My Guilty Book Habits

I just finished reading Matched a little while ago. I immediately had to get the next book Crossed on my iPad with my library card. Libraries are awesome, use their services and support them! K, random library support aside, you can imagine that I enjoyed this book.  Just to give you some context, this book has been around a while, since 2011 to be exact. It was one I've always meant to read but kept choosing other titles first. I finally decided this was the year I would read it, and I'm so glad I did.  ******SPOILERS***** The story of Matched is about a seemingly utopian society. Everyone's needs are provided, they are told what jobs they will do based on assessments of each person's likes and capabilities, and even their partners are chosen for them based on correlating data for the best possible outcome. Overall, people's lives are pretty good.  The main character, Cassia has had a good life, good friends, and not much reason to question the system that exists....

There's a lot to unpack with both the written version of The School for Good and Evil , as well as the Netflix adaptation. If you watched it on Netflix, but haven't yet read the book I strongly encourage you to get the book as soon as humanly possible.  I'll be transparent about the fact that I may write multiple posts about this, just because there's so much worth discussing. It's not so much that I could just talk about the book forever--though I'm quickly learning that is a possibility--but rather that the book is full of fun concepts, interesting characters and messages worth contemplating.  One of the things that is interesting in the book, is that the author uses common tropes or stereotypes and weaves them into the characters. For instance, as humans we are drawn to aesthetically-pleasing things. Beauty has inspired music, poems, art, and action. It is a part of the universe, but the author of The School for Good and Evil takes this blind love of beauty ...

 I've managed to finish another couple of new books (and re-read a few others), so I'll give a generic opinion about the two I finished reading recently. I'm sleep-deprived at the moment, so I'm just going to jump right into the post. What was the last book you read, and what did you think of it?  The Color of Magic , by Terry Pratchett     If you have read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , and enjoyed it, then this book may be perfect for you. The tone is satirical and overly-dramatic in appropriate space opera fashion. This book was originally published in the 80's apparently, so there are some sexist attitudes about women, but it seems as if it's meant to poke fun of people who don't think women are capable. It's not prevalent in the book, just a few bold over-the-top statements that I believe are meant to point out how stupid those stereotypes sound.  Overall, it's a very interesting book. It's a playful tone, whic...

 For a very long time I didn't want to look at books. I didn't want to think about them, and I couldn't even stand to think about doing any of my own writing. My brain had too much going on to let much of anything else in.  Now, it's been a few years and I finally felt the urge to pick up a book, and I've been working on my own writing as well. I feel like it's better not to read other people's work when you're writing your own, so part of that non-reading time was due to my own creation. It's in the editing stage, working on the 6th revision, but I can see where it can potentially get so I'm excited to see if I can figure out how to get it to that golden spot of potential.  In the meantime, it's been nice to be able to pick up some books. I'm going to need to provide some comparisons for my work, and while I know it's not great to pick the most popular books (nor could I, since my work is quite different), I honestly am not sure what...

Life can get pretty crazy sometimes, am I right? Well, for me, it's been way too long since I had that burning desire to sit down with a good book. Luckily, I'm getting back to that love of reading and have read more in the past few months than I think I have in the past three years combined. Not that I've read a ton, just that it seems that way in comparison to the reading drought of the past few years.  Here's a few that have struck me as interesting reads, that were a breath of fresh air. The underlined titles are links to Barnes and Noble in case you want to pick up a copy for yourself. It's just for convenience, I don't get anything from it...well, except for the joy of sharing a good book recommendation with others.  Skin of the Sea , by Natasha Bowens This watery masterpiece was a delight to read. The material is heavier in nature as it combines some historical elements (slavery) with the fantastical elements. This is the first book of a series, and I...