2012

Shadow of Night

2012, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Book two, Shadow of Night, was long. Very long. I don’t care that it wasn’t physically longer than Discovery of Witches – it was still LONGER. Packed with words, people, experiences, foreshadowing. Which is what second books often do. They’re the glue that connects the first and last book and they are quite often a very sticky mess of words. And Shadow of Night was that. A sticky mess of words. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes plodding, sometimes confusing.

I didn’t dislike anything about the book, except for Matthew who I only barely liked in the 21st century and liked even less in the 16th. And, I do still have issues with Diana, whose backbone comes and goes more often than her Firedrake.

I’m hopeful that we plodded through England, France, England, Prague, England for good reason – and in the final book, everything will come together and we’ll understand why it took so long for the story to move along in book two.

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Code Name Verity

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

Code Name Verity didn’t really feel like YA. In fact, I suspect the average YA reading kid won’t like it. It’s not about teens and while the main characters were young women, they weren’t that young. It’s deep. It’s complex. And as you read, you know this is not going to end well. And it doesn’t. Except that it does because war is hell and sometimes you have to face your fears and do what it is you fear you would never be able to do. I hated that part but it was right. It was what made the story really worth reading.

I really liked both Queenie (aka Julie) and Maddie. I liked them a lot. I liked them all the way til the end and I still like them. Those are women you want on your team – and as friends.

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Alif the Unseen

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

Oh look, another book recommended by Sassymonkey. I can’t remember what she said about Alif the Unseen – something about there being a lot of interest in it. So, I reserved it. It arrived and TW started to read it. She didn’t get far before she put it down and said she wasn’t going to read it. I was surprised by this. Math, Science, Religion, Myth – seems like her thing.  I decided to give it a try, though I didn’t have much hope.

It started slowly but… once the State came for Alif, it picked up and from there, I never even considered putting it down. Brilliant storytelling. The science. The tech. Fabulous. And, written by a woman. That just made it all the better.

(I don’t really understand the Harry Potter comparisons being made by reviewers. There is no comparison.)

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The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creek

2012, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction /

When TW finished The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creek, I asked her how it was. She told me it was amusing and my response was, “Cool.”  She said, “Why? You won’t read this.” I asked her why she thought this – if it was amusing, why wouldn’t I read it. She rambled off some things about it, while I stared at her. When she finished, I said, “Again, why won’t I read that?”  I mean, what’s not to like about it?

Light reading.

Quirky town.

New, young minister with “widows” to deal with.

There’s absolutely nothing to dislike about this, if you like fun, light, fiction. Heck, it’s a series and I might have to read another one to see what happens with the good Pastor and the widows.

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I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader

2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

When TW read I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader, she asked me 57 things about cheerleading – most of which I did not know, because cheerleading has changed a lot since I was a cheerleader. It’s even changed a lot since Michelle was a cheerleader, (though Michelle could have answered a lot more of her questions.)   So all I really knew about the book was that there was cheerleading – and what sounded like hardcore competition level cheerleading.

Sure enough, that’s what it was.

And it was a lot of fun in a mean girl, teenage girl, cheerleading/football player sort of way – fun because the mean girls were only a little mean (in the scheme of things) and there was a lot of cheerleading going on.

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Lone Wolf

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer /

Surprise! Lone Wolf was one of my favorite Jodi Picoult novels. Big surprise! I did not expect this. It’s been a long time since one of her novels surprised me and this one did.

She went light on the catastrophes and heavy on the super-interesting.  Like, when we found out that Luke’s son (and Cara’s brother) was gay… we know something else must have happened because that wasn’t enough to send him away (not to mention it seemed like not something his father would have reacted THAT strongly about) so we knew there was SOMETHING else. And knowing Picoult, it had to be something really HORRIBLE, because that is what she does.

But, when we found out what it was – not horrible. Perfectly normal (hahaha) and reasonable. And not so horrifyingly catastrophic that you’re lefting saying – no, too much. Impossible.

Except, we also KNOW something else happened in that car crash – something Cara doesn’t want to talk about. So, we brace ourself for the HUGE, CATASTROPHIC badness that you know Picoult is going to throw at you. And when it comes, it’s a heartbreaker but NOT THAT BAD.

Shock.

And I liked it. The catastrophe can sometimes take away from the story and the characters. It was very nice to NOT have that happen with what was really an interesting story. Maybe she didn’t blow out the bad because Luke was weird enough that the story didn’t need any more crazy?

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Between Shades of Grey

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

Whatever you do, do not confuse Between Shades of Grey (a YA novel) with 50 Shades of Grey. They are not the same book and you do not want to buy your pre-teen/teen the wrong book. (Elly noticed the audiobook case in the car and was appalled that we would listen to “THAT BOOK” in the car – the very same car that we use to drive CHILDREN around in. Which made us laugh and talk about how NOT sexy this book is. It also caused us to reserve 50 Shades of Grey in audio… but another post about that, once it arrives and we’ve listened to it, in the same car that we use to drive CHILDREN around in.)

It’s not a bad book. It was just troubling to listen to on audio.

The book is about Lithuanians deported to Siberia and kept in camps and prisons where they suffered horrible, horrible things. So that’s interesting – we see a lot of books about Nazi Germany and the atrocities perpetrated on Jewish people but not so much about the NKVD and the people of Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia.

What wasn’t so good was that as Lina is telling the story, she suddenly flashes to telling a story from her memories of home. It’s jarring. Difficult to figure out what the heck happened, when you’re driving along in the car listening along. In print, I would assume it’s easier to tell when you’ve moved into memory.

TW also mentioned that she did not really like Lina – the 16 year old girl who tells this story. I didn’t dislike her but I was surprised that she didn’t grasp some stuff earlier – or ever. She wasn’t dumb, she was just clueless for longer than I’d have liked.

This is a Cybils shortlist book – and that’s fine. I don’t NOT recommend it. I do feel like it’s one of those books that teachers and parents think children should read but a book that children probably wouldn’t pick up on their own. It’s something that will feel a little too much like homework to them.

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The Meryl Streep Movie Club

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

The Meryl Streep Movie Club is exactly the kind of book I would not have known about, much less read, if it had not been for book blogs and Sassymonkey who tells me about books like this. Life is much better because of book blogs and Sassymonkey who reads them all for me so that I only have to read a few.

This was the perfect chick lit novel for a busy work week. It also caused TW to want to watch Meryl Streep movies (which we did, but that didn’t keep her from confusing Meryl Streep with Brooke Shields a few days later.)

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Home

2012, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I was very surprised when TW put Home into the library bag. She is not the Toni Morrison fan in the family. She doesn’t hate her, she just doesn’t enjoy her as much as I do. I was also surprised when she questioned my decision to read Home. She had already read it and why WOULDN’T I read it – I LIKE TONI MORRISON for god’s sake.

Anyway.

I read it.

Very fast read.

It felt like I had already read Cee’s story. And maybe bits and pieces of the old mean step-grandmother’s story. That part where she beat the dog and lost the cleaning services of the girl – very familiar. The eugenics part – familiar. The part where Cee’s dirtbag boyfriend took off with the car that belonged to her family back home – also familiar.   If I didn’t know better, I’d say I’ve read this book.

But, it’s new – and I did not recognize any of the Smart Money pieces and I’m pretty sure I’d have remembered that. Yum yum? Yea, I’d have remembered that.

Anyway – it felt familiar. It was fast. It was Morrison. It was good but not my favorite, by a long shot.

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This Is Not a Test

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was nervous about reading This Is Not a Test – because, it’s Courtney Summers and she makes me crazy. So crazy that I swore I’d never read another one of her books. I’m not very good at sticking to my guns when it comes to YA. In case you hadn’t noticed.

Thankfully, she stepped into the world of zombies and all was right with the world. Well not really, but all was not so horribly wrong, either. Which is weird since zombies took over the world and people died and stuff. But that, believe it or not, was better than what I expected after Some Girls Are and Cracked Up To Be. Heh.

Good zombie, YA trouble book. I liked it. A lot of bad stuff happened and she did a very good job of making her screwed up characters screw up in ways that made sense to me. I hope she sticks with fantasy. Heh.

Also – Tina T – super damn brilliant.

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