Category: book review
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Friday’s Findings: What’s Scaring Me This Halloween
Last year I read Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher during the Halloween season and it was so much fun I decided to read something scary every October. This year, I decided to read Crumb Hill. Here are my thoughts on this creepy tome: Crumb Hill: A Town History by Ethan…
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Some books on writing craft
The Happy Writer by Marissa Meyer is a warm, encouraging guide that helps writers rediscover joy in the creative process by balancing productivity with self-compassion. Through practical advice and personal insights, Meyer reminds authors that success comes not just from word counts, but from cultivating happiness in their writing life. I’ve read two different fiction…
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Science Fiction & Fantasy I’ve Read Lately
Here are a couple of science fiction novels I’ve read lately, one recently released, and the other a classic released thirty years ago: The Hungry Gods by Adrian Tchaikovsky “The point of being a god is to have the joint running to your specifications.” – Guy Vesten, The Hungry Gods by Adrian Tchaikovsky Amri, a…
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Friday’s Findings: Audio Annotations
“The point of being a god is to have the joint running to your specifications.” -Guy Vesten, The Hungry Gods by Adrian Tchaikovsky This is just one of several quotes I got from the novella I listened to today, Tchaikovsky’s The Hungry Gods (THG). It wasn’t very long – only five hours – and I…
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Friday’s Findings: Small Wins
Remember: Small, consistent wins usually lead to more success in the long run, as opposed to big, infrequent wins. Marissa Meyer, The Happy Writer I’ve been reading The Happy Writer: Get More Ideas, Write More Words, and Find More Joy from First Draft to Publication and Beyond by Marissa Meyer, and this quote really resonates…
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Science Fiction & Fantasy I’ve Read Lately
Somewhere between my third alien invasion and second time-traveling romance, it hit me: I’d been devouring science fiction all year without stopping to process the journey. So, I decided to excavate my reading pile and see what patterns emerged from the wreckage. Here are my thoughts on some recent speculative fiction reading I’ve done: A…
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My Favorite SF&F Shows, Part 8
I didn’t want to subscribe to AppleTV+. Just one more stupid streaming service to take my money every month. However, I kept seeing all these great science fiction shows on this channel, and some of them were based on books I had read. My friends kept saying, “Subscribe and cancel when you’re done.” So, I…
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Friday’s Findings: Creating a scene palette
When creating a scene for the first time, I have a list. And I try to hit as many points on that list as possible: But before writing the rough draft of a scene, I have practiced a step I got from a thin, little book called Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces by poet…
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Fridays Findings: My Top Five Reads This Year
Wow. I’ve read so many great books this year. It was hard willowing my top five list down, but here they are. I’ve reprinted my original reviews here. In no particular order, I present my top five favorite reads for 2024: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin literary fiction, friendship fiction Most of us…
Andrew M. Friday 