Belated Wednesday reading
Nov. 20th, 2014 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayA day late, but at least I'm doing it this week...
What are you currently reading?
And Then He Kissed Her, a historical romance because I'm just in that place right now. Also, Longbourne by Jo Baker, which I've been meaning to read for ages and happened to be sitting on a shelf in the library the last time I visited. Clearly, it was meant to be.
What did you recently finish?
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. It was okay. Ish. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either. The pacing was off and there was an over-reliance on shock body horror, to the detriment of the plot, in my opinion. And the climax left me feeling cold and disappointed, because after all the big build up, I was expecting...more. Yeah. Not a book that I'd strongly recommend, but not something I hated. It suffered from debut novel issues - hopefully the author will get a better handle on the pacing in future books in the series, because he wrote some characters I really enjoyed and wouldn't object to seeing again.
Also, Cold Magic by Kate Elliot, which was another didn't hate/didn't love book. I think the problem was that someone sold it to me as having good queer representation and, er, that was possibly a huge oversell. On the other hand, racial diversity was there in spades, and I did love the set-up of the alternative history with all the steampunk vs. magic elements. I'll probably read more in the series despite not being completely sold on the first book, just to find out more about the world and the characters. It definitely hit the spot better than The Rook did, at least.
I also had The Library: A World History out on inter-library loan (my first ILL!) and I loved it. Highly recommended, just for the gorgeous photography alone. And the information was presented well, giving enough depth to spark a lot of ideas for me and make notes on things I want to investigate in the future, without getting so dry that I fell asleep. Sadly, it had to go back yesterday, and I hadn't actually finished reading it. But when I was putting together the info to request it again, I discovered that Amazon is currently listing it for an amazing discount. Even with shipping, customs, and translation to the Canadian dollar, it was vastly cheaper than buying it up here, so I ordered it. It's a huge, expensive, gorgeous book, and I can totally justify the expense now that I've had my hands on it.
(I may be just a bit in love with it.)
What do you think you'll read next?
I've got a lot of comics to catch up on when I finally get some time, so hopefully that will happen soon. I'm in a historical romance phase, and Tessa Dare's Romancing the Duke is currently on sale for Kindle, so that will probably be my next e-read because I couldn't resist buying it.
When I've finished Longbourne, I've been eyeing up Rabid on my own bookshelves, so that might be the one. Who doesn't love a history of rabies, after all?
What are you currently reading?
And Then He Kissed Her, a historical romance because I'm just in that place right now. Also, Longbourne by Jo Baker, which I've been meaning to read for ages and happened to be sitting on a shelf in the library the last time I visited. Clearly, it was meant to be.
What did you recently finish?
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. It was okay. Ish. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either. The pacing was off and there was an over-reliance on shock body horror, to the detriment of the plot, in my opinion. And the climax left me feeling cold and disappointed, because after all the big build up, I was expecting...more. Yeah. Not a book that I'd strongly recommend, but not something I hated. It suffered from debut novel issues - hopefully the author will get a better handle on the pacing in future books in the series, because he wrote some characters I really enjoyed and wouldn't object to seeing again.
Also, Cold Magic by Kate Elliot, which was another didn't hate/didn't love book. I think the problem was that someone sold it to me as having good queer representation and, er, that was possibly a huge oversell. On the other hand, racial diversity was there in spades, and I did love the set-up of the alternative history with all the steampunk vs. magic elements. I'll probably read more in the series despite not being completely sold on the first book, just to find out more about the world and the characters. It definitely hit the spot better than The Rook did, at least.
I also had The Library: A World History out on inter-library loan (my first ILL!) and I loved it. Highly recommended, just for the gorgeous photography alone. And the information was presented well, giving enough depth to spark a lot of ideas for me and make notes on things I want to investigate in the future, without getting so dry that I fell asleep. Sadly, it had to go back yesterday, and I hadn't actually finished reading it. But when I was putting together the info to request it again, I discovered that Amazon is currently listing it for an amazing discount. Even with shipping, customs, and translation to the Canadian dollar, it was vastly cheaper than buying it up here, so I ordered it. It's a huge, expensive, gorgeous book, and I can totally justify the expense now that I've had my hands on it.
(I may be just a bit in love with it.)
What do you think you'll read next?
I've got a lot of comics to catch up on when I finally get some time, so hopefully that will happen soon. I'm in a historical romance phase, and Tessa Dare's Romancing the Duke is currently on sale for Kindle, so that will probably be my next e-read because I couldn't resist buying it.
When I've finished Longbourne, I've been eyeing up Rabid on my own bookshelves, so that might be the one. Who doesn't love a history of rabies, after all?
no subject
Date: 2014-11-20 04:25 pm (UTC)The library book sounds AMAZING.
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Date: 2014-11-20 07:30 pm (UTC)The Rook frustrated me because of pacing and the anti-climatic climax stood out so much against the good bits. I'd actually be less frustrated about it if I hadn't enjoyed the other elements so much!
The library book is fantastic. I fell in love with it the moment I opened it.
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Date: 2014-11-20 10:42 pm (UTC)Historical Romance is a genre I really want to start exploring having recently discovered the joys of Courtney Milan.
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Date: 2014-11-23 01:30 pm (UTC)My problem with The Rook is that I could see how much better the final third could have been, and that really frustrated me. It had such a great set up, some fab characters that I want to see more of, and then it disappointed me at the end. So my reaction to it was probably stronger than Cold Magic because I wanted it to be so much better. And having talked about it, I'm realising I actually care a great deal more about it than I'd realised! So I'll probably be picking up the rest, just to see if my issues with the first book get fixed :-)
Cold Magic did exactly what I think the author set out to do. It was oversold to me, but I didn't get the feeling that the author intended anything more than she put on the page. So it didn't frustrate me, but it didn't capture me hugely, either. It felt, to me, like the Rook got lost in its intentions and the author didn't have the experience yet to get where he wanted to go, which I reacted to much more strongly. If that makes any sense?
Courtney Milan is so great :-D I'm picking up anything she recommends right now, because I like what she did so much, particularly with the Brother Sinister books. She's an author where I feel like going indy has really worked well - she's able to write outside the tropes that the big romance imprints insist on, and that results in books that I thoroughly enjoy.
The historical romances work far better for me than the contemporary somehow. It should be the opposite, because contemporary romance should have better gender roles, but somehow the historicals are winning for me on that front.