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Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight

2014, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Women, Young Adult /

I’ve always been a Carol Danvers fan but I was afraid In Pursuit of Flight wasn’t going to live up to the hype. It did. It definitely did. I’m not a big fan of time travel stories (funny, I was just ranting about that a bit in my journal, before I picked up this book) but this one worked for me. Helen calling Carol “kitten” — fabulous. Just fabulous. Loved the Banshees. Loved all of the art. And of course, loved Carol taking up the Captain Marvel mantle.

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Rose Under Fire

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

From the Cybils Shortlist and the sequel to Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire was excellent. Troubling, as books about WW2 often are… seriously, I need a moratorium on concentration camps or something. So sad and horrible and OMG did I mention horrible?

Rose was awesome, I even enjoyed her poetry. And while I might have kind of complained about the Girl Scout camp songs earworm, I enjoyed that, too. Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout and all that.

I even liked the way it ended.

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The Invention of Wings

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

I very much enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings. We need more books, fiction or otherwise, about the Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina.

*Note: Apparently this was a damn Oprah book pick and if you buy a Kindle copy, you might find Oprah’s notes IN THE BOOK. That… stinks. If you’re thinking about buying this, avoid the kindle copy since there are blue notes in the text — that’s Oprah sticking her two cents in. Blech. I’m very glad I read a library copy that did not have Oprah’s notes in it, just the dumb Oprah book selection banner on the front. Blech. Oprah, stay out of people’s darn books!

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Princess Labelmaker To the Recue

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction /

Another great book, Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue is NOT my favorite of the series. I didn’t think that could happen after I liked the last book so much. But it did — Rabbski came through and I liked the entries in the log book that were not so much about the evil Fun Time but about the kids working together and solving issues. I especially liked the kid (Kellen? Tommy?) who stood up for graphic novels. That was great.

Love, love, love.

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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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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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2 Graphic Novels

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Both of these are from the Cybils Shortlist — and both are good. One is exceptional.

First, Nathan Hale is back with the story of the Donner Dinner Party. Just like the other Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales — this is long, long, long. But I’m not sure how it could be much shorter because that’s a lot of story to tell via graphic novel. I particularly like the last pages — the list of people who died and how, the mythbusting at the end. I’m a fan of this series, in general, and this one was just as good as the others.

March — the first volume. This series is one nobody should miss. Congressman Lewis is telling his story, via graphic novel, and it’s one hell of a good story and a really great idea. I couldn’t put this first volume down and suspect the next two books in the trilogy will be just as good. Must read — for everyone.

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