Author: Karen

Out of the Box Blogs

Doctor Who

Karen

Sometimes when I’m reading and working constantly my brain hits a point where it just refuses to take in any more information. I’ve discovered that when I hit my “reading wall” is when I can have 10 fascinating books to chose from to read and I have no desire to read any. So I take a break for a day or two and don’t pick up a book. Well how do I blog about books when I’m not reading? I thought first I could write about something I’ve read in the past, but I’m just feeling bleh about that whole idea. And then it dawned on me, Doctor Who premiers tonight. I’m pretty stoked, yes yes I’m a Whovian as well as a trekkie, one with the force and a lover of anything the ends in the word comic. You did notice the word geek in my website address right? But since I am trying to keep it reader friendly I want to leave you one of my favorite quotes, not from the doctor believe it or not, but from Steven Moffat (a writer and producer of the revamp):

“I find it’s bizarre that science fiction is the one branch of television to push the idea of strong female characters. And I only call it bizarre because strong women aren’t fiction.”

Thanks for making strong female characters science fiction, in t.v. and in books (I’m including fantasy in this little rant) I appreciate it!

Books, Reviews

Rock Redemption by Nalini Singh

Karen

I have been reading Nalini for years so when Netgalley offered me a copy of this book for an honest review I almost fell out of my chair, but I looked at it like any other.

This was my favorite of the Rock Kiss series. The book opens with a big emotional situation and it’s like a car wreck, I knew I was going to be bad but couldn’t stop. That was the hook, and at this point I had to know how she was going to build this story. Then you had the push and pull where you wanted to protect Kit, because of what Noah did, but at the same time you wanted to help Noach because he was so broken and the best way to help Noah according to him in the book? Kit. I don’t know if I agreed with him, but like Fox said who am I to say what he should do to fix himself. I was completely immersed, couldn’t put the book down, and felt like the story was well paced, well put, and written to perfection. The romance I felt was one of the best parts, not hurried so we would have a build up with the characters. I enjoyed that it took a little longer and they didn’t jump into bed right after they saw each other again. Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!

This book will be available on October 6th.

Out of the Box Blogs

The Big Review

Karen

I have three books to review and I’m officially stuck. Easy you think, right? Not really. One I loved, one I hated and I falls right in the middle. What’s the big deal? Allow me to explain. You see any good review I read always does the following: (1)provides a clear opinion on a book (2) with a understanding of the story ,(3) without any spoilers. Sounds easy? It’s not. Problem one, when I love a book I want to go on and on about every character and how they were integral parts of the story, how they affected the plot and the outcome. Damn broke rule number three. Okay but isn’t that why goodreads made that great little spoilers button? Sure, but I don’t have one of those. So cut out the important parts, keep the integrity of the story so readers understand, oh yeah and make sure everyone knows it was kick ass. Lots of exclamations points only get you so far!!! Sorry saying this was awesome over and over just doesn’t cut it anymore..

So what about the bad reviews? Same rules but now your actually criticizing some ones writing, and potentially convincing others not to read it. I have always held to the belief that I should be honest, but there is a line between honest and mean, and you never want to cross it. This is especially hard with small indie writers, while I don’t mind offering critique, basically telling someone I generally disliked there book can be harder than you think when someone has 5 reviews total on there page. And then on the other hand, if they are a well loved author, prepare for the backlash. I can still remember my first one star, it was a Y.A. author that was popular, whoa watch out! After I started getting some negative thumbs down I was pissed, I had worked hard on that honest review and it seemed that some people were just not liking it because they loved the author (and hadn’t even read the book, hey I loved them too but this book was not up to par) not because it was a badly written review. But then I did a total readjust on my attitude, I had to remember, I just said something bad about an author they liked, hey that’s they’re way of expression too. I always now make it a point to read all types of reviews and try to concentrate on how people are expressing themselves. It takes a lot of courage sometimes to say bad things.

The in between. Ugh this is the hardest to write. Sure I can go to amazon and goodreads and throw up three stars, but write a comment? This is where I struggle. But I recently read something an author wrote and I’m taking it to heart, they pointed out that reviews with good and bad points in them are the best kind because you learn the most from them. So I’m working on going back and writing an actual review, pointing out what I liked and disliked WITHOUT SPOILERS (so bad at that) so people can make up they’re own minds.

I know this isn’t an official review, but sometimes you gotta vent.

Out of the Box Blogs

The Martian by Andy Weir

Karen

This book is amazing! There is so much I feel like I want to talk about, but I figure I should just give it to you straight. Why did I love The Martian? Because it did what great SicFi books do, it combined that little bit of reality in science with fiction to create a blockbuster story. I could see Mark (the main character that is stuck on Mars) as a real person, this is how the people in my life actually talk, and I loved the interaction between him and NASA and his fellow characters. I’ll even give you an example, when Mark is emailing one of his fellow astronauts he says: Frankly, I suspect you’re a super-villain. You’re a chemist, you have a German accent, you had a base on Mars…what more can there be?  Great stuff! I also enjoyed some of the secondary characters, like Venkat, Mindy, Teddy, Mitch, Martinez, Johanssen, the list could go on and on. I found them to be interesting “full” characters that I looked forward to reading about. I also loved that the book was about a Mars mission, which is what the space program is about right now, and had a lot of solid technical facts, yet still held true to the futuristic scifi genre that I love. I laughed, worried, fought, and was generally consumed by this book. It’s a worthy read.

As a side note, I don’t know anything about Andy Weir, I believe that authors books should speak for them not their background or schooling or how old they are, so I don’t like to read bio’s. It’s their business not mine. But from this book I gather that Andy has some scientific background so when I noticed that the second highest rating on goodreads for this book is a 5 star rating from Wil Wheaton, the actual Wil Wheaton (you know who I’m talking about) I fangirled a little for him. That’s awesome for a scifi writer. And if he’s a nerd? Even better! Good for you Andy Weir!!

As with most of life’s problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation. I can’t help myself, I’m going to be quoting this book for weeks! I loved this book!!!!