Fiction

Ruby’s Imagine

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

I plucked Ruby’s Imagine off of the shelf because of the cover. It’s a tiny little book with a half flap type of book cover. It was appealing. And then it sat on the shelf in my house for weeks. When I finished the Weiner book, it was late at night but not quite time to turn off the lights so I grabbed this one. Something small, short, quick – and also something that needs to go back to the library soon.

I had no idea what this book was about.

A teenage girl in NOLA in the days leading up to/during Katrina.

If I’d known what it was about, I probably wouldn’t have checked it out. I’m glad I didn’t know because it was good. Great writing, excellent story, characters I enjoyed getting to know just a little bit. I don’t know if Kim Antieau has written anything else, but I think I’m going to find out.

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Best Friends Forever

3 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction /

I boycotted Jennifer Weiner for a couple of years. I thought I was going to stick with my boycott but TW said Best Friends Forever was good – really good. So I broke down and read it.

It was good. Jennifer Weiner chick litty – good. I liked Addie. I didn’t particularly like Val but I didn’t hate her either. I would like to know more about Merry…. Maybe she needs a book of her own?

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The Betrayal of the Blood Lily

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

I have been looking forward to The Betrayal of the Blood Lily for a very long time. Thank goodness, I wasn’t disappointed.  Best book in the series, since book one.

I like Penelope. A lot. Pen needs her own series.

I also liked the bits and pieces about Colin, Eloise and the rest of the “modern day” crew, which is saying something since I often find myself wanting to just hurry up and get this bit over with so we can get back to the real spy stories.

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Wildwater Walking Club

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction /

I decided to read the The Wildwater Walking Club because a) it’s been on the shelf for weeks b) it looked like a quick and easy piece of chick lit c) the cover reminded me a little bit of Kris Radish’s books.

It was a quick read. It was a little Radish-like. It was a little bit too much of a mish-mash of chick lit topics. Did we really need the NOLA teacher with cancer storyline? I don’t think that we did.

I loved the clotheslines. Loved the lavender. Love the dozens of boxes of walking shoes. Just an all around fun book, nothing too horribly heart breaking (which maybe is why the NOLA teacher thing was tossed in – gotta have something heartbreaking or something?)

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The Creamsickle

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer /

I think we bought The Creamsickle at Women & Children First. TW read it a good long while back and it’s been sitting in the basket underneath my bedside table ever since. I added it to my From the Stacks Challenge list because it feels like it’s been awhile since I read a baby dyke/boi novel.

There wasn’t anything super special about The Creamsickle. If you’ve read one baby dyke fringe San Francisco based book, then you know what this was like. Lots of bed hopping. Lots of drugs. Lots of gender bending. Lots of skateboarding and biking. What was most interesting, to me, was picturing Katherine Forrest editing this. Now that was an interesting thought. And now I’m wondering what other queer books might be “Katherine V. Forrest Selections.”

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Bonk

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I’m a Mary Roach fan but if it hadn’t been for someone on BlogHer, I wouldn’t have known she had a new book: Bonk. (TW and RJ assumed it was about head injuries. They’re both clueless.)

I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did Stiff and Spook but that’s because I’m not a huge fan of graphic descriptions of skinning penises. Heck, I’m not a fan of any kind of description of skinning penises. I’m not really a fan of penises at all. Anyway. I enjoyed it. Mary Roach is brilliant and her willingness to participate in sex studies in order to get the details is admirable. Would YOU watch porn while a light wand was inserted in your vagina? Would you have sex with your partner inside of an MRI tube? 

On a related note, anyone interested in Flibanserin? Just wondering….

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La’s Orchestra Saves the World

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

I was leery of Alexander McCall Smith's La's Orchestra Saves the World.  I love the Ladies #1 Detective Agency series but have never been able to read more than a few pages of any of his other books. They just weren't good.

TW was equally suspicious of the book and when I'd been reading it for four days and hadn't gotten past the second chapter, she told me to just give up because it was just like all of the others we'd tried. But I persisted. I was slow to read it because I was distracted by the holiday and work and travel and my big kids. I was pretty sure it wasn't the book that was the problem. I was right.

Once we got home and got settled into something close to our normal routine, I ripped through the book in two days. (It would have been one day but the lure of a new laptop is strong…) The book is pretty damn good. In fact it's better than that. I highly recommend it. I like La. I like the people we get to know from the orchestra and the small English town. I liked it all very much and found myself wishing the author had written it differently so that it could be a series. But no, every book can't be a series, can it?

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The Fireman’s Christmas

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction /

We were over on BlogHer talking about Christmas books and @firemom fessed up that she had picked up a cheesy Christmas romance – about a fireman.

We bugged her til she told us the title – The Fireman’s Christmas – and then I promptly ran over to my library website and reserved it. (Poor Sassymonkey couldn’t do the same, her library doesn’t have it.)

TW read it and liked it.
RJ read it and hated it – she hates firemen. They aren’t dark and brooding enough. Too cheesy, all-American-y for her. She likes REAL bad boys – like vampires. (Whatever.)
I read it and enjoyed it.

Yes, it’s a Harlequin which means it fits all of the typical Harlequin stereotypes. But there’s nothing wrong with a fun Harlequin every now and then.

Fireman.
Independent business owning woman.
Six kids (including a set of twins.)
A dog. A cat.

What’s not to enjoy?

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Her Fearful Symmetry

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

Oh look, I finished a book. I’ve hit a rough patch, have you noticed? Work related. Life related. Bad book related. Not that Her Fearful Symmetry was bad. It wasn’t bad at all, it was good. Pretty freaking freaky and creepy and really not what I expected from the author of Time Traveler’s Wife.

Though I suppose it is a kind of travel… really good, dark, interesting reading.

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