Mamzel's 12 in 2012, 2nd quarter

Welcome to the second part of my 2012 reading adventure!

Part 1 may be found here.

First quarter roundup:
I. Off the shelves - 2
II. YAs - 5
III. Nonfiction - 2
IV. Bestsellers - 1
V. Classics - 1
VI. Chunkers - 1
VII. Mysteries - 2
VIII. Non-American authors - 1
IX. ERs - 2
X. Tough reads - 3
XI. - Continuations of series - 9
XII. Miscellaneous - 4

I. Eggs-acerbating - books from the piles around my room that have been aggravating me for some time.

1. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (2009) ****
2. Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor (1993) ****½
3. 9 Dragons by Michael Connelly (2009)***

II. Eggs-asperating - a term frequently ascribed to kids - here used to indicate YA titles.

1. Matched by Ally Condie (2010) ***
2. The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2011) *****
3. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (2011) ****
4. Chime by Franny Billingsley (2011) ****
5. Ash by Malinda Lo (2009) ***
6. The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli (2010) ***
7. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2012) ****
8. The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman (2012) *****
9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007) *****½
10. Desert Angel by Charlie Price (2011) ****½
11. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (2012) ***
12. From the Two Rivers by Robert Jordan (1990) ***
13. The List by Siobhan Vivian (2012)***

III. Eggs-cavating - digging for facts in nonfiction books.

1. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall (2009) ****
2. Atlantic by Simon Winchester (2010) ****
3. Joining the United States Coast Guard by Snow Wildsmith (2012) ****

IV. Eggs-ceeding - books from the best sellers lists that everyone is reading and raving about.

1. The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (2011) ****
2. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (2011) **
3. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (2010) ****
4. Embassytown by China Miéville (2011) ****

V. Eggs-emplifying - classics that have been proven to be wonderful reads.

1. Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk (1965) ***
2. Sea Wolf by Jack London (1980 orig. 1904) *****
3. The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Lionel Giles (1910) ****

VI. Eggs-hausting - books with more than 500 pages.

1. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2008) ****
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (2007) ***
3. Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom (2004) ***½
4. Sovereign by C.J. Sansom (2006) ***½

VII. Eggs-huming - murder mysteries.

1. Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James (2011) ****
2. Roman Book by Steven Saylor (1991) ****
3. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill (2005) ***½
4. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (2006) ****
5. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (2006) ***
6. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill (2007) ***½
7. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (2008) ****½
8. The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill (2009) ****
9. Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill (2011) ***
10. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (2012) ***
11. Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill (2010) ****½
12.Sovereign by C.J. Sansom (2006) ***½

VIII. Eggs-patriates - non-American authors.

1. Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear (2005) ****
2. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (1999) ****

IX. Eggs-aminating - ERs and ARCs.

1. The Dogs of War by Lisa Rogak (2011) ER ***
2. Shatter by Michael Robotham (2012) ER ***½
3. The Last Song by Eva Wiseman (2012) ER ***
4. The Odditorium by Melissa Pritchard (2012) ER ***
5. The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers (2012) ER ***
6. The Cybrarian's Web: An A-Z Guide to 101 Free Web 2.0 Tools and Other Resources by Cheryl Ann Pelier-Davis (2012) ***½

X. Eggs-cruciating - books that had subject matter that made them uncomfortable to read - but worthy.

1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (2011) ****
2. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman (1973) and (1986) ****
3. We of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai (1951) ****
4. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (2003) ****
5. Never Fall Down: A Novel by Patricia McCormick (2012) *****

XI. Eggs-stensions - books from series I have been following (please let there be another Temeraire!). edited to add - put a hold on it at the library. Yippee!

1. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley (2011) ****
2. The House of the Vestals by Steven Saylor (1997) ****
3. Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik (2012) ***½
4. Roman Blood by Steven Saylor (1991) ****
5. Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor (1992) ***½
6. The Venus Throw by Steven Saylor (1995) ****
7. A Murder on the Appian Way by Steven Saylor (1996) ****½
8. Rubicon by Steven Saylor (1999) ****
9. Last Seen in Massilia by Steven Saylor (2000) ****
10. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith (2012) ****
11. A Mist of Prophecies by Steven Saylor (2002) ****
12. The Judgment of Caesar by Steven Saylor (2004) ****
13. The Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor (2008) ****

XII. Eggs-traneous - books that don't fit in another category or are overflows from other categories.

1. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (2008) ***
2. It Gets Better edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller (2011) ****
3. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009) **** Group Read
4. The Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik (2012) ***½
4. The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi (2011) ****
5. Mercury by Hope Larson (2010) ***
6. To the Blight by Robert Jordan (2002) ****
7. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (ebook 2009, orig. 1990) ***
8. The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (2012 *****
9. Un Lun Dun by China Mièville (2007) ***½
10. The Sandman Vol. 1: Nocturnes and Preludes by Neil Gaiman (1991) ***½

Just stopping by your new thread! Will be interested to see your April reads.

Stopping by to say that I love your opening gif and look forward to more of you egg adventures in reading!

Also just checking in, Mamzel. I've been enjoying following your reading so far!

Thanks, guys! It's always nice to know one's not posting to a void and to receive such nice comments.

BTW - For all the Bacigalupi fans (The Windup Girl, Ship Breaker), Drowned Cities is due out May 1!

I too am checking in to continue following.

Hi, Eva. Thanks for stopping by!

I am soon to be in the enviable position of having way too many good books that demand my attention. To tide me over until this happened, I started A Discovery of Witches and find that I am really enjoying it so far. I was just notified that the last three of the Steven Saylor series are on hold at the library and Amazon just shipped the latest of the Precious Ramotswe series. I feel like a three-year old at Christmas - which one to open first! (And darn this stupid job that takes me away from my books! How dare it!)

Uh oh! You better get reading!!! Have fun.

I liked Discovery of Witches--glad you are enjoying it. And the sequel is due out in July--sound like great summer reading.

You have a lot of great books waiting for you - read fast!

Beautiful opening image, btw.

Just stopping by to see the second installment of your egg-cellent thread! Happy reading!

Hi, Katie, Dejah and Terri! Banjo, unfortunately it didn't maintain for me.



A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (2011) **

The leather-bound volume was nothing remarkable.

I had high hopes for this book which opened with a physically strong, academically brilliant woman named Diana who is in Oxford researching alchemy. She is a witch but doesn't want to be and hasn't trained or practiced her skill. One day she requests a manuscript with the name Ashmole 782. At first it doesn't open for her but she lays her hand on the book, it relaxes and she realizes that it has magic in it that is reacting to her. As she realizes this, so do (seemingly) every other witch, vampire and daemon in the neighborhood who get the sense that the book is back out in the open after hiding for many years. Run, Diana, Run!

First on the scene is Matthew Clairmont, a French vampire who follows in the footsteps of Edward to Bella and Bill to Sookie and feels that, regardless of all the strength and skill Diana possesses, she cannot survive without his protection. Argh! (Even the name of a castle where Diana is taken by a bad witch, La Pierre, reminded me of LaPush.) Lucky for Diana *sarcasm* is that Matthew apparently is not affected by sunlight and can be at her side 24/7. Of course, the one time that he turns his back and she goes outside by herself, she is snatched by a baddie and ends up (wait for it...) being rescued by Matthew. Surprise!

More comparisons between these other series and this were too distracting for me to enjoy this book. There were several places where I groaned aloud at the "knight in shining armor" denying her the chance to defend herself. The only thing that kept me reading was the manuscript which we never completely discover what it is. We'll have to wait for the second and third book of the trilogy. Or not...



The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith (2012) ****

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #13

In Botswana, home to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency for the problems of ladies, and others, it is customary - one might say very customary - to enquire of the people whom you meet whether they have slept well.

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

The only complaint (albeit a small one) is that books of this series are so short they can be read in one day.

See my whole review on the book's page.

I have been wavering about A Discovery of Witches (maybe because the cover's very pretty and looks like it would have great potential), but it's now definitely off the wishlist after the Sookie/Bella-mention. There's no way any such similarity wouldn't irk me tremendously.

Humm - I will happily dodge A Discovery of Witches if I come across a copy. Thanks!

I'm getting a bit disturbed at where the fantasy trend is going right now. Witch who doesn't want to be a witch studying alchemy??? Am I the only one who has warning bells go off with this statement alone??? If you don't want to be a witch, don't study alchemy!!! I hope Matthew sparkled all over her until she had nightmares that she was stuck in a disco and the year was 1978.

Thumbs up for both of your lovely reviews, Mamzel. Like Eva, I've been wavering about A Discovery of Witches. I'll definitely wait until I read some reviews of the second book (whenever it comes out) before I give it a shot.

Thanks!

Eva, Lori, Cammy, Dejah, It goes to show you can't win them all. There are others who liked it better than I did. I think I might be developing a low tolerance for poorly written female characters. See the review that follows:



The Last Song by Eva Wiseman (2012) *** received through Early Reviewer program

"What do you see? Is there a handsome stranger in my future?"

Indeed there is Isabel, however I doubt you would have guessed who it was!

Isabel lives in Toledo, Spain in the year 1492. That year is familiar to us because it is connected to Christopher Columbus but it also the year of the Alhambra Decree where Jews were expelled from Spain and Torquemada was burning and torturing infidels. She thinks she is safe, however, since everyone in her family practices Catholicism and her father is the personal physician to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Eventually she learns that this is a sham and she is actually a Jew. The family is in possession of a letter written by Isabel's great-grandmother written to Torquemada's grandmother which proves that he is also of Jewish descent (not knowing I checked and this is true).

My only problem with this book is that this young girl, raised as a good, submissive daughter, not even allowed to be in the presence of a boy without a chaperone, takes it upon herself to go to Torquemada, demand to speak to him, and blackmail him with this letter. While I am a big fan of gutsy girl stories I found this a little too hard to swallow.

This is a relatively short book and could be enjoyed by middle and high school students. I am glad to have read a book about this point in history and a story about the expulsion of Jews from Spain.

Mercury by Hope Larson (2010) ***

An interesting graphic novel that takes place in Nova Scotia, the story is split between 1859 and 2009. It is easy to remember which year you are in because if the outfits the women wear weren't enough of a clue, the area outside the frames are either black or white.

It was an interesting enough story but the drawing style was not as sophisticated and smooth as I've enjoyed in other books.

"area outside the frames are either black or white"
That's quite clever! It would be good for some novels as well, although not a whole frame, but some marker. :)

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman (2012) *****
The Klaatu Diskos Book One

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had only just turned thirteen.

I have been a fan of this author since his book, Godless, a fascinating look at what happens when a group of kids invent a religion based on the town's water tower. This book has a similar religious theme but is not at all religious, if you get my drift.

Tucker is an ordinary young man in an ordinary town, the son of a preacher. One day he sees his father on the roof of his house vanish before his eyes. His mother and he search for him and then he comes walking down the road like nothing extraordinary had happened in the company of an unusual blond girl.

The story just takes off now with shimmering discs that transport people to various places and times in history that some terrible events take place. After Tucker's parents vanish and leave a letter explaining that he will be cared for by his Harley-driving uncle, Tucker is determined to find them and goes on a search through time to try and catch up with them.

I could not put this book down. It is fantastic (in more ways than one). Highly recommended to fans of unusual YA fiction.

Hmmm, The Obsidian Blade look good. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

I've had A Discovery Of Witches on and off and on the wishlist for a while now. I think now I can definitely take it off. Saved from a book bullet, excellent!

I'm not a YA reader (although once in a while I'll discover that a book I love is apparently classified as YA, but then the whole concept kind of baffles me), but The Obsidian Blade does sound interesting. The Klaatu Diskos - Klaatu was the name of the alien character in The Day The Earth Stood Still... I wonder if there will be any connections as the series progresses?

My friend says that when he read A Discovery of Witches he discovered that witches were boring. :) I've heard a lot of bad things about that book, yet it seems fairly popular.

Annalisse & Rachel, A Discovery of Witches was definitely written as a launch of a trilogy. A lot of background information and laying out the good guys and bad guys for the reader is the order of the day. If I had read this before other series I might have enjoyed it a lot more but it had the feel of riding someone else's comet tail.

Annalisse, I also thought about the connection with the movie but, so far, there are no robots or extraterrestrials.



A Mist of Prophecies by Steven Saylor (2002) ****
Roma sub Rosa #8

The last time I saw Cassandra...

Life is not going well for Gordianus. Bethesda is ill and getting progressively worse each day. He has gone through all of his savings supporting his growing household and seeking a cure for his precious wife and now owes money to a banker like much of Rome these perilous times. Caesar and Pompey are still off fighting each other and there is no clear leader in Rome. Spying and intrigue is the name of the day.

Gordianus and his family is searching for some radishes in the market when a woman known as Cassandra falls into his arm saying that "she" had poisoned her and dies. No one knows her real name or where she came from, only that she is subject to fits and giving prophesies, hence her nickname. With his last dwindling finances, he pays for her funeral, seemingly the only one in Rome who cared that she died. However, palanquins of the seven most powerful women in Rome are present at her funeral pyre. Could one of them be the poisoner?

This story is somewhat darker and more somber because of Bethesda's illness and the turmoil of the city. However, as Gordianus visits the different women and we see flashbacks of his relationship with Cassandra before her death, the book picks up and carries the reader along.

Another winner. Only two left in the series.

I borrowed this book from the public library (since I was too cheap to buy it, it was available through the wonderful world of ILL, and I do like to support the library) however, I wish people would use clean hands and/or not eat while reading a borrowed book. There were icky stains on more pages than were ignorable. I could care less what they do with their own books but it is down right rude to read with dirty hands. Luckily the next book in the series looks pristine, like no one had ever read it. Much better!

The Judgment of Caesar by Steven Saylor (2004) ****

"There! Can you see it? The lighthouse!"

Gordianus's wife, Bethesda, is very ill and believes that a swim in the Nile will cure her. He takes her along with adopted sons Mopsus, Androcles, and newly adopted Rupa, the mute brother of his ex-lover Cassandra who is along to strew her ashes in her native country's river. He arrives in time to take us into the thick of events surrounding Caesar, Cleopatra, her brother Ptolemy, and the death of Pompey. How lucky for us!

Only one more book in this series. I love being an eyewitness to these historical milestones.

And the only evidence of a previous reader was one page that had been dogeared. Much better than the previous book!

->35 The_Hibernator:
"My friend says that when he read A Discovery of Witches he discovered that witches were boring."
Genuine LOL from me on that! :)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007) ****1/2

I was born with water on the brain.

I volunteered to participate in the World Book Night book giveaway this year and had chosen this book. For those of you who have not heard, this started in the U.K. People volunteer to hand out 20 books to random people one night all across the U.S. and the U.K. The choices were terrific books including the very popular Hunger Games for kids and more good titles for adults. Having a very high Latino population in my school, I thought that this book might reach one or two of them in a positive way. I had not read it since 2007 so I figured it was time for a reread.

I was not as appreciative of the book then as I am now. It is a hard-hitting book about a boy with numerous strikes against him including being dirt poor living on an Indian reservation in Washington state.

He is eager to start high school. He is especially eager to start Geometry. However, when he opened his book he sees his mother's name inside the front cover and realizes that there had not been any new books purchased for his reservation school in over 30 years. He throws the book in frustration and unfortunately hits his teacher in the face, breaking his nose.

After he cools off during his suspension, and reflects, he decides that he wants to attend the high achieving white school off the reservation, over 20 miles away from his home. He has no problem persuading his parents but he has problems with transportation. Sometimes his parents can't buy gas, sometimes the car won't start, sometimes he has to hitch, but he gets to school.

Written from Junior's POV, we see that he is a remarkably astute boy with a talent and passion for drawing cartoons. His way of dealing with the reservation's feeling that he is a deserter and being the only non-white in the town school are amazingly mature and we get a sometimes shocking view of life on a reservation.

Highly recommended YA novel. Stand-alone - no series - fast read.

I have to add this exchange from Alexie's book since I find it so cool!

We ran into the Reardan School Library.
"Look at all these books," he said.
"There aren't that many," I said. It was a small library in a small high school in a small town.
"There are three thousand four hundred and twelve books here," Gordy said. "I know that because I counted them."
"Okay, now you're officially a freak," I said.
"Yes, it's a small library. It's a tiny one. But if you read one of these books a day, it would still take you almost ten years to finish."
"What's your point?"
"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know."
Wow. That was a huge idea.

Desert Angel by Charlie Price (2011) ****½

The fight started after midnight, Scotty drunk, Angel's mother shrill on crystal.

This fight results in Scotty murdering Angel's mother. Angel returns to the trailer the three of them share way out in the desert in the area around the Salton Sea in southern California, finds blood spatter, and quickly realizes what has happened. Scotty is a hunter and Angel has picked up a few tips from him so she follows his trail and finds her mother's grave. She realizes that she could be next. She is able to trick him into thinking she is dead for a short period, enough time for her to run away. She stumbles into the house of a family of illegals who help her without any regard to their own safety.

Angel goes on the run but realizes that she must find and kill Scotty before he finds and kills her. She is brought to the home of Rita and Vicente who take her in and it is here that she begins to learn what it is like to be part of a family and how people are supposed to treat one another.

This was a very exciting book with a good ending. I highly recommend this book to readers of YA literature.

I'm a big fan of Alexie's, but I haven't gotten to The Absolutely True Diary yet - looking forward to it though!

Wow, some great-sounding books here! And lots of food for thought.

"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know."
Wow. That was a huge idea.

Amen!

Eva, I hope you will enjoy it when you finally get to it.

Terri, Yeah. I liked that quote. The idea that a small high school library might actually be a good place to learn? I'll go for that!

The Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor (2008) ****
Roma Sub Rosa #10

Gordianus's old friends just won't let him retire in peace. Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, frantically contacts him and insists he investigates the possibility of a plot to assassinate Caesar. Seeming to add plausibility to this fear, his friend and her ex-investigator, Heironymous, was found, stabbed, in an alley behind her house. Gordianus goes to his quarters and finds a sort of journal hidden in the scrolls he "borrowed" from Gordianus. Were they left there for Gordianus to find?

Caesar is finally taking his place as dictator of Rome and has planned four magnificent celebrations to commemorate his accomplishments. Each features a feast for all of Rome following a "triumph", a parade displaying all of the spoils from the four areas of his conquests, including servants turned slaves.

After 10 books chronicling Gordianus, his evergrowing family and his rubbing elbows with the Roman powers-that-be, I feel like I have a good idea what living and working was really like in Ancient Rome. Great fun!

The Odditorium by Melissa Pritchard (2012) 12 in 12, ER ***

Listen, wicked children! When une jeune slut-fille dirties her own halo, simple folk cast stones, and it takes the baroque and obstinate solemnity of God to bring them to their knees before a creature of such dire humility.

This collection of short stories was indeed, odd. Some of them feature real people like Annie Oakley, Ripley, and (unknown to me) Kaspar Hauser, a young man who apparently was raised in a dark hole and summarily released to enjoy (?) life for a while and then murdered. All dark, they were fascinating but I could only read them one at a time and over time.

One thing that made this author hard (for me) to read was that she created sentences with lots of commas. My inner voice, always reading to me, was going down with each one. The sentence structures made it necessary for me to read some over again to understand the basic point. They made me glad they weren't around when we were diagramming sentences in grade school. What a headache!

As it was late, we agreed to forgo the drive, some forty minutes in each direction, to my sister's apartment and have our dinner, instead, in the same hotel dining room where we had had our brunch earlier that day.

I would probably not ever have bought this book but I am glad to have been given the opportunity to read it. It was challenging and rewarding.

I do tend to enjoy stories that are described as "odd," but I think that punctuation would drive me batty - I wonder if that's how Pritchard talks?!

I just handed out my books for the World Book Giveaway. I chose The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. After I handed them out I read aloud the first chapter to tease them. Hopefully, they will read the whole book. I chose a class that was most, if not all, Title I students. They were respectful listeners, and most followed along in their own copies. I'm glad I participated this year and will probably do it again next year.

I was just told that after I left the classroom, the students asked the teacher if they could continue reading the book!!! Gotcha!

Good work, mamzel! I would think that Title 1 students might find a lot to identify with in that wonderful book.

Good work! That must be a nice feeling of achievement.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (2012) ***
The Lunar Chronicles #1 (of 4 planned)

I was unabashedly hooked by the cover of this book. I was even willing to set aside my prejudice against Disney princess fairy tales to read this. Unfortunately, it fell flat.

The good news is that Cinder is way more intelligent, talented, and pro-active than Cinderella. The bad news is that she is very angry - all the time. She has the wicked stepmother and one evil stepsister but that is pretty much where the parallels end.

I think I might have enjoyed this story without the unfortunate fairy tale twist. I, for one, did not appreciate it.

Always good to see a less than positive review for a book considering book lovers have different tastes, just like music and art lovers.

Lori, it's nice to have a place where one can voice a negative opinion and not have everyone jump down their throats. I love LT for this!



The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers (2012) *** ER

The Belgian Congo, 1935
The boys were still naked when they attended their first ceremony, which meant that they had yet to grow the hair that would mark them as men.

There were things I liked and things I didn't like about this book. One of the things I loved is the great cast of characters. For them I would recommend reading this book. Also, I liked the time and setting which added tension to the story as the Belgian Congo was getting ready for major change.

What was a little off-putting was the Biblical style of writing. For instance, I found one paragraph where sentences started as followed:
"So it was that..."
"And it came to pass that..."
"For it is a well-known fact that..."

This was the third of a series but I did not feel like I had been dropped into the middle of something. I became acquainted with everyone as the book went along.

I recommend this book if you are looking for a very different set of people in an unusual setting.

Mamzel -

I'm sorry I haven't been by your thread in a while, but I haven't been on LT all that much lately. Catching up is proving time consuming!

Per your recommendation, I read Roman Blood and liked it very much. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Thanks for pointing me toward it!

It's great that World Book Giveaway went so well. I will definitely be reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I already checked - my library branch has it.

I felt similarly about Cinder - it was interesting enough that it would have just fine without the fairy tale structure. At one point I wondered why she didn't take an obvious action that would have solved a problem; then it occurred to me that it would have derailed part of the Cinderella theme. SPOILER I must say I liked the idea of her losing a foot, instead of a shoe!

I have the first book in the Tamar Myers series - The Witch Doctor's Wife. I'm looking forward to reading it, primarily for the setting.

As of the end of April...

I. TBRs - 2
II. YAs - 9
III. Non-fiction - 3
IV. LT Raves - 2
V. Classics - 1
VI. Door stops - 1
VII. Murder mysteries - 2
VIII. Non-American authors - 1
IX. ERs - 5
X. Uncomfortable matter - 3
XI. Continuation of series - 13
XII. Miscellaneous - 5

Total to date - 45

It was a really good month of reading for me - I finished an excellent Roman murder mystery series and read or reread some great YA books.

>54 mamzel: I think I was less bothered by the "Biblical" language than you were, and think it probably was a deliberate foreshadowing of the twin's preaching. But that, along with most of the other elements of the book, wasn't tied in very well. On the other hand, I don't think I liked the characters as much as you did. In the end, I think I see it as a book that didn't live up to its potential.

I agree with Ivy about the foreshadowing. Ultimately though, I rated it even lower than you did.

Ivy, I can't say I liked the characters as people but I appreciated the diversity and newness (to me any way) of them. I just found the antique style of starting the sentences annoying, distracting, and out of place.

From what I have read in other reviews, most everyone found problems with the book.

I had the coolest call from my dad last night (turned 81 in Feb. Gave him a Kindle for his birthday). I was concerned when I found 2 missed calls, the latest would have been at 11:30 his time. I had just discovered I locked my car key inside the car and had pulled out my cell phone to call AAA. I quick called his number as my friend used her phone to call my house.
"Hi, Dad, it's me. What's up?"
"That Kindle..."
"Yes?"
"12 books so far."
I laughed so loudly that my husband heard me through my friend's phone.
For anyone considering giving an older person a Kindle, don't hesitate. My dad is lucky that the house next door (He helps keep an eye on it.) has WiFi so he can go on his computer, order the book, walk to the house next door until he has a signal, and presto, he has a book! He discovered the Patterson series of the Women's Murder Club and is plowing through them.

More good news - new Sherlock Holmes on PBS this Sunday!!!

Love the story about your dad - maybe I should consider giving my parents a Kindle too. I could always load new books for them since they don't have internet access.

Also - very excited about the new Sherlock this Sunday too!!

Hi Mamzel, great story about your Dad. Isn't it great when you hit upon a gift that is so well received! My Kindle still amazes me when I get a book delivered at the touch of a button, of course, it also can get me in trouble!

Ah, the Odditorium sounds like a good collection, but, that comma issue, is very grave, indeed.

LOL! So glad your Dad is liking it! I'm sure it's a godsend for anyone who struggles with small print.

Mamzel, that is a great story about your Dad. My mom isn't anywhere near 81 but she says she's definitely not interested. Of course, I don't have on either....

Little Taiko, You might have to get two of them so they wouldn't have to share! They wouldn't need the fancy ones with buttons. (And no, I don't work for Amazon or have stock in their company.) It would be so nice that you could do all the technical stuff for them.

Judith, I have a hard time trying to get something for my dad. It was certainly a stroke of genius (if I don't mind saying myself)! My latest foray is to download the first of the Wheel of Time series. I think I might be heading into trouble with that! They were offering it on the Kindle for 99¢.

Katie, I admit I don't read much that could be considered high literature so it could be that mega-comma use is more common than I have come across. Maybe my next encounter won't be so difficult.

Dejah, If you get two at a time you can put them on the same account and share books that way. Just a thought... (see my disclaimer above about my lack of connection with Amazon.)

Yesterday, I did one of those stupidly embarrassing things and I'm paying for it today! I tripped on a brick that was pushed up above the level of surrounding bricks, and couldn't catch myself. I had the flash of a picture in my head of two of my fingers on my right hand being bent back over my hand as I fell on top of it. Of course this happened in front of a crowd. I cradled my hand until I had the courage to look at it. My knuckles were already swelling but I hadn't broken anything. I iced them all day. I can't completely form a fist this morning but as you can see, typing isn't impacted. It will take a while until I can comfortably hold things but it was only two fingers affected and the other three work without problem. My pride was hurt worse than my hand and will probably take longer to heal!

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (1999) ****

This was a choice to reach beyond my comfort level and try a new author. I have seen many reviews about his books and this one jumped out of a pile at a library book sale. It's been on my shelf for a while so it could fit in any one of several categories of my challenge - LT Raves, non-American author, or TBRs. I think I'll put it in the non-American author category.

It was actually quite short, packed full of middle-aged male angst, regret, realization, frustration, and pain.

Professor David Lurie is 52, has had two failed marriages, two daughters, and teaches poetry to bored college students. Without any other activities, he meets with a prostitute once a week until she quits the profession. Not wanting to build another connection, his eyes fall on a comely coed. Not surprisingly (to the reader anyway), the relationship becomes known to the administration and he loses his position.

He closes up his house and goes to visit his daughter who lives on a small farm. Another woman had been living with her but left her alone. An African man helps her with the farm and the dog kennel.

Unable or unwilling to admit that his dalliance with the student was wrong, he worries about his daughter living by herself in such wilderness. His fears are met with an attack on his daughter and himself by three men. The reaction of his daughter is totally alien to his own and he struggles to understand her decisions.

This was a very fast book to read but I feel it keeps the reader in touch with the changes David undergoes or fails to undergo. Well worth a day or two.

One of these days I will get around to reading Disgrace. Good review!

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (2003) ****

The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship.

And so we are introduced to the world of what happens to human remains. Ms. Roach has done a lot of research and personally witnessed many ways of treating human bodies after the person dies. She also gives us a history of anatomy classes and research of the effects of weapons on a human body. From donating one's body to a learning hospital to researching reports of cannibalism to new (in 2003) ways of environmentally correct ways of disposing of one's body, she always has a wonderfully snarky comment to throw in to remind us that we are not dealing with personalities, just waste. The following quote comes from the chapter describing experiments to see if a head could survive by continuing to supply it with blood aided by the abundant supply of heads during the French revolution.

With the Gagny head, Laborde came closest to restoring normal brain function. Muscles on the eyelids, forehead, and jaw could be made to contract. At one point Gagny's jaw snapped shut so forcefully that a loud claquement dentaire was heard. However, given that twenty minutes had passed from the drop of the blade to the infusion of blood - and irreversible brain death sets in after six to ten minutes - it is certain that Gagny's brain was too far gone to be brought around to anything resembling consciousness and he remained blessedly ignorant of his dismaying state of affairs. The chien, on the other hand, spent its final, decidedly less vigoureux minutes watching its blood pump into someone else's head and no doubt produced some claquements dentaires of its own.

Delightful? Hardly. However, this was a book that must have made me something to watch as I grimaced, covered my mouth in shock, or laughed out loud. A definite recommendation for those with a taste for the macabre.

That is a great book :-)

I really enjoyed reading that book. It was just completely and utterly fascinating, but probably not for everyone.

I'm glad you liked Disgrace--I though it was great.

Great story about your Dad! My husband and I gave his mother a Kobo e-reader some time ago and she loves it too. It's a good thing it came with 100 classics pre-loaded because she's still struggling with the whole downloading process, and we have to help her whenever we visit. In hindsight, we probably should have gone the wi-fi route, though those readers were still quite expensive when we had bought the basic Kobo.

I also enjoyed your review of Stiff. I hadn't planned to read it at first, but I've seen so many positive reviews I think I should give it a try.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. One of the things I didn't mention in my review is that the author, and the reader, really considers their choice of where they'll end up!

Yesterday I received my April ER, The Cybrarian's Web. As I was trying to explain a cybrarian to Monsieur, he quipped back in his best British voice, "I'm proud that I'm a cybrarian." It was so cute.

From the Two Rivers by Robert Jordan (1990) ***
Wheel of Time, 1a

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

It took me a little to realize that what they were teasing me with, those folks at Amazon, was a free offer of the first half of the first book of 14 in the series (they don't even offer the second half, just the two halves sold as one). I think I will have to go visit my favorite used book store.

This is a whole new fantasy world with new creatures and characters that makes this fan of The Lord of the Rings happy, happy. It's like a sandwich made with ingredients you know you love but in a new combination.

One of the reasons I will continue this series is the strong presence of female characters. It always irked me that the strong women in LotR were few and far between. After all, their fate was in peril, too, so it only made sense that they defend their land and way of life from the bad guys. In this land, women are in positions of power to begin with and shoulder the responsibilities equally.

Looks like a summer of fun for me! (*Putting all the titles in my phone for reference*)

I love the story of your Dad's late-night phone call!

It's getting very busy as we approach the end of the year here and we have a couple of calculus classes tearing around campus looking for clues in the ninth annual Great Easter Egg Contest (G.E.E.K.). They are coming into the library using old yearbooks and the computers. What a great way to include a little running around outside with the thinking!

Not a belly laugh funny, but this cartoon definitely made me happy!
Incidental Comics - Summer Night

To the Blight by Robert Jordan (2002) ****
The second half of the first book of fourteen in the Wheel of Time series.

Amazon offered the first half of the book Eye of the World called From the Two Rivers for .99 on the Kindle. It was like giving a kid his first taste of crack for free. So I went back to find that the second half was not offered but I could find the whole book for $6.99. Should I be angry about that? Maybe, maybe not. But I figured that a hunt in used book stores was in order. What do my eyes light on but a copy of To the Blight for $5.00! Cool! But right next to it was the whole first book for $3.50. Sold! (And, no, Scrooge is not my middle name.) When you go to the page where the whole series is laid out you will see that some books are split into 2, 3, and even 4 volumes, sometimes all three! This could make my trips to seek out the series interesting. Or I might just give in and get the rest on the Kindle since they are monster-sized.

Why do I go to such lengths for this series? It's fun! It's Tolkein stretched out to three times the expanse. It's a summer full of magic, good vs. evil, and a new world full of new characters. I have become crabby about a lot of things, one of which is the way women are relegated a second place or no place in many books. I thought Steig Larsson was fantastic because he gave us a girl who stood up for herself in a major way. I always thought that women face the same dangers as men and should take responsibility to protect themselves. I am so over damsels-in-distress.

I'll give you an excerpt where our party comes into a town where their favorite blessing, oath, whatever, is "Peace."

"What a strange thing to say," Egwene said. "Why do they use it like that? Peace."
"When you have never known a thing except to dream, " Lan replied, heeling Mandarb forward, "it becomes more than a talisman."

Been away for a while so just catching up. Stiff is one of my favorites - you're absolutely correct, it does make the reader think seriously about where you'd want to end up. I thought crash-test dummy would be good, but apparently you can't decide exactly what you want done, you have to just donate or not donate.

Eva, I had always thought I would go the cremation route until I heard of the freeze drying option.

I'm going to donate and hope they use me for some cool experiment :-)

->81 mamzel:
The freeze-dry is a favorite of mine too - it's currently not widely available, though. You can elect it in Sweden, but there's no guarantee I'm back there when my time comes... :)

->82 psutto:
Me too, I just don't want to be the facelift practice head!! :)

Oh, sad, sad day! I've misplaced my Kindle.

I went to proctor some exams this morning and took my Kindle to read. I dropped my daughter off at work at went to the Scottish restaurant for breakfast. I sat there reading and that's the last place I know I was sure it was in my hand. I sort of remembering putting it on top of the box of testing material. I set up my classroom, stood outside the class talking with teachers and welcoming the kids as they trickled in. I closed the door, read the script of directions to the kids, got them starting and then...looked around...no Kindle...panic! Did I leave it in the car? As soon as I was finished I went out. Nope, not there. Went back inside. Anybody see a Kindle? Nope. Went back into classroom with friend and looked all over. Crap! Drove to MacD's. Nope. No Kindle. Called husband at home to cancel my account. Just when I was bonding with it! I hate my failing memory!

The good news is that I was in an English teacher's classroom and she had lots of good books. I borrowed Sea-Wolf by Jack London. Wow! I had forgotten how good it is!

Indulge me as I share some lines that jumped out at me. This line reminded me of when I went sailing with my family. I always loved going up on the bow under the sail where I could pretend I was alone on the ocean.

Johnson seems to spend all his spare time there or aloft at the crosstrees, watching the Ghost cleaving the water under press of sail. There is passion, adoration, in his eyes, and he goes about in a sort of trance, gazing in ecstasy at the swelling sails, the foaming wake, and the heave and the run of her over the liquid mountains that are moving with us in stately procession.

After spending several months in close company of the all male crew:

It has dawned upon me that I have never placed a proper valuation upon womankind.

And finally, this, while the Ghost was in a huge gale:

And oh, the marvel of it! the marvel of it! That tiny men should live and breathe and work, and drive so frail a contrivance of wood and cloth through so tremendous an elemental strife!

Great stuff! I tore through half of the book this morning.

Wow, sorry about your Kindle! that really sucks!

Sad news about your Kindle!

Glad you found Sea Wolf but that really stinks about your Kindle. Hope it shows up, but it sounds like someone might have *borrowed* it.

I'm not sure I could shake off the loss of MY kindle ... funny how we get attached to things. Just reading about your loss makes me sad. So sorry ...

Oh, that is sad!!! Are those things registered? I wonder if Amazon can tell if someone (and in that case who) is buying/loading books on it. Not sure how if that works - just a thought.

Mamzel, I'm sorry to read about your missing Kindle. I sure hope it somehow reappears.

Thanks, everyone for your kind words. It's almost like I've lost a pet or something.

As soon as I checked and rechecked every place I had been I called my husband who was at home to unregister the Kindle since I had the one-touch order going. As much as I support reading, I don't want to have to pay for someone else's reading! I'll have to check and see if I can report it missing/stolen.

I finished Sea Wolf that night eschewing the TV since there was nothing that could hold a candle to this book!

Sea Wolf by Jack London (1980, orig. 1904) *****

Having salt water in my veins, I was totally enraptured by this book. It is a story told by 35-year old Humphrey van Weyden, a man who had never done a day of work in his life. He was on a ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco in heavy fog when they are struck by another vessel. He ended up in the water where he was picked up by a vessel named Ghost, a seal hunter outbound to the seal hunting grounds off of Japan. Rather than turn back and put him ashore, he was added to the short-handed crew as cabin boy.

The captain, Wolf Larsen, was a hard bitten sailor, typical of captains in that he meted out punishment swiftly and harshly. However, he was very well read and Wolf and Hump had deep philosophical conversations. Wolf was given to wicked disabling headaches which eventually blinded and paralyzed him.

Humphrey fell in love with a woman writer who was picked up in a life boat. The two slipped off when the captain was incapacitated by one of his headaches and they landed on a deserted island, built a shelter, and hunkered down to wait for rescue. As luck would have it, the Ghost washed up on shore after a mutiny and the only person on board was Wolf, still on a physical decline but unwilling to help remast his ship.

The story of growth exhibited by Humphrey had the maritime background which made this a total winner for me. I have visited the Jack London State Park in Sonoma County and seen the ruins of what would have been a spectacular house, Wolf House. So the local angle was icing on an otherwise very tasty cake!

9 Dragons by Michael Connelly (2009) ***

Maybe I'm getting jaded with police procedurals but I had serious problems with this one. The biggest is that our "hero" flies off to Hong Kong to rescue his daughter who was kidnapped, chases all over the New Territories to find her, his ex-wife is killed, he finds the daughter, and brings her back to the States. Fine. But a few days later, he brings her to a phsychologist friend to discuss all of what she had been through, goes charging off to solve his case and doesn't return to pick up his daughter for hours!!! This pissed me off (sorry for the language). What a way to try and rebuild a relationship with a troubled teenaged girl!

I had never read any of the other books of this series and I probably won't look for any more in the future. I can only imagine that the father-daughter bond doesn't get any better.

Unless you're already a fan of this author, I would not recommend this book.

Kindle saga continued...
So Thursday night I couldn't stand it any more so I went and ordered a new Kindle Touch with a pretty purple cover. I was already psyched to get it. Friday morning, the teacher in the room I was proctoring came in to the library, and, you guessed it, dropped the old Kindle on my desk. It magically appeared on top of her desk. I'll never know what mischief it was up to! Now I own two Kindles. An embarrassment of riches!

The past two weeks have been very busy since I was helping in the text book room as the 20,000 textbooks came back in. My sprained fingers not having completely healed, became swollen again and I felt like a boxer icing my hand down every night. Yesterday was the last day of school and today and tomorrow are furlough days (no pay) so I have a little mini vacation to rest my hand. Monday I'll be going over to another high school to help them finish up their textbooks. Hopefully it won't take more than one or two days since I didn't do the best job cleaning up the library for the summer.

Off to make pesto pasta with shrimp for dinner. Yum!

!!! Yeah!!! I'm so glad your kindle showed up, and it looks like you're already attached to the new kindle. Ah, so you've got two pets in the household. :)

& I almost bought a Nook today - I'm a para in a school & talk about furloughs! So you can see why I'm holding off. OfficeMax told me I could get 20% off my entire purchase today, and when I said in that case throw in a nook, they said "everything but the nook." Booooo!!!! So no e-reader yet! I told myself no nook until I read all the books in the house, but I'm sure there's a betting pool started to see if I can keep that resolution. Project Guttenburg is calling me.

Happy to hear you got your Kindle back! I'm sure some other member of your family or a friend will be happy to use the other one. My kids kept wanting to use my e-reader when we were on vacation, which was annoying as I didn't have a ready supply of other books on hand (that was the point of getting the e-reader, so I wouldn't have to carry books on vacation). My husband bought me an upgraded e-reader recently, and I love the new features and the fact that we now have a second e-reader in the house!

yay for the kindle reappearing... almost certainly due to you buying a new one... the old one couldn't stand it, too jealous!

re: Micheal Connelly and Harry Bosch... 9 Dragons is the 15th book in the Harry Bosch sequence... there's a LOT of back story covered in the earlier books. And the earlier books are terrific! I recommend trying the first Harry Bosch The Black Echo, or the ever popular The Lincoln Lawyer which introduces Mickey Haller, or maybe even The Poet which introduces more new characters; Connelly begins having multiple storylines show up and cross paths in his later books... Haller, McEvoy and Bosch were all in one I read recently.

That said, I haven't read 9 Dragons and it may be just as dreadful as you describe... just don't give up on the author too soon.

Congrats on having dual Kindles. :)

"almost certainly due to you buying a new one"
Agreed - as the universe works, the old one would never have reappeared otherwise. :)

Happy to hear your kindle reappeared. Things disappear and reappear from my husband's desk at school as well. Your new kindle sounds very nice. It will be nice to have a spare!

Just joining in to say that it's great your old Kindle came home.

Cammy, You might wait until school starts and see if they offer a special on the Nook. And, if you are like me, that pile will never come down since the lure of the printed book is undying.

Mathgirl, My family is all up on technology, unfortunately. My daughter walks around with an iPod and cell, my son just got a Razor, and Monsieur has probably the oldest cell phone still in use but has outfitted himself with a Kindle Fire and iPad.

Clif, OK. I'll give him another shot. Maybe starting at the beginning would have been the way to go but I found this one at a church parking lot sale and it was an impulse buy.

Eva, Craso, DQ, If only the Kindle could talk and tell me where it had gone to... That it's home again is all that matters!



The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (2010) ****

"Miss Kawasemi?" Orito kneels on a stale and sticky futon. "Can you hear me?"

So in the minutes between ordering and waiting for the new Kindle to arrive, I picked up this book which the gang over in the 75ers raved about last year, I bought and then let it languish on one of those piles about my room. It's one of the books that I slap myself on the side of my head for not reading sooner. Fantastic! All those 75ers weren't wrong.

I've recently become re-hooked into historical fiction and this is an example of the finest of the genre. It is told in present tense which really helps to immerse the reader in the scene. It takes place in a time and location where two cultures meet/clash. The cultures here being medieval Japanese, Dutch, and eventually the British. Our heroes are a Dutch clerk, honest as the day is long, and Orito, a disfigured Japanese woman with a desire to learn how to be the best midwife she can be, combining ancient Japanese knowledge with modern Dutch anatomy.

I won't go into the plot since it is very involved and delicious and tell you that if you haven't read this book yet, don't wait any longer!

I'm so glad that you liked Thousand Autumns. I thought it was one of the best books I'd read last year!

great you got your kindle back and yay for more love for David Mitchell - am awaiting his next book avidly...

I've read lots of good stuff about Cloud Atlas so I will definitely read that one now, too.



The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (E-book edition 2009, orig. 1990) ***

The man who called himself Bors, at least in this place, sneered at the low murmuring that rolled around the vaulted chamber like the soft gabble of geese.

What a wonderful time killer this series is. It is the perfect way to lose yourself in a different world with new characters and new stuff popping up to keep things interesting. It doesn't take a lot of concentration to follow Rand and his companions as they have adventures, split up, have more adventures, learning along the way about themselves and their powers, and eventually getting back together again.

Recommended for Tolkein fans with more numerous and powerful female roles. The series is totally appropriate for teens to read and enjoy.

Posted from St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.



The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill (2005) ***½

I was a depressing audience, and there were going to be a lot more like it.

Perfect plane reading.

Dr. Siri is a 72-year old coroner, THE coroner for Laos, and every mysterious death comes under his perview. The first is a welathy woman who supposedly committed suicide. Dr. Siri's quick assistant, a nurse, points out that there are no hesitation marks as one would expect. The rest of his staff consists of a man with Down Syndrome, who is is extremely loyal and has a remarkably accurate memory.

What makes this series so interesting is a glimpse of a country that had recently become communist and is undergoing great transformation. Like other series that take place in Russia, Siri has to deal with a beaurocracy that is more interested in its own benefit than the people's.

He is soon immersed in another mystery when bodies of Vietnamese men show up with signs of apparent torture which threatens the fragile relationship between the two countries.

I correctly saved this to read on the plane and (Hail to the mighty Kindle) downloaded the next of the series, just in case.

BTW, it was a looooonnnnggg day. We left SFO at 8:55 Saturday night, changed planes in Baltimore and Charlotte, N.C. before arriving in St. Thomas at 3:30 Sunday afternoon. And wouldn't you know that my luggage didn't arrive with me. I was farsighted to put neon orange duct tape on my obiquitous black wheeled suitcase so I could spot it from a distance. Ironic that it wasn't to be seen. It came on a later flight and they brought it up to my dad's house.

Today we went swimming at Magen's Bay. It is a beautiful 1½-mile long white sand beach. We were supposed to meet friends there but went to the wrong end of the beach. Oh, well. The water was still wonderfully warm and salty at our end.

Sounds like you are having a well deserved R & R. I spent a very short day on St. Thomas, coming off a cruise ship, and have always wanted to return there and explore in more depth. Enjoy your vacation.

"my luggage didn't arrive with me"
So irritating! But, at least they deliver it to you. :)

Never been to St. Thomas, but that "1½-mile long white sand beach" puts it on the bucket-list! :)

Magen's Bay is a real tourist draw. I like to go because it's 'safe' - nothing but sand and usually flat calm. I like to just bob around in the water enjoying the feeling of the warm water. I hope to take the kids to St. John this week for snorkeling.

We're going down to town to Dad's weekly lunch with his radio club then going to the store to get food for the week. Next door is a house owned by the University of the Virgin Islands. They are having a reception tonight because they have been upgrading the observatory. If there is a clear sky (not very likely this time of year) they will open the telescope for viewing.

Sounds like a great vacation!

The skies cooperated last night and everyone was treated to a view of Saturn.



Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (2006) ****

The sun baked everything in the new suburb.

I'm still enjoying this series. Dr. Siri is fulling utilizing his spirit which helps him solve his mysteries. There is a wonderful scene where party representatives, in all seriousness, call all the shamans of the area together to issue conditions to their spirits. What a riot.



Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (2006) ***

Dr. Siri lay beneath the grimy mesh of the mosquito net, watching the lizard's thid attempt.

The three friends head off in different directions in the third book of the series. Dr. Siri is called to investigate a mummified body discovered when a slab of concrete is broken. Mr. Geung is 'reallocated' by Siri's boss in Siri's absence. Geung's loyalty does not care to be relocated and escapes from the truck and walks back to the city to resume his duties. Nurse Dtui gets a marriage proposal.

I do love Dr. Siri and his "posse" - Geung's escape is quite fantastic!

Eva, indeed! He may be slow but his heart is larger than most!



Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill (2007) ***½
Dr. Siri Paiboun #4

The post office box was eighteen across, twelve down, and it had a loop of wool wound around the door so Dr. Buagaew wouldn't miss it.

The fourth book of this series gives us a real insight into Dr. Siri's background as well as the history of Laos. He was a rebel that took part in the effort to remove the monarchy and now, like the rest of the country, he has to deal with the communist government that moved in to take its place.

When the blind dentist is hit by a runaway logging truck, it is discovered that he was carrying a envelope with no return address which contained a seemingly blank piece of paper. Dr. Siri knows how to make the hidden words reappear and now has a list of items in code to decipher. What develops is a plot that rocks him to his core.

This series takes place in the seventies, shortly after the communists take power and put their brand of rule in place. Many times he wonders if things would have been better if left alone. He wonders how things can be changed to improve or at least return to the level before the overthrow of the king and the ouster of the French. He devoted so much of his life to the betterment of a country that is worse off and he hurts.

Great stuff!

Took advantage of a cruise ship-free day to go shopping in town. There are markedly fewer taxis harassing you ("Gowin back to the ship?") and the shop personnel are soooo glad to see someone come in. I think my favorite purchase was a silver bracelet with a gecko highlighted in opal. I'll try to take a picture of it to share. We had lunch at a restaurant called Gladys' Restaurant that features local recipes as well as stateside favorites. We shared an order of conch fritters and we each had a jerked mahi mahi sandwich. Yum! The kids had fun in the main liquor store picking out items that were unlikely to be found in the states. My son has always been fascinated by absinthe and found a wormwood-free bottle. They also bought a variety of flavored rums made over in St. Croix at (of all things) the K Mart. This K Mart is very close to the cruise ship docks and is the neatest cleanest K Mart I have ever been in. We took pictures of the historic (1617) fort which has seen better times. Time and hurricanes have done a number on it.

Tomorrow my dad is hosting a RTTY event. Ham operators set up their rigs and try and contact as many others around the world as they can in a 24-hour period. We don't know how many people will come up here but we are making chili to feed whoever shows.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (2007) ***
Kingkiller Chronicles, No. 1

It was night again. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.

I downloaded this book as a my choice of airplane read. 662 print pages long, I figured this was something to while away the hours sitting in a cramped position. I was right.

Basically, the innkeeper tells his life story (in excruciatingly detail) to a chronicler while the inn's assistant listens in. It took miles of travel and years of living in the streets to build his character as he attains his goal; acceptance into the University. (Got to love a character who is totally focused on obtaining access to a library!) There he still struggles to earn his keep and stay out of trouble while dueling with an older and wealthy student who has made it his duty to torture him.

If I was not a captive reader, I may have set this book down after the first couple hundred pages but having nothing better to read, I persevered and was rewarded with a satisfying story that sets up the rest of the series.

This is my first experience with Rothfuss and I can certainly see why he is so popular. (This book rated an average of 4½ stars with over 5,000 members rating it!) Will I return to the series? Not rushing, but I probably will.

I had to smile when I read about the problems they had in cataloging the library. Apparently no Deweys around.

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (2012) *****

Chains clanked in the darkness of the holding cells.

Wow! Wow! Wow!

This book takes place in the same world as his earlier YA book, Ship Breaker and his adult book, The Windup Girl. Global warming, rising sea levels, flooded coastal cities, nature gone berserk, and genetic manipulation are all evident in this book.

What used to be the United States is now a war torn country with various factions battling for control. Even the Chinese (!) who sent over aid and peace-keeping troops gave up trying to maintain order and left the warlords to settle things themselves. The Chinese also left behind mistresses and half-breed children.

One of these children was Mahlia, a citizen of the Drowned Cities. Her mother was murdered and she used her street smarts to escape into the country side. There she encountered a group of boy soldiers who cut off her hand. She managed to escape and was taken in my a doctor who had set up shop in a small rural village.

Mouse, a resident of the village, and Mahlia discover Tool, a half-man, genetically bred behemoth who had also escaped and was near death after battling a huge alligator in the swamp.

I could go on with the incredible story of these three but you have got to read it yourself. I am so in awe of how Bacigalupi has taken some of the present world's blights and flipped them so that America is the site for the worst types of people and violence. For instance, in Mouse's story we see how child soldiers are recruited and how their loyalty is ensured.

Mahlia leaves Catniss in the dust. I can't recommend this book enough to scifi, dystopia, YA readers.

I didn't manage to update my totals at the end of May. I was a little busy. On a high note, I offer my totals here.

I. TBRs - 3
II. YAs - 12
III. Nonfiction - 2
IV. Raves - 3
V. Classics - 2
VI. Doorstops - 2
VII. Murder Mysteries - 6
VIII. Non-American authors - 2
IX. ERs - 5
X. Uncomfortable reads - 4
XI. Continuations of series - 13
XII. Miscellaneous - 8

Total to date: 62 books, 21,837 pages

Damn it mamzel.... The Drowned Cities sounds fantastic - {total book bullet} - AND my library has it!

*does happy dance*

Still need to pick up Ship Breaker before I get to The Drowned Cities. I enjoyed The Windup Girl so it will be interesting to compare the YA titles.

Wolfy - They are companion books, not sequels so enjoy them in any order.

the Cotterill books sound terrific... onto my list they go. I'm just starting Drowned Cities (about 100 pages in) and am liking it very much. Very jealous of your St. Thomas vacation... especially as we bake in the 100+ heat here in the midwest.

Paolo Bacigalupi is on the wishlist - will try to get to one of his books soon!

62 is a very decent total for the first half of the year done - congrats!

Clif, I know what you mean. When we left California it was over 100. Quite ironic to head to the tropics to cool off!

Eva, Since we put our completed books in categories, I'm not aware of the total until I do these updates. I was pleasantly surprised myself! May was a slow month because I was so tired from work but I'll make up for it this month! I do have to be aware that I am filling my favorite categories and that I should pay more attention to the others. I'm reading a C.J. Sansom that will go in my doorstop category.

This is a picture from St. Thomas. I am standing next to my dad. Next are my daughter and son. In front are the impossible pair of dogs; a Great Pyrenees named Annie and a pitbull named Anabelle. Dad is a sucker for abandoned pooches.

mamzel, it looks like a beautiful place. Hope you have/had a wonderful visit!

Thanks, Victoria. The weather was as perfect as June can be as it is the beginning of hurricane season. The water was positively delicious and the kids had a great time.



Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom (2004) ***½
Matthew Shardlake No. 2

I had left my house in Chancery Lane early, to go to the Guildhall to discuss a case in which I was acting for the City Council.

Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer practicing in London in 1540. He is disabled by a hunchback which slows him down as well as makes him a constant target for abuse. He is one of those amazing people who can live with this disfigurement and use his huge intellect for good. He is not bitter, just accepting.

The hottest summer on record has London in its grips. What a horrid place it must have been with open cesspools and raw sewage flowing into the Thames. This all makes the two cases that fall into his lap this much more difficult. Also that there are deadlines imposed.

The uncle of a girl charged with the murder of a boy is sure she is innocent but she refuses to speak of the crime. In order to make an accused person speak, they had a charming method of laying a person down with a stone beneath their back. A board placed on top of the person is loaded with increasing weight until the person utters a plea or their back is broken. Nice! Elizabeth is headed for this until help intervenes from a surprising quarter. Thomas Cromwell pressures the judge to give the girl two weeks so that Shardlake can investigate a matter for him. Cromwell was given information about a miraculous substance called Greek Fire which could be used as a terrible weapon against the French fleet. A small supply along with books about the topic were unearthed in a monastery that had been dissembled. He has promised Henry a demonstration in two weeks. However, the two men who brought the stuff to his attention have been brutally murdered. It is up to Shardlake to find the stuff, papers about making it, and the contraption they built to deliver it

What I love about medieval mysteries is the historical aspects of the book. Life in London at this time must have been horrid. It's hard to imagine what was so miserable in the country to drive people to live in such conditions. I also love the idioms used. "He's the meanest man alive, he'd skin a flea for its hide and tallow."

I had read the first book of the series over a year ago. Since two more of the books have come to me I decided it was time to continue with his adventures. I recommend this series to fans of other historical mystery series.

I always new paradise would be lush, green, have palm trees, family and, of course, dogs!

That looks so beautiful! I have great respect for people who take in abandoned animals!

The palm trees are more for protection from the winds than anything. When he told me that someone had abandoned that beautiful Annie, I wanted to drag that guy behind my car for bringing that sweet hairball to the tropics. Luckily the people that found her knew just the right home for her. Dad went down to see her, opened the door of his truck, she jumped in and that was that. Annabelle is nice but I can't get over an innate distrust of the breed. She does have the personality of a puppy.

I have the same problem. A pit bull once attacked my dachshund while we were on a walk and I can't get over my fear of them.

So. My friend and I went over to the next county to see Magic Mike starring Matthew McConaughey (had to check the spelling). We had to be sure not to run into any of our students even though it was rated R! It was interesting to see who else came to see the movie. Showing at noon, mostly older women at first and just as I was saying that men probably wouldn't show up, in came two men. Another piece of eye candy, Joe Manganiello (Alcide on True Blood) had a very interesting scene. Yeah, there was a storyline involved but the dancing was the most fun to watch.

Love the picture of your crew!

& of course that was your first Rothfusz - it was his first too. I've heard absolute raves about that book, so I'm surprised by your review. It doesn't sound like a riveting read, but other people I know read it in less than two non-captive days. Hmmmm... It's been languishing on my shelves awhile. Looks like it can languish until next year. ;)

Cute talking hat! Happy 4th of July!

Love the talking hat! Hope your 4th was a great one!

Ha! I like your 4th of July cartoon. :) I've been planning on reading the Paolo Bacigalupi. I was going to start with The Windup Girl, but I need to work my way up to reading books with rapes in them. Emotional preparation. :) I'll get to it soon, though.

Terri, it was peaceful anyway. I guess all the neighborhood teens were in other neighborhoods so it was quiet.

Hibenator, if it's any help, it's not a human that is raped, at least you have to keep reminding yourself it's not. I wish I could say you could understand the book while skipping the brutal parts, but they really are integral to understanding motivation.

I'm working on two books at the present. One is an ER, The Cybrarian's Web. I'm marking a lot of sites I would like to explore and possibly put to use. The other is Mièville's Embassytown. It has been hard work wrapping my head around this one. It doesn't help that I am watching the Tour de France early in the morning, my usual best reading time. This has been one of the most interesting tours I've watched. New names coming to the front and winning. And big names involved in crashes and having to drop out. For instance, today Samuel Sanchez, the 2008 Olympics champion, had to drop out, just weeks before the 2012 Olympics. What a tragedy! I love watching the French countryside go by. They always pick out nearby chateaus and stunning cathedrals with their aerial cameras. The French farmers build charming tributes to the athletes in their fields using hay bales and their farm equipment. Thousands of people stand alongside the road just for a brief glimpse of the racers, even climbing up to the steep switchbacks on the highest peaks. I have come to look forward to these three weeks each summer.

LOL! When reading Miéville, it's usually safe to not to anything else at the same time - you need to have your wits about you. :) Hope you enjoy Embassytown!!

Rest day on the Tour tomorrow so I will be able to give Embassytown some undivided attention. Today's race must have been so exciting for the British to watch as their man, Bradley Wiggins did a brilliant job. Not only did he hold on to the yellow jersey but won the stage and increased the time gap to Cadel Evans. And he made it look so easy!

I think I'm over the hump in Embassytown. I'm able to just follow and enjoy the story instead of trying to comprehend the amazingly complex language system presented in the story.

Embassytown was the first Mieville book I ever read and it was very hard to understand in the beginning. Once you get into the story it will all make sense. I promise. :-)

Craso, I think I am finding that now. Thanks for the encouragement.



The Cybrarian's Web: An A-Z Guide to 101 Free Web 2.0 Tools and Other Resources by Cheryl Ann Pelier-Davis (2012) ***½

I requested this book from the Early Review program and consider myself so lucky to have received it. As the title suggests, the reader is offered a plethora of free Web 2.0 programs (and, yes, Library Thing is one of them), with suggestions on how they can be used in a library. Since I work in a high school library, I was eager to learn about tools I could use to promote and update our internet presence.

While there were not many applications I had not heard of previously, I was certainly encouraged to try and utilize some now that I could see a use for them. All of the offerings were programs that could be used by people with a minimum of experience. Some of the programs had software that needed to be loaded on one's computer (problematic for my setting) but many could be used online. The school district is understandably strict about random programs loaded on their computers. I have marked at least a dozen of the programs that I have been encouraged to put in use from reading this book.

I remembered that my introduction to Library Thing came from a little online course called Library 2.0 offered by CSLA in 2007 and sometimes it takes a little nudge to jump into these programs and enjoy them. I don't know how available this book will be but anyone who is interested can see all the sites mentioned on the companion website, cybrariansweb.com.

I thought to check my library's catalog today and found a record of the new Louise Penny book on order so I was able to put a hold on it. Only 16th in line for it. I hope the consortium orders more than one copy for two counties!!! I'm still 19th in line for Deadlocked which I put a hold on for back in May.

I ♥ ILL!

Embassytown by China Miéville (2011) ****

The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had them painting it for days.

To borrow an exclamation from the 60s - FAR OUT!

It would be unfair for me to try and describe the story of this book since it would almost take a whole book to set it up. For me, the first hundred or so pages took a lot of concentration and rereading of paragraphs to try and understand all of the new words and concepts needed to follow the story. Once through that, the action picked up and I was able to cruise through the rest of the book. At the core of the story is language and how a species from another world might develop it.

Their language is organised noise, like all of ours are, but for them each word is a funnel. Where to us each word means something, to the Hosts, each is an opening. A door, through which the thought of that referent, the thought itself that reached for that word, can be seen.

This is the second book by Miéville I have read and had a sense of accomplishment when it was done. I have recently bought two of his books for my library, Un Lun Dun and Railsea and I anticipate reading them soon.

So glad to hear you enjoyed it!! It's quite a rewarding read.

Glad you enjoyed it, one of my favourites along with the city and the city and kraken

I'm building up to railsea by reading moby dick :-)

The Tour has been cutting into my reading time as well! We usually watch the evening coverage when I would usually be reading. Ah well, it is fun to watch them - so impressive that they can ride these grueling rides day in and day out. As a Cadel Evans fan, I was a bit disappointed in the time trial, but Wiggins was just too good.

oh if you enjoy the Tour De France may I recommend The Rider by Tim Krabbe? It follows the author competing in a one day endurance race in France. I don't even like cycling but I couldn't book down it was so gripping!

I am glad you enjoyed Embassytown and I love the quote on language. Hope you enjoy his others.

psutto, That's quite an undertaking! I'm just going to trust that I know enough about MD already. I'll be very interested to see if your effort is rewarding.

Stacy, Cadel sure gave it a try today. It must be so hard to try and pull away and gain time on such climbs. Tomorrow looks like a killer!

Claire, Thanks for the suggestion. I will look for it. I surprised myself by enjoying Born to Run which was about long-distance running, something I have never even considered attempting.

Glad you enjoyed Embassytown. I agree with your assessment. I'm also happy to see your positive review of Drowned Cities. I liked Shipbreaker very much and am looking forward to reading this next book.

oh dear I have added Born to Run to my wishlist :)

?147 - Yes, I don't know how they do it each day on those climbs. It hurts my legs just looking at the stage profiles! :)

Paulina, I really hope you will enjoy it.

Claire, There are several books with the same title, all I am sure are good. The one I read was by Christopher McDougall. He has a way of creating words when available ones just won't do it for him. I bought this book for my library especially because it featured a tribe of Indians in Mexico with the hope it would interest my school's population. He talks a lot about side industries like running shoes and sports drinks, none of which are used by the Indians who run up to 24 hours over high mountain trails.

Stacy, I actually found myself panting along with the riders this morning!

The good thing about DVRs - being able to watch a program when you want to. Monsieur gets up at 5:30 to go to work so I start the race coverage from the beginning (which was 4:00 a.m. this morning) and fast forward through many commercials. The bad thing about DVRs - not much, except this morning it stopped recording inside the last kilometer before the finish!! And yes, I had the extended recording time, too.

I have never been to the Alps and this morning gave me a real yearning for a road trip through some of these spectacular mountains. I have reasonably easy access to the Sierras but they're still not the Alps. Those twin peaks that looked like a cat's head were stunning!

Happy Bastille Day!



Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (2008) ****½
Dr. Siri Paiboun No. 5

"What is that dog-awful row?"
"One of those Humong beggars playing his flute by the sounds of it."

Possibly my favorite of the series so far. The good doctor is off at a party convention leaving his able assistants to cover the morgue in his absence. A dead soldier comes in and Dtui's excellent eye for details prevents a horrendous accident. This and another occurrence lead her to believe someone is trying to kill the doctor so she joins up with Daeng, the doctor's fiance to find the suspect.

In the meantime, Dr. Siri heads home with his boss when their convoy is ambushed and the doctor is abducted. He is taken to a Hmong village so that his companion spirit shaman, Yeh Ming, can help them with a problem.

The reader is given an intimate glimpse into the lives of this mountain tribe that has been pushed around and pulled into wars for centuries, lastly and most notably the Vietnam war by the Americans. Yet another example of "civilization" improving (read imposing) the lives of indigenous people.

I highly recommend this series to readers who enjoy becoming acquainted with a cast of characters in an unusual setting. Oh, and solving a mystery or two along the way.

#142 and 152 - Great reviews! I definitely have to read more China Mieville. I've read Perdido Street Station and really liked it. I do want to finish that series. I can't wait to start the Dr. Siri series as well - I have the first one as an audiobook.

@147 I finished moby dick yesterday and am thinking about how to review it - I really enjoyed it although it was quite hard going sometimes

#151 - We had a similar problem with that stage too! Set the DVR for additional time and it still wasn't enough. So annoyed with the tack throwers from yesterday - who does that? Very classy of Wiggins though.

Psutto, I read your comments about Moby Dick. Congrats on finishing it even if the parts of the whaling industry bogged down the story. I'll have to put it on my list of classics to tackle. I really enjoy seafaring stories and this is the grand-daddy of them all.

Stacy, I guess it's a good thing/bad thing about having fans so close to the riders. On one hand the support for them on those long grueling miles must really help but being close enough for physical contact can be dangerous. Did you see the other day when two guys had flares? Wiggins actually got a little burnt by one, not to mention they had to breathe that crap.

Is there any other sport where the leaders ease up to let their competitors catch up after a misfortune like that and make it a real race? I can't think of a single instance. In any case, a rest day tomorrow. They're getting close to the final race in Paris!

apparently I made it sound "almost readable" ;-) I would say that you can skip the info dumps without spoiling the plot in any way

Colin Cotterill's books all went on my wishlist ... the problem is that the covers look so good I can't hardly bear the idea of purchasing for my kindle ... I won't be able to look at the covers!!

I used to watch the Tour every year, but ever since the Floyd Landis fiasco ... I've been disillusioned with the whole sport and haven't watched. Like most of us, a large part of the enjoyment was the scenery. I always marveled at how you never saw a Walmart (or the equivalent), McDonalds, or strip mall ANYWHERE. My father still waches and every year we talk on the phone for an hour or better about who's doing well, and who isn't.

Clif, I read most of the Dr. Siri stories on my Kindle and only saw the covers when I went to review them. I agree that they are lovely and haunting. Since reading the books I have been trying to find something readable about Laos and am finding it hard to find anything. I just got a movie called The Betrayal from the library which was a documentary about a family in Laos at the time these books take place. I'll probably watch it today.

And don't you think that the routes are planned to avoid any such mundane scenery? It was a little frustrating today with the mist. The helicopters had a very slow day. I was very sorry to hear about Andy Schlek retiring. Cadel Evans worked so hard but couldn't keep up with those Skye boys. I think there will be big differences in training next year.

On a completely different note...



Joining the United States Coast Guard by Snow Wildsmith (2012) ****
Joining the Military #3

I am always on the lookout for books that would be good for my work library, especially nonfiction books. When I saw this listed on the Early Reviewers' list I requested the title and was lucky to get it for review.

This was a step-by-step manual for any young person considering joining the military, the Coast Guard in particular. (The other books in the five part series cover the other branches of the Armed Forces.) The first five chapters, I imagine, would be the same in each of the books since they cover the most basic questions like education and health requirements, and examining one's motive in enlisting.

The book takes the reader up to graduation from boot camp with all of the steps leading up to it. Not only is the potential Guardian addressed, but the family has sections of information they should have in order to be able to support the teen's decision.

Another area of information is offered, that of what benefits can be expected after one's stint in the service. Touchy areas such as women and homosexuals are addressed without judgement. The book is written in the second person, totally appropriate, and it really felt like a knowledgeable, sensitive, no-nonsense approach.

I highly recommend this for high school libraries and teen sections of public libraries. If you know a young person considering enlistment, this would be very helpful for them.

I'm at a real crossroads when it comes to buying books ... there are some that I just must have the actual book because of the cover, or the maps, or the illustrations. Others I don't care so much.

Try and find a route through any state (or two states) in the US, that goes through small/medium sized cities ... and using major thoroughfares ... that doesn't have the eyesores of big box/fast food businesses. But it's possible they're there in France (in fact I'm sure they must be) ... the cameras just don't show them.

Curse of the Pogo Stick??? What a goofy title. I'm definitely going to have to check out Colin Cotterill.

Clif, As far as _buying_ books, particularly new books, I find I spend money on books I anticipate wanting to read again, for instance, the Precious Ramotswe series by McCall Smith. Used and clearance books I'll buy if I think I might forward them to a friend or my dad. I do think we have to support authors so I don't have a complete moratorium on book buying.

I tried to visualize the roads in my area to see if I could plan a route of 150 miles without passing by a chain restaurant and it was difficult but possible. I could also throw in a couple of category 2 hills.

Cammy, How the pogo stick got into the story was fascinating. The next in the series is called The Merry Misogynist. Does that nudge you harder to trying the series?

I just signed up for the ReadaThing. Sounds like a good way to wind up the summer. (Not that I wasn't planning on reading anyway.)

Yup, I'm definitely going to have to try the series. So many books, so little time! Let us know what you think of the ReadaThing. I'm sort of confused by it.

So, what are you going to do with no more Tour? It's amazing how quickly the month of July flies by because of the Tour. On to the Olympics now!

Cammy, In my quest to educate myself about Laos, I watched a movie today called The Betrayal.

It shows one family whose father served with the U.S. troops and was left behind with his wife and ten kids to face the Pathet Lao forces. The dad was taken to one of their "re-education" camps. The oldest son escaped to Thailand by swimming across the Mekong river when thirteen. Later his mom and seven of his siblings were smuggled across the river in a small leaking boat. She had to leave two of her daughters behind with their grandmother. They met in Thailand and spent some time in a refuge camp before heading to Brooklyn. Here they met with different hazards such as gang violence. Eventually they got a phone call from Dad who had spent 13 years in the work camp then met another woman. He didn't know where his family had gone so he started another. Son was overwhelmed by trying to help family but got them out of the city.

The story is told from the son's point of view and you see him as a long-haired teen and a respectful adult. One of the interesting observations he made was that when they were driving down Flatbush Ave. he thought they had mistakenly landed in Africa. It wasn't until he fully saw the mix of races that lived in that area that he comprehended a little of what America was about.

The scenes of him returning to Laos and reconnecting with his sisters and his grandmother were very heartwarming.

Stacy, Now that my early morning TV is on hiatus, I'll get to finish the two books I'm working on. I'm afraid that since the London is on the same time zone as Paris I may be doing some more early morning viewing when they start. U.S.A. vs France in Women's Soccer sounds like a good springboard! I want to try and get to the gym a bunch of times before I start work again (the week after next). Hopefully then I won't feel so beat after those first days back. I also want to make the rounds of stores to see if there's anything new I can get for clothes.

Wow - The Betrayal sounds good, and very frightening. Thanks for the detailed description of it.

Ah, first world problems...

I went back to work this week to start running the monster newsletter that goes out to all the students before school starts. Alas, I am lacking a part that needs replacing so the job is on hold until it comes in. I will certainly make sure I have everything on hand next year! Another 'problem' is that they are in the middle of wiring the school for wifi so there is no internet access. This also means I can't access the virtual drive where all my files are saved or my system printer. So, I'm back home on my own computer.

funny how those school 'improvements' don't actually get started until late in the summer ... hey we don't actually NEED doors to our school, lights in our classrooms, internet access (well maybe a bit more important to some than others but still) etc.

our school is in the process of issuing ipads to all 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. In anticipation of this event, all textbook replacement orders have been canceled ... of course, they won't actually get the ipads into the students hands until 2nd quarter ... so teachers will be expected to teach without texts for 10-12 weeks

but of course you nailed it ... it's a first world problem ... and a nice problem to have I suppose

Clif, no kidding. Making 2,000 copies of a 36-page (double sided) newsletter would be such a headache in 'the old days' before copiers printed both sides, collated, and stapled for me. All I have to do is feed in the sheets, make sure the paper drawers are full, and take out the finished sets once in a while. I was extremely concerned to make sure I would end the year with enough paper for the job but I completely blanked on checking the copier supplies. Luckily I started working early enough to account for any delays.

I have a real problem with putting such expensive technology in students' hands. I see how textbooks come back after a year. I shudder to imagine what kids can do with something like an ipad. If I was the instructor I would make them wash their hands before touching them. I've seen kids come in and use our computers with hands orange from artificially colored snacks. I cringe to think what else is on their hands. My school has a class set of Kindles loaded with novels for an English class for a test but they stay in the classroom - they do not go home! I haven't seen them after a year's use. I would be interested to see how they fared. I hate how the higher-ups make big changes like yours and then leave it to the teachers to make things work. How unfair! Good luck! I'll be interested to hear how things go.

What a fun way to start back to work - isn't that the way it always goes though? Best laid plans and all that. Hope you got to watch some of the soccer match. Enjoy your last little bit of free time before school starts.

Alas, Stacy, my free days seem to be at an end. I was called yesterday to help weed a sorely neglected elementary school library. They have money for new books and no room on the shelves. I wish I had that problem in my library.



Un Lun Dun by China Mièville (2007) ***½

In an unremarkable room, in a nondescript building, a man sat working on very non-nondescript theories.

While I can appreciate the brilliance displayed by Mièville with his world building and word play, I would have a very hard time deciding who to recommend this book to. As a library clerk, I not only read books for my own enjoyment but at the same time I am envisioning to whom I would steer this book and I can't really tell.

The protagonists are 12 years old which would make this book (unfortunately) unpalatable to a teen. The puns and play are quite sophisticated and would be over the head of a tweener. For instance, when the two girls land in the alternate city of UnLondon, one of them is given the nickname Shwazzy which they eventually discover derives from the French word 'choisi' which translates as 'chosen one'. How many American middle schoolers would know how choisi is pronounced? Or recognize that Sthame is an anagram of Thames?

So, would this book be appreciated by an adult? The pacing and nonstop action reminded my of the Rick Riordan series (written for middle schoolers). Since it goes for almost 500 pages, I found it a little tedious chasing up and down, in and out, back and forth. New concepts and new creatures on every page. However, it was not as hard to follow as Embassytown.

I did mark one page with the following. I love it.

"Wait . . . really?" the woman said excitedly. "You're a traveler? You came by storyladder? My goodness. It's been years since we've had an explorer. It's not an easy journey, after all. Still, you know what they say: 'All bookshelves lead to the Wordhoard Pit.' And here you are.
"I'm Magarita Staples." She bowed in her harness. "Extreme librarian. Bookaneer."

Yeah . . . Bookaneer . . . I like that!

Bookaneer.... that is awesome! I have Un Lun Dun waiting for me on the shelves and I will get to it at some point.

I liked Un Lun Dun, and even booktalked it to teens, but it's definitely a difficult sell.

Weeding the elementary school library sounds like fun. I'm one who actually enjoys weeding, and the tidier, more useful shelves that come as a result.

I spent the day feeding and caring for the copy machine turning out the newsletters. Until I ran out of toner. I really fell on my face with supplies. I was so concerned about the supply of paper, why oh why, didn't I think about the other stuff???

Lori, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

Foggi, So nice to hear from you! I saw the 75Book group reached an amazing number of members.
I try to keep my own library weeded and nice looking, recovering books to try and give them new life and losing books that are outdated and inappropriate. It's been a while since I've been in an elementary school library so I'll start with the 'Ugly Book Patrol' and go from there. I'll be working with another clerk so maybe I'll tackle the nonfiction books and leave the fiction to her. At least I won't be responsible for ordering new books. There I wouldn't know where to start.


The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill (2009) ****
Dr. Siri Paiboun #6

By the time the calendar pages had flipped around to 1978, Vientiane, the capital of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos, had become a dour place to live

Dr. Siri takes on a very rare beast in this episode, a serial killer. A very smart, calculating, brutally violent serial rapist/killer. His assistant, Dtui, and his new wife, Daeng, take this new crime very personally and help him. Also along for the ride are Siri's spirits who always manage to lead him to the solution.

I finished this book early this morning. Too early to go to the book store or the library but, hey, there's the Kindle. In no time I was on to the next book in the series. I will be very sorry to come to its end.

#174: For me, nonfiction is easiest to weed -- mostly because I don't usually have sentimental connections to nonfiction books. If it's old and/or ratty, out it goes. When it's a middle-grade novel, on the other hand, it can be harder to let go, especially if I know that behind that uninspiring cover lies a really great book. But even so, most of the books that turn up on weeding lists are ones that I know won't really be missed. (And, budget permitting and if they're still in print, I can order nice new copies of books that I truly hate to get rid of.)

Foggi, That's what I figure, too. If I ever finish running these newsletters I see what's going on. Supposedly they have money and need room on the shelves. It would be nice to know what kind of projects they do at the school to know what books they actually use. I think I'm meeting with the principal tomorrow so maybe I can get some idea of what they do. All I can remember from elementary school is animal and mission reports.


Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill (2011) ***
Dr. Siri Paiboun #8

You know? Being shut up in a cage with a live bear was a piece of cake compared to being drunk and high in charge of half-a-million dollars' worth of flying metal.

As this book opens, we hear the thoughts of an Air America pilot on his way to taking a poorly considered helicopter flight over the jungles of Laos in the middle of the night. Years later, Dr. Siri is 'invited' to accompany a group to locate where the helicopter crashed and find any remains of the pilot. Unfortunately the group is made up of party cronies who are only interested in sucking up to the American colonel and Time magazine reporter. The good doctor uses an ace from his sleeve to replace the party cronies with his own friends who would be more help and enjoy a break from the heat in the city by taking a trip to the cool mountains.

As with all of these books, we get a glimpse into the culture and history of this mysterious country. This time we learn about the CIA mission of dropping food and weapons to the Hmong who fought the communists. Anyone who has watched the Mel Gibson movie, Air America, is familiar with this 'private company' made up of action junkies who flew a crazy assortment of vehicles over the jungles of Laos.

Will Dr. Siri find the crash site? Was there more to the search than just closure for the family? As we come to expect, there is more to the story and our Lao friends discover some interesting stuff. I was not as fond of this book as the others. I think the American characters filled the roles of the ugly Americans quite well. Also, I will not trust the Amazon reviews any more which told me this was number 7 of the series so I missed one. That's what I get for being too lazy to turn on the computer and check with Library Thing, right? I will go back and fill in the blank.



Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (2012) ***
Sookie Stackhouse #12

It was hot as the six shades of Hell even this late in the evening, and I'd had a busy day at work. The last thing I wanted to do was to sit in a crowded bar to watch my cousin get naked.

Was this planned? Joe Magnaniello, who plays Alcide in the HBO series, True Blood, plays a male stripper in the summer movie, Magic Mike, and here the story opens with male strippers! It seems too much of an inside joke to be a coincidence. In any case...

Fans of the series will not be disappointed with this latest story. I definitely got the feeling that Sookie is getting fed up with her life and dealings with all the supernaturals in her life. I think this might be foretelling the end of the series.

Sookie gets possession of an item belonging to her grandmother which turns out to be extremely interesting to the vampires and fairies. Even the werewolves get involved in divesting Sookie of the item. In the middle of this, her best friend, Tara, gives birth to twins and her brother, Jason, becomes engaged.

Lots of action but not so much hanky-panky in this book but sets up well for the next (last) book of the series.

Un Lun Dun sounds intriguing. I've really enjoyed the other Mieville books I've read, so I plan to read this one eventually too.

Un Lun Dun is without a doubt the book I've gifted more than any other book - although not to any teenagers (there aren't that many around in my life currently), so I really don't know if it works as a YA. It works wonders on adults, that I know! :)

Eva, That's good to know! I'll try and get some of our teachers to read it. The English teachers would probably love the word play.

The List by Siobhan Vivian (2012)***

Abby Warner strolls around the ginkgo tree, one hand drifting lazily over the thick calluses of bark. A breeze nips at her legs, bare between the hem of her corduroy skirt and her ballet flats.

Let me start by saying, I am not a fan of chick lit. And this book hasn't gotten me to change my mind.

At the beginning of every year a list appears with the names of two girls in each grade, one the ugliest and another the prettiest. This story is how this list affects the eight girls up to the home coming dance.

There are surprises on the list. One girl who always considered herself a candidate for prettiest is named the ugliest (because she is on the inside). Another girl new to the school has been home schooled and is surprised by her instant popularity. Another girl resolves to not bathe or change her clothes until the dance in protest. Another girl (predictably) becomes anorexic.

I will book talk this book to its intended audience - high school girls. I can't see literate adults taking way very much from it.

My goodness! The end of another month. June and July were big reading months for me. My eyes feel like they're bugging out.

I. TBRs - 3 (still!)
II. YAs - 12 Full
III. Nonfiction - 3
IV. Bestsellers - 4
V. Classics - 2
VI. Door stops - 3
VII. Mysteries - 10
VIII. Non-American authors - 2
IX. ERs - 6
X. Uncomfortable reads - 4
XI. Books from series - 13 Full
XII. Overflow - 9

It was pretty much a month of Colin Cotterill since I was really enjoying his Dr. Siri series which takes place in Laos. I caught up on my ERs at least.

So great to just binge on a series you're really enjoying, isn't it. And Dr. Siri is definitely worth it! I have two more to go in the series and am looking forward to it.

Eva, I'm half way through #7 and I am sad there are no more. Hopefully there will be another published soon!



Sovereign by C.J. Sansom (2006) ***½
Matthew Shardlake #3

It was dark under the trees, only a little moonlight penetrating the half-bare branches.

If you are a fan of historical fiction, this series is for you. There is no shortage of misery in 16th century England. Cold, wet weather. Lousy food. Power struggles and intrigue to put others in peril.

Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer from London who was born with a brilliant mind and a hunchback. A few people recognize his talent but most dismiss it and focus on deriding him for his deformity. He has one friend and confidant, his assitant, Barak. His father has recently died and Matthew mourns that he has missed his opportunity to try and connect with him. Could it be that he can make up for it with a relationship with Brother Wrenne, a fellow lawyer.

In this episode, Shardlake is directed to go to York and bring a prisoner back to London. Broderick is accused of treason and the jailers in London have a finer touch with torture to extract information than those in York. He also will help Brother Wrenne go through the piles of petitions and arbitrate what they can and prepare the rest for the Chamberlain who will arrive with Henry VIII and his Progress. The Progress is made up of thousands of family, friends, and support traveling north to meet the king of Scotland in the city of York.

Shortly after his arrival, Shardlake discovers a glazier, who was removing stained glass from the cathedral's windows, had fallen or was pushed from his ladder and was impaled upon the glass he had removed. The glazier's final words give him the impression there is something more to this death and it leads him to papers which could put in doubt Henry's birthright.

This series is excellent historical fiction. It was fascinating to read about the strategies needed to travel with so many through England at that time. It often crossed my mind how much easier it is now with computers and cell phones to arrange for the travel of heads of state today. Readers of mystery series may miss the camaraderie that many favorite detectives have with family and friends that give our hero support and comfort. Shardlake pushes on without any such luxuries.

This is a series that has been on my radar for some time, and a couple of months ago I actually had the first book out from the library. Unfortunately I didn't get to it. It certainly seems very well liked by those that read it.

The Matthew Shardlake series is on my radar screen as well. I have book 4 in the series - purchased without knowing it was part of a series - and will get around to starting from the start at some point.

"There is no shortage of misery in 16th century England. Cold, wet weather. Lousy food. Power struggles and intrigue to put others in peril."

Sounds like this series would be a great winter read for me!

The third Matthew Shardlake is the next up for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Mamzel. I'm trying to space them out a bit so that I don't run out of them too quickly.

Judy & Lori - I think you'll enjoy the Shardlake series. The first one made the top 5 for my first half of the year easily. The second was definitely in my top 10.

Judy, Lori (xs two), Shardlake is an excellent series, well researched and interesting. Spreading them out is a good idea since they can be somewhat depressing. Shardlake is such a good guy but is such a horrible position at times it makes me sad. And, I don't know what 'potage' is but it doesn't sound appetizing and it seems that's all they ever eat! (from Wikipedia - a category of thick soups, stews, or porridges, in some of which meat and vegetables are boiled together with water until they form into a thick mush)

I'd stay away from any food that could rightly be described as "thick mush!" :) The series is on the wishlist, though!!

Eva, I agree!



Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill (2010) ****½
Dr. Siri Paiboun #7

I celebrate the dawn of my seventy-fourth birthday handcuffed to a lead pipe. I'd had something more traditional in mind: a few drinks with my new wife, some gay molum music on the record player, shellfish plucked fresh from the Mekhong. But here I am in Hades and not a balloon in sight.

I found this book the most tense and moving of the series. Dr. Siri finds himself in a Khmer Rouge prison in Kampuchea (Cambodia). Readers will realize that he has unknowingly landed in the middle of a genocide.

From the moment he and his friend, Civilai, landed in Phnom Penh, they are shadowed by armed men. They are whisked around from venue to venue following some script meant to impress them with communist efficiency. One evening Siri decides to talk a walk and finds a way to sneak out of the hotel and visit all the sites he had once visited with his first wife. He is devastated by what he finds.

He headed off across the untended grass and could see the roof of House Number Two in the distance. But when he reached the lawn of the national library he stopped cold. His sadness for a beautiful defiled city turned to a bitter acid in his gut. Strewn across the grass were the soggy remains of thousands of books. Tens of thousands. Some old tomes had been set alight and had melded together. Illustrated pages flapped in the breeze. Precious and priceless volumes providing mulch for the next generation of plants. He crouched and paid reverence to the victims of ignorance and wondered whether anyone else in this city had been able to mourn the death of culture. It was then that he believed it all. If Big Brother could destroy literature and history, he could destroy lives.

Wow.

Never Fall Down: A Novel by Patricia McCormick (2012) *****

At night in our town, it's music everywhere. Rich house. Poor house. Doesn't matter. Everyone has music.

So, back to school. A few books came in over the summer and I was looking through them when I came across this one. I am familiar with Patricia McCormick and her fantastic YA stories of child slavery, cutting, dealing with an addicted family member and now a story of a boy in Cambodia. As you can tell, I have been interested in southeast Asia thanks to Collin Cotterill so as I read the fly leaf, I got as far as the word Cambodia and knew I had to read this book. If I had read more I would have had the advance knowledge that it is based on the true story of one Arnchorn-Pond, known for his work for children in the middle of wars and conserving the music of his native country. If I had bothered to look at the blurbs on the back of the book, I would have seen the first one was by Archbishop Desmond Tutu!

As it was, I was quickly immersed in the story of this boy, 11 years old in the beginning, who was rounded up with all the members of his village, marched out to the country, separated into groups by gender and age, and forced to work in the rice fields. Always guarded by armed men in black pajamas, fed the slightest amount of rice (measured in grains), and suffering from starvation and diarrhea, he learned quickly that to survive he had to "never fall down", that to show any weakness meant death. How he came to survive this genocide by becoming a participant, escaping the country, and being adopted by an American is inspiring to say the least.

It is so far beyond me how such cruelty can exist and it is like a knife to my heart how it can be so casually directed to children. I would not be at all surprised if this book wins the National Book Award. My best read this year!

Never Fall Down sound like a great book!

Good to know Dr. Siri keeps getting better and better! Beautiful paragraph.

Lori, moving and disturbing. Not your average YA fluff!

Eva, I love how he equates books with civilization.



The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Lionel Giles (1910) ****

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

A pithy how-to manual on the proper way to wage war. How to treat the troops, read the terrain, and when is the best time to attack or not are some of the subjects addressed. There were no comments and sidebars in the Kindle version I read so it read very quickly. I decided to read this after seeing it referred to in Bacigalupi's latest YA book, The Drowned Cities. When book talking his book, I'll be able to pitch Sun Tzu's book.

I can definitely picture past and present military leaders reviewing his rules when planning. I kept in mind the recent attack on Ben Laden's compound.

Never Fall Down sounds like an excellent read. I've added it to my wishlist. Ever since I finished Geoffrey Ryman's The King's Last Song, I've been wanting to learn more about Cambodia.

Completing books is kind of hard right now since I am so busy at work these days and exhausted when I get home. On the good words from LTers I checked this collection from the library to give it a look see. In the meantime, I'm working on Railsea by Mièville and, *dun, dun, dun...*, Moby Dick.



The Sandman Vol. 1: Nocturnes and Preludes by Neil Gaiman (1991) ***½

I have heard so much about this comic book series that I thought I would give it a look. I checked this first volume out of the public library. It contains the first seven editions of the series and introduces us to many characters I'm sure recur.

The basic story is how Dream tries to get back the relics that provide him with his power to control the dreams of humans. He even goes as far as Hell itself to retrieve them (this was my favorite one as well). The artwork and imagination that went into these are stunning.

I may continue with the series if they are available at the library. They are haunting. Not for gentle souls.

I am at the same place as you are in this series, having only read the one. There is some talk of having a group read or thread dedicated to this series next year, so I am holding off to see what develops.

They are haunting. Not for gentle souls.

Like Judy (DeltaQueen50), I am gearing up for a possible group read or whatever gets set up next year.... I have even made sure to have room in my categories next year for this.

I've read the series several times before but am up for a group read/group next year

hope you enjoy moby dick and railsea, I have read moby dick earlier this year and railsea is on the list hopefully to get to this year too...

Maybe I'll join this group too, when it happens. Considering the original ones are over 20 years old, they have kept up with the times!

"Haunting" is a good word for the Sandman series! Good to hear you enjoyed - they are among my all-time favorites!

Attention everyone in the central and north California areas! There is a move afoot to try and have a meetup at the HUGE book sale held by the San Francisco Library Sept 20-23. I have gone to this for two years and it is a blast. It is held in the Festival Pavilion of Fort Mason. Here is the link to the book sale website: http://www.friendssfpl.org/?Big_Book_Sale
and this is a picture of the sale:



Over in the Green Dragon group is a thread about the meetup so please drop a line there if you think you might be able to visit.

That book sale looks amazing! I'm envious.

Wish I could go.

Wow... totally wish I could go. Too far away. Interesting review on The Art of War. I've been hearing about that book off & on for the last few years. Kind of like the general's version of The Prince.

wow that looks dangerous :-o

Psutto, No kidding! You use a shopping cart and they take plastic!!! You need a map to find your way around. Très fun!

Oh so envious!

perhaps its good that its oh so far away...

there is always next year...

August was not a big reading month as school started up again and kind of got in the way of reading. I'm also in the first quarter of Moby Dick but taking little side trips along the way. I still intend to finish Don Quixote.

I. TBR's - 3 (falling way behind on this challenge to my dismay)
II. YAs - 13 (a little over my limit but it's all for work)
III. Nonfiction - 3 (one on the way)
IV. Raves - 4
V. Classics - 3
VI. Doorstops - 4
VII. Mysteries - 12 (overflow in another category)
VIII. Non-American authors - 2 (really need to get something here)
IX. ERs and ARCs - 6
X. Uncomfortable reads - 5
XI. Continuation of series - 13 (that tells a lot about my reading)
XII. Miscellaneous and overflow - 10



Outstanding book of the month is Never Fall Down, a YA novel based on the life of Arnchorn-Pond who survived the Cambodian genocide known as the Killing Fields.

What kind of reader are you: The Hate Reader, the Chronological Reader, the Book-Buster, Delayed Onset Reader #1, Delayed Onset Reader #2, the Bookophile, the Anti-Reader, the Cross-Under, a Multi-Tasker, or the Sleepy Bedtime Reader? Find out here.

I think I fall mostly in the Bookophile category as I'm sure many other LTers do.

@ 211 -- Fun article! I would say I'm mostly a bookophile, but I also have some chronological reader and delayed onset reader #1 tendencies.

@211 - Loved the article - I am totally a Multi-Tasker! It is impossible for me to read just one book at a time and usually have three-five going to suit my mood.

I think I'm a delayed onset reader #1 and a bookophile with chronological tendencies, I'm usually a 1 book at a time kinda guy hence the delayed inset reader as I certainly buy books faster than I clear the TBR....

Definitely the "It's complicated" reader. I didn't really see myself in there at all - closest was the critic, but I don't love hating books! I just read with a critical eye, but I also honor how difficult it is to write... anything... at all. Even 50 Shades. Even Twilight. - & the All timer - compulsive - voracious with sometimes a bit of the conscientious reader, although I read far more fiction than non. Ya can learn from fiction too, ya know.

Fun article

I to fall in the "It's Complicated" category - I can be almost in any of those categories depending on the day, the mood, the books, the weather. :) Interesting article - I could identify those of my friends who clearly fall in a single category!