Finished the book. It has a slow start, but overall, i thought it was excellent. I found the ending disappointing, though.
Iāve been going through the Bible on audiobook, and for the Old Testament prophets, Iāve got a version with David Suchet ā¦ and when he proclaims doom and destruction, you surely feel it.
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Which version are you listening to? I have a dramatized version that I like. Protestant/NIV. Iāve often been curious about āthe rest of the storyā (aka the books the Protestants left out.)
Finally finished Deathās End. Really interesting book series. Not sure Iāll read it again, but Iām very glad I read it. Now onto either Red Rising or Deadly Education which were recommendations from a colleague and my sister-in-law.
Itās this one right now: [NIV]
Thereās a whole series of them w/ Suchet as the reader. I think he did the whole NIV. I had been doing KJV, but I wanted to try a different reader/version.
Part of what Iām going through is for the literature aspect, as well as history and religion, which is why I started w/ KJV, as thatās where most English literature āquotingā the Bible get their passages/references. Of course, some Biblical references in literature arenāt tied directly to the KJV language, but the concepts themselves.
Sometimes Iāve forgotten some items came from the Bible and not Shakespeare (and sometimes vice-versa)
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I finished A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Interesting, but not as good as Iād expected. The year was done in thematic months. Itās probably the only way that makes any sense and doesnāt really take away from the point of the book at all and even as I type it it seems very nitpicky to me, but I still couldnāt help feeling slightly cheated that things that were mentioned in the advertising were only done for days or a week or a month, depending on what it was.
I think Iāll try Calypso by David Sedaris next.
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Iām back to reading A Time for Mercy and itās feeling really depressing right now.
So Iām going to start Madness in Christmas River, which I donāt think is set during Christmas but in a town named after the holiday. A holiday-adjacent theme, perhaps. Iāve read a couple others in this series and they are decent cozy mysteries.
Finished Ezekiel (seriously weird) and Daniel (always seemed a bit skimpy, especially up against Ezekiel & its great imageryā¦ but always loved Meshach, Shadrach, & Abednego)
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I was wrong. Madness in Christmas River starts on Thanksgiving Day and looks like we will make it to Christmas Eve at least. For some reason that sort of thing is fun for me.
ETA: it was a fun cozy but badly in need of editing. The author overused words like ājustā and āallā. Also the protagonist was on a diet most of the book bc she bought a wedding dress that was too small. Other than that, fun cozy. 
Iāve been reading Andrew Weirās new book, Hail Mary, with my wife. Itās really great! I think!
It feels more contrived than the Martian, which went way out of its way to be entirely about a lone hero genius with no choice but to think on his feet to surviveā¦ This one, thereās often not quite as much of an excuse for that.
It also feels written to a YA audience, but thatās weirdly okay. One thing it does neatly is drop scientific hints for the reader to pick up on whatās going on just before the narrator figures it out. Like a very simple Agatha Christy starring Mr. Wizard. The Martian and Artemis kind of did the same, but the puzzles were usually too hard for a reader without a degree in bio-engineering or space-welding.
But mostly, it just feels coolā¦ Like an actual science fiction adventure, written by someone who actually knows science, and has thought pretty seriously about the science, but still has a sense of fun.
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Finished The Name of the Rose. I did not figure out the culprit before the reveal. Solid story overall, and I enjoyed the history lessons.
Started Jane Austenās Northanger Abbey (my last Austen, other than Sanditon, The Watsons, and Lady Susan) and Dragon Wing (book one of the Death Gate Cycle). I read the latter when I was 12 years old but I donāt remember a thing. The series as been on my TBR for about 25 years. So yeah.
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I think I enjoyed Hail Mary even more than Martian.
I finished the Sedaris books, which was good.
Another Rachel Held Evans book that Iād ILLed arrived, so I guess thatās next.
Just finished audiobook of Rebecca. Narrated by Alexandra OāKarma ā very well done.
Good thing I had never seen the movie, and the only reference I knew was from the Fforde Thursday Next books, because I did not see the various bits coming, though one ātwistā didnāt surprise me in the least. I liked the ending, though a bit too Neal Stephenson-y, if you know what I mean.
I finished Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans. I listened on audiobook and the half where she talked mostly about her story I found myself really paying attention to and the the other half my mind did more wandering. This probably sounds stupid, since, duh, itās true, but the one half sounded like she was just reading the book.
The next hold that just arrived is A Room Of Oneās Own by Virginia Woolf, so I guess thatās next.
Pretty much doing holiday reading now. Current listen is The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan.
On a Stephen King audiobook swing: just finished Billy Summers (enjoyed it a lot) and started The Institute.
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Curious how that goes. I love Woolf but just assumed her feminist writings would be captain-obvious with 100 years of hindsight.
Iām about 3/4 of the way through and, yeah, some is dated/obvious, but it has been interesting in a couple ways. One is looking back on the the history and state of womenās writing at the time, especially as compared to menās writing. And the second is just in the way she wrote it. I think I was expecting more of a dry lecture, but thatās not how she presented things. Itās more ā¦ literary in style, I guess youād say.
Itās the first Woolf Iāve read and probably wasnāt really the one to start with, but I am interested in reading some more.
Itās a quick read. I should be done today.
Well, when youāre in the mood again, my favorites are To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway. I liked Lighthouse better, though itās also weirder. But they are both basically modernist experiments in dumping plot and dialogue and replacing it with some clever people having cool thoughts and feels. Which I guess a lot of writers were playing with at the time (Joyce, Faulkner, Nabokov, etc.) but imo Woolf actually manages to be fun for the most part instead of just outright obscureā¦