Category Archives: ghost

The Third Witch by Rebecca Reisert

This is a story set within Shakespeare’s Macbeth and while you don’t have to be all dorky like me and re-read the play before you read the book, (it’ll stand alone) I’m glad I did.

Would I recommend it?   I’d rate this book as intriguing but perhaps not for general consumption. It was good, but it was also hard to like the main character. I love the idea and how the plot is woven through Macbeth, but I’m not sure it would hold the same appeal if I hadn’t re-read the play and enjoyed Shakespeare to begin with. Yeah, I have no idea….

So how about you? Have you read Macbeth, does the book catch your eye like it did mine because of that? How do you feel about Shakespeare?

 

As for me I own The Yale Shakespeare, it’s so large that when I read anything out of it I end up laying on the floor- I love it!

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

First off you should know that even though the word witch is in the title vampires feature prominently in the book as well.  I usually avoid vampires, but since I never read anything sensible like a book flap, I didn’t know they were in here until it was too late. Fortunatly gruesome incidents were minimal and I ended up enjoying the book.

Would I recommend it? Well now, if you are someone like John who’s sense of the universe is completely disrupted by vampires who don’t die in the sunlight then you’d better avoid it. If the specific traits and habits of vampires are of less importance to you this may be an enjoyable read with an interesting mix of magic, history and science.

Diana Gabaldon

Start with Outlander and then keep going.

I’ve been re-reading them in between other books since Jane has been born and I’m on my 6th book of hers in a month.

I haven’t yet had the words “dinna fash” or “you’ll ken” come out of my mouth yet but it’s a good thing I’ve only got one book left or I’d be yelling “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” next time I burn dinner.

Would I recommend them? Having just stared blankly at the computer screen for a many minitues I have no tidy way to sum up the books nor why exactly I’d recommend them.

I think I’m in a Jamie and Claire induced stuper… and now I have to go read what happens next – even though I’ve read this one twice before.

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

I had just finished this book and was trying to explain to John a why I liked it and this is what came out:

“It’s a book that had it been a movie I would have loved it but because I liked the book I’d never see the movie, but do you know what I mean?”

Fortunately he did know what I meant.

Here is a translation for the rest of you. The book involved a lot of beating the bad guys up with big sticks, funny quippy sort of comments from the good guys, who weren’t all guys and weren’t an angelic type of good. The main character is a girl who’s quite adept at beating people up herself, and she has an interesting purple eyed cat.

As it turns out my favorite movies are the ones where good guys aren’t really that great and they make lots of quippy comments while they are running around blowing things up, which is always good because there is significantly less gore and guts.

I’m not a fan of gore and guts.

Or I like romantic comedy’s.

What I really don’t like, and have just stopped watching altogether are movies based on books that I liked. My reasons are as follows:

1)They are never as good as the books.

2)My mind is then poisoned with movie images that I can never shake which is extra lame because of the first reason.

3)I don’t actually read a ton of books where stuff gets blown up, so I don’t really have to worry about overlap there.

4)I do read books full of suspense. Suspense in books is fine, I just read faster, I like it. Suspense in movies irritates me and I ALWAYS jump. I hate jumping.

5) I also hate nightmares. It takes a bit in books to give me nightmares, Steven King gives me nightmares. When it comes to movies I could probably manage a nightmare after watching the Sandlot. Therefore half the books I read are movies I would never see for fear of nightmares.

6)If I want to have deep thoughts about something I’ll read a book. movies are in my opinion for open mouthed, drooling, mindless, entertainment. Therefore if I’ve read a book that requires any sort of brain power I’m not interested in seeing it on the screen.

When in comes to movies I didn’t love Seven Pounds (way too much thinking) I won’t be watching the Time Travelers Wife, or Inkheart (because making a movie about a book like that is just wrong) and don’t even get me started on Harry Potter…

But I did really like this book. So much so that if it becomes a movie I’ll never, ever watch it.

Would I recommend it? Yes

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

I’ve read most of Chris Bohjalian’s other books so when I saw his newest on the shelf I dove right in.

Oops.

While some of his others were nightmare inducing for other reasons they didn’t involve seeing dead people, and contemplating killing your own children, not to mention and the extra chill inducing ending.

Please read something by Bohjalian… just maybe not this one.

Would I recommend it? No, well written, but just no.

Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth

I hate Halloween.

I’ve mentioned this before here but hate it or not it’s coming up and as with all holidays the library has kept us on track with their rack of seasonal/holiday appropriate books. Normally I love the seasonal rack, but these are Halloween books, and I hate Halloween, I also hate Clifford. I really don’t want to read about Clifford and Halloween in the same book.

Ivy does.

It’s a problem.

When I saw that Jon Muth who wrote Zen Shorts had a Halloween book out I pounced on it. I was a little apprehensive since it did involve the word “ghost” but there was no big red dog or ugly drippy monsters on the cover so I thought it was worth a try. I’d like to say it was just as wonderful as Zen Shorts but I can’t get my Halloween hating completely out of my system so I will just say that it is the only Halloween book that I have ever enjoyed.

The illustrations were again beautiful.  And the story.. I’m not even sure what to say, it was a ghost story, sort of, and it was a zen-like-make-you-think-story, and once again Ivy enjoyed it more than I ever would have guessed she would have.

Would I recommend it? Yes indeed! Please replace a certain large red dog with a giant panda named Stillwater, I promise life will get better.

(S)mythology by Jeremy Tarr

As I’ve said before I hate reading the back of the book, it always tells too much of what happens. Instead I like to read the first page. Standing in the library the first sentence in this book caught my attention, here it is for your enjoyment:

“Because this is ultimately a fairy tale, and because it is sacrilege not to begin all fairy tales with four simple words, and because I can think of no better words than these four to start off this particular fairy tale, because of all this we begin Once Upon a Time.”

Probably Jeremy had all his papers marked with big red R.O.’s in school too.

When the book took short funny and completly random tangents to explain things that didn’t need explaing I was hooked. Unfortunatly it got a bit long, while it made me laugh out loud at times it’s not something I can broadly recommend.

Unless you think things like this are funny:

“The Cabbie went red. He looks constipated, Sophie though. She was right, the Cabbie was constipated, he hadn’t had a constitutional in just under a week and though usually a pleasant man, one could understand why any mishap could cause him great rage.”

Then maybe you should try it.

Please excuse Piper, she was cuter than the book cover.

Would I recommend it? No

The Wideacre Trilogy by Phillipa Gregory

Wideacre

The most wonderfully written car crash of a book I’ve ever read. I couldn’t look away and I couldn’t stop reading even when I wanted to.

Would I recommend it? No. It’s well done, but I just can’t recommend a book full of incest, I can’t do it.

The Favored Child

One of those books where you know the end.  Right from the beginning you know the chances of a happily ever after are slim, very, very, slim. Then it gets worse, and you see the character falling into trap after trap and then end is coming and all of a sudden it’s back to the car crash that you just can’t look away from.

Would I recommend it? No.  See recommendation above and add in verbal and physical abuse and a barn owl that says “whoo, whoo”

Meridon

Wow.

Would I recommend it? Well, you can’t just go read the last book of a trilogy, it’d make no sense whatsoever.  This one almost made the rest worth it.

The end result:

While this won’t be a trio of books I’ll be highly recommending, my lack of recommendation is only due to the content. While they are clearly not for everyone I believe that they are remarkably well written, go read something else of Gregory’s I doubt you’ll be disappointed!

Polly’s Ghost by Abby Frucht

Can something be beautifully written and completely un-captivating all at the same time? If so this is it.  I don’t know why I was so uninterested.  The book looked good and the writing was the kind that wants to roll around in your mouth before it flows off your tongue, but it was a book I could put down, and did…a lot.

Would I recommend it? No. But I’d be curious to know if anyone has read her other books, or liked this one better.

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

“Reality is like a fruitcake: Pretty enough to look at but with all sorts of nasty things lurking just beneath the surface.”

That’s it, that line up there. That’s as good as it gets, you’d think with a vampire, a werewolf a couple hundred pound waitress, ghosts, a horny teenage boy, zombies and the end of the world, not to mention undead cows there would be something more to say, but there isn’t.

Would I recommend this? No. This was Martinez’s first book I have read In The Company Of Ogres and A Nameless Witch and enjoyed both of them, they do have a dark, snarky sense of humor but they were good. This one was not.