In this last quarter of 2020, I’ve been starting a lot of books and making very slow progress with them. In addition to the two I’m still working on from my last post, I’ve started two more. I used to be the kind of reader who had half a dozen or more books going at once, and I’m finding that’s what I need to help pull me out this mild reading funk I’ve been in for the past couple of months. With four books in progress, I have a variety to choose from based on my mood, and it doesn’t feel as daunting as starting a book from the beginning.

 

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

My husband is a big fan of Brandon Sanderson’s books, and I read the Mistborn trilogy when he recommended it to me. (Sidenote for those of you wanting to impress a reader: actually read the books they recommend to you. It is very attractive.) I was in the mood for a good standalone epic fantasy that didn’t require a huge investment of time, and since I enjoyed Mistborn, Elantris – Sanderson’s first published book – seemed like a good pick. I’m about a quarter of the way through and enjoying it a lot so far. Sanderson does a really good job in this book of establishing his three main characters’ voices and personalities right away (unlike Mistborn, where I felt that it took at least one full book before I really got to know Vin or Kelsier). The plot – about a city of godlike beings who have “fallen” due to a disease that rots their bodies and minds but will never kill them – feels like classic fantasy without being a retread of only old tropes.

 

A Life on Our Planet by Richard Attenborough

I watched the Netflix documentary that serves as a companion to this book a few months ago and was very moved by it. Only partially an autobiography, Attenborough calls this his “witness statement and a vision for the future.” He writes about the dramatic loss of biodiversity on our planet as observed over the course of his long life, and then looks to the future, to the points of no return and what our continued unwillingness to make big changes will mean for the future of humanity and the rest of life on Earth. It’s a devastating account, but it also presents solutions: a path forward. All is not yet lost. Attenborough narrates the audiobook, and I find his voice (particularly now when he’s in his 90s) very soothing, even when he’s talking about calamities.