Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

More Books

Translated!!

I just finished:

Sens and Sensibility and Seamonsters

And

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 

The Zombies were better!!

Book: Shadows in Flight

I finished a couple books last week but my favorite was Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card.

I was really looking forward to this story. In the Ender Saga I always wanted to know what happened to Bean and the kids.

This is the first part of that story. There will be another book that details their adventures.

Rating = 8 of 10

Loved it. Want a movie!

Book: Dragon Keeper

I just finished the book Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb.

This is book one in the Rain Wilds trilogy.

I like the story, the characters, the world. I enjoyed the book except for one thing. The book was not a finite story with a real end. It is one of the ones that just ends on a chapter.

I don't have book two, dammit! Neither does my damn library!!

--Oh the humanity!!


Book: The Cut

I just finished reading The Cut by George Pelecanos.

I can't say it was that good. No mystery really. The main character was not that likable. It was predictable. The actual premise in the end was thin.

Rating = 5 of 10

--It was ok.

Books: The Sentry, and Grave Secret


I finished reading two great books this week. Both are part of series whose characters I just LOVE.

The Sentry has a central character named Joe Pike. He is awesome.

Grave Secret  has Harper Connolly as it's central character.

Great stuff.

Rating: 8 of 10

Book: Quicksilver

 I just finished reading Quicksilver by Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Krentz). This is a book in the Arcane Society Series.
When I picked it up I didn't realize it was the second book in a trilogy. It was OK though, it stood on it's own feet. I could tell there was back story here, I didn't lose anything because of it. I like that.
It is my guilty pleasure genre. Paranormal-mystery-action-romance-softcore-porn. I Blame Brenda. 
Rating: 6 of 10
The Looking Glass Trilogy
  1. In Too Deep, 2010 (as Jayne Ann Krentz)
  2. Quicksilver, 2011 (as Amanda Quick)
  3. Canyons of Night, 2011 (introduces Rainshadow Island)

Book: Breaking the Rules

I just finished reading Breaking the Rules by Suzanne Brockmann.

It was another in the Troubleshooters series.

I always enjoy the books in this series, while this was not my favorite in the series it was still good!

Rating: 7 of 10

From www.SuzanneBrockmann.com:

BREAKING THE RULES
Troubleshooters Series, Book # 16
In stores: March 22, 2011
New York Times Bestseller
In hardcover from Ballantine Books
Coming in paperback on 1/31/12


Izzy Zanella wasn't looking for another reason to butt heads with his Navy SEAL teammate and nemesis, Danny Gillman. But then he met Danny’s beautiful younger sister, Eden. When she needed it most, he offered her a place to stay, a shoulder to cry on—and more. And when she got pregnant with another man’s child, he offered her marriage. But Eden’s devastating miscarriage shattered their life together—and made the intense bad blood between Izzy and Danny even worse.

Now Eden's back, on a mission to rescue her teen brother, Ben, from their abusive stepfather. Even if she and Izzy can prove that their broken marriage is still in one piece, winning legal custody of Ben is a long shot. But they’re not alone: Danny and his girlfriend Jenn offer to help, and he and Izzy agree to bury the past and fight for Ben’s future.

As they plan their strategy, Izzy and Eden grapple with the raw passion that still crackles between them—while Danny and Jenn confront new depths in their own rocky relationship. But events take a terrifying turn after Ben befriends a girl fleeing a child prostitution ring. When the young runaway seeks refuge with Eden and Izzy, her pursuers kidnap Ben—and a deadly standoff begins. Now, they must all pull together like never before and strike back, swift and hard, to protect their unconventional little family and everything they hold most precious.

Summer Reading List

I am collecting my titles for summer reading. Here is the start, a Mira Grant Trilogy:


--Feed, Blackout and Deadline by Mira Grant.

Book: After the Apocalypse

I just finished reading After the Apocalypse.

This was a collection of short stories edited by Maureen McHugh.

There are a lot of "end of the world as we know it" scenarios that are depicted in these short stories.

I really liked the variety of the stories everything from classic Zombies to slow economic collapse to financial slavery.

Rating 7 0f 10.

--Good Stuff.

Books: Bone Island Trilogy

I just finished reading the Bone Island Trilogy by Heather Graham.



It was OK as far as murder mysteries go. Just OK. Same with the romance parts.

The part I liked was the stuff about Key West. Makes me want to take a vacation there!

Book: Rise of the Governor

I just finished The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor is the first installment in a new novel series by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. It depicts the journey of Philip Blake in the early days of the undead apocalypse to his eventual rise as "The Governor" of Woodbury. It will be followed by The Road To Woodbury, scheduled for release on October 16, 2012.

If you like Zombie stories you will like it.

Rating = 6 of 10

Book: Ready Player One

I just finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

This book was so damn good I swear it was written just for me. It is chock full of pop cultural references from the years of my youth. It references books, movies, TV, cartoons and so much goodness it was amazing.

To make it even better this was an audiobook read by Will Wheaton, who was also a character in the book in his dotage!

And now it's going to be a major motion picture in 2014!!

"The year is 2044 and the world is in near-ruins. The Great Recession has taken its toll on the world's economy, and resources are scarce. The internet and gaming culture have evolved to a creation known as OASIS, a massive multiplayer online simulation game created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow, the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS). Halliday, with no heirs or other living family, dies suddenly and leaves a video will to those in OASIS and a book that was dubbed Anorak's Almanac, which purports to be a volume written by James Halliday's avatar Anorak in OASIS. The video says that whomever can collect three keys (Copper, Jade, and Crystal) that are hidden throughout the universe of OASIS and can pass through the matching gates will receive his fortune and controlling stake in GSS. This becomes known as the Hunt and people at once begin searching for Halliday's "Egg", a reference to the first "Easter Egg" in video game culture in the game Adventure."

I rate it 8 of 10!! Great Stuff.

--It even has School House Rock!!

BOOK: Better to Rest

I just finished reading Better to Rest by Dana Stabenow. It turns out it is the 4th book in a series.

Part of the Liam Campbell series:

In 1998, she began a new mystery series featuring Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell. In addition to Liam Campbell, the books also feature bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard, and restaurant owner Moses Alakuyak.
  • Fire And Ice (1998)
  • So Sure Of Death (1999)
  • Nothing Gold Can Stay (2000)
  • Better To Rest (2002)
  • Bones Out Of The Grave (TBD)
I really enjoy the history and descriptions of life in Alaska.

The end of this book kind of petered out. I still liked it. Great characters, settings and sex!

Rating = 6 of 10


Book: Commitment Hour

I forgot to post this book I finished last week:

    Commitment Hour by James Gardner

I read a lot of post apocalyptic fiction. I love books that have description of the societies that develop after the big crash. Hunger Games is another example. This one was written in 1998. Brenda recommended this one, I think because it was 100% zombie free.

This book has an excellent look at gender roles. It looks at sex from an interesting angle. (STOP laughing Schwartz!)

The people of this village switch genders annually.

Everyone in Tober Cove knows what it's like to have a baby, be a mother and a father. When their Commitment Hour comes they decide the gender they will keep through the rest of their lives.

--My book rating: 7 of 10


In the Bleak Midwinter

I just finished reading In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Fleming.

I read a ton of these books. I am always on the lookout for a new author and/or character to consume wildly.

I really enjoyed this book. Great characters.

The main characters, the protagonists, are a small town police chief and a female priest.

...and she is a hot, fit, ass-kicking, former military, attack helicopter pilot, blond in a priests collar.

Yes, this strangely aroused me too.

Plus it takes place in upstate NY during the winter. I can totally relate have grown up just outside of Buffalo!

"It's a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. The ancient regime running the parish covertly demands that she prove herself as a leader. However, her blunt manner, honed by years as an army pilot, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation and Chief of Police Russ Van Alystyne, in particular, doesn't know what to make of her, or how to address "a lady priest" for that matter.

The last thing she needs is trouble, but that is exactly what she finds. When a newborn baby is abandoned on the church stairs and a young mother is brutally murdered, Clare has to pick her way through the secrets and silence that shadow that town like the ever-present Adirondack mountains. As the days dwindle down and the attraction between the avowed priest and the married police chief grows, Clare will need all her faith, tenacity, and courage to stand fast against a killer's icy heart."


Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series

 --I will read them all now...

Book: Walking Dead

I just finished the TV series season and then cranked though the book. I think that is the order to do it in. I think if I had read the comic first I would have been disappointed about the variations from the original.

Chris loaned me the book and showed me one page in advance. The last page.

The season and the book ended in the same spot.

--Great stuff. Check it out!

Enders Game: The Movie

I may need to start a new catagory:

    "I hope this Doesn't Suck"

One of my all time favorite SciFi books is in production.

Enders Game will star Harrison Ford as Colonel Hyrum Graff, Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham, and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin.

Ender will be played by the same kid that was in Hugo.

That kid was OK but not great in Hugo.

--They had better not F this up!!

Hunger Games Movie Prep

In prep for the Hunger Games movie this weekend I reread all the books. These have really great potential for being an awesome series of movies. 

We shall see...