Jan > Recent Status Updates

I was going to give up on this. It reminded me way too much of a book (I forget the title) where they guy mentioned his "gift" about every other paragraph. Master Shardlake was mentioning his "disability" in some form at about the rate of once per page. (Not as bad but still annoying.) I am glad I didn't abandon it. It's turning out to be a great read.

I might have to stick a pencil in my eye. There is no reason to mention your "disability," "twisted back" "hunchback" etc 4 times in every chapter. I get it. You are in pain. Move on.

The snark is getting tiresome.

Loving this so far. Lots of interesting cultural bits and pieces.

I am having a terrible time working my way through this book. Don't get me wrong - it is fantastic. I just keep stopping and looking up the art works, and reading about them, and watching videos. Loving it.

Well written. Weaves together the various threads of the story nicely. Some typos and one ref in notes not in bib (me being a picky historian type.)

How does this even make sense:
Shaw: "Her heart rate is off the charts, but she looks so calm."
Helena: "Yours would be too if you were suffocating while your heart was stopped."

Say what? Is her heart on or off?

Helena WHY are you letting Slade go on and on? Don't you know that only leads to trouble?

How does Helena keep going back if her own chair is not built yet?

Someone PLEASE TELL ME WHY you LAUNCHED an ATTACK on the Virals AT NIGHT????? Oh my god I am so disgusted I might need to slam this book shut.

Ok here is an example of the writing that annoys me:

"Death had begun to ease across the boy's face. 'Oh,' he said. 'Oh.' Then something seemed to catch in he chest and he was still."

It's just so... so... juvenile is the closest I can come.

"littles" is as annoying as "younglings."

Parts of this remind me of Stephen King. Parts of it get stuck in repetition, hence parts of it require slogging through to get to the next development. Most telling - I look forward to picking it up and continuing to read the story.

Things are always more complicated than what you learned in High School History class.

1. The prose here is...tedious.
2. Not reality= Going all zen to kill a deer with a stick when you have a gun. Reality=Indiana Jones pulls out his gun and shoots the swordsman
3. Winston is a very suburban dog. Not sure what the point is of including him when all you do is yell "Winston! Winston! Winston! Winston!"
4. I predict that Steven is going to eat his gun.
5. All P-A characters eventually lose their gear.

Not convinced that the Battle of Tippecanoe was motivated by competing religious visions for occupying the West.

1. Stop stealing each other's horses.
2. Quit killing each other for laughs.

Hard to read. Lots of bloody torturing and chopping and shooting. Makes me cringe to read about the white's thoughtless brutality against the Shawnee trying to protect their lands and the equally brutal Shawnee backlash.

I keep being blindsided. For example, Dalgliesh asks the widow about her husband's religious experience in St. Matthews - wait - WUT? What religious experience??? The priest said he saw stigmata, but other than that, there was no indication at all that Berowne has any kind of religious anything. But there is his wife saying that God told Berowne to go the Estate Agent, but not which one.

What happened to the dog?

Chapter 13 is dated 3 June 1846. Chaps 12 and 14, which cover the same happenings, are dated June 1847. Annoying.

This book has odd pacing.

This is getting to be a confusing slog. Van R jumps back and forth and back and forth while he is making his points, which makes it very hard to judge the veracity or coherence of those points. Also - his in-your-face "only I have the proper attitude toward the Congolese" is starting to get to me.