"The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3)" by Brent Weeks

This review is for the third book in the series, and may have spoilers for those who haven't yet read The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife.

First of all, I thanked my lucky stars that Hachette and Amazon released this as a Kindle edition (at a reasonable cost), despite their feud. Living as I do, where the nearest big box bookstore is an hour away, I've come to appreciate the little things in life, like being able to buy ebooks instantly instead of having to set out on a faraway journey to get the latest releases.

The tone of this book is decidedly darker than the previous installments. Before, things in the Seven Satrapies seemed grim, but never insurmountable, but in this book of the Lightbringer series, a lot of that has changed. At times, when following the adventures of Kip and the gang, the book reminded me a bit of Mistborn- kind of on the YA side of things, but past the halfway point it grew much more adult and bleak.

The Plot:
Kip frees himself from his half-brother's grasp. Gavin contemplates his options as he rows the high seas, examining his life. Karris attempts to hold herself together, despite having watched her husband die. Teia fights for her freedom as the vial of oil around her neck grows heavier.

What makes this book bleakest in my opinion is a section some time after the beginning where you get a look at what being the Prism really means through Gavin's memories. I can't say much without giving it away, but I actually had to skip ahead to see how long the section would last- it took up a few pages of the same topic, over and over again- but not in a bad way. It sets the mood of this book as darker than those previous, and although I'm not a fan of darkness, it was a facet of a character's personality that I had wondered about previously.

Ambiguous enough? Good. I'm trying my hardest in this review to not spoil things, but at the same time, discuss them.

Karris truly shines in this book- before, her character had always been in the background, never necessarily taking the spotlight. As Prism's wife, she's become a political figure and becomes caught up in some of the intrigue. What I love most about her is she's so raw and realistic you'd swear she's based on a real person.

I think I've been suffering a case of The Broken Eye blues since I finished it, not only because of its ominous ending, but also because I get to wait another couple years for the next one to come out. The Lightbringer series is one I'd heartily recommend, if you're one of those willing to play the series waiting game and like gray morals in your epic fantasy.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars for an ominously eerie continuation of the series.

Content: Ages 18+ for loads of death, violence, and sexual content.

Page Count: 688 pages in the Kindle edition.

Bonus: The song that was playing in my head while reading this. It explains the mood of the book perfectly:

If you're on mobile, click here to see it on Youtube.

(It should be mentioned I found this song while watching The Blacklist, my new favorite tv series.)

Feelin' Crafty: the-pile TBR Jar Project

Supplies for My Project:
-A See-Through Jar
-Colored Construction or Scrapbook Paper (NOT cardstock- paper thin enough to fold easily)
   -Or you could use lined notebook paper and not deal with the hassle of measuring and sorting
-A Pen or Pencil, Preferably both: Pen for book names and Pencil for measuring marks
-A Goodreads Account with a shelf for your unread books
   -Or list out your unread books on paper and do it the old fashioned way.

First of all, my inspiration for this project comes from Constance @ Craving Books- her TBR Jar looked so pretty and easy to do I knew at some point I'd make my own.

As many of you may know, I have an out-of-control To Be Read dubbed the-pile, with a separate one named the-invisible-pile for ebooks. I absolutely cannot control myself when it comes to books for cheap, and so I have several stuffed shelves of books I haven't read... yet.

I won't be giving full instructions, because Constance did an awesome job showing how to fold the papers "just so", but I will expand upon her method by making the paper strips en masse.

For my project, because I'm a scrapbook aficionado, I used scrapbook paper in different colors and patterns to represent different genres. Note: for Constance's paper folding technique, you do NOT want cardstock scrapbook paper- ensure the paper is printer-paper thin if you plan on buying it.

I bought 12inX12in scrapbook paper, which I then quartered (first folding it in quarters, then cutting on the fold lines) and measured out 1 centimeter strips (Constance used 1.5cm- but I write tiny). Each scrapbook paper quarter should then measure 15cm- mark out your measurements on each side (left and right) of the paper, and then use a ruler to trace a line straight across.

Because my pile is so huge, instead of individually cutting each into perfect ribbons, I traced the lines on one paper, and then stacked two below, so I cut three at once. You have to be careful to hold the paper tightly, or you'll end up with malformed ribbons (which I did when I cut four papers at once).

Some thoughts on adding TBR books to strips:

-I have The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, so instead of putting that on one strip, I made seven strips- four with names of important plays, three with "A Play by Shakespeare" so I can pick my own. (I could've technically written out a strip for every play, but I wasn't feeling like it). Nifty, right?

-I have some books that are twofers: one I have is Call of the Wild/White Fang by Jack London. I put each on a separate strip- I'm not sure I'd be in the mood to readathon through two books when drawing from my TBR jar.

-I also have multiple books in series I have yet to read. Instead of putting the next book in the series I have to read down once, I put "Next book in blank Series by B. Blah", and put in a strip for every book I have of that series to read. For Example: I have three Dresden Files books left to read in the-invisible-pile, therefore I'd put three strips with "Next book in the Dresden Files Series by J. Butcher" so the odds would be raised. May the odds be ever in the books' favor!

-If you have short story anthologies and want to whittle them down, instead of making a strip for the anthology itself, make a strip for every short story (you could even make a short story TBR jar) like this: The Grave of the Famous Poet: Dancing Girls by M. Atwood, on page 88.

If you are like me (and have lots in your To Be Read pile), you track your TBRs on Goodreads. That is very useful because you can then make a shelf (like tbr-jar or jarred) and track which books you have written on the ribbons of paper. What I did is click on the shelf for your TBR pile, and then go through and write each book on its appropriate genre-colored paper. After you write it down on paper, click on the [edit] below the shelves section and checkmark the box next to your tbr-jar shelf. This will ensure you don't write two scraps of paper for that book. And, after you're done writing out a book title and author on paper- resist the urge to immediately fold it. Write all your books for that genre down, then count the strips of paper and compare it against the tbr-jar shelf count. I accidentally forgot to checkmark one of my books, and ended up unfolding papers to find out which one I hadn't marked, so although this step isn't necessary, it prevents mix ups.

When you are finished writing out titles for a particular section, then fold the papers into itty bitty pentagons, as shown on Craving Books, and then smoosh into star shapes.

Pentagons:

Star Shapes:

Here's how my the-pile jar ended up:





To the left is the drinking glass version- to show all my hard work. To the right is my actual jar I chose, because I can't stand anything I create being uncolored and unadorned.










A look at the inside of my blue jar, artistically filtered on PicMonkey.













Make sure to mark which genres the patterns and colors represent- that way you have the option of choosing your genre. By using the different patterns for different genres, I found out my the-pile shelf consists mostly of classics and historical fiction novels, with only dashes of every other genre.





So that's how you make your own genre-specific TBR jar- here's to hoping you have less books to write up than I did!

Confessions: Staying Safe on the Wild Wild Web

Confessions of an Insomniac Book Devourer #12

When the whole Hale/Harris thing broke (some time ago), I decided not to immediately weigh in on the blog, mostly because tempers on both sides were insanely hot. There's nothing wrong with being upset, it's just that writing while upset is a bit like tweeting while impaired- you shouldn't do it, and it often ends up biting you back- hard. And then some of the details of the fiasco didn't come out until later: how an author came by the address of someone who'd not liked her book, how the publisher wasn't involved (at least, not from what I've seen), and how book bloggers would react (vehemently).

In this post, I'm not here to rehash what has been said or rant and rave about my opinions, but instead I'll address another topic: pseudonyms, online safety, and trust (with a slice of opinion- this is a confession, is it not?).

I was one of those people who used the internet to find a pen pal- but the conditions of my penpal were that it had to be online only. I didn't want just anyone to be my penpal and learn my address- at the time I was an eleven or twelve year old, and online safety was stressed in tv reality shows like "To Catch a Predator". I also didn't use my full name, so no one would be able to look me up. I found a pen pal from South Korea who corresponded with me for the longest- roughly 9 months. I'll never forget her, but to this day I have no idea if she's dead or alive, if she's still in South Korea, or if her first name was actually the one she gave me or something else.

If I had found that my pen pal, Kim, had a different name, would I have been mad at her? No. She had every right not to share anything about her life with me, and I had the same rights to privacy as her. Even if it turned out she was actually a 40-year-old male government spy from Madagascar, I wouldn't be very mad- we shared interesting cross-cultural conversation, and that was something I craved at the time.

Pseudonyms are widely used online, because names hold power in our ever-evolving tech-centric world. They are also widely used with authors- some of the most famous authors had pseudonyms to protect their identity, or even their gender. To find an author who thinks she's being catfished by a reviewer (who has every right to a pseudonym) is kind of weird- no 'one' reviewer has the power to kill your career/book, no matter how influential. One mislaid article (or bad talk show interview), on the other hand...

The name I use on this blog isn't a pseudonym, but it isn't my full name either. I'm sure if someone truly wanted to, they could find me, because I've shared much of my life with you here and on other social networks. I don't recommend it, though... I have a miniature direwolf who regularly ventures the yard in search of strangers to munch on, in addition to retired neighbors who stay at home and have fishbowl windows that look directly onto our property- they also consider themselves an unofficial neighborhood watch. So yeah, you're not welcome to visit my red-blooded, second-amendment-happy city, capiche?

How does one book blogger stay safe on this Wild, Wild, Web? Using pseudonyms withholding your full name are a good start, but probably not the final answer. Updating your passwords and antivirus software regularly also grants a degree of safety against hackers, but not against people who want to come and visit.

I think it's a good idea to think twice about who you give your address to- if you enter a physical copy giveaway and win (and it's a copy direct from the author, not through a blog tour company), make sure to look at the author's social media before accepting. Most authors are great and know the boundaries of the book blogger (or reviewer or plain reader)/author relationship, but now I think prudence is in order. It's probably a good idea to write down the people who have your address- if worst comes to worst, you'll know who had the easiest access or who may have slipped up and passed along your information.

The last thing I would like to rehash is the topic of trust- right now, a lot of book reviewers are second-guessing the trust they grant authors, and some authors are rethinking the trust they give book reviewers. Trust is a two-way street in the book blogging industry- authors have to trust reviewers enough to believe they won't judge the book because of outside factors, and reviewers have to trust authors enough that if they don't like the book and write a review on it, that the authors won't seek retribution.

I have had the good fortune of never having a "bad" author experience yet, but there are authors I would probably think twice about working with (mainly those who've made headlines). But will I trust the next author who reaches out to me in search of a review? Yes. There will be a brief perusal of the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, along with a glance at their social media- and to be honest, I always have done that with people who ask for a review. But will I run a background check and try to obtain their address? Never.

It isn't easy to trust someone online- someone who could be hiding behind a pseudonym or an avatar, nameless or faceless. It's always good to remember there is a human on a computer somewhere who must be behind it, a human with commitments, relationships, and the capability to make huge mistakes, just like the rest of us. But most of us wouldn't advertise and try to justify huge mistakes by putting finger to keyboard.

Just sayin'.

Some Helpful Links:
Information on Web Safety for Adults
Cyberbullying (Wikipedia)