Monthly Wanderings: August 2020

 

August was a mostly uneventful month. XD The best part was hiking other than that work work work lol. 

Book Review and Writing Lessons: Watcher in the Woods by Robert Liparulo

Twelve-year-old David and his family search for their kidnapped mother in the many different time period portals of their home, but when a stranger appears and tries to force them to sell the house, their desperation reaches new heights.

Series: Dreamhouse Kings (Book 2)
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 3, 2012)
Page Count: 304 pages

I'm finally getting to reading this sequel! I read the first book back in 2018 and bought this sequel last year at Realm Makers and I've finally gotten around to reading it!

Writing Lessons from TV Shows: The Witcher

I’ve been on a Witcher kick lately! Between playing the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and watching the Witcher Netflix, I’ve come to love Geralt of Rivia and become fascinated with the story world. I’m still playing the game (it’s so huge, man) but I have finished the Netflix show and besides the mature content I enjoyed it. Henry Cavill does an amazing Geralt of Rivia, Jaskier is hilarious, the music is so good, and the visual effects were really nice too. It had its flaws like I felt like though the show is called the Witcher it focused more on Yennefer of Vengerberg (and I’m not too crazy about her) and I wanted more of Geralt and Ciri’s relationship but hopefully, in the next season, we’ll get more of them.

Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg, and Princess Cirilla of Cintra are entwined by destiny. Geralt is a famed Witcher, a mutated monster slayer, Yennefer is a sorceress, and Ciri is the last of the line of Elder Blood. The three must find each other to save the world from the Niflgaard Empire and even dark forces. 

Warning: Spoilers in points two and five.

Book Review and Writing Lessons: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Series: Arc of a Scythe (Book 1)
Genre: YA Science-Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (November 28, 2017)
Page Count: 464 pages

This book is definitely the most challenging book I’ve read this year. It’s not really a book for pleasure but a book to make you think, so for a while, I had trouble liking it but by the end, I learned to appreciate it for its themes.