The Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? ... JUNE

For my Write ... Edit ... Publish ~ ROMANCE post, click HERE.

Cephalopod Ramblings

Some things of note occurred this month, in terms of reading:

1. I finished Alex J. Cavanaugh's CASSA series, and found the third book to be my favourite of the series, even if I thought they were all great.
2. I read my first Sarah Dessen novel, Dreamland. I thought it was very good, but I couldn't relate to the main character at all - just kept yelling at her to GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM, DUDETTE.
3. I read my bloggy friend Cheyanne Young's Motocross Me, and really enjoyed it. I liked that main character Hana was far from perfect. This book reminded me of the movie Rush, just a little bit.
4. And finally, I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, which is my pick of the month:

This book left me feeling rather depressed. As soon as I'd finished it, I put it aside and said, "Ohhh that's saaaad!" and gave my kitty a big hug for comfort.

This is a great book, though the story is terribly tragic. I feel like a bit of a psycho saying this, but learning the truth about what happened in the last moments of the massacre made me just a tiny bit ... happy. But I certainly didn't finish this book feeling happy in any way. The thing that haunts me most is Peter's story.

This book is so important - it's relevant to the past, but also to the future. America is inevitably going to continue to suffer more of these horrible tragedies, until some very drastic changes occur. I sincerely hope those changes are nigh, but I can't help but doubt that they are.

Goals

Ummm, so yeah, another month has passed, and what have I achieved since last time? Let's recap the last few months for just a second here.

At the end of April I was up to Chapter 13 in my revision project. At the end of May, I was still stuck on Chapter 13.

At least I can say now that I've made it to Chapter 16. But it's been the usual hard slog. And I believe I have edited Chapter 16 already about 5 times. The most recent edit is still confined to paper, because it was rather disheartening to realise I'd have to transcribe edits and print out yet another copy of the chapter to edit ... again!

Anyway, I hope to actually be done with Chapter 16 by the time June is out. But my days for achieving that little goal are numbered!! But at least I can say June was better than May, by along shot!

Hope you guys have had a great June!

Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? [Mar.]

As it's the last Friday of the month, I'm here to post for the Do You Have Goals? hop (hosted by Misha and Beth), as well as the Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club (hosted by the Armchair Squid).

This month I've read 5 books, and they've all be 4 or 5 star books, so it's been a pretty darn good reading month compared to some others I've known. ;) It's kind of hard to pick a favourite because I've read books from very different genres, but I think I'll go with ...

Finally this month, I got around to starting this series, knowing I wanted to see the movie when it comes out here (next month). I really loved this book, and read it fairly quickly, by my standards. It was fast-paced and gripping, and the setting was fascinating.

I guess you could say I didn't really have any complaints, though I did get annoyed at a critical moment when Tris and Four, reunited, get too busy making out to remember they have to save thousands of people from dying right that second. I kind of don't blame them for taking their moment, since it was a very intense, full-on time, but still, PEOPLE DYING, DUDES. I do wonder how many actually did die while the heroes were having their little love fest. But I do get that it wasn't just a normal make-out session. :P

Since I haven't exactly drowned myself in dystopian books since the genre became "big", I'm still not sick of the genre as other people seem to be, so I very much enjoy reading books set in futuristic, run-down worlds like this one.

Oh, and I really loved that Tris wasn't a stunningly beautiful, physically perfect heroine. It was a nice change.

Last month I reported that I'd made some progress with editing SQUEAKY. I can say the same this month. I've made more progress in March, yes, but it's been very slow going, and some chapters are proving particularly torturous to edit. As I edit on paper, I often wind up with pages so heavily scribbled on I can barely read what was originally there. I'm getting the work done ... but at a snail's pace.

I'm stuck on chapter 8, which has been divided into 2 chapters. The second half is now a tiny chapter 9, which definitely needs fleshing out in one section in particular. The first half was, I thought, mostly done, but tonight I went through again and scribbled heavily on a few sections. And even after transcribing those edits, I realise I am probably going to have to do a lot more rearranging of one section in particular, before I can finally say this chapter is done.

March was NaNoEdMo month (even though EdMo isn't running officially this year), and yet I have only done about 15 hours of editing, which is FAR less than the aimed-for 50 hours of EdMo. That is a fail, for sure, but on the win side, at least I'm still going.

See you next month. ;)

Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? [Feb.]

It's the end of the month, and so time to post for the Do You Have Goals? hop (hosted by Misha Gericke & Beth Fred) as well as the Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club (hosted by the Armchair Squid).

This month I read two books, or rather two volumes. One was The Earthsea Quartet, books 1-4 in Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series. I first mentioned this book in my "Letter E" post for 2012's A to Z challenge, when I was featuring books from my GoodReads TBR list. Only now can I say I've finally read the book. It took most of February, but on the upside, it sort of counts as 4 books, right? :)

I found parts of this "book" sort of slow to get moving, for instance the beginning of The Tombs of Atuan, but overall I really loved the read, and found Le Guin's world-building really intriguing. It's a world I'd love to revisit sometime in future (and not just when I read book #5 which I do now own). The stories were quite different, with the last feeling like a definite departure from the norm. But I really liked the last one. One of my favourite sections of any of the books was when Ged and Arren were with the raft people.

In other news, currently I'm reading The Catcher in the Rye for the first time ever (no, really). Loving it so far.

A month ago I didn't have anything fun to say, and was feeling quite flat. Next came the Winter Olympics, which consumed a lot of my attention. Probably because I hoped the TV would reach out and suck me into a wintery vortex out of this revolting swampy summer heat we're having (88 days without a drop of rain!! I feel that I am slowly drying into a desiccated husk. Help! And tomorrow is going to be 38c). Anyway, the Olympics ended and I got my life back. Except I still hate the weather.

This week I've made some progress with my revision. To recap, I first tried to start editing DAPHNE II, but after merely opening the file and staring at the first paragraph, I gave up. I hate that chapter. So I moved on to SQUEAKY, and revised up to page 37 or something before realising I wasn't really doing it right. So I went back to the beginning to edit more thoroughly, one chapter at a time. So far I've edited chapter 1 three times and will probably do so again before I'm almost happy with it. Ironic to think it was the chapter I was most happy with before. Closer examination apparently revealed the happiness to be a symptom of me kidding myself. ;)

Tomorrow is the start of March, and therefore NaNoEdMo!! I don't know if I should keep going with SQUEAKY or move onto what I planned to do (which I still haven't really decided on). I think the answer is probably obvious - stick with SQUEAKY. Wouldn't want to switch projects and stall again.

To summarise, I guess I'm inching very slowly in the right direction when it comes to my DYHG? goal.

Cephalopod Coffeehouse - book club! (+ my birthday)

This month I'm going to cheat a little, since I haven't read any books in the last month that I have not already reviewed on my blog. So I will mention a book that I read back in June, that I never reviewed, instead (I need to learn to not include all my read books in my "mini-reviews" posts, or at the very least I need to learn to finish a new book in time for each month's Cephalopod Coffeehouse. ;) ) The book I'm going to mention today is Ali Cross's "Become" (Desolation #1), which I read and did really enjoy.

I thought this was a great read, and I will definitely pick up the next book in the series. I have to say I'm not hugely into angels and the teachings of the Bible, and this book obviously has a fair bit to do with both. Well, the Bible stuff isn't really that obvious but there's just a lot about sin and all that. I really do hate the idea that people who really don't do things that are all that bad (i.e. being alcoholic - yes, it's bad but it's not like it's murder or something) are candidates for a life in Hell. But that is really MOSTLY beside the point, and despite my aversion to all things Christianity-related when it comes to fiction, I was able to immensely enjoy this book. Particularly as it wasn't just Christianity but Norse myth as well that came into it. I do enjoy a bit of myth, as my history of university study will indicate. ;) 

The story moved nice and quickly, and there was action around every corner. Desi is a kick-arse character and I definitely could envision breathtaking action scenes from a movie version of the story. I loved Michael and thought he was pretty hawt, all things considered. *waggle* And the supporting characters - Desi's version of the "Scooby-gang" as she referred to them - were cool to read about as well. I did think it was a bit funny that Buffy was referenced in a few places. The idea of Satan's daughter being pretty familiar with that TV series amused me. To be honest, when I read that part I actually went, "HUH?" and remembered that a while back I started re-watching Buffy and want to pick that up again.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this book if you like kick-arse action with a fantasy/paranormal/whatever slant, and I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

In other news, yesterday I turned 33, and because I am a rabid Smashing Pumpkins fan and have for many years daydreamed of being able to say "Hey, I'm 33 too!" (no, really, I have), I thought I'd share this beautiful video that still makes me ache with its beauty (as does the beautiful song itself, which is featured on my favourite album of all time, incidentally), all these years later:

Cephalopod Coffeehouse - book club!

The Armchair Squid has gathered together a little group of bloggers who have signed up to share monthly their favourite book read within the last month. This little haphazard book club of sorts "meets" on the last Friday of every month, and today is the last Friday of June, so here I am!

Not very long ago I posted a list of books I'd read lately, along with some mini-reviews, and my choice for today's book club post is Open Minds, book 1 in Susan Kaye Quinn's Mindjack series. Here is the blurb from GoodReads:

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

To paraphrase my rather "succinct" GoodReads review, what I liked about this book was a) the setting (I'm definitely a fan of sci-fi and this book was set far in the future, even if it was a world much like ours in many ways), b) the characters - I cared about their fate, including the ones I didn't like at all, and c) SKQ's writing style. So I guess there wasn't much (or anything) I didn't like. I'll definitely be reading more of Susan's stuff in future!

With all that said, I'm currently reading two books that I'm absolutely loving, though one has some formatting issues (free e-book). The books are:

• Riversong by Tess Thompson
• War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

So you can definitely expect more book reviews next month. :) More than likely in mini-format though, as I quite like doing things that way.