Thursday, September 18, 2014

Random reading thoughts and a bit of utter coolness

I'm reading this:

I'm having trouble focusing on Lock In, which is surprising because I love Scalzi's writing, in general. You know how sometimes you can recognize the genius in a book but you're just not feeling it? That's Lock In. And, yet I don't want to give it up. I'm reading it as an e-book and wondering if that's part of the problem. I have this horrible tendency to read fewer pages at a stretch than I do with a paper book. I will actually set down my reader, walk away and then completely forget I'm reading an e-book. That's one reason I don't read them often. I may buy the paper book, eventually.








Also reading this, and it is a gut-kick:

I've read a few books that were either centered upon (novels) or about (nonfiction) Japanese Americans interned during WWII but I'm realizing just how little I knew. Such a dark and frightening passage in American history and a testament to the courage and creativity of those who were deprived of their rights as American citizens.












It's been probably 5 or 6 days since I picked up Daring: My Passages by Gail Sheehy (see sidebar), but only because I keep finding other distractions.

This book is very suspenseful:

I read Shawn Grady's first book, Through the Fire in 2009, and thought it was exceptional so when I happened across Tomorrow We Die whilst book shopping (stress shopping -- husband was about to leave the continent; I hate that), I tossed it into the cart. So glad I did. I'll tell you about it in more detail, later. Brief descriptors:

Mystery
Suspense
Emergency medical action (yes, another paramedic book)
Family drama
A touch of romance






Bit of utter coolness:

I found a book by an author/illustrator from my high school! James Yang and I worked together on our high school newspaper and yearbook staffs. So very cool to find a book by someone from my younger days.

More about Puzzlehead, later. Gotta go read.

Update: I don't feel like writing a separate post about Puzzlehead, so I'm just going to tell you quickly that it's about a group of friends with heads of varying shapes. They go in search of the perfect place but then Puzzlehead gets his head stuck in his ideal spot and the rest of his friends pull on him. They all go flying and their heads lock together into a perfect rectangle, the point being that sometimes the perfect place for you is there all along -- in this case, the children didn't need to go in search of perfection; they already had each other. It's a clever story but I need a kid to read it to, desperately. I'm curious whether or not a child would "get it" because it took a little puzzling (haha, see what I did?) before I fully understood the theme.


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4 comments:

  1. I loved Lock In, but it did take a while to build up momentum. I felt the same way about the writing though - he is such a good writer! Which reminds me that I should pick up some of his other books that I haven't read yet.

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    1. He's an impressive writer and thinker. I want a brain like Scalzi's. But, yeah . . . 25% into the book and I still don't feel any great urge to run back and pick up the book. I need to read some of his older titles, too.

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    2. Oh gosh, I just love his Old Man's War series so much. Space Opera is very much back in style these days. :)

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    3. I haven't read the Old Man's War series, yet. Yay, more great reading ahead! :) I'm definitely finding I like his earlier writing better, although I'm getting there. I'm at about 45% on Lock In.

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