New Book Review
Been Ages since I did my book reports… *but* wasn’t that great a reader in ’08… I blame facebook, job search, and some other stuff… I might have missed a book or 2 in 08 but want to post this today along with the book I read in 09. I figure with my new job( averaging about 100 pages a day) I’ll get back to the 40 odd books I read in 07.
And as usual- I promise to blog more ;-) This is especially true as I didn’t review some of these books RIGHT AFTER I read them, I just wrote down the names (hence might be missing a book or 2 and the ‘reviews’ might suck a bit)
Book 12- Don Quixote by Cervantes. Ok- first it took me a LONG time to read this book- not just because I paused to read some library books. It was a thousand pages, and dense. It was VERY different from the Musical- the biggest difference is that Don Quixote never actually gets face time with Aldonza / Dulcinea. I also was surprised that there were a lot of stories that Don Quixote ‘heard’ but wasn’t a part of…. Which was another problem I had in getting ‘into’ this book… the fact that Don Quixote kept hearing OTHER people’s stories and their romantic woes.
I liked it- I’m glad I read it… but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again… Meanwhile I have to find MY copy of Man of LaMancha to watch again.
Oh and of course, after finishing Don Quixote I started reading and finishing books left and right to ‘catch up’ to where I SHOOD be.
;-)
Book 13- Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman. I thought this was an interesting book. It was told from two different points of views- alternating chapters between the SUPER VILLAIN of the story, and a noob super heroine who joins the TOP superhero team… to take down the previously mentioned Super Villain.
I found it interesting in how the Super Villain just wanted to be ‘TAKEN SERIOUSLY’ and is peeved that his ‘arch nemesis’ doesn’t
Book 14- The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
This was given to me by a friend who’s fond of a) detective novels and b) Blade Runner. The title is of course rifting on the title of the book Blade Runner is based on. It was ok… I mean it was based on a simple joke- so it was a nice fluff book.
Book 15- The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour. This is the latest in a series that includes such books as The Plutonium Blonde, The Doomsday Brunette, The Radioactive Redhead and The Frost-Haired Vixen. What sort of bothered me about this book- is even though it’s part of a ‘series’… for all the other books, you didn’t have to read the PREVIOUS book(s) to understand what was going on… Whereas this book relied heavily on ‘what had gone before’…. And since I hadn’t read the previous books in YEARS, I felt a little lost- and I blame the author for that.
That said- I did enjoy the book. It was a nice science fiction hard boiled detective novel.
Book 16- The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez. Ok this was a GREAT book. It merges the pulp detective novel with the pulp science fiction. Our hero is a robot, a big clunky thing that describes a 50’s world with 50’s science fiction stuff… One of the things that amused me greatly was when he saw his ‘therapist’ and they had a COMPUTER in their home.
;-)
Book 17- The Great Derangement- Matt Taibbi. This was an interesting book… talking about the far left and far right wings of the United States… NOT about the ‘leaders’ so much as the followers. I think he spent more time on the Mega Church goers then the 9/11 conspiracy nuts….But really he gets to the idea, that in this day and age- people are NOT looking to the government for answers. He also points out that no matter WHAT you believe in, you’ll be able to find a group that agrees with you on the internets.
Book 18-Nightlife by Rob Thurman. This was given to me by a friend. I’m sort of on the fence about it( and wish that I had written a review of it AFTER I read it). It’s about a teenager who’s ½ human, ½ Grendel… Grendal being what our main character and his half brother (who’s ALL human) call the monsters from another world. The biggest problem I had was I felt that the ending didn’t resolve what I considered a MAJOR plot thread. Won’t say what it was, as I don’t want to spoil it… but did feel I had to point it out to the friend who gave it to me.
19-The Science Fiction Hall of Fame- Volume II A- This was a really good selection of old/classic Science Fiction short stories. It included Who Goes there( which movie The Thing was based on), The Time Machine- which I felt was worth a re-read, The Folded Hands which I thought was an interesting flip side of the idea of machines ‘helping’ humanity, and the Marching Morons which I thought was a great classic novella that I had NEVER read before.
2009
Book 1- Awesome Comic Fantasy by Various. I read this my first week of work. I found it a sub par collection of short stories. I brought to work because a) I found it on my shelf and b) I figured better to start my job with a collection of short stories that I could put down as needed then a real novel. Put Back that Universe by F Gwynplaine MacIntyre was one of the few stories that I actually enjoyed and might look to see what else the author wrote. And considering there was a story by John Cleese- that’s saying a mouthful. The other story I want to mention was by Cherith Baldry… The story was ok BUT her bio says she’s a librarian and former teacher AND she has written stories about King Arthur… so hoping Adj. can say if Cherith’s books are worth checking out.
Oh and due to the job- have put about 4 books 'on hold' for myself at the BPL. They don't have the books IN- but when they do, I'm on the list.
And as usual- I promise to blog more ;-) This is especially true as I didn’t review some of these books RIGHT AFTER I read them, I just wrote down the names (hence might be missing a book or 2 and the ‘reviews’ might suck a bit)
Book 12- Don Quixote by Cervantes. Ok- first it took me a LONG time to read this book- not just because I paused to read some library books. It was a thousand pages, and dense. It was VERY different from the Musical- the biggest difference is that Don Quixote never actually gets face time with Aldonza / Dulcinea. I also was surprised that there were a lot of stories that Don Quixote ‘heard’ but wasn’t a part of…. Which was another problem I had in getting ‘into’ this book… the fact that Don Quixote kept hearing OTHER people’s stories and their romantic woes.
I liked it- I’m glad I read it… but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again… Meanwhile I have to find MY copy of Man of LaMancha to watch again.
Oh and of course, after finishing Don Quixote I started reading and finishing books left and right to ‘catch up’ to where I SHOOD be.
;-)
Book 13- Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman. I thought this was an interesting book. It was told from two different points of views- alternating chapters between the SUPER VILLAIN of the story, and a noob super heroine who joins the TOP superhero team… to take down the previously mentioned Super Villain.
I found it interesting in how the Super Villain just wanted to be ‘TAKEN SERIOUSLY’ and is peeved that his ‘arch nemesis’ doesn’t
Book 14- The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
This was given to me by a friend who’s fond of a) detective novels and b) Blade Runner. The title is of course rifting on the title of the book Blade Runner is based on. It was ok… I mean it was based on a simple joke- so it was a nice fluff book.
Book 15- The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour. This is the latest in a series that includes such books as The Plutonium Blonde, The Doomsday Brunette, The Radioactive Redhead and The Frost-Haired Vixen. What sort of bothered me about this book- is even though it’s part of a ‘series’… for all the other books, you didn’t have to read the PREVIOUS book(s) to understand what was going on… Whereas this book relied heavily on ‘what had gone before’…. And since I hadn’t read the previous books in YEARS, I felt a little lost- and I blame the author for that.
That said- I did enjoy the book. It was a nice science fiction hard boiled detective novel.
Book 16- The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez. Ok this was a GREAT book. It merges the pulp detective novel with the pulp science fiction. Our hero is a robot, a big clunky thing that describes a 50’s world with 50’s science fiction stuff… One of the things that amused me greatly was when he saw his ‘therapist’ and they had a COMPUTER in their home.
;-)
Book 17- The Great Derangement- Matt Taibbi. This was an interesting book… talking about the far left and far right wings of the United States… NOT about the ‘leaders’ so much as the followers. I think he spent more time on the Mega Church goers then the 9/11 conspiracy nuts….But really he gets to the idea, that in this day and age- people are NOT looking to the government for answers. He also points out that no matter WHAT you believe in, you’ll be able to find a group that agrees with you on the internets.
Book 18-Nightlife by Rob Thurman. This was given to me by a friend. I’m sort of on the fence about it( and wish that I had written a review of it AFTER I read it). It’s about a teenager who’s ½ human, ½ Grendel… Grendal being what our main character and his half brother (who’s ALL human) call the monsters from another world. The biggest problem I had was I felt that the ending didn’t resolve what I considered a MAJOR plot thread. Won’t say what it was, as I don’t want to spoil it… but did feel I had to point it out to the friend who gave it to me.
19-The Science Fiction Hall of Fame- Volume II A- This was a really good selection of old/classic Science Fiction short stories. It included Who Goes there( which movie The Thing was based on), The Time Machine- which I felt was worth a re-read, The Folded Hands which I thought was an interesting flip side of the idea of machines ‘helping’ humanity, and the Marching Morons which I thought was a great classic novella that I had NEVER read before.
2009
Book 1- Awesome Comic Fantasy by Various. I read this my first week of work. I found it a sub par collection of short stories. I brought to work because a) I found it on my shelf and b) I figured better to start my job with a collection of short stories that I could put down as needed then a real novel. Put Back that Universe by F Gwynplaine MacIntyre was one of the few stories that I actually enjoyed and might look to see what else the author wrote. And considering there was a story by John Cleese- that’s saying a mouthful. The other story I want to mention was by Cherith Baldry… The story was ok BUT her bio says she’s a librarian and former teacher AND she has written stories about King Arthur… so hoping Adj. can say if Cherith’s books are worth checking out.
Oh and due to the job- have put about 4 books 'on hold' for myself at the BPL. They don't have the books IN- but when they do, I'm on the list.
Labels: 50 book challenge
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