2009

South of Broad

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I can’t help but like Pat Conroy, I just can’t. Even when I roll my eyes at his long foofy sentences and all of the D-R-A-M-A. I just can’t help it. It’s the Charlestonian in me. Sue me.

South of Broad gets more right about Charleston than most books set in my home town. On the rare occasion that Conroy gets something wrong, I can forgive him.

I even forgive him for throwing in Hugo for very little good reason that I could come up with. If you wanted to do away with someone, there were better ways. If you wanted to hook Leo and Molly up again, there were also better ways. But then again, that’s what Charleston is like – all roads lead to Hugo. OK OK fine, I forgive you Conroy. Just don’t write another book that includes Hugo, please.

Oh, one more thing… shorter epilogues, please.

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Identical

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

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.

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The Shortest Distance Between Two Women

2009, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Don't Read This, Fiction, Women /

I think The Shortest Distance Between Two Women is the first Kris Radish book that I didn’t really enjoy.

I liked the Guilford women. I liked the small SC town the story was set in. I even sort of liked the idea behind the book. But it was long and rambling and not in a good way.

It was feel good chick lit that really never felt good.

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Unclean Spirits

2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women, Young Adult /

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.

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The Year We Disappeared

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

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?

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I kept meaning to read Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Soceity and I really thought I’d already reserved it once and TW had read it.

But nope, she picked it up off of the shelf and I actually read it before her.

Best book I’ve read in ages. It would have been perfect for the airport/plane but once I had read three letters and realized this tidbit, I couldn’t put it down.

Quick, easy read.

Interesting, compelling, likable characters.

A WWII storyline that didn’t bore me to tears because I’ve read so many WWII stories.

Funny but smart funny.

Go read it and if you find a reading group like this one, let me know and I’ll join it with you.

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Dexter by Design

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I loved the ending of Dexter by Design and as sassymonkey pointed out, that’s the exactly the opposite of how I felt about Dexter in the Dark.

I’m a wee bit troubled by the title of the next book… I thought I knew what it would be, based on the ending. But it’s not (according to wikipedia…) Hmm now I’m a little nervous that Lindsay is going to flub up the next book after doing so well with this one.

OK I’ll stop worrying, I have to wait two years for the next book. Might as well settle in and just enjoy this one – and imagining GOOD things about what the next one might be like.

(SPOILER ALERT… instead of forcing us to wait 2 years, he should really release the next book 9 months from now…)

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Drawing in the Dust

2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

TW put Drawing in the Dust on my bedside table. When I asked her why, she said because it was good and I should read it.

When I picked it up last night she asked me why I was reading that.

See what I live with????

She was right, it was good. It was worth reading. I read it straight through.

I never used to read these Biblical excavation/mystery types of stories, now I seem to read them all of the time. (I blame HER for that – it’s a good thing most of them are interesting.)

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Princess Ben

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

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…

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