2010

The Practice Room

2010, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Debbie B discovered I have a thing for YA fiction and mentioned of hers from high school had just written a YA book. I asked her the title, discovered it was a self published book so it wouldn’t be available at my library. I waited about 30 seconds and said what the hell, I’ll just buy it. And I did.

The Practice Room arrived shortly before my trip to California. I figured it would be an easy airport (and hotel room) read so I took it with me. Unfortunately, I also took Joe Hill with me – and I was super busy while I was there and pretty much just slept when I wasn’t working. So… I didn’t even pick the darn thing up until this week and I read it pretty quickly – not as quickly as I expected because it wasn’t super compelling.

It was kind of cute and was an interesting way to teach kids about music. In fact, with some polishing, it could be a really good way to teach kids about music. “Music-morphing” into another world is a good concept for a YA book, though I think this is really more middle grade fiction than YA. It just needs a wee bit more personality and a good editor to boost it along.

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Horns

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites /

Joe Hill ROCKS. I think he’s better than his father. I really really do. Not nearly as prolific but that’s ok – he has time – and it’s also ok if he never produces that much work, as long as he keeps writing stuff like Heart Shaped Box and Horns.

Horns —- brilliant.

Just when you think you’ve seen every horror storyline you can see, you get this. Fresh. Fresh. Fresh. And HOT. I think Satan would approve.

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The Secret of Shadow Ranch

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

Finally! George and Bess make their appearance. Ned is in “Europe” and we hear a good bit about him, off and on — also found a mistake. At the beginning of the book, Nancy tells George that she’s knitting a sweater for her dad. But at the end, she’s knitting a sweater for Ned. Also… no boating mishaps. Being in the dessert helps – though of course there was that river flood issue but Nancy was on a horse, not in a boat. Here’s my copy:

 

 

The Secret of Shadow Ranch

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The Mystery at Lilac Inn

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

Nancy Drew should stay out of boats. The first four books have had boat accidents – and no, not all of them have been boat accidents with Helen. It’s Nancy – she’s bad luck in boats. This is my copy. The binding isn’t happy. Sniff. How much does it cost to have the binding repaired on a Nancy Drew book? #4 Nancy Drew

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The Bungalow Mystery

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I had forgotten that so many of the first books in the Nancy Drew series featured Nancy’s friend Helen – and lots of different male dates for Nancy. I’m so used to George, Bess, and Ned that I’m thrown when Nancy is hanging out with Helen (who she mostly drops once Helen gets married) and dates so many different guys.

I’d also forgotten how often Nancy’s mysteries are tied to her father’s cases. The Bungalow Mystery is another one of those – what a coincidence! Also… beware of FOREIGN model cars. People who drive them are quite obviously crooks. Also, if you ask good people if they drive foreign cars, they will be a wee bit offended by the question.

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When Everything Changed

2010, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

It’s a good thing I’m still super busy at work. If I’d been able to read When Everything Changed nonstop and tweet my way through it, I’d have been blaming the patriarchy all over the place. And I know some of y’all get tired of that. Because you don’t want to think about all of the ways that you’re still bowing to the patriarchy – that we all are bowing to the patriarchy.

Everything did change – kind of – but we never got quite to where we should have been – on women’s rights or race.

PATRIARCHY. Bah.

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The Hidden Staircase

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Favorites, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I wonder what happened to my copy of The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2.) I’m very sure I owned it. My dad probably sold it in that infamous yard sale. Hmph.

Nancy really really could have used a cell phone in this mystery. So could Mr Drew. And also maybe Helen. (I had forgotten about Helen and Jim’s romance. Very amusing in that patriarchal sort of way.) Also amusing in this one were the food references. How exciting – floating island for dessert! Yum!

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Skybreaker

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

We enjoyed listening to Airborn on audio last year and were looking forward to listening to Skybreaker – the sequel to Airborn. I was disappointed – First, Matt’s become far too self-conscious about his lack of money. The whining and lack of self-confidence became tiresome and Matt became a character that I no longer respected.  Second, Nadira could have been a really interesting character but Oppel ditched her almost completely by the time they boarded the Hyperion. Why spend all of that time early in the book causing us to be interested in her and then barely mention her name once the story really got moving?

The next book in the series is Star Climber. I’m not sure I really want to read it. I’ve peeked that the synopsis and one review and it looks like we’ll find Matt whining his way through another adventure. That’s too bad.

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The Child Thief

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Should I start by confessing that I don’t really like Peter Pan? And I cannot stand the Disney-fied Tinkerbell, though I supposed I probably had some weird fondness for her when I was young. I think the problem was that I saw the Disney Peter Pan before I read Barrie’s original. The early tainting ruined it all for me.

And then there was Brom and Child Thief. I was opposed to reading it because the dude needs to get another name – does he think he’s Prince? Or Madonna? I was opposed to reading it because… see above. I was interested in reading it because naked women prints inside of a YA book – awesome, that doesn’t happen very often.

So – I read it. And ended up paying 60 cents for the pleasure because I was working my butt off and couldn’t read more than a chapter a night for almost a full week. I wanted to read it straight through. It was good. I might almost like Peter Pan again. Maybe. I definitely like The Lost Boys – particularly since this particular group of Devils weren’t just boys.

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The Battle of the Labyrinth

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was a huge Percy Jackson fan after reading the first book. I talked so much about Percy that Rick Riordan’s wife stopped by my old Books in Bed blog to leave a comment. I really enjoyed the second book, too. And then there was the third book which I liked but… something happened and I was less enthusiastic about Percy. I don’t know if it was anything Percy did (or Riordan) or if it was just that I was in children/YA fiction madness and I just couldn’t manage to read one more piece of children’s literature – no matter how much I might want to.

Whatever it was, I never read book four – until Liz started reading the series and became fixated on it. When I told her I hadn’t finished the series, she told me that I HAD TO… so I reserved Battle of the Labyrinth and it took me forever to finish it. It wasn’t Percy’s fault (or Luke’s either) and it wasn’t Riordan’s fault. It’s me, I’m just not finding enough time to read. I enjoyed the book well enough but like KitCat, I found the Labyrinth a lot less scary than I expected to. The Labyrinth should have been really really frightening – and it just seemed like a normal day in the life of a Half-Blood Hero.

I think Book Five is upstairs on Liz’s bedroom floor. I’m trying to decide if I just want to go ahead and read it or if I want to head back to my TBR list or some general library reading. Will I enjoy book five more if I read it right after book four? Or should I hold off and think about it for awhile? Decisions, decisions.

Oh, I almost forgot… while I was reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, I asked TW what color ink her “pen” would write…If she had one like Riptide…. She said hers would be purple, which isn’t much of a surprise. Mine would be blue – or red – I can’t decide. What color “pen” would you have?

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