2014

Beautiful Darkness

2014, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Beautiful Darkness is the sequel to Beautiful Creatures — I started off not liking it as much as Beautiful Creatures. I was also troubled by the addition of Summerville/Charleston references. She’s put Gatlin too close to my hometown (not that it was far from home in the first book re: Santee and Lake Moultrie, but I could hang onto the invisible fake town-ness of it before…)

Anyway, barring that hometown problem, I ended up liking this one a lot. It just took me awhile to get used to less Lena and more of the other supporting characters. I should have liked it right off the bat since I never loved Lena to start with.

I do love Ethan, Amma, Link, Marian, and Macon. Heck, I even like Ridley more than I like Lena. So yea, this was a good darn book once I settled in.

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Eleanor & Park

2 Comments / 2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

From the Cybils Shortlist, Eleanor & Park… what to say, what to say. I liked it. A lot. I might have even loved it but… I kept wondering if any of my kids would have loved it when they were teens and I don’t think that they would.

There were so many 80s references. SO MANY. Neither of our girls knew what I was talking about when I asked them about a few of them. It’s one thing to have a few 80s references that a kid can figure out in context but so many? I dunno. Seems like something might be lost in translation. TW and I smiled all the way through it though BECAUSE of the 80s references.

I did particularly appreciate that Eleanor wasn’t a hero… there was no attempt to save her siblings. She didn’t even really try. Or even pretend to try. She thought about it but halfheartedly and with the awareness that she just couldn’t, she wasn’t even sure she could save herself.

I also really liked Park’s parents. And Park, sure I liked Part, too. Surprisingly, I liked the ending. I liked the abruptness of it. I like that we don’t see the complete resolution of all of the problems. The postcard ending — pretty much perfect. And, now I want to go immerse myself in 80s movies and TV shows. Sheesh.

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Fire & Ash

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Fire & Ash was a very satisfying conclusion to the Rot & Ruin series. Very, very satisfying though I’m a little surprised that we didn’t lose more major characters… (trying not to spoil things for those who haven’t read it.)

I’d be disappointed that it was over, being that it’s one of the BEST zombie SERIES EVER, but I’m gonna move to the adult series, featuring Joe Ledger and I’m sure I’ll feel almost like the series hasn’t ended.

BEST ZOMBIE SERIES people. Don’t let its YA label keep you from reading it! (Now if I could just get some zombie trading cards…)

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Fiddlehead

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Steampunk, Young Adult /

I love Cherie Priest and I really like the Clockwork Century series — Fiddlehead might be my favorite in the series mostly because I love what she did with Lincoln (he doesn’t die) and with Grant (he’s awesome, even in is often inebriated state.) I love Belle and how so many of the characters from the series came together to end the war AND get to work on the saffron aka necrotic leprosy problem.

Loved Mary Todd Lincoln. Loved, loved, loved and I stayed up way to late to see how it all ended (perfectly.)

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Productive, I Was!

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Another day, another half dozen “to dos” scratched off of my Filofax list. Yay me.

I did manage to clean the house, it took FOREVER but I did it. I even managed to get a load of laundry done and put away so yay me for keeping up with the laundry for all of 2014. Hah.

I worked on JMP’s stocking for a very long time — while watching four or five episodes of Dawson’s Creek. (Oh Jack, Oh Pacey, Oh Andie. lol)

I only managed to finish one book, It’s Complicated (which I’ll blog in depth on BlogHer later this week.) I used an entire package of giraffe post-its while reading danah’s book!

And better yet, I managed to do absolutely no work, other than to answer a couple of Sassymonkey’s emails. Look at me, taking an entire holiday OFF of work. Crazy, right? Re-entry tomorrow might be a problem though — my inbox is flooded with unanswered email. Gah.

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A Lesson In Secrets

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

We finished listening to Maisie Dobbs: A Lesson In Secrets last night… another excellent book.

I kept wanting to yell LISTEN TO MAISIE because the men are dumb for not worrying about that whole Hitler, Nazi, fascist thing. Gah.

Also, I’m surprised she never figured out where Sandra went… maybe because she didn’t have time to really think about it? It was obvious to me.

I’m anxious to find out what happens next but we’re taking a little Maisie break to listen to a YA novel instead… then we’ll be back to Maisie again. I think.

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The Last Original Wife

2014, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction /

Oy.

TW picked up The Last Original Wife at the same time that she picked up the Fannie Flagg novel. If we’re going to be on a novels about Charleston kick, we might as well go all out, right?

Except, I’m not really a very big fan of Dorothea Benton Frank. I don’t HATE her books but I don’t generally love them, either. She does write well about Sullivan’s Island, and I appreciate that but… no. I just don’t love her books. And, anything called The Last Original Wife should have been a clue that I was not going to be in love, right?

Right. I wasn’t in love.

I appreciated that Leslie finally figured out that her marriage was crap. Her husband was an ass. And Atlanta wasn’t where she belonged. I laughed out loud twice — once when she bought the red Benz and I can’t actually remember the other time (probably something about the damn dog or the interesting gay brother) but hell. I just didn’t love the book.

I appreciated the Josephine Pinckney story thread but that was about it. I’d have been happier with a book about the gay guy in Charleston than I was about this one. Ho hum.

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Flesh & Bone

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

#3 in the Rot & Ruin series (what I often call one of the BEST zombie series ever written), Flesh & Bone, was excellent. I really want a set of trading cards. I also wish library jackets weren’t taped down to prevent me from properly seeing the darn cards. And, it turns out Texasebeth is reading another zombie series by Jonathan Mayberry for adults that has one of the characters from Flesh & Bone as the lead. I’m gonna have to read that series … once I find out what happens to Benny, Nix, Chong (OMG, CHONG!), and Lilah.

Sanctuary seems really really creepy. And also, I will never look at dog whistles the same way again. DOG WHISTLES. Jonathan Mayberry is genius.

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