Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

73) The Cat Who Pawed the Cultist by Robert Hazelton. Years ago, someone told me I HAD TO get this book because I'd love it. I replied that it didn't seem to be the kind of book I'd like, but whoever that was told me said no, I had to get it, that I'd love it. It sat on my Kindle for many years before I finally tried it.

Turns out I had been right, for multiple reasons. It's self published, and so it's editing-challenged. The lack of commas and other issues kept making me stumble as I read. More than that though, it's just not my kind of story (urban fantasy). I'm glad whoever had recommended it to me enjoyed it, but it just wasn't a match for me.

74) Dinotopia: Windchaser by Scott Ciencin. I may not mention it much here, but I love dinosaurs. Somehow I've never read the Dinotopia books. (So why do I have Windchaser on my Kindle and not the first book? No idea.)

Okay, doing some research, this doesn't seem to be an official Dinotopia book, it's written by someone else. That's good, since I really didn't enjoy Windchaser at all. It felt like it was written in the 30s or so, really dated, and I couldn't connect with either of the characters. One day I'll give the first Dinotopia book a try.

75) Death's Academy by Michael Bast. From the book's summary: "Becoming a Grim Reaper has never been more hilarious!" Goodreads reviews mentioned the "scatological humor". This book was so very much not for me. If it had been handled seriously, the plot (how beings become Grim Reapers) could have been really interesting. But the humor was a major miss for me, and it was full of slang that didn't work at all for me (Grim Reapers were called "hoodies", for example).

76) Canyon Winter by Walt Morey. First published in 1972, this book shows its age. In it a "soft" boy from the city is "toughened up" when a plane crash leaves him lost in the wilderness. Those descriptions of him were repeated so many times. Because the boy never hunted, never killed animals, never had reason to do hard physical work, he was considered "soft" by all the adult males in the book.

After his plane crashed, he found an old man who had been living alone in the woods. That man repeated all the "soft" crap and more. If the boy was upset, he was soft. If he was scared (REASONABLY scared, like when a bear pawed at the cabin door), he was called soft. I know times were different then and this sort of thing was the norm, but I wasn't at all enjoying reading it, so I DNFed it.