Timeless

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Steampunk, Women /

Thank goodness – you know how a series can get kind of boring after awhile, particularly if you read a bunch of books in the series really close together? Well Timeless, the fifth book in the Parasol Protectorate series, was excellent. As TW said, just as good as the first book and certainly better than the second and third and fourth. I was glad to see that some of the things I thought should happen in order to tie everything into a neat and pretty package DID happen. But now I’m dying to know what happens next and there is no next.  I mean I know what happens because the last book tied it all up for us but I want to READ it not just picture it. And, to not know how Ivy manages. Or see Madame LeFeoux neat and tidy. And. And. And.

Darn.

I guess I can wait for Prudence to grow up a bit more, 2013 will come around soon enough. I guess.

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From Bad to Cursed

2012, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Thank goodness From Bad to Cursed had no demon dolls like the first Bad Girls Don’t Die book did. This one might have freaked me out even more though. Stepford wife type girls. Cult girls. And when Alexis slammed the chair into…. Well, I won’t ruin it for you but gah. What will happen next? Is everyone going to hate Alexis and Kasey? And in the next book, we’re going to see more Carter – right? Because something tells me I will be reading the next book, they’re too creepy NOT to read.

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In Dreams

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Kindle, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

When I heard Jennster had self-published a YA book, I put it on my list of books to read (once I caught up with my TBR list) because I love Jennster. She’s fun and she’s funny and I’m a big believer in supporting BlogHer peeps – I never did get caught up on my TBR list but I did buy her book. And I did finally, after months and months, read it.

In Dreams was not like any other YA fantasy chick lit I’ve ever read. Really. Totally unusual plot – particularly toward the end. I mean it’s not a surprise for girls to fall for “dream boys” but… well… this dream boy was really a DREAM boy who was also real. Sort of.  It’s complicated but also easy, once Kat figures out who he is. Of course that’s also when the drama begins.

The book needs an edit, like almost every self-published book I’ve ever read, but it was a quick, easy read … and Jennster is totally awesome.

*Update: I just noticed there appears to be an edited-this-year version (and I’ve had my copy for a very long time — so yay for edits!)

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Do the Math: Secrets, Lies and Algebra

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction /

The little spinny thing on my library website strikes again. Do the Math: Secrets, Lies and Algebra sounded cute so I reserved it. And it was cute. Super fast read with an awesome eight grade girl who thinks about pretty much everything in math terms, theories, and problems. And she doesn’t do it in a way that causes me to roll my eyes. Even though my TBR list is long this year, I’m very tempted to reserve the next book to find out what happens next. That Richard needs someone to teach him a lesson… just sayin’… And, I don’t care what the police decided – I think Rob was more involved than we will ever know.

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Rules of Inheritance

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith is one of the BlogHer Book Club books – but I did not receive a review copy and am not blogging about this as part of the book club. I’m reading it because it sounds good and because I’ve read Claire’s blog for YEARS.

I was a little nervous about reading Rules of Inheritance. I knew Claire was an amazing writer from reading her blog but I don’t always love books written by bloggers. And then there was the whole non-chronological thing – that made me nervous. I shouldn’t have been. It was excellent, in fact, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the book as much if it had been written chronologically.

I also love that this was truly a memoir without any self-helpy stuff tossed in, which often happens in grief and loss memoirs. Claire’s not preachy. She’s just really honest about how screwed up she was, how horrible it was, and how she came out on the other side.  Beautifully written, as expected.  I loved it.

(Side Note: I don’t know if she never blogged about her trip to the Philippines or if I missed that but her telling of her trip made me smile (while yelling YOU ARE CRAZY) – having lived there, it doesn’t surprise me that she found people who were kind to her along the way but it also would not have surprised me had some truly horrible things happened. That’s how it is/was there.)

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Spend-A-Little-Save-A-Lot Home Improvements

2012, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

It happened again – I got sucked into reserving a book that appeared on the “explor” spinny thingy on my library’s website. Spend-A-Little-Save-A-Lot Home Improvements was interesting enough, not that I’m planning on replacing any shingles or anything like that. Though I did find a toy that I think TW needs, if I can bring myself to giving it to her and then dealing with the mayhem that will follow as she begins a home improvement project. And also – she’s right, our water heater needs a blanket.

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2 Cybils Picture Books

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

The Princess and the Pig was kind of cute –I liked the “It happens that way in books” refrain throughout the story. Very cute, though the youngest of children may not get it if they haven’t been exposed to all of the traditional fairy tales.  I was pretty troubled by the queen dropping her baby out the window and not realizing it – I mean, I know queens are dumb but that was pretty bad. Sheesh.

I wasn’t sure I’d like Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow but the illustrations and the foldouts really worked.  I would add this one to Johnny Mac Pippins reading list. Definitely.

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A Month of Books – February

2012, Books in Bed, Reading Lists /

Let’s see how I did in February – pretty darn well, I think. Maybe?

Starting with my Challenges:

Audiobooks – 3 (Finally finished The Marriage Plot and then listened to Dexter and finished up with  A Monster Calls, which was amazing but read the full post before you decide to read it.)

Steampunk – 3  (Which means I’ve pretty much exceeded the initial goal I set for myself for this challenge – too easy, particularly when the Souless series was too good not to read. Let’s see if I can do 9 total this year.)

Adoption – 0 (Sheesh. I need some recommendations.)

Queer – 1 (Gah, seriously? We need more gay fiction.)

From the Stacks – 1 (Two for one! Chasing Lightning from the stacks and queer – sweet!)

Cybils – 8 (Mostly graphic novels but I’ve made a good start.)

Nancy Drew – 0

Total Books Read – 24

–          YA 2 (Really? Just 2? That’s crazy)

–          Non-fiction 2 (Really? Gah! I thought it was more.)

–          Graphic Novels 4 (Now we’re getting somewhere)

–          Children’s books 4 (Ah hah, now I remember what I read in February)

–          1 eBook

Books Quit – 1, though I don’t consider it a quit since I read one paragraph and put it down. I didn’t even know whether I wanted to read it – I just plucked it from the shelf without looking to see what it was.

Books in Progress – 2 (One print, one eBook.)

Shoot. Maybe I didn’t do quite as well as I thought?

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A Monster Calls

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Lord. This book, A Monster Calls, should teach me to reserve books without paying any attention to a) who wrote them b) what they are about.

Patrick Ness. That should have given me at least a clue as to what we were in for when we started listening to the book on audio. But, I didn’t know he wrote it. I didn’t pay attention. It was a Cybils Shortlist and that’s all I knew.

Gah.

It started off nicely. Really nicely, actually. With a tribute to a YA author who had died. The name of the author sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it – so I looked it up when I came home that first day of listening to it and discovered … Siobahn Dowd, the author of The London Eye Mystery (which I loved), had died. I didn’t know that. So sad – but a super wonderful tribute to her starts this book off nicely.

And then there’s a Yew tree monster, which makes perfect sense and TW was nodding her head along with the story and I was smiling.

There’s a lot about stories – the power of stories – how they’re wild things and hold a lot of power.

See, great start, right?

Sure, it was obvious that this was going to be a tough read, Connor’s mom has cancer and that never ends well. His dad moved to the US and is never around, either. He’s got some bully problems at school. Pretty typical of a YA novel – throw in a story telling Yew tree monster and you’ve got one hell of a book.

And then the pain starts. The emotional and physical pain of listening to the story play out – the horrible, horrible nightmare of a story. The pain starts slowly, and works its way into your head first. And then it grabs hold of your heart and twists and does not let go until you’re a bloody, sobbing, mess.

This book – horribly wonderful. Really. Ness is a master storyteller. He is. And when he tells you a heartbreaking story, you literally feel your heart break.

Be careful with this book. If you’ve lost someone recently. If your child has lost someone or is terrified of losing someone she loves – she may not be ready for this one. Hell, it’s possible that nobody, ever, is ready for this book.  But, it’s too good to NOT read.  I would also suggest careful thought to the age of the child reading. This is on the Cybils shortlist as Middle Grade fantasy/science fiction, which in my house tends to mean 8-12. But, I’m not sure that’s right – it feels older, deeper and a whole lot scarier than some 8 year olds are ready for. It’s not the story of sex between the prince and the farmgirl, that’s tame. But it is very, very violent. And heart-wrenching, I mentioned that painful, heartbreaking horror – right?

There are books that stay with you for your whole life – this is going to be one of those books.

*Note: We listened to it on audio so we didn’t see the illustrations others speak so highly of – there is a bonus DVD in the audio book but I’m not sure I want to SEE those images. Listening may have been enough for me… We’ll see.*

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