novel

Small Wars

Book Notes kitt decided around 15:08 on 1 November 2015 to publish this:

Okay, really, anything by Lee Child that has Jack Reacher in the book I will most likely read. No, that's not right, I will read. Mom has tired of Reacher, how EVERY book he has a new woman to f---, screw, eh, have sex with, and that's rather tiring. I can't say I blame her for not wanting to read the books, they are very much of the same plot flavor.

I, on the other hand, am still enjoying them. This one, Small Wars, as a short novella (Kindle Single, short story actually), was no exception. I read it on the flight from Sydney back to San Francisco, which was the longest flight I've been on since the flight to Sydney. This, and Make Me, the latest full-length Reacher book, kept me entertained on the way.

This book goes back to Reacher's career beginning, which means, of course, that Joe Reacher is still alive. Having been recently been reading Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, I pretty much assumed that any action in the book was a misdirect of the actual events. Turns out, nope, what you read is what you get, except the WHY is what is important in this book. We follow along in the plot, and, of course Reacher figures everything, which I really can't understand how amazing he is, given he never makes a mistake.

Best part of the story is that we meet Frances Neagley when she is much younger. Totally great.

I enjoyed this book, but I'm enjoying all the Reacher books, so, yeah, I'll keep reading.

The Rosie Project

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 22:11 on 31 October 2015

Mom and I were wandering around Sydney after Web Directions, and wandered into Dymocks, a bookstore and stationery store, because, you know, paper. I was tired and winding down from the stress of speaking and giving a workshop, and I just wanted to be around paper. Thing is, I don't need more journals, so I pretty much just wandered around, picked up a few classic books, oogled over the fantastic number of well-bound classics, put the books and journals I had picked out back, and let her know I was ready to leave.

Mom, on the other hand, found The Rosie Project and told me I had to read it. Mom is often soft spoken about her book suggestions, so her enthusiastic recommendation meant a buy from me.

Wow, books are expensive in Australia. Oucharoo.

I started reading that evening as I was brushing my teeth, and it didn't take long for me to realize why Mom had recommended the book. It is a hysterical read, mostly in the way the fundamental source of the humour is never mentioned. The protagonist has difficulty meeting women, as he takes everything said as exactly literally, so decides to try a questionaire to weed out poor mate matches. As mentioned, hilarity ensues.

Worth the read. Highly recommended. Can't say I'm thrilled that Jennifer Lawrence has been chosen to be Rosie in the movie adaptation, but I prefer books anyway. Worth the expensive Australian price I paid for the book.

Way into Darkness

Book Notes kitt decided around 12:21 on 23 October 2015 to publish this:

And done. With this book read, I have finished the three book series, The Great Way, by Harry Connolly.

Have no fear in reading these books: the protagonists have a happy ending despite repeated eye rolling certain deaths and stunningly fortunate good luck. Except for the parts of complete unbelievability, because, really, a world of magic with the ability to create matter out of thin air (but really just a transporting of material from one dimension to another) and intelligence without mass, and the ability to transmute living creatures, and conquering alligators or an underwater wooden structure that sinks, isn't totally unbelievable, I enjoyed this book the best of the three.

The cover STILL has a depiction of a white girl representing the black girl who was actually IN the book. Still annoys me.

What also slightly annoyed me was the repeated "and here is where I die" thoughts followed by "oh look I'm still alive and have incredible human endurance and haven't pooped once since the series began" parts. I got over those annoyances.

I really really really like Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces books. I don't know what happened with this series. It was difficult to read. Felt like a different author entirely.

Invisible Murder

Book Notes kitt decided around 16:10 on 20 October 2015 to publish this:

Another one of my Mom-bought books, this one continues the story of Nina Borg, a medical activist who helps people in dire (think human trafficking) situations. I had previously read the Boy in the Suitcase, I thought last year, but didn't have it on my year-end list, so either I missed it, or read it in the previous year. I'm a bit puzzled about when I read it, but it was fairly recently.

I hadn't overly liked the Boy in the Suitcase, so I was a bit surprised to be reading this one as a continuation of that character and that plotline. Given that this is a series of Mom-books, I shouldn't have been surprised.

This book starts out following two brothers, one a bit reckless, the other who is mistaken for him and has to pay for his brother's sins. A few crazy mistaken-identities later, and we have a gypsy-looking kid from Hungary, travelling across Europe to track down his brother, and Nina trying to save a number of very sick children, and a kidnapping, and a huge mess of her kid's life, though really, said kid is just being a teenager.

I'm not a fan of this character, nor of this series. It wasn't a bad book, nor was it poorly written, I just don't like the genre. If this genre is to your liking, totally worth reading.

Way into Magic

Book Notes kitt decided around 22:09 on 15 October 2015 to publish this:

Okay, in for a penny in for a pound with this series. I didn't really like the writing style of the first book, but apparently I became used to it in the second book because it didn't bother me as much as it did in the first book, I'm not sure what it is about this series of books so far, but I am finding them more than a little difficult to finish reading. And somewhat frustrating with the deux ex machina happening.

Phooey, I hate the autocorrect on the ios devices, especially when it corrects two words back after I've confirmed it was correct and moved on.

So, the book. Instead of the kabillion characters, the story lines have reduced to two, Cazia and Tejohn. To my complete and total unsurprise, bad things happened in the journeying, foreign creatures are strangely cool with humans, both others are utterly hostile, our heroes escape time and time again from likely death and absolutely certain disfigurement and captivity yet manage to escape both physically and mentally unharmed. It's kinda painful to read.

I'm doing a poor job of explaining my difficulties with the book.

How about the cover of the book has the main female character on it, AND SHE IS WHITE. She's described as "dark-skinned" in the book. Talk about completely and totally pissing me off at that point. Put a black woman on the cover if the character is a black woman. More power to you, too.

Time passes oddly, things I expect to take days take hours and other things I expect to take hours take weeks, it's weird.

And it was okay. I read quickly. There wasn't any plot repeat that series often have, for which I was thankful. I suspect the three books are just one long book broken into three parts for easier publishing.

Little Drummer Girl

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 09:11 on 14 October 2015

Having read the Spy Who Came in From the Cold recently, I kinda knew what to expect from this book, also by LeCarre. It was going to be a spy book, full of twists and turns and, if it's good enough, an ending like No Way Out. Knowing kinda, sorta what to expect, I read this book anyway, another on the ever-shrinking stack of Mom-selected books.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, despite having read the previous LeCarre book, I didn't really like this one. I'm not really a fan of spy books, I guess. Yeah, the technology can be interesting, but the deception, use and abuse of others, and the violence-done-to-others parts of the spy way of life just does not appeal to me. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age (no, I have always been anti-violence, anti-abuse, anti-use people), but this type of story just does not appeal to me. I'm rather glad this is the last of the unread LeCarre books in my stack.

This book's plot revolves around a series of murders of Jewish people, and the infiltration of an Israeli intelligence group into a Palestinian militia group. Not that you get that from the first 30% of the book. Instead, it's all about an abused actress who is AMAZING apparently in her skills, and human enough to be susceptible to a dashing man's charm. Shock.

Eh, I finished the book. The last 1/4 was interesting. The first 3/4 I had to trog through. If you like spy books, this one will probably be interesting. If you don't, eh, don't read.

Pages