Reading Challenge Book 15: The Killing Season

Y'all:

It took me entirely too long to read this book, but I blame that (mostly) on work. The next closest branch of my school suffered a catastrophic staffing issue, so my branch has been called upon to fill in the gaps. Add to that the recent "breakthroughs" I've made in the tabletop RPG I'm designing, as well as a couple of recent game drops I've been looking forward to, and I've had to carve up my free time a little differently of late.

So now I'm off track. I'm technically 2 weeks behind, which means I'll have to find a couple of shorter titles that are 1) 100 pages or so (no less, but not much more) and 2) fast reads. I have lots of time to make up for lost time, but I don't want to sit on this. Life has a way of piling up nonsense after nonsense after nonsense, and I truly do want to finish 52 books this year.

Funnily enough, The Killing Season was supposed to be a fast read to help me catch up after the last book took a little longer than I had anticipated. Yeah, that didn't happen!

Reading Challenge Book 14: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Y'all:

Today a friend asked me why I chose to read this book, and it has to do with me serving in the Army. That doesn't make a lot of sense, I know, so I'll try to briefly explain why I picked this one up:

Two weeks or so ago I posted a funny thing about the military on my Facebook page. It seems some butthurt Soldiers have been complaining that they don't have combat patches, and that some Soldiers who had earned them had been asked to remove them. The humorous post was about the mother  of a patch-less Soldier (a guy fresh out of basic) complaining to someone over social media, who directed her to contact her son's battalion commander (for those of you who don't know, this is exactly what not to do). Anyway, long story short (too late!), someone commented that the mother sounded like a "tiger mother," to which I replied, "a whatnow?"

As I am currently living in Taiwan and dealing with this culture (my job exists only because tiger mothers exist), I decided to read this book. It would not only broaden my horizons, but it would also be a book by a female Chinese-American author. It's important for me to make sure I'm not just reading "old dead white guys." And hey, this was a New York Times Bestseller!

Reading Challenge Book 13: The History of Caliph Vathek

Y'all:

I thought this was a vampire story?

Reading Challenge Book 12: To The Roost

Y'all:

Book #12 took a little longer than the others, but it's a special case. I read a book that hasn't been published yet and kept a notebook full of feedback and suggestions. I'm proud to say that I'm one of the first people in the world to read this novel, written by my friend and coworker for the 2015 NaNoWriMo event.

I sat down to read this book with a mission. I knew when Cat wrote the book, and I realized that I was reading the first draft. My mission was to record thoughts, feedback, and suggested edits for Cat to use as she moved forward with this literary project.

Reading Challenge Book 11: Gaia

Y'all:

Here's what Amazon.com has to say about the book I just finished:

"In this classic work that continues to inspire its many readers, James Lovelock deftly explains his idea that life on earth functions as a single organism. Written for the non-scientist, Gaia is a journey through time and space in search of evidence with which to support a new and radically different model of our planet."