End of December Review
End of December Review
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My motivation dragged a bit this month, but I hope it’ll pick up with the long break heading my way. Here’s what I’ve done.
Books Read and/or Reviewed
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First, I tackled the long and windy ‘It Can’t Happen Here.’ With Trump’s election, this book started popping up everywhere, and I can see why. The man gets pushed into office on a whirlwind with ridiculous promises that never pan out. As much as reality seems to be copying fiction, all the complaints against this oldie are true. Many parts are boring and trying, with longs sections rambling on about nothing to important to the main scope of things. All in all, not bad, but needs to be thoroughly edited to be prevalent.
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Next, I zoomed through ‘A Monster Calls.’ I was thinking of not reading it because I was not a huge fan of Ness’ Chaos Walking Trilogy, but where he sucks at YA, he glows in MG. Everything was believable without his trademark hackneyed lines. Even the small stories set within this tiny read were captivating. If he writes something besides YA fantasy or whatever it was, I might try it out. Definitely good.
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Then I went into Illuminae, and—ugh! So many people loved it for some reason. I will go into this more in a future post, but all in all, I hated this for the same reason I hated Ness’ series up above. Yuck!
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Getting away from that mess, I dived into ‘The Hand Maiden’s Tale.’ Though short, it was tough. The language was dry and too ornate, but it is expected for books like this. The one rewarding thing about it was that it was a thousand times better than her other read, ‘Cat’s Eyes.’ That book was egregiously boring. I did begin to enjoy this book later on and finding out it will be a Netflix show soon piqued my interest. Better than expected.
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While roaming my local bookstore, I came upon my fifth read of the month: Let the Right One In. I had heard about the movie and it seemed good, so I picked it up. Although it wasn’t as tightly written and amazing as other Swedish authors, I liked the easiness of the writing and the flow of the story. I did agree with many complaints that too many useless characters meandered in and out of the story’s focus, but it was a fun and easy read.
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Lastly, I finally got around to ‘Cloud Atlas.’ I mainly wanted to read this because a friend had recommend it—though he had done so roughly ten years ago. Also, hearing about the movie, I thought I’d finally get to it. It deserves a lot of the accolades thrown upon it for just the plotting and the writing. Comprised of six stories, I’d have to say all but one were scintillating and catching for the beginning. The language is taut and abstruse making it slower reading, but well worth it. A good read, but not classic caliber as some contend.
Book Reviews Received
I have a feeling after this year this section of my monthly reports will be non-existent. Oh well!
Progress on 2016 goals
Finish Chewy 5: Done!—75,000 words
Read ‘The Recognitions’: Done!
Compiling my Editing book: Done!—30,000 words
Finish ‘All the Things in the Unknown World’: Done!—85,000 words
Send ATTITUW out to publishers: Sent out to 10 publishers—still!
Start ‘Crasher’: 30,000 words (only 5,000 extra words—pathetic!)
Next Month’s Agenda
Everything changes next month! New year, new goals! I’m sad to let the old list go. It’s been with me for so long and I’ve come so far. I wish I could just keep adding, but starting a fresh is needed. In a way, I’m looking forward to it.
