I've discovered that it's incredibly easy to obtain books and read them on my Kindle app on my smartphone, and so that's what I've been doing instead of reading actual books. I haven't been blogging about them because they are incredibly bad and I'm embarrassed to keep reading them (I'm addicted to cheap romance) but I'm still reading them because they are ridiculously easy to obtain and no one can actually see me reading them. And I can just dip in whenever I have a few minutes of idleness and they weigh nothing.
That's not to say I've spurned books, though! I still love books! I just find it a lot easier to squeeze in a few moments here or there with my phone (which is always on me) than to sit down at home and open a book.
Also I'm not reading much at home because I started a new hidden object game kick and bought a few of those cds with like 15 games each. I love them. My brain is so soothed after playing them.
OH ALSO I keep buying little games on my phone as well. Basically I am not reading actual books because I'm too immersed in the digital world, but I swear I will return to the actual page eventually. I even have two impulse-bought paperbacks waiting on my to get over this current obsession.
BUT FIRST I DOWNLOADED A SHORT STORY BY STEPHEN KING AND JOE HILL YAY! Seriously, Amazon is awesome. I get a free app every day, I get access to the father-son horror collab, and I get to read my smutty embarrassing books without anyone knowing.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Still Missing
By Chevy Stevens
Annie is abducted by a dude and held in his cabin for a little over a year. When she gets home she starts seeing a therapist and that's how we learn her story: she tells it to the therapist as if we are the therapist. It's a little strange at first, and the way she talks to the therapist (us) is a little off-putting, but as the story goes it's like the author becomes more relaxed in the character's voice and then you get sucked into the story and don't notice it anymore anyway. While reliving her ordeal for therapy she also talks about what her life is like now, when she's "free". She's struggling with it, basically.
Her life in captivity was an interesting read. I have no idea what research the author did, but the choices she made with Annie's character made sense, and besides I'll never know any different unless I run across a book by a person who has actually experienced it (but I tend to shy away from biographies because knowing that it happened to a real person makes it way harder to read any book dealing with physical and emotional pain). Annie talks about how her abductor makes her laugh, and she hates it, but also during those times she can almost forget where they are and what they're doing. She also talks about how invested you become with the happiness of your jailer--she has to learn so much about him, his likes and dislikes and what makes him angry and what pleases him--and her happiness becomes directly tied to his happiness. I found that really interesting to think about.
The other part of the story--when she comes home--is more of a mystery novel. So in this book you get a two-fer--you get a mystery to solve AND you get this personal look into a victim and how she copes. I really liked this book.
Annie is abducted by a dude and held in his cabin for a little over a year. When she gets home she starts seeing a therapist and that's how we learn her story: she tells it to the therapist as if we are the therapist. It's a little strange at first, and the way she talks to the therapist (us) is a little off-putting, but as the story goes it's like the author becomes more relaxed in the character's voice and then you get sucked into the story and don't notice it anymore anyway. While reliving her ordeal for therapy she also talks about what her life is like now, when she's "free". She's struggling with it, basically.
Her life in captivity was an interesting read. I have no idea what research the author did, but the choices she made with Annie's character made sense, and besides I'll never know any different unless I run across a book by a person who has actually experienced it (but I tend to shy away from biographies because knowing that it happened to a real person makes it way harder to read any book dealing with physical and emotional pain). Annie talks about how her abductor makes her laugh, and she hates it, but also during those times she can almost forget where they are and what they're doing. She also talks about how invested you become with the happiness of your jailer--she has to learn so much about him, his likes and dislikes and what makes him angry and what pleases him--and her happiness becomes directly tied to his happiness. I found that really interesting to think about.
The other part of the story--when she comes home--is more of a mystery novel. So in this book you get a two-fer--you get a mystery to solve AND you get this personal look into a victim and how she copes. I really liked this book.
Monday, May 28, 2012
I forgot I had a blog.
Literally. TOTALLY FORGOT. I've read some books, though. Let's see if I can remember what they were, shall we?
The Wind Through the Keyhole, by Stephen King
It's a Dark Tower novel, and don't let the fact that King wrote it several years after that series ended throw you off--it's awesome and it fits in very well with the rest of the series. It's a story within a story within a book, and at one point one of the many main characters gets to camp out with a tiger. The tiger does not eat him. They practically cuddle. I WANT TO CUDDLE WITH A TIGER AND NOT GET EATEN. Also, I want a billybumbler. Someone get on making those things a reality.
And She Was, by Alison Gaylin
The teaser on the back intrigued me: it hinted that the disappearance of a woman had ties to a several years old missing child case, and they both seemed to have something to do with the main character'd own unsolved mystery: the disappearance of her older sister as a teen. Spoiler alert: the two mentioned first are very connected, and the one mentioned last isn't connected at all, except as the reason the main character got involved in the missing child case in the first place. Also the main character has that brain disorder where you never forget anything. It comes in handy for her profession as a private investigator, but also causes her get lost in memories that can be triggered by anything. I'm not sure how much of that is true to the actual disorder, but in this book and to the other characters it was very annoying. Also this stupid story eventually becomes centered on a drawing, in crayon, that one of the bad guys wants. BUT IF HE DIDN'T MAKE IT CLEAR HE WANTED IT, GUESS WHAT? NO ONE WOULD HAVE THOUGHT TWICE ABOUT IT. So there you go. That's what I thought about that one.
Dead Reckoning, By Charlaine Harris
I hate to say this, but I'm getting tired of these books. I've seen this happen a bunch of times before: author creates awesome series and doesn't know when to stop. The fans demand more! So the author keeps writing, even though at this point she doesn't really have a clear idea where this series is going anymore. This did not feel like an actual novel; it felt like a rough draft of where the author intends to take the story someday. Things surrounding Sookie are becoming very dramatic in a drama-for-the-sake-of-drama kind of way. I don't mind TV shows where new mysteries are constantly cropping up because I know that NEXT WEEK these will be resolved. In the case with these books, however, you have to wait for the next one to come out. Months later. In this case I had been forced to take a break from the series (due to still not wanting to join a new library) for over a year, and I actually bought this book as a paperback because it was cheap. I know I can read the next in the series today if I wanted, but I don't feel that it is worth the hardcover price anymore. I'm waiting until it's in paperback.
Ok, I think that's all of them. If I find anymore books around my room that I've read I'll try to log back in and write about them. In a month or so.
The Wind Through the Keyhole, by Stephen King
It's a Dark Tower novel, and don't let the fact that King wrote it several years after that series ended throw you off--it's awesome and it fits in very well with the rest of the series. It's a story within a story within a book, and at one point one of the many main characters gets to camp out with a tiger. The tiger does not eat him. They practically cuddle. I WANT TO CUDDLE WITH A TIGER AND NOT GET EATEN. Also, I want a billybumbler. Someone get on making those things a reality.
And She Was, by Alison Gaylin
The teaser on the back intrigued me: it hinted that the disappearance of a woman had ties to a several years old missing child case, and they both seemed to have something to do with the main character'd own unsolved mystery: the disappearance of her older sister as a teen. Spoiler alert: the two mentioned first are very connected, and the one mentioned last isn't connected at all, except as the reason the main character got involved in the missing child case in the first place. Also the main character has that brain disorder where you never forget anything. It comes in handy for her profession as a private investigator, but also causes her get lost in memories that can be triggered by anything. I'm not sure how much of that is true to the actual disorder, but in this book and to the other characters it was very annoying. Also this stupid story eventually becomes centered on a drawing, in crayon, that one of the bad guys wants. BUT IF HE DIDN'T MAKE IT CLEAR HE WANTED IT, GUESS WHAT? NO ONE WOULD HAVE THOUGHT TWICE ABOUT IT. So there you go. That's what I thought about that one.
Dead Reckoning, By Charlaine Harris
I hate to say this, but I'm getting tired of these books. I've seen this happen a bunch of times before: author creates awesome series and doesn't know when to stop. The fans demand more! So the author keeps writing, even though at this point she doesn't really have a clear idea where this series is going anymore. This did not feel like an actual novel; it felt like a rough draft of where the author intends to take the story someday. Things surrounding Sookie are becoming very dramatic in a drama-for-the-sake-of-drama kind of way. I don't mind TV shows where new mysteries are constantly cropping up because I know that NEXT WEEK these will be resolved. In the case with these books, however, you have to wait for the next one to come out. Months later. In this case I had been forced to take a break from the series (due to still not wanting to join a new library) for over a year, and I actually bought this book as a paperback because it was cheap. I know I can read the next in the series today if I wanted, but I don't feel that it is worth the hardcover price anymore. I'm waiting until it's in paperback.
Ok, I think that's all of them. If I find anymore books around my room that I've read I'll try to log back in and write about them. In a month or so.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Girlchild, by Tupelo Hassman
Girlchild.
Working 12 hour days is not conducive to reading or blogging. I can tell you I read this book, and I liked it so much that I managed to read it in less than a week, even with my work schedule. But I kept putting this off until now and, of course, most of what I was going to write has been forgotten.
But I'll say this: I like Hassman's style. I like her metaphors and similes. I'm a sucker for a good simile.
Synopsis/spoilers: Rory lives with her alcoholic mom in a trailer park, is molested by a neighbor and bullied by his daughter, goes a little nutso afterwards but recovers, loses her mom to an accident and her grandmother to old age/possibly cancer, and towards the end of the book everything gets a little weird and dream-like. If I had to dislike anything, it would be the last part, post-death of her mom. It ends with her setting fire to her trailer and skipping town, and she believes she's starting over and it's going to be better, and Hassman makes it clear that Rory sees this as a rebirth. I don't know if how I felt about the ending is me injecting my own reasoning into the story or if Hassman meant for us to see deeper into the situation and see a little more of the truth, but here's what I got from it: at the end Rory was unstable. She saw herself as escaping, but to me it looked like she was digging herself deeper into a life of poverty and craziness, and running off completely alone at the age of 16 just increased her chances of being a victim again.
Working 12 hour days is not conducive to reading or blogging. I can tell you I read this book, and I liked it so much that I managed to read it in less than a week, even with my work schedule. But I kept putting this off until now and, of course, most of what I was going to write has been forgotten.
But I'll say this: I like Hassman's style. I like her metaphors and similes. I'm a sucker for a good simile.
Synopsis/spoilers: Rory lives with her alcoholic mom in a trailer park, is molested by a neighbor and bullied by his daughter, goes a little nutso afterwards but recovers, loses her mom to an accident and her grandmother to old age/possibly cancer, and towards the end of the book everything gets a little weird and dream-like. If I had to dislike anything, it would be the last part, post-death of her mom. It ends with her setting fire to her trailer and skipping town, and she believes she's starting over and it's going to be better, and Hassman makes it clear that Rory sees this as a rebirth. I don't know if how I felt about the ending is me injecting my own reasoning into the story or if Hassman meant for us to see deeper into the situation and see a little more of the truth, but here's what I got from it: at the end Rory was unstable. She saw herself as escaping, but to me it looked like she was digging herself deeper into a life of poverty and craziness, and running off completely alone at the age of 16 just increased her chances of being a victim again.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
The End of Thursday Next
At least until Jasper Fforde writes some new books. I've read the last two in the series, but I finished the last one two weeks ago, so veeeeeeeeeeery short post about them:
Thursday Next, First Among Sequels
This one is odd for me because Thursday has aged so much. She's now in her 40s, maybe even early 50s, but I started reading about her when she was mid-30s so it's hard for me to shake the image of her I already have in my mind. By the time I read the last book, though, I'd finally done it. This one concerns her son, Friday, who is now 16 and who refuses to join the ChronoGuard, even though it is supposedly very important that he does so. Thursday has that to worry about. Also, several departments in SpecOps have been done away with, so she and her old coworkers have opened up a carpet shop together. Isn't that nice? Only really it's a front so they can continue to do SpecOps work. Only doing her old LiteraTec job is really just a front also: she's still doing Jurisfiction work. She's got secrets upon secrets, this one! Also, remember how in the last book she was a bit famous? They wrote books about her. So in the Book World, that character exists. And also, for one book she demanded that her character tone it down a bit (because they had written her as this ass-kicking (but also lots of sex-having) kind of bitch (who was vastly popular with readers) so for that book the writers went overboard and made her this tree-hugging earth mother (so now in the Book World there are TWO Thursday Nexts, in addition to the *real* Thursday who works in Jurisfiction). And guess what? Both Thursdays want to join Jurisfiction as well. Thursday has to train both of them, at one point, at the same time. To spoil the ending, it turns out that the Bitch Thursday hates the real Thursday and wants to take her out, and take her place in the Book World. Real Thursday defeats her, and Hippie Thursday takes the other's place in all the books, but all the books are tweaked to go along with her personality. Oh, also she has to go along with Goliath's plan on something to get back into the Book World and they screw her over, which we ALL SAW COMING. Oh, and Friday has very good reasons for not wanting to join ChronoGuard. Also of note: her father isn't in this one. He's still around, because one version of Friday who DOES work for ChronoGuard tells Thursday that he's still working there, but for some reason he doesn't visit Thursday as much. It's just kind of weird.
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
The fictional Thursday gets to tell this story. It starts out just telling her point of view from inside the series. Fforde kind of confused me here--I can't quite wrap my head around all of these characters inhabiting a whole series and having to act out things as they're read. Some people will be reading different parts at the same time, how do they do that? Fforde also tries to explain the new Book World, and damn is it confusing as well. I'm not even going to try; I suggest if you need to know give the book a read. Fake Thursday is told by a mysterious man on the bus that "one of our Thursdays is missing". From there, some stuff happens, and wouldn't you know! Real Thursday is missing, and she's needed for some peace talks between some book genres. This book genre war was going on in the last book, and a lot of time has passed since then, and you'd think they'd have sorted this out by now, but no. Fake Thursday has to find the Real Thursday. She even gets to go to the real world to look for clues there. And the way you get to the real world is a complicated machine that basically grinds you up and spits you back out, and why was this NEVER mentioned in the series before when countless fictional beings interacted with Thursday in the real world? Once in the real world, a character shows up to talk her through it, and he's a square. Kind of a floating square. His origin is not adequately explained and sometimes he disappears for a while and no reason for it is ever given. She finds Thursday. Figures out what happened to her. And returns to her book to resume her life. This is not my favorite book of the series.
I wish I could update the blog as I'm actually reading these books (I work 12+ hours and haven't the time for it) because there are several cute little things in these books that I wish I could write about. Like Thursday's mother and aunt: in one book there is reference to a game they like to play on solicitors--the invite them in, and then see how long they can jack with them. It's just a cute little thing Fforde included, and I love some of the little things like that.
Thursday Next, First Among Sequels
This one is odd for me because Thursday has aged so much. She's now in her 40s, maybe even early 50s, but I started reading about her when she was mid-30s so it's hard for me to shake the image of her I already have in my mind. By the time I read the last book, though, I'd finally done it. This one concerns her son, Friday, who is now 16 and who refuses to join the ChronoGuard, even though it is supposedly very important that he does so. Thursday has that to worry about. Also, several departments in SpecOps have been done away with, so she and her old coworkers have opened up a carpet shop together. Isn't that nice? Only really it's a front so they can continue to do SpecOps work. Only doing her old LiteraTec job is really just a front also: she's still doing Jurisfiction work. She's got secrets upon secrets, this one! Also, remember how in the last book she was a bit famous? They wrote books about her. So in the Book World, that character exists. And also, for one book she demanded that her character tone it down a bit (because they had written her as this ass-kicking (but also lots of sex-having) kind of bitch (who was vastly popular with readers) so for that book the writers went overboard and made her this tree-hugging earth mother (so now in the Book World there are TWO Thursday Nexts, in addition to the *real* Thursday who works in Jurisfiction). And guess what? Both Thursdays want to join Jurisfiction as well. Thursday has to train both of them, at one point, at the same time. To spoil the ending, it turns out that the Bitch Thursday hates the real Thursday and wants to take her out, and take her place in the Book World. Real Thursday defeats her, and Hippie Thursday takes the other's place in all the books, but all the books are tweaked to go along with her personality. Oh, also she has to go along with Goliath's plan on something to get back into the Book World and they screw her over, which we ALL SAW COMING. Oh, and Friday has very good reasons for not wanting to join ChronoGuard. Also of note: her father isn't in this one. He's still around, because one version of Friday who DOES work for ChronoGuard tells Thursday that he's still working there, but for some reason he doesn't visit Thursday as much. It's just kind of weird.
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
The fictional Thursday gets to tell this story. It starts out just telling her point of view from inside the series. Fforde kind of confused me here--I can't quite wrap my head around all of these characters inhabiting a whole series and having to act out things as they're read. Some people will be reading different parts at the same time, how do they do that? Fforde also tries to explain the new Book World, and damn is it confusing as well. I'm not even going to try; I suggest if you need to know give the book a read. Fake Thursday is told by a mysterious man on the bus that "one of our Thursdays is missing". From there, some stuff happens, and wouldn't you know! Real Thursday is missing, and she's needed for some peace talks between some book genres. This book genre war was going on in the last book, and a lot of time has passed since then, and you'd think they'd have sorted this out by now, but no. Fake Thursday has to find the Real Thursday. She even gets to go to the real world to look for clues there. And the way you get to the real world is a complicated machine that basically grinds you up and spits you back out, and why was this NEVER mentioned in the series before when countless fictional beings interacted with Thursday in the real world? Once in the real world, a character shows up to talk her through it, and he's a square. Kind of a floating square. His origin is not adequately explained and sometimes he disappears for a while and no reason for it is ever given. She finds Thursday. Figures out what happened to her. And returns to her book to resume her life. This is not my favorite book of the series.
I wish I could update the blog as I'm actually reading these books (I work 12+ hours and haven't the time for it) because there are several cute little things in these books that I wish I could write about. Like Thursday's mother and aunt: in one book there is reference to a game they like to play on solicitors--the invite them in, and then see how long they can jack with them. It's just a cute little thing Fforde included, and I love some of the little things like that.
Friday, January 6, 2012
I Read Two Books!!
So I read the next Thursday Next book, and didn't feel like writing a blog post, so I started the NEXT Next book, and finished it as well. They're awesome, as usual. A few people complain that Fforde is all over the place, and introduces too many different plot points. Dude, he totally does that. Every other page something new and weird is happening, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! I'm, like, 4 books in and I'm still not sick of it.
Lost in a Good Book I'm not doing a long recap or critique because I'm tired. I'm forcing myself to write this stuff tonight because I still have this blog nagging at me to list every book I read. So, here's my problem with this book: Thursday is introduced to Jurisfiction--the police force WITHIN THE WORLD OF BOOKS--and is chosen as an apprentice under Miss Havisham (yes, that one). The BookWorld is basically a magical place where characters can jump at will into other books, or even into the real world. Why wasn't ANY of this mentioned in the previous book? Rochester and Thursday had many long talks when she was trying to save the book from Acheron Hades, and he never once asked if they needed backup from ANY OTHER CHARACTER IN FICTION. Or offered to help Thursday escape the book. It was stated several times that being trapped in the book forever was a real possibility. Also while reading this book Thursday goes to visit Granny Next, and tells her about her husband's eradication, and Gran reveals that HER husband was also eradicated, but she did get him back. I remember thinking that the women in this family have the absolute worst luck.
Then along comes Well of Lost Plots. Thursday decides to live in the book world at the end of the previous book to hide from Goliath thugs and a warrant out for her arrest from SpecOps, and to try to come up with a get-my-husband back plan. Also--she's pregnant! And she's still working for Jurisfiction. She starts to forget her husband, thanks to Hades' sister Aornis who has special memory-altering powers so strong that even the MEMORY of her can do damage in your mind. Granny Next moves in with her to help her retain her memories and defeat Aornis. In Thursday's home-book, an unpublished novel, the story is crap and they're in danger of getting demolished, but by the end of the book Thursday is head of Jurisfiction and figures out a way to save the book: she turns a hacky police novel into a nursery rhyme/police story crossover. (which is a very cute way to reference one of Fforde's other books--the Nursery Crime books)
After that I read Something Rotten. Two years have passed. She's had her baby, a boy named Friday. She decides to move back to the real world. A whole bunch of shit happens! It's all very entertaining! I've written too much already!!! BUT GUESS WHAT. She gets Landen back. And also, Granny Next is not who we think she is I'M TOTALLY GOING TO SPOIL IT she's actually Thursday herself!! Thursday is the daughter and mother of members of the Chronoguard, so it looks like in her old age she got one of her time travelling family members to take her to Thursday's time to guide her during these troubling times. My gripe with this book: we see glimpses of what Thursday did as Jurisfiction head that make us totally wanna read a book about THAT time period. She dies, also. Spoiler alert. She totally goes to the afterlife. Obviously not for long.
Last thing I want to talk about: Stephen King/Richard Bachmann--The Long Walk. My best friend Book Radio has been playing this when I drive between jobs. I read it, but a very long time ago, and I am enjoying the shit out of it now.
Lost in a Good Book I'm not doing a long recap or critique because I'm tired. I'm forcing myself to write this stuff tonight because I still have this blog nagging at me to list every book I read. So, here's my problem with this book: Thursday is introduced to Jurisfiction--the police force WITHIN THE WORLD OF BOOKS--and is chosen as an apprentice under Miss Havisham (yes, that one). The BookWorld is basically a magical place where characters can jump at will into other books, or even into the real world. Why wasn't ANY of this mentioned in the previous book? Rochester and Thursday had many long talks when she was trying to save the book from Acheron Hades, and he never once asked if they needed backup from ANY OTHER CHARACTER IN FICTION. Or offered to help Thursday escape the book. It was stated several times that being trapped in the book forever was a real possibility. Also while reading this book Thursday goes to visit Granny Next, and tells her about her husband's eradication, and Gran reveals that HER husband was also eradicated, but she did get him back. I remember thinking that the women in this family have the absolute worst luck.
Then along comes Well of Lost Plots. Thursday decides to live in the book world at the end of the previous book to hide from Goliath thugs and a warrant out for her arrest from SpecOps, and to try to come up with a get-my-husband back plan. Also--she's pregnant! And she's still working for Jurisfiction. She starts to forget her husband, thanks to Hades' sister Aornis who has special memory-altering powers so strong that even the MEMORY of her can do damage in your mind. Granny Next moves in with her to help her retain her memories and defeat Aornis. In Thursday's home-book, an unpublished novel, the story is crap and they're in danger of getting demolished, but by the end of the book Thursday is head of Jurisfiction and figures out a way to save the book: she turns a hacky police novel into a nursery rhyme/police story crossover. (which is a very cute way to reference one of Fforde's other books--the Nursery Crime books)
After that I read Something Rotten. Two years have passed. She's had her baby, a boy named Friday. She decides to move back to the real world. A whole bunch of shit happens! It's all very entertaining! I've written too much already!!! BUT GUESS WHAT. She gets Landen back. And also, Granny Next is not who we think she is I'M TOTALLY GOING TO SPOIL IT she's actually Thursday herself!! Thursday is the daughter and mother of members of the Chronoguard, so it looks like in her old age she got one of her time travelling family members to take her to Thursday's time to guide her during these troubling times. My gripe with this book: we see glimpses of what Thursday did as Jurisfiction head that make us totally wanna read a book about THAT time period. She dies, also. Spoiler alert. She totally goes to the afterlife. Obviously not for long.
Last thing I want to talk about: Stephen King/Richard Bachmann--The Long Walk. My best friend Book Radio has been playing this when I drive between jobs. I read it, but a very long time ago, and I am enjoying the shit out of it now.
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