Current Reads

Just finished The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. I've seen it described as Buffy meets Ghostbusters or Harry Potter meets the X-Files, and so on, but it's so much better than that. The main character wakes up in a London park with no memory of who she is, surrounded by several dead people who are all wearing latex gloves. She finds a letter in her pocket warning her she's in great danger which begins, "Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine." The plot revolves around what is essentially the supernatural version of MI-5 and the main character's attempts to figure out who stole her memories. Very funny and action-y.

Yeah, I read that a few months ago. Very entertaining.

I tried to read Legacies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill, which is the first book in a YA series about a boarding school for magical kids, some of whom start disappearing mysteriously. I got a little over 1/3 of the way through before I gave up. It was boring as shit and that school was the most miserable, joyless setting for a story I've read in a long time. Like, to the point where I was feeling miserable and hopeless just reading it. Finally, I decided there was no reason to force myself to read something that's making me depressed for no reason. It's not like it's some important political book or something that's worth the misery.

So I said fuck it and started re-reading some Runaways comics instead.

Just finished Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys and started Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman. Dragons!

How was Raven Boys? I have that waiting for me at the library for pick-up!

So, I loved The Historian. It was like, a love letter to librarians (and historians), so that was awesome. It was so full of detail and now I want to visit Istanbul, Bulgaria and Hungary. And go to grad school. All the research detail made it feel REAL, which made the supernatural stuff seem more plausible and therefore spookier.

Now back to my New Yorker backlog.

I seriously have to make a harder effort to get into that book! I tried it a few years ago and put it down after a few pages, never picking it up again.

I'm about 100 pages into A Discovery of Witches. Is it going to get better or does it keep traveling along Twilight Road? I'm a little tired of all the magical creatures in Oxford following our plucky heroine around.

naughty zoot, I couldn't tell you because I think I gave up near the 100-page mark. The writing was tedious and nothing about the heroine or her love interest made me care enough to read more. In fact, I think I rather wanted to slap them both.

Oh god, I forced myself to finish A Discovery of Witches, and I hated it. I also wanted to smack the shit out of the main characters. Give up now and save yourself, naughty zoot!

I just finished Paris in Love by Eloisa James, and now I want to sell all my shit and move to Paris for a year. I started City of Women by David Gillham last night, but am only like 15 pages in. I can't remember if it was here or somewhere else people raved about it, but I'm looking forward to it.

City of Women is a cool title so already I'm interested in that. I'm gonna go see what it's about!

A Discovery of Witches sounded so very promising, and then it was just one boring page to slog through after another. Reading about those two dunces and their library run-ins almost tainted libraries for me!

Thank you all. I can return it to the library with a clear conscience now.

whatthedeuce wrote:City of Women is a cool title so already I'm interested in that. I'm gonna go see what it's about!

A Discovery of Witches sounded so very promising, and then it was just one boring page to slog through after another. Reading about those two dunces and their library run-ins almost tainted libraries for me!

Oh god, I know! They were the WORST. I can't think of a couple I was less invested in. I wanted to read more about Matthew's family; they were a hoot.

And City of Women is about Berlin during WWII. It's really good so far.

Ok so I hated A Discovery of Witches, but I read it while on vacation and you know, sitting on the beach and I needed SOMETHING to do, so I slogged through it. It was totally ridiculous, BUT then it got kind of interesting at the end, and I actually ended up picking up the sequel Shadow of Night and it was pretty good! >>

Spoiler:

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mokey75, I wish I'd gotten to any part about Matthew's family. I just remember being bored and rolling my eyes a lot during the first 90 pages or so, quite frankly.

I'm now about 60 pages into 50 Shades of Grey, and Christian Grey's control freak behavior is making me want to scream. He keeps barking things at Anastasia like she's a little kid, and it's really irksome and infuriating to read. Also, why must clumsiness be the major flaw of heroines in lame romantic novels? I hated how clumsy "cute" Bella Swan was supposed to be, and Anastasia Steele is no better.

It gets worse, whatthedeuce.

Oh, I have no qualms about that, Unlucky Bear. None at all. I'm at the part where Christian and Ana are about to sleep together for the first time. I better prepare my eyes for all the excessive rolling they're about to do.

Oh my! (snicker)

I'm just about to start the latest (I believe) Walking Dead. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself. This series is so depressing.

whatthedeuce, I liked The Raven Boys. Romantic elements were pretty toned down, the mystery was interesting (is interesting, because without being spoilery, there are three books yet to be written), and as a sucker for Welsh mythology, I enjoyed those elements in the story a lot.

I got through Ana and Christian's first sexual encounter and have decided I can't read much more of that crap. Too bad I had to get through 130 pages to reach that decision. I've given up on 2 books in 2 days now. Not good.

Menshevixen, I'm about to go pick the book up at the library, and I hope I enjoy it like you did. I love a good YA series, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll want to read the sequels!

Ooh, I read Kresley Cole's Poison Princess over the holiday weekend, and it was so. Good. I want to read all the other books in the series right now, only she hasn't written them yet.

Ooooh, The Raven Boys is exactly what I want it to be so far! Dark yet not creepy (only 100 pages in though so utter creepiness could be on the way) and with some really compelling characters. I especially enjoy Gansey and Adam so far!

I'm reading John Scalzi's Redshirts and it is hilarious! I'm a Trekkie from way back (to the original run of the original series), and this book is just so much fun.

Don't forget to read the codas! I really liked Redshirts. It wasn't nearly as silly as I thought it would be, which was very. The codas added a nice depth to the story.

Just finished The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. It's about how he and his mom created this two-person book club as she was dying from pancreatic cancer. It sounds depressing, and yet it was beautifully written--they both LOVE books so much and their conversations have depth and humor and insight--everything one could want from the perfect book club. And even though she's suffering, the book is incredibly uplifting. I highly recommend.

It was also #4 on Amazon's top 100 books of the year, if you're into that.

And I'm still working my way through Wild, which I really like even though she annoys me sometimes. Apparently I'm on a memoir kick right now!