amysisson's 2014 goals and book list

Reading goal for 2014: 100 books

Sub-goals:

-- at least 5 books in German (by necessity, these will be children's or young adult books, and likely will be books I'm already familiar with in English. I will count chapter books but not picture books.)

Update as of 10/1/14 - 1 of 5 books read in German (** I am including audio books when listened to completely) (Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen)

-- at least 5 books that are first in a series that I own (so I can make decisions on what to keep and what to continue buying)

Update as of 2/2/14 - 1 of 5 "first in a series" books read. (His Majesty's Dragon; I'll be keeping all the books in this series for sure!)
Update as of 4/2/14 - 2 of 5 "first in a series" books read. (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Alas, although this book has so much to offer, it was hard work to read it, and I don't think I'll be keeping the rest of the series.)

-- at least 5 nonfiction books (you wouldn't think this would be so hard, but it is for me)

Update as of 8/17/14 - 1 of 5 nonfiction books read. (Oh Myyy by George Takei)

-- at least 5 books that fit in my multi-year ongoing 50-state challenge

Update as of 6/7/14 - 2 of 5 state challenge books read:
Georgia (Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen)
California (White Oleander by Janet Fitch)

-- at least 5 "classics"

Update as of August 2014, 1 of 5 classics read. (Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton)
Update as of December 2014, 2 of 5 classics read. (Jenny Wren by E.H. Young)

-- at least 75 books that are completely new to me (allowing for 25 repeats in my 100 book goal)

Update as of 12/9/14 - 99 of 75 new books read

List

1. Paper Moon by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - Career Romance.
2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (repeat) {print}. YA.
3. Greetings from Glenna by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - Career Romance.
4. Whirl of Fashion by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - Career Romance.
5. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson {print}. Historical fiction / literary fiction.
6. Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen {print}. Fantasy (magic realism).
7. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell {print}. YA.
8. His Majesty's Dragon (first in a series) by Naomi Novik {print}. Fantasy.
9. Throne of Jade (second in a series) by Naomi Novik {print}. Fantasy.
10. Black Powder War (third in a series) by Naomi Novik {print}. Fantasy.
11. The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin {print}. Horror.
12. Mozart's Blood by Louise Marley {print}. Fantasy.
13. I Become Shadow by Joe Shine {print}. YA - Science fiction.
14. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld {print}. Fiction (general).
15. The Human Division by John Scalzi {print}. SF.
16. The Martian by Andy Weir {print}. SF.
17. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire {print}. Fantasy.
18. Rackham's Color Illustrations for Wagner's "Ring" by Arthur Rackham and James Spero {print}. Nonfiction - art.
19. Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things (first in a series) by Cynthia Voigt {print}. Children's - historical fiction.
20. The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath {print}. Historical fiction.
21. Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine {print}. YA (*see note in thread).
22. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff {print}. YA - Dystopia.
23. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews {print}. Fiction (general).
24. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (repeat) {print}. Fantasy.
25. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (repeat) {print}. Fiction (general).
26. Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore {print}. YA - Fantasy (paranormal romance).
27. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (repeat) {print}. SF.
28. White Oleander by Janet Fitch {print}. Fiction (general).
29. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin {e-book}. Period fiction.
30. Three Parts Dead (first in a series) by Max Gladstone.
31. My Real Children by Jo Walton {print}. SF.
32. Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan {print}. Fiction (general).
33. The Cuckoo's Calling (first in a series) by Robert Galbraith {print}. Mystery.
34. The Girl with All the Gifts by M.V. Carey {print}. SF.
35. Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton {print}. Period fiction.
36. Oh Myyy! by George Takei {print}. Nonfiction.
37. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer {print}. Historical romance.
38. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer {print}. Science fiction.
39. The Magician's Land (third in a series) by Lev Grossman {print}. Fantasy.
40. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (repeat) {print}. SF.
41. Longbourn by Jo Baker {print}. Historical fiction.
42. Ironskin (first in a series) by Tina Connolly {print}. Fantasy.
43. The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston {print}. Historical romance.
44. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (first in a series) by J.K. Rowling (repeat) {print}. Fantasy.
45. Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen by J.K. Rowling (repeat) {audio - German}. Fantasy.
46. Lock In by John Scalzi {print}. SF.
47. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart {print}. YA.
48. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami {print}. Fiction (general).
49. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (repeat) {print}. Fantasy.
50. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris {print}. Fiction (general).
51. Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia {print}. Mystery.
52. The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold {print}. SF.
53. The Rebel Witch by Jack Lovejoy (repeat) {print}. Children's - Fantasy.
54. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart {print}. YA.
55. Violet Mackerel's Possible Friend (fifth in a series) by Anna Branford {print}. Children's.
56. Chess with a Dragon by David Gerrold {print}. SF.
57. Jenny Wren by E.H. Young {print}. Period fiction.
58. Violet Mackerel's Pocket Protest (sixth in a series) by Anna Branford {print}. Children's.
59. Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle {print}. YA.
60. Silkworm (second in a series) by Robert Galbraith {print}. Mystery.
61. Spoiled Brats: Stories by Simon Rich {print}. Fiction (general) - short stories.
62. A Girl Called Chris by Marg Nelson {print}. YA - Career Romance.
63. Linda Clayton by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - Career Romance.
64. One Perfect Rose by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - Career Romance.
65. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson {print}. Nonfiction - memoir / Poetry.

FORMAT:
Audio book - 1
E-book - 1
Print - 63
TOTAL - 65

REPEAT OR NEW?
Repeat - 14
New - 51
TOTAL - 65

GENRE:
Children's - 2
Children's - Fantasy - 3
Children's - Historical fiction - 1
Children's - Period fiction -
Fantasy - 12
Fiction (general) - 7
Fiction (general) (short stories) - 1
Historical fiction - 5
Horror - 1
Mystery - 3
Nonfiction - 3
Period fiction - 3
Science fiction - 10
Thriller -
YA - 5
YA - Career Romance - 6
YA - Dystopia - 1
YA - Fantasy - 2
YA - Historical fiction -
YA - Mystery -
YA - Paranormal romance - 1
YA - Period fiction -
YA - Science fiction - 1
TOTAL -

SUB-GENRES (if appropriate)
Dark fantasy - 1
Generational fiction -
Godpunk - 1
Historical fantasy - 5
Historical romance - 2
Magic realism - 1
Nonfiction - art - 1
Nonfiction - memoir - 1
Poetry - 1 *
Regency - 1
Steampunk -

* - Brown Girl Dreaming is nonfiction/memoir written in verse, so is listed under both nonfiction and poetry.

1. Paper Moon by Marjory Hall.

A re-read of one of my favorite vintage young adult career romances. I always enjoy the parts about Candy fixing up her first "place of her own" on a shoestring budget, and I love the line drawing illustrations at the start of each chapter -- they're decorations more than significant illustrations, but the artist was very faithful to the text at least.

(Edited to specify that these are vintage young adult books, not contemporary adult romance novels.)

Five non-fiction would be VERY hard for me so I sympathize!

Curious, What is a career romance?

^5 I actually should have said "vintage young adult career romance" -- otherwise it sounds like a Harlequin romance novel with a career woman as the heroine.

As early as the 1930s, but much more so in the 1950s and 1960s, some publishers put out book series about young women starting different professions. Mostly they were the professions for women of the times, such as teaching, nursing, librarianship, retail, secretarial, modeling. Some, though, tried to show that young women could work their way into other fields as well (piloting, meteorology, chemistry, and even -- gasp! -- becoming a doctor instead of a nurse). Unlike the Cherry Ames books, each book in these series was about a different character in a different profession, written by a different author.

The two main series in the United States were the Messner (that's the name of the publisher) "Career Romances for Young Moderns" and the Dodd Mead "Career Books for Girls". Some other publishers put out similar books though not in a series.

By the time I was a teenager, these were already vintage -- they would have been aimed at someone of my Mom's generation. Yet I have never found anyone who read them back as they were being published! I know some fellow collectors, but like me they are too young to be the original target audience.

I'm guessing I have about 200 of these books. In addition to the American ones, I know of at least three British series as well.

I'm going to post a photo of what some of the covers look like.

So cool. Thanks for sharing the covers and the background. I'd never heard of such a thing.

^ You're welcome. ;-)

I also collect young adult "maltshop romances" and "college fiction", though not as much as the career books.

That looks like a fine collection

That's a great collection - and thanks for explaining the term - I've never heard of it...:)

Ah, makes sense. Thanks for the background information. I had the 9 to 5 movie in my mind with the term.

Hah, interesting stuff! I never heard of them either. Always fun to collect vintage series. :))

2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

This is YA about Cather, girl who goes off to college with her identical twin sister, but finds herself navigating it alone because her sister wants to maintain a life outside of being a twin. Cath retreats into writing fanfiction of the popular "Simon Snow" series of books about a boy wizard...

This is my second read of this book within a short time -- I needed to re-read it because I have to write a critical essay about it for an encyclopedia company. It was a pleasure to read it again, as the characters are rich and complex, the problems are realistic becauser they're not all perfectly resolved into instant storybook endings, and the look at the world of fanfiction was a lot of fun for me.

I needed to re-read it because I have to write a critical essay about it for an encyclopedia company

What an interesting assignment.

^I do a bunch of these every year around this time. It's a bit like writing a college literature paper but getting paid for it! ;-)

That's interesting about the career romances. I love that there's a library assistant! It somehow seems less glamorous than the books on either side. I do remember Cherry Ames. I used to get boxes of children's books from a family friend who worked in a library and would give me the discards. I read a lot of old-fashioned stuff as well as several wonderful books that were bound in either mint green or brown plain library bindings.

Hi RidgewayGirl! Yes, I have a lot of library rebinds -- many with funky random patterns on the binding. I also have many hardcovers with no dustjackets, but a lot of gorgeous books with dustjackets too. Ideally, it would be lovely someday to be able to upgrade them all to copies with dustjackets, because the jackets are half the fun!

3. Greetings from Glenna by Marjory Hall.

Well, I hadn't intended to start off the year with a bunch of re-reads all in a row, but that's how it seems to be working out. I'm actually reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and the career romance re-reads are quick space fillers when I have just a few minutes.

Anyway, Greetings from Glenna is about a young woman who gets her first job in the greeting card industry. I like the details of that, but the "romance" is pretty silly and forgettable. Marjory Hall likes her heroines to be clueless -- often the man doesn't even propose, he just assumes they'll get married and the young woman is surprised (and delighted) because she assumed his interest was casual.

I really hope young women of the time were not that clueless!

4. Whirl of Fashion by Marjory Hall

In this one, Felicia, or "Lish", is encouraged by her art teacher to enter a skills-based contest by a magazine to win a 3-month trip to apprentice in a Paris fashion design house. The book takes place over Lish's senior year in high school (bit of a spoiler, but she goes to Paris in the sequel!).

5. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I have to call this one both historical fiction and literary fiction. A fascinating book that I don't want to say too much about because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I will say that although I've read several novels that encompass World War II and the Holocaust, I think this book is the first to really give me a sense of what living through the Bombardment would have been like, and how long and exhausting and horrifying the war was to people in England and Germany (and, I'm sure, elsewhere). And that makes me remember that it wasn't so long ago, and many of our parents and grandparents lived through the worst of those times.

>21 amysisson: I am glad you enjoyed Life After Life. It was in my top 3 reads last year.

^ Hi NanaCC! Yes, it was pretty amazing. I should also probably call is fantasy in addition to historical fiction and literary fiction. What a rich book!

I thought it had so many layers. I will most likely read it again later this year. I don't usually do that, but I think I may find things that I missed the first time.

I love those covers! Thanks for posting them.

I've been slowly getting round to Life after Life, and what you and Colleen say has really made me want to read it.

6. Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen.

Another lovely tale of magic realism, small magics, and family traits.

Ooh, a new Sarah Addison Allen.

^ My exact reaction too. The hiatus was due to her being diagnosed with cancer. She's in remission now. :-)

Hi Amy! I also enjoyed the explanation about the career romances. and I loved the covers. Thank for putting them up.

>24 NanaCC:, When I finished Life After Life, I immediately started it over. It's that good.

>30 fannyprice:

And I can see how immediately re-reading would add layers to the earlier chapters, knowing what's coming.

7. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

A lovely romance between two misfits in high school in 1980s Nebraska, with serious elements including bullying and domestic abuse. Beautifully written. I give this 4 1/2 stars; the only thing I really would have changed was that I would have had Eleanor answer his letters sooner and more definitively. I could live with it taking her a year to respond if her postcard were more definitive, and I choose to believe that the postcard she finally sent a year later said "I love you" but I would have liked to have that specified instead of only being a possibility. If they don't get back together, her lack of confidence wins out over love -- she said that he couldn't possibly love her more than when they said goodbye, and she could not deal with him loving her less. Of course he could love her more -- and in any case she doesn't consider the third option, that he could love her just as much. Sigh.....

>32 amysisson: - I really enjoyed Eleanor and Park - and Fangirl, which I see you read earlier this year too. Rainbow Rowell is a great addition to the YA scene. I haven't read either of her adult novels yet though - have you?

^No, haven't read her adult novels, but have put them on my wishlist!

8. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Oh, I waited too long to start this series! :-) I adored this book. I would call it alternate history fantasy, i.e. Napoleonic Wars with dragons. Lovely human/creature bonding, which is the real draw here, I think.

(deleted -- accidental duplicate post)

9. Throne of Jade (second in a series) by Naomi Novik

Enjoyed this book a lot. Giving it four stars because it's a little slower than His Majesty's Dragon, but I do like that Temeraire and finally Laurence are giving thought to the treatment of dragons in England.

I have numbers 4 and 5 of the Temeraire series on my TBR for the year. In fact, I was thinking about reading them next week. I'm so surprised you hadn't read them yet! They seem perfect for you. :)

^ I suspected I would love them, so I'm surprised too that I didn't get around to them earlier. :-) I finally gave myself the incentive because I want to start reading series when I already own a bunch of the books. As mentioned, I'll be keeping these (I also have 3, 4, 5, and 6, I believe), but I have to imagine I won't be so enamored of some other series I have. If that's the case, I can clear some badly needed shelf space.

In case it seems odd that I have all these series books I haven't read, most were received as review copies. Often I'd get them and have other stuff I needed to or wanted to read first, but the jacket copy intrigued me enough to keep them for "someday". I'm just trying to get around to "someday" now!

10. Black Powder War (third in a series) by Naomi Novik

Four and a half stars.

This series is still going strong. I'm going to take a break and read something different before proceeding with the rest, but I definitely plan to continue. My absolute favorite part of this book is Iskierka hatching -- I laughed out loud when she impatiently told Granby she knew all about the harnessing, and then chose her own name! And I loved that she is basically a fire-breathing toddler to begin, shouting that she wants to fight and that the whole cow is hers, even if she is too little to eat all of it at once!

11. The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin

Three stars (to me this means good enough to be above the average of 2 1/2 stars but definitely not great).

I'm calling this book fantasy, but it skimmed very close to horror for me. So, dark fantasy, I guess. This is about a counterculture-journalist-turned-novelist who has lost his way from his idealism of the 60s, who ends up investigating the ritualistic murder of a music promoter who controlled a now-split-up band called the Nazgul. This band was on its way to being as big as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones when the lead singer was assassinated during a concert; now somebody wants to get them together again for sinister purposes.

The book was interesting, and I definitely wanted to find out what happened, but there was so much speechifying between characters arguing about idealism, and the proper way to pursue it. It was also pretty hard to find a sympathetic character. The protagonist wasn't a terrible person by any means, but I found him pretty hard to warm up to, and the rest of the "lead" characters.... hard to care about them much.

Also there were way too many dream sequences, although to be fair they were part of the plot. And I felt as though the book was about 80 pages too long.

12. Mozart's Blood by Louise Marley

Four stars. This is historical and contemporary fantasy featuring vampires and werewolves as crossing over into the world of opera. Plus, you know, a wildly creative young composer named Mozart. :-) I enjoyed this fictional glimpse into the opera world, and some new-to-me twists on vampires and werewolves: For instance, the way to kill a vampire is to cut his/her femoral artery so the blood leaves too quickly for them to recover. These vampires can walk in the sun. No mention of garlic, but considering the amount of Italian food the main character consumes, I'm assuming garlic doesn't hurt her. Holy water burns her, though. I could have done without that, because it implies a disapproving God, and I don't think someone who is turned into a vampire against her will should be judged by God, especially considering how moral she actually was. Werewolves, too, had a new-to-me origin -- this one comes about simply because he's a seventh child, the only boy with six older sisters.

13. I Become Shadow by Joe Shine

This is a galley that I'm reviewing for VOYA, so I can't say much specific about it here. (We are asked not to review the same titles elsewhere that we review for VOYA.) I will say that I didn't much like this book, and on LT am giving it two stars.

What is VOYA?

Voice of Youth Advocates. It's a trade publication for librarians, geared at public and school librarians who have to make purchasing decisions for their teen/young adult readers. So all we review is young adult books, and occasionally an adult book that might have particular appeal to teens for some reason.

Ahh I see :)

Next year I'll remember to leave post #3 in my thread to list books I've started reading and stopped. Yesterday I read over 50 pages of Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close but stopped because I found the characters unlikeable, and the book devoid of the humor I usually associate with chicklit. And today I stopped reading The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler because I'm not interested in the explanation (as hinted at by the dustjacket). I don't think it's badly written; it's just not something I want to read.

14. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

I really had to force myself to finish this book. I generally like books about boarding schools or college, but the main character here was so ridiculously introspective that I felt paralyzed with boredom every time she overanalyzed what everyone said, and her own reactions to what was said, and how quickly her emotions changed -- often several times -- over a single conversation.... She also was not particularly likeable, and seemed incapable of making a meaningful apology to anyone.

I thought about giving it two and a half stars but that's exactly average -- I think this was a little worse than that. So, two stars.

47 Yay for quitting boring books!

15. The Human Division by John Scalzi

This is a novel comprised of 13 episodes originally published as short stories, in the Old Man's War universe. I really loved the first two books in this series, and have had mixed reactions to the rest. This was enjoyable, and I thought the author did a good job making each story stand alone, yet referring internally to each other at times. I did become confused about who was who at times, in part because all of this author's characters tend to sound like each other, which is to say they all sound like the author himself. (Seriously -- it goes all the way down to a family chauffeur, who has both the common sense philosophy and the quick snark of the author. It doesn't matter if a character is human, alien, male, female, young, old -- that character is about 80% likely to sound like Scalzi. I do worry because I think some of this is in my head and is my problem, not the author's. But I don't think it's all in my head.)

Today I stopped reading (so it doesn't get counted in my list) Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea. This is a middle grade book about an extraordinary teacher, which is normally a no-brainer for me -- I love reading stories about great teachers. This is told in alternating POV chapters by seven different students. The blurb by John Irving says that "Even the accident toward which this novel is inevitably headed is no accident; it is as masterfully set up and skillfully concealed as the rest of this riveting story." Um.... no. It was broadcast a mile away, so not concealed at all. It was also unbelievable -- I cannot buy that a normal snowball thrown by a fifth grader puts an adult into a coma. (The author tries to handwave this by later saying that Mr. Terupt has previously wrestled and had a lot of prior concussions. Still no -- trying too hard. I also thought the way that each of the seven students managed to somehow feel personally responsible for a snowball thrown by one of them was incredibly contrived.

Sigh.....

Stopped reading The Informationist by Taylor Stevens. I got to page 59. I wasn't convinced that this protagonist had any particular skills and I just found it kind of dull.

Wow, I'm becoming difficult to please with books these days.

>1 amysisson: Did you end up picking books in German? I try to keep up reading in German from time to time, too.

>53 twogerbils:

I haven't picked the particular books yet, but I have a lot at home to choose from already. I'm not counting picture books, because I need to exert myself more than that, but I have most of the Beverly Cleary "Ramona" books, a bunch of young adult "Starfleet Academy" books, a couple tie-in novels from the original "Battlestar Galactica" series, some trashy chicklit novels..... I really just need to dive in with something!

On the way home on the bus the other day, an acquaintance told me that he's doing a second master's degree in Spanish (online from a university in Guatemala), just to see if he could! I really admire that kind of fluency in a second language. My husband is in planetary science, and the scientists from other countries always have to present their highly technical papers in English -- I simultaneously sympathize with them and admire them!

>54 amysisson: Those sound like fun picks for German! I always like the tactic of reading a book in a foreign language that I've already read in English, to help me along with the plot. With German I'm a bit further along, but with Polish I find Agatha Christie books pretty challenging. I've always said I'd learn to read Spanish, and here I haven't yet. Good luck!

If you can read books in English, German, and Polish, I think you're amazing!

I also have a few audiobooks in German -- two Harry Potter books, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and some odds and ends given to me by a German friend. When I listened to the first Harry Potter years ago, I found it helpful to read the chapter in English the night before, then listen to the same chapter in German the next day. That way all the word context was fresh in my mind.

Japanese is the other language I have lots of books in. Only the most basic children's picture books, and it's a bit unlikely I'll ever be able to read even those. But maybe someday.....

Oh, and I picked up a lot of Dutch picture books when I went to Amsterdam last year. What was great is that it's so similar to German that between the pictures and that similarity, I could pretty much tell what was going on in the stories. :-)

16. The Martian by Andy Weir

It's been forever since I've finished a book (but I'll finish another tomorrow since I've been reading two at once).

This was straight up nuts and bolts science fiction, which I greatly enjoyed. It's a survival story. It was funny and moving at the same time. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn good. This is why, if I had to choose with a gun pointed at my head, I would pick science fiction over fantasy.

17. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Oh, what the heck, I finished the other book too. I've been reading this book for so long, and I'm glad I've finally read it, and I enjoyed it ... but it was a lot of work to get through. I don't think I'll be keeping the other books in the series. I give it 3 1/2 stars, because I really do think it did something quite brilliant, but it needed to be a little more accessible.

I'd thought I'd read this years ago, but I must have put in down unfinished, because there came a point when I had no idea what would happen next -- and I know it wasn't my memory failing me.

18. Rackham's Color Illustrations for Wagner's "Ring" by Arthur Rackham and James Spero {print}. Nonfiction - art.

Normally I wouldn't count a book that is mostly illustrations, but I read this as background for an upcoming production by Houston Grand Opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle. It will take place over the next four years, and we'll see "Das Rheingold" in a few weeks. This book gave me both some historical background on the Ring Cycle and Rackham's career, and gave me a great summary of the Ring Cycle's storyline. Some of Rackham's illustrations are just gorgeous.

19. Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things (first in a series) by Cynthia Voigt {print}. Children's - Historical fiction.

Will add details tomorrow.....

>60 amysisson: a friend is coming to see the first of the series on the 26th!!

>62 lesmel:

Cool! Is your friend coming from far away? Are you going with him/her to see it?

So back to Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things... I'm assuming this is a middle grade reader, and the cover (this was an advance reading copy) says that it's the first of a trilogy. Max is the son of theatrical parents in London at some time period.... earlier than now. (I'm not very good at identifying specific historical time periods unless there's a major indicator, such as WWII, I'm afraid.) His parents receive an offer to travel to India to found a theater company for a member of royalty there, but they disappear from the docks and Max and his librarian grandmother discover that the Indian ruler does not actually exist. Max must try to discover what happened to his parents while finding a way to make a living while they're gone. He ends up as a detective of sorts, a finder of lost things and a problem-solver.

This book is cute and I'm not sorry I read it, but it didn't blow me away or anything. It didn't have quite as much charm for me as, say, the Theodosia books (a cross between Nancy Drew and Indiana Jones, with a female main character). There were also a few too many coincidences, in that many of the problems Max stumbles across end up being highly interconnected in an unrealistic way. But there you have it.

20. The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath {print}

This was delightful. I thought I'd read only about four Austen continuations including this one: two quite good, one quite bad, and one rather forgettable. But when I checked my records, it turns out I've actually read at least seven, which means two good, one bad, one rather forgettable, and three very forgettable, seeing as I'd forgotten them!

The Unexpected Miss Bennet was, dare I say it, unexpected. It's the story of Mary Bennet, taking place after the events of Pride and Prejudice, of course. The author does a terrific job in the beginning of showing why Mary had the annoying tendencies that she did, and making her transformation to someone of consequence so gradually and naturally that it's entirely believable. Both Mary and we know that she'll never be a Lizzie, but we learn that that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

The book's other great strength was that it felt like I was reading Austen, except it wasn't difficult to decipher, so it was what I'm going to call "accessible-Austen".

I give this 4 1/2 stars, which is the same rating I gave to the other Austen follow-on I really like, Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken. (It's not technically right to call that one a "sequel" or a "continuation" because it's really more a parallel story, time-wise. I'm not sure what I should call it, though.) I've read Jane Fairfax twice and could see reading it again, just as I can see reading The Unexpected Miss Bennet again.



****

The bad one, in case you were wondering, was Pemberley: Or Pride & Prejudice Continued by Emma Tennant. It angered me because the "drama" in the book was caused simply by Lizzie and Darcy not talking to each other, about fairly simple things.

The one that I remembered as so-so was The Darcys Give a Ball: A Gentle Joke, Jane Austen style by Elizabeth Newark.

The ones I'd read that I didn't remember specifically:

Eliza's Daughter by Joan Aiken
Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken
A Darcy Christmas by Amanda George

21. Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine {print}. YA (see under spoiler).

This is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, from the point of view of Romeo's cousin Benvolio, who moonlights as a thief nicknamed the Prince of Shadows. This book is being marketed as young adult, and my dilemma (since I apparently must label everything obsessively) was whether or not this would be considered historical fiction. It doesn't follow real life characters, but on the other hand, a lot of historical fiction tries only to be accurate in depicting the time period, with all the characters invented. But this is also historical fantasy, since an actual curse (upon both their houses!) is very much involved.

So.... overall I liked the book, but it was a little longer than it needed to be, and I thought the reader was told a little too often that every young Capulet and Montague -- there are many, many cousins, apparently -- is in dire danger every day, not only from their rivals but from within their own families. Benvolio's grandmother rules with an iron fist, and apparently something similar goes on over at the Capulets, because Benvolio keeps telling us how his grandmother might arrange for him to have an accident, or give away his secret thieving identity, and how the Capulets might easily arrange an accident for either Juliet or her cousin Rosaline, if someone even creates a whisper of a rumor that they are not as pure as they should be, and blah blah blah.

Seriously, there's no way any of them would make it to adulthood what with the daily and almost hourly threats to their lives.

Sorry, didn't mean to be so sarcastic, but it was a little overdone. I did like most of the actual plot, although it could have done with one or two less complications, and I liked the way it ended, which I know had to have been quite a balancing act for the author. I'm glad I read this.

22. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. YA - Dystopia.

All I'd heard about this book was that it's really good, and it's about an American teenage girl who goes to England to stay with relatives when a war breaks out.

And yes, it was really good. 5-star good. I wasn't pleased at first when I saw that the narrrative wasn't using quotation marks, but the voice and the story swept me away so quickly that I forgot about it.

Highly recommended. It feels to me as though nothing else needs to be said about it, which fits with the story itself (you'll understand if you read it).

>67 amysisson: As always, your 5-star reviews end up on my TBR. You gotta quit doing this to me! *grins*

23. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. Fiction (general).

I really disliked this book. I'm writing about it for a freelance assignment; fortunately I don't have to say in that assignment what I actually thought of it! ;-) It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye, another book I hate, except this time Holden Caulfield is a female Mennonite teenager. It's random stream-of-consciousness, and there's no plot to speak of for most of the book, although it does finally get somewhere... sort of. I give it one and a half stars instead of just one due to that last bit of almost-plot.

Sigh.....

24. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. Fantasy. (Alternate history fantasy erotica, to be precise!)

I last read this in 2010, and gave it 4 1/2 stars at the time. I just upgraded it to 5 stars on this re-read. Gorgeous stuff! I re-read it for an informal book group with friends. I hope they like it as much as I do.

I really disliked A Complicated Kindness when I read it. Less for the main character than for the MFA feel and what I thought was a condescending voice regarding the Mennonites -- not that I'm a fan of fringe religions, but it felt like she was making fun of them rather than giving the reader insight about them. And it's too easy a target, those wacky Mennonites.

>71 RidgewayGirl:

Yes, I hadn't thought of it as an MFA feel, but .... yes!

25. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Fiction (general).

This is a re-read, as I'm writing an essay for an encyclopedia company on its characters. It seems odd to call this "general fiction" because it's narrated posthumously by a murder victim. In other words, it's a ghost story. One could argue that makes it fantasy, but it doesn't feel like fantasy.

I originally read this in 2002 and gave it 4 stars; now I'm giving it 4 1/2 stars. It's a lovely (no pun intended) book and holds up very well.

26. Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore {print}. YA - Fantasy (paranormal romance).

Four and a half stars. This is technically the second in the "Texas Gothic" series, but it focuses on a completely different character/events and could easily be considered a standalone. Almost-18-year-old Daisy Goodnight can talk to the dead. She is called to consult by the FBI, but things go south quickly when the mobster father of the kidnap victim co-opts Daisy's services for his own sinister purposes. Compelled when he threatens her extended family, Daisy is forced to work with Carson, a young man with ties to the mobster whom Daisy ends up trusting even though she knows she shouldn't.

As always with RCM's writing, the voice is terrific -- funny, snarky, loveable, with tons of pop-culture references. Here is one of my favorite bits (no spoilers):

Carson headed for the coffeemaker -- an apparatus that looked like it could pilot the space shuttle. Maybe someone had gotten a bargain when NASA shut down that program. "The note says there's a bag of bagels by the toaster. You can work a toaster, right?"

"Of course," I answered. Neither of us said anything while Carson ran the coffee grinder, but once he'd measured out the grounds and, I don't know, programmed a geosynchronous orbit, he turned to me."

Stopped reading Juniper, Gentian, & Rosemary on p. 77. I can't believe that many teenagers, even in an experimental school, go around knowledgeably quoting Shakespeare and various poets, or that the entire family reads Shakespeare plays aloud to each other until midnight on a school night. But my main problem is that the characters speak past each other all the time. They ask questions and don't answer each other, or answer each other in riddles or quotes, and I haven't the slightest idea what they're talking about.

But my main problem is that the characters speak past each other all the time. They ask questions and don't answer each other

In other words, like 90% of all internet "conversations."

>76 RidgewayGirl:

LOL!

Stopped reading Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff. It gets a pretty high rating and is something that appeals to me: steampunkish feudal Japan with magical creatures. Many of the reviews on LT and Amazon say that you just have to get past the first 50 pages, which are nothing but slow set-up. I got to about page 70. It's not just the slow build-up, it's the fact that the author is beating the setting into the reader's head as hard as he can. I estimate that at least twice per page for those 70 pages, and sometimes more often, the author used a phrase like this: "belching thick, oily smoke" "a plume of toxic waste" "a noxious haze" "a cloud of poisonous gas" "spewed a stream of choking fumes" "leaving behind a trail of nightmarish odors" and so on.

So in other words, this world is polluted. Really, I got it after the first dozen mentions in the span of a few pages.

27. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (repeat) {print}. Science fiction.

This is my third time reading this book; this time it was for an essay I have to write, but it was lovely to have an excuse to read it again. Although some might disagree, I'm calling this science fiction, although it certainly wasn't marketed as such. And while it focuses much more on the human element of what it would be like to time travel involunarily -- or be married to an involuntary time traveler -- there is a psuedo-science explanation for what's happening. (Very much pseudo, but there certainly is no pretense that it's magic.)

>69 amysisson: and >71 RidgewayGirl:

While I'm not a fan of the writing of Miriam Toews, it may help to know when reading her books that she grew up in a established Mennonite community and left at eighteen. I don't think she writes of them as a target, but rather from knowledge of the problems adherence to some of their ways can cause, especially in "old order" communities for younger people wanting to leave. Paradoxically, more than half of Canadian Mennonites now live in cities. In Steinbach where she grew up, and in the rest of Manitoba, the Mennonites are firmly established and would not be considered fringe at all.

>80 SassyLassy:

I did know about her background and felt the book read as authentic -- I didn't feel she was ridiculing the Mennonites per se, but commenting on some of the more ridiculous contradictions, like pretending to churn butter for the tourists but also taking smoke breaks out behind the barn.

I think, though, that the fact that it was published as a "novel" made me want a bit more plot. There were many pages where she said things like "I sat and drew on the driveway with chalk until it got so dark I couldn't see," immediately followed by something completely unrelated and equally random.

I stopped reading A Flush of Shadows by Kate Wilhelm. This is an omnibus of five very short novels, billed as mysteries following two established characters that I wasn't familiar with. I loved the opening pages, setting the two main characters' personalities, but all of a sudden I was thrown into a different setting, and could not make sense of what the people were doing.

28. White Oleander by Janet Fitch {print}. Fiction (general).

I liked this book pretty well. Although at a few points I thought "really, is there anything else that can happen to this girl?!", I liked the way her experiences shaped her personal and artistic growth, and I liked that she could find good in all kinds of people.

29. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth van Arnim {e-book}. Period fiction / British literature.

This was a charming book, the first I've read by this author. I read the PDF e-book from Girlebooks -- they publish a lot of public domain fiction by women in multiple e-book formats, and give them nice covers. In this book, the main character on a whim rents a house in Italy for the month of April, but as she cannot afford it herself she finds three other women to share it with her. Each of the four women have some aspect of their lives they're unhappy about, but an Italian villa in April works its special magic on them. The story is simplistic but lovely; my only complaint is that the ending was a bit too abrupt.

>84 amysisson: I have The Enchanted April on my shelf and keep meaning to get to it. Thanks for the reminder!

There was a movie of The Enchanted April with Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright that is one of my all time favorites. Everyone in the film was transformed in some way by the experience. I keep meaning to read the book but the movie was so good.

>86 Poquette:

I didn't know there was a movie -- thanks!

30. Three Parts Dead (first in a series) by Max Gladstone. Fantasy.

Four stars. Very inventive world: a steampunk setting with literal gods (so I'm calling it "godpunk"). Gargoyles, vampires (although their role is small), witches, priests, gods, goddesses.... My only complaint is the author's slight tendency to interject melodramatic paragraphs at times, thus reminding the reader that he/she is reading words that someone consciously (self-consciously, even) chose. The climactic scene was also a bit much, in some ways. But this was really quite good and I will probably continue to read the series.

31. My Real Children by Jo Walton. Science fiction (just barely).

Four stars. An elderly woman with dementia distinctly remembers having two completely different lives, that could not possibly have both existed in the same world. I enjoyed this book a lot and really cared about the characters, plus the alternate history aspects were neat. However, because it covered so many years and characters, there were often a lot of chapters that consisted of rapidly telling what happened over years. Also, there was one bit about the ending that felt a little bit lacking to me, and the last sentence of the book literally didn't make sense to me. I mean, I think I knew what the author meant, but for me, it was a confusing way of putting it. Overall I would recommend this, but I liked Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World a bit better. It had a similar presence with a different execution and more symmetry. Both books are worth reading, though.

>89 amysisson: The only Jo Walton I've attempted is Tooth and Claw, which gets a lot of love on LT and has a fantastic concept. The execution was similar to what you describe about My Real Children.

The Shriver book sounds great, and thanks for the heads up re: Girlebooks.

>90 LibraryPerilous:

I actually had started reading Walton's Among Others a year or two ago, but stopped as I didn't really care for it.

If you do try The Post-Birthday World, I hope you'll like it. The execution is very "neat," which will make sense to you if you read it, I think.

32. Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan {print}. Fiction (general).

This is a tiny book, a prequel novella (? not sure of word count) to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. This had all the same charm and delight. I strugged with how to classify it, but ultimately went with "Fiction (general)". I did this because "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" is set up as a maybe-fantasy with a possible mystical explanation, but ultimately it's straight fiction with no magic, and not even any technology we don't have yet. "Ajax Penumbra" has even fewer genre elements. To me they both still feel genre, but since I don't feel I can explain why, I went with the general classification.

Definitely recommended.

I really enjoyed Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. So I am going to have to read Ajax Penumbra 1969. Thanks for previewing it!

33. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith {print}. Mystery.

Oh wow, this was really good! J.K. Rowling's writing is all grown up. I like well-rendered private investigator characters, and Cormoran Strike is memorable. And I loved Robin. Will definitely be following these books as they come out.

>94 amysisson: The second book, The Silkworm, is a page turner!

>95 NanaCC: So I've heard! I just put it on request at the library. I think there are well over 100 requests....

Stopped reading Circa Now by Amber McRee Turner. Got about 50 pages in and it wasn't grabbing me.

I love to read

Stopped reading The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner after about 30 pages. I felt as though the characters were talking past each other, and nobody was saying what they meant or what they were thinking. I also found the somewhat .... frothy tone to be at odds with the setting. It's obviously a well-loved book, though, so this is probably just my personal hang-up.

Stopped reading To Weave a Web of Magic, a fantasy anthology consisting of four novellas. I bought it for the Patricia McKillip story, "The Gorgon in the Cupboard," and did finish that story, but thought it was pretty dreadful. Here is the review I wrote of it, which contains spoilers:

I bought this book for the Patricia McKillip novella, but was unfortunately disappointed. I love stories about art, artists, and artists' models, but this story was muddled with too many characters and a fantastical element that just was not necessary. (Spoilers follow)

Tom is an artist who dreams of another artist's wife and model as his own ideal subject struggles for new inspiration. He decides to paint his idol's mouth, which then starts speaking to him as Medusa, claiming that the artist invoked her. She's on Tom's side, and tells him to go find another model. Tom then finds Jo, a model who had once sat for him, whom he no longer recognizes because the tragic year she has experienced (illegitimate baby that has died, and near starvation on the streets) has resulted in her appearance changing somewhat. Tom wants to paint Jo as Medusa, but fears that if they talk and get to know each other, he'll lose the vision of her that he's convinced will make his career. Eventually he learns to see her as a person, and also begins to get to know his original idol, who like Jo has had a rough start in life.

My question is, why was Medusa's spirit even necessary? The artist's housekeeper, who shows kindness to Jo because she knows that poor young women are often taken advantage of, could have urged Tom to take an interest in Jo. It seems to me this book had three points: you need to see people, even the unnaturally beautiful ones, as people; Medusa may have been misrepresented in myth; and the poor, especially women, were treated like crap in this time period. The problem for me is that these three points had nothing to do with each other, and seemed merely thrown together in a single story.

(for the McKillip story only)

Do you have any McKillip recommendations? I tried one of her books once and thought it was depressing and that the prose was purple.

>101 LibraryPerilous: I loved her Od Magic, although I confess I don't remember as many details as I would like to. A lot of her fans read her for her language, but I can see how some would find it purple....

34. The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey {print}. SF.

I can't believe it. It finally happened. I committed zombie. I have zero interest in zombie stories, yet here I just read a zombie novel (although it never uses the Z word) and rated it with 4 1/2 stars.

Wow.



(As a side note, this has been a bit surreal. I read it in two days, mostly outside on the deck of the Queen Mary 2. The ship has a 10,000 volume library, and it's lovely to see that it's full most of the time, and that so many people are checking out and reading their books.)

>103 amysisson: HA! When you go zombie, you go big. 4.5 stars and only a 2-day read!

>104 lesmel: LOL!

Stopped reading The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff. I adored her book How I Live Now but this just seems like generic medieval setting, possibly fantasy (can't tell if there's a magic element but I suspect there will be). I read about 50 pages and it's just not grabbing me.

35. Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton {print}. Period fiction.

This was about two working class sisters rather than the wealthy characters Wharton usually wrote about. Quite depressing, but well-written. I wanted to read something short because I knew I would have to return it to the ship's library by midday tomorrow.

36. Oh Myyy! by George Takei {print}. Nonfiction.

This is part memoir and part exploration of social media, particularly Facebook. It's a fun, light read with a couple of laugh out loud moments. I bought my copy on the Queen Mary 2 after hearing George Takei speak onboard twice. He spoke once on his experiences in the Japanese-American internment camps, and the other time on his overall Hollywood career.

While we were waiting in line for his autograph (he was kind and took time to speak to each person for a few minuets), his husband Brad came along the line introducing himself. Very nice men, both of them.

37. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer {print}. Historical fiction (romance).

I bought this in Bath and am still in England, so it was great fun to read it right now. I've read just a handful of Heyer's books and this was among the better ones I've read so far. There wasn't much I would change about this until the end, when I felt that Rotherham handled the situation with his fiancee somewhat badly instead of just coming out with it. But I still liked it a lot.

38. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer {print}. Science fiction.

Comments to be added later....

Finally adding my comments about Annihilation....

This has been described as some of the author's most accessible work. I did find it accessible in that I felt I understood what was going on, at least as far as the author intended -- of course, it's desirable to retain some mystery, especially in the first of a trilogy. I did feel that it was perhaps a bit more cerebral than I would have liked, as there are several pages-long sections with the POV character describing in detail how she felt about something, with metaphor after metaphor. (Actually, some of them are probably similes.)

I have another issue that I can't go into without major spoilers for both this book and for The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey.

In the Carey book, which is about zombies without ever using the "Z" word, ultimately the book is about accepting that for humanity to go on, it may have to change way beyond our comfort level, but that still isn't necessarily a tragic thing, it just is. Since I read that very recently, that concept was very much on my mind. In Annihilation, the main character is investigating a phenomenon that seems to be changing humanity -- at least that's my take on it. But this is only the first book in the trilogy. The second book is titled Authority and the third is title Acceptance. So guess what that makes me think? That if I do read on, it will be only to find out that the change to humanity is now inevitable, and that at least some of the characters think it isn't a bad thing. The second and third books are much thicker than the first, and I’m not entirely sure I’m willing to go through all the “thinky” parts to come to a conclusion that another book I just read reached in a much more concise fashion.

That’s not fair of me, of course. First, that may not be the main point of the trilogy. Second, even if it is, it’s meant to be the journey, not the destination – the book may have other wonderful themes or qualities that I’ll miss if I don’t read on. But I’m still not sure I’m willing to do it, because correctly or incorrectly, I’m also finding this book very Lovecraftian – which I have no right to say since I haven’t read Lovecraft! But there are slimy creatures, and the main character has visions of staring into the terrifying gaping maw of the universe. Her senses are heightened and she’s both afraid and exhilarated and so on. Am I correct in thinking of this atmosphere as Lovecraftian?

Stopped reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes as I felt it was a little too predictable.

39. The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman {print}. Fantasy.

The third and final book in the series. I felt it was a fitting end for the most part, and that the main character grew significantly over the course of the series. (Actually, he may have spent a little too much time telling us how he'd grown.) I liked this a lot, but I can't see myself re-reading for favorite parts the way I do with the first two books in the series. There was a fair bit of arbitrariness in the Fillory parts, and I found I really disliked Janet this time around, especially when she relates her desert story.

Overall happy with it; .

40. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (repeat) {print}. Science fiction.

A repeat read (perhaps my fifth time?) of an absolute favorite. Still holds up for me as one of the most unique looks at a different element of time travel.

The Chronoliths must be good if you have read it five times. I will add it to my science fiction wish list.

>115 baswood:

I'd love to hear what you think when you read it, even if months or years from now! I haven't found that many other people who know it, strangely enough.

41. Longbourn by Jo Baker {print}. Historical fiction.

This was a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from the servants' point of view. I love the concept, but ultimately found it a bit disappointing. Perhaps it's too the point that there wasn't much justice in the world for the working classes at that time, but I wasn't satisfied that James was obliged to remain on the run pretty much for the rest of his life for being falsely accused of being a deserter. Also, the author waited a little too long to reveal that the footman Mr. Bennet hired so abruptly, James, was in fact his bastard son with his housekeeper. Since much of the book was from the housekeeper's point of view, how we could go for a good length of the book without her revealing that fact in her thoughts is beyond me.

42. Ironskin by Tina Connolly {print}. Fantasy.

This was first in a trilogy, a fantasy retelling of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. I thought it was very well done, and the details cleverly worked out. I didn't feel quite as invested in the characters as I'd like to, but I may be being unfair -- my reading of it had a lot of unusual interruptions, including travel. I also prefer books, even first books in series, to have more definite endings.

Stopped reading Gone by Michael Grant, on about page 44.

To me, it was too likely that the phenomenon would be related to the nuclear accident in the town years before -- although to be fair, maybe it won't go that way. But I didn't have any patience for the powers the kids were beginning to manifest. It feels too arbitrary, and a convenient way for the author to introduce all kinds of wacky stuff. I guess it just didn't grab me.

Totally not related to your reading...Nancy Akery is a hoot. I was in the first class of that Medical Terminology class last night.

I can't remember her name -- but it's the older lady, right? I really enjoyed her. She gets a little .... frisky in her humor sometimes!

43. The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston {print}.

Technically fifth in a series, but these can be read alone, in my opinion. Yet another Austen sequel. Yet another Pride and Prejudice sequel, to be more exact. Why do I keep reading these?!

I had a tough time deciding between 2 1/2 or 3 stars for a rating. To choose 2 1/2 is to say a book is exactly average. This, I thought, was fairly well written, and a slight cut above, right up until the overly convoluted and overly dramatic ending. So I am thinking of giving it 3 stars based on the strength of the writing to that point.

The basic idea, slightly spoilerish: in this episode of this Darcy universe, we follow Eliza, one of the daughters of Charlotte Collins nee Lucas. Eliza is named after godmother Elizabeth Darcy nee Bennet. She is not as beautiful as her sister, who is confusingly named Charlotte after her mother. The younger Charlotte is sent off to London in the hopes of making a brilliant match; Eliza is sent with her to get her away from Anthony, a childhood friend whose parents want to nip a romance in the bud. Eliza is certain that Anthony is the one for her, but meets a disconcerting young man named Bartholomew, who calls her "provincial" before realizing how bewitching she is. (Sound familiar?)

And now for the real spoilers: seriously, a duel? There are conveniently overheard conversations, attempts at blackmail, and (worst of all), the original Mr. Darcy showing up at the end, although offscreen, to make sure the right young people can marry the right young people.

Actually, now that I think about ... 2 1/2 stars. It really got stupid at the end.

I have an inexplicable weakness for chick-lit based on Austen, so I understand your weakness for the sequels. The chick-lit is not often any good, but I continue to read anything I find.

44. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
45. Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen by J.K. Rowling

Today I finished reading the book in English and listening to it on audio in German. My practice was to first read a chapter in English, then listen to the same chapter in German, ideally the same day or no later than the next day for the German so I'd retain the most amount of context. I'm rusty with my German, but the dialog parts are so comparatively easy to understand than the descriptive parts. Anyway, it was lots of fun, and I was reminded that there are differences between the books and the movies -- although I do feel the movies are quite faithful adaptations.

I'm counting both on my list separately since I did put in all the hours on it. It took me almost a month! I was reading other things in between -- I have to have just the right conditions to listen to an audio book, and I don't have a commute anymore.

I give the book four stars, and the audio book five stars. If that seems strange, it's because for the audiobook in this case, I am only judging on the narration, which I thought was excellent -- Rufus Beck did a very nice job with the voices.

46. Lock In by John Scalzi.

This was entertaining and I was really into it for 7/8 of the book, but I was a little turned off at the end because it became a bit convoluted, with pages and pages of dialogue explaining things, and a lot of smug cleverness. The idea behind the book was very interesting, though, and I'm glad I read it.

47. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

Gorgeous YA book with (as you might guess from the title) an unreliable narrator. For me, this was reminiscent of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, not in plot, but in the love experienced by the main characters, and by the poetical quality of the writing.

My advice is to avoid reviews of this book if you're going to read it. The less you know going in, the better. Fortunately, I'd heard that, so I got to go in without knowing much about it.

48. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami.

Well-written, and I really wanted to find out what happened. I preferred 1Q84, though, because I wanted a little more resolution, and (spoilers for both this and 1Q84) a little more confirmation whether there was any literal truth to how the rape and murder happened. In 1Q84, if I recall correctly, dream/alternate reality sex actually resulted in pregnancy. In this one, I'm not sure if the main character's vivid dream of sex was meant to be taken as real or not. Also, in this book, I saw little point to his friendship with Haida and Haida's subsequent desertion. It felt as though the book was heading towards saying that there really was something in Tazaki that made people abandon him, but then it shied off. This was good, but just not as ultimately satisfying as I would have liked.

This is the second book of his I've read, and I have to say, both books have some of the most gorgeous production values I've ever seen. Every aspect of the books' design reflects on their plots and themes.

49. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (repeat).

Five stars as always. I can say "as always" since this is the fourth time I've read it. :-)

>128 amysisson: I wished I liked that book more. I think I just absolutely hate the main character. Maybe that's the movie coloring the book. The movie character, I wanted to rip through the screen and throttle her every time she whined or threw a tantrum. I actually kept hoping the polar bear would eat her by accident.

>129 lesmel:

LOL!

>129 lesmel: You too? Actually, I wanted to shake Nicole Kidman out of her wooden acting. I've not read the books.

>129 lesmel: The movie is terrible. The book is great. I'm glad I went years between watching the movie and reading he book, because I remember very little of the movie, only that I really disliked it.

50. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris.

This author is highly regarded in literary reviews, but I would not have finished the book if I didn't need to do so for an assignment. I cannot forgive an author who starts a paragraph on page 36 and ends it on page 41.

>133 amysisson: But Henry James did it! Actually, I have no desire to read Ferris' books. He strikes me as just another Brooklyn narcissist.

>134 LibraryPerilous:

His main character is definitely a narcissist in this book. Ugh!

>133 amysisson: I recommend not reading in German then!

Still, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour was horrible. And his earlier book, Then We Came to the End, was an entirely different creation -- warm and innovative and memorable. This, however, was just another boring, wealthy white guy in New York moaning about his imaginary problems while imagining that minority groups and women all have it easier than he does. Sheesh. I'm not saying that the imaginary problems of a well-to-do white dude can't make for an interesting book, but that this book isn't it. It reminded me of The Finkler Question, if you're looking for another book to avoid.

>131 LibraryPerilous: & >132 PawsforThought: I didn't hate the movie, per se. I just hated Lyra. I'm pretty sure I Nancy Pearled the book because of the movie.

Amy, Have you tried reading Patient Zero by Maberry? I know it's zombies; but it's got science behind it. Lots of talk about prions and vectors and pathogens and other bits way over my head. Plus it's more military thriller rather than zombie horror.

>138 lesmel:

No, Leslie, I hadn't heard of it until you posted. I wonder how it would compare to The Girl with All the Gifts....

51. Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia.

I'm calling this book a mystery, because it is, but it's so much more than that! In 1982, a little girl named Minnie Graves witnesses a murder-suicide in a resort hotel in upstate New York. In 1997, twins Alice and Bertram "Rabbit" Hatmaker attend a prestigious statewide musical festival in that same hotel, and it appears that history may be repeating itself. This book has brilliant characterization, a true understanding of the beauty and power of music, and amazing revelations throughout. Highly recommended.

I didn't see this until already finishing the book, but on the author's website, the book is described as "What if Glee and Heathers had a baby and sent it to band camp at the Overlook Hotel?"

Yup.

52. The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold.

This is a time travel book published in 1973, and I'm afraid the writing style came across as very dated. It reminded me of several of Asimov's stories: simplistic, talky, and slightly gimmicky, and (in my opinion) unlikely to be published by an editor today if the author were not already a big name. A young man is given a belt by his uncle that allows him to time travel, and goes through several periods of satisfaction and discontentedness as he alters timelines, both with and without knowing it, and carries on relationships with several versions of himself.

I was particularly surprised to have the main character state that if he was homosexual, it was a choice. I know better than to assume that the author necessarily believes what his main character believes, but that is so the opposite of what I think David Gerrold would say now. But even if that was the author's view at the time, heck, that was over forty years ago!

I also thought there was a very Heinlein-esque element to the book. I'm not sorry I read it, but it's not a book I'll be keeping now that I've read it.

53. The Rebel Witch by Jack Lovejoy (repeat).

This was a childhood favorite that I decided to re-read in honor of Halloween. It's about a witch apprentice named Suzie who lives in Chicago and who is called upon to travel to the dark witch world, Veneficon, when an evil Necromancer takes over and tries to return to the dark days.

This book did not hold up well for me, but I can just remember why I liked it when I was a child. There are twins who are acrobats in a circus, and many silly and scary creatures, and Suzie outsmarts everyone, including in one case by playing a very important game of checkers. There's also a funny detail I'd forgotten: the only other witch apprentice is Chicago, whom Suzie despises, is named Hermione. Undoubtedly when I read this as a child I mentally pronounced it HER-mee-own, just as I did with the Harry Potter books in the 2000s up until the movies came out!

This book also has charming illustrations by Judith Gwyn Brown. I probably won't re-read it for a good long time if ever, but I'm glad I have it.

54. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

This is straight YA, about a high school sophomore at a prestigious boarding school who becomes disgruntled at the outmoded "old boy network" sensibilities, particularly as embodied by an all-male secret society on campus. She becomes "gruntled" (trust me, it makes sense if you read it) when she discovers that she has more power than she -- or any of the boys -- realize.

Very well-written.

55. Violet Mackerel's Possible Friend (fifth in a series) by Anna Branford, illustrated by Elanna Allen.

This is part of a series of charming illustrated chapter books, about a creative little girl who often worries about things, but finds solutions to problems too. They are not quite the same as Beverly Cleary's Ramona books, but they do remind me of them a little. Violet is a little less ornery and stubborn than Ramona!

56. Chess with a Dragon by David Gerrold, illustrated by Daniel Torres.

A very short, illustrated novel that had promise but didn't fulfill it. My review appears here: http://www.librarything.com/work/81616/reviews/12549535

57. Jenny Wren by E.H. Young.

Oh my. That turned out to be unexpectedly lovely. At times, I felt that the characters in this novel just overanalyzed things To Death, but in the end I was glad that they did. My favorite character was Dahlia, but I ended up being proud of all the Rendells. :-)

If that's too cryptic, this is a book about socioeconomic classes, and love that does and doesn't cross those lines. It's about a widow whose late husband married beneath him, and how her daughters struggle to cross the bridge that still remains between them and their mother. I would characterize this as period fiction and/or domestic fiction.

58. Violet Mackerel's Pocket Protest (sixth in a series) by Anna Branford, illustrated by Elanna Allen.

Sixth in a series of charming illustrated chapter books about a creative little girl named Violet Mackerel. In this one, Violet and her friend Rose learn that the city plans to cut down their favorite oak tree to "put up a parking lot" (sorry, couldn't resist!). They try to find a way to draw attention to their protest with limited resources. Charming as usual!

59. Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle.

This is a collection of three linked short novels (or long-ish short stories) that take place between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 in a small town during a big snowstorm. The book includes:

- "The Jubilee Express" by Maureen Johnson
- "A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle" by John Green
- "The Patron Saint of Pigs" by Lauren Myracle

My detailed review, with some spoilers, appears here: http://amysreviews.blogspot.com/2014/11/let-it-snow-three-holiday-romances.html

60. Silkworm (second in a series) by Robert Galbraith {print}. Mystery.

Second in J.K. Rowling's series about hardboiled P.I. Cormoran Strike. I really love Strike and his assistant, Robin, as characters, and I enjoyed the mystery, but found that Strike's insights about where to find the evidence were difficult to believe, and I didn't think it was likely most readers would be able to keep track of not only all the minor characters, but the alter-egos of the minor characters in the literary manuscript that was critical to the plot. Still, I will continue to follow this series, as it's very enjoyable.

61. Spoiled Brats: Stories by Simon Rich {print}. Fiction (general) - short stories.

Collection of 13 short stories, mainly satirical tales about the selfishness and self-absorbedness of the millennial generation. Some were clever, some used interesting POVs, but a couple seemed pointless and I found a few downright offensive.

62. A Girl Called Chris by Marg Nelson {print}. YA - career romance.

This isn't exactly the same type of career romance as the Messner or Dodd Mead series, but it's more career than malthop so that's what I'm calling it. Chris is devastated when she graduates from high school and does not get the home ec scholarship to college that she expected. Not having taken typing or office courses, she's not qualified for any kind of job, but happens in to one at the local salmon cannery. The people who work there are from the poorer side of the tracks, but she quickly finds that they're genuine, generous people, and she becomes fascinated with all the workings of the cannery. Ultimately, she finds a way to combine her college dreams with her newfound interest in her town's biggest livelihood.

63. Linda Clayton by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - career romance.

Not one of Marjory Hall's better efforts. Linda moves to the big city to pursue her dream of a career in market research. Although she was shy in high school, she soon has steady dates with three men plus her first marriage proposal, but how will she know which man is right for her?

What bothers me about the book is how convenient the timing of everything is -- too convenient even by the usual standards of a Marjory Hall book! I always enjoy the details of her career romances, but this just was not one of the better ones.

64. One Perfect Rose by Marjory Hall (repeat) {print}. YA - career romance.

Another of Marjory Hall's books; another that is not one of her better ones. (It's been ten years since I last read it, so I think I'd forgotten many of its flaws.) This one is about a girl who starts a career in interior decorating. She's pretty damn shallow when it comes to men, and makes a lot of mistakes, such as revealing sensitive information when she shouldn't and insulting a potential client by implying his project is not upscale enough.

65. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson {print}. Nonfiction - memoir / Poetry.

This just won a National Book Award; it's a memoir of the author's formative years, written in verse. Lovely book!