Reading Wednesday
Apr. 24th, 2019 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cinaed Recently Finished
Still chipping away at my pile of library books, and between going home sick on Monday and the heat in the library hitting 82 yet again last night meaning I got five hours of unexpected free time, I did quite a bit of reading this week! Finished Alyssa Cole's A Duke By Default, the second in the Reluctant Royals modern romance series, which was a much more enjoyable read than the first one and with a dynamic I enjoyed much more. I think my only complaint is that Cole's villains are just so over the top and obvious that they make some of the plot drag.
I also read The edge of anarchy : the railroad barons, the Gilded Age, and the greatest labor uprising in America by Jack Kelly, which was a fascinating albeit depressing read about a railroad union and the biggest strike that occurred in the United States during the depression of the 1890s. The union had genuine grievances, and learning how both Cleveland and the future president Taft thought of them was depressing. I was really fascinated by poor Debs, the leader of the strike, who was a man ahead of his time and fairly doomed to failure from the racism and prejudice of the era. Also the Pullman Company's factory town would feel overdone in a dystopian novel, and yet it actually happened!
I also read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. I really should've taken notes, but it was very useful. One of the most useful concepts? Eliminating the idea of "tidying a little each day" because then you'll always be tidying and it'll feel like a never-ending chore. Instead she suggests taking a few weeks of major effort in discarding and organizing your space and then maintaining that effort. Hopefully I can get my ass in gear and utilize her ideas.
I also read The edge of anarchy : the railroad barons, the Gilded Age, and the greatest labor uprising in America by Jack Kelly, which was a fascinating albeit depressing read about a railroad union and the biggest strike that occurred in the United States during the depression of the 1890s. The union had genuine grievances, and learning how both Cleveland and the future president Taft thought of them was depressing. I was really fascinated by poor Debs, the leader of the strike, who was a man ahead of his time and fairly doomed to failure from the racism and prejudice of the era. Also the Pullman Company's factory town would feel overdone in a dystopian novel, and yet it actually happened!
I also read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. I really should've taken notes, but it was very useful. One of the most useful concepts? Eliminating the idea of "tidying a little each day" because then you'll always be tidying and it'll feel like a never-ending chore. Instead she suggests taking a few weeks of major effort in discarding and organizing your space and then maintaining that effort. Hopefully I can get my ass in gear and utilize her ideas.
Currently Reading
Between books at the moment! I didn't want to start any right away when I'm working this weekend, have a new Dungeons and Dragons game starting, and then also want to try my hand at a few fics for the Red vs Blue Rare Pair Week in May.
What's Next
At this point I'm going with books that are due back at the library with holds on them, which means next up is either Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World, a collection by Kathleen Ragan or A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, whom I heard speak the other week and am really excited to read her debut science fiction novel!
