Book Reviews
Book review index. Thanks to Little Red Reviewer for the genius idea of organizing ourselves! Commentation on authors not limited to one of their books is here, and reader reactions are here.
Hyperlink to the Darkcargo post, the author of that post, and whether the book was audio or print ebook text graphic read with the eyes rather than the ears.
What Reviews Mean to Readers –Darkcargo & nrlymrtl
Fly-By Review posts are a quick and dirty way to address all the books that we have read and didn’t think too much of.
Abraham, Daniel
Leviathan Wakes –Darkcargo (optic)
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Purple Hibiscus –nrlymrtl (audio)
Ahmed, Saladin
Throne of the Crescent Moon –nrlymrtl (optic)
Allen, Mark
Clockwork Phoenix –Darkcargo (optic)
Anderson, Poul
Brain Wave –nrlymrtl (audio)
Asaro, Catherine
Aurora in Four Voices –nrlymrtl (optic)
Asimov, Isaac
The Caves of Steel –lotsofwatermelons (optic)
Foundation Trilogy –nrlymrtl (audio)
Balter, Michael
The Goddess and the Bull –Darkcargo (optic)
Banks, Ian M.
Player of Games –Darkcargopants (optic)
Bartlett, Allison Hoover
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much –nrlymrtl (audio)
Beagle, Peter S.
Come Lady Death –nrlymrtl (optic)
Behrendt, Greg
He’s Just Not That Into You –Liliana (optic)
Bernobich, Beth
Passion Play –nrlymrtl (optic)
Berry, Stephen Ames
The Biofab War –nrlymrtl (optic)
Birt, Danny
Between a Roc and a Hard Place –Darkcargo (optic)
Bradley, Alan
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie –nrlymrtl (audio)
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag –nrlymrtl (audio)
Brennan, Marie
Midnight Never Come –Darkcargo (optic)
Britain, Kristen
Blackveil –Darkcargo (optic)
Green Rider –Darkcargo (optic)
Bronte, Emily
Wuthering Heights –nrlymrtl (audio)
Busch, Colleen Morton
Fire Monks –Paula S. Jordon (optic)
Butcher, Jim
The Dresden Files –nrlymrtl (optic)
Fool Moon –nrlymrtl (audio)
Ghost Story –nrlymrtl (optic)
Storm Front –nrlymrtl (optic)
Storm Front –nrlymrtl (audio)
Butler, Octavia
Adulthood Rites –nrlymrtl (optic)
Dawn –nrlymrtl (optic)
Imago –nrlymrtl (optic)
Carey, Jacqueline
The Kushiel Novels –nrlymrtl (optic & audio)
Carr, Caleb
The Alienist –nrlymrtl (audio)
Carrell, Jennifer Lee
Interred with Their Bones –nrlymrtl (audio)
Carriger, Gail
The Parasol Protectorate Series –Grant (optic)
Chadbourn, Mark
Age of Misrule –Darkcargo (optic)
World’s End –Darkcargo (optic)
Chevalier, Tracy
Burning Bright –nrlymrtl (audio)
Child, Lincoln
Gideon’s Sword –lotsofwatermelons (optic)
Coe, David B.
Children of Amarid –Darkcargo (optic)
Collins, Suzanne
The Hunger Games Trilogy –Darkcargopants (audio)
Corey, James S. A.
Leviathan Wakes –Darkcargo (optic)
Crichton, Michael
Next –nrlymrtl (audio)
Czerneda, Julie
Changing Vision –Darkcargo (optic)
Species Imperative Series –Darkcargo (optic)
Ties of Power –Darkcargo (optic)
Delaney, Samuel R.
Babel-17 –nrlymrtl (optic)
Empire Star –nrlymrtl (optic)
Fluke, Joanne
Chocolate Chip Murder Mysteries –Jessi (optic)
Foglio, Phil and Kaja
Girl Genius 101 –Wendy (optic)
Follett, Ken
Hornet’s Flight –lotsofwatermelons (audio)
Pillars of the Earth –nrlymrtl (optic)
World Without End –nrlymrtl (audio)
Foster, Alan Dean
Alien –lotsofwatermelons (optic)
Pip and Flinx Novels –nrlymrtl (optic)
Friend-Ish, Barbara
The Shadow of the Sun –nrlymrtl (optic)
Gaiman, Neil
InterWorld –nrlymrtl (audio)
Sandman Chronicles I – Preludes and Nocturnes –nrlymrtl (optic)
Graham, Jo
The Hand of Isis –nrlymrtl (optic)
Grant, Mira
Feed –Darkcargopants (optic)
Harrison, Harry
The Stainless Steel Rat –nrlymrtl (audio)
Hautzig, Esther
The Endless Steppe –Darkcargo (optic)
Hayden, David Alistair
Wrath of the White Tigress –Darkcargo (optic)
Hearne, Kevin
Hounded — nrlymrtl (audio)
Hubbard, L. Ron
To the Stars –nrlymrtl (audio)
Huso, Anthony
The Last Page –Darkcargo (optic)
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World –Darkcargo & nrlymrtl (optic & audio)
Irving, John
A Son of the Circus –nrlymrtl (optic)
Jemisin, N. K.
The Broken Kingdoms –nrlymrtl (optic)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms –nrlymrtl (optic)
Kay, Guy Gavriel
A Song for Arbonne –nrlymrtl (audio)
Under Heaven –nrlymrtl (optic)
Under Heaven –nrlymrtl (audio)
Krygelski, John David
Timecursor –lotsofwatermelons (optic)
Lake, Jay
Green –Darkcargo (optic)
Langrish, Katherine
Troll Fell –nrlymrtl (optic)
Larsson, Steig
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest –nrlymrtl (audio)
The Girl Who Played with Fire –nrlymrtl (audio)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo –nrlymrtl (audio)
Le Guin, Ursula
Planet of Exile –nrlymrtl (audio)
Lord, Karen
Redemption in Indigo –Darkcargo (optic)
Lowachee, Karin
Burndive –nrlymrtl (optic)
Cagebird –nrlymrtl (optic)
Warchild –nrlymrtl (optic)
Matsushita, Yoko
Descendants of Darkness Series –nrlymrtl (optic)
Maxey, James
Nobody Gets the Girl –Jonah Knight (optic)
Nobody Gets the Girl –nrlymrtl (optic)
McDonald, Ian
The Dervish House –Darkcargopants (optic)
McHugh, Maureen
China Mountain Zhang –Darkcargo (optic)
The Naturalist –Darkcargo (optic)
McKenna, Juliet
The Gambler’s Fortune –Darkcargo (optic)
The Thief’s Gamble –nrlymrtl (optic)
McKinley, Robin
Dragonhaven –nrlymrtl (optic)
Mieville, China
Embassytown –Darkcargo (optic)
Moran, Michelle
Nefertiti –nrlymrtl (audio)
Morrison, Toni
Beloved –Darkcargo (optic)
Nelson, James
The Guardship –nrlymrtl (audio)
Niec, Larissa
Shorn –nrlymrtl (optic)
O’Brien, Robert C.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH –nrlymrtl (optic)
Okorafor, Nnedki
Who Fears Death –Darkcargo (optic)
Pollan, Michael
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto –nrlymrtl (audio)
Omnivore’s Dilemma –nrlymrtl (audio)
Pratchett, Terry
I Shall Wear Midnight –nrlymrtl (optic)
Preston, Douglas
Gideon’s Sword –lotsofwatermelons (optic)
Impact –lotsofwatermelons (optic)
Pullman, Philip
The Amber Spyglass –nrlymrtl (audio)
The Golden Compass –nrlymrtl (audio)
The Subtle Knife –nrlymrtl (audio)
Reaves, Michael
InterWorld –nrlymrtl (audio)
Roach, Mary
Bonk –nrlymrtl (audio)
Robb, J. D.
Eve Duncan Series –Jessi (optic)
Sanderson, Brandon
The Final Empire –Darkcargopants (audio)
The Hero of Ages –Darkcargopants (audio)
Warbreaker –nrlymrtl (optic)
The Way of Kings –Darkcargopants (optic)
The Way of Kings –nrlymrtl (audio)
The Well of Ascension –Darkcargopants (audio)
Schiff, Stacey
Cleopatra, A Life –nrlymrtl (audio)
Scholes, Ken
Antiphon –Darkcargo (optic)
Lamentation –Darkcargo (optic)
Siegler, Scott
Infected –Darkcargopants (optic)
Spencer-Fleming, Julia
All Mortal Flesh –nrlymrtl (optic)
A Fountain Filled With Blood –nrlymrtl (audio)
I Shall Not Want –nrlymrtl (optic)
In the Bleak Midwinter –nrlymrtl (audio)
One Was a Soldier –nrlymrtl (optic)
Out of the Deep I Cry –nrlymrtl (audio)
To Darkness and To Death –nrlymrtl (audio)
Stockett, Kathryn
The Help –jessi (optic)
Stoker, Bram
Dracula –Darkcargo (optic)
Summers, David Lee
Owl Dance –nrlymrtl (optic)
Tales of the Taliman V7I2 –nrlymrtl (optic)
Tchaikovsky, Adrian
The Empire of Black and Gold –Darkcargopants (optic)
Troost, J. Maarten
Lost on Planet China –nrlymrtl (audio)
Tuccillo, Liz
He’s Just Not That Into You –Liliana (optic)
Viehl, S. L.
Rebel Ice –Darcargo (optic)
Stardoc Novels –Darkcargo (optic)
Vreeland, Susan
The Passion of Artemisia –nrlymrtl (audio)
Weeks, Brent
The Way of Shadows Trilogy –Darkcargopants (audio)
The Night Angel Trilogy –nrlymrtl (optic)
Wells, H. G.
Journey to the Center of the Earth –Darkcargo (audio)
Wisoker, Leona
Children of the Desert Series –nrlymrtl (optic)
Zelazny, Roger
Doorways in the Sand –Wendy (optic)
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz
The Shadow of the Wind — Darkcargo (optic)
We see a lot of folks arriving here with the search terms to find illegal pirated free downloads. If you are here for that reason, piss off. 
Stockett, Kathryn: The Help
This was a doubleday book club book that I bought mostly to fulfill my obligation to the book club. But it had a blue ribbon on it so I figured what the heck! Turns out that the “Blue Ribbon book Club” is a pretty cool thing that the book clubs are doing. They give recognition to books by new authors that they think are going to be really successful novels. In the case of The Help they were absolutely correct. Not only is the book a fantastic journey into the lives of 1960′s southern maids but it is about to become a movie.
Just based on the description, I probably wouldn’t have read this book but the ribbon suckered me in and I am so glad that it did. It made me laugh, cry and blow steam out of my ears, it made me feel. And that is the mark of a great book in my opinion.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder series by Joanne Fluke…
These books are what I like to call mindless entertainment. No thinking required. Mostly because if do think about them, you will know exactly who the killer is by the end of chapter 3. But I still like them. They are filled with family drama and the interaction between Hannah, her sister and her mother have me laughing out loud. If I was a cook, I would have already made a batch of “chocolate chip crunchies” (the recipe is in the book). But I’m not a cook. The language and plot is soo G-rated that Nancy could read it without even an “oh my poor mother”.
But I do have one complaint: Hannah, PICK ONE GUY ALREADY!
I recently finished the newest Iris Johannsen (sp?) book in the Eve Duncan series. I am a huge fan of roamantic mysteries and I generally love a series more than a single book. But I was a little disappointed in this one. I am not sure how many books have been written in this series because this series is kinda like a tree, Eve Duncan is the trunk and all of the people she ahs come into contact with are the branches. Nearly every person ever mentioned in an Eve book gets their own story eventually.
The gist of the series is that Eve’s daughter Bonnie was kidnapped when she was 6 and her body was never found. During the initial investigation, she met and fell in love with Joe Quinn. This prompted her to go back to school and become a forensic sculptor, which is someone who puts faces back on skulls. Thus, giving the closure she desires to other families. You get a lot of background about forensic sculpting in the early books in the series and it is a very interesting profession that I personally had never heard of.
But in this newest book, there is no “ending”. This is the first of a trilogy titled EVE, the next ones are QUINN and BONNIE respectively. So I kind of expected a little bit of a cliffhanger but this was almost like stopping in the middle of a sentence.
The second one is available now but the last one doesn’t come out until October. So my question is this… do I start the second one now or do I wait until just before the release of the last book? I can’t decide which is worse dying to find out what happens next or being left hanging again and waiting weeks for the third story.