by Sara Douglass
ONE LINE SUMMARY: The son of a human and a winged Icarii must battle his half-brother to save his country, in the first in a series.
I enjoyed this book, which reminded me of the Archangels of Samaria series by Sharon Shinn, only with more action. There are some clunky passages and the author is pretty bad at names (”Tree Friend” was the best she could do?). And the prophecy on which this whole book is based is a very badly-written bit of doggerel that just made me laugh.
That being said, however, the plot moves swiftly and the book is engaging. I don’t like how the book just comes to a stop at the end and apparently just continues directly into the next in the series, but it certainly makes me want to find the next book right away. There are apparently two trilogies that make up this series.
by Sarah Graves
ONE LINE SUMMARY: In the 8th installment of the Home Repair is Homicide series, Jake Tiptree handles an influx of long-lost family while helping her housekeeper with an ex who turns up dead.
Now that I’ve finally caught up with the series, I can stop reading them. These are the kinds of books I read when I can’t find what I really want at the library. The writing isn’t that bad, but the characters still seem too stilted to be real, and some of the writing quirks –
–in which Jake interjects thoughts into an already ongoing monologue, in this manner –
–gets tiresome.
Nearly every paragraph ends with a minor cliffhanger, and we now get home repair tips sporadically thrown into the middle of chapters (often in the middle of a sentence). Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll only pick up further entries in this series if I’m really desperate for something to read.
my site is back up! It’s taken ages!
Sometimes my website is here.
Other times there’s just one pixel.
My host said they fixed the problem.
Now, sometimes when I’m lucky, I have two pixels.
by George Carlin
ONE LINE SUMMARY: Comedian George Carlin offers another collection of essays and one-liners.
This book was a struggle to get through. I was on the verge of returning it the library, unfinished, when I decided to renew it and just try to get to the end. I haven’t really enjoyed any book by a comedian, although I love stand-up comedy, except Paul Reiser’s Couplehood and Babyhood. Reiser knows how to take his comedy and create a beginning, middle and end to his books, and I just wish he’d write another book (Adolescenthood?).
Carlin’s book is extremely disjointed and often pointless. Yes, I do tend to like some kind of coherency in plot/structure, but this book simply wasn’t very funny. The best bits were actually the one-liners.
This is the first book I’ve read this year which I wished I hadn’t wasted my time on.
by Suzanne Clothier
ONE LINE SUMMARY: The author is a dog trainer who writes about learning to communicate with and to dogs.
This book presents an interesting angle of looking at dog communication that I hadn’t thought of before. For instance, with my problem with Flacko, the author would probably say that I need to take his lip curling and growling as signs that he is afraid of wearing a harness, and I need to listen to what he says and back off. Dogs are truthful animals, and believe that we tell the truth also, so when we betray that trust (by, for example, ignoring their warning signs and moving in closer), we end up harming the dog more than helping him.
The reason why I’m not recommending this book is because although the ideas presented are fascinating, the chapters are too choppy and no suggestions for solving problems are given. In other words, I can learn to read Flacko’s signals, but I won’t be able to get the harness on him.
by Harley Jane Kozak
ONE LINE SUMMARY: Wollie Shelley, recovering from the recent breakup of her engagement, finds love and mystery while investigating the disappearance of an au pair and appearing on a reality show.
This sequel to Kozak’s first Dating Dead Men is another winner. Although I missed Doc and Ruby, there were enough engaging new characters to keep my interest, and the mystery satisfactorily wraps up.