Seajelly's List for 2012

Well, I'm here finally. The good news is that I have been reading. First for this year - The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. I realized that 75 books per year comes out to more than one a week, so I may end up picking some of my books the high school way - by size, the thinner the better. Just kidding. Maybe.

In the meantime, I'm so glad to be here and to have a goal!

Currently Reading - Re-reading Life of Pi

On the nightstand -

Fiction :

Nonfiction :

Books Read -
January - May :
1. The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
2. Dear Me : A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self edited by Joseph Galliano
3. Skeleton Crew Stephen King
4. The Man from Beijing Henning Mankell
5. The Silent Land Graham Joyce
6. Gideon's Corpse Preston/Child
7. The Man Who Smiled Henning Mankell
8. The Fall Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
9. Flashback Dan Simmons
10. The Host Stephenie Meyer
11. Pegasus Robin McKinley
12. Zone One Colson Whitehead
13. The Devil's Star Jo Nesbo
14. Embassytown China Mieville
15. Lost Michael Robotham
16. Storm Prey John Sandford
17. Cold Vengeance Preston/Child
18. The Hypnotist Lars Kepler
19. Catwings Ursula K. Le Guin
20. The Dead Path Stephen M. Irwin
21. The Third Gate Lincoln Child
22. The Night Season Chelsea Cain
23. Blockade Billy Stephen King
24. The Halloween Tree Ray Bradbury
25. 11/22/63 Stephen King
26. Mistress of the Art of Death Ariana Franklin
27. Life of Pi Yann Martel
28. The Lifeboat Charlotte Rogan

Reserved for 'jellyfish' quotes. I have a love for jellyfish and collect quotes from the books I read that include 'jellyfish'. I'm always surprised at how often it actually is used.

#1 for 2012
Zone One Colson Whitehead
pg. 46
'Their unit might be standing before a line of hair dryers in a tony hair salon, nigh shod in jellyfish clumps of brains, and Kaitlyn would perkily chatter on about how she'd spent summers at her grandparents' cabin "doing the usual stuff, you know, riding horses and lifeguarding," or earning cosmetics money at the ice cream store with her "Best Friends Forever Amy and Jordan."'

Reserved for the most excellent children's book I'll be discovering while reading to my son. They don't get to go on my list, but I feel the need to share and remember then. We frequently reread the best of them.

Welcome to the group!

Welcome! Glad you decided to join us.

FYI, we've added a couple of wikis to the mix this year. The first is where we keep important threads. The second is the Threadbook where we have a directory to all the members' threads. Both help keep a handle on the chaos! :)

Thanks so much for the welcome and for the info. It is all a little overwhelming, but I'm enjoying it. And at least it is happy chaos.

Hi there! How old is your son? I have a 3-year-old boy, so I'll likely be hanging around here looking for recommendations for good children's books!

hi there! i'm doing the 75 challenge for the first time this year (i've done others in past years), and i thought i'd drop in an say i was following your thread. i think we might have similar reading tastes, so it should be fun. happy reading!

My son's 6, so we're doing a lot of easy readers, Dr Seuss, etc., but we still enjoy reading picture books. We're trying to work in a few harder chapter-a-night books, but that's not happening much lately. Maybe we'll work on that more in the summer when he doesn't also have homework, etc. What does you son like or like to read about? My son loves cats, so any book with a cat or two is good. So far the easy readers my son likes the best are Cynthia Rylant's Mr Putter and Tabby series. They're about an old man and his cat. His favorite is Mr Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears, I think because it involves a slingshot. But they are fun, amusing little books.

I'm already feeling way behind. Just started One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp for a reading group.

I had to take Mankell's The Man Who Smiled back to the library or deal with yet another fine. I need to re-request it because I was right in the middle of it and was so enjoying it. I'm annoyed to have added yet another half -read book to my half-read book list. This was supposed to be the year I actually went back and finished those books.

Right now I'm reading Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing which isn't in the Wallander series, but is also proving intriguing.

As for reads for my son, we went back to a favorite of mine, Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman, with wonderful illustrations by Dave McKean, of course. I love reading this one out loud, it's so funny and strange and lyrical. I know some people are creeped out by it, but it's truly one of my favorites. My son likes it, too. This one would be really great done on stage as a short play. Kids dressed up as cockatoos, lions, bears, hunters, dancers, I can see it all now. Makes me wish I was in theater.

Hi seajelly -
I seen your listed under conversations for the one thousand gifts. How did you like the book? I'm wondering, because it is listed as a book of the month at our church and I'm thinking it is probably alot like the gratitude books we read about and I'm wondering if she brings anything new to the table worth listening to. Could you please give me your thoughts? Thanks!

Hi diasukie -
Sorry to be so long in answering. Our group is still reading this one, we meet on Wednesdays and usually do a chapter a week and then discuss. We've missed a couple weeks dues to spring break, etc. It seems like the regular readers in our group are really enjoying it. Some of the women in the group who aren't big readers are finding parts of it cryptic and confusing. Example - they don't like that the author refers to her husband as 'the farmer' and the kids as 'the tall boy,' 'the small girl,' etc. Just little poetic things like that. I've actually really been enjoying it and some of us in the group have made 1000 Things journals and are listing our gifts in it. I don't know if she brings much new to the discussion, but there really is something that I connect with in her writing. I also like that she writes from a religious view point. So many of the books I've seen like this are spiritual, but not religious. Did your group decide to read it? I'd be interested in hearing what you thought.

I picked up The Silent Land by Graham Joyce yesterday at the library and really haven't much put it down. Very intriguing and mysterious. A couple out skiing get caught in an avalanche. They get free and head back to their hotel. I won't say much more since I really don't want to give anything away!

I'm finally reading #2 in The Strain series. I read the first one a while back after having read J.Cronin's The Passage} and it paled by comparison. Now that I have distance from The Passage this one I'm liking this one more than the first in the series, The Strain I think I picked this one up only because I was thinking that Cronin's sequel was coming out this summer and recently found out that it's not going to be out until October. Not happy about having to wait even longer!

Really liked The Silent Land by G.Joyce. The Strain by Toro&Hogan was good, but i'm not in a hurry to read the 3rd one in the series.

Just started Dan Simmons' Flashback. I already love it. Maybe the rest of the year will just be reading his other books. I've read 3 others of his, so he'd keep my busy the rest of the year, at least at the rate i'm going.

Ugh, i'm embarrassed this took me so long to read. Flashback was an excellent sci fi murder mystery. A little heavy on the politics, but still very good.

Just picked up The Host by Stephenie Meyer I haven't read her Twilight books, but this one is sci fi and is good so far.

I'm also browsing through Good Eats 2 by Alton Brown. This won't go on my list, but it's a lot of fun and maybe some of the recipes will get made.

My son's going to be finishing 1st grade this coming week. we'll see if that helps or hinders my reading time!

As I mentioned, I haven't read the Twilight books, but The Host I enjoyed. It went fast and I liked the sci fi elements. It's set on earth some years after parasitic aliens have come and taken over most of the humans. The story follows a human and the alien who inhabits her body. And yes, there is some romance, which did get a little cloying at times, but I still enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

I'm now reading Robin McKinley's Pegasus, so I seem to be on a scifi/fantasy jag.

Pegasus was very good, but a warning, this appears to be a pt. 1. I got to the end of the last chapter and just sat there with my mouth hanging open. It just ended mid-story. I assume there will be a sequel, but I wish there had been some sort of indication of this on the dust jacket. That being said, I did like the characters and the story. The main character's reflections get a bit repetitive at times and I wanted to know a little more where the story was going when I was about 3/4 of the way through and not much was happening. Now that I know it's pt. 1, that makes a bit more sense. I'll be looking forward to the sequel.

I got to the end of the last chapter and just sat there with my mouth hanging open. It just ended mid-story.

Sheesh, I hate it when that happens!

I was in serious shock! I found a review here that mentioned a sequel, so i'm assuming there will be one, but usually in sequels the first book ends with at least a bit of finesse. This was like they'd just chopped the book in half and i'd only gotten the first half.

Zone One Colson Whitehead
I really liked this one. A literary post-apocalyptic zombie novel - what could be better?! I may even end up re-reading this one at some point. It may be a bit slow for some, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's set in the near future when most of the population has been turned into zombies. The military have wiped out most of the mobile zombies, but a second group of zombies, the stragglers, are being taken care of by volunteers. These zombies are harmless, zombies who are frozen, immobile, and can be killed easily. The main character is one such volunteer who's part of a unit going around NY killing these undead. The backstory is told through his thoughts and memories. It's a rather bleak tale, but that's okay with me.

edited to add that this one got me my first jellyfish quote of the year. it's quoted above in #2. braaaaains

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
I don't seem to be able to read these in order. I started with Snowman then did 1/2 of Nemesis and now Star. But, that being said, I really enjoyed this one. There really were enough possible characters and connections that it kept me guessing as to who the killer was and how it all fit together. I also enjoyed the main character, although I admit that I was thrown for a loop when he was described as totally not how I was picturing him. Blonde skinhead, 30-something, ex-bouncer-ish, doc martins? Sort of like Jo himself or Jason Stratham, I guess. Instead I'd seriously pictured him as way older, heavier, dark haired, mustache, etc. So that took a bit of rethinking to get that sorted out as I was reading, but I got over that and had fun with it. I usually enjoy the characters and their personal lives more that the actual plot, but this was enjoyable on both counts. I'm going to try and get the first one and read it before I read the other more recent books.

I'm sorry, but Tom Cruise is just not Jack Reacher:-( I am very disappointed by that casting choice.

Yup, me too...

Embassytown by China Mieville
This was the second book of his that I've read, The City and the City being the first. I've heard that there are a lot of China haters out there, but I have only love for him at this point. Maybe it's because these are newer books and maybe more polished than some of his earlier works. I have Perdido out and plan to read that next.

Embassytown was exactly the kind of sci fi book I really enjoy - alien contact where the aliens really are alien, not just people with three eyes or purple skin. The aliens in this book are insect-like and speak simultaneously with two mouths. Scientists have made human cloned ambassadors who are mind-linked to each other so that they can communicate with the aliens. The story centers around Avice, a woman who was raised on the planet who comes back so that her husband can study the alien language. Problems arise when an ambassador is sent from offworld which leads to chaos and war. Loved the way communication and understanding were done in the novel. It reminded me a bit of The Sparrow and Speaker for the Dead.

Lost Michael Robotham
A British mystery that i enjoyed. The policeman at the center of the story wakes up in the Thames with a gunshot wound and no memory of what's happened for the past month or so. He slowly discovers that he'd been looking into the 3-year-old disappearance of a little girl and that there was reason to believe that she might still be alive. How he slowly remembers what happened during that month and what happened three years ago made for an intriguing read.

Storm Prey John Sandford
This is one of those mystery/crime series that I go back to every once in a while. I realized I was several books behind in the series, so I picked up this one. I was not happy to see that the story centers around the hero's wife and the killers that are after her. Ages ago when I was talking to a friend about books, they said that it was a pet peeve of theirs when the killer in the story sets his/her sights on the hero or the hero's wife/husband/child/girl or boyfriend, etc. At the time I hadn't really thought about it, but ever since I've noticed that some series do this with ridiculous frequency. So I rolled my eyes as I started reading this one. But read it I did and it was pretty much similar to the others in this series. This particular crime takes place in the hospital where the hero's wife works as a surgeon. This provided one of the parts of the book that i enjoyed most - the part having to do with the surgery to separate conjoined twins. The criminals go in and rob the hospital pharmacy, killing a hospital worker in the process. Our hero's wife sees two of the killers as they leave the hospital, so of course they decide to bring in someone to do her in and it just escalates from there.

Cold Vengeance Preston/Child
A Pendergast novel and a good one, as are they all. It continues the story from the previous novel and ends with a cliffhanger. Good, but not the best. Loved his wine tasting tho'! Scenes like that are what make me come back to this series.

The Hypnotist Lars Kepler
I guess Lars Kepler is actually a couple writing under this name. I don't know why I like these Scandinavian mysteries so much. This book was good, but the writing was a bit awkward in parts. Several times they go back and show scenes again from a different point of view. Interesting to see how things get misinterpreted, but still a bit awkward to read. Aside from that I liked it. I enjoyed the characters, tho' I would have liked more about the detective. A lot of time is spent with the hypnotist and his wife which is interesting, the hypnotism, their relationship, etc. A family is murdered and the hypnotist is brought in to hypnotize the surviving son. It kept me guessing and I'll be looking forward to the next one.

Catwings Ursula K. Le Guin
I read this one to my son and hesitated to put it here as it's not all that long, but I need all the help I can get. This is the first longer book I've read to him recently. A fun little read about a mother cat in the city who ends up having a litter of kittens with wings. The story's pretty simple, but it was cute and my son loves cats so we enjoyed it. And I have to say that it was a nice change from all the nonfiction dinosaur books we've been reading.

Just started Irwin's The Dead Path and I'd be lying if I didn't admit what a thrill I got when I turned off the light the other night and realized the cover glows in the dark. Loving the writing, too.

Loved The Dead Path and planning on picking up his new one soon.

So I'm reading #27 right now, which is pretty pitiful. I'm obviously not going to hit 75 this year, but it's fun trying.

# 27 I'm re-reading Life of Pi. I read it when it first came out and am enjoying it again this time around. Can't wait to see the movie. I'm wondering what others have thought about the ending.

#26 Mistress of the Art of Death by A.Franklin - This was so good, tho' due to the title, I kept worrying that people would think I was reading one of those sparkly vampire novels. Instead it is a medieval mystery and a very good one at that. I'm sure I got the recommendation here from one of you. I picked up another of hers at the library and was doubly disappointed when I checked on her website. I'd picked up #3, not #2 and then I read that she's recently died. How very sad.

#22 The Night Season by Chelsea Cain About this one, all I can say is that it was so very good (and comforting) to be back in Archie, Gretchen & Susan's world. Next to get my hands on the next in the series - Kill You Twice

#24 The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury - My dad read this to me when it first came out and I have loved it ever since. I end up re-reading it every couple of years and this year I had the pleasure of reading it to my son for the first time. There was a lot I had to explain to him, but the lyrical writing kept him entranced.