Etched On Me
I was pleasantly surprised by Etched On Me. Very pleasantly surprised. Good characters that I found myself caring about more than I thought I would. Also, first time I’ve seen the use of the word “asshat” in a novel. Heh.
Fiction
The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent
A lot happens in The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent which makes it a decent set up for the next book but not necessarily the best book in the series.
There wasn’t enough Maggie. And, I found the multiple-personality plot device to be… annoying. By the end of the book, I was feeling slightly better about how things progressed and how the next book is set up. Still not thrilled by Clara Hess, though.
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The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla
We waited a long time for The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla and it was totally worth it. Best book since book one. Really. It was the vampires. Everything is better with vampires. Also, it was two excellent characters who had a lot of fun dialogue without too many other characters getting in the way and slowing things down.
Well done.
And I can’t wait for the next book. This is going to be GOOD, isn’t it?
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The Museum of Extraordinary Things
It took me longer to sink into The Museum of Extraordinary Things than I expected. I think I was about half-way through it when it felt compelling enough that I didn’t want to put it down in favor of, oh let’s see, something like doing laundry. Once I reached that point, I really didn’t want to put it down. It shouldn’t have taken that long, feeling the way I do about freaks (real and imagined.)
Now that I’m thinking about this, it seems like this always happens to me when I read Alice Hoffman. It takes awhile for me to get hooked and I just need to hang in there til I hit that magic spot in the story.
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The Care and Management of Lies
Well it’s no Maisie Dobbs, but we enjoyed The Care and Management of Lies (on audio.) I kept wondering if any of these people were crossovers from the Maisie Dobbs series — even minor characters but TW looked it up and said no. I’m not convinced. If I had more free time, I’d go look a little bit and see if she is right.
War is hell. The ending was hell. Hell hell hell. I saw it coming but didn’t want to BELIEVE it was coming. Sigh.
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Landline
We enjoyed Eleanor & Park so much that I didn’t even hesitate about reserving Landline and I totally enjoyed it, once I understood the weird magic telephone. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed up very late to finish it last night.
She’s big on the retro, isn’t she? I like that.
(Little note to myself — count this for July.)
The Tree of Life
Yes I’ve finished a book. Better yet, I finished The Tree of Life. Both are big deals because life is crazy and The Tree of Life was a little sluggish in the first half of the book. Not as sluggish as the second book in the trilogy, but difficult.
These would have been much better to read if I’d read them all straight in a row. Too many freaking characters. The timewalking also wreaked havoc on my ability to place people and events. Why do so many of the peoples (errr creatures) have to have so damn many names. (I know why, but sheesh.)
I enjoyed this book. I mostly liked the ending. It’s all good.
One Hundred Names
I needed something easy to read after making my way through Hard Choices … since One Hundred Names was due back to the library soon and TW enjoyed it and I’ve enjoyed Ahern’s books in the past, I decided this was a good choice.
It was. Sort of. I pretty much hated Kitty from the first page and never really warmed up to her. The rest of the characters in the book saved it. I really loved everything else about the darn book.
If you read this and you’re just hating Kitty — hang in there til she starts the interviews. The people she’s interviewing make it worth reading.
All Fall Down
I haven’t read a book written by Jennifer Weiener in… years. Maybe 10 years. I’m not even sure what led me to reserve All Fall Down when I saw it on the New Orders library list. Or maybe I figured I’d reserve it and TW would probably like it. I certainly never thought I’d read it — too many books on my TBR list and I am way behind for the year.
But, for some reason, I picked this one up a couple of days ago (instead of the books I had planned to read) and I’m glad I did.
I always like her Philly/Cherry Hill setting. Having lived in Burlington County and having a child living in Philly right now means I have a little soft spot for the book right off the bat.
And then I realized it was about a mommyblogger. A mommyblogger addicted to pills.
I’ve read those blog posts! I know those women!
It was a very familiar story. The characters likeable enough for me to want to keep reading. Except Dave. I did not like Dave. Still do not like Dave. Would like Dave to disappear off the face of the earth with his work-wife or something.
If I was going to jump back on the Jennifer Weiner bandwagon, this was the book to get me back on. It’s still chicklit, whether Weiner wants to embrace the label or not — albeit chicklit tackling a serious subject.