LauraBrooks' 75 - Chapter Three

Come on in and make yourself comfortable!



all by one of my faves, David Lance Goines

Chapter 2 (Books 53-99) can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/115679
Chapter 1 (Books 1-52) can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/104732

Hey, I'm 1st! That's pretty impressive, considering I just jumped on LT. Congrats on Chapter 3!

*starred :)

Hey Laura, I see you're reading lots of good books lately. Do you have a special one picked out for the One Hundredth Book? Sorry about your health problems. I hope the docs get it figured out soon. In the meantime, keep reading those books to pass the time!

Cool posters!

Hi Laura: Sounds like things are looking up a bit. At least you can do one appointment per day.

Please do keep us posted and take care of yourself.

Hope your health straightens out and you start feeling better, Laura.

You've got me thinking I need to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox movie.

Hi Laura! Just dropping off a star and a wave. :)

(faceplants on the floor) Ah yes, nice and comfortable. (waves to Laura) Hiya! :)

Hi everybody, come on in and make yourself comfortable!

Ok, I'm ready for story time.

Hi Laura!!! Thinking about you and hoping you are feelling better!!!

Hey Laura! How's the health situation coming along?

Love the graphic posters!

Hi Stephen! Everything has stopped, to the surprise of everyone, so all of the plans for another test, etc, are stalled. There is no medical reason why it stopped (as it should have only gotten worse, based on last weeks test), and we're all confused by it. I'll take it, but it doesn't make any sense. I've started working again, on a very tight leash, and so far so good!

Hi Roni! Thanks, me too. I was looking through the book of his that I own, trying to find the posters I wanted to post here and I lost a half hour of time. Oh well...

Book 100: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Holy crap, did I ever love this book! A dystopian YA to-be-trilogy (there seems to be a lot of these lately), I won't try to summarize. And, darn it all, I had to return it to the library today, overdue, so I can't dip into it again for any quotes or referencing. But man oh man, I so enjoyed this read! By the time I was 30 pages in, I was hooked, and it's one of those books that kept popping up in my head when I was doing other things like working, or driving, and I even dreamt that I was part of the book, trying to kick butt alongside Tris. No wonder I woke up with my hands clenched in fists! It's good writing, full of heart-stopping and heart-pounding moments, and un-put-downable. Having visited Chicago a fair few times it was an extra thrill to recognize the landscape when they ventured outside of the compound. I don't know what it is about these YA trilogies/series, but when I read them I'm right back in high school and 16 all over again.

Suffice it to say that I can hardly wait until book #2 is published next spring/early summer. 5 stars, and many thanks to Mark for finally pushing me over the edge to request it at the library!

I'm sorry to hear you are struggling with health issues. I hope you are feeling better!

Hugs to you dear one!

Hurray! Oh, and everytime I see someone has read that book I am in awe of the cover. It's so...purdy...

Thanks, Linda. Hugs right back 'atcha! I'm doing pretty well, thanks. Hope you are doing well also!

I know, Stephen, I keep looking at the cover and staring. Thankfully it's back at the library, or I'd be staring at it right now, in a zone. o-O

Laura- Wow, 5 stars, huh? That's great. I'm so glad you loved it. At least we have so many different books to keep us busy until Book 2!

Hey Mark - it was for sure a 4 star-er for me, but because it was really right place right time, it made it a five star read. We are never in short supply of books to read, but I'm still looking forward to book #2! Been meaning to ask you - do you participate in blackdogbooks October reading challenge? I think I may opt out of your paired random pick and do the October read instead.

Hi, Laura! I'm all for stoppage of bad health, explained or unexplained! Good for you!!
And I know I'm in a really good book when I dream about it. Glad you found such a memorable one!

Hi, Laura. I'm glad you liked Divergent so much. Ditto for me. I'm looking forward to more adventures of Tris.

Morning Laura- As far as Mac's Halloween Read, I'm not sure yet. A couple of them I have already read, maybe I could try one or 2 on audio. I am setting aside a big chunk of the month for A Dance With dragons, which is an absolute monster.
The Random Pick is just for one book. I'll try squeezing it in for late in the month.

>16 LauraBrook: I've been wanting to read that one for a while now but still haven't gotten around to it. Soon. Really. ;)

Hope you're hanging in there, Laura.

I need to check out those Halloween reads and maybe pick out one or two of them.

Hi Laura! Well, I was 100 posts behind on your 11 in 11 thread and about a half a month behind on your threads here. I'm sorry to hear you're having health issues and I hope they figure out what's happening so it can be resolved. Glad that things are slowing down. I hope you're feeling better soon.
Divergent sounds great - adding it to the wish list.

ETA: Love the graphics in the first post, esp the India Ink.

22: Hi Lizzie! I know, I love it when I can dream about a book!

23: Hi Joe - glad to have another fan waiting for more of Tris and Four. What're you reading these days?

24 & 26: Hey there Mark and Linda! The only Halloween Reads I'm planning on are Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I keep on having to return library books unread, and my bookclub pick for November is a bit of a chunkster from what I can remember, so I might have to skip the random pick. Maybe by then I'll have the 11-11 Challenge done with and I can read freely for a bit though. :)

25: Hey Micky - if you're like me, once I got about 30 pages in I couldn't put it down. Hope you like it lots when you get to it!!!

27: Howdy, Violet! No worries, the posts always wait for us to catch up. I'm nearly constantly behind in threads. Divergent was such a fun read, hope you feel the same way. And thanks - that India Ink poster is deceptively simple-looking, but I could keep starting at it for minutes on end. :)

Had dinner with a Book Fiend friend (Hi Jenna!) and we went to 2 different book stores. So, you can't blame me for buying:

Royal Blood by Rhys Bowen (I've already read it, but wanted my own copy now that it's in Mass Market)
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani (Haved wanted to read this series for awhile, enjoy the author)
Jane Goes Batty by Michael Thomas Ford (I won the first in this series, Jane Bites Back, from the ER program last year and really liked it, so I've been waiting for this one semi-patiently!)

And then when I got home I used a B&N coupon online to get Wonderstruck by the outstanding Brian Selznick.

Sometimes I just can't help myself....

I think this Halloween I'll be doing the same thing I did last year. I checked out books for each traditional halloween-ish monster (zombie, vampire, werewolf, and ghost.) I said I wouldn't do it again...but I think I will. :)

Stephen, that sounds like a good plan. I remember thinking that was a good idea when you did it last year and that I wanted to do it for this year. However, I'm mental and I feel like it's too late to change what I'd planned on reading. (I know ... I'm weird.)

O...M....G! You guys, look at what I just found!



There's a little article with Veronica Roth about the new book, HERE, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Awareness blog. Enjoy - I know I did!

Morning Laura- Thanks for sharing the Roth interview. I liked the joke about the 3rd one being called "Detergent". Hope you have a nice Sunday.

Happy Sunday to you! I hope you are feeling better.

HI Laura
That's exciting that Insurgent will out in May! Maybe if it's out early in the month I can get it for my birthday! Thanks for sharing the article.

That's great, Laura. Thanks for the link! I'm passing it on.

Hello friends! Glad to see all of the Detergent love. :) Even though I haven't really talked about it, I have been reading a little bit. Here are the few that I've been able to complete in the last week or so.

Book 101: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
I'm listening to the last book in the series now, and there are a lot of changes from the movies starting with the last 6 or 7 chapters of Half-Blood Prince. Once again, I really wish that the movie-makers could have followed the books more closely, especially these final two. In fact, I've seen the movies so often that I'd completely forgotten how everything happened - it was kind of like reading it for the first time! A five star (re) read for sure.

Book 102: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling
A charming and interesting book, it was nice to finally read this one. J.K. did a very good job of making these believable - I felt like I could've read them when I was small! 4 stars.

Book 103: QuirkyAlone: A Manifesto for Uncompromising Romantics by Sasha Cagen
I've been described as a QA for most of my life but didn't really know what it meant. After reading this book, I still don't really get it. The book is mostly filler, there isn't any real information. Not that this necessarily "needs" some hard-core info, but since it's over 150 pages, I expected something in here. Kind of disappointing, but a very fast read! A generous 2.5 stars.

Book 104: The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
An interesting look at poison and its' many clever (and not-so-clever) ways that people use them for murder. I read The Poison Diaries and The Disappearing Spoon this year, and they both cover the same ground, so I wasn't as enthralled with the book as I would have normally been. (And no, I have no idea why I'm reading so much about poison and the elements this year!) Ms. Blum does an admirable job of weaving old stories of murder into each chapter/poison and it made the driving time go by fairly quickly. (Note: if you plan on listening to this on audio, maybe make sure your car windows are rolled up. A few times I had them rolled down at a light and I'm positive that the audio was just loud enough so that people in adjacent cars could hear that I was listening how to concoct some poisons. I always felt a little bad when that happened and then was worried that they'd follow me home or alert the police or something.) 3 stars, but I would have rated it higher if it was new to me.

In the meantime, I've got 10 books in progress, though some of them are near the end. One of them is a Patterson, and those are always quick and easy reads, so maybe I'll be back here in the next day or so with another number to add! Back to work I go, see you all later.

*Waves* Nice to see you, Laura! I can imagine how different the Harry Potter books must feel after having watched the movies so many times. I haven't read the first 4 books since I was in 8th grade, so I can't say how many things I've forgotten about the books. :o

The Poisoner's Handbook . . . oh, dear. Remind me to stay on your good side. :P

Stephen, it may be time for another visit to Hogwarts! Perhaps it would help with your cold and general funk-ish-ness? Try the audio version, maybe, it's pretty fun. Then again, I may have a strange version of fun, since I think staying up for 24 hours to read is fun. So, grain of salt and all that...

Yes Sara, stay on my good side or else..... Bwahahahah*cough*haha*cough(deep breath)hackhackcough* *ahem*

I was weak-willed and ordered a bunch of books online. In my defense, almost everything was $2.99 or less (except for the DVD) and I'm rebelling against being so broke by ... um, making myself more broke. :) Makes sense, right?

The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart (been on my wishlist since it first appeared through ER)
Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich (read it and liked it, the start of a new series)
Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker (I love this series and have decided that I want to own them)
A Rather Charming Invitation by C. A. Belmond (I have the first two in the series, unread, natch)
A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron (sounded good)
The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King (have 2 others in the series)
The Princess Bride movie

Plus, I ordered a few other books from bookdepository and betterworldbooks (don't remember which ones) just because.

Laura, I've long wanted to read those Bruno books by Martin Walker. I think I've picked up the first one.

Never knew that you love this series.

I received a copy of the Julia Stuart book, too.

Yep, I'm a Bruno fan for sure. Linda, have you read Julia Stuart's other book, The Matchmaker of Perigord? It's a quirky little book, but I liked it. And, speaking of loving Martin Walker...

Book 105: Black Diamond by Martin Walker

Something dangerous is afoot in St. Denis. In the space of a few weeks, the normally sleepy village sees attacks on Vietnamese vendors, arson at a local Asian restaurant, subpar truffles from China smuggled into outgoing shipments at a nearby market -- all of it threatening the Dordogne's truffle trade, worth millions of dollars each year, and all of it spelling trouble for Benoit "Bruno" Courreges, master chef, devoted oenophile, and, most important, beloved chief of police. When one of his hunting partners, a noted truffle expert, is murdered, Bruno's investigation into the murky events unfolding around St. Denis becomes infinitely more complicated. His friend wasn't just a connoisseur of French delicacies, he was a former high-profile intelligence agent -- and someone wanted him dead.

As the strange crimes continue, Bruno's detective work takes him from sulit markets to dim cafes, from luxurious feasts to tense negotiations - from all of the paradisial pleasures of the region to its shadowy underworld - and reunites him with a lost love, an ambitious policewoman also assigned to the case. Filled with an abundance of food and wine (including, bien sur, many, many truffles) and a soupcon of romance, Black Diamond is a deliciously entertaining concoction that delivers all the complexity and delights of the Dordogne itself. -Shamelessly copied from the book flap

You know how you have those series books that you wait not-so-impatiently for? This is one of those series. The adventures of Bruno and all of the residents of St. Denis are a complete treat for me, and each fall I can hardly wait for the next installment. This third book did not disappoint. (One annoying thing - the fourth book in the series is already out in the UK and it won't be out for awhile here. ??? WTF.) It might look like these books could be described as "cozies" but I don't think that's accurate. There is always a political thread, the murders are always described in a bit of detail, there's usually some kind of an international business component - it's actually kind of a treat since these books aren't like any others out there that I know of. These differences are totally due to Mr. Walker's background as a senior director of the Global Business Policy Council and an international affairs columnist, among a few other things. However, don't think that what could be a seemingly-boring background will translate into a dry-as-toast book. Because it's not.

Bruno is a smart guy, knows when to make a threat and when to act, totally loves his dog, Gigi, and is a loyal friend. I enjoyed where this book took Bruno, both personally and professionally, and the mystery was one I couldn't figure out. Well, part of it I did, but there was a whole other part that was a total surprise to me. If you don't mind getting in to another series (I know - sorry!), and could use a little armchair traveling to small-town France, I can't recommend this book and this series enough. 4.25 stars

I received the three I ordered from betterworldbooks. They are:

And Another Thing: The World According to Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson
Why Do I Say These Things? by Jonathan Ross
On the Edge: My Story by Richard Hammond

And I've knocked out a quick book while watching "Midsomer Murders".

Book 106: Bizarre World by Bill Bryson

In this quick read, Bryson has gathered a bunch of stories of idiot criminals or cases of extremely bad luck from newspapers primarily in the US and UK. An extremely easy read (most "stories" are a few sentences) and good for a few chuckles. Sample story: "In 1972 an ambitious but not noticeably well-educated man in Argentina was arrested after trying to hijack a bus to Cuba." Cute, not mentally taxing by any means. 3 stars

Bizarre World sounds like a fun read.

Laura, I notice that our library book discussion group is discussing The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise in October so I think I'll read it.

It's the "other one" that I don't usually go to but I've been meaning to give them a try.

It is, WhisperLinda - no mental strain needed! :) Hope you are feeling better and can enjoy the weekend!

IllinoisLinda, would you like to borrow my copy? Or wait - you already have this one, right? Or am I having a stroke in installments? Possible.....

41. Did you say Bill Bryson? I'm sold, I love that man.

That's right, Marie - Bill Bryson! Start a-searchin' for it online now - it took me months of searching in used bookstores and online (wanted a cheap price) to find it for $2 on a clearance shelf at Borders (RIP) when I had forgotten all about it. Sweet!

Two more quickie reviews...

Book 107: Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
The fifth book in the series, it's another great little mystery escapade spent mostly in Nice, France. I'm always fascinated to find out how Georgie gets herself out of some of these situations, and this book certainly didn't disappoint! A few laugh-out-loud moments here, and it's always an entertaining read. Do I have to wait another year for the next Lady Georgiana adventure?!?!? 4.25 stars

Book 108: The Rainbow in Your Hands by Albert Roy Davis
Originally written in the mid-70's, it shows its age a little, but is still a fairly relevant book. It talks a little bit about the scientific proof of the laying on of hands for healing, a little about positive and negative charges in different areas of the hand, and a little about how important it is to always hold God in a high place when you are doing this kind of work. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it as I thought it would be a quick, dated, "throw-away" read. 3.70 stars

Laura --#41 - are there no books by James May? Too bad - you could make it a Top Gear trifecta.

*puts on her Indiana Jones hat*

Let the search begin! Anything for Bill Bryson!

Ah HA! The book that I ordered from bookdepository came in, and it's ... Notes From The Hard Shoulder by James May!!! Now all I need is a book by a Stig and I'm set! ;) I'm hoping that once I'm done with the 11-11 (hopefully in about a month) I can pick up one of my Top Gear guys' books!

Laura, it sounds like Christmas at your house with all the new books coming in. Good for you!

>35 LauraBrook:: TEN books in progress? How do you do it? I have managed to have three going at the same time but anything beyond that is beyond me. ;-)

Hi Donna! It kind of is a mini-Christmas at my place, and it makes me inordinately happy. Doesn't take much. I know, people tend to marvel/give me a hard time with all of the books I read at once. But seriously, they're all so different, I don't know how I could get them confused. There's the book about how the internet affects our brain, the vampire/werewolf paranormal thriller romance, the Jack the Ripper one, the Edith Wharton one, the one about the Marchmain family in WWII England, the one about the lady cop in San Francisco, the one about nursery rhymes come to life, the Harry Potter one, the one about finding your true desire and potential, the one about a couple of hardscrabble orphans in Victorian times... if there's one thing I can remember, it's keeping books separate. Everything else in my head is kind of rolling around in there unattended. :)

Book 109: Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Written in 1915, this novella sends three variations of the stereotypical male out on an expedition to discover and explore a secret island populated only by women. What they find when they arrive, and how they each change (or not) and adapt (or not) is interesting. It was sometimes surprising at how ahead of her time Gilman was in her apparent viewpoint of women and their place in the world and society, and at how piggish one of the men was in particular. (Terry, if you were a real dude, I'd totally find you and punch you right in the face.) It was a nice little book to discuss at book group tonight, and it makes me want to read the rest of the short stories in my edition. 3.5 stars

Book 110: The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book by Bill Watterson

I was in a crappy mood last night and needed something to take me away from myself. To help punch out the books that I need to read to finish this challenge, I was looking on my travel bookcase and found this Calvin and Hobbes collection. Totally perfect mood lifter! I love a boy and his tiger and their imaginary adventures. 4.5 stars

With these two finished, I now have to read 2 more Classics, 1 Work, 1 Doorstopper, plus 7 more and then my 11-11 challenge will be finished and I can read "freely" for the rest of the year. Let's see if I can polish off one of these yet in the next 24 hours....

Calvin and Hobbes: always the perfect pick-me-up. :)

Good luck with finishing your categories!

OMG!!!

You guys, I totally forgot to post this sooner, but tomorrow is my library's monthly book sale. Aside from their crazy-low prices of 50 cents for paperbacks, $1 for hardcovers, and any 3 for $1 special during the last hour, tomorrow's should be extra awesome.

"FRIENDS' HALF-PRICE BOOK SALE! EVERYTHING MUST GO! ALL ITEMS @ 1/2 PRICE EXCEPT FEATURE OF THE MONTH ITEMS!"

Soooo, if y'all want me to pick up anything for you, let me know by around 10 am tomorrow morning and I'll make a giant list and mail them out to you. (And by the way, this months' feature topic is .... uh, I can't find it, but I'll look and come back.)

Awesome! :) We have a book sale happening next week (I've already taken time off for it)--but nothing like that. (turns green with envy) Let us know how it goes! :)

Totally will, Sara. The one bummer is that I have a client coming over to my house for a massage at 1:00, so I need to be home by noon, and then hopefully he'll very nicely GTHO so I can go back before they close at 3:00.

Do you want me to look for anything for you?

Calvin and Hobbes are always enjoyable. And lucky you getting to spend large chunks of your day at the library sale. Hope you manage to snag some excellent finds. :)

#55: Hmm, tempting . . . (drums fingers on keyboard) I can't think of anything I really need, but I'll let you know before tomorrow a.m. if I do. Thanks! :)

And good luck(?) with your client. I don't know. I doubt I would've been as accommodating with a massage when I knew books were being sold at that very second. Try not to strangle him, ok? For some reason, this book cover popped into my head. Wonder why. ;)

I won't strangle him, I promise. What is that book even about? Kind of disturbing.... though it could be handy if I was trying to get rid of a client for good. You know, just be casually reading it when they arrive for their appointment, maybe give a creepy smile. Hmmm, something to think about. ;)

And now I don't know if I'll be heading over to the book sale before the appointment. My house has a lot of paper all over the place (primarily on the dining room table - my living room and dining room are one big open room and it's the only place my massage table fits) and I feel like I need to pick up and sort some more before my client comes over. I am still totally running out of here as soon as he's gone, though, and it should give me a solid half-hour of book shopping. Dangit. I wish I was more organized.

Yay for library book sales! Do tell us everything you buy, even if it takes you multiple sessions to type it all up. ;)

Stephen, do you want me to get anything for you? I'm hoping that if I have even 1 book to buy for someone else I won't feel as guilty buying anything for myself....

That's okay! I'm horrible at taking free things. Besides, with prices like that you're liable to run out of room in your car faster than you're going to run out of money, so you fill up with as many books as you can and don't waste space on me! No guilt necessary. :)

#58: Thrill Kill's basically about a psycho rapist stalking a masseuse. I had to re-read my review of it, because it'd been so long since I read it, I was totally blanking on the story. Probably not one you should read. :)

Btw, glad I'm not the only one who's massively disorganized. :)

Erm, yeah, I for sure won't be reading that one. Bit too creepy and close to home. Not that anyone has stalked me or anything, but you know... I work alone, I live alone, best not to make me more paranoid than I already am. :)

Ok - library sale update. I didn't go before my client, and then by the time my client left, it was 2:30. By some miracle, I got over to the library in 10 minutes (normally takes twice that long, but I got all green lights and no traffic -woot!), and that left me with 20 minutes to shop. The last hour of the sale is always half price, so it was 4 hardcovers for $1, and 8 paperbacks for $1. Seriously. I did the best I could though, damage-wise, and got out of there with one very heavy bag.

For a grand total of $3.35, I bought:

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
an ARC of The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
You Are Not A Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
Murder at the Library of Congress by Margaret Truman
One Sunday Morning by Amy Ephron
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte on audio cassette
Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara
The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt in the same edition I owned when I was a kid
How to Seduce A Ghost by Hope McIntyre
Ruined By Reading by Lynne Sharon Schwartz
A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways who rescued Jamestown and inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest by Hobson Woodward
The Ginseng Hunter by Jeff Talarigo
Literary England by David Edward Scherman
The World of Rodin by William Harlan Hale
The Grey King by Susan Cooper
Yolanda's Genius by Carol Fenner
and one more surprise gift for an LT-er!

Not too shabby, if I say so myself. I only wish I had a little bit more time to look through the SciFi/Fantasy/Mystery room, as it was I just looked at one table worth of books. :( Since I have to work all day tomorrow and it is GORGEOUS outside right now I'm going to make myself a drink and go sit outside to read until it gets dark. I figure I've got about an hour or so. See you later!

(sputters @ the "grand total") Sheesh. I think I can maybe buy one DVD for that much. Anyway, glad to see you could find the same edition of The Search for Delicious as you owned as a kid. The edition I bought awhile back isn't the same, but I wasn't picky at the time. I just remember loving the story. :) Hope you get some reading in before the sun goes down.

What a great haul, Laura. For me the gem of the collection is the ARC of The Sugar Queen. I liked that book a lot, and an ARC would be fun to have.

Wow! That's a lot of books for $3.35! :o

Great shopping!

A very nice haul!

Thanks, kids! It's interesting which titles people singled out as their favorites. The next book sale isn't for a few weeks, so in the mean time, here are a few quick reviews!

Book 111: The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
The last of the Nursery Crime series, this was a great book. Mr. Fforde is very clever, and long-forgotten nursery rhyme characters popped up in unexpected places. Trying to find out who the fourth bear was was almost secondary to the rest of the many story lines. I'll miss finding out what Ashley, Jack Spratt, Mary Mary and all of the others are up to. 4 stars

Book 112: The 5th Horseman by James Patterson
Meh. Figured out whodunit early on. 3 stars

Book 113: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
I've always had a fascination with Jack the Ripper, and never expected to come across a book like this. Patricia has got me convinced that Walter Sickert is Jack, which leaves me feeling a little deflated. Part of the fun (for me, at least) was always in not ever really being sure of his identity. Not that I'm sorry I read this book (obviously, or I wouldn't have purchased it), but it takes a little away from the whole "Ripper Mythology". 3.5 stars, would have rated higher, but it felt overly long and detailed sometimes.

Book 114: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Oh, I loved this book, and I'm sad that my re-read of the series has come to an end. As before, I wish that the movies would have followed the book a little closer, but they're both excellent in their own right. 5 stars

Book 115: Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
So so good! This book (and, apparently, this series) has got a little bit of everything - action, adventure, mystery, romance, horror, history, spookiness, Victorians - and each one makes me inordinately happy. My only regret is that I didn't read these books when I was a kid. 4.5 stars

Back to the books!

Glad you enjoyed your HP re-reads, Laura! :D

Hi Laura- Glad to see you are book busy! Always a good thing. Great book haul. Gilead is both a Must Read and A Must Own.
I also have the Haslett book in the stacks. Hey, enjoy those graphics! Wow!

>63 LauraBrook:: I'll play! Gilead is my favorite on your list and would probably be in my all-time Top Twenty.

That was quite a flurry of book reviews you posted. I love how the Aiken book made you "inordinately happy". It's great to be on a book high!

HI Laura! Thanks for visiting me :)
Love the last few books you've been reading. Love the HP books! I read Portrait of a Killer last year and I think I got about half way and put it down, attention span was off I think. I found it interesting but a tad long winded in the midway. I should really go back and finish it off sometime.

Another thumbs up for Gilead, Laura. (I still want that Sugar Queen ARC, though). :-) I keep meaning to read Home, the one after Gilead.

Hola! Wow, surprised to see all of the Gilead love! I first really heard about it at an author talking and signing (Michelle Hoover) when she mentioned it as one of her favorites, so I knew it'd be good at the very least. But so many of my LT pals love it too - awesome!

Micky, I'm sad they're all over now. Did you feel the same when you were done?

Hey there Mark! I'm almost almost done with the 11-11 (4 more to go!) and then I'm going to treat myself by reading one of those GNs. Well, really I read one this morning and I'll probably read another one tonight (both in the Mouse Guard series), but one of your recs will be my treat to myself.

Wow, Donna, Gilead in your all-time Top Twenty?!? I'll have to make a point of reading it next year for sure. Book highs are wonderful things, and you can never have too many of them in my opinion. I'll have to pull my copy of The Age of Innocence from the shelves today so I can catch up to the rest of the group read.

Hey Chelle! Portrait of a Killer was one that took me months to read, for the very same reason. There was so much evidence, etc, that it was hard to read continuously. Most of it was read in 15 page spurts and then ignored for a few days, if I'm honest. It's still good though, and the last few chapters were the most readable for me. In fact, it made me want to look up Sickert myself and do some minor investigating of my own! For me, I was glad to have read it and now I'm glad to have it off of my shelves. Hope you can power through and finish it up!

TGIF, Joe! There's another one after Gilead? I'll have to add it to the library sale list for next month and see if I can score a copy for 15 cents like I did this time. The TBR heap is getting to feel a little claustrophobic lately, I may have to do some purging of my shelves a la Ellie in the near future. I've got quite a few that are from another part of my life and I don't know if I feel the need (the need for speed - sorry) to read them any more.

eta: can't seem to type well today...

I'm off to a book sale tomorrow, Laura (Open Books in Chicago), so I'll look for Home, too.

I enjoyed the Mouse Guard books I read. Someone asked me about them, and I said "you have to put yourself in a younger mindset". :-) They're very well done. I thought Peterson was clever, too, getting others to do Mouse Guard: Legends.

Yeah, I was a bit sad when my HP re-read ended, although I did all of mine in a month whereas you've stretched yours out so nicely. Of course, if you're really missing Harry and friends, you could rewatch all the films and if you space them out well enough, the final film will be out on your medium of choice.

Joe, you're right, a younger mindset is helpful when reading the Mouse Guard books. And hey, have fun at the book sale tomorrow!

Micky, I've been watching the films after reading the books, though I only have to watch Half-Blood Prince and the first part of Deathly Hallows now. I was clipping through them pretty quickly and then I realized that I wanted to stretch things out, so I'm taking my time. I just hope I can hold out until Part 2 gets released next month!

Do any of you know anyone with access to Pottermore? I'm curious as to what it's like.

Book 118: Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 by David Petersen

These poor little tough-guy meeces are just trying to get through a terrible winter unscathed. Instead, they fall into old weasel tunnels, fight killer owls and bats, have rouge poisoners in their midst and lost a few of their own. As before, the illustrations are wonderful, and that's a large factor in me returning to them over and over again. I think I may be caught up with this series now, which is okay - I could use a little break! 3.5 stars

Three more to go...

I don't think I'm likely to pick up the Mouse Guard books, but I find myself wondering how similar they are to the Redwall books?

I haven't read the Redwall books, so I can't comment on that.

Laura, the book sale was great. It was based on how many you can fit in a box, and I found lots of great ones - and as I was checking out and getting ready to pay, I spotted a hardcover of the Marilynne Robinson book, Home! So in it went. Kismet!

Redwall! Lord Brocktree is one of my happy nostalgia books from childhood. :) Unfortunately it's the only Redwall book I've read.

I've never heard of the Redwall books until this very moment, so (like Joe) I can't comment. But I'll look for one to compare!

Joe, excellent and Karmic news from the book sale! Congrats, my friend. :)

Micky and Stephen - is there a certain place I should start with in this series?

This morning my Dad and I went to our local Public TV station antique appraisal fair (you know, like Antiques Roadshow) and got 1 kind of a bummer and 1 exciting estimate! I brought a Weller vase that my Grandmother purchased Lord-knows-when, and that I'd tried to find information about before but was unsuccessful. My Dad brought something from my Grandfather - a 1923 Major League Baseball board game. My little vase was $40-$60 and the game was $500! Wow! I used to play with it by myself (whaddya expect? I'm an only child!) and thought it was the coolest. There were all sorts of guys my Dad's age that kept stopping and asking to check it out - it was kind of funny. So, something a little different in my day, especially before going to work!

Now I'm just settling in with a very classy mug of wine and a little Craig Ferguson before tackling one of my books. Aaah yes, another exciting evening in Milwaukee!

I've only read Lord Brocktree, but it read like a standalone novel. I suppose some of the mentions of the history of various places could have been events in previous books, but it read fine for me when I was in 8th grade. *Shrug* :)

Laura- I hope you are enjoying your weekend and getting some serious reading in. Things have cooled off a bit, haven't they?

Hey Laura, thanks for putting the posters by David Lance Goines in your first post. I bought one of his Poster art books. I love his work. I would never have heard of him if it wasn't for your thread.
Hope you're feeling better these days.
#49 - oh good. I can't wait for the Top Gear read-a-thon.

Hmm, with the Redwall books, they're kind of interrelated but they stand well on their own. I haven't read them all, but starting with Redwall is a good way to go. Martin the Warrior is probably my favourite as I still have very vivid memories of being really upset (in a good way) at the ending, when I was 8 or so.

I'm so excited - I finished the 11-11 challenge!!!!!

Book 119: Tarzan of the Apes by E. R. Burroughs

The start of all of the Tarzan books, this was originally published serially in a magazine. (Sometimes you can tell, but it's not a bad thing.) The general story is well-known, so I won't re-cap it here. It was nice to read the original story, and if it wasn't picked for my real-life book club I probably never would have read it. 3 stars, nothing outstanding and nothing terrible, just a regular read.

Book 120: Crossing Into Medicine Country by David Carson

A very interesting account of Mr. Carson's experiences with becoming a Native Healer (or rather, his start at becoming a Healer). It was half fascinating and full of timely and sage advice (which I would've marked some passages), and half boring and frustrating at his "white man" resistance to the experiences he had. Mary, his mentor, sounds like a fascinating woman. 3.5 stars, and recommended if you're interested in this sort of thing.

Book 121: Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

I purposely saved this book for last. I totally have a girl-crush on Kate Beaton! Her comics are wonderful - wry, historical, literary, laugh-out-loud funny - and I have spent many a happy hour at her website, laughing my way through. I bought her first book, Never Learn Anything From History a few years ago and re-read it at least once a year. This book will be the same. Some of my favorites are her Edward Gorey cover series, the Nancy Drew cover series, Fat Pony, any Canadian history ones, ... hell, I love them all. Being a book nerd, all of the literary ones are my favorites too. The last strip for her Dracula series totally cracks me up just thinking about it, and any and all of her Austen-ish ones are priceless. Oh, oh, and her two on page 93, "Dirty Words", one about Tycho and the one about Victorians ... yes, they're rude but they make me laugh so hard! See, I can't stop gushing and repeating myself. Check out her website (harkavagrant.com) and buy her books if you like what you see. I'm planning on giving these as Christmas gifts this year for sure. 5 stars! Oh, and her footnotes? Just as funny as the comics themselves. Okay, really done gushing now. :)

I finished this baby just in time for this weekend - it's Dewey Read-a-Thon time once again! I have a stack of 28 books to read (problem with overplanning much?), including several GN's. They're mostly shorties, with a slant towards the creepy in honor of the Halloween season, but I might have to add a longer book for something to return to. The last few times some of my favorite series have had books published around this time so I've always read one of them, but this year they've all come out earlier. Don't worry, I have PLENTY to choose from, I just need to figure out if there's anything else I "need" to read for any other challenges. At any rate, I'm really looking forward to having some "free" reading time for the rest of the year. I'll stick around here until 2012 hits, and will post a link to next year's thread when I have it set up. (Maybe next week?)

Hope you're all having a good night! I'm off to have a celebratory glass of wine before I hit the couch for the evening. See you all again soon!

Man, Kate Beaton is awesome!

Thanks for this review, Laura. I've been wondering about this book, and you make it sound like a lot of fun. I'll check it out.

I love Hark! A Vagrant (the website) too! I think one of my favourites is the one about Elizabeth and Darcy fan fiction. *smirk* I definitely want to get my hands on her book one of these days. Congrats on completing the challenge, Laura! That's a huge and awesome accomplishment. :)

Hi Joe! I realize it wasn't so much of a review as a total gushing love-fest, but I hope you do pick up a copy and enjoy it. :)

Awesome, Micky! Glad to see another Beaton fan - and thanks for the congrats! That one is a good one. I also like the one where the Bronte sisters are picking out new "butch" male names. One of them is Bruce Punisher - hilarious!

I thought I'd have most of the day today free to clean the house and get to sleep early, maybe prep a little food. Instead, I didn't get home until 7:30 and have been walking around my house like a loon, not really getting anything done and letting a low-level of panic to set in. Crap. I plan on getting up at 6:30 to make a pot of coffee, do a few final pick-ups, and then I'll be reading at 7:00 a.m.! See you guys later!

Speaking of the Bronte sisters, I have a feeling you'll enjoy this. :D

Ha! Micky, that was hilarious. Especially, for some reason, the "pudding not included" bit. LOL!

Laura- I had not heard of Kate Beaton but you have convinced me to give her a shot. Hope you have a great weekend.

So sad to not get the pudding. But you do get the fire extinguisher! :D I think my favourite parts are a tie between the super disguise mustaches and the Brontesaurus with barrier-breaking feminist vision. Reinterpretation is so much fun.

Mark, I hope you like Kate. And I hope you are having a great weekend too!

Mickey I agree, reinterpretation is so much fun!

I'm about halfway through the read-a-thon and it's going pretty good. I've just recently started reading actual books (not just audio) so I hope my overall numbers will improve before it's all said and done.

Hi Laura, congrats on completing the 11/11 challenge. That looks like another fun group. Against my better judgement, I succumbed and signed up for 12 in 12 . I can't read 144 books in one year so I will be doing a modified version with broad categories. Wish me luck!

I'm totally impressed with the 11/11 challenge completion. That's a lot of books!

The challenge is getting a bit out of hand for me, way too many books, but I thought about doing themed months for an entire year, with similar fiction/nonfiction genres/topics. Like 1 month, for example, I might read nothing but science and science fiction. I could also pair up fantasy and mythology, crime/mystery and true crime, history and historical fiction, disease outbreak and epidemeology, and I could get my zombie fix during October with my usual horror reading like I'm doing now, and so on.

Sounds fun, I just don't want to commit an entire year's worth of reading that way. I guess I could just pick 2 books per month (1 fiction and 1 nonfiction) but that kind of defeats the purpose. *Shrug* I dunno...

Donna, I'm in the 1212 too, and I'll be doing a stepped challenge as well. The only reason I could read so many books this year is because I'm not working a lot. I'm hoping next year I'll be busier and will therefore have less free time to read. I'll make sure I have your thread starred!

It is a lot of books, Stephen, but that's okay. I've got so many hundreds unread that it's easy to always have something to grab if the book in my hand isn't working for me. It's a challenge (which, dur, is in the name) for sure to read a certain type of books for the year so I intentionally leave my categories broad, with an emphasis on reading books that I already own. I think this group is where I'd keep hanging out, if I were you, and not worry about picking a certain kind of books. It's hard enough just to keep up with your thread, m'dear, let alone having to worry about what you'll entertain yourself with next!

Well, I survived the read-a-thon, and it seems to have taken me all the way through today to recover properly. Could it be that I'm getting too old to stay up for 24 hours straight? Yeesh, I hope not. I finished 10 books (one of the Moomins I read the night before), which is pretty good. A few of them were very short, so that helped boost my numbers.

Books 122 & 123: Moomin: The Complete Comic Strip Vols 1 & 2 by Tove Jansson
Quite cute, and I wish I would've known my local library had them before I started with the Moomin books. The introduction of all of the characters is helpful, though by no means necessary, to enjoying any of the books. 3 stars each.

Book 124: Half-Minute Horrors by lots of people
A rec from Sara. I realize I'm really not the target audience for these, but I enjoyed the book regardless. 3 stars

Book 125: Radiator Days by Lucy Knisley
I picked this one up b/c I enjoyed her book French Milk so much. This is a collection of her early comics, i think they were mostly done while she was still in college, and it seems like these would resonate more with someone in that age group. Enjoyable, but nothing to really write home about (no offense to Ms. Knisley). 3 stars

Book 126: The Vampyre by John William Polidori
A slim, somewhat-dated book only really packed one scare for me. I had a difficult time following the narrative for the first few pages (I chalk that up to my extreme tiredness), but once I got the "sound" of the book, I was all aboard! This might sound like an odd connection to make, but it reminded me of Dracula even though I've never read it, and it was very much like Carmilla. Worth a read, certainly, especially if you're a classics kind of person or just want to check it off of a list. It's short (my version is barely 24 pages) and old-fashioned creepy, a nice way to pass a half an hour. 3.5 stars

Book 127: The Pedant and the Shuffly by John Bellairs
When I was a young girl, John Bellairs was totally my main man. His books had just the right spooky-scary-smartly-awkward kid vibe. I'm not sure where I first heard about this little book, but I'm glad I did. It's everything I like about Bellairs in one small book. Wonderful, darkly detailed illustrations are generously sprinkled throughout the book. If you like Bellairs, you'll like this book. 4 stars

Book 128: The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
A gem of a book, this Newbery Winner deserves to be more well-known. 4.5 stars

Book 129: Stiff by Mary Roach
Another great Roach, I just wish I had read a copy rather than listening to it. As I said before (somewhere) you can't really "skim read" while you're listening to rotting cadaver stories and that would've saved me quite a lot of nauseated moments. 4 stars

Book 130: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
This was my audio anti-Stiff, a fairly realistic romance novel that I first heard about from The Book Lady. Sweet, funny, and I felt like these people really exist. 4 stars, and if I'm in need of an easy, feel-good read I'll happily come back to this author.

Book 131: Deadly Desire by Keri Arthur
The ninth book in the Riley Jensen series, it's another steamy page-turner. Nothing radically new here, just a solid read. 4 stars

Book 132: Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot
Easily my favorite book of the night, and one of my top reads for the year. It's truly kismet that I picked this book up at all. This wrist-buster (324 oversized pages) isn't just a graphic novel about Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll - it's also a history of Sunderland, in the NE of England, and it links seemingly random parts of British and world history in the most surprising ways. Mr. Talbot deserves many accolades for the story, and certainly for the amazing artwork. He combines watercolor-ish photographs, with illustrations, with mixed-media collages, and uses not just "traditional" comics-style drawings, but copies medieval-style lettering and graphics, some 90's Japanese comics, Fantasy-style - it's truly a work of art. Do yourself a favor and put a pillow in your lap and grab a bright light to read by when you pick it up - it's detailed and beautiful and you won't want to miss a thing. 5 stars

I'm impressed you can stay up for 24 hours, never mind reading for most of that time. The very few times I've been awake for 24 hours or more have not been pleasant. And then it takes me two or three days to recover. Interesting set of books and I'll have to keep Alice in Sunderland on my radar, it sounds intriguing.

Wait, did the audio of Stiff have the footnotes? Those are the best part of Roach's books. :)

Laura- Great job with the Readathon! I NEED to go on one of those now. Reading for me has been erratic. I also loved Stiff and Alice in Sunderland sounds very good.

Stephen- Yes, the audio of Stiff includes every juicy footnote.

I think my eyes would fall out if I tried to read for 24 hours! And my recovery time would be far longer than yours, Laura. Today looks like a good reading day for me with no extra activities planned. I hope to read away most of the afternoon.

I loved Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, but I draw the line at reading a book about cadavers, although, October is the perfect month to do it!

I live in Newcastle, which is near Sunderland (though there is a deadly rivalry between the two cities)- and some local friends showed me a copy of Alice in Sunderland last year - your review has reminded me to look out for it as I'm sure I'd find it interesting.

I can't believe you stayed up like that, Laura! Amazing.

What a lot of interesting books. I loved Alice in Sunderland, too. You might want to check out his The Tale of One Bad Rat, which is quite different but I thought exceptional.

French Milk - I keep thinking about reading it; your reaction has it back on my radar.

Moomintrolls! I read the books to my daughter when she was growing up and we loved them. When we had some Finnish visitors in Chicago we told them how much we loved the author, naming her with our flat midwestern accent to rhyme with "Cove Manson". Blank looks from our visitors - until they realized we meant "Toe-vuh Yahn-sen". Oops! The graphic version looks like fun.

Wow, that is an impressive list of books from the read-a-thon! Good job!

Hi Micky - thanks! I'm alright with staying up that late but the problem becomes the next day or two. At least I don't feel so bad for being so wonky for 2 days - if you can't make it, and you're much younger than me... :)

Stephen, I'm glad Smart Mark knew the answer, because I had no idea! And judging from my reading of Bonk, the footnotes are the best part. I'll pick up another Roach in the near future, but a print copy for sure.

Howdy there, Mark! Thanks for the footnote help. The next 24-hour 'thon will be on a Saturday in April - want me to keep you posted on a date in case you want to join in? And erratic reading is to be expected, what with everything you've had going on in the last few months. You'll catch up and get back to normal soon enough. ((Hugs))

Hi Donna! It's not so bad to read that much. Honestly, I tend to want to clean things up and clean things out around the house on those days. I figure no one will be bothering me, what better time to catch up on some overdue chores? Packing for Mars may be next on my Roach Reading List. And yes, if you have a sensitive stomach, perhaps skipping Stiff is okay. I used to have an "iron stomach" for that kind of stuff, and I had a hard time handling listening to this one. Proceed with caution, dear Donna!

Genny, I'm sure you'd find it interesting! It's all in your back yard and that makes me a little jealous. I wish we had that kind of history here in the States. Well, that we modern white folks knew about and was well-documented and accessible. :) I'm so interested in what you'll think about it - hop to it!

Thanks Joe - I've just requested The Tale of One Bad Rat, thanks for the rec! I wonder how similar those two books are, and what the rest of his stuff is like. I can send you my copy of French Milk if you'd like - it's just sitting on my shelf, having an uneventful life. You can PM me your address and I'll toss it in the mail tomorrow! And if you've read other Moomin books, you'd like these volumes of the comic strips for sure.

Thanks Chelle! I hope you guys have good weather this weekend for your photos!

I'm reading two very interesting books right now. The Shallows, about how the internet has physiologically changed the way that we think, and The Compass of Pleasure, about how our bodies interpret "vices" into things that feel good to us. Both fascinating and I hope I can keep enough of the info in my head long enough to have at least one intelligent conversation about them!

Nothing better than having something you read being useful in some context! :) I'll be interested to see your review of The Shallows.

#100: Glad you liked Half-Minute Horrors somewhat. :)

The Family Under the Bridge I see all the time at work (unchecked out and getting dusty), but it's definitely something I'd read.

Stiff -- ick. Well, ick to listening to it on CD. Like you said, it doesn't sound very pleasant. But I do have the book, so I'll probably read it. Eventually.

I'll have to look for Alice in Sunderland. I can't say that I've seen that one at all.

Hi Micky! So far it's good, and I can see (not without some horror) how much my thinking has changed in the last few years. It's a little scary and a little fascinating.

Howdy, Sara! Oh, that poor poor Family Under the Bridge - you should check them out and let them see the world for a change - or, rather, not the same view from the shelf. :) It's a sweet story, I hope you like it. And yes, def. read Stiff vs. listening to it. *shudder* Blech. Listening to her kind of funny kind of totally gross metaphors and descriptions I'd visibly react and gag. Sometimes. But it's interesting and I'm not sorry I read it. And if you can find Alice in Sunderland, totally grab that baby. I don't know if it'll be up your alley or not, but at the very least I'm sure you'd find it interesting, all the ways that so many seemingly unrelated things are really connected.

Uh oh. I just got a catalog today from the University of Chicago Press with lots of discounted books, and "hundreds of books at less than $10". Crap - I think I may get into some trouble.

Got some lighter fluid and matches? That might help. Um, and just so there's no confusion, I mean burn the catalog. ;) Don't want to hear about some chick who went on an arson binge because someone on LT told her to start burning stuff.

I do, and I even have a fireplace to throw it in, but i can't help myself. i started looking at it last night and found at least 10 books that i'd love to own all under $10. dammit. don't think i'll order anything since i've been spending far too much money lately, but then again i don't trust myself around cheap books.

maybe you have the right idea, sara.

Smokey the Bear would be so disappointed in you. ;) Stick that catalogue in a recycle bin instead. And then bury it under flyers from Home Depot.

>114 MickyFine: Smokey the bear is only against forest fires. He actually approves of house fires.

I've added Alice in Sunderland to my Amazon wishlist in the hope that someone may give it to me for Christmas! It's unlikely to turn up second-hand, which is how I get most of my books, though I'll keep an eye out for it in case...

Yes, but the problem with recycling it is that it will still be in my house for another 2 days until it's time for a pickup. I've put it in the bag, but if it's very quiet in here I can still here it taunting me. The jerk.

Genny, that's the only way I'm likely to get it too. Maybe I should remind Santa to check on Amazon...

Book 133: Howard's End by E. M. Forster
A re-read for me, I thoroughly enjoyed this abridged edition narrated by Emma Thompson. Some of the threads in this book seemed especially relevant to what is going on in the world today. 3.5 stars

Book 134: The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot
It's official - I am a fan of Bryan Talbot. This slim comic packs an enormous emotional punch, somehow seamlessly combining both Beatrix Potter and childhood abuse. His illustrations are wonderful, and the "Rat's Tale" at the end was especially lovely. Do yourself a favor and read this book - I doubt it is likely to leave you any time soon. 4 stars

Book 135: Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry
If you'd heard the description - a private investigator, and his sidekick, a tea bag, try to solve a murder mystery - you'd think it was bonkers. Maybe it's a little nuts, but it's a wonder and you should really read it for yourself. It's a wonderful-looking thing too, all bleak and noir-ish, with a very unique feel. It was a very nice few hours of reading, and the only stipulation I'd say is that you should read it with a light close by (some of the handwriting is a little hard to read and the overall darkness is a bit too dark to clearly make out what is going on). 4 stars

After those last two books and a movie that I watched this morning ("Departures" - very good, but it'll make your eyes sweat) I think I'm in need of a little easy-going feel-good reading!

#114: You're so right. That's one of my biggest pet peeves--people who don't recycle (especially when a recycle bin is within reach). How about this then? Shred the catalog. Then recycle it. Everybody's happy. :)

#115: Ha ha! That sounded so wrong. This is exactly what went through my head.

#117: Hmm, I haven't heard of The Tale of One Bad Rat either. Shame on me (especially since it's graphic novel month or something). I'll have to see if we have it at work.

I don't really have any recommendations for you in the "easy-going feel-good" area, but I have read a couple in the past week or two that made me laugh like a fool:

* Would You Rather...?'s Mindf*cks: Over 800 Ways to Confound, Confuse, and Abuse by Justin Heimberg
* Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets "Festive" by Jen Yates

...plus a couple Happy Bunny books, a Get Fuzzy comic book, and Return of the Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley (which is funny, unless you're depressed).

Btw, was Departures this one you saw? If so, one of my coworkers recommended it to me, which I was surprised at, since she's really not into dramas, but she knows I like foreign films. Maybe I'll have to give it a try after my scary movie binge.

Thanks for the recs, Sara! I don't know what I'm going to pick that's going to be "happier" or not, maybe I should just work on the 4 that I'm currently reading and see what pops up into my pea-brain later on. And yes, that's the "Departures" that I watched. It made me cry a few times (then again, I might be more emotional now than normal) - but then again, nearly anything with classical musicians in it is bound to get to me.

I just signed up for the 100 hour ReadaThing that starts on Thursday night and goes until Monday night. Plus, I signed up for the Halloween ReadaThon that starts tomorrow night and goes for 24 hours. I think I have a sickness maybe. Are any of you joining in on either Thing/Thon?

Hmm, maybe you should stick with what you're reading now. I do the exact thing--start a book, get a little bored with it, set it aside, start another...and repeat.

Sickness? No, probably not. Masochism? Most definitely! :D I don't know how I would fit those challenges in, so I'll have to pass. Good luck though! :)

Laura- I'm so glad you liked Britten and Brulightly. It is a gem. I can't wait to see what she does next.

Light happy? Time to pull out some Meg Cabot, I think. :) I am impressed with you signing up for the Thon and the Thing. I vaguely consider doing those things sometimes, but next weekend doesn't really work for me as I have a bunch of birthday stuff going on. Maybe next time.

I have done a readathon in awhile. Then again, I never stuck around for the full 24 hours, but still, I did get a ton of reading in when I did them. Hmmmm, meh, lazy, tired, *sleeps*

Yay! Glad you liked The Tale of One Bad Rat, Laura. And I'm a big Britten and Brulightly fan. What an atmosphere she creates.

Hi Laura: Hope everything's okay. Haven't seen you around in awhile.

Close call on this big storm. A cold rain is way better than a wet snow. Yikes. Winter's closing in.

Hi Linda - yep, just busy doing things around the house, and reading a lot of graphic novels!!!

Book 136: Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuccelli
Not at all what I expected, but it was a treat. I'm not sure exactly how to describe this book, since it's about art and architecture and love and loneliness and is narrated by a stillborn twin, but if you like GN's, you'll like this book. 4 stars

Book 137: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Slightly tragic and wonderfully done, this is another winner of a GN and is rightfully on many "best of" lists. 4 stars

Book 138: Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
Possibly my favorite book of the year. A beautiful story, filled with amazing, color-saturated artwork (that glow-in-the-dark cover is great!), I can't think of a better way to tell the story of Marie and Pierre Curie. If Santa doesn't get me this, I'm going to buy it for myself. Simply outstanding. 5 stars

Book 139: Summer by Edith Wharton
A book that was revolutionary for its time, and has often been compared to Ethan Frome, I enjoyed this story of not-so-sexual sexual awakening in the Catskills. I've yet to read a book by Edith Wharton that I haven't enjoyed. 3.5 stars

Book 140: Locke & Key: Volume 1 by Joe Hill
More disturbing than I thought it'd be, this is the start of a GN series about a haunted-ish house and a haunted family. I'm looking forward to the rest of the books (I believe that the fourth one was just published?), though I'll either have to plow through the grimness and layered storytelling or space them between other, happier reads. 3.5 stars

Book 141: The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden
A well-researched look into how our brains process pleasure and how different addictions (food, gambling, sex, etc) are physically wired (and can change their wiring). Fairly easy to read, though it did seem a little same-y and dry in parts. I'd like to own a copy of this simply so I can dip into it again in the future to refresh my sad little memory. 3.75 stars

Wow, my heart is soaring! Great job with the graphics! Some of my absolute favorites and your comments on Radioactive? Simply perfect. It is a stunning work.

Thanks, Mark! I just said to Wolfy, that the Locke & Key book is really sticking in my head, especially considering that I finished a different book last night! Thanks so much for the rec - I figured if both you and Joe liked it, I couldn't afford to miss out. Isn't Radioactive amazing? The more I think about it, the more impressed I am.

Book 142: Dear Fatty by Dawn French
A disappointment, if I'm honest. It was interesting to hear about Dawn's life (especially as an overseas fan with barely any access to her work), and I did enjoy bits, but not as much as I wanted to. Told epistolary style, written to various people (her parents, brother, husband, daughter, best friend, sister-in-law, ...), it was meant to come off in a "you're reading my personal letters" kind of a way, and it mostly didn't work. Though, fair enough, it'd be a great way to write your first book. Just not as readable or compelling as it should be, perhaps. I'm glad I read it, but I don't know if this is one that I'll hang onto forever and ever. 3 stars.

Lately I've been feeling annoyed by the amount of "stuff" that is in my house. Compounding that fact is that I'm getting a new fridge tomorrow, so instead of my 20-some-year-old cream-colored fridge, I'll be looking at a sparkling white one, and the thought of having all of that "clean" space is inspiring. So, last night I went through my 3 main shelves and got rid of 17 books! There are quite a lot more that I'm pretty sure I won't want to keep, but I at least want to read them before saying adios. Today, I think I'll tackle my other bookshelves (especially my "finished" shelves) and then get a start on my dining room/office and the rest of the kitchen. Here's hoping that I don't "poop out" before I get a lot done!

Impressive chunk of reading, Laura! I wish you much luck on the clean up project. :)

Hi Laura, just chiming in on the Radioactive love... and I don't really care for graphics. I think Mark and a few others steered me right on this one, however, and I left the door to read some more GNs in the future. They certainly are the up and coming thing in the book world.

126: I just got Radioactive, haven't begun reading but I have paged through the stunning graphics. The Compass of Pleasure looks interesting; reviewers are complaining that it's "too technical", but I'll probably like that. Sympathizing with your "sad little memory"; one reason my LT reviews are getting longer is that I'm trying to record the stuff I care about before I forget.

I want to read that Edith Wharton book. I know I keep saying it but I do intend to get to it, soon.

Radioactive is on my wish list, it looks like something I would like. Wish my local library had it!

Thanks, Micky, I need it! Things always take a lot longer than I expect them to, and the day is quickly slipping away from me. ACK!

Hi Donna! Glad to see more Radioactive love, it's such a beaut. It's interesting how many GNs are out there, you're right about them being the up and coming thing. What amazes me are all of the varieties there are - Asterios Polyp was one that looked strange to me just on looking through it (the color palette is really unusual, no black at all) but I enjoyed it once I got started. Hope you can find a few more "winners" out there!

Hi Qebo! The Compass of Pleasure is a little technical, but I'm used to those particular "technicalities" so it was a little blah blah blah for me sometimes. I used to try and write much longer reviews, but by the time I sit down here to type it up I can't remember all of the nuances I had in mind, so quickies are my way to go. Thankfully (so far) when I reread them it brings a lot back.

Hi Linda - it's not going anywhere, sadly, so it'll wait for you. I have to check up on you and see if you've read Destiny of the Republic yet - I just picked up a copy and it looks really good! Also - is there a group for Presidential reads?

Hey ho there, Stephen! If it wins the National Book Award, maybe then your library will get a copy? *fingers crossed*

*ahem* Heeellloooooo! How's it goin' Laura? :P

TAMMY!!!!! Hi, friend! Things are alright, actually. Much better since you hopped over! :) How are you doing?

I'm good! How's the weather? Have you guys had a snow yet?

Happy Thanksgiving Laura!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Laura!

Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Tammy and Joe! Hope it's happy and warm and filled with elastic-wasted pants. :)

I've been reading a bit, but not much is getting finished, which is unfortunate. Suddenly the end of the year is in sight, and while I've finished my LT challenges, I still have 4 books to read for other online ones, plus I have 2 ER books to read and review (one of which requires me to read 2 more books first), and a Member Giveaway win to read and review. Not to mention the library books that are coming due faster than I'd like. And the audiobooks. *sigh* I think I need to make a list (yay!) of what needs to be read by Jan 1 and what can wait. And then I need to figure out how in the world I'm going to fit it all in!

There are 2 books that I've finished recently, but I've wasted enough time on LT tonight trying to play catch-up, so I'll save those for when I have a little more time / my Turkey Day dishes are ready to go.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my US LT pals! I'm ever so thankful for each and every one of you - you guys make life so much better, and it's so nice to find like-minded, funny, intelligent readers! I love you guys! /sap-fest

Off to chop and mix and melt and stir with some coffee and iTunes playing DJ. So far, among various other stuff I've listened to (and turned up) "Someone is Watching" by Solomon Burke, "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" by The Smiths, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by George Harrison, and right now "Kashmir" by the awesome Led Zeppelin. Rock on!

Oh, I love The Smiths! You have great taste in music, my friend! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Sounds like a fine evening. I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, Laura. Remember to think of us poor Canadians who had ours over a month ago and so sadly, will be at work for the next two days. ;)

I've just gotten into The Smiths in the last year or so, and they're great! Ditto, and ditto, my friend! :)

Hi Micky! Thanks, and I hope yours was a happy one a month ago! (Sorry, keep meaning to remember Canuck Turkey Day and can never manage it.) Also, sorry you'll be at work for the next two days - boooo! You'll just have to catch up on relaxation time over the weekend - if it makes you feel better, I'll be at work Saturday and Sunday. :(

Happy ravenous food consumption Day, Laura!

I'll avoid the music discussion, of course. Oh, the horrors that would appear if I put my Windows Media Player on shuffle. Eek. :P

Happy Thanksgiving, Laura!!

>144 LauraBrook: I did have a good Canuck Thanksgiving. I'll take working on weekdays over working on weekends any day, you have my sympathies there. Although don't feel too bad for me having to work. I've only been at it for just shy of three weeks. :) Hope you're enjoying some tasty goodness today!

My current view after a jam-packed day of eating, playing Phase 10 and Skip-Bo, and watching a little TV with my parents. Life is pretty good right about now.

Laura, I love the warm glow from the fire. That is one satisfied cat soaking up the heat. It sounds like you had a perfectly wonderful Thanksgiving.

I'm slightly jealous about the Phase 10 game. We used to have monthly game nights or afternoons in my family until life got too busy. Maybe I'll reinstate them in 2012. They'll come for free food! ;-)

That looks like a very comfortable place to be, Laura. I don't think the cat could look more contented!

I wish I was that cat right now! Looks like a loverly place to rest

Kitty! And a fire. I am so supremely jealous of that cosiness. Hope that you're having a decent weekend, even with the work, Laura!

My 12 in '12 thread is up and running!: http://www.librarything.com/topic/127781

I did stay in front of that fire for the rest of the night, and had another good one last night after work. It's one of my favorite things to do if it's not too cold outside.

Sorry for the delayed absence. Been working a fair bit, which sounds like a good thing, but it's really more time spent driving and cleaning up after others (unpaid), so it's more of a wash than anything else. Today is my first full day off without leaving the house in a couple of weeks. Yahoo! I'm gearing up to finish 2 books before I hit the sack, and will be back later on to add up all of my November reading. It's a small amount, but it's better than nothing!

Thanks to Donna, Judy, Chelle, and Micky for your kind comments. Chico (the cat) has become a bit of a fire whore and he'll sit right up against the screen until he gets too warm and sleepy, and then he'll crash on a towel in front of it. Usually Chico and Sweetpea (his sister) sleep together no matter where they are, but this is one place that he hogs completely - little brat. :)

I read a few more books since my last update, but don't feel like reviewing them. Let's just say that I liked them and leave it at that.

December is slipping away from me, and with that comes end of year lists and best of this and that. I'm working on mine, but it won't be up until around Christmas time. My next big thing on deck (aside from trying not to play Angry Birds for hours a day - yes, I got an iPhone as an early Christmas present!) is getting my house ready for my Chestnut Party tomorrow night! Today ended up being a total wash, despite the fact that I've been home since 11 am (see: Angry Birds) and have one thousand things that need doing, including, but not limited to, what everyone will be eating and drinking aside from the nuts. Not good hostessing on my part!

And now, I'm off to do a quick-clean of my living and dining room as a client is coming over for a chair massage and chin wag (hopefully she'll be gone in under 2 hours, but usually it's closer to 4 - yes, that's 4 hours for a 30 minute appointment). Here's hoping I'm back again tonight or at least tomorrow - it's been far too long since I've been on LT for more than 15 minutes!!!

Hi Laura- Thanks for the nice update! Hope you can get some time to relax this weekend! And keep warm, it's been chilly!

Hope things go as planned and you have a good time! :) Congrats on getting an iPhone, too.

I'm so glad that Angry Birds does nothing for me. However, Crazy 8's is surprisingly addictive. ;-).

Have fun roasting chestnuts, Laura. That is such a fun idea. I'm heading over to check out your 12 in 12 thread. I'll never be able to keep up with LT next year!

Since you are strapped for time I'll keep this message short. *HUGS*

Hello, Friends!

Mark, my weekend just opened up considerably - a Saturday and Sunday class at the clinic (Job #1, on NE side of Milwaukee) got cancelled, and a home appointment on Sunday just cancelled. So, I think I can safely spend Sunday relaxing! Yahoo! You keep warm yourself, young man. Saw that you got some snow - nothing up here yet - and I hope that any icy patches will have vanished for your route tomorrow!

Hey Sara, thanks. The phone is so fancy and exciting right now, I'm hoping it wears off so I can get some more things accomplished around the house!

Uh oh Donna, now I'll have to check out Crazy 8's! How do you like your iPad? I already can't keep up with LT this year, let alone for 2012. We'll both just have to do the best that we can and hold on for dear life!

Thanks, Stephen! *HUGS* right back at'cha, kiddo!

Here's the saga of my evening and the chatty client:

While I appreciate that people enjoy spending time with me and that they can tell me anything (and I mean anything) w/o judgement, I also would like a little time to myself. Or, even better, time to schedule another client and earn a little income. Tonight, I have to confess, I lied to her. Her appointment was for 6:30 - she showed up 15 min late. When she got here I told her I was meeting a friend for coffee at 8:30 tonight so we had to keep the appointment moving. We did the massage, talked for a bit, and then it was 8:15 so I said "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to rush you, but I need to get going!" She said "Oh, of course, here, I'll walk out with you". So I changed into regular-person clothes, and got into my car! I just drove for a mile or two so she could see where I was going, and then turned around, came home and put on my pajamas. Yes, it's a well-followed-through-and-overly-elaborate lie, and I feel slightly guilty, but on the other hand, I am SO HAPPY to have the house to myself to read and clean up for the rest of the night!!! We've known each other for years and if I thought that she was the kind of person who would understand that I would prefer to keep her visits close to the length of her appointment, I'd prefer to be honest. But she's really not that kind of person, and would be quite offended, so it's easiest if I just "garnish the truth" a bit.

Sorry, probably more info than you wanted to know, but I'm just excited to have gotten my client out of the house in under 2 hours!

I'm nearing the halfway point in Dracula and I'm surprised at how readable and atmospheric it is! Not sure what I was expecting exactly, but it's not this! Aside from that, I'm reading a bio of Prince Philip's early years (courtesy of ER), the second in the Flavia de Luce series (so I can read and review the 4th book, courtesy of ER), and I've just started a book I've wanted to read since I brought it home, The Diary Of A Young Lady of Fashion in the Year 1764-5. Written by Miss Cleone Knox, born in 1744 in County Down, Ireland, it's her actual diary, edited for clarity and spelling. Epistolary things are totally my bag, and the fact that it's a real persons real diary is even better. I can hardly wait to get in to it!

Excuse me while I go and separate my two fighting children/cats. Lots of grumbling and bitch-slapping for 10 minutes and then they sleep curled together for an hour. Sense it does not make.

Hope you're having a somewhat relaxed weekend, Laura. Glad you're enjoying Dracula. I read it back in October and liked it so I'm sure you'll enjoy the rest of it. :) And I'm thoroughly impressed at the number of other things you're reading simultaneously. I'm definitely a one book at a time kind of girl. As for your client who can't grasp the concept of a normal appointment, I think a kind falsehood is probably for the best.

Enjoy the time gift, Laura. Liked your friend story a lot. We've had to get creative to get rid of well-meaning forever-stayers, but I've never had to get in the car and drive to help convince them!

Like you, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Dracula when I read it a while ago. You've sure got a good variety of reading going there.

I'm all for elaborate lies to get out of social engagements, except when it comes to LT meetups. All my excuses for avoiding them are perfectly legitimate.

*rolls eyes*

#159: Agrees with Yes, it's a well-followed-through-and-overly-elaborate lie, but you don't need to feel guilty. Just say you have an appointment/date/satanic orgy commencing in a few minutes next time. I'm sure she'll take the hint. Hopefully. If she's a normal person. Some can be uber clingy. Or just pretend someone's at the door and ask her to answer it. When she does, push her out of the door and lock it. Simple (in theory).

I don't know if I'll ever read Dracula. Weird, I know, since I love vampires, horror, and the like. But I tried it in middle school, and it just didn't interest me. The writing was too dated. I do have the movie at least, plus the soundtrack, which is pretty nice and atmospheric.

#162: White lies never hurt anyone, so you're totally forgiven. I used to lie all the time at work when there were after-hour get-togethers, until I finally put my foot down and just gave a firm "No." First thing out of my mouth is "Am I getting paid for it?" and if not, then no, I'm not going. Simple as that. Work should not mingle with my "social life" (lol--couldn't keep a straight face there).

Hi Laura! How was your chestnut party?
Maybe next time you can tell the chatty client that you have another client coming by the house for an appointment. That way she has to leave and you don't.

HI Laura

If it helps, I agree with the way in which you handled the late appointment. Increasingly I find that I tell little white lies to people who seem to want to go on and on and on and on and on in telephone conversations.

There are only a few people that I like talking to on the phone. There are however many people I like, but don't necessarily want to engage in two hour conversations with them.
One of my friends loves to talk on the phone for a long, long time. She knows I don't like talking on the phone, but it doesn't stop her.grrrrrrr.

#166: Little tip: ring your doorbell. That'll let the person on the other end think you have someone at the door and you have to get off the phone asap. My mom does it all the time. :D

Hi, I'm dropping by as I saw your name on the North and South Group Read....I'm there too.
Love the chatty client/get in the car story. Ill have to tell my sister, shes a massage therapist too, I wonder if she's ever done that! :)

Hi Sara - I'll have to keep the "demonic orgy commencing in a few minutes" lie under my cap and try to use it. ;) And the doorbell thing wouldn't work for me. I have an actual bell in my door that you have to turn to make it ring, so it'd be super loud and not convincing. :( Even though I love it, pressing a button would make this whole lying thing easier in this case. Will have to figure out of I could somehow text my neighbor to come over and ring the bell. Hmmmm.

Hi Violet! Yes, the Chestnut Party went well. I really liked my BF's boyfriend (soon to be fiancee), and the only time I had agita was when everyone started talking about politics. Yikes! Always a panic-inducing topic for me. But all was good, everyone had a nice time and I even had leftover chestnuts, which hardly happens. As for your suggestion, I'll give it a try, but I'm just worried that b/c she likes to talk so much she'd be here a long time afterwards anyways and then no one would show, so I'd have to text a fake client. Do-able, but I'll have to see if the moment is right next time. Thanks for thinking of me!

Linda, yes, it does help that you think I did an okay thing! I think little white lies are a good thing in those kinds of situations. It saves everyone from an awkward conversation and hurt feelings. As for the phone, and your friend talking endlessly when it makes you uncomfortable ... well, I don't know what to say except I feel your pain! One of my friends does this to me, and it's all nonsense talking. No actual topics are discussed, no points being made, just babbling. I tend to put it on speaker phone and say the occasional "mmm hmm" while I put things away and/or read a magazine. By the way, I got your letter and bookmark yesterday - thank you so much!

Hi Megan! I've seen your name around the threads and haven't made it as far as yours yet. I'm making a point of finding you as soon as I post this, though! You'll have to let me know if your sister has done something similar, though it might depend on where she does most of her massaging. It's a bit of a strange job (you find yourself in the weirdest conversations/situations sometimes) but it's very rewarding... I love what I do! Now if there was only some way to get paid to read, that would be a great job!

I'm back after getting through my long and busy week before Christmas. I've joined another bookclub, this time with just a friend and one of her friends (who is now a client of mine). It's a little strange for me, simply b/c I have to always be mindful of what I say to be sure I don't offend New Client/Friend. I may have to bail out after a few months, though, for that very reason. I mostly try not to have any dual-role relationships with clients b/c I can give away too much about my personal life, or inadvertently say something they don't agree with and then lose (and potentially anger) that client and anyone else they talk about it to. I think this woman will be alright, but it's something i have to be mindful of.

Anyways, we read Dracula, and even though I didn't finish it (and still haven't) we had a nice discussion about it. I'll try to get a chunk of it read today, along with my ER book from October, Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II, so I can keep cracking with my other two ER's (oops) and the other other two I'm currently reading. All of my presents are wrapped (that aren't currently on their way to me), all packages shipped, all cards sent. Now all I have to do is remember what I'm doing this week (ha!) and make sure I get everywhere on time. Then, it's TWO WHOLE DAYS off in a row! Yippeeeee!!!

I'll be around here for most of the day, but for now I'm going to have a cup of coffee and a bagel and crack open a book. See you all later!

For some reason I enjoyed Dracula, Laura. It was like some kind of bizarre time travel, the style of writing was so different from what we're used to. Any interesting comments on it from your bookclub meeting?

I know what you mean about clients. In particular I avoid political discussions.

We're heading to Starbucks soon for some coffee, too. I'm between books now, so I need to figure out what's next.

I'm enjoying it too - you're right, it is sort of like time travel. Nothing earth shattering on comments, but we all agreed that Lucy was kind of a dippy ditzy girl and weren't sad to see her go. Clients and politics certainly don't mix! Congrats on that between-the-books phase, I rarely ever see it. Any choices made so far?

Hey look, guys, I finished a book!

Book 150: Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II by Philip Eade

An ER win, I sadly have to say that I'm glad I didn't lay out any cold hard cash for this book. Told from before his birth up through the first year of his marriage to the future Queen, I had a difficult time following the narrative. It wasn't that readable for me. It's clear that Mr. Eade did his homework, but there wasn't any flow to his writing. Some tidbits were familiar, others weren't, and while I can't say that I've read anything else specifically about Prince Philip before, I don't think that I feel the need to any longer. Rec'd only for fans of the British Royal Family. A generous 3 stars, mostly for research and effort.

Whoo! A double 75, Laura! I'm very impressed. :D

Merry Christmas Laura!! Hope you have a wonderful holiday!!

Merry Christmas, Laura! Enjoy!

Dear One

Just a note to say that I treasure you! What a kind, loving soul you are. The world needs more of you!

Merry Christmas, Laura!!

Merry Christmas, Laura!

Have a great holiday, Laura! Enjoy yourself! Sure can't beat this December weather!

Merry Christmas Laura!

Wishing you all the very best Laura!

Merry Christmas to all of my LT friends family!!!

I hope you all get everything you asked Santa for, and that you have a lovely, book-filled holiday weekend!

Thanks so much for all of your wishes (and images!) - I couldn't ask for a better gang of people to have around me today.

Merry Christmas, Laura! I'll be in your great state at the end of next month (brr).

Merry Christmas Laura!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, Laura!

Merry Christmas to Darryl, Nora, Qebo, and Micky!

I received 3 books from various LT Swaps - Mistress Shakespeare and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette from dissed1 through SantaThing, and Cutting For Stone from Valerie/jolerie through Mark's Christmas Swap! I'm excited about all of them, and I hope that this year will finally be when I read one of my SantaThing/Swap books! :)

Between last night and lunch today I managed to finish one and read another book!

Book 151: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Surprisingly readable and completely atmospheric, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Dracula. It's got a few good things going for it right off the bat (epistolary, gothic, vampires), but what was the real surprise for me was how much I could tip myself into it and be swallowed by the story. Alternating between fast-paced action and lots and lots (and lots) of talking/writing, it dipped and swelled in all of the right spots. It'll be a book that I re-read again for certain. 4 stars

Book 152: The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764-5 by Cleone Knox and Magdalen King-Hall

A charming, funny, and interesting diary, Ms. Knox is a Mid-18th Century Bridget Jones. Born on May 12th, 1744 at Castle Kearney, County Down, Ireland, Cleone was an heiress, and a probably typical member of her society. This journal covers her early twenties while she is at a crucial point in her love affair with a Mr. Ancaster. To distract her from this gentleman, her father takes her and her brother, Ned, on the Grand Tour, and along the way she meets the King and Queen of England, King and Queen of France, and Voltaire, along with lots of various and sundry characters.

With entries like "July 15th. To church. A sermon so lengthy that I near died. Dozed behind my fan.", and "May 19th. Lord be praised! in a few moments our Coach will have conveyed us away from this monstrously dull place. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot, to whom brother Tom gave us letters of recommendation, are as excellent a couple as one could hope to see but hardly enlivening as Host and Hostess, while as for their mansion house with its Greek porticos and its monstrously cold rooms, 'tis more fit to be a Sepulchre than a human habitation.", it makes me chuckle quite a lot.

Only edited to correct spelling and to remove "a good many entries that are of no general interest, mostly referring to purchases and personal expenditure" by her ancestor, Alexander Black Kerr, in the 1920's, this is a wonderful window into society life. If you are lucky enough to find a copy, pick it up and treat yourself to a fantastically entertaining read. 4.5 stars

Hi Laura- Hope you had a great day today! I'm a big fan of Cutting for Stone and I hope you end up being one too! I finally cracked Habibi. I really like it so far.

Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion sounds fascinating, Laura. I will keep my eyes peeled for it.

Mark, that's two great things! I'm looking forward to Cutting (despite my slight intimidation at its' size) and your endorsement certainly helps me get over that nervousness. And YES YES YES, I'm so glad you're liking Habibi! The amount of detail he puts on every page of it is staggering - it almost feels like I need a re-read of it to pick up on all of the little bits and bobs. Hope you get a chance to finish it soon!

Please do, Micky! I'm surprised at how much I liked it, really. Plus, the copy I have was published in 1926 and has lovely thick deckled-edge pages, so it added to the whole reading experience. Keep those peepers peeled for sure!

I've just started my 2012 75er thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129169 - I hope you'll come over and join me!

But not just yet!!! I'll stick around this group until the end of the year. :)

Late last night, I made the mistake of starting to read this book - I finished it 3 1/2 hours later at 3:00 in the morning! But, it was all worth it - it's great!

Book 153: Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich

There have been quite a few people out there in cyberland that haven't been happy with this series the last couple of years - I think this book will please every single one of them! Every summer I look forward to the latest entry, and after #17 this past summer I didn't want to wait another year - thankfully, Ms. Evanovich released this book about a month ago. While I usually chuckle out loud a few times, this time I laughed out loud more than I can count. Lula is especially hilarious, and her choice of boyfriend is stellar as usual. At the end of the previous book, I thought that Stephanie would have finally chosen a man - well, I don't want to spoil anything, but the fact that she is tan everywhere except for a small ring line around her ring finger made for a lot of entertaining reading. If you're a fan of the series, this entry will not disappoint. 4.5 stars

#191 Funny but I was going to start this last night, too. Instead, I went with the latest Charles Finch mystery. Since I had to go back to work today, it's probably just as well that I didn't read the Evanovich book.

Maybe this weekend.

I thought Explosive Eighteen was one of her best, Laura, and I laughed out loud a lot, too. Glad you liked Dracula - that also sounds a lot like my experience reading it.

Hey Laura! It's been another fun year on LT!!! Sending you Best Wishes and Happy Reading in the New Year!!!!!

Laura



Much love coming at you!

Hi Linda - did you get a chance to read 18 this weekend? I agree with Joe, it's one of her best!

Joe, you're right! I'm even looking forward to re-reading the whole series just so I can get to this one again. Glad to have some company in the Drac camp too.

Hi Tammy! It has been fun, looking forward to 2012!

Linda, much love to you too.

Happy New Year to all of my wonderful LT family!

Courtesy of a read-a-thon the last few days, I've managed to finish 2 books in my stack, and I'm hoping to get 2 more done before midnight tonight.

Book 154: Souvenir of Canada by Douglas Coupland

A nice little book, and I feel like I'm a little more Canadian after having read it! Filled with pictures and short entries (it's set up like a dictionary/encyclopedia), it was a good way to learn a bit aboot Canadian culture and history. 3.5 stars

Book 155: Down and Out in Manhattan by Irene Magers

Won through a Members Giveaway here at LT, I enjoyed this novel about a woman trying to restart her life. Maggie gets fired from her boring but reliable job and decides to take a 2 week Mexican cruise on a snap decision. Once onbaord, she meets some characters, most of them seniors, and there are a few little storylines that get introduced. Not the least of these is one with a potential romantic suitor, Michael. Some accidents happen, and a few mysterious things occur, and Maggie ends up getting off of the cruise early. After she's back at home in NYC, we follow up with her and one of her new friends in the next few months.

I enjoyed the book, but it could have been better with just a few small changes. I enjoyed the relatively short (2-5 page) chapters, but the earlier chapters finished very abruptly; just one more sentence would have wrapped it up nicely. Also, there was a bit of an overall feeling for me that there wasn't enough explanation of some of the secondary characters - some of the threads were just left hanging, and some characters acted like we should be right there with them, experiencing all of these emotional things. Instead, it seems a little choppy and didn't make for a smooth reading journey overall. Despite these quibbles, I did like the book. It was nice to read a story about a woman older than 25 trying to get out of her rut and find out who she is, and it was all finished in a predictably happy way in the end. 3.25 stars, and I'd like to read more work by the author in the future.

Shockingly, I don't think I've done one of these before. Well, in no particular order, here are my top reads of 2011. They weren't all 5 star reads, but they all stood out for one reason or another.

1. Wisconsin's Own by M. Caren Connolly
2. Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
3. Still Life by Louise Penny
4. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
5. Dresden by Lord Gerald Hugh Tyrwitt-Wilson Berners
6. The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure
7. Doctor Dolittle's Journey by N. H. Kleinbaum
8. Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
9. Habibi by Craig Thompson
10. The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764-5 by Cleone Knox
11. Divergent by Veronica Roth
12. Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
13. The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
14. The Library, The Money Tree, The Gardener, and The Friend by Sarah Stewart
15. Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
16. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
17. Black Diamond by Martin Walker
18. Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
19. Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich
20. Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot

Here's hoping that 2012's reading is just as good!

Hi Laura

What a great list! The Family Under the Bridge is one of my favorite Newbery's.

It is good to know that Janet Evanovich is back on track. Some of her later books lacked the spark of imagination and humor.

Hi Linda - yep, it's certainly one of her best, and I'm glad to see The Family on your favorite Newbery list too!

Whew! Just under the wire, I finished my final 2 books for the year with 45 minutes to spare.

Book 156: Then Again by Diane Keaton

A touching, funny, sentimental, honest look back on her mother's life and her own. I laughed and cried right along with her as she (excellently) narrated the book. 4 stars

Book 157: Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas

What seemed, at first, like a little slip of a book about eating wonderful sweets in Paris, was actually about not just that, but her life in NYC, where her heart truly lies in regards to most any life topic, her health woes (hit pretty close to home, I have to say), and oh yeah, eating wonderful sweets. A real treat, and I'm thrilled to say it's an ER book too! 4.25 stars

And with that, I'm off to open my bottle of sparkling Muscato, do some goal-planning, and watch the rest of When Harry Met Sally.

Cheers, dears!

I requested Paris, My Sweet, but I won a different one. I'll have to see if my library ends up getting it!