Books in Bed

The Woman Who Can’t Forget

The Woman Who Can’t Forget is another non-fiction plucked from Zan’s 2008 reading list.

Interesting but not super compelling. I kept wondering if she’d ever tried hypnosis. Can she be hypnotized? What would happen if she was asked about a date or an event under hypnosis – would her memory of the day/event be even stronger? the same? would it effect her memory of it after hypnosis? Would she be susceptible to suggestibility, which she seems not susceptible to in ways that the rest of us are?

OK I’m done thinking about this now.

The Woman Who Can’t Forget Read More »

Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale

I don’t know how we missed the release of Ironside in 2007 but we did. If I hadn’t taken RJ to Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks to spend her Christmas gift card (thanks Mom!) I never would have known she had written another book in the series. I was just sitting there on the floor in the YA section discussing the merits of the various pirate and vampire series’ with RJ and there it was – staring at me from the shelf.

No I did not buy it. I put a note in my iPhone to remind me to reserve it at the library, duh.

And now I’ve ready it.

Wonderful. Ten times better than Valiant and as good as Tithe. Characters from both are in Ironside and they’re brought together perfectly, seamlessly even. Holly Black writes YA dark faery stories fabulously.

Now, a question – if you were a changeling, would you tell YOUR mother?

Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale Read More »

I was told there’d be cake

Every year I look forward to Zandria’s end of year reading list because Zan reads a lot of non-fiction. Every year I scroll through her “read” list and pull a few non-fictions from her list and add them to my “must read” list.

The first for this year is I Was Told There’d Be Cake.

I was ambivalent. Essays can either be excellent or really horrible. I was pretty sure this one wasn’t going to be horrible, I saw too many good reviews. Still, I worried. For about three minutes and then I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the reading.

Thank you, Zan.

I was told there’d be cake Read More »

Cabinet of Wonders

I loved, loved, LOVED The Cabinet of Wonders! I started it last night and could easily have just read it straight through. But, sleep is important to us old folk so I didn’t. As soon as I finished it, I handed it to RJ telling her she must, must MUST read it right this second. I hope she likes it as much as I did.

What great characters – I want Iris’s power, errr curse, errr power, lol. Acid is cool. Petra is fabulous. I want Astrophil. And the marbles… now wouldn’t those come in handy?

Fantastic story – just the right length and pace. Perfect. Good Cybils finalist! Great, even.

Cabinet of Wonders Read More »

Chiggers

Chiggers was a lot more popular with my 10 year old graphic novel lover than it was with me. She read it first and reported that “it was better than good but not quite great” – I read it and thought it “ok but not quite good”.

But, I’m really not a huge graphic novel fan.

The idea was a good one. Summer camp and teen girls. Freshmen or not quite freshmen in high school. The mean girl thing. The feeling like you don’t fit in. The feeling like everyone changed and you’re still you. Very good idea and I suspect that’s why Liz liked it and I didn’t.

She’s not a summer camp fan. While she’s not a teen, she is in a new place and trying to figure out where she fits. And again, she really likes graphic novels.

I think she would say this should be in the finals for a Cybil award.

Chiggers Read More »

Audrey, Wait!

I didn’t expect to really love Audrey, Wait! but that’s what happened. I think I loved it simply because I’ve survived two teenage girls (with two more to go.) Audrey’s life is like the normal teen girl x10.

I laughed out loud, over and over again, because it was all so totally believable to me. With all of the musicians Michelle-Belle was with, one of them could totally have written a song about her and BAM – instant fame – and instant chaos because teen girls don’t handle stuff well, heck nobody handles fame well without help. And you know what teens are like when it comes to asking parents for help… hahaha.

Will the YA target audience love Audrey, Wait! as much as I did? I have no idea. They’ll probably roll their eyes a lot, debate the merits of the songs included in the heading of each chapter, and head to their favorite band’s fan site and talk trash about the lead singer’s ex-girlfriend or something.

Hah.

Should this be a Cybils finalist? Hmmm, maybe. I’ve certainly read better YA fiction but I’ve also read worse. It’s always good to have solid female characters in YA books. OK yes, I’m good with it being a finalist.

Audrey, Wait! Read More »

Marsbound

I’m not really a SciFi fan so I would never have picked Marsbound from the library shelf. I would never have even looked at it close enough to see the author’s name and realize, “Hey, that’s Unca Joe!” that way TW did. I just don’t do much SciFi.

But man I’m glad that a) Lorena talks about her Unca Joe b) TW likes SciFi and pays attention to what Lorena says because Marsbound was excellent.

While TW was reading it, I asked her how it was – and she said good, sort of YA-like (though errr YA books don’t generally have their 18 or 19 year old teen girls having space sex with 30 year old men) and sort of “Acorna-like”.

TW was right, it was YA-like and it was Acorna-like because it’s such an easy and interesting read. You don’t have to work TOO hard to follow the story. The characters are likeable (except the “dragon lady”) and the story moves along at a fairly steady pace. No significant dragging, no jumping ahead and causing you to say “Hey, what happened there?!”

Loved the book. I want a sequel. Maybe an entire series.

Oh yea, also good – books about Gainesville that do not contain characters who are falling all over themselves to worship Gator football or basketball or any other GATOR sport. Nice touch, Unca Joe. Very nice.

Marsbound Read More »

4 Cybils I did love – or at least like a whole lot

I didn’t plan to read quite so many of these last night but it happened and it was fun. There were four that I loved or liked a whole heck of a lot.

First, a non-fiction MG/YA – 11 Planets A New View of the Solar System – the only concern I have about this book is its listing as a YA. It’s a little young and a little light for a YA. Though, honestly at 45, I found the refresher pretty interesting and even helpful when I started reading Unca Joe’s latest book Marsbound (but that’s another post entirely.) So maybe it is YA – for the really non-science geek crowd? It was well written, well organized, great photos, interesting charts in the back. It almost made me wish I was in 4th grade and needed to write a report about the planets.

Next, A River of Words (non-fiction picture book) – what a fantastic book about William Carlos Williams. Great illustrations, they were perfect and really helped make the book so interesting. I’d like to own this one.

After that, Houndsley and Catina and the Quiet Time hahaha – great book and not just because Catina feels the way I do about the snow (or she did at the beginning of the book.) Nice illustrations. This is a book I think all of my big kids would have asked me to read to them over and over again – and then enjoyed reading on their own.

Last but not least, a last minute read when I needed an easy quick book to read so that I could start Unca Joe’s book as soon as TW had finished it – and she wasn’t quite finished – Alvin Ho (middle grade fiction.) I laughed out loud. A lot. It reminded me a little bit of the graphic novel, American Born Chinese – without the illustrations (though there were some and the ones that were there were fabulous.) When Alvin has his “Astroman” incident I seriously laughed out loud which is good since I’m like Alvin’s dad – do not touch my toys, darn it! I loved, loved, loved this book and I’m hoping to convince Liz to read it.

4 Cybils I did love – or at least like a whole lot Read More »

Finished 2 Cybils that I did not love…

The problem with having so many easy readers and picture books on a challenge list is that I can read a half dozen in an hour and then figuring out how to properly blog them is difficult. I’m going to give this a shot… group them by how much I liked them, or didn’t like them… as the case may be.

The Cybils finalists that I did not love were America at War (poems) and Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek (a fiction picture book.) It’s not that they were bad, I just did not LOVE them and I want to love Cybil books. 😉

The poems in America at War were fine. There were some we’d all find familiar and children should definitely be exposed to them. There were some that I’d like us all to find familiar and those were the ones I was happy to see in the book. There were others that… just bored me. And poetry about war should not bore me.

As for Abe and his friend Austin – I liked the premise. I just didn’t like the way the author told the story. While I agree that children should be introduced to the idea that “history” is only a version of what may or may not have happened… I think the whole “back up, have them crawl across the log” was ridiculous. Then the “where’s Austin” page, umm really was that necessary? I don’t know, I just didn’t like the book and when I finished it I was glad I no longer have children who might bring this home and expect me to enjoy reading it to them.

Finished 2 Cybils that I did not love… Read More »