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Post by titus730 on Sept 20, 2015 15:38:04 GMT
Elly, I just looked up that author on Amazon. Checked one of the books and a review stated, " do not like hard cover books, only paperbacks. THANKS." Huh? Why did you buy the hard cover instead of the paperback? How did you like the story nitwit? SMH
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2015 16:44:39 GMT
Elly, I just looked up that author on Amazon. Checked one of the books and a review stated, " do not like hard cover books, only paperbacks. THANKS." Huh? Why did you buy the hard cover instead of the paperback? How did you like the story nitwit? SMH She may not actually understand some of the books then. I've suggested O'Connell to some family members and it seems like she's either an acquired taste (although I liked her immediately), or she's just not the average mystery reader's cup of tea. So I would recommend starting with either Bone by Bone or Judas Child, which are both stand alone novels to see if you like her style. Or start with Mallory's Oracle, the first of the Mallory novels . A few in the middle weren't my favorites. Had I read them first I may not have been as quick to pick up another.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Sept 20, 2015 17:49:30 GMT
There's a lot of Stupid in Amazon reviews.
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Post by titus730 on Sept 20, 2015 19:27:06 GMT
There's a lot of Stupid in Amazon reviews. Agreed x 100.
Elly, it wasn't the book she was reviewing. She must have stupidly bought a hard back instead of the paperback. And I'll check if any of her books are available for free or borrowing on Kindle.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Sept 20, 2015 20:33:03 GMT
There's the famous feedback a DVD seller once got where the buyer complained "there is too much violins" (violence).
I have an ancient Kindle but I can't find the USB cable, so it just sits there saying "Empty Battery" and of course every dangblasted USB jack is non-standard, so none in the box of cables I have fits. There's an edition of the Kindle Fire, BTW, on special on Amazon for $50.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2015 20:53:04 GMT
There's a lot of Stupid in Amazon reviews. Agreed x 100.
Elly, it wasn't the book she was reviewing. She must have stupidly bought a hard back instead of the paperback. And I'll check if any of her books are available for free or borrowing on Kindle.Bad joke on my part. I meant if she were so dimwitted as to have bought a hardback and then complained because it wasn't a paperback, she might want to stick to reading Stephanie Plum. O'Connell might be a little complicated for her. Disclaimer: I like Stephanie Plum. Just sayin'.
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Post by Pantlandia on Sept 21, 2015 1:56:37 GMT
I saw the newest Jack Reacher book at Fred Meyer today...I wish I had the money to buy it, but I actually think I'm a book behind right now. I have to check to see what books have come out in the last year or two.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 2:23:00 GMT
Some of my friends really seem to like Goodreads, but Fantastic Fiction has always been my favorite resource for things like authors' bibliographies. It's also become a source for finding new to me authors as well as new release dates from old favorites. You can search by genre, but I've found so many good recommendations on the pages of my favorite authors that I've never had to go that route. www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 2:36:30 GMT
I find her protagonist, Mallory, completely unlikable, the antithesis of some of my favorite fictional female detective/PIs, and I can't get enough of her. The author's such an expert at fleshing out her characters, I would know the four who appear in every book if I passed them on the street. They're that real to me. Elly, can you please tell me what makes her unlikeable? So I can be better informed before I wade through the Amazon reviews.
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Shirley U Geste
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Post by Shirley U Geste on Sept 21, 2015 2:54:05 GMT
Anyone read Terry Pratchett?
I got one of his books the other day at the bookstore and don't know how I missed this gem of a writer. It's very rare for any book to make me laugh out loud.
His other 60+ books are now on my must get list. Good thing I've getting some new bookshelves next week, my to be read piles are getting out of hand.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Sept 21, 2015 4:44:15 GMT
I found a Beverly Barton I hadn't read at Savers yesterday. Whee! But that will have to wait, I'm in the middle of a Carolyn Hart book (Annie Darlilng/Death on Demand series) and I need to finish it first.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 13:22:53 GMT
I find her protagonist, Mallory, completely unlikable, the antithesis of some of my favorite fictional female detective/PIs, and I can't get enough of her. The author's such an expert at fleshing out her characters, I would know the four who appear in every book if I passed them on the street. They're that real to me. Elly, can you please tell me what makes her unlikeable? So I can be better informed before I wade through the Amazon reviews. She's a sociopath. Truly. Among other traits common to sociopaths, she has no empathy. Her only friends are a group of poker buddies she inherited from her father. Their standing joke, that isn't really a joke, is that she has no heart. She's equally as fascinating to me as she is unlikable.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Sept 26, 2015 19:06:37 GMT
Reminds me of Bernard Cumberbatch's Sherlock: "I'm not a psychopath, I'm a highly functioning sociopath."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2015 3:15:48 GMT
According to my shrink "sociopath" is just a kinder, more modern word for "psychopath". There's a newer term, too, but it escapes me for the moment. Within that you can break it down to "successful" and "unsuccessful". The unsuccessful ones end up in jail, the successful ones become CEOs.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2015 4:00:54 GMT
Antisocial personality disorder may be what you're trying to remember.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2015 4:32:13 GMT
Antisocial personality disorder may be what you're trying to remember. Yes, that's it. They changed the term so the poor psychopaths wouldn't get upset, lol. Like they'd even care.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2015 3:53:38 GMT
I was up all night reading Until Proven Guilty by JA Jance. It was recommended by Val, naughty, naughty Val, who obviously wants me to never sleep again! The story was nothing really new but it was a page-turner nevertheless and I got interested in the characters. Off to find the next one...
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Oct 25, 2015 6:05:00 GMT
Hee hee. ALL of the JP Beaumont books are good, MissP. You can read them out of order (since you know how he got the porche and who anne/ralph are), but if you read them in chronological order, you'll see how JP changes over time and just how good of a writer JA Jance really is.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2015 10:29:28 GMT
Oh, I'm glad Ralph stays around, that must mean JP doesn't stupidly give all the money away like most fiction guys would.
I should add, for people who haven't read them, that the book/s are set in Seattle and the weather is just like Chap says. Lots of landmarks, too, that Chap would know. A big flight of steps was mentioned and I imagined Chap running up them, lol. And there's a dinner at the Spaceneedle, which apparently has a revolving restaurant. And there's moss, too, but not on people's rooves because it's the inner city.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Oct 25, 2015 16:57:59 GMT
I can say, without spoiling any of the book endings, that JP is a good guy and does decent things with his moola. And Ralph is a doll.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Oct 25, 2015 21:54:54 GMT
And there's a dinner at the Spaceneedle, which apparently has a revolving restaurant. And there's moss, too, but not on people's rooves because it's the inner city.
The restaurant on top of the Space Needle revolves, so if you're sitting by the window you see the entire cityscape, over the sound, the shipyards and docks, then around to the hills (First Hill, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne Hill, Beacon Hill if you've got really good eyes). It's a big tourist attraction, and they nick you for $22 USD to get up there and back.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2015 15:41:15 GMT
I'm probably one of the last serious readers to discover this site, but I just bought some books at www.thriftbooks.com. The book prices can be more than on Amazon, depending. I paid around $4 each for 3 cookbooks in very good condition. But you only have to spend $10 to get free shipping so I was able to take advantage of that. Total cost for the 3 books was $12. I would have paid that just for shipping on Amazon. Plus the $7 for the 3 books, the best I could do on the same 3 titles in the same condition. They have something called Reading Rewards (for every $50 spent you get a $5 coupon) and a Tell a Friend program. You send a link to your friend and they get a 15% off coupon code. You get one as well if they use theirs within a certain time. I'm not going to post the coupon code link here. I only wanted to share the news of my bargain and let other readers know you might be able to save there too. But if you want to PM me for the code I'll be glad to give it to you.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2015 21:40:39 GMT
A book I have been waiting for just came in to my library. It's called The Lake House by Kate Morton. She is an Australian writer who writes about families over the years so it's actually historical fiction but there's always some intriguing mysterious twist to it that leaves you gasping. I was first hooked when I read The Secret Keeper. The Lake House just came out--cannot wait to read it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2015 15:01:11 GMT
I just finished reading Venetia by Georgette Heyer for about the fifth time. It's always great. Witty dilogue, brilliant characterisation and soooo romantic. No sex, of course, but somehow it manages to be very sexy. So if you're willing to give Regency romance a try, you can't get better than this. It's my absolute favourite Heyer.
And she wrote some decent cosy mysteries, too.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Nov 20, 2015 0:01:43 GMT
Normally I can't stand romances and go more for the Gladiator/swords and sandals stuff, but I read three Georgette Heyer books and really enjoyed them! They seem really more like historical fiction with a romantic bent due to having a 'fuller' plot.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2015 7:15:14 GMT
That's it exactly, Chap. They're more like Jane Austen than like current historical romance because they build a "world" and people it with a cast of characters, not just the romantic leads. In fact I think "Venetia" is probably the most romantic one of the lot, but it doesn't skimp on character or plot.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Nov 20, 2015 21:03:47 GMT
When I was a hack writer I wasn't making enough, so decided to write some romances and shop them around - I was a complete failure. I can't write a romantic scene without turning it into a farce and martial arts kept creeping into the mix, so I abandoned the idea. Karen Harbaugh (whom I believe you've read) managed by having a suspenseful plot and mixing in a bit of the paranormal and good historical fact, and in the few of hers I read treated the actual romantic scenes with a light touch. She likes Georgette Heyer and concentrated on plot. Her books are out of print now and she mentioned in an interview that I read a while back that she was probably out of fashion now. Hopefully she'll be rediscovered by a new generation of readers. There's so much bad crap out there, particularly with the instant publishing and blogging, that a good writer is definitely to be cherished.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2015 23:00:02 GMT
They're putting lots of the old Signets (Karen's publisher) on Kindle now, even the 70s ones. So her turn is probably coming. I can't work out how they choose the books they do, though they MIGHT be starting with oldest first.
They don't publish new Regencies any more, unless they're 400 pages and stuffed with sex. So Kindle means that a whole lot of new readers are discovering old authors. The die-hard fans didn't have time to explore old books when new ones were coming out, such was the output (like 7 per month!) so they're looking for OOP titles now too. Also, Regencies are gathering quite a Christian following because of the "no sex" factor. The thing is that a few books here and there DID have sex in them. So lots of Amazon reviews state that a book is "sweet" or "clean", which mean "No sex here, ladies!" I hate the implication that sex is dirty, so I hit the "unhelpful" button on all those reviews, lol.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Nov 21, 2015 17:38:35 GMT
I am on the Wait List at my library for The Lake House.
I read the Secret Keeper and The House at Riverton by her also.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2015 0:43:23 GMT
I just read two books by Barbara Vine aka Ruth Rendell, "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy" and "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me". Psychological thrillers.
Hmmm. The psychology was basic and the thrills weren't very thrilling. And yet they were compelling reading. I have no idea why.
Both books were peopled with thoroughly unlikeable characters, which I don't mind if they're interesting. But she goes in for stupid, hysterical females. Here's an example of stupid: one of the two main characters in The Chimney Sweeper's Boy is a lecturer in Women's Studies in London. But she doesn't know that unwed motherhood was a shameful thing in the 50s. And she has no idea how homosexuality was reviled and punished at the time either, which I would have thought would be basic general knowledge for an educated person.
Adam and Eve and Pinch Me was better. It seemed less padded and meandering. It's about a guy who cons women and eventually gets killed. That's not a spoiler - in fact I'm not sure what a spoiler would be since everything is laid out early on. The interest, for me, was in seeing it all unfold. And waiting for the con man to get killed - he was a completely obnoxious jerk. Many Amazon reviewers complain that there's too much about minor characters, but I actually liked that. It made a very simple plot a bit more fleshy.
Amazon tells me I've read one of Rendell's Inspector Wexford novels, but I had no memory of it until I read the blurb just now. I assume I didn't hate it or I'd remember it better.
ETA: I have another one on the way, "A Dark Adapted Eye". What was I thinking, you ask? I was thinking how cheap they were, that's what.
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