Women

Hood

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer, Women /

When I started reading Hood I felt like I’d read it before but quickly realized that all of Emma Donoghue’s books feel that way to me. Her characters seem familiar, like I’ve read more of their stories in some other book. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or if it means she’s recycling characters and I should be annoyed.

I lean toward not being annoyed but that might be due to my willingness to give authors who write good lesbian fiction a break – there are so few good lesbian fiction writers, Donoghue is one of them.

Seems sort of kharmic or something that I finished Hood on the day Del Martin died, doesn’t it?

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The Magic Toyshop

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

There I was, happily enjoying The Magic Toyshop when suddenly, I wasn’t. That suddenly part happened in the last three pages of the damn book. I really hate that. I think I’d rather read a bad book all the way through than read a good book only to have it disappoint me in the end.

I just don’t think that ending was necessary. I didn’t need a happy ending, but I did need SOME kind of ending. Wait, there isn’t a sequel right? Surely not… I’ve read The Bloody Chamber and it is not related to this. Is there something else I’m missing? Nah. The author just wanted to annoy me at the end. Gee thanks. By looking at the Amazon reviews, I see that I am not alone. Someone should re-write the ending, 50 pages should do it. Get busy with that, and let me know when you’ve finished. Thanks!

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First Among Sequels

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Who knew it would take me so long to get around to reading Thursday Next: First Among Sequels? And who knew it would take me so long to finish, once I started.

I enjoyed it considerably more than the last one, but not as much as the first one and I can only barely remember the second one. Or maybe I’ve gotten them all confused, I think that probably happens – all of that time travel or time travel that wasn’t invented, all of those characters. It’s a bit muddled. Probably mindworms. Fun, but muddled.

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Dancing with Elvis

3 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

We bought Dancing with Elvis ages ago, maybe years ago, at the Gainesville FOLS. (sniff, I miss the Gainesville FOLS. It’s coming again. Soon. In October. sniff. ) TW read it ages ago, maybe years ago, and I never did.

Turns out, it’s a YA book and if I had known that, I might have read it earlier. I thought it was just some fluffy southern chick lit and I am pretty anti-Elvis. (don’t hate me, oh go ahead, hate me – I don’t care.)

It’s a great YA book, only a wee bit of Elvis and an awful lot of good stuff about race and family relationships and, well, just go read it.

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The Witch’s Dream

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Do not ask my why I read The Witch’s Dream. I started it because I thought it was on my “From the Stacks Challenge” list. It was in the box clearly labeled “FtSC” but when I went to look at my FtSC post, it was not there. By then, I’d already added it to my books widgety thing and didn’t feel like taking it off. So, I read it.

And at first, I was really grouchy about reading it. Not only was it NOT on my challenge list, it was confusing as all hell in the beginning. TW kept saying “It’s good! You’ll like it!” (I don’t know why she insists on telling me whether something is good or bad, after that whole Kiterunner incident of 2004 I’m not really listening to her book feedback.)

I kept reading it and by the end of the first night, about 100 pages in, I was hooked. Interesting as all hell and I did actually start to like those witches, mediums, healers and whatnots.

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Sleep is for the Weak

3 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

Yay! The first BlogHer book, Sleep is for the Weak, is awesome. It’s also difficult to review properly but I’m going to give it a try.

I picked up my copy (and my sister’s copy), at the Macy’s party, and walked through the line to have it signed (that’s me in the weird brown jacket) by a bunch of the brilliant bloggers in the compilation. Lisa said, “have you read my essay?” When I said I hadn’t, she gave me THAT look and laughed. I looked at what she wrote in my copy and it made me very very nervous…

Fast forward to later that evening, back in my hotel room, I picked up my copy and read the acknowledegement and flipped through the index thinking about which bloggers I’ve been reading for years, which I used to read but stopped reading, which I read from time to time, which I’ve never read at all and which I have tried to read but just never felt a connection to. And then, I put the book down and went to sleep.

I picked it up again when I got home and immediately flipped to Lisa’s essay, nervously. And then I laughed. She’s such a TEASE. (TW read the book last night and her response to Lisa’s essay was “THAT is Lisa Stone. That’s who she is, that’s what she sounds like all of the time.” Heh. So true, but she’s also a TEASE.)

I flipped back to the beginning and read Stacy Morrison’s forward and it was awesome. Really awesome. Who knew the EIC of Redbook could use the word FUCK so often? Not me. (TW’s response to the forward was “The book is worth buying just for the forward.” – she’s right, it is.)

Then, on to the rest of the essays – and I loved it. Some of them I had read on the writer’s blog – Three Kid Circus, Fussy, Mir, Mom 101, Not Calm Dot Calm – all bloggers I read every single day. When I read an essay that I remembered from the blog, I immediately thought “oh I wish Rita had included this and that and that other post too!” Blogging is like that – one post sparks a memory of another one and I think it’s good that the book sparks the same thoughts.

There are bloggers who I’ve never read and will now start reading because I loved their essays.

There are bloggers who I have never read, though have tried to read them because everyone loves them – but they didn’t grab me on their blogs. They still didn’t grab me in the book. And again, I think this is good. We don’t all love the same bloggers. We don’t all love the same voices or stories or experiences or ideas. That’s what blogging is and that’s what a book written by bloggers should feel like.

Rita – you did a great job with this book. Congratulations. Seriously.

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Off the Beaten (Subway) Track

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Travel Log, Women /

I have been looking forward to BlogHer Contributing Editor Suzanne Reisman’s book, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track, for ages. It sat in my wishlist folder for a long time. It sat in my shopping cart for an even longer time. I finally took it out of my shopping cart and decided I’d just buy a copy while at BlogHer ’08 and have Suzanne sign it since she’d be there too.

TW bought it, while I was in a session, and it was already signed. But, I wanted a PERSONAL note and Suzanne graciously complied and I love it.

I started reading it on the trip home from the conference and didn’t stop laughing until I finished it last night. I should point out that I find it a lot more amusing than TW does because I have spent a lot more time reading Suzanne’s writing, listening to her talk, interacting with her via email and on the phone. The book sounds like Suzanne so it’s more personal for me than it will be for someone who just picks it up from the shelf (or orders it online) without knowing Suzanne. Even someone with only a passing relationship with her may not find it as amusing as I do. Or maybe I find it amusing because Suzanne and I share the same type of sense of humor?

The penis jokes in the book – awesome.

Her review of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors had me laughing so incredibly hard, I could barely breathe (and this is probably related as much to my children’s worship of Alex Grey as it is to Suzanne’s irreverent writing – my kids, they are insane about A.G. and his sacred mirror-ness.)

Also, Suzanne is not aware of this, but TW was supposed to take me to the NYC Police Museum many years ago and didn’t come through – so any book with a review of that museum within the first 50 pages has me sold.

I want to book a trip to NYC right this second and visit every spot highlighted by Suzanne – that’s my kind of sightseeing! Now if I could just convince her to write the same type of book for Chicago…

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The biggest lesson learned from BlogHer ’08

10 Comments / Books in Bed, Daily Dose, Health and Wellness, Non-Fiction, Women, Women, Work /

I’m not sure it’s really a lesson learned, more like a very big reminder of something I already knew. A very big reminder of something I already knew and should be doing but probably won’t.

I should blog more often.

That’s it. That’s the big lesson. The big reminder. It’s not anything new, I say it all of the time. I need more time to blog. I don’t have time to blog. I missed my own damn deadline (no CEs are reading this, right?)

I’m not blogging much and while I miss it, I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about it or trying to juggle my schedule or my energy so I can do it. It’s not a big deal, nobody is reading my blog anymore anyway. And, I keep contracting great writers on BlogHer so I’m not missed there either.

Except, that damn community keynote on Friday reminded me that I actually have been known to write posts that are important.

When we were reading the zillion entries for the community keynote and I saw Y’s post about body image was one of the submissions, I cringed. I cringed because I knew I’d get all weepy if I read it again. I had a hard time writing my post about Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. I had a hard time reading Y’s post when she published it and I was right, I had a horrible time reading it again during the selection process. And then listening to her read that post…during the keynote… ack.

That damn keynote.

Emotional subject matter with a little something else thrown in – the reminder that I really should blog more often because I do occasionally write stuff that other people appreciate reading.

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The Art of French Kissing

2008, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Women /

I decided to read one more light and easy book before diving back into the more serious stuff – The Art of French Kissing was very light and very easy. Also pretty amusing in that chick lit sort of way.

Why women have to be so damn stupid in chick lit like this is beyond me, though. I understand, your life is a mess but good grief, you should have realized that SOMETHING was going on between those two men and you should have found out what it was – not just from a potential relationship standpoint but because it was your JOB to figure out what the hell was going on and prepare for the fall out. Stupid. But I guess that wouldn’t have made for such an “aweeee” kind of ending, right?

Silly chick lit and good except for the stupid woman thing.

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