2011

Three of the Best Books I’ll Read This Year

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’ve already read some really great books and I know I’m going to read more but these three from the Cybils shortlist are going to hold their own in my favorites for the year list – I think they are probably going to hold their own for a lot longer than that. These three books were that good. You should read them, even if you don’t normally read  kids lit.

First, The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere, we listened to this one on audio and I, for one, was sorry to see it end. Thankfully, book two will be released in a few months.

Olive is a little girl who doesn’t really fit in – she’s never fit in with the other kids at any of the schools she’s lived in. She doesn’t really fit in with her parents, who are math teachers. Olive can’t count to 100 – she gets lost somewhere in the 80s. Or 70s. Or somewhere.

She and her parents move into a very old house, with all of its belongings – after the previous owner died without any heirs. The house is interesting but something about it makes Olive feel uneasy. One of the things that makes her uneasy is the paintings that are hanging throughout the house. The first night, she tells her mom about this and her mom says they’ll just take the painting down that is outside of Olive’s bedroom – but it won’t come off the wall.

Olive plays with some of the things in a dresser in one of the bedrooms – scarves and gloves and such… and then she finds some glasses, on a chain. She puts them off and is playing when she notices movement inside of a painting – she presses her nose to the painting and… she’s inside of it.

Crazy things happen. Scary, creepy, crazy things and Olive has to piece together clues and figure out what in the heck is going on… with the help of some of the people inside of the paintings and the three cats who are guarding the house.

OK that’s enough – go read it for yourself.

Next, the best zombie book I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot)… Rot & Ruin. I did not expect this book to be this good. I did not expect to find myself tearing up in places throughout the story – but I did. The zombies don’t talk, they aren’t “good”, they are just zombies. It’s what the humans do that’s what gets to you. The really horrible things humans can do to each other, and to those who are weaker or somehow less than.

Benny goes from hating his older half-brother, who is a Zombie bounty hunter but not the kind who wanders around bragging about his kills and showing off his fighting skills, to respecting his brother for the job he does. Benny learns that those big, tough bounty hunters might not be what he thought they were either.

Great post-apocolyptic fiction – zombies or no zombies. Kids are going to love this book.

Last, but definitely not least, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Hahaha. This book should be made into a movie. I’m not sure I want a sequel but if one arrives, I’ll definitely read it.

Is the origami Yoda on Dwight’s finger real? I mean he’s definitely real in the way that you can see him and stuff – but is he really giving advice to the kids in school or is the extra weird Dwight being even weirder than normal? And if it is Dwight – how is that even possible? The kid is so clueless and not so smart, except in math, how could he come up with this stuff? That’s the question…

I’m leaning toward Yoda is totally real – the force was using Dwight and the Origami Yoda to help the kids sort out their issues.

Totally real. Also.

Purple.

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Dirt Road Home

2011, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to like Dirt Road Home, particularly once I realized it was a sequel to a book I had not read. I shrugged and decided to give it a try. It was short. It was YA. How bad could it be?

Not bad at all. In fact, very good. And, I liked the ending. I’d like there to be a third book – this one featuring “Caboose” and then a fourth book about “Paco”. Now I need to go back and read the original – I’m a little afraid I might not like it as much as I liked this one…

Good choice for the Cybils shortlist!

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Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration, and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them

2011, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I think my hopes were too high for Swallow. I like books about weird topics – I’m a big fan of Mary Roach, I loved The History of Milk, that book I read last year about the snake oil salesman… the weirder, the better. And Swallow was weird but it was also… difficult to read. Within about ten pages, I just wanted to put it down and that’s about the time when TW told me that she had not been able to finish it.

Well. Gee. I wonder why.

I don’t want my foreign body swallowing book to be full of prose. I want it to be full of quirky, interesting facts and stories. The author is a fabulous writer but I wish I’d read something else she wrote and I wish someone else would write a less pretty book about the swallowing of foreign bodies and the really interesting Dr Jackson Chevalier.

Also… I’m glad I didn’t read this before Elly swallowed the penny 10 years ago – I’d have been a total wreck. She’s lucky she didn’t die! Good grief.

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Sing You Home

2011, Adoption Reading Challenge, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Women /

Jodi Picoult makes me growl – but in a good way.

I knew two things about Sing You Home before I reserved it at the library. I knew it had a gay theme of some sort, because I saw a Mombian mention it, and I knew it would be a complete mess. Nobody can pack more tragedy into one novel than Jodi Picoult.

Turns out it was about gay stuff. And also death, infertility, religion, abortion, alcoholism and probably more stuff that I can’t even remember.

And the reason I keep reading Jodi Picoult is because she writes really great characters – great characters who have more than their fair share of problems.

By the time I’d read the first section of the book, I figured what was going to happen was… exactly what DID happen. And as the story progressed, I knew exactly what the next problem Zoe was going to have to deal with would be. And by the time that problem showed up, I knew what the next issue was going to be. Picoult is predictable, but it’s weird because it doesn’t make me want to stop reading. It makes me yell out loud a lot. And say things like OMG, out loud. (At which point TW looks up and says, “WHAT?!” and before I can say anything, she says, “Oh. You’re reading Picoult.” And then she goes about her business.) 

Yea. It’s like that.

I don’t want to give away spoilers because I do want you to read this. I want you to know that even though I’ve never dealt with infertility, I think she did a nice job of telling the infertility portions of these stories.

I am queer and I think she did a tremendous job with Zoe and Vanessa. I don’t think I’d have changed anything – except giving them fewer issues and not having them choose to open THAT particular can of worms. Because duh – your ex husband NEVER reacts sanely. I do not care how great a guy he is. Or was.

And before I ruin the story for you. I’ll stop right there.

OH wait, one more interesting thing – the book includes a music CD (which I admit to not listening to yet) – that’s pretty interesting. Zoe is a music therapist and Picoult wrote the lyrics to the songs and a friend of hers wrote the music. You are invited to listen to a sing, after each section of the book, so you can hear Zoe through music as she goes through each of those sections. Really interesting addition to the book. I like the idea. It makes sense for Zoe.

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Edible Stories

2011, Books in Bed, Fiction, short stories /

Edible Stories took me forever to read. Mostly because I was reading it when I almost died and went to the ER. (OK I didn’t almost die but it felt like it.)  I was confused – I thought it was just short stories, “just” being the important word here. I didn’t realize the stories were all tied to each other, even though TW started telling me stuff about the characters in the first story that weren’t in the first story. I thought it was just TW making stuff up or reading stuff into the story that wasn’t there… because she does that. But no, the stories are all tied together and that helped me get through the book eventually. A couple of the stories… I didn’t much like. But overall, it wasn’t a bad book. I’d have probably liked it more if I’d read it while I was not on my death bed.

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Catacombs

2011, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

A couple of weeks ago, Prince J went to the library with us. The audio books I had reserved for him weren’t yet available so he surfed the shelves himself and picked out a couple of things to listen to. I popped over to the new audio release shelf and Catacombs caught my eye. I handed it to the Prince. He looked at it and promptly put it back on the shelf. Huh. It sounded exactly like a Prince J book to me. So I picked it up and checked it out.

We immediately put Disc one into the cd player in the car and started listening… within a few minutes, Prince J had decided that he might, in fact, like this book. I think he will – TW and I certainly did.

It’s apparently the second book in a series – and TW says she read the first one in print. I did not – so I need to go back and read it. And, I guess I should reserve book one on audio for the Prince.

If you like Anne McAffrey’s Acorna series – you’ll like this series.

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Three More Cybils

2 Comments / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

I’m still dealing with this virus or whatever the hell it is that sent me to the ER on Thursday. So reading – not easy. Also, work is really busy (I’m sneaking a five minute break at 9:15pm to write this before I forget… that’s how busy it is…) so having these light and easy Cybil’s to turn to was a real joy. Well, mostly a joy.

The least joy-bringing, The Unsinkable Walker Bean. Elly read this one last week and said it was ok (great art) but it was kind of hard to follow and she didn’t love it. I read it last night and… it was ok (great art) but it felt muddy at the end – which is why I think Elly said it was hard to follow. I think also, at least at first, it wasn’t always easy to tell who people were because they were drawn healthy and then sick so there was a bit of confusion until you got comfortable with that. I liked Walker and his grandfather and the other “kids” he met along the way. I’m guessing there’s a part two, where we learn why Gen was able to look at the skull…

Next, Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade was a very cute book that those going to first grade will appreciate. Heck, I think the idea of a first day of school parade like Posey’s teacher did is a terrific idea – I’m glad Posey thought of it. Very cute.

My favorite of these three was Anna Hibiscus and I didn’t expect that to be the case. But, there’s something about Anna and her family that sucked me in and by the end of the book I was yelling (out loud) “NO! It can’t end there! Children’s books should not have cliffhangers! What happens NEXT?” Seriously. TW was not amused with me. I’m dying to find out what happens when Anna visits Granny Canada and sees snow for the first time. Which reminds me, I need to go reserve that book right now. MUST read.

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A Red Herring Without Mustard

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

The Flavia de Luce series just gets better and better, as we get a bigger and bigger look at Flavia and her family – and the folks in Bishop Lacey. A Red Herring Without Mustard gave us a better look at the soft spots Flavia hides behind chemistry and her sarcastic wit.  I like the direction we’re heading here. Less caricature, more real character – without sacrificing plot or boring us to tears. Nicely done. Very nicely done.

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The Dark Game

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

The Dark Game: True Spy Stories is on the Cybils Shortlist for YA/Middle Grade non-fiction. I had high hopes for it but… it was a little too dry. I can’t imagine a kid getting excited about this book. Maybe if she was doing a report about spies and wanted something besides Wikipedia and text books. But a kid who was really into spies? I don’t know.

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Ghostopolis

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

Elly and I are big graphic novel fans, so we really look forward to the Cybils shortlist recommendations – Ghostopolis is one of those books and it was excellent. Both Elly and I agree – EXCELLENT.

A boy gets stuck in the afterlife, by accident. And the ghost hunter and his ex-girlfriend, a ghost, head there to bring him back. There’s a cool guy who built the afterlife community, named Tuskegee Joe, and an evil villain and lots of action.

I know some of you lurking are looking for graphic novel recommendations for your kids – this one is good. No sex. No drugs.

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