This past week has been a blur of travel and work and family and friends and presents and festivities. So, there wasn’t much time left over for books…. I did carve out a little reading time, though… Here’s what was going on in my book life this past week…
Inbox (books acquired)
- On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft by Stephen King (paperback) — I gave a lot of books to friends and family for Christmas this year, but this was the only book I received for Christmas this year. One of our friends was reading this when we were vacationing together this summer, and we were talking about it. He remembered and got me a copy for Christmas. Pretty cool.
Outbox (books finished)
- This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Kindle) — This just came out in the US on Tuesday and I started it almost right away. It’s a companion book to These Broken Stars, which I think came out last year. I had such high hopes for this book because I loved These Broken Stars. Unfortunately, I didn’t like this one as much as the first book. I did like it. It was a fun, fast-paced read. There’s tons of tension on almost every level: action, mystery, romance, etc. The tension really keeps the story moving and kept me reading, wanting to know what happened next. The characters were fine. Each chapter is written as first-person narration, alternating by chapter back and forth between the two main characters’ perspectives. They start to sound too much alike after a while, and I had to keep reminding myself who was “talking” in each chapter. They fall for each other quickly (expected), but the story doesn’t really support the instant attraction, so it didn’t feel entirely believable to me. I think the overall plot had the potential to be even better than the first book. But, in the end, I just didn’t love it as much as the first. I have enough thoughts about it that I’ll probably post a more in-depth review this week.
Queue (what I’m reading next)
- It’s about time for me to finish reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell in preparation for my work book club discussion coming up in two weeks…
- I have several other in-progress books I’d like to finish before the end of this year… we’ll see how that works out…
I’m due for some end of year posts… at the very least, a “best of” 2014, and definitely some discussion about my reading plans for 2015. So, stay tuned for more from me in the next few days…
EMM Blogs 