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Graceling

4 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I wasn’t going to read Graceling because I am way behind and have a huge stack of books I need to read so that I can review them. Or read so that I can finish my challenges.

But TW insisted Graceling was good. Really good. And I wasn’t feeling very well, so a serious non-fiction book about a GI doctor seemed like less than perfect reading for a stomach flu kind of day.

TW was right. Graceling was really good. Another strong female character. A strong supporting female character. Male characters that run the range of good and evil, some that are a combo of both. And of course, there’s the “Grace”. How those who are graced are treated. What types of graces there are. Very interesting.

*Duh. Just realized the reason we had this book in the first place is that it was a Cybils book. Too bad it had so much competition in that category.*

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5 Ways to {blank} your blog

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

Deb Rocks is funny. She’s more than funny. It doesn’t matter if she’s leaving comments on BlogHer, or on Twitter or blogging. The woman makes people laugh. In a smart way.

Her book, 5 Ways to {blank} your blog is funny – in a smart way. Totally what I expected to see.

It’s full of laughs. Full of great blogs that you should visit. Full of smart tips, sometimes masked as non-tips.

Buy the book and then go {blank} your blog. It will be funny. We’ll all laugh with you… and probably at you.

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Not Flesh Nor Feathers

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

Yay for Cherie Priest! Not Flesh Nor Feathers was excellent, as expected (since I read the first 50 pages before putting it down in favor of reading book 2 first.)

I love Eden. She’s a great character. I love her supporting characters, too. I was shocked by the ending of this one. And a wee bit sad too. But, it was a nice way to handle a situation… errr I’d say more but I don’t want to spoil it for y’all. Just read the series.

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Wings to the Kingdom

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I found myself with the third book in the Eden Moore series by @CMPriest and realized I had not read the second one. So I took book three back and grabbed Wings to the Kingdom (Which is when I discovered these are shelved as YA. I don’t understand why they are YA. Wierd.)

Wings to the Kingdom was just as good as Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I’m a “battlefield” fan, particularly when I’m not being dragged to them and can just read about other people being dragged to them. I didn’t see enough ghosts during all of my visits to battlefields and I certainly never saw Green Eyes. Had I seen more ghosts or Green Eyes, I’d probably enjoy battlefield visits a wee bit more. Maybe.

Looking forward to grabbing Not Flesh Nor Feathers this week.

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Magic Thief: Lost

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

This is book two in the Magic Thief series, another one that I plucked from my Amazon holding list and I think Lost might have been better than the first one. (A rare occurrence for a second book.)

There are hidden “rune” messages throughout the book and I always spend the time figuring out what they say. TW doesn’t bother with them. The messages in the last book were better than the ones in this book.

I wonder what will happen to poor Conn in book three… and I wonder what will happen to the magic.

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Castle Waiting

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I almost forgot to read Castle Waiting! Liz took it up to her room and never brought it back again… until I asked her where it was because it was due back to the library in three days…

Unfortunately, it’s taken more more than three days to read it due to the crazy that is my life. So, I owe a 10 cent fine on an excellent graphic novel. I can live with that.

Did I mention this is an excellent graphic novel.

Liz really liked it. She read it in the car. She read it in the living room, while the TV was on, she read it and read it.

I understand why. I did want to keep reading it and reading it. But I also enjoyed putting it down because of the nice ribbon bookmark built into the book. I really liked that. Nice touch for that book.

Fairy tales with a lot of odd twists.

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A Lion Among Men

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I have a love/hate thing with Gregory Maguire.

Loved Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister
Loved Wicked
Hated Mirror Mirror
Did not love Son of a Witch
Bored by Lost

Based on the above, you might be a little bit surprised that I plucked A Lion Among Men off of the large print shelf. I was a little surprised, myself.

After the horrendous book Son of a Witch turned out to be, why would I want to ruin the memory of Wicked further with what would probably be another horrendous muddle up of The Wicked Years.

Well guess what. A Lion Among Men… fabulous. I did not want to put it down. Loved it. And because I loved it, it was worth it to read the hated Son of a Witch (without it, Lion Among Men would not have made sense.)

Yackle, Nor, The Dwarf – they all come together in The Cowardly Lion’s story. Nice. Very nicely written.

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Lamplighter

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Lamplighter is a Cybil. We first got it on audio but after a few minutes gave up on it – we realized that without reading book one, we were completely clueless about what was happening. There are a lot of made up words that make absolutely no sense on audio.

So, I grabbed the first book (Monster Blood Tattoo) and read it awhile back. It was good. Prince J liked it too. TW didn’t read it then, but I grabbed it again and she read it earlier this week.

I knew what was “different” about Rossamund in book one. But TW and Prince J seem unaware.

Book two, Lamplighter… it all comes out. Well not all of it, but there are clues and clues all the way through, leading up to Rossamund (and others) figuring it out. (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here folks – sorry!)

Anyway, the only problem with book two is that book three appears to have not been published yet. And I really want to know what the heck is going to happen NOW.

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