Andree > Recent Status Updates

This thing has already irritated me with its set-up (mostly around the big whopping dramatic coincidence surrounding the arrest). But I'm interested in the world. I have a feeling this may be a book I power through to get to the later ones, where Sebastian doesn't seem to be on the run.

"I wonder if it's possible to forget about someone but still experience a feeling toward them. It's as if I have written his name on the inner walls of my heart. As if I am stained with his soul. Whatever we shared is buried somewhere in the abyss of my mind. I just don't know how to swim deep enough and return to the surface with it."
Oh dear.

For some reason, I'm having trouble with this one. Debating whether or not to skip...

Less than 100 pages to go, I almost feel like I should celebrate.

And I have now reached the familiar stage in the super-long book where I start mentally cataloging sections I consider unnecessary. It's well written, but I'm getting the familiar feeling that each section could have easily been 20% shorter...0

My reaction to this book might be mood dependent. I liked it for a little while, the first time I picked it up, but this time around, all I can think is that it's ugly. It's compelling and well written, but it's unpleasant, and it certainly didn't need to be as long as it is. A book club book I'm not sure I'm going to finish. I'm having trouble in seeing the value in ingesting something this constantly unpleasant.

Random Question to the Terry Pratchett readers on my friends list: At what age would you start recommending the Discworld books? I just got asked my opinion (my cousin's thinking of getting one for her nephew), and am having a hard time answering the question.

I feel like it took way too long to get to this point. I understand *why,* BUT...

This is not what I was expecting, though in hindsight I don't know *why*. Also, it's going to need to pick up soon. Oh, and lastly, why are 90% of the characters so hateful?

I am growing heartily sick of this family.

Fairly certain Annie Proulx has decided to deal with an ever-expanding cast of characters by having a completely random catastrophe kill a half a dozen or so off every 50 pages or so. Not saying it's not effective, but it does get a bit tiring. I finally start getting straight who people are, and then suddenly most of them are dead.

I feel like my issue with this is inevitably going to be that there are some characters that I just don't care about. Am just about sick of Duquet.

OF COURSE this is how this is going down. I had thought to try and finish this tonight, but now I'm re-thinking.

Le sigh. Giving this one a second try this week. It's close, but it sidesteps the mark pretty consistently. All of the secondary characters (literally all) are either some combination of vicious/cruel/scheming/awful, or are too stupidly credulous and unobservant to be borne. As for the protagonists, well, let's just say I feel a convention flouting tirade coming on.

I am enjoying the heck out of this so far, despite the odd awkward phrase.

Oh, good. I'm guessing I've reached the part where everyone starts dying in increasingly horrible ways. Delightful.

So far, I have two issues with this. 1. The characterization is somehow off, in the sense that I don't think I buy their choices -specifically these people dropping everything and going to space. Nor do their interactions feel entirely natural to me. 2. I have issues with a narrative structure which holds a particularly horrible axe over your head for an entire book. Hard to enjoy anything then.

Should have started this earlier, because I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to read this. It's certainly not bad, but it's also not easy.

Well, that prologue was spectacularly effective.

Wasn't sure what people were talking about when they mentioned the new GR layout, the Reason: They rolled it out with waves. Just got hit with it this morning. My (very succinct)first reaction: NO. Reaction #2: I do not need my everything on my currently reading shelf to be two inches tall. I know what's on that. Can we start a petition to go back to two layouts ago?

WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS? I feel like this book made more sense when I started it at my friend's house last weekend, slightly tipsy.

I'm beginning to feel like I should start a tally, or make particular note of any Alice Munroe story that doesn't feature a marriage that has either dissolved, or imply that one will dissolve in the future. I suppose any story featuring only single characters must qualify, but that's about it. Given that my recollection of Friend of My Youth is that all stories featured affairs.

Okay, I get that half the plot of this is essentially stranger in a strange land, but it turns out that I have little patience with that sort of thing when the entire first half of a book is just said stranger bumbling around and getting mocked for making mistakes. Most of which could have been avoided if the locals involved actually gave her any information whatsoever in a reasonable fashion. Blah.

Thus far, literally everything about this annoys me. Probably a bad sign. I mean, I'm willing to stick with it (for obvious reasons), but I'm proceeding with definite caution at this point.

Okay, I knew something stupid and overly dramatic was going to happen, but this is stupider than even I could have predicted.

Le sigh. This had in some ways gotten a bit better, but now it's just gone ridiculous, and not in a good way.

I really should have known that while a Regency based on Much Ado sounds delightful in theory, in reality it was almost certain to annoy the crap out of me. I have only myself to blame. Though I do not understand how someone could think Much Ado would be improved by the addition of Another Woman. I get that it's loosely based, but... Le sigh.

And, I am already suspicious for convention-flouting reasons. Bad sign, I feel.

At this point, I may not finish this. It's just too... much.