Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed*
K.Z. wrote: "Lori, I'm having a devil of a time finding blurbs and excerpts for these books."I bought all of them together without reading any excerpt or blurb because I trusted Josh's recommendation ;-). But I still have to read them. Too many books!
I just finished, Something Like Summer, and I loved it. Very good writing indeed and I loved how the story and the characters evolved. Some people do have issues with a couple of aspect, but I do not. For me it makes a story more realistic. I gave it 4 stars, but 4.5 is more like it. If the sex scenes would have been just a touch more involved, I would have given the full 5 stars.
Lou wrote: "A romance story told from both POVs has many rewards, but I like the limitations and challenges of a single POV. When you only have one narrator, you see the other protagonist from his eyes, and if..."A good point. :)
ED wrote: "I just finished, Something Like Summer, and I loved it. Very good writing indeed and I loved how the story and the characters evolved. Some people do have issues with a couple of aspect, but I do n..."Yeah, the sex scenes were a bit flowery. Romance in general, and m/m specifically, tends to be more graphic. But with the age of the guys at the start of the book, that didn't bother me much.
I really liked the first section, but the rest of the story was over the top angsty in a way that I associate with fanfic. I can enjoy it for what it is, but the difference between the teen romance and the adult drama made the whole thing feel a bit uneven.
I've got the second book in my TBR, and I'm curious to see how it goes. By the end of the first book I really didn't like Tim. So I want to see if the story told from his point of view changes my mind at all.
Becky wrote: "ED wrote: "I just finished, Something Like Summer, and I loved it. Very good writing indeed and I loved how the story and the characters evolved. Some people do have issues with a couple of aspect,..."I have started the second one, and yes.... it is good to read from Tim's POV, it put things into perspective.You are right, it might feel a bit like fanfic. But that is what I like about it. I have read my most favorite stories in the fanfic section. Some of them write better then some established authors.
Antonella wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "Lori, I'm having a devil of a time finding blurbs and excerpts for these books."I bought all of them together without reading any excerpt or blurb because I trusted Josh's recommenda..."
Are they availabe for Kindle? I coldn't find them.
ED wrote: "I just finished, Something Like Summer, and I loved it. Very good writing indeed and I loved how the story and the characters evolved. Some people do have issues with a couple of aspect, but I do n..."Thanks for telling about your impressions. I am among those who loved the writing as such and enjoyed two/thirds of the book immensely, but found the twist at the end too convenient and the last part too rushed. The story lost its intensity and the emotions that had me spellbound at first. The twist would have worked if Jay Bell had digged deeper into the main character's reactions, but then the book would have become much darker and probably harder to both write and to read, as it is now, I somehow felt he cheated me by taking an "easy" way out of the conflict he created, which felt very real.
On another note, his Kamikaze Boys is hilarious.
Aleksandr wrote: "It's a widely held belief that you have to like the characters, but I think that's nonsense. I mean, I wrote Vadim Krasnorada, and he's a racist, a rapist and a mass-murderer. And people care about..."I think liking a character is related to being able to understand him/her, to feel him/her, understand their path and their choices, be those right or wrong ones.
I for one have Vadim as one of my favorite characters ever, even knowing how he is and what he did. It's his complexity that attracts me, his many sides, his depth.
When I can't understand a character, I can't "connect" with him, it sort of remains too much on the surface for me to like it.
Johanna wrote: "Darkm wrote: "Antonella wrote: "What I've been reading during my holidays:
Jay Bell The Cat in the Cradle
Rose Christo Gives Light
Josh Lanyon I Spy Something Christmas
Tom Cardamone Green Thumb: A..."
Thank you for this post, I loved it.
While I liked Something like Summer, I had your same troubles with the book (spoiler included). It's why I was curious about Something like Winter, but I still haven't bought it.
Darkm - I agree. He absolutely grew on me the more I got to know him. :)I'm reading "Fragile Bond" by Rhi Etzweiler and it's for proofing, so not yet available.
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I also re-read The Dickens With Love. Am I allowed to say this just one more time: I absolutely love it. It's a perfect Christmas story — sweet, funny, romantic, delicious, hopeful. Perfect. :)
I finished Atom Heart John Beloved. I'm totally drained. I liked it so much, but strangely more in a sort of intellectual than emotional way. I was always on alert while reading it, so I can't say I lost myself in the book, but I was glued to it. Thanks to those who recommended it first.
Read Xylophone yesterday. Being the articulate person that I am, all I can say is, WOW. An amazing piece of writing. Fortunately Stuart reviewed it at Wave's today and he is wonderfully articulate. Not only did K.Z. get a great review (congrats K.Z.!), but it is well worth reading. You will get an overview of K.Z.'s accomplishment and see if the book is for you.
http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/201...
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I can't belie..."
No, that's true too. Very much so. It would sorta ruin the mystery that is Jake. You're making me want to reread the entire series asap. lol. I read into a few things too, but I know I'd catch more the second time around. I always do.
Maybe it's just that I like Jake a lot and just want more Jake no matter how I can get him.
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I just read Manu's review on Atom Heart John Beloved and I want to recommend it (the review)!!! :)
Reggie wrote: "Read Xylophone yesterday. Being the articulate person that I am, all I can say is, WOW. An amazing piece of writing. Fortunately Stuart reviewed it at Wave's today and he is wonderfully articula..."
Congrats, KZ! That's a great review. :)
Johanna wrote: "Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "I finished Atom Heart John Beloved. I'm totally drained. I liked it so much, but strangely more in a sort of intellectual than emotional way. I was always on alert w..."I agree, a very well written review, and it catches my feelings about the book so accurately. And this ties into the discussion recently, what makes us like or dislike a character in a book so we continue to read. John in the story is not likeable, at least not in the beginning, but he captured my mind and heart and wouldn't let go.
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So true. *nod nod*
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Fortunately Stuart reviewed it at Wave's today and he is wonderfully articula..."
Thank you for sharing the link to the review at Wave's, Reggie. And Congrats, K.Z.! Xylophone is definitely a book I want to read.
I read Xylophone shortly after it came out and loved it. The reviews were spot on in my feelings about it, too.
I re-listened Fatal Shadows yesterday. Again! And in one sitting, too. I took my phone with me everywhere I went so I wouldn't have to stop. Chris Patton's Jake is... yummy. ;)
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LOL! :) :) :) Yes, yummy is the word for describing "his" Jake. His Jake also sounds appropriately mysterious and stern. I'm really looking forward to the next audio books in the series. Before they are released, I will be re-listening this too... ;)
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This is an ongoing puzzlement to me -- many of you have heard me comment on it. I think it speaks to our natural negative inclination as humans to knock other people down a point.
Not picking on you, ED, by the way. It's actually kind of funny to me. You see it EVERYWHERE all the time.
Reviewers inevitably round DOWN. What is that about? You think the book, film, razor, cookie is actually a 4.5 but you give it a 4. Now why? Why not give it a 5? Why not be kind and generous in thought and spirit and encourage rather than ding?
But no. The human instinct is to ding. To round down.
It's almost universal. What does that say about us?
Josh wrote: "Reviewers inevitably round DOWN. What is that about? You think the book is actually a 4.5 but you give it a 4. Now why? Why not give it a 5? Why not be kind and generous in thought and spirit and encourage rather than ding?"For me it depends. Sometimes I round up, if I want to be encouraging, or if the overall feeling was good, or if there was something just speshul about the story. Sometimes I round down, if that last impression was a bit negative, or I was expecting the author not to follow certain tropes. I think it says that I'm moody. And why are half stars not allowed? I need them :)
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Not liking Tim might not be an issue (or then again, it might!) so much as how interesting will the story be from Tim's POV? Meaning how interesting is his life behind the scenes? But also...how interesting will the original POV narrator be as seen through Tim's eyes?
It's very difficult to cover that same ground again unless you really have somethign new and riveting to bring to the equation.
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Yes! He is! ;-D
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That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)
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Yes. I think having a short story or something through Jake's POV would be entertaining. More than that...I think it would be liable to be kind of a downer.
Johanna wrote: "Josh wrote: "What does that say about us?"That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)"
0.75? ;p
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That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)"
0.75? ;p"
Sure, why not. ;)
Johanna wrote: "Reggie wrote: "Johanna wrote: "Josh wrote: "What does that say about us?"That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)"
0.75? ;p"
Sure, why not. ;)"
If we get halves, we might as well ask for quarters :)
Reggie wrote: "Read Xylophone yesterday. Being the articulate person that I am, all I can say is, WOW. An amazing piece of writing. Fortunately Stuart reviewed it at Wave's today and he is wonderfully articula..."
Thanks for the shout-out, Reggie. (And thank you, too, Cleon.) I was afraid readers would assume this book was either exploitative or a big fat downer. I tried hard not to make it either, but you never know about people's perceptions. :)
Reggie wrote: "Johanna wrote: "Josh wrote: "What does that say about us?"That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)"
0.75? ;p"
I tried that for a while. When I felt like rounding down I would give 4.25*, otherwise 4.75*, to make it mathematically correct. What a hassle... Gave it up a few weeks later when I found myself debating if 4.4* wasn't more acurate. Now, I'm back to giving 4.5* and rounding like Manu described. :)
The other thing is that most of the time I don't recognize it as rounding down. More like, if they make me choose between 4 and 5 it would be a 4, but I liked it good enough to add bit to this. So it ends up being 4.5*
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That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)"
:-D
Lou wrote: "Josh wrote: "Reviewers inevitably round DOWN."I noticed that. There are a few exceptions, however."
True on both counts. I have a theory about that, but it isn't worth getting into. :-P
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That we should also have the half-stars on GR, Amazon, etc? ;)"
0.75? ;p"
I tried that for a while. When I felt like rou..."
Yes, I've no doubt that there's a lot of leeway in those invisible points. :-)
But I do think humans are prone to feel they need to make sure the other humans don't get too full of themselves. I think our instinct is to knock rather than build.
Or maybe I'm projecting here? But no, I think it's a legitimate observation.
Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "If we get halves, we might as well ask for quarters :) ..."Arrgh. Ratings. That Goodreads defined their ratings by the impression of readers appeals to me. Five is "it was amazing", one was "didn't like it". So it wasn't really so much like grading an essay and more an opportunity to keep track of stuff that I really enjoyed and why. Giving a book one or two stars didn't mean it was bad, just that it wasn't to my taste. When these get turned into averages, though, it seems we're back to giving A- and B+ grades.
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Arrgh. Ratings. That Goodreads defined their ratings by the impression of readers appeals to me. Five ..."
Interesting. True. It always seems to come back to the same lame 5 point system, doesn't it?
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Or maybe I'm projecting here? But no, I think it's a legitimate observation."
Sadly, I think you are right. I'd like you to be wrong though... (only in this case, not all the time... jeez... talking about negative thoughts...LOL).
Jordan wrote: "Maybe it's just that I like Jake a lot and just want more Jake no matter how I can get him."Can't argue with this. ;)
K.Z. wrote: "Lori, I'm having a devil of a time finding blurbs and excerpts for these books."I stumbled over them on my library website when hunting for new books to read and picked one up out of curiosity with nothing more than what was on the back of How Town - the first book I read. I still need to read A Little Death and will start reading The Death of Friends soon. That's more to do with how I got hold of the books than any reluctance to read about Henry's boyfriend (though I'm not looking forward to that).
Ami: "Oh, I have only read up to book #5. My heart breaks for Rios and I haven't been able to continue after that. I still have book #6 and #7. Maybe I should make that my mission this year."
Good books and there's a nice pay off for both Rios and the readers, esp. in book 7.
Anne wrote: "Are they availabe for Kindle? I coldn't find them."As far as I can tell, you can only get Nava's books in hard copy format at the moment.
Josh wrote: "But no. The human instinct is to ding. To round down. It's almost universal. What does that say about us?
"
I have noticed this tendency in myself when talking with friends about books, movies, weather, whatever. It always seems to be so much easier to criticize something than to compliment it---simply in word choices, phrasing, what to say, etc. Perhaps that's simply because I've had more practice bitching about things? ;-) I've been trying to change this tendency and to say at least one nice thing for every complaint--that is if I actually liked something pretty well.
I feel I'm better about that when writing reviews or criticism. I think it's the teacher in me, to say plenty of positive things so that the one or two criticisms might go down easier. And as I've grown wiser, I remember my grandma's saying, "If you can't say something nice, then why bother saying anything at all."
Josh wrote: But I do think humans are prone to feel they need to make sure the other humans don't get too full of themselves. I think our instinct is to knock rather than build.
Or maybe I'm projecting here? But no, I think it's a legitimate observation. ..."
The trouble with being nice to authors and only rating books that I've enjoyed with five stars (rather than in some cases a more realistic four or three stars) is that you look rather gushing and undiscriminating. If I've not got on with a book I tend not to review it in public at all.
Blooming heck I've just looked my bookshelves and I even appear to have given 5 stars to a work in Maltese... goes off to investigate.
Josh wrote: "Interesting. True. It always seems to come back to the same lame 5 point system, doesn't it? .."I HATE the 5 point rating system! I really don't like to rate or grade a book at all, really. I also don't like to review. I have a hard time to articulate my thoughts on a book before I start the next one, and even less time to do so.
So my reviews tend to be short or non-existent.
Marge wrote: "Josh wrote: "But no. The human instinct is to ding. To round down. It's almost universal. What does that say about us?
"
I have noticed this tendency in myself when talking with friends about ..."
I find it difficult to criticize. I prefer to state what I liked or disliked. I think books are no different to paintings or music. We all have varied tastes. I can deal with the 5 star system, but seven would make it easier to categorize.
Lou wrote: "Lori wrote: "Anne wrote: "Are they availabe for Kindle? I coldn't find them."As far as I can tell, you can only get Nava's books in hard copy format at the moment."
You might find them in a used..."
That is not very likely in Oslo I am afraid, ;) maybe I should order one from Amazon UK just to test.
Anne wrote: "That is not very likely in Oslo I am afraid, ;) maybe I should order one from Amazon UK just to test."I had bought all of them new, only the last one used from amazon.
But now I checked when: June 2009! Amazing how time goes by ;-).
So I don't know about the situation at the moment. Here I see that all of the books have also other covers than mine, I suppose older editions, but there is nothing about buying them: http://michaelnavawriter.com
Anne wrote: "hat is not very likely in Oslo I am afraid, ;) maybe I should order one from Amazon UK just to test."You might also try: abebooks: Michael Nava books
or
The Book Depository has free shipping everywhere! :0D
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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Oh, I have only read up to book #5. My heart breaks for Rios and I haven't been able to continue after that. I still have book #6 and #7. Maybe I should make that my mission this year.
At the moment, I'm currently reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson for buddy-read (as part of my book/reading resolution for 2013, do more buddy-reads!)