The Island House
A Death in the Small Hours
What Darkness Brings
Gone Girl
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
I read books, I swear...
Not that it seems like it; according to this I haven't read any books between May 8 and May 19 - but I have!
It's just that one of them I can't talk about, and then I'm in the middle of a couple of them so no single one gets finished.
But I did finish (and start) In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters. It was pretty good, especially for YA, I think - there were some "magical" elements, but also a lot about WWI and the Spanish Flu, and I thought the author did a nice job of incorporating her research and really setting the scene nicely. The story itself wasn't all that fascinating. An intriguing main character, and then some (not so) mysterious shenanigans.
Basically, she's the daughter of a man arrested for aiding draft dodgers and flees from Portland to her aunt in San Diego, where her childhood best friend / blossoming first love lived before he enlisted. Nobody's heard anything from him, then they hear he's dead, then he starts haunting her (after in a fit of rage at the desperation and hopelessness of life she goes and gets herself electrocuted) and it turns out things are not what they seem. Except...they kind of are. While I appreciated that in the end we didn't get the happy ending I thought was coming, the "twist" at the end wasn't much of one...unless the audience is supposed to spend the whole book yelling at the protagonist, "open your eyes, girlie!!" (I dunno, girlie seems period-appropriate). But I really did like Mary Shelley Black as the heroine - she loves science (and it's believable, not totally anachronistic, and not overly feisty) and does the right thing even when it's hard and/or dangerous.
Could be the start of a series - at least, MSB seemed way too well drawn, but also with hints at future developments, for a one-off. Not that a character in a non-series book couldn't or wouldn't be well-drawn, there's just something about it that feels like the author is setting her up for future escapades.
One major problem, though - the ghost non-sex sex scene was just LUDICROUS. I mean, seriously. So silly. And yet still a million times less stupid / hotter than the random 10-seconds-of-dry-humping orgasm in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, so that's something.
And they day before I finished a really good - although not as excellent as I had hoped - book, which I can't talk about because it was an advance copy I got my hands on.
It's just that one of them I can't talk about, and then I'm in the middle of a couple of them so no single one gets finished.
But I did finish (and start) In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters. It was pretty good, especially for YA, I think - there were some "magical" elements, but also a lot about WWI and the Spanish Flu, and I thought the author did a nice job of incorporating her research and really setting the scene nicely. The story itself wasn't all that fascinating. An intriguing main character, and then some (not so) mysterious shenanigans.
Basically, she's the daughter of a man arrested for aiding draft dodgers and flees from Portland to her aunt in San Diego, where her childhood best friend / blossoming first love lived before he enlisted. Nobody's heard anything from him, then they hear he's dead, then he starts haunting her (after in a fit of rage at the desperation and hopelessness of life she goes and gets herself electrocuted) and it turns out things are not what they seem. Except...they kind of are. While I appreciated that in the end we didn't get the happy ending I thought was coming, the "twist" at the end wasn't much of one...unless the audience is supposed to spend the whole book yelling at the protagonist, "open your eyes, girlie!!" (I dunno, girlie seems period-appropriate). But I really did like Mary Shelley Black as the heroine - she loves science (and it's believable, not totally anachronistic, and not overly feisty) and does the right thing even when it's hard and/or dangerous.
Could be the start of a series - at least, MSB seemed way too well drawn, but also with hints at future developments, for a one-off. Not that a character in a non-series book couldn't or wouldn't be well-drawn, there's just something about it that feels like the author is setting her up for future escapades.
One major problem, though - the ghost non-sex sex scene was just LUDICROUS. I mean, seriously. So silly. And yet still a million times less stupid / hotter than the random 10-seconds-of-dry-humping orgasm in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, so that's something.
And they day before I finished a really good - although not as excellent as I had hoped - book, which I can't talk about because it was an advance copy I got my hands on.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Meh
So, Kiana Davenport's Shark Dialogues is one of my favorite books; when I saw another by her on the New Books shelf at the BPL a while ago, I was really excited. But...eh. The Spy Lover has a fascinating premise, potentially really interesting characters, and a hell of a tear-jerker end. But the writing is kind of terrible. I don't know what happened. I would never, in a million years, have pegged this as one of Davenport's if I couldn't see the cover.
More later, gotta run and return it.
More later, gotta run and return it.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Groundwork
After getting into an Ayn Rand-inspired argument at the bar a while ago, I decided I didn't know/remember enough about Rand and her works to win a fight well. So I recently read Jennifer Burns' Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (OUP, 2009). Not sure I agree with the NYT quote on the cover, "groundbreaking," (I need to dig up the review and get the context) but certainly super easy reading and mildly interesting. It's the first Rand biography I've read, obviously, but it didn't feel like there was anything that new here. But probably I just don't know enough about what was already out there. It was also interesting reading something written more or less pre-Tea Party movement (it's not even mentioned); I feel like it might be a much longer, if not very different, book if she wrote or revised it today.
In several cases, throughout the book and especially in describing Rand's legacy, Burns does not give her readers adequate signposts as to time - years and or relative passage of time. In other instances she talks about famous "disciples" (my skepticism, not her words) of Rand's who later had prominent positions. The problem is, if you're not - as I am not - well-acquainted with leading conservatives and/or somewhat recent political history, the names don't automatically indicate the time period. Especially with all the 80s and early 90s stuff, it's too recent for me to have learned much about it in school, as history, but I was too young to really remember it (or to have been paying attention).
In several cases, throughout the book and especially in describing Rand's legacy, Burns does not give her readers adequate signposts as to time - years and or relative passage of time. In other instances she talks about famous "disciples" (my skepticism, not her words) of Rand's who later had prominent positions. The problem is, if you're not - as I am not - well-acquainted with leading conservatives and/or somewhat recent political history, the names don't automatically indicate the time period. Especially with all the 80s and early 90s stuff, it's too recent for me to have learned much about it in school, as history, but I was too young to really remember it (or to have been paying attention).
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