hm
okay, maybe i'll lump the remaining adult books together too. not because i'm lazy (um, maybe a little), but because of some other acceptable reason. ahem.
richard russo is maybe probably one of my favorite living writers, so i was understandably stoked about bridge of sighs, which is sprawling and complicated. i had a very involved bit of commentary planned when i first finished this book, but that was a few weeks ago. and it doesn't really help for me to tell you that, knowing full well that i'm not going to go that into it now. but, i will say that i think it's a very good book. but not a great book, because it could use a little bit of editing and there's a development at the end that i totally sort of hated. but, the language - oh man. i sort of wish that i could take a bath in it because it's so spectacular. and a lot of the characters i loved. i actually really wish that i could have a book about the women in the book - the focus of the story is very much on the boys, particularly one boy, lucy lynch. it spans the entirety of lynch's life and that of his town and that of all the people around him. you very much have to give yourself time to sink into this one. i was totally not feeling it when i started the book and it took maybe a hundred or two pages to really get into it. but once I did, man was i hooked. the bit at the end i can even forgive, when the rest of the tome is so lovely.
oops! when i did the other post, i forgot about 13 reasons why by jay asher, which is a book for older teens. the fact that i forgot to even mention it may or may not be indicative of something. jay asher seems like a cool guy and the website that accompanies the book is swell, but i was rather disappointed with this one. i love the premise, not quite won over with the execution. the premise: teen girl commits suicide, leaves 13 tapes explaining her actions, each one focusing on an individual to whom the tapes should be sent for listening. clay jenson is a good egg who always had a thing for hannah, the dead girl, and isn't quite sure where he fits into her story. but, she'll tell him eventually, when his time on the tapes comes around. sounds promising, right? i can't quite put my finger on why it didn't work for me. i know that, in part, it's clay's voice. it didn't ring true to me oftentimes and at others i just found it to be intrusive. and part of it was hannah herself. reading this book, i realized that i have an issue with books that can be summed up as "sensitive boy loves troubled girl, mostly from afar, and tries to make sense of her self-destructive behaviour." and this book can certainly be summed up as such.
anyway, i had so much fun reading the moving toyshop that i decided to read another edmund crispin/gervase fen) mystery - holy disorders. not quite the rollicking god time of the first - it moved a lot more slowly and i kept getting distracted as i was reading it. but, it has a lot of good points and is a fine offering when one is in the mood.
the harrowing would, i suspect, make a heck of a horror movie. which is so not surprising, given that authr alexandra sokoloff is a screenwriter and this is her first novel. it doesn't exactly break any new ground here, but it does what it does well. it's creepy and scary enough that you want to keep reading, but not so terrifying that i had nightmares last night (yes, i read this yesterday). five students are left in their gothy dorm over thanksgiving break, smoke a little pot, drink a little whiskey and decide to break out the ouija board. something speaks to them? or does it? and if it does, just who or what is it? things get very outlandish towards the end - almost comically so and i found myself thinking "not possible" more than i should in a horror novel, which you automatically give a lot of suspension of disbelief too. those points niggled, but not enough to make not recommend the book if you happening to be looking for something a little scary, a little lightweight and relatively quick for a dark and stormy night.
richard russo is maybe probably one of my favorite living writers, so i was understandably stoked about bridge of sighs, which is sprawling and complicated. i had a very involved bit of commentary planned when i first finished this book, but that was a few weeks ago. and it doesn't really help for me to tell you that, knowing full well that i'm not going to go that into it now. but, i will say that i think it's a very good book. but not a great book, because it could use a little bit of editing and there's a development at the end that i totally sort of hated. but, the language - oh man. i sort of wish that i could take a bath in it because it's so spectacular. and a lot of the characters i loved. i actually really wish that i could have a book about the women in the book - the focus of the story is very much on the boys, particularly one boy, lucy lynch. it spans the entirety of lynch's life and that of his town and that of all the people around him. you very much have to give yourself time to sink into this one. i was totally not feeling it when i started the book and it took maybe a hundred or two pages to really get into it. but once I did, man was i hooked. the bit at the end i can even forgive, when the rest of the tome is so lovely.
oops! when i did the other post, i forgot about 13 reasons why by jay asher, which is a book for older teens. the fact that i forgot to even mention it may or may not be indicative of something. jay asher seems like a cool guy and the website that accompanies the book is swell, but i was rather disappointed with this one. i love the premise, not quite won over with the execution. the premise: teen girl commits suicide, leaves 13 tapes explaining her actions, each one focusing on an individual to whom the tapes should be sent for listening. clay jenson is a good egg who always had a thing for hannah, the dead girl, and isn't quite sure where he fits into her story. but, she'll tell him eventually, when his time on the tapes comes around. sounds promising, right? i can't quite put my finger on why it didn't work for me. i know that, in part, it's clay's voice. it didn't ring true to me oftentimes and at others i just found it to be intrusive. and part of it was hannah herself. reading this book, i realized that i have an issue with books that can be summed up as "sensitive boy loves troubled girl, mostly from afar, and tries to make sense of her self-destructive behaviour." and this book can certainly be summed up as such.
anyway, i had so much fun reading the moving toyshop that i decided to read another edmund crispin/gervase fen) mystery - holy disorders. not quite the rollicking god time of the first - it moved a lot more slowly and i kept getting distracted as i was reading it. but, it has a lot of good points and is a fine offering when one is in the mood.
the harrowing would, i suspect, make a heck of a horror movie. which is so not surprising, given that authr alexandra sokoloff is a screenwriter and this is her first novel. it doesn't exactly break any new ground here, but it does what it does well. it's creepy and scary enough that you want to keep reading, but not so terrifying that i had nightmares last night (yes, i read this yesterday). five students are left in their gothy dorm over thanksgiving break, smoke a little pot, drink a little whiskey and decide to break out the ouija board. something speaks to them? or does it? and if it does, just who or what is it? things get very outlandish towards the end - almost comically so and i found myself thinking "not possible" more than i should in a horror novel, which you automatically give a lot of suspension of disbelief too. those points niggled, but not enough to make not recommend the book if you happening to be looking for something a little scary, a little lightweight and relatively quick for a dark and stormy night.