Not many completed books this month due to hosting Thanksgiving and a lot of stress. I do have a lot of half-finished books on my pile that I’m trying to get through by the end of the year. Gotta start the new year with a clean book slate. Anyway, here’s what I read in November.
Continue reading “What I Read – November 2021”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”Here’s what the life of astronaut Chris Hadfield can teach writers.
This week I had a chance to re-listen to a favorite of mine, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. One of my book clubs chose to read this one at my suggestion, and I’m so glad they did. Chris Hadfield is the astronaut you might recognize from his viral music video from the ISS or any of his great educational YouTube videos on the everyday life of astronauts. I find Chris’s writing delightful, his life fascinating, and his insights to life spot on.
This time through, I read the book with an eye towards how his advice could apply to a writing career. As you probably know, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for over a decade. Now that my youngest child is in kindergarten, I’ve started to think more often about what I want to be when I grow up. I know I want to do something with words, but nailing that dream down can be hard.
This is where Hadfield’s advice comes in. Here’s what the life of an astronaut can teach writers:
Continue reading “4 Writing Lessons from an Astronaut”Ah, the kids are back in school and so life is back to calm, right? Except that it’s 2021 and things are . . . interesting in Utah schools, pandemic-wise. My reading suffered this month from the amount of time I devoted to political activism, doom-scrolling, and existential dread. On top of that, all of the SF books I read this month were just ok. I guess you can’t find a favorite every month, but I’m feeling a bit like I struck out. However, one of my nonfiction reads has become not only a favorite, but a book I’m trying to pawn off on all the people I know. So I guess it’s not all bad. I’m hoping my reading pace picks up in the fall.
Continue reading “What I Read: August 2021”
Either I’m getting better at reading short stories, or the Writers of the Future contest for 2019 had truly epic submissions, because I found almost every story in volume 36 compelling. I am not usually a short story reader, but I am trying to become one to expose myself to more ideas in my limited reading time. Volumes like this give me great motivation to continue in that endeavor.
Notes on individual stories, attempting to be spoiler free:
Continue reading “Truly Fantastic Fiction: A Review of Writers of the Future Vol 36”
