At the moment I am alternating between the Kindle and Audible versions of Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses by Helen Rappaport. Have only got up to the courtship and marriage of Nicholas and Alexandra and the birth of their first child, Olga. The Audible narration is by Karen Cass. Earlier in the week I listened to the first two books in the Lewis trilogy by Peter May - The Blackhouse and The Lewis Man. The first was narrated by Steve Worsley and the second by Peter Forbes. Both are good but I enjoyed the first slightly more Both books gave excellent accounts of what life on the Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides) is like.
There's actually a lot of foreshadowing in King's book, but...well, it's a lot like what you described, i.e. it starts by being one thing, and then takes a dizzying u-turn. King's books are usually something like my signature, but in the end, there's always a literary catharsis à la "no matter how awful things are, in the end, the good side will prevail, regardless of their sacrifices...or because of them". Revival fucks that where the sun doesn't shine, to put it crudely, and leaves the reader running for mother. Seriously. It's that traumatising. Good old Steve is still my favourite author, though.
Yeah, I haven't read many King books, but I totally understand. It's one thing when you carry the tone throughout, but when you go and totally change the direction and tone, especially during the last quarter of a book, you risk making it a completely different story. In my case, the book I was reading felt like the last part was tacked on. And ironically, I would have been fine if it had just ended before that last quarter as it would have ended on a sweet note. Just recently finished reading Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child and Micro by Michael Crichton. Out of the two, I liked Terminal Freeze more. Micro was like Crichton's take on 'Honey, I shrunk the kids' and was kind of silly at best. Moving on to The Janson Option by Paul Garrison.
Finally finished Building Harlequin's Moon (good stuff), and just started Golem of Hollywood. No golems yet.
In the middle of a reread of Under the Dome (Stephen King). It's better than the show imo. Still somewhat of a slog though.
I finished the before mentioned Lego book yesterday and all I can say is Adult Fans of Lego are some of the biggest geeks in existence. I am now listening to a Sherlock Holmes pastiche - Holmes in Time for Christmas by Ross K Foad, narrated by Martyn's Clements. I think the narrator is average at best, and I think the author is trying to include too many references to Sherlock canon in the story which is slowing the actual story down. My Kindle read is 30 Second Sci Fi: Three Hundred and Sixty Five Stories of a Science-fictional Nature by Philip Trippenbach which I downloaded after learning about it in this thread. I have only read a handful of the stories so far.
Reading The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Listening to the first volume of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series in the car.
I'm about a third of the way through Golem of Hollywood. Still no Golems. Maybe. I do have a little theory.... The stories vary wildly in quality, but it was pretty addictive. I was sorry when I was done.
"Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure" - Donald Kladstrup and Petie Kladstrup
I am planning to listen to it on Christmas Eve. I am now listening to The Chessmen by Peter May, narrated by Peter Forbes. it is the third book in the Lewis trilogy. A natural bog burst drains a loch on Lewis Isle revealing a largely undamaged plane that disappeared 17 years before.