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thistlechaser(Arg! Three books with long titles means the post's title got cut off! Lafayette in the Somewhat United States is the last one.)
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Last year, Adam Silvera's They Both Die At The End was one of my favorite books of the year. I read another of his books right after, but it didn't work for me as well. I tried reading this one next, but all his books are so deeply sad, it was too much and I needed something lighter, so I put aside History for another time.
I figured it would be a good start to the year, a book I was sure to like, so I picked it up again as my first one of 2018.
In it the main character is a teenage boy who is obsessive/compulsive and is in love with another boy. One of the two moves away, and the couple breaks up. The main character still deeply loves the other boy. Then that other boy dies.
The book goes back and forth in time, one chapter when the two were still a couple, then a chapter in current time with the boy dead. It really seems like it should have worked for me, but it worked even less well this time than the first time I read it. I think because it's too teenager-ish (which is not a slight against the book, since it's YA). I just wasn't interested in all the teenage relationship drama, and the obsessiveness stuff annoyed me, so I stopped reading at the 7% point.
Chronicles of a Royal Pet: A Princess and an Ooze by Ian Rodgers
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Set in some magical land, a princess went to buy a magic pet (having a magical pet is a sign of social standing). Instead of picking something cool like a lily-lynx (a lynx that eats only flowers and can control all plants), the princess is drawn to and picks an ooze/slime as her pet. Unheard of! The petstore owner was only selling it as a joke!
It was a cute story, there was nothing wrong with it. It didn't hook me at all though, and the longer I read, the more and more I was noticing the grammar issues instead of the story, so I stopped reading at 7%.
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
I can't remember the last time I read a nonfiction book. I guess it must have been back in college, decades ago? Thinking this book was fiction, I kept waiting for the story to start, but it never did.
If I had to read a nonfiction book, it would be this one. It was funny and fast reading, with a good dose of humor.
Lafayette was nineteen. Considering Independence Hall was also where the founders calculated that a slave equals three-fifths of a person and cooked up an electoral college that lets Florida and Ohio pick our presidents, making an adolescent who barely spoke English a major general at the age I got hired to run the cash register at a Portland pizza joint was not the worst decision ever made there.
It really wasn't bad at all, I'd just rather spend my reading time on stories and fiction. I stopped reading at 8%. (Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
orangerful for the rec!)
Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 7% + 7% + 8% = 22%
Previous abandoned book total: NA
New total: 22%
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Last year, Adam Silvera's They Both Die At The End was one of my favorite books of the year. I read another of his books right after, but it didn't work for me as well. I tried reading this one next, but all his books are so deeply sad, it was too much and I needed something lighter, so I put aside History for another time.
I figured it would be a good start to the year, a book I was sure to like, so I picked it up again as my first one of 2018.
In it the main character is a teenage boy who is obsessive/compulsive and is in love with another boy. One of the two moves away, and the couple breaks up. The main character still deeply loves the other boy. Then that other boy dies.
The book goes back and forth in time, one chapter when the two were still a couple, then a chapter in current time with the boy dead. It really seems like it should have worked for me, but it worked even less well this time than the first time I read it. I think because it's too teenager-ish (which is not a slight against the book, since it's YA). I just wasn't interested in all the teenage relationship drama, and the obsessiveness stuff annoyed me, so I stopped reading at the 7% point.
Chronicles of a Royal Pet: A Princess and an Ooze by Ian Rodgers
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Set in some magical land, a princess went to buy a magic pet (having a magical pet is a sign of social standing). Instead of picking something cool like a lily-lynx (a lynx that eats only flowers and can control all plants), the princess is drawn to and picks an ooze/slime as her pet. Unheard of! The petstore owner was only selling it as a joke!
It was a cute story, there was nothing wrong with it. It didn't hook me at all though, and the longer I read, the more and more I was noticing the grammar issues instead of the story, so I stopped reading at 7%.
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
I can't remember the last time I read a nonfiction book. I guess it must have been back in college, decades ago? Thinking this book was fiction, I kept waiting for the story to start, but it never did.
If I had to read a nonfiction book, it would be this one. It was funny and fast reading, with a good dose of humor.
Lafayette was nineteen. Considering Independence Hall was also where the founders calculated that a slave equals three-fifths of a person and cooked up an electoral college that lets Florida and Ohio pick our presidents, making an adolescent who barely spoke English a major general at the age I got hired to run the cash register at a Portland pizza joint was not the worst decision ever made there.
It really wasn't bad at all, I'd just rather spend my reading time on stories and fiction. I stopped reading at 8%. (Thanks to
orangerful for the rec!)Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 7% + 7% + 8% = 22%
Previous abandoned book total: NA
New total: 22%
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no subject
Date: 2018-01-02 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-02 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-02 07:38 pm (UTC)Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much. -Sarah Vowell, author and journalist (b. 27 Dec 1969)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-05 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-06 04:32 am (UTC)I did spend way too much time flipping through the book afterwards trying to find a particular quote though because she always has some great lines.
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Date: 2018-01-06 11:21 pm (UTC)Also! I lost track of a comment email somewhere, but Runaways was the series I was watching. I'm only 3 eps in, and they're on 9 now, so I'm quite behind.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 03:51 am (UTC)