An Abundance of Katherines

Title: An Abundance of Katherines
Author: John Green
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2006
Rating: 7/10

Review: I would say that John Green is one of my indulgences. So far, all of his books have been easy, fun, enjoyable reads. So I picked up this novel on a whim at a local bookstore and had a fun few hours reading this novel.

Colin Singleton is a child prodigy who feels like he hasn't amounted to much. Together with his best (and only) friend Hassan he goes on a road trip without any particular destination in mind. Luck would have them meet Lindsey and her mother Hollis in the middle-of-nowhere town and they end up staying with the two women, having been offered a part-time job collecting stories from local residents.

It's probably also worth mentioning that the title refers to the fact that Colin will only date women named Katherine. At the start of the novel, 19th Katherine has just dumped him and he is still dealing with the break-up. Part of the story deals with Colin trying to create a dumper/dumpee formula that would explain all his relationships with Katherines over the years. It's a neat concept, but also quite silly at the same time.

Colin's friend Hassan is an unusual character. He's an overweight Muslim boy with a forthcoming personality and a wacky sense of humor. Colin's dorky seriousness contrasts well and makes them an interesting pairing. Either one of them would not have been as interesting a character by themselves. On the flip side, while they are quite colorful, I wouldn't want to be friends with either of them. Both of them have somewhat annoying personalities, which I think made the book slightly less enjoyable for me.

An Abundance of Katherines was a quick read. And while I didn't think this book was as good as other John Green books, at least it didn't make me cry uncontrollably. And it definitely fulfilled the function I bought it for, which is good writing, unique characters, and good story.

Miss Buncle's Book

Title: Miss Buncle's Book
Author: D.E. Stevenson
Series: Miss Buncle, book 1
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1934
Rating: 7/10

Review: I picked this up at random on Amazon based on automatic recommendations and rather enjoyed this book. It was recommended because I like Flavia de Luce series and there are some parallels here. The story is basically a character study set in the middle-of-nowhere English town during the great depression.

Barbara Buncle is a middle-aged spinster whose stipend all but disappears with the hard times. So she decided to write a book about the town she lives in with all the characters based on real persons. To her surprise the book is a bestseller. However, the people of the town are not so excited to find their flaws and follies published for the world to see.

There really isn't much in terms of plot to this book -- it mostly describes life in a small English town. But it does so entertainingly and the characters are quite vivid and enjoyable. Definitely my cup of tea.

My biggest problem with this book is Barbara Buncle herself. She is so grey and nondescript that no one believes she could write that book -- and no one believes her even when she admits to writing it. And I agree with the other characters' assessment, it doesn't seem possible that in her naivete and conservatism she would be able to write something quite so spot on and edge cutting. Just because she is in a good position to observe doesn't mean she would be able to put it together and that's the part I didn't find very believable. It's kind of odd to have this somewhat unlikable person as a main character.

My other issue is Miss Buncle's romance with her publisher. Perhaps it's just the times have changed, but I thought the proposal was really out of nowhere and the fact that she just decides to accept without harboring any particular feelings is odd to me as well. There are more books in the series and I am a little curious to see how Miss Buncle's marriage fares in those, but I am not actually sure that I liked this enough to read more of the series. It's an entertaining little book, but considering only the main character carries on to the next novel, I am not sure I am excited about continuing. Perhaps if I am in the right mood...

The Nature of the Beast

Title: The Nature of the Beast
Author: Louise Penny
Series: Inspector Gamache, book 11
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2015
Rating: 7/10

Review: I went to a somewhat remote cabin for a few days of vacation and couldn't think of a better getaway reading book. Louise Penny's latest installment is once again set in the remote Quebec village of Three Pines with its atmospheric locations and eccentric characters.

Despite his retirement from police force, Armand Gamache does quite a bit of legwork on the case to figure out the murder of a local 9 year old boy.

This is certainly not the best book in the series -- it feels like Penny hasn't quite made up her mind on where to go next with the series yet. It's reflected in her main character's indecision on what to do next with his life after all the crazy events in book 9. But the mystery itself was interesting enough and I enjoy this style of cozy mystery with the characters I like. Basically, it was an enjoyable vacation read, but I am looking forward to a new bigger plot arch happening in the future books.

The Documents in the Case

Title: The Documents in the Case
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace
Genre: Mystery
Published: 1930
Rating: 7/10

Review: I received The Documents in the Case as a birthday gift. I've never read anything by Sayers before, though I've heard of her Lord Peter Wimsey series. This book is not part of that series, but rather a standalone mystery taking place in the late 1920s.

The most interesting part of the novel is the format in which it's written. The case is put together through the letters that various characters write to each other. At the heart of the novel are Mr. and Mrs. Harrison who lend rooms to two young men: Harwood Lathom and John Munting. The first part of the story is told through the letters of Harrison's housekeeper, Agatha Milsom, to her sister. Later, it turns out to be a case of unreliable narration.

I found the first part of the novel quite enjoyable. But then the letters switched to those of Mrs. Harrison and I found her style just painful to read. While it does a good job exposing her character, I just found myself slogging through that part of the story. Eventually, the narration switches again and my pace picked up once more.

What's interesting is that there isn't so much a whodunnit type of twist in the story. It's pretty obvious from the start who did it. It's much more of how was it done and how do we prove that, story line. That's interesting, but didn't feel quite as dramatic as some of the modern mystery fiction. On the other hand, it didn't feel as cliched either. Altogether, it was a fresh reading experience, with a solid plot, and some interesting story telling devices.

Serenity: Better Days and Other Stories

Title: Serenity: Better Days and Other Stories
Author: Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews. Will Conrad
Series: Serenity, vol 2
Genre: Graphic Novel
Published: 2008
Rating: 7/10

Review: This volume contains four different stories. The first one is called Better Days and seems to be taking place between the end of the Firefly series and the beginning of Serenity movie. Wash and Inara are both on board of the ship for this story. The crew unexpectedly makes a large amount of money from a job. Then they fantasize about how they are going to spend the money.

There are some pretty funny moments there, for example, Jayne imagines himself a captain of a ship and refers to himself as Radiant Cobb. They go to a luxury planet to spend some of the money and of course trouble follows them there.

Overall, there were a few twists in the story, which I found a bit difficult to discern from the pictures. I had to go back and re-examine panels in detail to see what they were talking about. But the story itself was well put-together and the twists made it interesting.

I also enjoyed the full-page artwork in this novel. There are crew portraits spread out between different stories that have a lot of detail and look very well done.

The other three stories in this volume are much shorter. The Other Half focuses on River's increasing involvement with the crew and her use of psychic abilities. Downtime has the crew stuck in a snow storm and again sets up River as an important character. Finally Float Out takes place after the events in Serenity. Three Wash's friends buy a ship together and tell stories about Wash.

The three stories are somewhat disjointed and I liked Better Days best out of the four. Still, there are small reveals about the characters contained in every story, which makes them totally worthwhile.

Why Bother with Bonds

Title: Why Bother with Bonds
Author: Rick Van Ness
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2014
Rating: 7/10

Review: This book is a bit off-the-beaten path for me if you consider my reviewing history on the blog. I generally don't read too many financial books (or really financial anything) because it causes me to fall asleep -- one second I was there, and next thing you know I am curling up next to my cat and closing my eyes.

Also, I got this book for the worst possible reason: it was free. Unfortunately, it seems like the promotion is done now and it's $5.99 on Amazon Kindle right now. Yet, even if I got it for the wrong reason, I decided to actually give it a chance and read it.

Generally, it's a pretty basic introduction to bonds. The answer to the question in the title is a bit naive and much-reiterated through the book: stocks are risky, you can lose lots of money on stocks, put some of your money into bonds instead. I was hoping he would address the fact that current bond yields are below the inflation and he does mention it -- but I wouldn't say that he addresses the problem really.

On the other hand, I thought he did a pretty good job explaining the financial concepts in the book. He explains various terminology, how bonds are priced, their yield, what duration means, and how to choose what to buy. Generally speaking, if you agree with his premise that you need to play it safe and diversify away from stock market, I think following his advice on which bonds to buy makes a lot of sense. He promotes either buying Treasury Notes directly, investing in a low operating cost mutual fund that tracks a bond index, or building a bond ladder.

He also mentions bogleheads.com website and forum, which I find has a lot of interesting investing information. Generally speaking, this is a pretty good hands-on practical manual for understanding the basics of how bonds work and picking bonds. On the other hand, you could probably find all of this information online easily -- the value is mostly in organization of the information and accessible reading style. I would recommend it for novices, but I think anyone who has done this research before would find the book a bit slow and repetitive.

Attachments

Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

Review: I came across a mention of this novel while looking out for the next book to read. Since I've enjoyed Eleanor & Park, I decided to give Attachments a try.

There are two main narratives in Attachments. One narrative takes a form of emails/IMs between two friends (Jennifer and Beth) who work at a newspaper. They discuss the sort of things any two women may discuss: plans, relationships, cute guys at the office.

The second narrative follows Lincoln who is hired by the newspaper's IT department to monitor the employee's internet usage. His job is basically to read all flagged emails that people send and send out reprimands for non-work-related activities. Of course, Jennifer and Beth's communication gets flagged, but Lincoln is so captivated by their conversation that he just keeps reading their mail.

Attachments felt very much like a typical women's book. Everything is about relationships. Mostly about the romantic ones, but when it's not, then it's about Lincoln's relationship with Doris or his mom or his friends. I liked the characters and they felt very realistic and natural to me (except, maybe, for Beth's boyfriend, who was just odd). However, this relentless focus on relationships in lieu of the plot was a bit much. I thought it was pretty clear from the start how things were going to turn out and there was less drama than I expected. That was both good and bad -- on one hand, exaggerated drama just makes me roll my eyes, on the other hand, lack of drama makes for a somewhat flat book story.

I would place Attachments in my easy reading category. Not terribly deep or insightful, but easy to consume and enjoyable overall.

The Long Way Home

Title: The Long Way Home
Author: Louise Penny
Series: Inspector Gamache, book 10
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2014
Rating: 7/10

Review: The Long Way Home is the only novel I managed to finish in the last month. I've been busy and stressed, and this is the only book I found sufficiently compelling to pick up. I enjoyed returning to the village of Three Pines and the series' characters.

Armand Gamache has retired and moved to Three Pines with his wife to mend after the events of the previous books. Things are comfortable and quiet. However, Gamache takes on a task of looking for Peter, Clara's husband, who hasn't returned home on the arranged date and that leads them far into Canadian wilderness.

The beginning of this novel was downright slow. I like the cozy aspect of Penny's novels and her focus on characterization and the characters' inner lives, but she went a bit overboard here and spent way too much time on the description of Gamache's life in Three Pines. Very little happens in the first half of the book and quite a bit happens in the last two chapters, so it all feels a bit rushed at the end.

The resolution was not at all what I was expecting, though I have figured out the villain in this book ahead of time. It also left me wondering where Penny is planning to take the series, the book didn't really seem like the start of a bigger arch, the way previous books were. Feeling slightly underwhelmed, even though I've enjoyed reading the book.

Everybody Has Everything

Title: Everybody Has Everything (Amazon)
Author: Katrina Onstad
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

Review: I received a copy of this novel as a present and the author is completely new to me, so I started out without any particular expectations. The novel is set in Toronto. Ana and James unexpectedly find themselves in charge of two-year-old Finn when Finn's parents are in an accident. His father dies and his mother is in a coma and their will stipulates that Ana and James would be the guardians for the child. They take on the child and in the process learn a lot about themselves.

Everybody Has Everything is one of those novels where nothing really happens. Half the plot is described in the paragraph above and the rest could be told in four more sentences. This is not action-packed to say the least. But that's not to say it isn't engrossing, because I finished reading the book in pretty much one sitting.

It is one of those narratives that is all about getting into someone's head. And in order to do so, the author is showing the reader their lives, their daily decisions, their reactions, their interactions. I am a bit ambivalent on whether I actually enjoyed getting into the characters' heads. They are both interesting, but at the same time a bit off-putting. All the tiptoeing around each other, all the inner drama, all the indecision were both very realistic and exasperating at the same time.

Onstad did a pretty good job capturing the details, it all felt very natural, but at the same time it made me feel a bit frustrated with the whole thing. The novel wasn't moving anywhere for quite awhile and even in retrospect I don't know why some of the scenes needed to be there at all.

Much of the novel revolves around the decision to have kids or to be judged for not having them. Ana and James are not able to conceive, so they are quite familiar with the latter. However, after taking guardianship of Finn, what's involved in the first decision is quite a shock on their marriage despite the fact that the kid is generally impressively well-behaved in the book. Things fall apart pretty quickly with both parties at fault. There's much in that process that anyone could relate to, but it's a bit agonizing to watch it happening so slowly and obviously.

The ending is actually a bit better than I expected and I was rather satisfied with the wrap-up. The final scene is a bit too literary high-brow for me, but oh well. Altogether, it is an interesting character study, parts of it left me cold and I am not entirely sure this is an author I would pick up again.

Written in My Own Heart's Blood

Title: Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Amazon)
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Series: Outlander, book 8
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2014
Rating: 7/10

Review: I've read the very first Outlander book over 5 years ago. It was not a genre I read much of, but it came highly recommended and I gave it a try and enjoyed it immensely. Each book is quite meaty and it can be a journey to finish one, but it's a pleasant journey with familiar faces at your side.

It took me a fairly long time to finish Written in My Own Heart's Blood -- over a month. It was quite strange, really, because I was reading this novel late into the night when I started it, but then at some point I've put it away and had very little compunction to get back to it. The plot felt more like an ebb and flow of a river than the typical arch of a novel. It would pick up pace in places and then just drift off leisurely. I was shocked when the book ended because I really didn't expect it to just end there (and it's not as obvious on Kindle as with the paper books). Towards the end, I also had to do a double take to check that they've really moved on from one location to the other so quickly.

I enjoyed the return of many familiar faces in the book. I enjoyed the descriptions of the Americas during the revolution and the depiction of George Washington, who actually meets the main characters in person in this novel. There are some good dramatic parts. But altogether, the book just didn't feel very cohesive. It felt very much like a "middle" book of a long series, slowly lumbering somewhere. Some plotlines which were carried over from previous books were tied up, new ones got created, but in the grand scheme of things there really wasn't a standalone theme to the book. I still enjoyed it as a historical piece and good character drama, but I am really hoping there will be a bit more direction to the next one.

Unlocked

Title: Unlocked
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Science Fiction Novella
Published: 2014
Link: http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/05/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi
Rating: 7/10

Thoughts: This novella is a prequel to Locked In, the next John Scalzi novel, expected to be published in August. It's selling for $1.50 on Amazon.com and other major book sellers, but you can read it for free on Tor's website (see link above).

Unlocked is presented in a documentary style with the facts presented from various points of view. In format, it reminds me of Ted Chiang's Liking What You See: A Documentary. Except, I thought the number of POVs was bit high -- I kept having to scroll back to figure out which name belonged to which person.

The premise itself is pretty interesting. A virus, thought to be influenza, at first, spreads rapidly across Earth. It presents first similar to a flu, then in a second stage, similar to meningitis, and finally results in some patients getting "locked in". What being locked in means is that the person is still conscious and aware, but their body is in a state of complete paralysis.

So, of course, the government tries to find a solution. And the solution they find is a neural network implanted into the person's brain that controls a robotic body. Then the novella proceeds to deal with the various societal changes that this creates.

I felt pretty skeptical about this concept. Implanting a neural network into a brain really doesn't sound like something that would work to me. Nor would they be able to produce robots who can do pretty much anything (e.g. take care of human babies). Also, some of the societal responses seemed pretty strange to me. Instead of controversies about whether the robotic bodies should give up their chairs to human customers, it would have been much more obvious to just charge a cover for their presence. Problem solved for everyone.

It's an interesting "what if" scenario and I generally enjoyed reading Unlocked, but I found a lot of things to poke holes at. And the fact that I am even thinking about those holes means I didn't engage with the characters enough. I might still buy Locked In when it comes out, after all, it's Scalzi, it's bound to be fun.

We Were Liars

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2014
Rating: 7/10

Review:  Looks like I am on a YA kick lately. And enjoying it. I first came across E. Lockhart when I read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Bank, which was brilliant. I enjoyed a number of her books since and when I saw this latest release, I figured I wouldn't be able to go wrong buying it.

I ended up finishing We Were Liars over the weekend. The book starts out gradually, with the mystery looming, but not much more happening. We get to meet the main character, get into he head (it's a first person narration) and figure out who's who in her extended family.

The main character is a 17-year old teenager named Cadence. It's her family tradition to spend the summer on a small island that they own. She is best friends with her cousins Johnny and Mirren and "adopted-cousin" Gat. Everything is well until on the 15th summer at the island something happens, something that leaves Cadence dealing with migraines and memory loss. And now she is back on the island, two years later, to finally figure out what really happened.

Most of the book was fun, but not particularly distinguished, but I have to admit that the plot twist on the end of We Were Liars is exceptionally well done. I did not see it coming. In a way, this is a very interesting contrast to The Hate List. Both of these novels deal with teenage girls coping with something destructive in their lives, but the approaches taken are very very different. I relate to The Hate List better, but both approaches are valid. It's also fun to compare Valerie's mother to Cadence's. The former is a much more sympathetic character, but the latter ends up treating her daughter a lot better at the end of it all.

Generally, this is definitely a fun super-quick read. Recommended.

The Secret Side of Empty

Title: The Secret Side of Empty
Author: Maria E. Andreu
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2014
Rating: 7/10

Disclaimer: An ARC of The Secret Side of Empty was sent to me by the publisher.

Review: The Secret Side of Empty is a story about M.T., a high school senior living in a small town of Willow Falls whose parents brought her into the US from Argentina as a small child. She goes to a private Catholic school, speaks good English, has good grades and close friends. However, her secret status as an undocumented immigrant means she has few prospects after she graduates. And as the school year continues, her future is becoming more and more uncertain.

What attracted me to this novel in particular is the immigrant connection. Having myself immigrated (albeit legally) as a teenager, I was curious to read a novel that would explore this experience. The Secret Side of Empty also touches a number of other topics: poverty, abusive family, first love, and after-graduation choices. The story covers a large range of topics, so many would find something to relate to in M.T.'s story.

I liked M.T.'s character. She challenges herself in school, has a cool best friend, makes money on the side by tutoring, and is pretty self-aware about the problems that she experiences with her abusive father. Everything is going rosy with M.T.'s amazing new boyfriend when she suddenly completely falls apart mid-way through the book. I was a bit surprised and somewhat unconvinced by her sudden depression stemming from her favorite teacher moving away. Maybe I just never had a sufficiently good high school teacher and maybe the teacher moving away is just the final straw, but it felt like a huge over-reaction to me.

The novel keeps a good pace from that point, adding more and more narrative tension until the main conflict is resolved. The writing is pretty typical for YA -- easy to read and gets the story across. I was sufficiently drawn into the plot to finish reading it quickly. I liked the ending, but wasn't particularly surprised by it.

What did surprise me was how much I liked M.T.'s mother. She was pretty amazing throughout and completely unappreciated (in a typical teenage way). Despite being a secondary character, I felt connected to her and wished more of her story made it into the book. On the other hand, M.T.'s best friend Chelsea never actually stepped out of the cardboard for me. She seems more like a prop to M.T.'s story and Chelsea's secret, which comes out at the end, is really a bit of a let down.

Overall, The Secret Side of Empty is a quick and enjoyable read in which many would find something interesting, but not particularly stellar in any given aspect.

Libriomancer

Title: Libriomancer
Author: Jim C. Hines
Series: Magic Ex Libris, book 1
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

Review: I've heard of Jim C. Hines and his book mostly through the blogs of John Scalzi and Patrick Rothfuss who seem to be friends enough to pose semi-naked together in photographs. Clearly these guys have a sense of humor and I liked the premise of Libriomancer, so I gave it a chance.

The book is told from the first POV by Isaac Vainio who is a libriomancer, part of a secret group named the Porters. What libriomancy entails is the ability to reach into any book and pull out an object from it. However, Isaac has been banned from the field for losing control of his magic before and exiled to file books in a small-town library in the middle of nowhere. All of that changes one day when he gets attacked by three sparklers, vampires of the type Sanguinarius Meyerii. He then joins forces with a dryad and begins to unravel the mystery of some of the Porters going missing.

The very strange phenomenon in this book was the fact that I kept thinking that the main character is female when I started reading it. Given that both the narrator and the author are male, it didn't make much sense, but the narrative just felt that way to start with. I guess I associate kindly bookworms with girls. But then, of course, Lena appeared and Isaac spends a bunch of time deciding whether to sex or not to sex and his gender became pretty apparent.

The book turned out to be pretty fast-paced and fun. Isaac and Lena go around, getting into trouble, and surviving the fights beyond all odds. The plot is quite linear and somewhat predictable, but it's all good fun. As one might imagine, there are lots of references to other novels an SF enthusiast would be familiar with and I got a kick of out of the various magic artifacts Isaac manages to pull out of books.

What bothered me a bit about the novel was the romantic conflict of the book. Lena is a character brought from a book written so that she becomes what her lover desires her to be. The author meta-sneers at the cliche, and yet spends a good part of the book having Isaac expound the moral choices of taking such a lover, and in my opinion spending way too much time on this fantasy and resolving the conflict in a way I didn't find entirely believable. It's an interesting handicap for a kick-ass female heroine, but the way it gets handled in the book rubbed me the wrong way a bit.

Otherwise, it's a pretty fun book with some interesting perspectives presented by Isaac on how the magic can and should be used. I love the sciency aspect of using magic to do practical things and the Porters being more researchers than sorcerers. I'll definitely consider picking up the next book in the series.

Allegiant

Title: Allegiant
Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent, book 3
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2013
Rating: 7/10

Review: I was reading Little, Big by John Crowley and making absolutely no progress, so I decided to set the above aside in favor of something light and easy to read. I had no trouble finishing Allegiant pretty quickly, but at the same time, it's probably the weakest book of the series.

The book continues where Insurgent left off. In this final book, Tris and Tobias finally leave the city and find out what's behind the fence and why they couldn't leave before. The explanation given left me somewhat unimpressed, though I am thankful this didn't turn into zombie apocalypse. Tris and Tobias try to make a life for themselves outside and of course they immediately run into trouble.

There is just so much unnecessary angst and general immature behaviour in this novel, that I felt all characters managed to regress in their emotional state at least a few years. Well, Tris always did crazy stuff in every book, but Tobias used to be on the sensible side... but not anymore. With that state of affairs, I really didn't manage to connect emotionally with the events and ending left me feeling... equanimous. I really hoped for a better ending to the series, but I guess at least it was interesting enough to keep me reading, which is more than I can say for Little, Big. That book has amazing reviews, but I am on page 40 and NOTHING happened yet.

The Twelve Clues of Christmas

Title: The Twelve Clues of Christmas
Author: Rhys Bowen
Series: Her Royal Spyness, book 6
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2012

Review: I took a bit of a hiatus from the blog -- it's been a busy 4-6 weeks for me and I didn't read a whole lot meanwhile. However, I did finish The Twelve Clues of Christmas back in October without ever writing a review, so I thought I would catch up with a really short review here.

The book begins with Georgiana staying for holidays with Binky and his wife in Scotland and desperately looking for a way to leave. She finds an advertisement in a magazine, looking for a well-bred hostess to help a Christmas party and lands the job. Most of the events take place in a very picturesque English village, where strange murders begin the day Georgiana arrives and continue apace once a day. Of course, it just so happens that Darcy, Georgie's mother, and grandfather all end up at the village as well, so we have a full cast for the book.

Overall, it was a quick and satisfying book. Things progress quite a bit on the relationship front with Darcy, which is nice to see after so many books of will-he/will-he-not. There is a colorful cast of guests at the house and I very much enjoyed the cosy atmosphere of the novel. They eat extremely well, drink delicious hot drinks, play charades and sardines, and decorate the tree. I think the book plays quite a bit on general Christmas sentiment, but I enjoyed that and I really liked that the author actually included the rules for some of the arcane games they play in the novel as an appendix to the book. It sounds like something that would be fun to try.

The Game of Kings

Title: The Game of Kings
Author: Dorothy Dunnett
Series: The Lymond Chronicles, book 1
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 1961
Rating: 7/10

Review: I picked up The Game of Kings expecting it to be a quick and entertaining read. However the book both disappointed and exceeded my expectations. I haven't read something I have felt this conflicted about for a long time.

At first I found this book to be a really slow going. There are historical battles, skirmishes, and maneuvers going on throughout the book that I really didn't care much about and the number of characters and their politics make the book pretty confusing. Worst of all is probably the language in which the book is written is imitating an old-English style and at times I just had to guess what the author is trying to say. Oh, and not to forget countless French, Spanish, and Latin quotations throughout. Here's an example of a passage early in the book:

"Softly, softly! Remember your superior upbringing, and your Caxton. How gentlemen shall be known from Churls. Don't be a Churl, Marigold. Full of sloth in his wars, full of boast in his manhood, full of cowardice to his enemy, full of lechery to his body, full of drinking and drunkenness. Revoking his own challenge; slaying his prisoner with his own hands; riding from his sovereign's banner in the field; telling his sovereign false tales..."

This is the style in which the main character, Lymond talks throughout the book and while comprehensible, it's often not the easiest dialogue to understand.

Nevertheless, despite all the issues I had with the novel from very early on there was something to the story that really hooked me in and urged me to continue reading. The chapters are chess-themed and represent various intrigues in the novel. And I have to admit to the book being intricately plotted. Things come together in some very interesting ways towards the end of the novel and I really liked all the twists and turns the book ended up taking.

The second half of the book went much faster than the first. I guess I got used to the writing style and finally started to tell who's who in the book and started enjoying some of the characters a whole lot more than I did at the beginning. I don't think I picked up much in terms of history beyond the fact that Scotts and English fought a whole lot in 1540s, but that wasn't my main objective anyways. The story ended up being worth reading and I would probably recommend this novel to anyone who likes a good intrigue and is willing to put up with the thorny writing style.

Insurgent

Title: Insurgent
Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent, book 2
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2012
Rating: 7/10

Review: I decided to continue reading the series, even though the third book isn't available yet. Insurgent picks up where Divergent left off and continues the story of Tris and Tobias.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one. Perhaps it's the novelty of the ideas and the world that have worn off. Or maybe it's just the effect of endless shooting and politics that dominate this book, but it just didn't touch me as much at the debut novel did. It was entertaining, but lacked the oomph factor. Especially with Tris mostly behaving like a zombie most of the time, I had a hard time relating to her.

The ending of the book is pretty clever and leaves a cliffhanger interesting enough that I will probably be picking up Allegiant when it comes out later this year.

The Human Division

Title: The Human Division
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 2013
Rating: 7/10

Review: The unusual thing about The Human Division is it's format. It came out as a series of episodes that you could buy separately once per week. Each episode is telling a stand-alone story and together they are tied into a larger interconnecting story arch. I am not a huge fan of doing episodic reading, so I waited for all the episodes to be published as a book before I bought it.

The book is set in the Old Man's War universe after the events of The Last Colony. It generally follows Lieutenant Harry Wilson whom we've met previously in the series and the crew of the diplomatic ship Clarke that he's attached to. They take on missions of various improbability and ingenuity and generally come out ahead.

I enjoyed the episodes. The characters are bright, with a sense of humor, and it's fun to watch them deal with difficult situations and come out on top. You definitely get to cheer them on quite a bit through the book. There's some politics and some space battles, this is an easy read with plenty of fun and not a lot of depth. My biggest dissatisfaction with the book is its refusal to actually come to some sort of a resolution at the end. There's certainly a climax, but then it just ends, no explanation to the main story arch suspense point and to me that was really a let down.

Nevertheless, The Human Division is fun, funny, and worth reading for the pure entertainment value. Though perhaps you should wait for the next book (if such should exist) to actually get some sort of closure.

Killing Floor

Title: Killing Floor
Author: Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher, book 1
Genre: Mystery
Published: 1997
Rating: 7/10

Review: I picked up this novel on a whim from a local bookstore. Sometimes when an author's series takes up two shelves worth, I get awfully curious about it and buy the first book in the series. I've never heard of the author before that day, nor had I seen the movie alluded to on the book jacket.

The book starts out really well and sucks you in almost immediately. We get introduced to Jack Reacher, who's a tough guy, an ex-military cop, and who is wrongfully arrested for a murder in a town that he's just passing through.

There are a number of idiomatic elements in the book. There's a black police detective, a hot female cop who takes a liking to Reacher, and an asshole chief who always gets in the way. The elements work pretty well together and I definitely enjoyed the fast ride that begins the first half of the story.

The part that I didn't enjoy is all the killing that happens in the second half of the book. Things seem to get gruesome just for the sake of being so and the fact that Reacher has no compulsion about killing first and asking questions later made me rather uncomfortable with him as a protagonist. At the end, Reacher's body count is no smaller than that of the bad guys and to me that's a bit of a turn off.

Otherwise, the book is quite well-written, with strong pacing and lots of good "aha" moments in the investigation. There are a few plot points that I thought somewhat shaky, but overall, that's a solid mystery novel that kept me reading well into the night to finish the story.