Books Read in 2011 (Part 3)

Can you believe it?  We’re halfway through 2012!  Who knew? 

A little update on my book-reading life: my theme right now is hype.  First, I shotgunned The Hunger Games 2 and 3.  Then the first two in the Fifty Shades trilogy.  I still have to post my review of Fifty Shades Darker.  I just came from the True Blood season 5 red carpet premiere and all I see is Alexander Skarsgard as Christian Grey.  What can I say?  Hype can be a powerful thing.  Also, I’m thinking of starting a sort of a personal reading challenge slash series where I try to complete a book series.  What do you think?

Guh, my last “look-back” post was back in February.  Slacking!  There are just two more after this so we’re still good.  Good news is I’m commuting to and from work now so I have more time to read.  And as you know, traveling on trains is my favorite reading situation. It’s choosing the next book that is getting more and more difficult.

So for this bunch of books… out of all of these, I only bought two.  All the others, I got for free.  Some, I even got paid to read and review.  I mean, I’m still going to say it like it is whether you pay me or not.  It’s all fun and exciting for me regardless.

37. Effie at the Wedding by Tracy Marchini *

Self-published work – whether they be a full novel or a short story – is often hit or miss.  This one is a hit.  It’s a cute read and I could definitely see Effie in a series of short stories about going through her life.

38. Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen *

I was so disappointed with this book.  I loved Cohen’s first book, Loose Girl.  But this one I found so preachy and I was having none of it.

39. Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan *

I loved this.  LOVED THIS.  I am not the biggest fan of young adult literature and The Hunger Games but man, please tell me the 2nd book is as good (or better) than this one.

40. Encyclopaedia of Hell: An Invasion Manual For Demons Concerning the Planet Earth and the Human Race Which Infests It *

It’s not the best parody/comedy type book but it was entertaining.

41. Blaze of Glory by m. garzon *

Having the opportunity to speak with an author about her book is always a wonderful thing.  Miss Garzon has been kind enough to exchange some e-mails with me.  I genuinely liked her book very much.  It’s one of those silent, under the radar books that a lot more people should read.

42. The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate *

For the life of me, I can’t remember much about this book.  But I remember it being a fast read and quite emotional.

Review: Dark Origins (Level 26 #1) by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski

Level 26: Dark Origins / Anthony Zuiker, Duane Swierczynski

Published September 8th 2009 by Dutton Adult.

If I want to take a break from wild, heavy, and colorful books, I go back to my “comfort zone” genre, mystery/thriller.  It’s dark but to me, they’re very straightforward and simple.  Most mystery novels follow a certain pattern, a formula, that doesn’t take that much to understand and enjoy.  But once in a while, a book comes along and veers away from that convention.

Dark Origins is the first book in the trilogy, Level 26, penned by CSI’s Anthony Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski.  It follows operative Steve Dark as he follows the trail left to him by his nemesis, a serial killer nicknamed “Sqweegel”.  Law Enforcement has come up with different levels of evil.  Originally, there were 25 levels.  But this Sqweegel is the first and only one to occupy a spot higher than that, Level 26.

The one thing that separates this book from other mystery novels is that it is an interactive “digi-novel”.  It is an interesting concept.  As explained, every twenty pages or so, the reader can log on to Level26.com and enter a code to watch a short video continuing where the chapter left off.  You can choose not to watch these as you read, just catch up later, but I found that the videos added to the experience.  Sqweegel is definitely a character that you have to see to believe.  The visuals made it creepier and exciting.  Sure, it wasn’t very good either but at least it provided something to look forward to.

But apart from the “cyber-bridges”, the novel was pretty typical.  It has a lot of cliches – a crazy serial killer going after the one agent that got closest to apprehending him, ruining his life and still wants to play.  I can see this as a full TV show episode.  The cast of characters was okay.  The novel itself is fast-paced, so much so that it breezed through the ending.  It came and went by so fast that I was left thinking, “That’s it?”  It has pretty much the same faults as CSI has.  Some things were rather vague, some bordering on ridiculous and impossible.

To me, it was more Criminal Minds than CSI.  (Coincidentally, both shows are aired by the same network, CBS.)  It talks of Steve Dark going inside the mind of the killer which reminds me of the stuff they do on Criminal Minds.  CSI is more on following the physical evidence.  Sqweegel was even featured in season 11, episode 4 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Zuiker explained that that episode goes in between the first and second books of the trilogy.  I have since rewatched that episode and I found it disconnected to the book-verse.  Surely, Sqweegel is in all criminal databases so why didn’t the LVPD call in Dark and friends?  But I digress.

I’m all for mixed media, as gimmicky as it can be.  I quite enjoyed the cyber-bridges.  These short films serve as Zuiker’s directorial debut.  As an avid CSI/TV viewer, I even noticed some familiar faces and places such as the crime lab in CSI: New York, one of those werewolf guys in True Blood (Daniel Buran) and Alias‘ Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Weisman).  I have to work on distancing this from Zuiker’s other works but those one just had so many CSI parallels.  Nevertheless, it captured my interest.  It wasn’t much but it was enough for me to decide to read the rest of the trilogy.

Rating: 3/5.

Recommendation: It’s something different in the mystery/thriller genre.  Not so much a different story or framework, but at least this has the videos to go along with it.

Get your copy here.

Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey / EL James

Published May 26th 2011 by The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House.

Disclaimer: I feel that I need to give a bit of background, an explanation before I can get into the review per se.  This is quite a tough book to review.  I’ve finished this about a week ago (and almost done with the 2nd book) and I’m still out of sorts about this one.

My failure in “not buying into the hype” is apparent right now.  First, I finish off The Hunger Games trilogy.  And now… this.  I was not planning on reading this – or at least, not right away – especially after all the flak it got from all around.  But then they started talking about the possibility of Alexander Skarsgard playing the title role in a movie adaptation.  And man, my senses went into overdrive.  (I’ve met him a couple of times.  Actually, as I was halfway through this book, I met him again during a premiere.)

Okay, first of all, I should say that I love reading fan fiction.  I “subscribe” to several “fandoms” and the few that I really like have really awesome stories and very talented writers.  Some of my favorite pieces are novel-length; some have better writing than original published work.  I am mentioning this because, as you know, author E.L. James got the inspiration for Fifty Shades of Grey from Twilight fan fiction.  Yes, Twilight.  I am, by no means, a fan of this particular fandom so what am I doing reading a book inspired by its fan fiction?  Three words: Hype.  Alexander Skarsgard.

Quotes: Christopher Morley

“There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.”

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QUESTION:

What book have you judged by the cover? What book did you pick up because of the cover and totally fell in love with after reading it?