Happy Tuesday (maybe Wednesday by the time this post publishes), wonderful people! I can hardly believe we’re almost halfway through January. I’ve decided to be a little less aggressive with my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, with a goal of 30 books. I’m currently sitting at a pretty 2 books read thus far into the month. Granted The Churn and The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse aren’t exactly full-length novels, but I’m trying! I figured it would even out all the uncounted pages I’ve read for my critique partners 🙂

I decided to read The Churn to kick off season 4 of The Expanse which is already so good, and I absolutely can’t wait to finish off. The Churn is a quick read, a novella really, offering more insight glimpses to Amos’ past/origin story, and the gritty life of UBI-dependent citizens on Earth. The Churn definitely had that classic Adult Sci-fi feel (granted, I haven’t read many, and I still need to read Leviathan Wakes), which was a slight adjustment for my YA-orientated brain. The story was quite heavy on world building, and bounced around various characters, going into their backstories for a bit before jumping back to our main character, Amos.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse was a charming read with timeless illustrations. The text is written in a brush script, so it was slightly difficult to read (especially if you’re reading on your phone), but at the same time, it also forced me to slow down and really savor the words, so who knows–maybe that was intentional.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book include:

“Everyone is a bit scared,” said the horse. “Tears fall for a reason and they are your strength.”

“When have you been at your strongest?” asked the boy. // “When I have dared to show my weakness.”

“Asking for help isn’t giving up,” said the horse. “It’s refusing to give up.”

Write now, my current read is Thinking Fast and Slow. It’s a nonfiction (gasp), which is a bit unusual since I normally don’t read nonfiction unless they are short and/or are by Mary Roach. However, one of my professors kept on talking about this book in class, so I decided to see what it was all about. Fast forward three years, I finally decide to brush the dust off the yellowed pages of this book and give it a whirl. I’m about three chapters in, and it’s certainly an interesting topic (talks about how we have 2 type of mental “processing” system–the intuitive one vs the effort-exerting one). I have a feeling it’ll be a slightly slow read for me just because I don’t normally read non-fiction.

Finally, a little update with my own writing endeavors…

I’m still steadily plugging away with editing WARPERS–namely, turning a YA story into an Adult novel. Progress has been going in spurts, as I’ve rewritten far more of the content than I ever anticipated. On the chapters requiring heavy rewrites, it’ll take about a 1-2 days per chapter. But every once in a while, I hit a portion of the story where not much needs to be adjusted, and can normally zip through a few chapters in a day. I’m hoping to finish edits by the first week of February, and then give myself a couple weeks to step away/wait for CP feedback, before returning to the MS for another final polish. Here’s to hoping I stay on track!

Cheers, and stay awesome ❤