I really liked this book but I didn’t enjoy reading it. DEPRESSING – from page one it was depressing. But then again, it was about depression and dysfunctional families and plain ole dysfunction. The only problem was that I never felt like anyone EVER came “Up from the Blue” and I kept hoping someone would. Preferably the mother before she killed herself but anyone really would have been fine. Alas… no. It was a very unsatisfying ending and just left me blue.
There were six books sitting on the library cart – all six needed to go back to the library on 12/13. I only had time to read three – maybe four – of those books. Which should I choose? I took my queues from TW and selected the ones that I remember her making comments about, asking questions about, rambling about… and that’s how I ended up reading Dream Queen.
Dream Queen appears to be a prequel, though that didn’t make sense to me sense there’s a whole lot of back-story given to us about James and Hal… if this is a prequel, I’m not sure I want to see any of the other books in the series. Heck, I’m not sure I want to read any of the other books in the series anyway. I’m not a big fan of Chloe. She’s a pretty wimpy detective… then again, maybe she’s wimpy because this is the prequel and she comes into her own later… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get another book and give it a try.
Last spring, when Melissa Ford told me in a “cone of silence” kind of way that she had a novel coming out later in the year I was thrilled for her and then I sort of forgot about it. When she emailed me last week and told me that her book… it was really coming out, like this month. What?! Already?! Awesome!
I headed over to Amazon and discovered I could pre-order the book which should ship in a couple of weeks… or I could get it now for Kindle. I obviously could not wait so onto my Kindle app it went. I said I was going to start reading it over the weekend, after I finished the other books I had to finish over the weekend but the reality was, I couldn’t wait to start – so I started on Friday and got through chapter 2 before I reluctantly went back to the other two books that I HAD TO FINISH…
Melissa opens with a great quote (and don’t take my word for it, Julie Godar Yammered exactly the same thing when she started reading it on Friday).
“June Cleaver beat the crap out of me with her rolling pin.”
Heh.
Life From Scratch is about Rachel… a graphic designer living in NYC who has pretty recently divorced from her trying-to-make-partner lawyer husband. She read blogs and relationship blogs helped her get through those early divorce days. One of those blogs spurred her to start a blog of her own – a food blog/life blog sort of thing.
Rachel is like a lot of bloggers – she finds it very hard to believe people actually read her blog. It isn’t until her best friend introduces her to a stats program that she realizes just how many people read her blog. After her best friend nominates her for a “Bloscar” — well, she really begins to understand that not only do people read her blog, they like it – and she’s (gasp!) a writer!
Rachel struggles through dating and family relationships and trying to figure out what to do with her life and in the end… you’ll just have to read it to find out what happens to Rachel. And then sit here and wait with me while Melissa writes the second installment in the series. Because there must be a second installment… the book ends with Rachel not quite where I expected her to be (or if I’m honest, where I wanted her to be) and now I need to know how she’s going to manage…. Everything.
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She’s Gone Country is the other book that was due back to the library because it had holds – but I was a bad library patron and kept it out for three extra days so that I could read it. TW said it was good – she said she kept thinking about it. So – I figured I should read it.
And it was good, but I’m not sure why TW kept thinking about it after she finished. She said she wanted to know more – but the epilogue told us more, what more did she want? I guess a sequel would be nice enough but I’m not left dying to know what happened to the lives of Shey or Dane or the boys or… or anyone else. It was good but not good enough to leave me wanting more.
I still am not quite sure why it has holds – the books I reserve at the library, even the big sellers, rarely do…
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Hahahahaha!
When you first walk into our new library, there are some shelves just to the left of the door. I usually walk right past them without looking because… they’re on the left and I don’t shelf surf on my left, for some reason. Also, they’re not really near other books so it seems counterproductive to stop there for some reason. I don’t know… it’s probably just a matter of getting used to the new library or something.
But one day, I stopped to look and one of the sections was devoted to mysteries and front and center was a mystery with “Flamingos” in the title. Wrought-Iron Flamingos, to be precise. I couldn’t resist and into the bag went Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos. It sat on the shelf for a long time before TW picked it up to read. She was amused by it and right about the time I was ready to read it – it disappeared. I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE and I thought it had gone back to the library and had just been left unshelved, or was shelved but not checked in. About the time I was ready to file a “we don’t have this anymore, could you please look on the shelves” request, TW found it hiding in her dresser. Huh.
So, I got to read it after all. And as I started reading, I told TW that this author should write a book about Cockatiels… well hah, she did write a book about cockatiels and both TW and her mom read it a few months ago! TW had not remembered the main character as being the same one in the Flamingo book (which goes a long way toward you understanding how TW reads books, doesn’t it? And also goes a long way toward understanding how TW cannot recognize someone she sees every year at BlogHer Con and talks to almost daily on the internet, doesn’t it?)
Anyway – I loved this book. I loved that Meg was embarrassed at having made the flamingos but embraced the idea after she realized just how many people WANTED them. People love Flamingo yard art, even if they pretend otherwise. I obviously love that Meg is a blacksmith and that she has crazy relatives. It was a fun book and I’m guessing all of her bird related Meg Langslow mysteries are just as fun.
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After spending several days complaining about the lack of books to choose from, I decided to work on getting my library reserve list back up to speed. I started with my Amazon wish list – it’s not really a wish list, it’s a holding place for books we’re interested in reading but can’t add to the library reserve list because our list is already really long. Then, I looked over the books I’ve read this year and looked for sequels or prequels that I’d like to read and reserved those. Then I looked at the Amazon “best of 2010” lists because I was really hoping to add some quality adult books – or maybe just adult books – or maybe just quality books. I don’t know – something that’s not too chick lit-y and something that’s not to YA-y. Then, I decided to look for some good lesbian literature and that’s where my frustration really began.
I sorted the Amazon lists by bestsellers, lesbian fiction, hardcover (because I was getting too many small publishers/self puplishers in the list and my library won’t have any of those) – only to find… my library has none of the 2010 lesbian fiction hardcover bestsellers… or worse yet, the bestsellers are all old… or lesbian detective mysteries. I like Jane Lawless but please, enough is enough. I wanted something else… something better.
It was late. I gave up for the night and decided I’d approach it from the women’s/lesbian bookstore direction and assumed I’d have more luck. I went to bed, without a book, and complained to TW about the problem. She said, “that book I just read is a library book – and it’s lesbian fiction.” Huh. Who knew?
Mirabilis is lesbian fiction, though it doesn’t really flaunt it and that’s the problem – there are a lot of great lesbian novels out there but for some reason publishers, authors, booksellers don’t want to label a book as lesbian fiction. (I wonder why… hahahaha)
Mirabilis is a story of a 14th century wet nurse who saves a town during a time of famine by feeding them all via her breasts, (well not all of them, she doesn’t allow the truly evil to nurse.) She’s able to do this because a rich pregnant widow is feeding her real, good food to make sure her milk is good enough for the soon to be born heir. A relationship develops between the wet nurse and the rich widow… gasp, a lesbian relationship!
Funny what you stumble upon when you don’t expect it.
Yipeee! I finished my From the Stacks (by color) Challenge today, with Mistress of the Art of Death. This was a good book to finish with – a long read, not because of the number of pages, but because of the complexity of the story. There was a lot to follow. I loved the ending. It would have been so easy to tie everything up in a neat and tidy (patriarchal package) – this way was better, much much better.
Long live King Henry II!
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Doesn’t it seem like all of the books (by color) from my From the Stacks Challenge have been short stories? OK maybe not all of them but a lot? I think I should pay more attention to the books I’m choosing for this particular challenge because I’m just not a big short story fan. BUT… Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs was pretty darn good. Cheryl Peck needs to write more books – or more short stories. I don’t care which, I liked her. Hmmm does she have a blog? Because if she doesn’t, she needs one.
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I don’t really love Sarah Silverman. I don’t hate her either, which I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear because she’s had a whole lot of people hating on her and she probably doesn’t want one more person piling on. I never would have read The Bedwetter but TW read the cover jacket and was forced to bring it home because it was funny – and crazy, much like Silverman herself.
If I liked fart jokes more. Or rape jokes more. Or [insert politically incorrect label for an ethnic minority] jokes more, I’d probably be a fan. But I don’t so I’m not. I was pretty fascinated with just how … weird her life has been, or how weirdly she talks about her life. I think I’d probably like her dad a good bit, he seems funnier.
I’m still not a fan but I don’t like her less than before I read the book. I call that a win.
Another Cybils YA short lister and another that I kept pushing back on my list because… another beauty/body image book? Really? Do I have to? Because I’ve read an awful lot of them this year. North of Beautiful is better than I expected. It’s more than I expected. I yelled at Terra’s dirtbag father all the way through the book. I cheered at the end. It’s a lot more than a beauty/body image story. It really is. Read it, you’ll see.
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