Friday, October 20, 2017

Oct 20 update

I have read the following   

I want to begin by saying everyone should read this book and reflect on the current state of affairs regardless of political leaning.  Challenging ones self to consider different viewpoints and critically reflect on history is a skill many have lost.  The author does lean too heavily on beaten horses and neglects to address many other examples within the twentieth century that aren’t just the Nazi party and recent Russian history.  He does however provide ample evidence to show correlation without just claiming A is B like many people do when discussing the current state of affairs.  He also provides a simple breakdown of what we can do as individuals and groups to prevent repeating history.  One major problem with this books formatting is by not giving the author’s credentials till the end readers are left wondering is this just a liberal rant or does he know his stuff.  I suggest reading the about the author before diving into the book so you’re confident in the narrator.

Insanity (Insanity #1)


This was a fun junk food read. The book is gripping once you accept it as a reading cheat meal. Once I got to chapter 41 I was sucked in and couldn’t put it down.  Most readers wont give a book that long however. The author created wonderful characters that you end up caring about.  The images vary in how well the are described. The section about the belgum cat festival is the most heart-wrenching scenes in the whole book.  I didn’t buy they were in an asylum considering the amount of freedom the patients really had.  The author fell into the trap of many self-published authors.  There wasn’t enough editing and not enough eyes to catch things like on the nose narration, telling instead of showing, or the problem with the omnipotent Carter Piller.  Carter Piller made it too easy for Alice because he spoon fed her everything and told readers everything instead of letting us go on a journey. That being said I was drawn to these characters the way I am candy corn, I want more. With some fine tuning this author has a bright future, you cant teach how to have a good imagination but you can teach how to efficiently revise and edit.

Snowflower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See

A beautiful book that will take you through a series of emotions.  This fictional story reads like memoir and for that reason you’re not scared for the narrator when she’s put in dangerous situations but you get to feel the emotions as she is forced to deal with the mortality of others and relationships.  The author does a great job of giving readers enough context to know whats going on without coming across like a textbook.  The author does a fantastic job of really making you feel for the characters, even making you feel anger toward characters.  I’m excited to read more by Lisa See.

The Skystone (Camulod Chronicles #1)


            While I found the book slow to get into since it was outside my typical reading and requires google open for questions I got sucked in about a third of the way through.  The characters are wonderfully developed.  The interpersonal relationships are captivating.  They are people you want to care about, you want to succeed, and you’d like to see in the real world.  The characters embody a quality we have lost in modern culture, the ability to disagree and challenge each other to be better without taking offense to the disagreement.  There was action till the very last page in the form of battles and interpersonal tension.  The foreshadowing was obvious to those familiar with Arthurian legend.  This book was a great set up for what I expect to be a wonderful series.

I have worked on the following
             I have been working on vignettes for characters.  I have also been working on createing a character toolbox. I’m almost done creating my biography situation prompt sheet which I will se to create characters for the toolbox.

I’m working on the following
             I will be participating if fiction wars for the fall 2017 season. I am also preparing for this years NaNoWriMo
Thoughts

            What do you do to prepare for a competition? What about NaNoWriMo?

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