Varun Kumar Kumar থেকে Meyers Chuck, AK 99903, USA
3.5 stars This second installment in the October Daye series, A Local Habitation, was a mixed bag for me. I'm finding that I really do like Seanan McGuire's world building, and her characters are so enchanting and well written that I feel like I know them within the first few meetings with them. With this offering, however, I figured out the whodunit by the seventh or eigth chapter and was very frustrated with the amount of not seeing the obvious that was required to carry the story. Does that mean that the author gave too much to early or does it mean that the story took too long to tell? I'm not sure, frankly. Perhaps if I were an author it would be easier for me to pick out. But even with that one major flaw I'm still glad that I read the book because it deepened my attachment to some of the existing and recurring characters. Not only is Toby Daye a very likable character, even with her flaws, but she's a likable heroine as well. I have often complained and whinged that I was sick of typical UF and PNR heroines being predictably broken but I have to admit that October Daye is broken "just right." It's believable, endearing, frustrating, and enables me to bond with her without being too cumbersome to the storyline or creating too much of a plastic excuse to move a story along. She's a wonderfully written character. I feel like I'm getting to grow up with Quentin, the young noble fostered at Shadowed Hill. I like his blossoming relationship with Toby, what it's doing to his perspective, and that he is serving as a way for Toby to slowly forgive herself for Dare. The last quarter of this book deepened my curiosity about the recurring characters and their histories. In my opinion this is the way that should be done. No manipulative cliff hangers that leave you feeling as if you didn't get the story you optioned for when you opened the book; rather, a natural working in of allusions to characters and what might be their histories that leave you wanting more but knowing that having that information isn't necessary to the story at hand, only to knowing the character more. It also left me wanting more Tybalt, our King of Cats, even more than I already did. I can't say much more than that without giving away spoilage, but I will end this statement with "more Tybalt, please!" I'm looking forward to the third installment and intend to jump right in. All my friends who have read this series have assured me that this is one of those series that just keeps getting better, so I'm going to take the good with the bad on this installment and continue on in good faith. I really like the characters and the world so much that I haven't lost the excitment for it.
The godfather of modern Bengali culture. Even if I didn't like it, I'd probably get shot if it got anything less than 5 stars.
A neonatologist recounts the stories of premature patients she has worked on. One of the better books I have read in a long time. While the stories vacillated between hopeful and hopeless, it was completely engaging in every way. My only quibble would be that I wish there had been more of the more recent cases, instead of just one. I would have loved to read more about the newer technologies; instead we spend most of our time in the eighties.