2014

The Invention of Wings

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I very much enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings. We need more books, fiction or otherwise, about the Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina.

*Note: Apparently this was a damn Oprah book pick and if you buy a Kindle copy, you might find Oprah’s notes IN THE BOOK. That… stinks. If you’re thinking about buying this, avoid the kindle copy since there are blue notes in the text — that’s Oprah sticking her two cents in. Blech. I’m very glad I read a library copy that did not have Oprah’s notes in it, just the dumb Oprah book selection banner on the front. Blech. Oprah, stay out of people’s darn books!

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Emilie and the Hollow World

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Supposedly YA but reads like MG, Emilie and the Hollow World was… not great. Not horrible, put it down never speak to me of it again bad. Just not great.

I’m pretty sure I won’t spend any time on the sequel. Unless I’m just super desperate for something to read. Or, unless I hear that the sequel is better than this one (which never happens with a second book.)

Ho hum.

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Rah Rah #Readathon!

2014, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon /

I love Dewey’s Readathon more than just about anything. Those two days a year are some of my most favorite and I look forward to them like a kid looks forward to Christmas (or Halloween.)

This year, I volunteered to be a cheerleader.

It might cut into my own reading time a little bit but that’s OK! It’s the least I can do after all of the times folks have cheered me on. I’m very much looking forward to visiting other #readathoner’s blogs and sending them a happy thought or three.

It’s not too late for you to sign up to participate, as a reader or a cheerleader (or both!) And if you can’t swing it this month, you’ll have another chance in October. Oh, how I love #readathon!

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Reading in March

2014, Books in Bed, Reading /

I only read 20 books, again. I thought it was going to be a much better month than that since I read so many Kindle books and had a half day of jury duty to read. But, the other work/life stress got in the way so I lost reading hours late in the month.

Poop.

It was also the month of non-fiction, for some reason. That slowed things down considerably. Here’s the breakdown.

2 were from the Cybils shortlist.
2 were audio.
9 were non-fiction
3 were Kindle books and were also From My Stacks
2 were Graphic Novels
3 were YA
1 was Children’s fiction

Several of these were also from a series I’d previously read and since one of my goals is to catch up on series — I did a good job of that.

Onward to April. With #readathon this month, I should be able to get close to doubling this number. Fingers crossed!

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Princess Labelmaker To the Recue

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction /

Another great book, Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue is NOT my favorite of the series. I didn’t think that could happen after I liked the last book so much. But it did — Rabbski came through and I liked the entries in the log book that were not so much about the evil Fun Time but about the kids working together and solving issues. I especially liked the kid (Kellen? Tommy?) who stood up for graphic novels. That was great.

Love, love, love.

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A Murder of Crows

2014, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

So. I read A Murder of Crows and I liked it a lot. As I did the first book in the Others series. I mean I really like the plot and the characters and the dialogue. And, for a second book — it was pretty good and not quite as let’s set up for the third book as second books can be.

So all good, right?

Except… I struggle with how blood prophets aka the teenage girl cutters, are portrayed in this series. There’s some glorification of cutting by teenage girls that bothers me. So while I’m enjoying the book, I’m also feeling creeped out and troubled by it at the same time.

I want to read the third book but at the same time, I don’t because it’s … wrong.

(And if you’re a cutter or have a history of self-harm, don’t read this series.)

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Organized Simplicity

2014, Books in Bed, Kindle, Non-Fiction /

Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Simple Living was on my Kindle app. No idea how it got there. Or when. Tsh is a blogger, you might have seen The Art of Simple before, so it’s possible I bought it just because she’s a blogger. I do that. I buy a lot of bloggers’ books on Kindle and then forget about them until I need a Kindle book to read.

Which is how I started reading this book. I was actually in the process of doing some de-cluttering in the laundry/stockpile room when I started reading this. It moves really quickly, particularly since there are some sections that are just not ME.

It’s not a bad book, though I found the end a little long — that’s the clean/de-clutter section. Since you pretty much do all of the same things from room to room, did we really need quite so much repeat there? Seems like it would have been more efficient to lay out the process and then provide a schedule for all of the rooms and then add info that’s specific to each room. Whatevs.

I didn’t love the book. Didn’t hate the book. I do really want to get up and do some de-cluttering right now because OMG we have so much stuff, lol.

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