(no subject)
I've been sick for half of the week, but I'm feeling almost normal today, which is nice. My nose is almost unclogged, my throat no longer hurts, and if I can just catch up on my sleep tonight, I think I'll be doing quite well.
Some things:
- I haven't had any willpower with books so far this year. I'm maintaining my goal of reading 3 physical books per every one book on Kindle, but I have not been achieving it. I've finished four books so far, and they've all been on Kindle. Oops?
- The first was Planetfall by Emma Newman, which I quite liked. She has a very engaging writing style, and I appreciated the character of Ren quite a bit. I've never read a science fiction book featuring a character with her anxiety, and I liked that it was there. I also really liked the imagination of the premise, which is that a young woman awakens from a coma with the coordinates to 'God's City' in her head, and then leads a spaceship full of people to it. The book itself takes place about 20 years after planetfall, and a lot of it is focused on bringing out the truths of what actually happened. I felt like it was a good mixture of mystery and science fiction, and I'm excited to read more by Emma Newman. (And in my defense, I read most of this one in 2016 and just finished it in 2017.)
- The second book I finished was Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. This was non-fiction about language learning and ape language experiments. I thought it was pretty fascinating, as well as giving a much broader overview of the subject than I was expecting. I was glad that I read it. (Also glad to get it off the to-read list, as it had been there since around 2006. Oh, and I read most of this one in 2016. Not to mention that I leave non-fiction exempt from my rules, as I don't really own a ton of non-fiction.)
- For my next non-fiction, I started reading Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, which is an excellent book about the criminal justice system in the US, and particularly in the Deep South. I knew the justice system had problems, but I had never realized how profoundly awful they really are. This book has been a terrible eye-opener for me, and I highly recommend it. I'm more than halfway through, and strongly suspect that it will be a 5 star read.
- Then I started reading Lords of Grass and Thunder by Curt Benjamin, which is Mongolian-based fantasy, and is a book that I've owned since about 2006 as well. I got about halfway through and I'm quite enjoying it. However...
- Last weekend I was feeling quite depressed, and quite off TV, so I wanted to read in bed until I fell asleep. Only the Curt Benjamin book has some narrow margins that make it a trial to hold it open and read sometimes, especially in less-than-ideal light. So I quite frivolously starting reading Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce, the first in her Immortals series. It was quite cute, and I enjoyed it for a sweet tale of found family. Kel from The Protector of the Small series remains my favorite Pierce character, but I look forward to reading more of Daine's adventures this year.
- I finished that one, only to fall sick on Wednesday, and I came home after a long day of work to the intense desire to read something fun. And I will not say that Lords of Grass and Thunder is not fun, because it is, but it has this writing style that is hard to focus on unless you're quite clear-headed. I was not, so instead I went ahead and read Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire. XD This is the fourth book in the Incryptid series, and probably my least favorite so far. The plot involved Alex going to Australia with Shelby due to a werewolf outbreak. I liked the book, but I really disliked Shelby's father, and wasn't thrilled with the rest of her family either, so. I still gave the book four stars, but it was definitely not my favorite of the series. I finished that one up late Thursday, after calling in sick to work that day.
- The cold I have involves a lot of stuffed up nose stuff, along with a sore throat and general reality disconnect, and it was making sleep difficult, so Friday was a long day. I avoided leaving my office at work. I made it through a nice sushi dinner with J and a friend, mostly because all three of us were sick. The food was good, but a little too rich for our tastes, so probably won't be a frequent stop. And then we came home and the week of sleep-deprivation caught up with me and I got super-grumpy.
- I tried to watch some TV to get rid of that mood. I wasn't in the mood for any of my current shows - Bosch and Free! - so I tried to pick up something new. I watched the first episode of The Emerald City, the new Wizard of Oz reimagining. It was OK, I liked the characters alright, but it had some awful stupid moments re: medicine in a world with antibiotics that really irritated me. I'll keep watching for now, but I'm not convinced I'm going to love it.
- I really wanted a new sitcom-esque show to watch, so I tried The Mindy Project. Watched 15 minutes of it, and DNF'd the first episode. From what I saw, not only was Mindy a complete mess, but she hadn't a single redeeming impulse to make that OK. Not gonna lie, kind of hated her character, and the reviews that I scrounged up mostly talked about vicarious enjoyment of her hot mess of a life, so I'm thinking that the show is a pass for me.
- I tried the first episode of Black-ish as well, and I did like that better, although it didn't pull me in. I'll probably watch it casually for a while, and hope that it picks up.
- Oh, I also watched the first episode of Supergirl at some point this week, and it was great! I might try to watch it when J's able to kind of pay attention, though, as he was pretty interested in the first episode too, which I hadn't expected. He really hates Superman, so I kind of thought he would pass on Supergirl as well.
- Speaking of J, we've been watching iZombie together, and I actually really like it! It has the quirky mystery feel that made me enjoy Psych, but with an actual supernatural twist. I really like all the cast too.
- Anyway, disillusioned with TV, I picked three books off my shelves last night to give a try, and am now kind of reading all of them? They're The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse, April Lady by Georgette Heyer, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I was surprised by how funny I'm finding the Wodehouse - I know, I know, that's what he's renowned for. But so is Pratchett, and he's very hit-or-miss with me. I kind of wish I could watch the Jeeves and Wooster TV show, but apparently it's not on Hulu any longer, so I guess not. I'm not very far on Wuthering Heights, and I'll probably be slowest to finish it. I'm kind of just reading a chapter from each, and if I want to continue, I can. If not, I cycle to a chapter from the next book. It's pretty satisfying, so it seems I'm just in the mood for the British sensibility. Comforting to the sick mind?
Some things:
- I haven't had any willpower with books so far this year. I'm maintaining my goal of reading 3 physical books per every one book on Kindle, but I have not been achieving it. I've finished four books so far, and they've all been on Kindle. Oops?
- The first was Planetfall by Emma Newman, which I quite liked. She has a very engaging writing style, and I appreciated the character of Ren quite a bit. I've never read a science fiction book featuring a character with her anxiety, and I liked that it was there. I also really liked the imagination of the premise, which is that a young woman awakens from a coma with the coordinates to 'God's City' in her head, and then leads a spaceship full of people to it. The book itself takes place about 20 years after planetfall, and a lot of it is focused on bringing out the truths of what actually happened. I felt like it was a good mixture of mystery and science fiction, and I'm excited to read more by Emma Newman. (And in my defense, I read most of this one in 2016 and just finished it in 2017.)
- The second book I finished was Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. This was non-fiction about language learning and ape language experiments. I thought it was pretty fascinating, as well as giving a much broader overview of the subject than I was expecting. I was glad that I read it. (Also glad to get it off the to-read list, as it had been there since around 2006. Oh, and I read most of this one in 2016. Not to mention that I leave non-fiction exempt from my rules, as I don't really own a ton of non-fiction.)
- For my next non-fiction, I started reading Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, which is an excellent book about the criminal justice system in the US, and particularly in the Deep South. I knew the justice system had problems, but I had never realized how profoundly awful they really are. This book has been a terrible eye-opener for me, and I highly recommend it. I'm more than halfway through, and strongly suspect that it will be a 5 star read.
- Then I started reading Lords of Grass and Thunder by Curt Benjamin, which is Mongolian-based fantasy, and is a book that I've owned since about 2006 as well. I got about halfway through and I'm quite enjoying it. However...
- Last weekend I was feeling quite depressed, and quite off TV, so I wanted to read in bed until I fell asleep. Only the Curt Benjamin book has some narrow margins that make it a trial to hold it open and read sometimes, especially in less-than-ideal light. So I quite frivolously starting reading Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce, the first in her Immortals series. It was quite cute, and I enjoyed it for a sweet tale of found family. Kel from The Protector of the Small series remains my favorite Pierce character, but I look forward to reading more of Daine's adventures this year.
- I finished that one, only to fall sick on Wednesday, and I came home after a long day of work to the intense desire to read something fun. And I will not say that Lords of Grass and Thunder is not fun, because it is, but it has this writing style that is hard to focus on unless you're quite clear-headed. I was not, so instead I went ahead and read Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire. XD This is the fourth book in the Incryptid series, and probably my least favorite so far. The plot involved Alex going to Australia with Shelby due to a werewolf outbreak. I liked the book, but I really disliked Shelby's father, and wasn't thrilled with the rest of her family either, so. I still gave the book four stars, but it was definitely not my favorite of the series. I finished that one up late Thursday, after calling in sick to work that day.
- The cold I have involves a lot of stuffed up nose stuff, along with a sore throat and general reality disconnect, and it was making sleep difficult, so Friday was a long day. I avoided leaving my office at work. I made it through a nice sushi dinner with J and a friend, mostly because all three of us were sick. The food was good, but a little too rich for our tastes, so probably won't be a frequent stop. And then we came home and the week of sleep-deprivation caught up with me and I got super-grumpy.
- I tried to watch some TV to get rid of that mood. I wasn't in the mood for any of my current shows - Bosch and Free! - so I tried to pick up something new. I watched the first episode of The Emerald City, the new Wizard of Oz reimagining. It was OK, I liked the characters alright, but it had some awful stupid moments re: medicine in a world with antibiotics that really irritated me. I'll keep watching for now, but I'm not convinced I'm going to love it.
- I really wanted a new sitcom-esque show to watch, so I tried The Mindy Project. Watched 15 minutes of it, and DNF'd the first episode. From what I saw, not only was Mindy a complete mess, but she hadn't a single redeeming impulse to make that OK. Not gonna lie, kind of hated her character, and the reviews that I scrounged up mostly talked about vicarious enjoyment of her hot mess of a life, so I'm thinking that the show is a pass for me.
- I tried the first episode of Black-ish as well, and I did like that better, although it didn't pull me in. I'll probably watch it casually for a while, and hope that it picks up.
- Oh, I also watched the first episode of Supergirl at some point this week, and it was great! I might try to watch it when J's able to kind of pay attention, though, as he was pretty interested in the first episode too, which I hadn't expected. He really hates Superman, so I kind of thought he would pass on Supergirl as well.
- Speaking of J, we've been watching iZombie together, and I actually really like it! It has the quirky mystery feel that made me enjoy Psych, but with an actual supernatural twist. I really like all the cast too.
- Anyway, disillusioned with TV, I picked three books off my shelves last night to give a try, and am now kind of reading all of them? They're The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse, April Lady by Georgette Heyer, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I was surprised by how funny I'm finding the Wodehouse - I know, I know, that's what he's renowned for. But so is Pratchett, and he's very hit-or-miss with me. I kind of wish I could watch the Jeeves and Wooster TV show, but apparently it's not on Hulu any longer, so I guess not. I'm not very far on Wuthering Heights, and I'll probably be slowest to finish it. I'm kind of just reading a chapter from each, and if I want to continue, I can. If not, I cycle to a chapter from the next book. It's pretty satisfying, so it seems I'm just in the mood for the British sensibility. Comforting to the sick mind?