So... how was your summer?
Oct. 7th, 2018 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalMmmmmm, whoops? I have been incredibly delinquent of late. In my defense, I started a new job in July and had two work trips to California so I've been kind of busy? Also, it's DC, so everything is, y'know, terrible.
I'm so far behind on book posts. I have actually been reading, though I am still 6 books behind schedule, but I am even FARTHER behind writing them up. So here's July and August. I will (hopefully) be back soon with September.
Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday: This one really didn't work for me. It's essentially three separate novellas - well, the first and third are obviously connected by one character, but the second one is mostly unrelated, except in a way that I'm not going to spoil even though I don't think it actually spoils anything because it doesn't really reveal anything meaningful about either story, lol. Basically, I get what the author was going for, but don't think she pulled it off. And given the whole #MeToo thing, I wasn't especially in the mood to read about a famous old dude who uses his prestige to sleep with much younger women who are trying to establish careers in his field.
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brene Brown: This isn't the first Brene Brown book I've read, and although I know people who love her and swear by her, I remain unimpressed. The basic message of being willing to be vulnerable in order to make courageous decisions is good, but I probably only needed the first chapter or so to get that message (and, honestly, it's not all that different from Big Magic, though slightly less crazy sounding). The rest is just unsubstantiated anecdotes strung together in an attempt to make it sound more scientific than it is.
Tower of Dawn, Sarah J. Maas: I know I said I wasn't sure I wanted to bother reading the rest of this series, but I'm a completist to a fault. And this one wasn't as bad? Mostly because it completely abandons the characters who were annoying me, and follows two side characters who haven't really been relevant to anything for a while. (Also, it's hilarious to me that the main love interest from the early books is now best described as an "irrelevant side character." Sarah J. Maas does not give a fuck about your ships, lol.) Anyway, there was still a lot of royalty and absurdly attractive people, and every couple is an "opposites attract" situation, but at least the superpowers were kept to a minimum?
Forever Peace, Joe Halderman: Haha, another series I wasn't going to continue, and did, against my better judgment. Although this really isn't a sequel at all - it's just a similarly-named, similarly-themed story. At least, the first half is similar - futuristic military setting, soldiers fighting a war no one really cares about but can't seem to end. But then it goes off in a wildly different direction and becomes an entirely different story altogether? It kind of reminded me of the movie Sunshine, the way it raises a bunch of really thought-provoking questions and then goes completely off the rails and becomes a crazy thriller. Like, it starts out as a philosophical exploration of violence as an inherent part of human nature and the psychological toll of war... and then the world is ending and the good guys' solution is basically to become terrorists in order to stop it, and there are assassins after them and a giant religious death-cult conspiracy trying to stop them. And then there's a hand-wavey "and they all lived happily ever after" ending. WHAT.
Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli: This is the book on which the movie Love, Simon is based, and now I really want to see the movie. It is an ADORABLE LGBT YA romance.
I'm so far behind on book posts. I have actually been reading, though I am still 6 books behind schedule, but I am even FARTHER behind writing them up. So here's July and August. I will (hopefully) be back soon with September.
Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday: This one really didn't work for me. It's essentially three separate novellas - well, the first and third are obviously connected by one character, but the second one is mostly unrelated, except in a way that I'm not going to spoil even though I don't think it actually spoils anything because it doesn't really reveal anything meaningful about either story, lol. Basically, I get what the author was going for, but don't think she pulled it off. And given the whole #MeToo thing, I wasn't especially in the mood to read about a famous old dude who uses his prestige to sleep with much younger women who are trying to establish careers in his field.
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brene Brown: This isn't the first Brene Brown book I've read, and although I know people who love her and swear by her, I remain unimpressed. The basic message of being willing to be vulnerable in order to make courageous decisions is good, but I probably only needed the first chapter or so to get that message (and, honestly, it's not all that different from Big Magic, though slightly less crazy sounding). The rest is just unsubstantiated anecdotes strung together in an attempt to make it sound more scientific than it is.
Tower of Dawn, Sarah J. Maas: I know I said I wasn't sure I wanted to bother reading the rest of this series, but I'm a completist to a fault. And this one wasn't as bad? Mostly because it completely abandons the characters who were annoying me, and follows two side characters who haven't really been relevant to anything for a while. (Also, it's hilarious to me that the main love interest from the early books is now best described as an "irrelevant side character." Sarah J. Maas does not give a fuck about your ships, lol.) Anyway, there was still a lot of royalty and absurdly attractive people, and every couple is an "opposites attract" situation, but at least the superpowers were kept to a minimum?
Forever Peace, Joe Halderman: Haha, another series I wasn't going to continue, and did, against my better judgment. Although this really isn't a sequel at all - it's just a similarly-named, similarly-themed story. At least, the first half is similar - futuristic military setting, soldiers fighting a war no one really cares about but can't seem to end. But then it goes off in a wildly different direction and becomes an entirely different story altogether? It kind of reminded me of the movie Sunshine, the way it raises a bunch of really thought-provoking questions and then goes completely off the rails and becomes a crazy thriller. Like, it starts out as a philosophical exploration of violence as an inherent part of human nature and the psychological toll of war... and then the world is ending and the good guys' solution is basically to become terrorists in order to stop it, and there are assassins after them and a giant religious death-cult conspiracy trying to stop them. And then there's a hand-wavey "and they all lived happily ever after" ending. WHAT.
Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli: This is the book on which the movie Love, Simon is based, and now I really want to see the movie. It is an ADORABLE LGBT YA romance.
