Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

That was an exceedingly violent first chapter: opportunistic assault, murder, and child rape, not to mention all the racism. If the rest of the book is like that, I'm not sure I have the stomach for it.

Libba Bray is very talented at writing realistically annoying teenagers. It's a sign of good writing, but I'm gonna need some character development out of Gemma by the end of this book if I'm going to stick with the series.

This is an improvement over Guards! Guards!, but Angua deserves so much better.

I'm pretty sure this is going to get 2 stars from me, if I finish it at all. I pretty much only haven't given up yet because I've been trying to read more Jewish books, and the characterization of the family in this story is very informed by their Jewishness. But there's not much beyond that to recommend it.

Yeah... This is seeming more and more like a DNF.

This faux child-perspective narration is getting pretty tiresome.

"Sarai," he breathed against her cheek. He felt like a glass filled with splendor and luck. His lips curved into a smile. He whispered, "You have ruined my tongue for all other tastes."

"This," he says, "is precisely what campfires are for. The sharing of stories. There's a spiritual connection between flame and narrative."

"The monks kept a sharp eye on him, determined to keep him free of sin -- and of joy, which, if not explicitly a sin, at least clears a path to it." This writing is GORGEOUS.

"The old mystery opened his mind, but it was the new one that climbed inside, turned several circles, and settled in with a grunt like a satisfied dragon in a cozy new lair. And there it would remain, the mystery in his mind, exhaling enigma for years to come."

Still waiting for this book to get good or otherwise justify its existence.

Maybe this is another sign that I'm basically the fish from The Cat in the Hat, but I am so relieved that Sir Thomas has come home and put an end to this theatre nonsense.

It's still early going, but I think I prefer this book to Pride and Prejudice already. (Or at the very least, I'm shipping Fanny and Edmund way more than I ever did Elizabeth and Darcy.)

Harry Potter has ruined me. It's so hard to hear the name Mrs. Norris and not picture a cat.

"If you can't have the reality, a dream is just as good."

Okay, this book is getting good again, but there is no way a psychiatrist would ever say that hokey 'insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results' cliche.

Oh great, now they're universe-hopping. If this ends up being just another Job: A Comedy of Justice, I'm going to be supremely disappointed.

This book is like It's a Wonderful Life, if George Bailey got thrust into the alternate reality by the version of him in that other universe abducting him and forcing them to switch places. I love it.

"A certain description of men are for getting out of [national] debt, yet are against all taxes for raising money to pay it off." - A. Ham

"Do you know what the Rosetta Stone is?" "Yes." "Then you know it's [paragraph-long explanation of what the Rosetta Stone is]." This dialogue is the *worst*.

That's... really not how language (or linguistics) works. But okay.

That's... really not how language (or linguistics) works. But okay.

Bloodydamn, but I forgot just how viscerally GOOD this book is.

I read this book last year, but this is my first time listening to the audiobook. The narrator is making great accent choices to differentiate the separate castes.

This book is breaking my heart and I'm loving every minute of it.