2015

2 Non-Fictions

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

TW has started making fun of me for checking out so many gardening books. lol. It is a little odd, but I LIKE THEM, darn it. I really liked Foodscaping though I sure would like to know how to keep wildlife from eating all of your foodscaped gardens. This book was a little short on advice for that. Plant sweet peas in multiple patches and hope the bunnies only notice one patch isn’t real solid advice, ya know? lol. Anyway, I’ve read 3 or 4 books about foodscaping and this was probably my favorite of the bunch. I think we’re going to have to plant kiwi…

Last week (or was it the week before?) when my back hurt like crazy and nothing on the bookshelves looked good to me, I picked Decorating for Real Life from the new arrivals shelf. I wasn’t expecting much but turns out I really liked it. I liked the different houses and rooms and it was exactly the right book to read when I was tired and tired of having a back ache.

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The Living

2015, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

It’s books like The Living that cause me to say NO cruises. NO living on the west coast. And, thank goodness JMP no longer lives in Hawaii. Quick read. I wasn’t thrilled with the characters at the beginning of the book but they grew on me.

I’m not sure I’m going to read the next book, though it does stink to not know what happens next. After all of that horrible stuff and I don’t know how it ends? Ugh. Totally annoying.

There are too many darn sequels in the world now. Have you noticed this? I’m really getting tired of sequels when we don’t need sequels. We need authors to write books and give them a real live ENDING every now and then. Sheesh.

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The Crossover

2015, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Poetry, Young Adult /

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about TheCrossover — we listened to it on audio and it’s about basketball. Not generally our sort of thing. Turns out… amazing book. Amazing. I loved everything about it. The poetry. The characters. The plot. *sniff* I’m not going to say best book ever but damn it was a good book.

Read it. Listen to it on audio. Give it to your kids.

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The Jupiter Pirates (2 Of Them)

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

One of the Jupiter Pirates books is on the Cybils shortlist and since there are only two published (so far) and they’re middle grade scifi, I figured I’d just reserve them both. I’m glad I did. They were both a lot of fun and super quick to read.

The captain of the ship is a woman (a mom) and her husband is the first mate. There are three kids competing against each other to be the captain when their mom retires but they also have to work together because they’re crew. The female child is the one who’s most into “firepower” — that’s a nice change from the girl being the smart, bossy one.

I can see the first book (or the second) being a great action movie for kids. Great characters, interesting plot, lots of special effects. Someone should option these now.

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Reading In May

2015, Books in Bed, Reading /

It was a good month for reading and not much else. 3+ weeks of my back being… in bad shape = I didn’t get much done except for reading. Thank goodness for books and remind me of this next month when I don’t get many books read at all…

Total read 26!

13 were Non-fiction.
Only 5 were YA.
9 came from the Cybils shortlist.
2 were audiobooks.

Yep, good month for reading and I’m hoping for a good month in June too, but not THIS good. I have a lot to do that doesn’t involve laying in bed with books.

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Stuffocation

2015, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I have a love/hate thing going on with Stuffocation. I like the concept, it makes a lot of sense. I’ve also seen (and pointed out) trends in experientialism in recent years.

There were pieces of the book that I loved but there some points when I found myself rolling my eyes at the author. I’m glad I read it but I’m not going to become an experientialist — just typing that made me roll my eyes again. lol.

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Jam on the Vine

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Queer, Women /

And to think, I almost didn’t read Jam on the Vine. Sheesh. One of the best books I’ve read this year and I almost missed it. Good thing TW pointed it out when she finished.

This is not the normal post-civil war era book. There are black Muslims in Texas. There are lesbians. It makes you think a bit of Ida B. Welles but not enough to actually make you feel like you’re reading Ida B Wells fan fiction or something like that.

Read it!

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