Saturday, February 06, 2016

Three novels I haven't finished and four books I'm still working on

I haven't been able to finish many novels lately, and I promised myself I would only post on books I've actually finished. However, some rules need to be broken. The thing is, I enjoyed each of these novels up to a point, and I think they're well crafted, with good stories to tell. I just couldn't get through them, for the following reasons.


Station Eleven (Kindle book about 1/2 way through) -- I think I stopped because I couldn't picture the world as well as I would have liked. It's a sci fi novel about a Shakespearean acting troop wandering in a post-apocalyptic world taken over by a massive viral attack, but there's not much Shakespeare in this novel so far.

The Goldfinch (trade paperback about 1/5 of the way through) -- a sense of foreboding over the ending stopped me. It's a long literary novel that won some awards and had some people comparing it to Dickens, which intrigued me. The beginning is shocking, and the in-depth description of what happens is very well done, but I couldn't help feeling the novel was a little too artful.

City on Fire (hardcover about 1/5 of the way through) -- an intentional interlude in this murder mystery (a letter written by a main character's grandfather) threw me out of the main plot and provided a long backstory, so it was a slog to get back to the main plot -- once I got back, I wasn't as interested as I was at the beginning. Then new characters get introduced pretty far into the novel, so I wasn't sure where it was going. I may pick this one back up if I get time.

I also am still working on the following books in various genres:

Life on Mars, a poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith (almost finished) -- I liked this book for its honesty and clear imagery, not sure about the anger and where it's directed.

The Science of Interstellar, a science textbook by a theoretical physicist who consulted on the film (got through the first few chapters) -- I determined that the science had been stretched considerably to fit the film, and stopped reading

God is with you every day (read almost every other day through January) a devotional by Max Lucado that I discovered is random snippets of his books, with a little bit of scripture thrown in -- not as inspiring as I'd hoped

Glory Days (not started) by Max Lucado