What I’m Reading

2022

2021

2020

All things Holly Gibney…

And time travel…

2019

For my next course focuses on Speculative Fiction writing, I’m reading Peter Straub.  I chose Shadowland because my own dystopian speculative fiction novel that I am working on which contains elements of the extraordinary abilities of my main character.  I am looking forward to reading a story with an enigmatic magician at the center.

I celebrate the completion of each class in my MFA program with a novel.  Last class I reread It.  This time, it’s Doctor Sleep, which I hadn’t read before.  By page 20 I couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it before!  It’s so character driven with Dan Torrance at its heart, and connects so wonderfully to the expanded universe Stephen King has created by interconnection so many of his stories.  I cannot wait to finish it and go back and reread The Shining too.

Back in the late seventies, The Mirror is the book that started my obsession with time travel.  It’s just as good now as it was then.

I first read It during the summer of 1987, not too long after It was first published.  I decided I cannot wait until September for the movie IT: Chapter 2, so I ‘m rereading this book again.

This one of my absolute favorites of Robert Heinlein.

I read some classic Robert Heinlein science fiction from the sixties for class the term.

Young adult offerings (re)reading for class this term.

2018

Reading for class this term.

Reading just for fun.  I really liked Joyland, it’s real and engrossing and a fun read.

Lee Child is right, “Nobody in the world does this better than Cornwell.”

2017

Back in the late seventies, this is the book that started my obsession with time travel.  It’s just as good now as it was then.

2016

2015

2012

So many books, so little time! 🙂

2011

Before I Go To Sleep, by S.J. Watson (plan to read soon)

I’ve heard nothing but go things about this book, but I still have a few on my shelf to get to before I track a copy of this one down.

The Devil of Nanking, by Mo Hayder (plan to read soon)

Stowaway, by Karen Hesse (plan to read soon)

The Woodcutter, by Reginald Hill (plan to read soon)

The Time Travelers, by Linda Buckley-Archer

Well, I didn’t actually finish it.  It just wasn’t what I thought it would be, (more C.S. Lewis than J.K. Rowling in the writing style perhaps).  Although I enjoy reading junior and young adult fiction, I still see it from an adult perspective, therefore I’m not going to love all kids books the way I loved Harry Potter and The Golden Compass.

The Shack, by William P. Young

Just had to see what all the fuss was about.

A Dark Matter, by Peter Straub

The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean M. Auel

I was happy the read the sixth and last book in the series, but it wasn’t all I hoped it would be.  In all fairness though, finishing a story started over 30 years ago would be difficult for any author, and I don’t think it’s possible to please everybody.

Holes, by Louis Sachar

In the first few chapters, I was wondering why Holes was so special.  It was well written, interesting, but I was looking for something that would bump it up to award winning.  By the end I realized that nothing in the narrative was wasted.  Everything told to us, the reader, was significant, therefore the plot was superb.  I was entertained, and by the end, surprised.  Good job Louis.

Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King

Sometimes I love to drink Stephen King in long quenching sips to which the novella form is so perfectly suited.

2010

Time for the Stars, by Robert A. Heinlein

It was excellent!  Any science fiction and fantasy reader or writer should read a couple of Heinlein’s stories.  It’s amazing to see what a 1950’s writer thought would be modern technology.  And it is truly interesting how close they come in some of their predictions, (like some things in Star Trek have actually been invented since it was on TV in the 60’s).  Heinlein used true documented scientific principals which gives this story an incredible feeling of real possibility.  I was particularly surprised (and partly alarmed) that when Heinlein thought of the future population in roughly the twenty-second century, he thought five billion people on the planet would be an astronomical number, and that humans would have already faced marginal starvation once we reached two and a half billion.  Oops, sorry Robert, we’re already nearing seven billion.

Time for the Stars was written in 1956.  Heinlein was a prolific science fiction writer, and I suppose the most well known example of one of his books I can think of is Starship Troopers (1959) which was made into a movie in 1997.

2007

Found it!

2006