I never know what to expect when I read Emma Donoghue – I either love her books or hate them and it’s often the ones everyone else loves that I do not love. Frog Music turned out to be a book that I really enjoyed though a lot of other people seem to have not enjoyed it nearly as much. Whatever.
She did a nice job with the story of Jenny Bonnet and a nice job with Blanche’s story, too. I liked it.
I’m pretty pleased with February’s reading, all things considered. And believe me, there were all the things to be considered.
8 total
2 were audiobooks
2 non-fiction
1 graphic novel
4 were from the cybils shortlist
Go me. Let’s hope I can do at least as well in March, since there will be all the things to consider, again.
Reading in February Read More »
When you’re 53ish and reading Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl you find yourself wanting to give away all of your crap and move to Philly and hang out with your punk/goth kid and listen to all of the punk/goth music for awhile and do nothing else at all.
And then you might feel like after your kid is sick of you and you’re sick of Philly that it would be a good time to move onto the Pacific Northwest and hang out with another kid and see if you can figure out where all the cool indie musicians hang out and just listen to whatever it is that might be cool now.
At which point you realize that you don’t actually know what kinds of indie music might be cool and whether there is any cool indie music going on anywhere because you’re old now and you have all of these responsibilities and you have dogs, for godsakes (though Carrie has dogs, too, now… which by the way, the almost last chapter of the book comes at you from nowhere and you won’t be prepared for what happens and it might make you feel kind of ill and stuff… just warning you. You should still read the book… where was I?)
Oh yea, which then causes you to think maybe you should just put the book down, turn Sleater-Kinney up really loud and make a zine, which causes you to laugh your ass off because you can’t even manage to write anything decent on your own blog (or anywhere) or paint in your art journal or really do anything except work and think about mortgages and crap.
Which causes you to kind of be annoyed that you missed all of the cool stuff that happened in the 90s because you were busy raising kids and working, working, working — always working.
Whatever. You still have Sleater-Kinney to listen to. And there are some old zines on your bookshelves (or if you’re me, they’re packed in a box but will be back on your bookshelves someday…assuming the mortgage all works out, lol.) And you can listen to your goth/punk kids’ music any damn time you want and even sometimes listen to her playlist for her DJ gig. And… that will be enough. Mostly.
Read Carrie’s book. And listen to some Sleater-Kinney.
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl Read More »
I really enjoyed Book Scavenger. It had a little Mr Lemoncello about it (and mentioned that book in it) and it reminded me of my old Bookcrossing days.
It looks like this might be a series — if it is, I’ll probably read the next one but I’m not sure if I’ll ever really get hooked on it. We’ll see.
I’m on a reading roll, yay me!
Blackbird Fly was excellent. And, it made me want Filipino food. Why do I have no lumpia wrappers in the house? Or pancit noodles? I guess I could just make chicken adobo but that’s not quite what I want. But anyway, back to the book.
It was a good middle grade fiction book. It read a little younger than I expected it to but I very much enjoyed getting to know Apple and her REAL friends, not those fake friends.
You guys! I read a book! A whole book. On paper. It had words! How exciting is that?
It’s also a book from the Cybils shortlist and a really good middle grade fiction book. Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy is about a mom who has Bipolar Disorder and a daughter who worries she might “get sick,” too. It also has a character with cerebral palsy, another with PTSD, and touches on child abuse.
I really liked all of the characters and I liked the way the story played out.
Also, I READ A BOOK!! hahaha.
Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy Read More »
We listened to The Jesus Cow on the way to Florida for the last great house hunt. The worst thing about it was that it was short. We finished it just as we reached our hotel in Manchester, TN on the first night of the trip. The best thing about it was the cow. Born on Christmas. With the face of Jesus on his hide.
I didn’t love the end, but I saw it coming so maybe that means it was the right ending?
I can’t quite remember what led me to reserve A Fine Romance at the library. I saw it mentioned somewhere… a diary, with watercolors. Right up my alley. Except it wasn’t. Quite.
I enjoyed it. Really. It’s just not quite my style of storytelling/diary writing. I also don’t have that much love for Beatrix Potter. (I do have a lot more love for the Bloomsbury group and the Arts & Crafts Movement, which she learned to love a good bit on her trip.)
A Fine Romance: Falling In Love with the English Countryside Read More »
I love me some #1 Ladies Detective Agency (on audio) and really enjoyed The Woman Who Walked In Sunshine except… I was afraid AMS was trying to kill off Mma Ramotswe. TW kept telling me I was dumb but I didn’t believe her til the very, very end, lol. Maybe it’s because we had just listened to the “killing” of Dexter? (Though I absolutely wanted him dead – more dead than he was there at the end, actually. Which is possibly a spoiler. Oops?)
I also did not really find the explanation about why Mma Makutse did what she did with Mr Polopetsi… that just didn’t seem quite right. I dunno.
The Woman Who Walked In Sunshine Read More »