Month: August 2013

Review: The Great Santini by Pat Conroy

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4 stars

After reading The Prince of Tides, I wanted more literature by Pat Conroy. Yes, I said literature. Because that’s how good Conroy’s writing is. He puts so much good stuff into a story that by the time you’ve wrapped your head around it all, he’s punched you in the gut with something unexpected. Conroy uses a lot of fancy vocabulary, so have a dictionary nearby. Sometimes my built in Kindle dictionary doesn’t even have the words he uses.

The Great Santini is about a military man whose ego is so huge that he lives to overshadow his military corps, his airplanes, and his family. He is a mean son of a gun, and his family loves him and hates him, knows him and knows nothing about him.

I’m not into military stories or historical novels, but this book held my interest anyway. There may have been more pages about the Marine Corps, but there was more substance about the lieutenant corporal’s family. They held together while I held my shoulders tense knowing there’d be some abuse in this book. Conroy also comments on coming of age, racism, classism, education, sports, poverty, and the fraudulence of southern charm.

I enjoyed The Great Santini. I didn’t love it as much as The Prince of Tides, but it’s an excellent study in the relationship between a father and son. Even if I did predict the ending. 😉

– Calliope

Buy It Now The Great Santini

Review: Tested on Orphans by David Mamet

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imageDavid Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning playwright. He is also an author, screenwriter and director. His multitude of works include Glengarry Glen Ross, The Verdict, The Postman Always Rings Twice and this little gem of cartoons.

Part visual commentary, part satire, part down right grown-inducing with some puns, the cartoons include ideas on movie sequels like Ghandi II famous first drafts and bumper stickers. As the book title suggests, this book can be offensive, so, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

When you open the book, a letter written by Mamet’s close friend Shel Silverstein is attached. Silverstein comments on Mamet’s potential as a cartoonist.

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Unfortunately, this book is out-of-print. I hope that everyone takes the time to find this hilarious book. Below is a link to help you.

~Thalia

Buy It Now Tested on Orphans: Cartoons by David Mamet

Author love

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Do you ever notice that the author’s attitude influence you and your opinion on their books? I find that they do. Strike that, sometimes I like or love a book, even if the author’s a snot. But mostly I love it even more if they are friendly. If they interact, with us little people, on Facebook or Twitter, that makes a HUGE difference. What’s even better, is if they actually take time to answer their emails. That’s more personal, I think.

For example, I have a book that I am completely in love with, but the author seems kinda snotty. I won’t say her name, but she never interacts with us. I think it’s rude. I don’t love her book any less, but it’s hard to encourage others to buy it, if she doesn’t seem to appreciate the praise she gets. How hard is it to interact with us on Facebook really?? Not that hard.

On the opposite end, I have another book, which I will read over and over and love to the depths of my soul, and the author is amazing. She responds to emails and completely interacts with us on Facebook. She is a riot!! I even sent her a book to sign. But she didn’t just sign it, she made swag to go with it.

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How amazing is that?!?! I mean, truly, she is awesome!! I love her to death and I’ve never even met her. However, that is on my bucket list. *crossing fingers*

I understand that authors are busy writing. I mean, we don’t expect them to chat with us all day long, but we’re the ones that take the time out to buy their books. The least you can do is respond to us when we give you praise or ask a question.

~Melpomene

Review: Like Falling by Jaden Wilkes

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17995429Like Falling (Surfaces #1) is another take of my current favorite angst filled genre, New Adult. I can’t help it – I can’t get enough of it. I’ve read the good, the bad and the ugly in the genre so far and believe me there has been some very ugly! But this one seems to fit pretty much right smack dab in the middle of the genre- in a good way.

Sarah Miller comes from a Mennonite family who wants her to marry as soon as possible and have lots of Mennonite babies. She wants to go to college and her parents decide to let her and Sarah explores her boundaries while there, in every way. Sarah lives with her Mennonite friend Nic, who quickly introduces Sarah to all the joys of college life.

Sarah seems at times to be almost over the top, but then I remember people who I’ve known who felt repressed and she acted pretty much just like they did. She is wide eyed and trying to experience different things from cursing to kissing. I did laugh at her text messaging and dealing with her roomate’s girlfriend.

This book was part amusing, coming of age story, and part angsty romance between two people who obviously should be together. It does end in a cliffhanger, but does so in such a way that did not make me angry. The author pointed out that the the 2nd book is in the process and it will be part of a trilogy as she felt that the story was too much for one book.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Solid 3 stars

~Clio

Review: The Dirty Streets of Heaven (Bobby Dollar #1) by Tad Williams

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DirtyI’ve been wanting to try Tad Williams for a while now. I just kept putting it off. I am not opposed to fantasy writers. Some of my favorite books are from this genre. However, for whatever reason, I am always intimidated by them before I start. Perhaps I am afraid the story line will be too foreign for me to follow. Perhaps it is because so many of the great fantasy reads are volumes upon volumes of novels…whatever the cause of my hesitation, once I start I am fine….after all, a great story is a great story no matter the genre….and the fantasy world has some totally amazing storytellers. I have always heard that Tad Williams was one of these amazing storytellers….

Having said all of that…some parts of this book were actually very good….however, other parts were just bad….no, not just bad, but very bad! I might give Tad Williams another go, but I don’t think it will be with this series….I do like how Bobby was loyal in the end…not only to his own self, but also to a friend….So Williams gets full props for the main character. The rest of the story is where it fell short for me. It was not exciting. It was not original. I could pick out dozen of instances where certain characters reminded me of another from some other series, by other writers. I knew who the culprit was almost from the start and I know it was supposed to come as a huge shock…..I also thought the same “action packed monster scenes” were very repetitive and hence, very boring…maybe this was all my own fault as I had very high expectations of Williams. Hearing about the subject of the story excited me. It sounded original. It sounded exciting. It sounded so unique and I was expecting not only to be blown away by it, but refreshed by it as well. I mean seriously, even the title was fantastic to my mind! I was super excited going into this book…..I wanted to finish it a full run, excited to hit my next book…..that didn’t happen….I felt as if I hit a brick wall reading it. I lost all interest about halfway through….I found reasons to either put the book down and find more interesting things to do, or a strong desire to just skim over pages and pages to get to the ending I knew was waiting for me.

The one thing I did learn from reading this novel is that even an original concept can end up being told in a very unoriginal way.

~Urania

Buy it now The Dirty Streets of Heaven (Bobby Dollar)

Review: Geoducks Are for Lovers by Daisy Prescott

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So. This book made me laugh and made me cry… but not until 80% through. The characters were fleshed out and awesome… but they didn’t DO anything until 50% through. Daisy Prescott nailed the landscape in the Pacific Northwest setting… but repeated the same details in every chapter.

Maggie invites a group of friends to her island cottage home before they celebrate a big school reunion. Maggie is surprised when Gil – former best friend and crush – shows up. They spend their time together exploring whether they should start a relationship now, 20 years later.

Cute plot for a rom-com. But it took so very long to get to the plot that I just couldn’t enjoy the book. I was bored for the first half, waiting for something to happen. This was a 2-star book until the 3-star end.

-Calliope

Buy It Now Geoducks Are for Lovers

Review: The Redemption of Callie and Kayden, by Jessica Sorensen

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OK. Let me start out by saying that I have been dying for this book to come out. I read The Coincidence back in December and no one told me it was a cliffy!! A super duper horrible cliffy!!! I was so upset. Seven months is a long time to wait, but I did. So if you haven’t read it, stop right now and go grab it. This review will spoil it for ya.

This book takes place a few days after the last one ended. Kayden is in the hospital and Callie is trying to figure out how to survive without him. She doesn’t wanna leave him. She knows he’s hurting and wants to help, but he wants her to stay away from him. He thinks he’ll drag her down. But he doesn’t realize that she needs him.

He’s one of two people who knows why she’s broken and she needs him.

“You’re the only person who I can ever feel whole with.”

Callie, with the help of Seth and Luke, bring him on a road trip, in the hope that it will help him to open up and break free. She learns his secret and tries to help him with it. But it’s something he has to wanna do. Callie can’t do anything but love and support him. Kayden has been so broken for so long, he doesn’t know how to live a normal life. He doesn’t think he’s even worthy of it.

Meanwhile, he faces battery charges from the beating he put on Caleb. His parents are trying to do everything they can to get him out of it. But he doesn’t want anything to do with them. The only way out of it would be if Callie came forward with her secret, but he can’t ask her to do that.

“Callie, tell me what you need.”

“I need the world to stop being such an ugly place full of hurt.” Tears slip out of her eyes. “I need to wake up and really believe everything will be okay instead of hoping it will be. I want to be one of the lucky ones who has a good life.”

My heart was breaking from these two. So much hurt and pain. I wanted to reach in and hug them both. And perhaps beat up one a few people also. I’m a scrapper, I could take them. 😉

Seth and Luke were very good friends to them. They brought a bit of the necessary comedic breaks the book needed. You see a small glimpse into Luke’s life also, and you know there is more to him than what he’s showing. BTW, his book is next.

I was glad when they faced their fears and told someone. That was hard to read though. People’s reactions to horrible situations like theirs, are very difficult to read. I didn’t know if they were going to believe them. I’m glad they did.But they are able to move past them and slowly put their lives back together.

“I think the leaves made it back to the trees.”

~Melpomene

Buy it now The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden

Buy it now The Redemption of Callie & Kayden

Musings: Anatomy of a Book Slump

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I love to read. A lot. Like all the time. Which used to be a problem with limited space, limited budget and almost no bookstores near me. But then I got my first Kindle and it was like the clouds parted and I got manna from heaven – books at my fingertips. Whenever. Wherever. Only limited by my budget.

So, all my book problems were a thing of the past, right? Umm, not quite.

I began to have the opposite problem – what should I read?? This is almost as serious a problem as not having anything TO read as my fellow book lovers know. And then the worst problem of all hit me – a book slump.

What is a book slump you ask? A book slump is when even with all the resources of Amazon at your disposal you still cannot find anything to read.

I had such a bad book slump this weekend. At any given time I have about 40-50 books on my kindle, because I like knowing that I have options. These consist of a combo of library books, books I’ve gotten on sale, ARC’s to review and all are sorted carefully into genres. Then I have a short list of books out of those that I want to read very soon.

I chose a book from that pile and just wasn’t into it. Put it aside. Started another book – thought I’d try a suspense this time. Got 20% into it and was soo bored. Move onto romance. No. Thriller. No. Non fiction. Nope! Maybe a different romance. How about dystopian? OOh, what about supernatural?? Nope, no, not even close.

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At this point I’ve read about 10-15% of at least 10 quality books that I truly want to read. ARGHH!!! I then bought 6 books of my Amazon wish list o’ books but still wasn’t really interested in any. I’m feeling pretty desperate here…it’s like I NEED a good book fix right now!

And then a wonderful fellow muse, Thalia, saved the day! She gifted me a book she enjoyed and I was off and reading. Finished the book that night and the next day was able to pick up a different one and keep on going.

Thank heaven for good friends, sometimes they can save you from yourself 🙂

~ Clio