Bi-Weekly Wrapup

My reading has slowed down these past few weeks. Around the first of the month I was able to finally get my wrist looked at by a specialist and got it fixed. I have since been building up strength in it, getting back to some of my old habits like playing games and working out again. It’s a slow process, and I’m doing those things slowly to acclimate to it. I pretty much had no mobility in my thumb and wrist for 7 or 8 months so it has no strength. So steady and slow I go, but I sacrifice some reading in the meantime.

It’s all for the good however – so here are the first two weeks of February. If any of this has its own review coming up I’ll just touch on it or point you to said review if available. Video also available here with captions!

This ranges the first two weeks of February from Monday the 30^th of January till today, Monday the 13^th of February.

•  The first two books I finished were the 3^rd and 4^th Series of Unfortunate Events
  novels, The Wide Window and the Miserable Mill. I missed the hype train on these, I was either just old enough or advanced enough in my reading (since I was usually a bit ahead of the curve) to have missed it when these got popular. I remember them, vaguely as something that showed up in my library, but I had no interest in them at the time. So since the new show is out I took this as the push I need to finally read them. I can’t guarantee I’ll finish the show but I can finish the books. I’m enjoying them so far, but they are formulaic at this point as all children’s books are. The Miserable Mill is definitely my favorite so far. And I do have to say, the things that happen to these children are surprisingly dark and… unfortunate.
•   The next book I finished was The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. I really enjoyed this super short popular science novel. I’m hoping to talk more about it in an upcoming Non-fiction wrap-up so more than!
•  A few days later I got through the next Phryne Fisher book – Blood and Circuses. This was definitely one of my least favorite of the series in some respects but my favorite in others. There was a really powerful scene towards the end with Phryne and a decision she makes, but the build up to it and the ‘hidden identity/undercover’ trope aren’t really my cup of tea. I’m glad our great detective is back at home with Dot, I missed her after that particular book.
•  Universal Harvester was my disappointing read of the week. I had such high hopes
  for this new ‘horror’ book. I won’t go into it to much as I wrote a review and published it here. The TL;DR, it didn’t fulfill its promises though it did a great job at atmosphere and the writing itself was lovely.
•  Starting week two off I read Authority by Jeff VanderMeer – the second Southern Reach book. This wasn’t nearly as strong as book one for me, but the ending on this was enough to get me into book three. I felt like Control seemed to wander a lot, but I think that was his purpose and part of his character. After the half way point they definitely explained a lot of that so it’s worth it to stick through till then to see if the twist is good enough to keep you going.
•   I followed up with a great book for me, A Study in Scarlet Women. Please ignore my tickled little girl squeals. I loved this. This also is part of a wrap-up I plan on doing in the coming weeks so stay tuned for that.
• I was on a roll, the next day I finished up Love & Ruin. This is a collection of essays
  from the Atavist Magazine. I was really impressed with this, I never have read anything from this magazine, or really heard of it. Turns out it was really good. I enjoyed all of the articles and essays the best by far was about 52 Hertz, a blue whale that sang at a pitch that all other whales couldn’t hear and the impact of it’s discovery made on a lot of people. Very worth picking up if you want to try non-fiction.
• The last book I finished for this wrap-up was The Crossover by Kwame Alexander.
  This was a super fast read that I squeezed in Sunday afternoon. Written in verse, it’s the story of a middle school boy dealing with family and his twin getting his first girlfriend. It definitely shocked me with how emotional I got so fast, and I really loved the way the prose worked, especially when it broke the usual mold. Lovely middle grade read.

That was it for two weeks! Hopefully the next two weeks will be a little more diverse and interesting but we shall see!