Real life and Brave New World

Today, I started Brave New World. I didn't make any specific posts for the individual books I was reading last month, but I might make an exception here.

Being a fan of Buffy for so many years, of course, I can't read the words 'Brave New World' without thinking of Anya with her full vengeance demon get-up telling Giles what an amazing 'brave new world' Cordelia has all condemned them to in the episode 'The Wish'.

The book's got such gems as, "For of course some sort of general idea they must have, if they were to do their work intelligently--though as little of one, if they were to be good and happy members of society as possible" and "That is the secret of happiness and virtue--liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapeable social destiny."

It's actually really, really creepy, and I've only just got to the end of chapter one. 

Nevermind the fact that it's making me think particularly uncharitable thoughts about corporate workplaces. I've been a student too many years to think of the corporation as anything other than the devil, but I've been spending a lot of time at work lately, and this book is already making me wonder why?!

Of course, I know why. My fiancee is an enterprising young man and is currently about to thrust both of us into the business of being franchisee holders, which means all his extra time is going into spending money and all my extra time is going into trying to find more money to spend. Which means working more hours than I am used to. 

I saw a post on Twitter about a month ago congratulating anyone who manages to write professionally at the same time as bringing up kids and/or holding down a job.

I don't have any kids, but lately I haven't been feeling like I'm keeping my head above water with the expectations that come along with claiming you're writing professionally at the same time as holding down a job. It's been more like, 'Okay, Nikki, but you're a writer, really, so you just keep on making sure to write at least half an hour to an hour a day. Or promoting, even promoting during that time is okay....'

And that's one of the reasons why there have been less posts here. The last thing I want to do when I get home from work is sit in front of another computer.

Thankfully, we are almost at the end of it now, then I will be once more the active and amazing online presence that you all know me to be.

April 2013 reading list

Alright, so March is done.

I am absolutely looking forward to this month. My list may be a little bit ambitious, but we're going to see how we go.

First up!

Delirium.
5/5 stars. 10/10! Flawless read.

My YA novel for the month. I have heard so many great things about this book that I don't even know where to begin, so I will say again a huge big 'Yay!' for the reading party this weekend that ended up with me taking away a free copy of this novel for my home library, and I will probably be following it up with other books in this series pretty soon.

Brave New World.
3/5. Far from flawless, but I can see why this is a classic.

This is my Goodreads.com group read of the month. It has also been sitting on my shelves for a long time, having people tell me that I really must read it, so I'm happy to be giving it a shot. I'm sure it will blow my mind.

Wormwood.
4/5 stars. Some stories were really amazing, some were really gratuitous. 

This is a bit of a cheat book for me this month. I've started this book already, but I need a good excuse to finish it. Poppy's books are kind of like stepping into another world. Truth be told, I am a little bit worried about the shape my mind is going to come out by the end of this month... Still, in pages to be read, I'm more than making up for it with--

Ship of Magic.
4/5 stars. Not as good as her previous writing, but only just.

This book is on loan from a friend and if I don't start and finish it soon, he's probably going to take it away from me. As it is, he's already started asking why it was so urgent for me to get it to him when it's taken me two months already to even get to it. Not my fault! I protest, I love all books equally. I promise I'll at least start this book today. (Whether I finish it this month is a completely other story...) I absolutely loved Hobb's writing for both the Assassin and the Golden Fool trilogies, so I suspect it will be no hardship at all to get through the 880 pages this book boasts.

Dear First Love.
DNF. There is one book every month, and this was this month's.

This novel totally stole a title I would have loved to use but, if it's a good read, I'll forgive it. This book is my NA (New Adult) novel for the month. I totally meant to write up a post before the end of last month exploring the realms of this new genre that seems to have captivated the imaginations of authors and publishers alike, but somehow never quite found time for it. Hopefully I can find time sometime during this month. In between all these books...

Unbearable Lightness.
4/5 stars. Depressing, not particularly well written, but still completely drew me in.

Last, but certainly not least, I look forward to this book for so many reasons. A couple of them are personal, one of them is the fact that I'm really digging memoirs right now. This one has been sorta vaguely on my list since I saw it sitting on a shelf in a bookshop I used to work at. I have a lot of expectations for what I expect this book will be. If it makes me cry, I'm going to be real happy. If it makes me think and reflect, better yet. Just so long as it's written articulately, I'm sure it's going to be great.

--

As ever, for anyone interested in following my progress throughout this month, feel free to follow me on Goodreads.com: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6878229.Nicole_D_Fergusson