2010

Chains

2 Comments / 2010, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

We listened to Chains on audio and it took a good bit longer to finish than I expected. For some reason I had it in my head that it was a short book, it wasn’t. It was pretty darn good, though. At first, I was skeptical. I like Laurie Halse Anderson’s contemporary YA fiction and I wasn’t sure she could pull off something about slaves just prior to and in the early days of the Revolutionary War but she did it. And she did it well.

I’ve got a little love/hate with the ending. I guess it did end as it should have (and goodness knows, she’d have needed another 400 pages to get us to another ending…) but I would really have liked to find out what happens next. Hah… good thing there’s a sequel… though reading the synopsis on Amazon leads me to wonder if I’m going to be happy with what happens next. I’m reserving it on audio now.

And with this book, I’ve finished the Middle Grade Fiction books from the Cybils Shortlist – they were all excellent choices, every darn one of them.

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Mistress in the Art of Death

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women /

Yipeee! I finished my From the Stacks (by color) Challenge today, with Mistress of the Art of Death. This was a good book to finish with – a long read, not because of the number of pages, but because of the complexity of the story. There was a lot to follow. I loved the ending. It would have been so easy to tie everything up in a neat and tidy (patriarchal package) – this way was better, much much better.

Long live King Henry II!

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Into the Wild Nerd Yonder

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

I had a hard time getting started with Into the Wild Nerd Yonder. I read the first five words about fifty times before I got anywhere and then I was pretty amused with the whole thing. There’s an awful lot of teen sex talk in this little YA novel. Girls giving blow jobs. Girls contracting STDs from said boys. Lots of trying to fit in with this crowd or that crowd. In the end, it all works out for the best – which often doesn’t happen in high school. And, this story almost made me wish I played D&D… and sewed. Almost.

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Ascendant – Some spoilery things so don’t click it if you don’t want spoilers.

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

One of the books I was most looking forward to reading this year was Ascendant, sequel to Rampant. Killer unicorns are awesome, even if Rampant has some troubling virginity themes.  It took forever for the book to be ready for me at the library and while I waited, Sassymonkey read it – and wrote about it. Uh oh. So when it arrived, I knew there were some potential problems waiting for me but since I don’t always agree with Sassymonkey – I dove in and tried to ignore what she’d written.

But, it started slowly. I struggled. And I struggled with the pace for the entire book – just as Sassymonkey said.

I also really hated what was going on with Cory (and the clueless Astrid) in the first 50 pages. I think that’s what bugged me most about Ascendant – the clumsy Cory storyline. Either tell us about the problem with lesbian virgin hunters or set it up properly so you can tell us in the next book (the book that you don’t actually have a book deal for…) Clumsy. I like the idea of addressing it but I do not like the manner in which it was addressed (It felt like maybe Peterfreund doesn’t really know what the problem might or might not be with lesbian virgin hunters… thus the clumsy handling of it.)

And Astrid, oh Astrid. Teen girls are not the most mature of creatures but I’m getting a little tired of the warrior making so many poor decisions. I know she has mother issues, who wouldn’t with Lilith as a mother, but good grief – Astrid should have been just a little smarter than that. There were moments when it was worse than reading Bella (Twilight).

None of this means that Ascendant was a bad book – it wasn’t. It’s still an excellent story. The actaeon storyline – brilliant. I do still want book three. Scratch that –  I need book three since this one was so much of a muddled up mess in places.  I hope we see more of Wren and Flayer (who it was nice to see again – they made their first appearance in Zombies vs Unicorns and I really loved that story.) And I hope Peterfreund can fix the Cory problem properly.

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Three More Cybils

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

All three of these were pleasant surprises. Very pleasant surprises.

Dinosaur Hunt is a short chapter/easy reader that’s way too easy to be in the short chapter book category – kind of like the Mo Willems books. It can’t compete with Mo, unfortunately, but I liked it an awful lot. A cute little dog heads out to hunt dinosaurs in the yard – and he ends up building a dinosaur out of every day stuff you find in the yard. I liked it. Fun. Cute. I like Max Spaniel.

And then there was Anything But Typical – I was not expecting such an awesome book in that particular package. It’s one of those softcover paperbacks that you see in school book order forms – Scholastic type. I hope a lot of kids read this, expecting it to be lighter and easier than it was. I loved the Storyboard storyline and the Storyboard convention. I liked the online girlfriend twist. I like that all of the characters felt very real to me. I think that’s tough sometimes when you’re writing about autism.

The biggest surprise of all was Heart of a Shepherd. I didn’t remember this being on the Cybils list. When it came out of the library bag, at first I thought it was a Christian fiction large print that we had grabbed for TW’s mom. But no, it wasn’t large print. It also didn’t seem like something TW would have just plucked from the shelf. I shrugged, but it on the cart and forgot about it… until I needed another book, checked my Cybils post and discovered that book was MINE. Huh.

It started on a ranch and felt like some sort of old fashioned “western” story. I thought that’s what it was for a few pages until the boy’s dad was being sent to Iraq.  Then I wasn’t so confused. And I was pretty much hooked. I have no idea why the author had the boys’ mother living in Italy but whatever, it’s a small piece of an otherwise excellent story. And in the end, it could have been a very nice large print Christian fiction for TW’s mom. If it had been in large print. I’m guessing there will be a lot of kids who turn their noses up at this one. Too bad because I liked it.

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Carter Finally Gets It

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to love Carter Finally Gets It… a book about a dumb male freshman? Please. Boys. Are. ANNOYING. In. HIGH SCHOOL. And Carter was annoying, as were his dumb friends. But Carter was also endearingly annoying in that he has no idea what he’s doing sort of way. It was cute. And funny. Also, it was a nice change from the books about dumb female freshman. Because Girls. ARE. Annoying. In. HIGH SCHOOL.

Loved the book. I wish I could convince all three of the younger kids to read it. Maybe I should get it on audio and force them to listen to it in the car…

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Three More Cybils – All Good, For Different Reasons

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

First, Mr Putter & Tabby Spill the Beans is an easy reader that’s really, really easy. I tend to like these less than any other type of book and I felt the same way about this one except…. As Mr Putter and Mrs Teaberry are learning 100 Ways to Cook Beans, I began to think in my head “I bet there will be bean Jell-o”. I turned the page and…. Yep, Three Bean Jell-o and from then on, the book was a hit. That’s all it needed. Oh the real story about having to try new things (particularly things that don’t sound fun) because those new things will make someone else happy” is a good lesson and it’s told in a cute way. But really, if there had been no bean Jell-o, I’d have been bored. As it is, I’m thinking about buying this silly book. Heh.

Captain Nobody is a middle grade fiction that feels a little young for MGF but it certainly wasn’t an easy reader/early chapter book. Oy, genre classification is hard.  It started slowly but after The Big Tackle, it moved quickly and I was hooked. Captain Nobody became the town’s hero and his sidekicks get some of the spotlight too. Nice book. I liked it.

I’m a big fan of Roscoe Riley (and his rules). I particularly like #7 – Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin because it’s true! You shouldn’t. And I do not care what anyone says, bad stuff can happen if you break a mirror or if an evil black cat crosses your path (the problem is knowing whether a cat is evil or not, lol.)

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Mischief of the Mistletoe

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction /

Damn I love Lauren Willig. And I love Turnip most of all, though Arabella is probably high on my love list too. Brilliant use of Jane Austen (and The Watsons) as the foundation for Mischief of the Mistletoe. Brilliant. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end – and I laughed out loud, over and over again.

I can hardly wait for The Orchid Affair.

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The Underpainter

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge /

The Underpainter was not the best book to take on a quick trip to California. It’s not the best book to read in an airport, on an airplane or in a Holiday Inn Express with very loud music and even louder male voices blaring from the rooms next door. The Underpainter is a book you want to read while lounging under a tree or in a really plush and comfortable lounge chair. It’s also a book that needs a lot of highlight markings or at least the previous owner of my copy seemed to think so. That’s the problem with buying used books, sometimes I get distracted by the words and phrases previous owners felt it necessary to highlight.

Anyway – beautifully written. I hated Austin, which is probably as it should be. I felt sorry for him too, which is also as it should be.

One more book for my From the Stacks Challenge and I’ll be done! Yay me. Yay me.

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