Operation "Fifty in Twelve": November Round-Up, December Round-Up
Ugh, once again, I skipped a month in my round-up and also am pretty late to the party for the December round-up. I also still haven't my my customary New Year's post about this year's projects but never fear, that is still on the agenda. I also already started one of those projects - keeping a bullet journal - and for those who don't follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram, yes, I will talk about this on here, probably in February, when I hopefully managed my first full month, and yes, with pictures! I also have a statistic for the 2018 book project planned, so keep looking for that, too.
Anyway. Let's wrap up 2018 first.
November:
The Other Miss Bridgerton, Julia Quinn
The newest from Julia Quinn, and the third part of her Bridgerton prequels. I was looking forward to this because it featured a sailor character, and I'm a sucker for sailors! In the end, I wasn't sure. Yes, it was exciting, yes, it was funny, yes, it was dramatic. I just wasn't sure if I liked the male lead. I definitely liked the female lead - kind, intelligent, outspoken, independent - but there were a few things the male lead did that were borderline not okay. It never really veered into no-go territory but a few things were just... iffy, and I didn't like that. Also, yes, the plot was exciting but it also felt a little... crammed. There were quite a lot of things happening, and I'd almost say that a few things less would have done the book good. Overall, this isn't a bad book - it's still amusing and diverting to read - it just isn't one of Quinn's best.
Rating: * * */* * * * *
The View From Flyover Country, Sarah Kendzior
This is a whopper. It's rather on the slim side in size but its density and heaviness lies in the content. Kendzior is a journalist and academic from St. Louis and still lives there, squarely in the middle of what became (in)famous as "Flyover Country" in 2016 - meaning the US states between East and West Coast. She also co-hosts a podcast with documentary filmmaker Andrea Chalupa, called Gaslit Nation (their episodes are really long - and really depressing at times - but I still recommed listening to it, as they're doing lots of in-depth stuff on authoritaritan states and the developments in the US and they are really good at it). Her book is still being hyped by parts of Twitter, and it deserves the hype (I do not say this likely, because usually, I detest hyped things. I came to Harry Potter several years late because of this, so you can imagine how severe that loathing is). It's a collection of essays Kendzior wrote in 2013 and 2014, mostly for Al-Jazeera America, and they describe exactly how fucked up the US already was back then (and where the foundations for Trumpism and Trump's election were laid). Some of those essays are really hard to stomach and honestly, if you're not mad as hell after finishing this book, you haven't been paying attention. Kendzior writes really well, and she dissects injustice in modern US society like a surgeon, laying all the inhumanities and lies bare. It was a revelation reading this, and it wass even worse to detect some of those injustices in my country, too. It also read like a warning, something that says "Take care and pay attention, or your country will end up exactly like that, too", and this is why I greatly recommend reading this, even if US politics are usually not your thing.
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
December:
Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch
Book 7 in the Rivers of London series, and I liked this a lot better than the last one (The Hanging Tree, which I reviewed in February 2018). Maybe it's because I wasn't laid up with fever like last time I read a Rivers of London book, or maybe it's because this is actually really a better book. Either way, this was a fun rollercoaster ride, full of plot twists, at least one car chase and some major revelations, without feeling rushed or crammed. I found it a lot funnier than the last one, without veering too much into slapstick. My only complaint is that at this point Rivers of London has become extremely complex, with a complicated background and a sprawling cast of characters I kind of struggle keeping up with, and it feels a lot like there's a re-read of the entire series back to back in my future, probably when the next installment comes out, just to get it all straight and understand some of the more complex plot points. But yeah, this was definitely more fun than the last one, and I'm now waiting for the next novella, The October Man, with a certain amount of excitement, considering that it's set entirely in Germany, with German protagonists and the result of a ton of research questions Aaronovitch posted on Twitter over the last year or so.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Book Count as of December 31: 53/50
And... that's a wrap. "Fifty in Twelve" 2018 is officially over, I made it, I read finished over fifty books in a year and really did finish this project. I did, however not actually read fifty books in a year, because quite a few of them were leftovers from past years I decided to finally finish. I'm trying to do that this year, but so far, reading is really slow (writing, though, is a different matter. I'm basically churning out words each nights like I haven't churned out words in ages), and I still have a bunch of half-finished books left over from last year and even years before that, so I'm not going to make any promises. I'll keep up book blogging, mostly because it actually helps me get an overview about my reading habits and helps me to find areas that could use improvement (non-fiction books written by women is one that comes to mind spontanously). There's also still that statistics/overview post I mentioned above that is still waiting for me to write it, so watch out!
Do you have any reading goals this year? Anything you don't want to do anymore concerning books and reading? Any books you'd like to recommend for this year's reading list? Please share!
Anyway. Let's wrap up 2018 first.
November:
The Other Miss Bridgerton, Julia Quinn
The newest from Julia Quinn, and the third part of her Bridgerton prequels. I was looking forward to this because it featured a sailor character, and I'm a sucker for sailors! In the end, I wasn't sure. Yes, it was exciting, yes, it was funny, yes, it was dramatic. I just wasn't sure if I liked the male lead. I definitely liked the female lead - kind, intelligent, outspoken, independent - but there were a few things the male lead did that were borderline not okay. It never really veered into no-go territory but a few things were just... iffy, and I didn't like that. Also, yes, the plot was exciting but it also felt a little... crammed. There were quite a lot of things happening, and I'd almost say that a few things less would have done the book good. Overall, this isn't a bad book - it's still amusing and diverting to read - it just isn't one of Quinn's best.
Rating: * * */* * * * *
The View From Flyover Country, Sarah Kendzior
This is a whopper. It's rather on the slim side in size but its density and heaviness lies in the content. Kendzior is a journalist and academic from St. Louis and still lives there, squarely in the middle of what became (in)famous as "Flyover Country" in 2016 - meaning the US states between East and West Coast. She also co-hosts a podcast with documentary filmmaker Andrea Chalupa, called Gaslit Nation (their episodes are really long - and really depressing at times - but I still recommed listening to it, as they're doing lots of in-depth stuff on authoritaritan states and the developments in the US and they are really good at it). Her book is still being hyped by parts of Twitter, and it deserves the hype (I do not say this likely, because usually, I detest hyped things. I came to Harry Potter several years late because of this, so you can imagine how severe that loathing is). It's a collection of essays Kendzior wrote in 2013 and 2014, mostly for Al-Jazeera America, and they describe exactly how fucked up the US already was back then (and where the foundations for Trumpism and Trump's election were laid). Some of those essays are really hard to stomach and honestly, if you're not mad as hell after finishing this book, you haven't been paying attention. Kendzior writes really well, and she dissects injustice in modern US society like a surgeon, laying all the inhumanities and lies bare. It was a revelation reading this, and it wass even worse to detect some of those injustices in my country, too. It also read like a warning, something that says "Take care and pay attention, or your country will end up exactly like that, too", and this is why I greatly recommend reading this, even if US politics are usually not your thing.
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
December:
Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch
Book 7 in the Rivers of London series, and I liked this a lot better than the last one (The Hanging Tree, which I reviewed in February 2018). Maybe it's because I wasn't laid up with fever like last time I read a Rivers of London book, or maybe it's because this is actually really a better book. Either way, this was a fun rollercoaster ride, full of plot twists, at least one car chase and some major revelations, without feeling rushed or crammed. I found it a lot funnier than the last one, without veering too much into slapstick. My only complaint is that at this point Rivers of London has become extremely complex, with a complicated background and a sprawling cast of characters I kind of struggle keeping up with, and it feels a lot like there's a re-read of the entire series back to back in my future, probably when the next installment comes out, just to get it all straight and understand some of the more complex plot points. But yeah, this was definitely more fun than the last one, and I'm now waiting for the next novella, The October Man, with a certain amount of excitement, considering that it's set entirely in Germany, with German protagonists and the result of a ton of research questions Aaronovitch posted on Twitter over the last year or so.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Book Count as of December 31: 53/50
And... that's a wrap. "Fifty in Twelve" 2018 is officially over, I made it, I read finished over fifty books in a year and really did finish this project. I did, however not actually read fifty books in a year, because quite a few of them were leftovers from past years I decided to finally finish. I'm trying to do that this year, but so far, reading is really slow (writing, though, is a different matter. I'm basically churning out words each nights like I haven't churned out words in ages), and I still have a bunch of half-finished books left over from last year and even years before that, so I'm not going to make any promises. I'll keep up book blogging, mostly because it actually helps me get an overview about my reading habits and helps me to find areas that could use improvement (non-fiction books written by women is one that comes to mind spontanously). There's also still that statistics/overview post I mentioned above that is still waiting for me to write it, so watch out!
Do you have any reading goals this year? Anything you don't want to do anymore concerning books and reading? Any books you'd like to recommend for this year's reading list? Please share!