Dusted Off: The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

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On January 27, 2014

In Authors, Fiction, Michael Connelly, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

The Fifth WitnessThe Fifth Witness

by Michael Connelly
Series: Mickey Haller, #4

Mass Market Paperback, 448 pg.
Grand Central Publishing, 2011
Read: May 8-9, 2012

When we finally got to the trial portion of this novel (the rest is just foreplay, anyway, right?) I found myself thinking–could Perry Mason have handled this D.A.? (and conversely, what fun it would be to watch Hamilton Burger try to deal with Mickey [and yes, I remembered Burger’s name despite it being 2 decades since I’ve read an Erle Stanley Gardner novel, don’t ask how]). That’s just how good Haller is–at the end of the day, he’s better than the Gold Standard.

A tense mystery, dazzling courtroom tactics (on both sides), a client and supporting cast that add rather than detract from the main characters and an ending you really can’t see coming. That’s just the kind of writer Michael Connelly is, a guy at the top of his game.

I’m not sure that I’m totally on board with the direction that Mickey is headed in at the end of the book, but I’m confident it’ll take no more than 15 pages of the next installment for Connelly to convince me.

—–

4 Stars

Dusted Off: Wild Thing by Josh Bazell

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On January 27, 2014

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Wild Thing (Peter Brown #2)Wild Thing

by Josh Bazell
Hardcover, 388 pg.
Reagan Arthur Books, 2012
Read: May 3-4, 2012

A fun read, with a few caveats.

1. Not as good as Beat the Reaper (which I liked a whole lot)

2. Unnecessarily preachy — the screeds about global climate change and evolution/religion were a big turn-off. Too long, and were directed at straw-man opponents. It’s like Bazell asked WWDEKD? (“What Would David E. Kelley Do?”). Pfui.

3. Cheap pot-shots at Sarah Palin. Not my favorite politician by any means, but she (or any other person) shouldn’t be treated like that. Have a problem with her politics? Express that by all means. Invent nutty religious views and put ’em in her mouth? C’mon…you’re better than that. Don’t care what you put in the appendix, who reads that?

That said–the action was good, the voice was just as strong and entertaining (and occasionally educational) as Reaper. And Bazell’s footnotes are second only to Lisa Lutz. A fun read, but it would’ve been easy to make it better.

—–

3 Stars

Saturday Miscellany — 1/25/14

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On January 25, 2014

In Books, News/Misc.

Better/more consistent week around here. Hopefully, I can improve next week. Currently, I have a backlog of 35 books to review. 35? More discipline is called for on my part.

Apparently, there’s a theme to this week’s batch of odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • Peacemaker by K. A. Stewart — I’ve been wondering where Stewart had disappeared to, and she’s back with a new, promising looking series. Works for me.
  • Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells — Urban Fantasy Police Procedural. Have heard good things about this, and I hope it lives up to the hype. Looks good.
  • Indexing by Seanan McGuire — it’s in paperback now. I really wonder how it’d be to read this as a book rather than a serial.

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

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On January 24, 2014

In Fiction

Blackbirds (Miriam Black, #1)Blackbirds

by Chuck Wendig
ebook, 264 pg.
Angry Robot, 2012
Read: Jan. 4-6, 2014

Over the last couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed — and learned a few things — from Chuck Wendig’s blog posts about writing, and have seen nothing but raves for this series from people and writers whose taste I respect and frequently agree with. But, when reading descriptions for Mockingbird it seem all that interesting to me. When the publisher was giving away e-copies last month, I figured I’d roll the dice and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

I should’ve stuck with my gut. This was not a book for me.

There are a lot of positives to Mockingbird. It’s told with imagination, humor, style, verve, panache and skill. Everything that Wendig’s blog tells you to do, he does. I don’t think there was a single dud sentence in the 264 pages, and there were several spectacular ones.

However…

Miriam Black’s power is fairly lame. Like Deanna Troi’s — it’s a neat parlor trick, but there’s not much use to be made of it.

As is the case 99% of the time a book doesn’t work for me, it ultimately comes down to the characters. I’ll put up with a lot for characters I like — and I don’t think I’m alone. I never cared about Miriam, Louis, or anyone. The villains were a little too villain-y for my taste — which, oddly, made them less threatening or interesting. If I don’t care about the characters, how can I care about what happens to them?

Lastly, there were some formatting troubles with the ePub. This isn’t damning or anything (or all that novel a problem) but when you’re not particularly enjoying a book, minor annoyances are less minor — almost feeling like a deliberate attempt to lessen the experience.

I do want to read more by Wendig, just not in this particular world.

—–

1 Star

The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne

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On January 23, 2014

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

The Love Song of Jonny ValentineThe Love Song of Jonny Valentine

by Teddy Wayne

Hardcover, 304 pg.
Free Press, 2013
Read: Dec. 25, 2013

Jonny Valentine, the 11-year-old pop sensation, desperately wants to reach adolescence (probably not all that different from others his age) — but he’s very, very aware what that will do to his voice, his appearance — overall, his appeal to the tween and teen demographics. And he’s counting on it, if he doesn’t sell more to teen girls, he’s sunk. His career is dead.

That’s not the only part of his life that he sees in marketing terms. His haircut, the amount of fat and calories he consumes, his video gaming, exercises, amount of sleep — everything is micromanaged to the nth degree by his mother/manager, studio, vocal coach, and, to a lesser extent, his bodyguard (the closest thing her has to a friend). Everything he thinks, everything he wears he runs through a mental calculus wondering what it’ll do for sales, social media exposure, ticket sales, etc. How anyone can deal with this all, much less a near-adolescent, is unfathomable.

Honestly, ticket sales and record sales have dropped off a little for this phenom, so the record company begins to take a more hands-on approach to things — inventing news stories, coming up with a new media relations plan, etc. etc. And Jonny’s life becomes a little harder.

At the core of this story though, is a little kid, who just wants to be a little kid. He wants his mom to be more of a mom than a manager, he wants to spend time with his best friend from before he made it big, he wants to screw around and play. At the end of the day, I feel more pity for Jonny than I did for Auggie Pullman from Wonder.

Most of the observations/comments on/critiques of celebrity culture that are given here, are things we’ve all seen or made ourselves. But by putting them into the mouth and head of a kid, rather than an outsider adult, makes it all so much more effective.

Darkly comic (not terribly funny, though), insightful, sympathetic. A worthwhile read.

N. B. just because this is about an eleven-year-old, don’t for a second think this is appropriate reading material for that age. This isn’t MG, this is written for an adult audience.

—–

3 Stars

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

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On January 22, 2014

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, YA/MG/Children's Books

WonderWonder

by R. J. Palacio

Hardcover, 313 pg.
Knopf, 2012
Read Jan. 14-15, 2014

August “Auggie” Pullman is a great 10-year old kid, loves Star Wars, academically gifted, has a devoted dog, a nice older sister, very supportive parents, he’s friendly — big-hearted, really. After years of being homeschooled, he’s off to a private school for Middle School (when, btw, did Middle School start in 5th grade?). Oh, sure, one other thing: he has a genetic disorder resulting in severe facial abnormalities.

Kids being kids — this is clearly fraught with peril. It’d be tough for a kid to enter this atmosphere from his background no matter what — but in Auggie’s case, things are magnified. We follow Auggie through that rocky first year through various perspectives — his, his sister’s, his friends’, his sister’s boyfriend’s, and so on. I frequently get tired of this whole multiple perspective schtick, but Wonder is one of those cases where it works. By seeing the same event (occasionally, not every event) trough various eyes, we get a much better — and richer — picture of Auggie’s trials and triumphs.

Yeah, this is written for 4-8 grade reading level, and as such, not the most sophisticated writing or plot. Yeah, this has all the makings of an After-School Special (that’s a term that’s about to lose all meaning, isn’t it?). Yeah, the plot is pretty predictable. Fair enough. But R. J. Palacio pulled it off — it all works — all the kids seem real, the struggles his sister has are believable, the varied emotions (noble and not) are realistic. It’s a song sung well, no matter how old or simple it is.

Wonder‘s fun, occasionally funny, and heartwarming. Read it, and get your kids to read it, too.

—–

5 Stars

Saturday Miscellany – 1/18/14

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On January 18, 2014

In Books, News/Misc.

Ugh. 2014 has just not been working the way I expected. Not reading much, (obviously) writing less. What I’ve read has been great, and hopefully I’ve got things figured out on the writing end. Still, here are the latest odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley — the new Flavia de Luce adventure. I predict shenanigans, mischief, murder and restrained sass.
  • He Drank and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe — How can you not love sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse? Elvis Cole in a fantasy world.
  • Switchblade by Michael Connelly — a new Harry Bosch short story. Short fiction ain’t my thing, but there are writers I make exceptions for.
  • The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley — not really looking for a new epic fantasy series, but volume 1 of the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne looks pretty appealing.

Saturday Miscellany — 1/11/14

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On January 11, 2014

In Books, News/Misc.

Sorry this is late today, stuff at work happened that I won’t get into because: 1. you don’t care, 2. you wouldn’t believe me. Anyway, here are the odds ‘n ends from this last week about books, authors and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

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On January 7, 2014

In Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

Allegiant (Divergent, #3)Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Hardcover, 526 pages
Katherine Tegen Books, 2013
Read: October 23-25, 2013

Given the phenomenon that the Divergent series has become — particularly amongst certain demographic segments — it’d be an almost impossible task to finish this series in a way that would please all readers. From what I can tell, she didn’t. But did she please this reader? On the whole, yeah. Despite an ending that many, many people disliked (I was fine with it, not crazy about it, but fine) Roth got the story wrapped up as she wanted, and ultimately, that’s what’s most important in this setting.

Yes, there was a lot more exposition and back story than you typically get in an end to a series. But Roth had a bunch of questions that Tris and her readers demanded answers for — and Roth answered most — if not all — of them. Which didn’t leave as much time for story as one would hope. It’s not 500 pages of info dump by any means, but there was probably more backstory in this book than there were in the other two. And really, other than the fate of the world, there wasn’t that much plot to take care of, so it sort of balanced out. Roth did bring every hanging plotline to a satisfying resolution, and didn’t introduce all that many to deal with within the pages of Allegiant.

Reading what I’ve written, it seems like this is a dull narrative. Not at all — there was enough action, enough mystery to keep you going. And in the moment, I didn’t have any problems with the amount of exposition, or anything else. It’s only afterwards, thinking about it that I started to have a “yeah, but . . . ” type of reaction. In the moment, it all worked — it all kept me hooked and waiting for what would come next.

Like many, I thought a good deal of the latter quarter was pretty predictable, but just because you can see an ending coming 5 miles away, doesn’t mean that it can’t be pulled off effectively — which is what Roth did.

I’m going to miss this world, and many of the characters, Roth had a thankless task before her here, and she managed to acquit herself pretty well. Looking forward to what she does next.

—–

4 Stars

Dusted Off: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

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On January 7, 2014

In Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

Insurgent (Divergent, #2)Insurgent

by Veronica Roth
Hardcover, 525 pg.
Katherine Tegen Books, 2012

A solid follow-up to a great book–not as good as its predecessor, but close enough.

I thought the plot meandered a bit, and several scenes between Tris and Four seemed to just be a repetition from the earlier. But the rest of the book was so good, those minor gripes are completely forgivable.

Am not sure what to do with what we learn in the last 3 pages or so–but I’m pretty sure we’re not expected to know what to do with it, so I’m okay with that.

—–

4 Stars

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