Books in Bed

Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration, and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them

2011, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I think my hopes were too high for Swallow. I like books about weird topics – I’m a big fan of Mary Roach, I loved The History of Milk, that book I read last year about the snake oil salesman… the weirder, the better. And Swallow was weird but it was also… difficult to read. Within about ten pages, I just wanted to put it down and that’s about the time when TW told me that she had not been able to finish it.

Well. Gee. I wonder why.

I don’t want my foreign body swallowing book to be full of prose. I want it to be full of quirky, interesting facts and stories. The author is a fabulous writer but I wish I’d read something else she wrote and I wish someone else would write a less pretty book about the swallowing of foreign bodies and the really interesting Dr Jackson Chevalier.

Also… I’m glad I didn’t read this before Elly swallowed the penny 10 years ago – I’d have been a total wreck. She’s lucky she didn’t die! Good grief.

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Sing You Home

2011, Adoption Reading Challenge, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Women /

Jodi Picoult makes me growl – but in a good way.

I knew two things about Sing You Home before I reserved it at the library. I knew it had a gay theme of some sort, because I saw a Mombian mention it, and I knew it would be a complete mess. Nobody can pack more tragedy into one novel than Jodi Picoult.

Turns out it was about gay stuff. And also death, infertility, religion, abortion, alcoholism and probably more stuff that I can’t even remember.

And the reason I keep reading Jodi Picoult is because she writes really great characters – great characters who have more than their fair share of problems.

By the time I’d read the first section of the book, I figured what was going to happen was… exactly what DID happen. And as the story progressed, I knew exactly what the next problem Zoe was going to have to deal with would be. And by the time that problem showed up, I knew what the next issue was going to be. Picoult is predictable, but it’s weird because it doesn’t make me want to stop reading. It makes me yell out loud a lot. And say things like OMG, out loud. (At which point TW looks up and says, “WHAT?!” and before I can say anything, she says, “Oh. You’re reading Picoult.” And then she goes about her business.) 

Yea. It’s like that.

I don’t want to give away spoilers because I do want you to read this. I want you to know that even though I’ve never dealt with infertility, I think she did a nice job of telling the infertility portions of these stories.

I am queer and I think she did a tremendous job with Zoe and Vanessa. I don’t think I’d have changed anything – except giving them fewer issues and not having them choose to open THAT particular can of worms. Because duh – your ex husband NEVER reacts sanely. I do not care how great a guy he is. Or was.

And before I ruin the story for you. I’ll stop right there.

OH wait, one more interesting thing – the book includes a music CD (which I admit to not listening to yet) – that’s pretty interesting. Zoe is a music therapist and Picoult wrote the lyrics to the songs and a friend of hers wrote the music. You are invited to listen to a sing, after each section of the book, so you can hear Zoe through music as she goes through each of those sections. Really interesting addition to the book. I like the idea. It makes sense for Zoe.

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Edible Stories

2011, Books in Bed, Fiction, short stories /

Edible Stories took me forever to read. Mostly because I was reading it when I almost died and went to the ER. (OK I didn’t almost die but it felt like it.)  I was confused – I thought it was just short stories, “just” being the important word here. I didn’t realize the stories were all tied to each other, even though TW started telling me stuff about the characters in the first story that weren’t in the first story. I thought it was just TW making stuff up or reading stuff into the story that wasn’t there… because she does that. But no, the stories are all tied together and that helped me get through the book eventually. A couple of the stories… I didn’t much like. But overall, it wasn’t a bad book. I’d have probably liked it more if I’d read it while I was not on my death bed.

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Catacombs

2011, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

A couple of weeks ago, Prince J went to the library with us. The audio books I had reserved for him weren’t yet available so he surfed the shelves himself and picked out a couple of things to listen to. I popped over to the new audio release shelf and Catacombs caught my eye. I handed it to the Prince. He looked at it and promptly put it back on the shelf. Huh. It sounded exactly like a Prince J book to me. So I picked it up and checked it out.

We immediately put Disc one into the cd player in the car and started listening… within a few minutes, Prince J had decided that he might, in fact, like this book. I think he will – TW and I certainly did.

It’s apparently the second book in a series – and TW says she read the first one in print. I did not – so I need to go back and read it. And, I guess I should reserve book one on audio for the Prince.

If you like Anne McAffrey’s Acorna series – you’ll like this series.

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Three More Cybils

2 Comments / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

I’m still dealing with this virus or whatever the hell it is that sent me to the ER on Thursday. So reading – not easy. Also, work is really busy (I’m sneaking a five minute break at 9:15pm to write this before I forget… that’s how busy it is…) so having these light and easy Cybil’s to turn to was a real joy. Well, mostly a joy.

The least joy-bringing, The Unsinkable Walker Bean. Elly read this one last week and said it was ok (great art) but it was kind of hard to follow and she didn’t love it. I read it last night and… it was ok (great art) but it felt muddy at the end – which is why I think Elly said it was hard to follow. I think also, at least at first, it wasn’t always easy to tell who people were because they were drawn healthy and then sick so there was a bit of confusion until you got comfortable with that. I liked Walker and his grandfather and the other “kids” he met along the way. I’m guessing there’s a part two, where we learn why Gen was able to look at the skull…

Next, Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade was a very cute book that those going to first grade will appreciate. Heck, I think the idea of a first day of school parade like Posey’s teacher did is a terrific idea – I’m glad Posey thought of it. Very cute.

My favorite of these three was Anna Hibiscus and I didn’t expect that to be the case. But, there’s something about Anna and her family that sucked me in and by the end of the book I was yelling (out loud) “NO! It can’t end there! Children’s books should not have cliffhangers! What happens NEXT?” Seriously. TW was not amused with me. I’m dying to find out what happens when Anna visits Granny Canada and sees snow for the first time. Which reminds me, I need to go reserve that book right now. MUST read.

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A Red Herring Without Mustard

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

The Flavia de Luce series just gets better and better, as we get a bigger and bigger look at Flavia and her family – and the folks in Bishop Lacey. A Red Herring Without Mustard gave us a better look at the soft spots Flavia hides behind chemistry and her sarcastic wit.  I like the direction we’re heading here. Less caricature, more real character – without sacrificing plot or boring us to tears. Nicely done. Very nicely done.

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The Dark Game

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

The Dark Game: True Spy Stories is on the Cybils Shortlist for YA/Middle Grade non-fiction. I had high hopes for it but… it was a little too dry. I can’t imagine a kid getting excited about this book. Maybe if she was doing a report about spies and wanted something besides Wikipedia and text books. But a kid who was really into spies? I don’t know.

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Ghostopolis

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

Elly and I are big graphic novel fans, so we really look forward to the Cybils shortlist recommendations – Ghostopolis is one of those books and it was excellent. Both Elly and I agree – EXCELLENT.

A boy gets stuck in the afterlife, by accident. And the ghost hunter and his ex-girlfriend, a ghost, head there to bring him back. There’s a cool guy who built the afterlife community, named Tuskegee Joe, and an evil villain and lots of action.

I know some of you lurking are looking for graphic novel recommendations for your kids – this one is good. No sex. No drugs.

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The Next Queen of Heaven

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer /

Who knew Gregory Maguire could write a book that isn’t a riff off of a fairy tale? Not me. Good thing, TW saw The Next Queen of Heaven on the shelf.  So it’s not a fairy tale but it has plenty of fairies – the gay kind that you sort of come to expect from anything Maguire writes.

So you’ve got the gay guys. AIDS. Old Nuns. Catholics and Pentecostals sharing a parking lot. Delinquent kids. A mom who’s pretty much out of it after The Virgin Mary bops her on the head.

Funny and sad, all at the same time.

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Double Dipping Challenges

2011, Adoption Reading Challenge, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

The only thing I knew about Betti on the High Wire was that it was a middle grade fiction book from the Cybils Shortlist. Bonus! It’s also about adoption, which means it is the first book I’ve read in Jenna’s Adoption Reading Challenge. Extra Bonus! It was good.

I reserved this one on audio and Prince J listened to it first. He wasn’t overly impressed but then again, his taste runs more toward Dexter. Elly listened to it and she liked it – except she didn’t like Lucy. Elly has very little time or patience for first graders.

Betti was Babo when she lived in a burned out circus camp with “Auntie Moo” and a bunch of “leftover kids” in a war torn country that Railsback never names. She was found wandering around the burned out camp when she was a toddler. Nobody really knows how old she is or exactly what happened to her circus parents but… odds are high, they were casualties of the war that’s raged in her country for years.

Americans come to the camp to meet the orphan children – and they generally adopt babies. Or pretty children. Not broken children like Babo, who has a broken eye and missing toes. They also don’t adopt broken children like Babo’s friend George, who is missing an arm. This is fine with Babo because she does not want to be adopted. She wants to stay in her circus camp and wait for her mother, the tallest woman in the world with a tail, and her father, the green alligator man with bumpy skin, to come back for her.

But Babo is adopted – and so is George. And they travel to the same city in the US, together but without an adult. George adapts pretty happily. Babo, who becomes Betti, does not. She wants to go home. She tries to be “bad” so the Buckworth’s will realize they made a mistake. But of course, she isn’t bad at all – and the Buckworth’s are a good family who work very hard to help her make her way.

There are the normal rough moments when Betti, whose English is good, gets confused about things like “free food at the grocery store” – or when the kids at day camp make fun of Betti (and George) —  or when both Betti and George are terrified by the fireworks on Fourth of July. And the moment when Betti realizes that her parents are dead… that’s hard.

Excellent storytelling. Excellent character development. So many children without families – in war torn countries and our own.

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