2009

Castle Waiting

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I almost forgot to read Castle Waiting! Liz took it up to her room and never brought it back again… until I asked her where it was because it was due back to the library in three days…

Unfortunately, it’s taken more more than three days to read it due to the crazy that is my life. So, I owe a 10 cent fine on an excellent graphic novel. I can live with that.

Did I mention this is an excellent graphic novel.

Liz really liked it. She read it in the car. She read it in the living room, while the TV was on, she read it and read it.

I understand why. I did want to keep reading it and reading it. But I also enjoyed putting it down because of the nice ribbon bookmark built into the book. I really liked that. Nice touch for that book.

Fairy tales with a lot of odd twists.

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Laura Rider’s Masterpiece

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

Laura Rider’s Masterpiece had me laughing all the way to the bitter end… at which point, I was bitter. I didn’t like the ending.

TW has pointed out that I am often disappointed with the endings of books. She suggests the ending of a book is not important and I could just skip that last few pages or chapters (depending upon the size of the book) and be happier. Hmm she might have a point.

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The Book of Love

2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

I keep a list on Amazon that tracks books we want to read at some point – these books are either not available at the library when I first hear about them or they are books I don’t have time to reserve due to the current reserve list or our TBR pile. I only look at this list once or twice a year and when I do, I end up reserving a ton of books we should have read ages ago… or a ton of sequels to books we read and enjoyed.

The Book of Love is the second book in a series (The Magdalene Line) and honestly I’d forgotten all about it. I’m not sure why I’d forgotten about it since I really did enjoy The Expected One. Too many books, too little time, I guess.

It took me ages to read this book. I’d read a chapter, or half a chapter, and be falling asleep. I think that’s related to my current work load and not the content of the book. TW sailed through it, even more quickly than she normally sails through books, and she loved it.

I don’t think I liked it as well as I liked The Expected One and that’s because the relationships between the characters “today” didn’t evolve very much. We barely saw Tammy or Roland or even Berenger in this one.

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Airman

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Look! Another Cybil! Airman is the book I was least interested in reading from that category. It turned out to be a pretty darn good book. No way it could beat out most of the books in its category but I can see this one being a favorite among the kids it was written for.

Good, solid hero. Bad guys who were just bad enough to hate. A princess who wasn’t stupid. And just enough adventure to keep a kid reading and reading and reading.

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A Lion Among Men

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

I have a love/hate thing with Gregory Maguire.

Loved Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister
Loved Wicked
Hated Mirror Mirror
Did not love Son of a Witch
Bored by Lost

Based on the above, you might be a little bit surprised that I plucked A Lion Among Men off of the large print shelf. I was a little surprised, myself.

After the horrendous book Son of a Witch turned out to be, why would I want to ruin the memory of Wicked further with what would probably be another horrendous muddle up of The Wicked Years.

Well guess what. A Lion Among Men… fabulous. I did not want to put it down. Loved it. And because I loved it, it was worth it to read the hated Son of a Witch (without it, Lion Among Men would not have made sense.)

Yackle, Nor, The Dwarf – they all come together in The Cowardly Lion’s story. Nice. Very nicely written.

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Lamplighter

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

Lamplighter is a Cybil. We first got it on audio but after a few minutes gave up on it – we realized that without reading book one, we were completely clueless about what was happening. There are a lot of made up words that make absolutely no sense on audio.

So, I grabbed the first book (Monster Blood Tattoo) and read it awhile back. It was good. Prince J liked it too. TW didn’t read it then, but I grabbed it again and she read it earlier this week.

I knew what was “different” about Rossamund in book one. But TW and Prince J seem unaware.

Book two, Lamplighter… it all comes out. Well not all of it, but there are clues and clues all the way through, leading up to Rossamund (and others) figuring it out. (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here folks – sorry!)

Anyway, the only problem with book two is that book three appears to have not been published yet. And I really want to know what the heck is going to happen NOW.

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Four more Cybils

4 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

Of the four Cybils I read yesterday, there was only one that was a yawn. Fabulous Fishes, a nonfiction picture book, was just a wee bit boring – especially when you look at the other books in the category. It’s not a bad book, nice photos, nice rhymes but that’s just not enough in this category. I’m not a Nic Bishop fan but even his Frogs book was better. His photos just rock. I wouldn’t have chosen it to win the category but I do understand why others would have selected it.

Moving into middle grade fiction, I loved Shooting the Moon. Maybe it’s the military brat in me. Or the mom of military brats. But I just loved the book. If pushed, I’d say this was my favorite in that category.

Last, Sweethearts, from the YA fiction category. Another good book. A problem book that is just a little different from other problem books. A teen girl who recreates herself, never feels quite right in her new skin and then has to face the past. Really nicely written without a clear, clean, happy ending.

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The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

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

When someone from the BlogHer Book Club group mentioned The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, I looked it up on Amazon. The title was appealing and the cover even more so. I didn’t reserve it, just kept it in my head. About a week later, I happened to see it on the large print shelf so I grabbed it.

TW’s mom read it first and didn’t really like it but she said she thought we would like it.

TW read it and enjoyed it but didn’t really talk about it.

I read it and loved it.

I loved all of the characters. I loved the story. Loved the quilt (even though I figured out the quilt thing long before Truly did.)

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The Little Stranger

3 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Queer, Women /

I almost didn’t read The Little Stranger. I was going to boycott Sarah Waters’ latest book because I’d heard it didn’t have a lesbian theme or lesbian characters.

Hah.

It may not have had overt lesbian themes or characters but if Caroline wasn’t a lesbian… well, I think she probably was.

The Little Stranger was a good read, ten times better than Affinity. A good bit better than The Night Watch. It’s no Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith but it’s pretty darn good.

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The London Eye Mystery

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

When I saw The London Eye Mystery on the Cybils list, I knew it would be good but I didn’t expect it to be quite this good. Even after reading the reviews and seeing it win. I just didn’t expect this.

Actually, I didn’t know what to expect.

I had no idea “Ted” had been diagnosed with a “syndrome” or that it would be a book about a kid who it appears has Asperger’s. It was a brilliant book, with brilliant characters… even if I knew almost immediately where Salim was.

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