Another great A.S. Byatt book

The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
Fascinating and oh so very very well written (unlike this post), The Children's Book is the story of a large extended family at the turn of the 1900's. It starts with the age of Victoria and William Morris and ends at the end of the first World War. Byatt is a brilliant writer - I can't imagine even being able to hold my end up in a conversation with her. This isn't a happy book; I came away from it with the main feeling being that life is a terrible struggle for everyone for everyone to wander through and that fairytales are important and telling and are often times dark reflections of the adult world.

Posing as a book for adults....

The Magicians - Lev Grossman
I was so excited when I started reading this - it reads like an adult version of Harry Potter. Three quarters of the way through it started getting absurd to me and I found myself hating the main characters. I might have been still okay if not for the childish and ridiculous ending. It's getting great reviews, but I found it not worth the time. Still irritated at myself with bothering to finish it.

Images I could look at allll day longgggg

The Way We Live with the Things We Love -- Stafford Cliff and Gilles de Chabaneix -- Gorgeous stuff -- Could almost live on this book alone; wanted to eat it up! May be too European for most American's taste - things are handed down, things can look shabby, things can be crooked - things aren't always done up "perfectly"; but wow are they done up artfully. If you find yourself re-arranging your bookshelf, or the area above your fireplace, or some other niche again and again (as I do, and yes, it is a sickness); this is the book for you. Loved it, it's like those English gardens that seem haphazard and not purposeful, but are beautiful. Sometimes it happens on accident, but usually it's the end result of a lot of work.

Comfort Fiction is sometimes so not Comfort Fiction

Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris - I've read the first three in this series and liked them enough to put this on hold in the library...that should tell you one thing. I started this on a Saturday afternoon and finished it the same Saturday night (with many interruptions) and that should mean something good, but, in this case no. Poor read, poor book - not sure if Harris needs to take a break from the success of the True Blood series on HBO (based on her novels), or what -- but, after I finished this, felt mad with myself for reading the whole thing in the first place!

FEMA = antichrist?

Zeitoun - Dave Eggers

I think this genre is called "Narrative Fiction." Dave tells me it's a post-modern version of "The New Journalism" of Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson. Either way, it's an account of a real man and his family during Hurricane Katrina. Either way, it's brutal. I know that after 9-11 human rights were kind of thrown out the window in an effort to get a handle on terrorism in this country. I had no idea this went on during the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans; I didn't even know that FEMA became a division of Homeland Security.

This is an unsettling, sad read for an American. Things went on that went beyond the horrific things that were reported during those days about the superdome. And the system is so huge, you can't point a finger at any one person. As much as I did appreciate this book and feel that it is important in its own right, I missed Eggers lively personality as a writer. I read a review of this somewhere that praised it because Eggers kept his "post-modern" sensibilities out of it, but, as a fiction reader, I love those sensibilities.

It's a very good book, but to me, not necessarily a "Dave Eggers" book. Still, definitely worth a read.

Chic, natch, with 6 kids...

Downtown Chic - Robert and Courtney Novagratz

While I didn't learn much from the interior design in this book, it's worth a look-see just for the novelty of seeing how a family of 8 renovates/restores/re-sells fairly large pieces of real-estate in and around Manhattan. I found it to be a bit inspiring, but would love to know the back story. As in - how many nannies? how often are they there? how many fights? how many disasters? They have a few cute "disaster" stories and some uplifting things that I enjoyed as a working mom (as in how to cook a good family dinner: pick up the phone and call a delivery place). I know, not that original, but was presented well. The husband and wife are impossibly good looking and put together, so it's really just entertainment in the form of: I must know how they do this.

Of course, they withhold that crucial secret.

All caught up and missing the Highlands already, ye ken?

An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon Sorry for the cheesecake image, but feeling the plaid right now! Just finished her 7th novel in the Outlander series and feel desperate for more. Rumors had it that this would be the last, but as I was creeping within 100 pages of ending this over 800 page novel, she just kept adding more and more layers. This books is set both in 1980 Scotland and 1777 America and Scotland. It started out a bit slow with too much Lord John for me, but then really kicked up the pace. She's adding more characters and more story lines, and I found myself really liking them. It made me want to go and read more about the American Revolution. Lots of famous battles and names that I just had vague memories of from History class. I loved it - really hope she continues this and can't wait for the next!

teenage girls as a separate universe....

All Souls - Christine Schutt -- Very intense, claustrophobic (for me) look at life at a very exclusive all girl's school in New York City. I really enjoyed the writing style - short glimpses into many different characters that felt post modern, yet still fresh. The self-obsession of these girls is almost overwhelming at times, yet they're each tentatively reaching out and trying to come to terms with other people and how they relate to other people. It's very moving, but never schmaltzy.

Trickster gods

Sky Coyote - Kage Baker - Second in the "Company" series - this one set in California 1699 right before white men decimated the Natives living there...This was enjoyable, but nothing terribly special for me, although she did set up some interesting implications for the series as a whole - I think I like where she's going with it. I'll probably check out the next book, but still, not a wholehearted recommendation.

Scenes From a War

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks World War I novel with beautiful, yet devastating, moments in a terrible war. Scenes in mine shafts with men who are factory workers, bookkeepers, or just boys - some of the passages were ones I wish more world leaders had read - just to remind themselves of the reality.

I found it to be a good book, great in parts - but the flash-forwards to the 1970's and the romantic attempt fell flat and kept it from being something great.

In a quest for another Outlander...

In the Garden of Iden - Kage Baker

I've become a sucker for the time-traveling type of books - hybrids of science and historical fiction - this one was enjoyable - she goes back to a time when the Spanish Inquisition was threatening England with Bloody Mary - but not something I'd wholeheartedly recommend. It's a quick read, but I didn't learn a whole lot about that time and felt kind of disappointed with the story in general, it felt to focused on Romance with a capital R (and really, the Romance portion of it never really payed off). I've heard that the other books are better in this series, so I might give them a chance. This was a good book, just not as great as I'd hoped.

Olive Kitteridge -- Elizabeth Strout 2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner Loved this book - it's really interrelated stories, but it reads like a novel. Reminded me of a strange cross between E. Annie Proulx and Richard Russo. Just an amazing book - so much quiet detail about relationships, but not in an Oprah kind of way. Very quiet, but ultimately, devastating. It's odd, this book just snuck up on me, and I've had trouble getting it out of my head. It reads true.

Meryl Streep anyone?

Mark of the Lion - Suzanne Arruda

A Plucky, anti-establishment, feminist heroine? Check.
Amusing descriptions of the British elite in Africa in 1919? Check.
A handsome, strong-willed bachelor with a pet cheetah? Check.
A mystery involving birthright? Check.

First in a series with this heroine - I did enjoy it, but found the heroine a little too plucky for my taste. I might read the next in the series, but it's not something I feel compelled to do immediately after finishing. Still, it is a quick enjoyable read.

Birth of a Nation

Into the Wilderness - Sara Donati

Set in America/Canada at the end of the 1700's - this has the scope and detail of Gabaldon's Outlander Series. In fact, we do meet up with Jamie and Claire Fraser (main characters of Gabaldon's books) -- I'm a sucker for that type of cross-over/homage. I loved 3/4 of the book, but the last quarter really dragged for me and I almost didn't finish it. Great historical detail about America at this time and especially a woman's place in America at this time.

It's enjoyable, but I won't delve into the other books in this series. It was almost too predictable for me after having read the Outlander Series. I also think that part of it is that Gabaldon is just a better writer. I'd recommend it if you've got a serious jonesing for Gabaldon's type of book, but it's definately no Outlander.

Pretty much everything Charlaine ever wrote

Yeah, the entire month of August was consumed with me reading all of the Shakespeare/Lily Bard series, all of the Aurora Teagarden series, and the the "Grave" books by Charlaine Harris....not proud of it, but rationalized that this was perfectly normal reading behavior for a grown woman as it was "Summer". As if "Summer" makes it okay to do things like that. Do crooks just say: Sure, I walked out with all that booze without paying, but (shrug), it's Summer. It's Summer. As in, I stole that laptop, but, it's Summer. Yeah, It's Summer.

Although, as I write this it's Fall and Fall doesn't seem to lend itself to any crazy words of self-defense. In the Winter you can go "stir-crazy" (see The Shining by Stephen King); in the Spring, people have been known to get "Spring Fever" (great excuse); Summer, well, (shrug) It's Summer. Is there any excuse in the Fall? I don't think there is...maybe I need to make one up.

High hopes dashed

The Strain -- Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Perhaps I had too high hope for this one. I love Del Toro's movies - Pan's Labryinth was amazing and so frightening. I love horror. I also heard a great interview on the radio with him about this book. I also seem to love vampire fiction. What could possibly go wrong?

Couldn't finish it. At first, the set up was awesome. NYC - mysterious planes sets down at JFK, no signs of life, lights off, shades drawn, no communication with air traffic control. Great start.

It was written very much like a cross between a thriller book and a thriller script. It felt a little different than your typical thriller, so I really had high hopes. You could see the movie: time, place, visual, establishing shots, then some action. You can tell that people with major talent were involved with this. Saying that though....

I found it to be obvious, obvious, obvious. Not scary in the least, one of those books where it seems like no one in the book has any idea what's going on, but you, as a reader are hundreds of pages in going, "It's VAMPIRES. Coffins, you know, blook sucking, that's called V-A-M-P-I-R-E-S."

You might like it if you haven't read a scary book in a while, but, if you love horror you'll probably be frustrated by the slow pace and at the writer's innocence that no one ever read Dracula in high school. Not to mention the movies out now and the HBO series that is so popular.

oh well, Del Toro is still a great filmmaker, and I bet, Chuck Hogan, is probably a good thriller writer on his own. I'll have to look him up.

She hears dead people

Grave Sight - by who else but Charlaine Harris I might promise that the next book I read won't be one of hers, but it has made for some great summer reading. This one is the first in the Harper Connelly series and stars yet again a young woman who is alienated from "normal" society by a strange gift, the "gift" of finding dead bodies, among other things.

This book was okay -- it didn't grab me like Real Murders - it was better than the Shakespear book though. It felt dark - and it was a little depressing. I usually like dark and depressing, so I might go for the second book to see what she does with this.

Maybe I found Charlaine's weakness....

Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris

This heroine is, again, a bit of a loner in a small town (sensing a pattern?), yet attractive. And, of course, there's something a bit off about her. It's not supernatural off like the Vampire series, but it's off for the norm. This first book was a little too slow - it dealt too much on a terribly violent thing that happened to the heroine that I just wasn't that into reading about or thinking about. The mystery was okay; there's some romance in it that was okay, but not great.

I wouldn't recommend it, but, at the same time, after reading it and knowing I wouldn't recommend it; I was placing the next book on hold at the library. Harris is a good mystery writer, even when she's not that good, she's still better than most....and I seem to be addicted to her.

Old fashioned feel - and I mean that in good way

Real Murders - Charlaine Harris

This is the first book in the Aurora Teagarden (yes, Harris does seem to have a penchant for ungainly names) series. It looks like it is one of her first books, wayy before the, ahem, vampire series. I loved it - I know some might not like it because their ain't no vamps in it, but it was a well-written, truly old-fashioned (again, in a good way), murder mystery.

Teagarden is a librarian in a small town - and something about the way it is set up and presented, it reminded me a lot of the British small town mysteries. This is a really likable, bookish, quiet heroine who also happens to be a huge fanatic of horrible murders - for me: what is not to like?

Not so good.....

Borderline - the latest book by Nevada Barr

I've loved this series about the National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon, but the last 2 books have been un-finishable for me. (I know, I don't think unfinishable is a word either) This one, like the last one about wolves, just took itself wayy to seriously. I don't want to read about illegals dying trying to get to this country. I can read about that every day in the paper. I didn't make it very far....If you've never read anything by her - start with Firestorm or Blind Descent - they're exciting books set in different National Parks with a female Park Ranger as the lead character.




Shimmer by David Morrell

First of all, David Morrell is an incredible thriller writer. He started the whole Rambo thing; he's written other great books Scavenger and Creepers being my two favorites about urban exploreres.
This book suffers from the same thing the Barr book suffered from - just too realistic. If I want to read about marriages suffering, I'll read about it through Richard Ford or John Updike. Morrell is so incredible with the art of the thriller - I don't want to read about his take on a marriage "in trouble".

These writers are great - Barr and Morrell are at the top of their craft. I don't think Updike or Ford or Roth would be able to write a breath-taking thriller or mystery. It's not their bag. It feels like Barr and Morrell were trying too hard to be something they're not.