Saturday, November 24, 2007

A decided lack of mystery in the mystery section

I have read mystery books. Certainly mystery tv shows (although you'd never turn a tv on these days without catching part of one mystery show or another). But I've never been a big fan. I think it's because I'm fairly good at reading foreshadowing. It's often obvious to me when an author is purposefully leading me along to a certain character while holding several other less likely suspects in the wings to side slam me with. I see it, and like those overly sentimental books like Daniele Steel, I don't like it. I don't want to be toyed with. So, other than Janet Evanovich novels which I love for their humor, eccentric sociology of the state of New Jersey, and the charming romance, I generally dislike mysteries.

So I gave mysteries another shot as one of my less read generas for LATI. I read a book titled 'Whisky Sour' a Jack Daniels mystery by somebody who's name I forget at the moment but I will look up and add later.

I liked the book enough that it was no big fight to make my self slug thorough it but I wouldn't read another part of the series. I liked the again slightly sassy female lead named Jack Daniels (my affinity for the drink is, I admit the reason I picked up the book) and I liked the humor in the book. Not as sassy as Evanovich but still it's own quality of fun.

The murder element whoever was a bit over the top even for me. The victims in this book are tortured by this crazy serial killer before they are killed. The perverted sicko who rapes the massive stab wounds he makes in his victims. This gruesome element would make me hesitate to recommend it to many patrons. The main character is also 40ish, and I find readers often relate best to main characters in their same peer group. So finding someone in their 40s who isn't upset by raped stab wounds...that puts the book in a difficult category. I am sure some of my patrons would be fine reading it like me but there is nothing special to redeem the book.

I am somewhat familiar with mystery titles as my mother is an avid reader but this book has not swayed me to the genre. I think I'll stick to my TV shows like 'Bones' and 'Pushing up Daisies' for my mystery fix.

-M

Monday, November 5, 2007

My 1st YA book for LATI

For LATI I am required to read 2 books outside a genre I normally read as well as 2 young adult books. I am a slow and fickle reader, so as soon as I found out about this project I began to get started, trying to find books I might be interested in and starting to read them. I am actually very bad about reading books I am not interested in. I quickly loose interest and often leave books (even the ones I chose to read for fun) in the middle and never come back. I am not that excited about reading 2 books outside my usual genres. I do read from a wide variety of books (although I do have my somewhat unique criteria for what I chose to read. I tend to read things that are a bit on the eccentric side). And the genres I do not read in (like inspirational books especially) I am strongly disinterested in. But I was looking forward to the YA part of the assignment. I have actually read several YA books throughout the past year on my own even though it is not a section I am particularly responsible for. I still enjoy YA books and I was glad to have an excuse to read a few.

The first YA book I chose to read Is tittled "Bloody Jack: being an account of the curious adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy" By L.A. Meyer.

I LOVED the book. I always enjoy a sassy female lead and this book has a wonderfully spunky young female lead character. The humor in the book also kept my attention, and the plot was high paced and full of action.

The book did have that YA/J children's book quality of letting every bad situation be a near miss that every important character, including the main character, comes out of alright in the end.

I would recommend this book to young readers, and to librarians leading books for young readers because it is an engaging book and it lends it's self to discussion of current and historic gender roles and class distinction. It is also the first book in a longer series that would encourage readers to keep on reading.

In fact, I enjoyed the book so much, I intend to read the rest of the series myself.

I have a few other YA books checked out to read for my second book but I will try to get one of the 2 adult books outside my normal genre's under my belt so I'm off to read "Hard Core Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality" by Brad Warner a Non-Fiction book.

-M