The Devil in the Junior League is on my From the Stacks Challenge and it’s pure junk chick lit. But fun chick lit. An excellent book to read in between the self help I read a couple of days ago and the graphic novel I’m going to read next.
Frede Ware is awesome and so is Nikki Grout.
Fun. Just what chick lit should be.
The Devil in the Junior League Read More »
RJ and I were talking about books one day and for some reason or another she mentioned Skinned. I thought it was a title on the Cybils finalists list so I told her I wanted to read it. She brought me her copy and it was then that I realized it wasn’t on the list at all. So, I didn’t read it. It’s been sitting on my desk for a month.
When I finished the Percheron Saga and had no book waiting for me on the library shelf, I picked it up.
And I hated it.
I read 20 pages, put it down and bugged TW. I picked it up and read 30 more pages. Put it down and ranted about what a horrible book this was.
The next day, I read 20 more pages and wanted to call RJ to ask her why in the hell she liked this book. I read 50 more pages and told TW I did not want my brain cut up into pieces and downloaded so it could be put inside of a machine body. She questioned my decision because she apparently thinks this sounds like a good idea. She. Is. Whacked.
I read 30 more pages and went to bed.
The writing isn’t great. The characters have no redeeming qualities. None. Not one.
I finished it today and it was only in the last 30 pages that I found myself enjoying it – wondering what would happen next to these people I don’t like even a tiny bit.
All of that writing and only the last 30 pages made me glad I read the thing? Ugh. I don’t think I’ll bother with the rest of the series – unless RJ talks me into reading them.
Well. I didn’t see that coming. Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that. In fact most of Goddess was not what I expected. Or I expected bits and pieces but those bits and pieces did not at all go in the direction I expected them to go in.
I cannot decide if I loved it or hated it. Which is maybe a good thing? Or not so much since I was so much in love with both book 1 and book 2.
I would like a new series written about the “giants” and what they did off in the mountains. That would be a fun series, I think.
Every “new year” I go back through my reading list for the previous year and try and reserve books in series that we started but haven’t been able to keep up with for one reason or another. I also click into my “favorites” category and look for books written by authors who I really enjoyed the year before.
One of the series we didn’t keep up with was the Percheron Saga by Fiona McIntosh. I think the problem was that our library in Florida only had the first book and I never made the time to ILL the next book.
Well, thank goodness for our new library system (damn I love living here!) because Emissary was excellent.
It took me awhile to remember all of the characters but within the first 50 pages, I was deep into the story again and could barely put the book down. Goddesses, demons, dwarfs, odalisques, eunuchs – what’s not to love?
I think I need to take a break from the Cybil YA books, they’re all going to pale in comparison to Disreputable History etc… Take I Know It’s Over, for example.
Damn good YA relationship book. No pulled punches on the abortion issue and a fairly good job with the gay issue. But, I was bored and I think it’s because I kept thinking “it’s nowhere near as good as Disreputable History….” I bet if I head read it before Disreputable History… I’d be raving about how good this book was.
But I’m not.
So no more Cybils YA for me for awhile. Middle grade fiction and graphic novels, here I come!
When TW was reading The Disreputable History of Frankie Ladnau-Banks she made it sound like just another coming of age story… turns out, it’s a hell of a lot more than that. It’s not even just another girl dates one boy but likes another, boarding school, coming of age story.
This little book is one of the best pieces of YA I’ve ever read. Ever. But, then again, it speaks to the feminist in me.
I see that my behavior disrupted the smooth running of your patriarchal establishment.
Heh.
I’m buying it. A couple of copies actually. Maybe one of our girls will develop just a little bit more “Frankie Landau-Banks-ness” if they read it.
After I finished DHoFLB, I picked up the middle grade, Diamond Willow written by Helen Frost (whose Printz Honor book, Keesha’s House, I loved.) I was a little worried about it because it’s prose… written in diamond shape…with bolded words that tell another mini story.
I worried for nothing.
I loved this book. Totally different from Keesha’s House.
My two favorite Cybils Read More »
I found Based on the Movie sitting on the “just back” shelf at the library and I tossed it in my bag just because I liked the name.
It started slowly – I read a chapter and it almost put me to sleep. When I picked it back up the next night, I thought I was going to have to fight my way through it but 25 pages later I was hooked. And laughing. I’m glad I’m not in the movie business, just sayin’.
I don’t really love how it ended, but I don’t hate how it ended, either. And, I’m not sure what kind of ending I’d have preferred. There was just something a little unsatisfying about it.
Based on the Movie Read More »
Jellaby is the graphic novel that Liz picked up rather than finishing Into the Volcano. She finished it pretty quickly and when I asked her about it, she never even mentioned the boy who was a primary character in the book. She talked about the girl and the really scary man (that really scary man was something she mentioned quite a bit, I’m surprised she didn’t dream about him herself!)
Anyway, I read it – and yes indeed, there is a scary man. There’s also a couple of weird kids and a weird purple monster and a dysfunctional mom and bullies at school and wow, that’s a lot of stuff happening in a really short graphic novel that has fewer words than a lot of graphic novels I’ve read.
It’s a busy little book and it ended with a cliffhanger, so now I have to go and get the next Jellaby book for Liz – but not for me, I don’t care enough to read anymore of them and besides, she’ll tell me what happens.
PS. Liz still says Chiggers is the best graphic novel we’ve read this year.
The Graveyard Book is indeed worthy of the Newberry (whatever that means) – it’s excellent. An excellent story, excellently written. It is significantly better than Coraline.
But – I could not persuade any of the kids to read it.
Prince J looked at it and said “interesting, maybe I’ll read it this weekend” – but he didn’t. I wasn’t interested and only said that to appease me.
RJ took the book from TW and said she’d read it – after TW told her she MUST, it was THAT GOOD and after I told her that she had 24 hours to read it because I would want it… she read a couple of chapters, put it down and picked up Dracula instead. She even chose to re-read bits of Breaking Dawn for the 800th time rather than read more of The Graveyard Book.
This, I’m afraid, is one of those books we’ll have to force our kids to read – and they’ll like it well enough, but it won’t be until they’re 25 that they’ll really appreciate the mastery of the story or the characters or the writing. It’s a shame. It’s the best Newberry winner I’ve read in a long time.
The Graveyard Book Read More »
Yay Willig! The Temptation of the Night Jasmine was fun, as expected. I really like Charlotte and of course the Dowager Duchess. I even like the Duke of Dovedal (and I don’t always really like the men Willig pairs her women with.)
Sassymonkey says Penelope is next, which I’m looking forward too. But, not if that means there wll be no book about Jane… are you listening Willig. The series must now be seven books, not the rumored six.
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