I just finished Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs. This is book 10 in her urban fantasy series. It has werewolves, vampires, fairies, and other mythical creatures. The main character is a skinwalker. I have never in my right mind been drawn to this genre. Twilight kinda ruined it for me (I read it before it was popular way back when I was in 7th grade, and once it blew up, I felt like the vampire/werewolf genre was becoming over-done and stayed with the same themes of possessive vampire-meets average girl who is weak and needs saving-meets werewolf (and/or vampire) who also has a thing for the weak human girl). My mistake was trying to pass time in Barnes & Noble and stumbling across this first book. Yes there is a vampire and werewolf in it, and the main character is "weak" by supernatural standards, but she kicks butt and spends her time rescuing herself and the vampire and werewolf. Her love interest is the werewolf, but she makes it really clear that she does "need" him. She was fine without him. And he reluctantly backs off from his possessiveness. She's a mechanic and honestly tries to stay low-key. Since finishing the 10th book, i went back to reread the first one. Regular humans don't know that the supernatural (aside from fairies) exist. The main character knows they exist (the werewolf moved in next door, and she's the vampire's mechanic), but she tries to keep that knowledge to herself. She knows about them and for the most part, tries to stay out of their business and tries not to draw attention to the fact that she's a skinwalker and can see/smell them. It makes for an interesting series. This kind of restored my faith in the urban fantasy genre (I can go on and on)
A Thesaurus. The Moby Dick of Thesauruses. It has portion in it called 'Thematic lists' listing everything from Metals, to cars, to birds, to elements, to gods and goddess etc. I'm basically going through these lists, learning each category. I believe I'm doing types of cars and boats right now.
Wenjack, a novella by Joseph Boyden. Part of the story is in the POV of a young boy who is running away from Indian residential school. The other POV is that of the Manitous, the spirit of the forest following him. Very distinctive voice, unlike anything I've read before.
Trying to finish "Beren and Luthien" so that I can throw myself at Mary Renault's "The King Must Die".
Re-reading Ellison's Invisible Man. It's a lot funnier than I remember it being? Like not laugh out loud funny but just sort of subtly snarky. Never picked up on that the first time around so I'm glad I've revisited it.
Finished Hyperion last night. Loved it in places, found it droll in others, and definitely anti-climactic. Been aiming to read 4 books a month, and thats my first. So now I've picked up 'The Fall' by Camus and gonna blast through those 89 pages by supper.
Flying the storm by cs arnott . It was a freebie on Amazon, distopian sci fi, it's okay but not amazing. I shall probably give it three stars
I'm just beginning The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell. It's pretty daunting. I'm hoping it lives up to its title and becomes dauntless before the end. However, I have become aware that it is merely the first book in a colossal waste of time an ambitious series on my bedside table, so who knows? I first heard of this book from somebody on this forum, but I forget who. It had better be good, though, or I will hunt you down and poke you with whatever is at hand. Probably a Cheeto.
Oh no! Please don't poke me repeatedly with Cheetos in the mouth, all while giving me time to chew and swallow them! That's my greatest weakness!
Ready Player One. Interesting in that so far it's almost all telling, exposition and backstory and I'm a half dozen chapters in. Yet it's a best selling sensation. Fascinating.
A terrible book written by a terrible person. The concept is somewhat interesting, horribly executed poorly by this person and encourages what amounts to mental abuse. Naturally, I'm already writing a short story of my own, now. However it will not be inspired by this piece of garbage, but by a a show that is well written and that I enjoy. Now I just need to get through this book, so I can make my review in good conscience
Naomi's Room. I think I'm on a bit of a horror spell. Just finished The Cipher by Kathe Koja (sufficiently creepy body horror) and I've got a list of about a dozen horror titles I want to read before year's end.
Paperboy- Vince Vwater its a "children's book" but it comes highly recommended for the stutterers in my group young and old.
That's funny because that's about how I felt about it. Maybe not the toilet but I lost interest and have started Russian Roulette by David Corn and Michael Isikoff instead. Ready Player One partial review: I got through the first challenge where the protag gets the copper key (not really a spoiler, of course he was going to get it). And it had nothing making me feel any emotion about it. His life really isn't at risk and that's how it felt. Maybe there was a tiny bit of clever game playing, but it was tiny, nothing that made one feel the character fit the hero role. I did like the world, the stacks sounded interesting, going to school as an avatar, and a few other things. In short, nothing there creating reader investment. I may or may not finish it, probably not, and instead I'll see the movie when it's out on DVD.
I've been devouring short stories recently, anything I can get my hands on. I've been really enjoying these Best American Short Stories collections. They have a ton of wonderful pieces, and there's a tremendous variety of style, content, form, etc. within each volume.