WWW Wednesday, 21-April-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: Yet again, not much with Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono. I’m fine with this going on a while so I’m in no rush. I just feel bad letting it linger!
Nothing again with The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee but I’m making good progress with other audiobooks so I’ll stay optimistic that I’ll be back to this soon!
The other audiobook is Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. I’m really enjoying this one so far! It’s funny and has some good points so it’s a win for me. I hope I can get through it quickly.
I started Recursion by Blake Crouch for my reading buddy book! I’m excited to get some SciFi and I hope the quick pace will help me read quickly. I’ve missed some solid fiction in my reading lately.

Recently finished: I was able to wrap up Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green on Thursday. It was a solid story and I enjoyed it a lot. I’ll be posting my review tomorrow. I always feel like my reviews for a Spanish read should be different, but then I realize that’s silly.

I posted my review of The Overstory by Richard Powers on Monday. This book wasn’t a good one for me. My book club met last week so I’ve posted a reflection of our conversation as well. I wasn’t alone in disliking it, but I was a minority.

Reading next: I don’t really have a good idea here. I think it will be a print book to pick up between chunks of the buddy read, though. There’s one book I’ve had on my TBR for years that I got as a Goodreads Giveaway and that’s The Hangman’s Replacement: Sprout of Disruption by Taona Dumisani Chiveneko. I won’t lie, I’ve debated taking this off of my list a few times due to what looked like polarized reviews, but looking again they seem pretty well spread if new in number. I’ll give it a try.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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Book Club Reflection: The Overstory by Richard Powers

My book club met the day after I finished reading The Overstory by Richard Powers to talk about the book. I’m glad I could talk to the group about the book, so I wasn’t insularly reading it. This is always great when I don’t like a book.

Powers is a well published author. This was his 12th book and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Powers has a diverse background. He worked as a computer programmer for some time, much like Neelay. He started his education in physics before switching to creative writing. He’s moved around a lot, having lived in Thailand for six years as a child and moving to the Netherlands after the publication of his first book to stay out of the public eye. He was working at Stanford when he wrote this book and did a lot of research to make sure that the science in the book was as accurate as possible at the time of its publication. Our readers really appreciated the details and research he was able to add. After finishing that research, he moved to the Smoky Mountains. He was finishing the book around the time Trump was elected to office and felt he needed to go back and edit parts of the story to reflect changing attitudes. We wondered if this editing removed some of the cohesiveness of the story.

There was a mixed reaction to this book. One reader was blown away by the book and said it gave her a lot to think about. One enjoyed the writing style. Another liked the characters. There were others who felt like me. We weren’t emotionally invested in the story and topic. One said the book lacked empathy and seemed to suffer from the point about nature that Powers was making. One remembered that the characters were most memorable by their story in the Roots section. They were relatable and interesting but once they got into the middle of the book, many had to refer to notes to keep track of the characters and keep them straight. At times, it felt like a lot of short stories that were connected, a bit like trees in a forest, where each could have stood on its own. One did say she started the book as audio and when she switched to print, she liked it more. So maybe I just picked a bad medium.

Surprisingly, a lot of our conversation was about the overall plot and themes. We tend to focus on characters, but this meeting it was different. We talked about how we moved we were by Olivia’s death and the idea that our lives are but a blip and that even humanity is nothing compared to the life span of many trees. In the same way, we felt like Adam’s observation of ants was like how trees might observe humans. Adam was a controversial character in our discussion. From everything else we knew about him, his radicalization seemed out of left field. One reader hypothesized that because he was studying the dangers of the bystander affect, he realized he needed to act so he joined the movement rather than watching it happen. One reader didn’t like how Mimi’s father’s suicide was written. It seemed sudden and almost like an ‘easy out’ for the author to give Mimi some motivation and pass on the family heirlooms. Nick didn’t get a lot of time in our talk. None of us really understood the point his art played in the book and by the end, we were even more confused.

I’ve started our next book and it’s already going much better and I’m looking forward to the discussion. I’ve learned to just look forward to the next book if I don’t enjoy the one I’m reading and it’s going well so far.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Book Review: The Overstory by Richard Powers (2/5)

I’ll honestly say this is a book club book I was not looking forward to. Mostly because it was so long! 22 hours on audio is a lot of my life to dedicate and I was looking forward to other books that I had to put off. So going in with a negative mindset was probably not best for enjoying the story. But I had a lot of other issues which didn’t help.

Cover image via Amazon

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Summary from Amazon:

The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of―and paean to―the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

If I’d read this book as part of an Environmental Science class in college, I might have liked it. I wouldn’t have minded the preachy nature of it if it was part of a learning environment. As something in my free time, I would have preferred to read a long article with the same point rather than a 22-hour audio which started with amazing characters who ended up being flat so I could get facts about radical environmentalism. This didn’t work for me as a novel and it became difficult to enjoy it as one.

The characters Powers created were initially interesting and dynamic. At the beginning of the novel, we see them realize the roles trees have played in their lives and how they are so different but yet have a similar leaning. They don’t seem to continue to evolve over the rest of the book which was a disappointment. Powers is clearly skilled at creating rich characters, but the environmental message he was pushing took over the rest of the book and hijacked what could have been an engaging character study.

Patricia was my favorite character. I felt like her development, though not in the limelight, was most interesting in the book. I liked how she grew up with her father, developing a love for trees and how she questioned the science she was learning, doing research to debunk it. I was sad for her when she was dragged through the mud and felt her vindication later on. The way she looked at her life after she decided to live for the trees was inspiring. Her relationship with her work and her husband was really beautiful and I kept wanting good things for her. I think she could have been the focus of the story and I would have enjoyed it more.

The characters in this book were a little too extreme for me to relate to. At first, I thought Mimi might be relatable, but she pushed things farther than I would have. I thought maybe Olivia would remind me of myself but the more she talked about hearing other beings, the less I related to her. I wondered if Nick was going to be my guy and I think he was closest to a relatable character for me in the book. He seemed to take a bit of a backseat and fade into the background by the end, which was sad but most of the characters seemed to take a backseat to the trees by the end and I lost a lot of interest in the story by then.

Richard Powers
Image from The Guardian

The stories at the beginning of the book, introducing the characters, were my favorite part. The way the characters were developed was really engaging for me and I was curious to see how they would all come together in the end. When I realized some of them never would come together in a meaningful way, I was disappointed. I would have loved to see Dorothy and Ray interact with Dougie or Neelay.

The ending felt odd to me and it seemed like a lot of the characters didn’t get a meaningful ending. For many, it was abrupt while it wrapped up for others. It seemed incomplete and I wanted more than I got. After so much build-up, this was hugely disappointing.

The audiobook was narrated by Suzanne Toren and I felt she did an amazing job with the book. There were so many characters to keep track of and I thought she did a great job giving them distinct voices. Patricia and Douggie are particularly memorable. She helped me stay as engaged as I was for 22 hours.

The theme of this book was so blaring that it distracted from everything else. We, as humans, are killing the trees and poisoning the planet for temporary and financial gain. Readers were hit over the head with this time and time again. It almost felt insulting to think I hadn’t picked up not the author’s message and be reminded so often. This was ultimately what kept me from engaging with the characters. They were just there to push me to understand the message and I didn’t like being lectured.

Writer’s Takeaway: One of the biggest lessons I get from reading writing books is that you don’t want to make your readers feel like they’re being lectured or reading non-fiction when they’re reading fiction. Fiction can teach, but if that’s our goal, you should choose a different medium. I felt like Powers choice of a 22-hour book was the wrong medium for what he had to say. I lost interest early when I thought I was being lectured and I didn’t engage with the writing or characters after that.

This book lost me early and never got me back. Two out of Five Stars.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Posts:
The Overstory, by Richard Powers | Bob’s Books
THE OVERSTORY, by Richard Powers | The Pointe-Claire Public Library Blog
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers | Book Nook Book Reviews
The Overstory by Richard Powers | Book Reviews
The Overstory (Powers) | BookReviewsbyCharles

WWW Wednesday, 14-April-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: A slow week on Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono but with a few upcoming doctors appointments, I might make more progress. TBD.
I’ve made a lot of progress with Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green. I’m really liking Aza’s story and this is a good reading level for me in Spanish. I’ll stick with it as much as I can and hope to finish soon.
Unfortunately still waiting on The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee. Not commuting has really cut down on my listening time this past year.
I’ve started another book club pick already, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. Not very far into this one yet but I’m hoping it will go quickly so I can get back to Piracy!

Recently finished: I made a huge push on Sunday to finish The Overstory by Richard Powers in time for my book club meeting on Monday. Finally! This book was not for me by any means. I really disliked the characters and the length was a big turn off. A lot of the characters could have been cut to save on the length and I don’t think there would have been a negative impact. I felt like I was being lectured and it was a big turn off. I’m giving it Two out of Five Stars. I’ll have a review and book club reflection up next week.

Reading next: My reading buddy and I decided on Recursion by Blake Crouch as our next book. I recommended this mostly because we were looking for a paperback option and I’d loved Dark Matter so much. I hope she likes it! We haven’t done SciFi yet (though we touched on fantasy) so this is new territory.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

WWW Wednesday, 7-April-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: Not much on Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono this week. I was away on my Babymoon (best. idea. ever) with my husband and limiting screen time in favor of some print reading. I’m sure I’ll be back to it soon.
I’ve returned to Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green! With most of my Spanish reads, this will be a bit slow but YA seems to help a lot so I’m optimistic about making it through in a reasonable time.
Still waiting with The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee. Hopefully soon.
I can’t wait to finish The Overstory by Richard Powers. I’m getting down to the end of it and it will feel so good when I’m done, but I’m just waiting for the end now.

Recently finished: I was able to wrap up Expecting Better by Emily Oster late last week! Felt great to finish another book so quickly and I’m really glad I read this one. My review posted yesterday if you want to check it out! It seems a lot of my friends with young kids or who are also pregnant have read this one. I might have even stumbled upon a pregnancy I didn’t know about because of a Goodreads review! I feel like a detective.

Reading next: I’m still debating this one. My reading buddy and I might pick up again soon since we’ve got a lot of momentum. I might need to pick up a book club read. Or I might need an English book to grab when my brain is too fried for Spanish. So I’ll leave this blank one more week to let my life settle and see where I need to go.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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WWW Wednesday, 31-March-2021 (My Birthday!)

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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It’s my birthday! I hope to find some time to read more today (and eat cake).

Currently reading: I got through a chapter or two of Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono while waiting at my doctor’s office this week. It was great to get through a chunk of it. I think I’m getting close to the end but the page count is making me think I’m only half way done. I think there’s a lot of images toward the end that will go quickly.
Still nothing with Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green but I think I’ll be back to it soon!
I can’t wait to get back to The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee. I need a fun read and I’m sure this will be one!
The Overstory by Richard Powers is starting to feel like a bit of a slough. It’s well written, but it’s a bit preachy and really long. I’ll be happy when I’m done with it, honestly.
I’ve made good progress Expecting Better by Emily Oster and really enjoying it. I love the research Oster did about conventional pregnancy rules and myths and how well she explains what she’s found. It’s helping me feel more comfortable with my pregnancy and making decisions about it.

Recently finished: I flew through The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett after my last meeting with my reading buddy. We were both chomping at the bit to get through it! Great read and I was able to post my review on Monday. I gave the book a full Five out of Five Stars.

Reading next: I’m going to leave this blank one more week and give myself time to catch up on the double-duty reading I’m doing before I think about what could be next for me.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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WWW Wednesday, 24-March-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: Not much with Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono this week. Swimming’s been put on hold because of a pregnancy complication that will hopefully resolve soon and will let me get back in the water. Fingers crossed!
Paused with Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green. Hang on.
Regrettably also on hold with The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee. I wanted to get back to this sooner but my book club audiobook is taking a lot longer than anticipated. Grumble grumble.
The aforementioned book club pick is The Overstory by Richard Powers. This book is epically long and I feel like my baby might be born before I finish this book. (Seeing as I’m only at 20 weeks, this is still a possibility.)
I’m loving and rushing throubh The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett with my reading buddy. We met over the weekend to discuss the first half and I’m already closing in on our next chunk. I had a lot of rest time this weekend to read and it helped me get ahead a bit.
I started Expecting Better by Emily Oster and it’s going faster than I thought which is a welcome surprise. Oster is very funny and clearly well researched which is making for a fun read. I’m not as nervous about trying a sip of my husband’s beers on our upcoming babymoon now!

Recently finished: With all the books I’m in the middle of, it should be no surprise I haven’t finished anything. I’d be ecstatic to finish anything this next week but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Reading next: I’ll try to finish something before I make any plans for the future. That all seems too far away at this point.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Join my email list

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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WWW Wednesday, 17-March-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: I got through another chapter of Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono on an unlucky Friday morning when I had to wait fifteen minutes for a lane. Oh well, there was an upside so it’s all fine.
An even longer pause on Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green is coming. Stay tuned.
Also on hold with The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee but I’m really hoping to return to it soon because I was really enjoying it.
I’m still working on The Overstory by Richard Powers and I feel like I will be forever. This is taking a long time to get into so I’m slogging a bit. I hope it turns around soon and I can push forward.
I’m focusing on The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett just now, hoping to get to the next stopping point that my Reading Buddy and I have agreed on. I’m enjoying this, though it took a turn different from what I expected. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Recently finished: I finally wrapped up Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies by Deborah Halverson! The review went up yesterday so you can all see my thoughts. I gave the book Three out of Five Stars. Parts of it were amazing, Five Star territory, but there were some elements that dragged a bit and brought it down for me. You can’t win them all.

Reading next: I still think I’ll grab Expecting Better by Emily Oster before I return to Green. It’s a good time to be reading this and Green can wait until after baby arrives and still be relevant.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Join my email list

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…

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Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

WWW Wednesday, 10-March-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: I’ve been lucky to not have a lot of waiting time this past week so I haven’t made progress on Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono. I’m in no rush so I’ll keep on keeping on with this one.
Still nothing on Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green. I may have to start this over when I’m ready to return to it.
Since I renewed Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies by Deborah Halverson I’ve slowed down on it a bit. I know I’ll finish, but I’m not as stressed about it as I was two weeks ago.
I have paused The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee to prioritize book club books. Boo! This was so fun and I can’t wait to return to it.
I’m still getting into The Overstory by Richard Powers. There are so many stories that I’m having trouble keeping everything straight. I’m getting a lot of Cloud Atlas vibes from it so far, which isn’t really a good thing for me.
Just to make this list longer, I started The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett. over the weekend. My reading buddy and I are going through the first three chapters so it’s not a lot and I’ll get a break to get back to my Dummies book once I finish the section. I’m enjoying it so far, still getting into the story a lot.

Recently finished: Nothing new this week, but I’m not surprised with all the books I’m in the middle of! I hope I can add one here next week, but that seems a long way off with how early I am in many of these books.

Reading next: I just can’t add any more here. I’d drown in books if I did. I have one idea, though. My husband bought me a book when we found out I was pregnant called Expecting Better by Emily Oster. I’d like to read it while I’m still preggo! I might pick this up after Dummies and make Mil veces wait even longer.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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WWW Wednesday, 3-March-2021

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 

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Currently reading: I got through a few pages of Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono so this is still moving, though at a snail’s pace.
On hold with Mil veces hasta siempre (Turtles All the Way Down) by John Green. Stand by.
I’ve been able to renew Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies by Deborah Halverson so I’m not as stressed about finishing this one. I have a little bit of time that I can enjoy starting my Buddy Read soon!
I started a for-fun audiobook in The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee but I had to put this on hold because I realized my next book club audio is 22 hours! I’m really enjoying this so far, just trying to meet the deadlines I have.
So I started The Overstory by Richard Powers. I hadn’t heard of this one before and all I really know going in is that it has a natural world bend and it’s super long. Here’s hoping I can finish it in time for the book club meeting!

Recently finished: I stayed up late to finish Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe before the file returned. Totally worth it. This was one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in a while and I really enjoyed it. I wish I’d read this book before my husband and I visited Belfast in 2018. We decided not to do a Black Taxi tour because of our short time, opting for the Titanic Museum and the Giant’s Causeway instead. I’m wishing now we’d scheduled another day there to see more about the city’s history.

Reading next: I’ll be starting The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett soon. I think I need some fiction with so much non-fiction going on and I have a feeling I’ll fly through this one to our stopping points. It will be a nice change of pace and I’m looking forward to diving in.

Leave a comment with your link and comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Join my email list

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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