I feel like talking about books
Various books I've read during 2008 - some good, some not.
First, the good.
Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson - excellent nonfiction account of the Great 1900 Galveston hurricane which is still the deadliest disaster in US history. I read this on Sep 12 while waiting for Hurricane Ike to arrive, and it was very surreal to look up from my book and see live TV footage of waves crashing over the Galveston seawall.
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer - light, funny Regency romance with an unexpected hero. Perfect diversion while coping with the post-Ike power outage. I'm currently reading The Conqueror by the same author which is a more serious historical fiction.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - a novel about a book-lover and a storyteller that I devoured in one day (I had jury duty).
Then, the not.
I picked up Twilight and Eclipse from the library after hearing about all the buzz. They reminded me very much of The Da Vinci Code in that they had eyeroll-worthy plot developments, unintentionally funny purple prose, and characters that needed to be slapped for stupidity. I'll pass on the rest of the series.
I've seen plenty of rants about the problem of random point-of-view switches in fanfiction. A few weeks ago I came across a published novel that had some of the worst I've ever seen. Stay away from Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith. It also managed to make the fifteenth century boring.
First, the good.
Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson - excellent nonfiction account of the Great 1900 Galveston hurricane which is still the deadliest disaster in US history. I read this on Sep 12 while waiting for Hurricane Ike to arrive, and it was very surreal to look up from my book and see live TV footage of waves crashing over the Galveston seawall.
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer - light, funny Regency romance with an unexpected hero. Perfect diversion while coping with the post-Ike power outage. I'm currently reading The Conqueror by the same author which is a more serious historical fiction.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - a novel about a book-lover and a storyteller that I devoured in one day (I had jury duty).
Then, the not.
I picked up Twilight and Eclipse from the library after hearing about all the buzz. They reminded me very much of The Da Vinci Code in that they had eyeroll-worthy plot developments, unintentionally funny purple prose, and characters that needed to be slapped for stupidity. I'll pass on the rest of the series.
I've seen plenty of rants about the problem of random point-of-view switches in fanfiction. A few weeks ago I came across a published novel that had some of the worst I've ever seen. Stay away from Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith. It also managed to make the fifteenth century boring.