Books in Bed

1963: The Year of the Revolution

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I was born in 1963 and the cover of 1963: The Year of the Revolution is cool so I checked it out. I wasn’t sure I would read it. I thought I might just flip through the photos because my TBR list is long and was this something I really NEEDED or WANTED to read?

I’m not sure I did need or even want to read it but it was a super fast read and kind of interesting. A lot repetitive and a little disjointed since it was really just a whole bunch of superstars (who you may or may not know depending upon your cultural literacy, particularly British cultural literacy, from ’63) talking about 1963. They (too often) said the same things that others said and they (too often) said the same damn thing they’d already said earlier on the page or in the book.

But, it was interesting and amusing enough that I read the whole thing, really quickly and it was interesting.

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Elegy for Eddie

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Elegy for Eddie was a TOUGH Maisie Dobbs novel. People can do horrible things for good reasons, or reasons that seem good — duh. Poor Eddie. Poor Jimmy Merton. Poor Billy Beale. Gah. The whole book is full of sad.

And damn James Compton, hmph.

Also, damn Hitler!

(I’m also troubling because we’re coming up on the last back, thus far, in the series. What will we do when there’s not another one to reserve and listen to?!)

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A Box of Gargoyles

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

A Box of Gargoyles is the secret to Cabinet of Earths — a quick fun read, though the beginning was a little sloggy. Maya talking to a pretend Maya (to try and give us background about what happened in Cabinet of Earths) was a little much. There are better ways to give background to those who are entering the story in part two.

I’m also not sure I like the way it ended. Did Maya just throw her unborn sister under the bus? Sort of? I dunno. It felt not quite right to me. Couldn’t she have chosen without chosen THAT WAY? Seemed a little over-wrought, to me.

I love the addition of Pauline and of course the gargoyle egg was wonderfully done. There should be more gargoyle eggs in stories…

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Redefining Girly

2014, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

I know you’re shocked that I liked Redefining Girly. Hah.

I didn’t love it, but it was good — particularly for those who are just beginning to sort out the whole marketing of gender issue. It’s probably best for those with young children (or no children at all) — those with older kids (tweens/teens) are going to find the recommendations too young, too basic, and not quite on the mark, particularly if they haven’t already been raising their children to question gender stereotypes.

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Steal Like an Artist

2014, Art, Books in Bed, From the Stacks Challenge, Kindle, Non-Fiction /

I’m on an e-Book roll! I have no idea how long Steal Like An Artist has been in my Kindle cloud but it was a fun read during the five and ten minute breaks I took from cleaning my house today.

Super fast read. Nothing really groundbreaking or revolutionary. I did smile a lot about the calendar/log book section — I’ve gone back to paper journaling and filofaxing for all of those reasons.

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Hatching Twitter

2014, Books in Bed, From the Stacks Challenge, Kindle, Non-Fiction /

Elisa sent me a copy of Hatching Twitter at the end of last year and when I needed to download a book for all of the waiting rooms I was going to be sitting in, it seemed like this was a good choice.

I was kind of hoping it would inspire me to go back to Twitter and figure out how to enjoy it again. But no. It didn’t. It might have done exactly the opposite. What. A. Mess.

No wonder we all got so familiar with the fail whale… geez.

Also, am I the only one who wants to track down @Noah and tell him that he did a good thing and he’s better off where he is, than to be in that mess? Long live @Noah! And @jack just makes me roll my eyes. Over and over and over again. Which is what generally happens any time I spend more than 5 minutes on Twitter. Coincidence?

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Two Graphic Novels

2014, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

One Cybil, one not. The Lost Boy is from the Cybils shortlist and it was good. Though if creepy talking dolls scare you, then maybe this is not the graphic novel for you. I got a little confused at the end so I think I’m going to go back and re-read it to see if I can sort out the confusion. Though it might just be confusing as a set up for future books and not me reading while I was tired.

A Matter of Life is not a Cybils book and is also not YA and it’s not fiction. I just got tired of looking at it on the library shelf and decided to check it out so it would quit staring at me when I was looking for something new on the graphic novel shelves. It was… ok. The jumping around bugged me. Jeff as adult, Jeff as a young boy, Jeff as adult, Jeff as teen. All very confusing. In some cases the panels flowed well, in others the jumps were too jarring and I was left saying, “huh?” a lot.

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The Best Flea, Antique, Vintage and New-Style Markets in America

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Impulse pick-up from the library, The Best Flea, Antique, Vintage and New-Style Markets in America — that’s a lot of words for a tiny little book. It was fun to flip through and think about taking a lot of little road trips to buy all of the funky, weird, things. We should really see about the National Road Yard Sale one of these years, before we leave this godforsaken part of the country — it’s not that far to US 40 and it would be a fun road trip, right?

And, we should head back to Philadelphia and visit some of their markets, too.

Also, go back to Austin and and and… yea, I want to take all the road trips.

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While Beauty Slept

2 Comments / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

When Sassymonkey says “you should reserve XXXX for TW” I usually do. I don’t always read these books but I often do. And I almost didn’t read While Beauty Slept because I don’t love Sleeping Beauty. It’s my least favorite fairy tale. But, TW said it was really good and I should read it.

So I did.

And she was right. And Millicent was hella creepy. Shudder. Excellent re-telling. I liked it. (I hope I don’t have nightmares.)

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The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I waited a long time to get the new Flavia deLuce book and then I kind of took my time reading it. The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches was kind of freaking me out.

Flavia was kind of freaking me out.

This book was good but it was really just a tying up of loose ends (Harriet and others) as well as setting Flavia up for the future. I don’t usually do spoilers when I write about books but here comes one…

So Flavia’s mother’s coffin is in her bedroom. Flavia gets the idea to bring her back to life and tracks down all the necessary chemicals with which to attempt this. She’s foiled, after going so far as opening the coffin and finding the will, by a pathology team who arrived to do an autopsy.

Flavia doesn’t freak out thinking SHE COULD HAVE SAVED HER MOTHER, she just lets it go? If she really thought she could bring her mother back to life, wouldn’t she have at least tried to get in there to postpone the autopsy? Wouldn’t she have shown a little despair at having been prevented from saving her mother? I know Flavia is an unusual person but… that was weird and freaky.

Also, here’s another spoiler… so Harriet has been missing for 10 years but when Flavia opened the coffin her mother hadn’t really deteriorated 10 years’ worth, at least it doesn’t sound that way… so that means for 10 years she’s been… where? And was only recently killed? That… is confusing, particularly as we begin to realize who it is the finger points to as her killer.

And one more… “Harriet, it was I.” = wah? Is that a red herring that Flavia’s going to eventually have to sort out or is that for reals?

So many questions and far too long to wait for the next book. There will be a next book, right? sheesh.

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