Record of Glasswell - reading

 Finished Record of Glasswell by Royce F. Caruvoe. It follows Carroway, an attorney working within Glasswell, a building where records, memory, and institutional secrecy intersect in unsettling ways. What begins as a story about a contract oversight gradually unfolds into something much stranger as Carroway goes deeper into that system.

One of the book's strengths is its atmosphere. Glasswell feels immense, old, and layered. It is opaque, self-protective, and difficult for any one person to fully understand.

Carroway is an effective protagonist for this sort of story. She is naturally attuned to the role in which she finds herself. Her interactions with the people around her give the story much of its emotional weight.

As to the ending, I'll say it may prove divisive among readers.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Behind the Mask - reading

Finished "Behind the Mask: An introduction Into Covert Narcissism" by Aydin Guner. I gave this one two stars out of five, finding there was very little of value in the book, and in fact, some things that were the opposite of helpful. Would not recommend. There are also other books in this topic that are on my reading list. Hopefully they treat the topic with more thought than this book did. The author's advice upon determining that you're with someone that fits the description of covert narcissist: run. That sentence alone could save you the bother of reading this book.

On Writing - reading

Finished "On Writing" by Stephen King. The first time I read this, I was in my 40s. This time I may have put too much emphasis on where Steven called out his age as of the writing, and noticed that it matched my age as of the reading. It's still a great book to read about writing, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest. What also struck me differently this time was the story at the end of this edition of him being hit by a van while walking, and how different that could have gone with the smallest of changes in other directions. Mortality is a thing, yeah?

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.