Passage by Connie Willis.
Re-read; preparing for my April book club.
This started slower than I remembered. I still really enjoyed the last third. Not sure what it says that the part I liked best was where the protagonist is completely within an NDE....
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Enjoyed the intrigue in this one. I think it will stand up well to a re-read. The book has several self-contained sections; it almost reads like a group of short books rather than one long book. And of course it's been left open for its sequel, but there's enough closure that it makes a satisfying read in and of itself.
Peace Like A River by Leif Enger.
I read this for my book club, and as part of the "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book" for this year. Quite enjoyed the book and its prose, although I felt the ending didn't live up to the strength of the earlier portion of the book.
Mixed reviews in the book group. Some didn't like it at all.
Recommended.
First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain.
Bah. I didn't like the way things weren't tied up properly in the first book in the series. And I didn't like it in this book either. These books don't really stand on their own. I'll probably get future books from this author from the library instead of purchasing them.
This book is the reason I read only one book in February. I just never particularly felt like reading it, but I did want to get through it, partly because I'd asked for it as a gift.
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.
01/19
Read the first couple of chapters in preparation for my book group discussion.
Noticed that the book begins with the protagonist waking up and then looking at himself in the mirror in order to get a description. This is generally considered a warning sign about the probably quality of the prose, at least when critiquing unpublished works.
01/30
The author's structure of withholding necessary information, particularly at the end of chapters, as a device to keep the reader hooked got very irritating after a while. And I found the characterization rather flat. But I suppose Brown was more interested in the premise than the characters.
They were in remarkably good shape at the end despite not having any sleep in 48 hours or so.
The Grey King by Susan Cooper.
This book finally makes completely obvious why this is referred to as her Arthurian series.
Continuing my read-through of the series (though I skipped book one, as I didn't see it at the library.)
I liked the warestones; I hadn't encountered them before.
Greenwitch by Susan Cooper.
Continuing my read of Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, which I never read as a child. I'm enjoying it. I can see why some of the reviews I've read accuse it of being heavily reliant on a device known as a "plot coupon", as the books are focused on certain portentious poems, and have rather straight-ahead plots without too many serious setbacks to the heroes. That may partly be because they're short and aimed for the YA market.
Song of the Exile by Kiana Davenport.
The January book for my book club.
This one was very emotionally powerful. It's about several people who live in Hawaii around the time of World War II, and their relationships and what the war does to them.
Two of them end up as prisoners of the Japanese during the war, and that's largely where the gruesome part comes in.
I probably would not have gotten all the way through the book if it hadn't been for the book club. It was well enough written that I'm searching out some of Davenport's other books (I ordered her Shark Dialogues off of Half.com and am expecting it soon.
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit.
Picked this up at the bookstore when shopping for a few new Christmas books to read to the kids. Will probably read this to them in a couple of years. Quite fun. The tone reminded me of George MacDonald. And there's also shades of Narnia (four kids on vacation in a fantastic world...).
Trickster by Stephen Harper.
Third book in his Silent Empire series. He posted on his newsgroup that he's finished the fourth book; I'm looking forward to it. I didn't feel that this lived up to the previous two books. I was especially annoyed with what felt very much like a deus ex machina in the latter part of the book with the Emporium, as I didn't remember it specifically from the earlier books.
