2009

Three Cybils

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

First Cybil for the weekend, Big, Bad Bunny. Ho hum. It was cute but I don’t think it’s a book any of my kids would have crawled into my lap to hear over and over again.

Next, Mo Willems strikes again! I love new my toy isn’t nearly good as Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus but… it’s got something that made me smile all the way through it. Even when I read it a second time, over TW’s shoulder. (How come the elephant has a name but the pig is just “piggie”?)

Last one, graphic novel Into the Volcano. Great illustrations. Pretty decent story. I have a feeling Liz won’t like this one as much as the last couple of graphic novels I’ve given her, but we’ll find out this weekend. Updated: Liz liked it but not as much as she liked Chiggers.  It took her all weekend to finish it – not normal graphic novel behavior for her.  She usually refuses to put them down until she’s finished them.

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People of the Book

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

You know what happens when an author writes one book that you really LOVED and another book that let you DOWN? Well I don’t know what happens to you but what happens to me is… I hesitate. Did I really want to read People of the Book? March just wasn’t great. Year of Wonders was great. What will this book be?

It was very good. Ten times better than March though not quite as good as Year of Wonders. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it – such a mishmash of characters but it didn’t take long for me to settle in and begin to like Hannah and all of the “people of the book”.

Excellent ending, I was worried. In fact worried enough that with about 30 pages left, I was tempted to put the book down and not finish it.

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Silver Needle Murder

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Mystery /

I’ve been trying to come up with books to reserve at the library for TW’s mom. She likes romance. She likes mysteries. She seems to like series. She also needs large print. (If you’ve got recommendations, send ’em my way!) One of the series that popped into my head was the “tea shop mystery series set in Charleston”.

So I reserved the one that TW and I had read (and enjoyed) but when I got it home, she said she’d already read it. So, I reserved another… The Silver Needle Murder.

I must have mellowed in my old age because books set in Charleston that aren’t perfectly accurate used to bug me. Now, they don’t. I just plain enjoy every darn Charleston story I read. Homesickness or sick of freezing, icy, snowy, disgusting Chicago. Whatever. I liked this one. Silly chick lit mystery stuff, pure fluff. But hey, we all need fluff – particularly during Chicago winters.

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The Woman Who Can’t Forget

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

The Woman Who Can’t Forget is another non-fiction plucked from Zan’s 2008 reading list.

Interesting but not super compelling. I kept wondering if she’d ever tried hypnosis. Can she be hypnotized? What would happen if she was asked about a date or an event under hypnosis – would her memory of the day/event be even stronger? the same? would it effect her memory of it after hypnosis? Would she be susceptible to suggestibility, which she seems not susceptible to in ways that the rest of us are?

OK I’m done thinking about this now.

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Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I don’t know how we missed the release of Ironside in 2007 but we did. If I hadn’t taken RJ to Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks to spend her Christmas gift card (thanks Mom!) I never would have known she had written another book in the series. I was just sitting there on the floor in the YA section discussing the merits of the various pirate and vampire series’ with RJ and there it was – staring at me from the shelf.

No I did not buy it. I put a note in my iPhone to remind me to reserve it at the library, duh.

And now I’ve ready it.

Wonderful. Ten times better than Valiant and as good as Tithe. Characters from both are in Ironside and they’re brought together perfectly, seamlessly even. Holly Black writes YA dark faery stories fabulously.

Now, a question – if you were a changeling, would you tell YOUR mother?

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I was told there’d be cake

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, short stories /

Every year I look forward to Zandria’s end of year reading list because Zan reads a lot of non-fiction. Every year I scroll through her “read” list and pull a few non-fictions from her list and add them to my “must read” list.

The first for this year is I Was Told There’d Be Cake.

I was ambivalent. Essays can either be excellent or really horrible. I was pretty sure this one wasn’t going to be horrible, I saw too many good reviews. Still, I worried. For about three minutes and then I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the reading.

Thank you, Zan.

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Cabinet of Wonders

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I loved, loved, LOVED The Cabinet of Wonders! I started it last night and could easily have just read it straight through. But, sleep is important to us old folk so I didn’t. As soon as I finished it, I handed it to RJ telling her she must, must MUST read it right this second. I hope she likes it as much as I did.

What great characters – I want Iris’s power, errr curse, errr power, lol. Acid is cool. Petra is fabulous. I want Astrophil. And the marbles… now wouldn’t those come in handy?

Fantastic story – just the right length and pace. Perfect. Good Cybils finalist! Great, even.

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Chiggers

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

Chiggers was a lot more popular with my 10 year old graphic novel lover than it was with me. She read it first and reported that “it was better than good but not quite great” – I read it and thought it “ok but not quite good”.

But, I’m really not a huge graphic novel fan.

The idea was a good one. Summer camp and teen girls. Freshmen or not quite freshmen in high school. The mean girl thing. The feeling like you don’t fit in. The feeling like everyone changed and you’re still you. Very good idea and I suspect that’s why Liz liked it and I didn’t.

She’s not a summer camp fan. While she’s not a teen, she is in a new place and trying to figure out where she fits. And again, she really likes graphic novels.

I think she would say this should be in the finals for a Cybil award.

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Audrey, Wait!

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to really love Audrey, Wait! but that’s what happened. I think I loved it simply because I’ve survived two teenage girls (with two more to go.) Audrey’s life is like the normal teen girl x10.

I laughed out loud, over and over again, because it was all so totally believable to me. With all of the musicians Michelle-Belle was with, one of them could totally have written a song about her and BAM – instant fame – and instant chaos because teen girls don’t handle stuff well, heck nobody handles fame well without help. And you know what teens are like when it comes to asking parents for help… hahaha.

Will the YA target audience love Audrey, Wait! as much as I did? I have no idea. They’ll probably roll their eyes a lot, debate the merits of the songs included in the heading of each chapter, and head to their favorite band’s fan site and talk trash about the lead singer’s ex-girlfriend or something.

Hah.

Should this be a Cybils finalist? Hmmm, maybe. I’ve certainly read better YA fiction but I’ve also read worse. It’s always good to have solid female characters in YA books. OK yes, I’m good with it being a finalist.

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Marsbound

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I’m not really a SciFi fan so I would never have picked Marsbound from the library shelf. I would never have even looked at it close enough to see the author’s name and realize, “Hey, that’s Unca Joe!” that way TW did. I just don’t do much SciFi.

But man I’m glad that a) Lorena talks about her Unca Joe b) TW likes SciFi and pays attention to what Lorena says because Marsbound was excellent.

While TW was reading it, I asked her how it was – and she said good, sort of YA-like (though errr YA books don’t generally have their 18 or 19 year old teen girls having space sex with 30 year old men) and sort of “Acorna-like”.

TW was right, it was YA-like and it was Acorna-like because it’s such an easy and interesting read. You don’t have to work TOO hard to follow the story. The characters are likeable (except the “dragon lady”) and the story moves along at a fairly steady pace. No significant dragging, no jumping ahead and causing you to say “Hey, what happened there?!”

Loved the book. I want a sequel. Maybe an entire series.

Oh yea, also good – books about Gainesville that do not contain characters who are falling all over themselves to worship Gator football or basketball or any other GATOR sport. Nice touch, Unca Joe. Very nice.

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