Ghost Writer — it was on some list of creepy books I saw around Halloween. I’d never read it. I reserved it. It stunk.
So slow.
I tried to get through it. I gave it a full week and was half way through and for two days I just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up so I quit and it’s back at the library where I hope it finds someone who enjoys it. That someone would not be me.
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Sigh. I’m disappointed in Dexter’s Final Cut. So disappointed. I get that Dexter wasn’t a good guy, even though most of us grew to really love him. But… this. This was too much. It’s ok to kill off the Dexter series, it’s not ok to fuck with the people who’ve read your books for all of these years and have come to appreciate the characters and the storytelling.
It’s not OK at all. If you’ve ready all of the other books, don’t read this one. 🙁
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I’ve never seen Woman, by Richard Matheson, before. Didn’t know it existed. So, I was kind of excited by it when TW put it in the library bag. I liked I Am Legend and Hell House. (TW is a Somewhere in Time fan.)
But… I didn’t particularly like Woman.
I didn’t hate it but I definitely did not love it. It’s a mean book, I think that’s what bugged me. A cautionary tale for men that’s completely irrational because it’s about women. I don’t know. It bugged me.
I hate to say it, because I normally enjoy Jodi Picoult’s books but… Between the Lines is one you can probably skip.
I liked the idea of Picoult writing a YA book with her teen daughter but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. It took me three days to read the first three chapters. TW said it gets better… and it did. But not a lot better.
It’s not truly horrid but it’s just not great, either.
I really, really disliked the ending. Maybe it works for kids but for me, a mom, it did not work AT ALL. Not even a little bit.
Some people I know (ahem) swear by 168 Hours. Some of those people told me I should read it. Some of those people told others they should read it. Some of those people should be SHOT.
What a waste of time, speaking of time management. AHEM.
I thought the book might have potential and after the first chapter I was looking at time trackers (again.) Also, why isn’t there a 168Hours App? Seriously. You have this book with PRINTABLE PAGES and you don’t have an app? Ho hum. Also. AHEM.
No.
I quit the book half-way through it.
I don’t know if I’m just good at managing my time. Or if I’m not all that unhappy about not having time to do x, y or z so this book doesn’t speak to me. Or… I don’t know.
The title, the cover and the photos are the best things about Squeeze This! — otherwise, it’s dense and dry and not fun for someone like me. I really can’t believe I slogged all of the way through it, but I did. I don’t recommend you do so, unless you really love the accordion and even then… no, I don’t really recommend it.
I was talking to some of my coworkers about books I might purchase for some of my kids for Christmas and during that discussion, Sassymonkey reminded me that Francesca Lia Block (who Michelle loves) has written an adult novel. Before I had the chance to figure out whether I should buy it or reserve it at the library to read, first – I found it sitting on the library bookshelf. That answered that question. And boy am I glad it was on the shelf.
The Elementals is not a long book so it should have taken me a day to read. Two max. It took a week. I couldn’t get into it. As TW said after she read it – nothing happened.
There’s not much action. There’s not much dialogue. There’s a good bit of sex. It’s also very much a Francesca Lia Block novel. Magic, fairies etc. Except, there’s not. The fae weren’t real fae and the magic was (mostly?) not real magic. Which is maybe what makes this different from her YA novels and what makes this an adult novel? Allusions shouldn’t need to be explained to YA readers, much less adults. Block should stop doing that, it just adds to the word count and annoys readers.
Blah.
I just didn’t like this book and I spent the enter time reading it trying to figure out why this is listed as an adult novel. (Hoping the 20 somethings/30 somethings who love Weetzie Bat will take a chance on her new book just because it’s not listed as YA?)
I’m glad I didn’t buy it. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is.
I’ll leave it here on the library cart in case Michelle wants to give it a try while she’s home for Christmas but she’d probably be happier reading one of the old Francesca Lia Block YA novels. Weetzie Bat FTW – Ariel/Jenni/John/Perry/Tania (the Elementals), not so much.
Aye yi yi. The Absolute Value of -1 is what happens when you don’t find out what a book is about before you add it to your reserve list after seeing it mentioned on a blog. I should stop doing that.
Then again, if I had looked at the Amazon reviews, I wouldn’t have gotten much help – pretty much everyone loves it and nobody bothers to talk about the Suzanne/Simon problem. And oh boy was that a problem.
I don’t get it. Don’t find it believable, not based on the stories told by Lily, Noah, or Simon. Ditch that whole part and would Simon have been the same guy – yea, I think he would have been, which is why I don’t find the Suzanne/Simon attraction believable. The rest of the book (which is really most of it) is excellent.
But dude, Suzanne/Simon – the relationship… told in that way, too weird and just not right. Not at all right. Weird. Weird. Weird.
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I think my hopes were too high for Swallow. I like books about weird topics – I’m a big fan of Mary Roach, I loved The History of Milk, that book I read last year about the snake oil salesman… the weirder, the better. And Swallow was weird but it was also… difficult to read. Within about ten pages, I just wanted to put it down and that’s about the time when TW told me that she had not been able to finish it.
Well. Gee. I wonder why.
I don’t want my foreign body swallowing book to be full of prose. I want it to be full of quirky, interesting facts and stories. The author is a fabulous writer but I wish I’d read something else she wrote and I wish someone else would write a less pretty book about the swallowing of foreign bodies and the really interesting Dr Jackson Chevalier.
Also… I’m glad I didn’t read this before Elly swallowed the penny 10 years ago – I’d have been a total wreck. She’s lucky she didn’t die! Good grief.
I finally got the RIGHT Bad to the Bone from the library – I reserved two other books with this title neither of which are on the Cybil’s short list. Who knew there were so many Bad to the Bones published for kids in 2009-2010? This one wasn’t great. In fact, it’s one of those kinds of books that I just don’t like. Dogs who think their masters need training and who think they’re “good”…. I just don’t get the humor. I guess if you like that kind of thing… it’s not bad. It’s just not for me.
One more book to go in the Cybil’s shortlist challenge… I’m going to have to buy it, aren’t I?
Bad to the Bone (Down Girl and Sit) Read More »