May Books!
Total towards 2019 reading goal: 44/80 books. (unfinished books don't count towards my goal)
1. White Knight, 2. Small Favor, 3. Turn Coat, 4. Changes, 5. Ghost Story, 6. Cold Days, 7. Skin Game, Jim Butcher ( books 9-15 of Dresden Files, combo of audio and print) - What can I say, I enjoy the long game. This series did get considerably better after the first few books, and I like the long arc. Things need to change when you have this many books in a series, while honoring the fundamental principals and characters the books are built on...and Butcher has managed that beautifully. Super fun to be able to read so many books back to back - and to see the quality remain high throughout.
8. A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay - I inhaled this book in two days. I've always loved Kay's beautiful use of language, and no one else can really touch him for his character development. I wept in one section. I rejoiced in anther. I loved the fact that he created female characters who were fierce and powerful - despite the constraints of the fictionalized version of Renaissance Italy it was set in. This was actually a prequel of sorts to another book Kay wrote a few years back, and I'm not trying to decide if I have time to go back and reread it.
9. Stories of Your Life, Ted Chang (only a few stories) - The short story that the collection is named after was the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite movies, Arrival. I found the book on the sale table, and was curious enough about the source material for the book that I picked it up immediately. Chang is an excellent writer, and I do love his work - which is interesting and varied. Stories of Your Life, though, is a short story that completely blows me away. He managed to capture a mother daughter story in a way that shocks me....because of his gender. I shouldn't be biased, but I have so rarely found a male author that writes women well that I almost can't believe that it wasn't a woman who wrote this particular tale. It's a gorgeous story...and there were passages that I read over and over and over again.
Unfinished:
10. Bad Blood, John Carreyrou (audio) - So everyone seems to be fascinated with the Theranos story right now...and I'm completely m'eh about it. It's a very well written, well researched book, but I just couldn't care about any of it, so I didn't bother finish. Maybe if it didn't come across as if almost everyone involved was an idiot? I mean, seriously, in retrospect I can't understand how anyone fell for it.
11. The Near Witch, V.C.Schwab - I hope to finish it at some point. The entire set up and the main character are intriguing, and I do love Schwab. The problem is that it's very obviously a first book. Even the best writers have to start somewhere, and Schwab isn't the first who's first book I've found dull or difficult to get through. It needs to be appreciated for what it is - the first step on the journey of an amazing writer. Right now, though, I'm in a place where I need to be fully engrossed by my books. I'm setting it in the unfinished pile, but this is one I hope to go back to someday.
1. White Knight, 2. Small Favor, 3. Turn Coat, 4. Changes, 5. Ghost Story, 6. Cold Days, 7. Skin Game, Jim Butcher ( books 9-15 of Dresden Files, combo of audio and print) - What can I say, I enjoy the long game. This series did get considerably better after the first few books, and I like the long arc. Things need to change when you have this many books in a series, while honoring the fundamental principals and characters the books are built on...and Butcher has managed that beautifully. Super fun to be able to read so many books back to back - and to see the quality remain high throughout.
8. A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay - I inhaled this book in two days. I've always loved Kay's beautiful use of language, and no one else can really touch him for his character development. I wept in one section. I rejoiced in anther. I loved the fact that he created female characters who were fierce and powerful - despite the constraints of the fictionalized version of Renaissance Italy it was set in. This was actually a prequel of sorts to another book Kay wrote a few years back, and I'm not trying to decide if I have time to go back and reread it.
9. Stories of Your Life, Ted Chang (only a few stories) - The short story that the collection is named after was the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite movies, Arrival. I found the book on the sale table, and was curious enough about the source material for the book that I picked it up immediately. Chang is an excellent writer, and I do love his work - which is interesting and varied. Stories of Your Life, though, is a short story that completely blows me away. He managed to capture a mother daughter story in a way that shocks me....because of his gender. I shouldn't be biased, but I have so rarely found a male author that writes women well that I almost can't believe that it wasn't a woman who wrote this particular tale. It's a gorgeous story...and there were passages that I read over and over and over again.
Unfinished:
10. Bad Blood, John Carreyrou (audio) - So everyone seems to be fascinated with the Theranos story right now...and I'm completely m'eh about it. It's a very well written, well researched book, but I just couldn't care about any of it, so I didn't bother finish. Maybe if it didn't come across as if almost everyone involved was an idiot? I mean, seriously, in retrospect I can't understand how anyone fell for it.
11. The Near Witch, V.C.Schwab - I hope to finish it at some point. The entire set up and the main character are intriguing, and I do love Schwab. The problem is that it's very obviously a first book. Even the best writers have to start somewhere, and Schwab isn't the first who's first book I've found dull or difficult to get through. It needs to be appreciated for what it is - the first step on the journey of an amazing writer. Right now, though, I'm in a place where I need to be fully engrossed by my books. I'm setting it in the unfinished pile, but this is one I hope to go back to someday.
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