February books

[myrna-nora.livejournal.com]

7. Mildred Pierce (1941) James M. Cain
A woman opens her own restaurant in Depression-era California, and finds winning the affections of her arrogant daughter her most difficult task... I really enjoyed the Cain crime stories I read recently, and decided to try out some melodrama. His words are so evocative of the '30s &'40s I know from the black & white classics. I did enjoy the woman becomes self-reliant storyline, but there were so many times I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. Her horrid daughter Veda must be one of the snootiest, b****iest characters in book history!
8. Bellwether (1996) Connie Willis
A sociologist who studies fads and a chaos theorist are brought together by a misdelivered package... The start was slow and it did seem like some of the jokes were just recycled over again. But the ending wove the meandering plot threads together so beautifully and perfectly, that it charmed me.
9. Quiet as a Nun (1977) Antonia Fraser
TV reporter Jemima Shore investigates the death of a childhood school friend, a nun who seemingly starved herself to death in a locked tower... This probably could have been developed into a much longer novel, but it was a good quick mystery with an unsettling atmosphere. The only disappointment is the heroine is an adulterer, I hopes she dumps the pompous boyfriend by the next book.
10. Borrower of the Night (1973) Elizabeth Peters
Art historian Vicky Bliss is challenged to find a long missing masterwork hidden in a medieval German castle... It is an alright mystery/adventure, but it's hard not to compare it to her other works. I prefer Peters's Victorian heroine to this contemporary heroine.
11. Endless Night (1967) Agatha Christie
A newly-wed couple build their dream home on land that is said to be cursed... The plot recycles a couple patented Christie twists from 30-40 years earlier in her career, but there is something bizarre in the tone of the novel that makes it unique. The narrator is a working-class man and the story is a bit gothic romance, with the murder mystery in only the last 1/4 of the book. I knew the story from the film version, but that didn't stop me from being sad and creeped-out all over again.
12. Death Comes to Pemberley (2011) P.D. James
Six years after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth, Lydia Wickham arrives on their doorstep screaming that her husband has been murdered... Law & Order: Regency *DUM-DUM* The story, with its mystery twists and turns was good, but it lacked Austen's wit and charm. I was disappointed that the the only substantial conversation Darcy and Elizabeth share is when they are rehashing the events of P&P. If my expectations hadn't been high, I probably would have enjoyed this more.
13. Carry On, Jeeves (1925) P. G. Wodehouse
The inimitable valet, Jeeves disentangles the hapless Bertie Wooster from a series of misadventures... Fun and hilarious.
14. North from Rome (1958) Helen MacInnes
An American playwright is caught in a hazardous game of international intrigue, centering upon a narcotics ring and cold war politics.... The very beginning was intriguing, and then it sort of derailed into plot exposition for quite a few pages, but by the mid-point I was enjoying it again. It was overall mediocre, but it is a *type* of book I enjoy, so I'll probably be reading more from this author in the near future.
15. Lord of the Silent (2001) Elizabeth Peters
Egyptologist Amelia Peabody and her family return for another year of excavations... Another *excellent* entry in the series.
16. Fer-de-Lance (1934) Rex Stout
Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin investigate the murders of an immigrant and a college president... It brought back memories of the TV series I watched a decade ago. The mystery plot plays second fiddle to the entertaining dialogues and characters.

February Books

[dantheman23.livejournal.com]

Krondor the Betrayal
by Raymond Feist

This is a strange book; the riftwar saga was popular enough that someone decided to make an RPG for the PC out of it. That game, Betrayal at Krondor, is regarded as one of the all-time classic games. Feist didn’t write the story for the game, but he did have full creative control over the final product, and the game followed the background and setup of Feist’s world exactly. So then a few years later Feist decided to write a novel based on that game, and this is the result. So it’s a book that’s based on a video game that’s based on a set of books. And unfortunately something got lost in translation, because it’s my least favorite in the series so far. Not that it’s a bad book by any means. I think the problem is that video games and books have different narrative structures (although Betrayal at Krondor did use a pretty unique structure that was a good attempt at making it more like a book(, and when you go back and forth three times like this it just doesn’t work. It felt like Feist was very constrained in this novel, and it just didn’t flow as well as his other books. The plot was much more simple and straightforward. Again, not a bad read, just not up to the high standards the rest of the series has set. 3/5

Krondor the Assassins
by Raymond Feist

And now we’re back to pure Feist-written stories. Much better! Oh I forgot to mention in the last write-up that this three book series (called The Riftwar Legacy) actually goes back in time 50 years or so. It’s a little confusing but it’s fun to see some of the big main characters back in action again. I think the next trilogy will continue where this one left off, since it’s called Legends of the Riftwar. Anyway, this book is not all that epic, but it’s a very good read. It kind of gives us the origins of some of the things we saw earlier in the series…which took place later in the timeline. Confused yet? 4/5

Dirty Poker
by Richard Marcus

Saw this at the library and thought it looked interesting. Richard Marcus bills himself as “the world’s greatest casino cheat”. He spent a lifetime cheating casinos at various table games, and has been featured on TV specials and even wrote a book all about it. This is his take on cheating in poker, which he’s not as experienced at but he has done some of it, and he knows all the tricks. He’s got a huge ego and some of the stuff he writes sounds apocryphal to me, but it was an interesting read (knocked it out in one day). He mainly talks about player collusion, both online and offline. He also gets into the physical cheats like card marking, trick dealing, etc. Pretty eye-opening stuff. 3.5/5

Krondor Tear of the Gods
by Raymond Feist

Not bad, but a little bit by the numbers. Pretty straightforward, find and redeem the plot coupon kind of story. It really just followed one very small group of characters around and didn’t have the usual subplots and story weaving I’ve come to expect from Feist. This whole trilogy was a little weak by his standards but still good stuff. I think the problem is that we’re still dealing with the events of the video game, so his hand are a little tied. 3.5/5

The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton

I had actually never heard of this book (although I do vaguely recall the movie) until recently when Goodreads recommended it. A short, highly rated classic? Just my kind of book ; ) I enjoyed it, it reminded me a lot of Catcher in the Rye. Not as good as that all-timer, but both are told from the perspective of a streetwise teenage boy and wax philosophical about life, with plenty of observation and very little description. I was surprised to find out the author a) was female, and b) wrote the book when she was 15. Pretty crazy. And now I know what “Stay gold, Ponyboy” means : ) 4/5

Dream Park
by Larry Niven and Steen Barnes

My dad picked up the sequel to this book at a garage sale (only because it was written by Niven, I’m sure) and then grabbed this at the library when he found out about it. When he was done with it I took it because he told me it was right up my alley. It was, and it was pretty fun. Dream Park is a huge amusement park that has a mix of actors, holograms, and sets where people called “Game Masters” can set up adventures for Gamers to play in. There’s a rating system involving points that all the gamers are obsessed with, and people spend way too much time playing these games and escaping from reality. In other words it’s just like today except we have it online instead of at a giant park. In fact at this point (it was written in 1981) it’s barely even fictional; only the holograms place out of the realm of reality. There’s also a murder mystery to drive the plot, but it was no great shakes. The book was pretty interesting though, mostly to see how close Niven came to predicting what was coming. 3.5/5

Books for February: 6
Books for 2012: 14