Saturday, September 8, 2018

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/8/18

Welcome to another week of reading.  Albeit, not quite the reading extravaganza of previous weeks.  I spent the majority of my reading time with DNF books.  Bleh.  Eh, some weeks are like that.

63) Cambodia Clash (Mack Bolan Executioner #65) by Some Writer (9/7/18) - Action/Adventure - 3 stars.  I've read Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan novels.  This was not one of them.  It had no Goodreads reviews until mine.  Bummer.
Review: "Meh. Not really what I expected from a Mack Bolan novel. Of course, it wasn't actually written by Don Pendleton, so I should've expected as much. All the hairy situations Mack found himself in... they just didn't feel organic. It was like some editor somewhere said 'throw some more stuff at him', so the writer did. But it felt forced. Anyway, I was disappointed with this one."

62) Shade Chaser (City of Crows #2) by Clara Coulson (9/3/18) - Urban Fantasy* - 5 stars - No longer new to me and as appreciated as it should be.
Review:  "Ooo, even better than the first! These books are freakin' awesome!"  (Yeah, not the most eloquent, but when I'm excited, I'm exited.  K?)

DNF (9/7/18) - SF.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  This was one of my old Andre Norton paperbacks - Sea Siege.  The premise didn't thrill me, but I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I got about two pages in and put it back on the shelf.

DNF (9/5/18) - Romance.  New to me.  Not sure if it was underappreciated because I never checked.  Made it through about a quarter of the book.  This was one I picked up at the thrift store last time I was there.  I didn't quit reading it because it wasn't well written.  In fact, it had a lot of things going for it.  I stopped reading because it was giving me nightmares of sick children - which probably proves it was well-written.  But nightmares are really not what I'm looking for in a romance.  

DNF (9/2/18) - Cozy Mystery*.  New to me, but had plenty of reviews.  I talked about reading this one in last week's wrap-up, but I deleted the title out.  If you read it and remember the title, keep it to yourself, please.  I'm not out to dent anyone's sales or get blowback for my honest opinion.  But yeah, this one had a couple major problems for me.  1) Over-explaining everything, and repeating the same explanations they'd already given.  I have a bad memory, but this was ridiculous.  2) A scene where they felt the need to hash over what must've been a hot-button issue for them, or they were going for a virtue-signalling merit badge.  And it didn't have anything to do with the plot.  At almost 2/3rds of the way through the book.  Come on.  I was getting close to DNF'ing anyway, but I still wanted to know who the killer was.  After that, I really didn't care.

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Last night, I started an old Andre Norton paperback.  Well, actually, I started two different ones, but the first one wasn't blowing my skirt up, so I put it back and grabbed another one.  So far, so good.

Since all the new books on my Kindle are paranormal, I'm setting them aside while I work on Ugly and the Beast.  Which is fine.  I have plenty of books to read otherwise.

So tell me... Whatcha readin'? 

2 comments:

  1. I <3 Andre Norton, though some of her really old stuff doesn't seem to hold up well. That said, SIOUX SPACEMAN, BEAST MASTER, and all of her Witch World books remain favorites.

    Lord but I loved Mack Bolan back in the day! Once Don Pendleton stopped writing and they kept trying to "update" Mack to a "modern" dude? Yeah...no.

    I listened to a few paranormals--two Molly Harper books set in the Louisiana Bayous. They're in the Audible Romance package so basically free. If I listen to one book a month, my subscription is paid for. I usually listen to more, so those are basically free. I moved on to Vivian Arend's Tahkini Shifters series. First was Copper King. I have LAIRD WOLF in the queue. Since LEVERAGE IN DEATH released Tuesday, I dropped back into Eve Dallas's world with a "catch-up" relisten of DARK IN DEATH, the book just previous to the new release. I like to remember what just occurred as the books run in a close timeline even though they've been releasing since the mid-nineties. Obviously, I'm moving on to LEVERAGE in about....30 minutes, when DARK is finished playing. LOL

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    1. I'm working my way through the Norton single titles I have. In order of publication date. Then I'll hit the series. Too bad I don't have them all. I'm pretty sure I have Sioux Spaceman, but I know I don't have Beast Master. I've already read the first Witch World, but I don't have the second. :shrug:

      Umm, yeah, they needed to leave Mack alone.

      Yay for your listening! I hope you enjoy Leverage in Death!

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