This was very good, although I didn’t find it quite as compelling as Big Mouth and Ugly Girl. In addition to not being quite as into the story and not really liking the ending, I really noticed what Rand refers to as “her thing”–said thing being sentences that go on for whole pages. I didn’t notice it so much before…so was it that there was more of it in this book, or did I just notice it more because it was called to my attention?

Anyway, this is definitely one to go on a list of good recent YA fiction, along with titles like Speak, The Lovely Bones, and Monster.

It’s a sickness…
🙂

Unfortunately, the fourth book is only available in hardcover, and I just can’t bring myself to do that…might be time to utilize interlibrary loan!

I finished two books in the past few days:

Undead and Unemployed

and

See Jane Date

I’m still really, really enjoying the Undead series. Betsy, the heroine, is one of those characters who could be insufferable if handled badly. She’s tall, blonde, thin, self-centered, obsessed with designer shoes, and it would be really, really easy to hate her. But she’s so darn cute that you just can’t. So Kudos to MaryJanice Davidson. This stuff is literary candy, but it’s so incredibly sweet. (Hey! MJ has a blog!)

See Jane Date by Melissa Senate was fantastic. Lady Turpentine tells me this was the first book published under the Red Dress Ink imprint. And this is exactly the sort of thing I’d like to be writing. I loved it. The ending was utterly predictable, but it was so much fun getting there that I didn’t care.

So that’s a big thumbs up to both!

I’m in progress with this one…up to volume 4 (that’s as far as it goes in the collected volumes), and I’m really enjoying it.

Yeah, it’s a zombie book.

But it’s a really well-written, character-driven zombie book. It kind of reminds me of The Stand…bunch of people trying to survive a horrifying, catastrophic event that’s killed almost everyone. (well, nearly killed, in this case…)

ETA: Have been continiuing to read the volumes as they come out. Still enjoying, although the story is getting more and more disturbing. I understand the issue coming up involves lengthy torture scenes. Hm. Someone’s been watching a little too much Mel Gibson, maybe?
Good stuff. I’ll keep you posted. 🙂

This was a very quick and interesting read. It was actually the first novel I’ve read by Alice Hoffman…though I did see and enjoy the movie version of Practical Magic. I’ll be interested in reading more of her.

It was mostly a sad and contemplative book, looking at the nature of death and what it means to be alive. The ending was both bittersweet and hopeful. I enjoyed it very much.

I picked this up while subbing in an English classroom last week. It seems to be on all the high school reading lists, so I thought I should check it out.

I never read Tuesdays With Morrie. I occasionally read Mitch Albom’s column, and I appreciate his writing style.

So am I a bad person if I say I didn’t like this much?

It was a quick read, and it presented some good ideas about life and death…but mostly, I found it shmaltzy, simplistic and manipulative. If you’ve read this, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

I just finished this collection of short stories, which I found highly enjoyable. I especially liked the stories from Margaret Atwood and Stephen King.

The Miniaturist by Heidi Julavitis was very good, as was The Devil of Delery Street by Poppy Z. Brite.

I admit to not finishing either the Joyce Carol Oates or the Peter Straub, because they just didn’t grab my attention.

Overall, if you enjoy the creepy and the weird, I imagine you would like this collection.

🙂

I finished Risking Everything, a wonderful collection of poetry.
Unlike Roger Housden’s other collections, this book doesn’t feature any essays or commentary. As I was reading, I made note of the poems that I particularly enjoyed (with links to the ones I could find):

Shoveling Snow with Buddha, Billy Collins
People Like Us, Tasting Heaven, Robert Bly
My Dead Friends, Marie Howe
Sweet Darkness, David Whyte

anything or anyone that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

The Journey, Mary Oliver
To Have without Holding, Marge Piercy
Breath, Kabir
O My Friends, Mirabai
Thank You, My Fate, Anna Swir
The Dove Descending, TS Eliot
Prayer is an Egg, Rumi

hatch out the total helplessness inside

Perfect Joy, Chuang Tzu

While my current employment situation seriously cuts down on my online (and blogging!) time, I am getting quite a lot of reading done. 🙂

19. Mr. Maybe
Thanks to Lady Turpentine, who offered me a bunch of suggestions when I said I was in the mood for chick lit, and to Rand, who happened to come across some books for me. This was one of them, and I read it yesterday…not quite in one sitting, but close. 😉 Jane Green does this SO well. The first couple of chapters, I was all set to not like the heroine at all. But lo…by the end of the book I was totally rooting for her. Fantastic. (And a sidenote…when I read these books, I so want to be British.)

18. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Just for kicks, I went and read some of the analysis and comments at Sparknotes. I found myself disagreeing with some of their analysis, and wonder if it’s just my prejudices…anyway…I found this an interesting and thought-provoking, but ultimately depressing read. (if you haven’t read this and think it’s a *sexy* book, think again. there is sex, yes, but it’s hardly the point.) It paints a pretty bleak picture of love and sexuality, and, well, humanity, in my opinion. I guess I’m more of an optimist. 🙂

17. Rape: A Love Story
Yep, I’ve been a busy reading girl this week. I guess this is what happens when you take away my internet access. 😉

I thought this was fantastic. Horrifying, sad, dark, emotional…and fantastic. One thing I didn’t realize when I picked it up was that it’s set in Niagara Falls. A woman is brutally gang raped and left for dead in a park. Her 12-year-old daughter was the only witness. She is able to identify the perpetrators, who are arrested and charged, but they hire a sleazy defense attorney who turns the case into the most horrible “blame the victim” scenario I’ve ever read.

It’s a short read (only 154 pages), and well worth it. And the ending is perfect.

16. The Big Over Easy
I love Jasper Fforde and the Thursday Next series. I wasn’t sure how I would like his new series-crime novels based on nursery rhyme characters. It took me a while to decide how I felt about this book. Ultimately, I enjoyed it. I liked the characters, and the story was a lot of fun. I did put my finger on what was bothering me about it, and it was summed up perfectly in this review:

Fforde parodies detective fiction and nursery rhymes in an innovative and humorous way, but the world in which the story takes place is not as well developed as that in which Thursday Next lived.

I like Thursday’s world better. But I found that, like the Nursery Crimes Division, this book grew on me. I’m curious to see where he goes next.

15. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Touching, funny, sad, and utterly compelling. It was a quick, easy read that grabs you right from the first words and doesn’t let go until the very end. I would recommend this book to anyone.

14. Life After God
Of the three Douglas Coupland works I’ve read so far, this was my least favorite…which was not to say that I disliked it, but it was, well, odd. Basically, I was unable to determine whether or not the stories were supposed to be connected, or if they were just a series of similarly-themed stories and vignettes. I also had a hard time determining who was speaking most of the time. I felt that it dealt with the same issues that Coupland deals with in Girlfriend in a Coma, only that book accomplishes it much better. But that’s just my opinion. 🙂

13. Which Lie Did I Tell?
I think William Goldman is wildly entertaining, and I really enjoyed this book…both for his “insider” stories and his insights about writing. There were a few times I questioned the reasoning of anyone who wants to be a screenwriter…good God, I don’t know if I could put up with all of that Hollywood bullshit, no matter how much they were paying me. But it sure is fun to read about someone else’s experience!

12. Invisible Monsters
Okay, so apart from Fight Club, which I saw but did not read, this is my first experience with Chuck Palahniuk. It was weird, and gruesome, and unsettling, and funny, and sad. I’m definitely interested in reading more of his stuff.

11. About a Boy
While I’d previously seen both High Fidelity and About a Boy, the only Nick Hornby I’d read up until now was How to Be Good, which I liked, but I’ve heard that it’s not his best work and was panned by a lot of critics. That said, I *loved* About a Boy. I thought the story was much better than the movie (which I did also like, by the way…). The one thought that I kept having was that Hornby must have written the character of Will specifically for Hugh Grant to play in the movie. 😉

10. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
I didn’t know Joyce Carol Oates was writing YA stuff. Loved, loved, loved this, and am quickly becoming a big Joyce Carol Oates fan. She writes with such beauty and emotional honesty.

See the rest of my 50 books list here.