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lizabarrett

Classy Cat Books

Liza Barrett: I find that I spend most of my time staring at numbers: as a full-time cost estimator and a part-time statistics graduate student, I can usually be found staring at a spreadsheet or some other statistical software, and I tend to get very bogged-down in data sets or lost in technical presentations about a part(s) I’m trying to price. Unfortunately, when I’m involved in a project, I tend to fixate on it. I learned a long time ago that if I want to have some semblance of a personal life away from work and school, I need to find something else to think about. For me, that comes in the form of reading and writing. Through my two blogs, Classy Cat Books, and The Briar Patch, I have been able to accomplish both. Here at Classy Cat Books, I post “reviews” about the books I’ve been reading. Some books I actually read, and some I listen to as an audiobook (I used to hate audiobooks, and then I had a 40-minute drive one-way at least once a week and decided that they were pretty awesome—not to mention chores go faster that way). I try really hard to avoid spoilers in my posts. It’s my hope that anyone could read my posts and learn what I think the highlights and shortfalls of the book were without having read it already. I will provide a rating and will usually rant about what bothered me or rave about what I thought was amazing. Most importantly, I will be keeping my author-hat on. Typically, I’m looking to see what works for me as a reader so that I can bring it back to my own writing. I started Classy Cat Books so I could take a critical eye to my own skill as a writer—this is an outlet for me to think critically about things I see getting publish that I have or don’t have in my own stories, and I try to work on what I complain about. That said, if you’ve read the book being reviewed and would like to offer more insight—what did you like? what didn’t you like?—please leave a comment! If it’s your first comment, I will have to review and approve, but after that you’ll be on my ‘approved’ list already. Also, if you’d like to read my writing and see if you can spot where my comments about my own mistakes come up, head on over to The Briar Patch, where I post every Thursday and my good friend, R. A. Stark posts every Monday. All feedback is appreciated! (By the way, the name of the blog, Classy Cat Books, comes from the fact that I have two lovely cats, Tux and Oli, who spend a good deal of time sitting on my bookshelves)