Booklog #21

I must begin with an apology - once again I wasn't able to post last Wednesday, but unfortunately I can't really tell you why.  I'll just say that all my spare time at the moment is going towards dealing with something going on here and little writing is likely to be done on Wednesdays for an undetermined period of time.  I'll still (hopefully) post my booklogs every Sunday, but don't be surprised (and please don't abandon me!) if I'm not able to get anything up on Wednesdays.  Fingers crossed that normal service will be resumed asap! 

This week I finished:

* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden
Continuing my journey through unexplored Kindle fantasy cheapie books, I sampled this mixture of dystopian sci-fi/Norse mythology (yes, you read that right) and was pleasantly surprised.  I'll admit that I didn't exactly love it at the start - our heroine, Victoria Red, is a team leader in something ominously known only as the Game.  The Game has been played for thousands of years and can never end or something unspeakably terrible will happen, and once Players are in it they do not age but also can never leave to go back to the outside world.  I thought it was going to be really techie and violent, without much emotional substance, but I was wrong.  Victoria despises her opposing team leader, Victor Black, but he has a proposition for her that leads them and their team members to places they've never been (or have they..?) as well as life-or-death encounters with Norse gods and the Game Lord himself.  The characters are very distinct (often a failing I've found in sci-fi is that I can't remember who is who because they're so similar) and the way relationships develop and change throughout is handled really well.  There's a little bit of Mills & Boon style sauciness as well, which I wasn't expecting!  For the fact that it takes a good basic idea and builds a convincing world around it, I give it 4/5

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
Yes - at last!  It's over!  I finally pushed through and got to the end...  I really did want to like this - I've seen Mary Beard present TV documentaries about Pompeii and such and she made the subject so accessible, so I assumed this book would be the same.  It is easy to follow, but it's so terribly dry...I was just utterly bored throughout.  I had expected (perhaps unreasonably) that it would focus on the Parthenon in terms of its creation and original function within Athens, but the majority of the book is actually about what happened to it since then - how it was used as various different things by different groups occupying the area (Romans, Turks etc), how it was wrecked and pillaged by people right up until quite recent times and whether the artefacts removed should be given back to Greece.  I bought it to use within an Open University essay (for which the first chapter served wonderfully), but as a general read for interest it doesn't do very well.  I'd have preferred one chapter at the end to brief me about all the post-ancient-Athens events, but as I say it occupied most of the book and I found it a real slog to get through.  Perhaps my expectations were wrong, but I can't change how I feel about it now, so: 2/5

* How to Give Up Shopping (Or At Least Cut Down) ~ Neradine Tisaj
Before I start I must point out that I'm not a compulsive shopper (unless you're looking at Kindle downloads), but I was interested to find out how to tweak my habits to become a bit more thrifty.  This is quite a short book (just over 1000 Kindle 'locations') but I don't think that matters, as it's written in such a chatty and personable style that it feels more like a one-way conversation with a friend.  Tisaj writes from personal experience (and shares some extremely personal information at the end) which is good as it makes you feel a bit less silly about some of the same things that you might have done yourself (e.g. buying the same item twice because you forgot you already had it - I've done this with books!).  Her advice is fairly obvious, but sometimes it needs somebody else to say it to you before you really 'get' it.  Because it is rather short and I'd have liked to read more, I give it: 4/5

This week I started:

* Rattle His Bones ~ Carola Dunn (the new book club read) 

I'm still reading:

* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
* Take the Monkeys and Run ~ Karen Cantwell

Till next week then, happy reading! 
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Booklog #20

Wow - the twentieth booklog!  It really doesn't feel like twenty weeks (more if you count the ones I missed over Christmas) since I started doing this...time certainly is flying by...

This week I finished:

* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn
Once more, my two book club buddies and I have proved to be rubbish detectives - we failed to identify the murderer...again!  I really thought I had it this time as well!  As with Murder on the Flying Scotsman this is a traditional 'cosy' whodunit - an enclosed setting (this time a small village), a shortlist of possible suspects, an official police officer assisted by an unexpected amateur sleuth and so on. 

Our sleuth here is Miss Daisy Dalrymple, a young lady engaged to a Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard (handy for getting her involved in investigating lots of crimes!).  This is a time when high class ladies simply Did Not Work...one generally married and became a mother while living off one's husband's income...however Daisy does work, she writes articles for magazines.  This is frequently commented upon with disdain by other ladies in the books, which I feel could get a bit wearing if it carries on through the whole series.  Otherwise though, they are very enjoyable - kind of 'Agatha Christie-lite', they don't have the depth of Christie but are the same style (and just as difficult to solve!).  4/5

This week I started:

* Take the Monkeys and Run ~ Karen Cantwell (strange title, I know!) 

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden

If you're a Kindle owner in the UK, you might be interested to know that a new 'crop' of free books were listed this week - if you click on 'Top 100 Free' you'll see some of them in the top rankings.  Buying one causes it to suggest a load of others to you, so you can find them all pretty easily.  I've got about 11 or 12 already...there were no reviews yet so they might be rubbish, but as they cost me nothing I don't care! 
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Spinning around...

I promised you a post and so a post you shall have, but I can't promise what level of quality it will be.  Sad face.  I feel like I'm always giving you excuses, but this time it's genuine!  Hubby and I went to see Kylie Minogue in Manchester last night - fabulous show, but we didn't get home till 1am so I was rather wiped out this morning.  You know how some people are larks (function best in the morning) and some are owls (function best late at night)?  Well I'm pretty sure I'm neither.  I'm whatever bird represents people who function best from late morning through to early evening...and even then only after a very good night's sleep. 

I slept in till...well, let's just say 'quite late'...then finally unearthed myself from bed and got to a stage where I was a) clean, b) dressed and c) fed and watered only to find an email saying an item of mine had sold via Amazon Marketplace.  So I sorted that out, got it packaged up and trooped off to the post office.  Got back and hubby asks for my help with something he's doing on the computer (the other one, not my laptop...NOBODY touches my laptop!).  Can't very well say no, so we spend a bunch of time doing that.  By now it's mid to late afternoon (it was very late when I got up) - I get my USA books out, fire up Google Chrome to carry on with my research and finally get down to it.  I manage about an hour before our stomachs are rumbling because it's dinner time.  Sigh.  I give up - today has been another lost day. 

Don't blame me...blame Kylie for keeping me up late last night! 
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Booklog #19

Hello all - so sorry I didn't get chance to post on Wednesday, I was wrapped up in research for Hitched and the day just ran away with me.  I've decided to focus on twenty key cities initially (the ones that the main UK airlines have direct flights to) to make it more manageable, so last Wednesday was Atlanta, Georgia, and surrounding area.  I've learnt so much about it already! 

This week I've finished:

* Angel ~ L.A. Weatherly
Well I'll tell you something - having the Kindle has certainly expanded my knowledge of the Young Adult paranormal genre.  It seems like every other cheap book is vampire/werewolf/angel/undead-related!  As you can tell from the title, this is of the angel oeuvre, but it's not what you think...these angels aren't the nice floaty healing kind, they're the 'feeding off human auras and draining them' kind.  It's down to high school psychic outcast Willow and Angel Killer (yes, that's his job) Alex to try and stop them bringing the Second Wave of angels into this world, as that would spell the end of humanity. 

I didn't have terribly high expectations, but actually enjoyed Angel quite a lot.  Willow is vulnerable but not pathetic (I'm looking at you Bella Swan), and as the book goes on she develops considerably (in a way you'd never expect!).  Alex is only 18 but has been an Angel Killer since he was 11 so is mature beyond his years, and although brooding about events in his past, he doesn't come across as pining (hello Edward Cullen).  After a shaky start their relationship blossoms quite naturally and you really believe that they were made to be together.  The action ebbs and flows as they're chased across the country, giving you chance to catch your breath in the quieter spells, until the big finale.  I have to say that I felt a little let down by this part - it seemed rushed, but as there are a couple of sequels I guess the ending here couldn't be too apocalyptic or there'd be nothing left for the other books! 

Well-written characters (both human and angel), good pacing and an interesting overall concept - 4/5

This week I've started:

* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (oh yes, starting on an epic!)
* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard (it's slow going)
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn (almost finished - having our last book club meeting tomorrow before we read the finale)

Have a great week - I promise I'll post this Wednesday... *slaps own wrist* 
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