Books

The State of the Reader: 10/20/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 10/6/21         The State of the Reader: 12/1/21–>

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: $2.98

Books Finished: 2

Title: The Wind’s Twelve Quarters
Series: Hainish Cycle
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Date Added: August 30, 2014
Date Started: July 26, 2021
Date Finished: October 7, 2021

Cover of The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le GuinMedia: eBook/Kindle

I almost forgot to add that I finished this.  I moved it to my “Book Review” tab in OneNote, which I usually don’t do until I post about it.  I’ll review it like I review other short story collections by focusing on the stories I actually liked.

Title: Big Little Lies
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: September 25, 2021
Date Started: October 1, 2021
Date Finished: October 16, 2021

Cover of Big Little Lies by Liane MoriarityMedia: eBook/Kindle (Library)

My BFF informed there’s a TV series about this book, and my brother has HBO Max, so I will be checking this out.  It’s apparently very true to the book, and the book was fantastic.  It had me guessing the entire time who the Trivia Night victim was.

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The State of the Reader: 10/6/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 9/22/21         The State of the Reader: 10/20/21–>

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: 10

Total: $58.80

Books Finished: 3

Title: The Husband’s Secret
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: August 18, 2021
Date Started: September 15, 2021
Date Finished: September 22, 2021

Cover of The Husband's Secret by Liane MoriarityMedia: eBook/Kindle (Library)

The more I think about it, the less weird it seems that I like stuff like this.  While I definitely have favorite genres, at the end of the day I just want a good story and Liane Moriarity delivers.  This is one of those where I guessed some of the main points, but it doesn’t take away from my enjoyment, because there are aspects of the situation that could go another way (plus I sometimes just know how a story is going to go).  I am noticing a pattern with this author though.  She likes to have a character wind up with or rather stay with someone I don’t think they should.  That kind of frustrates me, but it is what it is.  I enjoy stories that don’t have easy answers or choices, and Moriarity has the talent to at least have acceptable justification for her characters’ (poor) decisions.

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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

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Title:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Author: Claire North
Date Added: September 15, 2017
Date Started: August 23, 2018
Date Finished: September 21, 2018
Reading Duration: 29 days
Genre: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Mystery, Drama, Philosophical

Cover of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire NorthPages: 405
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Publisher: Redhook
Media: eBook/Kindle

Some stories cannot be told in just one lifetime. Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. “I nearly missed you, Doctor August,” she says. “I need to send a message.” This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

CW: Discussions of suicide, torture, and murder of sex workers.

We believed that we could change ourselves,
The past could be undone.
-Sarah McLachlan “Fallen”

When I was a child before any sort of indoctrination took hold, I believed dying was just a reset button, and I would start life over again right where I began.  Upon realizing this was the premise of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, it was like having a religious experience that was less ironic and more absolute.  I do not believe my child’s mind thought I’d retain all my prior life’s memories, but I am 100% certain I would suffer the same in my second life as the titular character and then spend the rest of them trying to do the impossible like Merida in Disney’s Brave and change fate.  This is protagonist’s goal on a grander scale in Claire North’s brilliant debut novel.

Harry August is a kalachakra, a person for whom death and life are an infinite loop.  At the cessation of the latter, they are reborn in the exact same place and time to relive their life anew with the knowledge that they’ve done all this before.  “Kalachakra” was not a term made up by North; it is rather a Buddhist concept that means “wheel of time” (hi Robert Jordan) or “time cycles” with the latter term putting me in the mind of Chrono Trigger, specifically the song “Time Circuits.”

With more insights garnered from video games, I discovered the meaning of “kalachakra” from a video about Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, which is another narrative about time loops not only of the essence, but also necessary to forestall the end of the world.

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The State of the Reader: 9/22/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 9/8/21         The State of the Reader: 10/6/21–>

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: $14.96

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF: 1

Title: Something from the Nightside
Series: Nightside
Author: Simon R. Green
Date Added: July 1, 2017
Date Started: August 27, 2021

Cover of Soomething from the Nightside by Simon R. GreenMedia: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 48%

I DNF’d it the day after I posted my last SOTR.  It was the cliched “two women characters who obviously hate each other” that did it for me (which makes me look like a hypocritical asshole, but it’s why I’m planning a major overhaul of my first novel so…).  It’s such a problematic trope on so many levels and was just the icing on the tombstone for this book.  I did check the reviews before I made my official decision and found a lot of my own critiques there.  I’m at the point now where if a piece of media does not spark joy, I’m not spending more time on it.

Currently Reading

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The State of the Reader: 9/8/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 8/11/21         The State of the Reader: 9/22/21–>

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: 7

Total: $1.99

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: Something from the Nightside
Series: Nightside
Author: Simon R. Green
Date Added: July 1, 2017
Date Started: August 27, 2021

Cover of Soomething from the Nightside by Simon R. GreenMedia: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 48%

My interest in this has unfortunately waned the more progress I make.  It had your stereotypical, trope-y, PI stuff, but I loved the way it was written.  Green really captured that “hard-boiled detective” feel (even though John Taylor insists that’s not what he is).  It was immediately reminiscent of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, which if you know me is…not really a compliment.  I read the first and second books in that series quite a few years apart and when I got through the latter, it left a really bad, misogynistic taste in my mouth.  This novel has some problems with that, but it’s not really my major issue (yet).  The vibe I was getting from Taylor was more akin to John Constantine and less Harry Dresden, but I have some issues with how quickly the romance angle gets underway.  I always worry I’m being a hypocrite with that since it can be really hard to know when to switch when you’re doing a sort of Enemies to Lovers thing, but here it just seems really contrived, and it’s dampening my enjoyment.  I actually started reading this because I wasn’t enjoying the Le Guin book as much, and now I’m having a similar problem.  I’m going to keep pushing through.  I’m about halfway done, so hopefully I can finish it.

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The State of the Reader: 8/25/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 8/11/21         The State of the Reader: 9/8/21–>

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: 1

Total: $0.00

Books Finished: 1

Title: What Alice Forgot
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: July 24, 2021
Date Started: August 9, 2021

Cover of What Alice Forgot by Liane MoriarityMedia: eBook/Kindle (Library)

I breezed through this because it was impossible to put down.  It’s one of the only times I’ve finished a library book without having to renew at all.  My notes for it are still thankfully there (Kindle retains it even after the book is returned), so I should be able to write my review when I eventually get around to it (if I don’t wind up picking the book up).

While I have some mixed feelings about the end, this was ultimately an amazing novel where not only the main character’s story held my interest.  I may have even been more engaged with Alice’s sister Elisabeth, because some of the things she wrote to her therapist could have been taken straight from my head.

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The State of the Reader: 8/11/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 7/28/21         The State of the Reader: 8/25/21–>

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: $7.97

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: What Alice Forgot
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: July 24, 2021
Date Started: August 9, 2021

Cover of What Alice Forgot by Liane MoriarityMedia: eBook/Kindle (Library)
Progress: 9%

Amnesia is such a common gimmick in fiction/fantasy, but that doesn’t make it any less intriguing (at least for me).  There’s a reason it’s so popular, because it presents an easy (if convenient) reason for a mystery, and there’s no better motivator for solving an enigma then when it involves yourself.  The main character Alice slips on her bike during spin class and wakes up with no memory of the past ten years.  She thinks she’s still pregnant with her first child and is in a loving relationship with her husband as they work on their house and prepare for the blessed event…but in reality Alice has three children, is in the midst of a divorce, and isn’t talking to her sister whose own point of view is extremely interesting.  Elisabeth (the sister) is writing letters to her therapist that resonate with me more than I’d like, so for many reasons this has become a book I look forward to reading every day.

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The State of the Reader: 7/28/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 7/14/21         The State of the Reader: 8/11/21–>

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: $11.97

Books Finished: 1

Title: We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep
Author: Andrew Kelly Stewart
Date Added: May 22, 2021
Date Started: July 16, 2021
Date Finished: July 23, 2021

Cover of We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly StewartMedia: eBook/Kindle

I loved the lyricism of this novella, words I can fall in love with.  I’m also a fan of the specific, post-apocalyptic trope where people, usually children, are lied to about the circumstances/situation and they have to figure out what’s really going on.  This is the author’s first book, and he absolutely captured not only the trapped and claustrophibic elements of subsisting in a derelict and failing nuclear sub, but the same for the cruel and monastic order forced upon the main character and their peers.

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The State of the Reader: 7/14/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 9 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 6/30/21         The State of the Reader: 7/28/21–>

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: $12.88

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Magnum Opus: Seek and You Shall Find
Authors: Christopher & Christine Kezelos
Date Added: October 7, 2020
Date Started: July 1, 2021
Date DNF: July 14, 2021

Cover of The Magnum Opus: Seek and You Shall Find by Christopher & Christine KezelosMedia: eBook/Kindle
Progress at DNF: 43%

I had such high hopes for this after watching the charming (if a little creepy) short film (thank you By Hook or By Book for featuring this on your Whimsical Wednesday post!).  The novel promised to expand upon the story and show what happened after the making was done and the original Maker disappeared into glitter.  Initially, I was intrigued if saddened by the turn of events, but still interested even though where the plot was going was blatantly clear.  I almost shelved it a few times before, but things kept happening to hold my interest for a little longer, but I have to be honest: the novel direly needs a good editor.  There were not only the little errors e.g. missing commas in dialogue tags and misspellings, but the chapter would just switch perpsectives without a break, and I mean characters that were in completely different places.

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The State of the Reader: 6/30/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 6/13/21         The State of the Reader: 7/14/21–>

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: $4.98

Books Finished: 1

Title: Black Helicopters
Series Title: Tinfoil Dossier
Author: Caitlín R. Kiernan
Date Added: April 19, 2021
Date Started: May 31, 2021
Date Finished: June 30, 2021

Cover of Black Helicopters by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tinfoil Dossier #2)Media: eBook/Kindle

I think the author lost a bit of the thread in the gimmick.  I could tell she was going for a meta sort of narrative where the presentation was just as muddled and strange as what was happening within.  Each chapter took place in a different time, place, and focused on a different character from the last.  The problem with this is in trying to show the lack of cohesion, the novel suffered from the same.  Where Agents of Dreamland bounced between around two perspectives and times and did a good job with its Lovecraftian mythos, this did too much to be scattered.  There was one chapter where the characters’ dialogue was all in French.  I was able to understand a little of it, but there was no translation provided, and this was common throughout for other things.  I get the desire to have a sense of being unmoored, but there’s a difference between making a novel obsucre and making the presentation such.  I hope I’ll be better able to clarify when I review, because (fittingly or ironically), I’m having trouble making myself clear lol.

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