What I have been reading
Dec. 3rd, 2019 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiI really need to speed up these posts as I, of course, read more books all the time, and so my back-log grows longer. And I’d like to be back on track come January.
JD Kirk A Litter of Bones and Thicker Than Water Very cheap Kindle deals. A little too gory, and the first book hit on my personal dislike of descriptions of broken bones. I also found them easy to predict, and a bit too short. Lots of build-up, and a climax that feels abrupt. What I liked best were the character descriptions. The first is a return of a serial killer- the biggest problem is that he is under lock and key. The second one deals with the disappearance and murder of a young woman.
Rhys Bowen The Victory Garden The book is set in England during WWI. A young upper-class woman is chafing under her parents who are reluctant to let her leave home to help with the war effort. While waiting to reach majority she meets an Australian soldier at a hospital nearby. At turning 21 she joins the war effort by being a land girl. Eventually, she finds herself all alone and a baby on the way. She finds a job as a gardener at a dilapidated manor house, living in a small cottage.
I liked it, without finding it spectacular. I thought it tapped well into the changing views of women in society that WWII brought. I liked Emily, the main character, as well as the minor characters. I also like that even if Emily has two love interests, the main theme was actually female friendship, working with and supporting one another.
F. G. Cottam Dark Echo I’ve read several of Cottam’s book before, and liked some, and haven’t cared for others. This one is the one I like best. Dark Echo of the title is a boat, built in the 1920s, and now is built by an elderly millionaire who wants to renovate it and then cross the Atlantic on it with his son. The problem is the boat is said to be cursed, and as the renovations progress, it seems the curse is very much still around. The son’s girlfriend, who is a researcher, starts to diffing around in Dark Echo’s past, and slowly realise it’s up to her to save her boyfriend and his father.
Horror stories always have to balance saying enough to keep the reader's interest, but not explain too much. I think this book balanced this very well, and I also felt the finale worked well too. Often horror books have a spectacular end, and then it falls a bit short. This end was more lowkey, and I like that. I also enjoyed the slow unraveling of the past. The book ties into other of Cottam’s books; it’s definitely a stand-alone, but the evil society the original owner belonged to make an appearance in several other novels.
Keith Houghton Don’t Even Break Another of those Kindle deals, and I actually had to look it up on Amazon because I couldn’t remember it. A body of a woman is found, the problem is that this woman died 20 years ago. I found the plot both implausible and easy to predict. First of a series, but I won't read any more of them.
Anders Fager Doris Malmberg möter Djävulen (Doris Malmberg Meets the Devil) This is a free short story; if you can read Swedish you can find it here. Fager writes excellent if violent, horror stories in which he mixes Lovecraft's mythology with Swedish, though minus the racism and misogyny. This story is about Doris Mallnberg who really wants to be a famous author. The only problem is that she is mediocre. So one night she finds herself at a crossroads to make a deal with the devil. This short story is very short, and I suspect it will one day be part of a collection of short stories. Fager debuted with such a collection, and in the end, you realise they are all more or less connected with each other, This story was a fun read, but it feels it need other short stories to lean against.
Stephen King The Institute I find King very uneven, so I never know what I will think of a book. I was a bit suspicious of this one as it shares many plot elements with Firestarter, which I dislike, but I actually thought it was really good. The plot is fairly simple, children, usually in their teens, are kidnapped and experimented on in an effort to use their psychic terror. The book’s main character is a boy who apart from being mildly psychic, also is a genius, and how he decides to try to flee and expose the organization. Reading about children being kidnapped and tortured in the name of science isn’t fun to read, but apart from that, I thought it well worth reading.
Lindsay Jayne Ashford Whisper of the Moon Moth This one has been languishing on my Kindle for ages. I think I was expecting a biography over Merle Oberon, but this is a fictionalized book about her, up until the point she marries Alexander Korda. Born as Estelle Thomson, she was the daughter of an Englishman and a mother whose parents were from England and Ceylon. Estelle’s mother was only 13, so she was raised by her grandmother, who herself was only in her late twenties when Estelle was born. Apparently, she thought her grandmother was her mother until she was an adult. Being bi-racial she could pass for white, and when she moved to England and became a movie star her grandmother came along but was officially called a housekeeper, as to not expose Merle’s real origin. I’ve always been fascinated by her life, and the psychological stress she must have lived under, but though this book wasn’t exactly bad, it wasn’t especially good either. Estelle/Merle was often very passive, which didn’t quite gel with a life that must have demanded a very strong and disciplined will. Now things just seemed to happen to her, which felt a bit too pat. I also felt the book ended rather abruptly. It left me feeling I would like to read a real biography over Merle Oberon.
JD Kirk A Litter of Bones and Thicker Than Water Very cheap Kindle deals. A little too gory, and the first book hit on my personal dislike of descriptions of broken bones. I also found them easy to predict, and a bit too short. Lots of build-up, and a climax that feels abrupt. What I liked best were the character descriptions. The first is a return of a serial killer- the biggest problem is that he is under lock and key. The second one deals with the disappearance and murder of a young woman.
Rhys Bowen The Victory Garden The book is set in England during WWI. A young upper-class woman is chafing under her parents who are reluctant to let her leave home to help with the war effort. While waiting to reach majority she meets an Australian soldier at a hospital nearby. At turning 21 she joins the war effort by being a land girl. Eventually, she finds herself all alone and a baby on the way. She finds a job as a gardener at a dilapidated manor house, living in a small cottage.
I liked it, without finding it spectacular. I thought it tapped well into the changing views of women in society that WWII brought. I liked Emily, the main character, as well as the minor characters. I also like that even if Emily has two love interests, the main theme was actually female friendship, working with and supporting one another.
F. G. Cottam Dark Echo I’ve read several of Cottam’s book before, and liked some, and haven’t cared for others. This one is the one I like best. Dark Echo of the title is a boat, built in the 1920s, and now is built by an elderly millionaire who wants to renovate it and then cross the Atlantic on it with his son. The problem is the boat is said to be cursed, and as the renovations progress, it seems the curse is very much still around. The son’s girlfriend, who is a researcher, starts to diffing around in Dark Echo’s past, and slowly realise it’s up to her to save her boyfriend and his father.
Horror stories always have to balance saying enough to keep the reader's interest, but not explain too much. I think this book balanced this very well, and I also felt the finale worked well too. Often horror books have a spectacular end, and then it falls a bit short. This end was more lowkey, and I like that. I also enjoyed the slow unraveling of the past. The book ties into other of Cottam’s books; it’s definitely a stand-alone, but the evil society the original owner belonged to make an appearance in several other novels.
Keith Houghton Don’t Even Break Another of those Kindle deals, and I actually had to look it up on Amazon because I couldn’t remember it. A body of a woman is found, the problem is that this woman died 20 years ago. I found the plot both implausible and easy to predict. First of a series, but I won't read any more of them.
Anders Fager Doris Malmberg möter Djävulen (Doris Malmberg Meets the Devil) This is a free short story; if you can read Swedish you can find it here. Fager writes excellent if violent, horror stories in which he mixes Lovecraft's mythology with Swedish, though minus the racism and misogyny. This story is about Doris Mallnberg who really wants to be a famous author. The only problem is that she is mediocre. So one night she finds herself at a crossroads to make a deal with the devil. This short story is very short, and I suspect it will one day be part of a collection of short stories. Fager debuted with such a collection, and in the end, you realise they are all more or less connected with each other, This story was a fun read, but it feels it need other short stories to lean against.
Stephen King The Institute I find King very uneven, so I never know what I will think of a book. I was a bit suspicious of this one as it shares many plot elements with Firestarter, which I dislike, but I actually thought it was really good. The plot is fairly simple, children, usually in their teens, are kidnapped and experimented on in an effort to use their psychic terror. The book’s main character is a boy who apart from being mildly psychic, also is a genius, and how he decides to try to flee and expose the organization. Reading about children being kidnapped and tortured in the name of science isn’t fun to read, but apart from that, I thought it well worth reading.
Lindsay Jayne Ashford Whisper of the Moon Moth This one has been languishing on my Kindle for ages. I think I was expecting a biography over Merle Oberon, but this is a fictionalized book about her, up until the point she marries Alexander Korda. Born as Estelle Thomson, she was the daughter of an Englishman and a mother whose parents were from England and Ceylon. Estelle’s mother was only 13, so she was raised by her grandmother, who herself was only in her late twenties when Estelle was born. Apparently, she thought her grandmother was her mother until she was an adult. Being bi-racial she could pass for white, and when she moved to England and became a movie star her grandmother came along but was officially called a housekeeper, as to not expose Merle’s real origin. I’ve always been fascinated by her life, and the psychological stress she must have lived under, but though this book wasn’t exactly bad, it wasn’t especially good either. Estelle/Merle was often very passive, which didn’t quite gel with a life that must have demanded a very strong and disciplined will. Now things just seemed to happen to her, which felt a bit too pat. I also felt the book ended rather abruptly. It left me feeling I would like to read a real biography over Merle Oberon.
