amedia | Entries tagged with books

Story title: Part of Me
Author: Amedia
Rating: G
Fandom: Rat Patrol
Characters: Hitch, Tully
Ship: None.
Summary: Reading Professor Moffitt's book has changed Tully's view of the desert.
Word Count: 234
Author's note: Inspired by one of

theemdash’s responses to my request for ficlet prompts, which came in the form of Wizard Rock lyrics by Lauren Fairweather: “You’ve become a part of me/ And I take you wherever I go.” In context, the words are about how having read Harry Potter has affected the song's narrator for life. I was really struck by Lauren's idea of how some books stay with you and transform the way you look at the world thereafter, so that's what this little story is about.

( Part of Me )

I enjoyed this book a whole lot more than I expected! Kyleen recommended it--now I know she gives good recs!--and even alerted me when it went on sale for 99 cents.

It's the first in a series with a vaguely Quantum-Leap-ish plot, but with a couple of cool twists. The main character "leaps" into the bodies of the recently-deceased in order to solve their murders, but only in cases where there's some kind of supernatural involvement. It's told in a humorously snarky first person, and while the narrator can be a jerk, we also see interesting character growth. His background has its own mystery and the author doles out clues sparingly--clearly this is an arc that will continue. I bought all three of the books so far and I look forward to reading the other two--and, I hope, more!

Once I got done with soothing reading, I wanted something fun!

( Read more... )

Everyone is supposed to hate Silas Marner, because it used to be required reading in school. I wasn't required to read it as a kid, but I did and I loved it then--and now.

( Read more... )

I just read the sequel to Vögelein: Clockwork Faerie. I liked the second book, Vögelein: Old Ghosts quite a bit, but I didn't think it was as good as the first one. Without going into spoilery territory, I was disappointed in the main arc and frustrated with one of the secondary ones.

Also, some of the characters seemed ... sugarcoated in this one.

It was still an enjoyable read, and exquisitely drawn, and I still look forward to future volumes.

So here's my question. This is an indie author whom I'd love to support. I was happy to leave a 5-star review of the first book on Amazon. This book has only three reviews so far, two 5-star and one 4-star. I don't feel that I can give it 5 stars, and another 4 star review will bring her average down.

I want to do right by this author. Is it more important for an indie author to have the highest possible average? Or to have the largest possible number of reviews?
Help me, f-list-wan Kenobi!

Miscellaneous other books that I read during the second part of last year. ( Read more... )

Just read the most recent book for the book club, which was very well-written and desperately sad. That seems to be what people in this club really like. Instead of complaining, I thought I'd try bringing something fun to the party! I've never recommended a book for us to read, and I think that if I did, it would be considered seriously.

It can be adult or young-adult, and it needs to be written by a woman, preferably fairly recently. (Otherwise I'd try to convince them to read Bloody Jack.) I'd love to recommend something fantasy or science fiction with a rousing adventure plot. Suggestions welcome--even if it's a book you've recommended to me before and I'm spacing on, don't worry about repetition--my mind is a BLANK!

Oh, and I need it by tomorrow night (meep!) . . . Thanks in advance for ANY assistance!!!!

Slogged through this tragedypornfest for the book club. Cardboard characters, lame and sloppy plot. Overall message is one I've seen on an appalling T-shirt: "Boys are icky. Throw rocks at them."

I haven't been reading a whole lot, but even so, I've managed to get behind on writing about what I've read!

These are the books I've finished since mid-January; there's another one that I'm still in the middle of that I'll write about when I'm done, called The Knox Brothers by Penelope Fitzgerald.

( Read more... )

Eeeee! http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00AGSTV6A/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?tag=afbmf-20

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

I read four pleasure books from October through December 2012, which really isn't very many, especially since I read three of them on airplanes. ( Read more... )

I'm on my cell so I can't easily repost the link--but if you liked the sound of the snarky Victorian cocktail recipe book I posted about recently, it's back on the free list!

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

I may have been the last person in the world to hear about this, but in case I'm not--there's an e-newsletter that comes out every day with a bunch of books that Amazon has put on sale for the Kindle (or any device with a Kindle app) just for that day. There's usually a batch of four at the beginning that are 99 cents, and then there are about twenty or so that are completely free.

It's quite a mixed bag, including lots of self-published material, and there are days when I glance through it and don't click on anything at all, but I've found a few gems--my favorite so far has been a book about 19th century cocktails called "Steamdrunks."

Here's the address to sign up if you live in the US: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=EreaderNewsToday&loc=en_US

This was the book for the May meeting of the book club, and I would probably never have picked it up on my own, but I enjoyed it far more than I expected. Don't worry about spoilers if you click--it's not that kind of book. ( Details and snippets )

The fourth and, as of this writing, the last of Roberta Rogow's Charles Dodgson-Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries. I hope she writes more! I didn't love this one quite as much as the others, even though it was set at Oxford and involved Dodgson's photography as an important plot element. I'm not sure why, but some of it had that "must squeeze in all the research" flavor and wound up coming across as forced. It still had enough delightful bits to keep me going through it, and one of the very best opening lines I've seen in a mystery novel in a very long time:

Murder was not a part of the curriculum at any of the individual colleges that made up the University of Oxford.

Like visiting with old friends! :-) I haven't dug my Holmes books out of the garage yet; I read these on the Kindle while we were away.

A while back I bought some mysteries by Roberta Rogow at MediaWest*Con, and I've finally gotten around to reading them. ( Fun for fans of Holmes and fans of Alice! )

A friend of mine lent me these. The books themselves are wonderfully-illustrated little jewels. The stories seemed a bit slight, but charming; I found myself wishing they were deeper and more complex because I liked what there was.

Thoughts about the 11th book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, which I just finished rereading earlier today. VERY SPOILERY! Do not click if you haven't read the book; this will spoil the finest moment in the entire series (IMHO). ( You have been warned! )