You’d think I’d have read Brava Valentine a long time ago – all of those ads for Adriana Trigiani that were on BlogHer should have reminded me to reserve the darn thing, right? Well no. I was so busy clicking on the ad every time I saw it that I must have just thought I had reserved it. If I hadn’t seen it just sitting on the shelf during our last trip the library, I might not have read this for ages. Or at least until her next book came out and I was reminded that I’d missed one.

Anyway. This one picks up where Very Valentine left off. And I liked it but I was really getting tired of Valentine’s self  deprecating remarks.  I love the Angelini family (especially the new relatives in Buenos Ares) but Valentine might actually be my least favorite member of the family  – which is saying something since I don’t really love Alfred.  I liked Valentine more in the last book – in this one, while I liked the story and finding out what happened next… the first 100 pages or so almost killed me. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to cut it the hell out.

If there’s another book, she’s not going to do that – right???

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Have I mentioned I really love Cherie Priest? People, are you paying attention. YOU MUST READ HER BOOKS. Clementine was a fabulous piece of steampunk – loosely related to Boneshaker (very loosely) – and it was fantastic. Belle Boyd rocked as a strong female lead. Croggin Hainey and his “fellas” (because let’s not use the word “boys”, ok?) rocked just as hard. I want a dirigible! I also want Dreadnaught – like right NOW.

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Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

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This is another book for my From the Stacks Challenge. And again, I have no idea where we picked this up. Possibly at the old FOLS in Gainesville? Or maybe from the Little City book sale here? Who knows. It’s been on the shelf forever and it’s yellow – that’s all that really matters.

About the book itself, I really liked it. It started slowly and I was worried. A Latina woman in a Mexican jail – I didn’t quite “get it” for the first chapter or two. Once I settled into it, I really enjoyed it. Nice story telling. I loved the women prisoners (and the warden and Nora the guard.) I’d like to know what happened to some of those who were released there at the end – not so much Libertdad, (the main character) – but the others. Her friends. We need a sequel to Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company – but I don’t want it to be about Daughter and Gonzalez…

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I’m very tempted to write a long post about Mockingjay. But to do that, I’d have to post spoilers and I am very anti-spoiler. So… I will say that this was an excellent trilogy. Even when I was disappointed in Collins decisions – and I was, at least once, in each book though the biggest disappointment for me did take place in this one. Toward the end. It didn’t make me want to come here and rant about the ending, which is what I often do (particularly with YA fiction) – it just made me wish Collins had taken a few more chances with her characters. I just had moments where I wished she’d let her characters grow, just a little bit more – or a little bit differently. Katniss is an awesome female character but she could have been so much better in the last several chapters of Mockingjay.

Go read it (or read the series) – it’s excellent work, it really is.

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I am a Pamie fan girl. A big Pamie fan girl. So it’s no surprise that I really loved Going in Circles. (Why Girls are Weird is still my favorite, though.) I loved that Charlotte made miniatures. I loved that she joined Roller Derby. I loved the whole darn thing. (though honestly, I could have done without the John Goodman narrative – but it did feel very Pamie so I get it.)

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Remember when RJ was a pirate-aholic? Remember those good ole days? Before vampires? Sigh. I miss pirates. I had really high hopes for The Dust of 100 Dogs because –  Girl Pirate! And I did like it – or parts of it – but I didn’t like the whole boy/girl romance crap. It started in Ireland when Emir was a child and it lingered throughout the entire book. ‘A woman without a man is like wearing one shoe?’ BS.

Other than that, it was a fun story. But what happened to the jewels sewn into the capes? Did “he” rip those out and just replace them in the chest? Or what…? That wasn’t clear to me. I’m guessing he did because he’s a jerk, right?

And for those who might be wondering – there’s a wee bit of a gay (male) side story. Not a lot but it is there. And that’s why I’m going to drop this in the Queer topic… for those who might be wondering.

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Life-Size Zoo is a fun children’s non-fiction book. Each animal image is displayed full sized which means kids get a really good idea of just how big a giraffe’s tongue really is. It’s really brilliant. The only problem is that because some animals are so large, they can take up to four full pages to display – which makes refolding the pages of the book difficult. My copy came from the library and the pages were all folded incorrectly. And at one point. I had a tough time figuring out just how the pages were intended to be folded. I mean I could put the pictures of the elephant together properly but to refold them back into the book, in a way that properly displays the animals before and after… well that was tough. This is a book that some kids will be frustrated by, for that very reason. It’s also a book that other children will love figuring out – tearing could be a problem for the frustrated child.

Otherwise – I loved it. And not just because there’s a cute photo of a prairie dog – though there is a cute photo of a prairie dog.

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The problem with a well written novel about a classic author, particularly when the novel is based on facts, is that it makes you want to go back and re-read those old classics. A book like that might spur you to pick up a never-read book by the classic author. Romancing Miss Bronte caused this over and over again. Because not only did I feel compelled to read (and re-read) the works of Charlotte, I realized I’ve never read Agnes Gray… and I was tempted to dig into Elizabeth Gaskell, too. Thankfully, nothing in the story compelled me to re-read Thackeray (shudder – that’s worse than The Moonstone!)

I tried to fight off the urge, but in those last pages, as Charlotte lay dying, I grabbed the iPad and started downloading. Maybe just the act of downloading Agnes Gray and Shirley and Mary Barton will be enough. Maybe I’ll get off easy… unlike any of the Bronte sisters. Or maybe I should download Vanity Fair and read a few pages – that should knock some sense into me, right?

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