January 2010

The Creamsickle

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

I think we bought The Creamsickle at Women & Children First. TW read it a good long while back and it’s been sitting in the basket underneath my bedside table ever since. I added it to my From the Stacks Challenge list because it feels like it’s been awhile since I read a baby dyke/boi novel.

There wasn’t anything super special about The Creamsickle. If you’ve read one baby dyke fringe San Francisco based book, then you know what this was like. Lots of bed hopping. Lots of drugs. Lots of gender bending. Lots of skateboarding and biking. What was most interesting, to me, was picturing Katherine Forrest editing this. Now that was an interesting thought. And now I’m wondering what other queer books might be “Katherine V. Forrest Selections.”

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Look! Famous Author! I Know Her!

Daily Dose /

I’ve read the book. I’ve had breakfast with Suzanne. I’m going to have breakfast with her again next weekend. If you’re going to New York City, or live in New York City, then you must buy Off the Beaten (Subway) Track. And then help me convince Suzanne to write an off the beaten “EL” track for Chicago.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video.

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Bonk

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I’m a Mary Roach fan but if it hadn’t been for someone on BlogHer, I wouldn’t have known she had a new book: Bonk. (TW and RJ assumed it was about head injuries. They’re both clueless.)

I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did Stiff and Spook but that’s because I’m not a huge fan of graphic descriptions of skinning penises. Heck, I’m not a fan of any kind of description of skinning penises. I’m not really a fan of penises at all. Anyway. I enjoyed it. Mary Roach is brilliant and her willingness to participate in sex studies in order to get the details is admirable. Would YOU watch porn while a light wand was inserted in your vagina? Would you have sex with your partner inside of an MRI tube? 

On a related note, anyone interested in Flibanserin? Just wondering….

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Fame

1 Comment / Daily Dose /

RJ has her hair up in some weird ponytail and is acting ridiculous, and she won’t get out of my bedroom. But anyway, TW suggests I take a photo of RJ looking this way. I’m refusing because if I take a photo, I will upload it. And if I upload it, at some point she will come back and tell me to take it down because it is embarrassing. At which point I will refuse which will cause RJ angst. So no, I’m not taking a photo.

TW says – but we can show it to Mir as an example of what she has to look forward to with Chickadee.

RJ says – who is chickadee?

TW says – a kid who reminds us of you, her mother is Mir.

RJ says – who is Mir?

TW says – woulda coulda shoulda

RJ says – ohhhhhhhhhhh (silence) I don’t know who she is. I mean I know who she is, like I know The Bloggess, but I don’t know WHO she is.

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La’s Orchestra Saves the World

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

I was leery of Alexander McCall Smith's La's Orchestra Saves the World.  I love the Ladies #1 Detective Agency series but have never been able to read more than a few pages of any of his other books. They just weren't good.

TW was equally suspicious of the book and when I'd been reading it for four days and hadn't gotten past the second chapter, she told me to just give up because it was just like all of the others we'd tried. But I persisted. I was slow to read it because I was distracted by the holiday and work and travel and my big kids. I was pretty sure it wasn't the book that was the problem. I was right.

Once we got home and got settled into something close to our normal routine, I ripped through the book in two days. (It would have been one day but the lure of a new laptop is strong…) The book is pretty damn good. In fact it's better than that. I highly recommend it. I like La. I like the people we get to know from the orchestra and the small English town. I liked it all very much and found myself wishing the author had written it differently so that it could be a series. But no, every book can't be a series, can it?

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From the Stacks (by color) – 2010

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

I had a really hard time with this challenge last year. And the year before. I still want to do it because there are a ton of books on my shelves that I haven't read. I'm going to make it easier on me and reduce the number of books in the challenge. Instead of one a month, I'm going with one of each color on my shelf.

Here's what I'll read in 2010

Black
The Lost Sister – (7/5/10)

White
What to Wear to See the Pope – (7/10/10)

Red
Mistress of the Art of Death – (11/15/10)

Orange
The Underpainter – (11/4/10)

Yellow
Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company – (8/30/10)

Green
Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs – (10/24/10)

Blue
Syren – (6/17/10)

Purple
The Live Oak Motel – (10/31/10)

Brown
The Creamsickle – (1/14/10)

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The Cybils Shortlist Challenge – 2010

3 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge /

I’m addicted to YA and I enjoy children’s books as well, so it seemed smart to challenge myself to read all of the Cybil’s Short List books. Honestly, it wasn’t much of a challenge. I finished pretty early in the year and it was a piece of cake. I’m doing it again this year just because I enjoyed it so much. And, because I really appreciate the folks who work so hard to make the Cybil’s what they are. Here’s what I’ll be reading in 2010 (http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/):

Easy Readers/Short Chapter
Dinosaur Hunt – 11/9/10
Good Dog, Aggie – 10/25/10
Mr Putter & Tabby Spill the Beans – 11/6/10
Shampoodle – 10/25/10
Watch Me Throw the Ball – 10/31/10
Alice’s Shooting Star – 10/25/10
Bad to the Bone – 12/1/10
How Oliver Olsen Changed the World – 10/31/10
Mercy Watson: Something Wonky This Way Comes – 10/31/10
Roscoe Riley Rules #7 – 11/6/10

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade)
11 Birthdays – 4/21/10
Dreamdark: Silksinger – 5/10/10
The Farwalker’s Quest – 5/5/10
Odd and the Frost Giants – 4/14/10
The Prince of Fenway Park – 4/27/10
Serial Garden – 5/3/10
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – 4/28/10

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult)
Candor – 9/5/10
The Demon’s Lexicon – 9/12/10
The Dust of 100 Dogs -8/22/10
Fire – 3/19/10
Lips Touch Three Times – 8/19/10
Sacred Scars – 9/12/10
Tiger Moon – 9/15/10

Fiction Picture Books
The Curious Garden – 10/25/10
The Lion & the Mouse – 9/12/10
Jeremy Draws a Monster – 9/12/10
The Listeners – 10/31/10
All the World – 9/12/10
The Book that Eats People – 10/25/10
Silly Tilly – 9/12/10

Graphic Novels
Creepy Crawly Crime 3/13/10
Adventures in Cartooning – 3/20/10
The Stonekeeper’s Curse – 3/20/10
The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook 3/21/10
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom 3/22/10
The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale 3/21/10
Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation 3/16/10
Crogan’s Vengeance 3/21/10
 Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Death and Dementia 3/22/10
Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood 3/22/10

Middle Grade Fiction
Captain Nobody – 11/6/10
Chains – 11/15/10
Anything But Typical – 11/9/10
Heart of a Shepherd – 11/9/10
All the Broken Pieces – 11/8/10
Operation Yes – 10/27/10
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis – 10/30/10

Non-fiction (Picture)
Mermaid Queen – 8/14/10
The Day-Glo Brothers – 2.5.11
Life-Size Zoo – 8/22/10
14 Cows for America – 8/14/10
Moonshot – 8/14/10
Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea – 8/14/10
Faith – 8/14/10

Non-fiction (YA/Middle Grade)
Claudette Colvin – 4/18/10
The Frog Scientist – 6/26/10
I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets – 4/16/10
Marching for Freedom – 6/26/10
Written in Bone – 4/18/10

Poetry
African Acrostics – 6/26/10
The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry – 6/26/10
The Monsterologist – 6/26/10
Red Sings from Treetops – 6/26/10
The Tree that Time Built – 6/26/10

YA Fiction
Blue Plate Special – 9/20/10
Carter Finally Gets It – 11/8/10
Cracked Up to Be – 11/21/10
How to Say Goodbye in Robot – 8/13/10
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder – 11/13/10
North of Beautiful – 10/19/10
Wintergirls – 9/18/10

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Nancy Drew Challenge – 2010

4 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Nancy Drew Challenge /

I blame Sassymonkey. And all I can say, besides "I blame Sassymonkey" is, at least it's not the Gilmore Girls reading challenge  — because that's a killer!

I have a fondness for Nancy Drew. I still have almost all of them from my childhood and I look at them fondly every day. So this year, I'm going to read them. All of them. Every single one of them. Which is a lot but since I used to be able to read a half dozen in a day when I was a kid, surely I can  knock them out this year.

Here's the Challenge info: http://books-movies-chinesefood.blogspot.com/2009/11/nancy-drew-challenge.html
And here's the list of all of the Nancy Drew's. I'll be crossing them off as I finish.

  • 1 The Secret of the Old Clock 1930, 1959 – 1/26/10
  • 2 The Hidden Staircase 1930, 1959 – 2/15/10
  • 3 The Bungalow Mystery 1930, 1960 – 2/20/10
  • 4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn 1930, 1961 – 2/21/10
  • 5 The Secret at Shadow Ranch 1931, 1965 – 2/21/10
  • 6 The Secret of Red Gate Farm 1931, 1961 4/10/10
  • 7 The Clue in the Diary 1932, 1962 4/10/10
  • 8 Nancy's Mysterious Letter 1932, 1968 4/11/10
  • 9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles 1933, 1968
  • 10 The Password to Larkspur Lane 1933, 1966 – 4/14/10

  • 11 The Clue of the Broken Locket 1934, 1965
  • 12 The Message in the Hollow Oak 1935, 1972 – 4/15/10
  • 13 The Mystery of the Ivory Charm 1936, 1974
  • 14 The Whispering Statue 1937, 1970
  • 15 The Haunted Bridge 1937, 1972
  • 16 The Clue of the Tapping Heels 1939, 1969 – 4/20/10
  • 17 The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk 1940, 1976 – 8/18/10
  • 18 The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion 1941, 1971
  • 19 The Quest of the Missing Map 1942, 1969 – 8/18/10
  • 20 The Clue in the Jewel Box 1943, 1972 – 9/7/10

  • 21 The Secret in the Old Attic 1944, 1970 – 9/7/10
  • 22 The Clue in the Crumbling Wall 1945, 1973 – 9/13/10
  • 23 The Mystery of the Tolling Bell 1946, 1973
  • 24 The Clue in the Old Album 1947, 1977
  • 25 The Ghost of Blackwood Hall 1948, 1967
  • 26 The Clue of the Leaning Chimney 1949, 1967
  • 27 The Secret of the Wooden lady 1950, 1967
  • 28 The Clue of the Black Keys 1951, 1968
  • 29 The Mystery at the Ski Jump 1952, 1968 – 9/25/10
  • 30 The Clue of the Velvet Mask 1953, 1969 – 10/12/10

  • 31 The Ringmaster's Secret 1953, 1974 – 11/15/10
  • 32 The Scarlet Slipper Mystery 1954, 1974
  • 33 The Witch Tree Symbol 1955, 1974
  • 34 The Hidden Window Mystery 1956, 1975 – 11/16/10
  • 35 The Haunted Showboat 1957 – 1/19/11
  • 36 The Secret of the Golden Pavilion 1959 – 1/20/11
  • 37 The Clue in the Old Stagecoach 1960 – 4.9.11
  • 38 The Mystery of the Fire Dragon 1961 – 4/15/11
  • 39 The Clue of the Dancing Puppet 1962
  • 40 The Moonstone Castle Mystery 1963

  • 41 The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes 1964
  • 42 The Phantom of Pine Hill 1965 – 4.18.11
  • 43 The Mystery of the 99 Steps 1966
  • 44 The Clue in the Crossword Cipher 1967 – 4.19.11
  • 45 The Spider Sapphire Mystery 1968 – 6/18/11
  • 46 The Invisible Intruder 1969 – 6/18/11
  • 47 The Mysterious Mannequin 1970 – 6/18/11
  • 48 The Crooked Banister 1971 – 6/19/11
  • 49 The Secret of Mirror Bay 1972
  • 50 The Double Jinx Mystery 1973 – 12/31/11

  • 51 Mystery of the Glowing Eye 1974 – 12/31/11
  • 52 The Secret of the Forgotten City 1975 – 12/31/11
  • 53 The Sky Phantom 1976
  • 54 The Strange Message in the Parchment 1977
  • 55 Mystery of Crocodile Island 1978
  • 56 The Thirteenth Pearl 1979

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