lycomayflower curls up with a good book in 2015

Welcome to my 2015 reading thread! Click here to go to my introduction post. (The photo above is of one of my "Tolkien shelves," though, as you can see, it contains some other things as well.)

This first post contains an on-going list of the books I've read this year, with the most recent reads at the top. Click on the book title to go to the book's post within the thread, where you will find a review. Numbers in parentheses are page counts for each book. You can also navigate from here to an on-going accounting of my goals for the year and to my most recent previous challenge thread.

Completed Reads

Key: LB = Library Book; SB = Shelf Book; NB = New Book; NB* = New Book Bought in the Tail End of Last Year; RG = Recent Gift; BB = Borrowed Book; RR = Reread; NUB = Newly Purchased Used Book; AUD = Audiobook

Total Pages: 9,492

38.) LB: Doll
37.) RR: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (309)
36.) LB: Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading (197)
35.) NB: Very Good Lives
34.) LB: The Princess Diaries (238)
33.) NB: Dangerous Books for Girls (188)
32.) SB: Call the Midwife (340)
31.) RG: Harry Potter and History (325)
30.) NB: By the Book (274)
29.) NB: The Rook (482)

28.) NB: The Fallen (262)
27.) NB: Drawn Together (360)
26.) NUB: I Feel Bad About My Neck (137)
25.) AUD: The Partly Cloudy Patriot
24.) BB: Arthur and Guen
23.) NB: Boy Meets Boy (185)
22.) AUD, SB: Persuasion
21.) NB: While We Were Watching Downton Abbey (354)
20.) NB: All the Light We Cannot See (530)

19.) NB: Reading Lolita in Tehran (347)
18.) NB: Shards of Honor (252)
17.) LB: Brown Girl Dreaming (328)
16.) SB: Pure Ducky Goodness (~100)
15.) NB: The Bookstore (334)
14.) LB: The Reading Promise (270)
13.) LB: The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (150)
12.) SB: The City & the City (312)

11.) NB: The Prince (407)
10.) NB: The Angel (410)
9.) NB: The Siren (425)
8.) NB: How to Be a Heroine (246)
7.) NB: Factory Man (408)

6.) AUD: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
5.) LB: A Companion to Wolves (302)
4.) NB: Investigating Farscape (236)
3.) NUB: Farscape: House of Cards (199)
2.) SB: Wild Strawberries (275)
1.) NB*: will grayson, will grayson (310)

Welcome to my intro/goals post! (I put it down here to keep my Completed Reads post nice and neat and clean and tidy. I like nice and neat and clean and tidy. *straightens something* *eyes mound of de-wrapped, un-put-away Christmas presents under the tree* *eyes the tree* *takes a deep breath and ignores it all for another day*)

I can't remember not being "a reader"--I've probably been reading 50+ books a year since I was old enough to do most of my reading on my own. I read (nearly) everything, though I skew strongly to fiction. My first inclination is toward literary fiction and books about books, but I read a fair smattering of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and classics as well. The only things I pretty much steer clear of completely are straight-up horror and nonfiction about politics or economics. (But never say never!) I'm in a book club at my local library (and I'm running it this year!) and am going to participate in the British Authors Challenge as best I can.

This year is my eighth year keeping track of my reading on LibraryThing (and the twenty-fourth year I've kept track of my reading in notebooks--yikes!). I tweak my goals every year, and this year I'm stripping things down to just those goals I think will help me be happy about my reading and curb the habits that annoy me.

*Read more
I'm sort of compulsively always trying to beat my "best" reading year (78 books), even though I know that sometimes life simply gets in the way and that sometimes I read more giant tomes and therefore fewer tomes total and that sometimes I really do just need to binge-watch some great TV program and that's okay. But. In 2014 in particular I was disappointed in my low numbers despite very acceptable reasons why they might be (we bought a house! it took forever! then we moved in! it took forever!), so I'm making a concerted effort this year to get more reading in. My plan for making this happen is two-fold: 1) No faffing about on the internet. Internet with purpose! Buzzfeed quizzes are never as interesting or satisfactory as a book. Never! 2) Sit up after Husbeast goes to bed and read for a bit. Husbeast goes to bed very early and reads, often for an hour or more. I go to bed and "read" with him--usually for about ten minutes before I fall asleep! (It's the lying down.)

*Read from My Shelves
Seriously this year. SER-I-OUS-LY. I hesitate to make a number goal, because then when I'm not on track for it, I get cross. But. *whispers* Twenty-four. In addition to reading from my own shelves in general, I'm shooting to read at least three books that were gifted to me at Christmas 2014 or Birthday 2015, as well as at least two that were gifted to me at any time in 2013 or 2012.

*Buy Fewer New Books/Only Buy Books New If I'm Going to Read Them Straight Away/Don't Buy Five New Books All At Once
I did better in 2014 with this than I sometimes do, but it's still out of control. We just don't have the space, and I get overwhelmed when it's time to choose something to read when I have 800+ unread books sitting around. I wouldn't mind so much if I read the new books coming in, so this year I'm going to try to focus on that side of it. Buy whatever you want, just so long as you read it! Hopefully that will curb the buying, and (if successful) it should reduce the number of unread books in the house. I'm also shooting to reduce buys at used book stores and sales. That's even harder. It's a long defeat, to be sure, but I'm redoubling the efforts this year.

Ideally (this will never happen, but call it my golden ratio, as it were), my reading year will look something like this:

Read ~25 books from my shelves
Read ~25 "set" books (from my book club and the British authors challenge)
Read ~25 books that are new or from the library

Below is a monthly accounting of my reading (because I like columns!).

ETA: I decided it makes more sense to post these monthly round-ups in my thread at the end of the month. So, at this point, nothing to see here! Move along. Move along.

Hi! Thanks for visiting my thread. I came by to drop a star. You've set some great goals. I'm rooting for you!

I love fantasy and hope to be reading some more classics in 2015 so I thought I'd star you and see what you get to this year. :)

Welcome back. Im very interested to see what you accomplish this year. Congrats on the new house by the way. I moved this year too. I am also impressed by your dragonlance collection. I have quite a few myself, most are not listed yet as I want to reread them before i add them on here.

Hi Laura! I love math almost as much as I love reading, so I'm rooting for you and the Golden Ratio. Last year, I bought more books than I read, so I'm with you on trying to read of my shelves. Here's to a great 2015!

>3 lycomayflower: Columns? You like columns? From whence cometh this predilection??

>8 laytonwoman3rd: Alls I know is I didn't lick it off the grass.

>9 lycomayflower: Ain't that the truth! You also did not get it from me, just in case anyone else is wondering.

Welcome back!

Good luck with those goals. They are ones that I struggle with, too. And I don't even have a husbeast.

Goodness! Visitors!

>4 sturlington: Thanks!

>5 Kassilem: Cool!

>6 xymon81: Thanks! The house was very, very worth it, but I sure had my doubts during the months of the buying process! The Dragonlance books are actually my husband's, so I can take credit only for the cataloging of them. I haven't read any of them, but I keep meaning to. Husbeast says I would quite like some of the early ones.

>7 porch_reader: It should be glorious, right? Reading from one's shelves? I mean, presumably all those books are there because I was excited enough about them to buy them at one point, right? *resists the lure of the bookstore*

>11 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>12 The_Hibernator: Thanks! They are tough goals--especially the not buying books one!

Happy New Thread!

Hi!
Stopping by to wish you a wonderful New Year full of good reading and accomplished goals!

Happy New Year, Laura!!

>14 foggidawn:, >15 xymon81:, >16 -Cee-:, >17 scaifea:: Thank you! I'm hoping to keep up better with threads and participate more on others' this year, and I hope you all come back here to visit throughout the year, too!

1.) will grayson will grayson, John Green and David Levithan *****

The story of two teenaged boys named Will Grayson, told in alternating first person chapters. Each Will Grayson is dealing with questions about friendships, relationships, and sexuality. Their chance meeting helps spur each of them toward better understanding of himself. Green and Levithan both handle voice brilliantly (each of them wrote the chapters about one of the Wills), and the interior emotional life of young men is tenderly but realistically rendered. All of the main characters leap off the page (Tiny Cooper, who I think is both someone we all probably knew in high school or college and someone unique and all his own, is unforgettable), and the climax, where the coincidence of the two Will Graysons meeting plays a part, is moving and perfect. Recommended unreservedly and most especially to anyone who wonders why adults should bother with YA.

Noted. Is that the same John Green who wrote The Fault in our Stars? His author page is a mess. He might know something about that identity thing with a name like that.

>20 laytonwoman3rd: Yep, same dude. He is also this guy, one of the Vlog Brothers.

>20 laytonwoman3rd: >21 lycomayflower: And he graduated from Kenyon College. Just sayin'.

>19 lycomayflower: very nice.

>22 scaifea: yup, he's rather an icon there and a fave of my two (Kenyon '15 and '18).

>22 scaifea:, >23 lauralkeet: I think I saw that on a bio page somewhere. He seems like a cool guy. I'm looking forward to reading more of his stuff.

So I'm not tracking books I put down unfinished this year, but I may occasionally remark on my "did not finish"es if I have anything to say beyond "got distracted" or "this just wasn't for me." Thusly:

DNF: Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 54/563

Picked this up hoping for a YA paranormal romance-y adventure-esque story, and I think that's where it was going. In fact, I think there may be a story in there that I would have been quite content to read if it hadn't been for execution problems. The book is rife with inconsistencies. I think of inconsistencies (in situations--like work--where I'm thinking in this kind of critical way about content) as falling into three groups: minor content issues, major content issues, and major minor content issues. Minor content issues should be fixed at some point in the editing and/or revising process, but they do little to disrupt any but the most precise and careful reader's enjoyment of the story if they do somehow make it into the final version. Sometimes they're even left in on purpose because they make the plot run a little smoother and everyone's hoping that no one will notice/care or that readers will give the story a pass because they recognize that the inconsistency or error is there to facilitate the storytelling. Major content issues are things like gaping plot holes that make the whole story fall apart. Major minor content issues are minor inconsistencies that don't rise to plot holes but which stick out like a sore thumb to readers and must be fixed to ensure that the story works and that readers don't get disgusted with the book despite maybe otherwise being interested in the story. Beautiful Creatures is full of major minor content issues. Characters do things "again" they never did a first time; character traits are referred to as if they are an ongoing point readers are very familiar with one minute and then introduced as if we've never heard of them before a few paragraphs later; a character whose name we've known for pages and pages and who lots of people have referred to by name is suddenly cast as someone whose name people are afraid to speak; events that we've never heard of or seen before are referred to casually; and so on. I was going to carry on a bit further, but a series of reviews on amazon suggests that I will not be happy if I do. So never mind. Bummed. This was precisely the kind of story I was in the mood for.

Happy New Year, Laura, and happy reading for 2015. I'm just awful at keeping up with threads so apologies in advance for my infrequent visits. Great intentions, lousy execution.

I love Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Tiny Cooper is one of my favorite characters ever!

>26 tiffin: No worries! It's the same with me.

>27 porch_reader: Yep. A fantastic, memorable character.

Today being Tolkien's birthday, and a toast being called for:

*stands. raises glass* The professor!

*raises tea mug* The Professor!

*raises latte* The Professor!

*raises water bottle* The Professor!

*raises invisible glass* The Professor! :)

>34 lycomayflower: I kind of love you for posting this. I follow Book Riot, but somehow only saw this on my phone and then lost it.

>35 scaifea: I live to serve. ;-) Glad to reconnect you with it.

2.) Wild Strawberries, Angela Thirkell ***1/2

A wealthy British family flits about in the summertime. There's a romance, what it is clear from the beginning how it will come out. The caricatures of types are deft and often laugh-out-loud funny--indeed, a number of passages are downright brilliant in their humor. The romance, despite its predictability, has some genuinely tender moments. I just sort of ran out of interest in the story before it was over--similar to the way I often run out of interest in Wodehouse's nonsense before he's quite done bringing it off.

>34 lycomayflower: I shared it with @Whisper1, who is a big fan of illustrated books.

>37 lycomayflower:: that's exactly how I feel about the 3 stooges.

>37 lycomayflower: yeah, that can happen to me with Thirkell too. Her books are a pleasant diversion, but they don't knock my socks off.

>39 tiffin: ew, I can't stand the three stooges.

>39 tiffin:, >40 lauralkeet: Yeah....not my favorites either. Doesn't help that my boss is distantly related to one of them.

>1 lycomayflower: Duh....when did you get the Tolkien translation of Beowulf, and did you read it, and can I borrow it?????

Will be joining you in trying to read off my shelves this year and also trying to not buy too many books! Glad to see you enjoyed will grayson, will grayson. It's been on my TBR for sometime so hopefully I'll get to it this year!

>38 laytonwoman3rd: Cool.

>39 tiffin:, >40 lauralkeet:, >41 laytonwoman3rd: I don't think I've ever actually seen any Three Stooges. Know about them, of course, but. So I shouldn't bother then?

>40 lauralkeet: When I'm in just the right mood, I enjoy Thirkell. I think with this one I was in that mood when I started, but it didn't last the length of the book! But, yeah, not socks-off material.

>41 laytonwoman3rd: You're kidding. As in, actually related? Shares bloodlines with?

>42 laytonwoman3rd: Dun remember, not yet, maaaaaybe.

>43 literary.feline: It's tough, isn't it!? Hope you enjoy will grayson, will grayson.

3.) Farscape: House of Cards, Keith R.A. DeCandido ****1/2

One of the few tie-in novels of the show Farscape and from what I gather, the only one worth reading. This one was a lot of fun. It read like an episode of the show, with the dialogue, characterizations, and world-building all feeling exactly right. The plot was interesting (it probably could have been one of the less arc-y episodes of the show, but for the probable expense of the sets that would have been necessary and a lengthy plot that would have required at least two episodes but not been important enough to warrant that in Farscape's format). Some nice minor insights into the characters, too. Definitely worth reading for any fans of the show for a fun little interlude.

>44 lycomayflower: Re: the boss...yes, one of the stooges was Larry Fine. And I've forgotten how it all goes, but he is a cousin of R's father, some way.

>46 laytonwoman3rd: *snork!* I thought that you were just poking fun of the guy! Now I feel bad...

>47 scaifea: Hee, hee. I thought she was too. But I don't feel bad.

I have not had a chance to read Will Grayson, Will Grayson yet although I have loved several of Green's other books. Like you, I gave up on Beautiful Creatures. Just not my cuppa.

Probably more than you want to know about Larry Fine.

I'm afraid to click on that link.

>51 tiffin: Oh, go ahead. He was really a fairly interesting man.

Funny how I love Monty Python but can't hack the 3 Stooges kind of slapstick.

Yay! Netflix isn't losing so many BBC shows after all!

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/netflix-keeping-doctor-who-luther-more-bbc-serie...

And a video about how to get rid of TBR guilt. Relevant to interests.

>55 lycomayflower: 200 unread books???? Amateur.

Agreed. That's bush league.

>56 laytonwoman3rd:, >57 scaifea: LOL. Now, now, you too. *ignores fact that I had the very same reaction*

4.) Investigating Farscape: Uncharted Territories of Sex and Science Fiction, Jes Battis ****1/2

For a critical work to succeed for me, it must do at least one of three things: make me understand the text and/or the theory used to explore the text in new ways, excite in me a desire to return to the text to explore it more fully, or affirm my own readings of the text. When I'm come over all academical, I'm most interested in the first of these; when I'm fannish, I'm probably most invested in the last. (And, honestly, if a critical work can't do at least the second, why are we even bothering?) Investigating Farscape did all three of these things at some point, and it never failed to get me intrigued to watch the whole series again. (To be completely fair, even having just finished it for the first time about two weeks ago, I was already super-psyched to go through the whole thing again. But still.) Battis clearly loves the show, which is refreshing (nothing worse than a critic who obviously hates the text in question, and I'm incredibly tired of scholars who feel like they can't be rigorous if they also appear to have *gasp* enjoyed something wholeheartedly), but he is not uncritical either, which is necessary for a work like this to be other than just a gush-fest. In addition to making some really interesting and insightful points about a range of topics (including masculinity, bodies, language, and colonialism), he writes really well (not a foregone conclusion for litcrit/cultural studies) and explains complicated theory succinctly and usefully. I think he sometimes overreaches (chapter four, in particular, makes some claims in service to his analysis that I'm not sure are held up by the text), but for the most part this is a fascinating and satisfying read. The discussion of masculinity was, for me, the high point (it hit number three in my requirements above hard and was full of "I see what you see/you see what I see" moments). My only real criticism is unfair: I wish Battis had discussed the show's religious symbolism fully, but as he made it clear that was never his intention, I guess I can't be too upset about it. Recommended to Farscape fans interested in a rigorous exploration of the show.

5.) A Companion to Wolves, Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear ****1/2

Fantasy novel with a medieval-esque, Northern Europe-y setting wherein every year a small number of boys in their early teens are tithed to a neighboring wolfheall, where they may be chosen to bond with one of the wolf pups from that year's litter. The bonded men and wolves form a pack who protect their neighboring villages from trolls marauding out of the mountains. The story follows Njall, the son of the jarl of Nithogsfjoll, who is tithed to the wolfheall against his father's wishes, as he bonds with a wolf pup, becomes part of the pack, and joins the pack in protecting the men of his world from the trolls. The story of the rising number of incursions from the trolls is interesting and well done, but the most compelling part of the novel is the exploration of "wolfness" and "pack sense" and how the politics of a pack of wolves and men work and shift. The story required some intense commitment early on order to get "in" to it, given that explanations are minimal and the naming systems were mostly unfamiliar to me, but the payoff was worth the confusion in the beginning.

Sidenote: This novel wins the prize from me for "Best Good Book with Horrible Tag Line": "what lengths will you to --for your honor and for the love of your wolf?" Honestly. Ug.

Loved that book :) I'm glad you did too. Second book is pretty good. I'm still waiting for the third book to be published though :/

>61 Kassilem: I immediately went looking for the sequel, and ended up having to order it as there isn't even one copy in our entire library system. Didn't realize there was a third book not out yet. Boo. I thought it was going to be a complete duology.

6.) Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: A Dramatization, novel by Douglas Adams, adaptation by Mike Stott ****

Technically not a book, I guess, as this wasn't a reading of the novel itself, but I think I can stretch the definition that far.

I haven't read the Dirk Gently books, but husbeast and I have watched the TV show, which I think I enjoyed more than this dramatization. It could just be that I was exposed to that characterization of Dirk first, and I think I like it a bit better. This was fun and funny, and the performances were great (Jim Carter does one of the parts, and my poor little brain was all "Carson?" for a second every time he came on.) Billy Boyd is particularly good as Macduff.

My cousin had her second baby about a month ago, and I wanted to share the blanket what I made and sent off to her (along with what I sent for her first baby, which I've been meaning to share for almost two years *headdesk*):

Latest baby blanket spread out:


And closer up:


Baby blanket for her first:


And detail:


And the giant thing I made the first time round when I was done early with the baby blanket:

>64 lycomayflower: Proof that I didn't teach you everything you know.

Great blankets!

>66 Kassilem: Thanks!

Aw, so cute! Love 'em. Crochet, right?

Because I haven't got enough to do *eyebrow*, I'm setting myself some new projects this year, the first of which is to really learn my new camera and keep a blog of any photos that are worth sharing. So, for anyone interested, my tumblr o' photography: http://lycopicflower.tumblr.com/ (pics so far are old ones not taken with my shiny new camera but with my phone).

>68 scaifea: Yep, crochet! I had to speak sternly with myself about not keeping that yellow one for myself (with which to do what, I don't know), but it came out so sunshiney!

*impressed*

I don't know how to crochet.

On the photography front: I highly recommend The Unforgettable Photograph. It doesn't drone on about technical stuff, which makes me cross-eyed, and instead gives all sorts of fantastic tips on other ways to get a great shot. I feel like my photography has gotten much better since reading it (and I still don't know all the fancy technical stuff, really).

>71 scaifea: Wishlisted! Thanks for the rec!

>69 lycomayflower: MORE proof that I didn't teach you everything you know. Although I did once have a fairly good eye for composition myself.

>72 lycomayflower: Welcome!

Nice crochet work!

LOVE the horrible tag line!!!

The baby blankets are so lovely. I have have two handmade blankets given to us when our daughter was born, and I have a scratchy ancient one, beautifully knit, that was for my husband when HE was born. (I was one of a cast of thousands, any blanket was used to shreds....). Anyway, I treasure them and the thoughts and warm wishes that went into the making of them.

Love your Tolkien shelf topper. I have a bookcase (tall and narrow and quaint) filled with them too!

Just dropping by to add a star. Saw you on scaifea's 75 and then noticed that we share many books.

>63 lycomayflower: You should definitely read the Dirk Gently books. Not as good as Hitchhiker, IMHO, but still worth it. I also enjoyed the TV show.

>75 lauralkeet: Thanks!

>76 sibylline: Thanks! I hope my crocheting will stand up to the years and that if my wee cousins don't sill have theres years from now it's not because my stitches fell apart!

>77 rretzler: Yep, Dirk Gently's on the ol' TBR. Some day.

7.) Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local, and Helped Save an American Town, Beth Macy ***

If I did my ratings based on some sort of objective evaluation of the quality of a book, this would probably be a four-plus-star read, but I rate based on my reading experience and this just utterly failed to float my canoe. The book does what it says on the tin, giving a history of the Bassett family and their furniture business, providing a biography of John Bassett III, and outlining how he kept the business going as Americans increasingly bought cheaper furniture made in Asia. I probably would have been all about a twenty-page magazine article on this subject, but 400+ pages deadened any interest I had in it. Beth Macy writes well and gives the facts a decent narrative thrust, but I just couldn't get stuck in. Even the fact that most of the important stuff in the book happened within one hundred miles of where I'm sitting didn't help. I ended up skimming. Even so, recommended to people who like biography and nonfiction about business and/or economics.

***For Book Club

8.) How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I've Learned from Reading Too Much, Samantha Ellis ****1/2

In her literary memoir, Ellis revisits the literary heroines who have meant so much to her, recounts what was going on in her life when she first read about them, and examines what they mean to her now. This is one of my favorite kinds of books, and How to Be a Heroine was a delight. The discussion of the heroines was fun, enlightening, and made me want to read or reread most of the books Ellis discussed, and her insights into her own life felt relevant in a personal essay way. Recommended.

9.) The Siren, Tiffany Reisz ****

What to call this? Character-driven erotic romance? Fifty Shades of Grey for readers who recognize a sentence when they see one? (Too harsh?) Whevs: it was a good story.

Nora is a dominatrix and a writer of erotica, and she's famous for both (in different, if slightly overlapping, circles). Her latest book is of a more literary bent, and it's been picked up by a New York publishing house hoping to hit the sweet spot between sophisticated fiction and best seller. However, Zach, the editor assigned to the project, is less than enthused. He concedes there might be something to the book, but challenges Nora to rewrite the whole thing under his direction, hoping this will scare her off. It doesn't; things ensue.

Sounds like a romance plot, and it is . . . but it also isn't. The Siren is what it is but also displays a pretty sophisticated understanding of what it is and plays around with it. It's hard to tell sometimes who the hero is--Zach or Nora--because the novel is fully interested in the emotional life of each. The story doesn't really follow the romance formula (things might work out as you expect them to, but not as you would expect them to in a romance novel), and the novel is much more invested in what makes its characters tick than in getting them together. The BDSM is there because it's important to the characters and to understanding them, and Reisz gets that BDSM doesn't equal abuse (a memo E.L. James seems to have missed). If most romance fiction answers the question "Will they/how will they get together?" The Siren seems more interested in exploring "Will they/how will they be okay?"

Not for everyone, I'd wager, what with its graphic sex scenes and unflinching portrayal of BDSM, but at heart a satisfying story about love.

10.) The Angel, Tiffany Reisz ***1/2

The sequel to The Siren. Not as compelling or as interestingly crafted, but still an entertaining and emotionally smart read. Soren doesn't sit quite right with me as a character--everything he does feels slightly "wait? what?" without ever reading as over the top. I don't know if this is me just not "getting" him or if he hasn't been well developed, but this reaction made the Soren sections of the book hard going for me. It would help to see some more of what makes him tick, I think. He's a devout Catholic priest in a long-term, sado-masochistic relationship with a woman--I don't find that particularly shocking or implausible, but it is a situation full of contradiction and potential internal conflict, none of which do we get to see. The story starts at a point where he's already made his peace with those contradictions, but not knowing anything about that process turns him into a giant question mark of a character. The rest of the book felt like it was on more solid ground, and given that it deals with a (legally able to consent) teenager and his much older lovers, it's clear Reisz can handle emotionally complex character stuff. I intend to carry on with the series, and I hope Soren becomes less unsatisfyingly enigmatic, because he's super important to the other characters in the books.

Whew! I am caught up on threads! We were away for a week early in the month, and I got crazy behind--I had a mess of threads with well over one hundred unread messages. Now to stay caught up . . . .

This morning I've also straightened up the house, vacuumed the upstairs (seven rooms! I remember now why I've been doing it a room at a time here and there) and the stairs, cleaned the stairs of road salt residue (this may have been pointless, as we are getting another round of schnee today and there will probably just be more salt all over the stairs tomorrow), cleaned up the kitchen, taken care of cat boxes, and edited fifteen pages of a manuscript for work. That's what I call a morning! Yesterday I took a "do nothing and recharge day." I'm stoked it worked.

Now to settle in with a book.

Looks like the ambition bug hit both of us this morning. I'm tearing "my room" apart from stem to stern. Found FOUR dingle balls under the pine cabinet...there's a small mystery solved!

I am so very verklempt at the passing of Leonard Nimoy.

Yup, me too.

11.) The Prince, Tiffany Reisz ****

The third in Reisz's Original Sinners series. We learn more about Soren and about his past in this one, and finally, his character starts to make more sense. The structure of this addition is a bit odd, with three story lines going at once (Soren and Kingsley in the past, Soren and Kingsley in the present, and Nora and Wes in the present). They are each interesting in their own right (though the story in the past is by far the most compelling), and they do eventually all link up, but the transitions among them all felt a bit "meanwhile, back at the ranch" much of the time. There's a wee bit of intrigue involved in the Nora/Wes story, and that was fun, if not at all difficult to sort out. There's a cliffhanger ending that results from the (very) slow revving up of the threat to all the principles that's been rumbling since book two. Cliffhangers make me super cross, but this one hasn't put me off queuing up book four in my TBR.

February Round-Up! (And January, because I totally never bothered at the end of last month. =p)

January:

Books read: 6
Books bought: 6
New books read: 3
Shelf books read: 1
Book Club book: The Beekeeper's Apprentice, a reread that I DNF this time around.
British Authors Challenge book: DNF Perfect Happiness, Penelope Lively

Content Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 2
POC: 0
CNMO*: 0
Disabilities: 0
Mental Illness: 1

Author Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 2
POC: 0
CNMO*: 0
Male: 4
Female: 2
N=/=BCD**: 0

February:

Books read: 5
Books bought: 6
New books read: 5
Shelf books read: 0
Book Club book: Factory Man
British Authors Challenge book: Non

Content Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 3
POC: 1
CNMO*: 3
Disabilities: 0
Mental Illness: 0

Author Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 3
POC: 0
CNMO*: 4
Male: 0
Female: 4
N=/=BCD**: 1

*Culture/Subculture Not My Own
**Nationality Not of British Colonial Descent, e.g. not USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, or Australia unless from a distinct native, aboriginal, or ethnic group

12.) The City & the City, China Mieville ***1/2

Somewhere in eastern Europe in a world that appears to be essentially our own is a city which is "cross-hatched":
two cities occupy the same space, and each functions on its own with "breaches" between the two marked as forbidden and carrying strict penalties. A detective from one of the cities discovers that the case he's working on most likely involves a Breach--the woman was almost certainly killed in the other city and dumped in his. The investigation leads him to ask questions about the nature of his world.

Meh. The premise here intrigued me greatly and Mieville occasionally hits you with a just gorgeous sentence, but for the most part, the writing seemed a bit choppy and the promises of the premise were never quite delivered. The novel is both and neither a detective story and science fiction, and the tension between the genres never felt useful or revealing. The solution to the mystery no longer seemed terribly relevant by the time we got to it, what with all the intrigue about a possible third city and hints at revelations about the world. And those revelations never materialized; that coupled with spare world building made the story less than satisfying as science fiction.

I'm tentatively interested in reading more by Mieville since The City & the City did interest me in some ways, but I'm not getting what makes this one work.

***For Book Club

13.) The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, Alan Jacobs ***1/2

Does what it says on the tin. Enjoyable and produced head-nodding as Jacobs lines up with my general feeling about reading these days: read what you want; never feel guilty about what you like; push yourself outside your comfort zone occasionally; don't waste time on books that do nothing for you. The book is a good, if not wholly memorable, exploration of that kind of thinking about reading. Worthwhile but not revelatory.

>90 lycomayflower: Yup, I enjoyed that one too. Most especially because he sticks his tongue out at Harold Bloom, and, of course, because he validates the way I read.

>89 lycomayflower: Nothing there changes my mind...don't think this one is for me, eh?

14.) The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, Alice Ozma ***1/2

I was expecting this to be a memoir of reading where it really was more a memoir of childhood with a father who read to the author a lot. It was good as the latter, but I never quite got over my disappointment that it wasn't the former. What was important, mostly, seemed to be that Ozma's father read to her and that they shared their love of stories (and, hey, super important message about the power of reading to children there, sure), but I was constantly itching for more about what they were reading and how the stories themselves affected their lives. Highly readable and enjoyable, but missed the mark a bit.

Hope you find a better than average 3.5 star soon :)

*whew* Finally caught up. I too took a week off (in early February) and have been going through threads with hip waders on. I was verklempt about Leonard Nimoy. It was like saying goodbye to a part of my youth. I liked The City and the City and usually like Miéville, although sometimes he misses for me (didn't connect with Perdido Station. Those are good baby blankets. I got some given to me when the lads were born and they were too open and loopy to be of any use. The ones you made will actually provide warmth and comfort. And if Alan Jacobs really does poke his tongue out at Harold Bloom, I must read that one. (I threw a Bloom book across the room once in grad school, calling him a pompous arse.)

>93 Kassilem: Thanks. It has been a bit of a stretch of ho-hummers.

>94 tiffin: Thanks re: the baby blankets! I think I will give Miéville another go sometime. It felt like I might like other things he's done better.

>92 lycomayflower: Oh, I've read a few like that. The boy who loved books springs to mind.

15.) The Bookstore, Deborah Meyler ****

Esme moves from England to New York to attend graduate school in art history at Columbia. She ends up pregnant by her significantly older (and much richer) boyfriend and must decide how to proceed with life given this unexpected development. The bookstore of the title is The Owl, an independent used bookstore where she takes a job and begins to find a family.

I passed this one up a few times thinking it was probably the sort of chick lit that I might enjoy a bit but wouldn't find terribly satisfying. When I finally did succumb, I found something much more substantive than I was expecting. Meyler explores the emotional realities of Esme's situation with a fair amount of depth, and Esme finds no easy, pat solutions. Esme was a compelling character, and so many of her observations and fears were familiar to me that reading about her was one of those joyful experiences full of "me too!" moments. The book is not without its flaws, not least of which is the character of Esme's boyfriend, who it is beyond me how she ever fell in love with or how the reader is ever meant to empathize with him in any way. He's described as kind of a privileged jerk who never-the-less is charming and somehow likeable. I have kind of a weak spot for that kind of fictional character, especially if there's some super-tragi-sad reason why said character is a jerk, so if this dude was charming, I would have liked him. I hated him. And what's worse, I couldn't figure out why Esme loved him. This bothered me throughout the book because it felt like a flaw in the crafting of the story--it's cool if I hate him, but I should get why the heroine doesn't. Thankfully, he was off-page much of the time. Worthwhile for the study of Esme, despite the perplexing boyfriend character.

16.) Pure Ducky Goodness, Dave Kellett ****1/2

I feel like this must be a reread (how would a comics collection come into the house and not get read?), but I only remembered about half of the strips, so maybe not. The Sheldon strip is hilarious, and this first collection is great. It reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes without feeling derivative.

You haz a Sheldon book??? Must share.

17.) Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson ****1/2

I shied away from this one at first because verse, but so many people recommended it so highly that I decided to give it a go. It is wonderful. Each poem is like a perfect image of a memory. Lovely.

>100 lycomayflower: Yay! And it's free verse, so you can just ignore it. But "perfect image of a memory"....yeah, that's it.

>101 laytonwoman3rd: And it's free verse, so you can just ignore it. I was able to resist the BB until you wrote that. Onto the long, long list goes Brown Girl Dreaming.

>100 lycomayflower: yay! Another fan. I loved that book, and I usually don't "get" poetry.

Oh, I'm so glad that you liked Brown Girl Dreaming!

>101 laytonwoman3rd:, >103 lauralkeet:, >104 scaifea: See, with ladies like you all having loved it, I never could have resisted!

>102 Familyhistorian: Hope you like it. It really was excellent.

Finished up a scarf for mom the other week but forgot to take a picture. But I talked her into a selfie featuring it, so:

The always excellent LW3, looking smashing in a lycomayflower exclusive:

The proper adjective is "FINE", apparently! (Little inside joke there.)

>107 laytonwoman3rd: Hehe.

Nice! Is that knit, or crochet?

Lovely scarf, Laura - well done!

>109 lauralkeet: Thanks! It is crochet. I can knit (well enough to do a scarf anyway!), but I've always preferred crochet, somehow.

>110 scaifea: Thanks!

18.) Shards of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold ***1/2

In this early Vorkosigan novel, I enjoyed the characters and many of the situations they found themselves in, though I sometimes had a hard time following the ins and outs of the political situations. I often felt like I was missing something. But it was an entertaining read, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

19.) Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi ***

A memoir of Nafisi's time as a university professor and later a kind of private teacher of a select group of dedicated students in late-20th century Iran. Important and reaffirming about the ways literature can be an aid to survival in difficult times, though also a testament to in what ways it is not enough. After about the halfway point, I really had to push myself to keep going, not because of the subject matter--though one could hardly read this book without being affected by those details--but because I found the narrative hard to follow and the discussion of reading and books too little and too far between. I sometimes read for pages and pages without seeing any connection to the literature purportedly informing a section of the book. This I could have dismissed (many books about reading become more books about life, and that is fine and fitting), but the other confusion was really hard to push through. I kept losing sense of where we were in time, of how certain events related to others, of who was who. I also keenly felt my lack of knowledge about the recent history of Iran, which I'll say is my fault, but it still seems like some more contextualization of political events might have enriched the memoir. Reservedly recommended, as I think this falls into a category of books that should probably be read despite any flaws.

Monthly Round-Up!

March:

Books read: 8
Books bought: 9
New books read: 3
Shelf books read: 2
Book Club book: The City & the City
British Authors Challenge book: The City & the City

Content Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 1
POC: 2
CNMO*: 1
Disabilities: 0
Mental Illness: 1

Author Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 1
POC: 2
CNMO*: 1
Male: 3
Female: 5
N=/=BCD**: 1

*Culture/Subculture Not My Own
**Nationality Not of British Colonial Descent, e.g. not USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, or Australia unless from a distinct native, aboriginal, or ethnic group

"Books read: 8
New books read: 3
Shelf books read: 2"

So where did the other three come from?

>115 laytonwoman3rd: The library, goober-fu.

Meant to include this in the round-up, but here is my pile of active reads at the mo:

Oooh, I love Currently Reading book piles!
Maeve is a also a nice, comfy read, eh?
And I'm interested in hearing what you think of Harry Potter and History (although it looks like you're not too far into it yet).

>118 scaifea: Maeve Binchy was one of my go-to authors for get-lost-in-it comfy reads when I was a teenager. I've gotten a little impatient with her later books now (not quite enough story), but Light a Penny Candle so far is really hitting that same spot I remember from when I was a teen. The history and Harry book seems promising so far, but you're right, I'm hardly past the introduction yet.

>113 lycomayflower: I read the Nafisi years and years ago but remember having some of the same feelings of confusion for the same reasons as you described. I attributed it to my general lack of background knowledge, and agree it would have been helpful if the book provided more context.

>119 lycomayflower: I remember being in San Diego at a conference, all by myself in a city I didn't know and sick with a nasty cold/bronchitis, stumbling into a bookstore and buying The Copper Beech, going to a gorgeous park, sitting in the sunshine and reading all day. Very comforting.

20.) All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr ****

This story of a teenaged German soldier and a blind French girl during WWII is beautifully written, and the structure is expertly crafted. I was pulled right through the book by the smooth sentences and quick, almost imagistic chapters. However, while the stories of the two main characters (and a few other characters as well) eventually intertwined neatly, I was left wondering a bit what the point of the story was. What did the novel add to our understanding of WWII? In the absence of deeply compelling characters (the characters were well drawn, but I never felt much for them) or a rip-roaring plot, it seems a book like this should teach us something or affirm something. I never had that moment. I just felt a bit let down and unsatisfied in the end, which is a shame since the book had so much else going for it.

***For Book Club.

>120 lauralkeet: Oh, good. I'm glad it's not just me!

>121 scaifea: That sounds lovely.

21.) While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, Wendy Wax ***1/2

A chick-lit-ish story about three very different women who all live in the same building in Atlanta and become friends through a series of screenings of Downton Abbey arranged by their building's concierge. Each of the women has a problem to overcome, which they do with the help of their new friends throughout the course of the book. A pleasant read with a few truly affecting scenes, but ultimately definitely a light read. I was also a little disappointed that Downton Abbey didn't figure a little more specifically into the story. The women really could have been watching anything--the particulars of DA didn't really have any bearings on the friendships formed or the problems solved. Perhaps this was an intellectual property rights impossibility, but I think the story would have been better for more interworkings between this story and DA.

22.) Persuasion, Jane Austen, read by Nadia May

The reading for this audiobook was very well done, but unfortunately I found it really hard to follow Austen's prose while driving. My comprehension probably fell to about seventy percent. I had a general idea of what happened in this one (I did read it once long ago), so not all was lost. But if I want more Austen on audio, I think I'll have to try listening while I'm doing something that requires less of my concentration than driving. Or, maybe one (like Pride and Prejudice) that I know really well already.

Lookit! I'm reading your thread! And posting!

>122 lycomayflower: I think you've convinced me that I do not need to read All the Light We Cannot See, but that if I'm stuck somewhere and it's the only book available, it won't be a bad way to pass the time.

>125 lycomayflower: I find it almost impossible to concentrate on anything on audio when driving on the highway. If I listen in that situation, it has to be a book I know well already. (And even then I can end up somewhere I don't belong...)

23.) Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan ****

A YA novel in which two openly gay boys fall in love and run into normal rom-com-y obstacles to their relationship. Fun, funny, touching, and written in a smart, compelling voice. While this is a rewarding, entertaining read on the surface, it is probably most remarkable and most interesting because of what it is: a story which treats the teenaged romance between two boys as no different than a teenaged romance between a boy and a girl. Levithan creates an idealized town for his setting where homosexuality is universally accepted and embraced, and this ideal sharply points out the prejudices and injustices of the real world while creating a counterpoint within the novel for the prejudices the characters encounter outside their inclusive town. Recommended.

LOVE that book :)

24.) Arthur and Guen, Jon Koons ***

A children's picture book about a meeting between Arthur and Gueneviere when they were children. Decent story, though it falls a bit flat. Nice illustrations. Really only read it as a curiosity because the author shares a name with my dad.

>128 Kassilem: It was pretty great.

>129 lycomayflower: Think Dad should make the guy change his name?

>131 laytonwoman3rd: Nah. He's doing okay by it.

25.) The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowell, read by the author ****

I always thought maybe Sarah Vowell wouldn't suit me, but I quite enjoyed this audiobook of The Partly Cloudy Patriot, a series of essays about politics, history, pop culture, and the points where the three intersect. At first I found Vowell's delivery of her own work a little annoying, but eventually I got into the swing of it and thought the way she read it really added something to the material. She made me laugh out loud repeatedly. I have a Vowell around somewhere in print form, and I don't think it's this title, so I should have some more of her stuff to look forward to.

There may or may not have been a good deal of bookerteering while I was up north visiting friends and family. I can neither confirm nor deny that these three piles of books leaped into my arms and made their way home with me. If these were books about which I had any knowledge, the pile on the left would have come from my trip to New York during which a friend and I visited the homes of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and West Point, the middle pile would be scores on the cheap (the Goodwill, the Friends of the Library Shelf, a used bookstore), and the pile on the right would be things purchased at regular ol' bookstores like B&N and BAM.



ETA: Scratch that orange Iris Murdoch from the middle pile. I borried that from LW3. She'll be over here yelling at me for trying to appropriate her books for keepsies now.

>126 laytonwoman3rd: Welp, now All the Light We Cannot See has won the Pulitzer for fiction. I just don't get what's so great about it, I guess. It just didn't resonate with me.

>134 lycomayflower: So, the idea of keeping most of those squirrelled away in the trunk of your car for a while was abandoned, then?

>135 lycomayflower: I know...and so many people who have reviewed it seem to feel the same as you-- "OK story, not great literature."

>136 laytonwoman3rd: Nah. Husbeast knows about me by now.

I see a few in there that are on my list. By the way Everyday by David Levithan is a fantastic book! I hope you like it. :)

>134 lycomayflower: I can neither confirm nor deny that these three piles of books leaped into my arms and made their way home with me. I have that same problem especially when I visit new places, unfortunately I usually have to stuff my book hauls into a suitcase so I am more limited. Not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. Those look like inviting piles.

Oooh, lovely book piles!

Okay, how much of a contrarian am I that the more I hear people grumble about the Pulitzer winner, the more I want to read it? Or is the proper term 'ignoramus'?

>138 Kassilem: I'm looking forward to it. I've enjoyed what I've read by him so much so far.

>139 Familyhistorian: I'm not sure what makes the Barnes and Noble so enticing just because it's in a different town, but I just can't resist. To be fair to myself, I guess, it did have appreciably different stock than ours at home.

>140 scaifea: LOL. I'm like that too. It's the "oh yeah?" reflex I think.

26.) I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron ***1/2

Essays about being a woman and growing older. Some of these were hilarious ("I Hate My Purse" had me gigglesnorting to myself throughout), some were interesting, and some didn't hold my attention terribly strongly. A pleasant way to pass a few hours.

27.) Drawn Together, Z.A. Maxfield ***1/2

Rory Delaplaines travels to a con to meet a comics artist whom he's infatuated with. When he gets there and discovers that the artist he thought was a she is really a he, he begins to learn things about his sexuality and his ability to love. As Roy and the artist, Ran Yamane, get to know one another, an unhinged stalker from Yamane's past shows up, attacks Yamane, and threatens Rory and his family. Roy and Yamane take a road trip to try to hide from the stalker, and on the way they must sort out what they mean to each other.

One must suspend one's disbelief fairly often in the story (a famous author had a stalker and he still entertains the notion of hanging out with a random infatuated stranger? A cop tells a stalking victim to go on the run?), but if one can manage it, there's an enjoyable, well-written story with heart under the handful of implausibilities. I enjoyed the beginning falling-for-each-other-against-all-odds stuff much more than the on-the-run road trip, but your mileage may vary.

28.) The Fallen, Thomas E. Sniegoski ***1/2

Supernatural YA with angels, fallen and otherwise, as the supernaturals du jour. Starts out with a familiar premise: ordinary teenager starts noticing something's odd, gets told he's not so ordinary after all, doesn't believe it, and eventually does when something big makes him do so. I'm cool with that premise; I knew that was what I was getting when I picked up the book. But somehow I just never quite got hooked into the story. I like the set-up with the angels killing off the Nephilim as they reach maturity because they think that's what God wants and a prophecy saying that one of the Nephilim will bring the fallen angels back into the fold. But I dunno. I felt like this book, even though short, took too long to get things moving. And none of the characters do a super lot for me. Since I do like this kind of thing (and I've been wanting an angels story (instead of vampires or werewolves or sommat)) and it was written well and the set-up is promising (and since I already have book two because omnibus edition), I will probably read the next installment and see if things pick up for me.

*sings* Behind on reviews, behind on reviews. Doot doot doodle do.

But first! April Round-up!

April:

Books read: 9
Books bought: 16
New books read: 7
Shelf books read: 1
Book Club book: All the Light We Cannot See
British Authors Challenge book: Negatory, Batman

Content Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 1
POC: 1
CNMO*: 0
Disabilities: 1
Mental Illness: 0

Author Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 1
POC: 0
CNMO*: 0
Male: 4
Female: 5
N=/=BCD**: 0

*Culture/Subculture Not My Own
**Nationality Not of British Colonial Descent, e.g. not USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, or Australia unless from a distinct native, aboriginal, or ethnic group

Active Reads Book Pile:

29.) The Rook, Daniel O'Malley ***1/2

Myfanwy Thomas wakes up with no memory of who she is and a letter in her pocket instructing her to choose to take a bunch of money and run or stay put and try to take over the job she had before the attack of amnesia. The job? Administrator in a secret society that polices the supernatural population in Britain. She opts to stay put.

The resulting novel is humorous, inventive, and fast-paced, and focuses on Myfanwy's growth into a new person and the concept of memory just as much as on the plotty supernatural stuff. The story is also remarkable for focusing on multiple female characters and their interactions with one another, something that is often lacking in books of this genre.

Several members of my book club loved this, and a few of the women who usually don't like sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction said they enjoyed this much more than other things of this genre they've read. I feel like I should have enjoyed the book more than I did. I had nothing against it, no particular complaints, or bugaboos, or dislikes. I dunno. It just didn't roll my socks.

*** For Book Club

30.) By the Book, Scarlett Parrish ***

When sexually adventurous Reece finds himself increasingly drawn to Daniel, the third in a menage a trois with his girlfriend, he tries to find a way to be in a relationship with both of them. Georgia, his girlfriend, is not about it, and Reece is forced to choose between them.

The developing-relationship stuff between Reece and Daniel is done very well, but the end just fizzles out. Reece is in a super difficult situation--loving two people but unable to have them both--and the story either is unequal to the task of exploring that situation or is unwilling to, so it pretty much takes the decision out of Reece's hands and just drops him into one of the character's laps. Spoiler: having spent way more time developing the relationship between Reece and Daniel than showing the relationship between Reece and Georgia, it would have been fairly ridiculous and unsatisfying to end the story with Reece and Georgia staying together, but instead of getting soul searching and hard choices, we get girlfriend ex machina, where Georgia says I won't have you anymore and Reece ends up with Daniel by default. A shame, really, because if the end had been better, this would have been a quite nice read.

>146 lycomayflower: But you gotta love the name....Myfanwy. The Welsh are so....consonanty.

>148 laytonwoman3rd: Hehe. Indeed.

>148 laytonwoman3rd: >149 lycomayflower: Myfanwy. The Welsh are so....consonanty Ah, but in Welsh 'y' is a vowel. So it's not as consonanty as it looks!

It's sometimes a vowel in English, too, of course...but it never looks like one!

31.) Harry Potter and History, edited by Nancy R. Reagin ***1/2

This anthology of essays about history and Harry Potter is, as such things usually are, hit and miss. Many of the essays seek to explore something about history in tandem to the same topic in Harry Potter (the way government works, for instance, or the historical (Muggle) treatment of witches), and these pieces, for me, were the least interesting. They basically took an element of the world of Harry Potter and then explored a relevant history topic inspired by that element. These essays might be fascinating to someone interested in that particular history topic, but I wasn't, for the most part. A handful of the pieces, however, did a better job of making the historical discussion relevant to the reading and interpretation of Harry Potter itself. These I found interesting and compelling. My favorites were "Severus Snape and the Standard Book of Spells: Ancient Tongues in the Wizarding World," about Rowling's use of ancient languages in the books; "School Ties, House Points, and Quidditch: Hogwarts as a British Boarding School," which does what it says on the tin; and "Hermione Raised Her Hand Again: Wizards Writing History," which discusses the way Harry, Ron, and Hermione often have to become historians to solve the problems of their world, questioning the histories that have been told to them, seeking out primary sources, and reinterpreting what they know about the past. I, clearly, liked best the essays which inched back toward literary criticism along with the history, so your mileage may vary.

32.) Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth ****

This first volume in the memoir that the BBC TV series of this name is based on is a fascinating, well-told read, though the incidents relayed will be very familiar to anyone who has watched the show. The memoir is perhaps a bit more detailed, though the show certainly gets most of the particulars of life, midwifery, and 1950s medicine in. The series and the book organize material differently, and therein probably lies the biggest difference between this source material and the television produced from it: the TV series is a story with a social conscience revolving around characters while the memoir is anecdotal social history less concerned with "what will happen next." In particular, it focuses less on the personal lives of the midwives. I suspect reading the book(s) first and then watching the show would be the more rewarding activity rather than watching and then reading (the show feels a bit like it fleshes out and invitalizes what is already on the page), but the book still has much to offer if one's already watched. Worth tells the stories compellingly, explains things well, and is particularly good at demonstrating how naive or misguided her younger self was without sounding dismissive or self-deprecatory. Recommended.

33.) Dangerous Books for Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained, Maya Rodale ****

With a title like that, you know what I'm going to say. Does what it says on the tin! Rodale discusses, with research (her own and others') and anecdotal evidence from romance writers and readers, the origins of the romance genre, the ways the genre has been marginalized and snarked at, what readers are really getting out of romances versus what non-romance readers think they are getting out of them, and why all this is important. A fascinating (if sometimes editorially uneven) read which gets at a lot of interesting stuff about feminism, female sexuality, and women's emotional lives while also explaining some of the history of the genre. Recommended for romance enthusiasts, anyone wondering how anyone could possibly be a romance enthusiast, and most especially for anyone who likes romances and thinks they shouldn't or wants to check out some romances and thinks they shouldn't.

>154 lycomayflower: You got me with a BB for Dangerous Books for Girls. Personally I like reading romance but feel guilty about it because it seems that there is a stigma attached. It would be interesting to know why.

#34 has been posted. Just sayin'...

>156 laytonwoman3rd: You wretch. Go binge watch a TV show or something.

>155 Familyhistorian: I'm the same way. Rodale's book offered some interesting thoughts on the subject.

It was an excellent day of browsing at the local library. The red one standing up was a purchase from the Friends shelf; the rest are borrows. There will be judicious use of the renewal option, I imagine.

Read the Jesse Stone first!

Ernest Newman translated the 2 volume Schweitzer biography of Bach your father has had forever.

Looks like me when I go to the library too. I always go out with an arm full :) Happy Reading!

Oooh, nice book stack!

>159 lycomayflower: Very nice. I see you picked up The Child Thief. A pretty good book, I just finished it recently myself.

34.) The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot * * * 1/2

A fun YA where ordinary fourteen-year-old Mia Thermopolis learns that she is a princess in a small European principality. At first this knowledge just makes her life harder, giving her one more thing to worry about on top of stress over flunking algebra, worrying that no boy will ever ask her out, and dealing with the mean girl at school. But eventually the things she learns as her grandmother helps her learn to "be" a princess also help her with her ordinary teen problems too. I thought the particulars of the princessness could have been more fleshed out, especially given that that was the premise, but the story was nice anyway. The book is full of pop culture references, and I wonder what a kid reading it today would make of them (it was published in 2000). Some of them made me stop and think now, fifteen years on, and I was the perfect age to have been aware of all of them at the time.

Just who do you envision needing the caregiving manual for, Hmmm? And...also....35.

>165 laytonwoman3rd:. Wretch.

... that's a novel.

>166 lycomayflower: Am not.
..... Ahhhh, I see.

>163 xymon81: I've been on the lookout for The Child Thief because of your review, in fact!

>162 scaifea: Thanks! I hope I persevere with them. I have a bad (?) habit of checking books out of the library and never getting to them.

>161 Kassilem: Thanks! I love being able to just scurry off with whatever strikes me!

>160 laytonwoman3rd: Jesse may have to get in line behind other things due earlier, but I started the Sidney Chambers (one of those what has to go back soon) last night and it's not grabbing me at all, so maybe Jesse will get bumped up. Oh HO, Mr. Newman is known to us already, eh? Cool. I'm even more pleased then that I snagged it.

Just. Read. Jesse. It will take you two hours.

>168 lycomayflower: Im glad my review inspired you. I plan on picking up another of his books next time I do a library run.

35.) Very Good Lives, J.K. Rowling ****

This is the text of the commencement speech Rowling gave at Harvard in 2008, accompanied by not very interesting line drawings. The speech is thoughtful and inspiring (the discussion of failure is particularly good and important), and I can see myself reading it repeatedly over the years--which is why I bought it. While it is a pretty wonderful speech, it is a bit overpriced here, though the compensation is that proceeds go to Rowling's charity Lumos and to financial aid programs at Harvard. Recommended to Rowling completists, those who find Rowling's worldview inspiring, and anyone looking for a substantive (if short) "wisdom book" in which to slip a check for a graduation gift.

" Recommended to Rowling completists, those who find Rowling's worldview inspiring, and anyone looking for a substantive (if short) "wisdom book" in which to slip a check for a graduation gift" and to those who are trying to pad their numbers to keep up with their mother...

Look here, Mrs. Reads Dirty Picture Books About Birds, just hush up.

Lol!!

>171 lycomayflower: Oooh, I think I need that. And had I known of it earlier, I would have purchased it for a friend's son, who is graduating from high school next week. Instead, I bought him The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, which will do just find, however, I think.

>172 laytonwoman3rd: - >173 lycomayflower: *snork!*

>175 scaifea: >172 laytonwoman3rd: laytonwoman3rd: - >173 lycomayflower: lycomayflower: *snork!* - I agree!

>171 lycomayflower: like Amber, I coulda bought that one recently. Oh well!!

36.) Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading, Maureen Corrigan ****

Professor, NPR book critic, and bibliophile Maureen Corrigan discusses the books that have been important to her, dividing her choices into three categories: women's extreme-adventure stories, stories about work (including interesting considerations of detective novels), and Catholic martyr stories. Corrigan's discussions are fascinating and insightful, and she discusses how these books informed her life well. Recommended to anyone who enjoys books about books or the reading life.

37.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling ****

Every time I reread the HP series, I say next time I'm just going to read my two or three favorites, but then I end up wanting to read the thing in its entirety. Been feeling pulled to the series a lot lately, so here we go!

HP1 is one of the (if not the) most straight-up magical entries in the series, with the world building and details just bowling me over, always. But it's also one of my least favorites of the seven in terms of plot; it's quite episodic, which format makes me impatient wherever I encounter it, and the first half of the book (the terrible but compelling details of Harry's situation at the Dursleys', the excitement of getting the letter, the wonder of Diagon Alley and then of Hogwarts itself) is much more interesting than the "adventure bit" with The Trio trying to stop the villain from villaining. I enjoy rereading it though, especially if I can read it quickly (just over twenty-four hours from picking it up to finishing it, this go around--much better than spooling it out just a few chapters at a time over a week or more). I also read the hardback (we have hardbacks of HP1--a fluke of secondhand availability in mid-1999 when I first wanted to try the series--and HP7--because of course--and I'm treating myself to a full set of hardbacks for this reread) instead of the paperback, and that gave the whole thing a little sense of freshness.

As I go through my reread, I likely won't have a lot new to say of a review-y nature since I've read these all so many times before, but I might do some bullet-point lists of Things I Noticed This Time. Some of these will probably be in the manner of plot holes, but I'm less interested in nitpicking than in investigating world building, how things slot together, where the weave isn't perfect, and what neat little details we can think about that aren't explicitly discussed in the text. This is a bit tangentially spoilery below.

--The Hogwarts Express: I love the Hogwarts Express. What a neat, neat idea, and the structural opportunity to create a division between the Muggle world and the wizarding world (a moment to shift gears in the imagination, if you will, or a passage into the magical world) is important, I think, to the storytelling. But the impracticality of it bothers me a bit. Do the Hogwarts students who live in, say, Manchester (or for that matter John o'Groats or Hogsmeade (there must be some)) travel all the way to London just to spend the whole afternoon then riding back north again to get to school? There have to be some parents who, at year five or six (or nine or ten or eleven, depending on how many kids they have) of doing this are just like, "Blast this bloody trip every year. We're just side-along apparating to Hogsmeade this time and walking you up to the gates."

--Hagrid's attitude during the detention for Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Draco: I don't think I've ever quite noticed this exactly before, but H and H are in detention because they saved Hagrid's butt getting his stupid dragon out of the grounds. And he never so much as mutters "sorry" at them or winks or anything. He's actually kind of stern and all "you messed up; time for comeuppance." Granted, that's largely aimed at Draco, and Hagrid has no reason at this point to trust or feel particularly protective toward Neville, but this bit clanged just a bit to me this time through.

--How long it takes Dumbledore to get back from the ministry: What did he do, stop at Madame Malkin's for some of those wooly socks no one bothered to get him for Christmas? He's gone all afternoon and into the night. Given what's going on, even before he knows the summons is bogus, wouldn't he hustle his stumps to minimize how long he was away from Hogwarts? If he flew to London, I buy it takes him this long, but why would he? Wouldn't he go down to Hogsmeade, disapparate to outside the ministry, then apparate back to Hogsmeade after he knew he wasn't actually wanted in London? This should take, with the walking at the destinations and the sorting out who was supposed to want him and that they didn't, what, an hour? Was he cooling his heels to give Harry more of a chance to test himself? If so, man, Dumby is even more devious in his scheming and Harry-training than he otherwise appears.

Oookay, I just noticed that HP1 was my 37th read last year too. Weeeird. Although last year, read thirty-seven came in October. O_O

I love your re-read comments on Harry, Laura. And how funny that it's #37 again! And WooHoo on being months ahead of last year!!

Yeah. Whoo. Hooo. *pouts in the corner*

I enjoyed your re-read comments. I'm not likely to re-read the series so your insights are a fun way to revisit it.

Oh, btw, I enjoyed your comments on HP 1, too. I've probably read it for the last time, although I may revisit others in the series for the third or fourth time someday.

38.) Doll, vol. 1, Mitsukazu Mihara ***

The first volume in a manga series telling short stories about a world where extremely life-like A.I. "dolls" are available for purchase. The stories explore various emotional entanglements and issues arising from human interaction with quasi-human machines. A couple of the stories packed a punch, but for the most part this just wasn't my cuppa.

I mentioned earlier that I was treating myself to a set of the hardcovers of the Harry Potter series for my reread. And they came today! I am so excited, it's really kind of crazy as I already have all of these (in tattered, ratty paperbacks, mostly). But they are so pretty all lined up in their wee cardboard "Hogwarts trunk." Lookee!

The box that was inside the box it shipped in, all packaged from Scholastic.


The "trunk" for storing the books in. (I have no idea where this is going to live in the house.)


The books themselves. So pretty.


A set of stickers that came with for decorating the trunk. (I'm probably not going to do this; what if I changed my mind about which ones to put where?!)


I'm thrilled with this. My copies of HP1 were from the days when the US editions used US spellings of things like "Mom" instead of the Brit "Mum." This edition has the original spellings! So happy. Such geekery.

*Mum shakes her head in fond amazement*

>181 scaifea: Thanks! I'm excited by my numbers this year. I should actually hit 75, unless some horrible slump hits. *spits*

>182 laytonwoman3rd: You'll surpass me again, Mum. You always do.

>183 lauralkeet:, >184 laytonwoman3rd: Glad you enjoyed my ramblings.

>187 laytonwoman3rd: This isn't amazement at my buying them all again, is it? Mrs. Faulkner Shelf?

*blinks* You talkin' to ME?

Oh wow I loooove those editions especially the trunk!!

>186 lycomayflower: Ooooh! *sigh*

>186 lycomayflower: My wife bought hardcovers as they were first published in the US. (Our son got her paperback British editions of three of the books.) All of the really fat volumes are now in pieces. "Perfect" binding sucks; bring back Smythe-sown binding! My sister-in-law bought the complete set a couple or three years ago. Don't know if her set is in a trunk or not. Anyway, I think that's a cool package.

Hmmm...that is nice. But I don't want to hear anything about too many watches. Ha.

>193 FlamingRabbit: OMG, the rabbit speaks!

No, no, see. Books is different. ;-)

>189 laytonwoman3rd: Maaaaybe.

>190 lauralkeet: Are they not just exquisite though?

>191 scaifea: If that is a wistful sigh, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at the relative inexpensiveness of this set (at amazon). Definitely a good way to go if you're interested in having the hardcovers (and don't already). A good savings over buying them individually.

>192 weird_O: Oh, yes, sewn bindings much preferred. Alas.

>193 FlamingRabbit: Aaaand, the rabbit fades into the woodwork again.

May round-up! (As it is unlikely I will finish anything new before the end of the day.)

May:

Books read: 10
Books bought: 17 (?) I'm not keeping good track of this by the month.
New books read: 4
Shelf books read: 1
Book Club book: The Rook
British Authors Challenge book: Nein.

Content Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 1
POC: 2
CNMO*: 3
Disabilities: 0
Mental Illness: 0

Author Diversity:
QUILTBAG: 0
POC: 1
CNMO*: 1
Male: 1
Female: 8
N=/=BCD**: 1

*Culture/Subculture Not My Own
**Nationality Not of British Colonial Descent, e.g. not USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, or Australia unless from a distinct native, aboriginal, or ethnic group

Active Reads Book Pile:

>196 lycomayflower: Interesting May reading. Who was The Professor and the Madman about and was it any good?

I'm over at the watch forum.

Great books!

>195 lycomayflower: Well, here's the thing: I *do* already have a full set of hardcovers, plus a full set of audio (the Stephen Fry version, of course). But...but...um...Charlie needs his own set, dontcha think?

>197 Familyhistorian: The pile is books I'm reading currently, so I don't have much to say about The Professor and the Madman yet. It's about James Murray (prof) and W.C. Minor ("madman") and the creation of the OED. I should finish it in the next day or so.

>198 FlamingRabbit: But of course.

>199 Kassilem: Thanks!

>200 scaifea: Of course Charlie should have his own set. :-) This is probably a good one, if you are going to get him one. The trunk is neat (it is cardboard, though sturdy cardboard, so it might require some small amount of care to keep it nice, but it doesn't strike me as flimsy). Those S. Fry HP audiobooks are on my radar. I've heard snippets, and it sounds like he does an excellent job with them.

Come join me at my new thread!