2011/12/19

Review: The Likeness


The Likeness
The Likeness by Tana French

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm glad I gave French a second chance, as this book is much better than the first in the series. This time around, the cliched relationships are gone or at least used as part of the plot and French's ability to muddle her mystery just the right amount is even stronger. There is one giant suspension of disbelief, a plot point necessary to keep the story going longerbut so blatantly wrong in a book that otherwise would fit well as a procedural. If you can ignore a major character doing something to add a chapter or two to a story that didn't need it, I'd recommend this book.



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2011/12/16

Review: The Accident


The Accident
The Accident by Linwood Barclay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A fast paced mystery set in suburbia that doesn't have a bored single mom at the center of the story. That guarantees a book a two star rating from me! Add some decent research, good pacing (except for the big action scene that was obviously written for seeing rather than reading) and hardly any superfluous characters and you've got a decent contemporary mystery that successfully straddles the line between cozy and thriller. If you liked [a:John Katz|3166803|John Katz|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s early mystery series, you'll be happy to discover that the dark side of the suburbs has not lightened up one bit.



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2011/11/29

Review: So Cold the River


So Cold the River
So Cold the River by Michael Koryta

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



My Hoosier bias would have this as five stars: Koryta knows his setting! If, for some reason, a reader would like to immerse themselves in contemporary southern Indiana, this is the book to read. That is, if they want a creepy, haunted version of that part of the state. The living people are authentic, the not so living appear pretty much as you'd expect them. The thriller plot line goes on just a little too long and I thought the explanation for the grad student's heavy involvement was thin and cliched. However, there's a lot of originality in the rest of the story, enough to make me want to read another of Koryta's non-Lincoln Perry stories.



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2011/11/05

Review: The Stranger's Child


The Stranger's Child
The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Hollinghurst's ability to immerse a reader in time and place is all that kept me going to the end of this book. The selective omniscient point of view is used to drag out scenes that go nowhere while plot lines that might have been interesting (How did Jonah end up working for Harry Hewitt?) are teased and then dropped. There's also a tantalizing theme, almost buried in the soap opera passing as history plot, about how facts are only as factual as the person reporting them.



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2011/10/16

Review: Nightwoods


Nightwoods
Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Fantastic sense of place and amazing turns of phrases almost ruined by characters that are so flat and underdeveloped that I could not have cared less about the peril they are exposed to (and that includes the two kids!). I'll remember where this story took place a lot longer than I'll remember why it took place.



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2011/10/09

Review: We the Animals: A novel


We the Animals: A novel
We the Animals: A novel by Justin Torres

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A portion of the three stars is for author potential, something I very rarely consider when rating a book. If Torres turns out to be capable of writing an actual story rather than a collection of scenes that may or may not reveal a sad character arc, he will prove to be a gifted writer. Right now, he shows the ability to pull a reader into the heart of his characters, but he doesn't seem to know what to do with them once they are there.



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2011/09/18

Review: I'd Know You Anywhere


I'd Know You Anywhere
I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



In order to give all opinions about the death penalty a fair shake, Lippman created characters, not people, to fit the opinions. That's moralizing, not story telling, and it's not even good moralizing when an author tries to cover the bases. For a novel that's about a spree killer and his one surviving victem, the story is rather bland and emotionless. Everyone thinks through everything and there's surprisingly little passion for something that should come off as horrific.



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2011/09/12

Review: The Magic Cottage


The Magic Cottage
The Magic Cottage by James Herbert

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Loved the house as a character, but the people in the book brought nothing to the story. The horror is good and creepy in some places and over the top silly (and pointless) in other parts of the book. The story is told by one of the main characters looking back after all the events have occurred and the clunky foreshadowing takes the edge off of the entire plot.



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2011/09/08

Review: Creepers


Creepers
Creepers by David Morrell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Morrell might be a masterful researcher, but the dialog reads like something written for a second rate screenplay. I can lose hours of a day looking at photos of urban decay and abandoned urban spaces, so I found the first two thirds of the book readable for the descriptive passages. But when the last third turns into an action-adventure thriller, I found myself skimming very quickly. The book is scary until everything is forced to fit into a weak and cliched reality closing.



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Review: The Death of Sweet Mister


The Death of Sweet Mister
The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Dark and twisted and masterfully written.



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Review: The Night Train: A Novel


The Night Train: A Novel
The Night Train: A Novel by Clyde Edgerton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Amazing sense of time and place: early 1960's small town North Carolina. Martin Luther King Jr and the SCLC are beginning to make waves in little towns that thought everybody was happy with the status quo. Starke is just such a place, segregated by history, physically divided by railroad tracks. Edgerton uses the metaphor of his protagonist discovering Jazz at the same time as someone he considers a friend discovers R&B. Just as popular music began crossing over and blending genres in the 60s, so do some of the people who live in Starke. Others don't want things to change, and that's where this story finds its narrative.



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2011/08/30

Review: Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers


Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers
Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers by David Cordingly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The title is a too obvious attempt to trade on the popularity of the Disney movies (Cordingly was a historical advisor on the first one) and that's too bad because the book stands on its own merits as a lively piece of non-fiction. Woodes Roger's life doesn't quite fill out a book, but add in historical figures who's life he's only one degree removed from, and you've got a good story. The book gets rolling with William Dampier who has a connection to the man that might have been the real Robinson Crusoe before he went on to be Rogers' navigator on a circumnavigation in 1708-1711, on to the actual rescue of that man, then on to Rogers' terms as the first and third Royal Governor of the Bahamas, when the pirate hunting actually comes into the story by Rogers' contracts with former pirates to bring those that didn't take "the pardon". This isn't so much a biography of Rogers as a story of a period of history that he was at near center of much of the time. Well a well researched book with decent references and foot notes for the reader who wants a story with their facts.





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2011/08/23

Review: Happily Ever After


Happily Ever After
Happily Ever After by John Klima

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



"Fairy Tales Retold" is the subtitle, and the only thing truly negative I can say about this collection is that I would have liked to see a broader selection in source material. Why do so many authors want to rework Little Red Riding Hood?

Although some of the books are told in a style that's not my favorite, there's not a bad tale in this book. My favorites, in the order they appear in the book:

Michelle West's heartbreaking version of Beauty and the Beast, "The Rose Garden"
Kelly Link's very original "The Fairy Handbag"
Rober J Howe's "Pinocchio's Diary", a dark story that hits on the reason I've never thought of Pinocchio as a children's story
Wendy Wheeler's "Little Red", gloriously and obviously inspired by another classic piece of literature
Gregory Frost's grown up version of Rapunzel "The Root of the Matter"



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2011/08/20

Review: Buddha Standard Time


Buddha Standard Time
Buddha Standard Time by Surya Das

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Stop and smell the roses.

Repeat.


Choose your relationship with the universe from the menu of any religion or philosophy, leaving out the parts that dwell on the past of stress you about the future.

Now stop and smell the roses some more.


Snark aside, I actually thought this was a decent book for bits and bobs about how to dwell in the present.



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Review: Haunted Tales from The Region: Ghosts of Indiana's South Shore


Haunted Tales from The Region: Ghosts of Indiana's South Shore
Haunted Tales from The Region: Ghosts of Indiana's South Shore by Dorothy Salvo Davis

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Is a story a legend if only one person has told that story? In several of these tales, only one person seems to have experienced the manifestation, and by their own admission, they'd been drinking a bit (The Boats, as we of The Region refer to them, are an apparent hot bet of hauntings, especially after you've done the welcome drinks bit).

The one story that did pique my interest was the relationship between an long serving Michigan City Lighthouse keeper and her companion, Salvo Davis includes many of the obituaries and memorials of both ladies, proving that people have always been capable of seeing they best in people, even if they wouldn't or couldn't agree with all of their choices.



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2011/08/12

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children


Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Reading the other reviews here, apparently I'm not the only person who didn't know this was YA fiction before they read it. However, I might be the only one who thinks it's being called YA because it's mediocre writing and there are a lot of publishers who think YA means lower standards. In my opinion, it doesn't, and cliched writing is still cliched writing, no matter who the intended audience is. The idea behind the book is something every writer and wanna be writer has done - use a photo as a prompt. Riggs goes all the way, building a very interesting plot around some unusual and some mundane antique photos. But a novel is more than an idea, there's that nasty execution to deal with, and that's where this book falls apart. The dialogue passages are decent, Riggs knows how his speak. But when it comes to action and inner dialogues, the book reads like a quickly written first draft. The book is cliched, flat, and worst of all, dull when the characters aren't being introduced. This is a great looking book, but not so great writing.



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Review: A Dance with Dragons


A Dance with Dragons
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



For a very good review that says almost everything I'd want to say about this book if I were as good at reviewing as she is, see Kelly's review . I agree with everything she says, and double for some of the let downs. The plot is stretched far too thin to cover the approx 1000 pages. There's also the lesson that Martin isn't above playing using "He's dead!.....Or is he????" plot device that works once and then becomes a mark of cheesey writing.

So why still three stars? The physical world of ASOIAF is still the most detailed and rich of any epic, and getting lost there with less than stellar story telling isn't such an awful thing.



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2011/07/26

Review: The Inverted Forest: A Novel


The Inverted Forest: A Novel
The Inverted Forest: A Novel by John Dalton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



One of the best books I've read this year. Beautiful writing with original, deeply developed characters. Some of them are intriguing, some are heart breaking, some are endearing and some are down right evil, yet none of them are one note. The story appears to be about a young man who, having spent his entire life living down to the expectations others have of him, takes an opportunity to rise above that. However, as the book goes on, the reader discovers that it's not just Wyatt that wants to prove that he is more than meets the eye, but almost everyone in this book, even many of the campers that fateful session at Kindermann Forest Summer Camp.

So why four stars and not five? The time shift at the end seemed unnecessary to me. It brought a supporting character into the main story when she wasn't needed, and added a level of superficiality that hurt the book's literary tone. The story was telling itself up to that point, and then suddenly we have someone who had stayed on the sidelines take over and not add anything that couldn't have been revealed by the main characters themselves.



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2011/07/19

Review: The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies


The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies
The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Once again, great historical setting with details galore, told in the traditional cozy style of people first, plot second. I'm not a big fan of mixing true crime with cozies, so when one of a fictional member of Al Capone's outfit shows up in Darling to deal with a fictional ex-girlfriend of Capone, I lose all interest in the mystery aspect of the story. But the gardening and life in a small town in the 1930s kept me reading this very light and fluffy story.



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2011/07/17

Review: Daughters of the Revolution


Daughters of the RevolutionDaughters of the Revolution by Carolyn Cooke

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


More a set of linked short stories than a novel, there's so little solid story telling in this book that it goes nowhere. The settings are handled well enough, with obvious references to actual historical events thrown in to establish the time period, but the characters read like plot devices more than people. They're there to demonstrate the societal changes that were occurring for women, not to be flesh and blood lives of their own.



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2011/07/16

Review: Before I Go to Sleep


Before I Go to SleepBefore I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Intriguing plot about an amnesiac who begins to recover memories that don't fit with her current reality. However, the author seems to have confused loss of memory with loss of intelligence, because Christine is just too accepting of her current situation and does little to improve it without others giving her a shove in the right direction. It's not just that she waits to long to ask the obvious questions, it's that she takes so little action to take responsibility for herself. As to the mystery of why her slowly regained memories don't fit, it's no mystery, it's stock characters doing exactly what you think they're going to do.



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Review: A Choir of Ill Children


A Choir of Ill ChildrenA Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Southern gothic horror is a special kind of horror. It has no ghosts or demons, just the humans at their most monstrous. And that's what this book is about - people that look like monsters and people who act like monsters while looking perfectly harmless. The demons are plentiful but not supernatural, in fact, it's nature at it's best and worst that makes this book so darn scary.



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2011/07/14

Review: Go the F**k to Sleep


Go the F**k to SleepGo the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


100% perfect on the writing, but some of the kids in the illustrations were just plain creepy!



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2011/07/01

Review: Once Upon a River


Once Upon a RiverOnce Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Once I realized that the title of this book is meant to give you a clue as to what type of story you're about to read, most of my criticisms evaporated. Margo's journey is a fairy tale, where only those that know her best are capable of saying no to her, and she always manages to meet people that will help her on her journey at just about the right time. If you're open to that story telling style, this is a wonderful bit of escapism reading about a place and a life that many would love to live, if only they had Margo's skills and tools (and incredible good luck with strangers).



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2011/06/26

Review: State of Wonder


State of WonderState of Wonder by Ann Patchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Great sense of place, from cold Minnesota to the almost uncharted Amazonian jungle that more than makes up for some predictable characters. There's more mystery here than the book's description would have you expect, and although the ending for the main plot isn't all that surprising, the intrigue concerning the medical research takes a couple of very interesting twists.



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Review: Doc: A Novel


Doc: A NovelDoc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As historical fiction, it was so good that I might actively avoid any non-fiction about Doc Holliday. All that kept it from being a 5 star book were Russell's occasional references to things that would happen in the future such as Holliday's future famous distant relative and how history would look at the events in Tombstone. A work of fiction about a man before he became a part of history shouldn't reference things that have nothing to do with that time period, should they? Leave out those few blips of anachronistic reality jammed into a made up story about a real person, and this is one of the best HF set in the old west that I've ever read.



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2011/06/13

Review: A Novel Bookstore


A Novel BookstoreA Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I almost stopped reading this after the first 20 - 30 pages. The mystery set up was clunky, or maybe it was one of those things that doesn't translate well, However, once that part is over and the book turns to the central theme, the love of good books and all that it inspires, I couldn't put it down.



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2011/06/11

Review: The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers


The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction WritersThe Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers by Kate Grenville

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The writing advice isn't anything that not available in a lot of other books, but Grenville does go a step further by including examples of what she's talking about. Good examples, too, not only of what she's teaching but for reading in general. That could be counterproductive, in that you'll want to read the entire book she's pulled the example from, and that's just another excuse to not be writing, isn't it?



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Review: The Things They Carried


The Things They CarriedThe Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Brilliant characterizations that will stick with you for a long time. O'Brien's writing style works very well for the audiobook format, he (or his alter ego narrator) is a natural story teller. There is not a bad story in this book, although some are definitely darker than the others, but the two that really stood out in my mind were "The Things They Carried" and "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". If you've read Matterhorn and liked it, you'll like these short stories just as much.



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2011/06/06

Review: Caleb's Crossing


Caleb's CrossingCaleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


If I'd had anything else to read/listen to, I would have not finished this book. Yes, I think it's that dull. A well worn plot of a young woman living in what she feels to be a restrictive culture meeting a young man who is daring to break out of his own culture goes exactly as it always does. This book really isn't even that much about Caleb so much as Bethia, the young woman who meets him and follows his path to "enlightenment". The audio version isn't helped by a narrator who sounds like she's reading to children who might misunderstand a word if it isn't enunciated clearly and with very little emotion. Also, a narrator with only one masculine inflection and one female inflection should NOT be reading a book with this many characters.



The one plus from this is that Brooks knows her 17th century Colonial American grammar and vocabulary, and the Wampanoag tribe details are interesting.



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2011/06/01

Review: Let the Right One in


Let the Right One inLet the Right One in by John Ajvide Lindqvist

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It's been a long time since I read a book that was truly scary. The fact that I read this one after having seen both versions of the movies based on it, and it was still scary says a lot about Lindqvist's horror writing skills. He understands the most basic rule of horror - it's not what you see, it's what you don't see that is the most frightening. His slow reveal of Elli's "idiosyncrasies", along with the very real life horrors that Oskar endures every time he leaves his home play off of each other perfectly. Evil comes in many forms, and Lindqvist mixes them all together for a fantastic book.



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2011/05/28

Review: Child of God


Child of GodChild of God by Cormac McCarthy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Brilliantly dark. I don't know how McCarthy gets to the part of himself where a story like this lays waiting, but I'm very glad he gets there. (And very glad for the people who live around him that he's able to get back from that place.)



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2011/05/26

Review: Final Arguments


Final ArgumentsFinal Arguments by Clifford Irving

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Decent courtroom mystery, with better use of supporting characters than most. The Florida setting was interesting, especially with the details offered about their legal system and their use of capital punishment at the time the book was written.



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Review: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin


In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's BerlinIn the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Four stars because this book went a long way towards answering my "How was it possible?" question about Hitler's rise to power. Larson really sticks to his source material in this book, so much so that it's not the story of Ambassador Dodd's family as it is the story of Dodd and his daughter. They left diaries, journals and letters about their stay in Berlin in the early 30's, while the wife and son apparently left very little paper trail. Certainly they witnessed as much, maybe more, of the personal and public side of the Nazi party, but in this story they're ghosts of the family, mentioned only when they move through the very documentative Dodd and Martha. But that's a small quibble, along with the weirdly casual chapter titles that don't always match the chapter contents.



Larson balances a critical "who knew what when" with personable account of people who didn't have the benefit of hindsight. Dodd and his daughter, like most guests in a new and exciting situation, wanted to like their hosts. They wanted to believe that people in general will do the right thing, that people in general are good. When their personal experiences, time after time, proved that wasn't the case, one claims to have joined the opposition and the other left the constraints of public office to speak to a wider audience. Whether their end actions had any effect isn't the point of the book, but what they saw (and did, especially in the case of Martha) provides a quick, easy to read view of life in Berlin when Hitler was laying his foundation for what was to come.



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2011/05/23

Review: 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America


2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


So many good plot devices, wasted on such weak characters! "Near future" science-fiction is a risky setting for any writer because so much of that future has arrived between the first draft and publication. It's likely to appeal to a wider audience, however, more like mainstream fiction because it's easy to imagine a world only 20 or 30 years into the future, and Brooks got lucky with only a few events happening in the real world that change how the reader sees his story. The central theme, "be careful what you wish for" in the guise of curing cancer, it very intriguing. The earthquake that flattens Los Angeles is written purely from the POV a native, in that the rest of the country almost ceases to exist once that happens. It's when you get to the characters, whether it be back story, arc, or even simply the dialog that the book becomes flat and boring. Flawed characters are interesting only if there flaws are interesting - Brooks' character are so run of the mill in their motivations that you knew everything about them as soon as they were introduced, in no small part because Brooks tells you everything about them. They don't grow, they don't change in ways that you couldn't predict long before it happens, they're warm bodies to fill out empty spaces between some decent exposition.



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2011/05/01

Review: The Sparrow


The SparrowThe Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Absolutely brilliant first contact science fiction! Russell's background as an anthropologist brings history into the future when small group of human beings travel to meet some newly discovered neighbors. Funded and partially manned by the Jesuits, the story draws on what has happened in the past when one type of civilization attempted to learn without changing another - it never works out well for both groups. Told in a beginning vs the end meets in the middle manner, the story may seem to drag at the beginning, but every bit of back story is needed to reach what turns out to be an ending that doesn't seem like science fiction at all.



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2011/04/26

Review: The Lure


The LureThe Lure by Felice Picano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A really good mystery from the oh so ancient 1970's. The immersion factor is high in this one, both for the protagonist and the reader. I thought it was littered with a few too many characters who were perhaps supposed to be red herrings but read more like ambience. Enough time has passed since this was published that it no longer reads as dated but more like historical fiction.



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2011/04/18

Review: The Last Nightingale: A Novel of Suspense


The Last Nightingale: A Novel of Suspense The Last Nightingale: A Novel of Suspense by Anthony Flacco

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


What a sad waste of a great setting. Truly a waste, because post earthquake San Francisco all but disappears from the last third of the story when a new disaster is introduced - Black Plague. The book did make me curious enough to want to read more about the 1906 earthquake, maybe in a book that wasn't populated with comic book villains and Keystone style cops.



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Review: Wildthorn


WildthornWildthorn by Jane Eagland

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Interesting look at a Victorian asylum, but beyond that it's a paint by the numbers coming of age/strong girls save themselves plot.



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2011/04/11

Review: The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree


The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber TreeThe Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Once upon a time, I began working my way through Albert's China Bayle's series. I have an interest in herb gardening and I like a good mystery, so it seemed a good match. I made it through #6 and then tossed in the towel. In my opinion, she's exhausted her setting and her ability to create a good mystery in that setting. When I saw this was a new series, set in 1930s Alabama, I suspected it would be a good, quick read, junk food for my reading mind. I was right. Albert digs out loads of historical information for an era that I think is under-represented in American Historical Fiction. But it's more than just fun facts, she writes interesting characters that are real enough within the confines of a cozy mystery. This book actually has three mysteries and a small ghost story going, and I had only one of them solved long before the book ended. That's a strong enough pulll that I'll give the next book in this series a try, once it's published and I'm looking for a reading snack.



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2011/04/05

Review: A Red Herring Without Mustard


A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce, #3)A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The third book in this cute little series, and I think it's starting to show some wear and tear. There's still plenty to enjoy here: Flavia is still clever but not supernaturally so, she hasn't turned into an adult in a kid's body and Bishop's Lacey continues to be quirky without being farcical. Flavia's family faces a real world problem that Flavia hasn't taken on as her own, and new characters come into the story in a sensible way, or at least in a sensible pattern. It's the mysteries that are becoming a bit of a stretch, with murders building on top of each other because if any of them stood on their own they'd have been solved in one chapter. This book took more suspension of disbelief than the previous two, and I hope that's not a new pattern that Bradley is incorporating into this series.



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Review: Rodin's Debutante


Rodin's DebutanteRodin's Debutante by Ward S. Just

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Four and a half stars for the setting - North Shore, South Side, Gold Coast, Hyde Park, even a name drop for Gary, all so alive that they are the characters that kept me reading this book. Two stars for the real characters, the main ones so flat and bloodless that they can move in and out of the story arc without being noticed. There's some beautiful writing in this book, but honestly, there's not a lot of story. Several small stories that would have made a great short story collection, but as literary fiction, it's only so-so.



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2011/03/23

Review: A Clockwork Orange CD


A Clockwork Orange CDA Clockwork Orange CD by Anthony Burgess

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Hard to believe, but this audio version was better than the movie. Magically, Hollander makes the nadsat dialect as easy to understand as your native tongue. This version includes the real ending to the book, the one edited out of early editions, read by Burgess himself. It is a better ending, but I'm sorry to say that it lost something being read by the author instead of Hollander.



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2011/03/10

Review: The Sherlockian


The SherlockianThe Sherlockian by Graham Moore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It's unusual to find a real person historical fiction where the author doesn't put the historical figure on a pedestal. After all, they usually chose to wrote the book because they were so fascinated by that person they weren't satisfied with what is factually known about them. Moore doesn't hide Dr. Doyle's faults from the reader, though, and that's what makes this a more 'believable" bit of fiction. I think some of the dialog between Doyle and Bram Stoker sounded a little too modern, but who's to say that they really spoke in the same manner that they wrote to each other? The contemporary mystery is a simple and purposely unoriginal who-dunnit, providing just the right interludes of character driven story between the trips back in time to a tiny black hole in literary history.





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Review: Swamplandia!


Swamplandia!Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There are two coming of age stories in this book, and it's unfortunate that it's the less interesting, less original one that is the focus of the blurbs and advertising campaign. Yes, little Ava goes on a harrowing and ugly adventure in hopes of finding her mentally ill sister who has run off to marry a ghost. She goes through through swamps and monsters on her quest. Interesting, but so lacking in detail and consequences (except a big one that made me more angry for lazy writing than what it did to the character) that it reads more like a bad fairy tail than a good tale. But then, there's the second coming of age story, Ava's brother Kiwi who goes on his own rescue effort, the kind that has far more chances to go in the wrong direction, one where he has to make actual choices and doesn't always make the 100% correct one. Out of the swamp and into a murkier world of contemporary living, Kiwi lives up to his quest is a slightly more believable way than his younger sister. Not only did Kiwi make the big (and totally precious) save in the end, he saved this book from being a waste of time.



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Review: If I Stay


If I Stay (Audio CD)If I Stay by Gayle Forman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Some very nice stream of consciousness writing (pun intended), but so obvious about the outcome that even most young adults will know what's going to happen long before the protagonist does.



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2011/02/14

Review: Under the Skin


Under the SkinUnder the Skin by Michel Faber

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Great premise, great set up in the first half, but everything went so very very flat in the last half. Once the well written big reveal was over, there wasn't a lot left to the story but for a sad attempt at what I think was supposed to be romance but read more like fluffy page filler. Fluffy in sci-fi/horror? No thanks. It should make a decent movie, though.



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2011/02/06

Review: Under the Bright Lights


Under the Bright LightsUnder the Bright Lights by Daniel Woodrell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The dialog is all dialect and idioms, the setting is heavy on ambiance and far too light on necessity. There's a decent story hidden under all the long winded insults and far too clever retorts, but cutting through the heavy handed noir-style makes for hard reading or fast skimming.



The best part of this book is that Woodrell got it out of his system early in his career and could go on to much, much better books.



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2011/02/03

Review: Cup of Gold


Cup of Gold (Penguin Modern Classics)Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


To be a fair critic of this book, you'd need to not know who the author was before you started the book. As a first book, it doesn't deserve to carry the literary stigma of The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men. And it is a stigma, because any reader who has read those books will go looking for at least the seed of what was to become some of the greatest writing of the 20th century, and if it's a readers first Steinbeck, they're going to be expecting to see what is so great about his work. Unfortunately for this book, it just wasn't there yet. And of course it shouldn't be, how many really good authors do their best work first? That's not to say this is bad writing, rookie Steinbeck is still better that 50% of what I've read. The theme, a young man dreams of more, believes he can obtain it through hard work, and then discovers that life isn't that simple (okay, so there's that seed of future Steinbeck) is portrayed through a fictionalized version of the life of the very real pirate/privateer Henry Morgan. There's an odd sort of realism to the book, Steinbeck's pirates do have pillage and torture, rape is alluded to, they make use of the services of prostitutes, but there's no mention of them killing anyone when they do these things. Whole Spanish ships are captured through the use of fire and canonball, but there would appear to be no casualties. That lack of finality weakens the story tremendously, <spoiler>and when Morgan does kill two members of his own crew, one that he's grown very attached to, it makes the previous omissions of mortality all the more obvious.</spoiler>



I'd go with 2 1/2 stars if I could, but I'll bump it up because a)Steinbeck and b) Pirate.



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