Book Review - Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card

Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I used to be the sort of person who prided herself on not quitting a book. Much as I flit from one project to another, leaving things unfinished, books and movies deserved my full efforts, no matter how abysmal they might seem in the beginning.

Thanks to a run of bad novels, I've changed my mind. Life is too short to finish a book that doesn't grip you. It's definitely too short to finish a book that makes you roll your eyes, chapter after chapter.

I trudged through the first hour or two of this audiobook with little interest. A rambling quasi-love story, it kept my mind busy while I did my duties as domestic engineer. However, I rarely thought about the story after I'd put it away, and it didn't draw me back in, enticing me to do my chores the way pretty much all of OSC's other books have done. This should have been my first clue that it wasn't worth it.

Then came the preaching.

Orson Scott Card, of whose religious and political beliefs I was blissfully unaware until after my first reading of the original Ender saga, claims not to preach through his fiction, unless he says he is (as in the Alvin Maker series, which is based loosely on the life of Joseph Smith). I could give him the benefit of the doubt, but that would just mean he is painfully unobservant of the underlying messages in his own writing.

From a diatribe against gay marriage (the character given this not-so-subtle soliloquy decides that, even though he's gay, he'll marry a single mother and use his pension to support them. Seriously.) to anti-abortion rhetoric that is pounded like a nail again and again, I just couldn't stomach it anymore.

So I've given up. I've got a to-read list a mile, long, and I'm sure most of it deserves more attention than this drivel.

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Book Review - The Kid by Sapphire

The Kid by Sapphire

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


It is rare for me not to finish a book. Even when reading books I don't like, I will usually push through just to find out what happens and say I've read it. But if I hadn't been obligated to finish this book, I'd have put Sapphire's The Kid down after 50 pages and never looked back.

Read the rest of my review and find out why at the BlogHer Book Club.







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Book Review (sort of) - Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I am halfway through this book, and haven't managed more than that. i intend to finish it, because as I remember, the story was curious and potentially interesting. I stopped, though, because I had better things to read and the writing was just not my style.



I was quite disappointed, really, as I had high hopes for the tales that inspired Bones. Reichs is far too detailed about her scenery and history lessons for my taste, though, among other things I can't really remember at the moment because it's been a month since I picked this book up. Clearly it was enough to keep me from finishing it this long.



EDIT: I've tried several times to come back to this book, but it's never good enough to tear me away from my growing to-read list. I'm thinking it will be one of my RARE unfinished reads.



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