Finished Bag of Bones, read Duma Key both by Stephen King. Read the Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennet. Read Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Currently reading Rose Madder by King.
Bag of Bones was awesome. King wrapped things up nicely. His endings either tend to be bleh or great and this one was great. It definitely had the same feel as Lissey's Story as I mentioned before, but definitely a good read.
Duma Key was a very good read. I started off not really liking the protagonist. I mean, he's an amputee with brain damage which causes him to be angry and violent. That's not the best selling point. The next thing I knew I was 15% in and actually invested/interested in where he was going in rebuilding his life. And that's what good storytelling does. I wouldn't reccomend it for the beginning author, but it's always nice to see an author tug on the right chords at the right moment to pull the reader in. The protagonist in Duma Key begins painting, something he was good at as a child, to try to get himself back in a better mental state. Or as his pyschiatrist tells him, "you need to build hedges against the night." I don't want to spoil anything, but the horror does appear and the ending is another good one for King. There's always a sense of continuity in his work. Of course from the Dark Tower, but also in that a lot of his supernatural elements follow similar patterns. Sometimes this makes it feel slightly predictable, but more and more I'm coming to find it's similar to Sanderson's universe. This is King's universe, a half step away from our own, where the impossible is possible. Frighteningly so.
I read the Company Man based off of Elitist Book Reviews comparison to Deadwood. I love me some Deadwood. I can see where they were coming from with that as far as unlikeable characters portraying different sides of themselves. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the prose was anywhere as good as Deadwoods prose was (which I'd secretly been hoping for). I will say that Bennet has good, punchy prose. The kind that is mainly short, concise sentences. I like that style of writing (perhaps because it's similar to my own beliefs in what good writing is). The prose wasn't bad, I just wasn't blown away by it. I felt that while it was serviceable, the author could have made better choices here and there to elevate it above simple mechanics.
The story was good, but I'm not a huge detective fan and this was that in spades. Including the alcoholic who manages to save the day and the soul-weary police officer trying to do the right thing. We even had the innocent damsel in distress. It felt cliched. A pet peeve of mine is people that live one lifestyle but then act in another. What I mean is that if you're never sober you're going to be worse than useless when you need to react, but in stories the drunks always manage to rise above themselves. I'd like the author to go on a three week bender and see how productive they are. Alright, alright, enough complaining. It wasn't a bad book, just not my cup of tea. But much like Country music, skiing, and scrapbooking aren't my cup of tea, I know that some people will absolutely love this book.
The author's description was good and it had to be. This is 1920's Pacific Northwest in a way you've never imagined. It was an interesting work and while I don't think the author is at the top of their game, they are getting there. Someone to keep an eye on in the future.
I read Strunk and White's Elements of Style this past week. I know it probably seems a travesty having not read it yet. Especially with me having the temerity to call myself an author. In my defense, I did read King's On Writing which does pay a lot of lip service to the aforementioned authors. Anyway, the center where I work hands them out to all of their research investigators/assistants. (Any place that gives you a free copy of such a cool book isn't all that bad IMHO) I settled down to read it and was pleasantly surprised. I was prepared for boring, dry, dusty English professors who had never written a day in their life. The type of Professors who pick the most mundane syntax text books and make you pick out the participal phrases from the sentences in the exercises. Man, was I wrong. This is a book written by men with a clear love for the English language. They are authors themselves and it shows. As they say, "the reader is in trouble more than half the time" and its the authors job to rescue them. I loved it. Highly reccomend for anyone who is interested in becoming an author or even if your job requires you to write reports, etc.
I'm on a King kick and am currently working my way through Rose Madder. So far it's alright, but not his best. After this one I'm gonna back off from King for awhile. Not sure which direction I'm headed in. I know next month will be good as I believe another Dresden book is coming out as well as GRRM. Maybe I'll pick up some non fiction to tide me over. We'll see.