Catch-up Reading Post - reading

Finished Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal on September 21. My wife started reading this one on a road trip, and I picked it up when we got back. I thought it was alright - good insight into a culture I wouldn't otherwise get. I did expect it to be more dramatic as it went along, but I was a little disappointed. All in all, I'd recommend it.

Finished Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer on October 16. I picked this one up at the library because I really like Illegal Alien by the same author. This one was good in places, but I felt like the ending was disappointing. I think Mr. Sawyer writes like I do in some ways (or I like he?), including endings that are a little too abrupt.

In between these two, I gave up on a book called Beyond the First Draft - The Art of Fiction, by John Casey. This was another book I'm probably just not smart enough to read, but I was hoping (based on the title) for a discussion of techniques to take a first draft and push it toward a final draft. I'm still not sure if the book offers that as I didn't get that far into it before I decided it didn't match my style or what I was looking for.

Dreamless Echoes - reading

Finished "Dreamless Echoes" by yours truly. This was the novel I wrote for National Novel Writing Month in 2017, the tenth novel (first draft) I've written, and my first read since writing it. I rather enjoyed it. There were details I had forgotten along the way that were fun to be reminded of, and not too many typos. Somewhere in the middle of this book I broke half a million words in my NaNoWriMo history. It really wants a sequel. Hell, I left it more wide open for one than the last couple I wrote. Maybe in November? We'll see...

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Finished The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. I don't remember if this is my second read-through or if I just knew the story from having watched the BBC series back in the day. Either way, this was your basic Douglas Adams book. It had some slow parts, some faster parts, and some interesting concepts, of course. Should you read it? Yes, you should.

Finally Reading Again! The Girl in the Spider's Web - reading

I'm finally back to reading again, and it feels pretty good! My last entry was in September, and since then things have been pretty hectic, including finishing NaNoWriMo in November. But I'm trying to settle back into a routine that lets me do things I like to do.

Finished The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagerkrantz. It's a Lisbeth Salander novel, the fourth in the Millennium series, but it isn't. It's been a while since I read the Salander trilogy, so grain of salt here. I know I have a tendency to romanticize stories I like over time.

The story continues but isn't as compelling as the original trilogy. Maybe it's been too long since I read the other books but the characters seem to have lost some dimension in this next installment. Lisbeth is less survivalist, more trained. I guess she leveled up, but something got lost in the translation.

It does seem like they went out of their way to mimic Stieg Larsson's writing style. The problem with that is, the first three books needed an editor. I get why they didn't get one, and am happy I got the chance to read them despite that fact because they're so good. But when you have a living author, and more time, it seems like you might take some time to make the language fit better, to make the story compelling. David Lagerkrantz is a Swedish journalist and author, and seems like the perfect fit to continue the story.

I'd give this one three out of five stars, and I'm luke warm on picking up the next one.