I’m a fairy tale fan. I’m also a modern day fairy tale fan. When I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read mentioned Ash I went immediately to my library website and reserved the book.
Awesome.
Not just a lesbian Cinderella but there are also fairies and huntresses. Best adaptation of Cinderella I’ve read in a long long time.
Not sure why I grabbed Going Bovine on audio, probably related to having just finished South of Broad on audio and feeling like something was missing by being in the car without an audio book.
It was a good choice for audio. I think it was probably better in audio than I’d have found it if I’d read it in paper.
Amusing story and I appreciated that the ending wasn’t fairy tale (TW was less appreciative of that and I bet if the kids had heard the ending, they’d have been disappointed.)
The best parts were related to the CESSNAB (Church of Everlasting Satisfaction and Snack and Bowl) and the “freeing of the snowglobes”.
I’m not a Terry Pratchett fanatic. I like him well enough but not that much. I’ve probably only read three of his books, well four now that I’ve read Nation.
It started slow but once I settled down with it, I liked it very much. I’m even a little sad that it doesn’t sound like there’s a sequel. Too bad, I’d have liked Daphne and Mau to have continued.
Alrighty, I’ve done my supporting banned and challenged books thing for the season. Two Ellen Hopkins books down and I swear I’m not going to read another one. Really. I’m not. I can’t. I just can’t do it.
I was enjoying Crank well enough. Reading Identical last week got me nice and prepped for the prose and RJ ranting about the stupidity and unrealistic lifestyle choices of “Bree” had me ready to tackle this “fantasy”.
Hah. It wasn’t as unrealistic as RJ would like to think but it was stupid – at least that part where the crank addicted 17 year old decided to carry her pregnancy to term and Kristina’s mother was glad she “honored her baby” and didn’t abort. Oh freaking brother.
Nope, can’t read any more Hopkins. That sealed it for me.
In honor of Banned Book Week, I put a couple of Ellen Hopkins books on my library reserve list. I couldn’t believe I’d never read one of her books before… they all seemed so familiar.
Turns out there’s a reason why her books were familiar, Crank is the book RJ ranted about reading for the first couple of weeks of school. It was too depressing and it wasn’t realistic… yes, she said that. It wasn’t realistic to her because she wouldn’t be the girl in Crank. Whatever…
Identical was interesting once I got used to the prose style writing. And oddly enough, it took me a good long while to figure out the underlying issue with Kayleigh and Raeanne…
RJ would say this is depressing, and oh boy is it… but I think she’d have probably liked it better than Crank.
TW said I should read Unclean Spirits and it seemed like a smart choice for the trip home from BlogHer Food. There was no way I’d be able to read anything deep or serious, not with that level of exhaustion, illness and frustration.
As it was, I could only barely read the fluff (in a dark, deadly sort of fluffy way) and it took about twice as long to finish as it should have.
Jayne is a pretty solid female character. Oh she has her problems but she’s a teenager. With bad parents. And a crazy uncle who didn’t prepare her for what she was stepping into. (People, learn a lesson – if you’re going to leave someone a gazillion dollars and the job of fighting demons, prepare them for the task – even if you are sure you aren’t going to die for ages and even if you think the person you’re leaving the money and the job to is too young to hear it. Prep is good. Really it is.)
I’m not dying to read the next book but I won’t turn my nose up at it if it appears on my library list.
The very best thing I can say about The Year We Disappeared is that with this book I finished my Cybil Challenge. Yay me!
I really wish I hadn’t finished with such a dull book. Dull, dull, dull. Disappointing because it’s a true story and a great story.
I’ve always wondered about relocation programs. So this should have been interesting and compelling for me. Did I mention it was dull?
The Year We Disappeared Read More »
I couldn’t figure out why TW was so happy to read Princess Ben. And when she started talking about how excited RJ would be to read it, I was just plain skeptical. (RJ only reads vampire novels right now, unless forced to read something else…)
When TW and the kids came home from school pick up and RJ had stolen Princess Ben out from under TW… and then would not return it to her later that evening so her mother could finish it, I was more than a little shocked.
There are no vampires in Princess Ben. And it seemed like just another strong girl princess sort of book. Also, while I liked Off Season and Dairy Queen, the writing was not so compelling as to cause teenage girls (or their mothers) to fight over them.
So what was it about Princess Ben…? I have no idea, but it was good. It was compelling. It was worth fighting over. There wasn’t anything super surprising about it. This was not the first time we’ve read a Princess slays dragon and wakes the Prince with a kiss sort of book. I don’t even think it was the emotional eating Princess.
Not that I know what, exactly, causes this to be a great book – a combination of those things plus surprisingly good writing, characters you’re drawn to, and the dropped mentions of other fairy tales – all of the above?
Surely this will make the Cybil short list…
Oops, almost forgot another Cybil Challenge book. Wake.
TW and RJ read it ages ago and both were surprised to see it appear from the library, apparently RJ owns it. Who knew? Oh, I think I did – I just forgot. It’s hard to keep track of all of the books RJ owns. She does not avail herself of the library nearly enough.
So, about Wake. That would be my nightmare. To find yourself inside of someone else’s dreams? Ugh. No thanks. Interesting book, though. I’ll read the sequel.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My Cybils Challenge is almost complete! I wish I could say that the last two books from the challenge were great ones. They weren’t. They were good, but not great.
Ten Cents a Dance was probably only interesting because of the Chicago backdrop. I found it just a wee bit boring.
I think I might enjoy the story of what happens to Ruby when she leaves Chicago more than I enjoyed the story of her in the Taxi Dancing business.
And then there’s The Explosionist, a book I’d really been looking forward to reading. Slow. Slow. Slow. It was only at the end that I began to really get into it and enjoy the plot. I expect the sequel will be better because we’ve gotten a ton of backstory out of the way. Surely there will be a sequel. We will find out what happens to Sophie and more about Nobel and his brain in a jar. Won’t we?
A couple more Cybils Read More »