This blog went viral yesterday due to the extraordinarily BAD behavior of the author on this reviewer's comments about her self-published work. Read it - it's like watching a train wreck. 300 and some comments, few of them out of pity and more views than the writer of the blog could have hoped to achieve.
In some ways I feel sorry for the author - not because she received a less than glowing review - but because she clearly believed that her work was exceptional and couldn't possibly recieve anything less than 4 out of 5 stars. She's really bitten the dust now. Good luck with ever selling another book now Jacqueline Howett. You will never be more widely read than you were this week - and it isn't your mediocre writing that everyone is talking about.
Anyway, if nothing else, I've started following this blog!
BigAl's Books and Pals: The Greek Seaman / Jacqueline Howett: "Genre: Suspense/Literary Fiction Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words Availability Kindle: YES Nook: YES &..."
Showing posts with label books on tape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books on tape. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Stardust Audio Book Review
Stardust, by Neil Gaiman, was recommended to me by my dearest Sarah Elisabeth, whom I trust implicitly for book recommendations. (Sarah and I used to write 'novels' together in middle school. We were pretty good for 13 year olds! We still talk about someday writing the great American novel together.)
I dowloaded Stardust from Audible.com, which, as I have already made mention of, is my newest great love on the internet. It's only 6 hours long, which was a bit of a disappointment, and had some parts that I thought were a bit....descriptive for a kids' title. (Let's just say, I wouldn't listen to this one around my kids until I had 'the Talk' with them.) But Neil Gaiman himself narrated the audio book, and I loved it.
Gaiman's vocalising of the individual characters, combined with his delicate British accent was delightful. I didn't jump or cringe at any point due to bad narration. Being narrated by the author himself gives it a sense of purity. You're hearing it straight from the Source.
The first half of the tale regards Dunstan Thorne, who, sadly, doesn't get to have any great and wonderful adventures. However, he does get to engage on a little tryst with a faery woman who is enslaved to a witch, and 10 months later is presented with a son, I'm sure much to the chagrin of his wife, who is not made much mention of after this occasion. It's the little half-mortal, half-faery boy, Tristan, who gets to have all the fun.
After foolishly promising to go on a quest to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he admires more than any other in the world, Tristan leaves his home and embarks into the Faery Rhealm to find it. The star ends up being a beautiful girl and together they have a journey that Tristan could have only dreamed about. But he isn't the only person in Faery that has ambitions to retrieve the Star, and herein lies the adventures...
So this might be the shortest review I've ever written because I didn't have a single complaint. Except maybe that it was too short. I could have stayed in the Faery Rhealm and read the adventures for much longer than they lasted. I am not yet inspired to watch the movie that was made because I just enjoyed the book that much. I really love fantasy stories. I love places where anything can happen and there are always things happening that lead to adventures and quests and honor. Real Life is so distressing, especially for adults, and a good trip to Faery often cures my soul when I feel opressed by Life.
Final Grade: I give it an A-. (The minus is because it wasn't long enough for me.) :)
I dowloaded Stardust from Audible.com, which, as I have already made mention of, is my newest great love on the internet. It's only 6 hours long, which was a bit of a disappointment, and had some parts that I thought were a bit....descriptive for a kids' title. (Let's just say, I wouldn't listen to this one around my kids until I had 'the Talk' with them.) But Neil Gaiman himself narrated the audio book, and I loved it.
Gaiman's vocalising of the individual characters, combined with his delicate British accent was delightful. I didn't jump or cringe at any point due to bad narration. Being narrated by the author himself gives it a sense of purity. You're hearing it straight from the Source.
The first half of the tale regards Dunstan Thorne, who, sadly, doesn't get to have any great and wonderful adventures. However, he does get to engage on a little tryst with a faery woman who is enslaved to a witch, and 10 months later is presented with a son, I'm sure much to the chagrin of his wife, who is not made much mention of after this occasion. It's the little half-mortal, half-faery boy, Tristan, who gets to have all the fun.
After foolishly promising to go on a quest to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he admires more than any other in the world, Tristan leaves his home and embarks into the Faery Rhealm to find it. The star ends up being a beautiful girl and together they have a journey that Tristan could have only dreamed about. But he isn't the only person in Faery that has ambitions to retrieve the Star, and herein lies the adventures...
So this might be the shortest review I've ever written because I didn't have a single complaint. Except maybe that it was too short. I could have stayed in the Faery Rhealm and read the adventures for much longer than they lasted. I am not yet inspired to watch the movie that was made because I just enjoyed the book that much. I really love fantasy stories. I love places where anything can happen and there are always things happening that lead to adventures and quests and honor. Real Life is so distressing, especially for adults, and a good trip to Faery often cures my soul when I feel opressed by Life.
Final Grade: I give it an A-. (The minus is because it wasn't long enough for me.) :)
Friday, January 28, 2011
1st To Die
As I mentioned yesterday, I have recently discovered the absolute joy of Audible.com. If you follow this link www.audible.com/tvoffer, you can get 2 free book credits to try them out. If you have an Amazon account, this is easy and pain free!
The first book I downloaded was James Patterson's '1st To Die', which is the first book in his series called 'Women's Murder Club'. The reviews were definitely mixed, and no matter what, you'll always come across someone who has to be an absolute jerk about the book. After all, chronic complainers have to make a living somehow.
Complaints that I wouldn't have if I had read this book instead of listened to it: The narrator was a bit......dry. And her vocalisations of the four different women were kind of annoying. And the main character's name is Lindsey.... so everytime the narrator said it in an overly-emphasized way, I jumped, thinking that my mother was yelling at me. (I don't even live with my mother!)
By and large, I love a good mystery. This was a good mystery. It wasn't gory or grisly in any way, which I appreciate. I already have trouble sleeping. The last thing I need is a horrific murder description bouncing around in my head at all hours of the night. The adjectives and adverbs in the writing were helpful, rather than exhausting. Nothing gets on my last nerve quicker than too many adjectives and a poor editor who doesn't realize it.
The four women, Lindsay, Claire, Cindy and Jill, are all different pieces of a whole. Lindsay is the tough-as-nails homicide investigator. Claire is the soft, gentle, level-headed medical examiner. Cindy is the upbeat, perky reporter. Jill is the no-nonsense, pragmatic district attorney. Yeah.....so this is pretty much the exact character lineup for CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, etc. Jerry Bruckheimer and James Patterson must have the same brainwave pattern.
The plot opens with a suicide attempt, and closes with an accidental death that is so disappointing that I basically yelled "REALLY??" across the living room. (I hate it when there is unnecessary trauma/drama.) The suicide attempt really threw me, because Patterson really never went back to it or resolved it. There was a breif mention of it toward the end, but nothing to justify why it was the opening to the series at all. In between these two events is a serial that involves 3 newlywed couples getting married and murdered within hours of their vows, the narrator of the stor, Lindsay Boxer, is diagnosed with a blood disease - but keeps working at her normal pace and doesn't tell anyone that she's probably dying, a romance between partners, and 4 women who get together to discuss the murders over margaritas. The plot meanders along with just enough intrigue to keep me interested, and enough foreshadowing to put my own mental wheels in motion. I had figured it all out before the end, but I actually like that! I like the mystery novels where I can think about it while reading/listening to it and 'solve the case' mentally with the detectives. (I grew up reading almost nothing but Nancy Drew mysteries.) There was one twist to the ending that made me cringe and wonder why it was there, but it didn't keep me from enjoying the story as a whole. I think sometimes that authors overdo it with the 'intrigue'. They just want to get that 'one more little twist' into the plot. And for me, that 'one more little twist' really did nothing for me. I rolled my eyes and thought 'so X WAS behind it all along...'.
I haven't decided if I will divulge in the second book in the series yet. It has much worse reviews that the first, and I'm not completely convinced that I really like Patterson's writing style yet. It certainly isn't the worst I've ever read - I reserve that honor for Christian historical romance authors. (Gag, barf.)
Final Grade? I give it a B-. It's worth listening to, but not a good start to a whole series. Like I said, still thinking about whether I'll go into the second one or not. In the meantime, I downloaded Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and I can't wait to get it started.
The first book I downloaded was James Patterson's '1st To Die', which is the first book in his series called 'Women's Murder Club'. The reviews were definitely mixed, and no matter what, you'll always come across someone who has to be an absolute jerk about the book. After all, chronic complainers have to make a living somehow.
Complaints that I wouldn't have if I had read this book instead of listened to it: The narrator was a bit......dry. And her vocalisations of the four different women were kind of annoying. And the main character's name is Lindsey.... so everytime the narrator said it in an overly-emphasized way, I jumped, thinking that my mother was yelling at me. (I don't even live with my mother!)
By and large, I love a good mystery. This was a good mystery. It wasn't gory or grisly in any way, which I appreciate. I already have trouble sleeping. The last thing I need is a horrific murder description bouncing around in my head at all hours of the night. The adjectives and adverbs in the writing were helpful, rather than exhausting. Nothing gets on my last nerve quicker than too many adjectives and a poor editor who doesn't realize it.
The four women, Lindsay, Claire, Cindy and Jill, are all different pieces of a whole. Lindsay is the tough-as-nails homicide investigator. Claire is the soft, gentle, level-headed medical examiner. Cindy is the upbeat, perky reporter. Jill is the no-nonsense, pragmatic district attorney. Yeah.....so this is pretty much the exact character lineup for CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, etc. Jerry Bruckheimer and James Patterson must have the same brainwave pattern.
The plot opens with a suicide attempt, and closes with an accidental death that is so disappointing that I basically yelled "REALLY??" across the living room. (I hate it when there is unnecessary trauma/drama.) The suicide attempt really threw me, because Patterson really never went back to it or resolved it. There was a breif mention of it toward the end, but nothing to justify why it was the opening to the series at all. In between these two events is a serial that involves 3 newlywed couples getting married and murdered within hours of their vows, the narrator of the stor, Lindsay Boxer, is diagnosed with a blood disease - but keeps working at her normal pace and doesn't tell anyone that she's probably dying, a romance between partners, and 4 women who get together to discuss the murders over margaritas. The plot meanders along with just enough intrigue to keep me interested, and enough foreshadowing to put my own mental wheels in motion. I had figured it all out before the end, but I actually like that! I like the mystery novels where I can think about it while reading/listening to it and 'solve the case' mentally with the detectives. (I grew up reading almost nothing but Nancy Drew mysteries.) There was one twist to the ending that made me cringe and wonder why it was there, but it didn't keep me from enjoying the story as a whole. I think sometimes that authors overdo it with the 'intrigue'. They just want to get that 'one more little twist' into the plot. And for me, that 'one more little twist' really did nothing for me. I rolled my eyes and thought 'so X WAS behind it all along...'.
I haven't decided if I will divulge in the second book in the series yet. It has much worse reviews that the first, and I'm not completely convinced that I really like Patterson's writing style yet. It certainly isn't the worst I've ever read - I reserve that honor for Christian historical romance authors. (Gag, barf.)
Final Grade? I give it a B-. It's worth listening to, but not a good start to a whole series. Like I said, still thinking about whether I'll go into the second one or not. In the meantime, I downloaded Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and I can't wait to get it started.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Nothing to Say
With all the stuff going on in the world right now I am really blessed to be able to say that Alex and I have relatively nothing going on in our lives. It sucks to still be unemployed, but I am managing. I'm a little stir-crazy, but part of that is simply because it's January and I've only left my house once since Sunday. I'm actually getting bored with knitting baby Chucks and I started drawing out some new patterns to work out.
I do have opinions on the current events of the day, but let's face it. For every word I say about the political landscape or foreign affairs, there are 100 other blogs saying the same things and 500 blogs saying the exact opposite. Why would I even want to lump myself into all that? I consider it a blessing that we get to live day to day in our house, drive our cars, and I get to cook what I want for myself and Alex, with relatively NO interference from anyone.
Alex and I talk a lot about where we would move to if we ever decided we wanted to get out of Dodge. Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and Virginia usually top the list. His reasoning usually revolves around the companies that he could transfer into with ease. My reasoning always revolves around what grows there and what kind of property we would have.
Last thing - Audible.com. Has anyone ever tried it and found it to be worth the subscription price? I've watched every possible History channel special on both History channels, and I'm running out of OnDemand shows to waste my time with. I refuse to watch MTV's atrocities against humanity. I have 2 books that were downloaded from a friend's computer - "Going Rogue" and "Arguing with Idiots" (Don't judge me. I'm allowed to listen to anything I want, and right now, I feel like listening to Palin and Beck.) and they do provide a welcome change from the television, which I tend not to actually watch, but listen to anyway.
And that being said, does anyone have any good adult fiction that they could recommend? (Please, please, for the love of God, if you say the Twilight saga, I will shut my blog down. I DID read it. I do NOT like it. I prefer GOOD writing as opposed to poor writing aimed at tweens.) I really love mysteries, always have, and sci-fi/fantasy. I also enjoy a good drama if it has adults who are dealing with 'real' problems, not 'who's going to take me to the prom and will they survive my teenage angst?'
Please, if you haven't already, type L.Peek Designs into the Facebook search and find my brand new fan page for the Etsy shop and 'like' me! I hope to update it every day with new listings, new products, promotions, coupons, sale information, giveaways and upcoming shows and bazaars! :)
I do have opinions on the current events of the day, but let's face it. For every word I say about the political landscape or foreign affairs, there are 100 other blogs saying the same things and 500 blogs saying the exact opposite. Why would I even want to lump myself into all that? I consider it a blessing that we get to live day to day in our house, drive our cars, and I get to cook what I want for myself and Alex, with relatively NO interference from anyone.
Alex and I talk a lot about where we would move to if we ever decided we wanted to get out of Dodge. Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and Virginia usually top the list. His reasoning usually revolves around the companies that he could transfer into with ease. My reasoning always revolves around what grows there and what kind of property we would have.
Last thing - Audible.com. Has anyone ever tried it and found it to be worth the subscription price? I've watched every possible History channel special on both History channels, and I'm running out of OnDemand shows to waste my time with. I refuse to watch MTV's atrocities against humanity. I have 2 books that were downloaded from a friend's computer - "Going Rogue" and "Arguing with Idiots" (Don't judge me. I'm allowed to listen to anything I want, and right now, I feel like listening to Palin and Beck.) and they do provide a welcome change from the television, which I tend not to actually watch, but listen to anyway.
And that being said, does anyone have any good adult fiction that they could recommend? (Please, please, for the love of God, if you say the Twilight saga, I will shut my blog down. I DID read it. I do NOT like it. I prefer GOOD writing as opposed to poor writing aimed at tweens.) I really love mysteries, always have, and sci-fi/fantasy. I also enjoy a good drama if it has adults who are dealing with 'real' problems, not 'who's going to take me to the prom and will they survive my teenage angst?'
Please, if you haven't already, type L.Peek Designs into the Facebook search and find my brand new fan page for the Etsy shop and 'like' me! I hope to update it every day with new listings, new products, promotions, coupons, sale information, giveaways and upcoming shows and bazaars! :)
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