Every one's Choice discussion
Book Challenges
>
Aly's Book Challenge!!!!
message 101:
by
Aly
(last edited Jul 05, 2010 05:16PM)
(new)
Jul 05, 2010 05:15PM
34. Dead in the Family- the newest Sookie Stackhouse book. Where the others took me a matter of a couple of hours to read, this one took me a couple of weeks simply because the story line added nothing to the series and I couldn't get into it. A bunch of nothing happened, with more nothing happening, and when something finally does appear to be happening, it was over in a matter of paragraphs. This to me is where the series totally jumped the shark. If another one comes out, I don't know if I'll read it. Ten books into the series and I don't feel any sort of reward for reading it. The book lost steam (for me) when Alexei Romanov was introduced as the newest vampire in Sookie's life. All I could say was "WHAT?????" And not in a good way. If it wasn't on my Kindle, I probably would have thrown it against the wall.
reply
|
flag
I hate when a series loses steam like that. For me it was Anne Rice's vampire chronicles and I think the reason is that she lost her damn mind after her husband died. Her writing suffered after that.
Mod
It is a let down!! I mean, you invest so much time and energy into these books and characters that when an author just stops producing good work it's hard to feel the drive to continue on!Colleen, I haven't read any Anne Rice books yet (which is surprising because I LOVE vampire books!), but they are on my TBR. It's good to have a heads up that it falters after awhile!
Aly wrote: "It is a let down!! I mean, you invest so much time and energy into these books and characters that when an author just stops producing good work it's hard to feel the drive to continue on!Collee..."
I read all but the last of the Anne Rice Vamp books and loved them. The first few were the best of them to me though. Of course my Favorites of hers so far have been the Witch series she did. Right now I have the 2 books she wrote on the life of Jesus sitting on my to read pile...seems a big switch for her but I have heard they too are really well done.
Colleen wrote: "I didn't like Merrick and thought she started to go downhill after The Vampire Armand."The Vamp Armand was as far as I got in the series.
She did books on Jesus?? Weird LOL. I'm actually looking for an historical analysis on Jesus. I know that as far as actual historical facts go, there aren't many, but I'm just curious. Know any, Wen?
Colleen, you are so bad for my TBR list!! I have about a hundred dollars in books I want, and I'm blaming you for over half of them haha!!! I'm so glad I joined GR. Ya'll have introduced me to so many awesome books!
She did a series on Jesus! After her husband died of brain cancer the rest of her sanity went to pot and she found God again, essentially said all her wrtitings about vampires, witches and mummies was wrong/bad/sinful. Then she decided to write about Jesus as a child and make it into her new series. If you read the author interview at the end of "The Vampire Armand" you can really see where she is slowly losing her marbles...Aly, Wen is the right person to go to for those sort of books!
LOL, I will happily take that blame! I just can't stop myself from recommending a good book to any reader I know! Your kindle should take the other half of the blame though seeing as it makes it so darn easy to buy books :)
Aly wrote: "LOL yeah!!! HURRAY!! I'M A GRADUATE!!!!"Congratulations, Ally!
Some possibilities, Ally.1. The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus & the Truth of the Traditional Gospels by Luke Timothy Johnson
2. The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer
3.The Historical Jesus in Context by John Dominic Crossan
4.The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide by James H. Charlesworth
5.Jesus and His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory byScot McKnight
In fact, a good place to start: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hist...
Aly wrote: "She did books on Jesus?? Weird LOL. I'm actually looking for an historical analysis on Jesus. I know that as far as actual historical facts go, there aren't many, but I'm just curious. Know an..."
Yup she did. Colleen already answered that too. I dont know a great deal about her switch other than her becomng or renewing her Christian faith/values? She then decided to do a series the polar opposite from the types of books she previously wrote. I have 2 of the ones on Jesus. I still need to read them but are to be about his early years.
Historical facts on Jesus. I think there are definitely some big holes there. The books Irene listed look great. I have not read any of those and so my TO READ book list grows AGAIN.
With the biblical histories it can be tricky. There is the issue with translations being perhaps inaccurate to just the fact stories being passed down and down and down. (anyone ever played that ol Telphone game as a kid?) There is also the fact the everyone has a slightly differing oppinion on what did or did not happen and at what time even.
Thanks, Irene!!Wen, I know there are some huge holes!! I'm just really curious what is out there. The only things I know about Jesus I learned from Sunday school and church. I want to see him in a more academic light just because he is important to a couple of different religions, not just Christianity and that really fascinates me!
Aly wrote: "Thanks, Irene!!Wen, I know there are some huge holes!! I'm just really curious what is out there. The only things I know about Jesus I learned from Sunday school and church. I want to see him ..."
:D well unfortunately for All the biblical historicals I have read so far few have been about the life of Jesus and had not read many non fictions about him either as of yet. The links Irene gave look like great starting places.
35. Notorious Royal Marriages by Leslie Carroll. It wasn't too bad, a bit repetitive, but gave me a great insight on some of the royals I didn't know much about. Thanks for the book recommendations, Irene. I probably won't get to them this month, but hopefully soon. I just picked up Interview with a Vampire thanks to Colleen! I wish I would have read it before I read the Sookie Stackhouse books and the Twilight series. So far, it's better than either of them (although in the case of Twilight... not too hard to do LOL).
You are most welcome, Aly!Oh, meant to apologize for consistently misspelling your name...one "L!"
O its ok! It gets misspelled all the time. I don't notice anymore LOL.
36. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
You know I still have yet to read Deathly Hollows?
Colleen wrote: "You know I still have yet to read Deathly Hollows?"You have to do that soon Missy...
That was one of my favorite Harry Potters!! I started a book blog!! hurray!!! http://alythebookreader.blogspot.com/
I haven't written much because I just started it, but it seemed like a cool idea.
Colleen wrote: "I know! Do you still want to BR it?"Sure... I loved that book so much I would go home today and start reading it again. Are you good to start with that one or did you need to read a couple of the others leading up to it first?
I love your blog Aly!DH was one of my favorites too... I remember sitting outside reading it and sobbing. So good.
I'll buddy read it with ya too!! I haven't read it in a little while LOL.SO I'm a college student again LOL. I'm super close to a second degree (history, imagine that!) so I figured why not?
Thanks for saying you loved my blog Jennifer!!
37. Wolf Hall I never thought the day would come. This book was... intense. Very hard to get through, but definitely worth it.
Mod
Thank you!!! I went to see how many books I need for the semester and it's 25!! That's crazy!! If I actually manage to read all those books, my challenge will be finished!!
I wrote my review of Wolf Hall at alythebookreader.blogspot.com complete with quotes!!
Yes, congrats on finishing WH and going back to school!
Ah! I love your blog Aly and I love that you took the time to promote THL!
I love your photography blog too :)
Mod
Thank you all!!! And thanks for following me, Donna!! I'm glad you looked at my photo blog, Jennifer. It's the next best thing to an actual website which is slowly in the works! I'm almost halfway done with Confessions of Catherine de Medici. I cannot put that book down!! And it is such a nice refreshing read after WH!!!
38. Confessions of Catherine de Medici. I loved this book. It was such a great retreat after Wolf Hall!
I hope I get Confessions soon. Can't wait to read it.
I am enjoying it, but trying to finish a few others at the same time, lol.
I couldn't put it down! I snuck a couple peeks of it at work!! I'm about halfway finished with To Hold the Crown too. It's been REALLY REALLY slow at work lately.
I used to love when it was slow and I could just read.
Aly wrote: "I couldn't put it down! I snuck a couple peeks of it at work!! I'm about halfway finished with To Hold the Crown too. It's been REALLY REALLY slow at work lately."How are you liking it? I know you weren't sure about reading it...
I'm finding it ok. Parts of it are really tedious. There was a point where if Cecilia had mentioned marrying John one more time I was going to scream LOL.
LOL It is a bit repetetive... did you get to the part where lil' 2 or 3 year old Henry is talking like he's 40? That part irked me but didn't seem to bother others much. I liked it though... just didn't love it :)
I'm not quite there yet. Lil Henry just got baptized and he was "regarding the room with a certain air" LOL. He's only a couple of days old!!! He can't regard anyone yet haha!! I hope to have it finished by thursday.
Ah yes! I know right?? It gets better, haha.
39. Interview with the VampireI liked the beginning but the end just seemed to drag for me. took me awhile to just get through it
Aly wrote: "39. Interview with the VampireI liked the beginning but the end just seemed to drag for me. took me awhile to just get through it"
I really liked the first few of Rices Vamp books BUT my favs of hers were the ones she wrote about the witches The Witching HourHere is one of them. I also just finished reading the first one she wrote on the life of Jesus and I loved it. It is written from his point of view and starts when he is only 7 years old. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel
Glad you read Interview Aly, do you think you will read the rest of the series?
I've been meaning to get to these myself. I've wanted to read Interview for years now!
Every one's Choice
Books mentioned in this topic
The Concubine (other topics)Twilight (other topics)
The Concubine (other topics)
For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (other topics)
The Killer Angels (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Albert Schweitzer (other topics)James H. Charlesworth (other topics)
John Dominic Crossan (other topics)
Luke Timothy Johnson (other topics)
Scot McKnight (other topics)
