Bookish Thoughts

I really like Gillian Flynn's books. They're twisty and turny and they don't shy away from the darker aspects of human nature, making for some great psychological thrillers. But I am glad that they tend to be shorter and that she's not all that prolific. Because these books can be hard to read. Reading about horrible people doing horrible things and all the damage they leave in their wake is emotionally draining. But it's so interesting that I can't stop. Sharp Objects is actually Flynn's first book, meaning I've worked my way through her books in reverse. But it's just as dark and compelling as her other books, at least in my opinion. The narrator is a journalist who was abused by her mother and driven to self harm. Fresh out of a stint in a psychiatric hospital, she's sent back to her hometown to report on the disappearances and subsequent murders of two local girls. Which would be bad enough even if she weren't staying in her mother...

I should start this review by saying that I'm not really a fan of this trend of publishing supplemental material in e-book format only. I suppose it makes it easier to fill out background in long series, by not worrying about the printing costs of the short stories and novellas used to flesh out the minor characters. But it makes me feel like my bookshelves are missing something. And I still don't entirely trust that e-publications are really mine to keep forever. With that out of the way, I did download and read The Butcher of Anderson Station , the first novella of The Expanse series, published between the first and second books. At 9000 words, it's really more of a short story, and it didn't take long to read at all. But it fills in some important background. Both how Fred Johnson earned the moniker of butcher and how he joined up with the OPA. The story cuts back and forth between Johnson's memories of Anderson Station and his interrogation by Anderson Dawes...

Sometimes you find out that one of your favorite authors has written about one of your favorite topics and you end up with a new favorite book. It's one of the best experiences you can have as a reader - when a book perfectly meets your sky-high expectations. I started reading Robin McKinley years ago for her fantastic retellings of classic fairy-tales. She's great at taking the traditional damsel in distress and giving her enough strength and motivation to solve her own problems. And those strengths are less about fighting and more about family and friendship and nurturing. They're traits that are traditionally seen as feminine being raised to heroic status because it's through them that the princess saves the day. So when I found out she'd turned her focus to vampires for a book, I knew I had to get my hands on it. If you didn't grow up with Buffy , it's perhaps strange to describe a vampire book, particularly one where the vampires are definitely scar...

After yet another re-read, Hogfather remains one of my favorite comfort-reads. It's one of the best Discworld books, with a strong through line about the power of belief and starring two of the best characters: Death and his granddaughter, Susan. The interesting thing about this book is that it actually works better on re-reads. It takes a while for some of the plot threads to come together and for he various reveals to be made. Which can make it incredibly confusing in the beginning. But once you know the basic point of the story, everything slots neatly into place. The mystery may be gone, but many of the early scenes take on a new richness and humor that more than make up for it. Even better, I'm still picking up on things that I either missed or forgot the first time through. It takes a while for the Discworld books to get this dense and rewarding (and some of them never really do), but it makes the series so worth it. This book works well on it's own, but it wor...

Born With Teeth is not at all what I've come to expect from celebrity memoirs. Granted, most of the celebrity memoirs I've read lately have been from comedians. Still, they tended to be light, quick reads. Even the ones that tackled heavier subjects went by pretty fast. This wasn't the case with Kate Mulgrew's memoir, which took me a week to read. And not just because of my pregnancy-induced exhaustion. There's a lot in this book, and it all adds up to Mulgrew being an extraordinary (and distinctly Irish-Catholic) woman. Mulgrew's memoirs is somewhat less focused on the acting aspect of her life than I expected. She mentions most of the TV shows and plays she acted in, and of course she devotes a chapter to Voyager. But there are also chapters devoted to her relationships and romances, her various adventures around the world, and her family. Even though Mulgrew wanted to be an actress from a very young age and worked incredibly hard to achieve that dream (and...

Last year I was hearing a ton about Daniel Jose Older. Both this book and Half-Resurrection Blues  had just come out and they were receiving great reviews. I was excited to read both of them, but I got my hands on Half-Resurrection Blues  first. Sadly, that book was a bit of a let down. It wasn't horrible, just not as good as I'd been expecting. It wasn't enough to dampen my excitement for Shadowshaper , though. In fact, it may have been a good thing that Half-Resurrection Blues  lowered my expectations a bit. Or maybe it didn't need to. But at any rate, I loved this book. It was an excellent, magical, coming-of-age tale about a young girl in Brooklyn. Sierra has a family history of magic, but it's been hidden from her. And now that magic is dying, and it looks like it's going to be up to her to save it before her heritage dies out completely. It's a nice metaphor for the children of immigrants, struggling to find a way to honor their family history and ...

I started hearing about The Expanse months ago. And then I kept hearing about it. And the more I heard, the more it sounded like something I would like. But I couldn't figure out how to watch it. The final episodes were streaming with a cable password, but there was no way to watch the first few episodes. So I broke down and bought the book. It's actually the first in a series that will eventually have 9 books and a similar amount of novellas. The first season of the TV shows only appears to cover the first half of the first book. So I don't entirely know what's going to happen with that ultimately. But the good news is that the book is really good. So good that I went out and bought the first season of the TV show on Blu-Ray. The story takes place in the middle future. Humanity has managed to colonize the moon and Mars and is working to terraform them. There are mining operations and way-stations in the asteroid belt and some research outposts on the moons of Jupit...