A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES and the lassitude of lazy writing.

       As I mentioned in yesterday's blog posting I was  conflicted about this HUGELY popular book; the first in a trilogy. Ok, I get it already, Vampires are "sexy" and a hot commodity in the publishing world. Could we please, please get over it ??????? I fell asleep last night while reading this book. Not because I stayed up until all hours reading it but because it lost my attention and I found myself drifting off into my own imaginary world. This does not bode well for the next two installments in the trilogy. If Ms. Harkness does not return to the actual plotline soon and quit with the soft-porn/ vampire related sexually driven pages of treacle and cliches I shall so not be interested in reading her next two books. I feel like she's unsure whether to appeal to the teen-aged market (The Twilight Series) or if she wants to write a well-crafted book for adults. It's very confusing. I don't like what I consider lazy writing but to others who enjoy romance and sexual tension perhaps this is a book for them.

So I capitulated..........

  Disclaimer: This is not a book review. This is a "book in progress" update.
      Against my better judgment and my disdain for those writers who have jumped on the Vampire bandwagon (Stephanie Meyers you have a lot to answer for) I have started reading A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness. No longer could I ignore the rave reviews this novel has received so I am now reading it and am about half way through. I don't know if this qualifies as "popular fiction" or romance; it is a mixture of both. So far I have enjoyed the historical elements of the book but midpoint I am seeing (to me) way too many cliches and too many pages spent on sexual tension, heavy breathing, ad nauseum. I will be curious to see if the book re-captures my attention as it did with the well researched historical parts earlier on. Personally I blame the TWILIGHT series for the dumbing down of popular literature over the past few years. Even Meg Talbot has jumped on the supernatural bandwagon. Baaaaaahh! If anyone really wants to read the best modern vampire tale (other than Bram Stoker's classic) one should read Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. (Please, if you do read it erase that hideous movie with old whatshisname from your mind first.) The book far outweighs the movie and any other Vampire themed series that has come after it.

When life gets a little bit nuts.

    When life gets a tad crazy and stressful sometimes we turn inwards or escape into books that  while entertaining may not be of the highest literary calibre. While I do not dismiss these novels as being trivial or poorly written I will say that the several I have read over the past few months  tend to become muddled and mixed up in my mind. Entertainment, certainly, great and powerful literature, no. First off I will say that I finally read THE DRESS LODGER by Sheri Holman. I know it received outstanding reviews when first published but frankly, after the first 150 pages I was underwhelmed. The premise of the book is fascinating, the actual delivery, not so much. I cannot in good consciousness recommend this book to anyone, save those who wish to plod through the muck and miasma of a plague-filled history of England and her less than likable denizens.I also read two books by Sarah Addison Allen: THE PEACH KEEPER and GARDEN SPELLS. Honestly I cannot differentiate from either of them; they were that similar. I know I enjoyed them but trying to critique them separately is like trying to figure out which shoe goes on which foot when you're in pre-school. It is nigh on impossible. I also read THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Kate Morton. Her writing and her plot is very similar to one of S.A.A's books (don't remember which.....SIGH......) but I kind of remember it as being better written. Who knows. I am sure there are many many people who would absolutely love these books and their protagonists but when I read I prefer to encounter a plot, a storyline and characters that stay with me well after I have finished the book. The novels I have mentioned here all tend to fall into what I would call the  "Chinese food" category: tasty and delicious but after several hours one is hungry and has forgotten what one has eaten.