September Reading

Oh, wow have I really read all these books since my last post?

Outlander (by Diana Gabaldon)
As stated somewhere else (here? Twitter? Fb? I dunno…) while being away from home I have found that I feel comforted by series and have therefore been striving to find a good one. This isn’t it. Too romantic and at times it felt like I was watching torture porn -- except I was reading it. I got through the whole thing but will not be picking up the remaining 6 books in the series. I seem to remember my mom liking this book which, I won’t lie, skeeves me out.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Oscar Wilde)
Okay, so I ordered the kindle edition for 2 reasons: 1) it was free and 2) I admit, the character in League of Extraordinary Gentleman enticed me enough to give it a whirl. God that movie sucked. But the book was pretty fabulous. First of all, the writing was just pure joy to read. I felt like I was actually learning to be a better writer while reading and I also just enjoyed the way Wilde put sentences together. Second, it treated it’s readers as intelligent beings and it left a lot to the imagination. And third, beyond my own intentions, the characters grabbed me and I found myself equally sympathetic and detesting them at the same time. Short, well written, and a nice reminder on the perils of vanity.

Already Dead (by Charlie Heston)
Another vampire novel? I originally ordered it b/c it was part of a series. This one was written as a PI Noir case. The language was too forced, the dialogue was not quoted and it became confusing. And the world just wasn’t that interesting. So big fail on this one. Will not be picking up another of the series.

1st to Die (by James Patterson)
Why the hell is this man so rich? It really pisses me off to see these craptastic writers become huge millionaires. Anyway this is his woman’s club murder series and I thought I’d give it a chance, partly because I like murder mysteries from the POV of a woman investigator and partly because it was a series. (See the theme?). Please refer to sentence #1 for my feelings on this book. Another series I will not be reading.

Are you there Chelsea? It’s me, Vodka (by Chelsea Handler)
Ok, this girl would be a great riot if you fed her a few cocktails, got her into a party dress, and took her out with you. Reading her book though was not nearly as fun. Her attutide came across as false and forced, her voice was a little too smug. I didn’t make it all the way through but I’m sure I could probably sketch her life out by watching her show for a few nights. Which is what I’ll do if I ever get curious on how it ended.

I’ve been reading a few political novels very slowly, I hope to finish them in the next few week in an attempt to make my next book post more bourgeois.