February and March 2018
Round-up of books read in February and March that I don't intend to write standalone posts for.
My favorite of the books I've read recently were probably Books 2 & 3 of N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy. I typically don’t like to read books by the same author or in the exactly same genre right in a row. But this trilogy benefited from keeping the characters and situations very fresh. If you like speculative fiction, I definitely recommend 2016 Hugo Winner The Fifth Season and the solid sequels The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky.
I restarted the Cast In ____ series by Michelle Sagara and continued the reread of C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner Series with volume #7. Ms. Sagara’s writing isn’t anything extraordinary, but I’m enjoying the multi-species world and their interplay (with DRAGONS!). Cast in Shadow and Cast In Courtlight are definitely light reading unlike the convoluted language used by Ms. Cherryh in Destroyer, but there's a place for both types of books.
And while I haven’t made much progress on I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life, the Flat Book Society selection, I’ve read some non-fiction during February and March including:
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay, We Should All Be Feminists , which I highly recommend.
- Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, which was assigned to my 10th grade son. I think A Long Way Gone was groundbreaking when first published in 2007, but I found it rather dry and not particularly well organized, As the world continues to spiral with horrors, I hope they can come up with something better edited to represent the child soldier experience.
I'm currently on-pace for my goal of 52 books read this year, despite my other responsibilities, which makes me happy.