The new year
It seems I mostly post about resolutions these days, with almost nothing in between. In 2016 and 2017, I had four main goals for myself. Read more. Write more. Play more games. Spend more time outside. How did I do? Read More I did terribly. I’m not sure what happened, but after reading 34 books in 2015 and 2016, I dropped to 22 this year. That’s a precipitous drop. Of what I read, I really liked Dark Matter, Sourdough, The Signature of All Things, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, The Name of the Wind, and The Wise Man’s Fear. For 2018, Read more…
2017: Tacoma’s Year in Review
I always love the chance to sit down and talk with my good friend and Tacoma REALTOR Marguerite Martin, real estate matchmaker extraordinaire. This time we sit down and talk about 2017: the good, the bad, the Tacoma on her Move to Tacoma podcast. 2017 Year in Review! with special guest Erik Hanberg
Here comes 2017
Last year, I set four goals for myself: Read more. Write more. Play more games. Spend more time outside. Here’s how I did. Read More According to Goodreads, I read 34 books in 2016, which is also what I read in 2015. True, at least four of those books were 800 pages or more. But I still want to step that up in 2017. I’m aiming for 40 books, which is about a book every week and a half. Write More In 2016, I hoped to finish the first draft of The Tin Whistle, the final book in my science fiction trilogy, Read more…
Year of Reading Women Wrapup
I finished my year of reading only women challenge at the end of April. I’ve been trying to assemble my thoughts since then. In some ways, it has helped to have a couple months of reading both men and women to get them sorted it out. What follows are some notes about my reading list and then some thoughts about “what does it all mean.”
Reading List
If this is the first time you’re reading about this here are my previous blog posts: first post second post third post fourth post. Read more…
The year of reading women—just two months to go
Earlier this week, Time magazine did a survey of college syllabi and listed the Top 100 women assigned in college. (The list got a lot of notice because they accidentally included Evelyn Waugh, a man.) As I was browsing through the list, I noticed that several of the books I’ve read are on the list! But that reminded me it had been a few months since updating my progress. So, once again, for those who are interested, here are the books I’ve been reading in my year of only reading women. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling “Daughter of Fortune” by Isabel Allende Read more…
The Iron Harvest is here.
If you’ve been waiting to hear when the second book of The Lattice Trilogy is available, I have good news for you! My sales pitch is pretty short: big ideas, big action. It has chases, shoot-outs, and what I hope is the coolest/most interesting storm in science fiction. The book is available today in ebook widely. Here are links to the book in the most common online bookstores: Amazon Apple Nook Kobo Did I mention that the book is just $3.99! If you want to get a little bit of a “behind the scenes” of the writing and research I did, Brent Hartinger Read more…
Looking ahead to a new year
Generally speaking, I try not to make a lot of dramatic resolutions at the end of the year. I’d rather set myself up for success, not failure. Sometimes I don’t even make resolutions. With that in mind, this year’s resolutions I have are pretty simple. Read more. Write more. Play more games. Spend more time outside. Read more I read 34 books this year. 38 in 2014. 47 in 2013. That’s clearly going the wrong direction (and thank you Goodreads for helping me identify the skid). I’m too easily distracted by the phone and watching too much TV. That’s probably the main Read more…
Why I’m Reading Only Women for a Year – By the Numbers
First an update. These are the books I’ve read since the last time I blogged: “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton “Justice Calling” by Annie Bellet “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante “The Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler (underway) It’s been almost six months since I started, so I’m at the turn. Now, for some data. I was curious about my reading habits before I started this challenge. To a certain extent, I had it in my head that reading a year of only women wouldn’t be that big of a deal for me. Read more…
“Alexa, do you love Mommy?”
For the last few months, our family has had an Amazon Echo in the house. It’s a (rather elegant looking) microphone and speaker gadget that we had set up in our living room. In it lives the voice of “Alexa.” She’s like Siri on your iPhone, except she’s always on. You don’t need to press a button, you just say, “Alexa, set a timer for ten minutes” and your timer is set. Her range is very strong so from almost any room on our main floor, we can ask her questions. Generally speaking, Alexa has fit into our routine very comfortably. The things Read more…
Update on the year of reading women
Here’s a two month update on how this project has been going. Since I blogged about it in early July, I’ve read: “Ripley’s Game” by Patricia Highsmith “Fairest” by Marissa Meyer “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed (still underway) Ripley’s Game gave me pause. I love Highsmith’s books and Tom Ripley is an amazing character to follow. But it also made me think that I should focus on books that are not only by women but that are about women. I felt that reading a book primarily about men, even if Read more…
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