If Books Could Kill

I snagged If Books Could Kill for RJ – I am always on the lookout for something (anything) she might read that isn’t paranormal romance because lord, I’m sick of vampires and stuff – aren’t you? I have no idea if RJ read it – it’s been in her room for at least a month and it’s due back to the library in a few days (and can’t be renewed because… it’s already been renewed.)  I hope she read it because I laughed my ass off all of the way through it and I think she’d find it incredibly amusing. Even if there are no damn vampires.  Hell, I’m laughing again now just thinking about it. Seriously.

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The Quietest Pets We’ve Ever Had

Awhile back, Prince J said “And they’re the so quiet! The quietest pets we’ve ever had!” and I promptly spit my fizzy water all over the windshield of the car because errr I was driving at the time.

Saturday, TW bought some weird crinkle tube and put it in their cage today. It’s LOUD. On top of the already LOUD chewing noises they make.

Yep. They sure are quiet, aren’t they?

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Grace Hammer

I didn’t expect to get sucked into Grace Hammer the way that I did but I really could not put it down. Grace as a single mom who takes care of her family threw pick-pocketing (and teaching her sons to follow suit) is a great character. Her daughter Daisy is exactly what you’d expect. And the monster lurking in their lives isn’t Jack the Ripper, though he might just be lurking there too. Excellent tale.

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Fathom

I don’t know how many times I can say it – Cherie Priest is a brilliant YA writer. Hell, she’s a brilliant writer PERIOD. Fathom was fascinating. The stone girl and the water girl. The water witch and a servant of the earth. The old pirate revisiting his old haunts – sailing a party vessel, retrieving his old treasure, wandering Ybor City and darn right grouchy about the Gasparilla festival – and who could blame him for that? The Iron Mountain. The bells. A wonderfully creepy story with amazingly written characters.  Brilliant, really brilliant.

I can’t wait for Priest’s Steampunk… Clementine can’t get here fast enough for me.

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Death Wish

Right after I took this video, she figured out how to knock the wood over and get back in between the plexi-glass and the bars and I had to pull her out, which caused Pebbles to get out, which caused the stupid Shihtzu to bark, which caused me more angst.

So I came up with another solution – I wedged two pieces of wood down through the top of the cage to try and prevent her from being able to pull the plexi-glass out. It’s working – but she’s just going to gnaw on the wood until she can get to the top of the plexi-glass again.

Someone just put me out of my misery, ok?

Oh hell. She just figured out how to pull the wood all the way into the cage. Duct tape. I need the duct tape.

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Gaudy Night

Again I’m thankful for Sassymonkey and the 1930’s mini challenge. I’ve read Dorothy Sayers in the past and wasn’t all that impressed – but Gaudy Night, once I dug into it – I was hooked. I think it’s that I don’t really love Peter Wimsy but I do love Harriet Vane.  The key to my Sayers pleasure may be to find books really heavy in female characters. Not that she writes men badly – she does not. I found myself wanting to read more about Padgett (I liked him much the way I liked Betteredge in The Moonstone.)

Nice job of twisting me around – I thought I knew who the villain was but towards the end I was really doubting myself. Nicely, nicely done.

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Bibliotherapy

I wrote briefly about Bibliotherapy in BlogHer’s Book Club – go over there and read the post (and tell me about your favorite bad girls.) But more importantly, think about books that have become like a kind of therapy to you, even if you didn’t read them with that intention. And then go leave a comment on this post: Books Make a Difference – each comment means a free book for Head Start!

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Bought today at Alibi Books

Alibi books is going out of business. Their entire stock is 50%. Hard to resist that. It’s even harder to go into a nice little independent bookstore and buy a ton of books at 50% because they’re going out of business. So sad.

Besides the books in the picture – we bought a birthday card, a “water board” (aka Buddha Board), and the game Civil Lore (which we’ve looked at a million times but never bought.)

I’ll miss Alibi Books.

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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Oh boy, does she. Seriously. I’ve wanted to read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day for ages and just never got around to it. Thanks to the 1930’s mini challenge I moved it to the top of my TBR list and read it almost straight through. I love Miss Pettigrew. It’s a shame Watson didn’t write a whole series of Miss Pettigrew novels.

The 1930’s were so awesome. That spot between what was proper and what was fun. Wild, glamorous women (and men) and the prim and proper Mrs whatshername that Miss Pettigrew mimicked so well. The best sort of Cinderella story, that’s what this was.

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