Books and weather moaning
Jun. 29th, 2011 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljTwo days of sun. TWO. We may get one or two nice days in a week or 10 days lately. Today, back to fog. And tomorrow. I did at least sit out in the sun in the Parade Square yesterday to soak up some Vitamin D. That'll have to sustain me for awhile. It might be ok on the weekend, probably not great, but ok. *sigh*
39 - Elizabeth I - Margaret George
The description says this is about the relationship, usually contentious, between Queen EI and her cousin, Lettice Knollys. I expected it to cover a lot more ground than it did. However, the book started just before the Spanish Armada of 1588 and continued to Elzabeth's death in 1603. Lettice was the granddaughter of Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. She also married Robert Dudley who was Elizabeth's long time favourite and the mother of the Earl of Essex, another of Elizabeth's later favourites but who was spoiled and power hungry. Mostly the book was told from Elizabeth's point of view rather than Lettice's, who only got one or two chapters in every 10 or 12 it seemed. It covers the time period where Essex pushed and pushed to get more and more power, pissing off a lot of people yet Elizabeth apparently made excuses for him over and over, leading eventually to his attempted rebellion to capture the throne. You can imagine where that left him.
40 - Life - Keith Richards
Finally got through this one. It was a long slog. He doesn't half go on and on and on sometimes and not always about anything interesting. It's one thing when he witters on about music and playing it, you can tell it's his life but sometimes it's way off on a tangent and your eyes start glazing over. I also think he spent way too much of the book on the earlier years. It was more than half way through before he even cracked 1970!
He's unapologetic about the heroin addiction but he also kind of glorifies it a bit. You almost get the feeling like in the end he just decided it was not for him but you know addiction to that had to be a lot worse than he's describing. He also comes across as a bit of a dick, too, for all he complains and name-calls Mick Jagger. He's not a lot better. He might not be as much of a control freak but he's also volatile and tempermental too. The way he tells it, his attitude most of his life was "I don't really give a fuck" and i guess if it works for him, that's all that matters. Only did it?
41 - The Strange Case of Finley Jayne - Kady Cross
This is more of a novella, a short one. It is apparently a prequel to the Steampunk Chronicles, the first book of which is out now, The Girl in the Steel Corset. It takes place in late Victorian London but there's "automatons" or robotic things like servants and horses. Finley Jane is a teen but is super strong and has moments of violence. She herself thinks she's a freak and there's "someone else" inside her. In this novella, she's hired by a woman to be a companion to her daughter. The daughter is engaged to marry an older man, a titled scientist but the mother doesn't trust the man and hopes Finley can persuade the daughter not to marry him. It was actually entertaining, and I think a few of you out there might like this and the Steampunk Chronicles if the novella was anything to go by. It was a free ebook and is apparently an ebook "exclusive" as a taster for the proper novels. I got it off the Kobo Books eStore but you might also find it elsewhere. It was only short so i read it quickly.
42 - Concerto - Sandra Miller
One of the ebooks i "won" from Library Thing where new writers often will offer free copies of their new books in order to get reviews and get established. I've read a few now and most have been pretty good. It's a good way to get free ebooks and they also have real books too, which they would post to you if you win it. i.e. they have 25 copies, for instance, and x number of people get on the list, like a lottery i suppose, to be "awarded" a copy. I suppose it's a random draw or something. I've just got this one and another one that i haven't got a link to download yet.
this was a short book, 169 ebook pages and is a romance/murder mystery. Chrispen is a talented violinist working for a small midwest US orchestra where a reknowned violinist, Alexis Brooks, is also playing. Alexis was internationally famous but joined this orchestra because he was from the area and he and his new wife wanted to settle down where they grew up. However, 5 years ago, his wife was murdered and he was accused of it. He was found not guilty because the evidence was largely circumstantial but most people, including the police and his father, think he was guilty. Suspicion hovers around him.
Chrispen has only been part of the orchestra for 6 months and has made some friends but seems to have aquired a stalker. First it's just phone calls and notes, then it's photos that clearly show someone has been watching her and even been inside her house. As the book goes on, the incidents escalate and become more threatening. Many people suspect Alexis but could it be Dwight, another musician in the orchestra who fancies Chrispen but is always spurned? Or could it be a jealous woman who used to fancy Alexis and now Dwight but is also rejected by both of them? Chrispen doesn't think Alexis is guilty and grows closer to him which angers the other two. She's been warned by the police who can't seem to do anything about the stalker even when someone spikes her drink and she nearly dies from an allergic reaction.
Why? Because the bloody thick woman keeps throwing away evidence! That's one thing that annoyed me. The other thing that seemed quite jarring is her recurring nightmares. The book starts off with one where she is running into a building hoping to save someone but is too late and sees a murdered woman. It's very detailed. Later in the book, she has another nightmare about the murder of Alexis' wife, again in great detail which turns out to be the exact circumstances of the murder, right down to the identity of the murderer, details that she couldn't possibly know. The first recurring nightmare actually happens at the end of the book, in the exact same detail. yet nowhere in the book has she ever shown any other signs of being clairvoyant nor has it been mentioned that this is something that happens to her. If she had been, she probably wouldn't have been in the trouble she gets into.
Having said that, i did enjoy the book, even though i had the murderer figured out pretty early on. So much so that i even second guessed myself thinking it was too obvious but no, the more you read, the more you know it *is* indeed the obvious. It's just a matter of how and when. Good book, good dialogue, no long winded descriptions and tedium, right to the point even if the main character is a bit too naive for my tastes.
39 - Elizabeth I - Margaret George
The description says this is about the relationship, usually contentious, between Queen EI and her cousin, Lettice Knollys. I expected it to cover a lot more ground than it did. However, the book started just before the Spanish Armada of 1588 and continued to Elzabeth's death in 1603. Lettice was the granddaughter of Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. She also married Robert Dudley who was Elizabeth's long time favourite and the mother of the Earl of Essex, another of Elizabeth's later favourites but who was spoiled and power hungry. Mostly the book was told from Elizabeth's point of view rather than Lettice's, who only got one or two chapters in every 10 or 12 it seemed. It covers the time period where Essex pushed and pushed to get more and more power, pissing off a lot of people yet Elizabeth apparently made excuses for him over and over, leading eventually to his attempted rebellion to capture the throne. You can imagine where that left him.
40 - Life - Keith Richards
Finally got through this one. It was a long slog. He doesn't half go on and on and on sometimes and not always about anything interesting. It's one thing when he witters on about music and playing it, you can tell it's his life but sometimes it's way off on a tangent and your eyes start glazing over. I also think he spent way too much of the book on the earlier years. It was more than half way through before he even cracked 1970!
He's unapologetic about the heroin addiction but he also kind of glorifies it a bit. You almost get the feeling like in the end he just decided it was not for him but you know addiction to that had to be a lot worse than he's describing. He also comes across as a bit of a dick, too, for all he complains and name-calls Mick Jagger. He's not a lot better. He might not be as much of a control freak but he's also volatile and tempermental too. The way he tells it, his attitude most of his life was "I don't really give a fuck" and i guess if it works for him, that's all that matters. Only did it?
41 - The Strange Case of Finley Jayne - Kady Cross
This is more of a novella, a short one. It is apparently a prequel to the Steampunk Chronicles, the first book of which is out now, The Girl in the Steel Corset. It takes place in late Victorian London but there's "automatons" or robotic things like servants and horses. Finley Jane is a teen but is super strong and has moments of violence. She herself thinks she's a freak and there's "someone else" inside her. In this novella, she's hired by a woman to be a companion to her daughter. The daughter is engaged to marry an older man, a titled scientist but the mother doesn't trust the man and hopes Finley can persuade the daughter not to marry him. It was actually entertaining, and I think a few of you out there might like this and the Steampunk Chronicles if the novella was anything to go by. It was a free ebook and is apparently an ebook "exclusive" as a taster for the proper novels. I got it off the Kobo Books eStore but you might also find it elsewhere. It was only short so i read it quickly.
42 - Concerto - Sandra Miller
One of the ebooks i "won" from Library Thing where new writers often will offer free copies of their new books in order to get reviews and get established. I've read a few now and most have been pretty good. It's a good way to get free ebooks and they also have real books too, which they would post to you if you win it. i.e. they have 25 copies, for instance, and x number of people get on the list, like a lottery i suppose, to be "awarded" a copy. I suppose it's a random draw or something. I've just got this one and another one that i haven't got a link to download yet.
this was a short book, 169 ebook pages and is a romance/murder mystery. Chrispen is a talented violinist working for a small midwest US orchestra where a reknowned violinist, Alexis Brooks, is also playing. Alexis was internationally famous but joined this orchestra because he was from the area and he and his new wife wanted to settle down where they grew up. However, 5 years ago, his wife was murdered and he was accused of it. He was found not guilty because the evidence was largely circumstantial but most people, including the police and his father, think he was guilty. Suspicion hovers around him.
Chrispen has only been part of the orchestra for 6 months and has made some friends but seems to have aquired a stalker. First it's just phone calls and notes, then it's photos that clearly show someone has been watching her and even been inside her house. As the book goes on, the incidents escalate and become more threatening. Many people suspect Alexis but could it be Dwight, another musician in the orchestra who fancies Chrispen but is always spurned? Or could it be a jealous woman who used to fancy Alexis and now Dwight but is also rejected by both of them? Chrispen doesn't think Alexis is guilty and grows closer to him which angers the other two. She's been warned by the police who can't seem to do anything about the stalker even when someone spikes her drink and she nearly dies from an allergic reaction.
Why? Because the bloody thick woman keeps throwing away evidence! That's one thing that annoyed me. The other thing that seemed quite jarring is her recurring nightmares. The book starts off with one where she is running into a building hoping to save someone but is too late and sees a murdered woman. It's very detailed. Later in the book, she has another nightmare about the murder of Alexis' wife, again in great detail which turns out to be the exact circumstances of the murder, right down to the identity of the murderer, details that she couldn't possibly know. The first recurring nightmare actually happens at the end of the book, in the exact same detail. yet nowhere in the book has she ever shown any other signs of being clairvoyant nor has it been mentioned that this is something that happens to her. If she had been, she probably wouldn't have been in the trouble she gets into.
Having said that, i did enjoy the book, even though i had the murderer figured out pretty early on. So much so that i even second guessed myself thinking it was too obvious but no, the more you read, the more you know it *is* indeed the obvious. It's just a matter of how and when. Good book, good dialogue, no long winded descriptions and tedium, right to the point even if the main character is a bit too naive for my tastes.
