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message 5201:
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Lexie
(last edited Jun 04, 2013 06:18AM)
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Jun 04, 2013 06:17AM
Just finished Natural Causes by James Oswald, cracking read on the lines of Stuart McBride in Edinburgh with supernatural theme. Just started (oh, I know, I'm still reading The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. That's months now.)
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Mago (Mark) wrote: "Started Wild Thing gave up after 3 long-winded, self-indulgent chapters.Back on the Odd Thomas roll with
for some light relief."I'm still on Brother Odd, although about 70% in. I'm remembering it more thsn Forever Odd, which is frankly odd
I've finished Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer - Derek Landy. Now I am gonna read Bloodlines - Richelle Mead.
I recently finished Blood Betrayal. Good story, fantasy world so close to our own, with racial tensions. Also Matt Langford's The Watchman. Five star review for this. Wow!
Now reading Myrddin's War. Nearly finished and it's another cracker!
Just finished Michael Brookes' excellent short story collection An Odd Quartethttp://www.jhillwriter.com/2013/06/re...
Back from hols and finished Raven Black which was ok, Autumn Killing which I didn't really like tho' I'd enjoyed the others in the series, and The Chessmen which again was disappointing as I'd enjoyed the others. Now half way through Blue Lightning, which is ok so far.
From my TBR jar I've picked out Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express which I have owned since December 2011. Ouch. It seems like a middle-grade book at the minute, maybe verging onto YA? It's okay so far.
Just finished Myrddin's War by BJ Burton. What a stonkingly powerful story! Stand by for review!Edit - here it is http://ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk/201...
I've decided not to start a new book just yet - I'm going for a re-read. And it's not Andy Barrett or Cornelius Harker! There!
Just started The Mermaids Singing. I feel like a little bit of grit to go with my Odd Thomas light-relief.
This book has the most annoying characters in history. You aren't actually meant to like some of them but there is two kinds of dislikable characters I find. The ones you love to hate and the ones you just want to go away. Unfortunately they are all falling in to the second. I fear in going to give up before I even hit ten percent in /:
It's also went from okay to boring. Am I judging it too quick? For some, probably, but I know what I like and it's not this.
Just give up Elle, life's too short! You can always pick it up and try again at a later date
I did give up. I couldn't stand to read another line of those another characters. Her descriptions were also confusing and what others say is a 'great face pace' I call overly face and too jam packed with crap.Apparently it's a middle-grade steampunk. I didn't get to the weird bit of it but lord, I don't want too.
Life indeed is too short, so I'm now reading Great Gatsby. I figured since I was subjected to the movie I would finally read it
I just realised that other book was free. It's deleted now! So glad I didn't pay for it!!
Finished reading Blue Lightning in the sunshine this afternoon - a traditional whodunnit, but it didn't grab me as much as the first book in the series. Now starting Blackened Cottage which sounds like it might be a bit too scary for me!
Welcome back Karen!You've been missed.
Last night I listened to Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen which I throughly enjoyed, made me laugh at all sorts of bits in the audio. I've since gone on to read The Mirror of the Soul - J. Lloyd Morgan which is different to what I normally read. Quite good so far.
Just finished A HEALTHY FEAR OF MAN:A Healthy Fear Of Man is the second in a series of Paul Little books. I must confess to have skipped the first, but that puts me in the position of being able to highly recommend this book whether you read ‘The Science Of Paul’ or not. This book has very strong legs and can definitely stand alone.
PAUL LITTLE has inherited his grandfather’s house and land and is living in it as a total outcast. When visitors arrive, he does his best to shun them no matter what their intentions. There’s a little girl (GILLY) who want to fish in his pond, there’s a young African lady (LUISA) who wants to give him free meals from the church and there’s an old-timer and ex-sheriff (BO). He does his best to keep them away, but for various reasons they refuse to listen.
The good news for Paul is that he’s finally coming close to finding peace in his life, even if that means barely surviving from what he can eat from the land and has lost any real need to keep his personal hygiene routines up to scratch. The bad news is that Gilly is found dead in his pond one morning and he’s the main suspect, predominantly because he’s black and living in a backward county in North Carolina.
Bo, indebted to Paul’s grandfather for saving his life way back, joins Paul in his attempt to clear his name and Louisa has a big heart that means she can’t help but join the team.
What follows is a series of brutal encounters as corrupt politicians, vengeful brothers, loose policemen and wild drug dealers are all sucked into the action as Paul stirs up the muddy waters.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s thought provoking and gripping at the same time.
Aaron Clark can really handle plot and back up his ideas with well-written action sequences. As the novel plays out, he keeps a steady hand and right through to the end.
What I found particularly impressive, though, was the opening third of the book where things are set up. It’s a wonderful beginning, where Paul Little has cut himself off from the world to find an uneasy peace. He’s become a scavenger, but his life experience has prepared him well for the hardships he encounters. He stays away from people, for it is people who add complication to life. Relationships are tough, so in keeping people away, he’s safer and life is easier. And being alone is safe; by avoiding others he is able to keep his darker self under wraps:
‘I once had a beast inside me, one whose nature at times even eluded me, but since being on the land it appears the beast has been beaten into submission and these days it is still.’
Paul has a fear that when he gets close to people, what he has is contagious:
‘People around me...they catch hell – they catch it like a sickness.’
Unfortunately for Paul, he’s all too human. Isolation isn’t going to work because people aren’t going to leave him alone. This means he forms attachments to people and develops feelings for them in spite of his intentions. As soon as these feelings take root, he is returned to the complications of social existence With these building relationships come responsibilities, so when Paul tries to find out who killed Gilly, he is eventually more motivated by finding the murderer for her rather for the sake of his freedom.
Paul Little has a very positive view of human life, even though on the surface it may seem bleak. We’re all capable of making rash decisions or of acting entirely by animal impulse. Eventually, some people are going to end up getting caught when they’ve lost it:
‘For some, all it takes is one bad day, one bad decision – a crime of passion is what the cops call it, others call it temporary insanity – I call it human nature.’
A Healthy Fear Of Man is a serious book that’s a hell of a lot of fun to read.
I may be reaching here, but I was reminded of Ralph Ellison and his ‘Invisible Man’ in the early stages. Clark may have even offered a tiny reference point here as Paul Little talks about advice his grandfather gave him about being a black man:
‘You’ve got to keep invisible, boy. Stay out of the law’s view. They can’t kill what they can’t see.’
If Paul Little is being invisible, can he still have an impact upon a society where justice is multi-faceted, the law is corrupt, where people are struggling to get by and where racism is prevalent?
The biggest message in the book, the way I see it, is to all of us.
Should we go about congratulating ourselves on the progress the world has made over the years? Has racism been put to bed so that the world lives together as one happy family? In nations where laws are set and seem equal on the surface, is this equality carried through in all pockets of that nation?
Of course not. We need to be vigilant, active and avoid complacency. Take me, for example. I write about a black author and cite Ellison - is that something I need to check myself for (I still think that cap fits, though, and maybe you could let me know).
The book points a finger at the Southern States of the US and challenges them to find out whether the New South with all of the rosy connotations, isn’t just the Old South with a flaking coat of paint.
Which is where I find myself going out of my depth.
It’s a great book. One to be enjoyed and to be considered. Very good indeed.
A Healthy Fear of Man
Um... I just finished Cards on the Table, I like it and I started The Third Rule - Part One: AtrocitiesFeel very inadequate after Nigel's post...
Sorry DD, I probably put in way too much, but I didn't want to start a thread so put my review in here. I hope that's OK with everyone. And it's good to just have a quick tip, so thanks.
Patti (Ogre for Hire) wrote: "Welcome back Karen!You've been missed."
aw, missed you all too - but hope I've talked a few others in our hols group into joining GR!
Now finished Blackened Cottage which I almost gave up on, but glad I persevered. Holiday over.
Going to indulge myself now and make a start on Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies
Finished Brother Odd, now starting Odd Hours
I've just finished Asylum, which is a good collection of horror tales. I'm now onto The Spirit of A Witch, which isn't my usual type of read, but I work with Sarah, so I'm curious to see what she's written :-)
My Father-in-law gave me back my Cadfael books (I've got all seven Omnibuses (or whatever the plural is) and am tempted to reread the lot :-)
Yay, I love Cadfael. Think I read most of them as library books so I don't have any copies to re-read now.
Mine have been well loved, I've read them, my late father read them, my father-in-law has read them, two daughters have read them and a friend of mine used to wait for me to buy them and she then borrowed them ;-)And I think oldest daughter lent them to her boyfriend at the time's parents as well.
Never read Caedfal.I finished Brother Odd yesterday,and between a hairdresser app and nice weather, I've read 37% of Odd Hours, another nice day and I'll have nearly finished.
Brother Cadfael - Ellis Peters. Mediaeval monk detective. Excellent stories. I thought you'd have Googled it!
Father of the whole mediaeval monastic crime genre, I think - or should that be mother? Depends on whether you're talking about Ellis Peters or Cadfael, I suppose. But then Cadfael ought not to be a father, being a monk - or do I remember that in fact he was?Sorry, been on a three day conference and brain has now given up entirely.
You remember right, he was a father without being ordained :-)I'd say the first and best of the genre, mainly due to the characturisation, Cadfael is such a great character. ALso being a monk means that he works with advantages and disadvantages. It's also nice that the hero isn't a great swordsman ;-)
Ignite wrote: "Brother Cadfael - Ellis Peters. Mediaeval monk detective. Excellent stories. I thought you'd have Googled it!"I was on the iPod so I didn't want to exit the app or I would off :)
I have all the books and love them dearly. I have even been to Shrewsbury and seen the Abbey and the Castle!
Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "I have all the books and love them dearly. I have even been to Shrewsbury and seen the Abbey and the Castle!"I have most of the books, one I borrowed from the library though. I haven't been to Shrewsbury yet (only passed through on the train) but I have a standing invitation to my brother's in-laws who live nearby so I could go any time. I enjoyed the TV series until they started changing the characters and making up their own stories - and Derek Jacobi was just too posh for my idea of Cadfael.
Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "I have all the books and love them dearly. I have even been to Shrewsbury and seen the Abbey and the Castle!"I once had to navigate through Shrewsbury with the only guide my memory of the map in the front of the books :-)
I've listened to New Moon - Stephenie Meyer today which isn't anything like the film lol. But still love the story.
I finished The Third Rule - Part One: Atrocities on the way to work this morning and have now started The Third Rule - Part Two: Running Scared
Jim wrote: "Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "I have all the books and love them dearly. I have even been to Shrewsbury and seen the Abbey and the Castle!"I once had to navigate through Shrewsbury with the..."
Interesting, now we have a one-way system and a road that cuts through the abbey grounds!
Just finished Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. Mind-bogglingly complex. How does she do it?!Still on the weird and wonderful The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
Never got on with the Eyre Affair. A lot of people I like and whose opinion I generally respect and agree with think he's wonderful. I can never be doing with his books at all.Must be me!
Over the last few months I haven't stopped hearing about Jasper Fforde. I don't really think I'd love them but I'm intrigued.
Ignite wrote: "Never got on with the Eyre Affair. A lot of people I like and whose opinion I generally respect and agree with think he's wonderful. I can never be doing with his books at all.Must be me!"
I'm always wary of books described as 'weird and wonderful'
Despite my general loathing of Dickens, Bronte et al, I do rather like Fforde's style. It was mostly because of him and his 'Thursday Next' books that some of my characters have lives outside the book, their own Facebook & Twitter accounts and so on... :)His discourse on "the had had and that that problem" in The Well of Lost Plots is utterly brilliant. (look it up under "quotes that tim likes" on my author page) :-D
So, Tim, you must be one of the people I like and respect and disagree with! x
See Tim I like none of the stuff it's based on either. I must try it then if you don't need like those classics~
Just finished Odd Hours, preferred it to Brother Odd but not my favourite. What did you think Mago? Going to read Odd Apocolypse next
Just finished Game of Thrones book 4.Will be starting book 5 tomorrow morning!
I'm still only 3% through The Eyre Affair (I wandered onto The Vatican Cellars by André Gide). But it *is* making me smile a lot so far.
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