2008

Murder Most Crafty

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, short stories /

Darn it. I enjoyed the Murder Most Crafty short stories quite a bit but I’m disappointed because I’m dumb.

When I put the book on my From the Stacks challenge list, for some reason I thought it was one of the Maggody Murder Mysteries. Boo! TW has been enjoying that series for ages and I’ve never read one – I was looking forward to FINALLY getting a crack at one of them. Oh well, another time maybe.

Anyway, about these short stories, most of them were pretty good. Some were dumb. Some were good but felt rushed but that’s what happens with some short stories, isn’t it? I had some weird dream about candles last night after finishing the book – probably related to the one about wax being poured down the chick’s nose and throat. Yuk, not a good way to die, ya know?

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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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The Nasty Bits

5 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I’ve finally read The Nasty Bits, remember when a million bloggers got free copies? Hah. It only took two years (?) for me to read it, no thanks to TW who said I’d probably hate it. Except that it was crude…or maybe she said crass… so maybe I’d like it after all. Whatever.

I did like it. I like books written by foodies or about foodies. Reading the prologue, I wasn’t sure. All of that seal blubber stuff was a little much even for me (the woman who likes crude and crass stuff.) Thankfully Bourdain settled down and for the most part left the really disgusting raw meat descriptions in the trash bin.

Interesting book and I’m sorry I don’t really like food well enough to “get it”, also sorry that I’ve never read Kitchen Confidential, also sorry I’ve never seen him on TV and sorry I haven’t been to Vietnam yet.

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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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Queer

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer /

Queer is a book that’s on my From the Stacks Challenge list and I really wish I’d just left it on the stacks, unread.

I thought about putting it down, but I kept thinking it would get better or at least slightly less weird. Why I would have thought that, since I have read The Naked Lunch (which I liked) I dunno. But this is the kind of thing that usually prevents me from quitting a book, especially a short book.

Maybe I should have read Junky first? Oh well, too late now.

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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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The Flame Trees of Thikka

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, From the Stacks Challenge, Non-Fiction /

This is another book in my From the Stacks challenge and when TW saw me reading The Flame Trees of Thikka she said – “Didn’t you read that in middle school?” Err no. I cannot imagine such thing even being in my middle school library in Charleston, SC. It certainly wouldn’t have been on the required reading list for either middle or high school. So no. I hadn’t read it or anything else by Huxley. I should read more though. Old, dated, African non-fiction – awesome. Loved it.

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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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John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Non-Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

So, the last book I read in Gainesville from the very excellent Gainesville library was John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography and to tell you the truth, I didn’t quite finish it before we left town. I had two chapters to go. I might someday grab it from the shelf of a bookstore and finish the last two chapters, but probably not.

It was “OK” but I couldn’t figure out why it was even on the Printz award list. There wasn’t anything outstanding about it – it was just a kids biography of Lennon. Shrug. The photos were nice. The tidbits about Lennon’s childhood and how it all started was sort of interesting. Maybe if I was more of a Beatles fan…?

In other challenge notes, I’m reading Quatrocentro from my “from the stacks” challenge but I feel like maybe I’ve already read it. I’ll know for sure tonight, I think.

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