{"id":697,"date":"2013-03-09T15:14:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T20:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/?p=697"},"modified":"2013-03-09T15:14:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-09T20:14:39","slug":"finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/09\/finally\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been reading a bit in this new year, but it seems to take me a long time to finish a book with just a few minutes here and there. Work has kept me busy, and we filled the last three Saturdays with beekeeping classes. And, truth be told, the books I have read were good but not the kind of page turners that seem to keep me glued to the chair, swearing that I would stop at the end of the chapter and go do something productive.<\/p>\n

Until now, that is. I finally started Game of Thrones, a five-book series that came highly recommended by a reading friend. I bought all five books in a Kindle bundle but wasn't sure I would like them as they seemed more violent than I liked. Finally, last week, I decided to get started. And, I'm hooked. I finished the first one early this morning and am already part of the way through the second one. I keep saying I'm going upstairs to do some cleaning but then the next chapter pulls me in. <\/p>\n

The books are reminiscent of Bernard Cornwell and JRR Tolkien, mixing fantasy with royal feuding to create a compelling story. I always think of Cornwell as a man's writer with great swashbuckling heroes who are never happier than on the battlefield with its clashing swords and swarming hosts. But, Martin also finds a place for the women: conniving mothers of young kings but also brave women who face their fears and take their places among the men in battles and castle halls.<\/p>\n

I recommend them with the warning that you won't get much else done…now, really, I'm going upstairs to clean.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been reading a bit in this new year, but it seems to take me a long time to finish a book with just a few minutes here and there. Work has kept me busy, and we filled the last three Saturdays with beekeeping classes. And, truth be told, \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[81,11],"tags":[135],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s31UVs-finally","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}