January 2009

People of the Book

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

You know what happens when an author writes one book that you really LOVED and another book that let you DOWN? Well I don’t know what happens to you but what happens to me is… I hesitate. Did I really want to read People of the Book? March just wasn’t great. Year of Wonders was great. What will this book be?

It was very good. Ten times better than March though not quite as good as Year of Wonders. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it – such a mishmash of characters but it didn’t take long for me to settle in and begin to like Hannah and all of the “people of the book”.

Excellent ending, I was worried. In fact worried enough that with about 30 pages left, I was tempted to put the book down and not finish it.

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Silver Needle Murder

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

I’ve been trying to come up with books to reserve at the library for TW’s mom. She likes romance. She likes mysteries. She seems to like series. She also needs large print. (If you’ve got recommendations, send ’em my way!) One of the series that popped into my head was the “tea shop mystery series set in Charleston”.

So I reserved the one that TW and I had read (and enjoyed) but when I got it home, she said she’d already read it. So, I reserved another… The Silver Needle Murder.

I must have mellowed in my old age because books set in Charleston that aren’t perfectly accurate used to bug me. Now, they don’t. I just plain enjoy every darn Charleston story I read. Homesickness or sick of freezing, icy, snowy, disgusting Chicago. Whatever. I liked this one. Silly chick lit mystery stuff, pure fluff. But hey, we all need fluff – particularly during Chicago winters.

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Dogs do bury things, who knew?

3 Comments / Animal Issues, Family Funk /

I’ve had a lot of dogs in my time but I’ve never had one that buried stuff. I’ve had dogs that chew. I’ve had dogs that dig. I’ve had dogs that demolish everything in their path. But no dogs have ever buried anything in my yard. I really thought this was some tall tale only seen in cartoons and read about in books.

Today I saw a dog bury something and it was funny as HELL.

The dogs were wound up today. The little dog got angry at the meter reader and could not stop barking. This caused Jake to bark. From there, they just barked at the snow or their own shadows or the oxygen tank or whatever. It was annoying.

I finally split them up because I could not take it any longer.

During their separation, TW and her mother had lunch. Jake was locked in the back of the house with me but the little dog was in the front of the house. Jake did not want to be with me because I do not eat. So Jake barked and whined and tried to knock the gate over. TW took pity on him and tossed him a couple of short rib bones. He wasn’t interested. He wanted to be in the front of the house with her.

The little dog, however, was very interested in those bones and tried to knock the gate over from the other direction to get to the bones.

Eventually, TW removed the gate and tried to urge the little dog out the back door to use the bathroom. Jake ran to the front of the house, little dog grabbed a bone and ran to the back. TW let the little dog out and he stood there chewing on his bone rather than using the bathroom.

After awhile, he buried the bone in the snow. But when he saw us all watching him, including Jake, he unburied it and started chewing on it again. Then, he buried it and TW finally convinced him to use the bathroom and come in.

Fast forward a few hours and the balmy 32 degrees has caused the 6″ of snow on the slide to slip down onto the ground in one glorious long slab of snow. Right on top of where little dog buried his bone.

Little dog is not happy about this development. There’s to much snow for him to dig it back out. He just stands there and looks at the spot where he buried the bone… and barks. While I stand in the house and laugh at him.

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The Woman Who Can’t Forget

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

The Woman Who Can’t Forget is another non-fiction plucked from Zan’s 2008 reading list.

Interesting but not super compelling. I kept wondering if she’d ever tried hypnosis. Can she be hypnotized? What would happen if she was asked about a date or an event under hypnosis – would her memory of the day/event be even stronger? the same? would it effect her memory of it after hypnosis? Would she be susceptible to suggestibility, which she seems not susceptible to in ways that the rest of us are?

OK I’m done thinking about this now.

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Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I don’t know how we missed the release of Ironside in 2007 but we did. If I hadn’t taken RJ to Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks to spend her Christmas gift card (thanks Mom!) I never would have known she had written another book in the series. I was just sitting there on the floor in the YA section discussing the merits of the various pirate and vampire series’ with RJ and there it was – staring at me from the shelf.

No I did not buy it. I put a note in my iPhone to remind me to reserve it at the library, duh.

And now I’ve ready it.

Wonderful. Ten times better than Valiant and as good as Tithe. Characters from both are in Ironside and they’re brought together perfectly, seamlessly even. Holly Black writes YA dark faery stories fabulously.

Now, a question – if you were a changeling, would you tell YOUR mother?

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I was told there’d be cake

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, short stories /

Every year I look forward to Zandria’s end of year reading list because Zan reads a lot of non-fiction. Every year I scroll through her “read” list and pull a few non-fictions from her list and add them to my “must read” list.

The first for this year is I Was Told There’d Be Cake.

I was ambivalent. Essays can either be excellent or really horrible. I was pretty sure this one wasn’t going to be horrible, I saw too many good reviews. Still, I worried. For about three minutes and then I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the reading.

Thank you, Zan.

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Cabinet of Wonders

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

I loved, loved, LOVED The Cabinet of Wonders! I started it last night and could easily have just read it straight through. But, sleep is important to us old folk so I didn’t. As soon as I finished it, I handed it to RJ telling her she must, must MUST read it right this second. I hope she likes it as much as I did.

What great characters – I want Iris’s power, errr curse, errr power, lol. Acid is cool. Petra is fabulous. I want Astrophil. And the marbles… now wouldn’t those come in handy?

Fantastic story – just the right length and pace. Perfect. Good Cybils finalist! Great, even.

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Chiggers

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

Chiggers was a lot more popular with my 10 year old graphic novel lover than it was with me. She read it first and reported that “it was better than good but not quite great” – I read it and thought it “ok but not quite good”.

But, I’m really not a huge graphic novel fan.

The idea was a good one. Summer camp and teen girls. Freshmen or not quite freshmen in high school. The mean girl thing. The feeling like you don’t fit in. The feeling like everyone changed and you’re still you. Very good idea and I suspect that’s why Liz liked it and I didn’t.

She’s not a summer camp fan. While she’s not a teen, she is in a new place and trying to figure out where she fits. And again, she really likes graphic novels.

I think she would say this should be in the finals for a Cybil award.

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Audrey, Wait!

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to really love Audrey, Wait! but that’s what happened. I think I loved it simply because I’ve survived two teenage girls (with two more to go.) Audrey’s life is like the normal teen girl x10.

I laughed out loud, over and over again, because it was all so totally believable to me. With all of the musicians Michelle-Belle was with, one of them could totally have written a song about her and BAM – instant fame – and instant chaos because teen girls don’t handle stuff well, heck nobody handles fame well without help. And you know what teens are like when it comes to asking parents for help… hahaha.

Will the YA target audience love Audrey, Wait! as much as I did? I have no idea. They’ll probably roll their eyes a lot, debate the merits of the songs included in the heading of each chapter, and head to their favorite band’s fan site and talk trash about the lead singer’s ex-girlfriend or something.

Hah.

Should this be a Cybils finalist? Hmmm, maybe. I’ve certainly read better YA fiction but I’ve also read worse. It’s always good to have solid female characters in YA books. OK yes, I’m good with it being a finalist.

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