Benny 2017

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Benny 2017

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1benuathanasia
Ene 12, 2017, 4:35 pm

Someday I'll finish reviewing all my ROOTS from 2016.

Today is not that day.

Let us relieve some of the stress by forgetting about those for a minute and inputting my texts for the year thus far.

I came close to 200 books in 2015.
I surpassed 200 books in 2016.
Let's see if I can do it again in 2017!

2connie53
Ene 13, 2017, 1:43 am

>1 benuathanasia: WOW 200 books and more! Welcome back and happy ROOTing.

3majkia
Ene 13, 2017, 8:24 am

Good luck!

4LoraShouse
Ene 14, 2017, 1:19 am

Welcome back. 200+ is a lot of books for one year. Happy ROOTing!

5Tess_W
Ene 14, 2017, 3:54 am

Good luck rooting in 2017!

6MissWatson
Ene 14, 2017, 10:42 am

Welcome back and good luck!

7rabbitprincess
Ene 14, 2017, 5:26 pm

Welcome back and good luck with your challenge!

8Limelite
Ene 14, 2017, 8:12 pm

I've heard of speed reading but speed reading in your sleep? How do you do it? Amazing!

9avanders
Ene 23, 2017, 11:52 am

Welcome back & Happy 2017 ROOTing!

>1 benuathanasia: wow 200 is very impressive! (Maybe you don't need to review them all? Maybe just a rating is okay for now... That's what I keep telling myself, anyway ;))

10Jackie_K
Ene 23, 2017, 12:44 pm

>1 benuathanasia: >9 avanders: yes, I think if I were reading that many (never going to happen!) my reviews would be either "sucks, don't bother", or "this will change your life" and left at that!

11Britt84
Ene 24, 2017, 12:55 pm

Wow, that's really impressive. And I think we can all understand you didn't review everything :)

12benuathanasia
Editado: Ene 25, 2017, 7:33 pm

lol. Thanks for the support my peeps!

So, funnily enough (not funny ha-ha, but funny "oh dear fucking hell WTF?") as soon as I made my first post in this thread, I started up a new post to actually start entering the titles I'd already completed/started. At that moment, I noticed the line to the barista had finally disappeared and went up to get my tea. And for the first time in FOUR years of Thursday night sojourns to Barnes and Noble, I spilled my tea. I didn't just spill it. I delicately "sloshed" it (you couldn't even tell any tea was missing from the cup, it was that little amount) DIRECTLY onto my laptop's keyboard. Not JUST the laptop's keyboard - no, directly onto the little cluster of keys that sit directly above the power logic board - the thing that makes the laptop actually turn on. It still turns on (ish), but is exceptionally picky as to whether it decides to charge. I haven't unplugged it in a week (and won't until I'm certain - like 400% redundancy certain - I have everything saved off of it).

So...after years of replacing things as they went bad on my beloved Big Mac, I broke down and bought a new laptop. And since Apple no longer manufactures their laptops with things I NEED for my job (a disk drive, USB-A ports, Ethernet port, upgrade-ability {the "Genius" was very confused as to why I objected to the idea of carrying around ten extra pounds of peripherals and converters just to get my laptop to actually do half of what I need it to...}) I have made the painful switch back to Windows. I'm still not as comfortable with this...*thing* as I was with Big Mac (new thing has no name yet), but I've found comparable programs for *most* things so far. The one nuisance I'm really struggling with is I can only expand folders in the left window pane (the navigation pane) and not in the right window pane (the normal pane). I WANT this:


While I'm stuck with this:


I'm also annoyed that ctrl isn't where my pinky expects it to be, the keyboard spacing is weird, and it's shockingly slower than my seven year old Big Mac was...

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and start entering reviews.
If it isn't posted within the next twenty minutes, assume I've spilled my water on my new laptop and am in a corner crying while rocking back and forth...

13benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 11, 2017, 10:06 am

1) This Boy's Life - If it weren't free, I never would have touched it. Quite frankly, I'm still not certain why I never just quit it. Most of us have one of those relatives that came of age during the 60s/70s and who all seem to come prepackaged with the same obnoxious stories - fun "pranks" that would get you a stint in juvie today, them exercising their hatred of adults, lame Boy Scout stories that go nowhere, a beloved pet that had more personality than most of their friends, etc. That is what this book is. It is your senile father's ramblings of stories you got sick of hearing before you hit puberty.

2) Library of Souls - I've come to the realization that the reason these books are at once fascinating AND forgettable to me is that the books *themselves* suck and are boring. Cookie cutter characters copy and pasted onto a run-of-the-mill teens-save-the-world-from-certain-doom against an evil villain that is "shockingly" connected to an integral character in relative (familial) way - it's nothing new and certainly not written in an exceptionally literary style. It's not even particularly "fun." It's the pictures. The pictures are far more interesting than the text and help create the illusion that the series is more remarkable than it has any right to claim.

3) Happily Ever After: Companion to the Selection Series - Ah, my guilty pleasure series. In this collection of novellas and short stories we get to explore America's present and future from the perspective of friends, enemies, and loved ones. I think the two parts dedicated to Celeste were my favorite. I wish we'd gotten to see this level of dimension to her in the series-proper.

4) The Lost Symbol - DAMN YOU WIKIPEDIA!!! I tried to look up ONE point I was confused about and a mistaken glance gave away what should have been one of my favorite twists in literature. DAMN YOU!!! Anyway, I liked this one better than The Da Vinci Code, but not as much as Angels and Demons. I am pretty disappointed it's not in the works to be a movie. I blame you, Freemasons! j/k

5) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Ugly Truth - So I had to just wiki this one to see which one it was - that says much about it's memorability. In this installment, Greg explores the wonders of growing up. EEeep. Boy/Girl sleepovers, puberty, and The Talk. Kinney did a good job of illustrating the awkwardness of this period in Greg's life without making the book itself awkward or cringe-worthy.

6) Winter According to Humphrey - A musical performance by his class, a music teacher who is afraid and disgusted by Humphrey, and the Christmas break are our favorite class pet's anxieties in this book.

7) Secrets According to Humphrey - While the class studies the mysteries of Ancient Egypt, the students are finding ways to alienate themselves from each other by creating exclusionary cliques. Humphrey and Mrs. Brisbane do a great job teaching the students about how secrets can hurt people unintentionally.

8) City of Fallen Angels - As Shadowhunters are found dead, a new enemy is revealed. As is a big-bad even worse than Valentine. Unless Satan himself is introduced next, I can't see how Shadowhunters can really introduce a worse villain. Hopefully if Satan is introduced as a character, he won't be so anti-climatically taken down as the enemy in this volume.

9) Name of the Wind - Immediately gripping, but so dense and thick and intimidating I'm slogging through it disappointingly slow. Denna-chapters were painfully boring - they almost guaranteed nothing interesting would happen. I don't include the dragon-chapters, because she was out-cold and barely a decoration throughout these chapters. As far as the dragon chapters go, I was exceedingly disappointed that this chapters comprised what could reasonably be considered the climax. If you don't consider this the climax, than the battle in the inn against the skin-walker demon is - in which case I'm *more* disappointed. The frame story holds no interest for me.

10) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Third Wheel - It's time for a boy/girl dance and Greg has his sight set on...any girl that'll have him. Except for one that'll have him. Ah, middle school. How familiar.

11) Yuck! Crooked Critters - A good mixture of gross and cool. Educational and written in a fun, no-commitment format. Each chapter starts with a hook and a trivia question (answered at the end of the chapter). I'd say this is best for the upper-elementary through middle school crowd.

12) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever - I have to explain to innumerable students what exactly the title of this book means. Does no one use the phrase "cabin fever" any longer? I suppose with technology, we're no longer trapped when stuck inside for long periods of time. Anyway, I should have read this during the summer because it genuinely made me feel cold.

13) Fifty Shades Freed - Ugh. So...before I read this series, I assumed the trilogy would go like this: Fifty Shades of Grey - Anastasia dates fucked up sociopath. Fifty Shades Darker - Christian gets even more abusive and psychologically controlling. Fifty Shades Freed - Anastasia finally finds the inner strength she needs to walk away from this shitty human being. But no. Because Anastasia (and apparently the author) have the same delusion that sociopaths and people with pathological personalities just need the right woman to "fix them" it doesn't work out that way. I've seen enough women in my family and life get destroyed by this delusion. People like Christian only change if *they* want to change and work their ass off to do it themself. Despite the perky epilogue, Christian will continue controlling, domineering, and abusing Anastasia until the day one of them dies. I'd really love to read a psychologist's companion piece to this - like "The Annotated Fifty Shades" annotated by a psychology doctorate.

14) Middle School: Just My Rotten Luck - Rafe gets into sports and Georgia is now at school with him. Intriguing. Not my favorite out of the series. A bit lacking in the laugh department. But still good.

15) Inferno - The first Robert Langdon book introduced us to the evil of the Illuminati. The Da Vinci Code showed the world the gruesomeness that is Opus Dei. The Lost Symbol illustrated the conflicted malevolence of the Freemasons. Inferno reveals the underlying horror that is...The World Health Organization? This particular entry in the Robert Langdon series threw in some twists and turns that felt forced - as though the ending were written first and the events leading up to the end were pushed into place as an afterthought. Even still, this book brings up quite an ethical conundrum. It isn't often I find myself rooting for the villain, but in this case, I had to.

16) Innocent Heroes - I was disappointed to realize that this was fictional accounts of animals and Native Americans in the First World War, but it's decent. The dialogue is simplistic and stilted - it feels unnatural thanks to the near complete absence of contractions (despite two of the central character being working class). I'd have appreciated more variety when it came to perspectives from people of the First Nations. The most enjoyable part was the nonfiction blurbs about the inspiration between each chapter.

17) Middle school: Dog's Best Friend - Didn't enjoy the central conflict. It was more frustrating than fun. It was also a bit painful to see Rafe growing more mature while Georgia regressed. Also, after Rafe discovers Eddy and Ethan called *his* clients, pretended to be him, and *stole* his clients, this is never addressed again during all their attempts to reconcile. The fact that Rafe eventually takes responsibility for starting the "war" while the twin's insidious deception is never addressed leaves the book feeling unfinished.

14Britt84
Ene 26, 2017, 12:50 pm

>12 benuathanasia: Sorry about the loss of BigMac - I can imagine that's really annoying. As for expanding folders, I wouldn't know how to do that in windows - I'm not an expert, but I think the navigation thing on the left is just how it works...

>13 benuathanasia: I have Dan Brown on my to read pile, both The Lost Symbol and Inferno. I must say I'm rather intrigued by your review of Inferno, might bump those two up a bit...

15avanders
Editado: Ene 26, 2017, 4:04 pm

>12 benuathanasia: oh man, that stinks!! I'm sorry that happened.. I would also be very upset if my mac (personal computer) had to be replaced with a (gasp) windows laptop ;p I wouldn't call myself an "apple fangirl," but as someone who uses both macs and pcs extensively, I believe Macs are just better-built machines. But I also agree w/ you that it's dumb that they no longer build into them the things many of us still use...

>13 benuathanasia: and happy to see you didn't spill on your new laptop! :)
& I agree re the Peregrine books.. I kind of hate them, but I have to keep reading them.

>14 Britt84: and, oh yeah, I think that's right -- the navigation pane on the left side is the closest you can come, I think-- unfortunately, it only navigates down to folders and not files...

16benuathanasia
Editado: Feb 12, 2017, 9:32 pm

18) American Short Stories - A collection of keystone short stories by the authors that ARE the American short story landscape - Twain, O'Henry, London, Bierce, etc. A great smattering of stories that are frequent fliers in high school and college classrooms.

19) Inkspell - What a painful, tedious book. And it's SO self-congratulatory. Meggie and company are trapped *within* the titular novel from the first book and the author is trapped there with them. He keeps praising himself for creating such wonderful characters (flat, personality-less, cliched characters) which is, of course, just Cornelia Funke praising the characters *she* created.

20) Autonomous Learner Model Resource Book - Mostly touchy-feely, getting-to-know-you activities. Nothing really in the higher order thinking domains and nothing that promotes autonomous/independent learning. I was very disappointed with this. I mean, there are plenty of little projects that instruct you to let the kids figure it out themselves, but this can be done with literally anything - it's inspiring the students to *want* to figure things out for themselves that's tricky (one such project in this book? Have students plan and implement a camping trip. WTF? Really?).

17avanders
Feb 1, 2017, 3:01 pm

>16 benuathanasia: lol I hate it when books are self-congratulatory like that... I read a book once that I loathed, and one of the things the author did was include this "Amaaaaaaaazing" piece of writing in it by a "character"... which was obviously written by the author himself... it was just so.... ick. I haven't read Inkspell yet, but I did enjoy Inkheart ... will take the 2nd w/ a grain of salt!

18benuathanasia
Feb 4, 2017, 4:29 pm

My spelling and grammar errors are driving me nuts. I give everyone unilateral permission to be Grammar Nazis on my posts...

19Tess_W
Feb 5, 2017, 6:59 am

>18 benuathanasia: LOL to the Nazi grammar police! I have found several spelling errors on some of my posts; but I'm an excellent speller. I'm blaming it on my nails, as I've let them grow longer and sometimes now they hit the wrong keys;)

20Jackie_K
Feb 5, 2017, 12:43 pm

>18 benuathanasia: It's always so much easier to spot someone else's mistakes than our own! I remember not so long ago talking about how I intended to set up as a freelancer in proofreading, and not spotting an error in that very post :/

21rabbitprincess
Feb 5, 2017, 4:53 pm

>20 Jackie_K: An extension of Muphry's Law! ;)

22Jackie_K
Editado: Feb 5, 2017, 5:11 pm

>21 rabbitprincess: Indede.

(I saw what you did there!)

23benuathanasia
Editado: Mar 16, 2017, 6:20 pm

21) City of Lost Souls - Ugh. Really? Ugh. The first few chapter were Jace-less, which significantly improved my ability to tolerate it, but then (of course) Clary has to do a stupid and go after him. Sebastian and Jace are in a total bromance now, which is great, because Sebastian wants to give "the D" to Clary. Yay incestuous love triangles? This series keeps devolving more and more into the lowest dregs of fanfiction.

22) Symphony for the City of the Dead - I'd like to say this book is beautiful, but it's too sad. It's a melancholy beauty. I didn't think I'd like it at first since I don't care for biographies and I thought several college courses had killed any interest I had reading nonfiction about the early Soviet regimes, but I really came to care for Shostakovich and everything Stalin put the people of the Union through.

23) For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood - I'm really not certain how I feel about this. Many of the practices detailed in this book are sound practices that would benefit many students, regardless of race or whether they live in the city, suburbs, or country (the author frequently conflates "black and brown" with "urban" - completely ignoring the minorities can live in the suburbs and the country and that whites can grow up in the city). Here are some things I had particular thoughts on (please bare in mind that I am a white millennial that grew up in the "ghetto", attended schools that were predominantly black or Hispanic, and currently teach at a school where less than 1% of the students identify as white, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American):

Chuuuuuuuch (I didn't count the U's, so forgive me if I spelled this incorrectly) - the author appears to be under the impression that not only do all "black and brown" youths attend church, but that A) they attend Pentecostal church and B) enjoy it. The subject has come up in my classroom frequently and only about half of my students attend religious services with any regularity (more than once every other month), and only about a third of those actually enjoy it. And of those that attend religious service they are pretty evenly divided among Muslim, Jehovah's Witnesses, and some other form of Christianity/Catholicism.

Anecdotes - The author included plenty of anecdotal stories about problems he witnessed, but rarely illustrated how this was a problem minorities face exclusively or how to deal with it. In the first chapter, he introduces (and excuses) a student who is routinely unprepared for class and tardy. He "reveals" that the problem stems from the teacher not respecting that the girl has a different definition of tardy (she's standing outside the class, so she's "there") and prepared (she shares her book with another student). The author never explains how this girl came to have these definitions based on her "urban-ness" or her race. It appears that her other urban, minority classmates don't have these confusions, so why should her confusions be excused? Where in her 8+ years of public education was she allowed to believe her definitions were the correct ones? Another anecdote is from the author's own childhood. After being traumatized by a local shooting, a loud sound startled him during class causing him to cower under the desk. After his (supposedly urban and minority) classmates laugh at his display, his teacher offers him the chance to explain himself, but instead the author turns it into a class-clown routine. For some reason, completely unbeknownst to me, the teacher should have magically known that - as an urban minority student - any sudden, dramatic movements made by the author should have - of course - been seen as traumatic shock.

Behaviors - The author treats urban minorities as though they not only a separate culture from anyone not in that clique, but almost as a separate species. Any "negative" behaviors (any not acceptable in "white" society) are simply part of urban minority culture and must be respected as such. Expecting students to obey common decency - raising their hands, waiting patiently to speak, etc. is not only demeaning, but negates their culture.

Wardrobe - An unreasonable amount of time was spent addressing clothing and how clothing choices of urban minorities should be respected in the class regardless of class rules. It attempts to bring down the argument that teachers are preparing students for the real professional by asserting that billionaires can and do wear whatever they want. And so may our students - once they've worked their way up past fields with uniforms, dress-codes (set rules), and dress expectations (the unwritten rules that society tends to agree with - such as not wearing a see-through blouse to an interview for a corporation).

All in all, I felt much of the book was condescending to white and urban minorities. Whites are treated as doe-eyed ignorant but well-meaning totalitarians. Whereas urban minorities are treated as special little snowflakes who will positively melt if they can't conform to institutions for 5.5-6.5 hours a day.

*throughout this review, I specified the subject as "urban minorities" even though the author tended to conflate the two terms - as stated earlier in the review. I used the terms as two separate things since many of my white co-workers grew up in living conditions similar to those of our students (abject poverty (school lunch is the only reason I didn't starve to death)) and probably about a third of my students, while living in an American urban setting now, are first generation Americans largely from rural Africa and urban Central/South America. The first and second generation students tend to be positively appalled by the behavior of the long-term citizens. Despite the author's insistence that trying to impose typical school rules on urban minorities is akin to forcing them to comply with "white" culture, my first and second generation minority students (few of whom had seen a white person before immigrating) hold up the rules to standards a white suburban, upper-middle class student wouldn't bare.

24) Grey - You'd expect seeing events from Christian's perspective would help vindicate him, at least a little, by showing his rationale behind everything, but nope. He's still just as controlling and insane as ever. This book reads much better when you pretend it ends in him horribly murdering Ana or her being found years later, chained up inside a shipping container. It just fits so much better than what the story actually went with.

24benuathanasia
Editado: Feb 27, 2017, 3:24 pm

25) Accidental Love - What a sweet and innocent romance. Fun and beautiful. I feel like the main characters make wonderful role-models. Marisa is far from being a perfect person - she's angry, she's violent, she not the best student...but she's realistic and recognizes and seeks to change the flaws in herself.

26) Organizing for Life - I... resent this book. I was very annoyed at how it gave little advice and lots of therapy throughout the book. Most of what it presents is about the spirituality and psychology of being messy. But I came to accept after a while that it hits too close to home. Rather than teaching the reader how to clean and organize, it teaches them the mindsets behind why they've found they "can't" be organized and how to overcome these deficiencies.

27) Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - Some of the stories were fun, but far too many were just vulgar.

28) I Funny - Hilarious and touching. Jamie's story unfolds in just such a way that you're tantalized, but not annoyed.

29) Crenshaw - I almost cried. I held back. But I almost cried. This book reminds me greatly of my own childhood and I feel many children can relate. I've started "selling" this book at work - up-talking it as an appropriate read-aloud since so many of my students come from homes where money and lack of food is a constant stress.

30) The Voice of the Buddha - Wow was this stiflingly boring. Far too much of it relied on circular logic.

31) Creep from the Deep - I grew up on Goosebumps - the original series and Goosebumps 2000. So the format of this one was really odd for me. I kept expecting the infamous twist, but instead I was left with the book simply...ending. And then picking up months later with no explanation of how things wrapped up. I really wasn't certain what had happened and even checked in several locations to make certain my book wasn't missing chapters or pages - but nope, that's just the format of this particular series. No me gusta.

32) Hitler Youth - I could have done without the introductory cast of characters. It would have been much better to meet them organically within their own stories, but whatever. It was a fascinating, oft-overlooked bit about the Holocaust and Second World War and I'd love to learn more about the Hitler Youth.

33) Rip van Winkle and Other Stories - Holy crap does Washington Irving suck as a writer. Great ideas REALLY terribly executed. What boring crap.

34) The Great Gilly Hopkins - It had a good moral and the story/characters were interesting, but something about this felt incredibly dated. I can't put my finger on it, but it felt like it took place in the 70s or 80s.

25benuathanasia
Editado: Mar 2, 2017, 2:38 pm

35) Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy - This book contains spoilers for City of Heavenly Fire. Oops. This follows the partially amnesia-tic Simon - not my favorite character, but at least it was more or less Jace-free. Essentially, the Shadowhunter Academy is a really crappy boarding school for training Shadowhunters. We get to experience VERY little of actual Shadowhunter training here and instead get all the touchy-feely fun-time of Simon making friends. Yippee. It was a lame waste of time.

36) Titanic: Voices from the Disaster - I know logic dictates that the characters followed in this book survived based on how their accounts were collected, but it would have been nice if that wasn't immediately spelled out in the book. This book described some things I hadn't really read about yet - the specific details about the Marconi operators, the investigation after the accident, more graphic details about people evacuating the ship at the last moments (*as* it was disappearing into the water).

37) Notes from the Underground - This guy is batcrap crazy. I don't think I'd ever want him as a friend (though I guarantee I would be his friend, because I seem to attract crazy), but he's certainly amusing to watch/listen to.

38) The Ugly Duckling and Other Stories - I've read most of these before, but some of them were a pleasant surprise. My favorite was Big Clause and Little Clause. I really can't blame Big Clause for the initial cause of their fallout, but the rest of it was amusing to see him "get his."

39) Lady Chatterly's Lover - I am shocked that I enjoyed this. My father - a non-reader - always held DH Lawrence as his standard for unreadable books. While I certainly love reading more than him, I tend to agree with his assessments to a less passionate degree (writes he says aren't half bad, I love, writers he's dislikes, I enjoy, writers he hates, I dislike, etc.). I really liked this though. It felt so oddly anachronistic - like a modern author *trying* to write a regency-era romance - it created a pleasantly jarring experience. I was so confused the first few scenes - I couldn't fathom when this book took place or was written. I was shocked to find it was in the early days of the Depression.

40) The Gunslinger - I enjoy King (aside from his random, needless/pointless vulgarity) but this really didn't do anything for me. I know that this is the first novel in the Dark Tower series, but even a book that serves as the exposition for the rest of a series should have some kind of interest or allure. I know the identity of the "Man in Black" or the purpose of the "Dark Tower" or why the Gunslinger is chasing the Man in Black is *supposed* to be the hook, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. They aren't intriguing enough (yet).

26benuathanasia
Editado: Mar 16, 2017, 2:28 pm

41) Inkdeath - Huzzah! This garbage is over! No more self-aggrandizing mediocrity! Some fantasy novels come to a grand and glorious climax - epic battle scenes. Some fantasy novels contain mysteries that unwrap like a year-round Christmas present. This particular piece of *cough* fantasy, fizzled out like a roman candle doused prematurely in water.

42) Monster Blood for Breakfast! - If there's anything Stine does well, its capture the nuisance of teenaged jerks. Unfortunately, he does it a little too well. So well in fact I spent most of the book vein-bulgingly annoyed. It was quite painful to get through because I spent most of the book telepathically screaming at the main character how he *should* be reacting to his worst friend.

43) Revenge of the Living Dummy - A bit predictable and kept hinting at what would have been a much more intriguing book (the curio cabinet). Disappointed, but whatever.

44) Medical Mayhem - I loved the presentation of this book, though I had a few problems with it. The initial chapter on paleolithic medicine involved a lot of conjecture that is presented as gospel; never present half-truths or oversimplifications to tweens - they'll take it to their grave (I spent half a year trying to dispel the "blood is blue until it mixes with oxygen" bullshit my tenth graders heard once). Half of the sidebars were just that little notes off to the side that might be of interest; the other half were simply quotes pulled out from the body of the writing - completely pointless. The artwork is eye-catching without being glaring and cartoonish.

45) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - A wonderful memoir, but I do *not* recommend the audiobook. It was read by Angelou herself, but she's a shockingly bad reader. I *think* she was trying to perform her memoir as spoken word poetry, but it sounded more like she...had ATTENDED...the...William Shatner...school of PERFORMANCE...arts...Just very stilted and jarring (which would be perfect during the scenes where she's being traumatized or her life is being destroyed, but the entire book was read this way).

46) Golden Compass - Easily one of my favorite books. Generally, with books like this, I prefer there to be layers where you can read it as it is, read into it to find the symbolism, or read beyond it to find the metaphysical. This book doesn't take that approach. It basically beats you over the head with "YOU MUST CONSIDER GOOD VERSUS EVIL! Where do your values lie???" All the symbolism and allegories are spoon fed to the reader making it a great fantasy primer for middle school students.

47) You Only Live Twice - So much build-up for very little reward. This book was *mostly* James learning to hide himself via yellow-face in Japan and living an amnesia-tic double life with the Bond-girl du jour.

48) City of Heavenly Fire - Thank god I'm done with this series. Clare has some obscene obsession with incest that I just can't stomach.

49) The Subtle Knife - I'd have to say this is my least favorite of the trilogy. It very much feels like a simple bridge between the first and third book. Something about how Will and Lyra were thrown together feels haphazard and sloppy. Mary Malone is an annoying character who serves little purpose that couldn't be subsumed by a more intriguing character such as Lord Boreal.

50) I am Malala - Heartbreaking and inspiring. Malala, from the earliest pages of this memoir, is incredibly wise and insightful for her age.

27Tess_W
Mar 11, 2017, 5:17 pm

>25 benuathanasia: Lady Chatterly's Lover has been on my TBR pile for decades. Perhaps now is the time!

28benuathanasia
Editado: Mar 24, 2017, 7:31 pm

51) Tales of the Peculiar - Similar to Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard. I enjoyed these short "fairy tales" ("historical accounts") significantly more than I enjoyed the story-proper. It was more inventive and whimsical with more intriguing characters (though they obviously weren't as fleshed out as those in the rest of the series).

52) I Even Funnier - I won't say this is *funnier* than the original, despite its title, but it certainly maintained an even level of enjoyment from the original.

53) Bone Gap - Unlike most reviewers, I enjoyed the buildup far more than the climax. The climax and "twist" (what the hell is the twist people are talking about?) were really flat, uneventful and, lackluster to me. Getting to know the characters was the best part of the book. Trying to figure out what was going on and how things would come together was far more rewarding than them actually coming together.

54) A Soldier's Sketchbook - A simple, unencumbered look at life in the trenches of WWI from the perspective of an artist. Most of Rabjohn's observations of war are quick and to the point - very unlike the letters of soldier's from the Edwardian period (and before). Wilson's selections were decently weeded from Rabjohn's unabridged diaries and they are grouped into chronological themes that I enjoyed. The artist's realistic black and white pencil sketches are beautiful and poignant.

55) Spring According to Humphrey - As Humphrey and the class look for signs of spring, Humphrey meets new friends and the school puts on a "circus-themed" family night. While the past few books have made me regret that we don't get access to Og's thoughts, this book made that exceptionally annoying. We never learn how Og feels about the new additions to the classroom.

56) Selection: The Crown - A great ending. The happily ever after didn't go where I expected, but it was all a lot more nicely wrapped up - without convenient deus ex machinas - than the original series.

57) Boy Born Dead - Stories of handicapable individuals rising above the odds to become successful and popular in life have, by now, become cliche. It's hard for any of them to set themselves apart, let alone above, their competition. This one failed to do that in my opinion. Yes, it was an interesting story. It wasn't really motivational however. David had to be dragged kicking and screaming to overcome his obstacles and it's *really* hard to root for a person who starts out as such an asshole douchemonkey.

That being said, learning about his *mother's* life was fascinating (and heartbreaking) as were the glimpses we got of the early evolution of special education.

58) Sign of the Beaver - Similar in feel to most "Indian captive" style stories (though this wasn't one). I enjoyed watching the boys' burgeoning acceptance of each other, gradual friendship, and eventual brotherhood (I don't really see this as being worth a spoiler alert, as it's par for the course for these types of YA stories). I'd like to know how well the culture of the tribe was portrayed in this, but really can't be bothered to do my own research.

59) The Merlin Prophecy - Not as engaging as the original novel. But an intriguing follow-up. I look forward to seeing where the characters go.

60) Aphrodite the Beautiful - A cute addition to the series. It's nice to see the girls reacting to teenage drama in a realistic fashion (their emotions being realistic, not their powers). I enjoyed this.

29benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 13, 2017, 4:19 pm

61) The One and Only Ivan - I think the audiobook reader wrecked this for me. The story was good, but the way it was presented made it grating.

62) Every Last Word - Huh. It's strange to have a book describe your own mind to you...and tell you it's not normal. I hate that this - like every other YA book with characters of opposing genders - turned into another trite, needless romance, but it was well-written and quite beautifully insightful. The twist at the end, while obvious from the first few chapters, was so deftly handled that it was still wonderful and heartbreaking.

63) Skellig - Ugh. Predictable rubbish. Not an original thought in this book. The only thing tolerable about it was the realistic dialogue.

64) Homecoming - Nothing much of note happens in this graphic novel. It's very obviously nothing more than a bridge between the first and the last. Boring. Unmemorable.

65) Divine Collision - Heartbreaking and inspirational. The first third of the book was filled with unexpected twists, while the last third was a beautiful tapestry of unexpected coincidences.

66) Scream of the Haunted Mask - Huh. I thought I had this figured out within the first few chapters, but for the first time in a while, Stine's twist ending actually took an unexpected turn. Pleasantly enough, this Goosebumps was annoying-character free (Stine writes intentionally annoying characters far too well).

67) Amber Spyglass - Re-reading update: this finale is dense. There are so many things to re-read and ponder over. I miss the action and intrigue of the original. But I'll definitely be reading this again.

68) Hard Luck - For once, I'd have rathered a book from Fregley's perspective. Due to Greg's friendship miscalculations, Fregley becomes Mr Popularity. Greg becomes a member of the yearbook club. All in all, I think we're seeing some small growth from Greg.

69) Titanic and the Making of James Cameron - Dense. Cameron seems like a real asshole. But he's an asshole who knows what he's doing.
I've read a great deal about the actual event of the Titanic. I remember discussing while watching the movie with my father we discussed all the different ways Murphy's Law came into play that infamous night. It seems many of the same types of things were in work for the movie. Intriguing.

70) The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Hmmm...This particular installlment follows the least intriguing character presented. Also, knowing the ending well before it happens certainly lessens its impact. I wish we'd followed Diego or Fred instead. They had far more personality.

30connie53
Abr 8, 2017, 2:34 am

What a lot of reviews, Benny! Awesome!

31benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 27, 2017, 5:34 pm

71) Bleak House - Wow. Does this book EVER end? It's occasionally humorous, but none of it really reached out to me or made me invested in the characters or events.

72) Neverending Story - Having grown up on the movies, I was very confused when the "conclusion" occurred halfway through the book. Then I realized the book had been divided to make the first *two* movies in the series. While I greatly enjoyed my travels with Atreyu and Falkor, I was a bit surprised to find how much more I enjoyed part two than its movie equivalent.

72) Wonder - Fourth grade teaches this at my school, so I've been privileged enough to hear snippets of it. I then stole a copy once the fourth grade was finished (I'll have to steal A Long Walk to Water later, they did that next). I'm enjoying this greatly, but am not looking forward to the movie.

73) The Road - I...um...I was bored. I posted my boredom with this on Facebook and my friends (that actually liked the book, which were half of those that commented) talked about the darkness, the bleakness, the despair. I didn't get any of that. This book didn't pull any feeling from me. One friend waxed poetic about the beauty and despair of the father-son relationship. Maybe that's why this book did nothing for me. I don't get any kind of emotional pull from children. The younger they are, the more - not human - I find them.

74) Fat Angie - Dangit. Never judge a book by its cover. Literally or figuratively. I was expecting some Precious/Push wannabe. But no. This book was full of complex depth that really spoke to the teenage trial - whether or not you've ever struggled with weight, whether or not you've lost someone to the military or war.

75) Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz - Hmmm...I'm not sure how much I like/dislike this. It was well told, but relied too heavily on the "It was all just a dream" trope (not exactly in that way, though). It was still interesting, if it weren't for the fact that literally all of it was deus ex machina.

76) How It Went Down - Brilliant and poignant. As intended, the book asks far more questions than it answers, forcing the readers to be conscientious thinkers and analyze their own thoughts. The characters are realistic and relatable. The plot is fascinating and unfolds at a delicate, intriguing pace. Will definitely recommend for my middle school students.

77) Most Dangerous - Not my usual reading fair, but I was definitely impressed. I spent half the book incredibly angry at the American government. Everyone "in the know" should have been charged with treason.

78) On the Jellicoe Road - This took way too long to get started. Ever read The Golden Compass? Remember the brief scenes of warfare between the Oxford kids, the townies, the Gyptians, and the brick burners' children? It was like someone decided that needed to be its own story. Interwoven through that boring plot is interesting conspiracy theories about a serial killer and the mystery of the missing Hannah. None of this really gets to a point of interest until the last few pages.

79) Pennies for Hitler - Dammit, dammit, dammit. I got this free through Audiobook Sync and the last half of the files are corrupted. I'll review someday when I get to finish it.

80) Sin Eaters Daughter What started as a truly inspired fantasy world-builder quickly deteriorated into a predictable and wholly unoriginal love triangle. It seems that novels starring a female protagonist are wholly incapable of doing without a love interest let alone a love triangle. It became stale and formulaic fairly quickly. I'm just extremely grateful that it didn't fall victim to the fantasy-sin of the obligatory trilogy.

32floremolla
Abr 13, 2017, 5:25 pm

wow, that's a lot of ROOTs! Well done.

33benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 23, 2017, 9:09 am

81) Moby Duck - Told with a blend of matter-of-fact evidence, anecdotal niceties, narrative epics, and somewhat self-effacing humor, Donovan draws for us a picture of our polluted world from the greatest garbage patches of the pacific to the smallest sphere of Styrofoam cohabiting with our sandy shores. Hahn's style of story weaving grips the reader without ensnaring them - you feel the need to continue on, but feel perfectly free to put the book down without the fear of forgetting the threads that brought you to where you are.

82) Things Fall Apart - An introspective look on Nigerian tribal life that I could never hope to witness (let alone experience) first-hand. The story is engaging and the characters charismatic, even if Achebe's style of writing felt a bit tangential and jumpy.

83) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School - Greg's mom is on an anti-technology kick. Dear lord, help us all. One of the more amusing of the later DoaWK books.

84) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul - Nope. Didn't care for this one much. Way too many coincidences and truly outlandish scenarios. Part of what makes the DoaWK novels so engaging is their ultra-realism. This one seemed to doff all that in favor of an over-the-top and frantic form of humor.

85) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down - This one feels pretty disjointed. The first half is about Greg learning an instrument and Halloween parties; the second half is about life as a grounded kid and movie making. It didn't feel like the story was cohesive at all.

86) Vivian Apple at the End of the World - I started this book pretty annoyed, expecting a YA Left Behinds (Tim Lahaye) knock-off; non-believer survives the rapture only to find the light of god, yadda-yadda-yadda. I humbly apologize and admit this was so much more than that. In essence, despite its science-fiction, survivalist backdrop, it is at heart a coming of age story about a girl trying to discover herself - and the meaning of "family" - before her death. The subliminal and superliminal commentary on mass-commercialism and Big Business was all too real and close to home.

87) The Young World by Chris Weitz - So...a post apocalyptic world that teenagers rule. This doesn't do anything new with the subgenre - it appears to have just borrowed from all the others, reordered different pieces, re-named different characters. If you like the concept, but want to see it actually done well with interesting characters, check out The Tribe (a television series), Lord of the Flies, The Girl Who Owned a City, and a few dozen others.

88) A Long Walk to Water - Fascinating and heartbreaking. This should be considered a must-read.

89) Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian - I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. When a dozen copies were donated to my library a few years ago, I had to research whether they were appropriate for the K-8 library I work for. The reviews led me to believe I would thoroughly dislike this book and so held off on it for much longer than I should have. I wish that the author had censored himself with a needless vulgarities and lewdness that litter the book without adding to it - he could have far extended his readship if he'd done so. Some of it felt a bit rascist - playing off modern stereotypes of American Indians (violence , alcoholism, etc), but I can't speak to the factual-ness of these things.

90) The Fury - This book is kind of a drag that's all over the place. It wastes a lot of time on ancillary stuff that doesn't really add anything to the story. The characters are also really lackluster as well. I feel like this story could have been told much better in about half the length.

34connie53
Abr 28, 2017, 2:38 am

Wow, Benny. You are certainly on course for 200 books a year!

35floremolla
Abr 28, 2017, 4:07 am

I like your pithy reviews!

36benuathanasia
Editado: mayo 17, 2017, 1:46 pm

91) History of Classical Music - A great, board overview of classical music from the mid-1000s until modern instrumentals. It discusses theory, periods, eras, artists, schools, etc. Being an audiobook, it's accompanied by many samples of the music discussed.

92) In Defense of a Liberal Education - I went into this a wee bit confused. By liberal, he meant liberal arts. Not liberal as in progressive, but liberal as in a broad range of studies. He has lots of interesting examples and anecdotes spanning the existence of universities as we would picture them.

93) Take the Stairs - My thought process at the start: cliche. Common sense. Boring. Duh. Cliche. My thought process at the end: Tell me *more* oh great guru! The problem with these motivational texts in my world is that they are only motivational while I am actively reading it. After that...eh.

94) Danny the Champion of the World - I hate this book. To be fair, I don't care for Dahl (he's got great ideas, but they're always poorly executed). This particular book, thou, I couldn't get behind it at all. It's all about illegal poaching. I loathe hunters and I hate illegal activities. Plus, the whole book is very petty. Nope. No thank you.

95) I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President - Ok. Imagine the most annoying person you went to school with. Imagine the biggest jackass. The most socially oblivious jerk. Imagine he wrote a whiny, self-aggrandizing journal chronicling why he's so much better than everyone else. Imagine he had the money to buy the "proof" that he's better. In essence, there will never be a character you want murder more.

96) The Dead House - Wow. Just wow. I received the audiobook free through Audiobooksync And this...was...brilliant. Such a haunting mash of perspectives. The quotes complement the mood perfectly and the - for once - the music is a great fit. I love how the unreliable narrator leaves everything with a tinge of mystery through the very end. What's real? What's true? Who knows? It's amazing.

97) Flush - Hiassen does a great job of reflecting life fairly realistically. Nothing feels exaggerated, over-the-top, or forced. The flow of the writing is natural as is the progression of plot. I enjoyed this.

98) Scott Pilgrim versus the World - A bit slow to start and a bit confusing (some of the characters blend together and their relation to one another took me a few minutes to figure out), but I'll probably continue this so I can actually get to the action.

99) Esperanza Rising - Beautiful and sad. It's hard for me to read books that start out with a tragedy that can't be reversed. Death is the worst of tragedies. Even still, Esperanza's journey from little princess to field hand is full of small bits of beauty and a huge dose of hope. Quite lovely.

100) Milkweed - This didn't really stand out for me as a piece of Holocaust literature. It was boring and stagnant. The main character meant little to me. He was devoid of most emotions so everything was presented very flatly and matter-of-fact.

37benuathanasia
Editado: mayo 26, 2017, 1:59 pm

101) True Stories - I'm not certain why this book specified that it was for guys. Not all the stories were by male authors. Not all the audiobook readers were male readers. The book as a whole does not support boys becoming better men. The topics discussed are not of male interest only (or even mostly). The "guys read" aspect of this is very confusing and unnecessarily sexist, which is sad, because the stories (for the most part) are well selected and interesting.

102) The Beautiful and Damned - Dang. After suffering through The Great Gatsby several times for school (and once on my own to try and understand *why*) and a collection of his short stories, I assumed he was just a grossly overrated author. I thoroughly enjoyed this one however. The first part was overly long and drawn out, and the middling part was middling, but part three was of particular interest and may even inspire me to read other words of Fitzgerald's.

103) Murder on the Orient Express - I thought I would love this given my affinity for "And Then There Were None" but this came across as a very blase whodunnit of no particular artistry or interest. I can't help but wonder if it's a akin to the must-reads of many Oprah Book Club books where people inhale the text because it's what everyone else is reading but then no longer stand on its own once the The Garmlich Effect has died down.

104) Bronx Masquerade - Fascinating. Sometimes books are improved as an audiobook. Sometimes they are diminished. This particular book I do not think could stand as anything other than an audiobook. The words, as spoken by the readers, are magic. They are spellbinding and captivating. The story told is melancholy on the whole, but holds bursts of hope that shine between the stories like rays of light.

105) Teenage Diaries - Most of these were really interesting and pretty fascinating. Even if you've never been in their situations, you could imagine it and empathize. The one person I didn't like was Josh. He comes across as something of an ass. Not because of his tourettes, but because of his asshole choices.

106) A Christmas Celebration - Meh. A miscellaneous collection of Christmas stories and poems that get included in every Christmas collection, supplemented with Christmas music and psalms.

107) M is for Magic - Why. Why. Why do I keep subjecting myself to Gaiman? I've yet to enjoy anything he's written. Such a waste of time.

108) Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path - I've read Buddhist texts before. I always assumed it was the teacher that was painfully boring, but now I've come to the realization that the religion as a whole is just lackluster and boring to me. All the emphasis on prayer above all else - prayer to the point that (I believe the teacher said a t-rex) could barge into the room and you wouldn't notice. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Humans are distractable not because we're weak, but because as apex hunters it kept us alive - we were able to quickly spot and react to threats and food sources. I give up. Screw Buddhism.

109) Letters to a Young Teacher - Brilliant. Kozol nails everything wrong with education as it stands today. But he isn't doom and gloom - he emphasizes fixes for the problems. Fixes that most competent teachers are aware of. Unfortunately, it's the INCOMPETENT teachers that usually progress to administration or politics.

110) Bonfire of the Vanities - I read this because - as a book lover - you're kinda supposed to. It's one of those books that you're expected to read if you hold literature in any high esteem. As such, I went into this prepared to abhor it. Damn you Wolfe. Damn you. I enjoyed it. The characters were - as they were supposed to be - flawed, horrible, multi-faceted creatures that you can't help but pity.
As much as I enjoyed this though, I cannot forgive Wolfe for one egregious problem with the book - it has no ending. No real ending, at least. It isn't even a cliffhanger or a setup for a sequel that was never written. It just *is*. We never find out how the whole trial turned out.

38benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 22, 2017, 6:53 pm

111) Disaster Discoveries - An excellent collection of fascinating historical events. The format is very student friendly and the pictures add to the text rather than distract from it. My one qualm is the sidebars. The sidebar - rather than offering different perspectives, asides, or trivia - are simply word-for-word quotes of things already said in the text.

112) Shadow House - I feel like the author of this book has never met children. They're vaguely aware of their existence thanks to media, but has never actually interacted with them. None of the characters or their reactions are in the least bit realistic. It's a vaguely interesting story, but it's destroyed by the horrid characterizations of the children. I will not be continuing this series.

113) In Our Backyard - Heartbreaking. It's astounding how little I knew even though I've (briefly) investigating these topics before. One complaint is the author's "gateway" arguments. Reminiscent of the false-equivalency arguments that week is a gateway drug to heroin, meth, etc, the author portrays any use of pornography as a gateway to sex slavery and human trafficking. Another complaint is how much of the book is filtered through the author's strong christian perspectives. Too much reliance on religion in the narrative. Finally, the author praises human trafficking victims who have forgiven their captives to the extreme that she practically shames those who do not or cannot forgive - all the more interesting considering how much time the author spent discussing Stockholm syndrome; maybe their forgiveness is just Stockholm syndrome?

114) Freakling - Slow to start, but rather interesting once it did. I'm still not certain whether or not I'll continue the series. Given the protagonist's drastic choice near the end, I can't imagine the series continues to hold any allure.

115) Boy - A fascinating look at forced gender reassignment (something often done to children with ambiguous sex organs). I really enjoyed the flashback scenes, but the present day ones were creepy to say the least. The main character's strange fixation on children and stalkeresque obsession with his new girlfriend are very unsettling and paint a negative picture of those with gender-identity issues. I understand that the author was probably trying to play off the main character's socio-emotional issues as stemming from their gender identity crisis, but it just didn't feel authentic to what would have proceeded from the character as we knew them as a child/teen.

116) Howards End - The story as a whole is take-it or leave-it. Nothing special, groundbreaking, breathtaking, etc; no characters of particular interest or note. Whatever. What I enjoyed about this book was the philosophical discourse and how amusingly outdated - and yet somehow prescient - it was.

117) Beast - Wow. Well, it's well-written, the plot is just something I can't get behind. An honourable, sensitive Persian prince who refuses to hunt because he hates hurting animals is punished for making the wrong decision when it came time for him to sacrifice a camel (it wasn't choosing between whether or not to sacrifice an animal, that wasn't an option - it was *which* camel to sacrifice). The dead camel's spirit then haunts him, promising his father would kill him the next day (this camel sucks at making prophecies, because that didn't really even come close to happening) and later tells him that the curse (him being turned into a lion) couldn't be undone unless a woman loved him...what the fuck does that have to do with his supposed transgression that led to him being punished? As a lion, the prince proceeds to engage in lion orgies (WTF?), contemplates kidnapping a lion cub so he could raise it up to be a mate (WTF?) and then, when he gets to France (long, convoluted, pointless story) he orders a rose thief to bring him his youngest daughter - again, so he can "raise" her to be his mate (he thinks/expects/hopes she's much younger than she actually is). WTF?

Essentially, the sensitive, kind, honourable prince is "taught his lesson" by turning him into someone who practices bestiality, contemplated pedophilia, kidnaps children, and kills animals without remorse.

I just...what?

118) Of Beast and Beauty

Don't zone out for the prologue. I wasn't paying attention as much as I should have so I was a bit confused for quite a bit.

All in all, this is a rather fascinating retro-futuristic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The setting, the characters, and the plot are all unique and yet comfortingly familiar. My one major qualm is that - once again (I've been seeing this way to often in YA lately) - the choice of whether or not to revenge themself upon their wrongdoer/enemy has been taken from the protagonist's hands, leaving them (the reader) without any real satisfying closure. Lame.

119) The Good Soldier - Forgettable. Absolutely and woefully forgettable.

120) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - I enjoyed the movie. I enjoy similar novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I did not enjoy this so much. The frame story (the author purporting this to be based on a factual diary and that Lincoln's nocturnal affairs were an oft-rumored mainstay of historians, etc) failed to buoy the rest of the novel which was told as a very lackluster historical text.

39floremolla
Jun 8, 2017, 11:20 am

Awesome rate of reading, I salute you >38 benuathanasia:!

40avanders
Jun 21, 2017, 6:28 pm

>39 floremolla: Agreed

>38 benuathanasia: also, Beast sounds awful!!

41benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 29, 2017, 3:15 pm

121) Chomp - Hiassen's characters are starting to feel woefully recycled; a loser father waiting for his ship to come in, wise-beyond-their-years children forced to grow up too soon, socially-awkward eco-hero protagonists, a mother who's at her wits-end with her husband's ineptitude...

That being said, the plot was still good. I greatly enjoyed watching the events unfold in completely unexpected ways.

122) If I Run - Dear Terri Blackstock: look up "Mary Sue." Memorize what it is. Understand what it is. Now NEVER write one again. The main character of the story is an incredibly intelligent, fun, dearly loved, perfect-in-every-way woman who just so happened to get wrapped up in horrible events beyond her control.

This book started out fairly interesting as you wonder how the events went down - why her best friend was murdered and why she's being blamed for it. As soon as that mystery is solved (a third of the way through) it goes tumbling downhill. It gets a bit Christian-preachy, the antagonists aren't even subtle in being bad, and the side-plot about the missing teen is WAY too deus ex machina. Also, while I don't intend to finish the series - I'm calling it now: the private investigator is going to fall in love with her (and vice versa) and he's going to help her find God - because that's the only imperfection in her life (according to how the author paints the picture).

123) How to Win Friends and Influence People - *snort* Nope. I'm not betraying myself, my interests, and my morals to play this bullshit game. So much of this feels like the art of the con - manipulating people on a baser level in order to further your own interests all under the guise of being "interested" in their personal lives and interests.

124) This Side of Paradise - I never liked The Great Gatsby or Fitzgerald's short stories. But after reading The Beautiful and Damned, I thought I'd maybe misjudged Fitzgerald. Then I read this. If you enjoy the Great Gatsby, you'll probably enjoy this. I did not though. It was just far too much ado about nothing.

125) Revival - Hmmm...as usual with King, the character building was phenomenal, but on the other hand, that same character building really came at the sacrifice of plot-pacing for the first two-thirds of the book.

126) O Pioneers - A character piece. What happens in this book isn't particularly interesting, but the people it centers around is. There isn't anything particularly mesmerizing about any of the characters - they're just so real and wholesome and pleasant that I'd like being friends with them, but they have conflict just enough that they're intriguing to watch from afar as well. I love Alexandra most, of course. A feminist icon.

127) Red Umbrella - Fascinating. Not a topic/period in history/event in history I've ever been particularly interested in, but Gonzalez tells it so well, with such relatable characters, that it's a compelling story.

128) The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner - A fun, lighthearted collection of short stories. A good intro to Pratchet.

129) Get Coding! - Yay! Someone who knows children's non-fiction! A great smattering of different types of pictures (some informative, some illustrative, some to break up the monotony), captions, headers, sidebars, etc. My one gripe is that it throws vocabulary at the reader far too quickly (it defines everything of interest, but gives little time to absorb and naturalize lingo). A glossary at the back would help with this.

130) Plus One - A collection of predictable and romance tropes centered on a fascinating McGuffin. Despite the lackluster cliches, I found this very enjoyable and easy to get absorbed into.

42benuathanasia
Jun 23, 2017, 8:46 am

Thank you for the cheerleading friends!!!
I'm a bit disappointed in me because these are almost all audiobooks. If I limited the list to just physical books, I think the count would be around the 20s. I've been stuck on this one book (The Fury) for a few months now.

43MissWatson
Jun 23, 2017, 9:16 am

A book is a book is a book.

44floremolla
Jun 23, 2017, 2:22 pm

I agree with MissWatson! I like audio for the chunksters I probably wouldn't otherwise tackle.

45benuathanasia
Editado: Jul 21, 2017, 12:45 pm

131) Souls of Black Folks - A fairly interesting look at life - predominantly in the south - following the Civil War: a period generally known as Reconstruction. I like Du Bois's factual, yet artistic description of the failings - of the North, of the South, and even of black people to secure proper liberty following the war.

132) The Witches: Salem, 1692 - Ugh. Long and slogging. Schiff reports every single instance of the years leading up to and following the Salem Witch Trials to the point of being tediously redundant.

133) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - This is a collection of philosophical arguments and theological sermons framed by the titular artist's school life. All in whole, interesting and introspective in parts, but completely forgettable.

134) Lilith's Brood - Enjoyable with a diverse - yet spare - cast of characters orbiting the main character. The sex and sex-talk teeters annoyingly close to the limits of enjoy-ability for me (especially since it delivers no guilty titillation).

135) Differentiating Instruction with Menus: Language Arts - The rubrics and the different ideas for performance tasks are the most usable part of this book. However, it is a fairly useful book.

136) Sons and Lovers - Loved it. Mrs. Morel is such a lovely, wonderful character. She's realistic in her perception of her children, yet she adores them unfailingly. The sons themselves are all interesting (and infuriating) in their own ways. The book seems to focus predominantly on the relationship between Mrs. Morel and her second son, Paul. Sadly, the only daughter, Anne seems to be very neglected in the novel.

137) My Name is Not Easy - Brilliant and sad. A novelization on the modern atrocities committed against Native American Indians and Alaskan Inuit that invites to reflect on how these peoples were treated, without asking you to feel guilt or shame.

138) Remember to Forget - Ugh. Even without the cover blurb, this is very obviously fanfiction. I've read phenomenal fanfiction. I've read truly pathetic fanfiction. This falls into the mediocre world of unexceptional fanfiction. The main character Levi is the single most melodramatic and whiny character I've ever read. If he doesn't cry at least once per chapter, it's a fairly remarkable chapter. He is the embodiment of the ideal emo, quiet (he's mute) sensitive boy teen girls *think* is so sexy...until they actually encounter it. Personally, I'd like to bitch slap him a few times and tell him to get the fuck over it.

139) American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose - Hysterical. I regret only that I didn't get to see this insane LSD trip performed live before me.

140) House of Seven Gables - I liked Hepzibah. And Hawthorne's descriptions are vivid and pleasing to the mind's eye. Those are the only nice things I can think of to say about this book. Hawthorne's narrative is rambling and I still can't tell you what the hell the plot was of the book. Completely and utterly forgettable. This saddens me since I enjoyed The Scarlet Letter and love what short stories of his I've read.

46connie53
Jul 20, 2017, 3:20 am

Very good job, Benny. Keep it up!

>43 MissWatson: absolutely.

47benuathanasia
Jul 21, 2017, 12:59 pm

Thanks Connie!
I'm trying, but I keep getting distracted by nothing. Literally nothing.

48benuathanasia
Editado: Nov 7, 2017, 12:47 pm

141) Rebuttal by Jyotsna Hariharan - A very sweet piece. For something so brief, it did a really good job of showcasing matters of personal growth and the concept of identity - how much of you is *you*?

142) The Dorito Effect - Ugh. This is fairly inspirational. It wants me to do better, but it also inspires me to hate myself.

143) Sugar - A heartbreaking look at child abuse - psychological, physical, neglect, etc. I hate how much this book made me feel. My only qualm was that - once again - the poor little fat girl needed to be saved by an amazing perfect newcomer. I've yet to read a book about childhood/teenage obesity where the protagonist learns to love themself through their own strength of will.

144) Hurry Up, Houdini - I enjoyed the unexpected mini-twist at the end. I'm also loving the effect the mists are having on the plot.

145) New Girl - The twist ending was predictable but still enjoyable. I feared that the "darkness" of the Fear Street series would make it questionable for middle school students, but was pleasantly surprised to find that, while dark, it wasn't horror-movie so.

146) Stay Out of the Basement - I feel as though RL Stine's early works are before he found his footing, not as a "writer" but as a story-teller. It isn't as entertaining or gripping as his later works.

147) Killer Pizza: The Slice - Eh. Did nothing to improve on the first novel. Some of the conflict felt contrived. The featured creature was intriguing in its pseudo-originality, but left much to be desired.

148) The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare - The end was depressing, but I'm sure Qwill will bounce back.

149) The Collected Works of Emily Dickinson - Gorgeous and melancholy. Some pieces were of course more beautiful than others, but I cannot fathom anyone not loving at least ONE of her poems.

150) The One Safe Place - What a boring, predictable...ugh. It's just a new take on Pinocchio's Pleasure Island.

49benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 25, 2017, 9:42 pm

151) Canterbury Tales - Wikipedia assures me that by the time Canterbury Tales was written, the frame story was a tried and true storytelling technique. If so, I really wish Chaucer had made better use of it - like actually having things happen DURING the frame story - make it a story in and of itself, rather than a raft for the rest of the stories.

That being said, the stories themselves fulfill my "law of collection" - the good, the bad, the pointless. My favorite is the Wife of Bath's tale.

152) Shadows on the Moon - I'm SO mixed on this. It's a truly beautiful story with awesome characters and a great new take on the Cinderella innocent persecuted-heroine story-type.

That being said, it's very problematic for me to have a white British woman creating a fairy-tale based on Japanese culture and tradition, creating literary commentary on transgenderism and blacks on the silk road. It feels so wrong on so many levels.

153) Operation Paperclip - Dense and repetitive. While fascinating in theory, it didn't much catch my attention. It *did* infuriate me (the history it was sharing) and I feel it's a history worth sharing and remembering, it just...could have been more eloquent.

154) Between Shades of Grey - It's always fascinating to discover new aspects of war and history I had never learned or considered before. This is no exception. A brilliant and sad look at Lithuania being screwed by both sides of the war.

155) In My Hands - It was fascinating to see how she essentially "fell" into being a savior. The narrator had her own dramas during the war, but went out of her way and risked her life many times to lessen the turmoil others suffered. A beautiful narrative.

156) Shadowshaper - I'm neither a fan of urban fiction, nor of low-fantasy. So, I am NOT the intended demographic of this novel. That being said, it's nice to find fantasy that says "fuck off" to the great white savior. I can appreciate this book for its beauty and unique perspective on life and art. It was enjoyable, though I will not be continuing the series.

157) Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane - The narrator's voice is pleasant, but the flow of plot was slow and plodding.

158) Metamorphosis - A perennial favorite. Frustrating, sad, and fascinating. It begs to be dissected and analyzed, while at the same time, it just needs to be accepted as is.

159) Kite Runner - For some reason I thought this was autobiographical. Too much of it is deus ex machina or serendipitous for it to really work as fiction. For realistic fiction, I had to turn my "suspension of disbelief" meter into full power.
That being said, the story is really enjoyable when you put the fine-tooth comb away.

160) The Cat Who Sniffed Glue - This was excellent! I loved the speculation and the plot flow.

50benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 25, 2017, 9:44 pm

161) Origin of Species - There were significantly less pigeons than I expected. And a lot more pigeons. A LOT more.
Thoroughly readable given its age and audience. Not too bad.

162) School of Good and Evil - Derivative. Nothing really original or brilliant. The characters are pretty flat, the plot was predictable, and the storytelling is stilted.

163) Sappho - Beautiful in its simplicity. It didn't really inspire much reflection in me, but it was still soothing and pleasant.

164) Explosive Experiments - An excellent collection of fascinating historical events. The format is very student friendly and the pictures add to the text rather than distract from it. My one qualm is the sidebars. The sidebar - rather than offering different perspectives, asides, or trivia - are simply word-for-word quotes of things already said in the text.

165) Mr Mercedes - Brilliant. The characters are fascinating, the plot is thrilling, and the unfurling of events is gripping. I intend to eventually read all of King's works, but I TRULY look forward to the rest of this series.

166) Airborn - The story is fun on the surface, but it's just a re-skinned pirate story with a steampunk setting. The addition of the "angels" was interesting, but not enough to make me invested in the series in any way.

167) Harry Potter and History - Fascinating! So many different angles I'd never considered or personally analyzed.

168) Grit in the Classroom - It talked a lot about identifying what grit is and fostering grit that already exists, but I really wish it had devoted a bit more to planting grit in the "grit-less" or discovering the already existing grit in those who claim to have none (I think we've all had this student: What are you good at? nuthin. What do you enjoy? nuthin'. What do you do for fun? I dunno.)
For me and my purposes it was a very so-so book.

169) The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Mediocre compared to the rest of the Kingkiller Chronicles. Auri is a boring character and this does nothing to make her more interesting. It's basically a stream-of-conscious nonsense piece.

170) Every Living Thing - While these vignettes are...interesting?...they have no plot, no conflict, no character development. They're just really, REALLY pointless.

51benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 25, 2017, 10:01 pm

171) Son of Sobek - This was enjoyable! It's making me excited for the eventual convergences of Riordan's various series. Percy and Kane bantered off each other really well.

172) Golem's Eye - I feel like any Kitty-chapter should have been automatically skippable, btu I was *so* hopeful she would eventually be relevant, or interesting. Sadly, that never happened. Bartimaeus chapters were the only ones that were really engaging.

173) High Time for Heroes - What a great series! I love that - as a well-read 30 year old - I am STILL learning things because of these books. I'd have never known about Nightingale's background if not for this short, fun book.

174) Soccer on Sunday - The unexpected way in which they collected this "secret of greatness" was a great choice to breakup the repetitiveness of the series.

175) Shadow of the Shark - The title is misleading, since sharks have next to nothing to do with this story.
It's about the Ancient Aztec culture of Mexico. It's still good and I wish I paid more attention to their companion, because I'd like to learn more about her.

176) The Pagemaster - This improves greatly on the movie, since you don't have to deal with the crappy acting. My students loved this book as an introduction to genres.

177) Curse of Bane - The narrator's voice is pleasant, but the flow of plot was slow and plodding.

178) 11 Birthdays - Not going to lie, Groundhog Day is my dream-come-true, so this was an enjoyable story for me. I just love the concept. The protags are a bit dense, but that's to be expected from 11 year olds.

179) Dork Diaries 1 - Wow, do I want to bash Nikki's head in. She is extremely self-centered and annoying. Really, REALLY annoying. I don't get how my kids can like this.

180) The Schwa Was Here - Meh. Forgettable. The whole point is that the Schwa is so unremarkable that he disappears under the radar. I feel the same could be said of this book.

52benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 25, 2017, 10:08 pm

181) Finders Keepers - A bit of a step down from the first book, but still gripping and enjoyable.

182) The World is Flat - I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. This was a fascinating look at how the world is shrinking in on itself as industry improves, standardizes, and becomes interconnected. Pretty interesting.

183) House of Robots - Slow start that was painful to get into, but really worth the time and effort once it kicks off.

184) 1776 - Given that this is essentially a play-by-play of the events of 1776, it could have been exceptionally dry. It came close to that, but is still readable.

185) Harriet the Spy - Wow. This was TERRIBLE. Harriet is a heinous little **tch who never learns her lesson. How the **ck does anyone enjoy this?

186) Etiquette and Espionage - Once in a while, I come across a book like this, where I debate very early on whether or not to ditch it. Usually, I come to regret not ditching it. This is oddball-out. I'm very grateful I stuck with this. The beginning was painful to get into, but it definitely improved immensely as the plot continued.

187) Feed - Near the end of the book, the author commits what should be an unforgivable crime. Apparently I *do* forgive them though, because I am desperate to finish the series! FINALLY, an interesting and unique take on the zombie apocalypse!

188) A Dog's Purpose - *cries* Lemme get some tissues before I start.
Ok *sobs* this was wonderful. And sad. And amazing. And beautiful. The movie handled the ending better, but the rest of this was really excellent.
And sad.

189) Heat - Huh. I did not expect this. I don't give a **** about sports, especially baseball. But baseball is only the vehicle of a much better story. One of belonging. I liked this a lot.

190) On the Road - Boring. It does nothing to increase my view of the world or expose humanity in any way. Maybe because I grew up with my father and uncles telling these exact same stories, but this did absolutely nothing for me.

53benuathanasia
Editado: mayo 23, 2018, 5:41 pm

191) High Self-Esteem - So, this is a collection of several motivational presenters. Some were good (the first - can't remember his name, and Zig Ziglar), some sucked (the person who claimed you could change the chemical composition of water through positive thinking), some were forgettable (the others). But I would read this again, I think.

192) Two Boys Kissing - There are several stories told here, each orbiting the central story of two boys attempting a record-length kiss. It was very odd - but believable - to "experience" all the reactions and see how the students' lives interconnect.

193) Ocean at the End of the Lane - Painfully boring. The story could have been told in about 1/5 the words and been far more interesting.

194) Midnight for Charlie Bone - Enjoyable but very forgettable.

195) Treasury of Greek Myths Donna Jo Napoli - I have read most, if not all, of these myths in their original forms and WOW did Napoli destroy them. Most are horribly watered down, or pared down to almost nothing, or censored, or just completely butchered. What a crappy, crappy collection!

196) Heartless - This is a pretty depressing prequel to Alice in Wonderland, chronicling the origins of the Red Queen. I'm sad that this isn't continued. I'd like to see Cath get a redemption story.

197) Now Habit - I imagine this was pretty decent in the moment, judging by the stars I gave it, but here I am two months later trying to remember a single thing about it. Apparently it was just that forgettable.

198) Dorothy Must Die - Bored. Boring. Bored.

I REALLY hope The Wizard of Oz doesn't become the new "zombie" or "teens save the dystopian world." There is way too much Wizard of Oz re-imaginings and sequals out there already. Please don't let this become the new literary fad.

199) Rafe's Aussie Adventure - The beginning really threw me off. I thought this was going to be a total tone-changer for the series, but then - NOPE! Back to go ol' Rafe. I enjoyed this. Definitely an improvement over Dog's Best Friend.

200) Ruins of Gorlan - I was pleased to see that the "twist" they tried setting up turned out to be a deception. This was a very enjoyable story that I look forward to continuing.

54benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 25, 2017, 10:28 pm

201) Curtsies and Conspiracies - A fun follow up to the first novel. I'm liking the expansion of the world building.

202) End of Watch - Hmmm...about as enjoyable as Finders Keepers, but not as enjoyable as Mr. Mercedes. I'm content with the way this trilogy ended, but feel it was missing a bit of something.

203) The Alchemyst - Not a great introduction to the series. The twins aren't particularly interesting, it's obvious that they're setting up for the brother to betray the sister, Nicholas and his wife aren't very well fleshed out so I have difficulty caring for either of them, the antagonists are boring. I hope this series improves.

204) Cry the Beloved Country - It took me FOREVER to figure out the plot of this book. Thankfully, the narrative was pleasant enough that I could just sit back and let the words wash over me. I'm not certain I'll ever re-read it, but I'm glad for having read it once.

205) Magyk - I love Sage's voice in this. I wish she'd turn the snark up half a degree, but as-is, I'll take what I can get. I wish they hadn't made the parentage issue so obvious, but it's for kids, they probably wouldn't have seen it coming.

206) Emma - An excellent showcasing of Ms. Austen's satirical abilities. Rather hilarious.

207) Waistcoats and Weaponry - It's nice that the sidekicks started getting a bit of showcasing in this. I really like Sophronia's girlfriends and the other characters. There wasn't as much world-building in this book since it focused on character-building. I wish Carriger would learn to balance character-building with world-building.

208) Splintered - Imagine Hot Topic were a book. This is that book. It is "I am unique and special while being exactly the same as everyone else!" turned into a novel. Wildly mediocre.

209) Clockwork Angel Without Clary and Jace, quality in the story is greatly improved. That being said, their replacements aren't *that* much better.
As to plot, the fact that the technology introduced in this prequel series is not ever harkened back to in the Infernal Devices series is rather annoying. Looks like Clare's just trying to cash in on the steampunk fad.

210) Count of Monte Cristo By the end of this book, I felt a little as though some of my best friends were going away, never to be seen again. :( The character development and investigation in this book is absolutely incredible. Dumas is an incredible story teller. He delves deeply into description and details, but knows just when to quit (unlike my other favorite French author - Hugo).

55floremolla
Editado: Oct 17, 2017, 5:49 am

Wow, you've achieved your goal already - impressive numbers, congratulations! :)

56MissWatson
Oct 17, 2017, 4:40 am

Indeed, that's an amazing number of books. Congratulations!

57connie53
Nov 11, 2017, 2:05 pm

Congrats, Benny! 204 books is equal to 3 years for me!

58benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 25, 2017, 10:31 pm

211) The Dark Prophecy - Meh...I'm just not caring at all for Apollo. His character growth is pleasing, but it means little when I genuinely don't GAF about him.

212) Ready Player One - This is a Gen X version of all those "You might be a 90s kid" Facebook posts. Thoroughly enjoyable and a brilliant world-building and think-piece. It's like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for older readers.

213) The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Ok. This was interesting. But what was its point? I love character pieces, which this definitely is, but...where was the plot? There's nothing really cohesive about this.

214) Ptolemy's Gate - Kitty never really grows into a character I GAF about, but the ending was wonderful and really couldn't have completed any other way.

215) Afterworlds - So, I definitely came into this with a completely wrong idea. I partially blame the naming of the main characters (Liz and Darcy - you can bet what I thought this would draw parallels to) and somehow, somewhy, I was under the impression that the two storylines were going to collide - Darcy would somehow meet Liz. I...dunno why I thought that.

Anyway, as a non-fan of realistic fiction, Darcy's story was a total "leave it" on the "take it or leave it" scale. Liz's story however was compelling and I truly enjoyed it.

216) Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Like any collection of short stories, there will be EXCELLENT (Ur), TERRIBLE (Blockade Billy), and seemingly pointless (Herman Wouk Is Still Alive). I love the broad diversity of the books. King's intros to each story were interesting, but someone else should have read them in the audiobook - he's a terrible narrator.

217) The Knife of Never Letting Go - A slow build-up with a truly unfulfilling end. Thank god the characters were interesting and the world building was fun, because the plot was stifling and repetitive - run, hide, attack, run, hide, attack...repeat ad nauseum.

218) Charlotte's Web - Sadder than I remember (and Charlotte's more of an ass than I remember), but this a classic.

219) The Getaway - Like Long Haul, this book pushed the limits of believability with the amount of coincidences. That being said, it was significantly more fun.

220) Any Small Goodness - Sweet little vignettes. This took me two goes to get through. I read the first few chapters, said "nope!" and put it aside. I picked it up again a week later because it's one of the few class sets I have that speaks culturally to my students. So glad I gave it a second go. It was a great book with a wonderful ending/moral.

59benuathanasia
Editado: Ene 10, 2018, 9:10 pm

221) School Mouse - Very cute. I wish more of my students would voluntarily read this - I really think they'd enjoy it.

222) Staff of Serapis - Not as fun/funny as Percy and Carter's crossover. Sadie's trademarked humor is starkly lessened in this - I guess to balance her out with Annabeth's wisdom and studiousness? It was a slog to get through, though I'm still looking forward to the culmination.

223) They Didn’t Teach This in Worm School - Quite adorable. Laurence and Marcus go from being predator and prey to two of the best - if not oddest - friends. The other creatures they meet are interesting. Laurence and Marcus's individual journeys of growth are realistic (as far as anthropomorphic animals can go). And the illustrations are sweet in their simplicity. Very enjoyable.

224) The Magician - This is an improvement upon the first book. The characters start to develop more interesting personalities and more complex/intriguing characters are introduced. I fail to see *why* Sophie and Josh are in any way special other than the narrator and other characters *tell* us they are. But maybe someday the two will actually grow into their own.

225) Front Lines - Not done yet, but holy hell is this powerful.
And empowering! Just had to say this before I forget to say it...
Update: This stayed just as good throughout the whole book.
Normally, when I finish the first in a series, there are a few moments of "Do I WANT to continue the series?" With this, nope. It instantly went to "Where do I get the next one? Who's got it? GIVE IT TO ME!"

226) Dune - This took me a bit to get into. I think it was because I had a complete lack of background knowledge on this book and the audiobook was a dramatic reading. So...now that I've finished it, here is my honest opinion.

I feel as though I've stumbled upon a secret the world was keeping from me. Like, everyone knew how amazing and earth-shattering this book, but no one had ever told me. They kept it all for themselves.

Needless to say, I enjoyed this. A lot. I cannot wait to continue the series. It's like re-discovering Harry Potter for the first time. Or learning about Greek mythology for the first time. I just have that feeling that it'll affect my life in some way.

227) Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - I don't have nearly enough suspension of disbelief to make most of Dahl's work palatable. This is no exception. It's ridiculous without being funny and stupid without being interesting.

228) These Schools Belong To You and Me - Thoroughly enjoyable. I loved the thematic arrangement of the chapters. Regrettably, the authors don't present any new findings - they just drive home things most educators have known for years; treating each subject as an island is bad, standardized testing destroys the vast majority of students, standardized testing is political and inherently racist, etc. etc. etc. It didn't generate a whole lot of original ideas beyond "Start your own school!"

229) Origin - The entire time I was reading this, I was just...shocked that I can't find any "The Art of Robert Langdon" books. What an amazing coffee table book it would be to just have a book collecting all the art from the Dan Brown novels.

That being said, this was a fun addition to the series, but by no means the best. This time it's atheism versus theology.
The revelation of the real assassin was...less than interesting, but the rest of the story was great. I've heard reviewers say they feel like Brown speaks down to them, like he's lecturing them on art and history. Personally, I enjoy that. I like learning new things about the art presented in the novels. I love learning about new things - no matter what they are. I'm just bummed I can't find the TEDTalk referenced near the end of the book.

230) Unhinged - A decent improvement on the first, but still VERY mediocre.

60benuathanasia
Editado: Dic 4, 2017, 2:56 pm

*sigh*
Signed up for SantaThing. I have two LT accounts. One for me, one for work. I just used the work account to see what people were commenting on my personal-account SantaThing. I have one person recommending something that won't be published for another two months (and doesn't appear to match my "Get This") and another recommending exactly what I said for "Don't Get This." Can't *wait* to see how it goes this year </sarcasm>

61floremolla
Dic 4, 2017, 6:47 pm

Oh dear, that's not going well then! But you're well ahead of me - I looked at the Secret Santa 'how to' and didn't understand it - I wanted to donate but couldn't figure out how. Maybe next year I'll have more time to devote to it...

62connie53
Dic 9, 2017, 4:15 am

>60 benuathanasia: Oh my! I'm like >61 floremolla: . Not understanding any of the explanation and really not interested enough to dive into it.

63benuathanasia
Editado: Ene 10, 2018, 9:17 pm

231) Wicked Will Rise - Meh. It feels like this is some kind of bridge. It barely tells its own story, but takes you from one story (Dorothy Must Die) to what I hope will be significantly more of a story.

232) Gwendy's Button Box - A pretty decent take on the old writing exercise (as seen in The Box (2009) "Button, Button" (1986)). It doesn't offer much of anything new and gets rid of (most) of the ethical dilemma, but it was still interesting. The second story (The Music Room) was very forgettable.

233) James and the Giant Peach - I'm not a Dahl fan by any stretch of any imagination, but this was a pretty good one. It's not as ridiculous as his other works.

234) Dragon Teeth - Crichton wrote this decades before his death and decades before the height of his fame. Yet it wasn't published until after his death. I can see why Crichton sat on this one. It isn't up to his usual flawless standards. The narrative doesn't fit his voice and the plot doesn't fit his style. It's slow and plodding and stale. True, it tackles a a seldom discussed point in history and an fascinating period of scientific history, but it lacks Crichton's usual wonder and awe. Probably my least favorite of his works.

235) Evil Librarian - Haven't finished this yet. It was so boring that I couldn't finish it in the two weeks I had it from my library and someone else had a hold after me, so I have to wait till they're finished before I can.
So...first impression. As I said, boring. It feels like a really amateurish romance that's just using the demonic librarian as a McGuffin. Imagine for a moment that someone with zero talent or finesse had created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, without any of the witty dialogue, fun characters, social commentary, etc. It's just absolute schlock.

236) Cinder - Every "twist" in this book beats you over the head with foreshadowing long before the reveal. It was enjoyable and the writing style and plot were both pleasant, I just wish that everything hadn't been so heavy handed.

237) It Can't Happen Here - Well...this is familiar. It was eerie how easily the dictatorship fell into place and I could see this (reasonably easily) happen today.
As to the story itself, the writing wasn't as dense and disjointed as Lewis's more famous work - The Jungle. The characters were well developed and multi-faceted. The prose was poetic in places.
A good read.