Tag: Clarion Workshop

12 book challenge, 2011

I’ve been trying to hit the 50 book challenge for the past few years, which basically requires me to read at least one book a week. Not happening. My average is around 25 in a year, and that’s often the result of reading a bunch while on break or vacation, and not paced throughout the year.

This year, I’m going to try something different. In addition to reading as many books as I can, I’m making a list of the twelve books that I want to try to read this year that are currently sitting on my shelves or wishlist. In no particular order, here they are:

April & May reading

More fiction this time, which I mostly read in April, but I was too lazy to write this up until now.

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi is mainly a retelling of the events of The Last Colony, but from Zoe’s perspective. It felt like Scalzi wanted to give a different first-person perspective of the events, as well as filling in the gaps when the protagonist of TLC was not present to witness things. I liked it, but not as much as the trilogy.

Cat of the Century by Rita Mae Brown is the latest in the Sneaky Pie series, and possibly the most disappointing. When she’s not using the characters to be the mouthpiece of her political views, she’s writing vapid and uninteresting narrative. I keep hoping she’ll stop writing this series so I stop feeling compelled to read it, but a note at the end of the book indicates there’s at least one more on the way. I was smart this time and borrowed the book from the library rather than adding it to my hardcover collection as I have done with the previous books in the series.

Heaven – Season Five: War by Mur Lafferty is a podiobook that is responsible for making my gym visits over the past six months much more tolerable, although even that wasn’t enough to keep me going regularly through the holidays. However, I managed to kick start my workout routine again, and with that, finish listening to the book. This is the finale of Lafferty’s metaphysical spec fic series, and while I am sad that it has ended, it was satisfying enough.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell was my workplace’s book group selection for the spring. I don’t think anyone should take this book too seriously, as he tends to find facts to fit his theories and ignores or discounts facts that go against them, but he does make some thought-provoking points about the outside forces that determine if someone is “successful” by his definition of success. I would be interested in seeing some authoritative social science research on the factors he identifies.

January readings

I always do better at the beginning of the year than later on, so I’m not going to crow too much about being on track for reading 50 this year, particularly since two are graphic novels that took less than 20 minutes to read. Nevertheless, here’s the round-up:

The first and last books I read this month are The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony by John Scalzi. Continuing on in the Old Man’s War universe, the first is from the perspective (mostly) of Jane Sagan, although not in the first person like OMW. The second is once again from first person perspective of John Perry. While TLC explains more of the politics of the OMW universe, I found TGB to be more interesting reading due to the issues of sentience and self-hood that Scalzi explores in the story. The fourth book, Zoe’s Tale, is on my reading list for this month.

Star Trek: Art of the Film is one that I read and reviewed for Blogcritics. It’s “is part coffee table book and part behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creation of the film.” Most of what I have to say about it, I said in the review, so check that out if you’re interested.

I started reading the new Wonder Woman comic series last year, and I found that I’m missing the context of an incredible amount of backstory, so I picked up copies of the first two trade paperbacks, Who Is Wonder Woman? and Love and Murder. It’s still a bit confusing, since even though they are the start of a new series, there is still an underlying assumption that the reader is familiar with the history of Wonder Woman. Me, I just vaguely remember the TV show. Anyway, I think I’ll continue getting the trade paperbacks instead of the single issues. It’s more cost-effective, and I need the longer story arcs to keep track of what’s happening.

rules for the blogger/writer

I’m not much of a writer. I don’t sit around pondering my “craft” and thrilling over perfect sentence structures and exquisite word pictures. Nevertheless, I do want my readers to enjoy what I write. It’s been a while since I had a formal grammar class, and English was never my favorite subject. Thus, Lori Mortimer’s … Continue reading “rules for the blogger/writer”

I’m not much of a writer. I don’t sit around pondering my “craft” and thrilling over perfect sentence structures and exquisite word pictures. Nevertheless, I do want my readers to enjoy what I write.

It’s been a while since I had a formal grammar class, and English was never my favorite subject. Thus, Lori Mortimer’s response to John Scalzi’s suggestions for nonprofessional writers is more useful to me that the original essay. Scalzi uses accessible language, but Mortimer explains why a rule is important to follow. Both are worth reading, particularly if you’re a lazy writer like myself.

#6

Today I felt well enough to read a book, although not well enough to leave the house beyond getting the mail out of the box. One of the things that annoys me about being sick is that I have all this time between naps to read the numerous unread books in my house, but I never feel like reading any of them when I’m ill. Of course, the book I chose to read this afternoon isn’t from my vast collection of unread tomes. It’s one I discovered in the juvenile literature section of my place of work on Sunday when I was hunting down an Ursula Le Guin book.

A Book Dragon by Donn Kushner is the story of Nonesuch, an English dragon who learns how to make himself small enough to fit between the pages of a book. One particular book, specifically, that he is guarding. Over time, the book ends up in a modern New England shop, and Nonesuch takes on the role of protecting all of the books in the shop as well as the humans who live there. This is a young adult book, but not so dumbed down to be dull for adults. The glimpses into human lives passing in front of the eyes of the dragon are an added treat for anyone familiar with Anglo-Saxon history.

#1, #2, & #3

Three down, forty-seven to go.

On Monday, I read The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip because it was the shortest of the three books I was considering (The Rover by Mel Odom and The Garden of Iden by Kage Baker were the other two). Good book, but bad choice if I was expecting something quick and light. The book has a cliff-hanger ending, which leads to Heir of Sea and Fire, which also has a cliff-hanger ending that leads to the final book in the trilogy, Harpist in the Wind. The whole thing reminded me of Le Guin’s Earthsea books with a little hint of The Book of Three. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy with wizards, magic, shape-shifters, and light romance.

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