2013

I Am Number Four

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

It’s times like this that I wonder what the heck happened… I read a lot of middle grade and YA fiction so why didn’t I manage to read I Am Number Four the year it was published? Why did I wait so long… until I needed a book I’ve never read for a movie I’ve never watched challenge?

Sheesh.

Just goes to show you how little time we really have. Not enough to read everything we want to read or watch everything we want to watch.

Sigh.

So, about the book — it was pretty good in a 2010 middle grade fantasy sort of way. But, I’m wondering if this might be the time when I say the movie was actually better than the book? I don’t know but I’m guessing I might…

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Brew to a Kill

2013, Books in Bed, Mystery /

I was in a reading rut so I figured a cozy about coffee might help. It didn’t. It took me days and days and days to read Brew to a Kill.

It was amusing in places. Slow in others. At first I thought I knew “who dun it” but then decided I was wrong. Turns out I was right after all.

The best part of the story was the food truck storyline — you’d think it would have been the coffee/coffee house setting, right? Nope. Food trucks. Food trucks are fascinating. (I priced food trucks a couple of days ago, lol. Anyone want to go into the Food Truck biz with me?)

We could have a Balikbayan Box food truck, lol, (which was also an interesting, to me, part of the story — the Filipino references, that doesn’t happen often in cozies.)

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Reading in March

2013, Books in Bed /

Ooops. April slipped up on me. Well, not really, it’s just that this post slipped by me. (Which is what happened last year, too. It’s just not a habit yet, but I’m working on it.)

So here’s what my reading looked like in March, (it really looked like Non-Fiction month, is what it looked like):

Total: 22 books

7 were non-fiction (three of those were travel)
2 were audiobooks (YA/Middlegrade)
1 was From the Stacks
2 were graphic novels (YA/Middlegrade)
1 for the Book To Movie Challenge
4 were YA and 2 were middle grade fiction (including what’s mentioned above — 4 of them were for the Cybils Challenge.)

I really loved several of the books I read in March. I didn’t hate any but I did dislike a couple pretty strongly.

Overall: good month for books since I don’t generally read a lot when I’m sick or on vacation, and both happened in March.

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Beautiful Creatures

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

I finally read Beautiful Creatures, (for my Books to Movie challenge), and am wondering what the heck took me so long. I loved it. In part because of the fictional small town South Carolina setting –I’m a sucker for South Carolina — and also because the Sisters are fabulous characters. I love them.

I have one issue with the story … if you were Ethan and Marian the Librarian told you that it was your (dead) mother who gave her THAT special librarian job, wouldn’t you have had a conversation with her about that? Your mother was involved in the Caster world? Enough that she had the power to give someone a job as head librarian? Hello, someone would have had to explain to me just how that happened and what my mother was doing in that world.

I know Ethan (and Lena) had a lot on their minds but it was October — still a good bit of time til mid February. Plenty of time for a one hour discussion. I just don’t understand why that did not happen. Why Ethan didn’t even attempt to force that discussion.

That made no damn sense to me.

But it’s fiction, and I really enjoyed the book. Must reserve the next book ASAP… and either decide whether I want to drive into Indiana or somewhere that it might be playing in theaters or wait til the DVD release in May… I’ll probably wait but I’m looking forward to watching the movie…

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Wonder

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

I will admit that I was prepared to be not-so-impressed with Wonder. Books that have glowing reviews cause me to put my hackles up and be overly critical.

But, it was tough to maintain that detached, critical air. Wonder was just too nice. Nice story. Nice characters. Nice family. Nice. Nice. Nice. Just typing that makes me want to NOT like Wonder but I just can’t do it.

Maybe because we listened to it on audio, and finished it up during our happy vacation to Door County — everything was awesome, including the happily ever after ending of Wonder.

Hell. Just go read it.

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Two Graphic Novels

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

I decided to go with easy reads after struggling through Mrs. L’s Dressmaker. Too much going on at work and at home for me to sit down with anything serious. Plus, my vacation is about to start. Yay for vacation! And yay for graphic novels, even if I only loved one of them.

First, the one I didn’t love. Ichiro. Not my thing, though it should be since it was really just Japanese mythology. I just didn’t like the story. I didn’t like the portrayal of Ichi’s American grandfather. Yea, there are people like that but… no. It just set the whole thing off badly for me and the rest of the book never quite redeemed itself for me. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely did not love it.

I did, however, LOVE Giants Beware. I loved Collete. Loved Gaston and Marie and Valiant, too. Loved all of the townspeople and all of the things that happened outside of the wall. Loved, loved, loved the story. And the art.

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The Drowned Cities

2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

It took awhile for us to figure out which book The Drowned Cities was the sequel to because Tool was the only character from the first book that was in this book. At first I wasn’t sure that was going to be a good thing but I settled into the story and ended up pretty happy with how it all turned out. I do hope we pick up Tool’s story again — it would be pretty interesting to see if the Half-Man can turn the Drowned Cities around when the Full-Men couldn’t.

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Weird Al: The Book

2013, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I have no idea why I brought Weird Al: The Book home from the library. It jumped into the bag, all on its own. I’m not really a very big Weird Al fan. I find his parodies amusing enough. And I was totally on his side with the whole Lady Gaga thing. But I have never bought one of his albums or cds, though I did mean to buy Perform This Way because of the whole controversy and because he was donating the money to GaGa’s cause. I should go do that before I forget again.

I might like Weird Al more, after reading the book. Smart guy. Nice guy. Amusing guy. Interesting guy.

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