(40)
Loved it. The language was fun–it rolled around in my head like Austen and the character’s internal dialogue felt very true to the period, especially in the earlier parts of the book. The multiples twists were fun, and I hope Liss pens more in this vein.
(38) Heroes of Olympus #2 <aka Percy Jackson #7>
Yes, Percy is back. Nice to get an inside view of the Roman camp, as well as meet the Roman faces of gods we thought knew from Percy’s series and to see the differences between the Greek and Roman versions. Some are subtle (Hera v Juno) and some are remarkable (Ares v Mars). Fun read, good series, great author.
(37)
As a longtime fan of The Bloggess, it was inevitable that I would read Jenny’s book — as soon as my number came up on the library’s waitlist (we’re thinking about moving so I’m making a conscious effort to not bring more books into this house this year). If you’ve read her blog, you get it.
Me? I laughed so loud while reading it that my husband first thought I was choking, then made me take it downstairs so I wouldn’t keep him up. I did the same at work and now my office mate is reading it. She laughed so hard her mom and sister are reading it, too, to see what the fuss is about. Yes, it’s that damned* good.
*swearing is for emphasis… and because if you’re going to read this book you’re going to have to get used it, she does it a lot.
I actually read a couple local (i.e. Texas) authors this month: Candace Havens & Rick Riordan. You can check out the reviews/commentary via the links above, or just click the literary locals tag at the top of this post and it will bring up all the Texas authors I’ve flagged.
I know I’ve read more Texas authors than the ones that show up so far, but I’m having to remember title by title–the ones already listed are series, which made it MUCH easier to tag them. But I’ll get there. Maybe by the end of September.
( 65 ) Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5
Wow, two in one month!
Rick Riordan is a bit more local than Candace Havens, though, hailing as he does from my home town, San Antonio 🙂 In fact, I’ve even met him, though I doubt he’d recall since I’m shy. He and 3 other Texas mystery authors (Riordan’s adult series qualified him for this) participated in a panel discussion in San Marcos and SWT er, Texas State… or whatever the heck they’re calling themselves now…
Can I just say that I have enjoyed the heck out of this series and was ~thrilled~ to see the trailer for the movie of book 1 during the HP6 movie teasers!
I thought Riordan did a fantastic job of wrapping things up in a way that satisfied me as a reader, but did not feel so tidy I rolled my eyes at the end. I got the impression from the way he ended the book that there may be another series about the demigods and Camp Half Blood (different protagonists or generation perhaps?), but maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part…
As a side note… I read this one because the library didn’t have it on audio, but if you ever get a chance to listen to this series, you should! Jesse Bernstein does a fantastic reading and, with the exception of this one, I enjoyed the three I listened to more than the ones I read. Check it out of you get a chance! Will probably re-listen to the series next year with the girlchild.
( 63 ) Bronwyn the Witch, book 3
Woot! My first current litloc post since I decided to play the game.
I like Bronwyn. She’s funny, and sassy and kicks a lot of ass and doesn’t apologize for it in the slightest.
This book in the series annoyed me a bit though. I think possibly just because I finally read Bridget Jones (the 1st one) earlier this year. The transitions in the Bronwyn books seem far less original now that I’ve seen what I think is probably the actual original (short journal-style posts with number counts).
To date, all of Bronwyn’s tales have been pretty stand alone without an obvious lead in to the next one. This one changed that. This story felt really unfinished at the end, and I was a bit disappointed in that.
Over all, though, still a fun fluffy read.
I’ve been scrounging the interwebs for book blogs lately—I read a LOT more blogs now that I’ve finally figured out how my Google Reader works! Discovered TexasRed.
Okay, that’s a lie. I’m a total Pioneer Woman fan girl (I like food blogs too, what can I say?!) PW went to BlogHer this weekend and one of her posts had a pic of Texas Red Books and I thought to myself,”Hey! That’s probably a book blog… And I like to read interesting local blogs…”
Long story short… The first thing that came up in my reader from TexasRed Books was a reference to someone else’s post that linked back to Tif Talks Books and her Literary Locals MeMe.
I’m terrible at MeMes, so I just made a tag. I dug through my past entries based on names of authors I know are local and tagged them and, before I got frustrated with how long it was taking, adding the LL logo. To make my life easier, local=Texas. Yes, I know that’s not fair since my home state is the size of several others put together, but we Texans stick together. Some are from Austin, where I am, some Houston, some DFW, but all my local tagged authors are Texans. Or, live in Texas 🙂
So if you see this:
You know that book was written by a Texan. Which is not to say I will say I liked it.
In fact, one of my most despised reads of this calendar year, Discipline, is by an Austinite. I wasn’t nice, and he even gave my book club the books for free. Careful what you wish for when you ask for an honest opinion folks.
I digress and my new Jacqueline Carey is calling my name, so I’m out.
Read More and Often, Y’all!
( 3 )
The author of this one tracked down one of the women in my book club from her review blog and offered her a dozen copies of his book for her to pimp hand out to friends and family, asking only that we review it on Amazon when we’re done.
I very much wish I had the spare time over the last five days that I’ve spent reading this back to do something else with them–like wash the dishes or catch up on laundry.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a truly bad book. It’s just not a good one, either. I was hanging in there til page 76, when the MC experienced, “grizzly visions.” Seeing as there were no bears involved I found this lapse in copyediting unforgivable, and found myself reading with skepticism for the other 351 pages, waiting for more errors (there were a few, mostly in the early chapters, and none as godawful as the one mentioned above).
Frankly, the book feels arrogant. Even when Douglas is young his voice is old, experienced, and a bit smug. Jack, well, I actually liked Jack. He was like a good ole boy version of Morpheus from the Matrix. Jefferson though? He was high handed and pedantic and not particularly likable. I didn’t go into this book with any expectations. I came away from it feeling as though I’d spent five days being talked down to by a smug little wank.
Several people from my book club have mentioned that they saw the very end bit coming very early on. I didn’t catch it as early as most, but I did catch it. I think maybe I didn’t because this book was such a plodder for me. I got through it, but I am not sad to see the end of it. It could have come a hundred-plus pages sooner and I’d have been far happier.
( 96 ) China Bayles #16
I likes that this wrapped up the whole what-really-happened-to-China’s-dad thread. It was a semi-complex story line, and I didn’t mind that it arced over three books, but I was glad to see its conclusion.
I didn’t mind the narrator switch as, for the first time in this series, Albert told the story from someone other than China’s perspective. What annoyed the hell out of me was the 1st person/3rd person switch between China & McQuaid. It felt heavy and forced, making McQuaid’s segments feel like a bad narrator voice-over to the action.
That and I am annoyed that I can already tell what the next book is about. When the next one comes out, who wants to bet that China is going to end up raising her orphaned niece and inheriting the money set in trust for the girl because the hints about the health of the current guardian in this volume were pedantically heavy-handed?
I really enjoy this series, and will continue to read them, but this one was definitely not up to the quality standard I’ve come to expect.
( 91 ) Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4
I read recently that Riordan will be ending this series with book five, which makes me sad, but works well in the BIG picture plot arc that runs through the whole series. I think the build up to the finale has been well-paced (despite the disappointment of book 2 and its cruise ship of doom) and can’t wait to read the final installment.
( 89 ) Percy Jackson & the Olympians, book 3
Reading the second book in this series taught me that I actually prefer these in audio and went back to listening for this one and the 4th in the series. I don’t know if it was just because I was listening to it instead of reading it, but it was much better than book 2 in the series, though it did start a bit weak.
The MC in this series is 12ish in the first book and I probably wouldn’t recommend them for a kid who is younger than 9 or 10, but at that point I definitely recommend them, at least the audio version 🙂
( 79 )
A little more introspective than other books in this series, BUT, it brought to a head issues that have been building for a while. As a reader it was refreshing to finally have Kate’s secrets out in the open.
I will say I ~totally~ could have done without the inclusion of zombies in Kate’s universe.
Dy's Take 