Over the last couple of years I've become more and more enraptured with the theater. In fact one of the first musicals I saw that truly inspired and spoke to me was Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights (I didn't even realize Lin-Manuel Miranda was the creator of In the Heights until I read this book). We saw that musical on a whim and fell in love. After all the buzz surrounding Hamilton, I thought the best way to close out a tumultuous 2016 would be to read the book on how Hamilton was made. 

I heard about Sing for Your Life: A Story of Race, Music, and Family on a recent episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. But before that, I went to my first opera in Vienna to see a majestic performance of Carmen. From that experience, I've become enraptured with wanting to see more opera, so when I heard about this book about Ryan Speedo Green a rising opera singer from New York I went on Audible and picked up the audiobook. 

I should preface my review of Catalyst - A Rogue One Novel by saying that the only Star Wars movie I've ever watched all the way through is Episode 7. And although I considered that a great movie I haven't been bothered enough to go back and watch the other six movies. And yet for my book club, GamersRead this months book pick was Catalyst - A Rogue One Novel so I went ahead and dived in, full well knowing that a lot of this book would probably be lost on me. 

As a longtime fan of The Daily Show I went through the transition of The Daily Show being handed from Jon Stewart to Trevor Noah. I'll admit the transition has been turbulent to say the least but in the last couple of months Trevor Noah has been coming in to his own. When I heard he had published a novel I picked up the audiobook on Audible and it might have been one of the best surprises of the year.

When I started to get back into reading around five years ago I fell in love with Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series. It's a pretty straightforward CIA thriller with a great lead character and some passable side characters. Each of the four of five novels I've read in the series have been great fun reads.

With about a quarter of the book left their are some plot lines that finally come together in some of the most spectacular twists in a novel I've had in a long time. I really enjoyed The Fifth Season and am intrigued to keep on with the story. I didn't fall in love with the book like I was hoping but I enjoyed the ride enough that I could see continuing on with it.