Favorites

This Book is Overdue

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Library, Non-Fiction /

I loved This Book is Overdue. I loved it more than her book about obituaries, which I liked quite a bit. I’m a fan of obituaries. And librarians. But I like librarians more. A lot more.   Anyway, this is a nice look at what libraries and librarians have to offer – it isn’t JUST old fashioned books, it’s info of all kinds and all types.

I loved her looks at some of my favorite librarian bloggers, especially the Happyville Library blog. I miss it so much… but I love If I Ran the Universe, too. It was nice to see a writer feature my favorite bloggers – and really get it, get them, get what it’s all about.

Thank you Marilyn Johnson. And thank you librarians.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

This Book is Overdue Read More »

Fire

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Women, Young Adult /

I was a little worried about Fire. A second book is often not great. Also, when talking to people who had read Fire, they seemed ambivalent. Or at least less gushy than they had when they talked about Graceling.

Sure enough, I had a hard time getting into Fire. It started slowly. In those first 100 pages or so, I was just waiting for them to connect the dots between the graceling who started the story and the people in Fire’s world. Once I let go of that, and once Fire made her way to King City, I settled into the story and ended up liking it BETTER than Graceling.  I think I like monsters better than the gracelings. Or maybe I just liked Fire more than I liked Katsa.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Fire Read More »

Gunnerkrigg Court

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Love, love, LOVE Gunnerkrigg Court.  Liz also loves it and is anxious for the next book, (wait til I tell her she can read all the Antimony and friends that she likes online…) Brilliant story. Brilliant characters (I’m a fan of Kat, myself.) Brilliant graphics. Great Cybils selection, I  can see this winning. In fact I hope it does win. I’m tempted to buy these, that’s how much I love the first book.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Gunnerkrigg Court Read More »

Shades of Grey

1 Comment / 2010, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

Jasper Fforde is a wee bit crazy. But it’s a good kind of crazy. The Thursday Next books are a lot of fun. The Nursery Crimes are amusing, too. But with Shades of Grey, Fforde has carried is own brand of crazy to a new level.

We listened to this one on audio, and at first we thought it was just a wee bit convoluted for us. We turned it off after the first 15 minutes because we just couldn’t follow it – we had no clue what was going on and we didn’t feel like we’d ever figure it out. We turned it on again, a few days later, and within a few minutes we were chuckling. There are moments when it’s difficult to follow but that’s ok, it’s just part of the crazy, brilliant, funny. It’s ok to be confused, Fforde’s characters often are and that is part of their charm.

I hope this is going to be a series – I think it will be an even better series than Thursday Next.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Shades of Grey Read More »

Joey Fly, Private Eye: Creepy Crawly Crime

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

The first graphic novel from the Cybil’s list and it was a fun one. Joey Fly Private Eye is everything you’d want in a private eye – if you wanted a private eye who is an insect. His assistant is pretty annoying though. Scorpions are like that, I guess. Joey Fly will be a great graphic novel series for the younger crowd.  Not a teen sex/drug scene in the whole book. Kind of refreshing.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Joey Fly, Private Eye: Creepy Crawly Crime Read More »

Horns

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites /

Joe Hill ROCKS. I think he’s better than his father. I really really do. Not nearly as prolific but that’s ok – he has time – and it’s also ok if he never produces that much work, as long as he keeps writing stuff like Heart Shaped Box and Horns.

Horns —- brilliant.

Just when you think you’ve seen every horror storyline you can see, you get this. Fresh. Fresh. Fresh. And HOT. I think Satan would approve.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Horns Read More »

The Hidden Staircase

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Favorites, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I wonder what happened to my copy of The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2.) I’m very sure I owned it. My dad probably sold it in that infamous yard sale. Hmph.

Nancy really really could have used a cell phone in this mystery. So could Mr Drew. And also maybe Helen. (I had forgotten about Helen and Jim’s romance. Very amusing in that patriarchal sort of way.) Also amusing in this one were the food references. How exciting – floating island for dessert! Yum!

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

The Hidden Staircase Read More »

The Child Thief

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Should I start by confessing that I don’t really like Peter Pan? And I cannot stand the Disney-fied Tinkerbell, though I supposed I probably had some weird fondness for her when I was young. I think the problem was that I saw the Disney Peter Pan before I read Barrie’s original. The early tainting ruined it all for me.

And then there was Brom and Child Thief. I was opposed to reading it because the dude needs to get another name – does he think he’s Prince? Or Madonna? I was opposed to reading it because… see above. I was interested in reading it because naked women prints inside of a YA book – awesome, that doesn’t happen very often.

So – I read it. And ended up paying 60 cents for the pleasure because I was working my butt off and couldn’t read more than a chapter a night for almost a full week. I wanted to read it straight through. It was good. I might almost like Peter Pan again. Maybe. I definitely like The Lost Boys – particularly since this particular group of Devils weren’t just boys.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

The Child Thief Read More »

The Libyrinth

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women, Young Adult /

TW kept telling me that I had to read The Libyrinth. I couldn’t figure out why. It looked like some run of the mill YA fantasy novel. What’s the big deal? TW likes fantasy but she tends to be not as big a fan of YA as I am.

It took all of two paragraphs for me to figure out why she liked it. Books. A library, the biggest library EVER. Ritualistic book burnings carried out by people who are either Eradicants or Singers, depending upon your point of view. Strong women, lesbians. The book had everything. EVERYTHING.

One of the characters, hears written text, and since she lives and works in a library (the Libyrinth) she is surrounded by books – random lines from random books appear throughout the story and it’s interesting to see how quickly we recognize (or don’t) the lines. (The list of quoted books is in the back, which was nice.)

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

The Libyrinth Read More »

Ruby’s Imagine

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

I plucked Ruby’s Imagine off of the shelf because of the cover. It’s a tiny little book with a half flap type of book cover. It was appealing. And then it sat on the shelf in my house for weeks. When I finished the Weiner book, it was late at night but not quite time to turn off the lights so I grabbed this one. Something small, short, quick – and also something that needs to go back to the library soon.

I had no idea what this book was about.

A teenage girl in NOLA in the days leading up to/during Katrina.

If I’d known what it was about, I probably wouldn’t have checked it out. I’m glad I didn’t know because it was good. Great writing, excellent story, characters I enjoyed getting to know just a little bit. I don’t know if Kim Antieau has written anything else, but I think I’m going to find out.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Ruby’s Imagine Read More »