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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Catching up - short (probably very short) reviews

I'm on track with my reading so far. That's a first! Anyway, I have three books waiting in the wings so here are three very short and lazy reviews.

Olivier by Philip Ziegler:
Biography of legendary stage and film actor Sir Laurence Olivier.

I liked this a lot I have to say, but it felt like it took forever to read. Not because of the subject matter - Ziegler is a  respectful and readable biographer - but for some reason the book was really heavy, which made it hard to hold up for extended periods.

It covers Olivier's life from go to woe, with a lot of focus on his acting life, rather than the more salacious details of Olivier's private life. Very interesting.


Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks

I have very, very mixed feelings about this one. The Wodehouse estate chose Faulks to pen a new Jeeves and Wooster novel, but the question is - did the world really need it?

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is light-hearted and full of all of the Wodehouse plot-standards: star-crossed young lovers, country estates, misunderstandings ... but that special light touch and wittiness is somewhat missing.

It's readable enough, but go for the source material. Pip pip.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I loved loved loved The Scorpio Races. I'm still emotionally fragile because of The Scorpio Races and I approached The Raven Boys with a little trepidation.

It was not, however, half as traumatic as The Scorpio Races.

Blue comes from a family of psychics. She's not psychic herself, but she acts like a signal boost. She's always been told that she will cause her true love to die, which is enough to make Blue cautious.

Then she meets Gansey, a Raven boy from the nearby boarding school and Blue's life changes completely as she gets caught up in Gansey's quest to find an ancient Welsh king.

I loved The Raven Boys a lot, and I'm excited to read the rest of the series, but - so far - it's not as earth-shattering as The Scorpio Races was. (I'm sure the pain is coming.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had no idea the Wodehouse estate had commissioned another Jeeves book. What a weird move! It's not like there aren't plenty of them already in existence!

Kailana said...

I really need to get around to some Stiefvater.

Marg said...

I read the first of Stiefvater's werewolf books but wasn't sold on it. I have been meaning to read Scorpio Races for a while so thanks for the reminder!

Jodie said...

I was exactly the same about Raven Boys but just you wait until Dream Thieves. You're going to explode!

Maree said...

Jenny: It was definitely strange to me, too. Plenty and far superior :D

Kailana: The Scorpio Races is really, really great.

Marg: I have't read those, but I hope you enjoy The Scorpio Races

Jodie: ..... *sigh*