Books in Bed

Three Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Let’s see… which graphic novels (all Cybils shortlisters) did I read? Oh yea…

Courtney Crumrin: Volume 7 … hated it. Didn’t finish it. At first, I thought it was because I’m way behind on this series, (I think the last one I read was 4), but based on the reviews — a whole lot of series fans just didn’t like this one. I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

Next, Dragons Beware!. I love Claudette and her friends. Absolutely love them.

Last, but not least, Baba Yaga’s Assistant was really good. I didn’t expect much from it, I’m not a very big Baba Yaga fan, so this really exceeded expectations.

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The View from Mount Joy

2016, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Fiction /

We were in need of an audiobook and we’d either read everything that caught my eye or we would probably never want to read things that caught my eye. The View from Mount Joy looked like something we might have read and it looked like something we probably wouldn’t hate, so I grabbed it.

I mostly liked it. TW hated the main character but I thought he was OK. He was flawed and douchey but that’s how teen boys and men can be. It’s part of their societal makeup but he mostly overcame all of that. Mostly.

All in all, a perfectly fine audiobook while we waited for Maisie Dobbs to arrive.

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The Walls Around Us

2016, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Here’s a Cybils shortlister that I didn’t love. I didn’t hate it, but it just didn’t grab me the way I had hoped. From the reviews of The Walls Around Us, I might be the only person who didn’t just absolutely love it.

It’s dark, it’s ghost story-like, it’s beautifully written — it just didn’t work for me. It might, however, work for you. Try it and let me know.

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Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

2016, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Thank goodness for the Cybil Awards. Slasher Girls & Monster Boys is something I probably never would have picked up on my own. I like horror, but I don’t read a lot of YA horror and I certainly don’t read short story YA horror. If they’re all like this, I should change that.

This is some of the best storytelling and the best writing, PERIOD. Read it.

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The Forgotten Room

2016, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Having read everything Willig has written and most of what White has written (though only a little of what Williams has written) it’s hard for me to believe that I did not know The Forgotten Room existed until I stumbled across it on the “new arrivals” shelf. WTF?

I was a little worried about it — would it be really obvious as to which author wrote each section, particularly once I realized there were three women across three time period? (It wasn’t.) Would it be jarring to move from White to Williams to Willig? (It wasn’t.)

I really enjoyed the story but admit to spending an inordinate amount of time tracking the lineage and saying, that can’t be right because INCEST and stuff like that. lol

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The Southern Education of a Jersey Girl

2016, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

I have no idea where I saw The Southern Education of a Jersey Girl but it caused me to reserve it at the library almost immediately.

It was ok. I didn’t hate it. Most of it. I even really, really enjoyed the pregnancy test parts. Laughed out loud, a lot. I probably would have liked it more if I had known a single thing about Jamie Primak before I read it.

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Four Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Queer, Young Adult /

Readathons, even #fakereadathons, mean I get to spend some time catching up on graphic novels and these four were excellent. All four of them.

Roller Girl was awesome. I loved everything about it. I hope there are more Roller Girl books.

Next, I read March Book 2 and it was good, obviously, because John Lewis, y’all.

After that, Sunny Side Up. Poor kid. This was well written and well drawn. I didn’t expect much from it and was very pleasantly surprised.

Last, but not least, Honor Girl. Loved it. And, shockingly, I loved the ending. Some people probably didn’t – those “I want a happy endinggggg.” kinds of people. Nope. It ended exactly as it should have.

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Four Non-Fiction

2016, Art, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

The #fakereadathon turned into a #fakereadathonweekend and I knocked out four non-fiction books for the occasion. Woot!

First, I finished The Bridge Ladies and really enjoyed it. I don’t know squat about bridge but when I was a kid I used to peruse the bridge column in the newspaper every Sunday and try to figure out what the heck they were talking about. Too much math for me but this memoir was pretty excellent. Moms, daughters, bridge and stuff. Go read it.

Next, I read Urban Sketching. I was overwhelmed by it. Too many words, too many sketches. I mean it’s a good book for urban sketching, I’m sure. It’s just too much. I need more white space.

More my speed, Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists. I want to own this book. Seriously. I wonder how much is is for Kindle… oh, hah. Cheaper in paperback. I’m pretty sure I will own this some day.

Last but absolutely not least, The Aunt Jemima Code. Super interesting and I was tempted to go dig through TW’s cookbooks to see just how many of the featured books were on our shelves. I’m pretty sure quite a lot. (though it’s also possible that she Kondoed a bunch, too.) Really good book.

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