I choose to believe that this is a meta-joke that plays on similar uncertainties with what’s real in that book, because otherwise it would mean I misremembered. Next you’ll tell me you never read the Necronomicon, by the mad Arab Abdul Al-Hazred, nor suggested I read it!
At any rate, I finished Dave Eggers’s deplorably predictable The Circle, whose sole saving grace aside from being like, totally, topical, is a transparent shark. Now, I am re-reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, which I will also assign for my fantasy class. That is one good book.
**Grrlbrarian ** - yes, I enjoyed Corvus - it was a nice, homey read - good for curling up during a rainstorm or something like that. An audiobook version read by the author (or someone else with a Scottish burr) would be even better!
Meurglys - We Are All Completely Fine sounds a little like The Last Man on Earth Club, except these people are in a therapy group for being the last survivors on their respective worlds. I really enjoyed that one & may have to check Gregory’s book out as well.
Picked up Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman from the library this week. Ron Swanson is one of my favorite Parks & Rec characters and I’m enjoying this mix of memoir and tongue-in-cheek self help treatise. Offerman is a Midwestern native (sharing many Swansonian traits) and I dig his outrageous,dry humour! He’s coming to town for a show next month - I need to go get tickets!
That looks quite interesting; may check it out eventually… I considered giving up on the Gregory, short as it is, because of it’s initial horror content (when I said monsters, I also meant humans) but it mellowed into weird dark fantasy. I’ve read enough splatter and gore that I don’t need to read any more.
I’ve not read all Gregory’s books, but I’ve enjoyed the three other novels of his I have read.
And it was Malthus who recommended Resume with Monsters, although I think I’ve suggested it also somewhere. And Gregory’s book has some similarities to Zod Wallop.
So jabiru (by which name I assume you are Australian) you wanted to know my opinion of The Bat by Jo Nesbo.
I’ve heard so much about Jo Nesbo, that I really wanted to like this book, but sadly I can’t.
The book is like an old Compaq computer running Windows 95: it goes for a bit then freezes up and nothing happens, then it starts again but freezes again a dozen pages later. The first hundred pages or so are a travelogue of “quirky and colorful Australian characters”… with a rape/murder looming in the background like a creepy photobomb.
The main complaint I heard from others was that the ending was unsatisfying, unlike them I found everything between about page 20 and page 300 to be unsatisfying and lame. There were a couple of coincidences that jarred me right out of the book.
To his credit, Nesbo does create very likeable and colorful characters, just don’t get attached to them.
I will probably read more by him, but only if I can find the books for cheap.
Thanks for your take on the book. I was speaking yesterday to my colleague who had recommended Jo Nesbo to me and she was really annoyed with me that I started with The Bat because she, too, thinks it’s crap. I’m now reading Cockroaches, which I’m enjoying a bit more but Maria (colleague) said that Jo Nesbo doesn’t really hit his stride as author until about book four or five. I’m OCD enough that I want to read the books in the order they were written, so I might not start enjoying his as an author for a while.
Oh, and I love your computer analogy because it’s so very apt. I really had to force myself to finish The Bat.
Thanks! I thought it was a good way to describe the pace or lack of pace of The Bat.
Your colleague seems to have the same opinion as most of the reviewers on Goodreads and the general consensus is that this is the reason Black Lizard started translating the books at book four, then went backwards. Hook and reel in your readers
I have the same OCDness to reading a series, so I will watch for a cheap copy of Cockroaches but…
Aaugh! Today this book became insufficiently interesting. However, I will have less than an hour to read tomorrow, and probably no time at all over the weekend. I hate starting a new book under those conditions.
For me, it’s that most wonderful time of the year when new books are released left and right – it seems like something good appears on my Kindle every day - I’m big on pre-orders.
I just finished Personal - the new Jack Reacher novel by* Lee Child*. It was enjoyable, they always are, but I’ve read books in the series I like much better.
Then the line-up is – I haven’t decided on the “batting order”
Lock In - by John Scalzi
Murder 101- a Decker/Lazarus novel Faye Kellerman The King’s Curse - by Philippa Gregory
**The Lost Island **- by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
And on September 16th the 3rd Book in Ken Follet’s Century Trilogy - **The Edge of Eternity **will be released ( all 1104 pages of it ). I love this series, being a big fan of epic toe-buster novels and I’ve been waiting a while for this one.
I’m also reading Randall Munroe’s ( author of the xkcd web comic ) “What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions" which tackles the burning issues of our time like “What if I took a swim in a spent nuclear- fuel pool?” and " If you call a random phone number and say “God Bless You”, what is the chance that the person on the other end of the line just sneezed”?
One of the most awesome things about this book is that the author is at least a sometime reader of the SDMB, since in a footnote on page 152 he talks about coming across an SDMB discussion while researching impact speeds and he quotes extensively from the discussion. Cool.
I read City of Whispers by Marcia Muller and I’m thinking not only is Sharon getting burned out but so is her creator.
I had a hard time with this book emotionally, the young man, Darcy Blackhawk, Sharon’s half brother, at the center of the story is so obviously schizophrenic that even a blind man could see it. I spent most of the book yelling “HE’S F***ING SCHIZOPHRENIC, YOU STUPID BITCH!” at the various characters describing him as a loser, a junkie, a freak, an unloveable person and sadly thinking this is why Sharon’s brother Joey ran away and then committed suicide. I would have thought the various intelligent characters in the book would have been more receptive to mental illness.
Beyond that I enjoyed the book because I like Muller’s sriting and I enjoy Sharon McCone. However, I must agree with the people who said the book felt like a first draft. It’s as if Muller has grown so tired of describing San Francisco that she can’t be bothered anymore. Nor can she be bothered to locate Portland, Or. in the NORTH western part of the state not the southwestern. The book definitely needed fleshing out to the tune of about 30 to 50 more pages of descriptions, modifiers and just human touch and needed an interested editor to catch details.
I like the way you think, really, I do, but no joke - I’ve never read Resume with Monsters. And, as I value my sanity, I’ve never read the Necronomicon, either.
I just finished Scalzi’s Lock In, which is a mystery/thriller set in a future where 1% of the population is experiencing “locked-in” syndrome (they’re aware but completely paralyzed) and are able to use virtual bodies (both mechanical and borrowed flesh) and virtual reality environments to interact with people and generally participate in life. It’s a fun, quick read, but it’s pretty shallow, with little characterization, and the future world is only realized enough to support a bare-bones plot.
I read The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith, a.k.a JK Rowling, and it was not bad at all - a pretty good read, in fact, if you like classic British detective novels. It’s set in modern-day London. It’s not exactly cozy, but neither is it gritty or violent. The plotting is slow, which suits me, and the characterizations are rich and believable.
That’s what gets me about Scalzi. When he takes time with a book, he does a good job (see Old Man’s War series, The Android’s Dream, Fuzzy Nation). When he’s just churning something out, it falls flat on its face and is a bitter, bitter disappointment (like Redshirts, Zoe’s Tale, and The God Engines which should have been longer).
Of course, my current Author Quest following Poul Anderson through my local library also fell flat on its face. The first book I got, For Love and Glory was confusingly written and failed to grab me. I found out that it was a posthumous publication cobbled together from two short stories. I knew I should have checked when he died. That 2003 publication date made me go :dubious: “Isn’t he dead?”
The next one up is Mother of Kings which is waiting for me to pick it up at my local library branch. It’s been there for a couple of days, but I’ve been so tired when I get home from work I just can’t be arsed to walk the six blocks to get it.
Well, it’s got an interesting premise, and it really drags you in, deeply, deeply in. It’s worth it if you survive, I’d say. Looks great on the shelf, though! I’m a fan of well-made books, and the iron clasps really lend it an aura. Maybe you oughta start with the Unaussprechliche Kulten–a bit more reader friendly, that one is.
Otherwise, in my periods of lucidity (must have caught a bug, or something), I’m still reading American Gods, but I’ve added Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland on the Kindle, for relaxation. It’s okay for what it does, but it’s got quite a few annoying mannerisms. I’ll keep at it, but I’ll certainly give Perlstein’s other books a pass for now.
I finished City of Bones by Michael Connelly after starting it lat Thurs night. I liked it, it was fast paced and well scripted except the subplot with the female rookie cop felt contrived. It seemed there only to keep the end from being too much of a deus ex machina ending.
I have started At the Mountains of Madness- the Graphic Novel by HP Lovecraft and I.N.J. Culbard… light reading before bed
**At the Mountains of Madness- the Graphic Novel **by HP Lovecraft and I.N.J. Culbard, yeah that was rather meh, in my opinion. I think Lovecraft works better when you don’t SEE the horror. The whole book was so luridly colored that the nastiness just fit in with the rest. I need to find a copy and read the book, since it really wasn’t all that horrifying to me.
I read it and kinda liked it. But I’d rather see the long-deferred Del Toro movie.
Just finished Dreamsongs Vol. I, a collection of George R.R. Martin’s short fiction. My opinion of his perfection as a writer has definitely taken a hit; “Remembering Melody,” “The Monkey Treatment,” “The Pear-Shaped Man” and “This Tower of Ashes” all sucked, to one degree or another; however, also included were his masterful “Sandkings,” “The Way of Cross and Dragon” and “Bitterblooms.”
Still reading the Archie Comics omnibus edition I picked up cheap, and just started Theodore Sorensen’s Counselor, his memoir, mostly about advising JFK and his later involvement in liberal causes. Pretty good so far.
