Review: Monstrous Regiment

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I say this about every Pratchett book I read, but I think this is my favourite. One of my favourites. Top 5, anyway.

Even though it is one of the stand alone novels in the Discworld series, I tend to class it with the City Watch stories as, although not part of the main cast, Vimes' appearances are significant.

I've read this book so many times that it's difficult to summarize it.



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Review: Tremble: Erotic Tales of the Mystical and Sinister

Tremble: Erotic Tales of the Mystical and Sinister by Tobsha Learner

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



I'm being generous and rounding up the score to 2 stars from 1 1/2.

I did not find these stories to be either particularly well written or to have half-way decent story lines. Essentially, I felt that I was reading erotic versions of Goosebumps books.

The plot twists were ridiculously obvious from only a short way in to each story. It got to the point that I needed to only the first couple of pages of each in order to figure out the ending.

The character names were often just stupid. They may have been intentionally silly but I felt they seriously disrupted any potential flow in the story. They sounded like stupid insults you come up with after a night on the beer, of the douchnozzle and twatburger variety.

I found many of the female characters to be simply too manipulative and too subordinate. In some cases there was an explanation for this, such as religion, but I felt like there was no possibility allowed for a female to really take charge or not be a neurotic whiner (Madeleine in Hair Shirt particularly made me want to break things).

The only reason it got a half star was that The Custodian centered around Classical scholarship, at least initially, concerning one of my own areas of past study. Even then the story was incredibly predictable and I found myself thinking I should just skip to the end and that I wouldn't even be too upset about not reading the racier parts.

Sod it, I'm taking away the half star.




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Review: Night Watch

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Every time I read Night Watch I enjoy it more. The story is sad and beautiful.

I think this is my favourite of the Vimes books as it doesn't have the silliness of some of the others. Don't get me wrong, silliness is not something I'm opposed to, but I always find this book to be delightfully bittersweet.

I love Carcer as a villain because he inspires such intense loathing in me. I felt that Stephen Briggs' performance of him was absolutely perfect, down to capturing that horrible chuckle. My fists itched to punch him out.

What can I say about Vimes? Vimes is perfect. He's flawed, he's cynical, and deep down he's a bit of a softie. Sybil is a lucky lady!

Oh well, on to the next book!



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Nearly half-way but running out of time.

After last year's poor attempt at a reading challenge, I lowered this year's limit to 100 books. 

I'm not quite half-way (although I feel like I deserve a medal for some of the books I actually managed to finish).

Partly I blame the new Animal Crossing game - that game has taken over my life! But, then again, I'm responsible for my own slackness...and for the amount of gardening I do in that game.

I recently finished A Passage to India by E. M. Forster as one of my book club reads. I didn't go to the book club evening, but I'm glad I finished the book. Most of the others seemed to really dislike it. I actually enjoyed the style and, although many of themes frustrated me greatly, I felt that the story was quite satisfying in the end. 

Currently, I'm re-reading/listening to The Fifth Elephant by the incredible Sir Terry Pratchett. I've been going through the City Watch books and hope to re-read the Moist Von Lipwig ones before Raising Steam is released. So close - yaaaay!!!

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to read next, to be honest. I slogged my way through the Knitting mysteries by Maggie Sefton, the latest of which did not live up to the standards of the others, sadly. However, even though I didn't enjoy Close Knit Killer as much as the others, I was still sad to have reached the end of the series. I'm never good at that and if Forster's novel hadn't been on my "to read urgently" pile I would have felt this sense of loss and ennui much sooner, although much of it has to do with other life factors than finishing a series of books.

It would help matters if I hadn't spent all afternoon and evening looking at Animal Crossing fan art on tumblr, though...

Review: Knit One, Kill Two

Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(WARNING: includes bad puns)

I'm not usually one for books without dukes, dragons or some kind of supernatural or historical thing going on, but was attracted to this book because it featured knitting. As an avid knitter it seemed a fairly logical choice.

The author has woven a delightful tale containing a surprising, and slightly grizzly, mystery that involves a number of charming characters. Kelly, the heroine, unravels a web of secrets to discover the identity of her aunt's murderer.

The description of the yarn shop - the central meeting point for the protagonist and her flock of fibre-crafting friends - left me reeling from its vividness. I could picture Lambspun perfectly and was quite jealous that I couldn't reach out and touch the yarns and so had to make do with fondling my own stash.

The only downside with this book was that I felt it cast-off rather abruptly. However, I'm hopeful that the next yarn Ms Sefton has spun in the series will assuage that disappointment. I'm also looking forward to seeing what patterns and recipes will be included in the next book - nice touch.

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Review: Brilliance

Brilliance by Rosalind Laker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I started reading to while waiting for my computer game to load but ended up sitting with the games paused for an hour or more before I realised I'd become absorbed in it. Then I struggled to put it down again. perfect for a rainy Saturday in my PJs!

I really liked Lisette as a character. I felt that even though most of the novel was descriptive there was actually a great deal more to her character than there is to heroines of other, longer books.

The course of the story was not as clear as I'd expected at first and there were certainly a number of twists in the plot that had me shouting and swearing, or welling up with tears.

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Whoops!

I think I may have made a few too many commitments this year and am therefore (yet again) struggling to keep up with blog posts etc. I hadn't realised I'd been quite so slack, actually, but I suppose I feel like I have blogged each time I make a comment on Goodreads.

Well, here's an update on my progress to date:

I've adapted my rules a little since I began full-time work (and therefore barely have time to think, let alone read, most days). As such, I have now included unabridged audiobooks in my book count, but only ones of books longer than 200 pages (or longer than 4 hours-ish). This means that I'm now up to 66 finished books for the year, which isn't too bad I suppose.

As I still intend to comment on each book I've read so far, I guess I should get started...

Book 6: Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Part anecdotal, part instructional, entirely hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The discussions of knitting mishaps particularly impressed upon me the need (for certain items at least) to knit up a gauge swatch before launching in to a project. I also found a lot of details that resonated with my own knitting addiction, particularly the trick of hiding skeins of yarn all over the place once the main storage area is at full capacity, though I haven't yet begun hiding my yarn behind books on the shelves. I frequently received funny looks from family, friends, and members of the public due to laughing out loud at this book.

I'll have to go back and refresh my memory on the others I've read before commenting on them - a sign that I really should have blogged about them when I actually read them rather than half-a-year later!