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Greetings from Jamaica

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer /

I bought Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer at Women and Children First, last month when we were looking for one of Michelle’s Christmas presents. The title made me laugh and as you may remember, I was looking for more lesbian fiction right about that time.

It can be difficult to find humorous lesbian fiction, which is too bad. Lesbians are funny and someone should spend more time writing funny, light, chick litty lesbian fiction. It’s fun!

The Santori family was a fun one to go on vacation with and I was completely amused  with Maria, Lisa and Vince – what great siblings. I’m equally glad Lisa didn’t get the girl, which is what I was afraid was going to happen there for a minute. Oops, that was a spoiler, wasn’t it? Ack. Sorry!

I’d really like Mari SanGiovanni to write a book about Lisa next. Now that would be funny.

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Fever 1793

2011, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

After we finished listening to Forge, I decided to grab Fever 1793 on audio since we’ve never read it – and because I was amused that Matty Cook was the main character. She was briefly mentioned in Forge when Mrs Cook had to return home to help her daughter in law with new baby Matilda Cook.

I was disappointed that Mrs Cook from Forge had already passed away before Fever 1793 took place but it was nice to see King George the parrot again – however briefly.

I liked the book a good bit. I liked Matty. I liked Eliza. I’m very glad I did not live in America in 1793 – yellow fever was (is!) horrible!

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Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who’s Determined to Kill Me

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, From the Stacks Challenge, Non-Fiction, Women /

Several months ago, I went to BlogHer Belmont to have some fun get some work done with my co-workers. When I arrived, Lisa Stone handed me a mailing envelope with a book inside that she thought I should read. I laughed and made sure it made it into my suitcase home. When I got home, I opened it up and as soon as I saw the cover… I laughed too.

Lyra aka Gaknar (The Fear Demon) is famous at BlogHer Belmont for her shrieks during my phone calls. She has always particularly appreciated the voice of Lisa Stone. She’s also famous because I so often rant about her and publicly wish her dead. Which is obviously an exaggeration. If I really wanted her dead, she would be dead.

I finally found some time to read Winging It and it was funny and familiar and frightening, all at the same time.

What in the hell was Jenny Gardiner thinking? What was her family thinking? Why wasn’t someone there who could step in and say ENOUGH – this is not healthy for your, your family or the animals you keep bringing into your lives.

Because it wasn’t just Graycie the African Grey who was a troubled pet, it was more than half of the other pets they brought into their home as well. Not to mention one family disaster after another. Not to mention Pierre the French Exchange Student.

Does Jenny Gardiner have a blog because, dude, hers would be one of those trainwrecky types where you cannot really believe that so much can happen to one family, the type where you’re in the background saying NO, DO NOT DO THAT and judging the blogger for making such horrendous decisions, the type where in the end you keep reading because you recognize yourself and your own bad choices and your own ability to get through it, stick with it, and come out the otherside willing to give a parrot who wants to kill you hydrotherapy three times a day for what seems like the rest of your life while taking care of three children under 5, a dog who is allergic to everything (literally) and your own Lyme disease.

I can’t decide if I wish I’d read this book during the first week Lyra aka Gaknar came to live with us. It certainly would have made us less freaked out the day we found the big feather in the bottom of the cage and SOMEONE was sure it was a blood feather and she would bleed to death. Hah. It also would have been easier when Lyra aka Gaknar lost a bunch of weight and we were sure she was going to die any second.

Then again, if I’d have thought I would wind up with a bird who needed anywhere near as much care as Graycie – or was as messy – or as evil… I think I would have had to move out. Or make the bird move out.

After my family finishes reading this, I’ll be sending it back to BlogHer Belmont for Superwoman aka Miriam – it’s sad just how many of the BlogHer Belmont staff have wished a bird dead….

This is also my first book in this year’s From the Stacks challenge – it’s red (with the jacket on.)

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Werewolf Smackdown

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I love books set in Charleston, when the authors get things mostly right. Acevedo got Charleston mostly right. I didn’t growl a single time. Which is funny since there was a lot of growling in Werewolf Smackdown – by werewolves, of course.  

Poor Felix, his track record with women – of all sorts – is the pits. Ah well, at least he made it out of Charleston alive – in that undead sort of way. That’s a win, particularly for readers, since it means we’ll get to watch him struggle with the Areneum and more women again.

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Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

I’m a Carpenters fan. How can I not be? Even if Richard wasn’t a genius and Karen wasn’t an amazing singer and drummer, I’d still have to be a fan. I grew up with the Carpenters. I liked nothing better than to sit at the kitchen table with my mom playing Kings on the Corners or Canasta while listening to her Carpenters albums. She sometimes made us listen to Barry Manilow which is why I am also a Barry Manilow fan. But mostly, it was the Carpenters. The best part of taking piano lessons was playing Carpenters songs – I think I can still play Close to You (badly.)

I saw Little Girl Blue reviewed somewhere on the internets and decided I’d give it a try. I knew it would be bad, in the not really a good biography way, because I’d seen articles about how close-mouthed people were about Karen. I knew it would be bad, in the really horrible and depressing way, because how could it not?

It was bad. In both ways.

It’s hard to write a really good biography when those involved won’t – or can’t – talk about the person being written about. Still, I think Schmidt did a reasonably well job. As a Carpenters fan it was nice to see the timeline and a little look at what was happening in the background as the years passed. I’d have liked it to have been better – to have answered more questions, but I also know it’s likely that there aren’t any good answers.

They never should have made her step out from behind the drums. And of course there’s some patriarchy-blaming to do, too. None of that changes the fact that it was horrible and still is horrible if you let yourself think about it.

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The Mockingbirds

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Young Adult /

When TW read The Mockingbirds, she griped a lot about it. Said it was a horrible, depressing book. So, I thought I was in for trouble when I started reading it this morning. Once again, I find myself wondering if TW and I read the same damn book.

Sure, a book about date rape is never going to be light and breezy but it wasn’t nearly as horrible and depressing as it could have been. I liked it.  I’m not a big fan of vigilante justice, so I did struggle with that particular storyline. I’d have liked it better if Alex had been able to go to adults a lot sooner than she did but that’s not the story that was being told here. I’d recommend it to teens and I can see why others who’ve read it were giving it good reviews.

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Radiant Daughter

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Early in the month, TW read a bunch of depressing books all in a row. I told myself that I was not going to do that. I was going to be smarter. I was going to read a depressing, difficult book – then a light fluffy book – then a depressing difficult book. Hahaha.

I read Radiant Daughter yesterday and talk about a difficult, depressing book. A beautifully written, difficult, depressing book but still – oy.

Mother/Daughter relationships are difficult enough as it is without bipolar with rapid cycling tossed in. It’s hard to call a story like this a “favorite” but I think I have to.

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Monstrumologist

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

TW was alllllll excited about The Monstrumologist and not just because Yancey mentions Devil’s Millhopper in the beginning. (We love Devil’s Millhopper and if we ever leave this godforsaken place I would be happy to live very close to the Devil’s Millhopper again – but that’s another post entirely.)  I almost took it back to the library unread because I had a whole bunch of books due back and I needed to be really selective about which books I chose in order to get through as many as possible and The Monstrumologist isn’t exactly a short book. Also, sometimes when TW is really really enthusiastic about a book, I don’t love it. Heh.

But, it was the last book due back on Monday (which is today) and I had nothing else I was dying to read instead – so I picked it up. It was late and it started slowly, well after the Devil’s Millhopper part. I had a hard time sticking with it for the first 50 pages. I really think it was just because I was tired because shortly after that, I was hooked. I was cursing out loud at “the monstrumologist” and cursing even more loudly out loud at “Corey”.

And now I’m dying to read the second book (which TW already read but I had to take back UNREAD.) I think I’ll reserve book two sooner, rather than later. I wonder what these would be like on audio… scary or not so much? Hmmm maybe we’ll find out when we get to book three.

Also, Mr. Yancey, if you stumble across this… TW wants to know if you live in Gainesville. Or at least in Alachua County. I think she might want to meet you in person. Maybe at  Devil’s Millhopper if we ever leave this godforsaken city we live in now.

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Forge

2011, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Young Adult /

Yay! Our first audio book of 2011 – we started it in 2010 and finished it today. Forge is the second book in Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seeds of America series. We listened to Chains a few months ago and while we didn’t love, love, LOVE it – we liked it. I figure we’ll read along until we decide we don’t like them at all. After listening to Forge, we aren’t anywhere near that point. We liked Forge much better than we liked Chains. Curzon is a good character – and his storytelling and thinking process is stronger than Isabel’s was in the first book. Or, maybe the storytelling was tighter? Halse Anderson found her way and simply improved? I don’t know what it was but it was excellent and I’m dying for a book three.

When I went off looking for book three, I saw Fever 17 – I believe I read that but am not 100% sure and since the main character is mentioned in very brief passing, in an amusing way, towards the end of Forge, I decided to go ahead and reserve this one on audio while we wait for book three. I think we’ll be amused by it.

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Wildthorn

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Queer, Women /

This is another one of those books, reserved at my library when I was on a search for lesbian fiction. I was very pleased that my library had Wildthorn – I don’t read much historical romance-y lesbian fiction, which is too bad. I should see if I can scare up some more!

Louisa is her father’s daughter – she’d like to be a boy, because boys have toy trains and get to play marbles and they go to school and learn real things as opposed to the things girls go to school to learn. Her father, a doctor, indulges her and keeps her home, hires a tutor and even takes her on rounds with him after she’s old enough to handle such things. Louisa wants nothing more than to be a doctor. She’s also in love with her cousin – Grace.

Which is all well and good until her father dies, leaving her brother head of the household. And her brother has issues. Issues with Louisa – a young woman who “apes men” – and personal issues that drive him to… well I won’t spoil it for you.

Before she knows it, Louisa is in an asylum and the staff is calling her Lucy. There are some nice twists at the end and an ending that I didn’t love because it was a little big predictable and too close to happily ever after for my tastes. Even though it wasn’t happily ever after in the same way it would have been if Louisa wasn’t a lesbian.

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