I'm reading 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood, which has been really interesting so far~
I'm currently reading Moby Dick, and right now it hasn't daunted me too much.
I am properly getting into The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do which is an autobiography - I've kind of started and stopped this book a few times as I don't usually read autobiographies or biographies. But I am finding it interesting considering my parents also came to Australia by boat from Vietnam (though they have a more Chinese background)... my parents aren't really inclined to talk much about their experiences so it gives me an insight to their story and who they are now.
I've recently finished reading the Secret History by Donna Tartt for the first time and I absolutely loved it. Now decided which friends to reccomend it to...
I just finished reading Breath by Tim Winton. Not what I usually read but I loved it!!
Just finished the first two books of the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater and now I am frustrated because the final two books haven't been written or published yet. I read the second one in one sitting, I am involved now. [act]grumbles[/act] I knew I should have just kept ignoring them until the series was done, but noo.
I re-read Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb. I forgot how addictive this book is.
Wanderer Ward
10 years ago
Wanderer Ward
Mage
I finally finished my re-read of Wheel of Time!!!
After a quick stop through some YA fiction, I'm now reading a book about the history of maps - very interesting!
Robbin Hobb is so amazing - and she's releasing some new Fool and Fitz books!! :D And Wheel of Time is still one of my favourite fantasy series, even if it lost the plot a bit in the middle.
I've never actually read Robin Hobb before, though it's on the list :) I'm reading 'Servant Of The Bones' by Anne Rice. I read it years and years and years ago and I had forgotten how good it is.
I'm currently reading Xenocide part of Ender's Saga.
I'm reading Hollow City by Ransom Riggs. Sooo pretty.
I'm reading Divergent to see if I should bother with the movie (any thoughts?)
No, Daniel, just all of the no!
See, I'm curious now, too. And I don't read/watch YA stuff as a general rule (other than IC's novels, of course).
9 years ago
Sun Apr 20 2014, 05:07pm
No, no, no. It's just so bad and tries so hard to be edgy and cool and deep, but the characters are so 2D and the relationships so forced and they all just run around going 'oh ho ho, look at me beating people up and now look at my hardcore and meaningful tattoos, I'm so deep' and I haven't read beyond the first book but apparently they just kept getting worse.
It's a shame because the premise COULD have been interesting if the world had been developed better but ... myeah. I enjoyed Carrier of the Mark more than I enjoyed Divergent, and that's saying a lot because that book was simply atrocious.
The book isn't that well written IMO... and takes forever to get to the interesting part... the movie - I was going to say all the characters were very 1 dimensional. They really didn't develop any characters at all
Mm, I can see where you are coming from Shonk. The premise is quite interesting, the execution not so much.
Hmm I'll have to see whether the book ends with something interesting as to whether I should see the movie. I have a $5 movie ticket voucher that needs to be used by the end of the month, and really my options (for the day I want to go) are Divergent, Spiderman 2 or Captain America 2. With the last two I haven't seen the first ones, and I'm probably tossing up between Captain America 2 and Divergent.
9 years ago
Mon Apr 21 2014, 02:41pm
Captain America 2 is really good (you will have to get the first one though)! I would suggest that over Divergent.
I am currently reading 'Luck in the Shadows' by Lynn Flewelling... I've had the first four books for ages, and recently found out a new one came out... I am so behind!
9 years ago
Mon Apr 21 2014, 04:01pm
I've heard good things about both Cap 2 and Spidey 2 but they both came from people who are fans of the franchises so . . . not 100% sure if there opinions hold much water :P
I'm reading Dead Dog in the Still of the Night which doesn't actually get released till next month. Pros of interning at a publishers. :P
I finished it, and my feeling is definitely meh. Wasn't completely terrible, but not all that good. Might just read the wikipedia summary of the other two.
Now I'm reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot which is about the life of obviously Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cancer cells were taken without her consent and yet live on today and have been involved in countless medical advancements.
9 years ago
Wed Apr 23 2014, 10:02pm
A while ago I read Two Boys Kissing and Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. I'd seen them in my local library and was a bit curious, but after I read them, it was a bit...
With Boy Meets Boy I was impressed, of course, with how he treats the whole gay-character concept. Very realistic in the perception, but you'd hope that from a writer who is gay himself. His writing style is nice too, refreshingly humorous. Other than that, I thought the book was okay - pretty much the same as any other stereotypical American young adult slice-of-life sort novel. You'll enjoy it. But it'll be unmemorable. I suppose that's fine considering the message he was trying to put out about the treatment of gays in literature, and he did that very well.
With Two Boys Kissing...there were a lot more interesting elements. For example, the main storyline about the two boys trying to break the world record for the longest kiss (based on a true story - the did break it, by the way), the side stories with other boys and the unusual narration by the group of gay men who died of AIDS during the 80s. Even so, after finishing it, something didn't sit right with me.
After a while, I realised that it came from a few factors that can basically be summarised as bad writing. Yeah, the narration was unconventional, a bit too much so for a novel. It didn't mesh with the storyline at all and came off as kind of pretentious. Nice in concept, but in practice it was really much too overdone and didn't prove a point - it was detrimental to the reading experience. In fact, noting really meshed in the story - from the parallel story lines (they weren't even connected, and if they were, it was tenuous) to the narration to the purpose. The result was a monster of a patchwork of conflicting ideas that didn't feel like it had a direction and was pretty much writing for the sake of it. Especially because other than the main story, none of the parallels had enough substance to count as a story in themselves - they were obviously treated in a way that was supposed to fill gaps, but rather came off as a bunch of watered down undeveloped concepts put through a blender. I was severely disappointed. From a published, experienced author, I really expect a certain standard in writing artistry and this didn't even come up to half of it.
[sub]*sigh*
I often feel like my standard is too high, especially considering I haven't written much prose for three years (not to mention anything that I feel reaches or exceeds this standard), but I can't do anything about it anymore.[/sub]