This year I’ve decided to be more intentional with tracking my reading … which means I’ve started logging everything on Goodreads. I read five books and four trade paperbacks in June. Here’s the list in order of when I finished them and my quick thoughts on each one:
On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions by C. S. Lewis. I really loved this book! Lewis’ insights on writing, his advice to authors, his thoughts on other books … all of it was fascinating! I was highlighting my way through the book. Highly recommend!
She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. I appreciate the underlying story element of the main character wanting to learn more about her deceased sister by playing her sister’s Dungeons and Dragons game she wrote. I felt like that story got lost in the profanity and sexual innuendo between adults and minors. Good idea, questionable delivery.
She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition by Qui Nguyen. A somewhat sanitized version of the above play. I actually think the storyline of the main character trying to learn about her deceased sister came through a little stronger. I appreciated it having less profanity and making the main character a high school student (like many of the other characters), so at least the innuendo wasn’t between an adult and children, but it’s still a miss for me.
Leading from the Second Chair: Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams by Mike Bonem. Recommended to me by a friend, I enjoyed this one. It has a lot of practical insights on leading when you’re not the main leader, which I appreciated. Definitely recommend.
Ubik by Philip K. Dick. One of PKD’s more known works, Ubik is a trippy novel. I ended up reading almost the whole thing in a day … I enjoyed it. Weird, fun, mysterious, it kept me guessing until the end. I’ve been gravitating towards PKD’s books this year; I hadn’t read any of his works before, though they’ve been on my list, and I’m glad I’m finally doing it.
Galactica 1980 (Classic Battlestar Galactica) by Marc Guggenheim. I’ve been working my way through the (massive) oral history of Battlestar Galactica by Mark Altman and in it he mentioned this reimagining of the failed Galactica 1980 tv show that only lasted 13 episodes. It’s painful to watch. The TPB collects the Galactica 1980 comic series into one book; I really enjoyed it. Great story, fun reworking of the show premise … I wished they had been able to make the sequel they intended to make for the comic book series.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Too Long A Sacrifice by Scott Tipton. I read this one because one of my favorite comic artists did some of the covers for this series, JK Woodward. It’s a mystery starring Odo. Strong story!
Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Echoes by Marc Guggenheim. Another series featuring artwork from JK Woodward (some of which I now own). Set during the motion picture era, it’s an interesting story featuring alternate universe doppelgangers of some of the Enterprise crew.
Star Trek: Discovery – Adventures in the 32nd Century by Mike Johnson. A collection of Discovery stories, this one was okay. Great art, I liked that it was four different stories rather than one long one.
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