Megan Messinger's Blog
January 18, 2018
2017 Book Report
This was in one sense an excellent year for books, because it was the year of MY BOOK: Tortall: A Spy's Guide came out on October 31st, after several years of working with the world's best coauthors and my dear and amazing friends Tamora Pierce, Julie Holderman, and Tim Liebe. It makes me both scared and happy to think that the book is out there for other people to read and enjoy (or not -- hello, Goodreads reviews!), but I'm definitely sad that we're not working on it anymore; writing letters back and forth with Julie, or trying to gauge exactly how terrible to make Neal's love poetry, was pretty much the most fun I've ever had.
As far as reading other people's books, this was the first calendar year that was also a full-time, two-semester school year, so I was a bit low on free time... Lots of Gail Carriger over the summer, and Patrick O'Brian kept me company on the road -- it was particularly fun to read The Fortune of War, which is largely set in Boston, while on a trip to historic Deerfield! Best newly-encountered fiction of the year I'd say was The Girl With All the Gifts, with an honorable mention to The Golden Globe. Non-fiction-wise, I enjoyed Get Well Soon; the tone occasionally veered too far into "lol funny blog post," but that was more than balanced out by Wright's genius stroke of using each chapter to make a point about handling future epidemics, and to hammer home how inevitable they are.
I didn't do so well with last year's post's "gotta read this soon!" books, so I'll keep it short this time: I promised a friend I would pick up Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell again and actually stick with it. Its great, dark, hulking mass is currently staring at me from the coffee table as I finish a biography of Napoleon's chief surgeon, which seems as good a lead-in as any. Also promised my mom that this would finally be the year I read one of her favorites, Niccolo Rising. Two books, though big ones. I can do that, right?
...right?
As far as reading other people's books, this was the first calendar year that was also a full-time, two-semester school year, so I was a bit low on free time... Lots of Gail Carriger over the summer, and Patrick O'Brian kept me company on the road -- it was particularly fun to read The Fortune of War, which is largely set in Boston, while on a trip to historic Deerfield! Best newly-encountered fiction of the year I'd say was The Girl With All the Gifts, with an honorable mention to The Golden Globe. Non-fiction-wise, I enjoyed Get Well Soon; the tone occasionally veered too far into "lol funny blog post," but that was more than balanced out by Wright's genius stroke of using each chapter to make a point about handling future epidemics, and to hammer home how inevitable they are.
I didn't do so well with last year's post's "gotta read this soon!" books, so I'll keep it short this time: I promised a friend I would pick up Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell again and actually stick with it. Its great, dark, hulking mass is currently staring at me from the coffee table as I finish a biography of Napoleon's chief surgeon, which seems as good a lead-in as any. Also promised my mom that this would finally be the year I read one of her favorites, Niccolo Rising. Two books, though big ones. I can do that, right?
...right?
January 27, 2017
2016, going on '17
2016! The year I started medical school! Relatedly, a year in which I did not read too many books -- especially if you don't count textbooks. (Which I do, although I only added the ones I read all the way through.)
I finally picked up Gail Carriger's frightfully delicious Parasol Protectorate books (and their related sundries) and tore through them happily. They share Fiction of the Year with Libba Bray's Diviners series (hat-tip to Julie Holderman for the rec) -- I literally lost sleep not only staying up to read them, but being seriously creeped out and having the little rhymes stuck in my head. Gah.
Looking back, I see this year was a bit low on non-textbook non-fiction... but History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier was *excellent*; when I saw it on a friend's shelf, I didn't even know it was being made into a movie, which I haven't seen yet but look forward to.
And, not to leave out the book nearest and dearest to my heart, tremendous strides were made on the Spy's Guide this year. Whee!
Predictions and goals for 2017? I hope I'll get in a few books for fun, most urgently my friend Blake Charlton's newest, Spellbreaker, which I read in early draft form in 2013. I also went a little overboard at the library during Christmas break and checked out but didn't quite get to Goldenhand, H is for Hawk, Man and Wound in the Ancient World: A History of Military Medicine from Sumer to the Fall of Constantinople, and As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride, so those are on my mind... We'll see. :-)
I finally picked up Gail Carriger's frightfully delicious Parasol Protectorate books (and their related sundries) and tore through them happily. They share Fiction of the Year with Libba Bray's Diviners series (hat-tip to Julie Holderman for the rec) -- I literally lost sleep not only staying up to read them, but being seriously creeped out and having the little rhymes stuck in my head. Gah.
Looking back, I see this year was a bit low on non-textbook non-fiction... but History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier was *excellent*; when I saw it on a friend's shelf, I didn't even know it was being made into a movie, which I haven't seen yet but look forward to.
And, not to leave out the book nearest and dearest to my heart, tremendous strides were made on the Spy's Guide this year. Whee!
Predictions and goals for 2017? I hope I'll get in a few books for fun, most urgently my friend Blake Charlton's newest, Spellbreaker, which I read in early draft form in 2013. I also went a little overboard at the library during Christmas break and checked out but didn't quite get to Goldenhand, H is for Hawk, Man and Wound in the Ancient World: A History of Military Medicine from Sumer to the Fall of Constantinople, and As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride, so those are on my mind... We'll see. :-)
January 3, 2016
2015 In Review
Well, the numbers are in, and 2015 saw me reading more books than I have in years -- partially because of comics and graphic novels, which hike up the number of titles and don't take as much time to read, and partially because of my local library's Overdrive app, which lets me check out audiobooks right onto my phone -- but I was also pretty seriously in love with reading this year. Reading is so great, you guys.
2015 was exceptionally good for nonfiction, with Emily Mayhew's Wounded taking top honors in my personal list, followed by The Year of Lear, The Reason I Jump, Genetic Rounds, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. When people ask me what I like to read these days, I tell them history of science and medicine interspersed with dragons and spaceships. Sometimes they are all "...???" and sometimes I get a high-five.
Fiction-wise, I did a lot of revisiting this year, mostly in audiobook form. It took me a few tries to get on board with Trini Alvarado's reading of Alanna, but I'm glad I stuck with it, and if you haven't listened to Tim Curry read the Abhorsen trilogy you're missing a rare treat. Favorite new titles this year were John Scalzi's Lock In and my first Seanan McGuire, Sparrow Hill Road. (I am so late to the Seanan McGuire party, I know!) Maybe I'll read some more in 2016 -- maybe not -- even I don't know what I'll get the urge to pick up next.
2015 was exceptionally good for nonfiction, with Emily Mayhew's Wounded taking top honors in my personal list, followed by The Year of Lear, The Reason I Jump, Genetic Rounds, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. When people ask me what I like to read these days, I tell them history of science and medicine interspersed with dragons and spaceships. Sometimes they are all "...???" and sometimes I get a high-five.
Fiction-wise, I did a lot of revisiting this year, mostly in audiobook form. It took me a few tries to get on board with Trini Alvarado's reading of Alanna, but I'm glad I stuck with it, and if you haven't listened to Tim Curry read the Abhorsen trilogy you're missing a rare treat. Favorite new titles this year were John Scalzi's Lock In and my first Seanan McGuire, Sparrow Hill Road. (I am so late to the Seanan McGuire party, I know!) Maybe I'll read some more in 2016 -- maybe not -- even I don't know what I'll get the urge to pick up next.
