Glad you liked it; I didn’t care for it at all. I didn’t think much of the characterization or dialogue.
Reporting back on my first stack of library books that was solely inspired by previous Whatcha threads.
Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Not bad, it started out strong building the stories of the characters, then…I stopped caring much about them, especially the priest, as the book chugged on with its clumsy ending.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Liked the characters and the setting, the comic book scene and the family tragedy. It lost a little steam at the end.
A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church. I really liked this detective novel. The modern North Korea setting in an atmosphere of paranoia and powerlessness was a little like the best of Cold War fiction set in Eastern Europe. Will read more by Church.
Percival’s Planet by Michael Byers. For some reason I had low expectations of this book but I loved it and read it straight through on a day off. The author’s love of the natural world and of his characters felt a little like the delightful * Selected Works of T. S. Spivet*. Now I want to track down Byers’ other books.
Reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It’s set in Mississippi in 1962. The main characters are two African-American housemaids and an unmarried white woman with progressive ideas. I like the gossipy feel.
Me too! I’m listening to it on audiobook, after hearing several recommendations for it here.
Reginald Hill’s “The Spy’s Wife”. I love his writing.
I had thought I’d grabbed the next book in the Dalziel and Pascoe series when I left the house, so I spent the first 20 pages wondering just how and when they were going to show up. It’s okay, I’ve got all the time I want to finish the series…
As I think I’ve mentioned before, my wife’s book club, and a friend of mine who’s really into chicklit, all liked it.
Dang, that looks good. I added it to my wishlist.
Amazon has it on sale at bargain price for those of you who, unlike myself, haven’t exceeded your book budget this month.
I quite like The Corrections–yes, the people weren’t very nice, but they were quite funny, I thought. I’m about a hundred pages into Freedom, and I’m really enjoying it. But I may have to go a little slower on it, because Amazon delivered my long-sought It’s Superman! by Tom DeHaven, which is truly marvelous. Happily, I have a four-hour train ride on Sunday that I can make use of.
I also bought, quite by chance, Jim Butcher’s Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours. It fits neatly into my collection (incipient, but anyway) of comic-to-literature books (or, as the case may be, comics-related lit, like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), though I hold no great hopes for it being more than a fun read.
I have put down Demon Blood. I have come to the conclusion that this must be the middle of a series and that if I were interested I would be better off finding the first. There are just too many bits and bobs that don’t come together. Since there was really nothing about the book that makes me care, I will not seek out the first in the series.