Allll the Things (okay, mostly books)
Wow, already halfway through the month! The last two weeks have flown by. Here in Southern Ontario we're expected to get significant snowfall tomorrow (about a foot) as well as blowing snow and crazycold wind chills for the next few days. I had intended to go see "Glass" tomorrow -- sooooo excited for this movie, since "Unbreakable" is one of my absolute favourite films -- but I think I'll relax at home and do some more reading/writing/watching-of-the-dvds instead.
Sunday night we are finally going for a work Christmas dinner. (At least this year it isn't being held in July.) Thankfully we're getting free cabs to and from, or some of us might just perish of frostbite while waiting at the bus stop.
Things have been going pretty well for the start of my 2019. Doing lots of reading, tentatively testing the waters of writing again, keeping up on the online aspects on my tracking sheet. Not so much with the health related ones, but ya know, that Christmas dinner? It's at the Mandarin (a huuuuuge chinese/north american buffet restaurant) and there's not much point of starting when I'm just gonna ruin it all in one night of gluttony, am I right?
Speaking of reading, here's some reviews of the first 5 books I've read this year!
Books 1 to 5
01. Generation Z by Peter Meredith
12 years after a zombie apocalypse has decimated the world, a delegation from two small superstitious communities braves the desolation in search of a rumoured 'girl doctor' who can save their ailing friends.
I am a big fan of both the 'zombie' and 'post-apocalyptic' genres, so I was looking forward to devouring (heh, heh) this book and stoked that it has multiple sequels. Unfortunately, I was disappointed right off the bat to realize that in this universe, "zombies" continue to grow. So what we have are seven foot, eight foot, even nine foot, 600+ pound monsters, not zombies in the traditional sense. Zombies are scary and creepy to me because a. they used to be US, and b. they are unwavering in their determination to eat us. The monsters in this book are no longer identifiable as 'used to be US' and they even graze on grassland when a convenient human isn't available. Not at all scary.
On the plus side, the hero of the story is a 15 year old girl. Jen has been shunned as 'unlucky' since she was 6 years old, and thus has had to learn to survive on her own within her small community. She's smart, resourceful, and a character that felt real in an unreal world.
Jen and her friends make the journey to find the 'girl doctor' and that's when I started to believe in the story. The ridiculous zombie-monsters and superstitious cult-like survivors camps were left behind, and there were tantalizing glimpses of the destroyed world. Ground like fused glass and a colony of sick people who have never heard of nuclear weapons. Traders who risk the zombie-monsters; an outlaw group of criminals and slavers. I'd like to explore those worlds. But no, we end up with the 'girl doctor', who is named Jillybean, and who is a child prodigy/genius/speed-reader/has multiple personalities/did I mention genius? Jillybean immediately takes away any 'realism' that the novel achieved, and swings it right back into crazycakes giant-zombie-monster territory. Add in a ridiculous ending and I definitely won't be searching for those sequels.
2/5 stars
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 41 - from 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 27 - features an extinct/imaginary character
333 pages
02. A Dog's Journey by W. Bruce Cameron
Buddy, our adorable dog-hero from "A Dog's Purpose", is back in this fantastic sequel. After several reincarnations (in the first book), Buddy thought he'd fulfilled his purpose by finding and loving his boy. It turns out fate has more in store for him.
Much like it's predecessor, "A Dog's Journey" is charming, heartwarming, heartwrenching, and ultimately inspiring. Seeing the world through the dog's eyes makes me appreciate what I have so much more. This time around he need to take care of his girl, Ethan's granddaughter CJ. She's a challenge, but through various incarnations he brings her light and love.
And I firmly believe it takes an inordinate amount of skill to tell an entire story from a dog's point of view! He needs to move the narrative forward by giving us the human's dialogue -- much of which the dog doesn't understand -- while still staying firmly in the dog's headspace. He does this by reminding us of Buddy's presence -- having his ear cock when he hears a familiar name, or having Buddy's internal monologue interrupt the flow of conversation with something precisely dog-like, like bemoaning the lack of treats being dropped in the kitchen.
I took away half a star simply because I didn't bawl my eyes out during this one. There were tears, yes, but not the giant hiccuping sobs that "A Dog's Purpose" produced. ;)
4.5/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 11 - relating to a zodiac animal (dog)
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 40 - prompt from past (non human character)
336 pages.
03. Fury by Laurann Dohner
Fury is the product of illegal big pharm experiments in combining animal and human DNA. Ellie is the nurse/receptionist who goes undercover to get evidence to free him and his brethren. Is it a surprise that romance ensues?
I found this book -- the first in a lengthy series -- by googling "if you liked x you'll like y". (I only wish I could remember what I used for 'x'.) That was many, many months ago. I read the premise and wasn't convinced, so this sat on my 'might buy' list for quite some time. I should have trusted my instincts.
See, the premise is sorta-kinda intriguing. After our half-man/half-animal heroes are released from their experimental prison, they are set up in their own (soon to be self-functioning) enclave by the government. They're all suffering from some form of PTSD, especially some of the women who were abused in more than one fashion. That story I think I'd find interesting -- how this group assimilated and dealt with their issues, because quite frankly the men are set up to be so ridiculously 'alpha' that it's hard to imagine anything awful happened to them at all.
Instead this book is a 'romance' (which of course I knew going in)... but it is one that I nearly stopped reading when it began with Fury stalking Ellie in a park, choking her into unconsciousness and then kidnapping her and tying her to his bed.
What.The.Hell.
I mean, I love a good dominant male -- and I will accept similar actions in someone who is feral, or doesn't know any better, or is a villain or antihero -- but this is our hero, and the whole thing is played off as no big deal because of COURSE Ellie is turned on by this and ends up eagerly having sex with the guy who just choked her until she passed out.
Once I got past that intro, there's the usual romance genre cliches. Miscommunication; partially heard conversations that are misconstrued and lead to misunderstandings; a plethora of interrupted sex because some outside force tears the lovers apart (sometimes literally. Actually, usually literally); over the top villains. Less usual, the leering over rape, attempted rape and sexual abuse. Blech.
.5/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 34 - person's name in title
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 34 - includes a wedding
428 pages
04. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
On vacation at a remote cabin, six year old Wen and her parents are confronted by four strangers wielding homemade weapons and told that it is up to them to prevent the coming apocalypse.
What is someone told you that you were the key to saving the world? What if they were willing to kill for their belief? To die for it? Would you believe them? And what would you be willing to sacrifice?
This is one of those compulsive page-turners (or in this day of e-readers, page-clickers. Page swipers?) that grips you from the beginning and doesn't let go. The tension starts at about page 10 and just builds in intensity. The skewed perspective means you never know if the strangers are telling the truth, and the paranoia builds as you bounce from one position to the other. Maybe they're legit. Maybe they're crazy. Saying any more would ruin the book, so you'll need to read it for yourself.
Dropped one star because, despite the sparse length, it can get a little repetitive.
4/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 36 - on NPR's best book of the year list
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 31 - about a family
288 pages.
05. The Deep by Nick Cutter
A new disease called 'the Gets' could be our extinction event, so no expense is spared to send an elite group of scientists to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in search of a substance that appears to be a master-cure for all disease.
What could go wrong?
Well... scientists start going insane, childhood memories take on new life, and there may be something haunting the craft. Lucas, brother of Clayton (the supergenius lead scientist) is sent to scope things out when the scientists go incommunicado. As the pressure of the deep and the malevolence of what lurks there begins to prey on his mind, he begins to wonder if he (and LB, the lab dog he finds) will make it out alive.
There's a problem when the backstory is more intriguing than the main story. I really wanted this story to be about the Gets, which is what they call the Forgetting disease. It starts out small -- you forget how to tie your shoes, for example. Then it progresses until at the end you forget not only how to eat, but that you need to eat. You forget how to live. I think a story set in that universe... maybe dealing with someone/several someones who are immune and thus witness to the end of the world.. would be fascinating. But then, I love me a good apocalypse.
I was about halfway through this book before it really held my interest. Even then I didn't find it particularly frightening. The prose was too prosaic overall -- some tense moments with LB were the exceptions -- and perhaps it was also because I don't find the tropes it dealt in (claustrophobia, the dark, lost children) to be scary. The ending felt a little flat to me, too.
2.5/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 43 - dealing with the STEM field
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 37 - two word title
394 pages.
Books Read: 5/80
Goodreads Book Challenges Met: 5/5
Popsugar Book Challenges Met: 5/5
Pages Read: 1779
I thought it would be interesting to track how many pages I read this year, too. For books read on kindle, I looked up the page count for the paperback copy.
Whew. That took a while. Hope everyone is well!
.
Sunday night we are finally going for a work Christmas dinner. (At least this year it isn't being held in July.) Thankfully we're getting free cabs to and from, or some of us might just perish of frostbite while waiting at the bus stop.
Things have been going pretty well for the start of my 2019. Doing lots of reading, tentatively testing the waters of writing again, keeping up on the online aspects on my tracking sheet. Not so much with the health related ones, but ya know, that Christmas dinner? It's at the Mandarin (a huuuuuge chinese/north american buffet restaurant) and there's not much point of starting when I'm just gonna ruin it all in one night of gluttony, am I right?
Speaking of reading, here's some reviews of the first 5 books I've read this year!
Books 1 to 5
01. Generation Z by Peter Meredith
12 years after a zombie apocalypse has decimated the world, a delegation from two small superstitious communities braves the desolation in search of a rumoured 'girl doctor' who can save their ailing friends.
I am a big fan of both the 'zombie' and 'post-apocalyptic' genres, so I was looking forward to devouring (heh, heh) this book and stoked that it has multiple sequels. Unfortunately, I was disappointed right off the bat to realize that in this universe, "zombies" continue to grow. So what we have are seven foot, eight foot, even nine foot, 600+ pound monsters, not zombies in the traditional sense. Zombies are scary and creepy to me because a. they used to be US, and b. they are unwavering in their determination to eat us. The monsters in this book are no longer identifiable as 'used to be US' and they even graze on grassland when a convenient human isn't available. Not at all scary.
On the plus side, the hero of the story is a 15 year old girl. Jen has been shunned as 'unlucky' since she was 6 years old, and thus has had to learn to survive on her own within her small community. She's smart, resourceful, and a character that felt real in an unreal world.
Jen and her friends make the journey to find the 'girl doctor' and that's when I started to believe in the story. The ridiculous zombie-monsters and superstitious cult-like survivors camps were left behind, and there were tantalizing glimpses of the destroyed world. Ground like fused glass and a colony of sick people who have never heard of nuclear weapons. Traders who risk the zombie-monsters; an outlaw group of criminals and slavers. I'd like to explore those worlds. But no, we end up with the 'girl doctor', who is named Jillybean, and who is a child prodigy/genius/speed-reader/has multiple personalities/did I mention genius? Jillybean immediately takes away any 'realism' that the novel achieved, and swings it right back into crazycakes giant-zombie-monster territory. Add in a ridiculous ending and I definitely won't be searching for those sequels.
2/5 stars
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 41 - from 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 27 - features an extinct/imaginary character
333 pages
02. A Dog's Journey by W. Bruce Cameron
Buddy, our adorable dog-hero from "A Dog's Purpose", is back in this fantastic sequel. After several reincarnations (in the first book), Buddy thought he'd fulfilled his purpose by finding and loving his boy. It turns out fate has more in store for him.
Much like it's predecessor, "A Dog's Journey" is charming, heartwarming, heartwrenching, and ultimately inspiring. Seeing the world through the dog's eyes makes me appreciate what I have so much more. This time around he need to take care of his girl, Ethan's granddaughter CJ. She's a challenge, but through various incarnations he brings her light and love.
And I firmly believe it takes an inordinate amount of skill to tell an entire story from a dog's point of view! He needs to move the narrative forward by giving us the human's dialogue -- much of which the dog doesn't understand -- while still staying firmly in the dog's headspace. He does this by reminding us of Buddy's presence -- having his ear cock when he hears a familiar name, or having Buddy's internal monologue interrupt the flow of conversation with something precisely dog-like, like bemoaning the lack of treats being dropped in the kitchen.
I took away half a star simply because I didn't bawl my eyes out during this one. There were tears, yes, but not the giant hiccuping sobs that "A Dog's Purpose" produced. ;)
4.5/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 11 - relating to a zodiac animal (dog)
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 40 - prompt from past (non human character)
336 pages.
03. Fury by Laurann Dohner
Fury is the product of illegal big pharm experiments in combining animal and human DNA. Ellie is the nurse/receptionist who goes undercover to get evidence to free him and his brethren. Is it a surprise that romance ensues?
I found this book -- the first in a lengthy series -- by googling "if you liked x you'll like y". (I only wish I could remember what I used for 'x'.) That was many, many months ago. I read the premise and wasn't convinced, so this sat on my 'might buy' list for quite some time. I should have trusted my instincts.
See, the premise is sorta-kinda intriguing. After our half-man/half-animal heroes are released from their experimental prison, they are set up in their own (soon to be self-functioning) enclave by the government. They're all suffering from some form of PTSD, especially some of the women who were abused in more than one fashion. That story I think I'd find interesting -- how this group assimilated and dealt with their issues, because quite frankly the men are set up to be so ridiculously 'alpha' that it's hard to imagine anything awful happened to them at all.
Instead this book is a 'romance' (which of course I knew going in)... but it is one that I nearly stopped reading when it began with Fury stalking Ellie in a park, choking her into unconsciousness and then kidnapping her and tying her to his bed.
What.The.Hell.
I mean, I love a good dominant male -- and I will accept similar actions in someone who is feral, or doesn't know any better, or is a villain or antihero -- but this is our hero, and the whole thing is played off as no big deal because of COURSE Ellie is turned on by this and ends up eagerly having sex with the guy who just choked her until she passed out.
Once I got past that intro, there's the usual romance genre cliches. Miscommunication; partially heard conversations that are misconstrued and lead to misunderstandings; a plethora of interrupted sex because some outside force tears the lovers apart (sometimes literally. Actually, usually literally); over the top villains. Less usual, the leering over rape, attempted rape and sexual abuse. Blech.
.5/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 34 - person's name in title
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 34 - includes a wedding
428 pages
04. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
On vacation at a remote cabin, six year old Wen and her parents are confronted by four strangers wielding homemade weapons and told that it is up to them to prevent the coming apocalypse.
What is someone told you that you were the key to saving the world? What if they were willing to kill for their belief? To die for it? Would you believe them? And what would you be willing to sacrifice?
This is one of those compulsive page-turners (or in this day of e-readers, page-clickers. Page swipers?) that grips you from the beginning and doesn't let go. The tension starts at about page 10 and just builds in intensity. The skewed perspective means you never know if the strangers are telling the truth, and the paranoia builds as you bounce from one position to the other. Maybe they're legit. Maybe they're crazy. Saying any more would ruin the book, so you'll need to read it for yourself.
Dropped one star because, despite the sparse length, it can get a little repetitive.
4/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 36 - on NPR's best book of the year list
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 31 - about a family
288 pages.
05. The Deep by Nick Cutter
A new disease called 'the Gets' could be our extinction event, so no expense is spared to send an elite group of scientists to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in search of a substance that appears to be a master-cure for all disease.
What could go wrong?
Well... scientists start going insane, childhood memories take on new life, and there may be something haunting the craft. Lucas, brother of Clayton (the supergenius lead scientist) is sent to scope things out when the scientists go incommunicado. As the pressure of the deep and the malevolence of what lurks there begins to prey on his mind, he begins to wonder if he (and LB, the lab dog he finds) will make it out alive.
There's a problem when the backstory is more intriguing than the main story. I really wanted this story to be about the Gets, which is what they call the Forgetting disease. It starts out small -- you forget how to tie your shoes, for example. Then it progresses until at the end you forget not only how to eat, but that you need to eat. You forget how to live. I think a story set in that universe... maybe dealing with someone/several someones who are immune and thus witness to the end of the world.. would be fascinating. But then, I love me a good apocalypse.
I was about halfway through this book before it really held my interest. Even then I didn't find it particularly frightening. The prose was too prosaic overall -- some tense moments with LB were the exceptions -- and perhaps it was also because I don't find the tropes it dealt in (claustrophobia, the dark, lost children) to be scary. The ending felt a little flat to me, too.
2.5/5
Meets the criteria for Goodreads Book Challenge 43 - dealing with the STEM field
Meets the criteria for Popsugar Book Challenge 37 - two word title
394 pages.
Books Read: 5/80
Goodreads Book Challenges Met: 5/5
Popsugar Book Challenges Met: 5/5
Pages Read: 1779
I thought it would be interesting to track how many pages I read this year, too. For books read on kindle, I looked up the page count for the paperback copy.
Whew. That took a while. Hope everyone is well!
.