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#Readathon Book Four: The Abyss Surrounds Us

2017, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon, Favorites, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women, Young Adult /

Liz Henry talked about The Abyss Surrounds us a few weeks ago on Facebook and I decided we needed to read it. It was excellent! Totally awesome for #readathon. Trained killer sea creatures, a female pirate captain, a couple of lesbians. Really excellent. And, even better — it ended perfectly. I like that.

It’s getting late, I’m getting tired and since I don’t have a bunch of picture books and early readers this time around, it’s time to move to the world of cookbooks and over-sized coffee table books to carry me through the next couple of hours.

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The Darkest Part of the Forest

2 Comments / 2017, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Why is it that all of my audiobook holds come in all at once? Grrrr. Anyway…

Holly Black, on audio, FTW!

I don’t think anyone writes faeries as well as Holly Black. Seriously. The Darkest Part of the Forest was as creepy as you’d expect and as good as you’d expect, from a Holly Black YA novel. Hazel might be my favorite of all of Black’s characters. OK maybe not but I liked her. Sir Hazel… awesome.

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Poppy Jenkins

2016, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Queer, Women /

First, the fact that I was able to get this book from my library is a great example of an awesome library system at work.

I saw this Poppy Jenkins review and thought I’d like to read it. So, I went to both of my libraries websites and it obviously wasn’t available. I wanted to read it enough that I went to the ILL site and requested it. I got an email shortly thereafter saying I couldn’t request a book that had been published less than six months ago, (oops, I didn’t know that was a rule), and the ILL would simply recommend MY library PURCHASE the book.

I didn’t think much about it after that, because what are the odds? Turns out, the odds are high because a couple of weeks later, my library had bought the book and it was waiting for me to pick up. THAT is awesomesauce.

The book? Poppy Jenkins wasn’t awesomesauce but it wasn’t bad, either. I liked Roselyn better than Poppy. A lot better. I just rolled my eyes at Poppy, over and over again.

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Four Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Queer, Young Adult /

Readathons, even #fakereadathons, mean I get to spend some time catching up on graphic novels and these four were excellent. All four of them.

Roller Girl was awesome. I loved everything about it. I hope there are more Roller Girl books.

Next, I read March Book 2 and it was good, obviously, because John Lewis, y’all.

After that, Sunny Side Up. Poor kid. This was well written and well drawn. I didn’t expect much from it and was very pleasantly surprised.

Last, but not least, Honor Girl. Loved it. And, shockingly, I loved the ending. Some people probably didn’t – those “I want a happy endinggggg.” kinds of people. Nope. It ended exactly as it should have.

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The Gap of Time

2016, Books in Bed, Fiction, Queer /

Look at me finishing another book! I’m not sure it 100% counts though since I started reading The Gap of Time right before we leave Illinois. I only got about 50 pages into it because the beginning was slow and I hated all of the people and also because the last week before we moved was NUTS.

I like Winterson enough that I was willing to check it out from the library again and keep going. I’m glad I did. It will never be my favorite Winterson novel and I’m not really a fan of ‘The Winters Tale’ but I did end up enjoying the book and it really was the first 50 pages that were rough.

(I also like the video game idea… that’s pretty interesting. Someone should build that game.)

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The Forever War

1 Comment / 2016, Books in Bed, Favorites, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Remember when I said we didn’t have any books because they’re all in boxes and because we didn’t have library cards? And also that TW bought some books at Wild Iris on Independent Bookstore Day? Well one of the books she bought was The Forever War which is amusing because I’m pretty sure we already own it. I also highly supported the purchase since Unca Joe was at Wild Iris to sign books and now we have a signed copy. Woot!

So TW immediately started reading it because she was desperate for books and because Unca Joe, obviously.

When I finished with a couple of books, it was my turn to reach for The Forever War at which point TW said, “Why are you reading that, you won’t like it.”

Yes, she actually said that.

My response was to remind her that I’ve already read it before and her response was that I still wouldn’t like it.

It’s at moments like this that I have to question why it is that we live together. I mean really? I’ve read it before. It’s Unca Joe. It’s THE gd FOREVER WAR. You’re really going to tell me I won’t like it? Whatever. (And I’m still rolling my eyes almost a week after she said this. I’m rolling my eyes so hard that I now I have a headache.)

So anyway. I re-read The Forever War and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Except, I don’t really like Science Fiction hahahaha, and this means that when there’s a lot of stuff about physics and math and shit that makes absolutely NO sense to me and can cause me to question why in the hell I’m reading this damn book… I skim ahead. Because while I can suspend disbelief and enjoy the make-believedness of Fantasy, I can’t quite do that with SciFi because of the damn math/science. Because math/science is real and yet the kind of advanced math/science/lord-help-me-physics that’s in SciFi just freaks me the hell out.

Which is probably why TW tried to tell me I wouldn’t like The Forever War.

She was wrong, obviously, because I totes did. I was really glad to have re-read it since it’s probably been 25 or 30 years since I first read it. But, she’s right — I don’t like SciFi. (lol)

PS. Joe Haldeman can really write. Seriously. If you don’t like SciFi either, you should still read this because really – the writing is stellar.

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Carry On

1 Comment / 2016, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was looking for audiobooks to take with us to Florida and noticed a new Rainbow Rowell book, so I reserved it. We started listening to Carry On and we were immediately confused. It sounded like a sequel and I hate reading books out of order.

Turns out it’s not a sequel, it’s just a book about fictional characters from her previous book (which I didn’t actually realize existed.) So, we went ahead and listened to it. Harry Potter fan fic type of thing. It was amusing, as Rowell’s books are, and a good choice for the car ride.

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How to Grow Up

2016, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Queer, Women /

I’m a Michelle Tea fan. My Michelle T. is a Michelle Tea fan. The two Michelle’s have a lot of personality traits in common. So, I was excited to read How to Grow Up and equally excited for my Michelle T. to read it.

I don’t think either of us were disappointed.

Speaking for myself, I don’t exactly love all of the traits the grown up Michelle Tea has but I have a lot of respect for how she DID grow up and the fact that she owns her grown up addictions and decisions.

PS. Mutha Magazine is fabulous.

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