Fiction

Before I Fall

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

My friend, coworker, and fellow YA aficionado, Diane from Teen Book Fanatics has been trying to get me to read Lauren Oliver’s books for a long time. Just about every time I talk to her she asks if I’ve read one – or if I’ve read the new one – or just in some way mentions Lauren Oliver. So – finally I reserved one at the library way back in August but I kept putting off reading it because it’s long and it looked like it might be a little depressing (you may remember I was reading a lot of depressing YA there for awhile…)

Our library book supply has dwindled down to less than 10 books and there’s not much left to choose from so I started Before I Fall on Tuesday night. I read about ¼ of it because… it was indeed feeling depressing. It also has a “Groundhog Day” type of theme and while I’m a fan of the movie and I liked that other YA book I read with that theme – I wasn’t feeling this one. So I put it down for the night, picked it up again last night after Survivor… and I couldn’t put it down.

I’m still tired of the Groundhog Day type of theme and it doesn’t really have the happiest of happy endings, though it is the right ending – I liked it. I see now why Diane is such a fan. And, I’ll be reserving another Lauren Oliver title this weekend.

Thanks for the recommendation, Diane!

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The Bride’s Farewell

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

I have such a love/hate thing for Meg Rosoff that I didn’t think I was going to read The Bride’s Farewell. In fact, after hearing from Sassymonkey that she didn’t like it I was sure I wouldn’t bother with it. But a funny thing happens when your library is closed for more than a month – you get punchy and panic over the idea of not having enough to read. And when that happens and you see a Meg Rosoff on the shelf… it jumps into your library bag. Even so, you wait almost a full month before you decide to read it… when your choices are getting slim and it’s Nancy Drew or some book about how to find a job using social media or a really long Lauren Oliver book that you’re pretty sure is going to be depressing. That’s how I came to read The Bride’s Farewell.

And it’s also how I realized I loved The Bride’s Farewell. Rosoff still writes like Rosoff but this book is nothing like How I Live Now or What I Was. It’s not even like Justin Case. It’s another kind of book entirely. And I really enjoyed it. Bucking the patriarchy is my thing, after all. So is saving children. And poaching off of wealthy landowners. Oh. Wait. Go back to the patriarchy thing. Also, I like gypsies.

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The Creation of Eve

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Women /

When I finished my last book, late in the evening, I had no idea what I should read next or what I even wanted to read next. So I fumbled in the dark office for a book that looked interesting and I came up with The Creation of Eve. I had no idea what it was about but I like Eve and I like creation stories and I figured I’d like it enough to stick with it.

I did.

I might not have picked it up if I’d known right away that it was going to focus quite so much on the Spanish royal family in the early 1500s. I’m kind of glad I didn’t know because it’s really about Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola – one of the few successful female painters of that time. Interesting story – some fact swirled in with the fiction (similar to The Stolen One that I’d just finished reading before I picked this up.)  I think it could have happened this way – it makes sense. Nothing rang untrue. I like that in a historical fiction.

This one is labeled as adult fiction but Cullen is a children/YA author and I suspect the with a little cajoling I could convince the almost 15 year old YA reader in the house to give this one a read.

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The Stolen One

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

I decided I needed something a little bit light so I picked up The Stolen One, a YA book that we probably plucked off of the shelf at the last minute, right before our library closed for a month. I wasn’t expecting a lot so I was very pleasantly surprised. I liked it a lot. What DID happen to Katherine Parr’s daughter, Mary Seymour? Did she die at the age of two? Or was she stolen away?

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The Prince of Mist

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

If you’re expecting The Prince of Mist to be anything like Shadow of the Wind or Angel’s Game, change your expectations before you start reading. This is not a book in this series and the writing is completely different from the series. It’s a YA novel – a scary YA novel with a clown. A very evil clown. It’s not the best scary YA novel I’ve ever read nor is it the worst YA novel I’ve read (scary or otherwise). It was good. I enjoyed it. I read it straight through last night and was glad. The use of the home videos was brilliant. The scary doggone clown pretty brilliant, too. I’d read another YA novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. He’s not out of his element, though his forward explaining that this book is YA was trying a little too hard. I kept picturing Neil Gaiman adding some sort of explanation to the front of his YA/kids books. It’s just not necessary and if I was a teen, I’d probably wonder what the heck the guy’s problem was….

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Blue Plate Special

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

I was really pleasantly surprised by Blue Plate Special. I reserved it purely because it was a Cybils shortlist book and I knew nothing about it. The first few pages, I wasn’t sure what I was getting to – three different characters, set in slightly different time periods, in slightly different places. All of  the girls were about the same age 16-18. All of them were in difficult situations, related to their relationships with their mothers – and with guys.

There were two big surprises for me, both of which really made me love the book. First, it has a Gainesville story line and I had no idea! Gainesville, Cedar Key, Ocala all mentioned in part of the story and I’m a sucker for books that talk about places I’ve lived (and loved.) Second surprise… I won’t tell you. You need to read the book to see how all of these girls’ stories come together. Brilliant work.

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Maybe This Time

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

I stayed up way too late reading Maybe This Time. I could not put it down – this might just be my favorite Jennifer Crusie book…. It’s certainly my favorite solo book. Agnes and the Hitman is probably still my favorite… Crusie fans have to read this one immediately. Non-Crusie fans, what are you waiting for? Read this one and then go back and read everything else she’s written – you’re in for a lot of fun. A wee bit longer post here.

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Skin Hunger

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

The second book in the A Resurrection of Magic series is a Cybils shortlister. TW and I had been looking at it for awhile in the library, without realizing it was on the shortlist. Thankfully, I reserved the first book to start with because the second would have been crazy to read without having this background story. And what a background story it is.

Skin Hunger tells two different stories, one of Somiss and Franklin and Sadima as they were trying to rediscover magic – and one of Hahp, Gerard and eight other boys trying to become wizards — and Somiss and Franklin are the wizards who run the school. Evil place it is, obviously since it’s run by Somiss who is… horrible. I kept waiting for there to be something good, something redeeming about him. There wasn’t. Maybe in the next book we’ll learn more… I hope. Because otherwise, I just hate the guy. It will be awhile before I find out – TW just picked up Sacred Scars, and it’s much longer than this one. Maybe I’ll get to it next week.

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Blood Song

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

I don’t read nearly as many vampire novels as TW and RJ – I tend to find them a little bit repetitive and I’m really really not into vampire romance. I think Twilight did me in for that genre. But, a vampire detective/mystery – that’s another story. Which is why I went ahead and read Blood Song. (And also because it’s due back to the library pretty soon and having my library closed for more than a month is just a little bit freaking me out. Heaven forbid I waste a library book…)

It was troubling to read this book because it felt like this was  a sequel. A whole lot of backstory was missing and it was referred to in a way that made me SURE I’d missed book one. But when I look, there is no other book before Blood Song, just the sequel – Siren Song. So now I’m extra confused. I liked the book. I liked the characters. Celia Graves is my kind of female detective character. But what the heck happened before Blood Song? Something is missing and that’s annoying.

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Candor

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Candor is not a book I’d have ever just picked up off of the shelf, which is why I’m especially thankful for the Cybils folks. This was a very very good book. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could feed your kids just a few subliminal messages to help them remember to do their chores, or encourage them to do their homework? Well in Candor, Florida – everyone gets a nice dose of brainwashing and Candor is the perfect community.

One kid, the son of the founder of the community, knows about the subliminal messages – and smuggles kids out (for a price) before they’re so far gone that they would never think of leaving. But then… something happens… and everything changes.

The ending wasn’t happy – but it was the right ending.

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