2013

The Lions of Little Rock

2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge /

Here’s the problem with me and books in the Cybils Challenge — I reserve them at the library without knowing what they’re about.

The Lions of Little Rock was one of those books.

Little Rock in the 50s, so no, I wasn’t really surprised when Liz showed up at school and I knew immediately that Liz was trying to pass and this was not going to end well for anyone.

It was at that moment that I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like the book. In those early pages I had to keep reminding myself that this is a middle grade fiction book. This is a middle grade fiction book. And before long, I wasn’t having to remind myself of that. I could just enjoy the story. And, I really did enjoy it.

I do have one question — after Judy flew from Pine Bluff to Little Rock on New Year’s Eve, how did she get back to Pine Bluff? (It’s little things like this that stick with me and bother me.)

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Goats

2013, Books in Bed, Fiction /

It’s moments like that I really wonder about how and why some books are turned into movies while others are not. I’m not talking about the obvious huge selling books, their move(s) to the big screen make sense.

I’m talking about obscure coming of age novels like Goats. (Hard as hell to find this book on Amazon because if you search for Goats, you get a ton of non-fiction about goat tending, sheesh.)

Written in 2002 — first novel by a short story writer — it’s… different.

Not great, not horrible. Just different.

There were moments of genius and moments that caused eyerolling and overall, I liked it. I might even be glad I found this on the list of books turned movies (for my books turned movies challenge.) I can’t wait to watch the movie…

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Reading in April

2013, Books in Bed /

In April, I read a total of 14 books. Not bad, all things considered. I’ll take it.

The breakdown looks like this:

1 book from my stacks (From RJ’s really, since it was her book I read.)
2 were YA/middle grade (One was for the Cybils Challenge and one was for the Books to Movie Challenge.)
8 were non-fiction (Four of those were travel guides.)

I need to get busy with the Cybils, don’t I?

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Journal It!: Perspectives in Creative Journaling

2013, Altered Book, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

The problem with reading a book about art journaling is dreaming about art journaling and waking up in the middle of the night disappointed that the spread you created was only a dream. (This might also be the sign of a good art journaling book.)

That’s what happened to me last night after reading Journal It right before bed.

All night long, dreams about my altered book and all of the pages I could create. I wish I could remember the designs (and the process and the materials) I used in my dreams because those were awesome pages…

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Clutter Rehab

2013, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Two things… first, I have a ton of clutter (heh) and second, I love Laura from OrgJunkie. Meeting her in person at a BlogHer conference was a highlight of that year’s event.

So, when I realized Laura had a book, Clutter Rehab, I decided I needed to check it out.

It does have 101 tips, all of which make a lot of sense and none of which are new or unusual.

It’s a perfectly fine book but Laura’s blog is better. Just stick with her blog, it will serve you well and you will have one less book in your house when you’re uncluttering. Heh.

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Steampunk Gazette

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Steampunk /

There’s a shelf at my library that lures me in every time. It’s a non-fiction, new release shelf, and if I walk past it, I will throw an unplanned read into my bag — and that’s what happened with The Steampunk Gazette.

I’ve had it on my library cart to read for ages and I just keep putting it off. I was afraid it was going to be too full of words that might ruin my steampunk fun. It wasn’t that at all.

It’s full of awesome photos and the words are kind of like a middle grade pictorial encyclopedia would be. Easy to read. Easy to skim. Interesting tidbits. Totally fun.

Stumbling across a mention of my friend Sarah Dopp for her Genderplayful didn’t hurt either.

Also, I want one of these:

I really want a wall tentacle. TW said “Grandmothers don’t have wall tentacles.” I told her she’s full of shit. I want one. (I’m going to be 50 years old this year and nothing screams 50! like a wall tentacle, if you ask me. While I normally prefer orange, I think that would clash with all of my other orange so a blue or a green would probably be better. Someone take care of that for me.)

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Feed

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Most months Sassymonkey posts a discussion post or blog post asking what people are reading and that’s always a good way to pad the TBR and library reserve list. Feedcame from the comments of one of those posts and I sure am glad it did.

I love this book.

I knew what was going to happen to Buffy. And at the ranch. I did not, however, see Georgia’s fate coming. I just didn’t. I should have — it was really all spelled out but, nope, didn’t see that coming.

Blogging, zombies, conspiracies — it’s awesome. I’m concerned that the second book in the series might not be as good. I’m so concerned that I’m not sure I’m going to reserve it. I don’t want to ruin such a good story with a bad sequel… has anyone read Deadline (Newsflash series)?

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Dreams and Shadows

2013, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Another year has gone by without me taking part in the Happily Ever After Challenge. Darn.

Though I didn’t do the challenge, I did reserve some books for the challenge and Dreams and Shadows is one of those — recommended by Sassymonkey. She specifically recommended it for TW, though. And, maybe I should have listened to that?

I did not love this book. I had to fight my way through the first 1/3 and only after I started skipping the book entries by Thaddeus Ray did I even begin to get into the story or care about the characters.

In a very odd twist, this book is set in Austin. You’d think that would have helped me get into it, since I was also reading Austin travel guides — and it did. But that’s really the only thing that kept me reading during pretty much all of part 1 of the book.

I can’t figure out why I didn’t love this story. I normally like urban fantasy (Holly Black?) and the addition of the djinn should have just made it better. It didn’t. If we could get a re-write of the first part of the book … maybe I’d like it better. And no, I don’t think I’m going to read any sequels. I like Colby and his djinn but not enough to slog through another 400+ pages to see what happens next.

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Austin Travel Guides

2013, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Austin travel guides are either really good or really bad, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. I don’t particularly like the ones that are combined with San Antonio (though I suppose if I was going for a week’s vacation, I’d be more appreciative of those.)

Here’s what I liked and didn’t like:

* Frommers San Antonio and Austin Day By Day — I like these because I like to have some place to start when thinking about planning out my days. I don’t generally follow their itinerary but I do like to start with these.

* Top 10 Eyewitness Travel San Antonio and Austin — I’m a big fan of lists and I’d have liked this one a lot more if it hadn’t been a combo San Antonio/Austin guide.

* Moon Austin, San Antonio and Hill County — I just plain like Moon travel guides. They always have suggestions that are just a little different from all of the others. Again, the darn combo travel guide — but this one did a much better job with Austin than the first two.

* Insider’s Guide to Austin was almost TOO much. I know, I know. I complain about combo guides and then complain when I get TOO much from this one. I’d like this better if I was going to have more time in Austin or if I was moving to the area. I also didn’t like the font or the darn paper. Blech.

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