Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I've Just Finished Reading

Nothing. :(

What I'm Reading Now

I'm about halfway through Pam Munoz Ryan's Echo, which is annoying me by piling cliffhanger on cliffhanger. We have one story thread which ends with the hero being arrested by the Gestapo, and then another which ends with a different hero falling out of a tree and I'm going to guess fainting, but it sure sounds like he might be dead, and now we're heading into story thread three without any resolution for the first two in sight.

I'm also about halfway done with The Angry Therapist, which I still am finding disappointing. He just seems... so much less angry than I expected. No rants about health insurance/stigmas surrounding mental health issues/antidepressants (everyone has a rant about antidepressants, either pro or con)/the tragic state of psychologist training/something?

What I Plan to Read Next

I was alllllmost caught up on Netgalley books... and then I checked out the recently added books, and they had one about the history of shyness and another about the minds and social lives of carnivorous animals and another one about Abraham Lincoln (and also one about the resurgence of the Russian Orthodox church which I just barely managed to resist), so. Piles of books to read again!

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ooh, man, those NetGalley books are tempting me! one about the history of shyness and another about the minds and social lives of carnivorous animals sound perfect for me – even though I'm trying to get caught up too... Choices!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've been reading the history of shyness one and it's pretty fabulous so far - lots of biographical snippets about historical shy people, musing about the nature of shyness, musings about historical musings about the nature of shyness, etc.

Also, the author specifically promises in the introduction not to wedge his own personal history of shyness into the rest of the book, which I appreciate.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

What's he angry about, then?

I had to forbid myself from buying any new books until February at the earliest; I just have too many in the house. But I'm being tempted by the ARCs someone left at the bookstore. They are not in a genre I have a lot of ready-made interest in (inspirational romance? there's a hell of a lot of sunlight and warm smiles on the covers) but they are free! Free books! It's a problem.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I think possibly that he feels that the way therapy is constructed can prevent therapists and their patients from forming genuine emotional connections, and genuine emotion is what heals people far more than any specific intervention?

I guess that's a reasonable thing to be angry about. The book still lacks the polemic energy I expected from the title.

Maybe you should try just one of the ARCs? As research into the genre of inspirational romance, of course.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I'm going to do it! One more book can't make too much difference. . .

Huh. I guess that makes sense, but I'm a little baffled that, of all the things a therapist might be angry about, that's the one he chose. Has he seen our health care system?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Ha, right? So many things to be angry about! And he picked that???