever want to leave. Anyhow, happy readings reader. I’ll be posting a new book review up soon.