What Are You Reading? 2022
09-24-22, 01:02 PM
#351
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Finished:
Really enjoyed this, and King continues to put out some great stories in his later years. As someone who owns a senior dog, this one really pulls at the heartstrings. I would say I enjoy the first half of the book more than the 2nd half, but that is because I love when King is writing coming of age more than I enjoy reading fantasy, but there is plenty to enjoy.
Really enjoyed this, and King continues to put out some great stories in his later years. As someone who owns a senior dog, this one really pulls at the heartstrings. I would say I enjoy the first half of the book more than the 2nd half, but that is because I love when King is writing coming of age more than I enjoy reading fantasy, but there is plenty to enjoy.
09-24-22, 07:17 PM
#352
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Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Finished The Throat. Feeling really cynical so ordered The Brave by Gregory McDonald, but hasn't arrived yet so killing time with an Ann Rule Crime Files book ...
09-26-22, 09:34 PM
#354
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Finished:
All's Well by Mona Awad. I really liked her book Bunnies ... a weird dark fantasy/horror with an academic setting. This is the same vein. I don't think I liked this one as much ... the sad sack main character was a tough one to spend lots of time with. But I did like the twist on the "Faustian bargain" story. And I know it wasn't to everyone's taste, but I liked how surrealistic things got as the novel progressed.
All's Well by Mona Awad. I really liked her book Bunnies ... a weird dark fantasy/horror with an academic setting. This is the same vein. I don't think I liked this one as much ... the sad sack main character was a tough one to spend lots of time with. But I did like the twist on the "Faustian bargain" story. And I know it wasn't to everyone's taste, but I liked how surrealistic things got as the novel progressed.
09-29-22, 04:40 PM
#357
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
The Dark Street
Dark Duet
Both by Peter Cheyney. He wrote a bunch of bestselling espionage thrillers in 1940s Britain that are forgotten today. His espionage books all have the word "dark" in the title. These two books were entertaining. I'm going to read some more.
Dark Duet
Both by Peter Cheyney. He wrote a bunch of bestselling espionage thrillers in 1940s Britain that are forgotten today. His espionage books all have the word "dark" in the title. These two books were entertaining. I'm going to read some more.
10-04-22, 04:39 PM
#360
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
With the passing of Peter Straub, I was motivated to read (for the first time) his first two horror novels.
Julia. Is it a rule that every horror paperback from the 70s had to be compared to either The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby in the blurbs? It seems like it (and this one, like many of them, did them both). I'm not a fan of reading the book after I saw the movie, which was the case here. It's worse when the movie was fairly faithful to the book, which took away a lot of the suspense and mystery for me. Not bad, although it didn't really feel like a Peter Straub book. Maybe more like someone doing their mash-up of Rosemary's Baby and a classic British gothic suspense story. Which sounds like it was the case for this. From what I understand, Straub switched to the horror genre at the advice of his agent to pick up his career (which his first two novels really didn't do anything for).
If You Could See Me Now. This, on the other hand, feels like Peter Straub finding his style and literary voice. With the Midwestern setting, a male protagonist that seems a lot more like something Straub would know (a 30-something American writer/academic), and a general theme that Ghost Story seems to have built on ... the death of a mysterious woman in the past coming back to haunt the present.
Julia. Is it a rule that every horror paperback from the 70s had to be compared to either The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby in the blurbs? It seems like it (and this one, like many of them, did them both). I'm not a fan of reading the book after I saw the movie, which was the case here. It's worse when the movie was fairly faithful to the book, which took away a lot of the suspense and mystery for me. Not bad, although it didn't really feel like a Peter Straub book. Maybe more like someone doing their mash-up of Rosemary's Baby and a classic British gothic suspense story. Which sounds like it was the case for this. From what I understand, Straub switched to the horror genre at the advice of his agent to pick up his career (which his first two novels really didn't do anything for).
If You Could See Me Now. This, on the other hand, feels like Peter Straub finding his style and literary voice. With the Midwestern setting, a male protagonist that seems a lot more like something Straub would know (a 30-something American writer/academic), and a general theme that Ghost Story seems to have built on ... the death of a mysterious woman in the past coming back to haunt the present.
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Kurt D (10-05-22)
10-05-22, 10:12 PM
#361
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
I've had this book forever (online image; mine doesn't have the dustcover) since it was my dad's from WWII. Flipped through it a few times over the years and read a number of the cartoons. But I never had any real interest in it. So I decided that since I had it, I should give it a read. Amusing, horrifying, and a real lesson in what the "dogfaces" of the infantry had to go through. The cartoons make a lot more sense with the text that explains what's going on. Glad I finally got around to it!
10-06-22, 01:39 PM
#362
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Charles Schulz did a tribute to Bill Mauldin every year. But I've never seen more than one Bill Mauldin cartoon at a time and I haven't learned why he's special.
10-08-22, 09:54 AM
#363
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Two more Peter Cheyney espionage novels: The Stars are Dark and Dark Wanton. Neither was as good as the first two I read. I'm getting a little tired of the device of withholding a critical piece of information from the reader.
10-14-22, 05:28 PM
#364
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Finished:
Pressure by Brian Keene. This was a weird book. Not weird like Naked Lunch weird ... weird in the way it was written and structured. First half was a sea monster story, which is what I thought it would be. But in the second half, it turns into a corporate espionage thriller (and bails on the monster sci-fi/horror elements almost completely). I really thought (and was hoping) the two stories would come back together in a satisfying way, but they never did.
About 200 pages into Stephen King's Fairy Tale. The setup seems an awfully lot like that for Mr. Harrigan's Phone (though I know it goes in a different direction).
Pressure by Brian Keene. This was a weird book. Not weird like Naked Lunch weird ... weird in the way it was written and structured. First half was a sea monster story, which is what I thought it would be. But in the second half, it turns into a corporate espionage thriller (and bails on the monster sci-fi/horror elements almost completely). I really thought (and was hoping) the two stories would come back together in a satisfying way, but they never did.
About 200 pages into Stephen King's Fairy Tale. The setup seems an awfully lot like that for Mr. Harrigan's Phone (though I know it goes in a different direction).
10-17-22, 11:47 AM
#367
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Reading the Harry Potter franchise through for the first time. Started on the 4th book last night, Goblet of Fire.
10-20-22, 10:50 PM
#369
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Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
10-24-22, 12:01 PM
#371
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Finished Fairy Tale by Stephen King. How wonderful to have not just a new Stephen King book, but a big 600+ pager coming-of-age fantasy in the vein of The Talisman and The Dark Tower. And it felt like it could've been even longer, especially in the "fantasy" second half which seemed to rush things along compared to the leisurely pacing of the first half.
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Pointyskull (10-24-22)
10-26-22, 10:07 AM
#373
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Peter Cheney - Dark Bahama and Dark Interlude
I'm done with Cheney. The clunky writing has overwhelmed the entertainment value of the stories.
A lot of it reads like first draft writing. In Dark Bahama, he refers to the Miami State Police. Five minutes with the almanac would have told him that the state is Florida.
I'm done with Cheney. The clunky writing has overwhelmed the entertainment value of the stories.
A lot of it reads like first draft writing. In Dark Bahama, he refers to the Miami State Police. Five minutes with the almanac would have told him that the state is Florida.
10-26-22, 08:32 PM
#374
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What Are You Reading? 2022
Finished Hollow City, the 3rd book of the original Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children trilogy, started reading the first book in the The Inheritance Cycle: Eragon.
