Hayley Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 I finished Rivers of London which, considering I have actually been quite busy for the last few days, is probably a sign of how good it was! I loved the witty narrative, I loved the historical references (which are included really well - unlike some other books which make you feel like the story has been interrupted by a minor and mostly irrelevant history lesson) and the murder mystery at the heart of it is genuinely gripping and just the right amount of creepy. I also quite enjoyed the edge of conspiracy that builds up around the way in which the police and media hide the supernatural from the general public, along with the rational narrative voice I thought this gave the combination of magic and modern London a more believable atmosphere. If I had any negatives, and this is really quite picky, I would say I didn't always understand the actions of the main character, even though there is a first person narrative. There are a couple of times when in the middle of a pretty dire situation he goes off and does something quite mundane. I imagine this is intentionally part of the character but it did have me slightly confused at the time. That is, as I said, very minor and picky though and I really enjoyed reading this book. I'll definitely be reading the next one (which I think is Moon Over Soho?) soon I haven't actually decided what I'm going to read next, I'm going to have a look through what I have left in my sci-fi / fantasy pile and see what's next for the challenge but I might squeeze a non-challenge book in first, we'll see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I'm glad you enjoyed it, Hayley. I should pick up the second book in the series before I forget too much of the first one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Ooh will I need to remember stuff from the first book for the second one? I thought they would be quite independent stories. My sister bought out a box of all C.S. Lewis' books yesterday so I started reading (well re-reading, I read it when I was little but I can't remember it well) The Magician's Nephew ... but in that case I will get to Moon Over Soho afterwards, thanks Kylie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 I think they're all independent stories...I just meant that, with my memory, I'm likely to forget even the most basic details about the main characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 I don't think I'm too bad with remembering character details but I do hate to feel like I'm missing something, like the little hints and connections to a previous book, so I'm going to read it now anyway I might actually make a thread for my non-challenge books since they don't have anywhere to go at the moment... I thought I might give Zombie Apocalypse! a go as my next challenge book. It's one of the ones I wouldn't have bought myself, I have a suspicion it might be a bit cliché, but the story is apparently told through lots of different mediums, like emails, text messages, blogs and letters so that could be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 So I actually ended up reading all of the Peter Grant novels so far (my sister bought me the last two for my birthday) and I'm still really enjoying them, I'm so pleased I found that series. Looks like I will have to wait until November to read the next one but, on the positive side, at least there are more coming! I did actually start reading Zombie Apocalypse , but I decided today to make it the first book I am not going to finish. I can't say what page I got to because it has no page numbers but I gave it a good chance before deciding, I usually hate leaving books half read. I had a bad feeling from the first few pages, where the author was trying to set up the background of the story through an email sent after the event. It sounds like a good idea but it was done in a way that felt very forced. There was no subtlety to the way information was put across. The section was slow and boring and had no purpose other than to drop in chunks of information about a previous event. My second negative was actually in the layout, which I thought I would enjoy. Some of the sections are meant to be hand written letters, and in some cases the font is very difficult to read. I was going to take a picture to show you what I mean but don't have the connecting cable for my phone and laptop right now. An example would be that I had to spend a few seconds reading a word that looked exactly like 'dust' (even with the loop of the 'd'), before I realised it actually must say 'just'. The pace already wasn't great so being slowed down this way was even worse. Eventually I realised that I was literally reading it for the sake of reading it. I didn't care about the story or any of the characters and could happily go without knowing what happens at the end. But anyway, back to a more positive note, I feel like I've had really good reading motivation recently. I had a few books for my birthday and I'm looking forward to reading those in between my challenge books. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to read next so I'll have to update again once I've picked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I'm glad your reading is going well . I'm glad you liked the Peter Grant novels, it's a shame you didn't like Zombie Apocalypse. Long may your good reading motivation last . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 (edited) Thanks Athena I'm going to try my next challenge book now which, as I've run out of classics, is back to 'bestsellers'. I've picked Beautiful Ruins... 'The story begins in 1962. Somewhere on a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian sea and views an apparition: a beautiful woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an American starlet, he soon learns, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away in Hollywood, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot searching for the woman he last saw at his hotel fifty years before.' Another one that I wouldn't really have picked up myself, I'm slightly worried that it seems mainly romance focused. On the other hand the blurb suggests a potential mystery element that seems intriguing. So fingers crossed for a pleasant surprise Edit: I also don't like the cover for this one... I know that shouldn't bother me, but it kind of does. I was going to post a picture but I forgot my flikr password... but this is it anyway http://www.bookdepository.com/Beautiful-Ruins-Jess-Walter/9780670922659 . Edited May 29, 2015 by Hayley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 So I genuinely thought I had posted a review for Beautiful Ruins already... I think I might have closed the page without posting I enjoyed Beautiful Ruins a lot more than I thought. My biggest worry was that it would be a clichéd romance but it really wasn't, the romantic aspects were dealt with very well in my opinion. The narrative frequently flips back and forth between time periods, which was actually really interesting once I got used to it. You end up with a sort of double suspense, wondering both 'what's going to happen next' and 'what happened to bring us to this point?'. The only real negatives I had (apart from the cover... which I still don't like!) were completely personal preference, I can't really fault the book for them. First of all I think the book would be a lot more enjoyable to someone who loves film. I've never been particularly interested in films but clearly the author of this book is. The other was the use of real people (actors / actresses) as characters. It actually took me a while to realise they were using real characters, which is probably proof that you'd enjoy this more if you like films! The book is very emotionally driven and I'm not sure I really like the idea of making up such an intense fictional story about someone who is a real person... who didn't really do those things... it just feels a bit odd to me. But the two main (fictional) characters I really liked, they seemed interesting and genuine and the actual plot overall kept me hooked. Anyway... I just moved on to my next challenge book, which is from the sci-fi/fantasy bundle, with The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I have high hopes for this one since I know a few people on here have recommended the author and it is more 'my kind of book' anyway. It might take me a little bit longer to read though since I have a lot of work to get finished this month. Obviously I will still be reading at every available opportunity though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 I really can't believe how long it has been since I updated this thread! I could have sworn I had reviewed The Blade Itself! I think I might have accidentally put it in my normal reading thread last year I actually just came to say that since I'm doing this challenge alongside my other reading and this thread doesn't get updated very often (REALLY not very often apparently!) I'm going to move future progress updates to my 2016 reading thread. I'm assuming this thread doesn't need to be closed because I'm not actually merging the two threads, but if I'm wrong and a friendly mod happens to be passing, please feel free to move it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 It doesn't need to be closed and there is a chance that someone might come along and want to ask a question relating to a post in here so if you're happy for that to happen then it can stay open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 It doesn't need to be closed and there is a chance that someone might come along and want to ask a question relating to a post in here so if you're happy for that to happen then it can stay open. Yeah, of course, I'm always happy to talk about books, on any thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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