2/06/25 - Finished Gleanings, Started Red Rising

 Howdy, feasyheads!

Today was a day full of reading. Thursdays usually are. Firstly, I finished Gleanings, by Neal Shusterman. It's, if you missed the earlier descriptions, book 3.5 of the Arc of a Scythe series. It's actually a collection of short stories from the Scythe universe, and they offer insight into the lives of other people throughout the events of the series, as well as a few stories that happened before and after the events of The Arc of a Scythe.

Taking a break from Shusterman for a bit made me appreciate his writing style a lot more. It's definitely my favorite. Multiple perspectives and the only occasional unknown word. The stories captivated me, and I was immersed in the small bubble that each one of them had. It was a very fun read, and afterwards I thought a lot about the characters and how it would be like to live in the 'post-mortal' world. This book gets an 8.9 out of 10 on the Wally scale. I highly recommend reading this after the end of the series, as it brings depth, but not before the vents of the third book. 

After finishing Gleanings, like I said yesterday, Red Rising became available, and I took it. I'm pleased to report that over a quarter of the book is complete. Many of the elements of the setting remind me of The Hunger Games as well as Red Queen. The main character, Darrow, is a slave on Mars, 'preparing the planet for the other humans to inhabit.' He is told that he is a 'pioneer.' There are clans like districts in The Hunger Games, and rivalry has been created amongst them when really they should be united against The Society. And just like in Red Queen, people who are higher up on the hierarchy have better capabilities.

For all of these books I use Libby, and I highly recommend checking to see if local libraries have the app. You can get an online library card and look for books. Sometimes you'll have to wait about a week or so, or a lot more if the book you want is really popular. But generally, if you get several library cards, you can find the book you want immediately. 

That concludes it for today's entry.

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night/3:00 AM,

Uncle Wally