"Betwixt" by Tara Bray Smith was full of underage drinking, drug use, sexuality, fairies, and sprites and that was just in the first few pages. I didn't make it past page 50. Dull and elicit. Not a good combination."Gods Behaving Badly" by Marie Phillips was clever, funny and had lovable characters. It was also full of despicable gods that you could barely read about without being completely disgusted.
It takes the concept that the Greek gods are alive and well living in a townhouse in London, but their powers are weak and they barely get by on what they can earn walking dogs (Artemis), running a night club (Dionysis), being a phone sex operator (Aphrodite), and attempting to get on television (Apollo). These gods are vain, self-absorbed, raunchy and crass. Basically, just like you learned about them from any school lessons you had about Greek mythology. The human characters in the book are wonderfully flawed and easy to read about. You are rooting for them the entire book, especially our hero, the mousy and timid Neil. But the ending is a bit too Disney-esque (hard to think of this book having that connotation considering how sexually repulsive some of the characters are) and the gross-out factor too high. Frankly, there's just way too much good stuff out there to waste on this book. It's not bad, just not good enough.
If you've never read the Spiderwick Chronicles written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, I'd recommend those. I read them a few years ago, loved them and when the movie came out, convinced my hubby to take me to it. The movie was great fun too and a intense ride just like the books were. The illustrations in the books are almost enough to make it worth reading on their own.
What I have waiting for me right now is an amazing book about 20th century music, "The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century" by Alex Ross. I don't expect that anyone will be as interested in that as I am, but I might just blog about it anyway. It's a hefty read, so it'll be a while before I finish it. I also have a stack of gardening books for my region, and if you don't live where I do, I can't imagine you would want to read my thoughts on it. I'm preparing you for the drought ahead as I plow my way through some of these books I want to read. I might write a few posts on other random book-related topics that are floating around in my brain, or I might not. Depends on my laziness factor.
Happy reading and I hope you have better luck with books than I have had lately! Go read "A Girl Named Zippy" by Haven Kimmel or something.
Just for the record, I am very interested in the gardening books for your region. :) When you're finished, would you mind a simple thumbs up/down recommendation on my behalf? You could just send me an email. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI want to know about the gardening books, too! I'm glad to hear the Spiderwick Chronicles are good. I never know which multi-book teenage fantasy series to trust. I'll get in line for book one at the library. The 20th century music book sounds interesting, but I don't know if I could read a whole book on it. So a nice summary would be great! Thanks, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteI just finished "reading" (I'm an audio book junkie) a book called "Life Expectancy" by Dean Koontz. I've "read" several other Koontz books and haven't been overly impressed, but this one touched a nerve. It's a difficult read because it chronicles five terrible days in the life of a man (and as the five days progress he becomes a husband and father). It's a book that's fairly well written, a cliff-hanger with lots of suspense & some action, but ultimately plays upon some fears commonly held by fathers/husbands. The story had a number of very unexpected surprises that were folded in nicely and made the book fun. While I'd recommend it, reader beware: he's not kidding about the five terrible days.
ReplyDeleteI loved Zippy and I can't wait to read the next one. It's on my list! As for the drought...you'd be surprised at how much we love reading what you write, no matter the subject!!
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