November 2022: Books I Read Last Month
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Written by Graeme
Hi everyone,
Hopefully everyone had a good reading month.
My reading month was disrupted somewhat early in the month. Life just sometimes gets in the way. I ended up getting back into it at the end of the month.
The Stalker by Sarah Alderson: Overall I really enjoyed this psychological thriller except for one thing – how misleading the author was about one particular, and rather important, storyline aspect. There was a big twist but the problem was it isn’t the sort of twist where you can go back and say “ah that makes sense”. Instead you go back and realize that the author deliberately led you in the wrong direction, and it was quite frustrating.
Friends Like These by Sarah Alderson: I really enjoyed this thriller, and unlike the above, it was one where the twist when you go back and read, you clearly see it. Very good one.
Oath of Loyalty by Kyle Mills: Kyle continues to impress. His most recent books have Rapp dealing with politicians that are always getting in his way, much like many of the early Flynn books. I get the same emotional reaction out of these as I did with the Flynn books. Really good stuff.
No Plan B by Jack Reacher: Just started this one. Well – about 60% of the way through. Really enjoying it. I’m sure most reviews will be complaining about Andrew Child ruining the series, but I honestly feel if his name wasn’t printed on the cover, you wouldn’t notice. Love it.
Look Closer by David Ellis: This was a standalone thriller about a murder on Halloween, and then the events leading up to it. First time I’ve read David. Highest compliment I can give? As soon as I finished, I went out and purchased the rest of his work. Highly recommended. Listened to this one instead of reading it.
Walking Alone by Bentley Little: A short story collection which was superb, and has me motivated to read more short story collections. All horror, and I enjoyed practically all of them. Listened instead of read. Highly recommended.
Book Series In Order » Blog »
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“finding authors that keep you engaged” I read SciFY and have come to the conclusion that if the story has won an award, it probably is boring, done to death, and has a standard female heroine who is saving family. Buried in poor Fantasy, the tech is oddly available today. No stretch of the imagination. Hard to find an Asimov
It’s funny as there’s certainly a lot of award winning books out there where I read them and kind of shake my head at.
As an aside non fiction books seem to really suffer from this. It seems 9 out of 10 books I can’t past the 1st chapter before the book dies. Always kindle so end up returning them
I’m in the middle of Patriot Games and just finished the andromeda strain. Great authors but both books suffer from the same malady, taking too long to build the story, end up skipping chapters at a time. Despite enjoying the books. Considering reading The Hunt for Red October but not sure I want to wade through hours of listening while he slowly builds the story.
It’s fun listening to books written 20-30 years ago to see how much technology has transformed our lives.
Now retired have a lot more time to listen to books (audible is a great value for the money) but the challenge is finding authors that keep you engaged.
Rob
I know exactly what you mean about Audible. I love audiobooks, but there are some authors who just write so many words building up the story and not getting into it. With reading you can kind of skim those but with listening, not really.
Speaking of books that take forever to build up, I loved reading books cover to cover when I was little. I was just starting to read picture less books, about when I was 6-8 and one of my parents for Christmas got me A World Without Heroes from Brandon Mull and this was the first book that I lost interest after halfway in. The story in my opinion was becoming repetitive, boring and taking forever actually build up the story. I have tried reading it again a couple times though the years but I still lose interest after halfway through since it takes forever. I don’t stop reading a book halfway through unless something really is making me put down it.
I like some of Brandon Mull’s other books but this one just doesn’t go fast enough for me in my opinion. I see why people enjoy it but it’s just not for me.