Wednesday Reading Meme
My bestie and hubby return from their 4 month long vacation today! I put up a little welcome home banner downstairs and some balloons. Going to be nice to have her back but weird to hear people downstairs again!
What I Just Finished Reading: I got back on track with my reading since last time and read 3 books: Commune: Book 2 by Joshua Gayou, Far North by Marcel Theroux, and How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm halfway through The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Is this a YA book? It's so simplistic.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: I had gone to the Central library last week. This week I went to my local one to look for one book I knew they had. I ended up wandering around and picking up two more that I just saw on the shelves. Midnight Library was one, and the other was Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love. I had seen the Love book at Central and didn't get it because I'm trying to be mindful of "stop getting the library display books, you never like them", but then when I saw it here at my local library I thought it must be a sign. So I will probably read that one next.
26. Commune: Book 2 by Joshua Gayou
In the aftermath of a plague that has decimated the world, a group of survivors band together to start a new settlement.
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first, mostly because the main protagonist, an ex-Marine named Gibs, is a misogynist asshole who regularly assesses women’s “racks” and “turd cutters” (yes, that’s actually how he refers to a woman’s ass), only judges women on their looks and is rather shocked when they turn out to be competent. There’s actually a ‘warning’ at the beginning of the book about Gibs’ language, apparently because the author doesn’t realize that he could simply choose to have his MC just *not be an asshole*.
The story is slow going as well. I don’t need several pages describing how they removed cargo containers from a flatbed or how to lay a cabin floor. An issue they have with one of the settlers is telegraphed pretty strongly from the start. But there is a good long action scene toward the end and I like some of the other characters, so I will continue with Book 3 and just hope that Gibs is not the prominent storyteller.
Dates Read: March 13 to 16, 2024
Page Count: 426
3 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - July J - author with a J name (26/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 27 - related to land (26/52)
+ Challenges & Fandom Fan Favourite 07 - same genre as favourite movie (10/16)
27. Far North by Marcel Theroux
Some time after climate disasters and economic collapse have virtually ended the world, a lone survivor in Siberia sees a small plane and determines to find its home base.
This is a beautifully written story about love and determination in a harsh and brutal world. Makepeace has been brutalized and alone for so long, but she’s honest and forthright and the plane gives her hope that perhaps there is still civilization out there after all. In her search for the plane she learns truths about herself and her past, and we learn more about her world, its slow and inevitable destruction, and the aftermath in the destroyed cities that have been left behind. The writing can be almost poetic at times but it works perfectly with the story. It’s wonderful also to see a story with such a strong yet realistic heroine.
Dates Read: March 16 to 17, 2024
Page Count: 314
4 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - September T - where a character travels (27/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 48 - second book that fits favourite prompt [involving travel] (27/52)
28. How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
When scientists in the Arctic find an ancient Neanderthal buried in ice that is melting due to climate change, they (of course) free a long-dead virus from her body, which (of course) gets out into the world. Of course. Heh. Each chapter of this story deals with different people through the progression of the virus, which runs rampant through the world. The idea of it is super weird and interesting - the virus reshapes organs, so it makes the heart become the liver or the lungs become the brain, etc..
The novel starts out so strong, dealing with the scientist and her family.and a strange “euthanasia park” that is soon erected for children, who are the primary targets of the virus. The virus mutating and affecting adults prompts the story that inspired the title, among the best in the book. Also fascinating and heartbreaking (though also inexplicable) is the story of a pig that learns to communicate telepathically.
And though chapters are connected because sometimes a person from one shows up in or is related to someone in another, the author really does spread himself too thin. If he’d concentrated on the stories that make up the first half or so of the book, he’d have had a winner. But he loses focus, expands the scope of the story too much, and as a reader the stakes weren’t as high for me anymore. The ending doesn’t help, a real disappointment.
Date Read: March 18, 2024
Page Count: 292
3 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - March C - non-causasian protagonist in sci-fi, fantasy or horror (28/74)
+ Around The Year in 52 Books 21 - title containing 6+ words (28/52)
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What I Just Finished Reading: I got back on track with my reading since last time and read 3 books: Commune: Book 2 by Joshua Gayou, Far North by Marcel Theroux, and How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm halfway through The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Is this a YA book? It's so simplistic.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: I had gone to the Central library last week. This week I went to my local one to look for one book I knew they had. I ended up wandering around and picking up two more that I just saw on the shelves. Midnight Library was one, and the other was Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love. I had seen the Love book at Central and didn't get it because I'm trying to be mindful of "stop getting the library display books, you never like them", but then when I saw it here at my local library I thought it must be a sign. So I will probably read that one next.
26. Commune: Book 2 by Joshua Gayou
In the aftermath of a plague that has decimated the world, a group of survivors band together to start a new settlement.
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first, mostly because the main protagonist, an ex-Marine named Gibs, is a misogynist asshole who regularly assesses women’s “racks” and “turd cutters” (yes, that’s actually how he refers to a woman’s ass), only judges women on their looks and is rather shocked when they turn out to be competent. There’s actually a ‘warning’ at the beginning of the book about Gibs’ language, apparently because the author doesn’t realize that he could simply choose to have his MC just *not be an asshole*.
The story is slow going as well. I don’t need several pages describing how they removed cargo containers from a flatbed or how to lay a cabin floor. An issue they have with one of the settlers is telegraphed pretty strongly from the start. But there is a good long action scene toward the end and I like some of the other characters, so I will continue with Book 3 and just hope that Gibs is not the prominent storyteller.
Dates Read: March 13 to 16, 2024
Page Count: 426
3 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - July J - author with a J name (26/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 27 - related to land (26/52)
+ Challenges & Fandom Fan Favourite 07 - same genre as favourite movie (10/16)
27. Far North by Marcel Theroux
Some time after climate disasters and economic collapse have virtually ended the world, a lone survivor in Siberia sees a small plane and determines to find its home base.
This is a beautifully written story about love and determination in a harsh and brutal world. Makepeace has been brutalized and alone for so long, but she’s honest and forthright and the plane gives her hope that perhaps there is still civilization out there after all. In her search for the plane she learns truths about herself and her past, and we learn more about her world, its slow and inevitable destruction, and the aftermath in the destroyed cities that have been left behind. The writing can be almost poetic at times but it works perfectly with the story. It’s wonderful also to see a story with such a strong yet realistic heroine.
Dates Read: March 16 to 17, 2024
Page Count: 314
4 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - September T - where a character travels (27/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 48 - second book that fits favourite prompt [involving travel] (27/52)
28. How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
When scientists in the Arctic find an ancient Neanderthal buried in ice that is melting due to climate change, they (of course) free a long-dead virus from her body, which (of course) gets out into the world. Of course. Heh. Each chapter of this story deals with different people through the progression of the virus, which runs rampant through the world. The idea of it is super weird and interesting - the virus reshapes organs, so it makes the heart become the liver or the lungs become the brain, etc..
The novel starts out so strong, dealing with the scientist and her family.and a strange “euthanasia park” that is soon erected for children, who are the primary targets of the virus. The virus mutating and affecting adults prompts the story that inspired the title, among the best in the book. Also fascinating and heartbreaking (though also inexplicable) is the story of a pig that learns to communicate telepathically.
And though chapters are connected because sometimes a person from one shows up in or is related to someone in another, the author really does spread himself too thin. If he’d concentrated on the stories that make up the first half or so of the book, he’d have had a winner. But he loses focus, expands the scope of the story too much, and as a reader the stakes weren’t as high for me anymore. The ending doesn’t help, a real disappointment.
Date Read: March 18, 2024
Page Count: 292
3 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - March C - non-causasian protagonist in sci-fi, fantasy or horror (28/74)
+ Around The Year in 52 Books 21 - title containing 6+ words (28/52)
.