October Books
Nov. 2nd, 2014 07:59 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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christianreaderWell the only bad part about my new job is that with the very short commute (10 minutes!) my audio book listening is going to take a big nosedive. But hey, more time to read printed books, right?
The Memory of Earth
by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game is one of my Top 10 books ever, but I haven't had very good luck with the rest of OSC's books. I couldn't make it through the first book in the Alvin Maker series, and while I did finish this novel, I didn't really love it. Apparently it's based on the Book of Mormon. After nearly destroying the Earth humans have moved to a new planet called Harmony and have lived there for 40 million years. A being (computer?) called the Oversoul watches over and guards humanity, but it is starting to break down. A young boy is granted visions by the Oversoul and must do what he can to help bring about the will of the Oversoul. The religious overtones where way too heavy for me, and the whole book took a while to get going. It did get more interesting towards the end though; there's a chance I'll pick up the next book in the series. One annoying thing was the names were all so goofy, and then everyone has nicknames and titles that get used interchangeably so it's hard at first to figure out who's being talked about. Not a terrible book but I'm glad to be done with it. 2.5/5
The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
Another attempt to find a good series I could get into, and another failure. This is the first book in the Discworld series. Looking back, I don't know why I thought I would enjoy this book/series; it's a farcical fantasy world that takes aim at fantasy cliches and tries to be funny and irreverent throughout. The whole “making fun of genre cliches” thing almost never ends up actually being funny (anywhere I've seen it tried) though. I actually busted up laughing on the second page, and I thought “Oh man, here we go!” but sadly that ended up being the only really funny part. The rest of the book felt like a long slog that I only made it through because the book itself was short. 2/5
Found
by Harlan Coben
This is the third book in the Mickey Bolitar series and just came out very recently. I read it in one sitting, so yeah I liked it! Man, there was A LOT going on in this book. About halfway through I was thinking “OK, we need to get a few reveals here, because it's starting to get annoying that we never find out anything” (we were still dealing with threads from the first book at that point). But we did get some reveals in the second half of the book and a few things got wrapped up, but of course there are plenty more loose ends to work with in the sequels. Here's something you'll rarely hear me say: this book was almost too fast paced. What?! Is that even possible? There was so much going on and things changed so rapidly it was almost a little much. But not quite! The first good book of the month, yay! 4/5
The Revenge of Seven
by Pittacus Lore
The latest in the Lorien Legacies series (book #5), the alien invasion action continues to ramp up, with the bad guys actually revealing themselves to Earth at large and proceeding with their plan to take over the planet. The good guys are scattered, on the run, and outnumbered (as usual) , and struggling to come up with a plan to win. I was almost a little reluctant to start this book because it's been a while since the last one and I couldn't remember who the characters were but once I cracked it open I was immediately into it and tore through it quickly. 4/5
No Plot? No Problem!
by Chris Baty
In preparation for NaNoWriMo I read this book by the founder of said website event. It explains the origins and idea behind NaNo, and how and why it works. Everything in the book really spoke to me and made a lot of sense. It was well-written and funny, and one of the very very few books I deem worthy of actually buying. It made me totally excited for NaNo... 4.5/5
Books for October: 5
Books for 2014: 62
The Memory of Earth
by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game is one of my Top 10 books ever, but I haven't had very good luck with the rest of OSC's books. I couldn't make it through the first book in the Alvin Maker series, and while I did finish this novel, I didn't really love it. Apparently it's based on the Book of Mormon. After nearly destroying the Earth humans have moved to a new planet called Harmony and have lived there for 40 million years. A being (computer?) called the Oversoul watches over and guards humanity, but it is starting to break down. A young boy is granted visions by the Oversoul and must do what he can to help bring about the will of the Oversoul. The religious overtones where way too heavy for me, and the whole book took a while to get going. It did get more interesting towards the end though; there's a chance I'll pick up the next book in the series. One annoying thing was the names were all so goofy, and then everyone has nicknames and titles that get used interchangeably so it's hard at first to figure out who's being talked about. Not a terrible book but I'm glad to be done with it. 2.5/5
The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
Another attempt to find a good series I could get into, and another failure. This is the first book in the Discworld series. Looking back, I don't know why I thought I would enjoy this book/series; it's a farcical fantasy world that takes aim at fantasy cliches and tries to be funny and irreverent throughout. The whole “making fun of genre cliches” thing almost never ends up actually being funny (anywhere I've seen it tried) though. I actually busted up laughing on the second page, and I thought “Oh man, here we go!” but sadly that ended up being the only really funny part. The rest of the book felt like a long slog that I only made it through because the book itself was short. 2/5
Found
by Harlan Coben
This is the third book in the Mickey Bolitar series and just came out very recently. I read it in one sitting, so yeah I liked it! Man, there was A LOT going on in this book. About halfway through I was thinking “OK, we need to get a few reveals here, because it's starting to get annoying that we never find out anything” (we were still dealing with threads from the first book at that point). But we did get some reveals in the second half of the book and a few things got wrapped up, but of course there are plenty more loose ends to work with in the sequels. Here's something you'll rarely hear me say: this book was almost too fast paced. What?! Is that even possible? There was so much going on and things changed so rapidly it was almost a little much. But not quite! The first good book of the month, yay! 4/5
The Revenge of Seven
by Pittacus Lore
The latest in the Lorien Legacies series (book #5), the alien invasion action continues to ramp up, with the bad guys actually revealing themselves to Earth at large and proceeding with their plan to take over the planet. The good guys are scattered, on the run, and outnumbered (as usual) , and struggling to come up with a plan to win. I was almost a little reluctant to start this book because it's been a while since the last one and I couldn't remember who the characters were but once I cracked it open I was immediately into it and tore through it quickly. 4/5
No Plot? No Problem!
by Chris Baty
In preparation for NaNoWriMo I read this book by the founder of said website event. It explains the origins and idea behind NaNo, and how and why it works. Everything in the book really spoke to me and made a lot of sense. It was well-written and funny, and one of the very very few books I deem worthy of actually buying. It made me totally excited for NaNo... 4.5/5
Books for October: 5
Books for 2014: 62
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no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 04:33 pm (UTC)Is the Mickey Bolitar series all one-word titles? I don't remember the other titles, I'm just guessing since that's a trend.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 06:08 pm (UTC)OK, I'll look: Oh nope, it was Seconds Away. Two words!
no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-03 02:47 am (UTC)I started towards the middle with Thief of Time and then Witches Abroad, and if you ever feel like trying again (they still might not be your cup of tea, but they are MUCH better, I promise), that's what I'd suggest.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-03 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-03 06:10 pm (UTC)The Alvin Maker series was definitely hard to get into. I persevered because a trusted source gushed about it so much, but I didn't start enjoying the series until halfway through the second book. Even then, I won't gush, but I ended up liking it a lot. :)
Just my experiences with those series!
no subject
Date: 2014-11-05 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-05 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-08 05:09 pm (UTC)Ha! Reminds me of when people say to just YouTube an entry in a video game series rather than actually play it :p