June is here! Summer! Kids are out of school. Hot days and warm nights! No more bundling up and sitting in a freezing car blowing cold air on the way to work! Flowers blooming, grass killing those of us with allergies! Aaaaand it finally stopped raining in my corner of the desert. Now I just have to tackle weeds.
(Offer only valid in the Northern Hemisphere)
So whatcha all readin?
Print:
I am nearly finished with Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman. I’d forgotten what a comfort read Alex and Milo’s relationship is… and this mystery has had plenty of surprises.
I hit a wall with Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh. Soooooooo much introspection, it’s just bogging the story down worse than quicksand.
Audio:
The Principles of Spookology by S. E. Harmon, Ghost hunting and murder, this is a reread and I am enjoying it as much the second time.
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, who started these threads 'way back in the Stone Age of 2005. Consequently, when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in January 2013, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive.
Y’all, I am DONE with Ann Patchett. I hated Bel Canto and now The Dutch House just tried to bore me to death. The summary tried to convince me that the relationship between Maeve and Danny, the main characters, was memorable and touching. It was not. Maeve was a bossy little bitch and Danny was a spineless little weenie who wasted a literal decade of his life in med school (because his sister told him to) and then becomes a real estate developer.
Doesn’t help that after 16 years living in western NC I consider real estate developers to be the literal devil, but that’s a me problem.
The rest of the characters were parchment paper cutouts–not even sturdy enough for cardboard. The evil stepmother was so evil that Walt Disney and the Brothers Grimm ruptured something laughing at her. The Wife had no purpose in the story other than giving Danny something to complain about. The Help were so interchangeable I can’t remember who was who.
I flipped it off my Pile 'O Books. I didn’t throw it because my hemoglobin bottomed out and I didn’t have the energy.
60 years in Northern Utah and I would agree with this assessment.
This sentence alone is worth the price of admission~made me snort laugh out loud and startle a sleeping cat.
I’m reading Never Flinch, Stephen King’s newest. It’s another mystery featuring the character Holly Gibney. I’m not crazy about these, but Steve’s doing his usual thing, which I always want more of.
I’m finishing up Tarzan the Invincible first. I tried to read all the Tarzan books in one summer, and had to give it up. It was like trying to live on a diet of creampuffs. There’s not a lot of there there. Burroughs brought a lot of people together – including several one-dimensional “comic book” villains, like Communist revolutionaries who are only in it for power-- and sets them loose to interact with each other at random in groups. Eventually you’re bored by the pointlessness of it all.
Next up – I just picked up a copy of Christopher Moore’s latest, Anima Rising: Klimt, Freud, and Jung meet the Bride of Frankenstein. It ought to be a hoot.
On audio, I’m finishing up The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. It contains a description of the funniest murder case I’ve ever heard of. Really.
I’m glad at least some good came of that crappy book. It made me so mad I typed all that out on my phone. I hate typing on my phone.
I finished I’ll Be Waiting, a haunted house/murder mystery novel by Kelly Armstrong.
A haunted house novel needs to answer the question: why don’t the characters nope out? A mystery novel needs to answer the question: why did the culprit act?
I enjoyed most of the novel, but I wasn’t fully satisfied by the answer to either question. Motives tended to serve the plot, not the other way around, and the novel suffered for it.
It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read, and if you don’t much care about motives hanging together (and are okay with a bit of Grand Guignol action), it’s a fine summer read. But if that’s the kind of thing that bugs you, might want to give it a miss.
In my ham-handed way I was trying to say that I think you are a much better author with words than they are. They get one star, you get 10.
Thank you. 
I will give Patchett props for owning a local bookstore in Nasville TN. That’s not too far from me, I might visit one day.
Finished Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, by Seanan McGuire, one of her Wayward Children fantasies, which had excellent language use, as always, and Mapping the Interior, by Stephen Graham Jones, a horror novella, which is the best book I’ve read so far this year. Brilliant use of language, characterization, setting, plot, etc., etc. Oh, and as Left Hand of Dorkness put it, “A haunted house novel needs to answer the question: why don’t the characters nope out? A mystery novel needs to answer the question: why did the culprit act?” The answers in Mapping the Interior are just brilliant.
Now I’m reading Adventures for Readers (Book One), edited by Fannie Safie, which will take a while. Also reading Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience From the First African American Rockette, by Jennifer Jones; and Gun, With Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem.
Finished Never Flinch, it was just okay. If you’re not a King fan already, don’t bother.
Started this morning on The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman.
I finished The King of Elfland’s Daughter a while ago, but due to a blog backlog my review of it posted today. Behold, the first book that ever irritated me enough to make me meme it!
Every time I’ve tried to read him, I’ve gotten about 10 pages and wandered off to find something more interesting.
Curious to hear your thoughts! It was the first Buehlman book I read, and when I later went on a Buehlman kick, I was surprised to see that I’d already read something by him.
I just finished The Sky on Fire, by Jenn Lyons. From the first chapter, I was pretty sure this book wasn’t going to show me anything new. Humans with a psychic connection to the dragons they ride? Fantasy kingdom with wicked supernatural rulers? A love triangle? Check, check, check.
It’s nothing new. But it’s done in a pretty fun way. Aside from a page or two near the end that I’m pretty sure were written on Sudafed and not caught by an editor, the prose flowed along.
Perfectly fine fantasy read, if breaking no new ground.
Next up: The Hail Mary Project, by Andy Weir. I’m reading it for book club, and already I’m intrigued by the story and annoyed by everything else. The writing style, meant to be breezy and humorously informal, just comes across sloppy, like someone that shows up in a ratty old T-shirt and calls it “casual.” The protagonist has the sort of nerd arrogance that doesn’t necessarily work for me. But the story is interesting enough so far, and I’ll plug on through.
I understand watching polonium decay is quite the thrill ride in comparison.
Well, the man sure knows how to write a vampire book! His vamps are ugly, evil, mean, and nasty. I found the plot compelling and the writing skilled. Also, some things happened that I didn’t expect. Towards the end, there was a lot of action going on and I found it a little hard to follow, but that could have been a me problem. I’ve really liked all the Buehlman books I’ve read so far, except for Those Across the River.
Finished The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson, the first of the Walt Longmire books. It was okay, but I’m not terribly eager to start book 2.
Next up: Never Flinch by Stephen King.
Finished Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience From the First African American Rockette, by Jennifer Jones with Latoya Smith, which was okay; and Gun, With Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem, which was absolutely brilliant.
Still reading Adventures for Readers (Book One), edited by Fannie Safie.
Next up: The Heirloomist: 100 Treasures and the Stories They Tell, by Shana Novak.