Complete Claudine
I love Colette. I have no idea why I’ve never read the Complete Claudine before. I don’t know why I waited so long. I love, love, love Claudine – even Claudine married and denying Annie. Hah.
2008
The Coffee Trader
The only problem with The Coffee Trader is that I felt like I needed to drink coffee through the whole thing. Not a big problem, since I drink a lot of coffee anyway but my cup warmer is not next to my bed so the coffee kept getting cold. That part was annoying.
Other than that, I really enjoyed it. Loved the ending. Happily ever after except…. I love that.
Here Be Dragons
Darn it. There are no dragons in Here Be Dragons. That ended up being ok but for a few moments, I was disappointed. And now that I think about it again, I think a book about Kings Richard and John and Llewelyn the Great that had dragons in it would have been pretty cool. But no, no dragons.
Historical fiction, really long Welsh/English/Norman/French historical fiction. Surprisingly interesting except when it was really slow and dull – luckily that slow dull stuff was easily skimmed so once I got past the first 50 pages, it was pretty smooth sailing. I even stayed up until midnight a couple of nights ago because I couldn’t put the book down.
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
Finally! The only problem with Willig is that I never get to read her books immediately after they come out. First, my library never had them and I had to wait months before I could request them via ILL. Then, when I bought one, I had to get through some of my “challenge books” before I could pick it up.
But finally, I finished Seduction of the Crimson Rose this morning. Excellent, as expected.
One interesting thing to note, when TW read it she complained that she didn’t remember what had happened in the other books or who the characters were. I assumed this was just a TW thing but I struggled to remember who was who and where we were in the storyline for the first 50 or so pages of the book. Why is that? This is not usually a problem for me, particularly in a series I really like.
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Breaking Dawn
I did a pretty good job of avoiding spoilers for Breaking Dawn so I really did not know exactly what Meyer was going to do to resolve the problems with Bella (and the guys) leftover from Eclipse. I don’t think she really did resolve them but she did give Bella more strength and less wishy washyness than before. Too bad it took X to make Bella strong. (X = spoiler and while most people have already read spoilers or already read the book, I don’t want to risk it for those who haven’t.)
I wanted to throw the book about a hundred times. The patriarchy runs rampant! Geez.
And then, the Jacob storyline – how predictable. I figured the whole thing out before the first night on Esme Island. I think the only surprise for me was how the issue with the Volturi was handled – there at the end. I knew Alice was up to something but I didn’t quite know what or how.
When it all comes down to it, I liked Breaking Dawn a heck of a lot more than I liked Eclipse and I look forward to reading about errr the character named Nessie.
Oh, before I go… that racism thing? Just another reminder of why I have no respect for Alisa Valdez Rodriguez. Call out racism if it exists, I’m all for that and I’ll do it with you. But link baiting by falsely attacking someone else who has the spotlight is just wrong. (spoilers contained in the link.)
Queenmaker
I have a love hate with Biiblical fiction. Nothing is as a good as The Red Tent, which is to be expected, but they all sound like they’re trying to be The Red Tent. Weird. I don’t compare vampire fiction to Anne Rice, how come I do that with Biblical fiction? Whatever.
Queenmaker wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad, either. King David = jerk. Queen Michal = awesome, mostly. No surprises.
Taking a break from the “FtS” Challenge – Breaking Dawn and The Seduction of the Crimson Rose are up next. Yay!
Rosemary and Juliet
I should have known what I was getting into with a book called Rosemary and Juliet but I didn’t pay enough attention. Ah well, I’m a fan of YA and I don’t mind a YA problem book from time to time, either.
Regardless of what the title might lead you to believe this book is about – it isn’t that at all. It’s a basic YA lesbian problem book with more problems than most YA straight problem books.
Two kids die and neither were our star crossed lovers. (oops I guess that’s a spoiler, sorry.)
Electric shock therapy was tossed in there for good measure.
And of course, the predictable unhappy ending because in the end teens are required to do what their parents tell them to do – even if their parents are idiots.
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Things Fall Apart
The first question I have about Things Fall Apart is why was this on our shelf to start with? Who bought it and why? Or did we lift it from my mother’s bookshelf a long long time ago?
The next question I have is… why, why, why do we get so excited by books like this. And when I say we, I mean the people who decide what’s a classic, what’s a must read, what’s a prize winner, what should be in a high schooler’s curriculum? I don’t get it. OK so it was written in the late ’50s, before Nigerian independence. I can see why it might have received acclaim way back then – but now? I feel like there are better books, better stories and better characters.
It was interesting. But I don’t understand the rave reviews or why it’s on all sorts of great book lists.
Hood
When I started reading Hood I felt like I’d read it before but quickly realized that all of Emma Donoghue’s books feel that way to me. Her characters seem familiar, like I’ve read more of their stories in some other book. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or if it means she’s recycling characters and I should be annoyed.
I lean toward not being annoyed but that might be due to my willingness to give authors who write good lesbian fiction a break – there are so few good lesbian fiction writers, Donoghue is one of them.
Seems sort of kharmic or something that I finished Hood on the day Del Martin died, doesn’t it?
The Magic Toyshop
There I was, happily enjoying The Magic Toyshop when suddenly, I wasn’t. That suddenly part happened in the last three pages of the damn book. I really hate that. I think I’d rather read a bad book all the way through than read a good book only to have it disappoint me in the end.
I just don’t think that ending was necessary. I didn’t need a happy ending, but I did need SOME kind of ending. Wait, there isn’t a sequel right? Surely not… I’ve read The Bloody Chamber and it is not related to this. Is there something else I’m missing? Nah. The author just wanted to annoy me at the end. Gee thanks. By looking at the Amazon reviews, I see that I am not alone. Someone should re-write the ending, 50 pages should do it. Get busy with that, and let me know when you’ve finished. Thanks!