Monday, February 03, 2014

January 2013 Books

City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte (library book) - I wanted to like this, but I'm clearly too big of a prude for it. One of the first scenes is a woman having sex with someone with whom she has never exchanged words.  I found the main character to be insufferable and the plot to be trite.

Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker (library book) - A really well-done, accessible history of the earliest blood transfusions. I had heard about this book when the author was on the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast and I really wanted to read it. My warning to you: it has some gross stuff in it.  Maybe don't read it when you're eating breakfast.

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider (library book) - This book gets rave reviews, but the plot is reallllly predictable.  Kid gets into a car accident, meets a girl whose brother is mysteriously not around anymore...I'll let you figure out why. Schneider takes 300 pages to get there.  I will admit, though, that the two main protagonists are really well done. I would give this book a solid 3.5/5 stars on the strength of the Ezra and Cassidy characters alone.  You rarely see young adult books with that kind of imperfectly perfect characterization.

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card (library book) - Card writes good books.  I liked this one maybe even more than I liked Ender's Game.  I do wish Card wasn't such a weirdo, but he writes good books.

2 comments:

  1. I also hated that City of Dark Magic. God, what a twit that character was. Glad to know it wasn't just me.

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