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Books 23-26
Feb. 19th, 2009 07:14 pm23) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: This one should have been counted earlier, as it's one Rachel read to me earlier in the ear. It's a lovely epistolary romance between book lovers set in postwar England, splitting its time between London and Guernsey, one of the channel islands that the German occupied during the war. A bit frothy at points, a bit dark at others, I found it a highly enjoyable confection.
24) 84, Charing Cross Road: Rachel got this classic out of the library because people on Goodreads had people commenting on how much Guernsey had "stolen" from 84CCR. I don't see it - sure, they're both epistolary, they're both discussions between book lovers, they both include aspects of post-war England. The tones, stories, styles and endings are totally different. 84CCR was certainly very good, but I don't see how the movie could make the relationship between Helene and Frank into a love story unless one is bound by the theory and it's impossible to have strong cross-gender friendships. Since I have, um, a dozen or so of those, I don't hold by that theory.
23) The Kings Gold: book 4 of Perez-Reverte's 5 volume Captain Alatriste series, it's another wonderful adventure story set in a long departed Spanish empire. Just as good as the others, I eagerly await volume 5.
25) To Say Nothing of the Dog (Reread): one of my co-workers had mentioned the predestination present in the now defunct TV series Journeyman, which made me recommend this book to him. I then had to get it down and re-read it myself. Halfway through I had to read the seance chapter to Rachel because it's just too damn funny. Rachel, alas, can't read the whole book because time travel makes her brain go *squick*.
26) 'Salem's Lot: I covered quite the range this week. King's second novel, taken out of the library based on Ed McBain's recommendation in Transgressions - Peyton Place meets Dracula. I haven't read much King (Eyes of the Dragon, Dead Zone & Firestarter), but I enjoyed this. I was shocked by the casual homophobia depicted in the book, as stark a reminder that the past is a different country as one could expect, and likely very accurate to 1974 small town Maine. The book also struck me as very gamable - the heroes are intelligent, problem solving types who come to correct conclusion quickly and implement solid plans. They make some dumb errors, but at all the points where I think "they're being stupid" one of the characters stopped and went "we're being stupid" or, perhaps, 'we were just stupid." Very much like PCs. A good, solid monster hunting novel.
24) 84, Charing Cross Road: Rachel got this classic out of the library because people on Goodreads had people commenting on how much Guernsey had "stolen" from 84CCR. I don't see it - sure, they're both epistolary, they're both discussions between book lovers, they both include aspects of post-war England. The tones, stories, styles and endings are totally different. 84CCR was certainly very good, but I don't see how the movie could make the relationship between Helene and Frank into a love story unless one is bound by the theory and it's impossible to have strong cross-gender friendships. Since I have, um, a dozen or so of those, I don't hold by that theory.
23) The Kings Gold: book 4 of Perez-Reverte's 5 volume Captain Alatriste series, it's another wonderful adventure story set in a long departed Spanish empire. Just as good as the others, I eagerly await volume 5.
25) To Say Nothing of the Dog (Reread): one of my co-workers had mentioned the predestination present in the now defunct TV series Journeyman, which made me recommend this book to him. I then had to get it down and re-read it myself. Halfway through I had to read the seance chapter to Rachel because it's just too damn funny. Rachel, alas, can't read the whole book because time travel makes her brain go *squick*.
26) 'Salem's Lot: I covered quite the range this week. King's second novel, taken out of the library based on Ed McBain's recommendation in Transgressions - Peyton Place meets Dracula. I haven't read much King (Eyes of the Dragon, Dead Zone & Firestarter), but I enjoyed this. I was shocked by the casual homophobia depicted in the book, as stark a reminder that the past is a different country as one could expect, and likely very accurate to 1974 small town Maine. The book also struck me as very gamable - the heroes are intelligent, problem solving types who come to correct conclusion quickly and implement solid plans. They make some dumb errors, but at all the points where I think "they're being stupid" one of the characters stopped and went "we're being stupid" or, perhaps, 'we were just stupid." Very much like PCs. A good, solid monster hunting novel.
