Wayward Bookshelf

Mort by Terry Pratchett Continuing my trek through the Discworld (I'm reading them chronologically because making any other kind of decision about where to begin proved to be too overwhelming), and so I have arrived at Mort. The first of the books about Death, who is very quickly becoming one of my most favorite Discworld characters. In this book, Death takes an apprentice named Mort; his first apprentice that we know of. Death also has a daughter named Ysabell and a very aged housekeeper/cook named Albert. These 4 comprise our main cast of characters. As Mort grows in his apprenticeship, Death decides to turn over all reaping responsibilities to him for a short time and go on a holiday. Things go sideways, as is to be somewhat expected when you put a teenage boy in charge of ushering souls to the afterlife. As is usual when I review installments in series, I'm just going to touch on some things I especially enjoyed (light spoiler warning, but no big plot points). Mor...

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett Continuing my way through Discworld, and starting the Witches sequence in which: I get to meet Granny Weatherwax, Esk and learn a bit more about wizards, witches, and The Librarian. I really liked Granny Weatherwax. She actually reminded me a lot of Marilla Cuthbert in her matter-of-factness about how the world works, as well as her acceptance of how things just go outside of those rules sometimes. As a result, I mostly pictured Granny Weatherwax as Geraldine James, the actress who plays Marilla in Netflix's 'Anne with an E.' Anyways, I loved how loyal she is to Esk and where that takes her, and that she seems to be low key sitting on a some seriously powerful witch-y abilities that she can pull out when she wants to. I also enjoyed getting a little more back story on The Librarian when Esk spends some time with him at the Unseen University, and am hoping for more on both Esk and The Librarian in future books. I know that's a pret...

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett Well, it's official, I'm hooked on the Discworld. After reading Color of Magic last year, and watching The Hogfather miniseries over the holidays, I decided to continue reading the books with The Light Fantastic, which is the second in the series and continues the story of Rincewind the wizard, Twoflower the tourist & his Luggage. I'm not entirely sure what to share without giving away major plot points, so suffice it to say that I really enjoy all the whimsy, satire, and magic of the Discworld thus far. In this book we get to meet some Discworld druids and trolls for the first time, as well as a couple more heros, and several more wizards. Death is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters, and I had some legit laugh out loud moments in this book surrounding him, particularly when he is summoned by a group of wizards for a Very Serious Question, and is unprepared for said summoning. I was curious about the title so I l...