Robynettely

I have no idea what the title means, but it popped into my head (from my iPod, so not a great distance). Heather wants me to buy a Beatles box set. And two books that I would actually consider, if I was feeling like buying books right now: Anathem by Neal Stephenson (never read anything by him, but there are a couple of books around the house) and A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire. I read "Wicked" a couple of years ago. The other three recommendations, though... meh.

Today's recommendations (chosen just for me!) were: "From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris. I did buy the 7-volume box set last year from Heather, but she seems to think it's the only thing I've ever bought. "Hunted" by PC Cast & Kristin Cast. I know nothing about this book. "The Summoning" by Kelley Armstrong. Heather really wants me to have this book, obviously. What had I been searching for on the chapters.indigo.ca website before this email came in? That German Zen Archery book. Hmph.

This week I have received two missives from Heather. On Monday she suggested six "fresh new faces in fiction", one of which sounded interesting: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni. The amazon reviews were patchy, though. And today she suggested The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, which was funny, because I'd put it on my list last week, even though the amazon reviews said the writing (or maybe the translation) was cliche-ridden.

Today Heather suggested, again, that I pick up "the Reckoning" by Kelley Armstrong, which is not an unreasonable pick for me, though I don't know how she arrived at it. But Justin Bieber? Clearly, Heather thinks I am 12 years old. I just downloaded some Andrew Bird to improve my cool-cred.

Today I got an email from "my good friend Heather" suggesting some books I'd like to read. They were: "Pretties" "Marked" by Kristin Cast "The Summoning" by Kelley Armstrong How did Heather know I'd just finished "Uglies" on Saturday? I bought it probably a year ago (and I already have "Pretties", so she's out of luck on selling me that). I finished "Bitten" by Kelley Armstrong what, two weeks ago? How did she know? I didn't even buy it from Heather, I got it as a gift. And the last crop of books I bought from Heather were "Creating Language Crimes", "The Book of Jubilees" and ... oh hell, I forget what. Not YA. Neither of which I read.

"The Man from St. Petersburg" Ken Follett. Oh. My. God. I read it because we had two copies lying around. Ick. This book made me feel dirty. I made some negative comment about this book to my sister, who repled "I've read every book he's ever written." I think she's mad at me now. This book was all tell, no show. There was no tension. The sex was funny. It reminded me of my dad's novel. It seemed well-researched, from what I can tell. When my friend said that of my karate-zombie novel, I took it as damning with faint praise, so there you go. There was no female character with whom I could identify. Or male character, for that matter. I don't need a woman to be a role model. I really strongly disliked this book. "Wanderlust" Rebecca Solnit. I'd come across her name in a discussion of the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, and came across this when I was looking for her other book on the TPL website. As walking is an integral part o...