2009

Kitchen

2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Fiction, Queer /

Well that was disappointing.

I picked up Kitchen because it was a cute little paperback with an interesting cover, printed on interesting paper, the author’s name is Banana (cool!), and because I’d recently returned from BlogHer Food. I was infected by Foodies.

I picked it up on Saturday (or was it Sunday?) because it was due back soon and because it was short. I needed something short.

Oy. It was indeed short. Extra short since I didn’t read the second story tacked on at the end of the book. It was not really related to Kitchen and I figured suffering through Kitchen was enough.

OK Maybe suffer isn’t the right word. But it surely wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was weird and not in a good way. I kept saying “Huh? WT… Huh?” all the way through it.

It had transgendered people in it, for goodness sakes. I should have loved it. But I definitely didn’t love it. I’ll blame it on the translation.

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The Wet Nurse’s Tale

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

Oh look, another book we got at the library after we saw it at Women and Children First. TW forced me to read The Wet Nurse’s Tale. I didn’t want to. It looked like nothing special and I’m so far behind on my From the Stacks Challenge that I will never catch up. But she insisted and it was late when I finished Skyscraper. So rather than go out to the office and figure out what I was reading next, I just started Wet Nurse, because it was there.

And last night I stayed up to finish it. It wasn’t super compelling until the end. Before the end, it was just a nice little story about a young girl who becomes a wet nurse (and whose mother had been a wet nurse.)

The ending – I liked it.

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The Wordy Shipmates

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

Another book we saw at Women and Children First. The Wordy Shipmates, I reserved on audio not having the remotest clue as to what it was about. All I knew was that TW wanted to read it and we hadn’t had an audio book for awhile.

Hah. Best audio decision I’ve ever made. Better even than the Ladies #1 Detective Agency books on audio.

At first, we just looked at each other in disbelief. The voice, the writing – it was our friend from BlogHer, Suzanne Reisman. But of course it wasn’t, it was Sarah Vowell but still… so, very Suzanne Reisman-like.

The snark! The glorious snark! And all of it directed at our Puritan forefathers. This ought to be required LISTENING for high school students. It’s interesting. Funny. Smart. I was sorry to see it end.

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Skyscraper

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

Skyscraper is a bit of pulp fiction by Faith Baldwin, re-released as part of the femme-fatales series, and I noticed it at Women & Children First a couple of weeks ago.

I’m a fan of woman written pulp so I reserved it at the library. It was the perfect read after finishing Say You’re One of the Them. Nice introduction and afterward as well.

If you haven’t read any of the old pulp fiction, or haven’t read any in a long time – check out the femme fatales series. Or anything by Faith Baldwin.

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The Help

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

During the summer, we were at the library checking out and another librarian and another patron were discussing a book that had just arrived on reserve for her. The librarian said it was the “hottest” book of the summer in the library. TW and I strained across the desk to see what it was, The Help. huh. We hadn’t heard of it.

I went home, put it on my reserve list and forgot about it.

It arrived last week and my goodness, it’s not in very good shape for such a new book. It’s made the rounds and it’s binding is in serious trouble (and it’s not TW’s fault for taking it in the bathtub either.)

Anyway, about the book. I see why it’s a hot commodity here in the Chicagoland suburbs. It’s nicely written. It’s about the relationship between white women in Mississippi and their maids. I loved the characters, all of them. Even the horrible white women who are very hard to love.

Great book that I did not want to end. I want to know what happens to Skeeter. To Minny. To poor Celia. To evil Hilly. To those little white children of Elizabeth’s, who God help them are going to be in some big trouble unless they get some help.

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Nation

2009, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

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.

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Crank

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

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.

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