Archive for January, 2008
January 17, 2008 at 12:51 pm · Filed under Books Etc
This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:
How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?
How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? Good reviews will get me excited, although generally only about books I find appealing. If the plot doesn’t sound interesting, or the genre isn’t for me, I’m much less likely to be intrigued by a good review. Bad reviews can put me off a book, but they can also intrigue me. I only read The Da Vinci Code because of the controversy, because I wanted to know if it was as bad as everyone said (answer: yes. Entertaining but intellectually frustrating.)
If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? Probably, although I might tone down my efforts to search out a copy. A truly bad review from someone I trust will certainly dull me enthusiasm for a book.
If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try? I can’t actually think of a book I’ve been sure I wouldn’t like. The closest I’ve come is probably Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, which I’ve read both good and bad reviews of. It seems made up of many, many romance tropes I loathe, but…so many people like it! I read quite quickly, so if a copy falls into my hands, I’m willing to read pretty much anything.
January 14, 2008 at 6:21 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
5. Touchstone by Laurie R. King (Historical Suspense) 548 p.
I’ve been a fan of Laurie R. King’s writing since the day my mother first put The Beekeeper’s Apprentice into my hands. In late 2002, when it felt like my life was falling apart and I needed something to take my out of myself, it was her newly-released Justice Hall I turned to—making it the first book I ever bought at full price while it was still in hardcover.
No surprise, then, that I’ve been eagerly awaiting her newest book, Touchstone. Unlike all but two of her seventeen previously published works, it’s a standalone novel. Set in April of 1926, almost on the eve of the British General Strike, it makes the most of King’s familiarity with the language and social customs of the time (the eight novels in the Mary Russell series are set in the 1910’s and 20’s, mostly in Britain.) And no one writes historical fiction like Laurie R. King. So it’s understandable that I had very high expectations for this book.
I started Touchstone on Friday, and I have to admit that at first I wasn’t too impressed. King’s books usually suck me in right from the first page, but this time I had trouble getting into the story, which begins with a prologue. I don’t know why, but I have an irrational hatred of prologues. I don’t like reading them, and I almost always feel the story would have been better without them.
Touchstone’s prologue I found especially off-putting, because it’s very emotional, almost melodramatic. Rather than being drawn into the story, I was left standing outside it. I couldn’t engage with the character. The prologue also seems to reveal information about the plot that I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Even though it later becomes unclear whether that information means what it seems to mean, the passage raises questions, introduces ambiguities; without it, Touchstone would have been a very different experience.
The main narrative begins by introducing the protagonist, Harry Stuyvesant, an agent of the American Bureau of Investigation, who has come to London unofficially to gather evidence against a man he believes is responsible for three bombings in the United States. The city seems unable to think of anything but the upcoming Strike, hampering Stuyvesant’s investigation, but the chance mention of a name leads to a man who may be able to help him.
Major Aldous Carstairs takes Stuyvesant to Cornwall to have him enlist the help of Bennett Grey, who may be able to provide Stuyvesant with an entrée to his suspect’s world. Stuyvesant’s job is to convince Grey to help him—and to overlook the fact that working with Stuyvesant may bring Grey closer to the one man he hates more than any other: Carstairs. It helps that Stuyvesant himself dislikes everything he’s seen of the Major.
(As do I: at the end of the section, King succeeds brilliantly at making Carstairs repellent to me, by having him do something that disgusts me more than anything she could have written. Partly because I have a particular phobia about it, but I think most people would be suitably enraged at Carstairs.)
Stuyvesant may be interested in Grey for who he knows, but Carstairs wants the man for what he can do. Near the end of the war, Grey was blown up by an incendiary bomb that landed at his feet. He survived the experience physically intact, for the most part, but some essential muffling layer that protected him from the world was destroyed, leaving him unable to block out the smallest sounds, the lightest touches, the most subtle smells. And he knows things. He’s not a mind-reader, but he knows things about people he meets that no ordinary person could.
Touchstone is an interesting book for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it is not a story about Grey or his abilities. Harris Stuyvesant is the main character; the story is mainly told from his point of view. Grey is essential to the story, but on the periphery. As are a number of other complex, fully-fleshed characters. One of the things that puts King head and shoulders above so many mystery and suspense writers is the exquisite care she puts into characterization in what is, in the end, a plot-driven genre.
Once Stuyvesant’s investigation begins, the plot picks up for me, and I enjoyed the book immensely from that point on (not that I didn’t like it at all before that, but I wasn’t loving it, either.) The only shadow on my enjoyment came at the book’s climax; I’m still not sure what to do with the way the plot was resolved. Like the prologue, I just don’t know how to feel about it. That’s not a bad thing, though—Touchstone made me think, and I’ll be more than happy to re-read it sometime soon. Just to clarify my thoughts about it, you understand.
I have some other thoughts, about the way men, women, and sex are treated in the book, but I’m tired enough that I’ll leave those for tomorrow.
In the meantime, that’s one book down for the Chunkster Challenge!
Books read: 5
Pages read: 1,637
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Chunkster Challenge 2008, Laurie R. King
January 11, 2008 at 7:24 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
4. The Bloody Tower by Carola Dunn (Historical Mystery) 259 p.
Another relaxing, undemanding Daisy Dalrymple mystery from Carola Dunn. In this one, Daisy Fletcher has finally given birth to her baby (which has turned out to be twins.) She doesn’t see much of them, though, since the nanny she engaged on the recommendation of a friend proves to be something of a tyrant in the nursery. Nanny Gilpin’s presence does, however, leave Daisy plenty of time to pursue her writing career.
An invitation to lunch with the Resident Governor of the Tower of London seems the perfect opportunity for Daisy’s next article for her American editor. After all, despite its sinister and bloody history, the Tower is a popular tourist attraction for English and Americans alike.
Of course, Daisy can’t go anywhere without tripping over dead bodies, much to her husband’s chagrin. When Daisy discovers the dead body of a yeoman warder, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher is naturally the man Scotland Yard sends to clear up the case.
As usual, Carola Dunn delivers a few hours of light entertainment that I’ll be happy to revisit anytime I need a comfort read. I like Daisy a lot, which is a bit surprising—generally a character who is as universally liked as Daisy is by other characters can’t help but be obnoxious to the reader, but I haven’t found that the case with this series. Most people like Daisy because she likes most people, something I find both believable and soothing.
(And by the way, I love the cover of this book! I’m very fond of all the hardcovers in this series, but especially this one.)
Books read: 4
Pages read: 1,089
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Carola Dunn, Daisy Dalrymple
January 10, 2008 at 11:25 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
3. Gunpowder Plot by Carola Dunn (Historical Mystery) 246 p.
15th in the Daisy Dalrymple mystery series. Daisy, six months pregnant with her first child, visits Edge Manor, the home of an old school friend, to write an article about the family’s annual Guy Fawkes Day celebration for an American magazine.
Her stay is rather spoiled by the murder of her host and another guest, a visiting Australian woman invited on the spur of the moment. Naturally, with Daisy on the scene, her husband Alec Fletcher, a Detective Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard, is called in to investigate.
Aside from the Daisy Dalrymple series, Carola Dunn also writes the only Regency romances I’ve ever been able to stomach. No matter what genre she writes in, her stories are always comforting, perfect for a cold, grey day. They always cheer me up.
It doesn’t matter that I guessed the motive for the murderer, and the identity of the murderer, before the crime had even been committed; I don’t read these books to find out the solution to the mystery (although usually I don’t guess it ahead of time), but for the pleasure of reading a light, engaging novel about 1920’s England.
Books read: 3
Pages read: 830
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Carola Dunn, Daisy Dalrymple
January 10, 2008 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
2. Cardington Crescent by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 297 p.
Lady Emily Ashworth is staying with her husband’s uncle and having a miserable time of it. Her husband George, whom she married partly for his money and social position but also genuinely cares for, is giving every proof that he is indulging in an affair with another woman—his own cousin’s wife.
After days of strain, Emily believes that she has achieved a reconciliation with George. The next morning he’s found dead, and his family is only too happy to blame Emily for the crime. Emily’s brother-in-law, Inspector Thomas Pitt, is called in, but without evidence against anyone else, it seems only a matter of time before Emily must be arrested for her husband’s murder.
Anne Perry certainly doesn’t shrink from some of the more unsavoury aspects of Victorian society. The characters’ view of adultery as something dreadfully sinful and scandalous only when a woman does it is true to the period, though infuriating. I liked the book no better, but also no worse, than any of the others in the series so far.
Books read: 2
Pages read: 584
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
1. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 287 p.
Another Anne Perry novel, this time the first in the Thomas Pitt series. I enjoyed it well enough, but not to the point of saying much I didn’t say about Pentecost Alley or Ashworth Hall.
I will mention that if you’re interested in the series, this is a good place to start. One of the things I like best, which can be hard to find in a historical mystery series, is character development over the course of the series. Too many keep their characters’ personalities and situations static over many books. Anne Perry doesn’t, so it’s not a bad idea to start the series at the beginning (although it’s not at all necessary.)
When the Ellisons’ maid is found strangled, it’s only the latest in a series of murders that have plagued the solid, respectable neighbourhood around Cater Street in Victorian London. Inspector Thomas Pitt is sent to investigate the case, and in the process makes the acquaintance of Charlotte Ellison, one of the unmarried daughters of the house.
Books read: 1
Pages read: 287
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 2:32 pm · Filed under Books Etc
I always thought the Chunkster Challenge sounded a bit daunting. Not because of the length of the books, per se, but because I tend to assume long books will also be tedious. However, a number of books on my TBR list that I’m salivating over also qualify as chunksters, so I’m committing myself: 4 12 books of at least 450 pages in 2008.
Here’s my list:
- Touchstone by Laurie R. King (548 p.)
- Trade Wind by M.M. Kaye (551 p.)
- Widdershins by Charles de Lint (560 p.)
- The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (469 p.)
- Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (592 p.)
- The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer (497 p.)
- Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card (467 p.)
- The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (470 p.)
Total pages: 4,154 (an average of 519 pages/book)
Alternates:
- The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (819 p.)
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (576 p.)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (784 p.)
- The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin (565 p.)
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
- Downbelow Station or Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh
- Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
- London or The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- Don Quixote » Cervantes
Tags: Book Lists, Chunkster Challenge 2008
January 10, 2008 at 2:02 pm · Filed under Book Reviews
I had to participate in this challenge, just because I knew the list would be a lot of fun to create. And it was. Here are the 6 books I plan to read/have read for the What’s in a Name? challenge (along with some alternates):
- A book with a colour in its title:
- A book with an animal in its title:
- A book with a first name in its title:
- A book with a place in its title:
- A book with a weather event in its title:
- A book with a plant in its title:
Tags: Book Lists, What's in a Name?
January 10, 2008 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I set myself quite a number of reading challenges this year. I met my main goal of 100 books for the year, and I completed the 2nds challenge. For the rest, I’ve decided to make my goals slightly more reasonable, partly so that I’ll have room for some of the other interesting challenges that have cropped up.
World Lit Challenge: I actually love this challenge, and I think it will probably be an annual thing. It forced me to search out new authors I wouldn’t otherwise have heard of, and encouraged me to read books I might otherwise have avoided.
Looking over the list of books I read this year, it seems that quite a few turned out to be favourites, and there are only 3 I didn’t like (Reading Lolita in Tehran, Like Water for Chocolate, and Portrait in Sepia, if anyone’s interested.)
I managed to finish 26 books. While that falls far short of my goal of 50, it works out to one book every two weeks, which isn’t bad at all. So I’ve decided to renew the World Lit Challenge for 2008 and read a further 26 books in 2008.
Sci-fi Classics Challenge and Fantasy Classics Challenge: I’m definitely not going to meet my stated goal of 25 books for each challenge by June 2008, so I’m lowering my goal for each to 10 books.
Tags: Fantasy Classics Challenge, Sci-Fi Classics Challenge, World Lit Challenge
January 10, 2008 at 12:26 pm · Filed under Books Etc
Since the 50 Book Challenge went so well for me last year, I’m committing myself once again. I had no trouble meeting my goal of 100 books, so this year I’m upping it: in 2008, I will read 150 books or 45,000 pages.
Ongoing list of all the books I’ve read in 2008 (books I particularly enjoyed are in bold):
- The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
- Cardington Crescent by Anne Perry
- Gunpowder Plot by Carola Dunn
- The Bloody Tower by Carola Dunn
- Touchstone by Laurie R. King
- Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King
- Hammered by Elizabeth Bear
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- Miss Silver Comes to Stay by Patricia Wentworth
- Snake Agent by Liz Williams
- The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert van Gulik
- The Chinese Shawl by Patricia Wentworth
- The Benevent Treasure by Patricia Wentworth
- The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
- The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
- The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
- The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
- The Watersplash by Patricia Wentworth
- Trade Wind by M.M. Kaye
- The Chinese Lake Murders by Robert van Gulik
- Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai
- Freaks: Alive, on the Inside! by Annette Curtis Klause
- The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull by John Bellairs
- The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
- Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
- Greenwitch by Susan Cooper
- The Grey King by Susan Cooper
- Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
- The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
- Tithe by Holly Black
- Valiant by Holly Black
- Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
- The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
- The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
- The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt by John Bellairs
- The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn by John Bellairs
- The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
- The Lamp from the Warlock’s Tomb by John Bellairs
- The Mansion in the Mist by John Bellairs
- The Doom of the Haunted Opera by John Bellairs
- Widdershins by Charles de Lint
- Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
- Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
- The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
- Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
- Crooked House by Agatha Christie
- Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie
- The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
- Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie
- Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie
- Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
- Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
- The Complete Quin & Satterthwaite: Love Detectives by Agatha Christie
- Beauty by Robin McKinley
- Ironside by Holly Black
- Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
- The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
- Anna, Where Are You? by Patricia Wentworth
- Dragon’s Blood by Jane Yolen
- Heart’s Blood by Jane Yolen
- Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
- Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov
- And Be a Villain by Rex Stout
- The Second Confession by Rex Stout
- The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King
- The Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card
- The Call of Earth by Orson Scott Card
- Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede
- Anything Goes by Jill Churchill
- One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
- The Accidental Florist by Jill Churchill
- Brunswick Gardens by Anne Perry
- Bedford Square by Anne Perry
- Half Moon Street by Anne Perry
- The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
- Traitors Gate by Anne Perry
- Southampton Row by Anne Perry
- Seven Dials by Anne Perry
- Dark Assassin by Anne Perry
- Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
- A Dog About Town by J.F. Englert
- A Dog Among Diplomats by J.F. Englert
- Callander Square by Anne Perry
- Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
- The Chessmen of Doom by John Bellairs
- Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
- Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth
- The Trolley to Yesterday by John Bellairs
- First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
- The Ships of Earth by Orson Scott Card
- Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
- Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
- Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card
- Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
- Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card
- Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card
- The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
- Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce
- A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer
- Who’s Sorry Now by Jill Churchill
- A Right to Die by Rex Stout
- The Case Is Closed by Patricia Wentworth
- My Teacher Flunked the Planet by Bruce Coville
- Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris
- Mind Fuck by Manna Francis
- Quid Pro Quo by Manna Francis
- Suspense and Sensibility by Carrie Bebris
- Fall of a Philanderer by Carola Dunn
- Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Book Lists
Older entries »
