Book loot

[rachelmanija]

Due to deadlines and other things kicking my ass and eating my time, and a sort of attention deficit which is probably caused by deadlines, etc, I have read very little in this past month.

I am now reading several books, all of which I'm enjoying-- The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly, a mystery starring LAPD homicide detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, which was recommended to me by a cop and which is also the favorite series of one of the characters in the Tokyopop novel I'm adapting; The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, which continues to be excellent but is taking a while to read because it's very long and I keep stopping to savor felicitous phrases about once every paragraph; A Big Storm Knocked it Over by Laurie Colwin, a mainstream novel which is also full of felicitous phrases of a different sort; Annapurna: a woman's place by Arlene Blum, recommended by cofax7, nonfiction about an all-female team that climbed Annapurna I in 1978-- the writing is only competent, but the story and logistical details of organizing the climb are fascinating; and Genji, which I need to get back to ASAP before I totally forget how everyone is related to each other.

I don't usually have this many books going at once, or take this long to finish a book that I like. This has been a weird month.

However, when I went to the library to pick up some books I had reserved earlier, I bought more as they were having a sale and everything was about fifty cents. God only knows when I'll have time to read them, if ever.

The Book of Earth: volume 1 of the Dragon Quartet, by Marjorie Kellogg. It sounds dreadful, but I know someone whose opinion I respect recommended the author. It might have been papersky.

The Bridal Season, by Connie Brockway. Romance recommended by oyceter. I liked Brockway's ultra-angsty All Through the Night, but this one looks more lighthearted.

The Kidnappers, by Willo Davis Roberts. Children's thriller. I am resigned that I will never like any of her books quite as much as The Girl with the Silver Eyes, but I am collecting all the ones i can find because some of them I like quite a lot anyway. Don't Hurt Laurie is her second-best, I think.

Aliens in the Family, by Margaret Mahy. YA SF. I have heard this isn't all that good, but it's Mahy, so...

The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl. Historical mystery. The spine is really pretty, like an illuminated manuscript. I bought it based on rave quotes before reading the back cover that said that the detectives are all famous historical figures like Longfellow-- something which I generally detest.

Ghost Horse; The Haunted Trail, by Janni Lee Simner (janni). Ghost horses! Yay!

Has anyone read any of these?

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that Marjorie Bradley Kellogg, but I think I recommended some of her earlier books to you. But I know papersky likes her, too.

Brockway switches between dark and light-hearted pretty ably, but I don't remember whether I liked The Bridal Season or not. At least it's not Scottish.

Aliens in the Family was pretty disappointing.

[oyceter]

Ooo I love that Brockway! It's just fun and light-hearted, though with a bit of angst. And I adore the hero because he's not an alpha bastard.

I read books 1-3 of the Dragon Quartet... not sure if you'll like them. They start out interesting, but they were just so grim and depressing that I wound up stopping.

[larryhammer]

Aliens in the Family was not bad, but kinda "meh."

I'm quite fond of Ghost Horse. Haunted Trail is good, but my favorite remains the third book in the trilogy, Ghost Vision, which was (and is) next to impossible to find for some reason.

---L.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

If The Bridal Season is the one I think it is, it's pretty meh. If it were any other author, I'd probably overlook their stuff forevermore. Earlier Brockway tends to be a lot darker, tho I wouldn't really call it angsty. Her more recent stuff is pretty light, and she tends to cut down on the witty dialogue in the lighter stuff for some reason. This makes me sad.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

There are two Brockaways with "Bridal" in the title; I can't remember which one I liked more. But I liked both of them better than some of her angstier stuff.

[canandagirl.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to read the book I lent you.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It's on my bedside table, so I'll get to it pretty soon.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

I adored The Girl With the Silver Eyes when I was in elementary school. In fact, I still do. In fact...maybe I should pull it out for another re-read....

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine read The Dante Club and didn't like it at all, but she and I often have very different tastes, so for all I know you might really enjoy it.

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

I hated it too. I found the mystery to be unsatisfying and poorly plotted (and needlessly gruesome), the characters unappealing, and the writing to be mediocre and not well-paced, in spite of the great potential and interesting setting. For smart, literary mysteries, give me The Name of the Rose any day!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I couldn't make it past the disgusting first page. Especially when an attempt to skip ahead only brought me more maggots.

I am like Sanzo, two of the three things I hate most in the world are perverts and worms.

[wildgreentide.livejournal.com]

Oh, Ghost Horse! The boy I had a crush on in 3rd grade gave me a copy of that book. I hardly remember anything about it, but I still think of it with great fondness.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Hey, this made me smile. :-)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I thought THE BRIDAL SEASON was fun, but I don't love it as much as ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT or AS YOU DESIRE.

[edanam.livejournal.com]

Book 1 (Earth) and 4 (Air) are the best of the 4 books in the quartet. It's almost as if she lost her way in books 2 & 3, but found it again for 4.

The Dante Club

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too - I had high hopes, which were utterly dashed when I actually read 20 pages. The guy cannot write fiction. Some of his sentences make almost no sense at all. All those blurbs from all those great writers - I never knew they smoked crack (as the Young People say)!

Re: The Dante Club

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I gave up on page one. Maggots, ew.