91.
Author: Marsha Altman
Title: The Darcys and The Bingleys
publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: I don't know the official genre of these kinds of sequels
Acquisition: Free on Austen's birthday
Date: November 25, 2011
Rating: ***

Take a moment and picture Pemberly. Now, take another moment and try to picture this: a Scotsman in kilted glory swinging in on a chandelier from out of nowhere - in Pemberly - to land beside a swashbuckling Darcy.

Yes.

The Darcys & The Bingleys, upon first inspection, is the sequel that all Austen fans truly hunger for; what does happen after the collection of unlikely but highly romantic proposals? With that premise, the novel begins well, but quickly veers off into extremely awkward sexual territory, and by the novel's conclusion has devolved so greatly that the characters and setting are not only unrecognizable, but can really only be accepted as rather unflattering satire (similar to a "work" like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

While it's far from being the worst thing I've read this year, I really can't recommend it to fans of Austen.

88.
Author: Samuel Beckett
Title: [Waiting for Godot]
publication: Paperback
Pages:
Genre: Drama
Acquisition:
Date: November 19, 2011
Rating: *****

89.
Author: Shakespeare
Title: [Othello]
publication: Anthology
Pages:
Genre: Drama
Acquisition:
Date: November 20, 2011
Rating: *****

Yup, again

90.
Author: Sophocles
Title: [Wicked Plants]
publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Novelty
Acquisition:
Date: November 20, 2011
Rating: **

I picked up Wicked Plants for the novelty read it really is, and I've been slowly reading it in the middle of the night when I'm up with Doc. I found it to be a bit careless and unprofessional. The Kindle edition, at least, is rife with typographical errors (anyone else know of Rorneo and Juliet? No?), and the writing itself just didn't appeal to me. A horticultural manual would have been far more entertaining than half-narratives strung together with terrible graphics and sheltered under Latin names.

85.
Author: Keri Arthur
Title: [Darkness Unbound]
publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Supernatural
Acquisition:
Date: November 1, 2011
Rating: ****

I've had a love/hate relationship with Keri Arthur's Riley Jensen series, although I've enjoyed the later books more than the previous, which probably explains why I was tempted to pick up the spin-off series, Dark Angels. In the first, Darkness Unbound, the reader is introduced to a grown Risa - the daughter of a cloned clairvoyant werewolf first introduced in the Riley Jensen series. Risa is an odd character for this style of book, as her primary characteristics include her wealth and her lack of connection to the major races in Arthur's world. The plot itself was a bit chaotic at times; it's obvious that Arthur is leaving several threads she can pick up as the series develops. Not bad for the first in a series, but not overly compelling, either.

86.
Author: Shakespeare
Title: [Othello]
publication: Anthology
Pages:
Genre: Drama
Acquisition:
Date: November 1, 2011
Rating: *****

87.
Author: Sophocles
Title: [Oedipus Rex]
publication: Anthology
Pages:
Genre: Drama
Acquisition:
Date: November 1, 2011
Rating: *****

Yes, again - my ESL course is reading it later than my other courses. Othello will make another appearance on my reading list when I read it again in a couple weeks.