I just moved to Michigan and some close family recommended this book to me. The book centers around Crooked Tree State Forest on the western side of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Now, let me just tell you now, that this is a horror story about bears. There is no spoiler here. You find this out almost immediately. I have never been overly fond of bears. It's not that I'm terrified of them, but I don't think I would be thrilled to encounter one in the woods while I'm out hiking. So, what would be the perfect gift for someone moving to the wild north? How about a book about man-eating bears to help you sleep at night. Very thoughtful.


Synopsis: 
Axel and his wife, Janis live in the outskirts of Crooked Tree. Janis, a member of the Ottawa tribe, starts acting strangely around the same time that bears start killing people. The Ottawas, who have often considered the bears to be almost cousins, believe that something sinister is at work. As the killings increase, new evidence comes to light. Not only have these people been killed by bears, but they have also had their tongues cut out by a knife. The only thing that could possibly be causing these attacks is an impossibility. 


Review:
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I got about 25% of the way through it and was almost ready to hurl it through a closed window. I was disappointed to immediately discover the culprit was bears. I was hoping for some build up and some suspense, but nope... it's bears. I mean, it gets more complicated, but it's mostly bears. The writing was the big turnoff for me. Wilson changes perspectives like he changes his mind. Constantly. At first he would separate the different perspectives with a return, but then I think he just gave up on that. There is one part where two canoeists are going down a river, a man is out fishing, and the bears are on the prowl. You know the bears are going to attack, but you don't know if they will attack the fisherman or the canoeists. So it keeps switching perspective between the three parties. This is what it looks like, I wrote this to give you a good example without copying two pages from the book:

It started out where the character that is narrating has its own section and you can tell when the narration changes. Then it kinda just all jumbles together and you're wondering if the fisherman is thinking about dumb fish or if the bears think the people are dumb or if the canoeists are just dumb. Wait? Who was what and whe-.....  oh, now somebody is dead. Well, that was fun. 

The problem is that whenever you see the quick narration shift like this, you know someone is going to die. The suspense up to that point is pretty decent, and then the narration shifts. As soon as that happens, I lose all concept of suspense. I kinda just yell about authors and predictable writing. You can ask TC about this. I will just randomly start yelling about books and authors when they do stuff like this. 

Wilson also introduces a lot of characters that are there only to die. There is a character in the movie Galaxy Quest that sums it up nicely, "I'm the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is." They are the "red shirts" from Star Trek. They are really obvious too, and they have a ridiculous amount of story that goes with them. It's like Wilson wants you to get to know and love these folks before he kills them, but he only has a chapter to do so. It's a waste of pages, in my opinion. 

There is one section in this book that talks about prehistoric bears. I have no idea what it's purpose is for the story. Useless words. 

The characters are not lovable. You aren't really rooting for them. It's a disengaged sort of story because of it. 

There are some books that are so terribly written that I can't even read them. The story may be amazing, but I can't get past the truly terrible writing. This is not one of those books. I got past the bad writing, and there were a few really good moments in this book. The action and history were pretty decent. The writing was predictable, the ending was incorrect, and the scariest part of the book was not as strong as it could have been. All that being said, I read the whole thing. It was an easy read. I am glad I made it to the end, but this book could have been so much better. I could easily excuse this book as a "first book" (the first book this author has published), and would potentially read something else by him. 

This is the second book in the Divergent series. If you haven't read the first one, I would recommend skipping this review for fear of spoilers. 

Synopsis:
Tris does a whole lot of playing with life and death. Tobias is always around to bail Tris out. There is way too much kissing. There are arguments, and all is made well in the end. 

The factions have pretty much collapsed, Dauntless has split, and Erudite is trying to take over everything. The Factionless have quite a few Divergent in their midst. Amity tries not to get involved. Abnegation doesn't know what to do with themselves. Marcus is obviously should not belong to the faction he is in for mere selfishness. Candor gets attacked and end up victims of a simulation because they were blackmailed into an alliance with Erudite. It's all just one big mess. 

Review:
As a person, I prize honesty tempered with kindness above most things. Honesty to be cruel is never helpful. I guess that would make me some Candor/Amity type Divergent. Who knows? Anyway, Tris and Tobias lie to each other all the time and it makes me absolutely furious. This is not something that people should be promoting or looking up to. Their entire relationship is based on lies. If they would just sit down and have an honest conversation with each other and not hide things, they would be a much happier couple. Instead, Tris lies and goes and does something that could kill her. Tobias saves her. So she does it again. Meanwhile, he is lying to her as well. What have we learned from this? That lying obviously accomplishes nothing. Whenever the truth comes out, what does the other person say? "I wish you would have just told me what was on your mind." Telling the truth is not as hard as people think. Their whole relationship kinda makes me furious. 

As for the book, there is a lot of drama, way too much kissing, a lot of lying, a whole lot of really stupid choices, and then some fighting. I was unimpressed. Do you remember The Goblet of Fire? It's the book where Harry Potter turns into a jerk. He whines a lot that no one understands his burden and that even his friends aren't there for him. This is, of course, not true, he's just being overdramatic. Tris was just like that in this book, and I hated it. I want to read the third book in hopes that things get better, but right now... I'm just angry at this book and the amount of people who read things like this and think that acting this way is totally acceptable. 

/rant

I read an article about the new movie, "Divergent" and I appreciated the article so much that I wanted to see the movie. I convinced my husband to go see it with me and I wasn't disappointed. I mean, the movie isn't amazing, but there were some things I really liked about it. I would probably go see it again. 

Well, I was so interested in the movie that I decided to read the book. I was looking for an easy read that I could just tear through, and it seemed like a good choice. 

Synopsis:
The story takes place in post war Chicago (future, post apocalyptic Chicago). To "cure" what had caused the war, the people have split into 5 factions: Erudite (intelligence), Abnegation (selflessness), Candor (Honesty), Dauntless (Bravery/strength), and Amity (kindness). The story is told from the first person perspective of a girl who was raised in Abnegation. At the age of 16, people take an aptitude test to find out what faction they are most suited for. After the test, they have the option to choose any faction. After you choose, you have to go through an initiation phase for your chosen faction. So, Beatrice, the Abnegation girl telling the story, joins a different faction, Dauntless. So, she as to go through initiation and all that jazz. The problem is with Beatrice (now Tris) is that during her aptitude test her results were inconclusive. This means that she is Divergent. She doesn't know why, but it is really dangerous to be Divergent. I won't go into much more detail for fear of spoilers, and there are two other books in the series. 

Review:
I was right, this book was a nice, easy read that kept my interest. I will say that the things I really liked about the movie are not in the book. I was a little disappointed in that, but I think I will continue reading the series. Three books shouldn't be that difficult. So, if you are looking for a fun and easy read, this would be a fun one. I personally really like the idea of studying a factioned society. Maybe that makes me an Erudite, but I rather think I would be in Candor. I don't think I would like Candor all that much. I guess I would be Divergent. Who knows? I definitely wouldn't be Dauntless. Anyway, I liked the idea in The Hunger Games, but they didn't spend much time talking about the split society. So, that's that. I'll be reading the rest of the series. 

I grew up knowing who Anne of Green Gables was. I watched the movies when I was younger (and let me tell you, I hated Anne). Recently, I was helping a friend pack up her apartment (and by "helping" I mean I was there for moral support) and she relinquished her Anne books to me. It's been many years since I have had anything to do with Anne, and after so many people had told me to read these books, I finally caved and did it. 

Synopsis
The Cuthberts (Matthew and Marilla, brother and sister) decide that they need help on the farm. They adopt a small boy from Nova Scotia. When Matthew gets to the station to pick up the boy, all he finds is a thin, red headed, eleven year-old girl wearing a wincey dress. He is completely baffled by the mix-up and decides he can't leave the girl at the train station for days while this gets worked out. He takes her home to Marilla. Turns out that Anne is an extremely imaginative, verbose, and talkative girl, and she quickly wins her way into Matthew's heart. Marilla takes a little more winning over, but eventually Anne is allowed to stay at Green Gables in Prince Edward Island. The rest of the book is about Anne's shenanigans at school, having friends over for tea, dyeing her hair, getting stranded in a boat, and pursuing higher education. 

Review:
As I mentioned earlier, I hated Anne. I hated her temper and her stubbornness. I have a hard time getting over that. For the first 3/4 of the book, nothing exciting really happens, but somewhere along that line you discover something. You discover that you are starting to like Anne. I was a lot like Marilla. I didn't want to admit it. I really started to like Anne. I really like that she always learned from her mistakes, and I loved that people were just naturally drawn to her. I hate to admit it, but I really enjoyed the book at the end there. I am looking forward to reading the next books. I'm also looking forward to rewatching the movies with a different understanding of the character. 

On a long road trip, it's easy to get a lot of reading done. We recently went from Mexico to Canada and back... or close enough to it. I had started this book, and finally broke down and finished it. Somebody had recommended a different book by this author, but this looked interesting too. 

Synopsis:
Since it takes forever to get to other planets, mankind has figured out how to grow humans in tubes and only release them when they have found a viable planet and the individuals have completed their training. While they grow in tubes, they get an education based on what is needed in the colony. I believe they are also genetically engineered for their jobs as well. A Farmer has more muscle and his training wouldn't include anything that a doctor would learn. The story follows Porter, the colony's psychologist. 

The humans in their tubes are rudely awakened 15 years earlier than they should have been (this never really made sense to me and I'll explain that later) and the ship, Colony, has decided to abort the program. Aborting the program would kill all the people in tubes. Halfway through the abort, it decides that a viable planet has been found and that the people who are still alive should get a chance at surviving. The tube folks wake up in a rain storm while the ship is crashing and everything is being engulfed by flames. They all seek shelter and try to figure out what to do next, seeing as they have no shelter, food, or clothes. What normally would have occurred is Colony would have landed and set up shop. Everybody would have a job, a place to stay, and food. Since the ship tried to destroy itself, most of that stuff was gone. 

So, these folks try to figure out how to do their jobs with only half the education they should have received. The management system has a few hiccups while this new society forms and a few people decide to leave the safety (and corruption) of their original home. Shenanigans ensue.

Review:
It took me a little while to get into it. I had a hard time with it. In the world of science fiction and fantasy, I always gravitate towards the fantasy, and I generally avoid the science fiction. There are a few exceptions, like "Ender's Game", but I definitely prefer dragons and magic to spaceships and technology. This book seemed pretty sci fi to me from the start, and my interest waned. Since I was stuck in a car, I figured, "I didn't dislike the book, I should keep reading to see if it's worth it." I'm glad I did, though I won't be putting it on my top 10 list any time soon. 

The writing was strange. I can't quite pinpoint it. Something was off... maybe the voice. Maybe not. I don't know for sure. I know I had a problem with the age of the folks. At one point in the book, they are called teenagers, but they weren't supposed to complete their education and find a viable planet for 15 more years. If that is the case, they would be in their 30's when they are finally "born". There is no way that the characters are younger than 15, and they sound like they are in their 20's. It just doesn't add up.  Also, these people eat the same fruit for over a month... there would be a lot more consequences to that than were covered in the book. 

Relationships. This is a tricky portion of the review because the relationship aspect of this book is pretty significant. I say that, but the book would have been fine without the relationship aspect. I don't know that I'm giving anything away by telling you this, but the main character is gay. I can see how that goes along with the story, but the relationships that are formed aren't as big a factor as they are made out to be. There is a lot of "pairing off" in this book that I find unnecessary, but who knows, maybe things would really be like that. I'd like to think that if people were barely surviving would consider their ability to care for a child before procreating. I will say that I like the way he created the relationships with Kelvin and Tarsi. I don't think that could work any other way without there being an imbalance of affection. For the most part, though, I felt like it was a little forced. 

The world was not thoroughly explored and I would have liked to learn more about it, but I don't necessarily want to read another book with these same characters. 

There is something decidedly familiar about this book, and I cannot place my finger on it. 

Overall, I found the book enjoyable, but nothing to write home about. Check it out if you're interested in a survival story with interpersonal drama, adventure, caterpillars, and a rocket. 

I'm not generally a fan of Christian fiction novels. There are a few that I really like, but a lot of them are very forced. That being said, I really like Frank Peretti. I like the Cooper kids series, I like the young adult series (that starts with The Hangman's Curse), and I really like "The Oath". Since he has a pretty good track record with me, I decided to give this 2005 book a chance. 

Here's the rundown for you: A guy and his wife (who has a stutter) go on a survival outing. They hike to their first location and camp out. While they are camping, something attacks. The man, Reed, manages to escape, and his wife, Beck falls down a waterfall and is carried away by a shadowy creature. The rest of the book is spent with Reed (with the help of friends and locals) trying to find Beck... living or dead. While the search is happening, Reed's friend, Cap, is doing some research into some strange tracks and hairs they find at the campsite. It leads down a twisty road of DNA that may or may not be a strange chimpanzee cocktail of base pairs and shenanigans. 

Review:


Sasquatches. 

There, I said it. It's not a spoiler because you find out about them early on in the book. Let me just be clear about this. The book is about Sasquatches. 

If you like Sasquatches, give this book a go. If you aren't even remotely interested in them, like me, then I wouldn't give this book the time of day. 

I remember reading "The Oath" and sitting up at night fully creeped out without being able to put the book down. "Monster" was nothing like that. The ambiguity of the evil and the suspense that was so wonderful in "The Oath" is totally lost in "Monster". I'm honestly surprised I finished this book. I guess I was just hoping that it would get better... and it never does. On top of that, Peretti has gotten a lot more political in his books. 

Let me compare this to something we are all familiar with: Steven Segal. 

Okay, okay, you may not have any idea who that is, but there will be another comparison further down. Steven Seagal is most known for his action films. He does some martial arts stuff and uses guns occasionally, but for the most part, he just kicks butt. After he became known for his action movies (Under Siege is really the turning point), he started making more. Eventually, they got pretty ridiculous. He started choosing hot topics that he wanted people to know about and incorporating them into movies. So, instead of non-stop ninja action, you get a whole movie (On Deadly Ground) of Steven Seagal saving the environment as well as the world. Side note: Michael Caine is the bad guy. This movie is so terrible it's worth watching. 

Here's another example: Michael Crichton. 
Once upon a time, Michael Crichton wrote entertaining stories with a message. Jurassic Park dealt with the God Complex in genetic manipulation and the consequences. They were extremely entertaining and well researched. Then they started getting less entertaining and more message driven. "State of Fear" is around the time that things started to go downhill, if not before then. After his death, a few books were published posthumously that he had started and never finished. They shouldn't have been published. 

Peretti is on this list of people. His books were so good... but they have lost that edge that they used to have. I don't know that I would recommend this book unless you are interested in Sasquatches. Meh. 

I don't understand book titles. I've noticed this with a lot of books I've read recently. Maybe it's just the books in series. Generally, the book title references the things that will be happening in the next book. The Sum of All Men is not really what this book is about at all. I feel bad because I can remember the names to some of my favorite fantasy books. I remember them as Book 3 or Day 2, never by their titles because the titles are confusing. This particular book is the first book in the Runelords Series. 

Anyway, let's talk about this book. I  have read it before, and I love the world. The idea is that each person can give a part of them to another person. Examples of this would be gifts of wit, stamina, metabolism, hearing, sight, grace, brawn, glamour, voice, etc. When a person has given an endowment of something, they lose it in themselves. If I were to give an endowment of voice, I would no longer be able to speak, but the person I gave my endowment to would have twice the power of Voice (volume, distance, persuasion, etc). I would not regain my voice until the person I had gifted my Voice to died. If I died, the person with my endowment would no longer have the extra power from me. You can't force someone to give you an endowment. The stronger your bond with the person you are doing this for, the stronger the gift. You can take an endowment from an animal, but it is frowned upon because you lose a little humanity when you do so. However, taking an endowment of scent from 1 dog would be far less damaging than the equivalent of taking endowments of scent from 50 people. The people that take endowments from dogs are called Wolf Lords. The people who take endowments from other people are called Rune Lords. An animal may also receive endowments. A horse can be given an endowment of stamina from another horse. Horses with endowments are called Force horses (generally stallions). This doesn't sound so bad, right? Wrong. Each endowment has a downside. If you give up your metabolism, you fall into a deep sleep until the person with your endowment dies. If you receive endowments of metabolism, you would move so fast that the smallest things could break your bones. Without extra stamina to heal you faster, you could die very quickly. So, it's not just a walk in the park. 

On top of this whole endowments thing, we have an "element of magic". I think I'm clever. What we really have is elemental magic. In this world there are Earth Wizards and Wardens, Water Wizards, Flameweavers, and I haven't discovered Air yet... if it is a part of these books, at least. Some people serve the Earth, some serve the Flame. You can only serve one. The two main elements in this book are Earth and Fire. Water makes a few appearances, but those are the main players. 

So, what is this story about. This story follows young Prince Gaborn Val Orden in his attempt to win the hand of the beautiful Princess Iome Sylvarresta. Unfortunately, a Wolf Lord, Raj Ahten attacks Sylvarresta's kingdom and romance is put on hold. Raj Ahten and his army of nomen, Invincibles (with numerous endowments each), frowth giants, Force Mastiffs, Force Stallions, and Flameweavers attempt to conquer the northern kingdoms before the reavers can attack. Reavers are strange spiderlike creatures that are quite large, some of which are capable of magic. Raj Ahten has taken thousands of endowments in an attempt to become the Sum of All Men. His hypothesis is that the Sum of All Men will live forever and his endowments will never fail, even if the dedicates (people who have given endowments) die. Well, the kings in the north aren't too fond of this idea. The problem is, one look at Raj Ahten and you would do anything he asks because of his numerous endowments of Glamour. So, our average looking prince ends up on an adventure. Death happens. Love happens. Earthy things happen. Underworldy flamey things happen. Castles fall. Death happens some more, and so does love. I won't go into too much detail because it's a fun read. 

Let me just get to the review. That's part of the problem with fantasy books, some can take a really long time to explain. It's worth it, and it really isn't as complicated as it sounds. For those of you that have the fortune of knowing me IRL, you know that for the last 6 months, I have been living in a book hangover. After reading the Kingkiller Chronicles, I haven't been able to get into another book. I think 6 months off is what it took to recover.  The downside to this is that the third book in that series hasn't come out yet, so when that comes out I will probably have another book hangover to deal with. Worth it. 

The writing in "The Sum of All Men" is good. There are moments when I really like it and moments when I don't. If anything, I find that the writing is a little too shallow. With a stronger word choice, I think it could have been a bit better. The story is excellent. It is engaging and kept me guessing. The world is wonderful. It's very relatable yet wondrous. I love thinking and talking about this world with other people. The romance... needs work. It's very fawning/frank. On one side it's very fawning and on the other, it's frank. An argument could be made for the fawning side, that the fawn-er is being influenced by greater powers. I'd accept that, sure. It's just a bit over the top for my tastes. 

There are a few series that I have no desire to continue though I enjoyed the first book. If I told you which series they were you would probably rend your clothes and cry out in anguish that I did not enjoy the series that is your favorite. Don't judge me and I won't judge you for saying that your favorite book is something like "The Giver". Just because I may not like a book doesn't mean I will think any less of you for liking it. I ask that you not think any less of me because I don't like a particular series. In fact, we could probably have an awesome conversation about the series that I don't enjoy and you love (or vice versa), so tell me about it. Just don't judge me. Back to the Runelords. This is a series that I would continue reading. I have to step away from it for now, but I would like to pick it up again soon. 

Would I recommend that you read this book? Sure, why not. I enjoyed it. You might too. If you don't, we can still have a conversation about it. Maybe we didn't like/liked the same things!

Gosh, these are getting more and more difficult to relate. Since this is the third book in the series, I am not going to summarize the books from here on out (Spoilers!). Since this book is titled "The Dragon Reborn" and assuming you have read the first two, I'll give you two guesses what this book is about. If you answer "the dragon reborn" you will be right.  Anyway, let's move on to the review. 

Review:

The story is not as connected as it was, not to say that the writing is not as connected, but each of the characters gets to go their own way, even if it is for only a short time. I like that the characters can come back together, but I enjoy it more when they go off on their own adventures and then come back together. 

I'm still listening to the audiobooks and am enjoying them immensely. When my attention wanders, the story progresses and I can pay attention again when I realize I haven't been. I was trying to figure out what I liked about this book so much. I think it may have something to do with the lack of story from Rand's point of view. I enjoy most of the characters stories, but when it comes time to tell Rand's, I'm just not that interested. This book actually tells the same story from many different sides. You keep getting updated about Rand, but it doesn't spend much time inside his head. 

One thing I love about these books is the parallels to our history. My brother has mentioned to me that he considers the different ages to be what we would consider a parallel universe. Things may be similar in some ways, but they are never quite exact. You can see this in the heroes of legend, Artur Hawkwing, Brigitte (who could totally be Sif). My brother also postulates that Matrim Cauthon could be Odin. There are many parallels, but it's too early in the series to mention all of them. As I get farther into the series I will come back to this point and my ideas about different characters. The point of this is that it is fun to try to puzzle out and I really appreciate that Robert Jordan took the time and the effort to put all those little details in place. 

Blood and bloody ashes, I don't know how I feel about the language in this book. There are times when I consider the analogies and comparisons to be unique and clever, but some things are completely overdone. If I hear Mat say, "blood and bloody ashes" one more time... ugh. Normally, I love the creativity in language. This book didn't have very much of that. I know that it changes with the different people groups that come in with different languages. So, I can't base my liking of the language on just one book. 

The idea of Tel'aran'rhiod is explored more in this book by several different characters in different ways. It's like introducing a completely different world to explore with different rules. It's almost as if Robert Jordan had several different stories in his head and he wanted to be able to make them all happen, but they couldn't because of the "rules" of the world he created. So, he created another world where all the stories could be told. I'm a fan. 

So, my response to this story. I liked the third book better than the first two. I have a feeling crazy Rand stories are going to take up a lot of the next book and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. We'll see. 

As soon as I finished the first book in this series, "The Name of the Wind" while we were in Hungary I bought the second one as soon as I finished the first one.  So, this is the second book in The Kingkiller Chronicles. 

Okay, the synopsis:

Our young Kvothe is at the University. He is studying Naming as well as other important things an Arcanist would use (sygaldry, sympathy, languages, medicine etc). No, I must go back, this is a frame story. Kvothe is a mild mannered innkeeper who goes by the name Kote. He is in the second day of his telling of his life story. The Chronicler is recording everything, and Bast (a demon), Kote's attractive assistant is listening to the story of his teacher, a story he has never heard before. Kote continues the story of Kvothe at the University. That's where it starts. It doesn't stay there. This story follows Kvothe through some local trials, through a year off from the University, through the high court of Severen, through learning from the Adem, a trip to the Faerie realm, ... and learning the name of the wind. 

It's so hard to write a proper synopsis of long books because so much happens and I don't want to give anything away. There are so many important things to mention, but at the same time, I need to keep those secret until you read them. 

Le sigh. Let's move on to the review:

Love. I am in love with these books. I want to reread them. The third one is scheduled to come out in 2014 and I don't know if I can wait that long. I may have to reread the books before the third one comes out. I mentioned this in the review of "The Name of the Wind", but it bears repeating. I love the way he describes very specific feelings. Here are a few examples: 

Sometimes it is a very specific instance, but sometimes its so simple. Not only that, he uses a lot of examples from nature. 

It is not often that I highlight sections of a book I'm reading for fun, but there are just some wonderful gems. I want to write them out for you, but I would rather have you read this book. 

I love the characters. Even when I don't like them, I love them. I am just so enthralled by Patrick Rothfuss' story-telling abilities. I want to read everything he has ever written. Mostly, I want to read the third book in this series. I love that Kvothe is this charming and well intentioned young guy, but he has this darkness about him that people can see.  

I love the language in the book. I especially love the importance placed on words and names. It's more than just knowing a name. "To name a thing, you must understand it entire. A stone or a piece of wind is difficult enough. A person..." I would love to believe that I would enjoy learning the Adem language, but I think I would have a really hard time. It is a nuance based language. One word could imply so many different things. It would take an impressive amount of time to become even reasonably conversational. 

I could go on and on about what I liked. Maybe it would be easier to talk about what I didn't like. The problem is that I can't think of anything off hand. The closest I could come to putting something on the "didn't like" list is when I knew Kvothe was walking into trouble of his own doing. Those moments I had to put the book down because I didn't want to see the trouble he was causing himself. That's not really a con for the book. That's actually a pro for the book. The author made me love the characters so much that  I didn't want to see them being self-destructive. I just love these books. 

I'm not going to say if I would recommend it or not. I'm going to tell you to read it. That is all. 

This is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. 

I love discovering people who have similar book interests as me. When I was in Minnesota, I got to stay with a good friend of mine, and her husband and I had some good book chats. He recommended that I read this book. I believe I had mentioned books that place an emphasis on the power of words. I think I had just finished reading "The Wretched of Muirwood". 

Let's break it down:

This is a frame story. The frame is the story of an innkeeper, Kote, and his assisstant, Bast. A Chronicler comes into town searching for the legend known as Kvothe. Kvothe has so many legends and so much history... 

Kote is Kvothe, and his assistant is a demon. The Chronicler agrees to spend 3 days to fully write Kvothe's story. The first day is the first book. It follows Kvothe's childhood and his influences. He traveled with his family and a caravan of musicians and performers. He learned to play the lute and knows all the great tales. Tragedy strikes the caravan, and Kvothe is the only one left alive. He struggles to survive and lives on the streets of Trebon for a while. He decides to enroll in the University to become an Arcanist. He meets a girl on his way to the Arcanum (University) named Denna. Though she is not always present, she is always in Kvothe's mind. Kvothe is forever hungry for information, especially information concerning the Chandrien, the murderers of his troupe. He is also impatient and often gets into trouble because of it. He is clever and intelligent. The story itself contains Chandrien, dragons, drugs, feuds, music, and laughter. I won't ruin it for you.

Review time:

I am in love with this book... no, this series! As soon as I finished this book, I bought the second one. There is a word aspect in this story. There is definitely a power in words in the story. Kvothe tries to learn the name of the wind, and it is not as simple as he thinks it will be. Maybe his impatience will ruin his chances at learning it. Anyway, I love frame stories, but usually I find that I like one part of the frame than the other. Not so with this book. I love both parts of the story. I love Kote as an innkeeper with a hidden past. I love learning about young Kvothe and how the legends were made. I am 100% in love with how he describes feelings. When he says something feels like something else, he is very specific. Here's an example: 

I had a hard time putting this book down, this was difficult because we were in Hungary while I was in the middle of the book. I'll be honest with you, as we wandered around the city I would occasionally think of this book. Would I recommend it to people? Wholeheartedly. I love this story. I want to share it with people. I want to talk to people about it. My plea: Read this book so I can talk to you about it. Thank you.