Thursday, December 20, 2018

2018.Book52 - Equal Rites (Pratchett)

Good fun.

2018.Book51 - Belgravia (Fallows)

Fine. Plot-wise, the "bad guys" had so little power it wasn't interesting. Some editing problems.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

2018.Book50 - Rejoice (Erikson)

A pile of hot garbage. So terrible. One-step-removed Mary Sue for Sawyer, and this reminded me of his shitty novels. A great concept, poorly done. Ugh.

Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

2018.Book48 - Someone Like Me (Carey)

Carey's with Brooks Hansen now in the "wrote one good novel" club.

Thursday, November 22, 2018

2018.Book47 - Asymmetry (Halliday)

All the parts are fine, but don't add up to much more.

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

2018.Book44 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

Excellent. Can see why it's a classic.

Tuesday, November 06, 2018

2018.Book43 - Gardens of the Moon (Erikson)

Pretty good re-read. Somehow not motivated to read the next one though.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Monday, October 01, 2018

2018.Book40 - All the Birds in the Sky (Anders)

Pretty good. Some neat ideas.

2018.Book39 - Whitethorn Woods (Binchey)

Nice stories about (mostly) good people.

Monday, September 24, 2018

2018.Book38 - Beatrice & Virgil (Martel)

Just OK. Started out quite weak; got better in the last third.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Friday, September 14, 2018

2018.Book36 - Commonwealth (Patchett)

Very good. The metafictional part seemed lame at first but better on reflection.

Tuesday, September 04, 2018

2018.Book35 - The Stone Angel (Laurence)

"My wilderness was pride, and the demon that led me there was fear". Very good.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Thursday, August 09, 2018

2018.Book30 - The Kite Runner (Hosseini)

Pretty good but kind of cheesy.

2018.Book29 - Freeze Frame Revolution (Watts)

Really good SF.

2018.Book28 - Us Conductors (Michaels)

Pretty dull, then a little better in the last third. How did this win a prize?!

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

2018.Book27 - The Underground Railroad (Whitehead)

Very good. The gimmick was unnecessary.

2018.Book26 - No Coins, Please (Korman)

Classic humour. Liked it as much now as when I first read it.

2018.Book25 - The Agony and The Ecstasy (Stone)

Entertaining Michelangelo biography.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

2018.Book24 - The Merry Spinster (Ortberg)

Fairly weak. A couple of funny parts.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

2018.Book23 - Armed in Her Fashion (Heartfield)

This should have been so good. Medieval fantasy in a Bosch setting. Could have been quite horrifying, but author pulled her punches, I guess, or was going for something else.

2018.Book22 - My Discovery of England (Leacock)

Some funny parts; seeing London as compared to Peterborough. Definitely of its time in the sexist and classist senses.

Friday, June 01, 2018

2018.Book21 - Gnomon (Harkaway)

Very good. Got lost a bit.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

2018.Book20 - Beartown (Backman)

Pretty terrible, but somehow I finished it.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Thursday, May 03, 2018

2018.Book17 - We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (Irby)

Occasionally funny essays. Everybody's already told all so the impact is small. Like the pet clinic stuff.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

2018.Book16 - The Devil in Silver (LaValle)

It's not often that I read a really terrible book. Just so bad. I loved "Ballad of Black Tom" so I thought this would be more of that; not at all.

2018.Book15 - Of This Earth (Wiebe)

Pretty interesting MB memoir

Monday, April 16, 2018

Monday, April 02, 2018

2018.Book13 - Gender Hurts (Jeffreys)

Very good. Lots to think about.

Monday, March 26, 2018

2018.Book12 - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Very strange, but very good.

2018.Book11 - Unsettling Canada (Manuel)

An unexpected alliance, a foreign power.

Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Monday, March 05, 2018

2018.Book9 - Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Thien)

Wow, so boring. By the end I just didn't care at all.

Thursday, March 01, 2018

2018.Book8 - The Thing Itself (Roberts)

Pretty cool attempt to ground horror SF in Kantian "ontology". Reminds me of Wilson (?) building Lovecraftian monsters in VR. But the idea at the end of this being some kind of apologetic? Very weak and I want to say typically British.

Friday, February 09, 2018

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Monday, February 05, 2018

Monday, January 22, 2018

Friday, January 12, 2018

Thursday, January 04, 2018