Title: The Cuckoo's Calling
Author: Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling)
Number of pages: 561
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 44/52
My Rating: 3/5

Review:
Strike, a private detective suffering from financial and personal problems, gets a job of investigating a suicide of a popular model, whose brother believes that she was murdered. With the help of a temporary assistant Robin, Strike delves into the world of rich and fashionable.

The writing style is pleasant, featuring long, elaborate sentences with impeccable punctuation and subtle humor. Another strong point of the book is the evolving non-sexual but complicated friendship between Strike and Robin. But as a detective story, it's a disaster. The plot slowly crawls through the tangled web of relationships and connections between zillions of unsympathetic characters. Most of the investigation is carried out through talking and googling - no lab work, chasing or fighting. Rowling may be a master of details, but as long as they describe an inherently boring world, they're pointless.
Title: The Legend of Devil's Creek
Author: D.C. Alexander
Number of pages: 372
Genre: thriller, mystery
Book Number/Goal: 34/52
My Rating: 4/5

Review:
The police is searching for a serial killer who appears to recreate the style of another, legendary serial killer operating in the same town many years ago. Meanwhile, a group of friends are busy with regular student activities: drinking, sports, dating, exchanging memories of family abuse, and studying philosophy.

Most of the book portrays mundane college life, interspersed with the occasional gruesome murder scenes and police investigation. The main character is shy, insecure, and spends a lot of time moping and worrying what people think of him. Somehow, it's not as annoying to read as it sounds. The philosophy lessons are as straightforward as popular science articles, split into "he said" and "she said" to appear fiction-like, but they discuss a fascinating problem: what is the cause of evil in the world, so they are interesting to follow. The police scenes are the weakest part. It's essentially a book about college, unexciting but surprisingly comfy, pleasant to read in bed on a rainy day.
Title: The Hangman's Replacement: Sprout of Disruption
Author: Taona Dumisani Chiveneko
Number of pages: 492
Genre: mystery, magical realism
Book Number/Goal: 29/52
My Rating: 5/5

Review:
Zimbabwe is looking for a new hangman. Such a job naturally attracts all kinds of weirdos, so a honest, brave and straightforward Abel Muranda, a farmer from a distant village, stands out as a candidate. But his chances are unclear, seeing that a huge conspiracy appears to reach all corners of the society, and it's somehow related to the carnivorous flame lilies which are threatening the peace of many citizens...

The story is epic and woven out of multiple threads, presenting many characters' points of view. It unfolds slowly, mostly through conversations. But even if some of the dialogs seem to drag forever, the overall great writing style compensates for the occasional boring parts. The language is witty, vivid, precise and elaborate without being pretentious. One of the characters' descriptions can apply to the author himself: "No word ever made it into his documents until it had been grotesquely tortured and failed to confess to the existence of a better synonym." The dry wit permeates the whole book, including the introduction, the acknowledgements and the best author's bio ever.

Keeping track of all the perspectives, names and events doesn't make it an "easy reading" but it's totally worth the effort!
Title: The Devil's Apprentice
Author: M.J. Moeller
Number of pages: 302
Genre: horror, mystery
Book Number/Goal: 20/52
My Rating: 3/5

Review:
A businesswoman is preparing to sell her family estate, a medieval church in a small English village, to a client who wants to convert it into a personal residence. When she arrives to the village to finalize the contract, all the hell breaks loose. She's plagued by nightmares and visions, and she's not the only one. A mysterious apparition may be a warning against selling the church, and a serial killer seems to be on the loose.

It's basically a modern gothic novel. The premise is promising, but the story falls short of excitement. There's mystery and suspense all right, but somehow, it all feels a little artificial, and the characters aren't all that interesting. It's also funny how the MC forgets important clues or postpones important investigations for later.
Title: The Rules of Dreaming
Author: Bruce Hartman
Number of pages: 298
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 18/52
My Rating: 3/5

Review:
A beautiful opera singer, obsessed with the opera she’s rehearsing, Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffmann”, commits suicide. A few years later, mysterious deaths continue, and everything seems to follow the patterns outlined in the opera, with real people inadvertently playing the roles of their fictional analogs. Is it madness, coincidence or someone’s devious plan? The singer's schizophrenic children, institutionalized in a psych hospital, might hold some clues, but it's difficult to communicate with them. Their doctor, by some fluke of chance also called Hoffmann, gets more and more confused about what's going on...

The book is very intellectual. It extensively discusses the Tales of Hoffmann, and presents some exciting ideas, such as: "To Hoffmann the spirit world wasn't just a metaphor - it was the real thing, more real than anything else we ordinarily experience - and he believed that the creative artist had to do everything possible to go there. Through music, dreams, alcohol, drugs - and if all else filed, madness." One of the patients is writing a thesis "Authors as characters, Characters as Authors" about "authors becoming characters in what somebody else writes, and then meeting up with the characters they created themselves in their own works." Confusion between fiction and reality is a big theme in this book. Yet another musing: "But somewhere there's an intelligence at work - probably not God or the Devil, just some indifferent cosmic scribe writing and rewriting the book of the world in a thousand different plots and a thousand different styles. And I'm one of the very, very minor characters."

However, the story feels too much like an artificial device for illustrating the ideas, a bit like a puppet theater (another character's hobby). Somehow, it's neither atmospheric nor touching, and the characters are rather boring, even the ones who are in various stages of insanity. There's a cool twist in the end, though.

This book is definitely not a wasted time (it even made me google up Tales of Hoffmann), but it takes a fair amount of efforts to get through.
Title: A Study in Scarlet
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Number of Pages: 134 pages
Book Number/Goal: 2/25 for 2012
My Rating: 3.5/5

Amazon Summary: When Dr John Watson takes rooms in Baker Street with amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, he has no idea that he is about to enter a shadowy world of criminality and violence. Accompanying Holmes to an ill-omened house in south London, Watson is startled to find a dead man whose face is contorted in a rictus of horror. There is no mark of violence on the body yet a single word is written on the wall in blood. Dr Watson is as baffled as the police, but Holmes' brilliant analytical skills soon uncover a trail of murder, revenge and lost love.

Review: This was okay? I enjoyed it, but it didn't get me really excited about Sherlock Holmes or make me see what all the fuss is about or anything. I will definitely be reading other Holmes books, though.
Another 17 books added to the total count :) I decided to up the challenge to 200 books in 2011 rather than 111, and so far I am still ahead (by 10 books).

Read more... )

76 completed books, 26586 words as of 01/05/2011

Currently reading:
- Reginald Hill - Midnight Fugue (Dalziel & Pascoe) - 38/384
- Pat Willimott - The Chalet School Librarian - 39/200


I might abandon that last. It's sending me up the wall with misery spotting errors everywhere and I'm not even to page 40 yet, and the plot is not much better. The girls' school story fandom has weird ideas about fanfiction, and I'm really not all that comfortable paying for published fanfic if it's not for charity, having had more experience in the usual fandom model...
I'm doing pretty well at keeping track, now that I bought myself a little notebook and joined GoodReads.

I decided on 111 books in 2011. I may change that, as I'm already more than halfway there. List of read books/page count etc. so far under the cut - 59 finished so far. Not necessarily in order of reading - I only listed the month in my notebook until March 29th, not the exact date, so they sort randomly by month. A lot are re-reads, but I count those just the same. Page counts may be inaccurate, most were taken from GR and I know sometimes those editions are listed weirdly... I've sorted the list so far by author, since I don't know the exact dates I finished most of them.

59/111 )

Currently reading:
- Jean K. Baird - Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall - 95/180
- David Eddings - The Elder Gods (Dreamers) - 227/480
- Reginald Hill - Midnight Fugue (Dalziel & Pascoe) - 38/384
Title: The Dollhouse Murders
Author: Betty Ren Wright
Number of Pages: 149 pages
Book Number/Goal: 44/40 for 2010
My Rating: 3.5/5

Jacket Summary: It was just an old dollhouse. Hidden away in the attic--collecting dust. Amy didn't know that the dollhouse held a secret. A deadly secret that hadn't been talked about in years. And now, the dolls have decided that Amy should be the one to know the truth. The truth about the night of the murder...

Review: First off, the writing in the actual book is way better than the crappy summary on the back cover. XD I grabbed this off of BookMooch because when I asked on a bookfinder community about another book about creepy dolls that I remembered liking as a kid (Behind the Attic Wall), someone mentioned this one as well. The Dollhouse Murders was written in the early '80s, same as Behind the Attic Wall, but I never came across it as a kid. I wish I had, as I would have enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed it as an adult, too.

There is a subplot about Amy's sister Louann, who has some sort of mental disability (only specified as "brain damage"), and at first I was extremely hesitant about it, but I think overall it was handled pretty well. Over the course of the book, Amy realises that her sister can do more than Amy and her mom have assumed and starts to realise that it's a good thing for Louann to have her own interests and friends and to eventually have her own life. While it is Amy's POV and obviously framed as an abled person learning a lesson about disability, Louann herself was as well-rounded as any of the other supporting characters and felt like a person, not just an object to teach Amy a lesson. Definitely better than I might have expected for a thirty-year-old children's book.

I was less happy about the murder plot. In general the mystery was badly done. This is better as just a ghost story than a mystery, because the real killer turns out to be the groundskeeper, who they had "always been generous to" until he randomly decided to kill them because that's just what the help does, I guess. Yay, classism!

Title: Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
Author: Lensey Namioka
Number of Pages: 154 pages
Book Number/Goal: 45/40 for 2010
My Rating: 4/5

Jacket Summary: Third Sister in the Tao family, Ailin has watched her two older sisters having their feet bound. In China in 1911, all girls of good families follow this ancient practice, which is also an extremely painful one. Ailin loves to run away from her governess and play games with her male cousins. Knowing she will never run again once her feet are bound, she refuses to follow this torturous tradition. As a result, the family of her intended husband breaks their marriage agreement. As she enters adolescence, Ailin finds that her family, shamed by her decision, will no longer support her. Chinese society leaves few options for a single woman of good family, but with bold conviction and an indomitable spirit, Ailin is determined to forge her own destiny.

Review: I enjoyed this. It reminded me a lot of many turn-of-the-century girls' stories I read as a kid, like Anne of Green Gables and stuff.
Title: Mokuyou Kumikyoku (Thursday Suite)
Author: Onda Riku
Number of Pages: 247 pages
Book Number/Goal: 41/40 for 2010
My Rating: 5/5

Jacket Summary: It's been four years since author Shigematsu Tokiko committed suicide. As they do every year, five women who were close to Tokiko gather at Nightingale House to remember her. Eriko writes non-fiction, Naomi writes popular fiction, Tsukasa writes literary fiction, Eiko is an editor, and Shizuko works for a publishing house. But a mysterious message turns their peaceful conversation into a storm of accusations and confessions. Did Tokiko really commit suicide, or was it murder...?

Review: Aaaages ago I was browsing tapes at the video store and this movie sounded interesting. I saw it was based on a book and thought I'd rather read the book than watch the movie, so I bought the book and then years and years passed and I never read it. Well, the other day I wanted a small book I could stick in my pocket while I was out running errands, and Japanese books are great for that, so I grabbed it off the shelf. I can't believe I took so long to get around to reading it, because it was really good! It was a bit of a slow starter, but I got really sucked in after a while and found it very hard to put down.

It's really not a traditional mystery at all, but there's a lot of intrigue and reveals, which I always like. Also, wow, this book passes the Bechdel Test like nobody's business. A lot of books about women still focus on them talking about guys all the time, but out of almost 250 pages I think there were maybe five pages tops that were about men. There was one convo about a male relative and one about a guy one of the women had been set up with (which was a hilarious convo, because she was talking about how she hates guys who think they're so feminist and awesome and say they split the housework with their wives when all they do is empty the trash occasionally and cook once in a while).

Anyway, I really enjoyed this and will definitely be looking for more books by her. She's written a ton and I'm sad to see that not a single one has been translated into English.
torachan: (Default)
([personal profile] torachan Nov. 6th, 2010 02:54 am)
S, so apparently I forgot to crosspost anything here since the beginning of May...? D: I haven't read a ton of books this year, but it says here my last post was books 6-8 and I just posted book 34 on my journal, so it's more than I want to crosspost in whole here. Instead, here's a list of links to the reviews in my journal (along with some basic info) for those interested, and I will try to be good about crossposting in future.

Books 9-34 behind the cut! )
Title: Queen of Attolia.
Author: Megan Whalen Turner.
Number of Pages: 362.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 65 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: A Morbid Taste for Bones.
Author: Ellis Peters.
Number of Pages: 197.
Genre: Historical, mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 66 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: One Corpse Too Many.
Author: Ellis Peters.
Number of Pages: 224.
Genre: Historical, mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 67 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Monk's Hood.
Author: Ellis Peters.
Number of Pages: 224.
Genre: Historical, mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 68 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Charmed Life.
Author: Diana Wynne Jones.
Number of Pages: 180.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 69 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Lives of Christopher Chant.
Author: Diana Wynne Jones.
Number of Pages: 240.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 70 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
Title: The Ghost Pirates.
Author: William Hope Hodgson.
Number of Pages: 176.
Genre: Horror.
Book Number/Goal: 50 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The House on the Borderland.
Author: William Hope Hodgson.
Number of Pages: 152.
Genre: Horror.
Book Number/Goal: 51 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig'.
Author: William Hope Hodgson.
Number of Pages: 132.
Genre: Horror.
Book Number/Goal: 52 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Red Tree.
Author: Caitlin R. Kiernan.
Number of Pages: 385.
Genre: Horror.
Book Number/Goal: 53 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Sagas of Warrior-Poets.
Author: Anonymous.
Number of Pages: 400.
Genre: Literature, Norse sagas.
Book Number/Goal: 54 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Deerskin.
Author: Robin McKinley.
Number of Pages: 320.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 55 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Name of the Rose.
Author: Umberto Eco.
Number of Pages: 502.
Genre: Mystery, historical.
Book Number/Goal: 56 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Arthurian Romances.
Author: Chretien de Troyes.
Number of Pages: 521.
Genre: Literature.
Book Number/Goal: 57 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Thief.
Author: Megan Whalen Turner.
Number of Pages: 280.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 58 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
Title: The Little Stranger.
Author: Sarah Waters.
Number of Pages: 501.
Genre: Mystery, historical fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 36 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Holy Fools.
Author: Joanne Harris.
Number of Pages: 430.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 37 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Five Quarters of the Orange.
Author: Joanne Harris.
Number of Pages: 432.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 38 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Game of Kings.
Author: Dorothy Dunnett.
Number of Pages: 619.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 39 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Taran Wanderer.
Author: Lloyd Alexander.
Number of Pages: 256.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 40 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The High King.
Author: Lloyd Alexander.
Number of Pages: 248.
Genre: Fantasy.
Book Number/Goal: 41 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Interpretation of Murder.
Author: Jed Rubenfeld.
Number of Pages: 533.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 42 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
My list/goals can be found here.

Title: The Nine Tailors.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 397.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 30 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Gaudy Night.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 512.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 31 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Busman's Honeymoon.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 403.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 32 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 496.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 33 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Thrones, Dominations.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 312.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 34 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: A Presumption of Death.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 384.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 35 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
My list/goals can be found here.

Title: The Machine Gunners.
Author: Robert Westall.
Number of Pages: 185.
Genre: Historical, children's.
Book Number/Goal: 24 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Azazel.
Author: Isaac Asimov.
Number of Pages: 221.
Genre: Fantasy, short stories.
Book Number/Goal: 25 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Empire of Bones.
Author: Liz Williams.
Number of Pages: 432.
Genre: Speculative fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 26 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Feet in Chains.
Author: Kate Roberts.
Number of Pages: 160.
Genre: Welsh Fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 27 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Have His Carcase.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 448.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 28 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Murder Must Advertise.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 368.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 29 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
My list/goal can be found here.

Title: Ash.
Author: Malinda Lo.
Number of Pages: 258.
Genre: Fantasy, LGBT.
Book Number/Goal: 20 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Strong Poison.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 240.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 21 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Five Red Herrings.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 368.
Genre: Mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 22 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Secret Scripture.
Author: Sebastian Barry.
Number of Pages: 312.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 23 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
My list/goal can be found here.

Title: Fatal Shadows.
Author: Josh Lanyon.
Number of Pages: 232.
Genre: Mystery, LGBT, romance.
Book Number/Goal: 15 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: A Dangerous Thing.
Author: Josh Lanyon.
Number of Pages: 248.
Genre: Mystery, LGBT, romance.
Book Number/Goal: 16 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Hell You Say.
Author: Josh Lanyon.
Number of Pages: 230.
Genre: Mystery, LGBT, romance.
Book Number/Goal: 17 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Death of a Pirate King.
Author: Josh Lanyon.
Number of Pages: 248.
Genre: Mystery, LGBT, romance.
Book Number/Goal: 18 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Dark Tide.
Author: Josh Lanyon.
Number of Pages: 304.
Genre: Mystery, LGBT, romance.
Book Number/Goal: 19 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
My list/goal can be found here.

Title: Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death.
Author: Gyles Brandreth.
Number of Pages: 416.
Genre: Mystery, historical fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 11 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten.
Author: Julian Baggini.
Number of Pages: 306.
Genre: Philosophy.
Book Number/Goal: 12 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Alchemist.
Author: Paulo Coehlo.
Number of Pages: 167.
Genre: Fantasy, philosophy.
Book Number/Goal: 13 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Country Dance.
Author: Margiad Evans.
Number of Pages: 104.
Genre: Welsh Fiction.
Book Number/Goal: 14 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
A little batch update, so you know how I'm doing. My goal/list is here.

Title: Clouds of Witness.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 288 pages.
Genre: Crime/mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 1 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: Unnatural Death.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 288 pages.
Genre: Crime/mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 2 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.

Title: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers.
Number of Pages: 256 pages.
Genre: Crime/mystery.
Book Number/Goal: 3 of 75 (minimum).
Review: Here.
.

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