Vampires, Polygamy, Superheroes, and Possession

Since my last post I finished the nonfiction title I was reading, listened to the second audio book of a paranormal spy series, watched a film adaptation of a Man Booker Prize winning title, and also read an urban fantasy novel and a romance short story. Yikes! Lots of catch-up to do today, so I'll try to keep this brief!

Joe, Alina, Vicki and Val Darger, "Love Times Three" - nonfiction
I've been re-watching the HBO series "Big Love" over the past two months, so I was naturally intrigued when this true story of plural marriage came across my desk. In fact, aspects of the Darger's life were the direct inspiration for events in the TV series, specifically the season one finale, so if you are a fan of the show I definitely suggest checking out this book.  Polygamy has been in the media a lot in the past few years, from news stories about 'compounds' to the reality TV show "Sister Wives", but this is easily the most humanizing account I've come across. The Darger's story really made me look at my own views of marriage, in particular the legality of a marriage between consenting adults. I'm a big supporter of marriage equality, and it's really difficult to see why their marriage shouldn't be legal. So, absolutely worth a read if you're in the mood the expand your world view!

Christopher Farnsworth, "The President's Vampire" - audio book
I love this series! It's a vampire spy story, dark but hilarious, with lots of conspiracy theory 'quotes' which make it feel more realistic.  I listened to the first book last year and I've been really looking forward to listening to this one, and it was everything I could hope for. Terrorist plots and snark abound, and Bronson Pinchot does a fantastic job narrating, really brilliant. His delivery is perfect for secret agent vampire Nathaniel Cade, and just annoying enough to not make me hate sidekick Zach Barrows. I highly recommend this series.

Kelly Meding, "Trance" - urban fantasy
OMG! This novel is fantastic! Set in an alternate near-future, this superhero story has everything! Action, comedy, drama (I cried), suspense, romance - you want it, it's here. I love superhero mythology, but I'm always a bit reluctant to read the Marvel/DC novels because I've never been into comic books, and I'm worried that I'm missing out on part of the story. This is a brand new universe, though, completely unrelated to the established hero lines - and it's delicious! I've had Kelly Meding on my TBR pile for a little over a year now, and she does not disappoint. I can't wait to read more of her books!

Rachael Herron, "Honeymooning" - short story
I adore Rachael Herron's writing, she's brilliant, warm, funny and pretty much everything I'd want in a best friend. This one is a novella in her romance/knitting series 'Cypress Hollow Yarn', taking us along on an unexpected Hawaiian honeymoon, and it's so funny I was giggling out loud on the bus. The driver thinks I'm crazy, but it's totally worth it!

"Possession" - film adaptation
I wasn't entirely enamoured with A.S. Byatt's "Possession" when I read it the first time last year, but it has been on my mind quite a lot recently. I didn't want to take the time to re-read it right now, so I decided to check out the 2002 film adaptation. It didn't suck. Obviously it's not possible to faithfully recreate such a massive and detailed story in a film, much less a film that isn't even two hours long, but they did an O.K. job. It did deepen my overall understanding of the story, but the novel was (of course) much better.  I guess I'm going to have to give in and find time to re-read it anyway....

But, for now, my next novel is going to be the first of Mercedes Lackey's 'Five Hundred Kingdoms' series, "The Fairy Godmother". Looks like it'll be a fun one!

Happy reading!

Life Is Too Short...

Life is too short to dwell on disappointing novels, so I'm going to be brief.  I finished reading Paul Christopher's "Michelangelo's Notebook" on Friday, which took me 15 days total. It wasn't a difficult read, but I didn't care enough to pick it up outside my designated 'reading time', and some of my reading time was spent with other things... like Twitter, and even Facebook.  You know it's bad when Facebook is a more captivating read than your current novel!

Finn Ryan, to me, was barely more than a sex toy in this story. She was right in the middle of all the action, but not really driving any of the story. I have a hard time seeing how a series could be built around a character who is essentially the sexy sidekick, so it was disappointing. Beyond the painfully misogynistic portrayal of the alleged heroine, this book was absolutely littered with product placement. Honestly, I didn't even recognize half the brand names used to describe a character's appearance! As an occasional description it can really make a character, but because it is used so often, it doesn't really add anything to the story, which is why I found it annoying. It tells me more about the author than the individual characters.

So, I'm not going to be rushing to read the rest of the series any time soon, although I won't rule out picking one up someday in the future if I have nothing else to read.  It wasn't horrible, just not as good as I had hoped it would be.  Another customer told me the Andy McDermott "Nina Wilde" series is better, so I may try that out sometime. I'm currently taking a mini-fiction break, reading "Love Times Three" by the Darger's, which is very interesting and quite well written.  I'm nearly finished, though, and my next fiction read is the first book in Kelly Meding's MetaWars series, "Trance" - which I'm really looking forward to!

Happy reading!