Enemy of Entropy
Archive for Reading
Review: Walking Dead by C.E. Murphy
Walking Dead by C.E. Murphy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve enjoyed the other Walker Papers novels, but Walking Dead definitely showed more depth and maturity than the earlier volumes. Both the author and her lead character have grown very nicely. Joanne is far from perfect, but she doesn’t make the same mistakes over and over again, which is a pet peeve of mine and occurs all too often in some other authors works. (There’s consistency, and then there’s refusing to learn from mistakes to the extent that I have to believe that a character is too stupid to live.) As for the author, it’s incredibly refreshing to read a series that does not fall into the all-too-familiar paranormal romance formula!
Another thing I enjoy about this series is that heroine Joanne has a supporting ensemble of friends and coworkers who have their own talents and foibles, including a delightful married couple, a sexy father figure (who isn’t related to anyone we’ve met so far), and an even sexier boss. This time around we were treated to the return of a character Joanne rescued in an earlier volume who has grown into some of her own ass-kicking abilities.
There is a thread that ties all of the Walker Papers together, but C.E. Murphy is keeping things fresh enough that I, at least, am not getting bored. I would, however, caution that this is a series that is best read completely and in order. I began reading one of the novels without realizing that there had been a novella published between it and the previous one, and found myself well and truly confused. Walking Dead definitely is not a good starting point for the series! While a new reader wouldn’t necessarily be completely lost, she would miss far too many details to get all the juice out of this book.
Maybe It Isn’t the Flu
Katie seems to be feeling a bit better. She slept through most of the day, and just got up a few minutes ago (right at the end of my and Sam’s date) feeling like she could eat something. Solid food, even! That’s progress. Since she didn’t have any antivirals, I don’t think this was really the flu. She should still be much sicker if it was. I’m not at all unhappy about that. Read on…
Book Review: By Blood We Live
By Blood We Live by John Joseph Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This thing is an enormous tome! I don’t know if it has been released in hardback or not, but if it has, that version has to be anchor-worthy. I requested it from the library because Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette had stories in it, and I’ll read pretty much anything either of those worthies publish. I didn’t expect to care for most of the rest, and didn’t plan to do much more than flip through them.
Read on…
Review: A Free Man of Color
A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Historical fiction isn’t my favorite genre, but I’m much more willing to read it when it’s mixed with mystery. I’ve read some of Hambly’s work before and know her to be a fine writer, and I’d read good reviews of this series by people I respect, so I decided to give it a whirl.
Read on…
I’m Feeling Better!
Current Mood:
Cool
(I think I’ve already used “Not Dead Yet” as a title, and I really don’t like to be too repetitive.) I haven’t been posting much, and it isn’t really because I haven’t had anything at all to say. In fact, I’ve repeatedly started to write posts. In fact, I’ve finished writing some posts — but each time, I’ve been sidetracked by the fact that the bit of geek magic that makes my words post here and to my LJ account is broken. I did a couple of posts by hand, but that’s inelegant. Hence, the public has been deprived of my wisdom. There, there now. It will be all right. Truly.
I received a note from an old friend here today. I’m trying to remember how long it’s been since we were in touch — definitely more than a decade, but 12 years? 13? Time does fly. It will be interesting to hear how his life is these days.
Nothing earth-shattering to tell, honestly. I can’t truly remember what I have and haven’t shared with the world at large, which often seems to be narrowed down to Sam, Katie, and the merry-go-round of health professionals I get to see. Well, there are also the myriad persons who populate Katie’s social life, who I’ve given up enumerating. I think it speaks well for her that while there are frequent new faces, few of them ever leave. It makes it difficult for me to keep up with them because there are so many! I know and have regular contact with lots of people, and of course I value the contact we have online, but I don’t often get to see you with my own eyes and hug you with my own arms, and I am a tactile person at heart.
I’ve logged on to Second Life again a couple of times. Sam has returned to regular use of it. Voice chat does not make anything easier for me there. In fact, it’s a bit worse, because I can’t go back and catch what I’ve missed in the logs. Sam did marvelous work (thank you, love!) in changing my avatar for me so that she looks far more realistic, which I greatly prefer. I hate the whole porn star look that most females sport in SL. For one thing, it’s damned boring. For another, I feel that it’s ridiculously dishonest. Yes, I suppose one could just look at it as a fantasy life, but I don’t really fantasize about looking that way, so it doesn’t do a thing for me. The whole avatar business is silly, for me. I’d rather just communicate, without playing around with dolls. But obviously, I’m in the minority.
I’ve been reading, of course. I read the Kathy Reichs books on which the TV series Bones is based. I enjoy both, or I wouldn’t have read the whole series (obviously), but they have very little in common other than the fact that the main character is named Temperance Brennan and she is a forensic anthropologist. The books’ Brennan is in her 40s (mid to late, I think — she has a daughter in her 20s), is almost divorced, and splits her time between North Carolina and Montreal. She consults with law enforcement in both jurisdictions. Her personality and background are completely dissimilar to the TV Temperance (played by Emily Deschanel), who lives in the D.C. area and works at the Jefferson Institute, backed by Agent Booth of the F.B.I. I don’t recall hearing Temperance’s age, but IMDB says she was born in 1976, which would make her more than a decade younger than the books’ heroine. I’m not terrible surprised to see that there’s at least one book out based on the television version, authored by Max Allan Collins (I think, I’m not feeling like looking that up at the moment). There’s also far less humor in the books, which are much darker in general. If pushed, I’d have to say that I prefer the television series a bit, but both versions are vallid for what they are.
I’m getting new glasses! I found some frames I like on eBay, of all places, so they’re in the mail. When they arrive I’ll order lenses to go in them. Since they’ll be my first bifocals, I figure I shouldn’t try ordering the lenses online for the first time, as well.
I might even try contacts again. I had plugs put in my tear ducts, which along with eye drops will hopefully help resolve the dry eyes problem enough to try them. 1 If that isn’t enough, I’m starting allergy shots again in a couple of weeks, and the allergist insists that if I do the shots faithfully twice a week my allergies will improve within three to six months, in which time I will try contacts yet again. And I’m told that there are contact-safe anti-allergen eyedrops now, too — when I was wearing lenses years ago, I had one eye doctor who would mix up some of those especially for me, and when he moved out of state I was out of luck and couldn’t tolerate the lenses any more. I miss peripheral vision!
Sam and I watched the movie Julie & Julia last month (I think? I’ve gone from having no sense of time in the minutes/hours sense to having no sense of days, weeks, and months!). I had noticed it as something he might enjoy, so I put it in the Netflix queue. As it turned out, we both enjoyed it greatly. It is a movie about food, but it’s also a story about two wonderful couples, and about a writer’s process, and Julia Child, who I already knew to be a fascinating woman (and about whom I’d still love to know more). It’s a difficult movie to watch just as I’d given up sugar and gone moderately low-carbohydrate, though!
1 Sjogren’s syndrome, I do not love you.
