Category Archives: Readin’

Fantasy/Mystery: “Cry Wolf” and “Hunting Ground”, both by Patricia Briggs

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I’ve talked a LOT about Patricia Briggs here, all of whose books I love, particularly the Mercy Thompson series.

These books take place within the same universe, concentrating on events in Bran’s pack instead, particularly his son Charles. While I think they discussed the concept vaguely in the Mercy books, these books also focus on Anna, who is an “omega”, a sort of “powerful submissive” who can stand up to alphas in a way no other wolves can.

Just as with the Mercy books, the action is great, the romance is great, they feel very real and believable and oh my god I cannot wait for her to write another one!!!!!

Short stories: Emerald City, by Jennifer Egan.

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I read Egan’s (fairly) recent book “The Keep” right before I moved all my book thoughts over to this page (see it right at the top of the old readin page), but I think this collection was published well before that novel.

I thought these were great. Unexpected and tense. The main characters are often in moments of conflict or deception. Very different from each other. And all very finely detailed.

SciFi: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

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I’ve been reading his blog for awhile (have gotten some great recommendations from it) so I decided to try out his (from a while ago) debut.

It felt sooooo familiar that I kept checking my lists over and over to see if I had read it before and finally I realized that it was just really (REALLY) reminding me of Haldeman’s The Forever War. The difference for me being that it doesn’t have the strong underlying anti- (or “futility of”) war message. i.e., This one is more about the surface story.

Decently written but the dialogue felt very stiff to me. One of the blurbs inside calls it “The Forever War with better sex.”

I think I’ll like sequel The Ghost Brigades better, when I get around to that one, as that’s the part of this story that interested me the most.

Fiction: Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn

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In the end, I wound up liking this book. But if you had to choose only one of her books to read, Sharp Objects is by far the better.

It took me a while to really get involved in the story. And it didn’t have the really intense (and awesome) imagery that Sharp Objects had, nor the inviting main character. The mystery seemed much more ordinary to me / not as creative.

However, at a certain point, I really couldn’t put it down. And even the things about it I was disappointed in were still well-written. Similarly to Sharp Objects, however, there is a lot of really, really icky family stuff. So, you know, if you can’t handle that, well, you may want to avoid this.

Fiction: Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem

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Our June challenge book.

We both just TOTALLY loved this book. So much fantastic word play. Great plot, nice details on the L.I.C./BQE area of NYC. A completely original take on this type of book, just takes it to another level.

As DadReaction put it: you know, I usually don’t enjoy bizarre narrators but I really–EAT ME, MINNAWEED–like Lionel–and the unlocking of the Tourette’s experience is just dazzling (like when he talks about the environments that calm him). Balmslim. Slamkill. Allmiss. Really good.

Also (GR here again) reminded me of the character Adah from Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (a great book and to my mind by far the best Kingsolver book).

Fiction: The Dart League King, by Keith Lee Morris

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As with City of Refuge, bought after reading about it at the Tournament of Books.

I really didn’t have that much an idea of what to expect, and this book just got better and better as it went along. As each chapter unfolded, you realize the story is actually about something completely different than you were expecting. Expertly drawn small-town dramas, this all felt so familiar and so real.

It really takes talent to make you care about characters that are in many ways not very attractive people. Loved it!

SciFi: “Wanderlust” and “Grimspace” both by Ann Aguirre

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I can’t remember now if I read about these somewhere or if I just came across them in the bookstore but I loved them! Ann Aguirre may be my next go-to sci fi writer (after Patricia Briggs and Elizabeth A. Lynn).

A female space pilot who navigates faster-than-light ships telepathically through “grimspace”. An intergalactic corporation whose monopoly may be coming to an end. A hot mystery man.

Mmmmmm.

These books were a lot of tightly plotted fun with sassy dialogue to boot. I really hope there’s going to be another one in the series!!! (In the meantime, I have bought another book by Aguirre with a different setting/heroine.)

Fiction: Dracula, by Bram Stoker

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Dad’s and my challenge book for May and a re-read for me from grad school (the first time around!).

It was really interesting to go back and re-read this now, when vampires are such a hot topic: between Twilight and True Blood, they’re all over the place. But this? This is back when vampires weren’t sexy, or intriguing, or sparkly, or helpful to humans, or any of the other modern twists. (You know how every new vampire series needs to put its own twist on the old legends. Which I find it a bit of an authorial conceit.)

They were scary and murderous and preyed on you and sometimes, if you were really unlucky, turned you to evil. There is menace and malice creeping out the seams of this book. It did get annoying (to both of us) how the men just fawn over the poor innocent women…it’s definitely a novel “of its time” as they say.

Kept running into notes I had scrawled in the margins in whatever class I read this for (while getting a Literature MA): “This symbolizes the marriage ceremony” or “refers to King Lear”. Heh. Funny to come across those although most of it is stuff that you could easily still enjoy the book without knowing.

Dad and I also talked about how similar it felt to Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde which you may remember us reading earlier this year. As Dad mentioned, the multiple points of view, groping for the story, etc.

Some additional comments from DadReaction: Didn’t being AND becoming a vampire seem a LOT more complicated than the movies let on? To wit, Drac seems to be able to be out in daylight, he just has less power–and WAY less at sunrise and sunset. Then it seems like there are all sorts of transition stages to become one if you’re a victim–but you DON’T want to predecease Drac! No way!! That’s like a ‘get out of jail free’ card in monopoly, no? You skip the steps, even if the death is from natural causes–or, what?

Interesting, though, that it’s IMPOSSIBLE to read without filling in the blanks from all the movies you’ve seen. I keep wanting to tell the characters: ‘It’s a vampire, you morons!!!” And how weird, that van Helsing talks like Yoda.

I did get tired–o Lord, weary, weary–of all the FAWNING over Mina, those long adulatory passages from Herr Yoda.