The Happy Ending by Jonathan Sturak

(98)

Overwritten at the beginning, poorly edited overall, the action sequence is unclear and difficult to read with a finale that is beyond unrealistic.

I admit, I went into this Amazon freebie thinking it was erotica.

I don’t mind that it’s not, but I wish it had proved to be good enough to be worth the 20 minutes I spent reading it.

Pole Dancer by Eric Wilder

(95)

This is so poorly written I don’t know where to begin. It’s not a complete story, it has no depth, and the writing is beyond atrocious. Formatting leaves a lot to be desired, too. All in all the sort of thing that gives indie authors such a bad reputation.

The Inheritance by Robin Hobb

( 67 )

Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

(14) Dresden Files # 12.5

I say 12.5 because while the stories are spread out over the course of Harry’s timeline, the last third of the book is devoted to a novella that takes place immediately after Dresden #12 (Changes), so it won’t make near as much sense if you haven’t read the whole series so far.

I liked it. I even liked the first one, that Butcher claims is amateurish, where Harry and Murphy meet for the first time. Of course, I’m a Dresden files fan girl, so I’m probably biased.

A nice Dresden fix while I wait for book 13 to come out. On July 26th. Not that I’m stalking it on Amazon or anything.

Speaking of which — The Kindle version is MORE expensive than the hardbound?! WTF publishers? I’ll wait for my library copy (maybe) if that’s how you’re gonna be.

5/5

Strange Brew edited by P.N. Elrod

(67)

I’m usually a straight through reader, even on anthologies, but, since my November’s tend to be a bit nutty (NaNoWriMo!) I started picking through this, reading based on my knowledge of the authors, the characters, etc.

I did eventually read the whole book despite my intentions not to–and found a few new authors I want to check out, as well as least one I have no interest in ever laying eyes on again. In that regard it was educational.

Loved, loved, loved the Dresden story. Rumor has it Jim Butcher will reach the end of his long plan for this character in the next full-length book and that makes me sad. I read this story first to get a Dresden fix while waiting for the next book.

The Charlaine Harris tale was pretty epic, too. It took place in the world setting of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, but with characters completely separate from the series… “Bacon!”

The rest were, sadly, largely forgettable stories, though most of them were enjoyable to read and, like I said, I did eventually get through the whole book, I just didn’t go in order…

I Will be Your Dominatrix by Sarah Welcombe

(61)

Another one awash in internal dialogue, lame and too infrequent sex and bad writing. While the free erotica from Amazon is usually pretty bad, the free stuff from B&N is even worse, based on the two I read today.

I have to go scrub my brain now.

Parking Lot Hero by J.M. Snyder

(60)

This was a short story about the two main characters from the author’s series of longer works.

Twas also my first experience of gay pr)n. Which is so very not my thing, though I do try to maintain an open mind.

The writing was hideous though, and the plot thin and drowned in internal dialogue and there was only one sex scene.  As a not-fan I’m grateful, but if I were a fan of the genre I’d be really ticked off.

All this negativity and I’m totally ignoring the basic premise of the series and therefore the story–one of the men develops superpowers after sex courtesy of his telepath partner’s …er… bodily fluids ejaculate.  I’ve read the same thing in straight erotica and it’s just as ridiculous an idea there.

Stopping Time by Melissa Marr

(56) A short story set in the “Wicked Lovely” world

I’ve never read any of the, “Wicked Lovely,” books, though they are somewhere on the TBR list in my head, but I have read enough fiction featuring the fey to follow the basic conventions.

Story was okay, rather boring truthfully — probably better if one is invested the characters already from reading the books, which I was not. Billed as YA, but I’d say not for the under 14-16 crowd (bit dark).

Eros, Philia, Agape by Rachel Swirsky

(55)

I read this because I loved Swirsky’s “A Memory of Wind.” Sadly, it was not as good. Reminded me a lot of “Bladerunner.” (I’ve never read Phillip K. Dick’s, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” but I suspect this story has much in common with it, in condensed form.

I do wish the author had picked one character to follow, either the robot or the human—the two sides of the story didn’t mesh well, and like everyone else in the human’s life, I found the robot more interesting.

Better Late Than Never by Savannah Stuart

(54)

Vanilla, even by my fairly tame standards. Painfully vanilla in fact. I kept waiting for it to get hot and it never did. *sigh*

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

(51)

I’ve been watching, “Haven,” on the ridiculously renames SyFy channel and was curious about its so-called point of origin as touted in the weekly credits.

I enjoyed this story, particularly as a writer and former journalism major, but if you like Haven and are expecting something similar you’re in for a disappointment. *I* liked it.

A Memory of Wind by Rachel Swirsky

(37)

This was… beautiful.

Lyrical, sad, lovely.

The story of the beginning of the Trojan War from Iphigenia’s perspective. It was stark, and breezy and just fabulous. It’s hard to describe, but this story is still with me, months after I read it. In the end, it is almost not sad. Almost, but not quite, which is a considerable feat for a story about human sacrifice.

Looking forward to more by this author.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(15)

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this sad, lyrical, beautiful little story.  I tried to sit through the movie and fell asleep. The short story is much better. It was poignant and wonderful in a way I didn’t think Fitzgerald could be after having Gatsby shoved down my throat TWICE in high school by virtue of switching schools between semesters my junior year.

Ignore the movie and read the story.

PS – I heart Stanza (and their awesome library of free content that doesn’t suck the way so much of the free stuff from Amazon and B&N does!)

Teaser Tuesday – BBW Edition – The Decameron

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

• Open to a random page & post two (2) consecutive “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

It’s Read a Banned Book week and I can’t post a quote from my banned book, Brokeback Mountain, because I listened to it. I’ve been working for days on a comprehensive list of banned titles sourced from all over the web, so for today I picked another banned book.  I’m not currently reading it, but I wanted to use a banned book for today’s Teaser Tuesday.  I wanted to use Heinlein, but so far the only Heinlein on my list is one of the few I don’t own 😦  Truthfully, I’ve never read the book today’s tease is from, I inherited my copy from my grandmother, so I have no idea if this will be a spoiler or not.

“So she, who was no doctor, although her husband was one, felt certain he was dead. No need to ask if she was in distress, since she loved him as much as she did.”

p. 254, The Decameron by Boccaccio

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

( 79 )

Okay, so this is at best a novella, but really just a short story. Overall, I liked it. It was a tragic love story, only instead of the lovers being from opposing families they were a socially unacceptable pairing.

Sort of.

I wish it had been longer, truthfully. The story is told from Ennis’ perspective 90% of the time, but you never really know, except for their brief reunion the first time they saw each other after the summer at Brokeback, how HE felt. Jack was obviously conflicted, but far more comfortable with his attraction to Ennis than Ennis was with his attraction to Jack.

The ending felt incomplete. I wanted to know how Ennis got on, how he lived with himself, whether he ended up dying alone.

Th language is a bit crude in a couple of places, but it suited the characters–60’s ranchhands and all. It was lyrical and sweet, in a way that let you know this would not end well far more often than it was crude.

Would I let me daughter read it? Not yet, but eventually, yes.