Kathy Reichs' latest, "Bones Are Forever", was really good, but started off very sad. Brennan is called in to examine the body of an infant, and while searching the apartment of the suspected mother two more infants are found. The mom has disappeared, and Brennan and Ryan go into the wilds of the upper Northwest, where the First Nations live. Brennan uncovers a plot involving diamond mines. It was good, I tried very hard to pay close attention, since her books are so dense with information.
"An Apple for the Creature" is a collection of short stories featuring supernatural beings in a classroom setting edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner. I'm not normally a big short story fan, but this collection had a lot of really good ones in it, and I enjoyed it.
"The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde is his first Thursday Next novel, and it was very clever. It takes place in an alternate reality, where people take their literature very seriously. Thursday Next is a member of S0-27, special investigators dedicated to literature. Thursday's uncle Mycroft invents a machine that allows people to jump into books, and uber-bad guy Acheron Hades kidnaps Mycroft and uses the machine to kidnap Jane Eyre from the original manuscript. Thursday dives into the novel to save not only Jane but the story. It was very charming, I enjoyed it.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Born Together, Reared Apart; Off the Road; Growing Up Dead in Texas; Fate of the Princes; Unfaithful Queen; Mister Pip
"Born Together, Reared Apart" by Nancy L. Segal was an interesting and not too completely over my head scientific look at the fascinating study of twins who are separated while still very young and then raised separately. Segal and the rest of the staff of the Minnesota Twin Studies department looked at how much genetics influences our decisions as far as career, hobbies, tastes in food, religion, politics, etc. It was pretty good, and I was proud that I understood most of it!
"Off the Road" by Carolyn Cassady documents her life married to Neal Cassady, immortalized in Jack Kerouac's books like "On the Road". She put up with a lot of BS while married to Neal, more than I would have put up with, but she did get to hang with Kerouac and Ginsberg, so that's pretty cool. Like most teens, I was profoundly into the Beats and thought I was the first person ever to discover how awesome they were. As I got older, and especially while reading this book, I realized just how immature they really were. Neal was forever running off and fathering babies with random women that he had no way of taking care of. Stuff like that really irritates me. But it was a great read, very interesting.
I was so disappointed by "Growing Up Dead in Texas" by Stephen Graham Jones. I had heard really good things about it, but it fell very flat for me. It was disjointed and confusing (now mind, I read *Faulkner* and understand it) and I had no idea what was going on. Something about a fire? And maybe child molestation? I don't even know.
"Fate of the Princes" by P. C. Doherty was a fictionalized account of King Richard III's close friend and adviser, Francis Lovell. Richard asks Lovell to investigate the disappearance of his nephews from the Tower of London, which Lovell does and comes up with a satisfactory explanation as to what could have happened to the boys. I thought Richard was very nicely portrayed in this. I'm keeping an eye on developments in Leicester as to the possible discovery of his body. Amazing after all these centuries!
"The Unfaithful Queen" by Carolly Erickson was a decent but heavily fictionalized account of Queen Katherine Howard's short life and sad death. It was okay, nothing particularly memorable about it.
"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones was another disappointment. It came highly recommended but I couldn't really get into it. It was just too sad for my taste. A young lady named Matilda is living on an island in turmoil. The only white man on the island, Mr. Watts, offers to take over the school and reads to the children from Dickens' classic "Great Expectations". Matilda really loves the book and connects with it, which was great, but I'm not a big Dickens fan, so I failed to see the charm of the book. That might have been part of the problem.
"Off the Road" by Carolyn Cassady documents her life married to Neal Cassady, immortalized in Jack Kerouac's books like "On the Road". She put up with a lot of BS while married to Neal, more than I would have put up with, but she did get to hang with Kerouac and Ginsberg, so that's pretty cool. Like most teens, I was profoundly into the Beats and thought I was the first person ever to discover how awesome they were. As I got older, and especially while reading this book, I realized just how immature they really were. Neal was forever running off and fathering babies with random women that he had no way of taking care of. Stuff like that really irritates me. But it was a great read, very interesting.
I was so disappointed by "Growing Up Dead in Texas" by Stephen Graham Jones. I had heard really good things about it, but it fell very flat for me. It was disjointed and confusing (now mind, I read *Faulkner* and understand it) and I had no idea what was going on. Something about a fire? And maybe child molestation? I don't even know.
"Fate of the Princes" by P. C. Doherty was a fictionalized account of King Richard III's close friend and adviser, Francis Lovell. Richard asks Lovell to investigate the disappearance of his nephews from the Tower of London, which Lovell does and comes up with a satisfactory explanation as to what could have happened to the boys. I thought Richard was very nicely portrayed in this. I'm keeping an eye on developments in Leicester as to the possible discovery of his body. Amazing after all these centuries!
"The Unfaithful Queen" by Carolly Erickson was a decent but heavily fictionalized account of Queen Katherine Howard's short life and sad death. It was okay, nothing particularly memorable about it.
"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones was another disappointment. It came highly recommended but I couldn't really get into it. It was just too sad for my taste. A young lady named Matilda is living on an island in turmoil. The only white man on the island, Mr. Watts, offers to take over the school and reads to the children from Dickens' classic "Great Expectations". Matilda really loves the book and connects with it, which was great, but I'm not a big Dickens fan, so I failed to see the charm of the book. That might have been part of the problem.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Wilderness of Error; Chapel Noir; Dead West; Size 12 and Ready to Rock
There are more, so I'll have to update again later. I've found my memory isn't as good as it used to be. Getting older sucks! :)
"Wilderness of Error" by Errol Morris looks at the travesty of justice that is the Jeffrey MacDonald case. How this man was even convicted in the first place is a mystery to me. Years ago, a coworker who knew my love of true crime recommended "Fatal Vision" by Joe McGinniss. I read it, but I didn't like it, there was just something off about the whole thing to me. At the library I happened to find "Fatal Justice" by Jerry Allen Potter, read that, and went oh my god! Morris presents interviews with key players in the murder investigation and court testimony to show exactly how badly MacDonald was railroaded. It's a shame, it really is.
"Chapel Noir" by Carole Nelson Douglas is the fifth Irene Adler adventure. Irene and Nell are in Paris, and brutal slayings resembling the Jack the Ripper London murders are taking place, leading Irene to think Jack may have moved to Paris. Sherlock Holmes is a major character in this one, and he and Irene team up, with the help of a reporter in disguise, Nellie Bly, to investigate. The book ended on a cliffhanger: Nell was kidnapped by the Ripper suspect! Oh no! Poor Nell. I hope she's okay. If I didn't have so many other books to read right now I would be tearing into the next one, but alas, I'm afraid it will have to wait a bit.
"Dead West" by Rick Spears was a tepid graphic novel about an Indian in the Old West seeking revenge against the white man who killed his entire tribe. I didn't care for it, but at least it was short.
"Size 12 and Ready to Rock" by Meg Cabot is the newest Heather Wells mystery. Tania Trace, the new wife of Heather's ex-boyfriend Jordan, is being threatened by a crazy guy. Tania's getting ready to host a rock camp for teen girls, and decides to have it at Fisher Hall where she feels safe with Heather around, since Heather's so good at catching bad guys. One of the camera crew is murdered when he eats a poisoned cupcake meant for Tania. The teen girls are wild and out of control. Poor Heather. But at least she still has her gorgeous, rich fiance, Cooper, so I can't muster up *too* much sympathy for her.
"Wilderness of Error" by Errol Morris looks at the travesty of justice that is the Jeffrey MacDonald case. How this man was even convicted in the first place is a mystery to me. Years ago, a coworker who knew my love of true crime recommended "Fatal Vision" by Joe McGinniss. I read it, but I didn't like it, there was just something off about the whole thing to me. At the library I happened to find "Fatal Justice" by Jerry Allen Potter, read that, and went oh my god! Morris presents interviews with key players in the murder investigation and court testimony to show exactly how badly MacDonald was railroaded. It's a shame, it really is.
"Chapel Noir" by Carole Nelson Douglas is the fifth Irene Adler adventure. Irene and Nell are in Paris, and brutal slayings resembling the Jack the Ripper London murders are taking place, leading Irene to think Jack may have moved to Paris. Sherlock Holmes is a major character in this one, and he and Irene team up, with the help of a reporter in disguise, Nellie Bly, to investigate. The book ended on a cliffhanger: Nell was kidnapped by the Ripper suspect! Oh no! Poor Nell. I hope she's okay. If I didn't have so many other books to read right now I would be tearing into the next one, but alas, I'm afraid it will have to wait a bit.
"Dead West" by Rick Spears was a tepid graphic novel about an Indian in the Old West seeking revenge against the white man who killed his entire tribe. I didn't care for it, but at least it was short.
"Size 12 and Ready to Rock" by Meg Cabot is the newest Heather Wells mystery. Tania Trace, the new wife of Heather's ex-boyfriend Jordan, is being threatened by a crazy guy. Tania's getting ready to host a rock camp for teen girls, and decides to have it at Fisher Hall where she feels safe with Heather around, since Heather's so good at catching bad guys. One of the camera crew is murdered when he eats a poisoned cupcake meant for Tania. The teen girls are wild and out of control. Poor Heather. But at least she still has her gorgeous, rich fiance, Cooper, so I can't muster up *too* much sympathy for her.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Off the Menu; The King's Grace; By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead; The Women of the Cousin's War
So, first up, "Off the Menu" by Stacey Ballis. I was really looking forward to this one since she's a friend of Jen Lancaster, and Jen said it was really good. It was not. What a disappointment. The book is about Alana, a 39 year old single woman who has a great job working for a celebrity chef who is a bit of a pain. He takes advantage of her good nature and calls on her at inconvenient times, etc. She's also been frustrated with the dating scene and hopes not to be spending her 40th birthday alone. She meets the perfect man online through a dating service, and right off the bat they fall madly in love and everything's great, except for her obnoxious over-demanding boss. Then she gets offered the perfect job, only it can't pay her as much as she's used to making and she wants to buy her parents a winter house in Florida. Seriously? That dictates your job choices? Whether or not you can afford to buy your parents a winter house? Are you kidding me? Anyway, it was just ridiculous. I wanted to have Alana live *my* life for a month and see what it's really like to have stuff suck.
"The King's Grace" by Anne Easter Smith was another disappointment. It would have been good if it had been half as long and maybe if she'd not used the same words over and over and over again. The book is about Grace, who is King Edward VI's bastard daughter (who may have actually existed, but nothing is really known about her). Grace becomes Queen Elizabeth's companion after Edward dies and Elizabeth goes into sanctuary to escape Richard III. Later, Grace becomes involved in the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy. All in all it wasn't a bad book, it was just way too long.
"By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead" by Julie Anne Peters blew me away. It was really good. It's a YA book about a girl named Daelyn, who has tried several times to commit suicide and failed. She's determined to make it stick this time, with the help of a website called through the light. Just as she's made a commitment and set a date, she meets a strange guy named Santana who won't leave her alone despite her rebuffs. Turns out Santana has cancer and might die, and is fighting to live. Daelyn wishes she could trade places with him. It was very sad, I cried at the end, which was great.
"The Women of the Cousin's War" by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, and Michael K. Jones was an interesting look at the fascinating women behind the War of the Roses. Jacquetta was Elizabeth Woodville's mother, and accused of being a witch and using spells to bind King Edward VI to her daughter. Elizabeth married Edward after only knowing him a short time and used her new position as Queen to raise up her large family to high positions, incurring the wrath of many high up nobles in the realm who felt cheated. And then Margaret Beaufort, mother to King Henry VII, who spent her whole life fighting for her son's interests and finally got him on the throne. In an era where men were the leaders, these women certainly had something amazing.
"The King's Grace" by Anne Easter Smith was another disappointment. It would have been good if it had been half as long and maybe if she'd not used the same words over and over and over again. The book is about Grace, who is King Edward VI's bastard daughter (who may have actually existed, but nothing is really known about her). Grace becomes Queen Elizabeth's companion after Edward dies and Elizabeth goes into sanctuary to escape Richard III. Later, Grace becomes involved in the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy. All in all it wasn't a bad book, it was just way too long.
"By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead" by Julie Anne Peters blew me away. It was really good. It's a YA book about a girl named Daelyn, who has tried several times to commit suicide and failed. She's determined to make it stick this time, with the help of a website called through the light. Just as she's made a commitment and set a date, she meets a strange guy named Santana who won't leave her alone despite her rebuffs. Turns out Santana has cancer and might die, and is fighting to live. Daelyn wishes she could trade places with him. It was very sad, I cried at the end, which was great.
"The Women of the Cousin's War" by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, and Michael K. Jones was an interesting look at the fascinating women behind the War of the Roses. Jacquetta was Elizabeth Woodville's mother, and accused of being a witch and using spells to bind King Edward VI to her daughter. Elizabeth married Edward after only knowing him a short time and used her new position as Queen to raise up her large family to high positions, incurring the wrath of many high up nobles in the realm who felt cheated. And then Margaret Beaufort, mother to King Henry VII, who spent her whole life fighting for her son's interests and finally got him on the throne. In an era where men were the leaders, these women certainly had something amazing.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Psycho USA; As I Remember; Fables Vol. 17; Cascade; Cold Dish; Locke & Key Vol. 1; Most Talkative; Divergent
Okay, a bunch of these are from that time period where I couldn't get Blogger to work on my computer. Here we go!
"Psycho USA" by Harold Schechter was a fun collection of little remembered killers. Why is it that some crime stick in our collective consciousness and yet others, equally horrific, are forgotten? Interesting question that I don't know the answer to. Schechter does his best to bring them back to mind. Some truly terrible things in this one.
"As I Remember" by Lillian Gilbreth was a sweet memoir about raising 11 children. She was a kind, humble lady who gave all the credit for her professional success in life to her late husband. I wish this world had more Gilbreths and less reality show trash.
"Fables Vol. 17" by Bill Willingham is his latest in the continuing saga of our storybook friends. Now that North Wind is dead, having taken out the Dark Man, it looks like one of Snow White and Bigby's cubs will have to take his place. A newly slim Ms. Pratt is planning her revenge on the fables as they prepare to move back to Manhattan. I was kind of ambivalent about this one: I think he's taken the series as far as he can and it's sort of time to move on.
"Cascade" by Maryanne O'Hara was a great book that takes places during the Great Depression. Dez married Asa because her father was dying and they were losing their home. She was desperate, and had no where to go and no one to turn to. A few months after the wedding, her father is dead and Dez is stuck married to a man who, while nice enough, wants a family and she doesn't. Dez is an artist, and dreams of going to New York. She feels trapped in Cascade, with only her fellow artist friend Jacob to ease the boredom. Meanwhile, it looks like their town will be destroyed in order to build a reservoir for Boston. Dez takes advantage of the situation and creates a series of postcards celebrating small town life that are picked up by a national magazine. Seizing her chance, Dez moves to New York to work for the magazine full time, after making sure her father's beloved playhouse will be moved to another location before the town of Cascade is flooded. There was a neat twist at the end that I didn't see coming.
"Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson is his first Walt Longmire book. I've been watching the show, mainly because the actor who plays Walt looks like Brett Favre :) The show is actually pretty good, but the book was awful. Johnson writes like you're in his head and starts off in the middle of a thought or a sentence, leaving me to wonder if I missed a page or a paragraph. Very frustrating. And the ending in this one was just ridiculous.
Okay, new ones! "Most Talkative" by Andy Cohen was pretty fun, it was light and breezy. Andy works for Bravo and is responsible for some of the most banal reality shows on TV. I don't watch any of them, but I still enjoyed reading how he developed them and puts the shows together.
"Divergent" by Veronica Roth is the first in a YA dystopian series. I liked it. Beatrice is part of a faction called Abnegation: they are selfless. On Choosing Day, her test results are inconclusive: she is Divergent, and could go into several different factions equally well. She chooses Dauntless because she thinks they are brave, and goes through the brutal initiation process. She makes some friends and a boyfriend, but when her mom comes to visit her she asks Tris (as she's now known) to seek out her older brother, Caleb, who joined Erudite, and ask him to investigate the serum that's used during the tests. Tris soon discovers a plot being hatched by the Erudite leaders to wrest control away from the Abnegation by making the Dauntless their soldiers using drugs and simulation. The book ends with a full on war going down. I'm curious to see where this is headed.
"Psycho USA" by Harold Schechter was a fun collection of little remembered killers. Why is it that some crime stick in our collective consciousness and yet others, equally horrific, are forgotten? Interesting question that I don't know the answer to. Schechter does his best to bring them back to mind. Some truly terrible things in this one.
"As I Remember" by Lillian Gilbreth was a sweet memoir about raising 11 children. She was a kind, humble lady who gave all the credit for her professional success in life to her late husband. I wish this world had more Gilbreths and less reality show trash.
"Fables Vol. 17" by Bill Willingham is his latest in the continuing saga of our storybook friends. Now that North Wind is dead, having taken out the Dark Man, it looks like one of Snow White and Bigby's cubs will have to take his place. A newly slim Ms. Pratt is planning her revenge on the fables as they prepare to move back to Manhattan. I was kind of ambivalent about this one: I think he's taken the series as far as he can and it's sort of time to move on.
"Cascade" by Maryanne O'Hara was a great book that takes places during the Great Depression. Dez married Asa because her father was dying and they were losing their home. She was desperate, and had no where to go and no one to turn to. A few months after the wedding, her father is dead and Dez is stuck married to a man who, while nice enough, wants a family and she doesn't. Dez is an artist, and dreams of going to New York. She feels trapped in Cascade, with only her fellow artist friend Jacob to ease the boredom. Meanwhile, it looks like their town will be destroyed in order to build a reservoir for Boston. Dez takes advantage of the situation and creates a series of postcards celebrating small town life that are picked up by a national magazine. Seizing her chance, Dez moves to New York to work for the magazine full time, after making sure her father's beloved playhouse will be moved to another location before the town of Cascade is flooded. There was a neat twist at the end that I didn't see coming.
"Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson is his first Walt Longmire book. I've been watching the show, mainly because the actor who plays Walt looks like Brett Favre :) The show is actually pretty good, but the book was awful. Johnson writes like you're in his head and starts off in the middle of a thought or a sentence, leaving me to wonder if I missed a page or a paragraph. Very frustrating. And the ending in this one was just ridiculous.
Okay, new ones! "Most Talkative" by Andy Cohen was pretty fun, it was light and breezy. Andy works for Bravo and is responsible for some of the most banal reality shows on TV. I don't watch any of them, but I still enjoyed reading how he developed them and puts the shows together.
"Divergent" by Veronica Roth is the first in a YA dystopian series. I liked it. Beatrice is part of a faction called Abnegation: they are selfless. On Choosing Day, her test results are inconclusive: she is Divergent, and could go into several different factions equally well. She chooses Dauntless because she thinks they are brave, and goes through the brutal initiation process. She makes some friends and a boyfriend, but when her mom comes to visit her she asks Tris (as she's now known) to seek out her older brother, Caleb, who joined Erudite, and ask him to investigate the serum that's used during the tests. Tris soon discovers a plot being hatched by the Erudite leaders to wrest control away from the Abnegation by making the Dauntless their soldiers using drugs and simulation. The book ends with a full on war going down. I'm curious to see where this is headed.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Rachel Joyce's first novel, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" was very sweet without being schmaltzy, which is very difficult to do. Harold is recently retired and he and his all but estranged wife, Maureen, live a quiet and dull existence. Maureen blames Harold for their son David breaking off contact with them years earlier. Harold just tries to stay out of Maureen's way. Then one day Harold gets a letter from Queenie, a lady he worked with years earlier. She is dying of cancer, in a hospice 600 miles away. Harold writes a return letter and walks to the mailbox to post it, but instead he just keeps walking and decides as long as he walks, Queenie will live. It was touching and poignant.
On an unrelated note: September 25 marks the anniversary of William Faulkner's birth in 1897. Someday I might even open the Folio Society limited edition of the "Sound and the Fury" that I bought :)
On an unrelated note: September 25 marks the anniversary of William Faulkner's birth in 1897. Someday I might even open the Folio Society limited edition of the "Sound and the Fury" that I bought :)
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Libriomancer; Killing Lincoln; the Internet is a Playground
There are a lot more, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head. I tried updating on Friday, and Blogger was being difficult, so I'll try again later. But in the meantime...
"Libriomancer" by Jim C. Hines was a fun sci-fi book about a librarian who is also a libriomancer--he can pull magic out of books. So if a book has a magical sword that slays dragons in it, Isaac can pull that sword out of the book to slay a dragon. Nifty. So Johannes Gutenberg, the head of the porters (who are the libriomancers' police) is missing, and Isaac, with the help of his trusty fire spider Smudge and a dryad named Lena, go on the hunt and discover Gutenberg is being help hostage by a guy named Charles, who was angry at basically having his magic and memories stolen from him by the porters. It was fun, but I probably wouldn't read the rest of the series. Sci-fi books are tough for me sometimes. If they're a little too far out there, I can't get in to them. This one was borderline.
"Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly was very thrilling but unfortunately there wasn't much new substance here, at least not for me. He examines the last two weeks of President Lincoln's life and the conspiracy surrounding his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. Booth had a group of people he was planning the murder with, and had also planned on killed vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Seward was attacked but lived, and Johnson's killer chickened out and never confronted him. It's a sad chapter in America's history, and he told it very nicely. For someone who has read a lot about Lincoln and his assassination, it was familiar territory.
"The Internet is a Playground" by David Thorne is his first book. I had previously read most of it, but didn't get to all of it, so I took the time to finish. Lots of fun stuff, he's really quite entertaining.
"Libriomancer" by Jim C. Hines was a fun sci-fi book about a librarian who is also a libriomancer--he can pull magic out of books. So if a book has a magical sword that slays dragons in it, Isaac can pull that sword out of the book to slay a dragon. Nifty. So Johannes Gutenberg, the head of the porters (who are the libriomancers' police) is missing, and Isaac, with the help of his trusty fire spider Smudge and a dryad named Lena, go on the hunt and discover Gutenberg is being help hostage by a guy named Charles, who was angry at basically having his magic and memories stolen from him by the porters. It was fun, but I probably wouldn't read the rest of the series. Sci-fi books are tough for me sometimes. If they're a little too far out there, I can't get in to them. This one was borderline.
"Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly was very thrilling but unfortunately there wasn't much new substance here, at least not for me. He examines the last two weeks of President Lincoln's life and the conspiracy surrounding his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. Booth had a group of people he was planning the murder with, and had also planned on killed vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Seward was attacked but lived, and Johnson's killer chickened out and never confronted him. It's a sad chapter in America's history, and he told it very nicely. For someone who has read a lot about Lincoln and his assassination, it was familiar territory.
"The Internet is a Playground" by David Thorne is his first book. I had previously read most of it, but didn't get to all of it, so I took the time to finish. Lots of fun stuff, he's really quite entertaining.
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