Lame Book Reviews

Phantom Prey

This is the eighteenth book the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford.  And it pissed me off.  Why did he have to resort to mulitple personality disorder and ostrich farms to solve this one?!  The subplot about a pregnant gangster's girlfriend was enough to get me to finish the book, and I continue to really adore Lucas and his wife, Weather.  But seriously.  don't fucking do that again.  

Dead Watch

So this is a stand alone by one of my favorite mystery writers, John Sandford.  I tried reading this one about two years ago, when I worked at the movie theater and just couldn't get into it at all.  And now I don't know what my problem was because this book was awesome.  It was a politcal thriller that involved closeted senators, headless bodies in the woods, a highway funding project gone wrong, and a gimp with mad street cred.  I really liked this one and though I don't think there are any plans to add a sequal to it, I'd enjoy following the characters again.  

Kindred In Death

So this is the bajillionith J.D. Robb book and one that I loved until the mystery got solved.  and then I thought it was bullshit.  Ms. Robb (aka Nora Roberts) went way overly complicated to make these deaths seem not only meaningless but completely unreal as well.  Nothing about the solution made sense.  But the rest of it made me quite happy and I continue to enjoy the development of every one of the main characters.  

Poppy Done to Death

This is the final book in the Aurora Teagarden series by Charlaine Harris.  Here's the thing:  she finally got this series going around book seven.  But I'm still not really sad that this series is over.  It's nowhere near as good as any of the other series that she's written.  But this one involved more small town mayhem with crazy middle-aged women, slutty in-laws and parental diappointment.  

Living With the Dead

This is the ninth book in the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong and it is by far my least favorite of the bunch.  First of all, I'm a really big girl when I read these books and I want some kind of love story to be happening.  and this one had the beginning of one, one in the background, and the tragic end of one but not a complete one for me to enjoy.  So that sucked.  and then this involved an underground network of a psychic supernatural group that had formed a cult and a girl trying to escape from them by having retard sex and killing innocent people.  But the progresion of some of the background characters was very nicely done and the potential from the new characters is there.  so I haven't given up hope for this series yet.  Instead I broke my own rule and got the next one in hardcover waiting for me to start.   

I'm Fine With God...It's Chrisitians I Can't Stand

A friend of mine gave this book for Christmas last year, and it was one that I sort of read in between other books.  It's by two Christian authors, Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz, and tries to outline reasons why Christianity is getting a bad rap.  and it does a pretty good job.  It shows how deliberately misinterpreting the bible leads to deliberately misleading people into believing in your cause, which is often self-righteous and political.  It also underlines passages and stories from Christ, invalidating allegations that he was a big believer in capitalism and bigotry.  And while it didn't particularly change my mind about religion, it did help demonstrate something that I wish would get talked about more: not all Christians are crazy right-wing nutbags.  

Secondhand Spirits

So...I'm a little bitter about this book for a couple of reasons. 

1:  The author, Juliet Blackwell, is the pseudonym of one of the sisters who wrote of my favorite ill-fated series, the Annie Kincaid art mysteries.  And I'm mad that this book isn't one of those.

2:  This book kind of sucked.

It just wasn't good.  The mystery sort of was and the character was almost interesting and the love triangle she's setting up wants to be awesome.  But nothing quite made it.  It involved a vintage shop, a psychic of untold abilities, an unspeakable past, a nosy detective and a white-haired pretty boy.  And yet?  not that great.  Maybe the next one will be better.  Because God knows I won't stop myself from reading it.

What is the What

[so vox is being a little bitch and won't let me look up any books on amazon, so I'll try to insert covers later.]
This is the type of book that made me really appreciate my English degree.  It's technically written by Dave Eggers, but both he and the book's subject, Valentino Achak Deng, claim that Eggers gets credit only because Deng's English and education were too limited to properly explain his story. 

Deng is a Sudanese refugee, one of the now famous 'Lost Boys,' who walked thousands of miles to escape being slaughtered in a cultural civil war.  The title refers to a folk tale he heard growing up in which it is foretold his people will always prevail until the what shows up.  But what is 'the what'?  No one knows.  It kind of reminded me of the The Nothing from 'The Neverending Story' but in a far more literary sort of way.  I honestly feel the need to write some sort of literary paper on this book even though I have no one to read it because every page inspired the extremely nerdy analytical part of me.  Because, like Eggers other work, this is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.  And it says more about the duality of hope and apathy in this country than anything else I've ever read. 

A Royal Pain

A Royal Pain (A Royal Spyness Mystery)

Rhys Bowen

This is the second book in "Her Royal Spyness" series by Rhys Bowen.  And it was enjoyable.  I guess that's the best word I can use to describe this series.  It's not brilliant and it's not terriblly funny or clever, but it is enjoyable.  I do love how Rhys Bowen seems to have a real thing for anarchists, as displayed in both this and her Molly Murphy series.  but I do wish she wouldn't continually drag out the romance in her series in order to keep up some form of romantic tension.

When the Bough Breaks

When the Bough Breaks (Alex Delaware)

Jonathan Kellerman

So this is one of those books I will always associate with my dad.  When I first started my little used bookstore job, I tried to read this book.  At that time, I chose books mainly based on what was popular within the store.  I thought by reading all the popular stuff, I would be a better bookseller, but more importantly, would maybe finally understand what the hell everyone else was talking about.  but when  I was about halfway through I made the mistake of leaving the book on the dining room table.  The next day I couldn't find it, so I moved onto another book.  But a few days later I saw the book in my dad's jacket pocket, completely destroyed.  He took a 15 year old paperback and bent it and thumbed it and clutched it so tightly it was falling apart.  And then?  He taped it back together, thinking it was fine.  for the record?  NOT FINE. 
Anyway, I finally tackled rereading it this summer.  I was too mad to do it before now.  but it was good.  The main character, Dr. Alex Delaware, is an interesting guy to follow around.  And the mystery was grand and lavish, involving child porn, rich boys, a remote island, and big dogs.  Plus, his girlfriend makes guitars, which is pretty hot.