Mortaine’s Blog

This is an archive of my shorter book reviews and notes, which historically have been posted over at the 50 Book Challenge on LiveJournal, but which I’m starting to move over here. I’m posting them with altered date-stamps, but they might show up in my LiveJournal cross-post anyway. Bear with me, please.

Note: Many of these books also have full reviews available in the book review podcast (RSS).

#19:

This was such a lovely, fun read/listen! I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend it to anyone enjoying non-medieval fantasy novels!

#20:

A little less useful than I’d hoped it would be, it’s about the nuts-and-bolts of running a freelance writing business. I think I figured out why this is so much less useful for me, and the reason is, even though I’ve been a freelance writer, the way freelance/contract tech writing works, you don’t write-then-publish, idea-then-write. You write on demand, and the business dynamic is completely different.

It’s June, about half of the year is gone, and I’m less than halfway through my challenge. Hope this doesn’t spell trouble ahead.

#21:

This is a book about becoming a business consultant, marketing yourself, setting prices, etc. I’m starting up a tech writing business next month, and this was a good look at the more “high end” direction of where I might want to go with it.

#22:

Book V in the Dark Tower series. Unabridged audiobook. Another haunting story in this series, with a lot more tie-ins with the rest of his opus. The author’s note at the end had me all choked up; I’d noticed the different reader’s voice, but didn’t understand why they’d chosen to switch speakers.

#23: The California Startup Guide, by NOLO press. It’s a nuts-and-bolts guide to navigating the legal and tax aspects of starting a small business in California. Good resource, excellent reference book.

Currently reading: Stupid White Men by Michael Moore (audiobook) - a good way to get all riled up during my daily commute, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which I feel like I’ve been reading for about one hundred years. Stupid White Men was obviously written before Sept. 11, 2001, though it came out in February of 2002. Just 3 years later, and already it’s dated, but still definitely rile-producing.

#24:

Not my favorite. Did I miss something by not reading Tehanu? Probably. It seemed like the main climax of this book happened off-screen.

#25:

Rant. Serious rant. And sadly outdated rant, seeing as how it was written before 9/11/01 and is about the politics of George W.