What I'm Reading Wednesday
WHAT I FINISHED
1. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel: I read this for nostalgia, and while I'm glad it stuck with a lot of the original, it fell to a middling level for me. I wasn't a huge fan of the illustrations, and the choice to do it in blue/black/white without any other colors seems like a huge missed opportunity.
2. Pure Blood by Caitlin Kittredge: I'm giving up on this series. Two books in, and I seriously dislike the heroine. On top of that, the ending was way too pat with a bit of deus ex machina thrown in to fix things up. Yuck.
3. Witch Fire by Anya Bast: Erotic paranormal romance about a witch who gets kidnapped by her unknown bodyguard to protect her from getting used in a dark ritual. I like Bast for the sexy bits, but this needed more to it than just being hot because that wasn't nearly enough to carry the book. The villains were very cartoonish, too, which doesn't help. I won't bother with the rest of the series.
4. 12 by Nolon King & David Wright: An easy, suspenseful read that's carried by its great characterizations. It stumbled at the end by rushing the ending and leaving too many loose ends, though.
5. Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Live of the Stars by Scotty Bowers with Lionel Friedberg: The memoir of the man who claims to have hooked up a good chunk of Hollywood personages with sexual partners (gay, bi, and straight) from the 1940s until the 80s. This book has been mentioned by others, so I had to read it, but it was ultimately pretty disappointing. The writing is overly simplistic, and the lack of detail made it feel like more of a laundry list. He met someone, they had sex/he provided a sex partner, they became friends. On and on. Supposedly, he provided "tricks" for a wide swathe of celebrities and movie people, and while I think there's probably plenty that's true about it, I also think he's blown some stories out of proportion or made up completely. There's no way to tell for sure, of course. Most of the people mentioned in it are dead or he leaves out names to protect them or because he never knew them in the first place. Mostly a waste of time.
DID NOT FINISH
1. Do or Diner by Christine Wenger: A cozy mystery. I gave up after the second chapter. I didn't like the heroine, the exposition was muddled, and the author abuses exclamation points.
WHAT I'M READING
1. Still reading At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole. It's even more enchanting as I progress, but I only read this while I'm on break at work, so it's been slow.
2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Another of those books that I never got around to reading. I had zero expectations or knowledge of the story when I started, but I'm loving this so much more than I did Coraline.
3. The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow: I just picked this up to start reading today so don't really know that much except for what I just refreshed my memory with from reading the blurb on Amazon. I know it's historical and set in the 1600s, and I know that witches play some part, but that's about it. So far, the voice is a little off-putting, like the author is way too impressed with his own vocabulary, but there was some charm in it, too, so we'll see how it goes.
4. Love, Forever More by Patricia Matthews: A historical romance written in the 1970s. I decided to reread some of the most influential romances I "borrowed" from my grandmother while I was growing up, and the Love series by Patricia Matthews was right in the middle of it. I wouldn't bother with this otherwise. There's headhopping, problematic racism and cultural issues, and misogyny, but I'll admit it's fascinating seeing how this (and probably the others in the series since they were all very similar) has influenced my reading preferences and writing style.
1. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel: I read this for nostalgia, and while I'm glad it stuck with a lot of the original, it fell to a middling level for me. I wasn't a huge fan of the illustrations, and the choice to do it in blue/black/white without any other colors seems like a huge missed opportunity.
2. Pure Blood by Caitlin Kittredge: I'm giving up on this series. Two books in, and I seriously dislike the heroine. On top of that, the ending was way too pat with a bit of deus ex machina thrown in to fix things up. Yuck.
3. Witch Fire by Anya Bast: Erotic paranormal romance about a witch who gets kidnapped by her unknown bodyguard to protect her from getting used in a dark ritual. I like Bast for the sexy bits, but this needed more to it than just being hot because that wasn't nearly enough to carry the book. The villains were very cartoonish, too, which doesn't help. I won't bother with the rest of the series.
4. 12 by Nolon King & David Wright: An easy, suspenseful read that's carried by its great characterizations. It stumbled at the end by rushing the ending and leaving too many loose ends, though.
5. Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Live of the Stars by Scotty Bowers with Lionel Friedberg: The memoir of the man who claims to have hooked up a good chunk of Hollywood personages with sexual partners (gay, bi, and straight) from the 1940s until the 80s. This book has been mentioned by others, so I had to read it, but it was ultimately pretty disappointing. The writing is overly simplistic, and the lack of detail made it feel like more of a laundry list. He met someone, they had sex/he provided a sex partner, they became friends. On and on. Supposedly, he provided "tricks" for a wide swathe of celebrities and movie people, and while I think there's probably plenty that's true about it, I also think he's blown some stories out of proportion or made up completely. There's no way to tell for sure, of course. Most of the people mentioned in it are dead or he leaves out names to protect them or because he never knew them in the first place. Mostly a waste of time.
DID NOT FINISH
1. Do or Diner by Christine Wenger: A cozy mystery. I gave up after the second chapter. I didn't like the heroine, the exposition was muddled, and the author abuses exclamation points.
WHAT I'M READING
1. Still reading At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole. It's even more enchanting as I progress, but I only read this while I'm on break at work, so it's been slow.
2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Another of those books that I never got around to reading. I had zero expectations or knowledge of the story when I started, but I'm loving this so much more than I did Coraline.
3. The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow: I just picked this up to start reading today so don't really know that much except for what I just refreshed my memory with from reading the blurb on Amazon. I know it's historical and set in the 1600s, and I know that witches play some part, but that's about it. So far, the voice is a little off-putting, like the author is way too impressed with his own vocabulary, but there was some charm in it, too, so we'll see how it goes.
4. Love, Forever More by Patricia Matthews: A historical romance written in the 1970s. I decided to reread some of the most influential romances I "borrowed" from my grandmother while I was growing up, and the Love series by Patricia Matthews was right in the middle of it. I wouldn't bother with this otherwise. There's headhopping, problematic racism and cultural issues, and misogyny, but I'll admit it's fascinating seeing how this (and probably the others in the series since they were all very similar) has influenced my reading preferences and writing style.