What A Surprise! Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

This week The Broke and The Bookish want to know what are the Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did.  I decided to split the list, 5 each.  They're in no particular order.  Hopefully my ramblings are understandable.

I thought I'd like MORE:

(aka, Disappointed)

1. Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations, by Alexander McCall Smith - Everyone seems to love Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books.  I'd heard such good things about them. When I saw a copy of Heavenly Date and Other  Flirtations not only did I pick it up because of Smith's reputation, but I love short stories and I liked the title.  I was sadly disappointed.  I've since read another of Smith's books, a novel, not No. 1 Ladies, and also didn't really like it.  He's not a bad writer, just something about his style doesn't appeal to me.

2. Girl meets boy, by Ali Smith - Girl meets boy is a book from the Canongate Myth Series.  Up until this installment, I had enjoyed each Myth book.  They're all by different authors, so perhaps there was bound to be one I didn't really like.  It's a slim 149 pages, but it took ages for me to get through.

3. Undead Reckoning, by Mike Slabon - I was really looking forward to this self-published zombie-fantasy novel.  I've been getting more into zombies (perhaps blame Walking Dead) and I want to support self-published authors and Slabon seems like a genuinely nice guy.  I really wanted to love this book, but sadly didn't.

4. The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, by Alan Bradley - Why do people love The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie?  I expected to love it too.  They synopsis, what other people were saying, all indicated to me that I would enjoy the book.  I found Flavia so irritating, I just couldn't handle it.

5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen - Unlike the other books on this list, I really liked Pride and Prejudice.  I loved Lizzy and Darcy; all the characters were fantastic.  It's a great story.  I read it after I read Sense and Sensibility, which I loved.  The way people spoke about Pride and Prejudice, I expected to love it more than Sense and Sensibility and that just didn't happen.  So while I still enjoyed it, I didn't love it the way I expected.  Right now, Sense and Sensibility is my favourite Austen.

I thought I'd like LESS:

(aka, Pleasantly Surprised)

1. The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling - So many people were complaining about The Casual Vacancy.  It wasn't Harry Potter, it was long, it was boring.  If you went in expecting it to be like Harry Potter then yes, you'd be disappointed, but I knew it wouldn't be.  I read the synopsis.  More than one it was mentioned that this was a book for adults.  It actually reminded me a bit of a Stephen King book.  I really liked it.

2. The Deception of Livvy Higgs, by Donna Morrissey - I knew I'd like Livvy Higgs, I just didn't know I'd love it!  I could seriously gush about it, but it would probably be simpler to read my review.

3. Living Dead In Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2), by Charlaine Harris - I read the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark and liked it.  I didn't think it was spectacular, but I had a box set and figured I'd eventually get to the rest of the books.  A while later I read Living Dead In Dallas and that was the surprise   Book 2 hooked me into the series.  I read five books in about two weeks, which is pretty fast for me.  Then, I borrowed book 8 because I just had to know what happened next. (I'm not going to talk about the most recent books.)

4. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee - I figured Lee's novel would be okay.  There would be some historical/societal/social stuff, but I didn't know.  I didn't know how amazing this novel really is and why EVERYONE should read it.  Everyone.

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts, by Douglas Adams - My hubby told me to read it.  He usually only reads fantasy, but here he was trying to get me to read sci-fi.  I didn't know how awesome  Hitchhiker's  was.  I want to re-read it.  Multiple times.

Undead Reckoning

I really wanted to love Undead Reckoning.  The cover attracted me (designed by the author's wife.)  The synopsis sounded really interesting.  I've been getting more and more interested in Zombie books in the last few years.  I also like supporting local talent and independent/self-published authors.  I entered the Goodreads giveaway and lost.  Then the author, Mike Slabon, contacted me and wanted to send me a copy (for an honest review).  I was excited.  Of course I said, yes.  So, I really wanted to love Undead Reckoning.

What was the point of meeting up with the different groups of characters during the beginning quarter/third of the book?  The spider guy was disturbing and unnecessary. What was the point of the teenagers? Just to make Eddie mad?  Eddie Griffin, the main character, had enough childhood trauma to show character growth and development.  I couldn't see a reason to introduce characters just to have them die twenty pages later.  It also took me a long time to care about Eddie and you need to care about what happens to the main characters of a story pretty much immediately, in my opinion.  I still don't know if I care about Jim Shrike (Eddie's companion through most of the book).  I don't know if I like him, either, though I don't think it's required to "like" the main characters.  Eventually, I did want to know what happened to them, but I think all those additional characters coming and going were delaying the connection.  There were so many extraneous sub-plots and characters, I think they took the focus off Eddie Griffin and Jim Shrike's journey.

I'm also afraid I have an issue with the women are portrayed in the story.  They're all hot; athletic, big boobs and irresistibly attractive.  They are either overly sexual/sexualized or they're a victim.  In the first quarter of the book, the Afro-Saxon that Eddie meets says something like, "Even our women are to be feared." Was that just thrown that in to appease the women readers of his book?  I know that Major McAllister, Jim's "love-interest" is a strong military officer and supposedly has the respect of the men under her command, but why aren't there any woman under her command?  Also, how many military women would run up to a man they're happy to see and throw their arms around them?  It seemed unrealistic.  People in the military learn discipline, right?  They have self-control.  I can't imagine a woman (or man for that matter), who has to maintain the respect of all the other people at their base, run up to someone they were involved with and have no inhibitions.

I may have listed a few dislikes, but I did not hate this book.  The flow was good.  It didn't stall and their was always something happenening, even if it was riduculous.  (Seriously, a giant ass?  Was that just so the author could say "ass" and "shit" repeatedly for fifty pages?) The fight scenes were well written.  You could definitely picture the blood and guts flying, the swords, missiles, hammers and guns.  I think the fight scenes were the highlight of the novel for me.  There were a lot of them, so it kept me reading.  I think there was a lot of potential; the plot was unique and diverse.  The characters had interesting qualities, but most lacked depth.  I really wanted to love Undead Reckoning, instead I think it was just okay.

Words!

I know it's been a while, but I have words that I want to share!

Stately Argosy

*I started Word(s) of the Week ages ago so that I could share all the new, brilliant, crazy words I kept coming across in my readings of fiction, articles, blogs, etc.*

From Sonnets From The Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

Sonnet II:

Amerce: To impose a fine on.

Oxford * Wikitionary

Sonnet III:

Athwart: From side to side; Across the path (of something); In opposition of.

Oxford * Wikitionary

An Argosy

Sonnet XIX:

Argosies: Plural of argosy

Argosy: A large merchant ship.

Oxford * Wikitionary

Sonnet XIX:

Purpureal: Of a purple colour.

Wikitionary

Via Wikimedia Commons

Sonnet XXVII:

Asphodel: Eurasian plant of the lily family, typically having long slender leaves and flowers borne on a spike.

Oxford * Wikitionary

Sonnet XLIV:

Eglantine: A Eurasian rose, Rosa eglanteria, having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers and red hips. Another word for Sweet Briar.

Oxford * Wikitionary

via Wikimedia Commons

From Undead Reckoning, by Mike Slabon

(pg 337) Wattle and Daub: "Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw."

Wikipedia

When It Gets Chilly, I’ll Be Curling Up With… The Top Ten Books On My Fall To-Read List

This week’s topic from The Broke and The Bookish was easy… and yet, in a way hard…  Here are the top ten books on my fall reading list.

1.  Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

2.  Undead Reckoning, by Mike Slabon

3.  Everything’s Eventual, by Stephen King

4.  A Thousand Orcs, by R.A. Salvatore

5.  Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

6.  Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare

7.  The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Steig Larsson

8.  Bodily Harm, by Margaret Atwood

9.  Binu and the Great Wall, by Su Tong

10. Night of the Living Trekkies, by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

Some of these books have been on my list since the Spring…even Winter…  I just can’t seem to read ten books a season (that’s 40 books a year… totally not happening).  So, though I’ve wanted to read them for ages, they just keep getting pushed back.  Plus, I’m easily distracted by other books and influenced by my mood.  There are some great, new/different books on the fall list though.  I’m saving Frankenstein for October.

What’s on your Fall list?