I somehow missed reading Roots when it was new and fresh. I also never watched the iconic miniseries based on the book. I do remember that both book aI somehow missed reading Roots when it was new and fresh. I also never watched the iconic miniseries based on the book. I do remember that both book and miniseries created quite a buzz in the Seventies. I've recently been reading a bit of African-American fiction and a smaller bit of non-fiction about slavery and race issues. It seemed to me that I would eventually need to read Roots simply because of its impact. When I saw it on sale at Audible for $4.95, I snatched it up. As a bonus, the narrator is Avery Brooks from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He's got such a wonderful voice that reminds me a lot of James Earl Jones in cadence and timbre.
The novel starts out great. The scenes involving Kunta Kinte's growing up in Gambia are rich and well rounded. There was a lot of suspense because you just know that he's going to get sold into slavery, but you don't know how or when it's going to happen. Will the slavers capture the whole tribe, or will Kunta simply disappear like so many others? When the inevitable happens, it's frightening and gut-wrenching. The scenes of his captivity and transport seem quite realistic, albeit disgusting.
The novel quickly goes downhill once Kunta Kinte reaches America. My biggest complaint may be the over-use of the N-word. Yes, I know that the N-word is the name used by and for the Negroes of the time. However, other terms were also used. Haley just went strictly with the N-word though. However, in Haley's defense, while that word was offensive in 1974, it is much more offensive today. I also thought that either Haley did a bad job with dialect or Brooks over-acted it. After listening for an hour or two, it had to stop myself from saying things like, "I's a goan ta..." or "Yes sah, massah sah". I also thought that the slaves in the book were very unrealistic. They are aware of almost every historical event. I doubt the whites of the time were as well-informed as these slaves were.
I couldn't help but wonder why these particular slaves wanted to be free. Haley paints an idyllic picture of slave life. Heck, they have it better off than the poor whites of the time. Oh, they hear about bad overseers and families being broken up, but this family manages to stay together and they have really nice massahs. Even Massah Lee, who raped Kizzie when he bought her, turns out to be a good massah. So much of this novel reads like the positive images white slave owners tried to perpetuate about slavery rather than a condemnation of the practice.
I won this book through GoodReads. (You're required to disclose if you got a book free in your online reviews now. It's some government regulation.)
ReI won this book through GoodReads. (You're required to disclose if you got a book free in your online reviews now. It's some government regulation.)
Reckless by Andrew Gross starts off like one of those old episodes of Columbo where you see the crime and know whodunit but then get to watch Detective Columbo solve it. However, in this case, each piece of the puzzle reveals a much bigger picture and a much wider conspiracy than originally imagined. In any other mystery/thriller, the author's tendency to keep the reader one step ahead of the investigators would be really annoying. Here though, Gross is constantly mis-directing both the protagonists and us. The pacing of this novel is excellent and the short chapters worked well to keep me turning the pages. I'd recommend Reckless for any conspiracy theorists out there. You'll love the twist ending....more
After a disappointing experience with Proven Guilty, I'm delighted to say that White Night brings back the elements that made the previous Dresden FilAfter a disappointing experience with Proven Guilty, I'm delighted to say that White Night brings back the elements that made the previous Dresden Files novels so enjoyable. There's a good mystery with lots of wrong turns that ends climatically with a lot of explosions. I especially like how this novel explored the differences in the types of magic that that wizards in Harry's world are good at. Harry, Molly, Elaine, and Ramirez all have very different styles of magic and have to use their strengths to their advantage.
I also like the development of Marcone's character and was glad to see him back. I think it's good for Harry to have a non-magical adversary....more
Audible recently had 200 audiobooks on sale for $4.95 each. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass was one of those selections. Audible recently had 200 audiobooks on sale for $4.95 each. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass was one of those selections. My husband and I had just seen the Tim Burton movie of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and he asked me if I had ever read it. I had not. My entire experience with Lewis Carroll's work had been from Fantasyland rides at Disneyland, the Disney animated film, and some TV adaptation from the late Sixties/early Seventies. Wait! I forgot about the Jefferson Airplane song and a couple of readings of "The Jabberwocky" in high school & college English classes. Between seeing the Burton movie and recently reading The Looking Glass Wars, I felt it was high time to get acquainted with the source material.
I'm going to have to say that the Alice story has never really appealed to me in any form and I don't thing going to the beginning was any help. I don't even think I would have enjoyed it much as a little girl. While it didn't seem to be as much of a drug-induced hallucination as I expected, it was too nonsensical for my taste. I've always leaned more towards realism in literature, even if it's fantasy literature. One thing I did notice is that most of the adaptations of Alice draw from both of her stories and blend them into something that is unlike either. I found Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to be superior to Through the Looking Glass. Okay, the latter did have those wonderful Lewis Carroll poems, but the former was a much better narrative and had better continuity.
While this isn't something I'd foist on 21st Century children, I would recommend it for those who are interested in the history of children's literature and/or the source of so much stuff from Disney....more
I was recently looking for new podcasts on iTunes and ran across The Classic Tales Podcast by B.J. Harrison. He was a couple of episodes into the 8-paI was recently looking for new podcasts on iTunes and ran across The Classic Tales Podcast by B.J. Harrison. He was a couple of episodes into the 8-part serialization of Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Now, this is not a book I would have sought out, but it was a free podcast, so I subscribed. I have to say that I'm very glad I did. B.J. Harrison's narration was wonderful. He caught Bertie Wooster's personality perfectly. I really think this is a book that's exceptionally well-suited to audio.
I suppose I should say something about the story. It reminded me a lot of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest with its clueless characters and compounded misunderstandings. Turn after turn, you see how Bertie's opinion of himself is way too high. His inflated ego total ignorance made me laugh out loud many times while listening to this. He never once suspects that he's a total idiot.
I highly recommend downloading the podcast of this story. It's just too much fun to pass up....more
I got The Forgotten Garden from Audible's $4.95 sale and I'm so glad I did. It was a totally engaging story, mysterious with lots of twists and turns.I got The Forgotten Garden from Audible's $4.95 sale and I'm so glad I did. It was a totally engaging story, mysterious with lots of twists and turns. I really can't say much about it without giving it away. However, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a lot of intrigue and a little romance. ...more
I really enjoyed the first two installment's of Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy. However, I had a really hard time getting through Last ArgumeI really enjoyed the first two installment's of Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy. However, I had a really hard time getting through Last Argument of Kings. I really bogged down during the battle scenes between Logen & Dogman's men and Berthod's army. There was a lot of gritty detail, but I was bored silly. Jezal dan Luthar's storyline got really interesting and there was some great comic relief and heroism from him. However, there wasn't enough of him. Also, Sand dan Glokta didn't have as big a part through most of this novel as he did in the first two. He's one of the most fascinating fantasy characters I've met, but there just wasn't enough of him here.
I really have a feeling that Abercrombie ran out of steam with this book. It did pick up in the last third, but it seemed like a crazy quilt rather than a finely pieced pattern. This installment made me realize that the series was really a bunch of characters in search of a plot. There is a conclusion, but it was kind of difficult to see that everything that came before was leading to that conclusion or anywhere else.
Overall, I did find The First Law trilogy to be a refreshing fantasy read. It wasn't bogged down in fantasy tropes. It was realistic and had great characters. It took some interesting twists and turns. It is graphically violent, but that's one of its strengths. I do recommend the series, even if I can't give high marks to the final book....more
I won an ARC of this book through Crown Publishing Group's Read It Forward program.
The California Roll: A Novel is a very clever novel. It's basicallI won an ARC of this book through Crown Publishing Group's Read It Forward program.
The California Roll: A Novel is a very clever novel. It's basically a cross between "The Sting" and "Paper Moon" set in modern-day Los Angeles. There were moments in the first few chapters when I laughed out loud. Sadly, the cleverness wore thin for me about 50 pages in and it never really picked up the momentum. Vorhaus' writing style reminded me a lot of Tom Wolfe's in The Bonfire of the Vanities, which I loved.
This is one case where I suspect my failure to fully enjoy this book was more my state of mind than the quality of the novel. It is a humorous novel and humor is always subjective....more
I've had very limited experience with Jack McDevitt's books. My daughter has tried lending them to me, but they just don't drag me in. I did kind of lI've had very limited experience with Jack McDevitt's books. My daughter has tried lending them to me, but they just don't drag me in. I did kind of like Polaris, but I really hated the way the female POV character was written. After that experience, I was ready to write off McDevitt altogether. However, I'm going through a post-apocalyptic literature period and Eternity Road is a fairly famous example of the genre.
I really liked the book, but it felt like I had read it before. I know that the episode where Chaka talks to a holographic Winston Churchill was included as a short story in Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, and I'm certain I've read the sequence that take place with an AI in Chicago's Union Station before. It was too darned familiar. The rest of the book didn't ring any bells though.
While I don't think Eternity Road is the finest example of post-apocalyptic literature, it was a good adventure and good speculation. I do think it could have been fleshed out better, but the conciseness makes for an engaging, entertaining read. I'd consider it to be Post-Apocalyptic Lite....more
Because Blackout ends so abruptly and was really meant one book with All Clear, I will review it along with the second book once I've finished it. ThaBecause Blackout ends so abruptly and was really meant one book with All Clear, I will review it along with the second book once I've finished it. Thank goodness I heard that the two books were supposed to be one. I would have been really disappointed if I had read this when it first came out and had to wait so long for the second book....more
I "read" the first book of the Kitty Norville series in audio. However, I realized that these books are only $6.99 in paperback, much less than the AuI "read" the first book of the Kitty Norville series in audio. However, I realized that these books are only $6.99 in paperback, much less than the Audible download. So, I decided to pick up the second installment in paperback. As much as I enjoyed the audio, I really think this series is better in print. It felt more like I was Kitty rather than having Kitty talk to me.
This series is really turning out to be fun and addictive. I really want to run out and get the third book right now. As much as I like "The Dresen Files" by Jim Butcher, I think the Kitty Norville series is better. The narrative is tighter and it's more interesting.
I recently heard Carrie Vaughn interviewed on the Tor podcast, "The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy." She talked a little bit about her books, but mostly aI recently heard Carrie Vaughn interviewed on the Tor podcast, "The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy." She talked a little bit about her books, but mostly about herself. It thought she sounded intelligent and interesting. It seemed like her Kitty Norville series might be similar to Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files". A few days later, I found a free Audible download of a conversation between Vaughn and my all-time favorite author, Connie Willis. I was impressed enough to download a copy of Kitty and the Midnight Hour. I have to say that I was pretty impressed and I will continue with the series. (I'll be switching to the paperbacks though because they're much less expensive.)
I especially liked the way Vaughn wrote about Kitty's shape-shifting into wolf form. I could almost feel the transformation. I thought it was interesting how she captured the pack behavior of the werewolves even when they were in human form. It was very well done. I can't think of anything I didn't like about the book.
As audiobooks go, this one was rather short. Audible offers it as a one part download. I thought the reader did a very good job with the story....more
When I read Crystal Rain in 2008, I thought it was one of the freshest science fiction novels I had read in a long time. It was an exciting adventure When I read Crystal Rain in 2008, I thought it was one of the freshest science fiction novels I had read in a long time. It was an exciting adventure story taking place in a well-developed culture. It explored the idea of what would happen if a human colony got cut off from all the other human colonies. I liked it so much, that I did put Ragamuffin on my mental to-look-for list. I finally checked a copy out of the library and sat down to read it. Sadly, I was quite disappointed.
You know how a book sometimes keeps you up late because you only have 50 pages to go and you just have to finish it? Well, I had 20 pages left of Ragamuffin at 10:00 last night and I put in my bookmark and closed the cover. I just wasn't that interested. Somehow, it felt like the book was rushed into production. Could that feeling have come from the four glaring grammatical errors I noticed? (I'm not talking about the poorly written dialect.) Or, could it have been because the two main story lines never meshed very well.
Part of what made Crystal Rain so wonderful is that it was a self contained story with terrific characters and a fabulously detailed setting. Ragamuffin had none of those qualities. It's a sequel to Crystal Rain, but you don't even get the connection until the second half.
I honestly don't know what compelled me to use my February Audible.com credit on The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. I was really looking for some scienI honestly don't know what compelled me to use my February Audible.com credit on The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. I was really looking for some science fiction because I've been reading too much fantasy lately. Anyhow, I ran across this at Audible somehow and downloaded yet another fantasy story. I'm so glad I did.
The Warded Man is one of the best fantasies I've ever "read". (Sorry, I have a hard time thinking of listening to audiobooks as reading.) The characters are so well developed and psychologically complex. The setting is natural and unique. In fact, I think it's the setting that impressed me the most. The opening chapters of the book are set in a small village that seems very much like Oklahoma in The Grapes of Wrath. Young Arlen wears overalls, works his parent's farm and mends wards the way a Depression-era boy would mend fences. Leesha and Rojer's villages are similar, but different. When you move on to the cities, the setting becomes more like something from a classic pseudo-medieval fantasy. Sometime in the past, this world was much like our own. There was science and technology, not demons and magic. Because of the rise of demons who come out at night, the cities and the villages end up very isolated. As a result, the Depression-era homestead, the medieval duchy, and the desert nomads all co-exist on the same continent.
It's pretty obvious where the threads of our three main characters' stories are going to go. It's also pretty obvious that they are going to come together. I found very few unexpected plot twists. Despite knowing where the story was going, I enjoyed it very much because I really cared about the characters. My one and only complaint is that the next book isn't out yet....more
A great book doesn't necessarily come from the use of new ideas. Sometimes, a great book comes from a writer who can deftly rework and recombine old iA great book doesn't necessarily come from the use of new ideas. Sometimes, a great book comes from a writer who can deftly rework and recombine old ideas in a new way that's fresh and exciting. There is nothing new in The Hunger Games, but Collins puts the elements together so skillfully and creates characters that are so real and so compelling, that the work rises above its sources. It's a great book for all ages, not just young adults. That's why it's not going on my young adult shelf.
In my opinion, The Hunger Games is worthy of the praise it has received. It's one of the best books I've read. I'd much rather have my teen read this than 90% of the books marketed to teens today....more
Tim Powers is not an easy author to read. It took me two tries to get through Declare because it was so densely packed action and ideas. It required wTim Powers is not an easy author to read. It took me two tries to get through Declare because it was so densely packed action and ideas. It required way too much brain power the first time I tried to read it. The Anubis Gates was convoluted and required a bit of knowledge about English Literature (thank goodness I majored) and Egyptian mythology (limited, at best). Both were very good, but required a lot of work out of the reader.
With Three Days to Never, Powers manages to make his fantastically bizarre plot accessible and easy to read. Yeah! It's every bit as creative and weird as Declare and The Anubis Gates, but it's comprehensible without a lot of paging back. I think it's an excellent first choice for someone who is curious about Tim Powers work....more
There is no way to review The Magicians by Lev Grossman without comparing it to the Harry Potter series. The book itself makes reference to the uber-sThere is no way to review The Magicians by Lev Grossman without comparing it to the Harry Potter series. The book itself makes reference to the uber-successful Rowling opus several times, so you know what it's striving for. The Magicians is about a young man named Quentin Coldwater who finds himself attending a college for magicians in upstate New York. Because they're college students, they get to drink and have sex. All of the students at Brakesbill College seem to be mentally gifted and emotionally stunted. They have all read a series of children's books about a magical land called Fillory that bears more than a passing resemblance to Narnia. Because the inside cover of The Magicians has a map of Fillory, it should come as no surprise that Quentin and some of his friends find their way from the magical setting of Brakesbill to the more magical world of Fillory. Unfortunately, it takes nearly 300 of the book's 400 pages for them to get there. In the meantime, we have to follow Quentin through 4 years of college and an unspecified number of months living a loser life after graduation.
Quentin and his friends are nowhere near as interesting and well-developed as Harry Potter and his friends. Their school does nothing to prepare them for life after college. Instead of growing as people, they regress. There is no magical world for Brakesbill grads to move into, they are thrust back into the real world unprepared for real life.
The Magicians liberally lifts ideas from both Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia, it lacks the power of either. The text reads very much like a children's book (more Narnia than Potter), but the sex and alcohol abuse prevent it from being a book you could pass to your kids. It lacks the sophistication and depth needed to raise it to the level of a book for an adult audience. For a mature audience, I recommend Harry Potter....more
Other than a great first chapter, I had a hard time getting through the first 200 pages of this book. The mysteries (two of them) really seemed to be Other than a great first chapter, I had a hard time getting through the first 200 pages of this book. The mysteries (two of them) really seemed to be going nowhere and didn't seem connected at all. I didn't care about any of the characters. About 200 pages in, when everything starts to get connected, it becomes much more interesting. However, I never grew to care about the characters and a lot of the plot seemed too far-fetched and contrived. I liked how it ended, I just wish the journey had been better....more
Shanghai Girls is a historical novel that covers twenty years in the life of Pearl and her sister, May, as they move from a life of privele(3.5 stars)
Shanghai Girls is a historical novel that covers twenty years in the life of Pearl and her sister, May, as they move from a life of privelege to poverty to escaping Japanese attacks on Shanghai. They are sold in marriage to a couple of Chinese-American brothers and travel to Los Angeles by way of Angel Island in San Francisco. Once in LA, they experience prejudice, poverty and segregation.
The book was a quick and easy read, but I don't think it benefited from that. It really needed to be twice as long to cover everything that it tried to cover. It was rich in historical detail, but fell a bit flat emotionally. It seemed like I should have felt more horror, sympathy, fear and joy about the things that were happening than I did. I felt like I got a detailed, yet somehow superficial view of the mid-century Chinese experience in LA than I did.
I'm in no way saying that I didn't like the book or that I wouldn't recommend it. I did enjoy it, I learned a few things from it, and I would recommend it. I just felt like it could have been so much more....more
I had certain expectations going into Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century and it didn't meet those expectations. It turned out thaI had certain expectations going into Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century and it didn't meet those expectations. It turned out that it wasn't about what I thought it was about at all. It had a big twist that completely turned my assumptions of the reality of the novel's world upside down. I didn't like how that twist was revealed so blatantly so early in the story.
I know I'm giving the impression that I disliked Darwinia, however I don't mean that at all. The story is very intriguing and Robert Charles Wilson creates a very new and unique world. The characterizations are weak, but the story makes up for that. I do recommend Darwinia760961 to science fiction fans....more