Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Still aten't dead
However my rheumatologist thinks my health problems this year are fibromyalgia, not rheumatoid arthritis. As if having one chronic illness wasn't bad enough. Phooey.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Shades of Gray by Noleene Naylor
This was an ebook I stumbled across on Barnes & Noble while searching for another book of the same title. It didn't have much description, and I tried the sample, and it seemed worth taking a risk on, so I bought it. I'm not exactly sure how to categorize the book. I think I'll call it heterosexual paranormal romance. I strongly prefer gay romance over het, but I took a chance on this one.
The heroine is Katelina, age unspecified. She used to have a fuck buddy named Patrick, until one day she found him horribly murdered. Months later she gets a phone call from someone who offers to tell her who killed Patrick, if she will come alone to a remote farmhouse. She does, of course, or we wouldn't have a story. There she meets Jorick, who tries to convince her that Patrick was killed by vampires. She doesn't believe him (Katelina is, frankly, a rather stupid person, as well as being irritating) until the house is overrun by vampires who try to kill them, and the two of them barely escape alive. They go on the run and have improbable adventures. Jorick is, of course, incredibly attractive, and Katelina's knees go weak whenever she looks at him.
On a sentence level, Shades of Gray is competently written. The author knows how to use proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar (this is not always the case with e-books). The sentences are stung together in a way that is understandable and the story is quite readable (also not always the case). But where it falls down is in the characterization, plotting, and general story.
First of all, Katelina is really unlikeable. I suspect that I wasn't supposed to be rooting against her, but I kind of was. Of course, every other character in the book, with the exception of Jorick, are even worse. But that still didn't make Katelina someone I would willingly spend time with.
Secondly, the pacing is really improbable. It seems the two of them can't turn around without more bad guys leaping out to try to kill them. It worked the first couple of times, but eventually I was rolling my eyes and counting the pages to get to the end.
And thirdly, Katelina's role in the book is to repeatedly be endangered so that Jorick can rescue her. Which is both obnoxious and deeply creepy. It's a problem I have with lots of het romances, which is why I rarely read them. Books that assume women are weaklings who need a man to take care of them are never going to find favor with me. One might, perhaps, argue that as a human among vampires, of course Katelina is weaker and more vulnerable. But who created that situation? The author. Why? Well, apparently because that was the story the author wanted to tell. And I'm sure there are plenty of people who enjoy that trope, but I don't, at all. So obviously this wasn't the book for me.
The heroine is Katelina, age unspecified. She used to have a fuck buddy named Patrick, until one day she found him horribly murdered. Months later she gets a phone call from someone who offers to tell her who killed Patrick, if she will come alone to a remote farmhouse. She does, of course, or we wouldn't have a story. There she meets Jorick, who tries to convince her that Patrick was killed by vampires. She doesn't believe him (Katelina is, frankly, a rather stupid person, as well as being irritating) until the house is overrun by vampires who try to kill them, and the two of them barely escape alive. They go on the run and have improbable adventures. Jorick is, of course, incredibly attractive, and Katelina's knees go weak whenever she looks at him.
On a sentence level, Shades of Gray is competently written. The author knows how to use proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar (this is not always the case with e-books). The sentences are stung together in a way that is understandable and the story is quite readable (also not always the case). But where it falls down is in the characterization, plotting, and general story.
First of all, Katelina is really unlikeable. I suspect that I wasn't supposed to be rooting against her, but I kind of was. Of course, every other character in the book, with the exception of Jorick, are even worse. But that still didn't make Katelina someone I would willingly spend time with.
Secondly, the pacing is really improbable. It seems the two of them can't turn around without more bad guys leaping out to try to kill them. It worked the first couple of times, but eventually I was rolling my eyes and counting the pages to get to the end.
And thirdly, Katelina's role in the book is to repeatedly be endangered so that Jorick can rescue her. Which is both obnoxious and deeply creepy. It's a problem I have with lots of het romances, which is why I rarely read them. Books that assume women are weaklings who need a man to take care of them are never going to find favor with me. One might, perhaps, argue that as a human among vampires, of course Katelina is weaker and more vulnerable. But who created that situation? The author. Why? Well, apparently because that was the story the author wanted to tell. And I'm sure there are plenty of people who enjoy that trope, but I don't, at all. So obviously this wasn't the book for me.
I aten't dead
I'm sorry I haven't been posting much here recently. I've been enjoying my Nook and reading my way through a great deal of gay fiction, and feel no need to share my opinions on it with the world.
It hasn't been a great year for me so far. My rheumatoid arthritis has been bothering me a lot since January. I'm frequently in pain, and I had to give up yoga because it put too much strain on my joints. Hopefully my rheumatologist and I can find a solution to this problem, because I'm tired of being in pain and unable to do the things I would usually be doing, like riding my bike. It's very hard to plan your life with a condition like this, because you never know what you'll be able to do. Some days you feel fine, and other days there's no way you can do physical labor like housework, yard work, or exercising. I've begun a strategy of doing housework whenever I feel okay, because I might not be physically capable of doing it on another day.
I'm not knitting very much at the moment, because I tend to do it while I watch TV, and I'm not watching much TV. I'd rather read. I have a bag and a pair of socks on the needles right now, and will eventually finish them. The community choir has begun rehearsing again, I'm helping out with the Friends of the Library, and soon the play selection committee will begin reading scripts, so I'm finding plenty of other things to keep me busy.
It hasn't been a great year for me so far. My rheumatoid arthritis has been bothering me a lot since January. I'm frequently in pain, and I had to give up yoga because it put too much strain on my joints. Hopefully my rheumatologist and I can find a solution to this problem, because I'm tired of being in pain and unable to do the things I would usually be doing, like riding my bike. It's very hard to plan your life with a condition like this, because you never know what you'll be able to do. Some days you feel fine, and other days there's no way you can do physical labor like housework, yard work, or exercising. I've begun a strategy of doing housework whenever I feel okay, because I might not be physically capable of doing it on another day.
I'm not knitting very much at the moment, because I tend to do it while I watch TV, and I'm not watching much TV. I'd rather read. I have a bag and a pair of socks on the needles right now, and will eventually finish them. The community choir has begun rehearsing again, I'm helping out with the Friends of the Library, and soon the play selection committee will begin reading scripts, so I'm finding plenty of other things to keep me busy.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Chalice by Robin McKinley
I had to abandon this one, because of the style it was written in. My complaint with the other two McKinley books I've read has been the voice it's written in--telling, not showing. Describing and explaining everything instead of showing it. Memories and thoughts, not dialogue and description. This one is just unbearably distant from the events it purports to tell. I spent the first 80 pages (all explanations and memories and thoughts) wondering when the story was going to begin. It eventually did begin, but by then the book had lost me. Not my thing at all, and it felt like a complete waste of time. Very disappointing. I may have to give up on McKinley, because I think this is how she likes to tell stories, and it is not how I like stories to be written.
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