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The Leopard Prince, Elizabeth Hoyt - improbable but hot cross-class Georgian romance
Full Moon Rising, Keri Arthur - paranormal romance; most effectively used as toilet paper
In Your Face, Lia Mills - harrowing memoir of the author's treatment for oral cancer, stunningly well-written
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness - 1992 play about hostages in Beirut
The Weir, Conor MacPherson - ghost stories and chauvinism in rural Ireland
Outer Darkness, Cormac McCarthy - brother and sister have child and... oh, I give up. Cormac McCarthy hates the human race. End of story. Next author.
Making Babies, Anne Enright - the 2007 Booker winner ruminates on the process of growing, having and raising babies. Surprisingly boring.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera - Fucking brilliant.
Eden, Eugene O'Brien - I do not like Irish drama. I do not like it in a theatre, I do not like it in a two-seater.
After Easter, Anne Devlin - Northern Irish woman struggles to find identity in the modern world.
Howie the Rookie, Mark O'Rowe - Dublin louts struggle to find identity in the modern world.
The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry - Brilliant writing felled by lousy ending.
Tithe, Holly Black - Enjoyable YA about Faeries running amok in New Jersey.
Things I started Reading and didn't like enough to finish - Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton - Anthony Trollope re-imagined with dragons is still not as good as Anthony Trollope on his own; The Lies of Locke Lamorra, Scott Lynch - If you've read one fantasy novel about a dashing thief, you've read them all. If you haven't, I recommend reading this one.
Creation in Death, JD Robb - standard near-future policier from Nora Robert's alter-ego.
No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy - Brilliant prose undercut by the emotional void at the center of the novel. And I don't mean Anton Chigur.
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaugh - Werewolves and vampires and talk radio should be more exciting. Some interesting glosses on the werewolf mythos but fundamentally nothing Kelly Armstrong doesn't do better.
Rabbit, Run, John Updike - Story of archetypal mid-20th century shitheel; well written but justifies every bad thing a woman has ever said about a man
The Water Demon, Judith Merkle Riley - not as sublimely wonderful as her previous Margaret of Ashbury books but better than no Margaret of Ashbury book at all
Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - Best comic book ever? Not quite but still striking and thought-provoking.
Duchess By Night, Eloisa James - I think Eloisa and I are done: the friendships and period detail that raised her earlier work above the usual order of bodice-ripper trash has largely faded in favour of more and more outrageous (and, ironically, conventional by standards of the genre) plots.
Various Romance Novels Not Worth Noting - six (including Elizabeth Hoyt's latest) and counting
Fight Club, Chuck Palahiuk - Has the familiar first novel problem of endings but is written with verve and vigor. Justly famed.
Delicious, Sherry Thomas - despite an improbably plot, the strength of the writing and genuinely original characters keeps this one going strong
The Fighter, Craig Davidson - sort of but not quite Canada's answer to Chuck Palahiuk, Davidson specializes in visceral descriptions of the most overtly macho of domains, the boxing ring, the dogfighting pit. Like the main character, The Fighter goes off the rails a bit towards the end but still an promising look at violence and manhood.
Strangers in Death, JD Robb - standard near-future policier from Nora Robert's alter-ego. About 4,700 times better-written than Twilight
Ironside, Holly Black - Kaye, Corny and Roiben return to face down the Queen of the Seelie Court in the sequel to Holly Black's Tithe - Black specializes in urban environments, makes you smell the cigarettes and taste the coffee as well as the fear, desperation and uncertainty of the twilight country between adolescence and adulthood. 10,000 times more authentic and better written than TWILIGHT and likely to be read by a fraction of that audience.
Falling Man, Don DeLillo - sometimes you read books that make you question why you want to become a writer and sometimes you read books that remind you 'yes, that' - the joy of a turn of phrase, an image captured on paper, a sensuous thought held in a web of words. Falling Man is that kind of book.
A Lick of Frost, Laurell K. Hamilton - it takes a writer as genuinely unskilled and unimaginative as Stephanie Meyer to make me appreciate LKH. Lick still isn't as well-written as your average Penthouse letter but nest to Twilight, it looks like bloody Ian McEwan.
The Death of Captain America, vol. 1&2, Ed Brubacker and Steve Epting - Brubaker also co-wrote Gotham Central with Greg Rucka, and with Cap, he shows the same talent for writing real characters within the usually stale and fantasical world of superheroes. Recommended.
Generation Kill, Evan Wright - A fascinating grunt's-eye view of how the US & Britain went wrong in Iraq from the beginning; better than the TV show (which was pretty good).
Stiff, Mary Roach - the strange life of cadavers.
Ride the Fire, Pamela Clare - good but not great pioneer romance set on the frontier during the French and Indian War. Made me want to check the demographics of actual settlers - surely they weren't all 18-year-old naifs?
The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon - it's just good, okay?
King of Morning, Queen of Day, Ian MacDonald - MacDonald takes on Yeat's legacy in a striking portrait of 20th century Dublin.
Swallowing Darkness, Laurell K. Hamilton - the woman still can't structure a narrative to save her life as the sexcapades of Faerie Princess Merry Gentry draws (hopefully) toward a happily-ever-after.
Full Moon Rising, Keri Arthur - paranormal romance; most effectively used as toilet paper
In Your Face, Lia Mills - harrowing memoir of the author's treatment for oral cancer, stunningly well-written
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness - 1992 play about hostages in Beirut
The Weir, Conor MacPherson - ghost stories and chauvinism in rural Ireland
Outer Darkness, Cormac McCarthy - brother and sister have child and... oh, I give up. Cormac McCarthy hates the human race. End of story. Next author.
Making Babies, Anne Enright - the 2007 Booker winner ruminates on the process of growing, having and raising babies. Surprisingly boring.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera - Fucking brilliant.
Eden, Eugene O'Brien - I do not like Irish drama. I do not like it in a theatre, I do not like it in a two-seater.
After Easter, Anne Devlin - Northern Irish woman struggles to find identity in the modern world.
Howie the Rookie, Mark O'Rowe - Dublin louts struggle to find identity in the modern world.
The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry - Brilliant writing felled by lousy ending.
Tithe, Holly Black - Enjoyable YA about Faeries running amok in New Jersey.
Things I started Reading and didn't like enough to finish - Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton - Anthony Trollope re-imagined with dragons is still not as good as Anthony Trollope on his own; The Lies of Locke Lamorra, Scott Lynch - If you've read one fantasy novel about a dashing thief, you've read them all. If you haven't, I recommend reading this one.
Creation in Death, JD Robb - standard near-future policier from Nora Robert's alter-ego.
No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy - Brilliant prose undercut by the emotional void at the center of the novel. And I don't mean Anton Chigur.
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaugh - Werewolves and vampires and talk radio should be more exciting. Some interesting glosses on the werewolf mythos but fundamentally nothing Kelly Armstrong doesn't do better.
Rabbit, Run, John Updike - Story of archetypal mid-20th century shitheel; well written but justifies every bad thing a woman has ever said about a man
The Water Demon, Judith Merkle Riley - not as sublimely wonderful as her previous Margaret of Ashbury books but better than no Margaret of Ashbury book at all
Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - Best comic book ever? Not quite but still striking and thought-provoking.
Duchess By Night, Eloisa James - I think Eloisa and I are done: the friendships and period detail that raised her earlier work above the usual order of bodice-ripper trash has largely faded in favour of more and more outrageous (and, ironically, conventional by standards of the genre) plots.
Various Romance Novels Not Worth Noting - six (including Elizabeth Hoyt's latest) and counting
Fight Club, Chuck Palahiuk - Has the familiar first novel problem of endings but is written with verve and vigor. Justly famed.
Delicious, Sherry Thomas - despite an improbably plot, the strength of the writing and genuinely original characters keeps this one going strong
The Fighter, Craig Davidson - sort of but not quite Canada's answer to Chuck Palahiuk, Davidson specializes in visceral descriptions of the most overtly macho of domains, the boxing ring, the dogfighting pit. Like the main character, The Fighter goes off the rails a bit towards the end but still an promising look at violence and manhood.
Strangers in Death, JD Robb - standard near-future policier from Nora Robert's alter-ego. About 4,700 times better-written than Twilight
Ironside, Holly Black - Kaye, Corny and Roiben return to face down the Queen of the Seelie Court in the sequel to Holly Black's Tithe - Black specializes in urban environments, makes you smell the cigarettes and taste the coffee as well as the fear, desperation and uncertainty of the twilight country between adolescence and adulthood. 10,000 times more authentic and better written than TWILIGHT and likely to be read by a fraction of that audience.
Falling Man, Don DeLillo - sometimes you read books that make you question why you want to become a writer and sometimes you read books that remind you 'yes, that' - the joy of a turn of phrase, an image captured on paper, a sensuous thought held in a web of words. Falling Man is that kind of book.
A Lick of Frost, Laurell K. Hamilton - it takes a writer as genuinely unskilled and unimaginative as Stephanie Meyer to make me appreciate LKH. Lick still isn't as well-written as your average Penthouse letter but nest to Twilight, it looks like bloody Ian McEwan.
The Death of Captain America, vol. 1&2, Ed Brubacker and Steve Epting - Brubaker also co-wrote Gotham Central with Greg Rucka, and with Cap, he shows the same talent for writing real characters within the usually stale and fantasical world of superheroes. Recommended.
Generation Kill, Evan Wright - A fascinating grunt's-eye view of how the US & Britain went wrong in Iraq from the beginning; better than the TV show (which was pretty good).
Stiff, Mary Roach - the strange life of cadavers.
Ride the Fire, Pamela Clare - good but not great pioneer romance set on the frontier during the French and Indian War. Made me want to check the demographics of actual settlers - surely they weren't all 18-year-old naifs?
The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon - it's just good, okay?
King of Morning, Queen of Day, Ian MacDonald - MacDonald takes on Yeat's legacy in a striking portrait of 20th century Dublin.
Swallowing Darkness, Laurell K. Hamilton - the woman still can't structure a narrative to save her life as the sexcapades of Faerie Princess Merry Gentry draws (hopefully) toward a happily-ever-after.
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