Books in Bed

Readathon – Eve!

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon /

Tomorrow is one of my two favorite days of the year – Readathon Day! Yippee!

I dragged TW to Trader Joe’s this morning and picked up snacks for the big day (she picked up some to take with her to her Prom/mommy weekend readathon in Des Moines.)  I have cranberry scones for breakfast. I’ll have spaghetti sandwiches (on the Italian loaf I bought at TJ’s) with my leftover Creamy Crock Pot Spaghetti that’s cooking right now for lunch. I have vegetable bird nests for dinner. In between, I’ve got a black bean salsa, falafel chips, quinoa & black bean tortilla chips, braided mozzarella, chocolate covered pomegranates, and olive oil popcorn.

I’ve finally decided which books I’m going to focus on and here’s a photo (pretend you can see a couple of eBooks in there, too.)

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I tossed some ‘zines I’ve been meaning to read onto the top, those will be nice when I need a bit of a break. And, I’m amused that NieNie’s book is on the stack – during last spring’s readathon, I read Ree’s book. Spring seems to be a good time for BlogHer blogger’s books, doesn’t it?

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Wonderstruck

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

I’ve been putting off reading Wonderstruck because it’s a really, really big book for a middle grade graphic novel. I was waiting until I was in the right mood for reading what I imagined might be a book that wasn’t easy to follow – black and white pictures, and lots of ‘em. Even though Elly read it ages ago and said it was good… I put it off.

Then a couple of days ago, I realized it was not JUST a graphic novel, but a graphic novel and a written novel. Well shoot, I could have handled that weeks ago.

So I picked it up last night and LOVED it. Brilliantly done – two different people, from two different eras. One child’s story told in words, another child’s story told in images – until those stories merged. Brilliant. Why haven’t I read Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret? I must read it – soon.

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The Gilly Salt Sisters

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

I really, really liked The Little Giant of Aberdeen County and was really excited to start reading The Gilly Salt Sisters. But, it started off really slow. I tried not to let that get to me because I remember some slow points from Little Giant, too… but, The Gilly Salt Sisters had a few too many slow points and I found myself tempted to skim a lot more than I’d like.

I also did not love the end – as in the very, very, very end like the last chapter end. What was the point of that jumping so far forward? Take my advice and stop with chapter 30. Or, if you really need a tiny bit more – read a few pages into chapter 32 and then quit. That’s all you need. The rest was just a letdown and left me saying, “huh?”.

Now I want something salty. Or maybe salty-sweet.

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One Cybil – One Not

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge /

How could I not love Sylvie, the little flamingo who decided she wanted to try being all sorts of different colors by eating things other than little pink shrimp. Cute. Very cute. I liked it.

Blackout was nice, too — and this was the Cybil. I liked the illustrations better than the story – which was just a little predictable.

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Swordspoint

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer /

Ages ago, we read a book that I only barely remember – a gender bending story about swordsplay called The Privilege of the Sword. It was good, even though I can only barely remember what it was about. Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw that book on the library shelves. It made me wonder if the author had written any other books… she has and I read Swordspoint this week.

Not a gender bender but gay swordsman and gay Lords and it was good. Very good. The problem is – I’ve read the darn things out of order now. It looks like The Privilege of the Sword came much later… Alec is young in this story and old in Privilege of the Sword. Darn it. I hate reading books out of order and now I need to read the second book in the series and quite possibly re-read The Privilege of the Sword after that.

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Below Stairs

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

Oops. I forgot to blog Below Stairs – I finished it days ago. It was kind of fun, and a wee bit interesting. I’d have probably enjoyed it more if I was a Downton Abby watcher or if I’d recently seen Upstairs, Downstairs (which I enjoyed when I was a kid.)  I spent a lot of time looking up things like Scotch Woodcock and Gentleman’s Relish, which is what happens when I read a book like Below Stairs.  Heh.

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Honolulu

2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

I’d like to say I read Honolulu in preparation for my trip to Hawaii but I didn’t. I read it because TW asked me to reserve it after it was suggested to her (on Good Reads, maybe) as a book she would like because she liked Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. She read it. She liked it. I figured I would like it too, since I liked Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

And I did, though it took me a lot longer to start to like it than it took TW. She liked it from the start – I didn’t like it until Jin left her dirtbag husband. That wasn’t far into the book, but I was tired when I first picked it up so it felt like AGES before I really got into the book. I loved the way the picture brides came together and supported each other. That’s really what made the book, for me. (And May’s storyline was pretty darn fantastic too.)

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War Horse

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction /

Heck.

I finally wrote my month in books wrap up for March and noticed I never blogged about War Horse. Which means my counts are off there, too. Sheesh. I’m on the ball, aren’t I?

OK so War Horse? Was there a movie made from this book? I thought there was and that’s why I reserved the book at the library. I figured if folks were watching the movie, the least I could do was read the book. Which I did. And I’m still not sure there is a movie. So. Whatever.

I sort of liked the book. Sort of. Mostly. There were just a couple of parts that kind of bugged me, stylistically. No big deal. A horse book is a horse book is a horse book, basically. But in this case…. The horse didn’t die. Well some horses did but not THE horse. Oops. I spoiled it for you. Sorry.  People die! There’s a war, after all. It will be sad enough, but not TOO sad (as most horse books are TOO sad, this will be a nice change for you.)

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A Month of Books – March

2012, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

I put this post off for days because I can barely remember what I read last month – it was that kind of month. Which turns out to not be TOO bad of a month for reading, it just felt like it there at the end.

Challenges:

Steampunk: 1

Adoption: 0 (AGAIN! Jennaaaaaa tell me what to read!)

Queer: 3 (Oy. But wait… could we consider the Soulless series to be “queer”… I think we could. I think we should. Definitely… ok I feel better, even if that means last month’s post is wrong.)

From the Stacks: 2 (Oh man, I thought I did better than THAT.)

Audio Books: 2

Cybils: 10

Nancy Drew: 0 but I did finally update my Evernote list so I know what I should be buying. That’s a start, right?

Total Books Read – 39

                YA – 12

                Non-fiction – 13

                Graphic Novels – 7

                eBooks –  4

I didn’t quit a single book last month, yay!

Books in progress: 2 (one audio, one print)

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Hawaii Travel Guides

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Which travel guides are the best? I mean really? Fodors vs Frommers? And what about the Mobile guides? They all seem pretty much the same – so which do people prefer? 

Here are the ones I’ve read so far:

Frommer’s Honolulu and Oahu Day By Day: I like the day by day kind of guides, the ones that give you sample itineraries for days/interests. But, it’s pretty rare for me to find a full day/itinerary that is perfect. I always want to skip some things and add others but I’m never sure whether what I’m adding will really fit in (time/location) with what I’m keeping/dropping. So complicated!

Hidden Oahu: I’m not sure sure that my definition of Hidden is the same as theirs but – I liked some of their recommendations since they weren’t always the same as Fodor/Frommer standard tourist must see recommendations. However, I hated the paper this was printed on.

Oahu: Fodors in Focus: This one was pretty standard – Frommer’s Day By Day-like. Nothing surprising was lurking in there.

Lonely Planet Honolulu, Waikiki & Oahu: This was my favorite of the bunch. I’m a Lonely Planet kind of person. If I buy a guide, it will be this one. Or if I download one to my iPad/iPhone, it will be this one.

Adventure Guide Honolulu, Waikiki, & Oahu (Hunter Guides): This one causes me and TW to spend about a half hour calling various weather and time phone numbers (don’t ask) and I liked the section about local culture, Hawaiian language, and native foods/plants. Again, I hated the paper it was printed on. This was probably my second favorite because it did have some shops and restaurants that none of the other guides included.

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