Fiction

Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood

2015, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I wasn’t sure about Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood. I was either going to love it or hate it, and I was pretty sure it would be the latter. Turns out, I loved it.

It’s a quick read and it didn’t take more than a few pages for me to fall in love with Abby and her mom and her grandparents and her friends. It took me longer to fall in love with Abby’s dad, but that’s to be expected.

I did a lot of talking out loud to the book. I gasped when Abby talked to the reporters towards the end. TW was confused by my vocal engagement with the book. I couldn’t help it, I felt compelled to talk to or commiserate with Abby.

Who would have guessed?

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At the Water’s Edge

2015, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

I don’t know if At The Water’s Edge started slowly or if I was just tired but I had a really hard time getting through the first third of the book. I pretty much hated all of the characters in the beginning. I obviously didn’t end up loving the guys but at least I started to care about the story once they made their way to Scotland got settled in there.

After that, I really enjoyed it and ended up staying awake way too late last night to finish it.

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When I Was The Greatest

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I had to take a little break from reading When I Was the Greatest because I was afraid things were going to go very very wrong for Ali, Needles and Noodles and I just didn’t feel like I could deal with that the day or two after the Charleston shooting.

I did eventually go back to the book and really enjoyed it. Things did go badly for the boys but not THAT badly. It could have been so much worse.

Interesting story — interesting characters. Well worthy of the Cybils shortlist. Pst, there’s knitting in this book!

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Two From TW’s Joy Pile

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge /

I decided I was going to participate in the Flash Readathon on Sunday. I decided I was going to grab some children’s fiction or YA fiction from the shelf… something TW swears brings her joy but I have not read.

First, I grabbed Midnight Magic, by Avi. I’ve read a lot of Avi but not this one. It was fun. I’m not sure why TW is sure it brings her joy, but it was cute.

Next, I grabbed Wanted, Mud Blossom. A book I know was mine (my children’s) but I’d never read. Probably because I hadn’t read the other books about the Blossom family and I hate reading series books out of order. I don’t know if my kids ever read this book. Or if they’ve read any other books about the Blossoms. Whatevs. It was cute. Very young, not YA for sure.

I enjoyed them. I’m glad I read them. It was fun. And hey, it’s two books from my stacks! If it were up to me, I’d give them both away, though…

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Gabi, A Girl In Pieces

2015, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

We very much enjoyed listining to Gabi, A Girl In Pieces. I loved Gabi, her family and her friends. I loved the honesty in this book. It felt very realistic, to me. I can see teen girls feeling all of these things. I can see teen girls being confused about all of the same things. It was also a YA trouble book that didn’t leave me feeling like the author just threw in all of the possible teen problems just to throw in all of the possible teen problems, as so many YA books do.

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Citizens Creek

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I was between books and TW said Citizens Creek is really good so I gave it a try. It was really good.

The story of Cow Tom, born into slavery and sold to a Creek Indian chief. How he bought his freedom and the freedom of his family, became Chief Cow Tom and then the story shifts to those of his children/grandchildren after his death.

Chief Cow Tom was a real person and novels around real people can be problematic. Luckily, in this case it worked well. I’m really glad I read it.

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Serendipity Market

2015, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I have no idea how Serendipity Market landed on our library cart. It was YA so I assumed it was a Cybil. Nope, it wasn’t a Cybil. No idea.

Anyway, it was super short and very quick to read, which was good since I started it late in the evening and was able to finish it before I went to bed.

I really liked the retelling of the fairy tales but the way they were connected to the Serendipity Market and bringing the earth back into balance was never really clear. You just had to go with it and accept it as the way of things. Another 50 pages to really connect the dots would have been awesome.

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The Living

2015, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

It’s books like The Living that cause me to say NO cruises. NO living on the west coast. And, thank goodness JMP no longer lives in Hawaii. Quick read. I wasn’t thrilled with the characters at the beginning of the book but they grew on me.

I’m not sure I’m going to read the next book, though it does stink to not know what happens next. After all of that horrible stuff and I don’t know how it ends? Ugh. Totally annoying.

There are too many darn sequels in the world now. Have you noticed this? I’m really getting tired of sequels when we don’t need sequels. We need authors to write books and give them a real live ENDING every now and then. Sheesh.

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