Hello Blog friends! Thank you so much for all the sweet comments you’ve been leaving me in my anniversary post. I will come back tomorrow and announce winners and tell you a bit more about what I’ve been doing while I was on my blog break. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this Q&A I did with Kelly of The Written World.
We read Among Others by Jo Walton for the Once Upon A Time Challenge and both really enjoyed the book. You can see Kelly’s answers to my questions on her blog and here are the questions she asked me:
1. What lead you to read Among Others? Did it live up to your expectations?
I admit one of the reasons I picked up the book was because it was sent to me by the publisher but I soon began to read very glowing reviews of the book. I wasn’t expecting the diary format but that was an added bonus as I love stories like that. This book is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year so far. It was an unusual story and had a main character who I really liked.
2. What did you think of Morwenna Phelps? Was she a believable character despite the two worlds that she inhabits? I think so. Even when she talked about fairies I know in real life I would probably wonder about a person like that but somehow it was so easy to believe her. She was a complex character, full of bravery one minute and fears the next.
3. Do you have a favourite scene from the book? Yes, when Mori joins the book group and is there for the first time I could relate to her anticipation of what was to come. She was excited but also a bit scared or worried I guess because she wanted to so much to fit in and to find a group of bookworms that read the same genre as she did was almost too much to hope for. I loved seeing her open up to others and forget about the difficulties she had been facing while she was in her world of books.
4. One thing I found myself thinking about after I finished the book was whether or not it was believable for me. Did you think it stretched boundaries, or could you see it being a plausible storyline? The fairies part was a bit harder for me to sort of take in but again I feel like in part that’s because I’m not a big reader of sci/fi books. The magic though was a lot more believable and that’s probably from years of enjoying magical realism in books. I liked most of the characters a lot and actually this is one book where I would love to see a sequel because I would enjoy visiting again with Mori.
Here is one of my favorite lines in the book:
“I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.”
Isn’t that great? I hope you’ll give this book a chance. It’s such a fantastic read.
I love that saying. And it’s so true.
If I don’t have electricity, I can always entertain myself with books.
My bookish friends and I have (hurricane) evacuation books packed and ready to go during the summer months!
Even if we go somewhere else for a few days, the books keep us away from the tv and chaos.
I love the quote from the book!
That’s a nice line. Fairies do take a bit of setting aside of disbelief, but they can be very entertaining. Among Others sounds really interesting. I’ll try to remember to look it up when I’m slightly more alert. 🙂
Ugh…I just took this book back to the library unread and now I’m wishing I hadn’t. LOL! It sounds good and of course I’m going to have to bring it home again 🙂
I am so behind on everything, but this is my stopping by to say thanks for reading and reviewing this with me! I am glad it turned out to be a success in the end. 🙂
Yes, this book is a gem. It is filled with quotable lines and passages and is special for book lovers in general and even more so for those of us who grew up reading fantasy and/or science fiction. I was so impressed with this one that I turned right around and read it aloud to my wife after I finished it. One of my favorites of the year if not THE favorite thus far.
And Jo Walton does reviews and guest posts on Tor dot Com and she is wonderful! Even when I’m only vaguely interested in what she is writing about I find myself enjoying her posts.