Review: The Doctors Are In by Graeme Burke and Robert Smith?

Reading The Doctors Are In reminded me a lot of those heady days when I first got on-line and discovered there were fellow Doctor Who fans out there who loved to debate the show as much as I did. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to me since I’ve had debates with at least one half of this writing duo about various aspects of my favorite television show long before I picked up this book.

But reading this in-depth look at each era of the good Doctor (wisely divided up into two eras for the fourth Doctor because, let’s face it, there are two eras to Tom Baker’s run on the show), I couldn’t help but feel like certain only flames were being fanned and I kept looking around for the reply button so I could begin to debate Robert Smith? and Graeme Burke on various points they have about each era of the show. (This is especially true when they pick their five stories that represent each era of the show. Because really — “Planet of the Spiders”?!? You must be messing with me!)

Reading Smith? and Burke’s debates about various eras of the show and the actors who played the Doctor is entertaining and informative. And while this book isn’t exactly breaking new ground, it has a leg up in that you can feel the passion and fandom these two have for the series.

This may be a selling point for some and it may be a detraction for others. If you’re looking for a by the numbers look at the Doctors, you may want to look elsewhere. If you’re looking for spirited debate among two long time fans who don’t agree on everything, this is worth picking up and spending time with. It may even make you want to debate the two and it may even make you want to visit the stories they refer to in their top five of the era. And while I can find some points of contention I have with some of their arguments (I’ve finally found that one fan who doesn’t love “Genesis of the Daleks.” He’s wrong, of course.), these come more from my feelings on the show than on Smith? and Burke laying out their points.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Bittersweet Creek by Sally Kilpatrick

Bad blood has existed for years between the Satterfields and McElroys. But when Romy is assigned to tutor high school football player Julian, sparks begin to fly and the two fall madly in love. Planning to elope the night of their high school graduation, Julian stood Romy up, never offering a reason why he didn’t meet her and head off to Nashville to follow their dreams together.

A decade later, Romy is coming home to take care of her father and with a new boyfriend in tow. The new boyfriend comes from a well-to-do family and has every intention of making an honest woman of Romy. But there’s one small catch.

Actually, there are several catches before Romy and her new boyfriend can live happily ever after. There’s the question of just who and where she wants to live out happily ever after.

Set in the same small town as The Happy Hour Choir, Sally Kilpatrick’s sophomore novel Bittersweet Creek not only lives up to the high expectations I had for it, but it eclipses them. Kilpatrick sets up a romance that has obstacles to it — and they’re obstacles that are authentic and earned. There are moments in this novel when we’re just as uncertain who Romy will choose as Romy is and there are moments when I couldn’t quite figure out what was going to come next — because Kilpatrick had created a believable scenario where one of many choices could happen.

Re-Opening The X-Files: Pusher, Teso Dos Bechos, Hell Money

Mulder: Modell psyched the guy out, he put the whammy on him!
Scully: Please explain to me the scientific nature of the Whammy.

Pusher

Vince Gilligan’s second episode of The X-Files is not only a superb monster-of-the-week story, but it can also be looked at as a rough draft for Breaking Bad.   There are elements of Walter White in Robert Patrick Modell — cancer, a “little” man who wants to be something more.   And both characters give us a quotable through line.  In Walter’s case it’s “I’m the one who knocks” and with Modell it’s “Cerulean blue.”

OK, so maybe I’m reading a bit too much into things and being overly analytical.  But I can’t help it because “Pusher” is one of my favorite “stand alone” episodes of the show.

Part of what makes the story work so well is the connection we see between Mulder and Modell. If Modell were just your average monster of the week, I’m not sure he’d be so memorable. The fact that he gets under Mulder’s skin so and takes such a personal interest in Mulder is what makes the episode work.  Modell is an ordinary guy who dreams of being something more — in this case, he wants to be a ninja warrior.   He wants respect, he wants power and he’s willing to put his own life on the line to do it.  

Top Ten Tuesday: Fall TBR List

It’s time again for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by the Broke and the Bookish).  This week, we’re looking at our fall TBR list.

As with all things, this could change as I get distracted by new and shiny books.

1.  A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George
2. Star Wars: Aftermath  by Chuck Wendig
3. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
4. Make Me by Lee Child
5. X by Sue Grafton
6. The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes by Lawrence Block
7. Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation  by Gary Russell
8. The Crossing by Michael Connelly
9. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
10. A Crown of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas

Musing Mondays: Rainy Days and Mondays

Time to kick off the week with Musing Mondays hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

This week’s random question asks: Is a rainy day likely to inspire you to read?

It all depends.  It could depend on what other activities I have planned for that day or things that need to be accomplished.  Or it could depend on if there is football being broadcast on television or a show that I’d like to catch that evening.

But on a rainy day, I hope I can find a bit of time to enjoy a good book.

Reviews:One Step Away by Eric Wilson & The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

Bret and Sara Vreeland don’t have it all — in fact, there are times when they wonder how they’re going to make it through the month. But they have each other and they have their faith.

But what if something were to happen that changed all of that?

Eric Wilson flips the story of Job and instead of having everything taken away to test the faith of the Vreeland, the couple is given everything that could ever dream of (at least from a worldly perspective). But just as with Job, there are trials to come with being blessed beyond measure.

Wilson tells a good story with One Step Away. It’s good to see that Bret and Sara aren’t saints, but instead people with flaws and secrets. There are some secrets from the past that will come back to haunt them (a few I figured out a chapter or two before Wilson let us in on the details). But overall, Wilson keeps the pages turning and kept my interest us for the entire novel.

I also like the fact that while this is apparently the start of a series, the action of this novel is self-contained. I can say I’d enjoy a visit to the world that Wilson has created a self-contained story that can be enjoyed on its own merits.

Re-Opening The X-Files: Piper Maru, Apocrypha

Scully: I’m just constantly amazed by you. You’re working down here in the basement, sifting through files and transmissions that any other agent would just throw away in the garbage.
Mulder: Well, that’s why I’m in the basement, Scully.
Scully: You’re in the basement because they’re afraid of you, of your relentlessness, and because they know that they could drop you in the middle of the desert and tell you the truth is out there, and you’d ask them for a shovel.

Piper Maru/Apocrypha

One of the things my re-watching The X-Files has done is remind me of just how good the early mythology episodes of the series could be.    These episodes had just a bit of extra buzz and hum to them that set them apart from the monster of the week stuff that was the show’s bread and butter from week to week.  And no where is that more evident than in the mythology episodes from season three.

We get a lot of mythology in season three — no less than seven episodes are devoted to the on-going arc.   It’s also a time when it felt like the creators had some idea of what the end game for all of this was and were slowly layering in elements that would pay off at the big eventual reveal.   It felt like the Syndicate had a plan and it was only a matter of time before Mulder uncovered the truth behind everything.

And then it all started to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Re-Opening The X-Files: Syzygy, Grotesque

Scully: I’m driving. Why do you always have to drive? Because you’re the guy? Because you’re the big, macho man?
Mulder: No. I was just never sure your little feet could reach the pedals.

Today’s look back gives us guest appearances by two actors who will later be part of Fox’s That 70’s Show.  I’ll leave you draw your own assumptions…

Syzgy

Or as I like to think of it — Chris Carter tries to write like Darin Morgan.  And doesn’t really quite succeed.

Coming right after “War of the Coprophages” this installment feels like Carter is trying to emulate the quippy one-liners that are (just one of) the highlights of the Darin Morgan episodes without necessarily understanding what makes those episodes funny.   Part of what makes Morgan’s episodes work is they are poking fun at the series’ conventions and tweaking them a bit.  This one, by contrast, just seems a bit more mean-spirited in how it depicts the characters — not just Mulder and Scully but everyone we meet in the small town of Comity.

I recall that when this one first aired, fans began to wonder if there was some kind of rift developing between our two leads.  It could have started in “Revelations” with Mulder’s lack of support in Scully’s belief and continued to develop to this point.  And while we can look back and see that the mean-spirited lines and tension between these two are because of the phase of the moon that is creating the havoc in this small town, it still doesn’t seem to be done for any other reason than to make jokes at the other’s expense and have Scully get jealous — again.

Review: Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

When she was sixteen years old, Tessa was only survivor of the Black-Eyed Susans killer. Dumped in a shallow grave with some of her fellow Susans, Tessa survive to testify against the man authorities believed was the killer. But over the years, Tessa always wondered if she helped convict the right man. As the convicted killer’s execution looms, Tessa is forced to question her role in the conviction and if the real killer is still lurking out there, taunting her with black-eyed Susans planted under her window.

Told in alternating time frames, Julia Heaberlin’s Black-Eyed Susans expertly doles out detail after detail of Tessa’s time in recovery and testifying and now as she tries to help an apparently innocent man avoid a wrongful execution. Heaberlin deftly sews each seed for the truth of what happened to Tessa and who was really behind her disappearance.

I’ll admit this one hooked me in the early stages. Tessa’s doubting of herself and her narrative (as well as her admission of her manipulating certain aspects of her therapy) made me question her reliability as a narrator. But this comes less from an agenda and more from wondering what Tessa is hiding from herself that may eventually come to light.

There are a couple of plausible explanations for what happened to Tessa and just if and how it ties into her family and her friendship with a girl named Lydia, who mysterious vanished after throwing Tessa under the bus on the witness stand. Heaberlin teases these details early and slowly builds up toward the revelation of what happened.

Top Ten Tuesday: Completed Series I Haven’t Completed

Time again for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by the Broke and the Bookish).  This week, we’re looking at the series that have published their final volume but I haven’t finished reading yet (and would like to finish).

1.  The Sandman by Neil Gaiman.  I’m not proud to admit I haven’t read all of Gaiman’s graphic novel series, The Sandman.  I probably should because I enjoy everything else Gaiman writes.
2. Fables by Bill Willingham.  This one just published its final issue and I can now look forward to catching up.
3. The Chronicles of Dune by Frank Herbert.  Love the original and have read the first three installments.  Honestly, I’ve heard from a lot of people that the last two aren’t that good and that’s kind of kept me from finishing.
4. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries by Agatha Christie.  Part of this is simply because Christie was so prolific in her writing.  I’ve read a few but there are many more I probably could read.
5. The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.   I loved the first two installments and just need to find time to read the third.
6. Pure trilogy by Joanna Baggott. Read the first installment this year and really liked it.  Haven’t read the next two in the trilogy, though they’re on the TBR list.
7. Alan Gregory series by Stephen White.  I’ve read most of the beginning and the ending to the series. But there are still a few in the middle I skipped.  I may have to go back and try them.
8. Sin City by Frank Miller.  I’ve read a couple of these but not the entire run.
9. The Complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schultz.  I read the first two volumes of the complete run of the classic comic strip but haven’t read any more.  I need to get back to these because I really like Peanuts.
10. Wool by Hugh Howey.  Not sure what’s kept me from going back to this one.  Probably all the other shiny new books that keep distracting me.