March 2009

Grand Sophy

3 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

When sassymonkey blogged about Georgette Heyer, I thought surely I’ve read some of her books and clicked over to Amazon to look. Hmm Some of them look familiar but maybe I haven’t read any?

I put a few of her books, the ones very specifically blogged by sassymonkey, onto the to be read list for TW’s mom to read and figured I could read them too. When I was in between books, with nothing I really wanted to read sitting on my shelf, I made TW sneak The Grand Sophy off of her mom’s TBR stack so I could read it.

And I loved it.

It made me laugh. It reminded me very much of “Bringing up Baby” – that crazy woman overwhelms the uptight guy sort of storyline with everything going hog wild nuts at the end. And yes, a happy ending.

Loved it.

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The last of the Cybil fiction picture books

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

TW will be happy to hear that I’ve gone through the whole Cybil short list of fiction picture books. For some reason it really troubles her that I read these. Shrug.

My favorites of this last batch were Wabi Sabi and Katie Loves the Kittens. Wabi Sabi’s collages, haiku, and Japanese made it interesting. I’m not sure a picture book age child would love it, but I sure did. Katie Loves the Kittens was just amusing, poor kittens – poor dog.

Didn’t like A Visitor for Bear at all, boring (and I feel like I’ve already read it) and Sea Serpent and Me just made me nervous. I’ve never had a child afraid of the water in the bathtub or the drain but I’ve heard horror stories – who in their right mind would read this book to a pre-schooler?

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Foundling: Monster Blood Tattoo

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I read Foundling (book 1 in the Monster Blood Tattoo series) because book 2 was on the short list for a Cybil. We tried to listen to book 2 on audio without having read book 1 and realized very quickly that this was a bad idea. There are a lot of made up words and a lot of words being used in ways that didn’t make sense. So, we took the audio back to the library and I reserved book 1 in print.

And it wasn’t half bad. Much easier to follow the made up words, monster types, etc… in print. The little glossary and such helped a good bit as well. Now I’ve received book 2 and we’ll figure out what happens to poor Rossamund.

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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I had planned to read Edgar Sawtelle ages ago but then Oprah selected it for her book club and I am so anti-Oprah, I put off reserving the book. Then we moved and I just kept putting it off.

I saw it on the just returned shelf at the library and picked it up only to have TW take it away from me because it was a rental. She put it back and ran to the large print area and pulled the LP copy for me instead. She’s a good woman. Why pay for a book when you can read it for free?

I put it off again once it was in the house. And then when I picked it up, I found it incredibly slow and almost put it down again. But I didn’t. I stuck with it and found myself enjoying it. Until the end. I hated the end. Hated it, hated it, hated it. I saw a review on Amazon that says the author just “burned it all down” rather than tie up the loose strings and the story lines. And yea, that’s pretty much how I felt about it.

I don’t need a happy ending. I like a good tragedy. But that ending must go. When someone makes this into a movie, and they will – they must improve the ending.

**side note, for book tracking purposes at the end of the year** finished The Red Tent on the Kindle for iPhone. Next up, The Woman in White. Heh.

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Some more Cybils

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult /

First, graphic novel Emiko Superstar, by the author of Skim. Loved Emiko, more than I loved Skim. I’m looking forward to Liz reading it. I think she’ll like it. Also hoping there’s an Emiko sequel.

Next, On the Farm, listed in the Cybils under poetry. Errr, well yea it is, I guess. Mostly I really liked the woodcuts and ink (TW did not like them at ALL – she said the animals were creepy.)

After that, How to Heal a Broken Wing – didn’t expect to love it. Loved it. Great story. Great drawings. But, if I had a small child I would be worried that my small child would find it perfectly acceptable to pick up a dead (or injured) pigeon and eww. no. those things are dirty!

Last, but not least, a book I loved and hated. More than Friends, a YA poetry anthology written by a man and a woman, from his perspective and hers. Really interesting and pretty stereotypical – which was what I both loved and hated about it. I can’t decide if my teen girls (or young adult girls) should read it or if I should hope they never see it.

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Some books that aren’t Cybils

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Don't Read This, Favorites /

Let’s see… I read Yellow Elephant because the Cybil Imaginary Menagerie was so interesting. Yellow Elephant was wonderful. If my daughter ever has a child, she will have to own it. She may need to own it even if she does not have a child.

Then, RJ showed up with a book that she was SURE I would love. And I did, sort of. But not for reasons she thought I would love it. is a sarcastic or maybe humorous take on the puppies and dogs in pop art, from what just happens to be my childhood. I loved flipping through the pages of those dogs that I have known and loved but I did not love the “humor” attached, in most places.

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