Books

The State of the Reader: 5/18/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 5/4/22         The State of the Reader: 6/1/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 2

Total: $21.58

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF: 0

Books On Hold: 0

Books Reading: 7

Title: Ecofeminism
Series Title: Critique Influence Change
Authors: Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva
Date Added: July 13, 2020
Date Started: May 3, 2022

Cover of Ecofeminism by Maria Mies & Vandana ShivaMedia: Paperback
Progress: Preface

I haven’t even gotten out of the preface(s) yet and I have so many notes.  It’s just the authors talking about why they wrote the book, why it’s still valid, and what still needs to be done, and I already have enough for a multitude of essays.

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The State of the Reader: 5/4/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 8 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 4/20/22         The State of the Reader: 5/18/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 2

Total: $36.08

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Ladies of the Secret Circus
Author: Constance Sayers
Date Added: September 4, 2021
Date Started: April 12, 2022

Cover of The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance SayersMedia: eBook/Kindle

The exposition became too much, especially since the author spends far too much time giving background on side characters, and it throws off the pacing immensely.  What books like this do is teach me what to look out for in my own writing because I tend to be overly descriptive, but I try to not bombard people with too much information about characters who don’t matter.  There’s a scene where someone walks into a store, and there are paragraphs about this woman.  All I could think was “Why do I care?”  Even if it’s going to be pertinent later, info dumping like that is going to be too much for someone to keep track of.

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The State of the Reader: 4/20/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 5 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 4/6/22         The State of the Reader: 5/4/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 4

Total: $13.46

Books Finished: 1

Title: The Comedy of Errors
Author: William Shakespeare
Date Added: March 6, 2018
Date Started: February 6, 2022

Cover of The Comedy of Errors by William ShakespeareMedia: eBook/Kindle

The end went exactly as I thought with the exception of one thing.  I thought two people were going to get together but that was never confirmed.  They’re still my OTP though, so if I write my own retelling it’s happening.

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The State of the Reader: 4/6/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 3/23/22         The State of the Reader: 4/20/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 2

Total: $1.57

Books Finished: 2

Title: The Vela
Series Title: The Vela
Authors: Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, and SL Huang
Date Added: October 2, 2021
Date Started: December 21, 2021
Date Finished: April 2, 2022

Cover of The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, and SL HuangMedia: eBook/Kindle

Finally finished this, though to be fair I did take some breaks because the borrowed eBook was more engaging.  It was often difficult to stay motivated with this novel, though I can’t say it was uninteresting.  I liked the characters and their motivations were both logically and psychologically sounds.  It’s also nice to see non-binary people getting some representation without it being a “thing.”  All of the characters were morally grey even the ones with good intentions, and it was pretty realistic to what would happen in such a situation.  If the richest/most powerful i.e. capitalists of today were available, you’re goddamn right they’d try to mine the sun without any care for how it would affect them or the rest of the galaxy.  I saw Don’t Look Up.  I’m obsessed with FFVII, and they all have the same motif.  I mean fuck, we’re already doing it!  Climate change is driven by the richest nations, but it mostly affects the poorest.  Parts of the ending served to enrage me, but in a “good” way.  It goes along with the theme of “deserving” that permeates the latter parts of the story.

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The State of the Reader: 3/23/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 3/9/22         The State of the Reader: 4/6/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 3

Total: $12.97

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: House of Sky and Breath
Series: Crescent City
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Date Added: March 7, 2021
Date Started: February 23, 2022

Cover of House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (Crescent City)Media: Physical/Hardback
Progress: 7%

Slow progress is better than no progress at all.

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The Books of 2021

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 7 Comments

I’m following the same format from last year with some tweaks, because was 2021 really that different from 2020?  It’s all been just one continuous “year” hell state so let’s talk about books once more!

Favorite Book

Cover of House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (Crescent City)

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (Crescent City #1)

This book hit every single one of my buttons: fallen angel/general turned slave/assassin with a half-human, half-fae lady is just the jumping (falling?) off point.  It really made me wonder if there was just a satchel of tropes that come with fallen/dark angel characters because I’m noticing patterns between this, Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series, FFVII, my own writing, Constantine (the film), and a slew of other narratives with them.  Like wtf is going on?  It’s something I definitely want to research down the line.

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The State of the Reader: 3/9/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 2/23/22         The State of the Reader: 3/23/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 2

Total: $25.98

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: House of Sky and Breath
Series: Crescent City
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Date Added: March 7, 2021
Date Started: February 23, 2022

Cover of House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (Crescent City)Media: Physical/Hardback
Progress: 5%

Maas knows how to make you care about someone in just a few pages.  The prologue concerns a character we’ve never met before, but what the author does with her is brilliant.  We were given a hint of what the world was like for humans, but with Sophie, it draws into brutal focus.

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The State of the Reader: 2/23/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 2/9/22         The State of the Reader: 3/9/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 3

Total: $9.97

Books Finished: 1

Title: A Sky Beyond the Storm
Series: An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Date Added: November 1, 2020
Date Started: March 17, 2021
Date Finished: February 18, 2022

Cover of A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa TahirMedia: Hardback

After nearly a year I finally finished it, and just in time, too, since my next read arrived in the mail a few days ago lol.  It’s not the book on my “to read next” list, but it’s Sarah J. Maas’ next release for her Crescent City Series so I can’t wait.

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The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison (The Road to Nowhere #1) (DNF)

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 7 Comments

CW: Discussions of rape/sexual assault, genital mutilation, childbirth/forced childbirth and death in childbirth, suicide, and disease.

Title: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
Series Title: Road to Nowhere
Author: Meg Elison
Date Added: September 22, 2018
Date Started: September 28, 2018
Date DNF: October 3, 2018
Reading Duration: 5 days
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic, LGBTQ+

The Book of the Unnamed MidwifePages: 300
Publication Date: June 4, 2014
Publisher: 47North
Media: eBook/Kindle

Philip K. Dick Award Winner for Distinguished Science Fiction

When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it was dead.

In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth’s population—killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant—the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power—and the strong who possess it.

A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men’s clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as possible. But as the world continues to grapple with its terrible circumstances, she’ll discover a role greater than chasing a pale imitation of independence.

After all, if humanity is to be reborn, someone must be its guide.

This is one of the many books I bought immediately after reading a sample, especially since it was only $1.99.  The trope of “last people at the end of the world” is common, of course, but the writing was so raw and realistic, I couldn’t help but be intrigued.  The “end” comes due to a pandemic,

but it kills more than 90% of the population, mostly women and children, utterly destroying any semblance of civilization…and I mean that literally with regards to the term “civilized.”

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The State of the Reader: 2/9/22

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 1/26/22         The State of the Reader: 2/23/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 0

Books Finished: 1

Title: Six of Crows
Series: Six of Crows
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Date Added: February 19, 2016
Date Started: December 31, 2021
Date Finished: January 31, 2022

Cover of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows)Media: eBook/Kindle (Library)

I wasn’t expecting it to end when it do, which was entirely due to the percentage being thrown off by the sample of the second book in the duology.  I knew this was split into two parts, but I wasn’t sure how it was going to be delineated.  I have Crooked Kingdom on hold, but I’m not sure where I am in line.  I was going to add another library book to the rotation, but I think I want to finish The Vela first.

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