2013

Reading In October

2013, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

Oops. I almost forgot my monthly tally. Possibly because I’m not super excited by most of what I read, though I did thoroughly enjoy the #readathon early in the month. Let’s see how I did.

39 total (which sounds better than it is, because so many where children’s books, lol)

2 Audiobooks
7 Graphic Novels (they were all for the Cybil Shortlist Challenge)
16 Children’s lit (fiction and nonfiction) (they were all for the Cybil Shortlist Challenge
1 Queer
5 Non-fiction.
8 Fiction

I quit 1 book this month and there was another I should have quit but did not.

Reading In October Read More »

The Yonahlassee Riding Camp For Girls

2013, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I couldn’t really decide whether I liked The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls. In the end, I decided I did because the writing was pretty. I’m not sure I liked the STORY very much at all though.

Well parts of it I did, parts of it I didn’t like at all. The biggest problem was that I didn’t really like any of the major characters. It’s hard to love a book when you don’t love SOMEONE in it, ya know? I think I loved the places more than the people… which makes sense, really, when you read the book. A lot of the characters loved places more than people, too.

The Yonahlassee Riding Camp For Girls Read More »

All The Graphic Novels — OK Not All Of Them, Just Seven

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

I didn’t manage to read all of the graphic novels from the Cybils shortlist on Sunday like I’d planned but I did finish a bunch of them on Monday and Tuesday. Here’s what I thought about seven of them:

Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller — I liked it. I wasn’t sure at the beginning. The first couple of pages were dark and confusing but once I settled into the art, and the jumping between Annie’s life and Annie’s life with Helen, it was good. Very good.

Hilda and the Midnight Giant was cute. I like Hilda and her mom.

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad was pretty good. I grew up with a history nut for a dad so I have a fondness for these kinds of stories. Humor was nicely added to help make the story less dry than history often is made to be.

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China was super interesting. I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did.

Friends with Boys was probably my favorite of this round of graphic novels. (What’s with all of the memoirs on the list this time?) Homeschool to High School, teen angst, a ghost. It’s all pretty excellent. The drawings were good, too.

Marathon should have been good. Instead, I couldn’t even finish (I tried though. I tried hard.) The drawings should haven’t helped the difficult to follow story but they just made things worse.

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White was my second favorite of the batch. I liked the art. I liked the story. Hispanic family in Alabama during the 60s? Not white but also not black? Tough situation and super interesting.

All The Graphic Novels — OK Not All Of Them, Just Seven Read More »

Dexter’s Final Cut

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Fiction /

Sigh. I’m disappointed in Dexter’s Final Cut. So disappointed. I get that Dexter wasn’t a good guy, even though most of us grew to really love him. But… this. This was too much. It’s ok to kill off the Dexter series, it’s not ok to fuck with the people who’ve read your books for all of these years and have come to appreciate the characters and the storytelling.

It’s not OK at all. If you’ve ready all of the other books, don’t read this one. 🙁

Dexter’s Final Cut Read More »

The Endangered Species Road Trip

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

The Brookfield Zoo has some great books in their gift shops. TW spotted The Endangered Species Road Trip in one of them and I reserved it at the library. It was excellent. I read the entire thing yesterday.

Environmentalist books can be… preachy. And sometimes dry. And also a little boring. This one was none of those things. It was interesting and amusing and it made me think about what I’d like to see on my own endangered species road trip, someday.

The Endangered Species Road Trip Read More »

Backtracking Book Reviews

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Queer, short stories, Women /

I didn’t do a very good job of talking about most of the books I read during the #readathon, so I’m backtracking a bit.

Astronaut Wives Club — I liked it but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as I’d hoped. I see now why someone (Julie?) said she didn’t really like it very much. It was vague where I wanted more detail. I’m glad I read it but I wish it had been better.

Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate was really good — witchery popery popery witchery, it’s really much the same when you think about it, right?

Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives — a book of short stories, very good short stories. That’s saying something since I’m not really a fan of short story compilations.

Lake Geneva: Life At the Water’s Edge was a really nice coffee table type book. Great photos. Interesting. Makes me a little sad that we cancelled our mini vacation in November. We’ll do it in the spring, instead, and I’m looking forward to it now more than ever.

Day Trips From Chicago was nothing special. I didn’t find anything unusual or extra interesting. Not a bad book of day trips it was just a little vanilla.

A Short History of Myth, I think I did write about this one a little yesterday. It was ok. Dry, as you’d expect. Something to think about (or to try not to think about?) as I read the other books in the Myth series in the months ahead.

Backtracking Book Reviews Read More »