January 2019 What Are You Reading?

I’ve really started 2019 with a major fiction kick!  I was sick at the beginning of the month so I read several books while staying home and trying to get better.

Nonfiction books:

• None!

Fiction books:

• Dredd: Collecting Dredd vs. Death, Kingdom of the Blind, and The Final Cut
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• Prison of Ice and Snow by Ruth Lauren
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Fair Game by Patricia Briggs
• Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

I’m not really sure which book was my favourite this month because I really enjoyed both Fair Game and Empire of Sand.  Fair Game is by one of my favourite authors, and I really liked how this chapter of her Alpha and Omega series played out.  Empire of Sand was really unique (in my experience anyway) because it was a fantasy written using Mughal India as a basis.  It had some really fun worldbuilding and magic, plus I really enjoyed the story.  So I’m not going to choose between the two this month – they were both fantastic reads! 🙂

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

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Dec 2018 What Are You Reading?

In the lead up to the holidays, I managed to read a few books (mostly nonfiction once again).  But once I got a bit closer to the holidays I wasn’t reading as much.  So here’s what I read:

Nonfiction books:

• Make Your Own Rules Diet by Tara Stiles
• Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction and More… by Dianne Jacob
• The Girl’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio

The Make Your Own Rules Diet was something I picked up at work that sounded interesting.  The other two books are nonfiction books I’ve had for YEARS.  I read Will Write for Food to learn about writing a recipe for Sustainably North; I’m glad I finally read it because it was super interesting to learn about the passion that goes into food writing.

Fiction books:

• Tyke & Dusty by Bill MacDonald

I don’t know if Tyke & Dusty is 100% fiction, or if you’d classify it as creative nonfiction because MacDonald writes the factual life stories of his two cats, but puts in what he thinks they were thinking and saying.

This month, I’m finding it a bit hard to pick my favourite book.  Even though I didn’t rate it very well, I did enjoy reading the Make Your Own Rules Diet.  The other two books, while good, were a bit harder to just sit down and read (they read a bit more like text books I guess).  Tyke & Dusty was really well written too though, so I guess it’s a toss up between the two.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

Nov 2018 What Are You Reading?

I really slowed down on my reading this month because I wanted to really focus on the story I’m working on for the Make Your Way anthology (with the hopes of getting it written and submitted as soon as I can because it’s been two months since I decided to work on it).  So here’s what I did read:

Nonfiction books:

• None this month!

Fiction books:

• Rhubarb by H. Allen Smith
• I, Death by Mark Leslie

I wasn’t a huge fan of either book, but of the two I’d say my favourite was Rhubarb.  It was kind of ridiculous and silly but I still found it to be a lot more fun than I, Death.  I read Rhubarb right before I, Death and between the two of them I kind of lost interest in reading for a bit.  Oh well, hopefully the next book I read is more my thing!

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

Oct 2018 What Are You Reading?

Oooh, it’s Gate Night; Happy Halloween everyone! Are you going out tomorrow at all?  Are you dressing up?  I’m going to be working, so I’m going to just be wearing a hat of some sort (probably my blue cat ears that I got from Yunalicia last year at ThunderCon)

After reading The Millionaire Teacher last month, I was feeling a bit burnt out of reading nonfiction (although there’s still lots I want to read).  I guess that sort of translated into being a bit burnt out of reading because I only read three books this month:

Nonfiction books:

• Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall
• Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga

Fiction books:

• Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse

My favourite book this month was definitely Cocktail Time.  My mom recommended I read some Wodehouse because they’re fun and light-hearted reads, which was exactly what I needed after reading Don’t Even Think About It and Seven Fallen Feathers.  My brother brought me both Cocktail Time and Carry On, Jeeves; I opted for Cocktail Time because it’s the one my mom liked more.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

Sept 2018 What Are You Reading?

This month I continued my trend of reading mostly nonfiction books.  I did manage to squeeze in a few fiction reads as well (but they were shorter novellas rather than full novels; even though there were three books, the page count was way less than the nonfiction).

Nonfiction books:

• Bolt and Keel by Kayleen VanderRee & Danielle Gumbley (this is more of a book that you flip through rather than read)
• Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck
• The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning by David Chilton
• The Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School by Andrew Hallam

Fiction books:

• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
• Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
• Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

My favourite book was definitely The Millionaire Teacher; even though I’ve read a fair number of books on finance over the last few months, I found Hallam’s advice superb (and the book really is rather like an updated version of Chilton’s The Wealthy Barber).  I also really liked Walkable City (which I review on Sustainably North if you’re interested); ever since finishing it I’ve been looking at the streets of Thunder Bay with totally new eyes.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

Aug 28 What are you Reading?

After reading Austin Kleon‘s Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered on Monday, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve read over the last month.  I don’t want to be making posts like this too often, so I’m going to give it a try once a month, on the last Tuesday (I’m going to repurpose the Tuesday Talk category for this!) 😉

This year I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction books, and August continued that trend.  I read 5 nonfiction books:

• The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness by Ryan Dowd
• The Anti 9 to 5 Guide by Michelle Goodman
• I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by David Charandy
• The Golden Boy by Grant Matheson
• Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

I did manage to fit in a few fiction books too:

• How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
• Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety by Ann Y.K. Choi

I think my favourite nonfiction book was The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness; Dowd has some fantastic insights to the world of homeless people.  My favourite fiction book was How to Walk Away.  I was looking for a light and fast read and Center definitely delivered; I also really enjoyed the crazy dynamics of her main character’s family.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

Read 25 Books + Editing Pass Complete!

So earlier in the week, I got sick.  It sucked, because while I was feeling completely like crap, I didn’t feel like working on that short story I’ve got on the go (even though I had just a few paragraphs left to go on that editing pass!)

But what I did end up doing was reading.  Quite a bit, actually.  As of today, I finished one book and read two more, including Steve Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, which I read in about 24 hours (thanks in large part to starting it while waiting to see a doctor yesterday).  The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs actually ended up being book 25 in my reading challenge!  So yes, as of earlier today, I accomplished one of my goals for the year – I read 25 books!  At least some good came of being sick. 🙂

In all seriousness though, I am feeling a bit better today.  I’m now on antibiotics, which I think is the main reason for that.  I’ve eaten a bit more today without feeling super nauseous (thanks to being nauseous, I barely ate anything over the last two days).  I’ve spent the evening making soup (it seriously has ended up an entire evening affair – I started at about 6pm, and it finally finished at almost midnight! Oh well, at least I now have soup). And over the last few hours of soup making, I sat down to finish this editing pass on my short story. 🙂

So with my story shaping up, I went to go and check the Duotrope listing I’m planning on submitting it to.  The listing closes in about a week and a half, so I’ve still got plenty of time to work on it.  Unfortunately, I just realized the listing wants short stories of 3500- 5000 words in length.  And their website says they are looking for horror (the Duotrope listing says horror, sci fi, and fantasy).  This story is currently quite a bit shorter than 3500 words (it’s now 2440, which is over 1000 words longer than the first draft, so it’s moving in the right direction), and is not at all a horror.  I just sent them a message over Facebook asking about the genre and whether they are open to accepting shorter submissions (someone else asked about the shorter submissions on their website, but they didn’t answer).  And of course after I asked my questions I found that they say they are open to all forms of speculative fiction.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get this story to 3500 words or not.  But that’s a problem for another day.  For tonight I’m just happy to be done this editing pass! And whether it gets submitted anywhere or not, at the very least it will hopefully be one of the two polished short stories I wanted to write this year. 🙂