Why is it that all of my audiobook holds come in all at once? Grrrr. Anyway…
Holly Black, on audio, FTW!
I don’t think anyone writes faeries as well as Holly Black. Seriously. The Darkest Part of the Forest was as creepy as you’d expect and as good as you’d expect, from a Holly Black YA novel. Hazel might be my favorite of all of Black’s characters. OK maybe not but I liked her. Sir Hazel… awesome.
The Darkest Part of the Forest Read More »
I either love or hate books about the “orphan train” and it turned out I really enjoyed Orphan Train. I liked all of the characters — well most of the characters (I didn’t like Molly’s boyfriend.)
I particularly liked the project in the attic. I understand why Vivian wouldn’t want to let that stuff go — and I don’t think she should be expected to. (I wonder how many orphan train kids turned into adults who hung onto a lot of stuff throughout their lives…)
I love Flavia but I’ll admit that the last book, A Chimney Sweep Comes to Dust, was not my favorite. So, I was a tiny bit worried that the series was going downhill… I needn’t have worried.
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d was one of my favorite books of the series. Flavia is growing up… I like that. I did not like the ending, which I predicted during the first chapter of the book. Gah. WHAT NEXT????
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew Read More »
Here’s where I talk about missing our beloved Glenview Public Library…
We wanted to listen to the new Mr. Lemoncello book on audio because the first one was so much fun. So, I looked at the Alachua County Library to reserve it on CD. They had no CD versions. So, I reserved it for Overdrive. It arrived, fairly promptly but the check out time was HORRENDOUS… a week? 10 days? I don’t know but NOT long enough. No big deal, I thought because I can just renew it, like I could with Overdrive books checked out from the Glenview library.
Hahaha. Not so much.
I had to actually RE-RESERVE it and wait for it to be re-delivered to me. THAT WAS ANNOYING and FRUSTRATING and I MISS THE GLENVIEW LIBRARY SYSTEM. (Though I do also appreciate Alachua County’s library… the auto-renew thing is awesome. I love that.)
Anyway, about Mr Lemoncello’s Library Olympics… totally fun. Obviously. I highly recommend it.
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics Read More »
On our last trip to the library, they had a big display of Austen (and Austen related) books. I glanced at it but didn’t see anything I hadn’t read or anything I hadn’t read that looked interesting… until I spotted a bright and shiny looks like it has never been checked out book called Jane Austen: Cover to Cover.
I’m no Janeite so I almost didn’t check it out. But I’ve always found it hard to resist a bright and shiny never been checked out looking library book before, so I grabbed it. Gosh, I’m glad I did. It was a lot of fun to read on a lazy Monday holiday.
As expected, my favorite covers were all of the most recent Penguin specialty editions and also as expected, there have been some truly awful Austen covers over the last zillion years. It made me kind of want to collect them, hahaha.
Get this book. It’s fun. Seriously.
Jane Austen: Cover to Cover Read More »
The Thessaly books are so darn interesting and Necessity was pretty much what I expected, though it would have been nice to see more about the human contact there at the end. Sigh.
I also kind of wish I hadn’t read these until they were all available at one time — so complicated and it was always a little difficult to remember who was who after waiting so long for the newer books.
I still think Plato is stupid… lol
Sassymonkey is the BEST and I’m so glad Ami McKay is her internet girlfriend because it means I was gifted with a signed copy of the Canadian version of The Witches of New York, for Christmas. (The link goes to the American version that is available for pre-order.) MONTHS earlier than I’d have been able to get the American version. Also, SIGNED. WOOT.
I stayed up way too late finishing it the other night because I had to find out how Beatrice got out of the… place she was in… and once I read that part, there wasn’t much left so I figured I should keep reading. And I did and it was awesome.
I loved all of our witches and the supporting cast. Loved Perdu. Loved the spirits (and demons) and dearlies.
I know it’s a silly, tiny little thing that meant very little to the story but I loved the addition of Georgie, towards the end. Nice touch.
I also wouldn’t mind a sequel to this one (even though Ami hasn’t really done sequels.) I mean seriously, NYC — suffragists, mediums, witches, demons — and three very strong, independent female characters. It would be awesome.
Thanks, Sassymonkey (and Ami!)
The Witches of New York Read More »
It took me a very long time to read Smoke because of the holidays and this darn flu that won’t go away. I almost want to read it again because I’m pretty sure there were some sections that just didn’t “stick” because I was distracted or unwell.
I liked it. I liked it a lot. But, there were a lot of moving pieces and there was a lot of missing info about the Smoke itself both of which caused me to feel a little frustrated by the ending.
And, as I was grabbing a link to throw in here, I realized that some people are calling this YA but… I’m not sure it was intended to be YA. Hmmm. YA is weird that way, ya know?
I actually bought Lauren Graham’s audiobook version of Talking as Fast as I can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls because Gilmore Girls and because Lauren Graham!
It’s a really short audiobook and there’s not a lot of “substance” here but it was fun and it made me unreasonably happy to listen to it during all of our trips to/from the airport after Christmas and it was especially nice to listen to something I loved while I was really, really sick.
One problem, though. She refers often to “photos” included in the book and of course we were in the car listening and had no photos. This is always annoying about audiobooks and I commented on that. Then, I realized after we finished that there is supposed to be a PDF included that has all of the photos. Err, umm, oops? I suspect I threw it away just thinking it was a random piece of paper. Gah. So annoying.
I think I’ll buzz all of the kids and ask them if they want to listen to it — they can make a round robin of it and pass it to all of their siblings.
Related: Didn’t you think the ending was more of a cliffhanger than an ending? Didn’t you????
Talking as Fast as I Can Read More »
Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire was excellent but it pissed me the hell off. If Earl Tupper was still alive, I’d take my ass down to Costa Rica and tell him off.
Dumb ass.
(It also made me think about Tupperware and home party sales people and stuff a lot more than I expected it too, lol. I might have also, almost, considered having a Tupperware party.)