Gender- and genre-bending
Witch
A pretty solid sequel to Warrior. I didn't really review the first book, but some things in it just didn't grab me -- writing seemed a bit tame for the action, things dragged a bit with all the traveling. Events in Witch moved much better, in my opinion. I think the ending could have been expanded a bit. Overall, though, this is a very good fantasy book.
Brain Thief (Sci Fi Essential Books)
This was a very uneven book, at least in my experience. The first 100 pages or so are rather confusing, I kept reading simply to see where it was going. Then it suddenly picked up for a while, but eventually went back again to some really choppy narration. Some people will probably enjoy the style, but it was honestly not my cup of tea.
The Shadow Pavilion: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (Detective Inspector Chen Novels)
Not particularly impressed. I like some parts about this series -- Chen, Inari, the badger. I just find that a lot of secondary characters are sort of bland. Chapters are very short, so POV ends up jumping from character to character every four pages, which is way too confusing. It just seems that some things keep happening for no reason other than to have something happen to some of the characters.
The Demon And The City: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (Detective Inspector Chen Novels)
Definitely not as good as the first one. Seemed like too much stuff was going on at once, plus Chen was gone during the first half of the book.
Snake Agent: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (Detective Inspector Chen Novels)
I thought it was a fun, quick read. There were some problems with writing style (someone mentioned she has trouble building suspense, which is true), but overall pretty good. I'm amused by the fact that Hell has health insurance.
Midnight Never Come
Ok, so this might be the best book about fairies I've ever read. You can't go wrong with Elizabeth I and fairies. Also, I'm not good at writing reviews for books I really love.
Souls in the Great Machine
Errr... I guess I'll give it a three. Started off great, but by the time we got to the end I was incredibly bored and annoyed by all the characters. There are many of them, and their motivations are not always clear. Occasionally they just take off on some grand adventure for no apparent reason. Also, it seemed like the author occasionally just wanted to speed things up, to show more stuff about the world, so he would sort of 'fast-forward' the action, making me feel like I'm missing something.
Bitter Seeds
I'm not exactly sure what I didn't like about this book. It just didn't grab me as much as I had hoped it would. Maybe it was the characters. None of the good guys were particularly interesting, imo. Maybe it was something else. The book had some great ideas, but still was quite blah.
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl
Very cute, very touching. Writing is a bit disorganized. You do, however, get a pretty good idea of what it takes to take care of a wild bird. And no, I don't think the book would encourage most people to bring owls home. While there are many tender moments, there are also accounts of keeping Wesley fed (not sure I'd be able to kill mice), problems with leaving him alone, problems with introducing him to new people, and so on.
All Clear
Let's put aside the fact that Connie Willis only seems to write time travel books. I'm willing to forgive her for sticking to one theme because she does it very well.The rating is really for Blackout and All Clear together, since they are the same book (I think the publisher had to split it because of the length). It's closer to 4.5 stars, I think. My only gripe is that there are some parts where it seems to drag a bit (primarily in the beginning of All Clear, where they spend all their time writing messages and worrying). The ending pretty much redeems the boring parts, I think.
In the Garden of Iden (Company)
I suppose it was okay... I could do without the silly and very annoying romance, though. It just seemed like a ploy to make us care about Harpole. I bet there could be another way to do so. I just hate that you start out with a fairly cool narrator who then suddenly gets all hot and bothered every time she looks at this guy.
The Baby Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance (Owner's and Instruction Manual)
This seems like a silly joke book at first, but it's actually useful. I think most people who said it was 'awful' or 'unhelpful' either don't have a sense of humor or completely missed the point. I'm not sure what people are looking for in baby books, but this one has pretty much all the basics: how to hold, how to bathe, how to swaddle, feed, etc. If new parents are looking for something deeper like 'how to make baby a highly moral being' or 'how to teach my baby to read in five languages before the age of one', then yeah, this book is probably not going to be helpful. Moreover, this is the first baby book that actually gave me any confidence that I can take care of the child by putting everything in very straightforward terms and giving simple instructions. For some reason, I find this highly objective language quite reassuring. And yes, the book also pretty funny.
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Great read, but at times I wished this book contained more memoir and less history of chemistry (and I love chemistry).
American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right
Nothing earth-shattering or particularly new, if you are a liberal who's been paying attention for the past few years, but not a bad read. My two problems with this book are: 1) since it is written by a blogger, it occasionally becomes just a mocking rant (somewhat expected, obviously) and 2) I am not sure if I am comfortable with calling the extreme right 'American Taliban' -- it seems like stooping to their level of calling Obama 'Hitler' (that said, Moulitsas shows that those people are disturbingly like Taliban, whereas Obama is quite obviously not Hitler).
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
I honestly thought it was just going to be a silly book about not trimming your beard, wearing all white, and playing a ten-string harp for a year. And in part, it was silly. But at the same time, it has some interesting bits of information and at times is actually thought-provoking. I perhaps would have liked a little bit less diary and a bit more self-reflection, but overall I found the writing to be quite funny and sincere.
The Habitation of the Blessed: A Dirge for Prester John, Vol. 1
I honestly have trouble writing actual reviews for five-star books. Perhaps when I had time to digest this...
Currently reading
Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender
La Délicatesse (Folio) (French Edition)
