Have a 20-ish hour road trip coming up next week — looking for Audiobook recommendations. Light-ish/Quirky Urban Fantasy would be preferred — but I’m open for anything.
Oh, if possible, something that a 17-year-old wouldn’t mind hearing in front of his parents 🙂
Tuesday, I blogged about the book, Guardians by Josi Russell — which I really enjoyed, and today is the release day.
The publisher, Future House Publishing, has this to say:
Buckle up for another great adventure with Josi Russell. and the sequel to her #1 best-selling Caretaker in her newest book, Guardians. While exploring Minea, Ethan and part of his crew crash-land and must navigate their way through a maze of tunnels with danger at every turn. Above ground, the others prepare for an unexpected battle. Can these self-appointed guardians bring hope of survival to Minea? Cancel your plans for this weekend, or better yet tell your friends to join you, as you fight with the guardians in the battle of Minea.
To kick-off the release, Future House has a few things you should take note of:
There are more details about the book, the giveaways, and all that on the book’s Launch Page — be sure to check it out.
Pin Action: Small-Time Gangsters, High-Stakes Gambling, and the Teenage Hustler Who Became a Bowling ChampionHardcover, 336 pg.
Pegasus Books, 2014
Read: March 4 – 5, 2015
This is just not that good.
It started off promising, there’s a confidence to the writing, it’s a world I know nothing about — so I could learn a lot, it starts with a whole bunch of colorful characters, and Manzione’s passion for the subject is evident and real. But it didn’t take long for me to see that the confidence isn’t necessarily deserved, the cast wasn’t being used well, and I wasn’t going to learn all that much (at least not right away, it turned out), and while he cared a lot — I just didn’t. Eventually, around the half-way point, the book found its way and became tolerable — but, by then it was too late — Manzione had already lost me.
The first few chapters are a hodgepodge of stories about the “Action Bowling” scene in and around NYC in the 1960s. They center around wunderkind Ernie Schlegel, but Manzione spreads the wealth — telling stories about several bowlers of similar aptitudes at the time. But really, these chapters aren’t a stories of bowling, they’re stories about small-time gangsters (see the subtitle) — think of some of the small anecdotes in Wiseguy, told without Pileggi’s style. The bowling’s just an excuse for criminal and/or stupid behavior.
The last half of the book is all about Schlegel’s professional career — from the rocky start, to accomplished (but not championship heyday), to the last bits of glory. This is the best part of the book, no doubt about it. But Manzione has difficulty maintaining the story line, keeping the narrative tension going, and basically becomes rabid fanboy (I’ve got no beef with rabid fanboys, readers of this blog know I can go that way myself — but it didn’t fit here)
The greatest weakness of this book has to be the writing. Manzione has a tendency to “nest” stories in other stories that in other stories worse than Inception. It’d be pretty easy to lose track of the ball when he’s doing this. He frequently seems to operate on the philosophy: never use one sentence when you could use three instead. Throughout there’s an overuse/over-reliance on superlatives. And lastly, I’m not sure how many Ali/Frazier metaphors one book can take (but it’s less than this one tries)
One unexpected pleasure for me was that as a long-time listener to The Nerdist podcast, it was fun reading so much about Billy Hardwick.
Just can’t recommend this one, it wasn’t horrible, but I’m sure there are better books about professional (or gambling-enhanced amateur) bowling out there for anyone who’s looking for that.
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Am thinking of tweaking things here — I can’t change the template much, unless I start hosting this myself, and I’m not sure I have time for template tweaks. But I might change some of the graphics (if I can come up with/am given some better stars, for example).
The reviews/review-ish things are my focus now. I’m thinking of tweaking how they look, what they contain (other than my reviews). Are the links and general book information enough? Could I provide more? If so, what? Would you like a larger cover image? The reviews aren’t going to change much, hopefully they’re getting better. But the non-review stuff, I’d like to make more useful/interesting.
If you have any thoughts at all, for those of you who follow this/read this/glance here every now and then. Chime in please.
Twice this year (so far), I’ve come home from the library with a new book in a series, eager to dive in. Only to find I’d skipped one — thankfully, before I started either novel (my son, alas, made some decent headway in one of these books before he convinced himself that something was wrong). Reading at the volume I do — and with some series books being so meaningless/interchangeable — it’s really hard to keep track of all of them. For example, I can remember exactly 1 title in Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series — Mercy Blade — and I had to look it up to know that it was the third in series. (this was not one of the series I mentioned)
For the last 5 or so years, I’ve been neurotically logging my reading, and using Goodreads for most of that time. You’d think given that, I’d at least be able to know what book is next in a series. Right? Guess that 12 Step slogan has some merit here, too: it works if you work it.
Anyone else have this problem? Other than becoming more obsessive with lists, what have you tried to help?
sorry for going off-message (well, a little sorry) — but this kind of thing is important.
How It All Began by Penelope Lively
Hardcover, 240 pg.
Viking Adult, 2012
Read: May 2-3, 2012
Humbug. What a poorly-written, pretentious little thought-experiment disguised as a novel. In case you haven’t been beaten over the head with it in books, TV and film there’s this thing called Chaos Theory–usually explained by the Butterfly Effect; Lively starts off with one event and then examines how the butterfly of an elderly woman’s mugging effects the lives of 20 or so others.
As far as that goes…a decent setup. But we have to keep revisiting the conceit, every few chapters we have to have a recap that all of the things going on are because of this mugging. Over and over again. And about halfway through (minor spoiler), we get this big lecture about Chaos Theory. Juuuust in case we haven’t got it yet.
When she’s not browbeating us with that, Lively tells some okay stories. With the stress on “tells”, rarely, if ever, showing.
The best thing I can say is that at least Lively doesn’t interrupt really appealing characters in the middle of fun, compelling stories with this application of Chaos Theory.
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Changeling by Kelly Meding
Paperback, 384 pg.
Pocket Books, 2012
I’ll be honest — when I saw that this sequel would have a different narrator/central character than Trance, I lost a lot of interest in it, and really only started the thing since I’d already spent the $$ and had a mild dose of curiosity. Within 20 pages, though, I was in–hook, line, sinker, and probably even rod and reel.
The same fun, excitement and heart that characterized Trance, are fully present and accounted for in this installment. This is a great world that Meding has created for us, and I can’t wait to get back to it.
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Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich
Series: Stephanie Plum, #11
Mass Market Paperback, 321 pg.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2006
So here in number eleven, Evanovich shakes things up a bit. Stephanie’s had enough of the way things are going and quits the bounty hunter biz. This leads her to the first of a series of ridiculous and embarrassing jobs (and one great one). Great, funny stuff there.
But, of course, the bounty hunter biz isn’t done with Stephanie–someone from her past wants to settle a score, so the book’s more than just a montage of crappy jobs.
The more things change, the more they stay the same: Despite her best efforts, Stephanie gets her man; the family and relationship stuff are at their usual goofy levels; and once again, car insurance premiums in the Burg are jacked up.
I have no doubt that there will be a return to the status quo, but I’m hoping we keep the current setup for another book or two.
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by Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher, #16
Hardcover, 405 pg.
Delacorte Press, 2011
“You want me to impersonate a civilian?” [Reacher said]
“It’s not that hard. we’re all members of the same species, more our less. You’ll figure it out.”
Thus begins the sixteenth Jack Reacher novel. Taking place in 1997, he’s still an MP, and is being sent undercover into a small town near an army base, while another investigator is being sent into the base it self to investigate a murder possibly tied to base personnel.
His undercover disguise looks pretty much like the post-discharge Jack Reacher we know — no job, good pair of boots, a toothbrush and one shirt. He wanders into town, finds an ally or two and gets to work.
It takes very little time for Reacher to find himself at odds with some locals (I didn’t think this storyline was all that satisfying, but it gave Reacher a chance to bash in a few heads). Not that he’s ever short of ego, but he seems cockier than I’m used to — I’m assuming that comes from the inherent authority of an MP as opposed to a loan wanderer. Regardless, it was a kick to read his encounters, with this extended family:
He said, “Is there a reason I don’t get out of this truck and kick your butt?”
I said, “Two hundred and six reasons.”
He said, “What?”
“That’s how many bones you got in your body. I could break them all before you put a glove on me.”
Which got his buddy going. Hist instinct was to stick up for his friend and face down a challenge. He leaned further out his own window and said, “You think?”
I said, “Often all day long. It’s a good habit to have.”
The local county sheriff is a former Marine MP, and it takes her no time at all to suss out Reacher’s purpose and to recruit him to help her investigation into this — and related — murders. Yes, her — that particular plotline is self-evident (although this is a bit . . . more explicit than Child’s norm).
There’s little suspense in this — 1. It takes place before Killing Floor, so you know Reacher’s not killed, 2. how seriously worried are you ever that Reacher will survive? Sure, you wonder what will happen to those around him — what the collateral damage is going to be, but that’s about it. Nevertheless — the final hundred pages or so of this is an edge of your seat ride. Which is par for the course for Child, doesn’t make it any less fun.
Beyond the murder investigation — or more properly, around it — are politics (federal, local and military), discussion of the role (and shape) of the military, the future of the U. S. Army (contrasted with some other branches). In the end, the identity of the murder is pretty obvious — but the twisty path that Reacher and the others travel to find it, what obstacles they overcome, and the fallout — that’s what makes this a very satisfying read.
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