Books in Bed

New Authors – Through Thursday

Meme /

Booking Through Thursday

Today’s questions were suggested by Christine.

  1. How do you decide to read a book by an author you haven’t read before? An unknown author has little to do with my book selections.  Now if I’ve hated a book by a particular author, I probably won’t rush to read another by him/her.
  2. What sort of recommendations count most highly in making that decision? Recommendations that count highly?  Ummm any recommendation is good.  If I simply see a book mentioned in a blog, on a message board, in an article – whatever – I will reserve it at the library or drop it into my Amazon wishlist to reserve later.  I’m not picky.




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Jesus Land Trigger Trigger TRIGGER

4 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Religion /

Jesusland
I finished Jesus Land last night and put off blogging about it because I wasn’t sure what to say, exactly. I’m still not sure of what to say so let’s go with a list. (Good blogging rule, if in doubt just make a list!)

People who should not read Jesus Land

*If you have a history of abuse or neglect and are triggered by stories of such, do not read this book.
*If you are an ANTI ORGANIZED RELIGION FANATIC, do not read this book.


People who should read Jesus Land

*Anyone who is not easily triggered by descriptions of abuse or neglect.
*Anyone who is not an ANTI ORGANIZED RELIGION FANATIC or on the verge of becoming an ANTI ORGANIZED RELIGION FANATIC

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Leopard Hat

2006, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Well, I loved parts of The Leopard Hat and didn’t love other parts. Some chapters felt like they droned on and on and on while others felt too short and just a little empty. It’s interesting to read “memoirs” to see which stories people give the most detai, the most heart,l to. Or maybe it’s just that Steiker had difficulty writing about the years after her mother’s death? It’s the stories about the later years that I didn’t really enjoy.

If you want to read a nice mother/daughter book, read the first 150 pages of The Leopard Hat and then put it down, you won’t be missing anything by skipping the end.

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Sarah Waters

5 Comments / Favorites, Fiction, GLBT /

Click into this interview with Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith).

If she had any aim regarding the "lesbian-ness" of her writing,
it was the more properly historical one of writing lesbians back
into history, of telling stories that were once left untold. In
this sense, the label historical novelist, rather than lesbian
novelist, makes more sense to her, though she is happy with
both.

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Books for Girls

2 Comments / Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Reading Lists /

The New York Times has this interesting list of books for "girls" to read.  I really hate gendered reading lists like this but that’s a blog for another day.  Looking at the list, I think I’ve read four.  All four were very good. 

Interesting to see Luna on the list – I wonder if it makes the list of books for boys to read, ha! 

Flipped, also very good.  I think Michelle read this before we did.  Maybe right after we brought her home for school.  Or maybe it was Chris’s ex g/f who recommended it?  I don’t know, I just know we’ve all read it and we enjoyed it quite a bit.

The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things was good but not something I’d recommend off the top of my head. 

Speak was a tough read, I’m surprised it’s got the 14 and up label.  I thought parents were more conservative than I am…

Oh wait, I’ve read 5 – Tiger Eyes, sort of boring actually.  I think I’ve outgrown Judy Blume or something.  Which now that I think about it, is really very sad.  I sound like my mother!  Ack!

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Booking Through Thursday

Meme /

Booking Through Thursday

This week’s questions about self-help books are from Nicki.

  1. Have you ever read a self-help book? Sure, I read everything
  2. What do you think about self-help books in general? Some of them are pretty interesting but some are trite, oversimplified or downright dangerous.
  3. Would you ever recommend a self-help book?
    Sure I would, I have recommended self help books in the past.

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I don’t like sock monkeys

3 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery /

I’m not a fan of sock monkeys and I wasn’t all that thrilled with “Dickie” the sock monkey in Penn Jillette’s (yes from Penn & Teller) Sock. What a weird book. Weird isn’t generally a bad thing and it was probably the weird that made this worth reading. I mean sock monkeys. NYC police diver. Gay hairdresser. Serial Killer. Lots of dead people. And Proust. If that isn’t a weird combination then I don’t know what is.

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Money

1 Comment / 2006, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I’m not a fan of money. In fact I hate money. Money is the root of all evil, along with gendered bathrooms. And yet, (see there’s that phrase already), money items are on my 101 things to do in 1001 days list. I’ll probably never manage most of them but I should get some credit for having put those things in my list. It indicates I’m at least thinking about money.

Dave Barry’s Money Secrets is about my speed. I much prefer his ideas to the “real thing”. They make about as much sense to me. Someone shoot me if you ever hear me talk about reading a real book about money management, ok? Because that would mean I’m ready to be plasticined and I’d appreciate being helped to the next level. Even Barry’s Money Secrets was too much money talk for me, at points, and I had to put it down and go back to ignoring money completely.

In fact, if I didn’t like Dave Barry, I probably would not have read more than the introduction. But I do like Dave Barry so I read the whole thing. And liked it, in the same way I like a good Dave Barry column. Some chapters (or sections of chapters) were better than others – as is true of all Dave Barry columns. Some chapters (or sections of chapters) were pretty bad in that “Airplane” movie sort of slapstick comedy way. (I hate Airplane and any movie with Leslie Nielson playing some idiotic comedy role)

If you enjoy Dave Barry in the Sunday paper (or on his blog) then you’ll probably enjoy Money Secrets. If you don’t like Dave Barry then try a Suze Orman book instead.

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