My New Year’s Resolutions

Obviously the world hasn’t ended yet today, so I think I’m pretty safe in declaring my intentions for the new year.  I only achieved one of my goals last year, so I think putting  my goals out into the public may pressure me into actually doing them.  What are my goals this year?

1.  Get back into writing.

Writing was essentially my life, my entire reason for living a few years ago.  But then a personal crisis came around and not only did I get out of practice, I lost the will to write fiction.  I think I’m fully recovered from the crisis in question so I want to ease back into writing.  That also means I’ll have to clear some of my schedule, but it isn’t likely to impact how much I post here on The Mad Reviewer.

2.  Stop procrastinating when it comes to reading the books of authors who contact me.

I am a horrible procrastinator, which is why I thought my ‘In Progress’ page would motivate me to read the books of writers who contact me in a timely manner.  This has obviously not been the case, mainly because I am a terrible procrastinator when it comes to anything that can be perceived as work.  And to make things even more confusing, when I actually get started on many books it isn’t work, it’s enjoyable!  Yet I still procrastinate.  But no more!  It’s about time I stuck to my commitments.

3.  Have more patience with people.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have much patience when it comes to other people.  I’ll also be the first to admit that many people don’t notice this about me because I conceal it fairly well.  “Kill ’em with kindness” applies to people I don’t like and who don’t like me.  However, this policy tends to have the unintended side effect of building up stress and frustration, which also isn’t healthy.  That’s why, when I am feeling frustrated or stressed out, I am going to take a nice, deep breath and calm down.  Not everyone catches on quickly and you’re not always right.

Well, these are my resolutions.  What are yours?

My Teaching Experience

As you guys may know from my post on Saturday, I got to teach a few classes at the school on ancient Egypt.  No, I have no teaching credentials; I am only an enthusiastic amateur.  But I figured why not?  Teaching taught me two things about myself:

1.  I really don’t like kids in general.

2.  My expectations of what a teenager in the ninth grade should know are obviously far too high.

But more on that later.  Now that I’m done stressing it’s time for a break.  Then I’ll be back to ranting on Friday when I’m coherent enough to post about reading and reading comprehension (or lack thereof).

The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris

The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris(Cover picture courtesy of Rainbow Resource Center.)

Riding through the great courtyard ringed with the banners of the Round Table knights, Luneta felt very alone and uncharacteristically shy.

Luneta is tired of living in dull Orkney with her mother and father.  She would much prefer the rich pageantry of court.  And Luneta prides herself on always getting what she wants, so when the opportunity presents itself to stay at a family friend’s castle near Camelot, she jumps at the chance.  her handsome cousin, Sir Ywain—a young knight seeking adventure—arrives just in time to escort her.  Along the way they pick up Rhience, a young man living as a fool for a year.

Together, they are about to step into a web of love, betrayal, and more than a bit of magic.

It’s nice to finally have an idea how much time has passed since The Squire’s Tale and it’s also shocking to hear that it’s been twenty years since the first book.  Remember Lady Lynet from the second book?  Yes, Luneta is Lady Lynet’s child and she’s not even really a child, but in her teen years.  How times flies!

The Lioness and Her Knight sounds like a typical girl empowerment book with Luneta kicking plenty of butt and being generally ahead of her time.  That’s not exactly true and I’m glad it’s not.  Luneta is ahead of her time because of her tendency not to mince words, but she never physically kicks any butt because her talent is getting people to do what she wants.  She is a terrible manipulator when she thinks it’s for a good purpose, but throughout the book learns that maybe it’s better to leave people to their own devices.  She’s a great main character and despite how my description of her sounds, Luneta is sympathetic.

As for Rhience, where do I start?  He’s very witty, but also very subtle about it.  Oh no, you actually have to think about his jokes!  He has such an interesting backstory that you can’t help but at least feel sympathetic for him, but he’s also a great ‘fool’.  Thank goodness he gets so much page time because he was my favourite character in the whole book!  Rhience is certainly not just comedy relief, but also a good character in his own right.

Gerald Morris, unlike many authors, seems to have never encountered a writing slump in his series and he hasn’t struck out yet.  I’ve loved every book in the series for its own unique qualities, something that is incredibly rare.  The Lioness and Her Knight presents a very cynical view of people like The Ballad of Sir Dinadan does, but it’s also full of love and hope.  You can’t really ask for more in an Arthurian legend, can you?

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge

Yes, it is very narcissistic to name a reading challenge after myself, but frankly all the good names were taken and I’m not one to plagiarize.  So what’s my challenge for myself and for anyone who wants to participate?  Well, here it is:

The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge is to read and review (either on Goodreads, Amazon or your own blog) 104 books in one year starting January 1, 2013 and ending December 31, 2013.

Yes, this is an insane amount of books and I know that not many people may be able to achieve it.  That’s why there are different levels you can strive for:

1.  Mad Reviewer: 104 books in one year. (2 books a week all year.)

2.  Crazy Reviewer: 52 books in one year. (1 book a week all year.)

3.  Slightly Sane Reviewer: 26 books in one year. (1 book every fortnight all year.)

4.  Sane Reviewer: 12 books in one year.  (1 book every month all year.)

Got that?  So, of course, there are some rules to go along with it:

1.  Self-published, independently published and traditionally published books are all completely acceptable.  You can even read them on an e-reader.

2.  No audiobooks.  The point is to read books, not have someone reading to you.

3.  I don’t have a sign-up form like many reading challenges, but if you have a blog you can copy and paste the code below into a text widget:

Goal:  104 books read and reviewed<br>
Current:  0<br>
<div style=”height:15px;background:#A9D0F5;border:solid;”>
<div style=”background:#3366FF;color:white;width:0;”><b>0</b>
</div>
</div>

(A huge thanks goes to Stacking Pennies for the initial format of the progress bar.)

This is the one I used, but you can of course modify it to fit your goal.  Don’t have a blog?  Don’t worry.  Just keep track of all the books you read somewhere and comment on my year-end post on December 31.  I’m trusting you guys to stay honest, but if I need to I’ll check out whether you actually posted reviews.

4.  Everyone who achieves their goal will be entered into a draw for a grand prize, provided by me.  What that prize is I’m not sure yet, but it will obviously be book related.  If you have any suggestions for a possible prize, please let me know!

5.  You can review your books on any site.  Your own blog, Goodreads, someone else’s blog, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.  The point is just to review the books you read!

So who wants to sign up?  Just post your intentions in the comments below and what level you want to aim for.  Personally, I’m going to go for ‘Mad Reviewer’ because I really should earn my name.

It would also be great if you could publicize this in any way possible because I want as many people in my draw as possible.  Obviously being Freshly Pressed would be too much to hope for, but I can still dream, can’t I?

The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Strange things are happening: old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) clambering on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz, and Zahler, all that matters is the band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end? Or summon it? Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Peeps, The Last Days is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.

(Summary courtesy of Goodreads.)

Meh.  I don’t know what I was really expecting, but I guess I hoped that The Last Days would follow the end of the world more closely.  With all the suspense built up at the end of Peeps, I wanted to learn more about the coming worm apocalypse by seeing it through the eyes of someone in the Night Watch on the front lines.  However, the group of people we follow in The Last Days knows nothing of peeps or the apocalypse happening around them until the very end, so it was kind of disappointing.  This is more my fault than Scott Westerfeld’s because of my preconceived notions, but I definitely would have liked to hear more of how humanity fought the worms rather than just reading a past tense version of it in an epilogue.

Despite the fact it wasn’t what I expected, The Last Days wasn’t a bad book.  It took a more serious tone than the first book, but it suited the gritty background very well.  The characters were interesting and not exactly what you would expect in a YA novel, so there’s that.  Alana Ray was my personal favourite, but I can see where many people would identify with Pearl or Moz.  I would have liked the chapters to be a bit longer because at times it felt like head-hopping as each chapter had a different point of view than the previous one.  However, that’s more of a personal preference because I like continuity.

In The Last Days I just didn’t feel the same energy or enthusiasm as there was in Peeps.  There were some really slow parts where the book dragged on, but other parts were way too fast.  My disappointment is partly my own fault for starting to read it with lots of expectations, but I can’t help but feel it didn’t live up to its full potential.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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