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amediaI read four pleasure books from October through December 2012, which really isn't very many, especially since I read three of them on airplanes.
Like Water for Chocolate--I read this on the plane, on the way back from spending Thanksgiving with my family, for the book club meeting on December 3rd. I had vaguely heard of it, but didn't know much about it. I was tickled to learn that it was a magical-realist work, or at least contained elements thereof, as well as recipes. It inspired everyone to bring yummy Mexican food to the meeting, which was great. (I brought a dessert made with roasted mangoes.) I enjoyed the book very much on the micro level--by the sentence, paragraph, and chapter--but I didn't really like the overall story that much.
Dutch Curridge by Tim Bryant is a self-published book by a Texas author whom I wanted to support. I read most of it on the same post-Thanksgiving plane ride; Like Water for Chocolate is a very quick read! On the whole I found it interesting and well written, with an distinctive and (as near as I could tell) authentic narrative voice. It's a sort of Texas noir story, a cross between a hard-boiled detective novel and a colorful tale of life on the poorer side of Fort Worth in the mid twentieth century. The eponymous narrator is asked to solve two different mysteries, which never really come together although they share some similarities in theme. The book stops, rather than ends; neither plot really has a satisfying conclusion. I don't think that's clumsiness--the book is too well-written for that--rather, I think the author is making a point about the messiness and inexactitude of life, especially for the disenfranchised. But I think I would have liked it better with a stronger sense of closure.
The Winter Letter by Dustan Stanley was a self-published children's fantasy novel that I got from the free Kindle newsletter. It was extremely uneven in tone, pacing, and, I'm sorry to say, in quality. Which is a shame because it had some promising moments here and there.
Killing Rommel - I bought this some years ago when I was actively into Rat Patrol, but it sounded like some sort of elite assassination squad thriller and I wasn't looking forward to it a lot and it slipped between the cracks. Well, I was looking for something to read on the plane on the way to see the in-laws, and I figured this was something I could give my father-in-law when I was done with it, so I brought it along. OMG I adored this book! It wasn't what I expected at all--it was basically "Young Lieutenant Everyman gets to ride along with the LRDG and has many adventures with them!" The author offered a very realistic and even rueful perspective on how war mostly works, and once we got into the LRDG part there was loads of great detail--how to use a a sun compass, how sand affects various mechanical (and human) parts--cameos by many of the people I had read about when I was doing research for writing RP fanfic, from Wm. Kennedy Shaw to Vladimir Peniakoff ("Popski")--So Much Fun, and highly recommended to *any* RP fan. (I did lend it to my father-in-law, who enjoyed it as well.)
I suppose a less starry-eyed fangirl might say there was too much detail in some places and maybe too many cameos, or even that an event near the end of the book was too contrived and Rat-Patrol-ish to fit the realistic tone of the rest of the book. But I just ate it all up!
Like Water for Chocolate--I read this on the plane, on the way back from spending Thanksgiving with my family, for the book club meeting on December 3rd. I had vaguely heard of it, but didn't know much about it. I was tickled to learn that it was a magical-realist work, or at least contained elements thereof, as well as recipes. It inspired everyone to bring yummy Mexican food to the meeting, which was great. (I brought a dessert made with roasted mangoes.) I enjoyed the book very much on the micro level--by the sentence, paragraph, and chapter--but I didn't really like the overall story that much.
Dutch Curridge by Tim Bryant is a self-published book by a Texas author whom I wanted to support. I read most of it on the same post-Thanksgiving plane ride; Like Water for Chocolate is a very quick read! On the whole I found it interesting and well written, with an distinctive and (as near as I could tell) authentic narrative voice. It's a sort of Texas noir story, a cross between a hard-boiled detective novel and a colorful tale of life on the poorer side of Fort Worth in the mid twentieth century. The eponymous narrator is asked to solve two different mysteries, which never really come together although they share some similarities in theme. The book stops, rather than ends; neither plot really has a satisfying conclusion. I don't think that's clumsiness--the book is too well-written for that--rather, I think the author is making a point about the messiness and inexactitude of life, especially for the disenfranchised. But I think I would have liked it better with a stronger sense of closure.
The Winter Letter by Dustan Stanley was a self-published children's fantasy novel that I got from the free Kindle newsletter. It was extremely uneven in tone, pacing, and, I'm sorry to say, in quality. Which is a shame because it had some promising moments here and there.
Killing Rommel - I bought this some years ago when I was actively into Rat Patrol, but it sounded like some sort of elite assassination squad thriller and I wasn't looking forward to it a lot and it slipped between the cracks. Well, I was looking for something to read on the plane on the way to see the in-laws, and I figured this was something I could give my father-in-law when I was done with it, so I brought it along. OMG I adored this book! It wasn't what I expected at all--it was basically "Young Lieutenant Everyman gets to ride along with the LRDG and has many adventures with them!" The author offered a very realistic and even rueful perspective on how war mostly works, and once we got into the LRDG part there was loads of great detail--how to use a a sun compass, how sand affects various mechanical (and human) parts--cameos by many of the people I had read about when I was doing research for writing RP fanfic, from Wm. Kennedy Shaw to Vladimir Peniakoff ("Popski")--So Much Fun, and highly recommended to *any* RP fan. (I did lend it to my father-in-law, who enjoyed it as well.)
I suppose a less starry-eyed fangirl might say there was too much detail in some places and maybe too many cameos, or even that an event near the end of the book was too contrived and Rat-Patrol-ish to fit the realistic tone of the rest of the book. But I just ate it all up!
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Date: 2013-01-12 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-12 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-12 10:30 pm (UTC)I generally avoid free Kindle books because I see a lot of self-published SF comes over my threshold due to B's membership in a society that gives awards for libertarian SF. We get a lot of, well, I can only call it crap. It's left me feeling a little cynical about self-publishing. That is why I praise your writing so highly, and look forward to seeing a longer work from you. You're good.
Killing Rommel sounds interesting. Perhaps after I plough through Connie Willis' Blackout and All Clear (actually one book subdivided into 2 by the publisher), I'll check it out of the library. I hope to have some time to read this next semester—I miss being able to read as much as I want to.
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Date: 2013-01-13 09:12 pm (UTC)My feelings exactly! I was very frustrated with the main character and frankly, her love interest was no prize, so her continued quasi-relationship with him made it harder to sympathize with her.
Thank you for your kind words on my writing. ♥ And yes - I try to resist the self-published books on the Kindle list, but every now and then one of them is just too tempting!