Current Reads

Pop'n'Fresh wrote:Well, at any rate Titus is probably the only thing to make Dark Places seem like a happy, fun romp.

Great, that's exactly what I thought. I have plenty of vodka on hald

I love that you misspelled "hand." Did you start dipping into that vodka before posting? :P

So, I finished Dark Places. I liked it a lot better than Gone Girl. It felt like a stronger and more straight forward narrative, and I actually liked the characters a lot more. Though afterwards I couldn't help but pick at what seems like a bit of a plot hole.

Spoiler:

Sharp Objects next, after a breather to read Miranda Hart's book.

mialoubug wrote:

Pop'n'Fresh wrote:Well, at any rate Titus is probably the only thing to make Dark Places seem like a happy, fun romp.

Great, that's exactly what I thought. I have plenty of vodka on hald

You are SO going to need it.

I thought I hadn't read Dark Places, but after reading that spoiler, I remembered reading it. I must not have liked it too much (much like Gone Girl). Maybe I'll give Sharp Objects a go.

Right now, I'm re-reading Hogfather and reaffirming my deep, abiding love for Pratchett.

Yeah, with Dark Places,

Spoiler:

My bigger problem with the book is that I just didn't really find any of the characters interesting. And with the setup of switching narratives, every time I got into one storyline, it would switch back into the other one. For me, the best thing about the book was the mystery, and I didn't really like the payoff.

Spoiler:

Finished Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Last half not as good as the first half, but still enjoyable.

I've started J.D. Robb's In Death series from the beginning and I've found that I really don't like Eve Dallas. I think it's a totally irrational dislike, too. There's no one thing the character has done that makes me dislike her. It's just, in general, she grates.

I finally finished all of the Stephanie Plum novels and

Spoiler:

I just finished reading "Jane and Prudence" by Barbara Pym. It was written in the early 50s but it still has this beautifully modern edge combined with Austen-like details about everyday social life. Philip Larkin was a massive fan of Pym. It was such a great book. I loved how one watches one character's calculating decisions to get what she wants and another character sort of floats through life and in a way gets what she wants. Great depiction of small village life.

I am pacing about because the new Eva Rice book comes out tomorrow. I've been waiting for this book for fucking YEARS. The early reviews are very positive.

I read The Selection. They should have called it The Insipid. There wasn't a single new or interesting character or situation in this book at all. And I totally forgot that it was the author who had the snotty meltdown, ugh. At least I got it from the library. I should have listened to my gut when it told me to stop reading at learning the main character's name was America Singer, and she was, in fact, a singer.
Also, I know I say this a lot. But this does NOT need to be a series. Write one good book, people! Stop trying to milk a dead cow. Or something. Ugh.

Started The Fault In Our Stars last night. Wow. It's packed with emotion, and very well-written.

Beware Crowbridge, that is the ultimate DNRIP (do not read in public) book. Oh the sobbing that ensued while I was reading it (on an AIRPLANE no less). But it's really good too.

By sheer coincidence, in the last week I've read two books about elderly men who decide to go on unexpected trips - The 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry . I enjoyed the second one more as there were some quite gut wrenching moments in it, whereas the first one very quickly descended into farce, which was fine, but I found myself getting vaguely bored by the more Forrest Gumpian (it's a word) moments.

For a complete change of pace, I might read the last 2 Buffy season 9 volumes next.

BreezyK wrote:Beware Crowbridge, that is the ultimate DNRIP (do not read in public) book. Oh the sobbing that ensued while I was reading it (on an AIRPLANE no less). But it's really good too.

Do you read Forever Young Adult, too? That's where I first heard DNRIP. Great site. :)

Decided to read The Fault In Our Stars this afternoon. Got through it all in 3 hours, and have a pounding headache from all the crying.

I finished Gone Girl on Monday, and woke up Tuesday morning a complete misanthrope. I hated EVERYONE. Yes, even you. I was totally overwhelmed by the awfulness of the people in that book. I got better, though.

What was scary was how normal they seemed at first. They could be cruel to each other in such seemingly mundane ways.

I'm rereading Lord of the Rings, and in The Two Towers there's always a moment that bugs me. The hidden base of the Gondor rangers. The rangers are allowed to know its location, obviously. But if anyone else stumbles across it randomly, the penalty is death. That's how they keep it hidden. Maybe my morals are just too modern, but they couldn't put up a no trespassing sign?

Okay, it's near Mordor. Anyone who finds it is most likely working for Sauron. I get that. But if they kill any stray orcs who happen across the pool and waterfall, word will get out, and the orcs might send a large force to investigate. If that happens, the rangers are are in trouble. If they leave the orcs, the orcs might decide to colonise it for themselves. If they kill the orcs, an even larger party might investigate. And so on. They're really in a no-win situation there.

But it still irritates me.

I finally had time to finish The Fault In Our Stars tonight. It didn't make me cry, but it was very, very good. Beautiful book.

I'm reading Hopeless by Colleen Hoover, an angsty sort of YA book about a sheltered girl who finds herself attracted to a (supposedly) bad boy, blah blah blah. Here's my dilemma: Once again I got sucked into reading a book because of its stellar reviews, only to find that not only do I not like it, but I'm having a hard time even finishing it. The author has a tendency to go on and on and on and ON, repeating herself and relying on pet expressions and phrases (the main characters are always grabbing each others' faces with both hands, for example), to the point that if this were a physical book, I'd probably have thrown it across the room by now.

In the last few years I've learned enough not to rely on Amazon reviews, because I'm convinced many of those reviewers were persuaded/coerced by the authors into giving 5 stars to what are truly awful books. But Hopeless was rated so highly on both Amazon and Goodreads by so many people that I thought it had to be breathtakingly awesome. But it's not. At least not to me.

I find that although I'm constantly reading something, the times I find a true gem are few and far between. I don't think I'm that picky, but I don't have unlimited money and I'm kind of tired of being disappointed. I guess I don't know what reviews to trust anymore, other than the ones here.

I feel you, Jude. These days I pretty much only read books that have been recommended here, or by Books I Done Read. Her taste dovetails nicely with mine, and her reviews themselves are stellar. My goodreads queue is loaded up but good with her 8-10 reviews.

I just finished Emma, and I love me some Jane Austen, but the percentage of her standard Characters I Would Like To Throttle was awfully high. I may have over-identified with John Knightley, who just wanted everyone to shut the hell up and quit talking nonsense for one f-ing minute, for the love of little green apples. (Hmmm, that could be a bit of projection, lol.)

I think I read somewhere that Jane Austen knew that Emma was an unlikeable character, and that it was a bit odd (at the time) to have the heroine of a book be a bit insufferable.

She described Emma as "a character no one but myself will much like."

That's it! Thanks queenofdenile!

For all her good intentions, Emma was a tremendously irritating character.

I read Hopeless and it was pretty bad. My advice is to stay away from any self-published YA authors because every book will be good girl falls for bad boy, insert a secret or twist, they break up and then get back together and live happily ever after.