pancake

I finished Educated by Tara Westover. I really liked this book. It gave me a glimpse into an upbringing that is about as different from mine as I can imagine. If you want to get an idea of what it's like to grow up in a distrusts-anything-government, survivalist family, I highly recommend.

Now I've started Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I'm still early on but I love how this book started. It instantly gripped me and I can't wait to see how it goes.

You could try Magic Earth.

It uses OpenStreetMaps, same as organic maps, but also has crowd sourced traffic data. I haven't tested it much though so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was alao very good! I really wish she wrote more but I've read she struggles with chronic illness so it's hard to get more books out.

For Educated, while the survivalism is very present, the book is more exploring the impact it has had on the author's upbringing and on her siblings.

I finished the short stories in my copy of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Some of them haven't aged that well but overall I found most of them enjoyable.

I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. This book was absolutely amazing. If you want a short, atmospheric fantasy I highly recommend. I think this is a book I'll return to routinely.

Now I'm reading Educated by Tara Westover. It's a memoir about her growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho. She was not enrolled in school and didn't even have a birth certificate for many years. I'm not very far in yet but it is fascinating and very easy to read.

I actually came across a spoiler for the I Am Legend book years ago, so it wasn't a total surprise. Though either the spoiler had it partly wrong or my memory of it wasn't fully accurate so there were still some surprises. Did you read through the short stories as well?

I finally finished The Wheel of Time series! I took forever to get through the last book, longer than with any of the slog books, but I'm so happy to be done. I do wish the last book was more satisfying. It just felt very different in tone from the rest, partly I think due to Sanderson running out of source material. But there was still a lot I enjoyed across the whole series, so I don't regret putting the time into it.

I finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson last night. My copy of the book contains a bunch of short stories by the author as well, so now I am reading through those. He is very effective at writing short, impactful horror.

I have one Bingo (the top row) so far and 9 total squares filled. Definitely not expecting to fill the whole board, but I'm hoping to get at least one or two more bingoes complete. It's been fun sitting down and seeing what square I can assign each book to as I read!

I'm reading A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time Book 14!). I'm only about halfway through and so far it's been good but I liked the books leading up to it more. We'll see how the second half goes.

I'm reading The Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time book 13!!) by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. I'm so close to the end of this series! And the last few books have been sooo satisfying. For a while during the slog I was worried but I'm glad I stuck with it.

I finished The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence (The Red Quern's War book 3). The character growth across this trilogy really made this book satisfying, though it made the earlier books a bit rough for me. I really wasn't a fan of the main character's flaws early on.

Now I'm on to The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time book 12!). Only just started so no real impressions yet but I'm so excited to see how this series wraps up. It feels like I'm actually getting close to the end of this giant journey!

I finished The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence (Red Queen's War book 2). It's a fantasy-scifi blend leaning more towards fantasy, in a post-apocalytic setting. I struggled a bit at first but my enjoyment really picked up in the second half. I look forward to seeing how this trilogy will end.

I just started book 3, The Wheel of Osheim last night. I'm only a chapter in but I'm already finding it very gripping.

In between, I read Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. This is a crime/thriller book taking place in South Boston in the 1970s. It features a significant event in Bostom's history from that time period (busing to desegregate the city) and a fictionalized version of the crime boss Whitey Bulger. I found it considerably better than most crime fiction I've read and thought the themes were heavy hitting and well done. I will say I wish the author gave a little more explanation of what he pulled from real life events at the end of the book.

For bingo, I've now read 7 books that qualify for at least one tile (I'm not counting multiple books from the same series - which has been the majority of my reading). I don't think I'll fill the whole board but I think I can achieve at least a couple bingos by the end.

I blasted through Tom Lake by Ann Patchett this weekend. It was exactly what I wanted out of a "summer read". Cozy, but with a strong plot and characters.

I'm still working on The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence. Only have about 100 pages left to go, but for some reason it's just been hard to stick with it. Every time I pick it up, my mind tries to wander.