Archive for February, 2010

“Cat’s Claw,” Amber Benson

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Pros: Incredibly imaginative and creative; silly & fun
Cons: Too slapstick & melodramatic for my taste; aforementioned material pairs oddly with more dramatic and adult moments
Rating: 3 out of 5

Review copy courtesy of Penguin Group.
Also posted on Epinions.com.

 

Calliope Reaper-Jones seems like just another flaky, fashion-obsessed New York girl, stuck in a boring job and trying to make ends meet. But she’s far from ordinary. She’s Death’s daughter, immortal, magically-inclined, and bound and determined to stay as far away from the family business (Death, Inc.) as possible. Somehow, however, she keeps getting dragged back into it. This time, Cerberus is calling in the favor she owes him. And if she doesn’t pay up, little Hellhound-pup Runt will get taken away from her new happy family. Paying off that favor is going to be more than a little difficult, however, involving trips to Purgatory, Las Vegas, and Ancient Egypt… not to mention dealing with some very unsavory supernatural types.

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Posted in Fantasy, Horror & Paranormal | Permalink | 1 Comment »

“Pleasure and Purpose” by Megan Hart

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Pros: Extremely well-developed characters emotionally; very easy to relate to both the men and women.
Cons: Not all readers may enjoy reading about the sharper pleasures that the characters enjoy.
Rating: 5 out of 5

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group

 

The Order of Solace is an organization of women trained in the arts of pleasure and service. Those in need of solace can request a Handmaiden, and it will be her responsibility to serve her patron until he or she finds at least a moment of solace, at which time her service to them is over. Three men, the Crown Prince of Firth and his two friends, each request a Handmaiden one after the other. A dark moment in their past has affected them throughout the course of their lives, leaving them emotionally damaged. Can these three Handmaidens bring them the solace they so deeply crave?

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Posted in Fantasy, Romance & Erotica | Permalink | 1 Comment »

“A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters,” eds. Greenberg & Hughes

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Pros: Fantastic execution of a delicious premise
Cons: As always for an anthology: not every story will suit you equally
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review copy courtesy of Penguin Group.
Also posted on Epinions.com.

 

Women, monsters, and ass-kicking—what more could I ask for? A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, is a collection of thirteen stories about strong women taking on monsters in a variety of settings and genres. The stories proceed in chronological order from the old West to space-faring SF, so you won’t even get mental whiplash along the way.

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Posted in Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 2 Comments »

Coming Soon!

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

I’ve finished reading the anthology A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters, as well as Laurell K. Hamilton’s Flirt, so you can expect to see reviews of those soon. I’m in the middle of Amber Benson’s Cat’s Claw, so that will probably be next. I also have review copies of two Stonewall Kitchens cookbooks, concerning breakfasts and winter celebrations, so in a few weeks (once we’ve had a chance to test out some recipes!) you’ll hear about those!

In other words, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it looks like the insomnia’s on the mend and I’ll be back to expounding on what I loved & hated about the books I’ll finally be reading again. I hope your own years are starting off well! :)

Update on 2/18: I’ve put together the initial scaffolding of four reviews: the above-mentioned three, plus Walter Greatshell’s “Xombies: Apocalypticon.” Now that I’m awake and have gotten myself moving again, I hope to work on those reviews over the next few days, plus start reading a couple of more thought-intensive books that I’ve had to delay: Daniel Rabuzzi’s The Choir Boats: Volume One of Longing for Yount and Carrie Host’s Between Me and the River. We’ve also made the first couple of recipes out of the breakfast cookbook and a bacon cookbook we picked up over Christmas, so reviews of those will probably show up in the next few weeks!

There’s something a bit terrifying about having to catch up on nearly three years’ worth of insomnia-induced lack of productive output, but I’ve finally managed to pick a spot and start digging, which ought to make things easier.

Posted in Notes & Upcoming | Permalink | 1 Comment »

“Notorious Royal Marriages” by Leslie Carroll

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Pros: Interesting look at the private lives of some of the more famous (or infamous) European royals.
Cons: The genealogy can get confusing because many names were passed down through generations.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group

 

Many of us are curious about the private lives of royalty, both in the past and the present. What could be more tantalizing than the relationships (or lack thereof) that occur between the royal sheets? Leslie Carroll has created a fascinating read about not only some of the more famous unsuccessful royal marriages, but of successful ones as well. It’s a journey into the past showing that while some things change throughout the years, others stay the same.

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Posted in Other Nonfiction | Permalink | No Comments »

The Amazon/Macmillan Kerfuffle

Monday, February 1st, 2010

So, in case you haven’t heard yet, there was a blow-up between Amazon and Macmillan. It only deserves mention here because it had a potentially huge impact on readers and authors: Amazon and Macmillan had a dispute over e-book pricing, and Amazon’s solution to this was to pull every single Macmillan book from their catalog, physical AND electronic. I.e., they basically said, “if we can’t play by my rules then I’m taking my ball and going home.” Since Macmillan is one of the big publishers, and a lot of buyers use Amazon, this would have seriously hurt both authors and readers with respect to the accessibility of many of the books we all love.

I don’t want to get into who’s right or who’s wrong, particularly since there are plenty of different sides to it. Some folks are mad about the high price of e-books and blame Macmillan for not wanting to allow Amazon to sell e-books cheaply. Others point out that Amazon wanted the benefits of being both a wholesaler and a retailer in the pricing agreement, and instead of trying to find a compromise, they took the schoolyard bully approach of trying to strong-arm Macmillan into caving.

At any rate, I know there are a lot of people who are now refusing to do business with Amazon because they feel so strongly about the matter. We’re considering whether or not to look into switching to some other bookstore’s affiliate program, and if you have an opinion, please feel free to render it in the comments. We do want to continue using an affiliate program of some kind, as it helps to pay for things like server space, bandwidth usage, and domain name registration. The attraction of Amazon is that they have so far carried pretty much everything, so I know that no matter what our readers want, they can find it there. However, if Amazon’s going to start using tactics like this, then that might not be the case any longer anyway.

It would be a pain in the butt to go through and replace all the Amazon book links with some other, but if folks feel strongly about it, we’ll do it.

Opinions? Thoughts? Who do you want to buy your books from online?

 

While I’m here, I should mention that it seems like my insomnia is getting better, so hopefully soon I’ll be reading & posting regularly again. In the meantime, I have a review from Renee to post today or tomorrow!

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Posted in Book Blogging | Permalink | 1 Comment »