Reviews Of Unusual Size -
Man, I've read five books since William Lashner's book review on the 25th. I've gotta get out of this office position before I run out of books!
Books -
Man, I've read five books since William Lashner's book review on the 25th. I've gotta get out of this office position before I run out of books!
Books -
UNDER THE LAKE
by Stuart Woods
1999, 368 pages
1 - A departure for Woods, Under The Lake is a supernatural thriller, complete with ghosts, murder, sex and hillbillys!
2 - The main character, while a decent enough fellow never really grabbed me.
3 - Great idea for a setting, on the edge of an artificial lake with secrets deep under the waters.
4 - Like most of Woods' books, the women in them are either sexpots or old biddys.
5 - I had a hard time with the sheriff in this. I kept seeing him as much older and fatter than he was supposed to be. I'm not sure why.
3/5
NEW YORK DEAD
by Stuart Woods
2009, 400 pages
1 - A promising start to Woods' Stone Barrington character, a man saddled between detective, lawyer, scumbag and avenger.
2 - The full title of the book is mentioned at least twice in full. Once I can get, the second time it kind of bothered me.
3 - A typical book by Stuart Woods. That isn't to say it's a bad thing!
4 -The men are manly and the women are womanly and find it hard to resist the manliness of the men.
5 - For some reason, when this and Under The Lake formatted on the nook, it replaced all quotation marks and apostrophes with question marks, leaving the book looking confusing and the characters confused, with lots of sentences like - ?She?s gone?? He snorted. ?She?s New York Dead.?
4/5
THE TOMB
by F. Paul Wilson
1998, 448 Pages
1 - An unusual mix of hardboiled crime avenger and supernatural thriller. At first I had a hard time getting into it, but it grew on me.
2 - I think Wilson did a great job portraying the small child in this. She never came off too excessively precocious or mature.
3 - The first (?) in what appears to be a pretty convoluted series by Wilson, including three or four series and possibly the end of the world... Or something.
4 -Repairman Jack is a great creation, and I'll have to track down some of the other dozen or so books featuring him.
5 - A good mix of adventure and the supernatural with mayhem, creepy beasties and crazy history. Like Clive Cussler meets Lawrence Block meets Preston & Child
4/5
Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
2009, 400 pages
1 - The first novel by Joe Hill, who, by now, everyone knows is Stephen King's son. He even looks a lot like him!
2 - If you didn't know, you might have guessed from the story, which has a lot of the same personality and subjects that King has in his books.
3 - The ghost in this, especially at the beginning is really creepy and effective. I thought it lost a lot of the punch once the main characters hit the road and the ghost became more physical and... crazy trucker.
4 - Hooray for the dogs! Boo for the names though. I get that the main character is a rock and roller, but seriously, Michael Bolton would have given his guard dogs better names.
5 - I've heard good things about Hill's other stuff, his comic book work especially. I'll have to track it down.
5/5
THE TEMPLAR LEGACY
by Steve Berry
2007, 544 pages
1 - Part one of a series featuring a man named "Cotton" Malone. They never explain his first name. My guess is that he wears cotton briefs.
2 -A pleasantly twisty tale that mixes history, both real and imagined and tantalizing hints to create a treasure hunt complete with assassins, traps, and globe-trotting.
3 - One of the characters, Cotton's boss was very grating and bitchy to me. I started reading the book picturing Kathy Bates in the role but by the end of the book, Mrs. Doubtfire had stepped in.
4 - There were a few too many convenient "AHA!" moments mixed in throughout the action. I can handle a little piece of the treasure map showing up in an outlandishly predictable spot, but the ones concerning the characters were too Soap-Opera-y. I kept expecting an evil dwarf twin to pop up. Sadly, it never did.
5 -Undoubtedly compared to the Davinci Code when released. Most likely inspired by the success of the Davinci Code when written.
3/5
3 comments:
Wow -- "big people books"! I've almost forgotten what those were like.
I've only read Heart-Shaped Box. I loved it.
Yeah, big people books. I read them every now and then... or a lot, really. They're easier to find than good kids books at thrift stores, though I did get a few from eva ibbotson, terry pratchett and neal gaiman at Goodwill the other day. Hooray!
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