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Showing posts from October, 2018

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon

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I'm not even really sure how to write this review.  This was a rather unusual read for me.  I typically stay away from big general fiction sellers.  My mom gave me this book in our version of a book subscription box because it has a poodle on the cover and the lead character has autism.   There were plenty of factors to this story that were relative and my mom gave it to me so I had to read it.  I finished the book last year, but I have put off writing the review for all the other books I have read in between. In the end, I figured out how I feel about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time .  I enjoyed this book.  It has an excellent plot, characters, and writing.  I found nothing negative to say or dislike about the book.  But , there was nothing special.  There was no factor that made this book a favorite of mine. It is a completely average book to me.  However, it does make sense that it is getting stage treatment--which looks utterly ridiculous and horrifying-

Where the Stars Rise edited by Lucas Law and Derwin Mak

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Some are good, some are great and some I really could have gone without ever reading.  But that's just how an anthology works.  I've lately really become fond of anthologies.  It is nice to just pick up a short story between projects.  Especially with the weather taking a quick turn to the cold side, I've not been able to garden for as long as I would like in a day.  I enjoy coming in for a hot cup of tea and a quick read. Where the Stars Rise  is a collection of fantasy and science fiction stories by Asian authors.  It has been a vastly interesting collection.  The eastern mythos provides an entirely different spin than I have been raised with and gives a nice edge when I get in a fantasy slump. Some of the stories I would love to see get an entire novel based on these short prequels--such as The dataSultan of Streets and Stars by Jeremy Szal.    Some were just great stand alone stories that really make you think about life--like any good science fiction should--such

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

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While the witches are not my favorite arc of the Discworld (that honor goes to Death), I do highly appreciate Granny Weatherwax--she is a very sensible woman--and Nanny Ogg is a hoot.  On the flip side, Magrat is starting to rub me raw.  I wish her character would trade places with Granny's hat (there is a little bit of a pun there). The satire here is all about fairy tales and happy endings.  It's fairy godmothers versus witches in a showdown for who gets to influence the city of Genua.  There is great humor--as always with a Pratchett novel--overlaying the very serious topic of predestiny and choice. Nanny Ott speaks fluent foreign, and I couldn't stop cracking up.  

A Sudden, Fearful Death by Anne Perry

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We've dealt with coercion, deception of honor, sodomy, and pedophilia.  Why not move onto rape and women's rights?  I'm starting to wonder if Perry's need to shake up the social cauldron is just ruining this series. A nurse that Hester knew in the Crimea is found stuffed into a laundry chute at Royal Free Hospital.  All the staff are suspects, but everyone certainly looks with more scrutiny at the nurses than the respectable doctors.  We get into yet another status argument of women's capabilities --ad nauseam .  The debate of man versus woman is the sole purpose of the entire case, which again spends most of the story being a courtroom drama with very little detective work.  In fact, being a nurse's death, we have Hester at the front of the novel and Monk barely present. Not that I'm not grateful to be away from the amnesic suffering of Monk, but this is "A William Monk novel."  I really expect there to be more detective work and less legal

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

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There is an extravagant time skip between A Swiftly Tilting Planet  and A Wind in the Door .  Meg is now married to Calvin and very much pregnant.  I'm actually happy that an author didn't waste sequels on developing romance and dragging us through Meg's angsty teen years. She is home for the Thanksgiving holiday--where only Charles Wallace remains at home--since Calvin is overseas at a lecture.  Her mother-in-law is suddenly drawn to attend when she has never participated in Murry functions previously. L'Engle has taken us through the cosmos to determine what is reality, shrank us to minuscule farandolae to determine size is relevant, and now she is sending us careening through time to determine inter-connectivity.  Charles Wallace must learn that when you ask Where your are, you should really be asking When. What would a children's fantasy be without mythical creatures?  We've met aliens, stars, and dragons.  Now, we get unicorns.  Such beauty and glory

Defend and Betray by Anne Perry

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Perry certainly isn't afraid to tackle any social subject.  That is what drew me to start this mystery series.   I was hoping for a good mystery that I didn't solve right away but have failed in that mission.  What keeps me renting these books is Perry's unforgiving delve into social niceties.  For all of that, Defend and Betray  went too far off the soapbox for me.  Some subjects are naturally abhorrent to a rational human.  They don't need attention drawn to them.  While you may be trying to help the victims, you are just shining a spotlight on a behavior that could be given unintended consequences for all the attention. The only redeeming factor to this book--after skipping chapters at a time when I figured out why Alexandra killed her husband--was the court scene at the finale.  I was only too happy to have missed the unnecessary dissertation on the immoral acts of the Carlyon family as well as the always too lengthy rambling of Monk trying to figure out his amn

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

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Madeleine L'Engle took science and made fantastic stories for children.  She combined the modern sciences with the magic of faith and tradition.  A Wrinkle in Time presented children with string theory, stars, and the power of love.  Now we get to explore identity, mythology, and biology. While I'm sad we've left behind Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, we have a new and fascinating set of characters.  And dragon fewmets.   Proginoskes and Sporos join Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin at school with Blajeny.  The trio have traveled the vast universe to save their father from IT and learned about the dark stain spreading through the cosmos.  Now they must learn that size is relative and darkness can taint everything. We are introduced to the true villains of the series.  The Echthroi are fallen angels, whose goal is to stain the song of the cosmos, and they are very determined to destroy Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin.  They do not want the students to graduate