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.

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. 

A Master of Djinn - reading

Finished "A Master of Djinn" by P. Djèlí Clark. This one came up in discussion with the book club at work. I wasn't able to attend the meeting where they discussed it, though. It's about 1912 Cairo in a world where magic is real and djinn have returned to Egypt. Fatma el-Sha’arawi works for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, and is investigating a murder. 

For my take, it was mostly good, with interesting characters in a well fleshed-out world. Not all the writing was as interesting, and in a few places I was a bit disappointed by the story progression. But I would put this in the "liked it" category. What is that, 3 1/2 stars? If I had to pick 3 or 4, I would go with 3.

The Magicians - reading

Finished "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. This took far longer than it should have for me to read, largely because I had a lot of trouble getting into it. It felt like nothing happened -- at all -- for the first hundred+ pages, and when something did happen, it felt random, like the author was writing during NaNoWriMo and needed to shake things up a bit. After that, nothing really happened for a long time again. Much of the writing was telling instead of showing, leaving me generally unsatisfied with what I'm told did happen. And the main character was mostly useless as a way to get me, the reader, into the story. This is book one of a trilogy, but I do not hold any hope for the other two.

Jersey Girl - reading

Finished "Jersey Girl, Poetry by Norma Paul" by my mom, with cover art by Lee Bourdot. The book is grouped into topics, with several poems in each topic. Topics run from youth through ageism; cover marriage, 2020, and COVID. Oh, and coffee - lots of coffee. The poems themselves are diverse, from the whimsical The Whistler, to the more introspective Autumn (my favorite). I proudly admit my bias and say, "Get this book."

The Terror of Vestfold - reading

Finished "The Terror of Vestfold" by John E. Stump. This was listed as the favorite book of a coworker, so I decided to pick it up. What I found was a pretty smart story that was not at all what I expected based on the description on the cover. The author wrote about Norway in the year 873 AD, with some fantasy (I hope?) elements. 

It did take me a while to get through it thanks in part to travel and losing the book in the bottom of my backpack for a couple days. I would also say the book could really use an editor, or a new editor if it had one to start with. I found only a half dozen obvious typos, but where the book could really use a new set of eyes is in "showing, not telling" throughout. If I used star ratings, I'd give this one 3/5.

Where are the Children? - reading

Finished "Where are the Children?" by Mary Higgins Clark. I remember reading this one and liking it as a teen, which is why when I saw it at a thrift store, I picked it up. There are definitely aspects of the story that would be different had the book been written today, but the underlying drive of the antagonist is still prevalent enough in the world today. Would I recommend it? Well, it's a quick read, and I did enjoy it when I read it the first time, but if you're younger than me, I would probably recommend you find a different book. Any more this one seems antiquated, out-of-touch, and why wouldn't it? It was published in 1975.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - reading

Finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I feel like I came late to this book. It was recommended by my daughter a long while ago, and I just got around to reading it this year. Its title is literally what it's about. Cells from Henrietta Lacks were harvested and have continued to grow ever since. Overall a well-researched book. If you want to know what happens when you remove regulation around something, go back in time for why those regulations were put in place to begin with. Things like informed consent seem like a simple idea, yet took ridiculous efforts and consequences to put into place. 

Drood - reading

I see it was January 25th when I last finished a book. That's when I started "Drood" by Dan Simmons. I finished it this morning. I also broke my reading glasses. (The two events are unrelated.) At 941 pages, this is nearly the size of all the other books I read so far in 2021 (Making a Literary Life at 255 pages, Writing Down the Bones at 195, The Girl with All the Gifts at 403, and the workbook at 103 = 956 pages.)

How was it? I thought it was enjoyable. A baseline drawn from the life of Charles Dickens, with an overlay of mystery, suspense, even horror. I wouldn't consider it a page-turner, but it was a steady story throughout. 

Here's a great interview with the author including some coverage of Drood.

Writing Down the Bones - reading

Finished "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. A book about writing where each "chapter" is, coincidentally, about two pages long. "Coincidentally" because I recently finished "The Girl with All the Gifts," which also had a handful of chapters that were 1-2 pages each. 

The author seems to prefer writing poetry, but she had some useful advice for people writing novels as well. She related experiences from her life, from her Zen meditation, and memorable stories from the writers she came into contact with while she wrote this. I thought it enjoyable and educational. Also, it's a relatively quick read you can take anywhere with you. Finish a chapter while you're standing in line! In that way it was reminiscent of the Army's "smart book."

The Girl with All the Gifts - reading

Finished "The Girl with All the Gifts" by M.R. Carey. This book is subtitled, "Not every gift is a blessing." The first thing I will say about this: Mr. Carey writes like I do. Well, more likely I write like he does, but whatever. The style of the writing was really familiar - a well polished version of something really familiar, if I'm honest.

This book reminded me thematically of The Taking, by Dean Koontz, which was the book I read that inspired me to write my first NaNoWriMo novel back in 2008, "Imbued." I liked it. The Taking was a spookier book to me as I recall, thinking back 12 years ago, but this was a good story with some military thrown in, like Imbued. The circle is complete. 😁

Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens - reading

Finished "Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens - essential skills and activities to help you manage moods, boost self-esteem, and conquer anxiety" by Rachel L. Hutt, PhD. That's quite the title! My wife and I worked through this book together (we each had our own copy). Though it's targeted at teens, with just a little tweaking, it's appropriate really for any age. Some of the exercises were really good. Some were so-so, but easy to skip over things that weren't applicable. One thing my wife and I did was at the end of a section, wrote down what resonated for us the most. 

I think the section I found most valuable was around common thinking errors, and ways of dealing with them. I notice myself doing these now more than ever, and finding ways to make it better.

Making A Literary Life - reading

Finished "Making a Literary Life - Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers" by Carolyn See. This book came recommended by way of one of the writing lists I'm on, and fittingly so since it deals with writing and creativity. The author shares stories from her life and how she created a literary life for herself. She encourages writing 1,000 words a day, writing charming notes, and several other tips. The author is funny, though sometimes that humor seems a bit stretched. It might have been me as I read it. But overall, she does a great job of getting her point across. Ultimately I'm not about to book a trip to New York City to see what writing gigs I can score, but there was still a lot in this book that I can apply to my own writing life.

Running on Empty - reading

Finished "Running on Empty" by Jonice Webb, PhD. I like a self-help book that comes with questions and then explains what the answers indicate. This one did. Childhood was a long time ago, but I can still see things in myself today that originated there. Now, what to do with it?

Some parts of the book were aimed at parents, some at therapists. The core of the book, though, was good and informative.