Book Nook

[cathepsut]

Divine Misdemeanours by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


More of the same. Not worse or better than the previous ones of the series. I am a fan, so I will keep reading the series -- I want to know where it will all end. If I wasn't a Hamilton-fan, I would probably dislike it a lot.

Book Nook

[cathepsut]

Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I bought this at Borders in Chicago... :-)

My reason for choosing it: The blurp on the front cover recommending it was by Patricia Briggs.

Geat fun! I almost read it in a day. The next one of the series is out already and I willdefinitely get it. Our heroine is a bounty hubter for all things that go bmp in the night. There are shapeshifters, vampires, bridge trolls, the fey...

Nothing really unusual or terribly new, but an entertaining read nonetheless, if you like Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs or Carrie Vaughn.

Book Nook

[cathepsut]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Finally picked this up. Off to a slow, but not uninteresting start. Around page 200 I got a bit fed-up with the huge amount of details and the never ending repetition of all the facts and family connections. I skimmed for a while until the action picked up again and from that point onwards I could not put it down anymore. It was great, full of suspense and I loved it. I wish the first 200 pages could have been like the rest of the book. Just stick with it, it's worth it!

***
Night by Elie Wiesel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well written, very clear and stark prose. I found it a little hard to emphasize with the character, as his style was so sober, almost detached from the horiffic things happening to him.

Book Nook

[cathepsut]

Wallpaper City Guide: Chicago by Editors of Wallpaper Magazine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As a guide book only of limited value, as it is very small and only shows a very limited amount of things. But it does a great job shwoing awesome photos of a lot of buildings, which helped me identify many of them in the mass of Chicago's skyscrapers -- something my Lonely Planet Guide was lacking.

This book is only a little teaser to wet your appetite, you definitely need a more thorough travel guide to go with it.

***
Lonely Planet Chicago City Guide by Karla Zimmerman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Excellent guide to Chicago. I was constantly cross-referencing everything I saw, I planned my daytrips with it and overall thought the info provided was great.

Two things that could have been better:

More photos to help with orientation.

It wasn't the most recent edition, so the entry fees shown for attractions were totally outdated. Time for a new edition!

Bookcrossing experiences

[yvi]

Four years after my first try, I registered at the bookcrossing website again today. I didn't have much luck with people reporting back afterreleasi8ng a book into the wild back then. I can see that Germany has gotten quite active in the meantime (6,400 released books in 30 days compared with the USA's 8,000 seems to imply we are actually more active over here :)).

Anyway, how was your experience with releasing books into the wild so far?

Who is your favorite paranormal television show and/or movie?

[cathepsut]

Go and check this out first: Which came first? The book or the movie/TV Series?

I really liked the Dresden Files, I think they were pretty well done and close to the books. The first season of True Blood was really, really good. I did not like the second season, the storyline just did not work for me, I thought it was silly and over the top. So I never bothered with the third season.

I did like the Twilight books, but always thought that they are a bit on the shallow side and the movies are even thinner on the content. I like my stories to be a bit meatier.

I am a fairly old fart, so my paranormal reading experience actually started with Bram Stoker and what really got me going was Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice — way back when, only a couple of years after it had been published. And to this day the movie is still one of my favourites, despite disliking Tom Cruise as Lestat a lot. Brad Pitt was great and saved the movie for me.

I think the problem with people loving the screen adaptations and not giving a toss about the books is not restricted to the Supernatural. It’s a general phenomenon. You just have to face it, avid readers are the weird ones out. People that never read unfortunately are the majority!