Thirty: Second Grave on the Left....Plus, Some Grave (pun intended) Realizations

Second Grave on the Left, by Darynda Jones, 2011.

                                               

TTR: One day. Again, I say MUAHAHA.

Comments:

I feel like this book was written in a hurry, because there are quite a few places where I noticed continuity and/or typo issues.

That said, I DEVOURED this book so fast my eyes are still a little spinny. I love the world Darynda Jones creates, I love her characters, and I love her obsession with coffee.

I also love that the books are set in Albuquerque, NM, which is part of my beautiful home state.

Moreover, and this may attest to my love of the series, I've decided to hold out on reading #3 until I've finished the current draft of my novel. That's right, Third Grave Dead Ahead just became the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick.


SEGUE.


I've come to the somewhat depressing realization that, on this, the thirtieth week of the year (unless my math is wrong, which it could very well be) I have only read thirty books. That's right. I'm averaging JUST ONE BOOK A WEEK. I blame my newly minted attention span. I also blame my schedule. Not to worry, I will still prevail.

*maniacal laughter*

Twenty-Nine: THE DIABOLIST

The Diabolist, by Layton Green, 2013.


TTR: three or four days

Comments:

I read about this book on a book blog, or heard about it on a podcast, or maybe just noticed it on Amazon and decided it sounded intriguing. I can't really remember anymore.

Apparently, it is the third book in a series, but I didn't realize that until after I'd finished it. This should tell you that it works well as a standalone novel. However, perhaps the constant absinthe references would've made more sense to me if I'd read 1 and 2 first.

I liked it. It has an interesting blend of reality and the supernatural that errs on the side of realism, which is a nice break from all of the urban fantasy I've been reading (not that I don't love me some urban fantasy).

Twenty-Eight: A IS FOR ALIBI

A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton, 1982.

       

TTR: one day! MUAHAHAHHAHAHA

Comments:

As you might remember from some of my earlier posts, I have an unhealthy fascination with  an ongoing academic and creative writerly interest in female detectives. I wrote my Master's Thesis on them, for heaven's sake. I'm also writing a mystery and a couple of Urban Fantasy novels featuring female leads who solve conundrums of varying severity.

Somehow, despite all of that, I had never read a Sue Grafton novel (or really any semi-modern female detective novels, for that matter). This was a problem I needed to remedy, stat.

So I picked up a used, three novel omnibus of Grafton's work at the local Hastings and started setting things right.

I love Kinsey Millhone. Despite the fact that her character is old enough to be my mother, she is also a relevant and realistic (for the 80s/90s) female P.I. She is tough but still concerned with the things an actual forty-year-old woman might be concerned with. She cares but she also has had enough life experience not to be too touchy-feely or invested in other's lives.

I'm in the middle of reading B is for Burglar right now.

Twenty-Seven: CONFESSIONS OF A FREELANCE PENMONKEY

Confessions of A Freelance Penmonkey, by Chuck Wendig, 2011.

TTR: about two days

Comments:

GO TO THIS WEBSITE, NOW: http://terribleminds.com/

BUY THE BOOKS AND FOLLOW THEIR ZANY AUTHOR ON THE TWITTERS...

Seriously, guys, it's not often that I read one book by an author and slap them into my little black book of favorite authors who will one day suffer at my hands ala Stephen King's Misery. Haha. Just kidding. I'm too busy hobbling myself so that I can't leave my desk and am forced to write my own novels. Please don't shun me, favorite authors! I promise not to go all Annie Wilkes on you. I'm not even a nurse. It does't even snow where I live, not usually.

Anyhoo.

There are few books that make me chuckle and snicker and grimace and and weep little girly tears on almost every page, and Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey is one of them (the Bloggess' book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, is another one of those books, but I have not yet finished it 'cause I haven't actually purchased it, yet. I just read the bits I could for free on Amazon, 'cause I'm cheap like that. What? Don't look at me like that. Your eyes are like needles right now. I just graduated, I'm broke and looking for a full time job. I'M MELTING. Oh, wait, you're just giving me that look because there's an obvious solution? The library, you say? I think I might have one of those library card thingies...it's buried under the broken shells of a million Kindles, but hey, I'll give it a go).

Gurg. I've taken up too much time on crazed parenthetical rants again, haven't I? Well, here's what I said about the book on Facebook:

Courtney updated her status. 3:12pm

Best thing I've read all day: "Remember: someone paid Shakespeare. He didn't do it 'for the love'...Shakespeare got to get paid, son." From CONFESSIONS OF A FREELANCE PEN MONKEY.

If you're a writer, read this book. If you or someone you love knows or is a writer, read this book Yes, I sound like one of those Melanoma commercials right now. Maybe I should apply to be the voice of those commercials....

Nah.

I'm just gonna stop typing now...

Book Twenty-Six: Zen in the Art of Writing

Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury, 1990.

                                                                   

TTR: a couple of days

Comments:

This is the sort of book that could very easily end up highlighted front to back, if I had no self-restraint. It is soooooo quotable that, while I was reading it, I posted one or two quotes to Facebook a day. Yup. I finally had to cut myself off, slap my hands whenever I reached for a highlighter or facebook, and content myself with underlining in pencil.

Perhaps my favorite post and quote from the book:

9:29pm

Feels very true (if melodramatic) of my life this summer: "If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both. You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. For writing allows just the proper recipes of truth, life, reality, as you are able to eat, drink, and digest without hyperventilating and flopping like a dead fish in your bed." --Ray Bradbury

Book Twenty-Five: SAVE THE CAT!

Save the Cat!, by Blake Snyder, 2005.



TTR: two-ish days.

Comments:

As those of you who've stumbled across my personal writing blog, Syncopated Synonyms, have probably already deduced, I'm not only an avid reader, I'm also one of those maniacal, pseudo-psychopathic individuals that our society likes to call "writers." Those of you who've read my "about me" page have probably deduced the same thing, but that segue doesn't allow for my shameless self-promotion. Duh.

So, I've been reading a lot of nonfiction about the craft and lifestyle of writing. This is one of *those* reads.

This book was pretty awesome, even though I haven't yet tried my hand at screenwriting and read this primarily as a discussion of plotting/pacing. It made me think about structure and content of my story, pointed me in the direction of some other awesome writers, and made me want to write a screen play EVEN MORE THAN I ALREADY DO. Which is probably bad, since I'm already crazed enough as it is.

Book Twenty-Four: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson, 2007.




TTR:  This was another book that I read during my fitful post M.A. reading stage (who am I kidding? that stage is not yet over *sobs*). So, I read it in spurts over the course of two or three weeks.

Caveat: part of the lengthy reading time has to do with Larsson's style, not my recentandcripplingreadingdisability ADHD. Like the Victorians (whom I love but also sort of want to kick in the shins, depending on my mood and the author in question), Larsson takes a LONG TIME TO GET INTO THE ACTUAL ACTION OF THE STORY. So, we know everything we need to know when Blomkvist starts kicking butt and taking names in a very Swedish manner.

So, yeah.

That pretty much covers my comments, too, but that won't stop me from giving you more.

Comments:

If you've kept reading this far into the series, you are probably invested in Lizbeth Salander's story. So, while this book is enormous and hard to follow (have I mentioned the similarity to Victorian fiction?) it is worth reading if you care to know Salander's fate. You might wish Larsson was alive so you could slap him in the face for ending it the way he did. *Shifty eyes...I'm not the only one, right?*

Why I Should Never Do 'Thons...

When I try NaNoWriMo, I bomb.
When I try Summer Lovin' Readathon's, I bomb.
When I...
Nope, that's about it for the bombing.

Why? Well, let me lie on this oddly shaped couch-bed thing and talk whilst you scratch your whiskers and hmmm at the symbolic and psychological implications of my remarks.

I don't do well on other's timelines. Which is not to say that I can't work with deadlines or that pressure ruins me, because I EXCEL under pressure and I have always met deadlines imposed by bosses and/or instructors. I just...need a sense of urgency, or balk at willynilly cramming. Or maybe I don't respect my own authority. I'm not sure.

All of this is to say that I read ONE book during last week's read-a-thon. One whole book. The rest of the time I spent fighting a cockroach infestation and/or procrastinating on my writing. Some weeks. Let me tell ya.