January Books
Here are the books I read this month.
7 by Jen Hatmaker (4/5)
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hr Bookstore by Robin Sloan (4/5)
I bought this book because I was intrigued by the title. And it's about a bookstore.=) This is fantasy/mystery novel about Mr. Penumbra's bookstore and the strange patrons that come in for odd and old titles. The new night shift clerk and protagonist Clay Jannon figured out what's going on, identified patterns using technology and inadvertently dives into a clandestine organization that has existed for centuries. I enjoyed this book.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (4/5)
This books starts a little slow, with Donald Miller narrating the story about writing the screenplay for Blue Like Jazz, a movie based on his life. He was doing this with two other writers and they collaborated over a many months. Miller learned about the storywriting for the movies and why some events in his life need to be rewritten for the story to be more compelling. When this started getting more interesting for me was when he started thinking of his life as a story. He said yes to many things, new experiences because he wanted to make his story better. It's a great reminder to make those choices that give life more flavor.
Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling (4/5)
Most of the time I look up the reviews on Goodreads before I decide to start reading a book. I request the books from the library online and just drop by to pick them up. But I still like browsing through the shelves and finding something good by happenstance. I found Very Good Lives and Beam Gives Me the Hiccups this way. Although it was really the authors that attracted me to the books.
I haven't heard of Very Good Lives before so I was curious. It happens to be the text of J.K. Rowling's commencement speech at Harvard. There's word art interspersed which made the book more appealing. She gave good advice to the graduates, especially on imagination and failing. 4/5
Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg (2/5)
I was impressed by how Jesse Eisenberg played the character of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. So I picked up this book hoping to see that he writes just as well. This book is a collection of modern short stories. I say modern because the style is different from the usual narrative. There are chapters that are text or mail exchanges,... While I found some of the bits funny, I couldn't get into many of them. Eisenberg is clearly intelligent and well-informed but you can sense that he does not suffer fools gladly. Or it may be that I read this in the context of his portrayal in The Social Network. 2/5
7 by Jen Hatmaker (4/5)
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hr Bookstore by Robin Sloan (4/5)
I bought this book because I was intrigued by the title. And it's about a bookstore.=) This is fantasy/mystery novel about Mr. Penumbra's bookstore and the strange patrons that come in for odd and old titles. The new night shift clerk and protagonist Clay Jannon figured out what's going on, identified patterns using technology and inadvertently dives into a clandestine organization that has existed for centuries. I enjoyed this book.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (4/5)
This books starts a little slow, with Donald Miller narrating the story about writing the screenplay for Blue Like Jazz, a movie based on his life. He was doing this with two other writers and they collaborated over a many months. Miller learned about the storywriting for the movies and why some events in his life need to be rewritten for the story to be more compelling. When this started getting more interesting for me was when he started thinking of his life as a story. He said yes to many things, new experiences because he wanted to make his story better. It's a great reminder to make those choices that give life more flavor.
Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling (4/5)
Most of the time I look up the reviews on Goodreads before I decide to start reading a book. I request the books from the library online and just drop by to pick them up. But I still like browsing through the shelves and finding something good by happenstance. I found Very Good Lives and Beam Gives Me the Hiccups this way. Although it was really the authors that attracted me to the books.
I haven't heard of Very Good Lives before so I was curious. It happens to be the text of J.K. Rowling's commencement speech at Harvard. There's word art interspersed which made the book more appealing. She gave good advice to the graduates, especially on imagination and failing. 4/5
I was impressed by how Jesse Eisenberg played the character of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. So I picked up this book hoping to see that he writes just as well. This book is a collection of modern short stories. I say modern because the style is different from the usual narrative. There are chapters that are text or mail exchanges,... While I found some of the bits funny, I couldn't get into many of them. Eisenberg is clearly intelligent and well-informed but you can sense that he does not suffer fools gladly. Or it may be that I read this in the context of his portrayal in The Social Network. 2/5
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