Books in Bed

Cats are King!

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites /

Yes, I admit it, I spent yesterday evening and a wee bit of this morning reading Carbonel: The King of Cats instead of some other “real” book. Sue me. I like children’s fiction and I don’t read enough of it (let’s not count Harry Potter, ok?).

What’s weird is that I really enjoy children’s fiction that has cats in it – talking cats, flying cats, magical cats. Cats here, Cats there, Cats and Kittens Everywhere! Hundreds of Cats! Thousands of Cats! Millions and Billions and Trillions of Cats! Oops, sorry, I got carried away.

The weird part is that I really no longer like the real thing, cats I mean. When I no longer have a single cat living in my house I will be one supremely happy woman. So why do I enjoy cats in literature? Millions of Cats is my favorite! Catwings and all of the sequels is awesome! And Carbonel is one cool cat!

Besides being a cool cat, this little version was a really nicely bound piece of reading. Nice, quality, old fashioned cover and binding. Paper that felt good to the hand. It even ummm smelled good!

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Veronica aka Fag Hag?

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, GLBT /

Veronica is a fag hag of the worst, I mean best, kind. She apparently really loved the fag she was hagging with… so much so that she wound up with AIDS. Allie was not a fag hag, but a screwed up teen/young adult model with all the crud that apparently goes along with that.

What a weird book this was – told by Allie in jumps back and forth between “now”, as a 50 something year old woman with HepC, and “then”. We don’t get to hear much about “modeling” just a lot about the men who screwed her, the drugs and alchohol and the struggles of the “Go-See”.

Weird book. Not a bad book, just a weird one. I can’t decide if I actually enjoyed it or not. Some parts of it, I did. Other times I found I didn’t particularly care about Allison or Veronica or anyone else who crossed their paths.

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A Quirky Meme

7 Comments / Meme /

Adrienne did it again, she tagged me for another meme. Apparently she has not learned that I ask the questions I do not ANSWER them. Grrrr! This one is even harder than the last one because I am not quirky! I have no weird personality quirks! I am PERFECT! Here goes nothing….


1) I do not like people in my kitchen when I am in there – cooking or cleaning. I don’t like it and I’ve been known to say “GET OUT OF MY DAMN KITCHEN!” if people are in there and in my way for more than a few moments. Even when I’ve had a relatively decent sized kitchen (which I don’t right now) I don’t like it. I think I get this from my mother…


2) Michelle reminded me that I have spent quite some time taking photos of bathrooms. Apparently neither she or TW can enter an interesting bathroom without wishing they had a camera so they could take a photo for my “collection”.


3) I was (and in some circles still am) known for taking BUTT SHOTS of online friends who I have had the pleasure of meeting in person. That’s not quirky, is it?


4) I have a thing for front doors. I’ve passed that along to my kids. Jenn in particular, I think. We all notice the front doors of a house first thing and when we see an interesting one, we’re quick to point it out. Front doors are important.


5) When I see a Beanie Baby that has the tag torn off, I cringe. Defacing Beanie Babies is bad. Really bad. Nobody should do it. Ever. For any reason. Even if you have a two year old with a beanie, you shouldn’t do it. In fact two year olds shouldn’t have them because they aren’t old enough to be careful with the tags! Again, not quirky, just common sense!


OK I’m heading off to tag five people – Koan, Karen, Katie, RE (If I can find her blog) and LJ this time I think….


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Prime is also not spooky!

3 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

So Poppy Z Brite doesn’t want to be called horror writer. That’s fine with me. It’s more than fine with me because I’ve liked her last two NON HORROR books better than I ever liked her horror writing.

First Liquor and then Prime, both quite enjoyable. Surprisingly enjoyable. I’m anxiously awaiting the next installment of the Rickey and G-man saga (there is going to be another, isn’t there???).

I suppose though the real test would be to hand these over to my son, the huge Poppy Z Brite – horror writer – fan. Maybe for some people “once a horror writer, always a horror writer”? I would encourage those folks to expand their horizons a bit. They will be pleasantly surprised.

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Awwwwe – Pandas!

1 Comment / 2005, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I’m not sure why “The Lady and the Panda” appeared on my library pick up list but I’m really glad that it did.

I don’t have a thing for pandas the way some people do. They’re ok as far as animals go. Jenn (my oldest child) liked them for a few years but she gave them up in favor of Garfield pretty quickly. I have seen the Pandas at the National Zoo. They’re ok. No big deal really.

I’ve never thought a lot about the zoos. How they came to be. What it must have been like a hundred or more years ago to have some new creature discovered and appear in zoos. Maybe because it’s a hunting thing and I’m anti-hunter? I’ve never really been anti-zoo though. I don’t know, whatever, I’ve just never thought much about the subject.

Now, it seems that I’m thinking a lot about it. I even dreamed about doggone pandas the other night. The book, needless to say, left an impression on me. Interesting woman, interesting subject. Good book.

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Spook Wasn’t Spooky

3 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I was really excited to get Spook, by Mary Roach because I so enjoyed Stiff. I giggled quite a few times during the first 50 pages and then put it down. For two days. Long enough for TW to pick it up and laugh non-stop through it. I picked it back up and I finished it but I didn’t find much to laugh about. And I didn’t find it all that interesting either.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have some burning desire to KNOW what happens after I die. I don’t particularly care. And I don’t particularly want the rest of the world to KNOW what happens either. I guess this is one surprise I’d rather keep as a surprise or something?

TW and I have spent some time pondering what Roach’s next subject will be…. hopefully it’s something better than the after-life.

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Bloomin Ya-Yas

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Favorites /

OK OK so the title is Ya-Yas in Bloom, I like my version better, don’t you? Other than the title, which I thought was kind of dumb, I loved the latest Ya-Ya installment. Can I really call it an installment since these aren’t the sort of books that pick up where the others left off? Whatever, I liked it.

I hated Little Altars and spent a lot of time thinking Rebecca Wells should have quit while she was ahead. Well I’ve changed my mind, she should have written in Bloom and skipped the darn Altars instead! The Ya-Ya’s are a dysfunctional group of women and that stems from dysfunctional family life and leads to dysfunctional family life – we know that, we don’t need the darkness of a book like Little Altars Everywhere to tell us that.

Oops, I’ve rambled off into a rant about the Altars – that happens anytime someone mentions the Ya-Yas to me. I need to practice rambling about how much I loved Ya-Yas in Bloom instead. Because I did. Love it.

(And I loved that Wells including my pal Brenda in her acknowledgements. Cool.)

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Lesbian Pulp Fiction

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, GLBT /

Doesn’t everyone love pulp fiction now and then? I definitely do. And nothing is better on a stressful day than a wee bit of lesbian pulp fiction.

The Girls in 3-B was just a LITTLE lesbian pulp. Generally this genre focuses on a couple of young women and their sapphic explorations. This one included three 18 year old girls and only one dabbled in lesbianism – the one who had been abused as a child, of course. And not the one I expected at first to be the lesbian. Not the rough girl, not the poet… the beautiful femme instead. Yea!

Other than that little switch, it was typical of lesbian pulp written in the 50’s.

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Fat Girl

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Fat Girl by Judith Moore was totally depressing. Thank goodness it was short. It also came close to making me physically ill.

I don’t really like food very much. I don’t really like detailed descriptions of food. Moore is very good at the graphic descriptions I so very much hate. I almost put the book down before the end of the introduction.

I’m glad I stuck it out. As graphic as the food and fat body descriptions were, it was worth reading. As depressing and unappealing as all of the characters were, including Judith herself, it was worth reading.

It was worth reading because I have no idea what it is like to be a fat girl, yet I talk to people everyday who are “fat girls”. I have no idea what it is like to love food the way some people seem to, yet I talk to those types of people everyday. Anytime I find a book that gives me some insight into how some people might feel or behave or react, it’s worth reading. Even if it was disgusting. And depressing.

Thank goodness it was short.

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I Love Nancy Drew

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Mystery, Non-Fiction /

When I picked up this book from the shelf, I was afraid I would be disappointed. But I wasn’t. And I knew I wasn’t going to be from the first page of the Introduction. Not only do I love Nancy Drew. I love “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.

I mentioned in my Books That Say Something About You post that Nancy Drew says something about me. She does. I started reading Nancy’s in the early 70’s. The books with the yellow spine and interesting covers. (I do have one old one with a paper jacket and another with a solid turquoise binding) I remember when there was some controversy over who wrote the Nancys. And I remember the move from G&D to S&S.

This little book answers all of the questions I had about Nancy Drew and Carolyn Keene, and some I never wondered about. And it did it in a way that left me satisfied and not disillusioned with either Carolyn Keene or Nancy.

If you prefer the Hardy Boys or Bobbsey Twins or Ruth Fielding or Rover Boys was, you might still want to pick up this little book because the world of children’s literature, the 50 cents books, were linked in one way or another.

Whether you loved Nancy or hated her, she still had some kind of an impact on your life – if it wasn’t for Nancy, were would children’s literature be today? Girls’ literature in particular?

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