My steadfast readers will remember that almost a year ago I posted a book review I had written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I never understood how in the world that particular book was selected for me as there are just so many good books out there - and that wasn't one of them. Neither is this book, but, as promised, here is my review of it.
Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland
I wanted to like this book. I really did. And I think it started out well. I quite enjoyed the early chapters of the book set in Milwaukee. A fresh voice, a fresh locale, what's not to like? I didn't even mind the multiple types of supernatural beings thrown at me with each turn of the page. “Charmed” is one of my guilty pleasures, after all.
The author began increasingly to lose me, however, with each of her successive sex scenes. I understand this kind of soft-core porn has been de rigueur in paperback romance novels for a long time, but I don’t read them. It’s not that I’m a prude – I’m just not interested. When I realized that the transfer of some types of supernatural power could only happen during hot sex, that just seemed too silly for words to me. Pretty quickly the plot became a vehicle to get from one sexual encounter to the next. Bor-ing.
I understand this is the first book in a new series for this author, and I do appreciate getting in on the ground floor with the first book in a series. However, I prefer to see each book end with a strong resolution, which was definitely lacking here. I don’t think this book can stand alone, and that is a drawback for me, since I won't be reading anything else by this author.
Showing posts with label LibraryThing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LibraryThing. Show all posts
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
round, round, get around, I get around...
So, this is kind of funny. If you ever have occasion to visit a certain elementary school library in Round Rock, Texas (which seems to be just north of Austin) you may see a black and white photo there of a young girl reading. The girl's fly-away hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she is wearing her cowgirl outfit. She sits on the kitchen floor, Indian-style, with her dad's college Spanish textbook open on a wooden stool propped up against the kitchen cupboard in front of her. Now, she can't read at all, so it doesn't matter that the text is in Spanish. However, she loves that book because it belongs to her daddy, and she lugs it around the house, pretending to read it.
How do I know so much about it, you ask? Well, because the little girl was me, over fifty years ago. How the photo ended up in Texas is another story. From time to time I have mentioned LibraryThing in my blog, and how much I enjoy it. I use the old photo on my profile page there. So I guess that is what I look like to the LT community - which is a funny thought in and of itself.
One of the many things I like about LT is the really interesting people I have "met" there. One of the most interesting is a man who lives in Texas (Round Rock, apparently) with his wife, who is an elementary school librarian. He recently asked me if his wife could make a copy of my photo to display in her library. Naturally, I gave my permission. Chances are, I won't ever see my picture hanging in that elementary school in Texas. But how fun to think it is there.
How do I know so much about it, you ask? Well, because the little girl was me, over fifty years ago. How the photo ended up in Texas is another story. From time to time I have mentioned LibraryThing in my blog, and how much I enjoy it. I use the old photo on my profile page there. So I guess that is what I look like to the LT community - which is a funny thought in and of itself.
One of the many things I like about LT is the really interesting people I have "met" there. One of the most interesting is a man who lives in Texas (Round Rock, apparently) with his wife, who is an elementary school librarian. He recently asked me if his wife could make a copy of my photo to display in her library. Naturally, I gave my permission. Chances are, I won't ever see my picture hanging in that elementary school in Texas. But how fun to think it is there.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
you knew it was coming...
...as surely as the night follows day. Here is my list of the worst books of 2007. One caveat: these are the books I actually finished and didn't like. There were probably a handful of books that I started and pretty quickly knew weren't for me, and so gave up on them. I am usually pretty good at choosing books and don't bring home too many clunkers.
There are only three books on this list, and the third one is the worst, although not by much. Take my advice, and don't read these books!
1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - My God. This book was so bad. It was like a black hole. I couldn't finish it. I couldn't give up on it. And I couldn't read anything else. I finally slogged all the way through it, but it took forever. A really bad translation, perhaps? Surely it wasn't this poorly written in its native Spanish. I read this because it received many rave reviews on LibraryThing - but then so did The DaVinci Code.
2. Twin Killing by Marshall Cook - At first glance, this appeared to be a typical cozy little who-dun-it. It was not. I suppose I could have forgiven the second-rate writing if the author had not constantly thrown in references to the strong religious beliefs of all the characters and our brave fighting men in I-raq, but that was not the case. The play-by-play at a high school football game was excruciatingly boring, and the passage where the author tries to describe an erotic dream of lovemaking from the POV of his female protagonist was laughable and embarrassing. Far better writers than him have attempted that and failed.This book needs a warning label: Cloyingly sweet and heavy-handed. Not for those who appreciate fine writing.
3. On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell - Reviewed in an earlier post, this was the worst book I read this year. I would have never even started it, let alone finished it, but that I felt an obligation to LibraryThing to complete and review the book.
There are only three books on this list, and the third one is the worst, although not by much. Take my advice, and don't read these books!
1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - My God. This book was so bad. It was like a black hole. I couldn't finish it. I couldn't give up on it. And I couldn't read anything else. I finally slogged all the way through it, but it took forever. A really bad translation, perhaps? Surely it wasn't this poorly written in its native Spanish. I read this because it received many rave reviews on LibraryThing - but then so did The DaVinci Code.
2. Twin Killing by Marshall Cook - At first glance, this appeared to be a typical cozy little who-dun-it. It was not. I suppose I could have forgiven the second-rate writing if the author had not constantly thrown in references to the strong religious beliefs of all the characters and our brave fighting men in I-raq, but that was not the case. The play-by-play at a high school football game was excruciatingly boring, and the passage where the author tries to describe an erotic dream of lovemaking from the POV of his female protagonist was laughable and embarrassing. Far better writers than him have attempted that and failed.This book needs a warning label: Cloyingly sweet and heavy-handed. Not for those who appreciate fine writing.
3. On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell - Reviewed in an earlier post, this was the worst book I read this year. I would have never even started it, let alone finished it, but that I felt an obligation to LibraryThing to complete and review the book.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
favorite books of 2007
One of the best things that happened to me in 2007 was joining LibraryThing, the online community that I mentioned in an earlier post. When I joined LT, I was inspired to start reading again after a several year hiatus, and, in fact, ended up reading 123 books last year. Looking over that list of books, I decided to cull my favorites and post them here. I ended up with seventeen books, and thought, what the hell, why not the best seventeen books of the year? The only order these are in is the order in which I read them; that is to say I probably read the first one in January or February, and the last one in December.
I was delighted to realize that while the majority of the books are fiction, as usual, it is a slim majority, indeed, with nine of the seventeen books I selected being fiction and eight of them non-fiction. I made a conscious effort to read more non-fiction this year, with Julie's excellent assistance at selecting books.
Without further ado, here they are, and I hope you find something that looks interesting to you.
1. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - I loved this comedy of manners about a bright young thing from London who goes to stay with her cousins in the country and decides to re-arrange their lives. The cousins are straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel, and never know what hits them.
2. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott - I really loved this book. The author is so encouraging and honest in what she writes.
3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - I was concerned that this book wouldn't live up to all the hype, but I absolutely, un-reservedly enjoyed it. A wonderful first book for this author.
4. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer - This is a fascinating - and really scary! - look at the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It details the history of the church, but also focuses on the heinous murder of a young Mormon woman and her daughter, brutally killed by two of her polygamous brothers-in-law.
5. Find Me by Carol O'Connell - The latest Mallory book. I sat up one night and read the whole thing. Once again the author takes the NYC detective on the road - this time down fabled Route 66. O'Connell expertly weaves Mallory's personal quest into the search for a serial child killer who has been burying bodies along the road for decades. I cried as I read the last page of this book, and that is very unusual for me.
6. When Madeline was Young by Jane Hamilton - I enjoyed this book so much. The narrator reminisces about his childhood growing up with his parents and his sister and his father's first wife, Madeline, who was severely brain-damaged as a young woman. This is a hauntingly beautiful novel.
7. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - I knew immediately I would enjoy this author's irreverent and smart-alecky writing style, but I didn't realize how much actual history I would learn from her. I want to go on an assassination vacation!
8. Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton - I really enjoyed this book so much. After having visited friends in Sierra Vista, AZ earlier this year, I have seen much of what the author describes in this book. So I was interested in it from that aspect, but I also really enjoyed his witty and informative writing style. And his love of that part of the country shines through in every phrase and paragraph.
9. Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart - What a delight this book is! The author spent the summer of 1945 in New York City with her best friend, where they both worked at Tiffany's. She writes in such a sweet, straightforward way that is all the more charming for its simplicity.
10. The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard - This may have been the best book of the year for me. An atmospheric mystery set at West Point during the time that Edgar Allen Poe was a cadet there.
11. The Unnatural History of Cypress Parrish by Elise Blackwell - This was a very interesting little book, to be read in small doses and savored. On the eve of Hurricane Katrina, an old man remembers the great flood of 1927 and the events that led up to the destruction of his home and many others in southern Louisiana.
12. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane - This book created such a steadily building sense of dread in me that I finally had to read ahead to the ending. I hate it when I do that! And it was so surprisingly sad, as well.
13. The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of my Life by Pat Conroy - I love Pat Conroy, and his cookbook is written in the same wonderful, personal style as his novels.
14. Miss Alcott's E-mail: Yours for Reforms of All Kinds by Kit Bakke - I picked this book off the library shelf and put it back a couple of times before I actually brought it home and read it. I don't know why I hesitated, as it is a delightful and informative book.The author's idea is to send an email to Louisa May Alcott and see what happens next. What happens is a combination of memoir of Ms. Bakke's life in the turbulent 1960s, a biography of Louisa May Alcott, and an extremely readable history of the time in which she lived.
15. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - A young Pakistani man strikes up a conversation with an American in Lahore. He shares the story of the time he spent in the U.S. as events which seem to be beyond the control of both of them unfold. The narrative style of the book worked very well here, with the unsaid as important as what was said.
16. Letter From Point Clear by Dennis McFarland - There was a lot more to this book than I initially expected. Adult children of a dysfunctional family is a topic that has been done time and again, but this author came up with an interesting interpretation.
17.Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman - This is a really delightful collection of essays on the joys of books and reading. I bought a copy of it for Julie for Christmas.
I was delighted to realize that while the majority of the books are fiction, as usual, it is a slim majority, indeed, with nine of the seventeen books I selected being fiction and eight of them non-fiction. I made a conscious effort to read more non-fiction this year, with Julie's excellent assistance at selecting books.
Without further ado, here they are, and I hope you find something that looks interesting to you.
1. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - I loved this comedy of manners about a bright young thing from London who goes to stay with her cousins in the country and decides to re-arrange their lives. The cousins are straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel, and never know what hits them.
2. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott - I really loved this book. The author is so encouraging and honest in what she writes.
3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - I was concerned that this book wouldn't live up to all the hype, but I absolutely, un-reservedly enjoyed it. A wonderful first book for this author.
4. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer - This is a fascinating - and really scary! - look at the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It details the history of the church, but also focuses on the heinous murder of a young Mormon woman and her daughter, brutally killed by two of her polygamous brothers-in-law.
5. Find Me by Carol O'Connell - The latest Mallory book. I sat up one night and read the whole thing. Once again the author takes the NYC detective on the road - this time down fabled Route 66. O'Connell expertly weaves Mallory's personal quest into the search for a serial child killer who has been burying bodies along the road for decades. I cried as I read the last page of this book, and that is very unusual for me.
6. When Madeline was Young by Jane Hamilton - I enjoyed this book so much. The narrator reminisces about his childhood growing up with his parents and his sister and his father's first wife, Madeline, who was severely brain-damaged as a young woman. This is a hauntingly beautiful novel.
7. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - I knew immediately I would enjoy this author's irreverent and smart-alecky writing style, but I didn't realize how much actual history I would learn from her. I want to go on an assassination vacation!
8. Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton - I really enjoyed this book so much. After having visited friends in Sierra Vista, AZ earlier this year, I have seen much of what the author describes in this book. So I was interested in it from that aspect, but I also really enjoyed his witty and informative writing style. And his love of that part of the country shines through in every phrase and paragraph.
9. Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart - What a delight this book is! The author spent the summer of 1945 in New York City with her best friend, where they both worked at Tiffany's. She writes in such a sweet, straightforward way that is all the more charming for its simplicity.
10. The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard - This may have been the best book of the year for me. An atmospheric mystery set at West Point during the time that Edgar Allen Poe was a cadet there.
11. The Unnatural History of Cypress Parrish by Elise Blackwell - This was a very interesting little book, to be read in small doses and savored. On the eve of Hurricane Katrina, an old man remembers the great flood of 1927 and the events that led up to the destruction of his home and many others in southern Louisiana.
12. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane - This book created such a steadily building sense of dread in me that I finally had to read ahead to the ending. I hate it when I do that! And it was so surprisingly sad, as well.
13. The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of my Life by Pat Conroy - I love Pat Conroy, and his cookbook is written in the same wonderful, personal style as his novels.
14. Miss Alcott's E-mail: Yours for Reforms of All Kinds by Kit Bakke - I picked this book off the library shelf and put it back a couple of times before I actually brought it home and read it. I don't know why I hesitated, as it is a delightful and informative book.The author's idea is to send an email to Louisa May Alcott and see what happens next. What happens is a combination of memoir of Ms. Bakke's life in the turbulent 1960s, a biography of Louisa May Alcott, and an extremely readable history of the time in which she lived.
15. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - A young Pakistani man strikes up a conversation with an American in Lahore. He shares the story of the time he spent in the U.S. as events which seem to be beyond the control of both of them unfold. The narrative style of the book worked very well here, with the unsaid as important as what was said.
16. Letter From Point Clear by Dennis McFarland - There was a lot more to this book than I initially expected. Adult children of a dysfunctional family is a topic that has been done time and again, but this author came up with an interesting interpretation.
17.Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman - This is a really delightful collection of essays on the joys of books and reading. I bought a copy of it for Julie for Christmas.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
don't buy this book
I mentioned in a previous post that I am a proud member of LibraryThing, an online forum where booklovers can catalog their libraries and discuss books and why they love them. LT offers an Early Reviewers program, where selected members receive free copies of recently published and pre-pub books. A requirement of receiving these books is that one must write a review and post it on LibraryThing. Members who have blogs are asked to post reviews there, as well.
I received a copy of On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell late last week, and this is my review of it. I must say to my loyal friends and blog readers that I do not recommend this book. Well, read the review and you will see that.
On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell
As a life-long atheist who finds Mormonism to be one of the more ludicrous of the Christian sects, I don’t feel qualified to comment on the religious merits of this book. However, as an avid reader who deeply appreciates a well-written book, I can tell you unequivocally that this isn’t one. The author offers the book as an homage to Jack Kerouac, with frequent quotations from his work throughout. I must state that I find any comparison to Kerouac an insult to that fine author.
The novel, a thinly veiled autobiography, appears to end before the protagonist’s 20th birthday. Unless that protagonist’s name is Holden Caulfield, I am not interested in his teenaged, self-absorbed, philosophical musings. Perhaps this book would best be marketed to the Young Adult crowd, who may find these ramblings unique or meaningful; although I would be concerned that they might be impressionable enough to buy into some of the author’s conclusions.
The author, a former PR man for the LDS, uses the house publishing company, Zarahemla Books, in an attempt to package his adolescent life story as "a love story about a girl and a guy and their search for heaven – a lotta love, a little heaven, and one heck of a ride in between." In reality it is just a public relations guy trying a different tact to sell his product, the Mormon religion.
I received a copy of On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell late last week, and this is my review of it. I must say to my loyal friends and blog readers that I do not recommend this book. Well, read the review and you will see that.
On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell
As a life-long atheist who finds Mormonism to be one of the more ludicrous of the Christian sects, I don’t feel qualified to comment on the religious merits of this book. However, as an avid reader who deeply appreciates a well-written book, I can tell you unequivocally that this isn’t one. The author offers the book as an homage to Jack Kerouac, with frequent quotations from his work throughout. I must state that I find any comparison to Kerouac an insult to that fine author.
The novel, a thinly veiled autobiography, appears to end before the protagonist’s 20th birthday. Unless that protagonist’s name is Holden Caulfield, I am not interested in his teenaged, self-absorbed, philosophical musings. Perhaps this book would best be marketed to the Young Adult crowd, who may find these ramblings unique or meaningful; although I would be concerned that they might be impressionable enough to buy into some of the author’s conclusions.
The author, a former PR man for the LDS, uses the house publishing company, Zarahemla Books, in an attempt to package his adolescent life story as "a love story about a girl and a guy and their search for heaven – a lotta love, a little heaven, and one heck of a ride in between." In reality it is just a public relations guy trying a different tact to sell his product, the Mormon religion.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
http://www.librarything.com/
You can tell that I am a modern 21st century-type person because I have a blog, but did you know that I am also a member of an online community? Yep, its true. For the past seven months, I have been a member of LibraryThing. I tell you quite honestly, I have found my online home there. I love it. I am addicted to it.
I found the site one day when I was at work, googling the names of my family members. (What? Doesn't everyone do that?) Anyway. While I was googling Tom's name, a link to this site came up: http://www.librarything.com/profile/tom.n.kristy so I took a look at it. Tom and Kristy had entered several hundred of the books they have in their Chicago apartment. I was hooked immediately. I could catalog all the books I own, with book covers and tags and reviews. In fact, I could list up to 200 books for free. I started right away. I created a profile page, which was easy to do. You can check it out here, if you are so inclined: http://www.librarything.com/profile/amancine Pretty soon I was ransacking the house literally from attic to basement, entering every book I could find.
The really important thing about LT for me (that's what we insiders call it - "LT" ), though, is that it has me seriously reading again. I have been a voracious reader all my life, but over the last few years, I had just - stopped. I don't know why. Probably, you know, the whole soul-sucking-job-thing, but I don't want that to become a convenient excuse for everything I have failed to do in the last five years.
You can see that my days at home are quite full now what with writing in my blog, writing in my top-secret journal, writing on my facebook page, reading books about how to write better, reading like crazy to make up for the years that I missed, and spending lots of time on LibraryThing. I really don't have time for an outside job anymore. Quitting my job was the only sensible thing to do.
I found the site one day when I was at work, googling the names of my family members. (What? Doesn't everyone do that?) Anyway. While I was googling Tom's name, a link to this site came up: http://www.librarything.com/profile/tom.n.kristy so I took a look at it. Tom and Kristy had entered several hundred of the books they have in their Chicago apartment. I was hooked immediately. I could catalog all the books I own, with book covers and tags and reviews. In fact, I could list up to 200 books for free. I started right away. I created a profile page, which was easy to do. You can check it out here, if you are so inclined: http://www.librarything.com/profile/amancine Pretty soon I was ransacking the house literally from attic to basement, entering every book I could find.
The really important thing about LT for me (that's what we insiders call it - "LT" ), though, is that it has me seriously reading again. I have been a voracious reader all my life, but over the last few years, I had just - stopped. I don't know why. Probably, you know, the whole soul-sucking-job-thing, but I don't want that to become a convenient excuse for everything I have failed to do in the last five years.
You can see that my days at home are quite full now what with writing in my blog, writing in my top-secret journal, writing on my facebook page, reading books about how to write better, reading like crazy to make up for the years that I missed, and spending lots of time on LibraryThing. I really don't have time for an outside job anymore. Quitting my job was the only sensible thing to do.
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