Kiwiria's March Madness
Apr. 2nd, 2018 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiwiria posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
christianreaderNot that many books read in March as I've been in a reading slump after having been really unlucky with a number of bad books one after another. However one of them turned out to be a strong contender for best book of the year, so I'm hopeful that things are looking up. Thanks again for the recommendation, dichroic!
Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor, 4.5/5, 334 pages
4.5 stars. It lost the last half star because of all of the INCESSANT foreshadowing. It's one of my biggest pet peeves in literature. Fortunately in this case the foreshadowing usually happened just a few pages ahead of the event, so I could cope with it, but it still made me roll my eyes HARD every time. It is such a cheap trick, and I wish authors would rise above it.
Ahrem... *cough*... aaaaaanyway...
That minor nitpick aside I absolutely LOVED this book. I had begged for recommendations of good books on FB and this was one of the suggestions. It sounded intriguing and came cheap on amazon (and free on GR... but I didn't discover that until afterwards :-P ) and it absolutely delivered. It had me hooked from the very first chapter and fortunately the rest totally lived up to the promising beginning. Time-travel done well is one of my favourite genres, and when it is combined with historical fiction (much in the same way as Connie Willis) I'm totally sold.
The book had great characters, twists and turns galore, lots of lovely snark and a visit to the Cretaceous Period to boot - what's not to like?
As a book to get me out of my reading slump it was a total success, and kept me up till far too late in order to finish. Awesome :-D
Waiter to the Rich and Shameles - Paul Hartford, 3/5, 258 pages
Fun read which obviously included a T½ON of name-dropping. It got a bit tabloid'ish at times as Pauli exposed his customers, but with a title like that, I knew that before going into the book. And fortunately he spent just as much page-time on "exposing" people who treated the waiters (and each other) well as on those who didn't.
There were fewer details on his actually workings and doings as a waiter than I had expected, and more details about his partying with Jens (and wedding/honeymoon - but honestly, I enjoyed those), which made for a weird slant and made me wonder if he'd fully decided what kind of book he wanted to write, before he set out on writing it. But at the end of the day it was an entertaining read... although not a likely reread.
When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead, 3/5, Audiobook ~4hrs
A bit of a disappointment, but that is 100% because of wrong expectations rather than the fault of the book itself. I hadn't realized that it was a children's book, and thus approached it with a completely wrong mindset. Had I realized from the outset that this was the case (and probably also if I had read it as a physical book rather than an audiobook) I would likely have enjoyed it a lot more, as the plot was very enjoyable once I adjusted my expectations.
Black-Eyed Susans - Julia Heaberlin, 3/5, 380 pages
Hard book to rate. It kept me nicely entertained as I was reading it, despite the writing style taking some getting used to (as it kept jumping between the past and the present), but I felt it had some serious plot holes along the way, which made the end oddly unsatisfying. All characters seemed to have ulterior motives, and the only one I really liked was Charlie.
It's a book that keeps you at an arm's length, somehow. You're never allowed to fully disappear into it. I didn't find it a waste of time, but it's definitely not a book I'm likely to reread.
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and other Deadly Magic - Meghan Ciana Doidge, 2.5/5, 266 pages
It was slightly better than just ok, but not much.
This book came highly recommended, but while I liked it well enough, I've found that I am extremely picky when it comes to paranormal novels, and I simply don't care enough about the characters to want to continue on with the series. However, it was free and thus totally worth the cost ;-)
Books total: 22
Pages total: 5.520
Book of the Month: Just One Damned Thing After Another
Biggest disappointment: Black-Eyed Susans. I know I rated "Cupcakes..." lower, but my expectations were also lower, so BES was a bigger disappointment.
dichroic!Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor, 4.5/5, 334 pages
4.5 stars. It lost the last half star because of all of the INCESSANT foreshadowing. It's one of my biggest pet peeves in literature. Fortunately in this case the foreshadowing usually happened just a few pages ahead of the event, so I could cope with it, but it still made me roll my eyes HARD every time. It is such a cheap trick, and I wish authors would rise above it.
Ahrem... *cough*... aaaaaanyway...
That minor nitpick aside I absolutely LOVED this book. I had begged for recommendations of good books on FB and this was one of the suggestions. It sounded intriguing and came cheap on amazon (and free on GR... but I didn't discover that until afterwards :-P ) and it absolutely delivered. It had me hooked from the very first chapter and fortunately the rest totally lived up to the promising beginning. Time-travel done well is one of my favourite genres, and when it is combined with historical fiction (much in the same way as Connie Willis) I'm totally sold.
The book had great characters, twists and turns galore, lots of lovely snark and a visit to the Cretaceous Period to boot - what's not to like?
As a book to get me out of my reading slump it was a total success, and kept me up till far too late in order to finish. Awesome :-D
Waiter to the Rich and Shameles - Paul Hartford, 3/5, 258 pages
Fun read which obviously included a T½ON of name-dropping. It got a bit tabloid'ish at times as Pauli exposed his customers, but with a title like that, I knew that before going into the book. And fortunately he spent just as much page-time on "exposing" people who treated the waiters (and each other) well as on those who didn't.
There were fewer details on his actually workings and doings as a waiter than I had expected, and more details about his partying with Jens (and wedding/honeymoon - but honestly, I enjoyed those), which made for a weird slant and made me wonder if he'd fully decided what kind of book he wanted to write, before he set out on writing it. But at the end of the day it was an entertaining read... although not a likely reread.
When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead, 3/5, Audiobook ~4hrs
A bit of a disappointment, but that is 100% because of wrong expectations rather than the fault of the book itself. I hadn't realized that it was a children's book, and thus approached it with a completely wrong mindset. Had I realized from the outset that this was the case (and probably also if I had read it as a physical book rather than an audiobook) I would likely have enjoyed it a lot more, as the plot was very enjoyable once I adjusted my expectations.
Black-Eyed Susans - Julia Heaberlin, 3/5, 380 pages
Hard book to rate. It kept me nicely entertained as I was reading it, despite the writing style taking some getting used to (as it kept jumping between the past and the present), but I felt it had some serious plot holes along the way, which made the end oddly unsatisfying. All characters seemed to have ulterior motives, and the only one I really liked was Charlie.
It's a book that keeps you at an arm's length, somehow. You're never allowed to fully disappear into it. I didn't find it a waste of time, but it's definitely not a book I'm likely to reread.
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and other Deadly Magic - Meghan Ciana Doidge, 2.5/5, 266 pages
It was slightly better than just ok, but not much.
This book came highly recommended, but while I liked it well enough, I've found that I am extremely picky when it comes to paranormal novels, and I simply don't care enough about the characters to want to continue on with the series. However, it was free and thus totally worth the cost ;-)
Books total: 22
Pages total: 5.520
Book of the Month: Just One Damned Thing After Another
Biggest disappointment: Black-Eyed Susans. I know I rated "Cupcakes..." lower, but my expectations were also lower, so BES was a bigger disappointment.
