May 2017 was a much better month for reading. I discovered two new favorites and got through some textbooks. Somehow, I had balanced enough to actually get my school reading done and have space for some fun projects. The read-along for The Alchemists of Loom was a blast, but there’s more I want to share.

Brand Media Strategy

What I Learned: Make an Informative Book Fun

Between the examples and easy checklists, Young peppers in some interesting turns of phrase that make the work engaging. I read chapters from another textbook for another class and that was a disaster of a massive wall of text disguised as information. The formatting of this brief book made it my favorite of most books I’ve read this quarter.

Work Rules

What I Learned: Story-telling for Impact

This text was arranged a bit like a short story anthology about different aspects of Google’s organizational culture, everything from hiring, to promotions, to boosting moral, and project management. It gave me a lot to think about, especially as a capstone for pulling together the learnings from Managing Integration.

The Alchemists of Loom

What I Learned: Merging Video Games and Bookish Fiction

This month’s Author to Author was with Elise Kova, who wrote my new favorite read of 2017. It struck so many notes with me. Between the world-building and the characters, each chapter felt like a level with definite progression in terms of discovery and story-telling. Ari and Cvareh quickly became my favorites. As the story progressed, their decisions were totally salient. At the same time, there were enough mysteries to keep me going as a reader and keep the story’s tensions high. As someone who wants to write a video-game-inspired fantasy, there is so much I can learn from Loom saga and I cannot, CAN NOT wait for Dragons of Nova to drop this summer.

The Mark of the Tala

What I Learned: What a Combination of Two Genres I’m Familiar With Looks Like

It’s been a hot second since I read a romance. I totally didn’t realize what I was getting myself into with this book, but once I was in, I was in. Andromeda and Rayfe’s relationship didn’t distract from the overall tensions and stakes between the warring nations of the Tala and the Twelve Kingdoms. The two plot threads meshed so well together with enough distance between each that there was no confusing what type of book was being experienced. Another series that I’m happy to have started and can’t wait to see where it goes.

June is BEA/Bookcon month, so expect a post about that. For graduate school, I’ll be doing a thing called Immersion Quarter, so hopefully I’ll have some more time to read? We’ll see how that goes. Also my aspiration for June is to finish Thieves Project. Because free time is a thing I have.

Happy reading,
Jo