Proven Guilty

Title: Proven Guilty
Author: Jim Butcher
Published: 2006 in book form but this was an audio book
Genre: Noir urban fantasy
Pages: 406 says Wikipedia.


Aah! It's the 8th Dresden Files -book already! This time, movie monsters are coming alive at a horror movie convention called SplatterCon!!! Molly Carpenter, daughter of Harry's friend Michael, comes to him pleading for help and bail money. Her friend Nelson is wrongly arrested for an assault which, on a closer look, seems almost supernatural. They end up at the convention, where both Molly and Nelson are working at, and shit promptly hits the fan.

Of course, that's not all that Harry needs to concern himself with. There's a war going on, continuing from the earlier books. There's fairy court politics and schemes, and there's wizard council politics and schemes Harry has to pay close attention to these days. He's also kind of smitten on his old friend, to make sure that things don't become too easy for the poor guy. Your basic everyday wizard stuff, a wild rollercoaster ride narrated by James Marsters. Mmm. James Marsters... I think that my favourite bit was when the baddies were trying to sell Harry on Ebay. I remember sitting in a train when it got to that point, and giggling to myself.

Wikiquote has only one tiny quote from this one, the opening line:


"Blood leaves no stain on a Warden's cloak." In Proven Guilty, this gets tested again and again.

The Angel's Kiss

Title: Doctor Who: The Angel's Kiss
Author: Melody Malone with Justin Richards
Published: 2012. Or, 1938.
Genre: Detective stories!
Pages: 873, but you can't get further than 864. So you're stuck at 99%. How annoying!


I got a Kindle! Or, a Kindle application on my phone. Yay. This was read on that. I can also English.

So, I'm a fan of the long-running TV-series Doctor Who, and this book ties in with an episode of the current season. I won't say much, because, you know, spoilers. I'm sorry, I just giggled a little at that. So, yeah, this book ties in with one particular episode, and I jumped at the chance to get to read it when I figured out this Kindle-application.

The plot's pretty basic:one day, Melody Malone receives a client in her New York office. A handsome movie star called Rock Railton is convinced that someone's out to kill him. And when he mentions the kiss of an Angel, she can't but agree to take the case. She is, you see, very familiar with Angels.

The Angel's Kiss is your classic private detective story with the exceptions that a) the protagonist, Melody Malone, is female, and b) it won't make much sense unless you're acquainted with the show Doctor Who, and the way the Angels operate. It's a show for the whole family, so the tone of the book is such that even the younger ones can read it, but I enjoyed it as well. The Angels were my first Doctor Who monsters, and it helps that they're spooky as all living fuck. I also adore the character of Melody in the show, so, it's all good.

Kill Your Friends

John Niven - Kill Your Friends


Well. Umm. I bought this one mostly for the name, and because it was claimed to be just as good as Trainspotting, along many levels, and Trainspotting is one of my absolute favourites. So I picked this up from the shelf and gave it a go. Got up to page 50+ and lost whatever little interest I'd had so far. I just didn't like it. But I'll probably give it another go at some point. In case it was just because I haven't had much time or attention for reading lately. Which is absolutely true. But at least I've been writing a lot!

Slaughterhouse 5

Title: Slaughterhouse 5
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Published: 1969, this ed. 1991 by Vintage. I seem to have a LOT of books from Vintage.
Genre: War with heaps of dark comedy.
Pages: 157




I thought I'd like to read something cheerful and fun after Atonement. So maybe a book about WWII and the bombing of Dresden, thousands of civilians dying, wasn't the best of ideas.

There is humour and dark comedy in the life story of Billy Pilgrim, which is told chronologically very out of order. That's all right, though, as that's how Billy himself experiences it as well. His life is full of normal things -marriage, children, career, death- and not-so-normal things such as being a prisoner of war during the second World War and being beamed up onto a space ship and taken to a planet called Trafalmadore.

When I picked up the book I thought I'd give it a go, see what it's like, and decided to read a page or two. Then one paragraph more. And one more. And one more. Even though Billy's a bit of a fool, or maybe because of it, I wanted to keep on reading, to find out what happens to him. Reading this also made me read up on the bombing of Dresden. Finding out about history is never a bad thing, in my opinion.


So, even though it wasn't exactly the pick-me-up I was looking for, I really did like Slaughterhouse 5. I should have read it years ago, man.




"And then it developed that Campbell was not going to go unanswered after all. Poor old Derby, the doomed high school teacher, lumbered to his feet for what was probably the finest moment in his life. There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters. But old Derby was a character now."

Atonement

Title: Atonement
Author: Ian McEwan
Published: 2001 originally, this ed. 2002 by Vintage.
Genre: Family drama
Pages: 372




I'd been wanting to see the movie made of this book for a good, long while, and then it just happened to be on the telly when I was visiting my parents last summer, and I finally did see it. And then I wanted to finally read it, as well. And I finally did. And I'm glad I did, both, as I really enjoyed. Both.


On the hottest day of the summer, 13-year old Briony, frustrated by her ailing play in the honor of her big brother, sees something she's still unable to understand between two adults, and draws her own conclusions. Aaand acts upon them, causing some shit.


Okay, I've started a new paragraph three times now and have become stumped. What to say about this book? For one, I really should have read it in longer bits. As it is, I read the first half or so at lunch breaks at work, which meant that just as I was getting into the book, I had to go back to work. A few train trips got me deeper into the story, and even though I'd seen the movie, which is a very faithful adaptation, as far as I can remember anyway, I was pretty hooked. And touched. The book takes the reader deep into the thoughts and actions of the main players, both during the initial incident and through its consequences. I'm trying not to give out any spoilers. But, for a good, depressing time, read the book or see the movie!




"Briony leaned back against a wall and stared unseeingly down the nursery's length. It was a temptation for her to be magical and dramatic, and to regard what she had witnessed as a tableau mounted for her alone, a special moral for her wrapped in a mystery. But she knew very well that if she had not stood when she did, the scene would still have happened, for it was not about her at all. Only chance had brought her to the window. This was not a fairy tale, this was the real, the adult world in which frogs did not address princesses, and the only messages were the ones that people sent."

The Crow Road

Title: The Crow Road
Author: Iain Banks
Published: 1992 originally, this ed. 1998 by Abacus.
Genre: Family mystery drama
Pages: 501


Crow Road, man. Friggin' Crow Road... I read this when the book first came out in Finnish, in the late 90's, and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. Not like, can't stop thinking about it: more like hmm, that was a darn good book, I ought to read it again one day. And this August, the book just fell into my lap twice within two weeks: first, for 50 cents in Finnish, and then for a few euros in the original lingo. And yeah, it was still a friggin' ride.

Friggin'. What a weird word.

So, what's it about then. Prentice McHoan is this young, Scottish guy with a family full of mysteries. For one, his uncle Rory apparently disappeared into thin air some years before, when Prentice himself was still a kid. His father Kenneth still believes that his younger brother Rory is alive somewhere. Prentice, currently not in speaking terms with his father, takes it upon himself to figure out what the hell happened to Rory.

The book jumps almost dizzyingly between the time it's set in and various pasts: for example, we have both Prentice's and Kenneth's childhoods and a lot of their teenage years. And it all comes together, telling the story of a whole messed-up family.

You know what? This book's like the TARDIS. It's so much bigger on the inside. Man, I wish I could write stuff like this.

I've been trying to figure out which one came for me first, the miniseries or the book. The miniseries came out in 1996 and the book in Finnish in 1998, so it could've been either. Anyways, I remember really liking it the first time around, and really liked it the second time around, too. I was a little annoyed when I could remember the solution to the mystery, although the details had escaped me after... 14 or so years.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I have to mention this!!! This book has one of the best opening sentences ever:

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

Brilliant, eh? You just go, wait, what?  

Thinking about it, though, aren't all books kinda like the TARDIS?

Okay, okay, I'm gonna reign my ADD in check now, give you a nice quote, and get back to staring at the wall. But yeah, definitely one of the books I'd recommend to just about anyone.


I leant on one of the chair's wheels. 'Let me get this right; your moles itch when one of us is talking about you?'
She nodded, grim. 'Sometimes they hurt, sometimes they tickle. And they can itch in different ways, too.'
'And that mole's Uncle Rory's?' I nodded incredulously at the big mole on her right wrist. 
'That's right,' she said, tapping the stick on one footrest of the wheelchair. She held up her wrist and fixed the raised brown spot with an accusatory glare. 'Not a sausage, for eight years.'
I stared at the dormant eruption with a sort of nervous respect, mingled with outright disbelief. 'Wow,' I said at last.

Dead Beat

Title: Dead Beat
Author: Jim Butcher
Published: 2005 in book form but this was an audio book
Genre: Noir urban fantasy
Pages: 396 says Wikipedia.


I'm trying very hard not to jump straight into the next book, because I don't want the series to end/end up waiting for the next book for too long, but hey. Here's book #7 (in audio form, because James Marsters). 

More than one meanie is after the Word of Kemmler, a book that will allow the user to control the dead. So, it's Zombiepocalypse Now unless Harry stops all this nonsense.

Umm. I'm finding it quite hard to think of something to say about the plot since I'm all caught up in the book I just finished, but since I insist on doing these in the order I've finished them... so, I'll just say that, again, this was a ride that took my friggin' breath away. Especially during the big showdown in the end. That... woah. Or maybe the breathlessness is because my lungs are in a poor order right now. But man, I really wanna start the next book...


"Polka will never die!"