You have a beautiful family, Crete looks wonderful. More than one can say for Athens this week.

Did someone call for a Greek God?

OMGoodness it's Tiny British Iris!!! She's already SO big!! AND she has a Snoopy! Snoopy is my all-time favorite character. I have Snoopy things that are older than both of you 😄😄

What better place to read all the retellings! Hope you had an awesome time. I have almost all the books you held up (besides the Kindle ones) and love those authors. Mary Renault never gets any love and she is a beautiful storyteller. She's such a talented writer. Look forward to hearing about your trip! Greece is so lovely.

Wonderful video. That video images also look great, the quality was really good. What camera are you using, if I may ask?

Watching this while making myself a cappuccino while waiting for my phone to charge and planning to go to my local free library to exchange 3 books I own for Steven Pressfield’s “Gates of Fire”, William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist” and a 3rd one I find interesting. I hope it’s not too hot in Greece, here in Croatia we’ve had temperatures up to 38 celsius 😅 enjoy your vacation.

Sounds like a great holiday lineup.

Happy reading to you both!! 🎉

The baby❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Looks like a lovely time, complete with gorgeous views, historical sites, beautiful smiles, and even cool family outfits! Congratulations!

Greece looks beautiful 😮

Wonderful! Great to have some quality family time in such an amazing place: I have the ruins on Knossos high on my list of places to see! «The Silence of the Girls» is heartbreaking! As for myself, I am currently on «The Green Angel Tower» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3) by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy, that book is a beast in size and the prose SO GOOD!) Next up is «The Thousandfold Thought» (The Prince of Nothing #3) by R. Scott Bakker (Grimdark/Dark Epic Fantasy), then «Leviathan Falls» (The Expanse, #9) by James S.A. Corey (Space opera)!

It took me over 200 pages to enjoy Final Empire, haha. Eventually I did get invested and I liked Well of Ascension a lot more.

Respect Jade for sure but A time of Courage is in a different league,best fantasy book I ever read!!❤ Truth and Courage!!!

I dnf'd it as well. My biggest complaint is the over-explaining of the magic system. I do not need to read he pulled on his metal for every frickin move they make. Just say she leapt to the second floor. We get it. She used her metal pulling/pushing ability. I do not need to hear exactly how it was done EVERY time it was done. Treats you like a moron or something.

Sounds like a lovely and refreshing TBR!! I am super curious to hear your thoughts on The Well of Ascension and the rest of Greenbone Saga. Also, I'd never heard of Glorious Exploits but that sounds fascinating! Happy reading, Will 🤩

What a banger of an episode, Will. Definitely checking out Glorious Exploits, sounds interesting. More books!! Haha.

Reading my first Gwynne book, Shadow of the Gods, and read half the book first day. I never do that. Really love it. Trying to get set up for book 3 that is releasing soon. I am all in. Good luck with new school year.

Crazy Horse and Custer....

Empire of the summer moon is another book about the Comanches and quanah Parker harrowing tale crazy story highly recommend

Ambitious, yes! 📖🥰📚📚📚📚

Book Buddy and I just started A Time of Blood. We're "a day late and a dollar short" as they say, when it comes to participating in the read-along, but at least we have each other haha

Glorious Exploits is on my radar too. Between teaching Greek myth for ages and stomping around Greece a few years ago, all the retellings and other Greek-related books always catch my eye. Have you read Gods Behaving Badly? Pretty funny. Hope B. Ed and the lovely fam have a good time there!!

Thank you 🙏🏽

Glorious Exploits is absolutely fantastic! It is humorous but really packs an emotional punch too. Can't wait for the Voyage Home by Pat Barker. I read her first two on your recommendation and absolutely loved them.

Added Glorious Exploits to the TBR. AND Philip & Alexander 😅

Goodluck with ur August reads!! 😊

OMG drop everything and read GLORIOUS EXPLOITS!! An excellent book. An original voice. A super-bizarre factual basis that deserves your eyeblinks ASAP.

So far in August i read Life and other inconveniences by kristan Higgins Iron flame by rebecca yarros Forever is now by Mariana j lockingington My tbr Your fault by Mercedes ron Summer on Sag harbor by sunny hostin Summer reading by jenn McKinley Midsummer mysteries by Agatha Christie The mystery guest by nita prose

Can highly recommend Goldsworthy’s “Vindolandia” Trilogy (Military Historical Fiction, with a Roman take on Westerns, Film Noir and Folk Horror!) My August TBR: Currently reading «To Green Angel Tower» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3) by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy) «The Thousandfold Thought» (The Prince of Nothing #3) by R. Scott Bakker (Grimdark/Dark Epic Fantasy) On my August MBR/September TBR: «Leviathan Falls» (The Expanse, #9) by James S.A. Corey (Space opera)

First view

I agree with a lot of what you both have said, don’t really disagree either. Sanderson is hit and miss for me but I enjoy Mistborn a lot. I will say books 2 & 3 get really strong. Many fans dislike book 2 because it gets a little political but I enjoyed all of that.

Complete opposite at the get go. Little kids for 100s of pages of a Japanese esk drama. A nice Orwellian twist, a battle that was way too short, then hundreds of pages afterwards. Half the mothers back story could've been cut, felt like it was being used for a sequel that never happened. I did shead tears at one of the best moments. So seriously good, but with excess.

Like Robin books myself too!! 😊

In July I read: «The Stone of Farewell» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #2) by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy, a key influence for George R. R. Martin's « A Song of Ice and Fire») «Tiamat's Wrath» (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey (Space opera) «The Warrior Prophet» (The Prince of Nothing #2) by R. Scott Bakker (Grimdark/Dark Epic Fantasy inspired by the Crusades, Silmarillion & Dune) I really have a hard time picking my July book of the month between «The Stone of Farewell» & «The Warrior Prophet»!😅 Currently reading «To Green Angel Tower» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3) by Tad Williams.

Fair play to you both for voicing what are clearly unpopular opinions. At least you and the other 100 or so people who will comment on this feel validated. Sorry they didn't do it for you.

I havn't read any sanderson, I'm listening to Warbreaker right now as my first book and I may look into stormlight over mistborn.

I've finished my Realm/Elderlings journey just about a month ago. I still reflect on these books, pretty much every day!

Id love to send Madam Hobb a letter 😮

Sometimes I wish I had some siblings 🤭 Found most of the ROTE audios on KZbin. Might try them out at some point. I haven’t teared up over a book since I read The Artist of the Floating World and Hachiko Waits last year. I’ll have to get on that.

😂

I picked up Cormack McCarthy

I quite enjoyed TFE, probably along the same lines as Will. But i DNF'D book 2, pretty early on. I tried again with Warbreaker, and that was a miss for me too. So that is probably the end of my Sanderson journey. Which is a shame as i did really enjoy his ending to the Wheel of Time

I appreciate the honest reviews. Booktubers seem to be scared of backlash from the keyboard bullies. The truth is the series were written quite a while ago and have not aged well for an older/mature audience with complex and dynamic tastes but opinions are subjective so there is probably an Oxford professor tucked away in her office reading Mistborn before class starts. 😅

I didn’t make it very far into Mistborn, so well played for finishing! I’m currently giving The Court of Broken Knives another go and am (at last!) loving it! Well, swapping between that and the Heroes. Both are bangers. ⚔️

This is Misborn Era 1. I actually like Era 2 better but Im in the minority on that opinion.

Not that I'm recommending it, but if you ever read Elantris, I think Mistborn will seem sharper and smarter in comparison. Final Empire has many (movie?) tropes, but done well.

Have you guys read any Ken Follett? I think you would enjoy his work. Pillars of the Earth is probably the best one. It's the closest book I've seen to A Game of Thrones just without the fantasy elements.

I hated this book, but Stormlight (especially book 2) is one my favourite series. I was tempted to re-read Mistborn, and push through the series, but pretty much agreed with Ed