Books in Bed

The Storyteller

4 Comments / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I’m way behind on book blogging. Gah. I am afraid I’m never going to catch up … oh wait, I forgot I’m reading a book that I’m not really enjoying so it’s taking me a really long time, which should give me time to catch up on the books that I (mostly) enjoyed. All Cybils…

First, The Storyteller (on audio). I’m a Jodi Picoult fan except for the book she wrote with her daughter — that one, I did not love. This one… it’s YA but not very YA, if you ask me. Yes, Minka was a young girl when the war began and Anya, the parallel story character was also a young girl, and Sage was also fairly young but… this didn’t seem very YA to me. (Updated: Turns out it’s not YA. I ended up with the Picoult book that has the same title as a YA book I reserved. Total confusion ensued. NOT YA, which is good. I’m short a Cybil, which is not good.)

It also was very very depressing, as WWII books can be when they go into great detail about those who were at Auschwitz.

The ending, I saw coming — though knowing Picoult I expected her to try and double back and make it not be the twisted ending that I saw coming. Nope. It was, as I expected. Now I’m left wondering how Sage is going to deal with this for the rest of her life.

Typical Picoult book. If you like her, you’ll like this. If you don’t, then you will not.

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What Would I Do Without My Awesome Library?

2 Comments / Community Chest, Daily Dose, Library /

Seriously. What would I do? I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t have my library. I’ve read about 200 books already this year, from my library, and TW’s probably read twice that many. TW’s mom has probably also read twice that many. Yes, there was some crossover between the books I read and the books TW read but still… that’s hundreds and hundreds of books that we would never be able to afford to buy — even on Kindle.

I don’t know how people who don’t use their library manage. Do they really have that much money to spend on books? Or do they just not read? Both things kind of freak me out, ya know?

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Quick Escapes Chicago

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I didn’t have any books on my library cart that I really wanted to read enough to commit to them — not when I’ve got a dozen waiting for me at the library that I really want to red before the end of the year. And, I also want to put in a lot of hours on JMP’s Christmas stocking this month so… what to do last night when I wanted to read something but didn’t have anything I really wanted to spend a lot of time on.

I discovered I did have a very old version of Quick Escapes Chicago sitting on the library cart (huh, I thought I’d read all of the travel guides I reserved back in October but I guess not.) Quick, easy read and now I can move onto stuff that I really want/need to read. And, it was one of the best “beyond Chicago” travel books I’ve read. Outdated, certainly, but a good set of excursion recommendations. It made me want to pack up and head out for a day or three.

I’ll remember that for the next time we decide to take a mini vacation.

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Superman: The Unauthorized Biography

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction /

I’m not a diehard Superman fan. I’ve probably only read a handful of his comics over the last 50 years. I know I’ve only seen a couple of the movies. I liked the old TV show but if I had to choose, I’d always choose Batman.

So the fact that I impulse picked up Superman: The Unauthorized Biography is kind of amusing. The fact that I read every word is just plain weird. It took days — days when I’m way behind on what I want/planned/need to read. I couldn’t help it. Even though it was pretty much the same ole thing for every period of time:

– Origin story.
– Fashion changes.
– Lois/Clark/Lana/Superman angst.
– Bad guys.
– Let’s kill him/reboot.

And do it all over again. And again and again and again and again.

Still. There was something oddly compelling about the book. I kept stopping to watch video or surf comic covers for each of the time periods I was reading about. I kind of want to watch a Superman marathon now… in fact, I might do that next week instead of going back to Dawson’s Creek… maybe. It’s a good thing the STUPID Davis St. project is still only 70% (or something) completed because otherwise I might be tempted to stop at the comic book store next week when I pick up the girls from their father’s apartment. Wait, maybe the construction will be done by then… nah.

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Reading In October

2013, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

Oops. I almost forgot my monthly tally. Possibly because I’m not super excited by most of what I read, though I did thoroughly enjoy the #readathon early in the month. Let’s see how I did.

39 total (which sounds better than it is, because so many where children’s books, lol)

2 Audiobooks
7 Graphic Novels (they were all for the Cybil Shortlist Challenge)
16 Children’s lit (fiction and nonfiction) (they were all for the Cybil Shortlist Challenge
1 Queer
5 Non-fiction.
8 Fiction

I quit 1 book this month and there was another I should have quit but did not.

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The Yonahlassee Riding Camp For Girls

2013, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I couldn’t really decide whether I liked The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls. In the end, I decided I did because the writing was pretty. I’m not sure I liked the STORY very much at all though.

Well parts of it I did, parts of it I didn’t like at all. The biggest problem was that I didn’t really like any of the major characters. It’s hard to love a book when you don’t love SOMEONE in it, ya know? I think I loved the places more than the people… which makes sense, really, when you read the book. A lot of the characters loved places more than people, too.

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