Storeetllr's 2011 Reading Heaven

What can I say? I like silly rhymes. :) I also like the idea of having wonderful images at the top of the threads (a la Richard Dear), so here is an image of the cover on the desk calendar I bought for 2011, which I thought was pretty appropros (I want to be that woman reading the paper in that sunny kitchen with the blue cabinet):

"

Anyway, my name is Mary, and I live in a loft a couple of blocks from the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. It's also a short walk from my office. I've been a member of the 100-book group for a couple of years, and before that the 50-book group. I thought I'd join the 75 book group this year, first because it a fun group and the members are so cool and second because I haven't been reading as much as I used to for some reason.

As far as my rating system goes, it's completely arbitrary. Also, being based mostly on how much I enjoyed the book, it is also completely subjective. You won't see very many ratings that are lower than 3.5 because I do not finish anything I do not enjoy at least that much. I mostly keep track here because otherwise I'll forget.

Happy New Year! Hope it's a great year for all with many great books to be discovered and savored.




ETA ticker and my irl name; later ETA the image.

Have a great reading year in 2011, Mary.

I totally agree about not finishing books that you dislike. Sometimes I do that, but, for those times that I do, there is always an extenuating circumstance. :)

Glad to see you here, Mary!

Thanks, Stasia! Glad to be here. I think the 75 book challenge group is the most fun!

Hi, Madeline! I'm too old to worry about finishing a book I actively dislike. I mean, there are just too many books out there that I want to read and only a finite period of time left to me. :) Of course, like you said, there are reasons to work through some books, but those reasons become fewer with every passing year. ;)

I so agree, Mary...I have a finite number of eyeblinks and I don't want to waste them on things I don't really, really like. Unless it's a have-to read, like Early Reviewers.

A very good motto! I am getting better at putting down books I am not enjoying.

Hi, Richard and Kel-Light! Glad you stopped by!

It wasn't always that way for me. I used to feel beholden to all books to finish them, whether I wanted to or not. Like the books had feelings or something. lol Actually, I still give books a lot of chances before I give up, and sometimes a book turns out to be very enjoyable the second (or third) time I try to read it after it's been ignored for awhile.

That happened with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which I loathed when I first tried to read it. Then, six months later, something clicked, and it turned out to be one of my favorites from last year!

Merry Christmas Mary. I'm off for the holidays but will return in early January. I'm starring you as I know I always get excellent historical fiction recommends from you. See you in the New Year!

Happy New Year, Judy! Safe travels!

Merry Christmas! Hope you have a great day and have many more quality crime novels in your future! I just landed Moonlight Mile as a gift. Looking forward to it!

Oooh, nice, Mark! I just read my first Kenzie & Gennaro a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it. I'll be reading the rest of the series in 2011, I imagine. I'll be watching for your review of Moonlight Mile.

Merry Christmas to you too!

Welcome back! I've got Moonlight Mile on deck since it's got to go back to the library soon. Should be the first of 2011!

Hey, Jim! Lehane's a great choice to start the new year right! I'm still not sure what I'm going to read first ~ thinking maybe Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but I've also got some ER books I've got to finish and review soon too.

Happy St. Stephen's Day! Or Boxing Day! Whichever you prefer, Mary, may it be a happy, happy occasion, filled with fun and light and smiles!

Hello fellow aspiring author! Starring your thread as I read through the intros...

I also have Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in my TBR pile. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts.

Hi, Faith! So nice to see you here ~ how's your parrot? Mine's annoyed with me at the moment because I'm ignoring her in favor of messing around online. I didn't see your thread when last I went through the intros; I'll look for it now so I can star it too.

Hi, Jess ~ I think it will be one of my first books of the new year. I haven't had mjuch luck with others of the sub-genre, but I have hopes that this one will be good.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Mary! I plan on following you around more next year. I love your crime and graphic choices. Actually Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was pretty good. It caught me by surprise.

Hey, Mark! Happy 2011 to you too! I'm glad you like my choices in crime & graphics novels. I always look forward to what you have to say too! Glad to know you liked Vampire Hunter. Gives me more hope. :)

Hi Storee! Sorry you've left the "100 books" group, but I found you anyhow. :) Consider yourself starred, and I'm looking forward to your book reading in 2011!

Happy New Year, Mary!

Hey, wookie! I am so glad you found me here in 75-book land & thank you kindly for starring my thread! I'll come find your 2011 thread ~ can I assume you are staying in 100-book land?

I managed to make it to 100 books this year, reading the last two today (ETA NOTE: I live in California, which is Pacific Time, so it was still 2010 when I wrote this), but that's only because they were graphic novels and so compelling I literally could not put them down until finished (a few of them I even read twice). Anyway, the pressure to read 100 was a bit too much for me this year ~ I am highly competitive, even when I'm only competing with myself ~ especially considering I was in a reading slump for a few months (which was crazy-making)!

Thanks, Stasia! Happy New Year to you too!

Lovely lovely lovely picture - I want to be her too!

I'm thinking of, every now and then, posting images of the women in the calendar. Some of them are breathtakingly beautiful.

Happy New Year!!!

Hi, David ~ Happy New Year to you too! Thanks for stopping by!

1. The Sandman: Death by Neil Gaiman. 4.5 stars. Graphic novel and pretty short, but I'm counting it anyway since I will be reading doorstoppers this year that will only count for one too, so it will all even out in the end.

Anyway, this one was about Death's once-a-century day as a mortal in present-day London (I think it was London). Mad Hettie was in it too. In it, we learn that symbols are not substance, but sometimes they are. I will probably reread it before returning it to the library.

I wish I could afford to buy the set. I've reread each of them at least in part once or twice right after reading it for the first time. Sometimes because it is so deep that I haven't quite understood it and sometimes because it is just so damned good!

With regards to failing memory enabling you to read books for the first time over and over again (one of your last posts on the old thread), it's not only age, I am in my twenties and have been suffering from the same condition. Well, not suffering exactly. I always joke that I never remember who is Voldemort in the early Harry Potter books... It's only annoying with series, and I can never remember what happened in earlier books....

Hmm, you may have something there! Maybe it's a symptom of reading too many books too quickly? I mean, in too quick a succession? From my point of view, there IS no such thing as TOO many books.

Happy New Year, Mary! I'm here in this group too, so you can't lose me!

You bet I won't lose you, Roni! You have been starred! :)

This is a great group, isn't it! I feel so happy here.

>17 Storeetllr:: Oh, my parrot was a little brat today... random screaming fits for absolutely no reason, but I wondered if maybe he was cranky because he didn't get enough sleep... we were all in the basement last night watching movies until 3am, and I suspect the sound was turned a little too loud. Oh well, I gave him a dried apricot mid-afternoon that I think made up for it... haha.

Oh, poor baby. He really needed a treat to make up for that! lol Nickel was extra good today, even though she was up until around 11 p.m. last night. Maybe she was too tired to cause a rumpus. Now it's so cold in here, she's got her feathers all ruffled up. Guess I better turn on the heat for a little while, keep the icicles off her beak. :)

*smooch* to Mary and Nickel

#28: I wish my local library carried those Sandman books!

#22> I am staying over at the "100" books group (although I probably won't make that this year, I am eyeing off the chunksters on my shelves). Please come and visit! http://www.librarything.com/topic/104918

Hi Mary! Julie from GirlsJustReading! Thanks for linking your thread! Here's to a great reading year in 2011.

Hi Mary! I'm afraid I still suffer from the compulsion to finish the books that I start, and yes, it is partly that in the back of my mind, books are my friends, and therefore have feelings. I'm sure that eventually I will drift away from that habit. Looking forward to seeing your choices for the year!

>37 wookiebender: *smooches* back from me and Nickel, Richard. Actually, Nickel is quite the smoochie kisser. Sometimes, when I'm not paying enough attention to her, she says, "Gimme kiss?" and makes smoochie kissing sounds. And she loves to kiss ~ and is not the least bit discriminatory about who she smooches either (although I am careful about who I allow her near enough to kiss lol). Perfect strangers she meets on the elevator or at the bird store or in the lobby of our building! If they try to "pet" her, she will bite (never hard enough to break skin, but hard enough to make her point), but if you pucker up and ask for a kiss, she is right there. Gives tongue too. *eyeroll*

>36 alcottacre: Know what you mean, Stasia. I'm so grateful my library had all the Sandman books, because they are just toooo expensive to buy! Although one of the first things I'm going to do if I win the lottery ever in a million years is buy the bound full set of the Sandman.

>37 wookiebender: I'll be right over, wookie.

>38 JulieC0802: Hey, Julie! Glad you made it by! Looking forward to hanging with you this year.

>39 LauraLivenspire: Hi, Laura ~ I used to be that way too, but getting older has changed that. There's only so much time (so many eyeblinks, as Richard says) left to me, and I refuse to waste any of it on books that aren't uplifting in some way when I can help it.

Don't get me wrong, I read plenty of dark fantasy and noir mystery ~ and most literary novels have their share of darkness, darkness is part of the human condition, and reading classics is almost always work ~ but if a book is poorly written or pretentious or maybe worst of all boring, well, it's going back to the library or back on the shelf or will be given to friends. If it's something that garners a lot of praise, sometimes I'll try it again, and sometimes it grabs me on the second go-round (i.e. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), but if not I don't worry because I know there are lots more books I will love out there than I'll ever get to in this lifetime. :)

But that's just me.

*climbs down off soapbox*

Looking forward to seeing YOUR choices for 2011 too!

2. V is for Vendetta by Alan Moore. 3.5 stars. Graphic Novel. I just couldn't seem to get into this one, no matter how much I wanted to. Too preachy, too dated, and I never connected with any of the characters. Also, I saw the ending coming halfway through the book. On the other hand, parts of it were good, and the message was timely. Maybe if I'd seen the film version first?

#43: Well, I've not read the book, but I have seen the film and loved it, so maybe give it a try? Of course, I'm a bit biased because I've got a bit of a thing for Stephen Fry, and he's in the movie...

Hi Mary & Happy New Year!

>28 Storeetllr: - I've read bits and pieces of Sandman over the years, but I'd really like to sit down and just read through the entire series sometime. I've got the first volume of the fancy-pants collected editions that I got for dirt-cheap on BN a few years back (I'm not kidding - it was on sale and they sent out a 50% coupon, so I got the volume for like $25!) and I keep looking at it. Maybe this is the year to sit down and read through all 600+ pages of that volume!

>40 Storeetllr:: Hah! Mango is like that too, but mostly just with women. Sometimes my mother and sister feel a bit awkward because he keeps trying to kiss them (and yes, with the little birdie tongue) and when you try to get him to "step up" and stop, he screeches and lunges! What can I say, my little bird is also a bit of a player... I think I'm a bit happy that he can't say "kiss" (just makes the sound), haha.

>44 scaifea: Oh, well, yeah ~ Stephen Fry. ;)

>45 leperdbunny: Hey, Tam! Happy New Year!

>46 tapestry100: Hi, David! I am so jealous at your good luck in getting the big Sandman book for so little! Happy for you but jealous too. 600+ pages? Seems like the entire series should be in it.

Mango sounds like a lover-boy! I hardly ever say "step up" to Nickel because she doesn't like it either. If I really need her to get on my finger, I say, "Comeoncomeoncomeon!" and she hops right on. Usually. If she feels like it. *sigh* Lucky for me, Nickel is too shy to talk much in public. The things she says sometimes! "Gimme kiss?" "Let's go take a shower!" The little hussy! lol

3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. 4.5 stars. I was most pleasantly surprised by how good this novel was! Not one misstep that I could find. It is a supposed biography of the Great Emancipator based mainly on fictional journals written by him, starting in his twelfth year and up until his assassination, journals that tell of his experiences as a hunter & slayer of vampires, and partly on his actual writings and speeches. The fictional and historical aspects of the novel are so seamlessly interconnected that, as I was reading, I found myself nodding to myself, thinking, "Yes, of course it was the vampire problem that brought about this actual historical event," as if it really could have happened that way. And I loved, loved, loved the ending. I was hesitant to read it, having been unable to finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last year due to dislike, but now I think I may have to revisit PP&Z and see if it was just my mood at the time.

#43: I preferred Moore's The Watchmen to that one myself.

I've had Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on the list for a bit now. I really liked PP&Z, so was hoping Grahame-Smith would be able to keep it up with Abe. Perhaps I should spend a little of my iTunes gift card from Christmas on it for the iPad!

"Let's go take a shower!"

Oh my goodness!!! *doubles over laughing* That's priceless!

> 51 Hmm, I was no more thrilled with The Watchmen than I was with V is for Vendetta. Perhaps Moore is just not for me.

>52 drneutron: Oh, I think you'll be very pleased with the novel on Lincoln, then!

>53 dk_phoenix: You should have seen the faces of my friends when she said that at a party awhile back just as we were saying goodbye. Priceless indeed!!!

Mary- I'm glad you liked Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter so much! It's a lot of fun and I loved how much research he did!

Mark ~ Yes, it was so much fun I read it in two sittings (couldn't put it down), and I too was surprised at the amount of accurate (real life) historical detail in it. Did you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Did you like it too?

Mary- That's actually a very cool idea, since I just read Pride and Prejudice, for the first time, a couple months ago. Thanks!

Well, Mark, if you read it, let me know what you think. I tried awhile back and just found it too over-the-top so didn't get much past 10 pages. For some reason, the Lincoln one worked for me where P&P&Z didn't.

I read the graphic novel version of P&P&Z - I think that helped. I don't think I am going to touch the novel. Nice review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

I loved P&P&Z, just wanted to put a positive vote in.

Oh, Jess, there's a graphic novel version of P&P&Z!?! Yessss!!! Hope my library has a copy.

Sara ~ We seem often to have similar taste in reading so maybe I should give it a another try. I really didn't read very far into it; could have just been my mood at the time.

I'm going to try Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (I own it and it's in my tbr pile) after my re-read of P&P for the Austenathon this spring. As an aside, I went to see Colin Furth in The King's Speech this afternoon, which was a marvelous movie--so well done and with such great actors. The opening shot of Furth was in top hat and tails, evoking his Lord Darcy so strongly. Also, the actor who played Mr. Collins in P&P also had a one-scene part.

I liked it a lot, for me P&P&Z was just the right mix of the dry humor of Austen and the absurdity of zombies. Maybe it's a peculiar book, but as you liked the Abraham Lincoln one, and as I think Seth Grahame-Smith is the best of this new crossover genre writers, I think you'd like it. Dawn of the Dreadfulls was fun too, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monster a little less so.

I'm going to try to keep a running list of books I'm reading as I'm reading them so I'll remember what books I started but couldn't finish.

Right now am reading two, Trio of Sorcery and The Anatomy of Ghosts. I'm also right at the end of the Dark and Stormy Knights.

Well, Sara, on your reccie I'll try P&P&Z again, but not for awhile. Too much on my reading plate just now. What's Dawn of the Dreadfuls about?

Roni ~ I wasn't aware of The King's Speech before, but I love Colin Furth, esp. in his Darcy personna, and will definitely have to watch it. For me, he is Darcy.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls is the prequel to P&P&Z as it were. How did the girls become zombie slayers and how did the house Darcy moves in to become empty. Not as good as P&P&Z but if you do like that one, Dawn is entertaining.

Just stopping by to say hi and star you! Happy reading!

*waves*

4. Dark and Stormy Knights, edited by P. N. Elrod. 3.5 stars. Well, though it had short stories by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files) and P. N. Elrod and other stars of the genre, I ended being disappointed in this collection on the whole. The story by Jim Butcher featured John Marconi, not Harry, and was good but not spectacular. The story by Elrod was also good, again not spectacular. Most were all right but not special. A few weren't so great.

First SRBCFI* award goes to Trio of Sorcery for being pretty boring. I read the first of the three and about 20 pages of the second before giving it up. Lackey's usually so good, but not this time.

*started reading but couldn't finish it

Re: The Trio of Sorcery

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good. Ah well. I'll see what I think when my number comes up for it at the library.

When you do read it, Morph, I'd like to know what you think, in case I was just having a blah day and that effected my enjoyment of the book. It doesn't happen often, but there have been a few times I went back later to a book I thought I disliked and on second look turned out to love it.

5. The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor. 3.5 stars. LTER. I need to do an in-depth review at some point, but now I'll just say that this was well written and held my interest to the end. I had only a few quibbles, one of which I can specify without it being a spoiler.

At one point, Taylor wrote something like: "He left the two young men to talk among themselves." At that moment, I felt my skin actually crawl. It's a small thing, I know, and probably of interest only to grammar pendants and, perhaps, writers, but I believe when you are referring to two of something, the correct preposition is "between," not "among."

Another issue or two were plot points that I found a bit unrealistic. I may be more specific in my long review, but I have to think of a way to say it without giving away anything important in the story.

Finally, the ending was uncertain and, at least for me, unsatisfying.

Still, I'm glad I read it, if only for the historical details as opposed to the characterizations or mystery.

6. The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper. 3.5 stars. LTER. Well, I finally finished this thriller about a bunch of writers and a serial killer set in modern-day Toronto, and it only took me a month. (Fair's fair: it took the publisher over a year to get the ER copy to me. :) While I was reading it, it went fast and I enjoyed it, but each time I put it down I found it hard to pick up again. At least until I was 4/5 though, when I read to the end in one sitting. This was a story within a story within a story, and as a plot device it worked okay. I didn't figure out the killer, and I can't say I really cared. I thought some of the twists in the plot were a bit out there and had to work hard to suspend my skepticism as to the actions of certain of the characters, especially the main character and narrator, a wanna-be writer and, at least in the beginning, a TV critic for a newspaper who twigged early on to the danger he and his son were in but who never seemed to do anything in particular to save himself and his son. As a matter of fact, I never quite connected with any of the characters, even the main character's son, who could have been great but who was never quite real to me, and the ending was somewhat implausible and unsatisfying. Finally, I never really got a feeling for Toronto and feel the story could have been set in any big city. As a disclaimer, thrillers are not my favorite subgenre, although I do read them and number a few of them among my top 100 favorite novel. Maybe I'm just picky.

#74: I like thrillers so I may give that one a try some time although not any time soon, I don't think.

I hope your next read is a better one for you, Mary!

Thanks, Stasia! I think both my current reads are going to be more than better. First, another thriller ~ The Whisperers by John Connolly ~ which so far is really good. Also, just last night my sister and I started listening to The Help. Oh, my! It's just perfect! I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I could listen to the voices of the readers (there are, I believe, four ~ one for each of the narrators in the story), "wi' they Suth'n accents," forever.

I have been vacillating between The Help in print or in audio. Sounds like audio might be a good choice!

I still need to get to The Help! I want to be triplets!

Do get The Help. I thought it wasn't for me, but so many people (both on LT and in RL) recommended it to me that I couldn't resist. And I never regretted it.

Mary- I listened to the audio of The Help also! It was excellent. The narrators did a top-notch job!
Stasia- I am shocked, my friend! Shakes his head and stumbles away.

I LOVED The Help but I read it. I don't do audio.

Oh, Stasia, do let's be triplets! I'm halfway through the fourth disk of 11 (I think) and am loving it.

I just read a review (California Literary Review: http://calitreview.com/2526) and the comments were closely divided into those who hated it (some didn't believe a young white woman has any right writing about the experience of black women in the deep south during the Jim Crow era at the beginning of the civil rights movement while some thought the dialogue was all wrong and others thought Stockett an illiterate for using the word "alright" rather than "all right") and those who loved it (that it was an eye-opening novel and a really good read and the lives of these women and their accents were accurately portrayed). The race and place of origin of the commenters don't seem to matter ~ many southerners of both races praised it while just as many panned it. Ditto with northerners, Brits, hispanics. What I thought is that many of these critics weren't getting the point: it's a novel written from three first-person limited viewpoints in a specific place for a short period of time.

One comment I found particularily interesting: "This book is a piece of literary GARBAGE! As a black estate manager that works in the heart of Buckhead Atlanta, the book was given to me by a white male as a gift. I read the cover and back and immediately threw it in the garbage (emphasis added)." I just wonder how she (or he) could tell it was literary garbage if she (or he) never bothered to read it.

#82: Oh, Stasia, do let's be triplets!

Sounds like a good idea to me, Mary. Any idea how we can accomplish this feat?

Reminds me of when my daughter (an only child) was around 7 or 8. She kept telling me how much she wanted a twin sister. lol

7. The Whisperers by John Connolly. 4 stars. Well, this was the first Charlie Parker I've read, and I really liked it. I'm not sure I understood everything that happened, but I thought the characters were well-developed and the writing was good and the basic story was great, but what the heck was all that weird demon stuff, not to mention Herod's Captain and The Collector's mysterious overlord? Once or twice, I was waiting for Harry Dresden to pop up.

Anyway. This is apparently the latest in a long series of thrillers featuring Charlie Parker, who seemed to be the least developed character. I assume that's because the author assumes everyone who reads it has already read the earlier books. Charlie is asked by an old Maine guy to investigate his son's former army buddy who is beating up his girlfriend who works for the old guy. The old guy (I should go look up his name but the book's in the other room and I'm too tired right now to get up off the sofa and get it) is hoping Parker will also be able to figure out why his son killed himself after leaving the military when by all appearances the son, though a veteran of the Iraq War, was not suffering from PTSD. Parker reluctantly takes the case, but when he makes some disquieting discoveries involving smuggling and gets violently warned off by some people, he gets more involved, discovers some REALLY disquieting things, and then things get really weird.

Did I mention that there's a lot of violence? And torture. Nothing I couldn't handle, but still.

It is a thriller, that much is true, but it seemed to me that it wasn't sure if it wanted to be a straight thriller or a supernatural horror/thriller. I liked it, overall, but it was just not what I expected. I will be reading the earlier books in the series and perhaps they will help me figure it all out.

*waves*

8. Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation by Seymour Chwast. 3 stars. Interesting and clever in parts but something was missing.

ETA Obviously a lot was missing, considering this was a very short graphic adaptation of a really long work. I wasn't expecting verse by verse adaptation; what I meant was that this particular graphic version just didn't do it for me.

9. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman. 5 stars. Follows on from Maus I and tells what it was like at Auschwitz and Birkenau through to the end of the war and beyond to how it effected one survivor for the rest of his life, as well as his son. Deeply troubling, eye-opening, heart-wrenching. I cried my way through it, especially the ending. The Holocaust must NEVER be allowed to happen again to ANYONE.

I believe Maus should be obligatory reading in schools. It really drove it home, not only the trauma of survivors, but how it all still influences us, and why we should never forget (or take it lightly). A very impressive work.

Oh, if only! If it were obligatory reading in elementary school, it might be a start in lessening the hatred of "other."

10. Blankets by Craig Thompson. 4.5 stars. Graphic novel. This is the multi-layered story of a sensitive young man growing up in a fundamentalist home and community. I loved the parts featuring him and his younger brother growing up ~ they were brilliantly told ~ and for the last hundred pages (it's a 582 page book) it was un-put-downable. Thanks to Mark for recommending it!

Mary- You are knocking out the graphics! Good for you! I have not read Maus II yet but loved the first one. Blankets was good, wasn't it?
I finally started Persepolis. It's terrific.

I am enjoying graphic novels so much, esp. Maus I and II, The Sandman series, and Persepolis. Blankets was good too, yes, and thanks for suggesting it.

Oh, hurrah for Maus (both parts), Persepolis, Sandman! All brilliant reads!

I'll have to check out Blankets too. But my next purchase at the comics store will be Mike Carey's Unwritten, I really liked his Lucifer, and this one sounds great.

Oh, Lucifer! My library has it listed but they won't let me reserve it ~ it says there are no copies available. To quote Mutant Enemy: Grrrr. Aaargh!

Guess I'll have to break down and, you know, buy it. :)

Yes, so far those three are the best of all the graphic novels I've read so far. I've been keeping a list of suggestions I've gotten from the Graphic Novel thread. Lucky thing they are such fast reads (most of the time ~ Blankets was pretty long and took me a good while) because the list is getting pretty long.

You are really clipping along with your reading this month. Congratulations!

I wish my local library had Blankets. Since I grew up in a fundamentalist home, I daresay that Thompson and I shared some similar experiences.

I have already read the Connolly and Spiegelman books so I can dodge those particular book bullets :)

Blankets is another very nice graphic novel. I just became a member of our library, and they do have some comics/graphic novels (mixed together). I just want to find out if they have all parts of a series before I start one.

Oh, yes, Stasia ~ I daresay you did. I guess I was lucky to have been brought up Catholic. So much less pressure (at least in my family of origin).

Isn't that the truth, Sara! I just hate it when the library has series books 1, 2, 4, 7... Honestly! It's not so bad if you can buy the missing volumes in paperback or even better find them in the used book store, but still.

Hi Mary!! Just stopping to see what you've been up to. Hope you're having a good week!

Joining in on the praise of Maus I & II. It's the only graphic book I have read, but I plan to change that this year. I want to read Blankets and The Night Bookmobile.

Hi, Tammy ~ Nice to see you! I'm good, working hard at work and in the middle of reading five books at home. lol I'll have to drop by your thread, see what you've been up to.

I just started reading graphic novels too, profilerSR, and I don't know why I resisted so long.

Hi, Mary. I have never read a graphic novel but Blankets has caught my attention. I think I may have to see if the library has a copy.

Hi, Denise! Blankets is a real doorstop of a graphic novel, but I hope the heft of it doesn't stop you from reading it. It was really good. Let me know what you think when you've read it?

Hi Mary, This is my first time stopping on your thread and have to mention that the desk calendar you have in post #1 is the same one I bought for one of my sisters. I'm sorry I didn't get one for myself... She loves hers. :)

Maus, both I & II were marvelous. I need to check out Blankets.

Hi, Joanne, and welcome! I wish I'd bought a couple of the calendars too. I just love it. I use it at work instead of one of those plain black ones the office supplies and it gives my spirits such a lift whenever I see one of the images in it.

Another Maus fan! I never would have believed a graphic novel (comic!) could be so thought-provoking, so deeply moving. I loved The Sandman series too, but it's fantasy, so I expected it to be good, but Maus is a true story about a horrible period in our recent past. Who would have thought it would translate so well to that medium?

BTW, have you read Persepolis yet? That one is also pretty brilliant.

Mary- I just finished Persepolis. It was terrific. I need to now read Part 2. BTW- the film version was excellent too!

I need to read Part 2 now too, Mark. Just haven't gotten round to it. (Too many other books I'm trying to read ~ and trying is the operative word. For some reason, I'm having trouble getting into anything. I HATE when that happens!)

Right now, I've got the following books partially read:

The Anubis Gates
Goldsworthy's How Rome Fell
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag
The Help (on audio)
Duma Key (on audio)

And there's one more I can't recall just at the moment (it's in the bedroom; I'm in the living room).

OMgosh! I can't believe it's taking me so long to finish Duma Key! I've been listening to it every evening, and it's really good, but I can't listen to it for more than a half hour before I fall asleep. I wonder what it's doing to me, listening to King while I'm sleeping. And I haven't even had time to look at anything else, much less read it, during the day. (Looking for an apartment ~ oh, the stress! And the exhaustion! We looked ALL DAY yesterday & came up pretty much empty. :( Going out in a few minutes again today.)

Congratulations on finally finishing the chunkster, Mary!

Good luck with the apartment hunt.

I have the same appointment calendar as you posted back up at the top of the thread...Barnes and Noble 50% sale! A great buy!

I'm curious to know what you think of The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag.

>109 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia. Not quite finished with it yet. Fell asleep listening to it again last night after another exhausting, seemingly endless day of searching for the perfect place to live come March. I hope today will be the day we find it.

>110 Whisper1: It's a great calendar, isn't it! I haven't gone out looking for half-price calendars yet this year. I usually have three or four (in my tiny apartment) because I can never decide between them. This year, I've got only one of butterfly illustrations. Maybe today I'll try to run into a bookstore (there's a Borders right across from the realtor who's helping us apartment hunt) and find a couple more. :)

I decided not to finish The Weed. It wasn't grabbing me, but I haven't read Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie yet, so I thought I'd get that one and read it first, see if that helps.

Yes, it might help to read the first book. Though, to be honest, I wasn't all that enthralled with Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

So many people have raved about the series, which is why I thought I'd try it. Well, we'll see. I don't always agree with raves (or conversely with pans). I like to read to the beat of my own drummer, so to speak. :) What was it about Sweetness that didn't work for you, Linda?

The third of the series Red Herring without Mustard comes out this week!

The titles are clever, I have to admit that!

11. The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. 4.5 stars. This has one of the best second halves of any fantasy novel I've ever read, and I'd have given it a 5/5 star rating if the first half had been half as enchanting and wonderful. In fact, I almost gave up on it about halfway through, but I decided to give it one more chance and took it with me on my (new) commute the other day. Am so glad I did.

All the children of a certain age group in Number Ten Ox's village have been poisoned with a toxin that causes them to fall into a coma. Number Ten Ox is sent to find a wise man who, the villagers hope, will help them find an antidote. He returns with an ancient drunken man whose "... surname is Kao, ... personal name is Li, and {who has} a slight flaw in {his} character." They go on a quest in search of the only antidote: the Queen of Ginsing, which turns out to be in the possession of an evil sorcerer, the Duke of Ch'in. They have numerous adventures and get into terribly dangerous situations that are seemingly impossible to get out of, and until things begin to come together (around the middle of the novel), it seems too much like a bunch of short stories loosely held together. But then, oh! Then! The novel takes off and becomes, as I said before, one of the most enchanting reads I've experienced in a long long time!

SO glad you persevered and ended up enjoying it so--it's a favorite of mine!

Mary- The Bridge of Birds sounds very good! I'm not familiar with that one! Thanks!

It's a new favorite of mine as well, though I enjoyed the entire book, not just the second half.

I'm glad I persevered too! My difficulties with the first half may have had something to do with the fact I read it while in the midst of moving, not the best ambience for enjoyment of the reading experience.

Anyway, it will be my favorite book for February (since at this time it appears to be the ONLY book I've finished in February). (I hate moving.)

ETA That's so funny Mark, because I could have sworn it was you who recommended Bridge of Birds and urged me to continue with it. I must have confused you with another (maybe Morphy?). (I blame the move.)

Just passing through to say "hello"!

12. Soulless by Gail Carriger. 4 stars. In a world where supernaturals (beings with more than the usual amount of soul) are a normal, accepted & highly regulated part of Victorian life to the point the Queen has a Shadow Council that consists of a vampire and a werewolf, a young woman who possesses no soul at all gets involved in the investigation of a rash of strange disappearances of supernaturals that are only topped by the startling appearance of a number of new, unaffiliated supernaturals.

An easy to read paranormal fantasy, I thought the premise was quite original and enjoyed it very much, notwithstanding an overabundance of Romance and a few editing problems, and am looking forward to reading Carriger's next.

Mary- My wife just plowed through Blameless. Now she has to wait for the 4th. I might get to these at some point! Good to know, you liked it too!

13. Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. 4.5 stars. Pretty much flawless fantasy about a young girl (the bastard daughter of the regent's late noble brother and a promiscuous wood-witch's daughter). Corie spends her summers at court in the company of her beautiful, legitimately born sister, who is betrothed to Crown Prince Bryan, and her winters as apprentice to her grandmother the wood witch in a humble cottage far from court. My favorite parts of the whole story were about Alora and when Corie was in the company of the aliora (I want to go to Alora and live there the rest of my life) and how Corie's character grew and the way she finally resolved things. My least favorite was finding out "whodunnit." (Hey, trying to avoid having spoilers here.)

That is one of my favorite Shinns. The other is Wrapt in Crystal, which is entirely different in tone, being a science fiction mystery rather than a fantasy.

I've read all three of Carriger's books and enjoyed them all.

I wasn't quite as thrilled as you with Wrapt in Crystal when I read it, but it was good as are most Shinns. My own Shinn favorites are Archangel and The Shape-Changer's Wife; my least are the Twelve Houses books (after the first, Mystic and Rider, which I really enjoyed).

I'm glad to know you liked Carringer's books. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of them!

I haven't read Summers at Castle Auburn but I will have to check it out - I recently read Troubled Waters, my first book by Shinn.

I was also glad to see that you liked Bridge of Birds. It was one of the books I received from my Santa this year but I haven't read it yet. Now I am really looking forward to it!

I purchased Summers at Castle Auburn last year. Your comments prompt me to find it somewhere on the shelves and read it.

Did you enjoy Troubled Waters? It's right at the top of the TBR pile, and I'll be reading it right after I finish Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). I just picked that one up from the library today and couldn't wait to start it, notwithstanding the Shinn and all the other books that are waiting in the wings. Luckily, in addition to being fun, the in Death novels are fast and easy reading. Mind-candy at its best.

I did enjoy it. I am used to reading more of an epic fantasy style, and this was very different, more of a quieter story. It definitely wasn't predictable, had an interesting religious/magic system and I liked the heroine a lot. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it when you read it.

Sounds good! I'm about halfway through Treachery so it won't be long before I can start it. Can't wait!

Mark, are you going to read Soulless? If so, I'd love to hear your take on it. It does have a pretty strong Romance flavour, but I think it will have less of that as the series goes on. What has your wife said about it?

14. Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). 4.5 stars. I admit it, I'm a sucker for the in Death series, starring Eve Dallas (I want to be her) and her yummy hubby, former crime lord/techie geek/multimillionaire businessman Roarke (I just want him). lol Anyway, notwithstanding my intimation that this is a romance of the gooey sort (nothing wrong with them), this isn't one. Yes, there is an element of romance, but it's only one element. This is also a great police procedural/murder mystery/thriller with great characters (I've read every one of the series and have watched them develop and grow and change ~ it's almost like being family) and a slightly futuristic Big Apple that Robb brings to garish, pulsing life.

Anyway, in this latest story, Eve and her posse are out to take down a bunch of crooked cops (no spoiler that; it was clear from about the 2nd chapter), and they do it in style.

For those who don't care for fun and easy reads, don't go here. For anyone who likes a bit of brain candy once in awhile, this is a some rich dark chocolate.

I've got a couple series like that. I can read one every month or two. But they are yummy. In Death is one. Stephanie Plum is another. Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kelley Armstrong, and J. R. Ward also have fun brain candy series. They tend toward the more "romancey" end though.

I've heard so much about the J. D. Robb series--I do plan on giving it a try some day.

Stephanie Plum! That used to be one of my favorite mind-candy series, but I stopped reading them for some reason. Nothing wrong with the series, I guess I got busy with other books and just lost track. Hmm, what number is it up to now, Morphy?

Coincidentally, I just started reading a Kelley Armstrong. Living with the Dead. Not sure what I think of it yet, but I liked the first one of hers that I read (I think it was No Humans Involved). Kenyon doesn't do it for me, and I got a little burned out on J.R. Ward, but maybe I'll get back to the Black Dagger Brotherhood books soon. Same with Lynn Viehl's Darkyn series.

I hope you like the in Death series when you do try it, Roni!

15. Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn. 4 stars. I liked pretty much everything about this fantasy, with (as rubarbaru said above) its intriguing religious/magic system that involves five elemental groups (elay-air/soul; hunti-wood/bone; sweela-fire/mind; coru-water/blood; torz-earth/flesh) and a specific number of blessings (I think there were 48 or something like that) each of which are geared toward one or another of the five elements. And Zoe Ardelay is definitely a very likeable, strong heroine. The world-building was spectacular, and Ms. Shinn has to be congratulated (and thanked) for the richness of the culture and the vibrancy of the characters. The only thing I two things I wasn't thrilled about were the way the king was portrayed (or not, I never got a good sense of him) and the relationship between Zoe and Darien. It just didn't ring true. Other than those nits, it was a very enjoyable read.

Is this a stand-alone fantasy by Shinn? Not part of her series--the Twelve Houses one?

I think Plum is up to sixteen or seventeen? Some ungodly number. I think my last one was eleven.

Roni, it's a stand-alone, though I am hoping it's the first of a new series.

Morphy, yikes! I'm not sure what my last one was either. I wonder if she's any closer to making up her mind yet between Ranger and Morelli.

Nope. And that's what annoys me about the Plum books. Make a decision already!

It would be funny if she met someone else and decided to dump both of them. Can you just hear the roar of anger from both Team Ranger and Team Morelli? lol

I often say that should happen. Bring in a new guy. Shake things up. I haven't read since 14.

#137: Glad you liked Troubled Waters, too. I totally agree with your comments.

edited to fix touchstone

*waves*

16. Duma Key by Stephen King. Audio. 4 stars. As always, King delivers a well-written character-driven subtle horror story where the tension builds so slowly it seems at first as if it is contemporary fiction rather than horror. Probably for that reason, it took me awhile to get into the story, though I never actually considered not finishing it (mostly because I liked the characters). Even so, and it may have been only me, it didn't grab me by the throat as some of King's best has done (i.e., The Green Mile, The Stand, Salem's Lot), perhaps because the horror seemed almost tacked onto a story of wonder that it could have ended up being.

17. Spook by Mary Roach. Audit. 4 stars. Another audiobook that took me awhile to get into, and it never did grab me like her Stiff did, but there was enough of humor and the macabre to keep me listening.

18. The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas. 3.5 stars. I was stunned by Charnas's Walk to the End of the World trilogy (or four-book series, not sure) when I read it years and years ago, and though I've read other things by her over the years, and know her for a good writer, none of her other writing has reached that pinnacle for me. The Vampire Tapestry is no exception. Although it was good, with good characterization and skilled writing, I never connected with any of the characters and felt only mild pleasure at the end of it. Though too much of it bored me to make it a completely satisfying read, still, I'm not sorry I read it. It was a unique (to me) vampire tale, and parts were moving.

19. Midnight in Death by J.D. Robb. 4 stars. Audio. Another good Eve Dallas story, a novella I think, and one I somehow missed when it was first published back a couple of years. Anyway, it's Christmas Eve, and someone has murdered a judge in a particularly grizzly and horrifying fashion and dumped the body where it's sure to be found. Eve catches the call and immediately recognizes the handiwork of an insane serial killer (well, all serial killers are by definition insane, but some are insaner than others) she put in a cage (actually a mental facility off-planet) 3 years earlier. Turns out he escaped and now he's ba-aa-ack and gunning for everyone who had a hand in putting him away, including, of course, our intrepid heroine.

Am currently reading Where Shadows Dance in print and The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio.

ETA and almost finished with American Gods on audio.

Mary- How are you enjoying The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio? I listened to the Hornets Nest on audio and really enjoyed it. Simon Vance did a great job.
I also loved the audio of American Gods. You?

Oh, yes, Mark ~ both are excellent on audio. I'm just beginning The Girl Who Played with Fire, but I listened to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on audio and just loved it. I'm almost finished with American Gods, and I somehow think I liked it more than I would have had I read it in print.

I am hoping to get to American Gods soon, and will listen to the audio version as well. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on it!

Plan to finish American Gods tonight and get a mini-review up by tomorrow, but I can tell you that it is a sweeping story and but not really very character-driven, and that it helps to know the background of as many mythologies as possible to get the most out of it.

20. Where Shadows Dance by C.S. Harris. 4.5 stars. The latest St. Cyr mystery has Sebastian investigating the murder of a young man attached to the Foreign Office whose death was ruled natural (a weak heart) and whose murder was only discovered when his body was dug up by body snatchers at the request of Sebastian's friend, Dr. Gibson, who wanted to see what the diseased heart of an otherwise perfectly healthy young man looked like.

21. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. 4 stars. Audio. It was really long and multi-layered, but I never really connected with any of the characters. I know it was more an adventure, and maybe even a parable of sorts, than a character-driven novel, but so was Neverwhere and I connected with Richard Mayhew and Door to an extent, at least. Still, it was worth the time (and effort) it took to read (and comprehend) and I'm glad I read it. One nice thing about this audioversion, there was an interview with Gaiman at the end where he discussed the book and his past and future projects.

22. Empire by Steven Saylor. 3.5 stars. I read Roma last year, and this one is marginally better in that it doesn't skip entire generations and contains more character study than the first. But imo Saylor really should stick with Gordianus the Finder novels, which are fabulous, and leave this type of multi-millenia historical novel to Rutherfurd and James A. Michener. I think what bothered me the most were the info dumps. "As you know, Lucius..." I love Roman history enough to finish it; fortunately for me in that respect; Empire was well-researched and easy to read.

Edited to fix the touchstones.

#133: I just re-read the entire 'In Death' series, Mary, including the novellas. It remains my all-time favorite series, no doubt about it. I liked Treachery in Death so much that I turned around a day later and re-read it. I am glad to see you liked it too.

We are in complete agreement on the In Death series, Stasia! They're like a rich dark chocolate mind-candy bar. Yum!

Wow - I hadn't heard of the In Death series but now may have to check it out!

#159: I do not really read the books for the stories. I just flat love the characters and the relationships that develop throughout the books. Every time I read them, I feel like I am visiting old friends.

The characters are wonderful, the way they grow and develop as the series progresses is a big reason I love these books so much. And you are so right, Stasia ~ every one of the regulars is like an old friend, and their interactions with each other are another thing that makes these books so addicting.

23. Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane. 4.5 stars. A stunning follow-up to A Drink Before the War, this is an unputdownable thriller with a lot of really nail-biting scenes. True, the gory descriptions of torture and murder were at times difficult to read, and it was often hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and the tone was generally dark and somber, and I was so afraid for the kids, but none of that detracted from my enjoyment of this really excellent well-written mystery thriller. My only real criticism ~ and this has to do with personal preference only ~ was the amount of angst that raged amongst the main characters, though I think that may be a hallmark of this author.

#22 I've been wondering about that one for a while - I love the Gordianus series as well, but I'm another one who kept reading the series because of the characters. Saylor's writing is fine, but it was never going to set the world on fire, and without Davus and Bethesda and the rest I wasn't sure how much I'd like the other books. I think I'll probably put Empire on my list, but maybe somewhere towards the bottom!

#162: I mean to get around to a re-read of the Kenzie/Gennaro series this year too, Mary. I am glad to see you are liking it!

Finished Summers at Castle Auburn and really enjoyed it. Thanks for recommending it!

Hi, tash ~ You've nailed it exactly! If you like to start from the beginning with a series, though, start with Roma if you do decide to read Saylor's historical novels.

I really like the Kenzie/Gennaro series so far, Stasia. Going to keep going on with it, though taking a break from all that grimness with the latest Tuesday Next mystery.

Your welcome, rubarbaru! Glad you enjoyed it!

24. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. 5 stars. Audio. Wow. Nothing else need be said, except perhaps that this mystery/thriller starring Lisbeth Salander is so nail-bitingly intensely thrilling that I want to go right back and read it again. I probably will reread the entire trilogy after I finish the third in the series, which I plan to do very soon.

Have you seen the Girl Who ... movies? Excellent!

I just watched the second and have the third on my Netflix queue.

Oh, there are movies? And they are good? All right, that's made my night!

I have got to get to the third Larsson book soon!

There are three movies, made in Sweden. They cut out a lot of unnecessary detail, and concentrate on the plot, and I thought they were excellent adaptations (although I didn't like the third as much, but that's a flaw with the source material, I feel - it's just less filmable than the others). If you don't mind subtitles (yeah, like reading's a chore for you ;) then you'll be fine.

Hollywood also has the rights, and I believe Daniel Craig has been cast as Blomqvist.

Hello, it's been a while since I said hi. :)

I have a permanent picture of Lizbeth in the courtroom glaring at the prosecution witnesses from the third movie. The movies are subtitled.

Oh, this is all such exciting news! And you're so right, wookie, I never have a problem with reading, not even subtitles. lol Okay, going to Google Daniel Craig now. I wonder who'll be cast as Salander. Going to look for that image, mamzel. I can just imagine that glare.

Stasia, I'm going to start Book 3 today. I was going to try and wait awhile, because I usually don't like to read every book in a series back-to-back, but I don't want to wait. Then I'm going to watch the Swedish film adaptations.

I haven't been this excited about a series in quite awhile. Though the writing's not the best, and Larsson's insistence on inundating the reader with reams of unnecessary minutia can be offputting, I find I am completely hooked on the novels. I think it's the character of Salander, as well as some of the other characters. Blomqvist is not my favorite, nor was I enamoured of Berger, but Blomqvist read better in the 2nd book than the first. Salander though ~ she's such a wonderfully complex interesting character, such a strong woman! ~ she makes the novels for me.

25. The Killing Floor by Lee Child. 4.5 stars. Audio. I was going to say I really liked this violent mystery/thriller starring Jack Reacher, but "like" is not the right word. The novel was just too dark and violent for that, but I did get so into it that I finished it in only two days ~ a reading speed that's been virtually unheard-of over the past year or two ~ and can't wait to start the next in the series.

#175: I enjoy the Jack Reacher series, Mary, although I am behind on it. I hope you continue to enjoy the books.

Thanks, Stasia. It was violent and graphically so, but I like the character of Reacher a lot. Wonder what that says about me. lol

26. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde. 4 stars. What fun! The written Thursday (the proper one who likes to hug and who wears Birkinstocks and flowy skirts) is on a mission to find the real Thursday who seems to have disappeared. Along the way she becomes more like real Thursday and begins to wonder if she could actually be the real Thursday with a very bad case of amnesia. Lots of funny stuff and punny literary allusions.

#177: Well, whatever it says about you it says the same thing about me :)

#178: I really need to re-read that series!

Yay! I enjoyed the latest installment of Thursday's adventures too!

177, 179 ~ Ha!

178, 179, 180 ~ At some point I'm going to reread them from the beginning. Perhaps by then this one will be on audiobook so I can listen to it, which is even MORE enjoyable for me than reading it in print.

27. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson. 4.5 stars. Audio. It's over. No more Girl Who books to look forward to. WAAAAHHH!

Has anyone seen any news about the supposed fourth Larsson book and the legal wranglings thereof? I want to know where her twin sister is and how she missed all the excitement.

YES!!! I mean, no, I haven't seen anything definitive about a fourth book, but YES!!! I also want to know about the twin sister.

28. The Reversal by Michael Connelly. 4 stars. Audio. Another good mystery by Connelly starring Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch, who team up to put a child killer back behind bars after DNA evidence got him out after 24 years (the Cali. Supreme Ct. reversed the conviction and the L.A. County D.A. decides to retry him, using an unlikely "independent" prosecutor ~ defence attorney Haller). I liked it but thought the first two Haller novels (which included The Lincoln Lawyer were better. Looking forward to the next Haller mystery which was set up by the ending of this one. Last month, I've reserved it from the library and am currently about 394 in line. :) I may not be able to wait.

ETA the number of the book.

29. The City and The City by China Mieville. 3 stars. A police detective tries to solve the murder of a young woman in circumstances that seem to involve "Breach" (the highly illegal movement from Besz to Ul Qoma and vice versa, each city occupying portions of the same piece of land but considered by the inhabitants of each as being separate countries). I really don't know why people like Mieville so much. I couldn't read Perdido Street Station, and I found this book barely readable and only finished it because the story (or at least the idea behind the story) was interesting. But the writing was obfuscating in the extreme, and the dialogue...don't get me started. I read each word (sometimes 2-3 times) for the first half of the book, then skimmed a lot to get through the second half. I grudgingly gave it 3 stars, but can't say I'm ever going to read another by him.

Ah well, I guess Mieville's not for everyone. I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station when it first came out, and The City and the City was one of my top reads for 2010.

Oh well, imagine how boring it would be if we all liked the same things. :)

Yeah, I am with wookiebender on this one, but I do get how somebody might not like Mieville. It is a hate/love writer I guess. I have read Perdido and The City and the City, and loved both so much I want to find more by him...

I'm with Storeetllr. I found Mieville unreadable and don't know how I managed to finish Perdido Street Station. I admire the fortitude needed to attempt another book by the same author. I certainly won't even try.

True dat, wookie! If we all liked the same things, then LT wouldn't be quite as interesting. Like Morphy, I'm glad for you and divinenanny and others who like Mieville, but he's just not my cuppa.

30. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. 5 stars. Audio (and book for the illustrations). Leviathan was such good fun, and the reader made each character come to life in a delightful way! I enjoyed this YA steampunk novel so much, I already have a print copy of Behemoth to start, though, if I can get the audiobook version soon, I may wait for it.

31. Treason at Lisson Grove by Anne Perry. 4.5 stars. I might have given this a 5 star rating if the beginning was a little less boring, and I would have given it a 4 star (or even 3.5 star) rating if the ending wasn't so spectacularly good. In this one, traitors have infiltrated the Special Branch and outsted Narraway under false charges of embezzlement, while Pitt has been diverted to France in pursuit of an alleged murderer to keep him out of the way. To clear himself, Narraway goes to Ireland, accompanied by Charlotte, who fears that, without Narraway's support, Pitt will be next to fall from grace ~ or even be killed. This latest is one of the better Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries. Even so, there was at least one glaring (to me) error, though it was not pivotal to the plot or even the story, just jarring enough to have pulled me up short for a minute. Still, the ending was so good and the characters so well-drawn and (at least the good guys) so sympathetic that it made up for any weaknesses.

32. The Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel. 3 stars. Much much much too long; could have been a lot better if about half of it had been excised. How many times does one need to say the exact same things? I mean, the exact same things! After about the third time I read an explanation of, say, the way Ayla and Jondalar met, or the way Ayla had been adopted by the Mamut of the Mamutoi, or or or, I started skimming large portions of the book.

And I didn't like the ending. It just sort of ended, swop! Just like that. If I didn't know it was supposed to be the last of the series, I'd think it was an opening for the next novel.

I only finished it because it was the last in the series, and I've read all the others. IMO, Clan of the Cave Bear was the only one worth the time to read.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but I was really disappointed in this last one.

I have heard much the same opinion as yours from others who have read The Painted Caves. Its been so many years since the last book, that I may just not bother with this one at all. I think the series started on such a high note, and then each book that came along after never quite reached that level again.

Yes, I always hate to counsel anyone not to read something, or even try it, but with this one, I'd have to say not to bother.

I was thinking about it again last night (not in a good way), about all the info dumps that were in the novel. Now, info dumps are annoying anytime they occur, but when the same info dump is repeated over and over again... All I can say is, WHERE WAS HER EDITOR????

33. Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. 4.5 stars. The second in the series that began with Leviathan, this continuation of the adventures of Midshipman Sharp and Prince Alex did not disappoint. Another fun romp, with the two of them joining up with a young woman anarchist to bring down the Kaiser's military might in Istanbul. Blisters! Great good fun!

*groans* I have Painted Caves from the library. I am fighting my completist tendencies. I must finish the series... but it has gotten such AWFUL reviews.

What to do? What to do?

Hi Mary- You are really cranking through the books! Wow! I also liked Leviathan and look forward to the 2nd one. I also really need to get back to Michael Connelly. I read The Lincoln Lawyer several years ago now. Too long.
I'm currently reading and loving the Redbreast.

>193 Storeetllr: I also really like Leviathan and Behemoth. Westerfeld is a wonderful YA author.

>194 Morphidae: Life is too short and there are so many other books waiting, you didn't pay for it, and the library gets another circulation to their credit anyway. You may stop reading it at any point.

eta sticky w

>194 Morphidae: Go ahead and read it, Morphy. You can always skim the unnecessary and repetitive parts. There were some really good bits. Really! Toward the end, I cried (and not from the pain of having had to read it ~ lol).

Hey, Mark ~ Haha, all of a sudden a number of books I was reading concurrently came to their ends, so it looks like I was reading nonstop. lol

Mark ~ Love Connelly. Can't wait to get the fourth (or is it fifth?) Micky Halleran mystery; I'm only about the 8,562nd person on the reservation list at the library. lol I've heard Redbreast is good and look forward to your review.

Mark and mamzel ~ Yes, now that I've read and loved Leviathan and Behemoth, I'm going to look into some of his other YA stuff. I've heard Peeps is good. Thought I'd go there next. Have you got any recommendations for me, mamzel?

I loved Peeps though the sequel, The Last Days, was not quite as gripping. They're about victims of a parasite (Peeps is short for Parasite Positive) that give them symptoms we relate to vampirism (hating garlic, daylight, etc.). I love how an author will incorporate a cool word and repeat it. In Peeps it was "anathema". He also included short chapters on real parasites which talked about their life cycles. Added to the ick factor.

I haven't gotten around to the Uglies series but I understand it's really good. Some day...

Hmm, maybe I'll skip Peeps for awhile. I'm in the middle of (the veeerrrryyy loooonnnggg) novel about the same sort of thing: The Passage by Justin Cronin. I wonder if The Uglies is on audiobook. I'd love it if I could find it on CD read by Alan Cummings who read Leviathan who gave an amazing performance.

34. Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. 4.5 Kindle. I had so much fun reading this! For escapist reading, it's pretty near (or, as my dad used to say, "pritnear") perfect. A good number of times I laughed out loud on the Gold Line (the light rail I now use to commute to work), yet once or twice I had to blink back a tear. Anyway, the story is about Kitty, a werewolf who was turned a few years ago and since has been the weakest member of the pack, led by a bully who uses her for sex and his alpha mate, a real bitch (pun not intended). Kitty has a day job (well, since becoming a were, she works the night shift) as a DJ at a small, indy radio station in Denver, playing vintage rock (nothing later than 1990), when one night she starts talking about supernaturals and wham! Suddenly all her phone lines are blazing and she has a hit show that becomes syndicated nationwide, much to the disgruntlement of the pack leader and the head of the local vampire family. From then on, exciting things ~ sometimes murderous, always slightly dangerous, but never boring ~ ensue. My only beef? It was too short!

I love the Kitty series. Just be careful of Vaughn's other books, they are pretty awful. I'm thinking Discord's Apple in particular.

I liked the first Kitty book so much I bought the second for my Kindle, at full (Kindle) price, because I didn't want to wait to get it from the library! That has only happened three times before, where I bought eBooks at full price. Most of what I have on my Kindle was free (esp. classics) or deeply discounted. (I am so cheap!)

35. The Passage by Justin Cronin. 2.5 stars. Audio. I've heard this unconscionably long post-apocolyptic novel compared to King's The Stand. It is no more like The Stand than MASH Goes to San Francisco is like Johnny Got His Gun or even Catch-22, though all are about the vagaries of war. Yes, The Passage and The Stand are both about a secret government bio-weapon project gone awry, resulting in a post-apocolyptic world where monsters run amok, but that is the extent of the similarities. The characters, even the sympathetic ones, left me cold; the storyline made little sense, even when I tried to suspend my disbelief; the actions of many of the characters just didn't ring true; the story was full of the silliness of angst that did not belong in a novel where survival was serious business; and much of it was plain boring. In fact, I would venture to say that half of the nearly 800 page novel could be cut and it would make for a much better, tighter, more interesting novel.

Even worse, I listened to it on audiobook, read by Scott Brick. Brick's lugubrious voice infused each and every sentence ~ even sentences as banal as a recitation of a shopping list or part of a discussion of dry technical subjects ~ with the same breathless urgency and importance, at the same time sounding much like I imagine a funeral director would sound giving the eulogy for the victim of an axe murderer while fearfully aware that said axe murderer was skulking around the outside of the building peering in the windows and searching for his next victim. I frequently had to take breaks from listening to take deep calming breaths so I wouldn't scream out loud. Or hurl my iPod out the window of the commuter train. Or both at the same time.

I forced myself to finish it just to find out what happened at the end. It was not worth the torture.

I will never listen to another book read by Brick. I will not be reading book 2 or book 3 of the purported trilogy. That is all.

I am behind on threads again, Mary, and just catching up.

I am also not a Mieville fan - I tried 3 times to read Perdido Street Station before finally giving up completely. I liked The City and the City OK, but not enough to recommend it. The only one of his books that I have really liked was a young adult book and I still only gave it 3.5 stars.

#204: I have heard both good and bad reviews of The Passage. I guess one of these days I will just have to break down and read it to decide for myself.

Hi, Stasia! Yes, you should read it and decide for yourself. I'm sure some of my bitterness stems from the fact I listened to it and hated, and I mean HATED, the reader. I don't think I'd have cared much for it even if I'd read it in print form.

I forgot to mention in my mini-review that there were a couple of other readers who only appeared for brief portions of the book but who were WONDERFUL! I wish one or both of them had been the main reader(s). It might have made a difference.

I know how the right narrator can make or break a book for me, so I can completely understand where you are coming from there.

Mary- I was a big fan of The Passage. Of course, I read the book. It might not be perfect, there were flaws but there was also much I enjoyed. Funny, I have the audio of Omnivore's Dilemma, read by Scott Brick. You now, have me worried.

Be afraid, Mark. lol

Hmm, now I'm worried too, because I also have Omnivore's Dilemma on audio, tho I don't recall who the reader is. And to be honest, it could just have been the way he was directed to read The Passage, which is after all a pretty depressing story. Although I listened to The Road, which was probably the most depressing post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read, and the reader's voice actually made the book better than I think it must have been in print.

We'll just have to hope he doesn't read Omnivore's Dilemma in the same teeth-clenchingly annoying voice he used to read The Passage.

I recall you saying you enjoyed The Passage, which is one reason I read it. Oh, well, everybody can't enjoy the same books all the time.

I am another The Passage lover. For me it was a nice combination of non-sparkly vampires and dystopia, two themes I really like. But you're right, not everybody can love the same thing ;)

Yes, non-sparkly is good. Definitely! It just couldn't make up for the problems, at least not for me. :(

Mark, I listened to the first few sentences of The Omnivore's Dilemma and am really afraid it IS his voice. The irritating quality wasn't as pronounced as it was in The Passage, but it was there. Now I'm thinking I will have to read Omnivore in print form.

36. The Rising Waters by Sheri Tepper. 3.5 stars. In a post-apocalyptic earth ravaged by human depredations, populated by a greatly reduced human population and strange creatures out of myth and legend, and experiencing a drastic rise in the level of the oceans that is expected to cover all land in two or 3 generations, a young girl is tasked with becoming the new Eve to a genetically altered form of homo sapiens that, it is hoped, can survive the age of water.

Not as preachy as most of Tepper's recent novels, this sequel to A Plague of Angels still manages to point the finger (and rightly so) at humanity's inhumanity toward anyone who is different and the lengths to which extremists will go to ensure that their world view is the only one allowed, as well as the environmental nightmares that are being propogated by corporations today in the name of company profits.

I found The Waters Rising not as compelling as her Gate to Women's Country or Beauty and not as fascinating in its world building as Grass. I also never quite connected with any of the characters, finding Xiulin to be a rather annoyingly whiny brat and Abasio almost a nonentity and everyone else unreasonably enigmatic and unapproachable. In fact, the most vibrant character of all is the evil dutchess, not that I felt an emotional connection with her, but I sure appreciated the strength of her character's personality.

Still, Tepper can spin a pretty good tale, so I (guardedly) recommend it if you like this sort of thing.

#212: I may give Tepper's book a try after I read A Plague of Angels one of these centuries. Thus far the only book of hers that I have read is Grass.

I know I read A Plague of Angels a few years ago but swear I don't remember anything about it. Must not have impressed me much. I keep reading Tepper in the hope that another Gate or Grass or Beauty will come along. Still waiting, imho.

37. Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn. 4.5 Stars. Kindle. I am just loving this series about a reluctant werewolf who is a DJ at an indy radio station and who becomes famous for starting a talk show about "things that go bump in the night." In this episode (yes, I look on this as my guilty pleasure, same as some people might look on a TV show like "Lost" or "Survivor" or "Dancing with the Stars"), Kitty is subpoenaed to testify before a Senate committee, headed by a vociferous rightwing nutcase fundamentalist (is there any other kind?) who wants to start a witch, er, wolf hunt, that is looking into a gov't.-funded study of vamps and were-creatures.

I like Kitty a lot and for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is, as Cormac (a werewolf/vampire slayer) says, she is "tough but whiny" both at the same time, and that is "cute." The stories, while light and fun and breezy easy reading, have a depth and darkness to them that kind of creeps up on you. I even teared up a couple of times reading # 1 and 2 in the series, though mostly I chuckled.

These stories are also great to read on the Kindle, though I'm picking up #3 from the library this weekend.

#215: I am going to have to give those books a try! Thanks for the recommendation, Mary!

I hope you like them, Stase. Just don't expect great literary works and you should enjoy them fine. :)

No, not expecting any great literary work. Just fun!

Yes, the Kitty series is a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, my local library does not appear to have any of Carrie Vaughn's books.

Mine only has 3 or 4 of the Kitty books listed and one is an eResource (which means I might not be able to read it on my Kindle, but I'm thinking maybe they have more of them in paperback which they often don't catalog. When I have a little time, I'm going to the Fiction section and see what I can find on the turntable thingies that hold the paperbacks.

38. Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. 4 stars. Audio. It's been awhile since I read a Stephanie Plum. I had gotten a bit tired of the same old/same old and especially her waffling back and forth over Ranger and Morelli. I admit that I wanted her to ditch Morelli and go for the Rangeman, mainly because I didn't think Morelli showed her proper appreciation or even seemed to care much whether she was around or not. Well, I was happily surprised by how great the storyline and the new (and old) characters were. I also liked Morelli more in this one ~ when he said that if anything happened to Stephanie they'd have to tie him to a hospital bed and feed him through a tube for maybe years he'd be so devastated, well, I changed my mind about him.

39. Quicksilver by Amanda Quick. 4 stars. I just love the historical romantic mysteries featuring the parapsychologists known as the Arcane Society. In this one, Virginia ~ a strong glasslight reader ~ teams up with Owen Sweetwater ~ a strong hunter ~ to bring down a serial killer who kills by parapsychical methods. Light, fun and easy to read.

#212: I got turned off Tepper by The Family Tree. I have a little tolerance for the preachiness, but c'mon. If she's not always like that, maybe I'll give her another try... some do sound interesting.

Hi, antqueen ~ thanks for stopping by! Yes, Tepper's gotten a bit too preachy for my taste, but, as I say, I keep hoping for a return to one of her better novels like Grass. I personally love Gate to Women's Country, but I've seen others pan it. I haven't heard much about Beauty, which was her take on the sleeping beauty story, but it was my first Tepper and I loved it and it will always hold a place in my heart.

Love your profile photo. Gorgeous cat. Um, what's in that glass anyway?

#223: That one is next up in the series for me to read. Glad to see you enjoyed it, Mary.

Yes, I did, Stasia. I love her stuff, even though most of the heroes and heroines are pretty much the same characters with different names, different jobs and different color of eyes and hair. lol

#227: That is my main quibble with Krentz's books - she just writes the same characters repeatedly.

I look upon her novels sort of like mac 'n cheese or fried chicken with mashed potatoes & gravy ~ comfort food for the brain. I know exactly what I'm getting, nothing new there, just warm and filling and comforting. I couldn't do a steady diet of them, but every so often? Definitely a feel-good choice for me.

Oh yeah, definitely feel-good choices for me too.

40. The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly. 5 stars. Another excellent Mickey Haller courtroom drama/mystery with a very timely subject: With the economy going south, criminals don't have the funds to hire defense counsel anymore and are going with public defenders, so Mickey begins to represent homeowners whose homes are under threat of foreclosure. Then one of his clients is charged with murdering the vice president of the mortgage company that holds her mortgage in a particularly brutal manner, and Mickey's back in the criminal defense game. Really intense at times, and the ending... Well, to be honest, at about the 3/4 mark, I did wonder if it might not turn out something like that, but even so there were a couple of twists that surprised (and gratified) me.

Sad to say, Harry Bosch makes only a cameo appearance.

I have never been able to get into the Mickey Haller series although I love the Harry Bosch series. Maybe just because I do not care for courtroom dramas? I do not know. I have tried a couple of times and the books just do not do anything for me.

It's the only series featuring a lawyer that I've ever been able to read, much less enjoy. I've work with and for lawyers for 30 years and know too many of them to ever want to read about one. For some reason, Mickey Haller doesn't make me gag, maybe because he works out of a Lincoln towncar and is neither as arrogant nor as phony (nor as greedy) as a lot of the ones I've known. Sorry if I sound bitter. It's only because I am.

Understandable :)

You know what they say about legal secretaries, right? When they die, they all go straight to heaven...because they've already been in hell. ;)

I had not heard that before, but I believe it!

Mary- Good review of The Fifth Witness. Sadly, I have not read a lot of Connelly. I loved The Lincoln Lawyer and read a couple others but have not gone back, in several years. Why? I have no idea.

I don't know, Mark ~ for me, almost every Connelly mystery is just about perfect. Part of that might be because I've met the man a few times, and part is definitely because most of the novels are set in Los Angeles, which is where I live, so most of the landmarks are well-known to me. I think of his book Angel's Flight every time I ride on Angel's Flight, which is about once a week.

I love Connelly. In fact, I'm severely behind on his books. I hope to rectify that this year though. I have on on my short TBR pile for June.

Hi, Julie! Yes, Connelly's stuff is always top-notch. Do you have a favorite? Mine's probably some of the early Bosch and the first Mickey Haller. Funny, I never thought I'd like a character as much as Bosch, but I really do like Haller.

41. Dead of Night by J.D. Robb and others. 3.5 stars. My favorite of the four novellas was, of course, because I love the In Death series, Eternity in Death. The others, Amy and the Earl's Amazing Adventure by Mary Blayney, Timeless by Ruth Ryan, and On the Fringe (no touchstone) by Mary Kay McComas were all a bit over-the-top and didn't make a lot of sense, even within the worlds of the stories themselves, and I had to force myself to finish reading them. I don't think it's because I am not a fan of time travel fiction, although I find most of it either boring or stupid or both with a few notable exceptions.

42. Finger Lickin Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. 4.5 stars. I'm giving this one a high rating because it made me laugh a lot out loud on the commute in to work in the morning even before I had my coffee, and that is always something special. In this one, the usual murder and mayhem ensue, none of which I think I need to get into because, after all is said and done, it's a rerun of all the previous adventures, except this one features Lula and Grandma Moser and barbeque sauce. In this one, though, Joe is back to being nonchalant about Stephanie, and Ranger's back in the picture, another plus for me (being "Team Ranger").

#241: I only ever buy the anthologies for the J.D. Robb stories. I rarely, if ever, bother with the rest.

43. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. 5+ stars. Audio. I finished this midweek but waited a few days to write about it in order to clarify some things in my head first because my reaction to it was so emotionally charged and visceral. This is a story of a young white woman, a recent college graduate living on a "plantation" not far from Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. Eugenia, better known as Skeeter, wants nothing more than to move to New York City and become a writer, while her mother's dearest hope is for her to marry well and have lots of kids and be a stalward member of white southern society. Mainly as a way to realize her dream, and perhaps also in part because she sees the inherent evils of the Jim Crow laws and wants to help change those laws as well as the attitudes of the whites to the coloreds, she convinces some of the "colored" maids to tell her their stories which she intends to use in a book. As for the maids themselves, they refuse at first to have anything to do with the crazy white lady and her dangerous project, but certain events occur that convince them to overcome their terror and their distrust and to tell their stories to Miz Skeeter. The first to do so is the highly educated, thoughtful, and kind-hearted Abilene, who works for one of Skeeter's best friends, Elizabeth, raising Elizabeth's baby daughter Mae Mobley and trying to instill in the child a sense of self-worth that is sadly lacking due to her parents' neglect. Minnie Jackson, a fiesty outspoken woman with a hard home life, is the second maid to join the project. Minnie, who is well-known for her culinary skills, worked for the elderly mother of Skeeter's other best friend, Ms. Hilly Holbrook, until she is unjustly accused of theft and fired. Skeeter's mother's maid Constantine, although no longer with the family, also features prominently in the story.

In the audio version, the voices of the three woman who narrate the main characters in the story ~ Skeeter. Abilene and Minnie ~ are so spot-on and wonderful that I could have listened to them recite grocery lists. They made the characters so real, their sorrows and happiness, fears and courage, foibles and insightfulness. Skeeter came off at first as weak and self-serving, she experienced a lot of growth throughout the novel. Abilene was the rock upon which everyone else seemed to anchor themselves, though it was big-mouthed Minnie who turned out to have the most faith and courage. I loved the way she talked about Miz Celia and Mistah Johnny, about Miz Hilly the other society ladies. For all her sharp talk, I could hear the deep pain and deeper compassion that, for all she tried to keep it hidden, shone through in what she did.

I've heard some reviewers say that is not the way people talked back then, but it sure worked for this story. I've also heard some reviewers protest that life was not that way back in the 60s in Mississippi. All I know is that I was in my early 20s during that period, and the rendering in this novel is much as I remember it, though I lived in Chicago at the time. Still, that's very much that way I remember life being in Chicago, when first Ashland Avenue and then Damon Avenue were the lines of demarcation (black neighborhoods were east and white neighborhoods west of those streets) and talk in the white neighborhoods included words like "white flight," and I sincerely doubt that Chicago was worse than Jackson, Mississippi when it came to how black Americans were treated, the attitudes of whites toward blacks and segregation, or the violent reaction of the white segregationists to the civil rights movement.

The novel worked for me on so many different levels: as a picture of what life was like in the south in the early 60s, as a character study of people on both sides of the civil rights/segregation question, and as a ripping good story. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me feel shamed and proud, both at the same time. Because ultimately this was a novel about the human spirit, about how everyone's got a story yet how many of those stories are very much alike, and how a few people working for the good of all can make a huge difference.

This has been adapted for film, and it's one film adaptation I am looking forward to seeing.

Highly recommended.

The Help is one of those books I've been eyeballing for some time. Your excellent review has encouraged me to add this to my list, I've seen some of the movie previews and it looks good. I would like to read the book first though, so I better get going!

Mary- Excellent review of The Help. You should post this, so I can give you a worthy thumb. I loved the audio version too. They did a fantastic job with it.

Oh, yes, Judy ~ I am sure you won't regret adding it to your list. I've heard the film was directed & produced by friends of the author and that it's believed the adaptation will therefore be really good, although I saw at least one discrepency in the trailer that I hope doesn't portend a lot of similar changes.

Thank you, Mark. I'm posting my review per your suggestion. Anything to encourage as many people as possible to read this wonderful novel.

Excellent review, I gave you a thumb. I'm curious about the movie, but I think it might be the case that the book is better (it usually is; it's rare that an adaptation is better than the book).

Thanks, wookie! I don't usually post long reviews anymore, but this book deserved more than just my usual laconic "loved it" / "hated it" type review.

Notwithstanding the little discrepency I saw in the trailer, I really think the film is going to be good. But of course you are quite right: books are almost always much better than film adaptations.

44. Relic by Child and Preston. 3.5 stars. Audio. This is the first of the Prendergast mysery/thrillers. Someone (or something is killing people in a particularly brutal way at the NY Natural History Museum, and the murders are linked somehow to an expedition from a decade earlier that had gone terribly wrong. FBI agent Prendergast arrives from New Orleans to investigate the murders which are virtually identical to murders committed in NO a decade earlier. Coincidence? Or something much more sinister? I like Prendergast a lot and enjoyed the story enough to continue with the series, but it was a bit boring at time ~ perhaps it had a bit too much expounding of scientific facts ~ and the ending was a bit of a stretch.

45. Heartstone by C.J. Sansom. 4 stars. The latest Matthew Shardlake historical mystery, set amidst preparation for an invasion by the French during the last years of the reign of Henry VIII, this one has Shardlake traveling south to investigate two mysteries ~ one at the behest of the Queen on behalf of Hugh Curtys, a ward of the Court, and the other on behalf of Ellen Fettiplace, the inmate of Bedlam who featured prominently in Revelation. As with most of the previous books of the series, this one started out slow, only gaining momentum during the last 1/3, yet, also like the previous books, that last 1/3 was worth the wait.

I really have to get to The Help this year. Of course, I have been saying that since the book came out. . .

Yes, Stasia, yes you do! :) And, if you can, get it as an audiobook.

#251: I am trying to see if my local library has the book in audio format, but its website is not cooperating!

Oh, I hate when that happens! Sometimes they do updates and the like on Sunday nights & shut down the site ~ at least mine does. Good luck, I hope you find it, but, if not, then the printed version is better than not reading it at all!!!

I know the local library has the printed version. I had it home once, but it was when I was going through the book funk and I never got around to reading it.

Oooh, I went through one of those last years. Awful few months! I just couldn't settle on anything, and I'm sure I missed out on some good books because of it too.

Oh, my library just upgraded their website, and now I can't work out how to login! Used to be I'd just type in my membership number and I'd be in and could reserve/renew/browse, but now it wants a password and I can't tell if I should be creating a "new" account (with a password) or using my previous login (but how with no password?). And if the former, how does it know who I am, there seems to be no "library membership number" field.

And to rub salt into the wound, you have to be logged in to send feedback. Argh!

#255: Mine lasted a good 6-8 weeks and that was way too long for me!

#256: Sorry to hear about your log in problems, wookie. I wish I knew how to help!

>256 wookiebender: Oh, that kind of thing makes me want to SCREAM! I can see strict security measures for bank accounts, like that, but what's anyone going to do with a library account? Add books to your reserve requests? Ask for your books to be renewed? Check to see if you have any late fines on your account? Sheesh!

>257 alcottacre: Yes, I think I remember when you were talking about your slump. I was in the middle of mine then, too. Sometimes misery loves company, but not when it comes to the inability to find any good books (or the inability to enjoy them, even when they may be good). I'm past mine now, and I am SO GRATEFUL for it!

Hi, all ~ It's the start of summer (maybe not officially, but Memorial Day is past now and that's enough for me), and I've started a new thread. Please come by and visit me at http://www.librarything.com/topic/117237#, grab a comfy seat on the porch, put your feet up on the railing, and stay awhile. Iced tea anyone? Or maybe something a bit stronger, like iced coffee? (Oh, you thought I was going to offer mint julep? Okay, that works too!) And I've got some homemade vanilla ice cream in the freezer, almost ready to dip into! See you soon! And Happy Summer!

>256 wookiebender: - Try the last four numbers of your phone number. That's what my library uses!

Students are required to have their IDs when they check out books but not any other time. It sure stops arguements when they try to say they didn't check out a book. When they ask if they need their ID to pay a fine, I have to laugh. I don't care whose fine they pay or whose books they return!

Loved your review of The Help - I was really moved by that one too.

Thanks, gennyt! It was such a great book, and I have hopes that the film adaptation is also good, even though they seldom are. Did you read it in print or listen to it on audio?

I read it in print - only just started listening to audiobooks and didn't think of that option. It must have been good to hear the different voices rather than trying to imagine them in your head.

It was amazing! The women who read the different parts (Minnie, Abilene and Skeeter) were just wonderful!