Not only am I behind on reading, I’m behind on blogging what I have read. I’ve almost forgotten what I’ve read — thankfully, there’s GoodReads.
So, the easy one first. The Waking Dark. On audio. From the Cybils shortlist.
Shudder.
All the killing. And the descriptive killing.
Shudder.
Did not enjoy.
Also, too many characters and we found ourselves constantly confused by which was which.
Would hope my teens wouldn’t enjoy it if they read it.
Shudder.
I was pleasantly surprised by Etched On Me. Very pleasantly surprised. Good characters that I found myself caring about more than I thought I would. Also, first time I’ve seen the use of the word “asshat” in a novel. Heh.
A lot happens in The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent which makes it a decent set up for the next book but not necessarily the best book in the series.
There wasn’t enough Maggie. And, I found the multiple-personality plot device to be… annoying. By the end of the book, I was feeling slightly better about how things progressed and how the next book is set up. Still not thrilled by Clara Hess, though.
The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent Read More »
We waited a long time for The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla and it was totally worth it. Best book since book one. Really. It was the vampires. Everything is better with vampires. Also, it was two excellent characters who had a lot of fun dialogue without too many other characters getting in the way and slowing things down.
Well done.
And I can’t wait for the next book. This is going to be GOOD, isn’t it?
The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla Read More »
It took me longer to sink into The Museum of Extraordinary Things than I expected. I think I was about half-way through it when it felt compelling enough that I didn’t want to put it down in favor of, oh let’s see, something like doing laundry. Once I reached that point, I really didn’t want to put it down. It shouldn’t have taken that long, feeling the way I do about freaks (real and imagined.)
Now that I’m thinking about this, it seems like this always happens to me when I read Alice Hoffman. It takes awhile for me to get hooked and I just need to hang in there til I hit that magic spot in the story.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things Read More »
First… The WORN Archive — shocking I know, but I really enjoyed this. It’s the kind of writing about fashion that I like. And, the photos were fabulous.
Second… Next Generation Real Estate because duh, moving in one year and 10 months and 2 weeks, lol. Mostly really it was an impulse pick up from the non-fiction new arrivals. TW read it first and that pleased me, though she now has her heart set on buying a house with modern electricity, lol.
Third… and horribly scary… All I Want Is a Job. Anyone who cares about poverty, the jobs crisis, and social services in the US should read this. It’s not pretty but it’s important to really think about and I really like how the material was presented. Yes, it’s dry reading. And depressing. But important. Really important. Could we pay our damn minimum wage people a LIVING DAMN WAGE, PLEASE? Not doing so is killing us. All of us. Really.
Now I’m moving on to some fiction. Heh.
Did I mention the the non-fiction new arrivals are back downstairs where they belong? Heh. This means I’ve got all the fun non-fiction, just picked up because it looked interesting and because I love non-fiction.
First up, a cookbook. A cookbook I loved but TW made bad faces over. Heh. Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook. My kind of cookbook. Stuff all the yummy things with more yummy things! I’ve added The Food In My Beard to my feedreader (he wrote this book.)
Next, a book I want to buy but TW kind of rolled her eyes over. LOL. 5 Plant Gardens. I want all the gardens, with all of the plants (well with just five plants in each garden, of course. duh.)
2 Non-Fiction (cooking and gardening?) Read More »
All things considered, this wasn’t a bad reading month. It wasn’t great but with an entire week of non-reading (BlogHer ’14) I’m pretty pleased with how it went.
15 Total
2 – Audio
1 – LGBT
2 – Non-Fiction
7 – Cybils
5 – Graphic Novels (these were all YA graphic novels)
Not bad at all. I’m looking forward to August where I see a lot of non-fiction and a lot of children’s fiction/cybils in my life.
Well it’s no Maisie Dobbs, but we enjoyed The Care and Management of Lies (on audio.) I kept wondering if any of these people were crossovers from the Maisie Dobbs series — even minor characters but TW looked it up and said no. I’m not convinced. If I had more free time, I’d go look a little bit and see if she is right.
War is hell. The ending was hell. Hell hell hell. I saw it coming but didn’t want to BELIEVE it was coming. Sigh.
The Care and Management of Lies Read More »
We enjoyed Eleanor & Park so much that I didn’t even hesitate about reserving Landline and I totally enjoyed it, once I understood the weird magic telephone. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed up very late to finish it last night.
She’s big on the retro, isn’t she? I like that.
(Little note to myself — count this for July.)