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carololiverbooks's reviews
45 reviews
I AM AI by Ai Jiang
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation): The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1 by Martha Wells
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Professional full-cast recording with sound effects that effectively transforms the experience of listening to this story into feeling more like watching TV or a movie than reading a book. Well done, but I'm so attached to the nuances of Kevin R. Free's solo narration that sometimes these dramatized scenes felt flat to me. I prefer the "lost in a book" feeling of the solo narration, but this cast recording may better suit people who prefer different actors to one narrator's voice-acting or people who prefer a more energized soundscape.
Doc Talk: Medical Slang & Terminology for Writers by Natalie Dale
Sections 1 and 4 are limited in scope. If these are your primary interest in this book, you may prefer a larger reference work intended to help patients and their family members understand healthcare situations.
informative
slow-paced
Primarily a short dictionary, broken into thematic sections:
- A selection of medical words
- A selection of medical abbreviations and words used in communicating about patients.
- A selection of slang, with a strong, general warning that some of it is very offensive.
- A selection of anatomy words (no diagrams)
- A selection of equipment in a hospital used to treat patients
- A selection of titles for healthcare professionals
- A selection of terms and abbreviations for diagnostic tests and treatment procedures.
- A selection of medical prefixes and suffixes (presumably all Latin)
- A few concluding paragraphs on how healthcare professionals actually speak, on the job, to each other, and to patients.
Sections 1 and 4 are limited in scope. If these are your primary interest in this book, you may prefer a larger reference work intended to help patients and their family members understand healthcare situations.
Getting It Right, Getting Paid: The Keys to Making Your Mystery Novel a Winner by Ron D. Voigts
informative
slow-paced
The first bit of this book quickly covers fiction writing basics (point of view, conflict, dialogue, suspense) and a simple editing process. The rest of this book discusses publishing to KDP in 2019, a little about agents and traditional publishing, and a little about marketing in 2019 (social media, reviews, mailing lists, websites).
I am not the audience for this book. If you have never identified the basic elements in fiction or the revision of fiction and are looking for a quick read on these topics, you may be in the audience for the first part of this book. The specific information about publishing and marketing may be interesting as a snapshot in time, but those details are constantly changing in the 21st century and you will need more current information in addition to what this book presents.
I am not the audience for this book. If you have never identified the basic elements in fiction or the revision of fiction and are looking for a quick read on these topics, you may be in the audience for the first part of this book. The specific information about publishing and marketing may be interesting as a snapshot in time, but those details are constantly changing in the 21st century and you will need more current information in addition to what this book presents.
Places, Clues and Guilt: The Stuff Needed to Make Your Mystery Novel a Success by Ron D. Voigts
informative
slow-paced
The first part of this book discusses how aspects of setting affect the actions and dialogue of your character, as well as descriptive passages. The second part of this book discusses means, motive, and opportunity; it also provides lists of common murder weapons (varieties of guns, knives, and poisons). The third part of this book discusses clues, red herrings, and ten examples of misdirection. The fourth part of this book discusses the difference between a character's history and the backstory needed to support the current story.
I am not the audience for this book. If you have never identified the basic elements of setting in fiction, the natures of information about characters' lives before the story began, or the basics of handling clues in mystery stories, and if you are looking for a quick read on these topics, you may be in the audience for this book.
I am not the audience for this book. If you have never identified the basic elements of setting in fiction, the natures of information about characters' lives before the story began, or the basics of handling clues in mystery stories, and if you are looking for a quick read on these topics, you may be in the audience for this book.
Plotting the Murder: A Strategy to Develop the Storyline of Your Mystery Novel by Ron D. Voigts
informative
slow-paced
Voigts identifies how a simple mystery story can be distributed across a three-act structure and provides some guidance on opening lines, opening scenes, introducing the characters, asking open-ended interview questions, and a few ideas for complications to make the plot more interesting.
I am not the audience for this book. If you are uncertain about where the parts of a mystery story should go and are looking for one simple option to try, you may be in the audience for this book.
I am not the audience for this book. If you are uncertain about where the parts of a mystery story should go and are looking for one simple option to try, you may be in the audience for this book.
Captivating Characters: A Guide to Creating the Players in Your Mystery Novel by Ron D. Voigts
informative
slow-paced
This book tours the characters in a mystery novel, provides many lists of examples that have appeared in published mysteries, and many lists of attributes that may be elements of these people. There is also a list of common crimes about which mystery and crime novels are written.
I am not the audience for this book. If you are looking for a quick read on the topic and have never identified the basic elements of characters in fiction, you may be in the audience for this book.
I am not the audience for this book. If you are looking for a quick read on the topic and have never identified the basic elements of characters in fiction, you may be in the audience for this book.
Great Beginnings: A Plan for Starting Your Mystery Novel by Ron D. Voigts
informative
slow-paced
This book contains some quick-to-read notes on the historical development of mysteries and the sub-genres of mysteries. Voigts organizes analysis of stories by identifying the story problem (crime), protagonist (sleuth), antagonist (perpetrator), other characters, and setting.
I am not the audience for this book. If you have never identified the basic elements in fiction or in mystery stories and are looking for a very quick read on the topic, you may be in the audience for this book.
I am not the audience for this book. If you have never identified the basic elements in fiction or in mystery stories and are looking for a very quick read on the topic, you may be in the audience for this book.
Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple: Take the Panic Out of Plot by Martha Alderson
informative
slow-paced
Alderson discusses two story planning/analysis tools and how to use them to see stories at an abstracted enough level that one is not distracted by the prose. First, she discusses her Scene Tracker tool and how to analyze seven functions of scenes, including collecting details useful for emphasizing theme in revision. Second, she discusses her Plot Planner tool and how to map your scenes onto the energy path of the story to help you see where the whole flow is moving along nicely or lagging. Both tools are drawn on long pieces of butcher paper.
One of the quoted blurbs points out that this book is "geared towards the anxious writer" and Alderson strives to be very encouraging. Her tools and analysis may be helpful to writers who feel lost in their manuscripts or are haunted by the feeling that things are not coming together correctly and need new perspective on what they've got to work with and where the gaps may be.
Although Alderson points out that you can start working with these tools before you have a whole story imagined, just by leaving large gaps and placeholdering ideas as they come to you, these tools are primarily intended to highlight the shape of what you have gathered, not to provide mechanisms for generating ideas to fill in those gaps. So these tools are likely to be most useful partway into a writing project and then during revision stages.
One of the quoted blurbs points out that this book is "geared towards the anxious writer" and Alderson strives to be very encouraging. Her tools and analysis may be helpful to writers who feel lost in their manuscripts or are haunted by the feeling that things are not coming together correctly and need new perspective on what they've got to work with and where the gaps may be.
Although Alderson points out that you can start working with these tools before you have a whole story imagined, just by leaving large gaps and placeholdering ideas as they come to you, these tools are primarily intended to highlight the shape of what you have gathered, not to provide mechanisms for generating ideas to fill in those gaps. So these tools are likely to be most useful partway into a writing project and then during revision stages.
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master by Martha Alderson
informative
slow-paced
From the title (The Plot Whisperer), I expected this to be a book about plotting, but instead the subtitle is more accurate (Secrets of Story Structure…) It focuses on the “Universal Story” in a way which aligns well with the individualism emphasized by the Hero’s Journey, detailing the purposes of the beginning, middle, and end sections of the story and the thresholds between these segments. There is fairly equal treatment of a dramatic action plot, character emotional development, and thematic significance.
The author asserts that left-brained writers naturally prefer action-based plots and that right-brained writers naturally prefer character development plots. She encourages writers both to play to these strengths and to strengthen their weaknesses to create a well-balanced story. Many visual exercises are suggested for viewing individual story elements as well as mapping out the progression of threads throughout the whole story.
Aligned with the subtitle (…Any Writer Can Master), the primary target audience is writers who either don’t know how to get through a complete draft or are insecure about their capability to do that. The author is significantly influenced by the healing energy work she has done and talks about energy flow in stories and in real life. Reflection passages throughout the book map the “Universal Story” experience to the process of writing a story and attempt to warmly coach writers through the struggles likely to arise at that point in their writing journey. Overall, the author strives to encourage writers to believe in their ability to tell stories and to complete both first drafts and revisions of their stories.
The author asserts that left-brained writers naturally prefer action-based plots and that right-brained writers naturally prefer character development plots. She encourages writers both to play to these strengths and to strengthen their weaknesses to create a well-balanced story. Many visual exercises are suggested for viewing individual story elements as well as mapping out the progression of threads throughout the whole story.
Aligned with the subtitle (…Any Writer Can Master), the primary target audience is writers who either don’t know how to get through a complete draft or are insecure about their capability to do that. The author is significantly influenced by the healing energy work she has done and talks about energy flow in stories and in real life. Reflection passages throughout the book map the “Universal Story” experience to the process of writing a story and attempt to warmly coach writers through the struggles likely to arise at that point in their writing journey. Overall, the author strives to encourage writers to believe in their ability to tell stories and to complete both first drafts and revisions of their stories.