Wednesday 12 October 2011

September Ins and Outs

Late as usual, here are the books of September:


INS
Not many in this section, I'm finally cutting back on my acquisitions - I blame the lack of Bookmooch points and space on the shelves.

Bought
Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
I bought this one when I was facing a 3-hour train ride back home, with a book that was really boring me. This way I could have something else to read if I had the urge to slash my wrists from desperation.

Freebies
These were on offer with the newspaper, and my grandmother has passed them along to me.

Daisy Miller by Henry James
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (which I've read back in January, but on ebook)


OUTS
I had the feeling that the outs would be pretty empty as well, but I did read a lot in September. Only most of these I finished in the first weeks of the month.

Artemis Fowl: the opal deception by Eoin Colfer
Fourth on the Artemis Fowl series, it was a fun one to read (like all the others). At first I thought there was going to be pretty much like the first one, only with an older Artemis, but the changes he suffered in the previous books were not laid to waste even with his amnesia. I liked that it left an opening for a different kind of adventures, so I'll be looking forward to the next books.

Rating: 4 out of 5


A biblioteca mágica by Jostein Gaarder and Klaus Hagerup [The magical library]
This book intended to be perceived as if it was written by two 12 years olds. Well done, authors, mission accomplished. The writing was basic, and the plot not really good. Worse, the language sometimes was of a 12 years old kid, but the ideas weren't. And spending half the book portraying a book lover as a demented villain, well, that just made me want to slap the little brats. Yet there some mystery, and it was such a short book (besides, it has been a while since I ranted about a book).

Rating: 2 out of 5


A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

[Review]

Rating: 4 out of 5






The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

[Review]

Rating: 4 out of 5







Fables. 1, Legends in exile by Bill Willingham
The first volume of this Graphic Novel is a good introduction to the world of Fables, where the characters of Fairy Tales have gone into exile into our world, forming a secret society. Old feuds are put to rest, and life goes on. On this volume there is a crime, and the solving of the mystery of who killed Rose Red. It was kind of nice, but not outstanding. I loved the character of the Wolf (but then again, I almost always do), but the others didn't cause that much of an impression.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


El derecho ambiental como instrumento de gestión del riesgo tecnológico by Paula Cerski Lavratti
I received this one through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, so I had to read it and review it. I don't usually read non-fiction, I now I remember why - I don't really enjoy it - if it doesn't take me some new place, or makes me have an adventure, then it's not pleasure reading.




Stories by Neil Gaiman                           Review to come
A nice collection of short stories, although I was expecting more. Diana Wynne Jones and Joyce Carol Oates's stories were my favourites. One is Christmas-y and humorous, the other dark and poignant. There were quite a few nice stories, although I feel that some took too much inspiration from American Gods (Neil Gaiman's included, but he can be forgiven for that - it's his book). Most of the stories are actually quite dark, which surprised me, with such a cheery and cute cover.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


TBR Variation: -5 (From 202 to 197) Yay!

3 comments:

  1. I'm re-reading the Artemis Fowl myself this month ... it's always fun to read about Artemis's plots. LOL.

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  2. @Kah Woei
    It sure is fun to read Artemis Fowl - I'm still acquiring the books, once I have a new one, it doesn't stay long on the TBR list :)

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