What Are You Reading?

I've read a lot and also started and returned a lot of books to the library because they irritated me for some reason or another. I'm currently reading Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood right now. It's pretty good, especially if you like dark fairy tales.

Finally got back to my reading this week. Last night I finished “White Jenna” by Jane Yolen, the second Great Alta book. I quite liked it, as it was a good conclusion to the story set up in the first book, “Sister Light, Sister Dark.” I enjoyed the contrast between the actual story the historical/mythic asides. The plot really raced along.

Yesterday I finished “Prudence” by Gail Carriger, the first “Custard Protocol” book. It was so fun to get back to the Parasolverse! Rue’s a fun character, there’s new shapeshifters, and it was all so joyful to read.

Yesterday I finished “Imprudence” by Gail Carriger, the second Custard Protocol book. Another fun read! A little more action and romance this time, and more about the world.

Yesterday I finished The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss, the third book in her Athena Club trilogy. I really enjoyed the book! The characters were as interesting as they had been. The plot moved along quite quickly. There were even some new references to Victorian fiction. It was such a fun read.

I read a micro short story yesterday that was published on amazon. It was exactly 10 pages with almost every line ending with elipses, so very few thoughts were ever finished. It was part 1 of a serial, so ended on a cliffhanger. I read it more for market research than for pleasure. It was a really irritating read with the weird formatting and obvious ploy to stretch out a too short story. The author has 4 books in the 15 Minute Read bestseller list. I'm not sure if that's good or not.

It was a funny premise. A divorced dad suddenly starts turning into a teenage girl and is suddenly into one of his daughter's male friends. The switch always comes on suddenly, with no warning or explanation. If it was written as a full story it could be a humorous Sci-fi book, but it was stuck into romance. Which it absolutely is not.

I also read the Finn portion of "Before The Awakening" a YA prequel to "The Force Awakens." It was pretty good, although, I find it hard to believe that a galactic military that kidnaps children to train as soldiers would wait until they were in their 20 to start sending them out into the field. Also, if one of your soldiers is constantly messing up and getting hurt, why would you keep them around? Maybe that's why the stormtroopers shots never hit. And if you've got a program to brainwash every cadet into blind loyalty to the First Order, why would you wait until the week of sending cadets into the field for the first time to notice that one of them can't pull the trigger? Totally inept training protocols. And yes, I overthink Star Wars way too much. Why do you ask?

I enjoyed Mhairi McFarlane's It's Not Me, It's You, a romantic comedy. I agree with some of the reviewers that it ran a little long.

I absolutely loved Naomi Novik's Uprooted. It is a doorstopper fantasy, but that didn't put me off. I actually felt sad that I finished it.

I went back to Beatriz Williams's The Golden Hour, another Schuyler novel, and finished it. I liked it, and it was neat to see how it tied in with most of the previous novels.

I had some issues with Sarah Smith's Faker, another romantic comedy. I think that it would have made a pretty good novella if it had cut off earlier on. I ended up skimming the rest of it. They moaned a lot and there were always comments with how white the hero's skin was. She mentioned that it glowed many, many times. Overall, it was obvious that this was a first novel.

Gael Morrison's A Little Loving wasn't bad, it just moved really fast for a second chance, hey-I-didn't-believe-you-that-the-baby-was-mine-but-I'm-here-a-decade-later, novel.

I'm currently reading Sophie Kinsella's Christmas Shopaholic. I know that Becky is silly, but I love, love, love this series, as well as most of Kinsella's other books.

I started and stopped a bunch of other books. Maybe they were good (or bad), but I just couldn't get into them.

I really need to get that. Mira Furlan has been saying she was writing an autobiography for years, but her friend and the woman who was helping her passed away a few years ago, so I don't know if she ever will or not.

Have you read Babylon Confidential? It's Claudia Christian's memoir. I thought it was pretty interesting. She half uses it as a memoir and half as a tract for her alcoholism cure. But it's still a good read.

www.amazon.com/Babylon-Confidential-Memoir-Love-Addiction-ebook/dp/B009G1THCQ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=21JZOEI1QL8B5&keywords=claudia+christian+book&qid=1576031552&sprefix=Claudia+Chr%2Caps%2C267&sr=8-5

I haven’t read Claudia’s book. I’m interested, but I tend more towards fiction than nonfic these days. I went for JMS’ book because I once had his script book. Also, the price for the ebook went down to $2.99 earlier this month. I might have held off longer if not for the price drop.

The Complete Book of Scriptwriting: www.goodreads.com/book/show/363123.The_Complete_Book_of_Scriptwriting

I had the 90s version that had the script for “The Coming of Shadows” printed at the back as an example.

I have just finished reading Philip K. Dick's Ubik. I'm currently thinking of either reading Hawking's A Brief History of Time or Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I'm probably going for the former because its a hardcover book so I wont have to worry about it getting tossed around in my bag while travelling.

Over the weekend I read Meat Cute, Gail Carriger’s short-story prequel to Soulless. I thought it was a fun little romp. Definitely for fans of the Parasol-verse.

Over the weekend I read ”Romancing the Inventor,“ another book in Gail Carriger’s Parasol-verse. I quite liked it. A good little story about finding yourself and trying to find love.

This week I read two short stories by Dan Moren, “Showdown” and “Pilot Error.” They’re free ebooks, released to promote the third novel in his Galactic Cold War series which is due soon. I enjoyed both stories. I do like the series, so I was happy to revisit the universe and the characters.