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The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner, 2004

Tight in that it is kinda like a combo of the previous two, with even more violence galore and riveting climaxage.

3.5/5

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Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, 1990

I enjoyed this one more than The Color of Magic but I don't really know why. That one definitely travels further but Pyramids was more engrossing as a character study and pyramids are ineffably mystic. I also like the desert. Intergalactic Pharaoh story.

4/5

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Jacob's Folly by Rebecca Miller, 2013

What a marvelous book. Vaguely reminiscent of Jerusalem in some ways albeit toned down comparatively by like 600%, simply because that book is more expansive than some galaxies. But this one brought me great pleasure and satisfaction and had me a bit connected in a personal way.

Tells the story of a reincarnated Jewish street peddler turned valet turned high ranking socialite and his mischievous plans to at once bring down a modern good Samaritan and persuade a new Jewish lady of interest to toss tradition in favor of desire. Of course these lives eventually intersect, intertwined with our main character's recollection of his past life and its rise and perpetual fall from grace by way of death.

I found the young girl's story the most moving and interesting, being raised heavily Jewish, but overcoming the boring traditions of the past to pursue greater and more contemporary things. Thus a whole new world is shaped around her.

But all of it is great, I related to the historical narrative the main character rising above poverty and despair three times over. Ambitious, touching, droll, and highly insightful.

4.5/5

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Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pretchett, 1989

Don't get me wrong this was still a good and fun read but it seemed kinda hokey. A lot of the dialogue is very unnatural and jokes quite forced and it would almost appear to be going for an overly deliberate comedy style which takes away from it a touch. It lacks the vastness and adventure of The Colour of Magic and the inexplicable and ineffable mysticism of Pyramids and overall seems much more easy going on the mind.

I'm obviously not even close to an expert yet but I feel this could possibly be a Discworld Dud®

2.5/5

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Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris, 2012

A delightful thing here. I didn't know it was a sequel to the more celebrated Chocolat but it holds up fine on it's own, any returning concepts and themes are handled in a pretty straightforward fashion.

I probably wouldn't have expected to enjoy it so much if I glanced over the details beforehand but everything I'm reading I'm going into blind, and haven't been super disappointed by anything yet. This book is flavorful and delicate in prose and plot, dealing with an overlying theme of segregation in a French slum-sub city for Muslims cut off from the adjacent and haughty Anglos.

A lot to do with religion and pastries and I had a good time.

3.5/5

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Germinal by Émile Zola, 1885

So mad props. It's very possible that this is the gnarliest and most harrowing book I've read but I'm drawing a blank on too much competition at the moment. Either way, it's easily one of them for sure. Old fashioned prose and insanely descriptive in all aspects from imagery to the very suffering of mankind. Like you can just feel the anguish this book exudes.

The strike got going earlier than I expected and from there on the book wasn't messing around. Certain moments of an especially severe nature had me thinking that it was the zenith of monstrosities but it just kept getting worse. Mutilated bourgeois genitals, horses dying in pain, brains spurting out everywhere, claustrophobia that damn near made me ache.

This was gripping, but in the way a vice would grip your skull until it implodes. Moving and without relent.

5/5

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Dune Road by Jane Green, 2009

This is about middle aged ex-wives in Connecticut.

I enjoyed it though.

3/5

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The Walking by Bentley Little, 2000

Witchcraft and uncanny valleys. Sometimes it was chilly, but one part in particular shook me. Loaded with organs and zombies and the occult

3.5/5

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Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers, 2006

This book on the other hand was sick on a badass level. The "JK Rowling/Shel Silversteen/Douglas Adams should by no means be heeded. This goes far beyond "monumental silliness" into vast reaches of the fantastic imagination. Also often greatly ponderous and sometimes gruesome, it has so much to appreciate. So much I'd probably run out of breath talking about it.

It's a hero adventure but overloaded with madness and it never gives up. Torturing devices infused with a plethora of solutions to run through the victim's veins, stuff that will simultaneously delay and quicken the onset of death, inflict pain and alleviate all in one move. Titanic 12 legged Lovecraftian abominations. Subcutaneous armies of alchemically animated cyborgs. Alchemy everywhere. Traversal of the four brains of a Nocturnomath, imbibing in knowledge unknowable.

I could go on but I won't.

5/5

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Kiss of the Bees by J.A. Jance, 2001

Cool book that I didn't comment on soon enough to be hyped. It's got indians and ****.

3.5/5