Books in Bed

Kill The Dead

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I’m a stickler for reading books in a series in the proper order. So how is it possible that I skipped books in the Sandman Slim series and didn’t realize it til I started looking for sequels and prequels to read. I didn’t just skip one, I skipped TWO.

That’s weird.

So I’m playing catch up — finished Kill the Dead today. Awesome, as always. Sandman Slim is THE BEST and now some of the holes in the story that I just thought I’d forgotten are starting to make more sense. Funny how that happens when you read the books you missed. Sheesh.

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Doll Bones

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

Next, middle grade fiction by Holly Black, Doll Bones.

I discovered this one when I started thinking about doing a prequel/sequel challenge. I was looking up authors, of series we’ve read and noticed that I had not read this one… though it’s not in a series (yet?), I do generally like Holly Black so I reserved it.

And it was good.

Three middle schoolers, all with somewhat troubling home lives find themselves going on a real quest. With a bone china doll — a very creepy bone china doll, which is kind of obvious since bone china dolls are by their very nature — creepy.

I enjoyed it and was kind of sorry to see it end so soon.

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Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago

2014, Books in Bed, Fiction, Queer /

I finished my first book of 2014 five days into the year. This does not bode well for my 300 book goal, does it?

I’ve been trying to read Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago since before Christmas. I have no idea why I stuck with it — probably because of the Chicago setting. And because I actually liked some of the characters.

But lord there were a lot of characters and the story line… gah. It left a lot to be desired. And the ending, blah.

I liked bits of it — some of the characters. I hated bits of it, the plodding OMG just get on with it. Ho hum. Not a great start to the year but I finished it.

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Cybils Shortlist (2013)

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Reading Lists, Young Adult /

Yippee! It’s here! The list! The Cybils shortlist. You’ll notice SciFi/Fantasy is now called Speculative Fiction. Which is fine but I’m not going to change my category on the sidebar. I’ll probably end up jumping and back and forth between calling it scifi or fantasy or specfic. Oh so complicated but you know it when you see it, right?

Elementary and Middle Grade

Fiction Picture Books
– Count the Monkeys
– If You Want to See a Whale
– Journey
– Mr Tiger Goes Wild
– Open This Little Book
– Sophie’s Squash
– The Bear’s Song

Nonfiction
– Anubis Speaks!
– Barbed Wire Baseball
– How Big Were Dinosaurs?
– Locomotive
– Look Up! Bird-Watching In Your Own Backyard
– The Boy Who Loved Math
– Volcano Rising

Easy Readers
– A Big Guy Took My Ball
– Joe and Sparky Go to School
– Love Is In the Air
– Penny and Her Marble
– The Meanest Birthday Girl
– Urgency Emergency: Big Bad Wolf!

Early Chapter Books
– Dragonbreath #9
– Home Sweet Horror
– Kelsey Green, Reading Queen
– Lulu and the Dog from the Sea
– The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems
– Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat

Poetry
– Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems
– Forest Has a Song: Poems
– Poems to Learn By Heart
– Pug and Other Animal Poems
– The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses
– What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms and Blessings
– When Thunder Comes

Graphic Novels
– Bluffton: My Summers With Buster Keaton
– Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite
– March Book 1
– Monster on the Hill
– Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party
– Squish #5
– The Lost Boy

Speculative Fiction
– Jinx
– Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase
– Rose
– Sidekicked
– The Rithmatist
– The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
– The Water Castle

Middle Grade Fiction
– Escape From Mr Lemoncello’s Library
– Prisoner B-3087
– Serafina’s Promise
– The 14 Fibs of Gregory K
– Ultra

Young Adult

Graphic Novels
– Bad Machinery
– Boxers & Saints Boxes Set
– Captain Marvel #1: In Pursuit of Flight
– Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
– Templar
– Uzumaki: Deluxe Edition
– War Brothers: Graphic Novel

Nonfiction
– Breakfast on Mars
– Imprisoned
– The Boy on the Wooden Box
– The Bronte Sisters
– The President Has Been Shot

Speculative Fiction
– Conjured
– Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin)
– Pantomime
– Shadows
– The Summer Prince
– The Waking Dark
– William Shakespeare’s Star Wars I didn’t read it.

YA Fiction
– Dr Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
– Eleanor & Park
– Out of the Easy
– Rose Under Fire
– Sex & Violence
– Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

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Reading Challenges for 2014

2 Comments / 2014, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

You might have already read about this on BlogHer, since I wrote about challenges over there yesterday… whatevs. I’ve got to have it here, too, since I’ll end up referring to it a zillion times over the next few years.

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226 Books in 2013

2 Comments / 2013, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

I beat last year by 5 books but there were weeks when I didn’t finish a single book. I can do better. Here’s how it shaped up:

– I finished the Cybils Shortlist Challenge – barely. Had to buy the last book in order to finish because it was not available at my library.
– I only read one book from the Nancy Drew Challenge, which is really annoying – and I probably wouldn’t have managed that if Texasebeth hadn’t sent me a Nancy Drew book. I’m going to do better with that in 2014.
– The Book to Movie Challenge didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped. It wasn’t BAD but I never managed to watch the last movie, for a book I didn’t particularly love. I thought I’d watch it with Chris and Michelle over the Christmas break but the darn iPhone/iTunes madness got in the way. Maybe I’ll watch it this weekend — it won’t count toward the 2013 Challenge but I’ll feel better about it. I read three books but only watched two movies. Darn it.
– From the Stacks? 4 — Pathetic, as usual.

* 18 were audiobooks.
* 35 were YA.
* 83 were non-fiction.
* Of the non-fiction, 19 were about art, journaling, crafting etc. 2 were cookbooks. 12 were travel books. 6 were short stories.
*15 were graphic novels.
* Only 12 had a significant queer storyline or characters (though a lot more books had queer characters tossed in for fun.)

* I think I quit more books this year than I ever have — at least six, that I can think of.

* I loved 74 and hated 6.

I’m definitely going to remember 2013 as the year of Maisie Dobbs (and the year of children’s picture books, since I read so many with JMP.)

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Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

Oops. I forgot to blog Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. I finished it before Christmas. Before the kids arrived. Hmmm the 19th? The 18th? Something like that.

I read it really quick — almost couldn’t put it down. Mysterious bookstore in San Francisco — lots of geeky google stuff, silicon valley, codebreaking, social media, libraries, cool stuff like that. I really had fun with this one.

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Maisie Dobbs: Among the Mad

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I sound like a broken record here, don’t I? Among the Mad was excellent. Another great Maisie Dobbs book. I keep waiting for a bad one. Or a not excellent one. A mediocre one. You know there are always a couple that just aren’t amazing when you’re reading a series.

I think I’m going to call 2013 the year of Maisie Dobbs because I’ve enjoyed these so darn much.

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