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 Good morning Saloners! As I expected, my week hasn’t actually involved as much reading as normal, because I’ve been busy writing. As of yesterday, I had 8,606 words, which is just slightly above where Nano writers should be right now. I’m hoping to get a little further ahead today; that’s because it’s much, much harder to devote time to writing during the week than it is on the weekend. In fact, I didn’t write anything on Friday, so I need to prepare a bit better for that going forward. I have no idea where the story is going, so I’m really glad this is my practice!
 I did spend some time reading, though, I finished Rome by Robert Hughes and managed to read the very short but excellent The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. I’m hoping to also actually write some posts today so the blog doesn’t remain silent for an entire week, but it depends on how all of my writing progresses really.
It’s probably good right now that I have an outlet anyway as real life is a tad stressful at the moment. I’m applying for my next UK visa next weekend, but by post this time, so there will be several anxious weeks during which I cannot leave the country, and of course I’m worried about the outcome despite the fact that I really shouldn’t be as hubby and I satisfy every requirement.
I’m also presenting at my company’s International Search Summit in London in less than three weeks’ time, which will be the biggest audience I’ve ever presented to. That carries its own small anxieties, though they’re nowhere near as large as the visa application.
I’ve also been investing a little bit more time into cooking; we signed up for an organic vegetable box scheme a couple of weeks ago and learning how to cook various different vegetables has been a surprisingly educational and tasty experience. Among things I didn’t realize I liked are zucchini (courgettes) and beets. Overall, the outcome has been so far exactly what I’d hoped for; we’re eating way more vegetables and experimenting with cooking. I’m hoping to eventually get organized enough to post some recipes to Weekend Cooking, maybe starting next Saturday.
Have a fantastic Sunday!
As usual, it’s hard to believe we’ve already hit November! I’m on my third day of #nanowrimo and so far the first couple have gone pretty well, even though it is really hard to try and fit that writing in after work. Unfortunately, you’ll definitely be seeing less of me this month, but we’ll see how it goes.
October, though, was a decent month for reading. Even though I spent a week in glorious Rome, I still read quite a few really amazing books. The Read-a-thon helped too! 17 books in total, not bad.
Fiction
- Unclaimed, Courtney Milan
- The Dragon and the Pearl, Jeannie Lin
- The Lady of the Rivers, Philippa Gregory
- The Duke is Mine, Eloisa James
- The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, Melanie Benjamin
- Miles Errant, Lois McMaster Bujold
- Miles in Love, Lois McMaster Bujold
- For the King, Catherine Delors
- Just Like Heaven, Julia Quinn
- A Touch of Dead, Charlaine Harris
- After the Golden Age, Carrie Vaughn
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
- Far to Go, Alison Pick
- Storm Front, Jim Butcher
Non-fiction
Pick of the Month
 
I couldn’t really choose between these two, and I think they have very different audiences, so I chose them both. I loved them and would wholeheartedly recommend them, so there you go.
In November, I expect I’ll be reading a lot less as I try to shift my focus to writing this month. I’ll try to keep up with reviews, which should actually be a lot easier if I read as little as I’m expecting to, and I will be posting about my trip to Rome this weekend and probably a few times over the next few weeks – it was quite a busy vacation!
I’d still like to squeeze in the following books:
- Rome by Robert Hughes (already reading!)
- Flawless by Carrie Lofty
- The Courtesan’s Lover by Gabrielle Kim
- Praetorian by Simon Scarrow
- The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
What’s on your list for November? Wishing you all fantastic months!
 This book is very well-known, so I won’t get into a summary too much. Suffice it to say that Levitt and Dubner use economic theories to tease out the truths behind commonly held misconceptions. For instance, what was the cause of the drop in crime across the United States in the 90’s? Do sumo wrestlers cheat? The authors look at things in a slightly different way to others to try and make sense of the world as they know it.
There doesn’t really seem to be any cohesion behind the book, and there isn’t actually supposed to be. Rather, it’s a portrait of causes that Levitt, the economist, found interesting and worth researching. I did find them to be very revealing and interesting at the same time. He finds out, for example, that names given to children don’t really have an effect on their destiny – it’s instead the economic situation of their parents that is the true predictor. It just so happens that a child raised in a poor family is not as likely to succeed as a child born in a rich one who is more likely to give that child a trendy and stylish white name.
The most interesting of the studies, naturally, is the one referenced in the first paragraph; namely that Roe v. Wade eventually caused crime to be lowered because many babies that are aborted would have been born into situations that would have predisposed them to crime. The authors do argue, actually, that the laws didn’t lower the birth rate. What usually happened was that the potential mother put off having a child until she was better able to support it, so we got more well-off, wanted babies than desperately poor, unwanted ones, and the former are far less likely than the latter to go off murdering people. I didn’t actually find this controversial at all, but maybe because I’m young, liberal, and have had similar stories before.
Freakonomics is worth the read if you have the opportunity, as it does alter slightly the way we embrace problems, but given how much of it has seeped into public awareness, it’s perhaps not as important to read now as it was six years ago. Regardless, I would recommend it, if only for the trivia you’ll spout after reading it (did you know swimming pools are more dangerous to children than guns? I didn’t either).
All external books links are affiliate links. I borrowed this book.
 Celia’s parents are superheroes, but she has never been anything more than normal. Eking out a standard existence on a single salary, renting her own apartment, taking the bus to work; this is Celia West’s life. Her parents Captain Olympus and Spark keep the city safe, while operating a huge and successful business, but never seemed to have enough time for their daughter. When it was discovered who they were, Celia’s life was guaranteed to be abnormal, but she does her best. Unfortunately, when danger erupts in the city, it’s Celia who has the power to understand what’s going on and, ultimately, prove that regular humans can accomplish just as much as those granted special powers.
This is another Read-a-thon choice and in that context it was a fun, easy choice of read. Superheroes are everywhere these days, and the concept of a normal person getting mixed up in the fray isn’t really strange either, so it’s pretty easy to determine whether or not this book is a choice that will appeal to you. It tries at times to deal with more complex issues, but given that Celia is behind her teenage-rebel days, I think it actually mostly fails at this – she comes off as whiny rather than strong, even when she’s actually the one going behind the scenes to make things happen. I didn’t actually dislike her in the present day, but I definitely would have if this were a YA novel and she was carrying out some of the behavior she did in her younger years.
The other bizarre part of the book for me was the romance, which I felt came out of left field. I had a certain character pegged as an older mentor, only to find out he’s actually a romantic interest, which just didn’t work. I can see how it would work sometimes, but here I just wasn’t feel any sort of spark between them. Overall, disappointing for someone who actually likes romance on the side.
Still, the superhero world was interesting, and I certainly found After the Golden Age captivating enough to read it over a couple of hours straight during the Read-a-thon. I’d recommend it for a bit of fun and for a fast read, but not for a memorable one.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review from Amazon Vine.
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