September 2009

Yay Killer Unicorns!

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I was terribly nervous to read Rampant. What if it wasn’t good. What if it was really really bad. What if it was just plain disappointing. What if, what if, what if…

But it was terrific! I loved it. I love the evil unicorns. I love all of the unicorn hunters. I loved Astrid. I hated her mother, with a passion that I cannot even begin to explain. I still hate her. I will hate her forever.

Need more killer unicorns, immediately.

But… also… because I complained about Sassymonkey avoiding the virginity issue, I’m going to mention it.

I wasn’t bothered by the fact that the hunters need to be virgins. I get it. Completely. I was bothered by the number of times these hunters, girls from all over the world, griped about boys – and all boys want… and how they constantly have to deal with what boys want. Never once mentioning that girls sometimes, really would like to have sex as well. And that girls also think about having sex. It made me ill.

I blame the patriarchy for a lot of things but this was something else, this was blaming boys and men. And it was a wee bit over the top for me. OK A lot over the top for me.

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Wake

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Oops, almost forgot another Cybil Challenge book. Wake.

TW and RJ read it ages ago and both were surprised to see it appear from the library, apparently RJ owns it. Who knew? Oh, I think I did – I just forgot. It’s hard to keep track of all of the books RJ owns. She does not avail herself of the library nearly enough.

So, about Wake. That would be my nightmare. To find yourself inside of someone else’s dreams? Ugh. No thanks. Interesting book, though. I’ll read the sequel.

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A couple more Cybils

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

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My Cybils Challenge is almost complete! I wish I could say that the last two books from the challenge were great ones. They weren’t. They were good, but not great.

Ten Cents a Dance was probably only interesting because of the Chicago backdrop. I found it just a wee bit boring.

I think I might enjoy the story of what happens to Ruby when she leaves Chicago more than I enjoyed the story of her in the Taxi Dancing business.

And then there’s The Explosionist, a book I’d really been looking forward to reading. Slow. Slow. Slow. It was only at the end that I began to really get into it and enjoy the plot. I expect the sequel will be better because we’ve gotten a ton of backstory out of the way. Surely there will be a sequel. We will find out what happens to Sophie and more about Nobel and his brain in a jar. Won’t we?

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth

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

I wonder if I found The Forest of Hands and Teeth through the BlogHer Book Club Group or was it a book that TW saw reviewed and then asked me to reserve at the library. I hate it when I can’t remember. Quick search of the Book Club group doesn’t pull up results so I’m guessing it was TW. Or maybe it was you, some random book blogger out there?

Whatever. We listened to it on audio and boy was it long. Not really but it sure felt long. The author writes the way we picture RJ would write if she was writing post apocalyptic fiction about teens and The Unconsecrated (aka Zombies.) Yes Zombies.

The story was interesting. The characters never quite became interesting. I liked the Sisters the best and we didn’t learn nearly enough about them due to the Unconsecrated attack on the village.

I definitely liked the book more than TW did. She was frustrated by the teen girl who never seemed to learn anything. I think she did learn from her experiences, she learned the way teens do. Slowly and painfully and never quite making as much progress as you’d like.

Feels like a sequel might be in the works and I wouldn’t mind reading it if it appears.

*Update: Of course I had to go and look to see if there is a sequel in the works, should have done that before I wrote this… there’s a prequel due to be published in March 2010. Fascinating.

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Smells like …

Daily Dose /

We’re listening to Pat Conroy’s South of Broad on audio, in the car. Mark Deakins is trying his darnedest to pull off the Charleston accent and while it’s not perfect, it’s surprisingly good.

Except when he was describing the scent of downtown Charleston in the morning… we could have sworn he said “…smells like Carfi and bacon.”

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The problem with not having a blog

Daily Dose /

When you don’t have a blog, you find all sorts of compelling things to blog about. Or not so compelling things. Like the fact that Pat Conroy makes me homesick. Or TW ran over my foot with the wheelchair – twice – and now it hurts like a son of a gun. Or that I cannot get caught up on my to do list and that’s driving me even more crazy than not having a blog to blog on. And of course I’ve finished four or five books and have no place to blog about them.

I should have stayed up all night last night and gotten my blog fixed. Sleep is not important. My bloggy security blanket is important.

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Catching Fire

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

TW read Catching Fire first. When she got to the end she said “this ended in a really bad place.” That was an understatement.

I expected some of what happened. I did not expect most of what happened. And no, I didn’t expect it to end quite that way.

I think, besides being #TeamKatniss, I’m also #TeamPeeta.

Now how long do we have to wait until the third book is out? Because I really need to know what happens NEXT.

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Woman at Point Zero

2009, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

Michelle’s financial aid and scholarship money was slow to come through and she needed her text books (Michelle is obsessive in her need to pre-read her textbooks prior to the first day of class. It’s a little weird) so I ordered them for her.

When I saw the two non textbooky books required for her woman’s studies class, I thought I had read Woman at Point Zero. In fact I was sure I had read it. But after reading the synopsis, and the reviews. I decided I had only heard about it or read about it – so I reserved a copy for myself at the library.

Nope, I hadn’t read it. No, I don’t think it’s quite as compelling as some of the Amazon reviews indicate it is. Yes, it’s a terrific book for an woman’s studies intro class. (I think Michelle will like the other assigned book better than this one… but I could be wrong. We’ll find out…)

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Wicked Plants

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I reserved Wicked Plants after seeing it in some bookstore or another. TW mentioned it because she saw it on some list or another. It was also on my Amazon wish list for awhile. And it’s terrific!

A great book to skim or pick up for a few minutes while you’re taking the dogs out to use the bathroom or waiting for the hold music to disappear prior to a conference call. It would also be a terrific book to just have on the shelf – particularly if you’re a gardener or an outdoorsy person or a trivia nut.

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