I know, it was just last month that I said I haven’t been reading as much. This month, I am going to take that statement back. I have read quite a bit lately and am very happy about it. It seems that with the days getting longer (yay, summer!) I feel like there is much more time available in which I can accomplish my goals.
In my reading “endeavours” this month, I managed to finish three books. THREE! Very proud of myself. Here’s a snapshot of what I read:
The Shelters of Stone (Earth’s Children #5) by Jean M. Auel – I shared this book in the currently reading section of the May edition and finished shortly after writing that post. By the end I was finding that the book was getting overly repetitive and a little bit on the tedious side to read, but I powered through! Upon finishing, with the way the quality of the writing and the story seemed to drop off, I was hesitant about continuing on to read the conclusion of the series.
Watchmen by Alan Moore – After finishing The Shelters of Stone I went on a little bit of a graphic novel kick. Watchmen in fact is a re-read for me. I admitted jumped on the bandwagon when the movie came out a few years ago. I had to be sure I read the book first! It follows the events in 1980′s US in an alternate world where “superheroes” exist. History in the alternate world is significantly different from ours, but still parallel in some ways. One of the “superheroes” believes that there may be a plot to kill superheroes after he investigates the murder of one known as the Comedian. He is believed to be insane and delusional at first, but they soon all discover that the plot is much bigger than just killing superheroes. I discovered a great story within the pages and even now I will pick it up again periodically for a satisfying quick read. I can’t even tell you exactly why I enjoy it so much. The only thing I can think of is I have serious soft spot for stories of dystopic societies.
True Blood # 1: All Together Now by Alan Ball, David Tischman, Mariah Huehner & David Messina – Yes, this one is another graphic novel and it made for a very quick, though not necessarily enjoyable read. It was certainly not of the same quality as a graphic novel like Watchmen. Now, I like the show True Blood but did not enjoy the book series at all. This novel had an interesting premise for the story, but the execution left something to be desired. I’m not even going to share a synopsis for this one. It is a little unfortunate as I was very excited when I got this book – Jay won it for me at Free Comic Book day. I doubt I will go out and look for the next books in this series.
Graphic novels are a significant departure from what I normally read, but I think the change of pace really did me a lot of good. Being able to get a few quicker reads under my belt this month really helped to motivate me and get me into a mood to read a lot more again. A great unintentional plan! The mentioned motivation pushed me to really get a move on in reading A Game of Thrones. I have actually made notable progress this month, with me now being more than three-quarters finished. Things are starting to get exciting and I am sure I will be finished reading it in no time at all now. Which in turn will give me the time to focus on the other book I started reading this month.
The second book on the currently reading list this month is The Land of Painted Caves (Earth’s Children #6) by Jean M. Auel. This is the final installment in the series, and the one I was so hesitant to start. In this last book of the series, Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte of the Zelandonia (spiritual leaders) and begins the daunting task of training. As part of this training process, she must travel the countryside with the leader of the Zelandonia (along with her mate Jondalar and her infant daughter Jonayla) to see the sacred caves in the area that are filled with paintings of mammoths, lions, and bears, and the mystical presence of these paintings sometimes overwhelms Ayla. Throughout the process of her training, Ayla and her mate begin to drift apart and are only brought back together by the near-death experiences Ayla has as she nears the end of her training.
I find that I am struggling a bit with this one. I am approximate a quarter of the way through and I am finding it just plain boring. The repetition that got tedious near the end of book #5 is already present #6 even though I am still quite close to the beginning. This is a little bit trying for me too as I have gone through quite the process to be able to read this one. I have borrowed it as an e-book from my local library to read on my phone. I lost my phone and I my term ran out during the time spent looking for a replacement. I have now had to re-borrow it and really haven’t made much progress since borrowing it again. This slow start isn’t helping me any, and some of the reviews I have read aren’t making it any easier. They leave me not even wanting try. However, being the person I am I WILL finished it even if it does take me quite awhile to do so.
So there you have it folks. The books I have read and the books I am reading in the month of June. Until next month, then!
