Sunday 25 November 2007

the nine last books I read

Babel Babe asked. This isn't a meme:


The Bird Artist, Howard Norman. - Grim little novel set in Newfoundland.

All Mortal Flesh, Julia Spencer-Fleming - Surprisingly good about love between a policeman and a reverend. I gather it's a series.

Harry Potter, 6 and 7. Re-read 6, thought 7 was not as good as I'd hoped. Really thought the afterward scene (where they're all older, and married to each other) was very disappointing. I mean, EVERYTHING turned out happily ever after?

Death Du Jour, Kathy Reichs - Female forensic scientist. Slides nicely in between Quebec and the states.

The Usual Rules, Joyce Maynard - I think you'd like this one. 13 year old who loses her mom in September 11th, has to up-root and move out with her father (who she really never knew before) and re-invents herself. Nicely rounded out secondary characters.

The Loch, Steve Alten - Weird. Tried very hard to be as technical as a Creighton novel and wound up being prit'near incomprehensible.

House Gun, Nadine Gordimer - Didn't finish as it couldn't hold me - good premise, bad execution.

The Edge of the Crazies, Jamie Harrison - I really, really wanted to like this. It's oddball and sarcastic and crazy, but the author used the word 'stoic' one too many times, and that was that. (The thing is, whenever I read stories with Native Indians in them, it's only a matter of time before the phrase 'stoic face' comes up. It bothers me. Is there no.other.way to describe the characters visage?)


I'm also about half-way through The Kite Runner. New library jaunt on Tuesday. Waaa-hoo!

3 comments:

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

I am amazed at you guys, cause I would have to go back some 5 years to come up with 9 books. I know, I know, I should hang my head in shame. Maybe if I didn't waste so much time blogging, yeah!

Badger said...

Did you end up liking The Bird Artist? I did, but now that I'm done with it, I can't remember much about it.

Jess said...

B - I liked it, but lord, was it grim. Meh, I guess. It was actually recognizable as being from Newfoundland (a lot of the actual place is small and desperate, even today, and there's still a sense of governing themselves) but I thought the crazy people were over-the-top crazy, and it felt fake to me that this boy was pretty normal - and yet had NO sane role models.

I've read the authors other book, and I liked that one better.

A couple of big blows

 Snow, that is. My province has been hit hard this year.  We're still digging out from the St. Valentine's day storm, and we might f...