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The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. His influence on Stephen King is undeniable. Great book, but I felt really icky afterwards. Now, on to The Dinner by Herman Koch.
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Sep 9, 2014 15:25
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Just finished The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I have yet to read anything by him I don't like. I read this one without reading anything about it--no book flaps, no synopses, nothing--and it went in a direction I was completely surprised by. Loved it.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:43
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Just finished American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett. The story was compelling enough to keep me reading until the end, but it was a slog. Mr. Bennett has never met an adjective or adverb he didn't like.. A better writer could have made this story shine, but in its current form, it's not a great read. Also, how much redundant exposition can an author fit into one book? Read this and find out! An editor with some balls and a sharp knife could have sliced 100 pages without breaking a sweat. tonytheshoes fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Oct 8, 2014 |
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Oct 8, 2014 16:03
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Mouth Sewn Shut by Greg Slap. Somehow this book has landed on a few different "best horror novel" lists, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. It sucked. Nothing scary about it, the revelations were handled with about as much suspense and skill as an episode of Scooby Doo.
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Oct 16, 2014 14:54
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We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson. Beautiful, haunting, touching. I wouldn't call it horror, but it is a perfect Halloween book. It might be in the top 25 list of the best books I've ever read.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:07
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a kitten posted:I loved that book, I just read it for the first time myself last year. That cover is amazing. Funny how something that simple can capture the mood of a book so well.
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Oct 27, 2014 14:27
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Bitchkrieg posted:The Swerve by S Greenblatt. Well-written, academic, and engaging look at Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things" through the lens of Poggio Bracciolini, a renaissance humanist and scholar. These were my thoughts exactly. I spent a decent amount of time chatting wtih my father-in-law about the book, and it was during that conversation that it dawned on me how many huge leaps of faith Greenblatt took to arrive at his thesis. It's almost like he developed it, then did everything he could to make things conform to his conclusions. Still, as you said, the historical parts dealing with ancient texts and books in general were fascinating. I just finished J by Howard Jacobson. It takes place years after what seems to be a second Holocaust--the book gives you vague hints and bits and pieces of what everybody refers to 'WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED'--and a young couple who are dealing with the aftermath (but are things as they seem?) Honestly, the book was a mess, but it was kind of fun assembling the story from the pieces provided. Still, I couldn't say the book worked for me as a whole.
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Oct 5, 2015 15:23
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ghost crow posted:We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. An early 20th century Russian dystopian novel with some beautiful imagery. Really enjoyed this one. LOVE this book. Just finished American Gods, and... eh. I was pretty disappointed overall. I didn't dislike it, but I really wanted to love it and didn't. It just seemed anticlimactic to me. I do, however, think it might make a decent TV series.
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Nov 3, 2015 19:18
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Just finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, and I enjoyed it for the most part, but I can't help feeling that there is a mind-blowing book bubbling just below the surface of a pretty good one. Unfortunately,
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Nov 16, 2015 16:07
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Finished Lexicon by Max Barry this weekend. This book was weird because I read it, thought it was well-written, felt entertained by it, and then put it aside and have almost no memory of it--it's like the entire book was a 'bareword.' I guess it reminds me of a movie that I enjoy watching while it's on, but really never think about again... like, say, Wanted.
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Dec 7, 2015 18:10
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Just finished A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. It's a book about a girl who may or may not be possessed by a demon, and her family who, for financial reasons, decide to allow their daughter's affliction and subsequent 'exorcism' to be turned into a reality TV show. The story is told from the point of view of the younger sister, who is now grown up and recounting the experience to a reporter writing a book about the whole thing. Along with this is a series of blog entries about the television show... it's pretty meta. I quite enjoyed most of the book--the blogging parts got a little annoying due to the blogger's writing style, but I suppose it was pretty realistic since most bloggers write that way... What surprised me the most was how sad the entire thing ended up being. It's a quick read, so I'd recommend it if you're looking for something a little different from your typical 'horror' fare. tonytheshoes fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Dec 22, 2015 |
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Dec 22, 2015 17:07
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Franchescanado posted:I quite enjoyed the mind-gently caress that is his novel The Little Sleep, which is about a detective who suffers from extreme narcolepsy. It goes into weird dark places, and I've been meaning to read more of his books. Oh cool, that sounds interesting--adding it to the queue!
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Dec 22, 2015 20:22
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Managed to slip one final book in for 2015--Joyland by Stephen King. Ehhh... This book was a weird choice for a 'Hard Case Crime' novel--the 'case' itself had all the depth of a Scooby-Doo episode, and the rest of the story wasn't particularly 'hard' or 'crime-y.' I did find the ultimate ending more satisfying than most King endings, but honestly, that's not the highest bar. At least it was a short, quick read to beef up my 'books read in 2015' total...
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Jan 4, 2016 19:32
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Earwicker posted:those Stephen King books are how Hard Case Crime is able to stay in business Makes sense--can't sell books based on awesome cover art alone!
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Jan 4, 2016 19:48
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Just finished A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Thoroughly entertaining--love his almost Douglas Adams-esque humor. And, wow, scientists can be catty. Anyway, the only thing is that the book could benefit from updated edition--a few things have changed since it was published, and some of the dates he listed have come and gone. Still, for an easy to read, accessible book about general science, I'd highly recommend it.
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Feb 24, 2016 16:23
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Finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I thought it was really good, but not quite great. I might get around to reading the rest of the trilogy some day, but I'll probably put it off for a while.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:59
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Just finished Mr. Paradise by Elmore Leonard. I've only read one other by him (I can't think of the title for the life of me, but it was about a diver), but this one was much better... I might check out more stuff someday.
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Mar 23, 2016 17:48
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Just finished Bird Box by Josh Malerman. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a psychological horror novel that presents an interesting take on the tried and true 'band of survivors holed up together in a house while evil lurks outside' genre. It's the first horror novel in a long time that was able to affect me in any way. The author did a nice job building tension, and the ending was better than most books of this ilk.
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May 18, 2016 15:07
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Finished The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey. Very well-written, intriguing story, but I got to the last quarter and, at first, didn't feel that it ended well. Now, the more I think about it, the ending is quite clever. It veered off into a direction I wasn't expecting. This one has stuck with me for a couple of days. On a semi-related note, the movie trailer looks AWFUL.
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Jun 29, 2016 14:42
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Jedit posted:I'm a big Mike Carey fan, but I felt the end of TGWATG was telegraphed hugely. How did you not catch on that Melanie was going to set everything loose but leave behind a bit of hope? She loves the Pandora story, thinks at one point that she should be called Pandora, and the title of the book equates her with Pandora. Oh, I saw that coming--it was more the fate of Justineau, who, in most books would have probably died, or have been saved by Melanie who would then die... I didn't see the whole 'becoming a teacher to feral zombie children for the rest of her life' thing coming, which, if you think about it, is a pretty loving twisted ending. I dunno, I thought it was pretty dark and surprising. Then again, I read the book mostly in the middle of the night while feeding a 2 month old (not a zombie child), so maybe I wasn't as sharp as usual. tonytheshoes fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jun 30, 2016 |
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Jun 30, 2016 16:02
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Finished The Fireman by Joe Hill. It kind of sucked. I feel like it needed a couple more rewrites, but I guess if you're Stephen King's son, you skate by on rep alone.
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Sep 14, 2016 02:30
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Just finished Deviant: True Story of Ed Gein, the Original Psycho by Harold Schechter. I found it extremely entertaining, but I do wonder about the veracity of some of it--that said, it's a great Halloween read and more chilling (to me anyway) than almost all of the fictional horror stuff I've read. It does a good job of highlighting what a monster he was, while still allowing just enough sympathy to remind you that he really did have a terrible life leading up to his ghoulish crimes. It does have one of the cheesiest book covers I've ever seen, though... it's like a beginner photoshopper's nightmare. 
tonytheshoes fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Oct 12, 2016 |
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Oct 12, 2016 18:24
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When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. Sort of a futuristic Scarlet Letter set in a theocratic version of future America, and in fact, it mirrored some of the things that are actually happening right now... I thought it started off pretty strong, but it felt like the author got bored and decided to accelerate the character arc of the protagonist at a completely unrealistic pace... meh.
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Dec 15, 2016 18:58
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chernobyl kinsman posted:could we possibly institute a blanket ban on posting "[dystopian novel] is so much like [2016 election]" If you're referring to my comment, it's not dystopian... the similarities deal with abortion laws.
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Dec 15, 2016 20:19
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Dark Matter by Blake Crouch I actually really enjoyed it, despite figuring out a lot of the plot early on. I thought it was pretty well-written, and kind of reminded me a little of something Stephen King might write, only this book actually sticks a landing. I'm going to assume that the book has already been optioned, because it has movie or mini-series written all over it.
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Jan 6, 2017 18:30
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Time's Arrow by Martin Amis Interesting experiment, writing a story backwards from the main character's death to birth, not just in the sense that the plot runs backwards, but things physically happen in reverse--people eat by un-chewing their food and putting it back on their plate, every morning the garbage men distribute trash all over the place, etc. The story itself was pretty interesting, too. Luckily, just as the reverse gimmick started to wear a bit thin, the story took a dark turn and kept me interested until the... end? Beginning?
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Jan 19, 2017 17:13
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