Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #965 - 2017 - Books Read - a review

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #965 - 2017 - Books Read - a review, pt.1 

Hi Mom,

Reading is one of the most important things in my life. Outside of love for dear family, dogs, and friends and other very good things, I love reading the most. I probably love it more than eating or drinking. I am so grateful that I can read and I can read what I like. I feel very privileged and fortunate every day when I take a break from toiling away starting at screens and focus on paper by consuming wonderful and enthralling stories by some really great authors. I never take the gift of reading for granted.

This post is about what I read in 2017.

So, from the looks of things, I never managed to post any round ups of reading in the entire year of 2017.

I did manage one combined TV show and book review of Big Little Lies here:

http://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2017/04/hey-mom-talking-to-my-mother-649-big.html

Somehow, I managed to post that review, full of original content, in one of my busiest months of the year, April, around exam time.
Previously, I managed two separate round up posts of book reviews from 2016 at the start of 2017 at these links here:

2016 round up part one

2016 round up part two

Some of the books reviewed in these posts -- such as Prince Lestat and The Girl on Train -- appear in the images above because to get a nice grid of images from Good Reads, I needed to capture more than just the 2017 books read.

Here's my GOOD READS LINK.

So the two grids above spill into books from 2016 and now books from 2018 as Central Station is one I finished in 2018 and already reviewed as Hey Mom #922. Also, though I started in December, I finished The Book of Dust and The Boy on the Bridge in January of 2018.

By my count, which is approximate, I read 30 books in 2017 not counting graphic novels. This output seems good for me but not half what Kieron Gillen (70) can read while writing six comic books and all his social media and con appearances and being, arguably, busier than I am,

Ambitiously, I wanted to write at least a paragraph or so on each book, but such an undertaking may be too much for me, at least all in one go. I might more easily render it in parts.

As for providing an overview, I can surely say that Welcome to Nightvale was the weakest and the most disappointing of this group.

I would be hard pressed to select a favorite or the best. I enjoyed many of these books, though definitely some more than others.

Wow, super-talented artist Kimmo Lahtinen created some beautiful amazing fan art for All the Birds in the Sky. I’m just honestly in awe. See the whole thing over on Twitter.

For a book that won awards, such as the best novel Nebula in 2017 and the Locus Best Fantasy Novel 2017, All The Birds in the Sky was good enough and I enjoyed it, but I am not sure why it won a best novel Nebula in 2017 up against books like .... well, books I haven't read. So I really have no idea if it was deserving or not. Besides, NK Jemisin has been sweeping the Hugo Awards wit her books, one of which was nominated for the Nebula up against Charlie Jane Ander's All The Birds in the Sky. Obviously, I am just reacting negatively to hype. So don't mind me... move along. It was a very good book. Shutting up now. Besides, Charlie Jane's bio on Good Reads is hilarious. I am tempted to reprint it, instead I will link it.

To the right, find her Good Reads profile photo. What's not to like, seriously?

Plus, I love her writing on io9.com, though I must confess that I have not read anything else she wrote, though I should make work of it, such as Hugo winning novelette "Six Months, Three Days" that I have on my tablet, having copied it in April of 2017. This happens a lot when I save things for later reading and then later does not come.


Or this Wired story, I could read -

My story “Stochastic Fancy” is up in Wired Magazine, and I love the illustration by Josan Gonzalez SO MUCH. Just beautiful.

And then, I did read this story. It's very good. I recommend it.

I guess with All the Birds in the Sky, my expectations were too high. With award winners, I have this expectation to have my mind blown and to read something that stuns me rather something that is simply very good. My experience was the same with NK Jemisin's The Fifth Season and another Hugo winner I read a few years back: Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. All of these books are very good, especially Jemisin's lyrical prose and excellent world building, and yet my mind was not blown by any of them. Maybe I have been spoiled by amazing Pulitzer winners like Middlesex and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and so I always expect that level of astounding, min-blowing, earth moving, paradigm shifting brilliance, and then I am disappointed when I don't get it.

These books are good, even great, maybe.  All three award winners I listed provided enjoyable reads, and I have no regrets for reading those books (unlike the Nightvale novel). Okay, moving on now.

I am on a reading binge in 2018, probably because I am making more time to read, and I am focused on books more, and also because I try to walk the dogs daily, which means at least an hour of audio per day. Plus here in the PACNW to go to Vancouver means at least an hour of audio book not to mention audio book time when I prepare food or clean.

So, I have already read eight novels in 2018, which is close to one fourth of the entire output of last year. One would think I would have more books, at least via audio completed last year because of all the time spent packing. But then I am not sure how much I was listening to books while packing.

Granted some of the books were big-ish, and I did take breaks to try to catch up on Nightvale podcasts, which are losing their allure despite being very well done. It just seems as if there are not enough books or some are missing, not that I could guess what those would be.

A couple of other things on the grid. It's not arranged chronologically, at least not strictly. I let twenty or so books pile up in the currently reading queue thinking I would mark them read one by one as I wrote reviews that I posted here. When I realized that was unlikely to happen, I marked them all read on the same day, near the end of the year.


I did read the Binti books twice each, once in audio and once traditionally.

For other traditional readings, I read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Everything Belongs to the Future, Agents of Dreamland, Miniatures, The God Engines, The Fifth Season, and Stars Are Legion while the others were all consumed via audio, except the graphic novels, though I managed fewer of those in 2017 unlike 2016, which featured many.

The grid does not show a lot of nonfiction, primarily all the reading I have been doing about programming. I could add at least one book that I read pretty much completely: Python Crash Course from No Starch Press.

Also, Dad and I listened to Proof of Heaven as we drove west, and then I listened to it again in the early days of living here in my new home.

I read a ton of comics plus articles on the Internet on my tablet and various other things, magazines etc.There are also short stories, such as those by Monica Byrne, whom I support on Patreon.

I had to listen to Eric Braeden's book and Bruce Springsteen's book as both were narrated by the author, which was a wonderful treat for my passions.

It's difficult to pick a favorite book. Big Little Lies and The Collapsing Empire were two of the best listens, though I adored Claire Danes doing The Handmaid's Tale, as I reread that book, first time on audio, for maybe the dozenth time.

One book I loved and spent a lot of time re-reading portions of as I listened was Cory Doctorow's Walkaway, which I think is brilliant. I enjoyed Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning, which is why I voted it for the Hugo, though I really need to peruse it again before I can say anything other than "great world building" about it.

It was fun to listen to The Compleat Enchanter, which was a book I had picked up a million times and never finished. Likewise, as another book to get me thinking about fiction I want to writ, and since it was an inexpensive audio purchase, I listened to Niven's The Magic Goes Away.

I did enjoy Harry Potter and the Cursed Child very much.

The Ritual and The Hidden People were books recommended by my wife and they share the same trait in that the initial mystery is much better than pay off to the mystery, especially for The Ritual.

I loved The Fireman, though I don't think Hill sustained the premise's initial promise well enough throughout, and I was disappointed with how he executed the ending.

I really liked Revenger and hope there are more books with these characters to come. Also, this was my first Alistair Reynolds, and so I hope to read more from him.

Of course, I enjoyed the next Ender universe book from Orson Scott Card (this time no co-author) because I am fully invested in his work despite disagreeing with some of his politics.

Did I really go the whole year not reading the next Laundry Files book by Charlie Stross? That's a shame. I have the next one ready to go and have listened to 20 minutes of it.

Lastly, NK Jemisin's The Fifth Season was slow to build its momentum and get a full head of steam, but once it did, then it was quite good. I find her writing very lyrical and her characters compelling. The world building is fascinating in this one as are the situations and mysteries, and I am keen to read the next two, but do not even own them yet, so not sure when I will get them logged in the stack.

That's all for now. I may manage to some individual reviews. But this is a pretty good round up.

If nothing else I wrote is true, I do intend to read more books in 2018 than in 2017.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Days ago = 967 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1802.25 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.