October has come and gone and it’s time for book reviews again. Looks like the themes in this month’s reads are great short stories and novels with cliff hangers! I’ll also throw in a link to my Twitter review of the newly released Dune movie. Book reviews after the jump.
Continue reading “What I Read – October 2021”Category: Mormons and SpecFic
What I Read: June 2021
Well, they say a good battle plan never survives first contact with the enemy, and so it was with June’s reading list. During the last month, I packed up our things from our 6-month rental, moved them down to our new home, unpacked all the things from our two storage pods, and began trying to put our family’s life back together. I front-loaded a lot of audiobooks because I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of energy for physical reading this month, but even so I didn’t make it through all the physical books I wanted to read. Plus I got sidetracked by two unplanned reads. I guess that’s #writinglife. Expect me to double up on my writing-related books next month, as those are the ones I’m still working through.
Continue reading “What I Read: June 2021”What I Read: May 2021
Hello, all! I have decided to start aggregating my Goodreads reviews on the blog once a month. I spend a good deal of time writing them, so they might as well get some play! I hope they lend some insight into my reading life and maybe add to your own teetering TBR pile.
Continue reading “What I Read: May 2021”25 Questions Asked Upon Returning to Academic Writing After 13 Years
- What was the name of that awesome program I used to use to manage my research? Ah, there it is.
- Wait, now, what was that database that all the literary papers are in? EBSCO? No, JSTOR, that’s it.
- Woah, there are three whole journals basically devoted to CS Lewis? (Only a bit of an exaggeration.)
- Research is so fun! Why didn’t I go to grad school?
- Now how do I get access to these papers without membership in a university library? Oh, wow, this is way easier than it was in 2008.
- Why is the only academic thing I can find on Brandon Sanderson an undergraduate thesis? And I can’t access it. Oh well.
- Hmm, on reading these papers, none of this actually seems to be useful. Am I missing something?
- Should I buy these academic books on fantasy? What am I saying? Yes. The answer to buying books is always yes.
- How do I know when to stop researching and just starting writing? Maybe now?
- Uh, I don’t know how to start this. I guess, what better place to start than the middle?
- Actually, I need more sources to write this part. What if we move on to this later part?
- Now, how do I cite scripture in MLA?
- Writing is so awesome! Who’s the best writer ever?
- Why did I think starting in the middle was a good idea? Now I have two disconnected pieces.
- Why is this so hard? I remember being good at this once upon a time.
- Why do the Kindle versions of all the other books in this series have page numbers but this one doesn’t? I really don’t like having to cite chapter numbers for only this volume.
- What’s a better way to say “In this paper, I will show . . .”?
- Wait, do you italicize series titles in MLA?
- Is it ethical to just pull this quote from someone else’s paper and quote it as if I actually looked it up myself? Probably not. I’ll just buy the book. Mostly likely will use it again anyway.
- Who on my friend list do I trust to help me fix this paper?
- Am I a jerky friend for not asking sooner? It’s due in three days . . . .
- Oh my gosh, my friend is a genius. Why didn’t I see that?
- Should I save this paragraph somewhere before cutting it?
- Are there any more asterisks I haven’t replaced yet? Oh, there’s one.
- Okay, am I ready for this? Submit!
Springtime and Change
So, a lot has changed since my last post in September. To sum up:
- My husband and I moved our family from Washington to Utah! My husband’s job as a programmer went permanently remote, so as of January 2021, we can live anywhere in the US. I have always wanted to move back to my home state of Utah, and this seemed doubly important after the pandemic cut us off from visiting family. So we sold our home in Bellevue and are now under contract to buy a home in Highland, UT. It’s been a wild ride, but we’re in the home stretch and should be settled in our new place this summer.
- Homeschooling is wonderful and horrible and ending soon. Being able to school the kids anywhere was a real blessing during our move but has also been an absolute drain on my creative energy. I’ve loved teaching about science and literature, but all the planning has really kept me from doing much else. The good news is: only 10 or weeks to go. I’m excited to have a break for the summer and send the kids back to public school in the fall.
- I’ve decided to be more open about my interest in Mormon literature on this blog. At first, I was hesitant to include my religion in this blog at all. As someone once told McKay Coppins, “Mormons have no cultural cachet.” The religious right hates us because we’re not mainline Christians, the left sees us as bigoted conservatives. Obviously exceptions exist, but to admit you’re Mormon and to talk about Mormon books is to severely limit your audience in both directions. Even other Mormons often aren’t interested in Mormon lit. It would be so much easier to just focus on mainstream works. But the intersection of religion, and particularly Mormonism, and speculative fiction is kind of a big thing for me. I’ve had an abstract accepted for the SFRA Review special issue on Mormons and SF, and I haven’t been this excited to write something in a long time. I’m going to have to embrace this niche and hope someone appreciates it as much as I do.
I hope to come back to writing more frequently on this blog as my homeschool workload wraps up and the move finishes, so watch this space for more lit crit and writing process in action!