Fiction

May Bird: Warrior Princess

2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was worried about May Bird: Warrior Princess because third books in series are cursed. And also because Cat was unhappy with it, or so sassymonkey said. I read it anyway and I think knowing the book was cursed helped.

I didn’t hate it.

I also didn’t love it. But really, I did not hate it.

Pumpkin? Liked it.
Legume? Liked it.

The end – did not like and that makes it hard to remember that there were pieces that I did like.

NASA? Ummm no. Unnecessary and wrong.
Somber Kitty? No, no and no again.

I hope this is the end of the series, for real, otherwise I’d be asking for a do-over – Somber Kitty and May deserved better than the last book they were dealt.

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Home School

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

No, this post isn’t about Michelle, it’s about the book Home School which is about kids who are home schooled but then again not really about them at all. It’s the sequel to The Graduate. Yes, The Graduate – you remember, Mrs Robinson? Or if you’re like me you just barely remember Mrs Robinson and so you had very low expectations for enjoying this book.

Guess what. I loved it. Funnyyyyyy. The home schoolers from Vermont, hahahahaha. And Mrs Robinson, tsk tsk tsk.

Loved this book and I do wish I remembered more about The Graduate.

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Intimate Relations with Strangers

2008, Books in Bed, Fiction /

Geez, first Freewill and now Intimate Relations with Strangers – weird and more weird.

TW really liked this book and I guess I liked it, sort of. It was just really weird. I think I liked it better toward the end. It moved faster. Jumped time really quickly. Brought the character that tied it all together into the picture.

But still. Weird. Very very weird.

And, beware of white cats. Just sayin’.

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Cry Wolf

2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Don’t bother clicking over to the amazon page for Cry Wolf, unless you’re planning on buying it. There’s nothing there that would lead you to want to check this thing out. Thank goodness for people like Liz who blog about really obscure lesbian utopias (or dystopias, as the case may be.)

She posts stuff like this all of the time:

– classroom scene, with Curie’s speech about Blue
– Mutants!
– Global climate change
– the bitter, lonely inner thoughts of Curie
– Sexual tension of Curie (and everyone, but especially and her best pupil Sophie)
– The festival with the cult dancers and the orgy in the river. Don’t miss the sexy hermaphrodite sex scenes. Here there be “fringe”. Tentacles?
– Telepathy!
– Curie begins to tell a mythical version of the past to Sophie.
– Curie’s mother was one of the women of Greenham Common

And when she posts stuff like this about obscure novels I immediately head to my library’s interlibrary loan page and try to have the masterpiece sent to me. Thank goodness Cry Wolf arrived.

Awesome. And I won’t say anything more because Liz has it all covered. Loved it and loved the Scheherazade stories of the women.

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A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers

2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, Queer, Women /

My expectations for A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers were not great. TW seemed “ho-hum” about it and she said it was sad. I peeked at the first few pages, shrugged, and dug in.

Next thing I knew, it was 10:30 and I had read 3/4 of the book. It was a super-fast, very easy to read book. You’d think that wouldn’t be the case since the narrator is a Chinese woman who speaks broken English – or maybe that’s what made it easier TO read. Basic broken English easier to read than proper English?

Anyway, I liked it. It’s not a favorite and I wouldn’t buy it, but I liked it. And I didn’t find it sad at all.

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Two more YA and a Printz update

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

I accidentally finished two more YA books last night which means two more books from my Printz Award Challenge are complete. Cool. I’m betting 2001 was a tough year to pick the winner. These books were good.

We started listening to The Body of Christopher Creed on audio and got about halfway through it and cassette number four wouldn’t play properly. That was frustrating. The story was really getting going. I kept forgetting to reserve the print version and was pleasantly surprised when I found it on the shelf during our Wednesday trip to the library.

So I picked it up and started in on Chapter 13 and before I knew it, it was 11pm and I’d finished it. It was good. Very good. Loved the characters. Loved the setting. Loved the storyline. Is he dead or is he hiding – building a new life somewhere?

Before that, I read Many Stones which was also good but incredibly depressing. Super short book, very quick read and very depressing. But I said that, right? I guess the murder of your sister when you’re a 16 year old and then facing apartheid can’t really be anything BUT depressing, right?

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Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to enjoy Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging but I did. I enjoyed it very much and I laughed out loud a lot. Now that I’m finished, I’m also anxious to know what happened with the Sex God.

I’m so glad that the books on my Printz challenge have been really good, not like a lot of books that make the adult awards short lists (or long lists, for that matter.)

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