The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. was good. It could have been excellent had the editor (errr author) had a better editor. When beautiful writing bogs down the narrative, you’re in trouble. When your scattering of French phrases becomes a distraction, you’re in trouble.
Other than that – well done.
France in the mid to late 1800s wasn’t a cake walk for women, in case you didn’t know that. #patriarchy. 😉
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TW loved The Time In Between – she said it was like the Pink Carnation books but not like them. Which makes things pretty clear, doesn’t it?
Woman.
Spy.
There you go. That’s how it’s like the Pink Carnation books.
Otherwise, not so much. There are some little romances but not a lot. 1930s and 1940s. Spain, Morocco, Portugal. Nazis. Nationalists.
There’s not much to laugh about, really. It’s all very serious.
But she was right, it was very good and I’m glad I read it – even if a 600 page hardback novel killed my already sore wrists for a couple of days.
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I am a fan of The Scarlet Letter and tend to be a little hard on books that attempt to recreate that story – but When She Woke was EXCELLENT. Abortion is murder and convicts of all kinds have their skin color changed (color based on level of crime) and sent back into the community. As you can imagine, “Reds” have a pretty tough time since those are the ones who’ve been convicted of murder. Feminists run an underground railroad helping women who’ve been convicted for having abortions.
I really liked Hannah, and while I didn’t love the choice she made there at the end – it was the one that made the most sense for her and it made for a solid ending.
I read the first Mysterious Benedict Society book ages ago and then never read any of the others. When Sassymonkey mentioned book 4, The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict, I decided to catch up and reserved the rest at the library and then I read them all straight through.
The Perilous Journey and The Prisoner’s Dilemma were much like the first book – the four children work together to defeat Mr Curtain and his (mostly) evil henchmen. The Ten Men are creepy. Very creepy. And the kids are very smart. Mr Benedict still has necrophilia.
The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict is a prequel – and gives us a lot of missing info about how Mr Benedict came to be Mr Benedict. This one’s a little different than the other three books, obviously, but there are still good kids (though not necessarily gifted kids) and the most of adults in the story are not so much bad – they’re just flawed and need someone to help nudge them along the proper path, thankfully there’s Nicholas to sort them out.
Fun series. I’m glad I caught up this way.
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I ended up liking Being Lara, though in the beginning it was touch and go because I did not like Lara very much and I didn’t like her adopted parents very much either. But, they did all grow on me after the story got moving and I ended up enjoying all of the characters – even when I wanted to shake them a bit.
I sure wish Lara’s adopted parents had answered her questions – when she asked for them. That they’d told the truth – when she asked them questions. That they had not ignored the letters from her birth mom.
But, I can also understand how scary it is to be the adoptive parents. Except it’s really not about your fear, is it. You are, after all, the adult…
Reverend Jen is… hard to describe. She kind of scares me. I would love to go visit the Troll Museum, have wanted to visit the Troll Museum since Suzanne Reisman wrote about it in her book Off the Beaten Subway Track, but Rev Jen scares me.
I thought I could convince TW to try it, after reading Elf Girl but then I made the mistake of watching some of Rev Jen’s videos. I think she’s just a little too out there for us. Maybe if we took Michelle with us?
Heh.
I did like the book. Quite a lot. I also agree with her that wearing elf ears is no weirder than some of the other socially accepted stuff people do to themselves.
Well. I liked Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale but I did not love it. I struggled to read it. Not because it wasn’t good or it was a hard read. I struggled because I expected it to be something it wasn’t.
Funny.
It was not funny.
With a cover like that and a title like that and a setting like that… I thought I was getting a light, summery bit of chic lit.
Nope. Not funny.
I’d probably have loved it if it had been just a little funny. The garage sale had some funny moment opportunities, but nope. Wasn’t funny. I need a few laughs with my serious dysfunctional family, Alzhiemer’s, crisis of faith stories.
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From the Cybils Shortlist, The Great Wall of Lucy Wu – it was cute. Very cute. Also, sweet.
I like that Lucy – short Asian girl – loved basketball. She wanted nothing to do with Chinese school or traditional Chinese food or speaking Chinese (any more than she already spoke Chinese.) I also love that her parents finally came around to her basketball playing – because it’s good for her to develop leadership skills. I also like that Lucy understood that this was not really the reason she had hoped her parents would come around.
And of course, I love the relationship that Lucy developed with her Aunt. I just with her Aunt had shot a few hoops with her – that would have made the story even better.
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I finished The Acropolis, the first book in a new series by RK Ryals – I wrote about it over at BlogHer. #TeamGargoyle!
I finished Retribution on my iPhone yesterday – and wrote about it in the BlogHer Book Chat group.
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