GARMENT OF SHADOWS ARC - Lending Lineup!!

[Sabrina]

Sarah wrote: "Hi Sabrina,

How about adding your ARC to the pass around once you've finished it?

Sarah K"

I could definitely do that if the ARC finds its way back to me. As long as its allowed anyway, because I don't want trifocal wearing publishing thugs storming through my door and beating me over the head with heavy books.

And GARM was awesome! Easily one of my top three favorite Russell books now!

[Erin]

Sabrina wrote: "Squeeee! Take me off the list. I didn't get an Email saying I won, but I just received an ARC for GARM from Goodreads giveaway!"

Awesome! Quick read, it looks like ;-)

[Erin]

Just to make it a little easier to figure out who's next up for the book, here's the current queue:

Farmwifetwo
Sabrina
Caryn
Linda
Katie
Amy (UK)
Sonja
Claire
Kerry
Jessica C.
Sarah K.
Jen
PatK
Phili (EU)
Gina

Let me know if I've missed anyone!

[Sabrina]

Erin wrote: "Just to make it a little easier to figure out who's next up for the book, here's the current queue:"

You can remove my name from the queue.

[Gina]

Please add me too. Thanks

[Annah]

Hey Y'all! I was one of the lucky winners of an ARC - just finished reading it this morning. After my mom reads it (mom comes first), I am happy to send it out to others - just let me know how it gets done, and I'll do it. Give me about a week.

It was a great read, btw.

[Erin]

Annah wrote: "Hey Y'all! I was one of the lucky winners of an ARC - just finished reading it this morning. After my mom reads it (mom comes first), I am happy to send it out to others - just let me know how it g..."

Awesome, Annah! Thanks for being willing to share! =) We've basically just been messaging whoever is next on the list to get a mailing address and passing it along that way. If you maybe want to start at the bottom of the list I've got posted a few messages up (message 56), that would work well! Thanks again!!

[Jessica C.]

There is going to be a Facebook giveaway for ARCs starting June 1. If you follow Laurie there, she mentioned something about it a couple days ago.

[Annah]

Erin, that's just great. As soon as I get it back from Mom, I'll pick the next one on the list and mail it off.

Annah

[KarenB]

It's currently on its way to Farmwife. I really enjoyed it. It's more reminiscent of the earlier Russell & Holmes books than the last few.

[Annah]

Okay, I got my copy of Garment of Shadows back from Mom. It looks like Caryn is next on the list, is this right?

Caryn, if you'll email me your address, I'll ship it off to you this week.

Annah

[Steve]

I'd actually be interested in reading this but given how critical I've been of Laurie's last few book I'm not sure it would be right to ask.

God I so want Laurie back in top form again!

[KarenB]

Steve - I found it to be much more like The Game of Oh Jerusalem than Lang. of Bees or God of the Hive. So if that's what you're hoping for, you are in luck.

[Steve]

That is good news! And if I can't read it as an ARC perhaps I can when it's published.

[Jen LD]

I just want my share of Sherlock! I missed him so much in the last 3 books. Their interaction was always so much fun!
Jen

[Steve]

That is a bit disappointing to hear. Let's hope it picks back up again.

Not to rehash old annoyances, but my biggest problem with both LANG and GOTH was that our stalwart heroes seemed more like observers or victims than protagonists. I can get that in any Micheal Crichton novel.

I also didn't care for the Deus Ex Machina Mycroftia there any more than I do in medieval plays either.

[Sabrina]

Steve wrote: That is good news! And if I can't read it as an ARC perhaps I can when it's published.

I thought GARM was very exciting and recaptured the magic of the first. My sister-in-law just finished it and thought it was the best one yet and my mom can't put it down.

[Jen LD]

Wow, that's high praise! This is going to be fun!
Jew

[Jen LD]

I like to see both characters fully engaged in what ever is happening. I just recommended "BEEK" to a friend this morning remembering those hilarious dogs that obeyed Mary! And the crook falling down the stairs and so many other details of that book. It just seems alive to me, even now. Little Jessica riding home on Mary's back, the horrible letdown afterwards. That was the first time I might have even the littlest idea of why a person would need cocaine...I was transported, taken out of my own world. I still hope for that!
Jen

[Sabrina]

farmwifetwo wrote: "http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/ Once upon a time Jen Crusie and Bob Mayer had a "how to write a book" workshop online... and they deleted it!!!! UGH!!! I followed it for a little while... not ..."

Aren't you missing the chance for a story to pull you in when you only read dialogue and skip most of the description? I mean part of what makes a good writer for me is someone who paints a picture with words and sets a mood. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but I would rather read something like:

The Fog was notoriously thick, like a heavy moth-eaten veil one might find in their grandmother's attic, smelling of mould and rotten eggs, only this veil crept along your skin, down your throat, and settled into your lungs.

As opposed to:

It was foggy.

[Pat]

Sabrina wrote: The Fog was notoriously thick, like a heavy moth-eaten veil one might find in their grandmother's attic, smelling of mould and rotten eggs, only this veil crept along your skin, down your throat, and settled into your lungs."

Hmmmmm...where prose coalesces into poetry. Love that. The genius of "Gotham" is that you get action embedded in this kind of quality dsecriptive prose... the story carries you alonhg while you smell, taste, feel and see everything around you...you become embedded in it.

A good reader and a good writer together create a virtual reality.

[Jen LD]

One of my favorite books is "Brideshead Revisted." I think that must be one of the most lush, vivid things I have ever read. And I don't quite remember the dialogue as well as I remember feeling like I was there. I must have read that book one afternoon for two hours straight and when I stopped, it was as if I had come back to the mundane, slightly faded, real world. And I can understand how such a book might have just driven Sheri nuts! I marvel at language that it can work with such different kinds of brains, working in their different ways, and still move them, change their lives.
Jen

[Sabrina]

PatK wrote: A good reader and a good writer together create a virtual reality.

Love this, Pat. It's so true. It's like having a conversation. If one party isn't attentive than it's truly a dull conversation.

[Sabrina]

farmwifetwo wrote: "The dialogue and the action never stops even climbing over mountains, crawling through caves and rescuing a dragoness so her brother helps them finally slaughter the bad guys (GA Aiken). But the place is there, but it's explained more through dialogue and movement than "it was really creapy foggy"... instead the characters describe where they are, what they see and what they think about it. Active, not passive...."

I tried reading some of Dragon Actually because I saw you had given it 5 stars, and it just wasn't for me at all. It was like looking at a painting with three straight lines of color as opposed to the Mona Lisa (that sneaky painting). I found the first page painful.

I like well written, witty dialogue, but I also like the quiet moments in movies, listening to my grandma tell me about the good ol days, or sitting beside a river to feel its power vibrate through my bones. But different strokes for different folks. Diversity makes the world a rich and colorful place.

Part of the draw of books for me is experiencing the world through someone else's mind. So it's definitely interesting to talk about different reading tastes. LOL, one of my friend's moms used to read all of her books backwards. She'd start at the back of the book and read chapter by chapter. So odd, but hey, she enjoyed them!

[Erin]

I'm with you, Sheri. I have a really hard time sticking with a book that isn't character driven. I get bored with the poetic language....unless it's the character speaking. I think this is why I love first person narrative; the exact same thing could be written, but the minute it's written in first person, you get the feeling that you're stepping into that person's experience and impression of the world. Having some omniscient narrator tell me what the world is like, even in vivid prose, and then having the characters run around in that world never really grabs me the same way as having the main character themself tell me what they're seeing or feeling. And when you think about those same vivid prose coming from the mind of the character instead of that omniscient narrator, the prose themselves start to tell you about the character as well. How people say things tells you something about them. A character who explains his surroundings in flowery descriptive language is a totally different person than the character who gives gruff, short descriptions.

[Sabrina]

farmwifetwo wrote: If you've never read paranormal/fantasy before, I would never start you there. I read a lot of books and like a variety of writing styles. I find most people don't - most rarely wander out of their favourite genres - and never recommend anything until I know exactly what style you like to read. "

Well, I read the first few pages on Kindle because I like the Fantasy genre a lot, but the style just wasn't for me. I like character driven novels too, but like Jen was saying, I want a book to be rich and vivid.

Have you ever tried to explain a color to a blind person who has never seen color? I have a friend who I regularly do this with. You can't just say, "The coat is yellow." She wants to understand it, and so you have to explain that this yellow is warm like the sun on your skin. Or another kind of yellow is the same as when your mom yells at you to "Stop!" That's how I like my books to be. I want to be pulled in and immersed in the words.

[Sabrina]

farmwifetwo wrote: "Sabrina, you need to add more books to your goodreads page. I did the compare function and I can't tell what you've read. What are some of your favourite Fantasy authors.... I'm extremely fussy abo..."

Yeah, I haven't been on Goodreads very long, so I am just starting to enter the books I've read. But my favorite Fantasy author is probably Tad Williams. He wrote the Memory Sorrow and Thorn series, as well as Otherland and most recently Shadowmarch His worlds are very complex and he takes his time unfolding a story, but the endings are always great. The only stand alone I've read of his was the War of the Flowers, and it was good. But it doesn't sound like you'd care for his style at all.

Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule was good, but the later books became odd. I liked the first five books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, but some of the descriptions were even a bit too much for me and then the books got way to complicated to the point where the author forgot where he was, lol, there's like 12 books and I'm not sure it was ever ended, because the author died before he could finish them.

I liked the early books of Terry Brooks Sword of Shannara series.

There's the Forgotten realms: The dark elf Trilogy.

I enjoyed the Dune series, but I suppose those are more Scifi.

[Regan]

Sabrina wrote: "I tried reading some of Dragon Actually because I saw you had given it 5 stars, and it just wasn't for me at all. It was like looking at a painting with three straight lines of color as opposed to the Mona Lisa (that sneaky painting). I found the first page painful."

Out of curiosity, I had a look just now at the first couple of pages through Google preview, and I find I agree with Sabrina. Actually, "painful" seems polite. And it's not because it's Fantasy, I just thought the writing was terrible. Stereotypical, pulp/genre fiction.

But at the other extreme psychological novels with minimal plot also make me crazy. Great House got lots of acclaim, but I had nothing but criticism for Krauss' disorganized and uninteresting work. Part of my review:

Krauss has some nice moments with language and she's clearly a talented wordsmith, but this book was all psychology and no novel. Lots of yammering on about what the characters are thinking and feeling, but there was no real plot to drive things along. Although she tries to link the four stories/sketches together in the end, it seems like almost an afterthought so she could jam all of them together and call it a novel. Meh.

[Jen LD]

Just listening to all the comments about various books, most of which I have never heard of, it seems that somehow people aren't getting edited or there is a much wider scope for writing than I ever perceived before. I can't help wondering where the really great books are, the new ones. It seems we are niched to death! The so-called genres are endless! Where did all the money to publish all these things come from? Doesn't seem to be any winnowing! I know it can be terrible to be an unrecognized good writer but we seem to unduly recognizing a goodly number of mediocre writers!
Jen

[Pat]

Jen wrote: "Just listening to all the comments about various books, most of which I have never heard of, it seems that somehow people aren't getting edited or there is a much wider scope for writing than I eve..."

AMEN! Where's the editing? and where are the good books? why all the mediocrity?

I joined Goodreads for help finding them...and was I disappointed (no, appalled is more accurate!) when "Divergent" was rated top book of 2011! Gave me second thoughts about continuing the relationship till I found this group...like minds, like tastes.

Some of the problem may be the audience addressed by the publishers...in particular, adolescents...the Divergent and Twilight sagas were/are big money makers. While I will be the first to admit I enjoyed the Harry Potter books...my favorite was actually her first and subsequent books filled with teenage angst, not so much.

[Sabrina]

PatK wrote: I joined Goodreads for help finding them...and was I disappointed (no, appalled is more accurate!) when "Divergent" was rated top book of 2011! Gave me second thoughts about continuing the relationship till I found this group...like minds, like tastes.

I do the Picard facepalm every time I pass Fifty Shades of Grey in Target, and see the whole series taking up the top 3 spots on best selling lists. I guess I should be happy people are reading...even if it's porn sold in Target?

Which brings me to a genre question. I thought Erotica was gratuitous sex scenes, but after looking into it a bit more and reading the first chapters of some of the books on Amazon, I'm thinking Erotica is S&M type stuff, as opposed to steamy Romance novels with throbbing members? I was trying to broaden my horizons and sample different books that are considered to be well written examples of its genre, and uhm... yeah. Anne Rice's Taming of Sleeping Beauty is not for me.

Sheri, Thanks for the book recommendations. His Majesty's Dragon sounds pretty cool.

[Pat]

As roman-cy as I can tolerate is "A Discovery of Witches" which I guess I could categorize as an indulgence read...but it was well written, by an author who wrote her thesis on the topic of alchemy and the emergence of science (sound familiar you "Quicksilver" geeks?) good characters, and lots of action...I still can't believe I read a book with vampires--and enjoyed it--who me?

[Pat]

Sabrina wrote: "I do the Picard facepalm every time I pass Fifty Shades of Grey in Target, and see the whole series taking up the top 3 spots on best selling lists. I guess I should be happy people are reading...even if it's porn sold in Target? ..."

"Literate" only applies to the ability to read, not which organ of the body is engaged in the process. :o(

[Sabrina]

PatK wrote: "Literate" only applies to the ability to read, not which organ of the body is engaged in the process. :o(

*Snorts*

[Jen LD]

Sad fad but then I'm told there is equally pornographic stuff everywhere. I imagine the porn folks were just as fussed when Harry Potter had all the top spots!
Jen

[Sabrina]

Jen wrote: "Sad fad but then I'm told there is equally pornographic stuff everywhere. I imagine the porn folks were just as fussed when Harry Potter had all the top spots!
Jen"

LOL, so true, Jen.

[Sabrina]

farmwifetwo wrote: "Oh Sabrina, don't read what is "suppose" to be representative of a genre. I have on my goodreads list a group of woman who give honest opinions - not fans - and who's tastes are close to mine. Then..."

Well, I think it was you who mentioned in an earlier discussion that a lot of people knock certain genres and they haven't even tried reading one, so I thought it was a fair point and set out to try some genres I've never read. I get the sample on Amazon, which is like 30 pages or so, and if it grabs me then I'll read the whole thing.

I ended up really enjoying the romance selection, These Old Shades, though I think that falls into more classical romance. I have yet to find a book with a 'Fabio' type cover to read because I can't make it past the first pages.

I read different reviews from the Erotica genre and Anne Rice's series was mentioned as being well written with an actual storyline, so I tried that, and while the writing wasn't bad, I quickly discovered in the first 30 pages that the genre was not for me.

I have The Spy Who Came in from the Cold tbr, which falls under the spy thriller genre. Railsea for YA. And I still need a good horror recommendation, another genre I've never read.

[Sabrina]

farmwifetwo wrote: Dean Koontz is he one?? A friend of mine once read a lot of his. I'm not going to recommend the RS one's unless you like the pages of the bad guy's POV. I don't find that suspense at all. Reminds me of the bad chick horror flicks. My imagination does a much better job than the authors do.

I recognize the name, but have never looked into Koontz books. I was thinking of H.P. Lovecraft for horror since I'm a huge fan of Poe.

[Pat]

Sabrina wrote: "I have The Spy Who Came in from the Cold tbr, which falls under the spy thriller genre. Railsea for YA. "

I haven't read that one but I did read his "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and its sequel "Smiley's People" and loved them...I could recommend those two.

I picked up the works of H.P. Lovecraft for another group I was trying out and was so disgusted by the blatant racism and xenophobia in them that I quit him and the group. If he had been living in Germany he at the time, he would have been a rabid Nazi.

I grew up in the segregated South...and witnessed first hand the effects of racism...it alienated me from my society and family. So maybe I was more sensitive to his treatment of non-English races and cultures...but I would hope anyone reading them would be equally revolted.

Besides that impediment, the writing style was so out of date for period...by about a hundred years! He's writing in 1920 and 1930 in a style of the early 19th century and Gothic Horror novels.

I don't care how much he is supposed to have influenced Stephen King, or Gaiman, or Doyle...he's just debased... . Sick mind, sick, sick mind.

[Pat]

If you haven't read Bram Stoker's "Dracula"--there would be a good horror book! It scared the bejeezus out of me!

Or something by Le Fanu...he's pretty creepy...real gothic horror.

[Sabrina]

PatK wrote: "Sabrina wrote: "I have The Spy Who Came in from the Cold tbr, which falls under the spy thriller genre. Railsea for YA. "

I haven't read that one but I did read his "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" ..."

Well, that's disappointing. I read that Lovecraft was the 20th century equivalent to Edgar Allan Poe and had similiar styles, so I was looking forward to reading a few of his stories. And he was the inspiration for one of my favorite artists, H.R Giger. I've been meaning to read Dracula and I never did get around to reading Le Fanu's, Carmilia. There's too many books to read! Though I'd rather have too many than not enough. :D

[Pat]

Sabrina wrote: "And he was the inspiration for one of my favorite artists, H.R Giger. "

Funny you should mention Giger on the day I took my husband to see "Prometheus" for his birthday!

Yeah, Lovecraft major inspiration was Poe, but apart from being in the same genre and his copying the 19th century writing style, I think it is insulting to Poe to call Lovecraft the 20th cent Poe.

If you saw the movie Hellboy (the first one) the monsters are very much out of Cthulhu myth...something I did not recognize until after I read Lovecraft.

I read Le Fanu's "Uncle Silas" which is not a tale of supernatural horror, but one about greed and cruelty and crime.

[Sabrina]

PatK wrote: "Sabrina wrote: "And he was the inspiration for one of my favorite artists, H.R Giger. "

Funny you should mention Giger on the day I took my husband to see "Prometheus" for his birthday!

Yeah, L..."

LOL, I just got back from seeing Prometheus with my husband too. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting but I enjoyed it just for the visuals. The actor who played the android modeled after Peter O'Tool's Lawrence of Arabia did an amazing job and always, Naomi Rapace. I just love her.

Thanks for the book recommendations, I think I'll try some of those since I usually agree with your opinions on books.

[Erin]

I've always steered clear of horror and romance books. Or well, overtly romance? I actually really liked Outlander, which was originally shelved as romance, apparently. I feel like part of why romance has never really grabbed me is that a lot of times the plot of romance books is entirely centered around the two love interests getting together. I want more point to a story, I think. the cross-over genres seem better for that. I didn't realize Ann Rice wrote romance! I thought she was more a paranormal person?

Horror, though...I can't even think of any books that are horror. Maybe those R.L. Stein books I read in middle school? Maybe Stephen King? I've always assumed his stuff was horror and avoided him as an author because I generally don't like the scary stuff (R.L. Stein was about as scary as I've ever been able to handle). But I've learned that a bunch of movies that I love that aren't at all horror were based on Stephen King books. Like The Green Mile, which is more like a mystery with a bit of a magical twist. And he's got his Dark Tower fantasy series. He's apparently one of those authors who's written in practically every genre...which seems very rare. I really want to actually read some of his books, now.

[Pat]

Erin wrote: "I've always steered clear of horror and romance books. Or well, overtly romance? I actually really liked Outlander, which was originally shelved as romance, apparently. I feel like part of why r..."

I'm with you there Erin, I've downloaded "Outlander" sample per your recommendation...and I have also been interested in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series (which I put on my to-read list after sampling "The Gunslinger" and reading copious reviews/discussions on the influence of Tolkien...I read "The Shinning" a millenia ago and liked it...but over the years, steered clear of his 'genre'...I think his prose, what I have sampled, is top quality.

[As a feline-related side bar, the cat in the movie "Pet Semetary" was a British Blue Shorthair. However, the original choice for the role was a Chartreux by the name of "Belle Isle's Cashmere Critter, a 25 pound Grand Champion Chartreux male. The cat wrangler for the film originally approached his owner to purchase him for the role. Fortunately she declined to sell, or allow the cat to be used...thankfully, as he became the foundation male for my own cats.]

"A Discovery of Witches" is extremely well written...an Oxfordian adventure with particular attention to the Bodleian Library...I pre-purchased the sequel immediately upon finishing it. The main story centers around the discovery of a lost Palimpsest on magic while the protagonist is doing research on 16th century alchemy. (For an interesting discussion of Palimpsest in a lost text of Archimedes see Ted Talks). This author's academic specialty is 15th thru 17th century alchemy and derivation of science. She has written peer reviewed papers on same which, as you know, was an inspiration for the Baroque Trilogy ("Quicksilver"). In the sequel it involves time travel (a nod to "Doomesday") to Shakespeare's London.

[Sabrina]

Erin wrote: I want more point to a story, I think. the cross-over genres seem better for that. I didn't realize Ann Rice wrote romance! I thought she was more a paranormal person?

Erin, I definitely wouldn't put it in the romance genre (although some of the reviewers think it's very romantic)... more like an obscene fairy tale of humiliation and enslavement. She wrote it under another pen name. The writing wasn't bad, but Erotica isn't a genre for me.

And I'm with you on horror, I'm not really looking forward to my sampling of that genre, but who knows, I might like it and now I can say I've tried a bit of everything.

[Jen LD]

I guess I am lucky. I was paid to "try horror," as you say. I read to a blind boy for about 2 years in college. I read what he needed to read so I read Steven King for a class in various genres. That was the least to my taste, thank goodness. Can only clearly remember one other thing, "On Death and Dying" by Elizabeth Kubler Ross which taught me how to read aloud and cry silently at the same time. Other than that, I think I can live my life without trying genres that don't immediately attract.
...
Jen

[Erin]

Sabrina wrote: "And I'm with you on horror, I'm not really looking forward to my sampling of that genre, but who knows, I might like it and now I can say I've tried a bit of everything."

I find it kind of funny that I'm entirely capable of reading creepy murder thrillers (like The Alienist for example) and have trouble with horror stories. They seem so closely related; especially when the author gives you a peek into the head of the killer and you see the horrible things he's doing. Maybe it's just a level of description, though.

[Jen LD]

I know "War of the Worlds" is not technically horror although it was pretty horrible, at least the movie, but I found I could watch it once I realized how improbable the premise was. After that I saw a tale of redemption (Tom Cruise) and a reaffirmation of a family's love for each other. Of course that was mixed in with a heckuva lotta chaff....
Jen

[Lynne]

Laurie wrote: "Just to let you know, the ARC (or as they call them now, ARE) is not the final edition of the manuscript, since there were a bajillion small changes and improvements. If you want the definitive LR..."

PatK wrote: "ME OH ME OH ME TOO!"

I think it is pretty cool to read an ARC or ARE (whatever the term du jour is) because it is a good way to observe the evolution of a story. I hope I get a shot at reading it.