Heena’s Comments (group member since Oct 13, 2014)

Heena’s comments from the RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off) group.

Sorry for posting this late: The thread for November's challenge (Historical or Steampunk) is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I wasn't able to read as many books as I planned this month (which includes the 2 books I was planning on buying that Cheryl recommended on 'Find Me A Book' thread,) os I'll be continuing reading horror books this month as well.

3. Strange Weather - 3/5

It didn't turn out to be as spectacular as I was expecting, but was a decent read.

Hello everyone,

November is here and so is the last 'alternate genre month' - Historical or Steampunk. For this month we have two genre options to choose from as there are few readers for each of these genres as compared to the other more popular ones (hence the choice.) Please pick 1 genre and announce in the comments below. Or if you really want to, then feel free to pick both and read 2 genres for this month. It's your choice.

Here are the DEFINITIONs for this month's genres:

Historical: Historical fiction presents a story set in the past, often during a significant time period. In historical fiction, the time period is an important part of the setting and often of the story itself.
Historical fiction may include fictional characters, well-known historical figures or a mixture of the two. Authors of historical fiction usually pay close attention to the details of their stories (settings, clothing, dialogue, etc.) to ensure that they fit the time periods in which the narratives take place.

NOTE: You can also include non-fiction Historical books for this month if you want.

Seampunk: Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. It could be described by the slogan "What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner." It includes fiction with science fiction, fantasy or horror themes.
It is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where STEAM POWER is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.

-->>Please Note: There are absolutely no limits so you can interpret this genre in its broader sense and include other similar genres and/or subgenres that you feel might have a wee bit of similarity with the main genre. You can also include books that are not particularly centred around the main genre but has its components or elements somewhere in the story.

Here's a quick summary of the levels:

Level 1: Casual Reader: 1 book (easy)
Level 2: Frequent Reader: 2 books (moderate)
Level 3: Bookworm: 3 books (mildly strenuous)
Level 4: Bibliophile: 4 books (strenuous)
Level 5: Bookiopath: 5 books or more (challenging)

Please mention what type of books you'd be reading:

PB: Paperbacks
HB: Hardback
EB: E-Books
AB: Audio Books

Please feel free to announce your to-read books along with the level you are targeting for below.

PLEASE READ (for new members):
1. You can read any number of books for the respective genre each month in one particular month.
2. Take your time and go through your entire TBR-list before deciding the books to read.
3. You can join the challenge at any stage (in any month.)
4. You can drop out of the challenge any time you like.
5. You can select different levels every month.
6. Use this discussion board to share your reads with other members of the group.
7. Please be active and don't hesitate to ask questions or recommend books.

Note: The main intent of this challenge is to incorporate different kinds of books and genres in our normal reading routine to make the experience more fun and entertaining. Please do not lose yourself in the technicalities as we all know how literary genres can be confusing.

If you have any doubts or questions, then post them below and we'll be happy to answer/discuss them.
Happy reading!

Cheryl - Yes, maybe that's what was amiss with the book. He is indeed a good writer (he did cook up Aloft and Rain brilliantly, even Snapshot, but again, just the start I ngs were great and not the entire plots.)

Another thing I'd like to mention is that I found the use of 2nd Person POV in the stories (except for Loaded as I left that one out), very interesting. Very few authors address the readers directly anf it was a pleasant surprise to have been addressed that way while reading this book.

Cheryl - Exactly! Not horrible but not great either.

I'm finally done with this book. I enjoyed Rain a lot, but the ending seemed a bit far-fetched. But it was the best overall story for me in the entire collection.
Overall I'm rating this book 3 stars ( Snapshot - 3/5, Loaded - 1/5 - DNF, Aloft - 3/5 and Rain - 4/5).
I think this collection could have a lot better (for me) but somehow it just wasn't there. The stories all started out well, but then they all seemed to drift every now and then and it seemed like the author's mind was wandering a lot, and then the endings seemed to be either abrupt or just drawn out.
Another thing I would like to mention here is that in spite of having very interesting concepts, I found the book to be really, really long. Even though I left out one of the lengthiest stories. It felt like a drag and a slog, so the writing was not at all smooth. It had a lot of yps and downs in terms of its tones.
I won't recommend it to anyone except Joe Hill's die hard fans.

I'm still not done (I'm not getting any time to read at all!) but I do want to say that I'm finding the comet cult very interesting. One thing I am really liking in this book is Joe Hill's sense of humour. At times, I re-read the funny sentences to enjoy them. Especially, I'm really impressed with Honeysuckle's sense of humour (esp. when it came to the comet crazies.

Cheryl, I'm so glad that it helped you in some way. Come to think of it, reading Honeysuckle's point of view is helping me understand my cousin better.

Yes, I agree with you; this story does seem like it's going somewhere.
Even I noticed a lot of unnecesary use of the word lesbian, sometimes even at random - like when she's being followed by the cat-guy ( I forgot his name), I mean he didn't even know that she was a lesbian!
I guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that the protagonist is Southern (or western?), that she is country folk and maybe inspite of having accepted her sexualoty and coming out in time to be able to live like she wanted, somewhere her brought up still bothers herself about this fact. I have a gay cousin and he sure talks about being gay and the troubles a lot more than unnecessary at the oddest of times (like when we all are having a nice dinner and having good conversation, he'd randomly bring it up and makes everyone awkward and quiet and well... embarresed to be even present there.) So maybe this is something that most (or some) of the people with different sexual preferences feel. Now that I'm talking about it, it's actually starting to make sense to me why Honeysuckle continusly brings it up in her thoughts. It's like not wanting to be a psyvhopath, but not being able to help it either. Okay now that is a weird analogy, but do you see the point in this?

I'm still liking the story 'Rain', in fact, I think it is the most interesting story, for me, so far in the collection. For a change, I love the characters. And the rain apocalypse seems very interesting too. Honeysuckle has just embarked on her quest to visit Yolanda's father, so it's still pretty early to say anything I guess. Let's see what happens next.

Cheryl wrote: "I thought Joe Hill wrote a short story collection years ago: 20th Century Ghosts Maybe he meant novellas in the interview? Anyway, it's good to see an author trying new things. He ce..."

Yes! I meant novellas :D
Yeah, as you said, it was good but not great. And I checked a few reviews and seems like his fans of the full-length novels didn't find this collection that thrilling either, so that means that his novels might be better (I hope that they are, otherwise I'd be doomed as Fireman is a very lengthy book.)

Yes, some stories did feel like they were meant to be something else, but the author decided to change course mid-way. This is Hill's first venture into short stories (according to an interview, which also mentioned that he wanted to try different themes and forms in writing) so maybe his full-length novels are better than the short stories.
I do enjoy most of King's short stories, in fact, he is one of the best short story writers I've read so far.

I finished Aloft and so far it was my favourite. I liked it a lot, but somewhere around the middle of the story, I found myself drifting away from the story which resulted in a 3-4 day break I took from it without even feeling guilty. I don't know why, but I'm starting to think that maybe Hill's writing is not for me. Or maybe it's simply that I picked the wrong book as his first book for me.
I'm starting to get concerned because this was a very expensive book and I also bought Fireman at 3 times the original price (actually my husband bought it for me) so now I'm beginning to think that it was a huge mistake! I hope to hell that Fireman turns out to be better than this collection.
Anyway, I started with Rain and so far I'm liking it (just like I liked the other two stories) but I'm not sure if I'll end up hating it like Snapshot or might actually like it like Aloft. Or maybe abandon it like Loaded. I'm really not sure why this book is not appealing to me as much as I wanted it to :(

Dagny wrote: "I just received notice yesterday that I'm now first in line. Fingers crossed."

Yay... hope you'll enjoy the read.

2. One Night's Stay - 3/5

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

1. Souls of the Dark Sea - 3/5
It was a good read, dark (as promised), well-written, good storyline and didn't feel like it was a part of a series (as the blog tour promised) but I think I would have appreciated the characters in this book more had I read the previous book.

I've started with Aloft and it is such a breezy read! I'm enjoying it every bit so far (I'm only at the part where Aubrey has fallen on the cloud) and looking forward to knowing what exactly is the deal with the cloud.

Cheryl wrote: "Heena,

If you want to skip 'Loaded' please do so. It is very political and was written as a pro gun-control cautionary tale. Every character that has a gun in the story is racist, crazy, and over-..."

Sorry, this story was this way. I think I'll skip it, as you suggested. And I agree about Stephen King being forceful in trying to make a point about something (esp. if it is even slightly political) - a reason, I think, why I feel I prefer his earlier works to the more recent ones.