Current Reads

MaddyCat wrote:Yay! So glad you liked Me Before You. It was thought-provoking and I really loved the main characters a lot.

About halfway through, I found myself thinking, "THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT!!" I just liked the writing so much. It's been kind of annoying to me that there are some readers who've condemned the author, saying

Spoiler:

I haven't started reading the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone yet since I'm a little hazy on the details of the last third or so of that book. I think I want to reread at least the ending before I start the next one. I HATE that I can never remember what happened in a book by the time the next in the series comes out!

I mean, I like teen supernatural angst, and I love Prague.

Have you read Robin Wasserman's The Book of Blood and Shadows? The second half or so is set in Prague (made me really want to visit the city) - it's been called the YA Da Vinci Code except that I found the writing much better.

I read "Beautiful Creatures." It kept my attention, but I have never seen a book so filled with clichés, mostly from movies. I started keeping a list. If you've read it, you can have fun identifying which parts I got these from:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (mostly for the cover of the book, though)
Saved!
Mean Girls
Twilight
Gone With The Wind
Carrie
The Wizard of Oz
Lolita
Scent Of A Woman
Ken Burns' "The Civil War"
Back To The Future

There are probably more! This is really kind of a trashy book, but it's not objectionable in the way Twilight is. Ethan is not a stalker, Lena isn't a Bella. As I said, it kept my attention for 500+ pages, which went by very quickly. I enjoyed the movie too (which I saw first...) but the book is pretty different. The townspeople are represented more fairly in the book, I think — the movie made them caricatures of southerners. There's quite a bit of that in the book too, but it added nuance. Not everyone is a bible thumper. Ethan's loss of his mother before the book begins is a big part of the story which isn't even addressed in the movie. (In fact it's part of the setup of the next book, which makes me wonder how they'd handle a movie sequel.) The theme of the book is whether free will exists and how the characters use it. Twilight didn't even try to reach for a theme. This is better than that.

Luciano wrote:

I mean, I like teen supernatural angst, and I love Prague.

Have you read Robin Wasserman's The Book of Blood and Shadows? The second half or so is set in Prague (made me really want to visit the city) - it's been called the YA Da Vinci Code except that I found the writing much better.

Ha. No I have not, thanks! I've just bought it and put it on my Kindle.

Prague is awesome. I visited over 10 years ago. Dying to go back again.

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to try Beautiful Creatures, but you've convinced me, p_p, if only because I want to see if I can spot the film clichés myself!

I've just finished Eva Rice's new book, The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp, which was good. An easy read, and a good story, though I didn't love love love it the way I did with The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets.

I've had The Rook on my bedside table for nearly two months and I just feel like I cannot get into it. I might have to return it to the library and try again another time.

whatthedeuce wrote:I've been going back and forth on whether or not to try Beautiful Creatures, but you've convinced me, p_p, if only because I want to see if I can spot the film clichés myself!

I finished the second book last night, and it had many fewer clichés. The second book is a bit of a drag for the first third (because of [BIG spoiler] at the end of the first book) but then it picks up steam and doesn't look back. I actually found myself enjoying the second one even more than the first overall. Especially when Aquaman gets mocked.

Also, the second book actually has a SCENE in Bonaventure Cemetery in Georgia, where the famous statue for the "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" book cover used to be located. I found myself wondering if the "movie clichés" in the first book were deliberate references rather than hackery.

I picked up The Rook because of recommendations here and I really liked about the first half. Then I felt like it started to become a different kind of book - more episodic? It made sense when I got to the end and realized it was going to be a series.

Thanks for reminding me to put that new Eva Rice book on my list, eventide82! And p_p, I will surely give the series a try. If anything, it's at least better than Twilight. Not that that's such a difficult thing to achieve.

Last night I read Midnight Blue Light Special, the latest InCryptid novel by Seanan McGuire. The series in general is about, well, rogue cryptozoologists would probably be the best way of describing it. The protagonist is from a family who broke off from an evil group who only wants to assassinate cryptids several generations ago and now tries to protect them, only she also has a calling for...ballroom dance? I liked this book but I felt the first one was way more developed and interesting. This one felt slight and and like the author was trying to wrap up this protagonist's story so she could move on to the next one's.

For development and worldbuilding, I definitely like the Toby Daye novels by the same author better, but these are cute and fun and a quick read.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately.

Mockingbirds by Chuck Wendig was awesome. It's the second Miriam Black book. The first time she touches people, Miriam can see how they're going to die and she knows when it's going to happen. She gets a "consulting" job helping this hypochondriac know for sure if she's dying right now or not. The client works at a girls' boarding school and while Miriam's there, she accidentally touches a student and sees that the girl is going to be horrifically, bizarrely murdered. This just sucks you in and is a lightning fast read. Miriam is such a delightful asshole, it's really hilarious!

Then I read The Book of Murder by Guillermo Martinez, which was not awesome. In fact, I pretty much hated it. It was a lot of people sitting around recounting shit that happened years ago (I'm not kidding, there are 100-page stretches of this bullshit). And the two men in the book, writers who had used this young woman named Luciana to take dictation on their novels, were unbearable. Both of these assholes take the smallest thing she did, like crack her neck after sitting at a computer typing for hours on end, and spin out these stupid, wildly implausible stories in their heads about how she was trying to seduce them, even when she was like "No seriously, my neck is fucked up." And all the murders were dumb and the resolution stupid, unbelievable, and unearned. Boo.

Luckily, today I started Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman (aka Dr. Frank from The Mr. T Experience) and it's excellent! I mean, I'm only 100 pages into it, but I love it already. It's about this high schooler named Andromeda Klein who is obsessed with tarot and ceremonial magic who is starting to have strange dreams and visions involving symbols from the tarot, a figure calling himself the King of Sacremento, and on top of that, she's convinced her dead best friend (who she calls The Twice Holy Soror Daisy Wasserstrom, which makes me laugh every single time) is suddenly less dead than she should be. I'm really interested to see where this goes. This is one of those books that is so quirky and weird, but is loveable because it isn't trying to be. It just is.


I'm also still slogging through Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. I think it's important and I appreciate it for giving an alternative to the usual shiny happy history narrative we're fed in school, but holy shit is this a depressing read. I think a more accurate title would be America: Everyone Was Awful. Seriously, is it so fucking hard not to be a vile human being? Every fucking chapter I'm like "That's horrible! Poor [insert certain oppressed group here]" and then the very next chapter (or sometimes the very next paragraph) is all about how that certain oppressed group then turned around and was violent/exploitative/generally hateful toward some other group. And on and on, ad nauseum. I can only read this book for about 10 pages a day, because it makes me hate everyone in the entire world.

I bought Andromada Klein a few years back, because I really liked King Dork and yet never read it, so you are reminding me to finally read it.

Raksha wrote:I'm also still slogging through Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. I think it's important and I appreciate it for giving an alternative to the usual shiny happy history narrative we're fed in school, but holy shit is this a depressing read. [...] I can only read this book for about 10 pages a day, because it makes me hate everyone in the entire world.

I'm with you. I started it and have yet to finish it because it makes me super depressed and angry.

whatthedeuce wrote:Thanks for reminding me to put that new Eva Rice book on my list, eventide82! And p_p, I will surely give the series a try. If anything, it's at least better than Twilight. Not that that's such a difficult thing to achieve.

I finished the "Beautiful Creatures" books, and while they aren't HP, they're very good. The books improved in quality, although the final book spends the last 100 pages on what is essentially a giant epilogue. If main character deaths are an indicator of quality, this series should have won awards. The third book is as hard to read as HP7 was, for many of the same reasons. I still felt like this was a series constructed out of bits of other stories, but fortunately it was more than the sum of its parts. I genuinely liked all the characters. It was worth hanging out for 2000 pages with them, even if 70% of those pages were melodramatic. Hey, with YA I guess that comes with the territory.

Most YA novels would probably feel rather incomplete to me if they didn't involve some romantic subplot, but it can be so overwrought and dramatic that it makes me roll my eyes. I loved it in The Hunger Games trilogy and generally how it's handled in the Divergent series, but in most other books, it just goes overboard. I do know lots of folks who hated the romantic aspect of THG though so obviously, that component of he story didn't work well according to some.

I just checked out Those Across the River based on dinahmoe's FB recommendation and also checked out A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, based on some feedback in the Babysitter's Club thread. I don't know why the title of that book never, ever appealed to me, but once I read the description*, I'm pretty sure I'd love it. Looking forward to cracking both of these open!

*I read the jacket flap and the first thing I noticed was the name "Francie Nolan" and I immediately recognized that as a Snarkfest handle (and IIRC, it's either a librarian or a teacher who has that name so this book has got to be good!)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my favorite book of all time, so I get really excited when people read it for the first time.

I just finished Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys and it was just so so wonderful. Time to go find Between Shades of Grey.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my all time favourite book as well. You'll love it. It's just perfect.

I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and I learned a lot from it too. I was always grateful that people here recommended it.

Right now I'm reading The Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong. I'd bought it used with the entire trilogy - The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Beckoning - in one book, but I've had it on my shelf just sitting there for months and can't even remember why I bought it. Anyway, it's about a young necromancer just learning about her powers, who's been put away in a special school/mental institute because she sees ghosts, and WOW is it creepy and totally engrossing, so far! I love when that happens, that a book I've had just lying around for awhile turns out to be a good read. I'm not willing to stamp the "GREAT!!" label on it just yet, knowing how fast narratives can jump the shark, but I'm holding out hope it stays good throughout.

Has anyone read The Hangman's Daughter series? Amazon had them for $.99 each (so the three published and the upcoming one), and since I'm a sucker for a deal, I bought them. Are they worth it? They did sound interesting.

mayram wrote:I just checked out Those Across the River based on dinahmoe's FB recommendation and also checked out A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, based on some feedback in the Babysitter's Club thread. I don't know why the title of that book never, ever appealed to me, but once I read the description*, I'm pretty sure I'd love it. Looking forward to cracking both of these open!

*I read the jacket flap and the first thing I noticed was the name "Francie Nolan" and I immediately recognized that as a Snarkfest handle (and IIRC, it's either a librarian or a teacher who has that name so this book has got to be good!)

Aw, that's me! And yes, I'm an English teacher (and toyed with the idea of becoming a librarian). I hope you love it! I recommend it to my students all the time.

Aw, I super love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. When I got married, I gave each of my bridesmaids a book that either reminded me of them or was special to me. My junior bridesmaid got that one.

Ok, so am I the only dork who gets so excited about a book that's highly recommended that they put off reading the book until they can find the perfect time/place to read it?

With all these recommendations, I'm now thinking I want to wait on opening A Tree Grows in Brooklyn until the weather gets better and I can lounge around in the sunshine with the windows open or read outside. I wish I could get as excited about actual social events as I do about my books.

Definitely, mayram, there are some books that are meant to be read outside in the sun, just like there are some books best read all bundled up by the radiator in winter!
I don't have a specific current read (just mostly rereading a few old favorites at the same time), but I am looking forward to several books coming out soon, like the newest books by Lauren Willig, Marian Keyes, Jude Morgan, Mary Balogh, Mary Kay Anderson, Deanna Raybourne...there are some others but these are the ones off the top of my head!

mayram, I'm actually always more concerned with whether the book will live up to its hype. I hate when I get disappointed and then have to go be the Debbie Downer who says they didn't love the book.