Thursday, June 26, 2008

So Yesterday

by Scott Westerfeld

Grade: Good

Actually quite good. Very funny. All the cool stuff made me feel a bit embarrassed...as if everybody's always looking at me and seeing how uncool I am. However, luckily I happen to live where I live. I don't think that happens very much here.
I have to look up that Pokeman show sometime.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

M is for Magic

by Neil Gaiman

Grade: All right

Ok, no more Neil Gaiman, I don't think. This was for kids, so it was fine content wise, but it wasn't wonderful. Yeah....bit wierd, and not funny enough.

Fly by Night

by Frances Hardinge

Grade: Good

I wasn't sure whether all the talk about truth at the end was morally correct. I'll talk to my father about it when he's read it.
Otherwise, very entertaining, a bit confusing. Lovely end (walk-off-towards-sunset-in-hopes-of-a-sequel type of ending), Clent was not quite what I was expecting, but he was good.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Dead Man's Island

by Carolyn G. Hart

Grade: Unfinished
Read to: Page 41

The main character was the kind of feminist I don't like--I hate that kind of feminist in books--the only British guy was too charming, and I didn't like any of the characters.

Rogue Male

by Geoffrey Household

Grade: Good

Hard to pick up, but engrossing as it got further along. Perhaps "thrilling" would be better than "engrossing"...anyway...
I liked how slowly the main character (I forgot his name...) realizes his true motives.
But mostly I liked it because he was clever and good at hiding.

"I stood in a little copse at the bottom and started yelling bloody murder in a terrified soprano--'Help!' and 'Let me go!' and 'God, won't anybody come!' and then a succession of hysterical screams that were horrible to hear and quite false. The screams of a terrified woman are rhythmical and wholly unnatural, and had I imitated them correctly the sergeant would have thought me a ghost or some fool yodelling."

Reminded me of Shannon's screams at the beggining of Lost. Also an interesting insight. I'd like to hear a terrified woman now, to check up on his statement.

A Company of Swans

by Eva Ibbotson

Grade: Unfinished
Reat to: Page 52

I really tried with Eva Ibbotson...She just won't work. I won't try anymore.
Her book are rather formulaic for one thing. A nice girl has a suitor who is a bit strange in some respect (here he was against women learning and a bit too solemn--I liked him (NOT because he was against women learning, which is stupid)), who she kind of likes, but certainly doesn't love. Then she meets this manly guy and they fall in love, and then something separates them, but then they get back together. There's a lot of other stuff that's the same, but I can't remember it all, and bother to list the stuff I remember. It's boring.
One thing going for her is the cool details on Europe and music and art and such.

Pictures of Perfection

by Reginald Hill

Grade: Unfinished
Read to: Page 68

I don't think I'll read any more Reginald Hill. Just a bit too modern, and the only characters I've liked so far are Pascoe, and Dalziel to a certain extent.
The beginning was awesome in a bloody sort of way. I enjoyed it quite a lot, actually. It was cool how you didn't care about any of the people dying, but then you slowly got to know the people, and there was a great sense of trepidation, because you knew they were going to die. Same way that the flashforwards create supsense in Lost. Of course, the ending changed everything. I didn't quite get the ending. Was he just going a bit wonky or something?

Stardust

by Neil Gaiman

Grade: All right

It was quite different than the movie. I expected, for some reason, that it would be very similar. Sextus wasn't nearly as cool as in the movie. Probably cause of the actor guy. I was hoping the book would explain some things about the climax that I didn't understand. But it didn't.
It had a cool fairy-tale feeling--not modern, except for a bit of some sleeping-together type stuff.
Not my absolute favourite movie, or book either. I'd like to read more Neil Gaiman, though.