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The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon

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

For a minute there, I thought this was the end of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency… but no, it seems like everything’s going to work out ok. Thank goodness Mma Makutse is a modern woman. Sheesh.

I really enjoyed The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon. It was odd though because the two cases didn’t quite end the way the cases normally end. We know what happened but the people involved in the cases… not so much. Interesting. I would have liked to hear how things were resolved with the copy shop chick and with the lawyer/boy/aunt/mother. We usually get at least a small scene with Mma Ramotswe getting things straightened out. Interesting.

The best part… Charlie. Charlie and the baby. Awesome.

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Lost Lake

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

If you have read all of Sarah Addison Allen’s previous works and LOVE HER and LOVE them then you might want to consider not reading Lost Lake. Or at least reading it with the understanding that it’s not quite the same. The magical element(s) are there, but it is not so magical as the others. Some of the reviews I read indicate there was NO magic. Or they pointed out one bit of magical storyline and completely missed the other. All very interesting — people tend to think of magic, particular Addison-Allen’s brand of magic as light, fluffy, shimmery, happy, good things…. people should look again and think a little harder, shouldn’t they?

In some ways I liked this book more than her other books (which puts me in the minority from what I can tell from the few reviews I surfed.) There’s a lot of sadness in this book, even when the characters are happy — or when they were happy, the sadness just kind of leaks out all over the place. I liked that.

The characters and location are well written and described, as usual. I’d like to go visit Lost Lake but only if those characters are there, too.

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Fast Women

2014, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Women /

I just plain like Jennifer Crusie and I don’t read nearly enough of her books because my TBR list is generally PACKED. When I ran out of books I wanted/needed to read, I figured this was a good time to grab one of her paperbacks and have some fun.

Fast Women was fun. I loved ALL of the “fast women”. Every single one of them. And, I stayed up way too late, two nights in a row, reading this one. I’m tempted to start one more Jennifer Crusie novel while I’m waiting to go to the library and pick up some holds that are on my TBR list… though I really should read something from my stacks of unread books…

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The Mapping of Love and Death

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

The Mapping of Love and Death was another great Maisie Dobbs book. Sad, so sad. But, interesting to see where Maisie goes now that the world is her oyster, so to speak. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole James Compton thing. It’s probably going to be fine and certainly better than Dr Dean for goodness sakes.

I really enjoyed the whole cartographer/diaries/letters thing. Well done. Very well done.

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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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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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