Mid Year Reading Wrap Up

Hullo hullo

Here I am, back from Auckland, alive and well (just), mostly rested (I had a whole weekend!) and here with a wrap up of the books that have held my attention for the last six months.

So as of today, I have read 48 books towards my yearly goal of 75. 13 of those have been comics or graphic novels, 2 have been non-fiction, 11 have been YA or middle grade and the remaining 22 have for the most part been a mix of science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller and historical fiction.

All up (as at the 1st of July) I have read 16,903 pages - that's 2,377 more than the entirety of last year. And certainly well on my way to the record breaking (for me at least) 2014 where I hit 27,709.

For my mini reviews (though I don't really like the word review, maybe we should just go with mini opinions?), I will lump series all together. Let's get started.

Jurrasic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton

This was a mixed bag for me. The first book I gave four stars while the second I couldn't even finish. I'm not a huge Crichton fan. While I love the idea of so may of his books, there is just something about his writing style that just doesn't mesh with me. I have picked up and put down so many of his books over the years that I'm still just amazed that I finished (and enjoyed) one.

Coffee Obsession by Anette Moldvaer

Read this for work. Was a good in depth reference guide. Gave it five stars.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

This is that age old story of the book being better, even though the movie is stunning and amazing in its own right. The two were written in conjuction with each other and it shows. The book offers far more insight than the movie - even to the point where the crazy ass ending makes perfect and logical sense. I gave it four stars and will definatly be picking up the sequels at some point.

The Wizard of Id (2 volumes) by Johnny Hart and Brant Parker

I don't even remember which two volumes I picked up, let alone what they contained. Found them while tidying the Man's stuff while doing so renovations. Won't be making that mistake again.

The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan

Defiantly a strong and enjoyable follow up to the Percy Jackson series. I may have even enjoyed this one a little more. With the characters being just that little bit older, I found them far more relatable and the connections formed with them just that little bit stronger. Definatly looking forward to reading more my Riordan.  I gave the series four stars over all.

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

Definatly the most movingly real and emotional book I've read so far this year.  I can definatly see why it's not only a classic but has been pulled from publication several times. No words can ever do this boom justice. It was dark and haunting and soul destroying. I loved it. Five stars

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
I don't really know why I waited till I was nearly 30 to read these classic children's tales. I can see why they have endure through multiple generations. Only you a 3 star rating for the series as a whole though, there were definatly large weaker spots stack along side the whimsy.  And I rally did not like the ending. Just to have it all stop seemed weak some how.

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back by Ian Doescher
The whole concept is a bit of fun.  Nothing new about the story,but enjoyable none the less. Four stars.

Undone by Paul Jennings
A pure walk done memory lane. When the man walked in with a copy of this...this icon of our childhoods, I knew I had to read it then and there.  It was still delightfully bizarre and uncanny-  just how I remembered.

Ilium by Dan Simmons
This one was odd to the point of uncomfortablness. I'm sure my workmates were beyond pleased when I finished this one.  Three story lines, so seemingly unconectable (aliens and the Trojan war?) all shoved together and forced in to whatbecameaseemless narrative. I surprised even myself when I gave this one fours stars. I couldn't stop reading it, no matter how much I sometimes wanted to. And I'm really glad I didn't.  It was sometime I have never seen before and really did enjoy it in the end.  I don't know that I will pick up these qualities though. It felt almost complete to me. But we shall see how I feel about that in the future.

Atlantis by Dave Gibbins
An archeological adventure story. Not much to say about it really. A three star airport read if nothing else.

The Winds of Darkover by Mario Zimmer Bradley
I've read these out of order and that always frustrates me. I probably would have liked it better if I new the back story

The Redemption of Althalus by David Eddings
A re read for me. Still as good as I remember, but then in my world Eddings can do no wrong. Four stars.

The Taking by Dean Koontz
Another reason read and my favourite Koontz book that I've read so far. Love the pacing and tension ever if it is a little heavier on the biblical themes. Very definatly a strong five stars.

The Return From Troy by Lindsay Clarke
Once again I'm guilty of reading out of order but this time I don't think a prequel would have changed my mind out disliking this one. While a retelling by its own nature is just rehashing an old story,  it would have been nice to have had something new added to the story.  A new approach maybe. But this was just more of the same.i love the Iliad and the Odyssey so this one was a disappointing.

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
The other non fiction book on this list. I don't think I should have delved deeper into this story. The idea that these men srivived not only a Russian gulag in northern Siberia, but also walked to India to gain their freedom was just mind blowing to me. Then I did some googling and discovered it may not be true. Don't know how to feel about this one anymore but I did give it four stars.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King
I first read King when I was 9,and while I have always been a mature Reader I think that may have been just a little young. I definatly remember enjoying the few books I read of his but I think the depth and complexity of his work got a little lost on me. Not any more. This short little owner to the Dark Tower series has relaunched a love of King books for me. Four stars.

Gone Girl by Gilian Flynn
Know I have to admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of the movie, but I figured enough time had elapsed that I could read the book without the movie clouding my judgement. And while it had,  and I didn't not enjoy the book, the characters were just hideous. I've never disliked every character in a book before, usually there is one I feel for at least. Not this time.

The Daylight War and The Skull Throne by Peter V. Bretton
Books three and four of the Warded Man series. This series started out so so strong and I find myself struggling with it more and more as it goes on. The characters you care about get relatively little page time while being forced to trudge through chapter after chapter of back story for minor players in the obviously based on Muslim m desert people. I will continue with this series, the story intrigues me, just a shame about the development of it. Four and three stars respectively.

It by Stephen King
A behemoth of a book but definatly well worth it. Creepy and dark and twisty - one of my favourites for this year by far.

The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike
This was another one of my childhood favourites that I found again just recently. I remember it being a lot bigger and a lot more complex than it turned out to be. Though I guess I was remembering it thought the eyes of a seven or eight year old. Still perfectly readable however, three stars.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly
I couldn't decide if this was a very dark YA book or if it just seemed that way because of the child narrator. I did really enjoy the very dark twists on the fairy tales but the rest of it was just okay, I enjoyed it but I already find myself forgetting. Three stars.

The Bachman Books by Stephen King
This was a collection of four novels that King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman - The Running Man, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and Rage. I can see why King wanted some of these pulled from publication. They are gritty and raw in the way they deal psychological issues surrounding very American issues such as school shooting. I did really enjoy them though, they are wonderfully written. You are in these people's heads.  The Long Walk in particular was a favourite.

And finally...

The Terror by Dan Simmons
History merged with the supernatural. What more could you ask for. This one kept me turning pages - though I know the fate of the Franklin Expedition of 1845, I still needed to know what happened to the men. And the ending.... I was pleasantly surprised with that ending. 

Now I haven't included the comic in this,  because the are both on going series that I keep up with month to month. Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Wicked + Divine by Kieron Gillen.

Now that life is calming down a tiny bit, I'm hoping to do these baby reviews once a month so hopefully the don't gets as out of control as this one. If you've made it this far, we'll done and thank you so so much.

Till next time.

PS - I've been stitching again, just a little. I'll try and get a picture in the day light and update that side of things in the next couple of days.

Wheel of Time Series - Robert Jordan

Reading this series so early in the year, and trying to marathon all the books back to back, was probably not the best idea when trying to complete a year long challenge of 100 books (I have since amended that goal to 80 books). I gave my self a serious case of burn out and had to switch to other pursuits to try and get my reading mojo back. 

That's not to say that I regret it - because I don't, not at all. I loved this series. It was just a lot of words; a lot of pages of world building and high fantasy, to read all in one go. And a good chunk of it while on vacation and doing nothing but reading.

There are low points of course, every series has those books that just aren't up to the same perceived standard or that you have to force yourself through - book 10, Crossroads of Twilight in this case - there is enough in the other books to make up for the transgressions.

Jordan's story of Rand and his friends is fantasy done right. The world building alone is phenomenal. There is enough detail (some say too much at times) and enough imagery that this could be a real world sitting just to the side of ours. The character development follows the natural and logical course of the characters lives. They change, they grow up, they let their environment and their circumstances become a part of who they are and who they shall be. Yes some are more likable than others, but the things that make them unlikable are their truly human flaws.

While I don't think anything will ever knock Eddings' Belgariad off the top place in my favourite fantasy series (it was my first, it will be my last), the Wheel of Time series has definitely wrangled its way up there in the rankings. I can see re-reads in my future, though I may stagger them out a little next time.

Over all, I give the series four out of five stars

And yes I realise that it is cheating a little bit to lump the whole series in with each other as one post, but that's life.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

I feel that I am about to risk my life by saying what I am about to say and willingly putting it on the internet for anyone to see. But I am going to anyway.

I did not like this book. At all.

I tried out going to a book club briefly (it wasn't for me, but that's another story for another time) and this was the first book I read with them. I was terrified going to that first meeting, feeling how I did for this book. The writing was clunky and belittling, the characters cliche and predictable and I found myself having to physically force my self to read every page knowing that I could in no way feel any empathy for such unrealistic portrays of people. Yes, it could be argued that The Book Thief is considered a young adult book, and therefore may lack some of the maturity that is to be expected of 'older' fiction, I think that with so many really good YA books on the market now, it is proving that younger readers can understand a story and its themes without being talked down to.

The only redeeming factor was the narration view point. I enjoyed that the story was told from the view of the personification of Death. That idea struck a cord with me.

So here I was, about to meet with a group of people that I have never met, with nothing but negative thoughts about a book that the entire world seems to have loved - you can imagine how worried I was about that. It was relief to no end, to hear these eight other people say the same things that I had been thinking all month.

Unsurprisingly, I only gave this one out of five stars.

Harry Potter - J K Rowling

I am a little bit ashamed to admit that I waited until I was 27 to read the Harry Potter series. I had seen the movies of course, I don't live under a rock, and I had really enjoyed them. But I had never read the books.

Which is odd in itself, not only because of the world wide phenomenon that it became, but because when The Philosophers Stone was released in 1997, eleven year old, fantasy loving me was the prime target audience. But being then, a book snob with (according to the education system) a high reading age, I was much more interested in the worlds of Eddings and Tolkin to be bothered with such a 'simple' story. I vaguely remember trying to read the first book at the time but getting half way through and deeming it "too childish" - yeah, I was that kid.

Thankfully I grew out of that phase eventually.

And I am so glad that I did. This series is worth every single scrap of hype that it has generated over the last 17 years. 

The highest praise that I think I could possibly give it, is that it made me cry. There is nothing better, in my eyes anyway, than a book (and I guess in some respects a movie) that gets you so emotionally invested in the world and in the characters, that your own world gets ignored, and both the happy and the sad events cause you to react as though they were happening to you, rather than to your imaginary friends.

Over all, four stars from five for the series - this will definitely be required reading for any children that I have.

Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction

Its quirky, its light and its fun. The idea that these two people can use sex as a means to stop time and rob banks... its something different if nothing else.

Its bad day reading at its finest. Something to come home to and have a laugh to and smile. With bright colours and simpler artwork you can't help but enjoy it. The old school letters to the editor about adult topics are also quality entertainment in their own right.

Having read the first seven 'episodes' so far, individual ratings range between two and four stars from five, over all I would give the series a three.

The Madonnas of Leningrad - Debra Dean

Unlike The Book Thief, my second attempt at the book club proved a little more enjoyable. The story of the ravages of war on the youth as told by an aging and deteriorating Alzheimer patient. Another interesting narrative, but this time pulled off with far more success.

Writing this review nearly three months after reading it however. I have realised more and more that it is what I would consider an airplane book. A book that you pick up at the airport to entertain you en route, but then kind of forget about once you land, no matter how much you enjoyed it at the time. I guess that is further proof (as if I needed it) that I shouldn't have let my self get so far behind on this goal of review all that I read.

I remember that I liked it - I read it in one sitting with generally  means that my attention is sufficiently held by a book. I remember that the imagery was well enough written that I felt that I could almost see these paintings that were being describe; that I could see and smell and feel horrors that would have been Leningrad held in the grip of war and invasion. And I also know that I wanted it to go on longer, that is where it let itself down for me. I didn't find the ending enough of a conclusion to the story.

Three out of five stars

Deathmatch - Paul Jenkins

There was something oddly satisfying about this three part graphic novel series. The parallels and similarities between these brand new characters and the familiar characters of the DC and Marvel worlds it almost seem as though picking up an old favorite: the Superman and Batman's of the world that have become - now that I am an adult - the reading equivalent of the tatty old favorite sweater that will never be parted with, no matter how many holes it gathers, because wearing that sweater has come to mean home and comfort and safety.

But despite any such feelings, these are not those characters. They are not constrained by the continuities of universes that the Superman's and Batman's and Spidermen all come out of. 

That juxtaposition, I think, is what was most satisfying about these books. The art work was fantastic, the colours brilliant and the story solid, gripping and engaging.  And the best bit, as the reader, you were actually allowed to enjoy all that because your not fighting to learn a whole new mythos or find empathy for new characters because that part of your brain is pulling on that tatty sweater and finding itself at home in the familiar.

Definitely an easy and worth while read. Four out of five stars.

The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore - George Khoury

In my strange little brain, Alan Moore can do no wrong. His thoughts and views on the world and life in general are things that I agree with wholeheartedly and that these opinions are reflected in his writing style is something that I both appreciate and enjoy.

I do not however, like biographies. I don't know why, I just never have. So it took me a while to convince myself that I had to read this one.

And I really glad that I did.

Its not so much a biography as tribute. Yes there is biographical information, but it is in the form of an interview, so the quintessential Alan Moore intellect and wit still shines through.

Three stars.

Lost Girls - Alan Moore

“My dear, beautiful and imaginative things can be destroyed. Beauty and imagination cannot.”
Lost Girls, volume three

Sex in books is always an interesting topic - even more so in comic books. Where does one draw the line between art and erotica; between story telling and pornography. Sex is such an important part of adult life and yet we, as a society, tiptoe around it as if it is some boogy man hiding in our closets, waiting to pounce when we least expect it.

The Lost Girls trilogy addressed this wonderfully, I think. 

Yes, its graphic; yes, its full of sex and lesbianism and masturbation and all those other things that we are not supposed to talk about - especially as women. But it serves its purpose, and it serves it exceptionally.

Now I'm not saying that every book should be packed cover to cover with sex, but as writing tool it can be very powerful, either as an aid to character and emotional development, or in this case, a thematic platform. The use of sex by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie to create such power and thought provoking contrasts was, in my opinion, truly inspired. Life and lust against the backdrop of the horrors and deaths of World War One told through the now grown up eyes of women so intrinsically linked with our childhoods - Wendy Darling, Dorothy Gale and Alice. Opposites that all fit together so perfectly to form the whole.

The only thing that let the series down for me was the artwork itself. The look was just ever so slightly off for me. But with such a thought provoking effect on me, I was willing to work around that. 

Three stars all up.

Dune - Frank Herbert

I wanted to like Dune, I really truly did.

But I couldn't.

And I am sorry.

I know its considered one of the classics of the science fiction genre, and well loved by millions of loyal fans world wide. I just couldn't bring myself to like it no matter how hard I tried.

No, that's not entirely true. I liked the idea of the plot. The sand worms and spice and links to the environment I thought were beautiful concepts. Its just a shame that my attention was constantly diverted away from that towards a clunky writing style that I had to fight against in order to emerse myself in said world, and lead characters that I had no empathy or intact feelings (beyond irratation) for.

I'm sorry. As a sci-fi fan I hang my head in shame.