Well, this has been a disappointing week on the TV and book front.
Castle had so much potential this week and there were a couple of funny moments, like when the old lady said she’d shoot the pretty one first and Esposito and Ryan both looked at each other like, hmmm . . . which one of us is the pretty one? And the tiger was a surprise. But the ending was so well-worn with the Beckett tease and no forward movement in the relationship. It’s like they’re just recycling parts of scripts we’ve seen before. Move it along, people!
Hawaii Five-O did the same thing--we just saw the re-run of the Nick Lachey episode last week and this was pretty much a script recycle of that one. Kids kidnapped, running against time trying to get the ransom, then a happy reunion at the end with the kids/parents. Bo-ring. Seen it. And there wasn’t even any funny banter to counteract the boring. *sigh*
Usually when there’s nothing to catch my interest on TV I can always lose myself in a book, but the two books I started this week were also a disappointment. The first one starts out with a conversation between a brother and a sister. A boring one. I kept reading, thinking it would get better, but this conversation went on forever and was just as boring on page six as it was on page one. Although that did make it easy to put it down and start another book.
My hopes were high for the next book, and it had come recommended, but the beginning chapter was more or less a history lesson, which seriously put me to sleep. I love it when I learn something from a book I’ve read, but usually that has to be woven into the story and not just paragraph after paragraph of research that the author liked and wanted to put in as background. Especially in the first chapter. It was a real testimony to me in the value of hooks. Hook me as a reader so I will keep reading, because when your first chapter is boring, and I have to slog through it, more than likely I will put it down and may or may not come back to it.
Are you guys reading anything good that you can recommend? Any fun Christmas stories out there?
I'm an award-winning romantic suspense novelist, but in my free time I love to review books and my fave TV shows, as well as pass along great book deals, and eat Canadian chocolate---not necessarily in that order.
6 comments:
I totally forgot about Castle last night. My husband is out of town for the week and I'm preparing for our ward's Christmas dinner/party. So much to do I barely have time to write. (yeah, that's going to stop me.)
I downloaded the book you recommended last week, but I haven't had time to read it yet. Since it's an ebook, I can't exactly put it on my "stack of books to be read" without endangering my computer. I did ask Santa for a Kindle Fire this year. I'm pretty sure I'll get it. Can I transfer the books I have in my Kindle for Mac onto it, I wonder? That little device I could keep by my bed.
The only thing I'm reading right now are blogs and one of my first drafts :-)
Well, you haven't tempted me to catch up on Castle today. I've been wasting time reading The Help. (I know--finally.) Because I'm from the south, it's a really emotional read for me, but I'm enjoying it--in a depressing sort of way.
I read "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck not long ago. It was good and I cried through it.
I'm reading "A Walk in Heaven" by Marie Higgins, but its slow going, my kindle keeps restarting after ever page. I think I will like it, once I can read a bunch of pages all together.
I'm waiting for my replacement Kindle to arrive, so I can read more.
One of my favourite Christmas stories, even now that I am turning into the Scroonch (mixture of Scrooge and the Grinch) is The Children of Green Knowe, by Lucy Boston (or L.M. Boston.) You might be able to find it in the library, in the children's section.
Yeah, I admit, it's been a disappointing week for TV -- both Fringe and The Walking Dead have gone into hiatus until January. Urgh! The only thing left to look forward to until Christmas is Merlin, but then there will be the new Doctor Who. Yay!
What have I been reading lately? I've just finished A Red Herring Without Mustard, by Alan Bradley, the third Flavia de Luce mystery. It was very entertaining. Flavia is such a plucky heroine, obsessed with chemistry, cursed with two older sisters, and always managing to get tangled up in mysteries and murder. I heartily recommend the entire series.
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