Saturday, February 28, 2015

A Few for the Life is Far Too Short Shelf

A collection of recent attempts that I abandoned at various points in the book and for various reasons....

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

This was a disappointment as it held such promise and sounded so quirky/cute.  Sadly, I think it's too easy for quirky to devolve into twee and this crossed the line for me.  The stylistic nonsense (no quotation marks) is something I can sometimes overlook if the story is strong enough. This was just a big yawn.

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

Boy, I got quite a way into this one before it fell apart for me.  Started out with a really intriguing premise and then got way too weird.  I'll pass on this and the series.

Fifty Mice by Daniel Pyne

It's books like this that make me cynical about the publishing world.  It's got a great concept but it's not well-written and it reads like a novelization of a movie.  Rather flat and contrived, so I moved on.  
Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko

Picked this up in the bargain bin; seems to be a business classic but one I'd never heard of.  Was far less interesting than you'd think and far less profound.  Felt like nothing new to me, so I didn't finish it. 

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