novel

Some Girls Are

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 12:20 on 29 December 2015

And my pile of to-read books just dropped by one! So much for reading "only" double of my original 2015 goal of one book a week. Go for 52, hit 105.

I picked up this book after reading the Book Riot article about how a single parent managed to ban a book without going through a review process. The banned book was Some Girls Are, about bullying in high school and a bully who has fallen from grace, and is now on the receiving end of the actions she inflicted upon others.

As I was trying not to spend money on books (a near impossible task), I tried to get it from my library. No go.

I asked Mom to try her library. No go.

Eventually, on a night of drinking too much whiskey, where "too much" is defined as "more than one shot," I hit the buy button on all the books in my Amazon cart, and ended up with a stack of 24 books to read. Including this one.

I read it last night.

I will fully admit that if I were the mother of a kid in high school today, I would struggle to believe this kind of behaviour exists, that my child would be doing it, or that people so young can be so ugly in their actions. Which is not to say on an intellectual basis, I dispute this behaviour exists, I totally believe it exists. I just don't WANT it to exist.

The Rosie Effect

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 18:09 on 28 December 2015, kitt created this:

And here we go, the 104th book of the year for me, and likely the last one I will finish this year.

This is book two of the Rosie series, the sequel to The Rosie Project. In this one, we have much of the same humour derived from a person (yes, an autistic person) taking everything said literally. Balance this with always making objective statements, without any social nuances, and you have the humour and charm of the first book.

What you also have, unfortunately, is an ass in the book. I really do not like books where one person is abusing power, which is the premise of much of the plot in this book. I should be less upset by it, given how much the world is about abusing power and not doing the right thing. Less upset, sure, and I also can choose not to seek out that particular style of conflict, given there are plenty others to choose among (Man vs. Fate/God, Man vs Self, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Supernatural (-ish), and Man vs. Technology).

It is a quick read.

It's an amusing book, but much less so than the first Rosie book. I would liken the two books to the first and second bites of a treat: the first bite is amazing and delicious, and while the second bite is good, it isn't as amazing as the first bite.

Nemesis

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 10:33 on 21 December 2015

This is book 4 of the Harry Hole series.

Okay, be completely (and by "completely" I mean 100%) unsurprised that the next book I read is a Harry Hole book. It's pretty much all I'm reading these days. So close to 104 books for the year, which would be twice my goal of one book a week. Go me.

This Harry Hole book had the feeling of deja vu. So much so that I had to reread a number of chapters just because I felt I had already read the chapter and wanted to reread it just to confirm that the feeling of "I've totally read this book before" wasn't valid.

In this book, Harry is set up.

Shock.

And likely about time.

By which I mean, the man has totally set himself up to be screwed by jealous and less moral coworkers.

Tom Waaler is a major character in this book, how he is a complete an total asshole and BAD COP (whoops, spoiler alert). Seriously, if you've been reading this series, that Tom is a bad guy isn't a revelation. He plays an important role in the previous two books. And yeah, he's an asshole. Takes advantage of someone else setting up Harry.

I enjoyed the book, again with the caveat "as much as I can enjoy anything with murder in it." Hate people taking advantage of other people, hate the willful destruction of other people, hate the fucking unfairness in this world. Go Harry! it gets better.

Related: OMG writing book reviews when drunk is AWESOME. Sober Kitt, you should try this more often.

Or maybe not.

Working for Bigfoot

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 01:31 on 21 December 2015

Yay!

Another Dresden book!

"Book."

At least Butcher keeps his fans somewhat happy between Dresden books. Unlike some people *cough* GRRM *cough* *cough*

This one is a collection of three novellas, each longer than a short story, none able to stand on its own, all previously published. The theme of the stories is Bigfoot (-ish, he's one of the Forest People, with a tremendously strong aura) and his son, who seems to get in a lot of trouble.

What I like about this book, aside from DRESDEN (duh), is that it spans many of the books we've already read and loved about Dresden, and follows the life of a kid, Irwin Pounder, as he grows from elementary school to college. We see some of the cases that Harry takes between the big stories we read about in the novels.

And the jokes are pure Dresden / Butcher. Enjoyed the book, wish for more.

The Redbreast

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 12:20 on 16 December 2015

This is book 3 of the Harry Hole series.

Book ONE HUNDRED for the year! Given my goal was to read 52 books this year, a feat I accomplished in June, I have to say that I have crushed that goal. Harry Hole was a significant part of that crushing: this is the seventh book I've read in the ten books of the Harry Hole series. While I prefer to read series in order, this one happens to be readable in any order, with lots of details filled in by reading earlier books. I kinda like that I didn't read them exactly in order. Even if I didn't really like the first book, I do like the series and the tragic character of Harry Hole.

This book has a different writing structure than most of the other Harry Hole books, in that it tells two stories intertwined, with the merging of the two plot lines at the end with a resolution for both of them. One of them was the story of a soldier from Norway who fought on the Eastern Front during World War 2. On the wrong side. Except there wasn't a correct side in the trenches until after the war and atrocities were revealed, and even then, the bottom of the totem pole does what he was told to do, did what he needed to do to survive.

As with the rest of the Harry Hole books, there is the path Nesbø leads us down, and the actual solution to the mystery, the actual person doing the series of murders of persons who fought on the Eastern Front. A few of the murders didn't quite fit, which of course leads the police down the wrong path, which makes things interesting and confusing.

I'll finish the series, likely this year at this rate. Maybe. Four more books this year and I've doubled my reading goal for the year.

Cockroaches

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 20:07 on 11 December 2015

And now, to no one's surprise, I'm going back to read the five Harry Hole books I didn't read. Starting at book five likely wasn't the best decision, since I was fairly "meh" after reading it, but I found that I missed the character, so I'm going back to read the books I had missed.

This is book 2 of the Harry Hole (hō-lay? hol-lee? hōl!) series. Again, Harry is on the other side of the world. Again, he is solving an odd murder. Again, there are so many twists and turns and what the hell, I am so confused moments, that, yes, I enjoyed the book (minus the murder and the brutality parts).

The book takes place mostly in Thailand. There are a number of actions that Harry does that are referred to in passing in later books that I'm glad I read this book. I suspect I missed a lot of other references, having no context for them when I read the later books.

As with the Harry Dresden and Harry Potter books, I recommend this Harry series if you like Scandinavian crime mysteries and can stand gruesome descriptions and horrific acts. I tended to skip over the dark parts, without loss of continuity.

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