I may forget to update, so feel free to check in with me and see if I've got around to reading it yet. A friend recc'd it and I'm curious to see how it turns out!
I finished it earlier today. It's more of a novella than a novel, but it's pretty solid! The author deliberately chose to avoid certain problems in the book but it gave the book more character. I've got book #2 on my to-read list.
Yeah I noticed on my phone that it wasn't exactly long. Glad to hear you liked it. I'll see how I get on with it but it's looking good for number two.
I read Bird Box a couple of months ago (wish I’d read it sooner). Fantastic book! And I’ve just finished the sequel, Malorie.
Doctor Who - The Romance of Crime, by Gareth Roberts. Missing Adventure featuring the 4th Doctor, Romana (the 2nd one), and K-9.
I have finished the book! It's a pretty interesting read, if it sound intriguing to you I'd recommend picking it up! Spoiler Half the horror in it is real-world 'horror'-- the struggle of an Average Suburban Housewife to realize what she's dealing with, and to convince other people (or not) of the truth of the situation. The vampire is the villain, but the way people are determined to enforce the norms is probably a bigger problem for Patricia than the vampire. (Of course the vampire has his hand in that too but still.) Also the scene towards the end where they actually do finally take care of the vampire is great. I love the mental image of a bunch of middle-aged housewives putting down a tarp and putting up a bunch of pictures to help them get a visual on how to chop a man up, and then proceeding to do exactly that to a still-speaking but paralyzed vampire. (Thanks for the help with fixing my spoiler!)
AAAAH! now i need to get reading! On it! Lol ive finished 4 of the 5 books for work. I started an audiobook because i had been on hold for it for 3 months and there are 4 people in line waiting for it after me so i jumped on that. Im going to try to finish Queen of Blood too. @Krispee was right about prioritizing. I've narrowed my list yo 1 audiobook and 1 book at a time (for now).
I've been temporarily weaning myself off of horror with other genres, and on a whim I decided to read Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern novels. I purchased an omnibus of the first three novels in the series and I started reading them while recovering from a surgery. I loved the world-building prologue, with it's neat blend of scientific conjecture and fantasy, and I tried to keep in line when the actual plot started. I actually liked the plot, and the characters were interesting. The only thing that hit me as almost aggravating were their names; I just don't have the mind for fantasy names, which makes me very petty. I've always been told to avoid having multiple characters with names that are phonetically similar, as it might confuse or make readers "stumble," and the first chapter includes three names just like that. And the dialogue felt rather...medieval to me, even though it fits the plot. Another aesthetic that fits with the story's world that grated on me for no reason. I'm not unfamiliar with 1960's and 1970's fantasy - I suppose I'm just not used to this series. I'd like to read the Blackwater series by Michael McDowell next.
The Curious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde yet again. It's such a great story, that's been hijacked by popular culture and modern media and turned into simplistic monster movies. But the story, and the final part, are far deeper than that, providing a fascinating exploration of our own personal dark sides.
I really need to get to that one. It's been on my shelf for a decade and always bypasses for whatever reason.
365, by Scottish author James Robertson. Just goes to show that in the hands of a talented and accomplished writer, a gimmick can work. He decided to write one 365-word story every day for a single year. Sounds like a pretty stupid idea to me. The result is anything but stupid. I'm loving it, and am now slowing down, because I'm in November, and I don't want it to end.
That's exactly what this turned into, although a few of the pieces feel like short essays. Of course his usual writing output is novels. I've had the good fortune to meet him a couple of times. He's a cracking guy—serious at times, but with a whimsical turn of mind as well.
Close to finishing up The Fireman by Joe Hill. I've read most of his books now. (I believe this is five of six or seven.) I think he's at least as talented as his father. Granted, he only releases a book every three years instead of three a year, but quality over quantity, right? I think he sticks his endings better than King does. It seems to me that's one of the dangers of pure discovery writing. When a writer has no idea whatsoever how it's going to end, occasionally the conclusion ends up trailing off a bit, and King definitely does that sometimes.
I've only read Heart-shaped Box and was unaware of the connection between them at the time, but I recall thinking it read a lot like King but in a very good way.
I'm dipping in and out of Welsh's Trainspotting, more for inspiration than anything else. I admire his bravery in writing with a phonetic Edinburgh accent (thanks, @jannert) but it's nigh on impossible to read fluently because of it.
That's always a problem with dialect. While I understand that particular dialect pretty well, I found I didn't really get into Trainspotting for that reason. It was just too hard to keep my mind on it. And yet, it would probably not have had the impact it did, if it had been written otherwise. I'd have been more inclined to stick with it, if the story had been more personally interesting to me. But 'diary of a drug user' has limited appeal for me, although I accept it's an important issue.
I ought, perhaps, to practice my own advice lol...although I never read audiobooks. Actually that's listen to audiobooks isn't it...
Why do I keep reading Philip K. Dick? Dr. Bloodmoney was the worst I've read yet. That's twelve books so far. Four were great, two were okay and six were outright bad. I just stared Orange is the New Black. I've been meaning to get to it for some time now, but it's germane to what I'm about to write in my WIP. Can anyone recommend more good prison memoirs or fictional accounts, either one? All I've read is Papillon, which already had a heavy influence on my outline.
Stephen King's Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption from Different Seasons if you haven't already. The book (of course) goes into more detail than the film, but I thought the film was an excellent adaptation. Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison is a true memoir set in the 70s of a 17 year old gay dude who ended up in a maximum security prison for trying to rob a photo processing place with a pellet gun. It focuses highly on the sexuality of the prisoners and how younger and less "manly" inmates are preyed upon by the other men. Apparently they made a movie of it as well, which I was unaware of until searching just now for the exact title. ETA: Apparently the movie was a 10 minute short