Talking About Books

What I’m Reading

A friend has been loaning me Dean Koontz’s Odd series about a young man who helps dead people either get justice after being murdered or find their way to the next life. The stories follow more and more paranormal lines, usually evil, as they go along. With a secondary repeating character whose story arc remains incomplete book after book, both my friend and I thought the series must be coming to an end soon. However, with the last book, Deeply Odd, it seems the story may continue quite a while. I really like the main character, but left too long without answers to repeated teases, people tend to lose interest.

I enjoyed an older Dean Koontz novel, Sole Survivor. I wanted to see what his other stories were like. A sad story and pessimistic about the human condition and future, as is the Odd series, it still wove an intriguing tale of paranormal gifts and conspiracies with characters you came to care about.

I read the second of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, Dragonfly In Amber. Though a very long book, it held my interest. Have to admit I skimmed through some of the descriptive parts, but I like the characters and admire the writer’s ability to make each one an individual. I’ve always loved historical novels. I did, at times, find the moving of the point of view of the story from the main character to secondary characters confusing.

Disappointments

Generally, I enjoy Sandra Brown’s books. I found an older one, Best Kept Secrets, and was surprised that the plot left me dissatisfied and the characters came off as caricatures. Obviously, craft does improve with practice.

Another surprising disappointment, since it made the bestseller list and is now a movie, was Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Not my kind of book, I guess. I try to read a wide variety but traditional mysteries and thrillers are my least favorite genre. The supposed plot twists were obvious and neither main character had much in the way of redeeming qualities. I didn’t care what happened to them.