Reading Rainblow
From my local library...
Haunted by Kelley Armstrong:
The Elena, ie. werewolf, books had me fleeing in a few pages, fairly queasy, in all the wrong ways. I was eventually convinced by a friend to try the Paige books, and found those much better. More flowing prose, and a narrator who didn't make me want to throw up, that was handy. Plus, there were some excellent moments of humour. In this one, we get the story told by Eve, and while it wasn't quite as sharp as I was hoping, it certainly wasn't dull either; I read most of it in one sitting. There's some good bits here.
Recommended.
The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken and 1776 by David McCullough:
I grouped them together because they did the same thing to the same effect. They both took something that I *know* is fascinating, and with terrible prose and indifferent delivery made it so soul crumblingly boring that I could not slog past the first chapter of either book. I glazed over so much that I was reading paragraphs over, not remembering what I had just read. Very disappointing. Pass.
In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner:
I had the abridged audio book, and it was *still* boring. I thought it had a bit of promise in the beginning, helped by the reader's sarcastic delivery, but by the end of the first CD it hadn't gone anywhere that interesting, and I just couldn't be bothered to insert CD 2 (of 5). Pass.
Tales for a Stormy Night by Yuri Rasovsky:
Ugh. In an audio book, the reader / narrator is everything, and these readers were... Well, I tried three different tales, but never got past the first paragraph of so for any of them. Among the problems for me were bizarre unnatural pauses that made the sentences impossible to follow, a reader who was delivering each word in a different voice, and another who was reading in such a low and lifeless monotone it sounded like he had been unwillingly roused from nap. Pass.
The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie:
I had high hopes for this one, and the first half mostly delivers, being both interesting and readable with elegant detail and touches of twisted and biting humour. Sadly, the second half gets very caught up in plotting and becomes more of a traditional straight action thriller type book, which is real letdown because, you guessed it: it's boring. Sigh. Still, it's Laurie's only book, and worth a look for part one. Scour your library for a copy.
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