Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2011

24. Manhunting - Jennifer Crusie
25. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
26. A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin

My husband got me these books after we started watching the series. I found out that the series is extremely faithful to the first book. I pretty much devoured the second wanting to know what happened to the characters, and who would die next. As I'd heard from a coworker and my boss, do not get attached to any character. I can't wait to get the third book, though it's nice to have a bit of a break before diving into that world again.

27. The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes - Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart

This isn't a book of short stories, but rather a multi-authored book. An enjoyable read, and I found it difficult to figure out who wrote which part.

28. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Oh yes, it's that time again! One last re-read before the last movie comes out.

Slayer – DL Snow.

No Buffy in sight, just a fairly enjoyable fairy tale about princesses and dragons. I had fun, but the characterisations didn’t go far enough beyond caricature and the plot didn’t have enough depth to it to make this a keeper. Ended somewhat rushed, too.

Shadow’s Son – Jon Sprunk

A bit of a BSF (Bog Standard Fantasy). Again, enjoyable enough for what it was, but nothing special.

Sword of Shadows 1: A Cavern of Black Ice – J V Jones.

Definitely a keeper. The pace was a little slow in the middle section, but the characters were fascinating enough to overcome that and I’m looking forward to reading the others in this fantasy series.

Rogue Angel #1: Destiny – “Alex Archer”

I wasn’t expecting much from this one. Given what I’d read of this large series on Wiki:

I was expecting no more than a lightweight, fast-paced romp, full of lightweight, 2-dimensional characters. A Lara Croft-lite clone. But to my surprise this one had a lot more depth and much more rounded characters than I was expecting and that comparison does it a great disservice. I’ve several more logged onto my Kindle, so I’ll be reading more. Rather enjoyable.

Rogue Angel #2: Solomon’s Jar – “Alex Archer”

This second book in the series suffered from what I assume to be the problem with varying authors writing the books. I got tired of our heroine being attacked by gangs of angry, machete-wielding locals practically every two pages, only to be rescued by an unlikely ally at the last minute. Essentially, it was the same scene repeated endlessly. In between, there seemed to be an awful lot of dialogue about things that didn’t interest me. So too much repetition in the plot and way too much boring exposition. A bit of a disappointment. Roll on book three!


LabRat

Rogue Angel #3: The Spider Stone
Rogue Angel #4: The Chosen
Rogue Angel #5: Forbidden City
Rogue Angel #6: The Lost Scrolls
Rogue Angel #7: God of Thunder

Okay, now that I've read through a few of these, a pattern emerges.

The odd-numbered novels (so far. I believe later novels are written by other authors) are written by Mel Odom and are fast-paced adventures with an interesting array of secondary characters and some witty dialogue.

The even-numbered novels are written by Victor Milan and are turgid, boring examples of how not to write an adventure. Full of pages and pages of uninspiringly presented exposition interspersed with scenes of our heroine being attacked by gangs of men whom she dispatches with ease. (This happens with monotonous regularity at the rate of almost one a chapter.)

I resent having to read the VM adventures in case I miss anything significant in our heroine's character development, before I can get to OM's rousing romps and back to the enjoyment.

I'll be interested to see what the other authors I haven't got to yet do with the characters, but at the moment I'd kind of wishing MO had written all of them so far!

LabRat

Rogue Angel #8 : The Secret of the Slaves

A Victor Milan outing, so pretty boring – and rather bizarre. Anyway, things are getting to be pretty samey, so I think a break is in order while I go read other things. I’ll probably return to more in the series later, though.

Don’t Stop Me Now – Jeremy Clarkson

If you know Jezza, then you know what to expect. If you don’t – suffice it to say the man has opinions. Hoo boy, does he. I don’t always agree with them, but he always make me laugh whether I do or don’t.

Desert Places – Blake Crouch

Rather good example of a psychological thriller – I’ll need to check out more by this author. Not least the sequel to this one.

LabRat

#9 - The Green Mile by Stephen King

This is the only Stephen King novel that I've read so far that I like (granted, I've only read a handful of them). But I loved the movie, so I gave the book a chance. I think that, while a powerful book, the movie hit the emotional nerve much better. But all around, this was a great book.

The Tide Lords 1: The Immortal Prince
The Tide Lords 2: The Gods of Amyrantha
The Tide Lords 3: The Palace of Impossible Dreams
The Tide Lords 4: The Chaos Crystal

By Jennifer Fallon. Despite all the odds, I really loved this fantasy quartet. Enough that each book kept me up into the small hours, desperate to know what happened next. Of course, it's flawed and no George Martin. The plot is often contrived and too often depends heavily on the characters being dumb as two short planks. I was especially irritated by the fact that Arkady seemed mostly there just to get captured and in need of rescue at the most inconvenient moments.

Which is why I'm surprised I enjoyed it so much. Despite the obvious irksome moments though, I was immediately taken with the characters, so that I spent my time cursing out the bad guys and wishing horrid deaths on them and chewing my nails that things would turn out right for our heroes. And I'd definitely read more from JF in the future.

LabRat

#10 - I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells


I liked the overall premise of this book. John Wayne Cleaver knows that he has sociopathic tendencies but refuses to cave to them. It did feel kind of like a young Dexter (although young Dexter embraced his tendencies to kill only bad people). I hated the sci-fi aspect of who the Clayton County Killer really was though. I wanted it to be a real human being, like on Dexter.

'48
Domain
Once

All by James Herbert. Always been a middle of the range author for me; his early work was a bit too pulp horror for my tastes and I've only enjoyed the odd one or two of what he's written since. And so it was with these. The only one I really liked was '48. And absolutely hated Once.

LabRat

While I was waiting for the new MaryJanice Davidson book to come out, I reread all the previous Betsy Vampire Queen books and discovered that I didn't remember all that much from them... But still it was a fun experience and now I'm all refreshed on the story. Also, I'm liking where the author is going with the current arc. I can't wait for the next one in 2012.

#10 Undead and Unwed

#11 Undead and Unemployed

#12 Undead and Unappreciated

#13 Undead and Unreturnable

#14 Undead and Unpopular

#15 Undead and Uneasy

#16 Undead and Unworthy

#17 Undead and Unwelcome

#18 Undead and Unfinished

# 19 Undead and Undermined

Meanwhile I also finished a book I've been reading on and off for over a year.

# 20 Notes on Nursing: what it is and what it is not - Florence
Nightingale

It's a late 19th century guide about the care of the sick, as the title and author imply. Still, it's interesting because in it can be seen the basis for current nursing care and it's extremely informative. For example, the statistics at the end are shocking when you realize that the youngest nurses were children's nurses and had about 5 years of age.

Also, it's an ebook available for free at The Internet Archive

#21 The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

a re-read but still an engaging and disturbing plot.

#22 Night Road by Kristin Hannah and #23 BeachCombers by Nancy Thayer

Nice, light summer reads

#24 The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison While I agree in theory with this author's quest for a simpler life and appreciation of the small details, some of this book drove me nuts.

#25 The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

The second in a post-apocolytic series, I'm not sure if we're going to get all the answers promised in a third volume.

Joan

Oooh. I'm a sucker for this theme and looks like I have book one on my Kindle. Adding to my reading list. Thanks!

LabRat

#26 The Liberation of Alice Love by Abby McDonald

a different spin on identity theft

Bad Blood (Virgil Flowers)
Prey Series (Lucas Davenport):

Silent Prey
Winter Prey
Night Prey
Mind Prey
Sudden Prey
Secret Prey

All by John Sandford. Another hit and miss author for me. I couldn't get through the two books I tried in his Kidd series. I thought the Flowers book was okay. But I really love the Prey series. Hard to believe they're by the same author, really.

Davenport and his colleagues are engaging and fun characters, the banter is often laugh out loud funny and the villains always intriguing and out of the ordinary.

Thankfully, I still have a fair few of the series to get through, as I'm currently at the point where every time I get to the end of one book, I'm desperate for more. So I'm trawling through the series a bit of a happy bunny right now, having a whale of a time.

LabRat

Gah! I wish I'd found this list sooner! I don't remember all of the books I've read this year (and on a side note: Labby! How? So many books... ) I read a lot of classics *coughcoughNERDcough*, in particular four different Shakespeare plays ("Hamlet", "Richard the Third", "Much Ado About Nothing" and "The Taming of the Shrew") of which I loved them all. I also read multiple Agatha Christie mysteries, a couple of Monk books, Alice in Wonderland (that counts as classic, doesn't it?), and once again, because I'm a nerd and I read this series over again every year, all nine of the Legacy of the Force Star Wars novels. I've started the next Star Wars series, and I'm trying to finish the Alex Rider books leftover from childhood. Oh, and "the complete tales and poems of Edgar Allan Poe". Which should count as numerous books because it's so long, but I don't want to go through and count all the stories in there.

Maybe when I actually get done reading something else I'll post it, otherwise I might just wait and start fresh next year.

LOL. The funny thing is that I never considered myself to be an especially fast reader. But I guess to judge from the reactions of people on this thread, I must be! I certainly don't try to read fast and I'm not aware that I'm doing so while reading - but I guess it must be pretty speedy all the same.

What can I say - I just love reading. Grab my book every spare minute I can get, never happier when curled up on the sofa, reading, and it's not unknown for me to sit up half the night into the small hours of the morning if I get engrossed in a plot or a book I simply can't put down. (Which is what happened last night and why I'm almost through the next Prey book already. <G>)

LabRat

#11 - Cleopatra's Daughter - Michelle Moran

For some reason, I found this one the hardest of the three to get into. I don't really know why that was. But I did enjoy it. It was interesting seeing the infusion of Rome to the story. But I felt like it moved the slowest of her books.

#28 Vanished by Carlton Smith

Okay true crime book.

Joan

More of John Sandford's Prey series:

Certain Prey
Easy Prey
Chosen Prey
Mortal Prey

LabRat

#29 What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Engaging story about a woman who suffers a head injury and forgets ten years of her life.