Things explode, people get shot, people get stabbed, there's some personal drama (and I'm sure we will get lWell, that was rather dramatic, wasn't it?
Things explode, people get shot, people get stabbed, there's some personal drama (and I'm sure we will get lots of lovely repression on that one, which angsty-me surely appreciates).
I won't give too much away, in order not to spoil you. Rest assured that this is yet another fast-paced, heart-felt, funny and thrilling Longmire adventure, which you will love if you loved the other books of the series.
Although there seem to be a view people who think that the dramatic finale didn't work. Hmm. Well, it worked for me, so there.
This book deals with a religious groups (which we would call sects over here in the freeworld), and I loved how Johnson handles it. He lets Walt be very non-judgmental, but he also doesn't turn him into some sort of religious person all of a sudden, which would have been out of line with the previous books. Still, I know that in the US, albeit in the vast middle, it is nearly as much of a sacrilege to NOT believe in God (or to not believe in only ONE god, or to accept other religious world views, or spiritual ones) as it is in some of the US's best friends... So, kudos to Johnson for staying inline with his previous non-religiousness in way that (hopefully) succeeds in not offending the believers among his readers eitehr.
That's all I have to say about this one. On to the next!!!
(To infinity! And beyond!) Muhhahhaha! :-D
(I'm just trying to see if anyone made it this far. And amusing myself.)...more
Do you know the feeling when you don't want to finish a book but at the same time you can't wait to finish it so you can start the next one, because yDo you know the feeling when you don't want to finish a book but at the same time you can't wait to finish it so you can start the next one, because you absolutely NEED to know what's going on RIGHT FUCKING NOW and no matter what you do you can't read fast enough, and then you've finished another one and you find yourselves suddenly running out of books?
That's where I am right now. Yesterday I went through 2,5 Longmire books (#6, 7 and half of #8).
Now I've finished 8 and I only have 9 and 10 lying here. Cause I was stupid enough NOT to buy 11 right away, since it's only available in hardcover and I though I might get bored anyway before I got there.
DO YOU REALIZE HOW WRONG I WAS?
DO YOU REALIZE that by tonight I will have run out of Longmire books? I mean, there are still 12 hours left of today, and there's no way that it will take m 12 hours to read Serpent's Tooth and Spirit of the Steamboat!
That means I will have to do other things ronight? Like, I don't know, read another book, maybe? But how? How can I just leave the world of Longmire when I really really don't want to? I LIKE it here!!! I need more!!!
I'm going to go back to the couch now and stare at the cover of A Serpent's Tooth for a while, trying to savor it before I start, because once I've started, there will be no stopping.
Oh, okay, you might as well keep it. It was never that convincing in the first place.
*admits defeat*
BooYou stole my feminism, Mr Johnson! Give it back
Oh, okay, you might as well keep it. It was never that convincing in the first place.
*admits defeat*
Book 8, and I still marvel at the way Johnson brings so much action, well-written, believable, so-real-you-can-feel-the-dust-on-your-face action into a series that is written entirely in first person POV.
It's no wonder that this was turned into a tv show. Just reading it is basically like watching a movie, that's how lifelike the action is.
Plus, it's Walt, the ever observant, reasonable and calm but hearfelt view of the world seen through Walt's eyes. I want to keep seeing the world through Walt's eyes. I'm a little bit in love, with Walt, the his world, with his view of the world, with everything.
(also, Henry, which is NOT funny, because we've had that little fling back when he Edgerton on Numb3rs, which i felt rather bad about, due to my longterm (yet rather troublesome) relationship with Don and his issues, so I don't appreciate him barging in here in yet another incarnation, distracting me from my Walt-love).
You know, I think the reason why I love these books so much is that they are entirely male.
It's a very very male series. It's very, to use the cliché, testosterone-laden. And I happen to like my (fictional) men, (well, ok, thoes in real life too), to be very male and testosterone-laden. In the good way. Which is why it's mostly the fictional ones, haha.
There's the men and the cars and the guns, and the ridiculous bravery, no, not bravery, true to god heroism it is, of it all, and after a day filled with action our hero comes home with a cut lip and a black eye to have a beer and get weak over a woman, because that's how he is, unable to resist the women in his life, the ones he loves (and only those, because he's a good guy!), trying to make the world a better place for them, to protect and to hold them and to keep them save from all harm.
It's so clichéd that it should be funny, but it's perfect, it's absolutely heavenly perfect, and with all my 36 years of feminism, higher education and financial (and otherwise) independency - I'm freely admitting here that this is the kind of guy I would spent the rest of my life with.
I know. I KNOW. (I've also known this before, but seriously, do you know how hard it is to find that kind of guy even in FICTION???)
Wow, I can't believe that it took me 8 books to figure that one out. Guess that's what we call being blind to one's weaknesses, hmm?
Boy, the poor Walt sure has to suffer on this one. It's rather insane, but then, at least he knows it insane.
He takes you along on a crazy ride throuBoy, the poor Walt sure has to suffer on this one. It's rather insane, but then, at least he knows it insane.
He takes you along on a crazy ride throught the winter mountains on the hunt for, surprise, yet another criminal, and it's so insanely exhausting that you get to that point where you can't almost don't want him to stop anymore, because sure, he's going to die out there, but really, now that we are here, hallucinating (possibly), freezing to death, drowning, being burnt, being shot, being clubbed, being covered under a snow mobile and various other things that would look completely over-the-top in a movie, I mean, once you've gotten that far, what else is there but to continue?
Only Johnson allows you to get to that point with Walter, which makes it all the more convincing.
What's more, Walt is left to his own devices almost throughout the entire book (not a lot of Vic in this one, i'm afraid), and it shows how excellent this character really is - we've reached book number 7 in the series and instead of bringin in new characters and trying to shake things up a little, Johnson gives us nothing but Walt, a criminal and a mountain.
And it's been one of the most thrilling adventures of Walt yet.
God, I need more. More more more. GIMME! MORE!...more
Ok, so I haven't even finished this (hat (<- hahahah, I wrote HAT instead of had. I wonder where my mind was....) to leave the house somewhere around Ok, so I haven't even finished this (hat (<- hahahah, I wrote HAT instead of had. I wonder where my mind was....) to leave the house somewhere around page 220 this morning), but I already love it.
Johnson again chooses a format that is not one of my favourites - jumping back and forth in time with about a wekk between the events. So far, the timelies haven't met.
But he does it so smooth and effortlessly that you it's never distracting.
The story takes us back to Walt's home country, and at the beginning it's jsut him. Turns out I love having Walt for myself. He works absolutely fine on his own, he doesn't need a whole team to make him interesting.
Of course, I am not complaining about Henry turning up later (because it's Henry, and like apparently all women, I have quickly succumbed to Henry's charmes), and I'm even less complaining about Vic. yes, there is some Walt/Voc in here, rejoice! There's lots of tension, and they end up in bed together again. Fade-to-black, this time, but hey, at least someone's getting laid!
Honestly, it would be a shame to give us Walt Longmire and then turn him into some kind of monk. Being unable to resist Vic's charmes makes him even more perfect in my eyes.
I'm happily ignoring the age-difference, though with Cady getting married to Vic's brother, it will probably come up again. Not that I think they'll go public anytime soon, but I cannot wait to read more about it, no matter what they do!
Seriously, this series is just made of win. I haven't had this much fun reading in such a long time. I'm filled with squee!
(and the constant mental image of Katee Sackhoff in my life sure doesn't hurt either)...more
Fair warning - I doubt I'm going to write a full review of every book in this series. There are currently eleven, so usually, by the fifth one, all I Fair warning - I doubt I'm going to write a full review of every book in this series. There are currently eleven, so usually, by the fifth one, all I can say is " I liked that one, too."
But for now, I can still find a more words than that.
This is #4 in the Longmire series, and it deals heavily with Walt's experiences in Vietnam. I don't usually enjoy flashbacks. It disturbs my reading flow and I tend to skip/fast-read them. But here they work, and I found myself actually looking forward to learn more about Walt's time in Vietnam. I mean, it's young Walt, and it's all part of what made him become the man he is today, and since I love Today-Walt, I want to know more about him.
(though I admit that I have a hard time with the whole Vietnam thing, because really, that makes him rather old, doesn't it? I mean, how old was he in Vietnam? 20ish? So he was born in the mid/end fourties?
Eh, that makes him, well, that's puts him in parent's age range. Hm. I wish I hadn't thought about that. I think I'll choose to ignore the fact that he is old, keep pretending that he is fifty-something (ish).
Yep, much better.
(seriously, if you had to give him a military past, couldn't you have chosen another war, Mr Johnson? I mean, it's not like there's a lack of wars to choose from in which the US was involved after Vietnam? The first gulf war was 24 years ago, that would have put Longmire nicely in the fifty-something range AND left him with enough experience to have been a Sheriff for a really long time. I'm sorry, but in my head, I'm going to have to change your canon a little bit when it comes to Walt's age. I'm sure you don't mind, seeing how I just spend more than 120 Euros within less than a week on your books)
Walt and Henry (and Dog!) go to Philadelphia and get themselves into all sorts of trouble.
I thought it was a biCAREFUL - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Walt and Henry (and Dog!) go to Philadelphia and get themselves into all sorts of trouble.
I thought it was a bit early in the series to take the whole show out of town, but I was wrong. This is just as entertaining as the first two books. We get to know Vic's family and learn (finally!) a bit mire about Walt's daughter Cady. And Dog is there, which is wonderful, because a) it's a dog called Dog, and b) they never forget about him. Plus, it's the ex-dog of Walt's ex-maybe-could-have-been-girldfriend except she killed a couple of people and then herself, and how's that for issues, hm, Walt?
Anyway, the best thing about #3 of the Longmire series is that Walt and Vic finally get to have sex. And it's a nice, explicit, but not too explicit little scene, featuring the hat (which it totally would have, had any of us female readers written it, right?.
Yes, I know, some people aren't so happy about the whole Walt/Vic thing. Some people are probably a bit hung up about there being a sex scene (and a semi-explicit one!) at all. I'm a bit of a reading-snob myself, and yes, I admit I grew up in the good old middle-class belief that sex scenes are not meant to be in books, at least not in the kind of books that a well-educated good little upper-middle class girl would read.
F**k that, I'm thirty-six, I have a post-grad degree and a well-paid, intellectually challenging job, and I am old and wise enough to admit that I like a little smut here and there, as long as it's good smut. And I should know, cause I have most definitely read more porn than I've watched (thank you, fandom, for turning me into a literary pervert). (I'm also pre-emptively censoring myself. Sorry about that.)
Not that our little scene between Walt and Vic even really qualifies as smut, it's way too short for taht, but since it's rare that there is any in the books I read, and even rarer that it is well-written, I thought I should mention it. Plus, you were all dying to read more about Vic and Walt, right?
I certainly was waiting for something to happen between those two, so, hat's off to Mr. Johnson (pun fully intended) for that perfect little scene, thank you very much!
Since actions speak louder than words, I already purchased the next four books in the series and am looking forward to at least a wekk (maybe two) of blissful reading pleasure. :-)...more
So I have a thing about men with cowboy hats. And belt buckles. And the whole silent thing. It turns me on. It decidedly gives me goodreadsunsuitable So I have a thing about men with cowboy hats. And belt buckles. And the whole silent thing. It turns me on. It decidedly gives me goodreadsunsuitable dirty thoughts
This should come as no surprise to people who know me. Show me a male clichè, and I'm probably into it. What can I say, I like men.
This series seems to feature plenty of manly men, but they are also threedimensional and human and real, and I just love reading about them. (the women are threedimensional and human and real as well, btw.) I want to read more about them. I want to read more about Walter Longmire. And Vic! (god, Katee Sackhoff, still one of the hottest things to have ever graced our tv screens. *sigh*) (yes, i'm an equal opportunity sexist. Deal with it.)
I liked the second book even better than the first. It is set directly after the first one and refers to the action of #1 a couple of times, but you could read it as a stand alone. Then again, why on earth would you want to?
I fully admit that I bought this only because I fell crazy in love with Walt Longmire and his team (Vic! OMFG Vic! Please marry me?), and - after watcI fully admit that I bought this only because I fell crazy in love with Walt Longmire and his team (Vic! OMFG Vic! Please marry me?), and - after watching seasons 1 and 2, and then watching them again - simply needed MORE.
Sadly, as of today, there are 38 Longmire fics archived on AO3, so there wasn't much "more".
38.
What is WRONG with people? All sorts of absurd fandoms have TONS of great fanfic, and Longmire has been stuck with 38 for more than a week, Most of which is not even all that good.
(I may have to write my own).
So I bought the books (well, the first four, they came in a bifty collector's pack with a picof Walt Longmire and his hat, which - as the girly fangirl that I am - I fully appreciate.
Yes, they are different from the show. I kinda knew that going in. I hoped that they would still satisfy my Longmire desire, and I wasn't disappointed.
I completely LOVE them.
I am so completely in love with Walt Longmire and the way his mind works, with the way Johnson writes, with the setting of Wyoming (who knew it's such a dangerous state when it comes to crime statistics?), with the character interaction... I LOVE it.
I haven't devoured a series of books like this in a long long time. I'm halfway through book three now, having finished #2 in just one day (and the day we won the world cup no less, squeeee!), and I already ordered the next three.
(I somehow thought that I shouldn't order all of them, in case I get bored after number 5, which is unlikely, of course.)
Let me tell you, I am one happy fangirl right now. Also, completely distracted from my recent Doctor Who obession, which is a good thing, because it was beginning to take over my daily life (and I - unlike other people - do NOT havea time machine that allows me to catch up on all the sleep I lose while watching David Tennant being hilarious on youtube). Oh, the fannish mind is fickle!
So, LONGMIRE it is, and I suggest you all start watching the show and reading the books.
Now excuse me, I have to see a man about a book. :-D...more
Ok. Not really, but still, BRILLIANT. It's called BRILLIANT book. Who Dr. Who is that?
I love it.
As for the book itself, well, there are someBrilliant!
Ok. Not really, but still, BRILLIANT. It's called BRILLIANT book. Who Dr. Who is that?
I love it.
As for the book itself, well, there are some apparently exclusive interviews with the cast, and there's tons of information which might be relevant for real Whovians (which I am certainly not), and there are lots of pretty pics. And all that at a really good price, too!
Which makes it just brilliant if you are stuck obsessing about Doctor Who and Matt Smith and have trouble imagining live without Eleven(OMG I don't know if I can stand having no more Eleven, please kill me now - no, wait, let me look at all those pretty pics first!)
Ok. Not really, but still, BRILLIANT. It's called BRILLIANT book. Who Dr. Who is that?
I love it.
As for the book itself, well, there are someBrilliant!
Ok. Not really, but still, BRILLIANT. It's called BRILLIANT book. Who Dr. Who is that?
I love it.
As for the book itself, well, there are some apparently exclusive interviews with the cast, and there's tons of information which might be relevant for real Whovians (which I am certainly not), and there are lots of pretty pics. And all that at a really good price, too!
Which makes it just brilliant if you are stuck obsessing about Doctor Who and Matt Smith and have trouble imagining live without Eleven(OMG I don't know if I can stand having no more Eleven, please kill me now - no, wait, let me look at all those pretty pics first!)...more
I'm on page 25 (or so) of this book, and I've been on page 25 (or so) for quite a while.
Ok, for a moment there I got distracted by the pretty, shiny, I'm on page 25 (or so) of this book, and I've been on page 25 (or so) for quite a while.
Ok, for a moment there I got distracted by the pretty, shiny, BRILLIANT thing that is Doctor Who (AGAIN), so I had to read the Brillant Books first, but now it's back to page 25.
I sure hope this will move a bit faster soon...
(meanwhile, there is still that pretty, shiny, BRILLIANT thing that is Doctor Who, and why, oh WHY, didn't I leave this show when my wonderful, adored, fantastic, best-doctor-ever David Tennant left, because now I'm stuck with this complete and utter fascination with Matt Smith who is without doubt the brilliantest, most fantastic and bestest Doctor ever, EVER, in the existence of Doctor Who, and now he's leaving and I'm getting my heart broken AGAIN by this stupid TV show, and for the life of me I CANNOT STOP WATCHING IT.
Yes, I know this rant has nothing to do with the book. But if the book continues to be as exciting as it is so far, you'll be happy that I distracted you with some Matt Smith. So there.
Back to page 25.
*sigh*
ETA: Page 50 - I give up. This is really really boring. I'm sorry, but I'm just not interested.
I wasn't expecting Harry Potter, of course not. This is a completely different book, and that should be a good thing, because I don't usually read books about magicians or boarding schools or anything where the protagonists are teenage boys. But unlike Harry Potter, there is just nothing to make me want to read the story (that I assume this book contains, god knows I didn't get to the actual story part.)
By page 50, we still seem to be at the character-introduction stage, and Rowlings isn't doing a very good job of introducing characters. The only thing that really stuck with me was the inappropriate use of the word "penis" in the description of one fat guy (whose name or function I've conveniently forgotten, but I doubt they were very interesting.)
Rowling describes him as having a fat belly, so fat that one wonders how he can reach his penis for peeing or "doing whatever else one does with a penis" (I'm paraphrasing, since I don't have the book here, but it was something like that). I think she uses the word "penis" three or four times within a half page, and it is just screaming "I am finally able to write PENIS!!!! because I'm DONE with the children books-YAY!" at me.
I get it, JK, really, I do. I mean, there's certainly a reason why HP fans found many, many wonderful ways to introduce your characters into the magical (hehe) world of sex. If I were you, I'd be DESPERATE to release some of the UST that has been building up between Harry and Snape all those characters during the last years. And that's the problem - it IS a bit desperate, don't you think?
Because a) looking at fat old guys with overlapping bellies, the LAST thing I want to think about are their penises, or any use they might have for them, and b) that part about the "whatever else one uses a penis for"?
Well, let me tell you - you pretty much use it for peeing, wanking and sex.
And no, thanks very much, I really didn't want to think about fat guys with penis-overlapping bellies having sex either, but you brought it up, and now we are all thinking about it, but at least the adults among us are adult enough to say (and think) wanking and sex instead of the rather childish "whatever else one does with penises".
Unless there IS something else one would do with a penis. I just can't think of anything else. Hmm, it's probably something really obvious. *thinks really hard* Nope, can't think of any other uses. (I'd love to hear suggestions, though - I'm sure it would make this review infinitely more entertaining.)
Point is: we would all have been better off if you hadn't brought up the subject in the first place.
Conclusion: Rowling pretty much hits you over the head with her insistence that really, she IS writing an adult book, HP-loving kids PLEASE move on, but fails to do so in any way that would make me want to read this book.
Maybe I'll try again later. Like, when I run out of books to read.
Another book bought in a fit of fannish love. This one is not quite as shiny and brilliant, but it contains tons of information that is probably reallAnother book bought in a fit of fannish love. This one is not quite as shiny and brilliant, but it contains tons of information that is probably really important and useful to the die-hard fan.
Sadly, my fannishness is characterized more by my unwavering Docotr-love (and the subsequent heart-break involved in such foolishness) than by any technical detail.
I, uhm, have a hard time remembering the names of any alien races, let alone planets, and studying this book would probably help with that. Then again, who cares?
Another typical case of "Don't judge a book by its cover"...
If you've been following my reviews for a while, you'll know by now that I havea mad love Another typical case of "Don't judge a book by its cover"...
If you've been following my reviews for a while, you'll know by now that I havea mad love affair with Paul Theroux. (his books, of course. It's totally what I mean to say).
I LOVE Theroux.
No discussion about it. Nothing he can do will convince me otherwise. I hope. OMG I really really hope.
Of course I don't love every single one of his books, which would be asking a bit much, since a) he has written a lot more than most good authors these days, and b) he has written a few things that can clearly be labelled as "I was young or otehrwise desperate and needed the money" and c) if even Charles Schulz couldn't be a completely brilliant EVERY single day, we can't really expect it from Theroux either. Actually, I love him even more because of his weaknesses.
Ok, ignore that. And please trust me when I tell you that I'm not a fourteen year old girl witha crush, even though I sound like one...
Anyway, Theroux, books, covers, where were we?
Right, judging a book by its cover. Or not judging it. This one I judged a little bit - I had acquired a copy of Millroy in the form of a black paperback with a sort of esoteric of I don't know what. That plus the title (Magician? I'm not really into all that magic stuff) led to the aforementioned paperback sitting on my bookshelf for quite a few years until I finally convinced myself to read it this year.
And it was absolutely brilliant.
Yes, there is a magician. He may or may not be able to perform "real" magic. That's not what the book is about. The book is actually a fantastically spot-on satirical look on, well, everything - our belief in TV, the supernatural, advertising, eating (and the ridiculous cults we follow oin the name of health and goop, uhm, sorry, typo, I meant food), religion... it's absolutely brilliant.
The idea is as brilliant as the execution - at least until the very end. The ending is, well, I'm not going to spoil you, but it is surprising and extreme, and it spoke to me, because I felt that the book needed a bit of an abrupt shock as an end. I was expecting something different, but it worked for me.
This comes highly recommended, it's definitely one of the best books I've read this year....more
If you've been following my reviews for a while, you might have noticed that I'm a huge fan of tv shows. All sorts of tv shows, old and new ones.
WhatIf you've been following my reviews for a while, you might have noticed that I'm a huge fan of tv shows. All sorts of tv shows, old and new ones.
What you might not know (cause I sure tried to hide it), is that I tend to get a bit obsessed while I'm watching a show (I usually watch entire seasons in a week or two, since I own everything I watch on DVD and therefore do not have to rely on tv schedules). I obsess and read fanfic and obsess some more and then I stalk the actors - in a very non-stalkery not-caring-for-their-life-but-trying-to-watch-all-their-movies-sort-of-way.
This has lead to all sorts of embarassing events, including the fact that I own every movie Kevin Costner ever made on dvd, as well as mostly everything Pierce Brosnan ever showed his face in, and I thank god that the majority of Don Johnson's works were never released on DVD or elsewhere, as far as I know, but trust me when I say that the ones that you can buy are probably not movies you want to buy.
Anyway...
A while ago, while I was rewatching Simon&Simon, a show that I learned to love as a kid and am still loving today (so maybe for different reasons), and found myself wondering what Rick and AJ have been doing with their (professional) lives. Rick is of course, fairly well-known, and has shown up in all sorts of movies and tv shows, but AJ? I had no idea.
The internet helpfully pointed out that Mr. Parker had indeed left moviestardom and had done whatever, including writing two books. Both of which were not readily available over here and cost a fortune on amazon, so I put them on my wishlist and patiently waited until one became affordable.
That was, uhm, probably three years ago.
So when I happened to buy this book early this year, I wasn't even sure why I had put it on my wishlist in the first place. Alas, there was a horse on it, so I went and read it.
Had I remembered why I bought it, I probably would have expected some account of an actor buying a farm and getting used to life outside Hollywood, likely containing lots of "important" and funny little anecdotes from his life as a tv star.
This book is nothing like that. It is, however, a very personal account of a man trying to deal with the trauma of being shot, while coincidentally moving out of the city to spend his days riding horses and working with cattle. But the story is not about that man, it's about ranchers, about branding, about selling and buying cows, about horses and what they can mean to you, about people and what drives them. Parker tells about his own trauma and how he deals with it, yes, but he succeeds in making that story the glue that keeps this book together without taking the focus away from the people he writes about. He's an observer who just happens to be in the middle of the story.
He comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful person who doesn't take himself too seriously, without any arrogance. And he completely lets you forget that he is the guy who once played AJ on Simon/Simon (in fact, I think he mentions the show only once when he explains why he had heard about PTSD before).
If you are buying this book to hear some good 80s Hollywood gossip, you'll be very disappointed.
But I'm rather sure you'll like it nonetheless.
P.S.: Now I want to watch Simon&Simon again. Damn, not enough time... :-(...more
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