Strong start to the year, though a few of them were re-reads.
1/100 -
1984 by George Orwell
I read this for the first time as a high schooler and haven't picked it up again in many years, though it is on my "keeper" shelf. Current events and a couple of projects I'm working on right now inspired me to take another look, and it is a very different read through adult eyes. I don't know what to say without crossing certain DIS lines - it is hard to share thoughts on a book like this without veering into politics - but it is a classic for a reason and I am very glad I decided to re-read it. (If anyone is interested in the uncensored review, I've started a blog where I'm incorporating my reading journal among other things. You can find my here:
https://cailin2017.wordpress.com/)
2-3-4/100 -
Pines,
Wayward,
The Last Town by Blake Crouch
Only the third in the series is a new read, but I started watching the TV adaptation while waiting for my library to get The Last Town and when I started it I realized that I had the book and TV versions all mixed up in my mind so I re-read the first two before getting into the third. I like the books so much better than the show! Even the ending, which I've read a lot of negatives about and which did feel at first like a set up for a fourth title, fit with the overall tone and themes of the series. A conclusion with more closure wouldn't have felt believable.
BTW, I got all three of these via Kindle Unlimited. I just activated the free trial month on the 1st and I'm already through several titles. The selection is pretty good and at $10/mo I'm sure I'll keep it for a while as a paying subscriber. It really seems like a long-overdue service, a sort of Netflix for readers.
5/100 -
What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
This was exactly what it promises - scientific answers, sometimes almost painfully technical, to really stupid questions like "What would happen if a pitcher through a baseball at the speed of light?" Utter nonsense, written by a very smart, well-educated man turned internet cartoonist. It really wasn't my cup of tea - the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking "This is what would happen if my son ever decided to write a book". It wasn't that it was bad, exactly. It was just so so SO random with no overarching structure or real-world value that it didn't do anything for me.