A Whisper Under Ice - reading

Last night I finished "A Whisper Under Ice" by me. Again. This is my NaNoWriMo novel from 2018. Having also just read my "Home Invasion," I can see that where Home Invasion had a lot going on and a lot of interesting stuff, this one is really just not that strong. I love the characters and the overall events and reveals, but ultimately a lot of the writing is about things that are not very interesting. That happens with a NaNo novel pretty often, I'd bet.

With today being November 30th, I'm not going to make even my reduced goal for NaNo this year. I spent my time reading, and I'm honestly okay with that.

Home Invasion and catching up - reading

Finished "Home Invasion" by, well, me. I read this on vacation to help get me in the spirit of NaNoWriMo. I signed up this year, but for a smaller word count than the usual 50,000 words. I'm aiming for 10,000 instead, though that hasn't exactly gone to plan, either. But it was fun. The ending was rushed, of course, like many of my NaNo novels. This was apparently a fourth (or so) re-read for me of this one.

I also put down "People of the Lie, The Hope for Healing Human Evil" by M. Scott Peck, M.D. I read the first chapter or so, but had such a philosophical difference that I set the book aside and haven't looked back since.

[Redacted] - reading

Finished [redacted] by [redacted]. Apologies for vague-blogging. This blog serves a dual purpose in that I can share my take on a book, as well as track the books I've read. This is another self-help type book with an oddly-specific title that says more than I'm comfortable with. It was recommended by a therapist, and was very good in its role. I may need to re-read it some time soon.

Lie Down with Lions - reading

Finished "Lie Down with Lions" by Ken Follett. Finally. The last book I finished was in February, meaning it took me 6 months to read 372 pages (about 2 pages a day on average), through no fault of Mr. Follett. I've just had a lot of distractions this year, and fell out of the reading habit a lot of the time. It does amuse me reading the back of the book where it says, "This is his most ambitious novel..." I was introduced to Follett through the Pillars of the Earth. At the time it was a trilogy, but apparently there's now a prequel, written in 2020.

Anyway, as this book goes, it was good. It takes place during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. There were parts of it that are dated, of course - it was written in 1985 - and parts of it that zoomed past. One chapter in particular was action-packed and built momentum toward the end of the book. All in all, I liked it.

The Giveaway - reading

Finished "The Giveaway" by Tod Goldberg. This is a Burn Notice novel, based on the TV series of the same name. I really enjoyed the series, so when I saw this book at a thrift store I had to pick it up. Really, it reads like an episode plays out, though with a little more swearing, right from the opening line that starts with, "When you're a spy...." Plus, it's a pretty quick read. It stays true to the characters from the show, though seemed to want to include them all for the sake of including them all, as far as I could tell. All in all, though, a fun read. I may have to pick up some more of these. One would be great for a plane ride, for example.

The Three-Body Problem - reading

Finished "The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu. Every once in a while I run into a book that grinds my reading progress to a halt. This was such a book for me. I started it in November and finished it today. In between there were long stretches where I simply found other things to do. Granted one of those things was a NaNoWriMo-level of effort on writing code in November and another over the holidays. But ultimately I found the story dissatisfying, despite it having some interesting events and a focus on science. Just not my cup of tea.