The Art of the Visit. Hell. I can’t even find full sized sheets for the futon or the air mattress and she wants me to do all of these things? Hell. Ain’t happening and that doesn’t mean that I don’t love the people who come to visit. I swear.
The Art of the Visit Read More »
I really enjoyed Speaking From Among the Bones — Flavia is fabulous, as usual. But, I’m a little troubled by the direction this is taking.
The house is in jeopardy, as usual.
Flavia learns more about her mother. Confusing things. Good things. Interesting things.
Flavia solves the crime.
Something happens that might save the house, but instead it just helps the family hold on a little longer.
Book ends.
At least that’s pretty much the formula we saw in the first four books. This one, a little different. All of those things happen except…. we don’t find out what happens to the thing that could save the house (but probably won’t.) Instead, we get a much, much, much bigger cliffhanger. The cliffhanger of cliffhangers.
And I don’t think I like it.
Certainly I was ready for that thing to begin to occur, but I don’t like the messing of the formula of the series. I don’t like the thing that occurred to have occurred as a cliffhanger. Unnecessary. Unwelcome. Nope, didn’t like it. But yea, I’m dying for the next book.
Speaking From Among the Bones Read More »
I read Nevermore because TW said it was good. Also because while she was reading it she asked me weird questions about Davy Crockett and Edgar Allen Poe and also because we listened to the Davy Crockett song about 15 times while she was reading. I couldn’t pass it up.
And damn, I’m glad I read it.
I chuckled all of the way through it. I like Poe. I like Crockett. I like Poe and Crockett together. They should have a TV series. Maybe also fight zombies together. It would be awesome. This book was awesome. (Except the creepy parts where Poe was crushing on his cousin… I know, I know… still creepy and really especially so in this book. Thankfully it didn’t happen so often that I had to throw the book across the room.)
Thanks to Liz Rizzo, I was reminded that we had fallen behind on the Sandman Slim books and I ran and reserved Devil Said Bang because Sandman Slim is awesome (and Liz is right, these need to be movies.)
TW said she didn’t like this one as much as the others, so I was worried and I stayed worried for much of the beginning of the book, when Sandman Slim was stuck in hell. I like the chapters about hell but I don’t love the characters down there nearly as much as I like the characters in LA (and for awhile, I really couldn’t figure out how the hell he was going to get out of hell, so yay for making me read to find out rather than figuring it out for myself, which is what happens with a lot of books.)
And, I actually LOVED the ending. (Which so rarely happens.)
Only weird thing was that I dreamed about Sandman Slim — a mashup with BlogHerCon, and that was scary as HELL (pun sort of intended.) I don’t ever want to have that kind of dream again.
We’re heading to Door County in a couple of weeks for a mini (and much needed) vacation, which means I reserved as many Door County books as I could find (not very many, which is a shame, really.)
The only real travel guide is Moon Spotlight: Door County and it was fine though it assumes all travelers are going during high season rather than off season. There’s barely a mention of winter activities at all.
If you’re interested in the history of Door County then Door County Tales is your book. Easy and quick to read. Nice photos. I enjoyed this one.
Journeys to Door County wasn’t bad but I didn’t love the author’s writing style and I kept dozing off. The pictures were nice, though.
Three Non-Fiction: Door County Read More »
Eyes Right was… interesting. Reaffirmed my conviction that I would never, ever want to be a woman Marine (especially in the 80s.)
Eyes Right: Confessions of a Woman Marine Read More »
Almost a month ago, I Chatter/Tweeted asking people about the first blogs they read and whether they still read them — someone came along and mentioned Young House Love, a blog I’ve read a few times but never consistently.
The next day, I went to the library and there on the shelf was the Young House Love book. It seemed like fate so I checked it out. (How often does that happen to you? It happens to me quite a lot…)
The book was fun, a little more crafty/decorate-y than I expected and not as much home repair/renovation but still fun. Their IKEA LACK Hacks made me consider running out to IKEA to buy a few more LACKS. (Instead, I’ll just wait and buy a half dozen or so right before we move and we’ll see about doing some fun stuff with them in our new house.)
It’s a pretty nice book to just have on hand and I’m considering sending a copy to Michelle-Belle. If we’d had that when she was fixing up her apartment… and more time to fix up the apartment… there’s cool stuff in there.
It was fun to flip through and talk to TW about. (I was especially glad that we agreed about the various types of door hooks.)
Sigh. I think I’m done with the girl/seal fairy tale. I used to like them but now, I just find myself annoyed. There’s no happy in these, I’m just too hung up on the seal not being allowed to be the darn seal. I guess The Brides of Rollrock Island tries to redeem itself by having the sons return the mams to the sea but then there are the fathers, cutting their sons (who are at least half their property?) out of their seal coats to bring them back.
One step forward, one step back? I’m just done with the seal as human storyline, I think.
The Brides of Rollrock Island Read More »
Considering it was a short (and incredibly busy) month, not too shabby. I’m still not getting the books on my own shelf read but what else is new, right?
I read 13 books (same as last month, go figure!)
1 was audio – it was also a Cybils book.
3 were non-fiction. (Oh, I read a travel guide that I haven’t blogged yet, so I’m not counting it this month. I’ll add it later when I write up a bunch of these at once.)
4 were YA and one was middle grade fiction.
2 were queer (but several more had queer characters tossed in.)
Not bad, really.
Reading in February Read More »
I’m kind of annoyed that I didn’t figure out “what” the Inexplicables were earlier than I did. I mean I knew before the Princess explained it to the boys, but I should have figured it out right away. I was over-thinking it and stuck in the whole zombies thing.
I was kind of bummed by the book in general though, I didn’t really like Rector very much — and I generally like the “bad” kid in books. Or at least feel some empathy for the “bad” kid. I don’t know why he grated on me so much or why I never really came around to liking him even a little bit.
Weird. Very weird.
I’m still looking forward to finding out what happens next.