blah | Reading Backwards book reviews

The Linnet By Elizabeth English (aka Elizabeth Minogue) Read: June 2010 Rating: Sigh. I have been waiting to read this book since I read The Prince (Jan ’06). I loved that so much that I immediately set my sights on the only other book under this name. Alas, The Linnet does not live up to The Prince’s [...] Full Story	The Bodyguard By Joan Johnston Not Read: May 2010 Rating: Ungh Truly disappointing. I wanted to flesh out my Men In Kilts category, and I just couldn’t bring myself to finish this. Scotland, approximately Regency-era-ish? Hard to know. I wasn’t too keen on the opening chapter, but, hey, openers are hard. Kitt’s father, the head of Clan [...] Full Story	Amazon By Barbara G. Walker Not Read: Feb 2010 Rating: zones out I’m trying to be good, really I am. But 50 pages out of 170 isn’t such a bad run… The book is awkward and boring and it reads like what it is–a work of fiction by a feminist scholar that has been described (by [...] Full Story
The Hebrew Tutor of Bel-Air By Allan Appel Read: August 2009 Rating: Disappointing The back copy for The Hebrew Tutor paints a picture that is enticing: Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two [Norman and Bayla] forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies [...] Full Story	Mating Rituals of the North American WASP By Lauren Lipton Read: June 2009 Rating: Urgh? For the Feminist Review At its core, Mating Rituals of the North American WASP is wholly typical. Girl goes to Vegas. Girl gets drunk. Girl wakes up to find she married some stranger. Girl flees back to New York. Boy calls her up to tell her that, yes, [...] Full Story	General Winston’s Daughter By Sharon Shinn Read : June 2009 Rating: Ho hum? Well, it wasn’t terrible. There were some good points, but it certainly wasn’t Shinn’s best. (It’s feeling a little redundant saying that…) Essentially, it’s a story of imperialism, told for a young adult audience with a penchant for romance. Averie’s father is a general in [...] Full Story
Powers of Detection Edited by Dana Stabenow Read: Sept/Oct 2008 (review finalized May 2009) Rating: Abysmal It was a noble goal. Dana Stabenow writes sci fi/fantasy, and when someone suggested she try her hand at a mystery competition she laughed. But she said she’d try and it turned into a story. It was too long for the competition [...] Full Story	Helen of Troy By Margaret George Read: May 2009, approx. 240 pages. Rating: Sigh. I get very disappointed when books I want to be good… aren’t. It comes particularly hard on the heels of a riveting series, like the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And I just gave up on The Mermaid Chair, so it’s doubly depressing to give up [...] Full Story	The Mermaid Chair By Sue Monk Kidd Read: Attempted May 2009 Rating: Disappointing. I really, really liked The Secret Life of Bees. I was happy to see Kidd had another book, but I held off on getting it. My mom and I watched the Lifetime version of Mermaid Chair a while back and it didn’t strike me as [...] Full Story
Le Divorce By Diane Johnson Read: November 2008 Rating: Mmph. Right, so. I saw the movie ages back and don’t remember much about it except that I liked it more than my mother did, and she thought it was very disappointing. The book is… strange. I wish we’d read it in one of my writing classes because [...] Full Story	The Subtle Knife By Philip Pullman Read: August 2008 Rating: Disappointing Gentle readers, it is a sad day for my bookshelf. I am usually very good about finishing the books I pick up, I hate stopping partway, unless they’re really trash. Even when something becomes mediocre, I see it through, if only to see how bad it gets. [...] Full Story	The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro By Alison Fell Read: July 2008 Rating: Humn. I bought this one for $1 at Strand, and so I can’t complain about the price. I was pretty pleased with it at first, titillated on my train ride home, but I stopped about midway through for some reason with the intention of picking it up again [...] Full Story
Sin and Scandal in England By Melody Thomas Read: June/July 2008 Rating: Meh This book was guest reviewed by Sreya, here. Sometimes I have to buy a book for the title alone. Like The Barbarian. How could I NOT try that? Sin and Scandal is the look of a typical historical, half-naked men and woman standing in the snow. Though [...] Full Story	The Big Pink By Ann Pilling Out of print. Read: Initially, age 8/9. Reread Jan 2008. Rating: Humn. Once upon a time, when I was eight, we went on a trip to our homeland, South Africa. And there we went to a used bookstore (of course, this is MY family we’re talking about), and there I bought some [...] Full Story	Mini Reviews (2006, July-December) Welcome to another edition of “Mini-Reviews Clumped Together Because I Was Too Lazy To Dedicate a Full Page to Each One.” This one covers books read between July and December 2006. (#22-51 of the 50 Book Challenge) Included: The Invisible Ring (Anne Bishop, Black Jewels spin-off) The Seven Daughters of Eve (Non-Fiction) Rebel Angels (Libba [...] Full Story
The Twentieth Wife By Indu Sundaresan Read: August 2006 Rating: Lackluster. I love historical fiction. I love romance. And I love Philippa Gregory, despite not always liking what her characters do. So I should be able to get through a book like this, right? I’m still barely a quarter of the way through, and I’m putting it down. [...] Full Story	If Only It Were True By Marc Levy Rating: Disappointing Read: June 2006 A quaint little bestseller from 2001 about love that transcends (near) death. A 2005 chick flick starring Reese Witherspoon. The movie was better. It was much more real. That says a lot about the book. It was passed on to me by mother, who got it from [...] Full Story	Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury Rating: Hmm Read: May 2006 In the last month I’ve upped by reading significantly. School put a severe dent in things, but I’m going to play catch up this summer. One of the things I’ve been meaning to do is actually read some of the classics. This is one of them. It’s [...] Full Story
Princess Tutu By Ikuko Itoh Rating: Meh Read: March/April 2006 Maybe it’s just meant for younger kids, but I found it boring and predictable. I guess most shoujo romance/magical whatnot is predictable, but this was lamentably so. Ahiru (whose names means duck) goes to an arts high school where the focus is ballet. She loves it but [...] Full Story	The Barefoot Princess Christina Dodd Rating: Hmm Read: Feb 2006 Ok, so. Here’s how my week has been. Couldn’t take Claritin cuz I have an allergist appointment later. Thought that was why I was stuffy on Tuesday. Turned into a horrific, raging cold thing on Wednesday. So I went to the drug store on 13th for Day/NyQuil, Gatorade, [...] Full Story	x2 Review: The Trial, and Genealogy of Morals Here’s something new. I had to read these for class. I hated both. So you’re going to get DOUBLE the fun in one review! Yay! The Trial Franz Kafka Get it if you dare @Amazon.com Rating: Ugh Read: Feb 2006 I am now quite certain Kafka was on snuff. Or something. You know those dreams [...] Full Story
Equal Rites (Discworld) By Terry Pratchett Rating: Merfle Read: Feb 2006 I was a bit disappointed with this one, actually. I’ve read a handful or more Discworld books but this one wasn’t quite as jubilant as some of the others. Yes, there was snark, but it was sort of downplayed. Maybe that’s because the main character is an [...] Full Story	The Blind Assassin By Margaret Atwood Rating: Hmn? Read: Dec 31st ’05-Jan 21st ’06 Look at how specific that timeframe is! I bought the book after years of oggling it on New Year’s Eve as something to read on the train ride home. My friends stayed for Times Square but I skipped out and got home perdy much [...] Full Story	The First Wives Club by Olivia Goldsmith I would plug it, but is this out of print?! Amazon has this movie tie-in thing… Rating: Nrrgh. Read: August 05 Honestly, honey, if you only ever see the movie with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn, you’ll be ok. No, really. This book was… very… 80s? Clawd knows I abhor the 80s, [...] Full Story
Sex & the City By Candace Bushnell Cheaper than the DVDs: Amazon.com Rating: Typical Read: July 2005 I adore the show to BITS. But, I read Bushnell’s 4 Blondes perhaps two years ago and was thoroughly unimpressed. She’s the Fitzgerald of her generation in that she writes about the American ‘aristocracy’, which is a thoroughly jaded, degernate, and utterly [...] Full Story