What are you reading?

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Originally Posted by elk;4104263;

Crit, I also have Wolf Hall in my pile. Looking forward to that one since I am in a(n) Historical Fic craze right now! :)

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You'll have to tell me what you think. I don't think I'm going to finish it. I find the writing a bit too vague. The author uses "he" to refer to various characters without specifying which HE she means. There will be page after page of "he this and he that" and I have to keep rereading to try to figure out exactly which he she means. The literary reviews I've read urge readers to stick it out because it does get better, but I don't know how much longer I'm going to hang on. Life's too short and I have too many other books to read!

I went and read some user reviews on Amazon tonight and many of the negative ones mentioned the "he" thing too. I felt validated!

I just finished listening to Mockingjay on audio book. Boy, did it get really dark. I thought it was a satisfying ending to the trilogy. I was pleased with how the characters had been changed by all the trauma they had experienced. Too many series have the characters remained untouched by all their horrific experiences.

I'm almost done listening to Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich. She sure knows how to do light and frothy with a little heat. I was just wondering if she includes any recipes in the hardback book?

I finished Faithful Place by Tana French. Its her third book and I have read all three. Good Stuff--very enjoyable! Heres a link for more info.
Tana French's new mystery, "Faithful Place," reviewed by Maureen Corrigan

I came in here to rant. I adore Dennis Lehane (though I haven't been able to bring myself to read Gone, Baby, Gone). I recently read Any Given Day - fabulous - so I unhesitatingly picked up Moonlight Mile from the bestsellers shelf in the library. If you love Lehane, give this one a pass. The main characters are a PI couple, and they start off as a nauseating version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Their dialogue is chock-full of enough cutesy witticisms to make your lip start curling halfway into the second chapter.
Lehane continues his apparent obsession with kidnapped kids - a case of a child abduction that this couple solved over a decade ago resurfaces as the child, now a teen, disappears once again. The PI couple are two of the most unlikable characters I've ever read - they're elitist snobs who sneer at the business world, suburbia, the wealthy, SUVs, and basically anyone who doesn't think the way they do. They have equal disdain for neglectful substance-abusing parents, which SHOULD be a good thing but it just makes you hate them more. The kidnapped child/teen's character is equally annoying and not even slightly believable. This couple appeared in an earlier Lehane which I haven't read and now have no plans to do so. This book is a big ol' ego trip, IMO. I never could figure out what neo-cons meant when they said "elitist liberal" - hey, thanks for explaining to me via a sub-par work of fiction, Dennis Lehane.

Whew, I feel better now. I grabbed the Lehane in the midst of a horror kick - Brian Keene and now Richard Laymon - and I didn't expect to be so disappointed. Back to the blood and guts and the outlandishly supernatural for me.

:lol AJane - don't hold back; tell us how you really feel! I hate it when I'm excited about a book and then end up not liking it. I sort of feel that way about Wolf Hall, which I finally set aside yesterday. I may pick it back up, but maybe not. Like you, I really enjoyed Any Given Day and was actually looking forward to his new one. I guess they can't all be home runs. :shrug

I started T.C. Boyle's The Women last night and was reminded of how much I love Boyle's writing. This one is about Frank Lloyd Wright's life, as told through the lives of four women in his life. It's for my book club, which doesn't meet until the week after Thanksgiving, but I know the time is going to fly by.

Wow, so sad to hear about Dennis Lehane's latest.
I have it on hold at the library.
AJane, it's actually a follow up to Gone, Baby, Gone.
I have read all the Angie and Patrick books and loved them all, so I hope I'm not as disappointed as both you and Critical are.

Just finished Jennifer Cruisie's Maybe This Time. Nice light hearted romantic comedy. I laughed out loud several times. Mainly at the sassy comments by the heroine. I don't like it when the heroines are these perfect petite women career minded yet are not complete without Mister Right. Many tend to be cookie cutter cuties with no personality like all the bachelorettes on The Bachelor. This heroine is nothing like that. This is the type of movie I would like to see made into a movie, a type of screwball comedy they used to make back in the 30's.

I'm reluctant to start a new book... I'm still savoring my memories of Room and don't want to banish them quite yet. That, and the fact that I read the entire weekend away last week and have catch-up work to do. I have no self-control when I'm reading a good book. :laugh

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Originally Posted by Critical;4110218;

I hate it when I'm excited about a book and then end up not liking it.

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That makes me sad too. I just finished reading The Tiger: A Story of Vengeance and Survival which I had been really looking forward to. It's a really interesting story and subject (Amur [aka Siberian] tigers in general and the particular tale of one such tiger), but it wandered off tangent far too often and for far too long. Part of the particular tale was given near the beginning, but the meat of the tale didn't take place under the final few chapters. All the other information expounded upon would have been interesting in its own right had I wanted to read that much about Russian history and African lions and...etc., etc. However, I really wanted to read more about this particular strain of tiger and the Primorsky Krai (I've long been fascinated by Vladivostok for some reason). Ah well, at least there was some interesting insight about Russian/Chinese border life in the far east.

I am now just about to start Palo Alto Tales by James Franco. I'm not actually a fan of short stories, but I did read a comparison with Raymond Carver's tales and he is one of two short story writers whom I do enjoy, the other being Truman Capote. And I really enjoy James Franco as an actor, so my fingers are crossed that he acquits himself well as a writer as well.

Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn. The author is best known for her Kitty Norville series. Discord's Apple is a stand alone urban fantasy. The book has two main plot threads, the first one deals with Alex and his story starting during the Trojan War and then Evie, our heroine, a comic book writer, from a world very similar to ours, possibly the near future full of police checkpoints and mounting terrorism from random groups. At first you wonder what one has to do with the other but stay with the book. It breaks down mythology and many religious pantheons which can be a little disturbing. Over all a very good read and a very pleasant surprise.