Not really sure where I am in this series, I may have skipped ahead a few books to read this one, but I was out of reading material and this was the only thing in the “english books” section of that particular store in Kyoto that I wanted to read.
Rebus is still the same disreputable mess as always, but the byplay between him and Siobhan here is great, felt very refreshing and upbeat from the last one I read. And the ins and outs of the mystery here were really well done.
Charming, fun, lively, light. Great dialogue. Engaging.
Two more in the Sister Jane Hall/Jefferson Hunt Club series (got started a few years ago with an Xmas present).
I liked both of these for the things I’ve liked before: the intrigue and details of the mystery, the awesome dogs and horses and the foxes (I love the foxes) and their reactions and relations and really vital role in the story. Man I love reading the scenes with Cora and Dasher. The hunt scenes are really wonderful and atmospheric, take you right into the thick of things.
And I didn’t like the same stuff that bugs me in each of these books: Sister Jane’s incredible self-satisifed-ness and the “how to be upstanding and moral” lessons that crop up throughout. Often has a very pedantic feel. Too preachy and often those paragraphs aren’t even in any particular character’s voice so they really throw you right out of the action.
The March selection in Dad’s and my reading challenge. I had read a few Malouf novels so this was one of my suggestions.
LOVED it. [Both of us did.] Had no idea going in, but the dude is a MASTER of the technique and these are certainly some of the best stories I’ve ever read, and probably the best overall collection. [Dad might not be QUITE as nutty about them as I am.]
Seems he can write from any angle, any point of view: young boy, middle-aged woman, loner, popularity queen, happy, sad, criminal, just. The atmosphere is rich and vivid (and reeks of Australia, I could feel myself there again). The language is thick and layered and sensual [reminded Dad of D.H. Lawrence stories]. Really beautiful. In many stories, a BIG event has taken place “offscreen” (never to be known), with the focus on the human reactions and following chain of effects.
My favorite stories were: “Every Move You Make”, “The Domestic Cantata”, “Sally’s Story”, “Great Day”, and “A Traveller’s Tale”.
Highly recommended.
Cool setup/scenario. Nice spy/action stuff. But reads more like a screenplay than a “novel” really; when’s the movie coming out??? 🙂
Good airport book!
Science reading for non scientists. Great conversational tone / these are “transcribed” from three lectures he gave; there were a few spots that in person/out loud were probably very funny although a bit dry on the page.
Really, really enjoyed the first two sections / the third is (as he announces at the outset) a bit of a ramble and it lost my attention a few times. But worth reading nonetheless.
Thoughtful and concise and ready to converse. Written in ’63 (if I recall, book’s not next to me) but still very relevant today.
The February book in Dad’s and my reading challenge.
Eastern European classic, Dad bought it years ago based on a Kundera recommendation. Total farce, hilarious comic novel. Bumbling anti-hero, a miserable idiot…or is he? Really a lot of fun to read. The never-ending “Well that reminds me of” stories and the contretemps…just indescribable. We both loved it. Humbly report, sir…
Somewhat in the tradition of Don Quixote or Tristram Shandy, although Svejk is a bit more self aware than DQ.
Bitter, dark, magical and mysterious. Couldn’t put it down!
Fans of Justine Larbalestier or Margo Lanagan would like this, I would think, although Marrije said she couldn’t get into it the first time around.
This is book #3 in the Mercy Thompson (mechanic, shape shifter) series and I am just LOVING these books. Loving, I tell you.
The mystery is a little bit closer to home. The relationship situation comes to more of a head. Things are fiercer and gentler all at the same time (the mutual realization in the car was just handled so so right) and I’m just chomping at the bit to read more, more, more about these characters. Not a false note anywhere. Now where will the final decision take her? Write the next book soon please, Ms. Briggs, because these three are going to be threadbare by the time that one comes out and I’m ready for it now!
I’ve told you about this author before. She was in my favorite books of 2006 and you’ll find brief reviews of her two previous collections if you search for “crane” on this page.
This collection shares some qualities with the previous two (her writing is still “breathless” and “exhilarating” as I mentioned there). Some of the stories still feel like they take an experience and just pinpoint EXACTLY how it feels: as if she reached right into your life and wrote down for everyone what you were thinking but couldn’t put into words.
But I think there’s an evolution here as well (and I mean that in a good way). They’re less in a girls’ world (or one girl’s world in the case of the second collection) but more “a girl out in the world” if you know what I’m sayin. There’s some spot-on societal criticism (the reality show digs are priceless!). There’s a bit more fantastical-ness than there was before (I’m thinking of “Manny” and “Blue Girl”, they feel imaginative in a different way). There’s a letter that is, indeed, all the best things you would want to say to an yet to be born and/or adopted child. And there are relationshps that, while being just as insightful as in her previous collections, have some sense of growth, some sense of “who you are, even while in a relationship, that is not defined by that relationship” in a way I didn’t notice before.
When you’re reading someone who’s published 30 novels and been well chronicled and gone through their different paths to the road they’re on, it’s a different feeling. You know “oh now I’m reading from THIS time in her writing” or “oh yes this is when she tried out THIS”. It’s not quite as revelatory as when you’re reading someone who’s early on in their writing career, still somehow fresh and new, and you start thinking “hey, wait this feels….different. this feels….further on.” Years from now, I think I’ll look back and say “oh yes, the third book. That was a different place. A new path.” Or, an evolution. For this reader, anyway.
I particularly LOVED “Donovan’s Closet.” And “Blue Girl.” And “Promise” just leaves me completely heartbroken with the beauty of it.
But again, in the good way.