I have been reading a lot of nonfiction this summer. It’s been fun, but I am also a little starved for fiction, and I have a massive backlist of books to investigate when I get home. Juliet Gardiner: The Thirties and Overpaid, Oversexed, and Over Here When I read Gardiner’s Wartime, I wished it had [...]
Archive for the ‘Unfinished’ Category
Nonfiction
Posted in Picked up randomly, Unfinished, tagged A.D. Nuttall, casual dum which I confess I had forgotten about if I ever knew it, classics, Dead from the Waist Down, Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity, Juliet Gardiner, Mr. Casaubon was a most unpleasant character, Oversexed Overpaid and Over Here, The Stoic in Love, The Thirties, whenever anyone says "bitchy" about an olden days writer I immediately have to become that writer's best friend, William V. Harris, World Wars on August 16, 2010 | 43 Comments »
DNF: Castleview, Gene Wolfe; and what I thought about the new kid
Posted in Misc., Unfinished, tagged Castleview, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Gene Wolfe, I always like it when the Doctor screws up piloting the TARDIS, I mean a time machine must be awfully difficult to operate although the Master never seems to have similar difficulties but I guess that's because of his single-minded commitment to evil, Matt Smith, see what trouble is caused when Jeanette Winterson's books are all checked out?, the new companion is adorable and I do not necessarily mind her short skirts as long as she is tough and clever on April 8, 2010 | 18 Comments »
The jacket copy on the Gene Wolfe books at the library assured me that Gene Wolfe’s most famous books are a series with the word Sun in them, but failed to explain to me which book was the first of that series. Yes, I could have looked it up on the library computers, but I [...]
Winter Rose, Patricia McKillip
Posted in 1 Star, Picked up randomly, Unfinished, tagged fairy tales, fantasy, Patricia McKillip, Tam Lin, Winter Rose on May 4, 2009 | 10 Comments »
I simply cannot get on with Patricia McKillip. I don’t know what it is about her books that displease me. The writing is lovely, her characters are likeable, the plots are interesting – and still, every single time I pick up one of her books, I end up stewing in displeasure and finally asking myself, [...]
Walking Through Walls, Philip Smith
Posted in 1 Star, Picked up randomly, Unfinished, tagged memoirs, nonfiction, Philip Smith, spiritualism, Walking Through Walls on April 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I picked this up at the library a little while ago, and realized when I got it home that I had read about it here before checking it out and completely forgotten. Weird. You wouldn’t think I’d be able to manage being uninterested in a memoir about someone whose father was a faith healer. But [...]
In the Springtime of the Year, Susan Hill
Posted in 1 Star, Heard about from the internets, Unfinished, tagged In the Springtime of the Year, not much plot, Susan Hill on January 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Blech. Everyone’s been reading Susan Hill lately, and her books all sounded so creepy and cool, but I couldn’t finish this. I stayed up late last night reading it, because I kept thinking I would read it until it got interesting and then I would go to sleep and have something to look forward to [...]
The Hills at Home, Nancy Clark
Posted in 2 Stars, Heard about from the internets, Unfinished, tagged dysfunctional families, Nancy Clark, not much plot, The Hills at Home on September 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Did someone die in here or what?” …. “Yes,” she told Andy, “somebody die die in here but I have, of course, since changed the sheets.” I read about this book here, and felt smugly certain that I would not be, as Powell’s review suggested some would be, “deaf to this novel’s considerable charm”, thus [...]
The Chatham School Affair, Thomas H. Cook
Posted in Heard about from the internets, Unfinished, tagged boarding schools, foreshadowing, similes, the chatham school affair, thomas h. cook on February 18, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Meh. Everyone kept comparing other books to The Chatham School Affair with favorable-sounding opinions, so I picked it up at the library a little while ago and started reading it, and I have to confess that I found it somewhat trying. I couldn’t get into the story because of all the frantic foreshadowing. It kept [...]
Saturday, by Ian McEwan
Posted in 1 Star, Heard about in a book, Unfinished, tagged critical acclaim, Ian McEwan, Saturday, too many words on January 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Okay, I didn’t pick this up wholly at random, but it was the only Ian McEwan book at the library although I actually wanted Atonement to see how different it was to the movie, so that’s why I decided to read this one. Anyway I didn’t finish. I have a massive big stack of library [...]
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