Review: Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me

Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me by Brad Paisley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



My interest in Brad Paisley began, as so much in my adult life did, at Borders. Back before Borders became locked in a death spiral, we used to get promo CDs for the listening stations. After a couple of months, the staff would get to paw through a box and pick out what we wanted. Since I'm hearing impaired, I have very specific tastes in music. I care less about the music itself and more about the singer & lyrics. I want to actually hear them singing and I want to be interested in what they're singing. So I often glanced through what was left after my co-workers descended and picked out whatever looked interesting. One of those CDs was Paisley's Time Well Wasted. Thus began my love affair with country music.

I was excited when I saw Paisley was coming out with an autobiography because I knew he wrote many of his own songs and I was hoping he'd talk about his various inspirations. Barring that, I wanted to to learn about his life, the whos and hows of it all. This is not what Diary of a Player is about. Paisley focuses very narrowly on the guitar. He and his co-writer, David Wild, do an excellent job of giving the impression of an average joe hanging out at the local music shop, without compromising Paisley's privacy or personal life. Paisley name-drops like crazy and portrays the country music genre as mostly one big happy family.

While he traces the guitar's impact on his life, he doesn't get technical in a bid, I would guess, to hang onto the casual music lover. So anyone hoping for some tips is doomed to disappointment. To make it even more maddening, Paisley actually mentions a conversation he had with a guitar teacher about teaching some of his songs, but doesn't share any of that advice or info with the reader. I got three things from this book. First, Paisley considers himself a musician who also happens to sing. Secondly, his family is very important to him. Thirdly, he wants you to know that he's worked extraordinarily hard to get where he is.

I gave this three stars because it wasn't what I expected and it could have benefited from a more structured, linear, narrative. If you're a fan of Paisley or a high school student looking for resources for a biography report, check this out. If you're looking for info that's not on Wikipedia, this is not going to fit your needs.



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Review: Elfhome by Wen Spencer

Elfhome by Wen Spencer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Oi. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one yet. While the official release isn't until July, Baen had the brilliant idea to sell the unproofed (and hopefully unedited as well) manuscript as an e-ARC at $15 a pop. I don't know if I'd precisely say it's worth it, but if you divide the 15 by the 6 months you would otherwise have to wait, it works about to $2.50 a month. A very reasonable expense for your rabid Wen Spencer fanperson. A note of caution, though, it's definitely a rough draft. The typos aren't too bad (although Spencer consistently mis-spells 'performed' as 'preformed'), but there are some difficulties with the characterization, continuity, and uneveness with the plot. If I was Spencer's beta reader, I would have kicked this back with a mess of notes, but judging by the length of time between books, I'm guessing she was late turning in the manuscript and just sent in what she had. Just be aware of what you're going to get with the e-ARC and spare a kind thought for Spencer's editor.

As far as the book itself is concerned, you absolutely must read Tinker and Wolf Who Rules prior to Elfhome. You will be absolutely lost otherwise. I was kind of convinced Spencer retconned a character as I had absolutely no recollection of him in any of the previous two books, but Google informs me that he was the subject of a free short story, "For Blue Sky," released waaaaay back in 2006. So read that too. Spencer's main gift is her incredible world-building skills, but she rarely retreads the same ground and seems to have the expectation you know what she is talking about. In addition, while it's been five or six years for the reader since Wolf Who Rules was published, the actions off Elfhome occur almost immediately after that book.

Elfhome also jumps between three different points of view: Tinker, Oilcan, and Tommy. I didn't count pages or anything, but I felt like Tinker had the least amount of chapters, with Oilcan being the predominant narrator. Windwolf is barely in it, Pony and Stormsong act as Tinker's Greek Chorus, and Tooloo makes one appearance in an Oilcan chapter. Rikii, Lain, and Esme all return to close up their plot arcs. I actually really enjoyed Oilcan and his story arc the most, and, while Tinker & Tommy were entertaining with their distinctive voices & personalities, I was always eager to get back to Oilcan & his 'enclave.' While I would like to read more about Oilcan and company, I do feel Elfhome was sort of a satisfactory end to the series. There are still unanswered questions that Spencer could base another book on, but personally speaking, I felt like, 'Okay. I'm good now.'

I do want to include some content warnings here. There is sex in the book and Tommy has a very male frame of mind with regards to it. There is also murder, attempted rape, allusions to torture, and some very uncomfortable scenes involving children, alive and dead. However, the bulk of the squick factors take place off screen and the reader is mainly watching the characters deal with the fallout.

Edited to add: The cover is very misleading. While Impatience the dragon does play a sort of pivotal role in the plot, his actual appearances are brief and no other dragon can be considered a major character. Also, yes, Tinker is vital to the plot and remains the character we all know & love, but as I stated before, I feel that Oilcan is actually the predominant narrator. And he's awesome!

Waiting On in 2012

What a difference a year makes, eh? Although, me being me, I posted my 2011 list in March. So it hasn't quite been a year, but still, with Borders having been closed for 4+ months now, I have quite the list of books I'm anticipating. In true holiday spirit, I made a list. And then I checked it twice. And then I decided to make two lists.


The Ten 2012 Books I Would Exercise Every Day for Two Weeks For

1. Elfhome by Wen Spencer (7/03/12)
2. Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb (2/21/12)
3. The next Nightworld book by L.J. Smith (NOT SOON ENOUGH)
4. Heart Secret by Robin D. Owens (8/07/12)
5. Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh (5/29/12)
6. Cynful by Dana Marie Bell (ALSO NOT SOON ENOUGH)
7. Book 5 in Thea Harrison's Elder Races series (Late 2012- I HOPE!)
8. Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston (3/27/12)
9. The Duke's Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley (4/3/12)
10. The Darkest Seduction by Gena Showalter (2/21/12)

Please note that I did not specify a time limit, but considering how badly I want to get my hands on these ten books, I'd be willing to commit to thirty minutes a day! It has been years since Spencer has published anything and I had actually pre-ordered the next Nightworld book when it was first supposed to come out. Amazon broke my little teenaged heart when it canceled the pre-order, especially since the previous book had ended on a cliffhanger of sorts. I have been patient during all the Vampire Diaries screaming, now gimme my Nightworld, dammit! Observant readers may note I skipped from book 4 to 5 for the Elder Race series and that's because I've already read Oracle's Moon. It is fabulous, in my biased opinion, but it also functions as a stepping stone to a series arc featuring Dragos. So I need Book 5, like stat, but Thea hasn't finishing writing it yet and no amount of whining is speeding up the process. In addition, I've been waiting for Showalter to produce Paris's book and I'm almost afraid it won't live up to my expectations. 

The Ten 2012 Books I Would Stay Up & Go to a Midnight Opening For

1. Isis Collar by Cat Adams (3/13/12)
2. Just Down the Road by Jodi Thomas (4/13/12)
3. Whispers in the Dark by Maya Banks (1/03/12)
4. Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews (8/31/12)
5. Biting Cold by Chloe Neill (8/07/12)
6. Heart of Atlantis by Alyssa Day (1/03/12)
7. Flashfire by Deborah Cooke (1/03/12)
8. Samurai Game by Christine Feehan (7/03/12)
9. Nightfire by Lisa Marie Rice (2/07/12)
10. Jacked Up by Erin McCarthy (6/05/12)

I would go to a midnight opening for the books on the first list, but the books on the second aren't what I'd call exercise-worthy. I'd lose some sleep over them and shell out some cash, but that would be that. I know three of these are coming out in two days, but the others are months away. It will be painful. 

I made another list. Because I like lists. 

The 2012 Books I'd Buy if I Still Worked Two Jobs But Will Instead Get from the Library

1. About that Night by Julie James (4/03/12)
2. Angels' Flight by Nalini Singh (2/28/12)
3. Delusions in Death by J.D. Robb (9/13/12)
4. Fair Game by Patricia Briggs (3/6/12)
5. Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong (7/21/12)
6. Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz (1/10/12)
7. The Shifter by Jean Johnson (5/12/12)

Okay, so I'll probably end up buying #1 & #2, let's be realistic, but these seven books fall low on the anticipation scale. #3 will probably ratchet up after I read Celebrity in Death, but for right now, I'm content to wait. There are other books I'm interested in (Alpha Instinct by Katie Reus, Coveted by Shawntelle Madison, and Alien Diplomacy by Gini Koch), but it's soon to tell yet how excited I should be. Koch has been proving to be a good read, but her books are fairly self-contained so I'm not chomping at the bit to see what happens next. Reus and Madison are both debuts so they could be hit or miss. Madison has the first two chapters of Coveted up on her website and I've been told it could hit Netgalley soon. 

Monthly Tally: December 2011

This month, I learned that December is not the month for post-apocalyptic fiction. I finally gave in and read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Lemme tell you, it's kinda surreal baking Christmas cookies and thinking about a book where twenty-odd kids are slaughtered. The thing that freaked me out the most about it is that my instinct was to be resistant, like, 'oh, that could never happen.' However, it totally could. We all know about gladiators and there are, unfortunately, child soldiers across the globe. It only takes one disaster for the lines to be crossed. In any case,  I can see why the books resonated with so many people. I didn't like Catching Fire as much as The Hunger Games because I felt like it covered a lot of the same ground and I was ready for more character development. I haven't read Mockingjay yet because I actually wanted to enjoy Christmas.

There were two other stand-out books for me in December: Magic Gifts by Ilona Andrews and One More Summer by Liz Flaherty. I reviewed One More Summer here so I won't go into that, but Magic Gifts was freaking awesome. A special free e-novella for her fans, it was kind of a bridge between Magic Slays and the upcoming Gunmetal Magic. I'm not really a fan of novellas because I am usually left wanting. Dangling plot threads, unanswered questions, poor character development, etc, the novella format makes it difficult for an author to tell a complete story. However, Andrews accomplishes the task easily with Magic Gifts. It helps that all the pieces were already in place for readers of the Kate Daniels series and this really was just a treat to help us survive the wait between books.  The novella will eventually be packaged with Gunmetal Magic, but if you google it, you should still be able to download a pdf from Andrews's website.

The worst book for me was a comic strip collection, Stephan Pastis's Larry in Wonderland. I'd written a really long GoodReads review on why I didn't like and then the computer ate it. Apparently, I'm still not in the mood to re-write it, but suffice to say, I didn't find it particularly funny. The runner up to this was Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud. My review explaining why I disliked this book is here.

There were a couple of other things I wanted to mention. Firstly, Hot Secrets was my gateway drug into the backlist of Lisa Marie Rice. I reviewed it here, but, I have to say, I'm still impressed by it. Any novella that can a) make me enjoy it and then b) motivate me to track down everything else is something else. If you're looking for a quickie romance suspense read, definitely check it out. Secondly, I also binged Eve Langlais books, reading five in a three day period. They weren't particularly consistent, in terms of quality, but they were like Shelly Laurenston-light. My favorite of the five was Bunny and the Bear, mostly because the heroine was a rabbit and how freaking often does that happen? Finally, I read two series titles by Sandra Hyatt. As you probably remember, Sandra passed away back in August. It's always a little weird, reading books by an author who went too soon. It was a little bittersweet because I enjoyed them, but I was also sad she wouldn't get the chance to spread her wings.


Category Totals

Romance: 41
Comic Strip Collections: 3
Urban Fantasy: 4
Graphic Novels: 2
Young Adult: 3
Picture Books: 2

Still alive!

Well, there hasn't been much original content here lately, has there? My apologies for that. I spent months upon months with very little to keep me busy at work and the around mid-october, my boss finally figured out that I should probably earn my paycheck for a change. The semester is now over and with the holidays upon us, I have some downtime again. Yes, this is one of the perks of working for an academic library. The university is closed from the 24th until January 2nd. I go back to work for the 3rd and then I'm off on my annual Disney vacation with my family.

I have my fingers crossed that I'll be able to stockpile some original entries with my gloriously work-free time. I have a Wolf Lake/Werewolves recs entry that I've been working on since I started this damn thing. I've also been working on reading the 2011 nominees for the Romantic Times Reviewer Choice awards. I'm not sure if I want to smush what I've got so far in a compilation entry or try to look at each category individually. I need to catch up the month review entries for October & November and do the one for December, before doing another best of 2011 entry. *sigh* At the moment, the only thing I know for certain is that I am not the target audience for most category single titles.

It seems likely that I'll be able to get my hands on Photoshop early next year and I'll finally be able to spiff up this place. That title banner annoys the hell out of me. It's so bland and brown. Plus giveaways! The Pigeon has been stockpiling books since NY Comic-Con (yes, from two months ago!) and wants to reclaim the spotlight.

In any case, I hope y'all are having a wonderful holiday season with great books finding their way to you!

Review: Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I...Well...Hrm. Where to start?

The last time I attempted to read Pride and Prejudice, I think I was a preteen. And I didn't like it. To be fair, Louisa May Alcott and Shakespeare aside, I don't like most of the books that were published before the 1980s. So I know the general outline of the story, but I'm shaky on the characters and their personalities. Therefore, I can't accurately judge Rock Star's take on the original source material. I can only judge it on its own merits.

I have never really understood the phrase "purple prose" before, since critics seem to apply it wholesale to the romance genre, but it seems to fit this book quite nicely. I had been under the impression that this was marketed for young adults, so the first graphic sex scene surprised me.  I read it with a raised eyebrow and then proceeded to skip the rest of them because they were, well, purple. It was the kind of writing that romance bigots hold up to 'prove' the romance genre is derivative and putting a pretty label on soft porn.

As for the rest of the book, I felt like I was reading fanfiction, an AU where Lizzy and Darcy are modern day rock stars. The book shines the most at moments when Rigaud isn't trying to shoehorn Austen's into the text. When Will acts like Will and not Darcy, when Lizzy curses because she's running late, when the bands are on stage, those parts are enjoyable reads. The best characters for me were Richard and Char because I don't really know the characters they were based on and they were wonderfully flawed. I could believe they were real, I could believe they occupied this world Rigaud had created. Richard is a sex and alcohol addict who takes responsibility for himself and strives to get better one day at a time. He makes a very conscious decision to be with Char and the reader can easily see why she wants to be with him. Char wasn't without flaws of her own and she reminded me of a woman I actually know. A quick spin through Wikipedia tells me that Colonel Fitzwilliam and Charlotte Lucas, the Austen characters, are relatively minor in Pride and Prejudice, so I'm guessing Rigaud felt free to put her own stamp on them.

Rigaud should have done herself a favor and used Pride and Prejudice as a jumping off point rather than a strict framework. The concept sounded incredibly interesting and I'm disappointed with what I got. In the future, I hope Rigaud, a modern day stay-at-home New Yorker mom, will choose to develop her own voice instead of trying to copy one that belonged to a British spinster who lived during the regency romance era.

Review: One More Summer by Liz Flaherty

One More Summer by Liz Flaherty

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I made the mistake of reading this at work. I thought, from the blurb and the cover, it was going to be a humorous Southern romance. It wasn't. It was Southern, but it wasn't funny and it wasn't a romance. I define a romance as a book that is focused on the relationship between two people with the obligatory happy ending. One More Summer wasn't about Grace and Dillon. It was about life and loss and all the messy things in between. This is not a happy book. There is death. The ending isn't 'happy' so much as it is hopeful. Everything is going to be okay, it says, you just have to keep moving forward.

I don't read a lot of fiction, so I'm not the best judge, but this felt quintessentially Southern to me. From the pace of the dialogue, the emphasis on community and food, the weather, it felt like I was there, observing these characters.

A lot of angst happens, but it's not angst for the sake of angst if that makes any sense. This story is told over the course of months, not days, and the characters react naturally to the events. Their emotions, their decisions, their relationships with each other, it all made sense to me. It felt logical, it felt real.

To be quite frank, I find myself a bit of loss for words. One More Summer is not for everyone and, if someone had told me what it was really about, I probably would have never read it. However, if you don't mind books that will leave you in tears and frantically trying not to smudge your eyeliner, read this. Read this and be comforted that someone else understands what you are going through or be grateful for a life free from this kind of pain.

I'm going to conclude this with a quote from the last chapter because it's representative of the book as a whole and demonstrates the author's gift with words.


“Remember the ‘hidden paths’ Jonah and Maxie had in their marriage ceremony?” she said. “I think all of life’s going to be that way. The paths will be curvy and maze-like sometimes, and even if you walk them two-by-two, there will be other people on the walk with you.”

“You’re probably right.” He held her gaze. “But do you want to stay on that two-by-two walk with me? I’m talking a lifetime here. No time-outs for good or bad behavior. If I have to concentrate on being your brother’s best friend for a while, you have to come with me. If Faith needs you more than I do, I’m coming along.” He looked around the room. “We come out of the attic together.”

“I’d like that more than anything.”