A Book Club of Two
I first came across Susanna Kearsley because one of her books was an Amazon Daily Deal. I meant to get some of her books out from the library, but then I got Rose Garden for my birthday. It's a pretty good romance novel about a woman who visits Cornwall to grieve and starts unpredictably travelling back to the 18th century. There's just enough to the book to lift it above the genre. Kearsley is no Susan Elizabeth Phillips, let alone Alice Hoffman, but if I ever plow through the pile of random fiction I've bought in Amazon Daily Deals, I plan to read more of her books.
I've wanted to read something by Joe Hill for a while, partly bc his work is so well-reviewed. I don't know why I'm so tickled by reading something by Stephen King's son, considering I've only read 2 Stephen King books (Firestarter and On Writing). But Heart-Shaped Box sounded too... horror-ful. The description I read of Horns, in trying to avoid spoilers, made it sound like a supernatural romp, which it most certainly is not. Yes, it's about a guy who wakes up one morning to find that he has horns on his head and that people who see them will tell him the truth about anything, even if he doesn't want them to. It's also about faith and beauty and the ugliness inside everyone. There's a section of the book that's the thoughts of a psychopath. Hill pulls the whole thing together, with little details all tying into one lovely bow. I gulped it down in 3 days and recommended it highly next time I was asked for a book recommendation.
I thought Steve McHugh's first book, Crimes Against Magic, had a stupid protagonist, but then I bought the second book, Born of Hatred, so maybe I'm not so bright either. I spent the last 50 pages stopping every few pages to whine at lawnrrd about how awful it was. It's just so annoying that McHugh created such an interesting premise and doesn't think through what a reasonable person would do. There's a third book in the series...
I haven't kept up with my list of books that are coming out that I'm looking forward to, largely bc I've gotten bored of the writers I used to read so religiously. Alice Hoffman doesn't write very quickly so when her last book was a dud, I didn't pay attention for a while. Then during my breakup with Julian, I watched Practical Magic with Jon, which was high-larious, so I looked her up and discovered she'd written a short book and is about to release a longer book set in Coney Island. (yaay!) The short book, Survival Lessons, is about life lessons she learned in chemo for breast cancer. There's nothing really new in there - I assume that dying, like falling in love, is one of those experiences where you realize that all the trite things that are written about the experience are true - but she writes so beautifully, I highlighted a fair bit. I hope Barnes & Noble had a pile of this book near the checkout counter.
I've wanted to read something by Joe Hill for a while, partly bc his work is so well-reviewed. I don't know why I'm so tickled by reading something by Stephen King's son, considering I've only read 2 Stephen King books (Firestarter and On Writing). But Heart-Shaped Box sounded too... horror-ful. The description I read of Horns, in trying to avoid spoilers, made it sound like a supernatural romp, which it most certainly is not. Yes, it's about a guy who wakes up one morning to find that he has horns on his head and that people who see them will tell him the truth about anything, even if he doesn't want them to. It's also about faith and beauty and the ugliness inside everyone. There's a section of the book that's the thoughts of a psychopath. Hill pulls the whole thing together, with little details all tying into one lovely bow. I gulped it down in 3 days and recommended it highly next time I was asked for a book recommendation.
I thought Steve McHugh's first book, Crimes Against Magic, had a stupid protagonist, but then I bought the second book, Born of Hatred, so maybe I'm not so bright either. I spent the last 50 pages stopping every few pages to whine at lawnrrd about how awful it was. It's just so annoying that McHugh created such an interesting premise and doesn't think through what a reasonable person would do. There's a third book in the series...
I haven't kept up with my list of books that are coming out that I'm looking forward to, largely bc I've gotten bored of the writers I used to read so religiously. Alice Hoffman doesn't write very quickly so when her last book was a dud, I didn't pay attention for a while. Then during my breakup with Julian, I watched Practical Magic with Jon, which was high-larious, so I looked her up and discovered she'd written a short book and is about to release a longer book set in Coney Island. (yaay!) The short book, Survival Lessons, is about life lessons she learned in chemo for breast cancer. There's nothing really new in there - I assume that dying, like falling in love, is one of those experiences where you realize that all the trite things that are written about the experience are true - but she writes so beautifully, I highlighted a fair bit. I hope Barnes & Noble had a pile of this book near the checkout counter.