Tag: Doreen

Oct 01 2015

Fates And Furies by Lauren Groff

Meh. I loved The Monsters Of Templeton and eagerly looked forward to meeting that same humanity and kindness displayed there again here in the pages of Fates And Furies, but instead all I got was a book about a naive dude and his bitchy wife with her unrelentingly poor choices. If anything, it reminded me …

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Sep 27 2015

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch

It’s extraordinary how this series doesn’t flag at all, with each book feeling entirely self-contained even as the overarching narrative races towards what promises to be a breathtaking denouement (no pressure, Ben Aaronovitch!) With most urban fantasy, Book 3 (if you’re lucky) is where the stresses of carrying a series would begin to show, in …

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Sep 26 2015

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

It isn’t often that the second book in a series I like is even better than the first, but Ben Aaronovitch has managed to build on the cleverness of Midnight Riot to add pathos and depth to his magical universe with Moon Over Soho. Whereas the first book felt a little shaky in its grasp …

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Sep 24 2015

The Price Of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

I don’t think I understand Patricia Highsmith, but that could be due to the fact that I haven’t read any of her suspense novels, so haven’t yet enjoyed the sense of atmosphere most people ascribe to her writing. The Price Of Salt is more romance novel than any other genre, and I get that it …

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Sep 22 2015

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Ugh, Liane Moriarty, you genius. How did you know that my favorite Enid Blyton stories were the ones titled things like “A Bit Of Temper”? You’ve managed to write a novel both complex and heartening that still manages to satisfy that unsophisticated need in me for neatness in the universe. Your characters are whole and …

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Sep 19 2015

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

This book was haunting in a different way than I usually use the word. In general, I’ve found that I use it when I mean poignant and memorable, but in this case, there’s an actual tinge of fear in my description. I’m not sure if that’s just an intensely personal reaction, but Ruth’s description of …

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Sep 14 2015

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

A testament to how good I think this book is: not only do I want to binge-read the whole series, I’m also willing to shell out the full price on Book 2, as it’s the only one with an absurd wait list from the library. I am voting with my dollar here, people! Midnight Riot …

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Sep 11 2015

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

It should have been painfully obvious to me from the blurb that this would involve retellings of fairy tales, but I did not realize till I was well into the Beauty And The Beast tale and then ZOMG, THIS IS MY JAM!!! Andrzej Sapkowski has written a terrific fantasy novel with a sympathetic hero, and …

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Sep 11 2015

This One Is Mine by Maria Semple

After the wise and charming Where’d You Go Bernadette? I really wanted to delve into this author’s back catalog and be as similarly enthralled. Alas, Maria Semple’s debut novel This One Is Mine lacks the wit of WYGB, instead drawing on a cast of unlikeable characters who spend most of the book being mean or …

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Sep 08 2015

The Once And Future King by T. H. White

When I first started reading this, I was so completely taken aback by the Boys’ Own, jolly-good, public school vibe of the writing that I honestly wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it. The first part was, thus, slow-going for me, used as I was to depictions of Arthurian romance that were a …

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