2012

The Shoemaker’s Wife

2012, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction /

If you’re an Adriana Trigiani fan, you won’t need any encouragement to read The Shoemaker’s Wife. It will be exactly what you expected and you won’t want to put it down. Probably.

I am a fan but I had a hard time getting into the book, at first – once the brothers settled into the convent, I settled in and I enjoyed every page. I think my problem was that I expected Catarina to be a lead character, I didn’t expect the boys (or just Ciro, really) to be the lead so the beginning threw me.

The ending came a little fast for me, too. I didn’t need to be “surprised” like Enza was. I knew it was coming and would have liked to see it happen, ya know? More of Laura would have been nice and it would have fit with the theme of best friends/replacement mothers.

Like she needs me to re-write her ending, right?

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The Elementals

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I was talking to some of my coworkers about books I might purchase for some of my kids for Christmas and during that discussion, Sassymonkey reminded me that Francesca Lia Block (who Michelle loves) has written an adult novel. Before I had the chance to figure out whether I should buy it or reserve it at the library to read, first – I found it sitting on the library bookshelf. That answered that question. And boy am I glad it was on the shelf.

The Elementals is not a long book so it should have taken me a day to read. Two max. It took a week. I couldn’t get into it. As TW said after she read it – nothing happened.

There’s not much action. There’s not much dialogue. There’s a good bit of sex. It’s also very much a Francesca Lia Block novel. Magic, fairies etc. Except, there’s not.  The fae weren’t real fae and the magic was (mostly?) not real magic. Which is maybe what makes this different from her YA novels and what makes this an adult novel? Allusions shouldn’t need to be explained to YA readers, much less adults. Block should stop doing that, it just adds to the word count and  annoys readers.

Blah.

I just didn’t like this book and I spent the enter time reading it trying to figure out why this is listed as an adult novel. (Hoping the 20 somethings/30 somethings who love Weetzie Bat will take a chance on her new book just because it’s not listed as YA?)

I’m glad I didn’t buy it. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is.

I’ll leave it here on the library cart in case Michelle wants to give it a try while she’s home for Christmas but she’d probably be happier reading one of the old Francesca Lia Block YA novels. Weetzie Bat FTW – Ariel/Jenni/John/Perry/Tania (the Elementals), not so much.

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The Cutting Season

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Women /

Nordette mentioned The Cutting Season and I’ll admit that I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to what she actually said about it – maybe that she saw the author speak at a signing? Or she heard an interview? I’m not sure, I was busy and tired – all I know is that there are some folks whose book mentions/recommendations I pay attention to. Nordette is one of those folks.

So, I reserved it right away and when it came, the author looked really familiar. I thought I must have read her first book – but nope, I didn’t. I still don’t know why she looks familiar but I’m going back to grab her first book because I enjoyed The Cutting Season so much.

I read some of the reviews for The Cutting Season and some folks were hard on the author and on the main character. I don’t get it. Maybe they aren’t from the south? It all made perfect sense to me. I will admit to being frustrated by Caren at the end – whether she wanted it or not, it was hers. Her great-great-great grandfather wanted it. Worked for it. Died for it. Gah. I know, it’s complicated.

Do you know who I didn’t like? I didn’t like Morgan. Odd character for me to have strong, negative feelings about, isn’t it? But there you go. A child character that just didn’t work for me.

Whatever – the book was good. I’m glad I read it. I’m thankful that Nordette mentioned it. I’m looking forward to Dark Water Rising.

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Leverage

2 Comments / 2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

Some books should not be listened to on audio. Some books should come with a warning that says “Gut-Wrenching & Heartbreaking”.

I’ve watched a lot of movies of the intense, graphic, emotionally, physically painful variety. I’ve read a lot of books of the intense, graphic, emotionally, physically painful variety. Rape. Child abuse, physical and emotional. Bullying. Horror. You name it, I’ve seen it or read about it.

I read Push twice. I read The Kid, for goodness sakes.

And I sure as hell didn’t expect a book about a High School football player and a High School gymnast to be the most difficult and stomach churning book I’ve ever listened to.

I had to go through long spells of not listening to Leverage because it’s so horrible. Not the writing or the characters but the violence done to characters by other characters. Horrible.

Once we reached the end, TW said it was a book she would recommend to absolutely nobody. Ever.

I can’t quite agree because this shit does happen. Sports culture IS like this. IN HIGH SCHOOL. People should know this. They should read this. Just know, before you start – I don’t recommend it on audio. Do not read this if you’re looking for a feel good sports story, this is not that book. You will feel dirty and sick and heartbroken over and over and over again as you read.  You might even find it difficult to drive past a damn high school football field while/after reading it – or maybe that’s just me?

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Soulless: The Manga

2012, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Last week, or maybe earlier this week (I dunno, time flies and I can’t keep track anymore), Sassymonkey asked some folks what the best book they read this year was. I refused to answer because I can’t do “favorites” – there are lots of different kinds of “best” and “favorite” and how do you pick just one?

Whatever, right?

One of my favorite series was The Parasol Protectorate. I loved those books and I’m dying to read the next series – I mean really dying to read them. I introduced them to Michelle Belle and she ripped through the whole series, too.

I’d been meaning to check out the manga versions and when Michelle read the series last week, I was inspired to grab one from the library. Soulless: The Manga was just as fun as Soulless (the not manga).  The color frames in the beginning are GORGEOUS and I really wish the entire book was color. It’s not that the black and whites aren’t good, they are – but the color really did justice to all of the characters and I didn’t think I’d feel that way having loved the non-manga series so much.

The only tiny little complaint I have about the first book is Lord Maccon’s accent…. It’s supposed to get stronger and revert to the Scottish brogue when he’s wound up by Alexia and that didn’t really happen.  There’s one bubble where he starts to slip into it but that was it. I’m not sure what the thinking was behind that change but it disappointed me.

Otherwise, bring on Volume 2!

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American Gypsy

2012, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Do you ever read a book and then feel like you can’t decide HOW you felt about it? That’s how I feel about American Gypsy.

The cover looked cool and we were low on books so I dropped it into my library bag. The book, it’s maybe not as cool as the cover. Or maybe it is? See… I can’t decide.

It’s a memoir and it has photos, which is always a plus when you’re reading a memoir (if you ask me.)  Oksana is interesting, as is her entire family. But that’s where it gets mushy for me. She’s a Roma… a Gypsy… and there were all sorts of stereotypes and discriminatory practices against Gypsies in the USSR (when there was still a USSR) but Oksana doesn’t do a lot to clear up the stereotypes. Or she makes it clear that she is uncomfortable BEING a Gypsy and that bothers me.

I guess it would be hard not to be uncomfortable with who you are, when you’ve been raised with so much discrimination …and there I go, back to liking the book again because that helps make sense of Oksana’s feelings about her family.

See, it’s a difficult book. I think I liked Oksana’s dysfunctional family more than she did – but I didn’t have to live with them, did I?

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The Rook

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

When Sassymonkey tells me I should read a book, I almost always listen because she’s almost always right. It sometimes takes me months to actually find the time (or the room on my TBR list) to read what she recommends but I do it. Luckily, the timing was pretty much perfect for her recommendation of The Rook. I reserved it within minutes of her telling me I needed to read it. And, I read it just a couple of days after it arrived at the library. The most frustrating thing was having it ready to read and being too busy, too tired, or to ill to read it.

The opening page is fabulous. The first five pages were so interesting that I kept putting it down to think about what I’d do if I was in THAT position. What choices would I make? How come she did not even THINK about calling the police? I mean really… wouldn’t she have? Was there something underneath it all, maybe a memory or a piece of personality not gone that caused her to never even really consider that as an option? And if that’s true, is she really someone “else” at all?

It’s a fun book, a really fun book. I cannot get enough of Myfanwy Thomas. I need more. Immediately. Or I might just have to read this darn book all over again. And I want more Ingrid, too.

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Wool

4 Comments / 2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

My mom buzzed me last month and told me to buy Wool for Kindle. She said it was a bunch of short stories or novellas — a series of them or something. I told her I’d reserve it at the library. She insisted my library would not have it.

My library did have it (she’s always surprised by this, for some reason) and it arrived just in time for the Readathon. Of course I didn’t get around to it during Readathon — my book stacks are always larger than my 18 hour Readathon day. Then I made the mistake of starting it the day TW went into the hospital — I managed all of one page in the five days she was in the hospital, that one page made no sense and I kept reading it over and over again.

I was a little worried that this was going to become another “Moonstone” and I’d never manage to read it.

Silly me. The Wool Omnibus is no Moonstone — it’s hella awesome post-apocalyptic fiction. One of the best I’ve read in awhile (saying something since I read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction.) My mother is also silly because she described it to me as science fiction, which it certainly is but it’s post-apocalyptic scifi. There’s a difference. A big difference.

The title is excellent. Wool — when Elly saw the book, she couldn’t figure out why I would read a book about … Wool. Or sheep. It took her awhile to grok the concept of people as sheep or the wool being pulled over someone’s eyes.

This deserves to be Kindle’s #1 Indie Book of 2012. You should read it. On Kindle or in paper. Who cares, just read it. (And pray that there’s an installment 6-12, too.)

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Seven Non-Fiction Picture Books (Cybils

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction /

The best thing about non-fiction picture books is that they are fast and easy to read at night, when you don’t really want to start a new book. Heh. These were all nice enough non-fiction books but only one of them was one I’d buy or read again and again. I also have a wee fondness for another one…

All the Water in the World – nice enough, the illustrations were really the best, but there are a lot of better books about the water cycle.

Bring on the Birds – Hmph. It didn’t even include flamingos! The illustrations were nice and bright but it wasn’t even close to the best bird book for little kids.

Can We Save the Tiger? – This was interesting, but the italicized text about various extinct animals was a little hard to read – like the ink was disappearing along with the animals?

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat – This is the best of the bunch. Elly spotted it and whined because I hadn’t told her I had it. It was interesting and funny. I’d buy this one for a kid.

Planting the Wild Garden – I liked this one pretty well. Good way to talk to young kids about how seeds are carried – by people, wind, animals etc.  But again, I think there are better books about this topic.

The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs – Here’s my sentimental favorite, having been to El Valle and to Chiriqui and seen a couple of golden frogs in the wild. It’s a horrible thing to think about them only surviving in captivity.

Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators — This is a nice book for kids who are really interested in birds. The pull outs were the best part.

 

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Blood Red Road

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Blood Red Road, post apocalyptic YA fiction – on audio. Fun stuff. Oddly enough, there’s a bit of a summer king storyline (one of the other Cybils books had a summer king storyline.)  I enjoyed the book quite a bit, there were some great female characters but Saba made me nuts – I’m not sure she ever really learned anything, no matter how it ended or how there were points in the story when it looked like she was learning some important life lessons.

Looks like there is a book 2, we’ll have to listen to that to see what happens next. I hope Emmy grows up and kicks her sister’s butt.

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