Category Archives: book review

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

Ugh!

Very, very rarely have I given up on a book and failed to finish it but I gave up on this one.

It got to be so that every time a different book came my way I’d throw this one in the corner and read the new one. I even hit a point in the book where it said that I’d be throwing the book in the corner, but I kept doing it anyway. Finally it came due at the library and I gave up and sent it back.

It was recommend to me, and I liked other books this person recommended and I’ve ever read other books by this author I have enjoyed but I just couldn’t do this one.

Has anyone read this book?

Is it worth going back to and finishing (I was about 3/4 of the way through)?

Would I recommend it? Not so much!

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.

In The Woods: Who’s Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George

I like this book for many reasons but I’ll admit the reason it really stands out is because it doesn’t shy away from the fact that goshawks eat blue-jays and fox eat woodchucks.  Perhaps it makes me overly bloodthirsty and morbid but I think that’s awesome and rare find in recent children’s books.  When you read an older book, things get eaten up all the time,  Peter Rabbit’s father was made into a pie after all.  Nowadays it’d be more likely that he’d get sold to a pet shop and spend the rest of his life in as a classroom pet.

Come to think of it, Mr Rabbit may have preferred the pie.

In any case, in this book children are walking through the woods finding animal sign.

For instance they find blue feathers on the ground, and ask the question:

“Who’s been here?”

The answer is provided on the next page – a goshawk and a blue jay.

In addition to the bloodthirsty aspect and the excellent pictures I like that there is not a lot of text. Not  much text has two benefits, either we can whip through the book at mock 10 because we’ve read it six times that day already and I really need to be getting dinner ready, or we can talk about what’s happening in the pictures, what time of year it is and try for the 7,000 time to convince Clara that it is a MUD dauber not a wood dauber.

But she is two and so I’m afraid it’s going to be a wood dauber for the foreseeable future.

Would I recommend it? Yes, there happens to be a whole series of these, I think we are going to have to find more at the library but I’m glad to own at least this one!

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 comedies.-

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!

Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory

One of the many benefits of having a period of rest with a nursing baby is that there is a lot of time for reading. Some of it may be reading at two in the morning – but that’s never been something that has bothered me. In fact, this is about the only time I can be reading at two in the morning without mentally chastising myself and feeling guilty about being tired the next day. So without further adieu, here is my reading companion and book model showing off the last Phillipa Gregory book I read:

She looks fairly unimpressed but it’s Phillippa Gregory so the book was of course well written and pretty darn good (she is one of my favorite authors after all).

The book was set just post WWI and I liked that if only for the novelty of it. WWII books seem to be everywhere you look but I’ve read very few of this era, does anyone have suggestions for others?

Would I recommend it? I would except that early on I realized that the characters were all headed toward a gigantic train wreck of a catastrophe. The impeding doom of the wreck you know is coming but takes an entire book to get to could really get to a person. Fortunately for me, I had plenty of time in the middle of the night to read the book quickly and so I enjoyed it. Not a happy book, but a good book.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

Since I am one of those with a daughter who inexplicably loves all things princess I couldn’t resist the title of this book. The author covers topics ranging from the Disney princesses, the color pink and child beauty pageants to internet use and violent fairy tales. I didn’t always completely agree with where she was coming from but the book had enough food for thought to make up for it.

Would I recommend it? If you’ve got girls, it’s an interesting, if frightening look at how our current culture affects them. But please see my Screamfree Parenting review for my full reasons on why I will not be recommending any sort of parenting books.

The Interrogative Mood a Novel? by Padgett Powell

To answer the question in the title, no it is not a novel in the I shall tell you a story sort of way.  Perhaps one could say that stringing together endless random questions and somehow managing to publish them is a novel idea… but that still doesn’t make it a good one.  It’s possible my extreme dislike of the book has something to do with the four year old I live with.

Ivy: “What do you do at book club?”

Me: “We all read the same book and then we talk about it.”

Ivy: “What book did you read?”

Me: “A book that was all questions.”

Ivy: “Why was it all questions?”

Me: “I’m not sure, that’s just what it was.”

Ivy: “What kind of questions?”

Me:  – gave some examples-

Ivy: “Why do they ask those questions?”

Are you getting the picture? I’ve got plenty of questions in my life thank you very much, and it’s not like they are all easy ones.  Just this week we’ve covered topics ranging from cremation to how trees drink water.  John has been known to come home from work, ask too many questions and then frantically back pedal and rephrase his conversation before I kill him with a spatula. Perhaps at some distance stage of my life I will no longer prickle at the thought of being asked 3,000 questions – but I’m not there yet.

Would I recommend this book? Can’t say I would.

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

I like epic fantasy novels and series. I like knowing what happens next… and next… and next.  The trouble with this is that authors of epic fantasy’s usually don’t crank out their books one right after another so I’m required to remember what happens in a book for long stretches of time… possibly years. Usually this is where John comes in. I screen books and give him ones I think he’ll like and he remembers everything he reads and can remind me of all the little (and sometimes gigantic) details I have forgotten. Unfortunately after he read A Game of Thrones and possibly the next one or so in this series he quit. He quit reading them because the author makes you care about his characters and then he kills them.  Sadly it’s true, the chapters switch character viewpoints among a huge cast and Martin has an uncanny ability to turn you from indifferent,  to actively rooting for them right before he offs them.

In any case I couldn’t count on John to remind me what happened in the last books, which was a problem, because this books timeline runs along side the book before (A Feast For Crows) so I actually was trying to remember what happened two books (A Storm of Swords) ago.  I read those books in 2004 and 2006 respectively.  I can’t remember a book I read last week, asking me to not only remember back to a time before children but to also recall what I read then – not happening.

For the first quarter of the book I was confused, really confused. I recognized names, some events were familiar, I had a couple of “OH YEAH he killed that king” sort of moments but it was pretty bad. By the time I reached the half way point I was mildly confused but had come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t setting this book down, re-reading the last two and coming back to it.  Mild confusion and I were getting along fine.   The third quarter of the book I was well enough in that most of my confusion was behind me and I was caught up in the story again. Then last quarter arrived and he started killing off all the characters I cared about, threw a few new old ones that I was supposed to remember into the mix and ended it with me wanting to know what happens next.

Would I recommend it? The series isn’t for anyone… the term epic should not be taken lightly… This was a 1,000 page tome and while lots of people died nothing got resolved and it’s the fifth book in the series. On the other hand it’s a pretty darn good story, from what I can remember… If you are brave enough to take them on start with A Game of Thrones.