Reading
Attempting to post more regularly by, again, listing what I've been reading lately.
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. I thought this was a decent summertime by-the-pool-like read. I know it was very popular, and people were talking about it all over twitter like it had all these twists and turns. Yet I thought it played out about as predictably as it could, so I'm confused why so many readers were taken by surprise. I liked it well enough, it was a decent read, but really didn't think it was all that either.
The Blackhouse, by Peter May. I loved this one, the first in a trilogy, and I keep checking Amazon and Barnes & Noble hoping to see that the sequel, The Lewis Man, has finally been released here in the states. It hasn’t yet. I really felt immersed in the Scottish Isle of Lewis the whole time I was reading it, and I like it when book manages to plop me into a locale that I’ve never been to, yet feel like I’m there the whole time. The backstory of the protagonist is layered and heavy, and sets up the mystery happening in the present and for the upcoming two sequels.
The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan. Picked up this off one of the tables in Barnes and Noble one day, and when I was checking out the clerk told me he really liked the book, and that I should check out Duncan’s earlier work, I, Lucifer. He was right about both. I really enjoyed Duncan’s take on the werewolf legend - as well as vampires, as they figure heavily in this book too. Duncan’s writing is very intelligent and highly literate. When I was done with The Last Werewolf, I immediately started trying to track down I, Lucifer, which was out of print for a while in the states, but a couple months later I saw that Barnes and Noble was selling it again. I also just recently picked up the sequel to The Last Werewolf, Talulla Rising, now in my stack of TBR books.
Tabloid City, Pete Hamill. Hamill loves NYC, all his stories take place there. This is the second book I’ve read in the last year about the dying/scrambling to evolve newspaper industry.
Shadow of Night, by Deborah Harkness. The sequel to A Discovery of Witches, and supposedly the second in the “All Souls Trilogy”. Like the first book, the love story part of it gets a bit schmaltzy at times, and I’m always afraid it’s going to veer into what I imagine is Twilight’ish territory - but it never quite gets there, thank goodness. An interesting supernatural take on the Elizabethan era in this one.
I, Lucifer, by Glen Duncan. Every bit as good as was recommended to me. No sympathy for the devil here, just a look at the story from his perspective. I think Eric Kripke should have read this book.
It Happened in Las Vegas, by Paul Papa. This author had a table in the dealers’ room at the Las Vegas Supernatural convention, and I was looking for something extra to pick up for The Boy. Papa wrote a Haunted Las Vegas book, and TB likes that “Haunted” series of stories, so I grabbed that one and It Happened in Las Vegas at the same time. Not a long book, a quick easy read; but after having been on two tours over the weekend with guides who were highly knowledgeable about the history of Vegas and Nevada in general, I immediately caught some mistakes in this little book. And after reading some of the reviews on Amazon, I wonder what else might be wrong about his facts. I think I’d have to pick up a better reviewed book of Vegas history to compare it to.
The Starboard Sea, by Amber Dermot. This book has a very F. Scott Fitzgerald flare about it, both in story and characterization, and it grabbed me in the same way his writing does. Reading this book made me feel like Dermot is Fitzgerald’s modern day successor.
The Prague Cemetery, by Umberto Eco. This is the second Eco book I’ve read, and while it was easier to follow than Foucault’s Pendulum, it was just as exhausting, especially with three distinct voices narrating the story - two of them the split personality of one anti-Semetic psychotic man. A look at the small-minded origins of hate, is the best way I can describe it. Not quite what I was expecting when I picked it up based on the summary.
The Names, by Don DeLillo, who is another author I find hard to follow at times - yet I’ve read several of his books, some I like better than others. There’s always a lot going on in his books. This story is set mostly in Greece of the ‘80’s, though all the characters seem to travel throughout the region and Europe.
Hammett Unwritten, by Owen Fitzstephen/Gordon McAlpine. Where fact meets fiction story about Dashiell Hammett and The Maltese Falcon. Quick but engrossing and entertaining read.
The Spirit Connection: Back to Cassadaga, by Janet Karcher and John Hutchinson. The Boy gave me this book for Mother’s Day. He and The Girl Child like to go to Cassadaga, the Spiritualist camp just north of Orlando, located outside of Deland, close to Stetson University. My mother, sister, and I went there years ago, maybe two or three years after my father died. We all had readings - it was very interesting, and the town itself is, or was at the time I was there, a very cute picturesque part of Florida that feels like time stopped shortly after it was established in the latter part of the 1800’s. This book is actually an update on an earlier book these authors wrote in the 1980’s. I was looking forward to some historical insight into Cassadaga, and it has a bit of that, but then the authors keep repeating themselves on the same subjects, which makes it look like they’re just padding. A bit of a disappointment.
I’m currently reading The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This book is set in the same gothic universe of Barcelona that was introduced in Shadow of the Wind, that I read a few years ago and fell in love with. Zafon says neither book is necessarily a prequel/sequel to the other, and I agree both are completely stand-alone, even though The Cemetery of Forgotten Books features significantly in both. You can read the interview with Zafon at Amazon where he talks about considering a four book series in this same ‘verse. I’m enjoying this book every bit as much as Shadow of the Wind, because beyond the ongoing gothic mystery is, once again, a love letter to the bibliophile. That will suck me in me every time.
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. I thought this was a decent summertime by-the-pool-like read. I know it was very popular, and people were talking about it all over twitter like it had all these twists and turns. Yet I thought it played out about as predictably as it could, so I'm confused why so many readers were taken by surprise. I liked it well enough, it was a decent read, but really didn't think it was all that either.
The Blackhouse, by Peter May. I loved this one, the first in a trilogy, and I keep checking Amazon and Barnes & Noble hoping to see that the sequel, The Lewis Man, has finally been released here in the states. It hasn’t yet. I really felt immersed in the Scottish Isle of Lewis the whole time I was reading it, and I like it when book manages to plop me into a locale that I’ve never been to, yet feel like I’m there the whole time. The backstory of the protagonist is layered and heavy, and sets up the mystery happening in the present and for the upcoming two sequels.
The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan. Picked up this off one of the tables in Barnes and Noble one day, and when I was checking out the clerk told me he really liked the book, and that I should check out Duncan’s earlier work, I, Lucifer. He was right about both. I really enjoyed Duncan’s take on the werewolf legend - as well as vampires, as they figure heavily in this book too. Duncan’s writing is very intelligent and highly literate. When I was done with The Last Werewolf, I immediately started trying to track down I, Lucifer, which was out of print for a while in the states, but a couple months later I saw that Barnes and Noble was selling it again. I also just recently picked up the sequel to The Last Werewolf, Talulla Rising, now in my stack of TBR books.
Tabloid City, Pete Hamill. Hamill loves NYC, all his stories take place there. This is the second book I’ve read in the last year about the dying/scrambling to evolve newspaper industry.
Shadow of Night, by Deborah Harkness. The sequel to A Discovery of Witches, and supposedly the second in the “All Souls Trilogy”. Like the first book, the love story part of it gets a bit schmaltzy at times, and I’m always afraid it’s going to veer into what I imagine is Twilight’ish territory - but it never quite gets there, thank goodness. An interesting supernatural take on the Elizabethan era in this one.
I, Lucifer, by Glen Duncan. Every bit as good as was recommended to me. No sympathy for the devil here, just a look at the story from his perspective. I think Eric Kripke should have read this book.
It Happened in Las Vegas, by Paul Papa. This author had a table in the dealers’ room at the Las Vegas Supernatural convention, and I was looking for something extra to pick up for The Boy. Papa wrote a Haunted Las Vegas book, and TB likes that “Haunted” series of stories, so I grabbed that one and It Happened in Las Vegas at the same time. Not a long book, a quick easy read; but after having been on two tours over the weekend with guides who were highly knowledgeable about the history of Vegas and Nevada in general, I immediately caught some mistakes in this little book. And after reading some of the reviews on Amazon, I wonder what else might be wrong about his facts. I think I’d have to pick up a better reviewed book of Vegas history to compare it to.
The Starboard Sea, by Amber Dermot. This book has a very F. Scott Fitzgerald flare about it, both in story and characterization, and it grabbed me in the same way his writing does. Reading this book made me feel like Dermot is Fitzgerald’s modern day successor.
The Prague Cemetery, by Umberto Eco. This is the second Eco book I’ve read, and while it was easier to follow than Foucault’s Pendulum, it was just as exhausting, especially with three distinct voices narrating the story - two of them the split personality of one anti-Semetic psychotic man. A look at the small-minded origins of hate, is the best way I can describe it. Not quite what I was expecting when I picked it up based on the summary.
The Names, by Don DeLillo, who is another author I find hard to follow at times - yet I’ve read several of his books, some I like better than others. There’s always a lot going on in his books. This story is set mostly in Greece of the ‘80’s, though all the characters seem to travel throughout the region and Europe.
Hammett Unwritten, by Owen Fitzstephen/Gordon McAlpine. Where fact meets fiction story about Dashiell Hammett and The Maltese Falcon. Quick but engrossing and entertaining read.
The Spirit Connection: Back to Cassadaga, by Janet Karcher and John Hutchinson. The Boy gave me this book for Mother’s Day. He and The Girl Child like to go to Cassadaga, the Spiritualist camp just north of Orlando, located outside of Deland, close to Stetson University. My mother, sister, and I went there years ago, maybe two or three years after my father died. We all had readings - it was very interesting, and the town itself is, or was at the time I was there, a very cute picturesque part of Florida that feels like time stopped shortly after it was established in the latter part of the 1800’s. This book is actually an update on an earlier book these authors wrote in the 1980’s. I was looking forward to some historical insight into Cassadaga, and it has a bit of that, but then the authors keep repeating themselves on the same subjects, which makes it look like they’re just padding. A bit of a disappointment.
I’m currently reading The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This book is set in the same gothic universe of Barcelona that was introduced in Shadow of the Wind, that I read a few years ago and fell in love with. Zafon says neither book is necessarily a prequel/sequel to the other, and I agree both are completely stand-alone, even though The Cemetery of Forgotten Books features significantly in both. You can read the interview with Zafon at Amazon where he talks about considering a four book series in this same ‘verse. I’m enjoying this book every bit as much as Shadow of the Wind, because beyond the ongoing gothic mystery is, once again, a love letter to the bibliophile. That will suck me in me every time.