November 2008

links for 2008-11-20

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A Northern Light

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Feminism, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

I’m a little disappointed that I saved A Northern Light for last book (in paper, the real last book for the challenge is on audio, and in the car CD player now.) for my Printz Challenge. It was good, really good, but it didn’t leave me excited or thrilled about Printz the way some of the other really great books might have.

I struggled a bit with the story being told from two different points in time, I’m not sure it was necessary. I also think it’s one of those things that causes teens to throw up their hands and give up on a book. YA authors should not do it unless it just really really must be done. And in this case, I don’t think it needed to be done.

I liked the “word of the day”, I liked the “word of the day duels”, I liked all of the characters and for a brief moment I wanted to live somewhere with a “pickle boat” – then I regained my senses. I also liked the end, not happy – not sad – just “right”.

Good book… should have read it earlier in the challenge.

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Real snow

6 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Pet Peeves /

The weather man has been threatening us with snow for quite awhile and he’s mostly been wrong. We’ve seen some fall but not fall for long. We’ve seen some fake snow that’s like sleet or hail or something that’s harder and whiter than rain but has some stupid made up name that I don’t remember. We’ve mostly had what I consider FRIGHTFULLY COLD WEATHER mixed with HURRICANE FORCE WINDS.

I hate the weather here. I miss hurricanes.

I went out to get the mail tonight, a few minutes after 5. I’d put it off all day because… it was COLD and WINDY and I did not want to go outside. I’m already cold just sitting here in my house wearing two jackets. But I went to the mailbox anyway because somebody has to do it.

It was cold and windy and getting dark. Nothing new or unusual going on out there.

Twenty five minutes later, TW went out the back door to put the dog out and she screamed. I ignored her. She screamed again, threw open the door leading to the office and told me that I needed to “see this”. Bah.

I got up. I went to the door. It was dark. She wanted me to open the door. I refused. I wasn’t getting anywhere near a door that made her scream. So… she opened it.

snow.jpg

Snow. On the ground. WTF? Why do we live here? And how long before the dog refuses to go out in it? Right now he’ll still at least step out onto the ground and look around at it and then he’ll get up on the step and eat snow off of the top step. But how long will it be before we have to drag him out in it?

jakesnow.jpg

How many more months until spring? I am not sure I will survive this. Seriously.











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On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women /

For me, Kaye Gibbons is one of those authors I’m supposed to love… but don’t. As I picked up On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon I said… “I hope it’s better than Ellen Foster… or …whatever the short story was that was in The Awakening etc…”

It was but it was still a slow read, I still didn’t really care about any of the characters and I just kept thinking I’ve heard this story before.

Southern father, daughter likes to read, falls for northerner, everyone lives unhappily yet happily ever after… at least those who fought against slavery did, the rest of the folks just died. It was the civil war, after all.

I have finished it and I’m still waiting for a Kaye Gibbons book that I really love, not one that is just “good for me”.

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The Sugar Queen

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

I really enjoyed Garden Spells so I was wary of The Sugar Queen… second novels are often not as good as first novels. Even when Sassymonkey said The Sugar Queen was good, I wasn’t quite ready to believe it.

The Sugar Queen WAS good. It might even be better than Garden Spells, which bodes well for future novels from Sarah Addison Allen.

Loved the titles of the chapters, nice touch. Love the books that “find” Chloe. Love the cab driver who has to keep his promises. Love Helena err Marlena. Love them all.

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A Prius Update

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Money Talks /

I think I have solved the mystery of why my Prius gets (got?) so much better gas mileage than Joy’s Prius… The solution to the mystery is not something I’m happy to have figured out (sorry Joy!)

Joy got her Prius a year ago. It was a surprise Christmas gift. She thought she was getting a snow blower. This means she got her Prius when it was COLD… and her first 6 months of driving were in very, very cold weather. (It’s cold here people, I keep saying it and it is TRUE.)

I got my Prius in June. I got it in Florida. The first month I got it, we used the AC a good bit, it’s really WARM in Florida. Then, we got here and it was “cold” to us, so when we used the AC it was on low… or we simply did not use it at all.

Now, here I am just a few miles away from Joy and the weather is frightfully cold. My gas mileage has… tanked.

The Prius does not like cold weather. I believe it’s not just the cold weather, it does not like running the heat on HIGH for the entire time you’re driving. (We tend to do very short trips and the car never really warms up all of the way until we’re back home.)

When I fill up, and then drive the 20 miles home, the gas mileage isn’t bad. I’m getting in the low 50’s. That’s a bit of a difference from the 60mpg I’d been getting on that drive. But, I’m running the heat on low the whole way.

The gas mileage then drops considerably as we drive through the week. Yesterday, as I headed to Great Lakes NEX to fill up, I started at 36.1 mpg. By the time I reached Great Lakes, I was no longer driving with the heat on HIGh and the mileage had gone up to 42.6.

So… based on just a couple of weeks of driving in very cold weather, I can assume that Joy’s low mileage was related to six months of very cold weather driving, with heat that probably ran on high more often than it did on low.

I’m sort of grouchy that I have solved the mystery, ya know?

It’s freaking cold here… and it is going to get colder.

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Wicked Witch & Curse

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Wicked Witch & Curse caused an awful lot of confusion. TW was confused because all she saw on the cover was “Wicked” and she couldn’t figure out why I was reading Wicked for my From the Stacks Challenge – surely I’d read that years ago… (and yes, I had – I was not reading THAT Wicked.)

Then, I got confused because it turns out Wicked Witch & Curse is actually two books, in one. I was only a little more than halfway through the book and hit the “Epilogue” – huh? After the “Epilogue”… the next book started. Aye yi yi.

What’s really confusing (and also troubling) is that the story didn’t end at the end of “Wicked Curse” – there’s got to be at least one more volume and now I’m left wondering if I care enough about the characters or stories to track it down… I’m not sure.

It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. And in the second “book”… the “familiar” incident was pretty troubling to me, which I find totally odd.

I might read more… but I probably won’t unless I just stumble upon another book.

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links for 2008-11-12

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First Part Last

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

First Part Last was not the typical black city kids get pregnant story. Yes they’re black and they live in NYC but they’re not into drugs or alcohol, they’re not super poor, they’re smart kids who take classes like “Brit Lit”. And the 16 year old father raises the baby… but it doesn’t happen the way you’d expect.

** gotta close comments, the spammers won this round.**

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