f_ing_kangaroo tries to keep track of 75

I’ve been on librarything for a few years but this is my first year actively participating in the forums. I’ve tried to keep track of my reading before without being entirely successful.

My main goals for the year are to:
- Get a little more variety in my reading
- Re-read more books from my shelves
- Make a dent in clearing out all of the library sale books (lots of romance and YA in that lot) that I've acquired that are probably bad but couldn't be passed up at 50 cents apiece







The Breakdown So Far:
Re-Reads: 6/70
Borrowed (Library and Otherwise): 15/70
From the Unread Stacks: 34/70

Acquired this year: 25/70
- Bought New: 6/70
- Gifted/Used/Mooched/Provided for Review: 13/70

January:
1. Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling*
2. A Field Guide To Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann
4. What I Did For Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips*
5. Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb
6. Talk Me Down by Victoria Dahl
7. To Have And To Hold by Patricia Gaffney
8. A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore
9. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
10. The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

February:
11. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett*
She's No Angel by Leslie Kelly
12. The Inferno by Mike Carey
13. Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase
14. The Wizard Test by Hilari Bell
15. Proposition Player by Bill Willingham
16. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
17. Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
18. Dirty Sexy Knitting by Christie Ridgway
19. Hot Dish by Connie Brockway
20. Delicate Creatures by J. Michael Straczynski
21. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
And Then He Kissed Me by Patti Berg
22. Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham
23. Jack of Fables Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham*
24. Jack of Fables Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts by Bill Willingham
25. Jack of Fables Vol. 3: The Bad Prince by Bill Willingham
26. Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume*
27. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
28. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

March:
29. Loyalty In Death by J. D. Robb
30. Judgment in Death by J. D. Robb
31. Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
32. The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie
33. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle
34. Princess Mia (Princess Diaries IX) by Meg Cabot*
35. The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game by Michael Lewis
36. The Time Of The Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones
Bride Enchanted by Edith Layton
Female Intelligence by Jane Heller
Perfect Together by Lisa Plumley
37. Jack of Fables Vol. 4: Americana by Bill Willingham
38. Jack of Fables Vol. 5: Turning Pages by Bill Willingham
39. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
40.The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
41. Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Books of War by Bill Willingham
42. Fables Vol 13: The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
43. Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
44. Born in Fire by Nora Roberts
45. Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
46. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
47. Something About You by Julie James
48. Polly and the Pirates Vol. 1 by Ted Naifeh

April:
49. The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
50. The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer
Sweet Liar by Jude Devereaux
51. Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk
52. Teen Idol by Meg Cabot
53. The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’Neal
54. Mary Anne Saves The Day (BSC Graphix) by Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier
55. Young Avengers Vol. 1: Sidekicks by Allan Heinberg
56. Girls' Night In by Various Authors
57. Changes (Dresden Files #12) by Jim Butcher
58. Someone to Love by Kasey Michaels
Come Again by Josie Lloyd and Emilyn Reese
59. Sweet Dreams at the Goodnight Motel by Curtiss Ann Matlock
The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
60. Coffee & Kung Fu by Karen Brichoux
61. All That Matters by Stef Ann Holm
62. Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase

May:
63. A Little Ray of Sunshine by Lani Diane Rich
64. Jinx by Brian Michael Bendis
65. Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
66. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
67. Acceptance by Susan Coll
68. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
69. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
70. Maybe Baby by Lani Diane Rich
71. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley*
72. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
73. Jinx by Meg Cabot (Audiobook Version)
74. Runaway by Meg Cabot
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon
75. Operation Sunshine by Jenny Colgan

Key:
* is for rereads
bold is for favorites
strikethrough is for DNFs

Welcome to the group!

Welcome!

I decided to re-read Harry Potters 6 & 7 because they're the only entries in the series I hadn't read more than once. Somehow, despite having just watched the latest movie and having been an emotional wreck at the end of every book since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I didn't think the ending of Half Blood Prince would be as devastating as it was the first time I read it. And I was wrong. I'm taking a break before picking Deathly Hallows up again and then putting the series to rest for a few years.

Quick thoughts:



I was charmed at first but then really didn't care very much for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I loved Liza Palmer's new book A Field Guide To Burying Your Parents. I got a copy through Early Reviewers and am currently trying to come up with a review more substantial than "I loved it! It was great! The four-year old farting in the van really cracked me up!"

Hi, kangaroo. Glad to see someone else from the BOTS challenge. I joined this one to include all of the other books I read that I didn't already own.

Hey mamzel, good to see a familiar face. I'm loving the BOTS challenge. It's really ridiculous how much getting to add it to the list is motivating me to read those books.

Ok, getting caught up tonight on some write-ups before I finish book #8 tomorrow:



4. Reread Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ What I did For Love. It’s not my favorite, nor particularly original for SEP, but it’s reliably entertaining and I’ll eventually acquire my own copy and stop borrowing it from the library.

5. Finished Conspiracy in Death while suffering from a deathly plague my little brother spread around our entire household. I thought it was more of the same for the series and loved the scene where Roarke and Eve build snowmen.

6. After reading Talk Me Down, I think I’ll pass on Victoria Dahl’s books from now on. It was pretty much one extended unromantic sex scene from page one on. A lot of contemporary romance tends to be in this style, but it’s just not for me.

7. Finally got around to Patricia Gaffney’s To Have And To Hold which I’ve been meaning to read for a few years. It’s a bit controversial since the male lead is really unsympathetic and downright cruel for a significant portion of the book. However, I really liked how most actions aren’t seen as simply black and white from either of the leads and that Gaffney wasn’t afraid to let her characters say “I’m not entirely sure what that was or how I feel, but I’m gonna go with my gut here” on a number of different occasions.

Hope you are over the deadly plague! At least you got to read while you had it :)

>12 alcottacre: Yup, the plague passed through my whole family and has finally moved on.

And actually, reading probably made it worse but I was halfway through the book when it hit me and there was no way I was letting a stupid stomach virus get in my way. I am often far too stubborn for my own good.

#14: I am often far too stubborn for my own good.

Aren't we all?

8. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore



And I can knock another one off my Books Off The Shelf Challenge!

I borrowed this book from a friend so long ago that when I finally return it to her, I’m certain she won’t even have remembered I had it. But I have finally read it!

It's a humorous, and often pretty crass, paranormal about a man trying to deal with a new baby, suddenly being a peculiar version of "Death," and a looming apocalypse that is probably his fault.

It was a hard book for me to get into. I got through the first third thinking “how much of this do I have to read before I can cross it off as being read and chuck it?” But then the second third made me laugh quite a bit before things just got out of control and over the top and I was glad to be finished, but not necessarily in a bad way.

I liked it enough to not automatically chuck the other book of his I’ve got sitting in the TBR shelves, but not enough to actively seek out another of his books.

My favorite part of the book was easily the glow-in-the-dark cover that I didn't know about until I happened to walk down a dark stairwell with it in tow. It was a nice touch.

9. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen



This book was just delightful.

I recently read Garden Spells and liked it but found the story a little too familiar. This one was just great.

Then again, I might just love it because the heroine strongly resembles me physically (see also: Agnes and the Hitman), which doesn’t happen to me very often. We also share an intense love for the color red. Now, where’s my cute mailman?

Oh, I loved Agnes and the Hitman! I also love it when the heroine is more physically similar to me...for me, makes it much easier to get in their head and frame of mind.

Willowsmom, I just checked your profile and, I gotta say, I really love your "smut" tag.

saw your profile and I feel the same as you, just trying to figure out what I want to do....maybe it's because we're in our 20s?

congrats on so many books already!

Heh heh. Smut. Well, at least I'm honest...

#17: I have enjoyed both of Addison's books although I agree The Sugar Queen is the better of the two. I am glad to see that you liked them too, Tabs.

10. The Next Best thing by Kristan Higgins



Kristan Higgins writes contemporary romantic comedies set in New England. This was the fifth book of hers I’ve read and I had decided it would be the make or break book for me. I loved her first two romances, disliked her third so much I actually threw it at one point, and didn’t care much one way or the other for her fourth. If I didn’t like this one, Higgins was no longer on my automatically purchase list.

It was good. It was really good.

Lucy is a young widow of five years and has finally decided to get back into the swing of things and find someone she can be settle down and have kids with, but who won’t have the ability to wreck her when he inevitably dies on her. And her late husband’s brother, Ethan, definitely isn’t a contender. Except that they’re best friends and have been sleeping together regularly for a few years. And Ethan’s ready to take the kid gloves off and is not about to make walking away easy for her.

I want to say that it still doesn’t have quite the spark and natural ease of her first two books but it was definitely a step in the right direction.

Dammit Higgins, just when I’m about to break out, you pull me back in.

Just curious, which two of her books did you love? I'd rather start with those...

I loved Catch of the Day and really liked Fools Rush In.

Catch of the Day has a talkative diner owner that's pathetically infatuated with her priest but who ends up getting involved with an extremely curt and extremely surly fisherman.

Fools Rush In has a woman who finally has her life all nicely sorted out except for the perfect man. But she's had him picked out for years. Now she just has to get him.

I will give some of Higgins' books a try. They look good. Thanks for the recommendations, Tabs.

>20 AndreaBurke:: I don't know if it's just being in your twenties that causes career indecision but I've found that it's pretty common among the post-grads I know. Lots of them are already going back to school to try their hands at something entirely different than they first studied. My biggest problem is that I have such widely disparate interests that I can't seem to just pick something already.

>26 alcottacre:: I hope you like them. I find them to be a lot of fun.

11.The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett*



I mentioned this on another board recently as a suggestion for Pratchett newbies so it, of course, got lodged in my brain and demanded to be read again since it's been a few years.

Man, I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard while reading a book. And I like funny books!

Gosh, I love the Feegles so much. I even had my sister, who rarely agrees with me on anything at all, in stitches while reading out loud the bits where they dress up like baby birds and beat the stuffing out of Tiffany's nasty little cat. I'm pretty sure I didn't laugh this much the first time I read it, but I seemed to recall having had some trouble with their dialogue and often ridiculously long names the first time around.

Oh, Nac Mac Feegle... I'm gonna have to re-read the whole series for my full Feegle fill, aren't I?

Next Up: February's Goal is to work on clearing some unread books from my shelves starting with three graphic novels I've owned for four years and at least two more recently acquired cheap romance novels.

>28 f_ing_kangaroo:: I so hope he gets one more Tiffany Aching book out before he's done.

>Oh, I am sooooo with you there. I've been dying for "She Shall Wear Midnight" (or whatever he's going to call it) since I finished Wintersmith.

I first listened to The Wee Free Men on audio, and was constantly having to re-listen to any parts the Feegles were in because I was laughing waaay too hard to hear the narrator. I honestly think the guy really earned his money--no idea how he managed to read any of the book without incessantly breaking into laughs!

> Hah. Oh, geez. I would have failed miserably at that.

Successfully moved a book from my unread stacks to my trade/donate pile. I’m not counting it because I only made it 158 pages into She's no Angel before the bad metaphors, leaden exposition, and constantly having to yell “Why are you telling me about the crazy, incestuous geriatric threesome that happened in the last book, for the bazillionth time!?” forced me to give up. The protagonists weren’t too bad, but the rest of the book really was.

"incestuous geriatric threesome...

That's an image I don't need floating around in my head so I'll pass on that one.

#33: OK, I am so skipping that one! Thanks for the warning.

Unfortunately, I'm trying to make an effort this year to clean out the library sale and used bookstore piles I've accumulated so there are sure to be more crappy romances on the way. A part of me is actually really tempted to pull out the ones that look particularly bad so that I can get them over with faster. Hmmm....

#36: I need to do that too. I guess I ought to start reading a romance a week, then I can get rid of it if I do not like it. I do not think I could stand more than one a week at this point though.

12. The Inferno by Mike Carey



A graphic novel about a seemingly normal guy who gets murdered on his thirtieth birthday and ends up in hell, where everyone‘s out to get him because he was a vicious sorcerer in his last afterlife.

This had been sitting unread in my collection for about four years because a) I wasn’t familiar with the author, though a good friend of mine loves his Lucifer books, and b) even though I’m a big fan of Michael Gaydos’ artwork, I’m generally not keen on black and white illustrations.

This was a so-so book for me. I didn’t really come around on the harsh black and white art, especially when it made it really difficult to tell what was going on in panels with no dialogue. I thought the writing was fine but the story leaves you hanging for a continuing series that never materialized. I’ve got the Lucifer series in digital format around here somewhere, so I may still end up reading them one day.

ETA: Can't get the touchstones to work properly because of similar title with same author confusion.

13. Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase



I don’t have much to say about this one except that it was a forgettable, but fluffy and entertaining historical romance. Many people didn’t like the heroine, Francesca, which I could see because she could be a little trying sometimes. But I really like that Chases’s heroines, from the two works of hers I’ve now read, tend to be independent and prefer to be in control of their own destinies as much as possible. The fact that Francesca’s a high-class prostitute didn’t bother me at all.

#33: Hee. Sorry you had to read such a stinker, but...I'm glad you did, since your review cracked me up!

#38/39: I hope you get a good read in soon, Tabs. Your last few seem to have been disappointing.

>40 willowsmom:: Yeah, it really was a stinker. And I didn't even mention the bit I should have stopped at, where the hero (who is NOT a vampire, incidentally) gets turned on by some blood trickling down the heroine's raised leg from cuts on her feet. Nothing says "sexy" like scraped up feet.

>41 alcottacre:: Thanks Stasia, but the mediocre reads have been intentional. Well, except for Your Scandalous Ways, which I had neither high nor low hopes for. I’ve got plenty of good stuff to read but I’ve got some pretty good momentum going with clearing out the mediocre stuff from my shelves. I just finished up two that were pretty decent (Thank you, snowpocalypse!) and I’ve got When You Reach Me from the library and Jennifer Crusie's The Cinderella Deal lying in wait when I need a good fix.

I enjoyed When You Reach Me when I read it last year. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

14. The Wizard Test by Hillari Bell

This was a quick, short YA about a young boy struggling with issues of loyalty and honor. It was fun but brief, and I’d be interested in reading more from the author.

15. Proposition Player by Bill Willingham

A graphic novel I’ve had sitting on the shelf for three years. So far, it’s easily the best thing I’ve read off my “unread shelves” this month. The story revolves around a jerky poker player who, after a drunken night involving selling souls for beers, finds himself literally caught between heaven and hell with neither side playing fair. My overall thought was "Boy, I sure like Bill Willingham." Now I’m even more eager to get my hands on the latest Fables volumes.

#44: My daughter Catey read The Wizard Test last year. I will have to have a go at it myself.

#44: Willingham just put out a novel set in the Fables universe called Peter and Max: A Fables Novel...it was my favorite fiction book of January!

Oh, awesome. I had heard of it but the review or two I'd seen weren't stellar. Time to place another hold at the library...

Thanks. Added The Wizard Test to the stack.

>48 PamFamilyLibrary:: I hope you like it!

16. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I love time travel done well!

A great book. I don’t have much more to add to what everyone else has said about it except to share my otherwise completely unrelated favorite anecdote about time travel:

The most memorable moment from my time in graduate school is a meltdown one of my physics professors had while being heckled by a particularly obnoxious classmate of mine about how “time travel would be cool.” It went on for a while with the professor trying unsuccessfully to pit reasoned arguments against a brick wall until he started to turn a serious shade of crimson, couldn’t take it anymore, and just screamed “FINE! Then you go marry your own mother!” After a few moments of shocked silence, he just turned around and resumed his lecture like nothing had happened. It was memorably awesome and I can’t ever think about time travel without thinking of that outburst.

17. Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
I saw this picture book in the store the other day and had to buy it for my littlest brother’s 7th birthday. He finds underpants infinitely hilarious and it’s right at his current reading level. The rhyming could have been better and maybe a little cleverer at times but the illustrations and concept, in which dinosaurs become extinct because of their love of underpants, were great.

18. Dirty Sexy Knitting by Christie Ridgway
And here does another one for my swap pile. Not awful, but not good either. I wouldn’t recommend it.

I loved When You Reach Me when I read it last year so I am glad to see that it has found another fan.

19. Hot Dish by Connie Brockway

A hidden gem!

This book had one of the more misleading covers I’ve seen in quite awhile. It looks like a contemporary romance romp with a young beauty queen. It’s not. Both of the protagonists are around 40 years old and they spend most of the book trudging around snowy Minnesota in parkas. And it's not really a romance, either. The plot has lots more to do with blackmail, a sculpted head made out of butter a.k.a “the butter head,” incredibly incompetent thievery, and the heroine’s resentment of her home town than romance.

I’m actually not sure if the book is as entertaining as I recall or if I’m just biased because it kept going in the opposite direction of where I thought it was up to the very last page, and I really liked that. I am certain, though, that the constant use of the phrase “butter head” made me laugh. A lot. Also, having a somewhat goofy and relaxed male lead was really refreshing since the vast majority of romance males tend to be of the “suave dude” archetype.

I’ve already ordered one of the author’s historical romances from Bookmooch because all of the synopses look like great fun.

#52: I will have to look for that one. It looks fun! Thanks for the recommendation, Tabs.

You're welcome, Stasia!

20. Delicate Creatures by J. Michael Straczynski

And here’s another one where looks can be deceiving. It looks like a gorgeous children’s picture book but it definitely is not. It’s really a combination of faerie story and vengeance tale, which reminds me a bit of some of the short stories from 1001 Nights of Snowfall, but not exactly. This is an illustrated story rather than a graphic novel. The illustrations are beyond gorgeous and I thought the faerie aspects, especially the rhyming passages, were great.

#55: The cover is absolutely beautiful. You could make it a piece of art for your home, I swear.

I am going to have to start avoiding your thread, Tabs. Too dangerous for the BlackHole :)

Well, thanks! That's an excellent compliment!

And it really is as gorgeous on the inside as it is on the outside.

I am going to try and locate a copy so that I can see for myself. Unfortunately, my local library does not have that one.

Wow... added both your recent books to my TBR list! This is a dangerous thread!

Hi~
Had to check out the thread of someone called f_ing_kangaroo. =)

I was glad to see your post on The Wee Free Men and the comments it got. I want to read something of Terry Pratchett's for the "authors I've never read" category of my 75 challenge, and had no idea what to choose. Any other favorites in case that one's hard to find?

>16 f_ing_kangaroo:: Re: the other Christopher Moore book on your shelf - all his books make me laugh, but some do have more pages between laughs than others. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff for instance, is hysterical and brilliant. His vampire books are pretty much exactly like A Dirty Job. The others range somewhere in between.
(I loved that cover too - but it freaked me out when I first saw something glowing on my dresser one night and couldn't tell what it was without my glasses! =)

Love this thread. Added Delicate Creatures and 1001 Nights of Snowfall to my 'track down and read' list.

Well, geez, I didn't know my thread was so popular. :) Nice to see everybody!

#58 So, I saw your post and thought "yeah, I don't think it's something most libraries would carry" and then checked mine out of curiosity and there it was at one of the branches. My local library system is awesome.

#60 Thanks MadHatter, I like your username too!

For the Terry Pratchett, I would also recommend Guards! Guards! which is the first book in the sub-series following Sam Vimes and the City Watch and is my personal favorite Pratchett series. Also, I piped in recently on a thread, here, where someone else was asking where to start and a plethora of other suggestions came up.

For the Christopher Moore, I have heard really good things about Lamb so if I see it used somewhere, I will definitely pick it up. Fluke is the one I currently have sitting on my TBR shelves. And man, I'm actually really surprised the "freaking me out at night when I wasn't wearing my glasses" thing didn't actually happen to me, because it so easily could have. I can barely see shapes without my glasses.

#61 Good luck, Pam! I cannot recommend 1001 Nights of Snowfall enough. I really love that book. And the illustrations, of which there are many different styles, are all beautiful.

Your review of The Wee Free Men made me remember how much I loved this book. Thank you so much- your thread is really one that I remember!

On a side note- are you going to update the percentage count in the first post?

#63 Done! I was actually thinking yesterday "Ooh, I should update that now that the total's at an easily dividable number" but I did not do it.

Thanks for posting the Pratchett thread! I'm really excited to read something of his now after reading all that praise.

You're welcome, madhatter! Getting into Pratchett can sometimes be intimidating because of how ardent his fans are and the sheer number of books he's written. But it's worth it. And if you get stuck, there are lots of different gateways into his works to try.

Lots of updates!

The good news: I met my personal goal of “unread books” for the month with time to spare. Woo!

The bad news: I finally started trading some of my books on BookMooch and PaperBackSwap and acquired new ones so the net number of unread books has not changed at all.

But I am determined to get the stack under a hundred. Determined! Sadly, I’ve already tried to cheat and moved some to “Partially Read” and divided the unreads into “Saving For a Rainy Day” and “Awesome or Crap, Who knows?” piles so that I can make the number look smaller than it actually is but it didn’t help.

In other news:



21. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

I have been reading bits and pieces of this book for over two years and can finally put it to rest. It’s another solid Discworld entry, but not a personal favorite. It’s one of the earlier ones in the series, and I tend to find those too dense for my liking. I prefer the ones that hit the ground running and keep a breakneck pace the whole way.

I also don’t tend to like math and physics jokes. I know, it doesn’t make any sense. I love math. I just don’t find jokes about math funny. Well, unless XKCD is making them, then all bets are off.

22. Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham
23. Jack of Fables Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham
24. Jack of Fables Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts by Bill Willingham

I tend to play catch-up with the Fables series around this time every year. I pick up the most recent trades and gobble them up in one sitting.

I wanted to, but I really didn’t love The Dark Ages. It started off alright, but the middle section was surprisingly bad. And you don’t need to beware of spoilers because it wasn’t the plot that was the problem. It was the writing, it pains me to say. None of the characters seemed to be acting normal and the dialogue was bizarrely blunt. Anyway, I’m hoping the fact that everything seemed to return to normal in the last couple of chapters indicates that it was just a misstep and the series is still on track.

The next volume in the main series, Fables Vol.13: The Great Fables Crossover, intersects, obviously, with the Jack of Fables spin-off series so I thought it was as good a time as any to catch up with Jack’s misadventures before diving into that one.

Oh, Jack. My favorite aspect of the main series is how much I like so many of the characters and become desperate to see what happens next to them. The Jack spin-off doesn’t work like that. Jack’s concerns pretty much lie entirely with getting money and sex and dealing with, or if easier, running away from anything that gets in the way of those. For those new to it, the series also boasts lots of sex, violence, and profanity, third-wall breaking, zillions of obscure story characters I’m not at all familiar with, and evil sexy librarians who are trying to capture any and all fable characters they come across.

The first volume was a reread for me and the second volume was mostly new to me and I enjoyed them both. I’ve heard that this series has been hitting its stride recently, so I’m excited to catch up.

On the Jack of Fables series, I would definitely say that it improves greatly with age...I love love love Fables, but it really seemed to take a few issues for Jack to hit his stride. I still don't enjoy the series as much as Fables, but the secondary characters definitely polish it up a bit once they're more fully developed. (Don't want to give out any spoilers, but oh--Blue the Ox and the anti-Jack are my favorites by far...)

#69 Yeah, I agree. Jack definitely pales in comparison to the main series but more Fables, in any form really, is still more Fables... and there's nothing wrong with that.

I just finished Vol 3, where Blue and Wicked John are just starting to get developed and they're already interesting. Good to know they get even better.

Oh yeah...I wish Blue would get a series all his own. It would totally kick!

25. Jack of Fables Vol.3: The Bad Prince by Bill Willingham

This was another solid Jack entry. I don't have a lot of comments to make except that I loved the sword and the stone aspect of the story and am starting to get really interested in the Literals plot line. And now I'm probably going to give Jack a little break until I can get my hands on the next three books all at the same time.

Well, I started early and embraced my inner child this week. And I say started early because one of my target goals for March is the stack of the children’s classics I’ve been hoarding and not reading.

26. Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

I entered a charity bookshop the other day and once I saw it, I just couldn’t leave without it. Before this, I hadn’t read this book in about 20 years, since when I was my own special brand of fourth grade nothing.

It’s just wonderful. It’s full of simple timeless anecdotes about what it feels like to be an older sibling. How it often feels like the whole world is against you, and your parents and everyone else love “the baby” more than you, and how the younger child always looking up to you can be exasperating.

And, my goodness is it funny. “You will eat it or you will wear it!” had me in stitches. And the last chapter is just brilliant. With Fudge’s persistent obsession with his older brother Peter’s pet turtle throughout the whole book, it’s obvious that something’s going to happen to the poor thing. But what Fudge does is still as hilarious and shocking to me as an adult as it was when I was child. I love this little book.

27. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

This was another one I expected to love and didn’t.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t spend the whole time while I was reading it with this incredibly infective 80’s movie theme song in my head, which I LOVED as a little kid, or that I don’t still plan to wear a fabulous Pippi costume for Halloween this year. I did and I do. I just don’t need to read any more in the series of Pippi books.

I think I just couldn’t tolerate Pippi’s absurdness. I just didn’t like her. I kept wanting to yell “Pippi! Sit in your fricking chair for once and stop messing with the circus!” and “Why!? Why must you tell these absurd tall tales all of the time and be rude to absolutely everyone on the planet except your two friends?” which is why I think this was just a clashing of personalities. Pippi and I are just not compatible.

Side Note: I tend to yell at books and characters in books quite a bit in my head. I really do.

28. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Oh, that was easily the best book I’ve read all year. All of the praise it gets is truly deserved. I picked it up in the morning and spent the whole snow day utterly riveted by it.

The only other thing I feel like noting is that I am apparently not the kind of person whose sleep is at all disturbed by violence and various dystopia-related horrors and injustices… but I am the kind of person who agonizes over potential teenaged love triangles to the point of distraction. Love triangles make me so upset! Someone always loses and then I feel bad!

I am going to try and exercise some restraint and not read the second book till the third comes out because if I’m a wuss for love triangles, I am an even bigger wuss for cliffhangers.

#74: I am glad you enjoyed The Hunger Games, Tabs. It was one of my top reads last year. I bought Catching Fire when it came out and it is sitting there patiently waiting on my nightstand for me to read it, because I am not touching that puppy until I have a copy of Mockinjay in hand!

Hi Tabatha. Just delurking to say The Hunger Games is already on my wishlist. Glad you enjoyed it!

Yup, I got all conflicted over the love triangle as well...they're both just such nice boys! So much easier when one turns out to be a meatwad.

Some February Stats:

Books Read Off My Shelves: 11
Books Added To My Shelves: 13

Net total of books cleared from the stacks: -2
Gah!!

And I did most of that damage in the last three days, too. The half price romance novels for the month of February promotion at a local charity bookshop really did me in.

Well, better luck this month. Since it worked well for February before I went on a shopping spree, here's my attempt to attack my shelves in an orderly fashion:

Unread Mini-Challenge Categories For March
1. Children's Books I Probably Should Have Read As A Child
2. Diana Wynne Jones Books I Somehow Own And Haven't Finished
3. More Romance Novels

Details, and lists of the books I get to choose from are over here.

Ooh, read Coraline and A Wrinkle in Time! And Dogsbody and Fire and Hemlock! ...but really, you can't go wrong with any of those choices. That;s the best kind of decision to have to make--choosing between good and equally good :).

Hah. Yeah, those definitely are the best kinds of choices to make.

I actually made it a third or so of the way through Dogsbody a few years ago and it was terrific, but the abuse themes upset me and I put it down. I'm gonna finish it this time, though.

29. Loyalty In Death by J.D. Robb
30. Judgment In Death by J.D. Robb

Whoops. I read two Eve Dallas books and somehow accidentally skipped book #10. My fool-proof system of giving the series its own shelf and removing them as I read them and pushing them over so that the next one’s always cued up has failed me. Well, technically, I failed it by picking the next book up off the shelf, putting it down somewhere else, forgetting about it, and then picking up the next one in sequence instead. Oh well, no harm done.

31. Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Ugh, I've been trying to write up this book for a whole day and getting nowhere so be forewarned that the following contains far too much hyperbole.

Glitter Baby is one of Susan Elizabeth Phillips' first novels and it shows. It's a train wreck fiasco of epic proportions and I very nearly bailed after ninety pages of boring monotony focusing entirely on the heroine's mother as an eighteen year-old. Thank goodness I didn’t though, because for all of the parts that dragged, were boring, or seriously creepy, there were twice as many parts that were magnificently over-the-top and entertaining as all hell.

It's an "everything plus the kitchen sink" book.

You want a framework of a sprawling drama about two shitty people doing shitty things, both to each other and everyone else around them, across decades all over both Europe and the United States? You’ve got it. How about making one of those people a crazy Russia aristocrat with a seriously creepy obsession with his pseudo daughter on top of everything else? Not a problem. But the heart of the story is about a young woman overcoming her horrible family to find personal, professional, and romantic happiness? You've got that too. Oh, and you'd also like the male lead to be an enormous action movie star, a Vietnam vet, and a brilliant Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright all by the ripe old age of twenty-eight and at some point in the story he needs to run around on the beach in a cut-off half shirt? Susan Elizabeth Phillips has got your back.

If you can handle a ride on the serious crazy train, there’s a pretty likable romance, lots of fun banter, and plenty of witty dialogue to go around too. It was a strange book, but after a while it sucked me in and I absolutely couldn’t put it down.

I’d imagine this is one where the mileage varies quite dramatically from reader to reader.

32. The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie

So, with this and Glitter Baby I unexpectedly spent my weekend with my favorite romance authors’ back catalog reissues.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this one. It's a nice sweet story but I like my Crusie books with more bite and less syrup. I tend to be on the minority there, though, because I didn't love Bet Me for similar reasons as well.

Ah well, you can't please everybody all of the time.

Just wanted to let you know that your "strikethroughs for DNFs" is a brilliant idea, and I will be taking a leaf out of your book if that's okay with you. :) I like your mini-challenges for March, and am impressed that your net gain in books for February was only 2! I have a HUGE problem not buying books.. :)

#82/83: Two I do not have to add to the BlackHole. Thanks!

#84 Glad you like it, go right ahead! :) Everyone has such great ideas around here.

I'm liking the mini-challenges, probably because I'd never have the stamina for anything grander, but the my biggest problem is that I keep thinking of new ones that I then want to do right now instead.

Actually, my net gain in books is deceptive because those were only books I hadn't read before. I made a list the other day and somehow have already bought/mooched/been gifted about 30 books in the past two months. Which is just insane. For me, anyways.

33. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Critically, I thought it was an amazingly well-crafted book but, from a personal taste perspective, I didn’t love it. I liked the initial few chapters, the character of Calvin, and the way I felt L'Engle talked up to her audience rather than down. But once the kids were off on their adventures, I felt frustrated and irritated more than I liked. Maybe I just empathized too much with the main character, who often felt that way as well.

And on a completely different note...



34. Princess Mia (Princess Diaries #9) by Meg Cabot

I can feel a massive re-read of this series coming on.

I picked this one in particular up because I had a craving for “the one where Mia goes to therapy.” Despite Mia being in a romantic-drama-induced depression, it's as funny and enjoyable as I remembered it being the first time I read it.

#87: I am sorry you did not enjoy A Wrinkle in Time more, Tabs. It is one of my all-time favorites - I have loved it since childhood.

How many of the Princess Diary books are there? Somehow I was under the impression that there was only one!

There are 10 main Princess Diaries books. There are a bunch of short stories that go in between some of them, but I've never bothered with them. The first nine cover small periods of time, usually a week or so, between Mia's freshman and junior years in high school and then there's a gap and the final one picks up in the spring of Mia's senior year.

Mia's funny, if oblivious to the motivations of others pretty much at all times, but the vast array of truly hilarious side characters are really what carry the books. Especially Mia's overbearing, often scary, and usually drunk grandmother.

The series has it's ups and downs. I never have finished the fifth one yet because Mia being all "PROM! OMG! PROM!" was making my ears bleed, but there's a lot of hilarious stuff in some of the later ones to recommend them.

#89: 10?! I had no idea there were so many. My youngest daughter is a Meg Cabot fan, but I do not think she has read that series, only her Missing series. Well, I will start with the first of the Princess Diary books and see what I think of it before committing myself to 10.

Hah. Yeah, there are many but they fly by. And if you've seen the movie, the books are different and a lot funnier. I highly recommend trying them out.

#91: I put the first book in the series on hold at the local library. I could do with something funny these days :)

35. The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis intertwines the rising significance of the left tackle position in professional American football with the personal story of Michael Oher, an illiterate and virtually uneducated black teenager in Memphis who becomes a member of an affluent white family and then a highly sought-after athlete.

I’ll start out by saying that I’m not a usual reader of non-fiction. Additionally, I played trombone in my high school marching band four years and still know absolutely nothing about football because I brought a book to every game. So I can’t imagine I’m the target audience for the book. I really only picked it up because I was interested in Michael Oher’s story, had seen the overly cheesy movie, and had heard the book was terrific.

I honestly didn’t think it was very good and I really disliked the incredibly disjointed way in which Lewis told his stories. He repeatedly built tension and then interrupted it. This was especially true in the football history sections where he’d build up an epic showdown and then as the tension built he’d awkwardly cut away to backstory that as often as not didn’t even seem connected and then sometimes he’d return to the climax of his original tale but just as often he’d leave the pieces hanging, end the chapter, and then move back to Oher’s story. It drove me nuts.

I fell in love with the take-no-prisoners Touhy family (example: Sean Touhy, battling with a NCAA investigator: “Ma’am, I hate that it baffles you. But all you asked me to be is truthful. You didn’t ask me to be smart.”) but I felt that their story was out of place and ill-suited for the book it was in.

Hey, I played trombone in marching band too!

Nice review. I liked the book more than you did, but I think your criticisms are fair. He did jump back and forth a lot and it did disrupt the story an awful lot.

About a week into my freshmen year of college my new circle of friends and I realized that 3/6 of us had played the trombone in high school. Trombonists apparently unconsciously gravitate to one another. :)

#93: I will probably try the book despite your reservations because I am a football fan and am interested in the story.

I did not play trombone, though - my arms were too short - so I switched to cornet :)

36. Time Of The Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones

Man was this one complicated! And I won’t list the reasons why because half of the stuff going on doesn’t even get hinted at until well past the halfway mark in this book. I liked it but didn’t love it. I’d rank it somewhere in the middle of the pack for Jones.



37. Jack of Fables Vol. 4: Americana by Bill Willingham
38. Jack of Fables Vol. 5: Turning Pages by Bill Willingham

I’ve almost finished my great Fables catch-up for the year. I really enjoyed these last two entries. So much that I went ahead and bought the next volume because I didn’t want to wait for the library.

I don’t doubt that much of my enjoyment came from there being considerably less concentrated Jack-ness and many more stories for the ever expanding cast. I’m perfectly fine with Jack mostly showing up to write his hilarious “next week on…” captions and to complain that no one’s paying attention to him.

And Bigby wolf showed up for an extended flashback! I never complain about extra Bigby.

Now I have to sit patiently for the next volume to arrive so that I can be caught up on both series.

#97: I just got Fables volume 1 last week. I hope I enjoy it as much as you and several other people in the group have.

I hope you like it too, Stasia! I remember not enjoying that first volume, but it's been years since I've read it. I'd probably compare it to a tv show pilot in that the basic concept was there but it hadn't found a solid direction yet.

I started it last night and read about the first 35 pages or so. I am encouraged enough that I am already trying to track down volume 2.

39. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
40. The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

Verdicts: 2.5/5 stars and 4/5 stars

I hadn’t read any of Maureen Johnson’s popular YA books until I pulled a double-header last week. I’d had The Bermudez Triangle in my unread stacks for a while and had picked up 13 Little Blue Envelopes at the accursed book sale nook in the library at the beginning of the week.

I read Envelopes first and didn’t care for it. The plot involves an American teen following an elaborate scavenger hunt of sorts across Europe that her beloved late aunt mysteriously set up for her just before she passed. The book’s not bad, per se, and I could see a young teen easily enjoying it as a fun read.

I didn’t enjoy it, though. I got hung up in some of the details. Like who asks a teen-aged girl to travel around Europe alone without any supervision or any contact with home at all? And who, in their right mind, lets their child go without demanding they call every night to check in. This bugged me a lot, but it wasn’t the deal breaker. The deal breaker was the lack of character development. The main character, who is so memorable that I’ve already forgotten her name, is entirely one dimensional and really doesn’t seem to enjoy the trip in the slightest. Hell, I have more fun going to the mall at Christmas time than she had going to Europe. Sigh. Mini rant done. I just really didn’t care for it.

Fortunately, I decided to immediately pick up The Bermudez Triangle because I knew that if I let it sit some more that I was never going to get to it. And luckily, I really quite loved it.

The book follows three initially inseparable friends approaching their senior year of high school. One of the girls goes to a pre-college program at Stanford and starts a long-distance relationship while the other two girls remain at home and start a same-sex relationship with each other. When school starts back up again, things have changed considerably between the three of them and the rest of the story proceeds as their paths intertwine, diverge, and often run parallel to each other’s.

It reminded me a lot, style-wise and tone-wise, of Sarah Dessen’s books which I tend to like but not love generally.

The various characters and relationships were fleshed out and developed really well and I thought the ways in which Johnson explored and dealt with the issues of teens exploring their sexual preferences and dealing with the incredibly difficult realities of coming out in high school were great. It’s a funny, sweet, compassionate, and likable book and I highly recommend it.

41. Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Books of War by Bill Willingham
42. Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

Verdicts: 3.5/5 stars for both

These were fun. I think I enjoyed the last two Jack volumes better, though.

One thing I especially loved: The half of a big reveal about Jack that had me going “Yes! I was wondering about a particular ability Jack appeared to have but no one seemed aware of and now it makes perfect sense!” The other half of the reveal got a big ole “Hah, eww” out of me but I didn’t have a particular problem with it.

Two things I especially disliked: Has Beauty ever been interesting in the slightest? The only memorable thing I can recall her ever doing in the series is slapping Prince Charming once, and it wasn’t even that great. She just seems pretty useless to me. I don’t care much for her husband either.

Rose Red’s current plotline is just awful. I understand she’s depressed but gah. It looks like she’s gonna get up and be active again soon, but it can’t happen soon enough really. Also, was it really necessary for a bunch of characters to call her a whore? Really? Ugh.

Besides those two nitpicks, I actually thought the crossover worked pretty well but I am glad I caught up on the Jack series before reading it. See ya at catch-up time next year, Fables!

43. Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones

Verdict: 4/5 stars

The thing that strikes me the most about this tale of a supernatural entity, the embodiment of Sirius the Dog Star, who gets convicted of murder and sentenced to live a mortal life as a dog unless he can recover his power and get himself back, is how strikingly accurate the dog actions and perceptions were.

While reading, I kept looking over at my dog, Pepper, and asking “Are you a mythological celestial being trapped in a mortal body? Because the dog in my book sounds just like you.” And then she’d get excited that I was speaking to her, wag her tail a bit, and come over for a hug. Yes, she hugs. She puts both of her paws on your shoulders and then leans in. It’s strange but incredibly adorable.

There were numerous parts that made me tear up a bit, which I usually hate to do, and I thought Kathleen’s end of the tale wrapped up a little abruptly, but not in an unsatisfying way. Overall, though, I thought the book was terrific.

Pheww, that was a lot of reviewing. Good writing practice, though. Now I can put the computer away for a bit and curl up with a nice Nora Roberts novel. :)

I just finished the first Fables book tonight. I have the second one on the way already. Another LT discovery for me!

Congrats, Stasia!

44. Born in Fire by Nora Roberts

A standard Roberts romance. I had read the sequel, Born in Ice, last year but I thought that one had a weak female lead and an unlikable male lead. I liked this one a lot better. It's got a hot but stuffy Irish hero, a tempestuous and stubborn heroine, and lots of details about the fine art of glass blowing.

Verdict: 3/5 stars

45. Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

Another fun action-adventure book from the Crusie/Mayer collaboration that continues on Crusie's recent supernatural kick by featuring a demon-infested amusement park. It's got demons, a trickster god, sexy government agents, crazy pets, a demon-fighting super team, evil teddy bears, and more family than you can shake a stick at... lots of fun.

My biggest laughs came from the multiple digs at Ethan walking around southern Ohio in a Kevlar vest and an extended conversation that has the phrase "robot clown" in pretty much every other sentence.

And I just realized I only have to wait until Fall for a new Crusie solo book. So, Woo!

Verdict: 4/5 stars

I'd been wondering whether to pick up Wild Ride because I've found I don't like Crusie's collaborative projects as much as the stuff she wrote by herself, but I think your comments have persuaded me to read it while I'm waiting for the Trust me On This re-release.

Yeah, I prefer her solo work too but the Mayer collaborations have been growing on me (even if I still gloss over the bits where Bob Mayer has his characters talk about guns and artillery and such).

I think it helped my enjoyment a lot that I really didn't mind that this one isn't a romance. There are romantic elements, but there's a lot more action and supernatural stuff. But really, I enjoyed it because it had lots of my favorite Crusie elements, like the big cast, the unconventional family, the sarcastic jokes, and plenty of the signature Crusie dialogue.

I have not read any of the Crusie/Mayer collaborations, but I will give Wild Ride a shot. Thanks for the recommendation, Tabitha.

Ooh, Agnes and the Hitman is easily my favorite of the collaborations. It's got mobsters and flamingos instead of demons.

#112: I think my daughter Catey has that one. I will have to see. Thanks for the mention.

Backing up the discussion of high school band, I didn't play the trombone, but I was a Band Mom to a percussionist, and I just loved that during football games, after the band played, half the stands emptied!

#112: I was able to borrow Agnes and the Hitman from Catey. I am not sure when I will get it read, but at least I have it in hand now.

Seconding Agnes and the Hitman--I liked Wild Ride quite a bit, but Agnes is an all-time favorite character for me. So snarky! And the food!! Awesome.

#116: And the food!! Awesome.

I am on a diet - I may have to rethink reading Agnes, lol.

#114 Hah, that wasn't a problem at my school but it makes me think of the movie "Bring It On" where the cheerleaders were more popular than their sucky football team.

#116 Oh yeah, Agnes is the best.

#117 Hah, Wild Ride was bad for me because characters kept eating ice-cream on waffles. I didn't cave, but I really really wanted to.

#118: Well, I would be safe from the ice cream on waffles thing as I am not an ice cream fan.

46. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

“You don’t understand,” Chip said. “I want to know everything now.”

Chip, I feel you there. I have that same problem. :)

My young cousin with excellent taste loaned this to me at Thanksgiving and I finally got around to it in time for an Easter return. It’s a YA sci-fi novel in which a couple of teens try to figure out what’s going on with strange letters that have been arriving in the mail that suggest someone or something is coming for them. It’s a quick but terrific read.

There were many things to love but my favorite by far was how on the ball and smart and motivated the kids were. For example, after recent read 13 Little Blue Envelopes got my fur all up about teens behaving irresponsibly without any regard to their own personal safety, I almost died with joy when one of the boys in Found cleverly leaves notes for his parents to find in case they get kidnapped or murdered by a mysterious woman they're meeting up with. I just love when being sensible and practical is viewed as a strength rather than an automatic buzzkill character flaw.

The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it’s the first entry in a series in progress and it was so good that I don’t want to keep reading until there are more than a few out. Luckily, Haddix has other series that I now need to check out.

47. Something About You by Julie James

This book’s been getting great reviews and I'd say it's definitely an above average romantic suspense novel but I just didn't love it.

I did really like that the heroine is a murder witness who doesn't get whiny and obnoxious about being under protective custody and who doesn't once try to sneak away. This particular heroine was also an assistant district attorney, so balking at law enforcement protection wouldn't make much sense for her, but logic has failed to stop many a romance heroine from doing dumb things in order to move plot along. Overall, it was a fun book that tweaked convention nicely in spots and I enjoyed it.





48. Polly and the Pirates Vol. 1 by Ted Naifeh

I had heard about this delightful little graphic novel a few years back and picked it up when I spotted it in the children's section at the library the other day.

The story is about a seemingly ordinary young girl who just wants to go to school and maintain her proper reputation in spite of a bunch of pirates who come along with altogether different plans for her. Much awesomeness ensues.

The black and white line drawings are gorgeous, I loved the way the various dialogues and accents of characters are conveyed, and the whole thing is adventurous and funny (What's not funny about the name "Pamplemousse"? Absolutely nothing). Sadly, this is billed as a "Volume 1" but there are no subsequent volumes currently available yet. I highly recommended it.

#120: Adding Found and Polly and the Pirates to the BlackHole. Thanks once again for the recommendations, Tabs.

Posting some March stats and April/May goals a little late...

-Read 20 books in total
-Read 15 books from my own shelves in total (new and old)
-Read three books I had specifically targeted from my unread shelves
-Bought three brand new books and read them immediately
-Acquired 4 other books and read 1 of them
-Weeded three romances out of the "unread box of doom" to the bookmooch box by reading the first couple of chapters and skimming



I didn't do so well with my March goals, but I did read a lot of books. My April/May goals so far are to work on reading the books I've acquired this year. But there's a big library sale coming up next weekend so I expect this list to rapidly expand. Here's the master list so far:

Books Newly Acquired This Year:
1. Hidato Challenge: 200 Pure Logic Puzzles
2. A Field Guide To Burying Your Parents - Liza Palmer
3. The Next Best Thing - Kristan Higgins
4. The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie
5. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
6. Cheating At Solitaire - Ally Carter
7. Mort - Terry Pratchett
8. Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages - Bill Willingham
9. Lake Magic - Kimberly Fish
10. Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby
11. Born in Fire - Nora Roberts
12. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume
13. All That Matters - Stef Ann Holm
14. Strangers in Death - J.D. Robb
15. The Bridal Season - Connie Brockway
16. Glitter Baby - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
17. Innocent in Death - J.D. Robb
18. Remember When - Nora Roberts
19. Where Roses Grow Wild - Patricia Cabot
20. Betsy-Tacy - Maud Hart Lovelace
21. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
22. Island of the Aunts - Eva Ibbotson
23. Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War
24. 13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson
25. Wild Ride - Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
26. Something About You - Julie James
27. The Girl Who Chased The Moon - Sarah Addison Allen
28. The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves The Day (BSC Graphix) by Ann M. Martin
29. Teen Idol - Meg Cabot
30. The Lost Recipe For Happiness - Barbara O'Neal

Oh, and I will read my past-due ER book, Lake Magic. I will.

#123: I have 2 past due ER books to read and review and I keep telling myself that I will get them done in April, too :)

I have seen some good reviews here in the group for Lake Magic, so maybe that will spur you on!

Hmm, positive reviews are good but I find I'm more often than not the lone dissenter, especially on ER books for some reason. Oh well, we shall see.

Ugh, boy do I not feel like writing reviews. Not even short ones.

But I did read Lake Magic and I enjoyed it. Now I have to write about it. After I write about the other two books I finished this week. Sigh.

#126: You could always do like I do - just say whether or not you recommend the book. Then if you want to do formal reviews later, go back and do them.

Ok, taking Stasia's advice and throwing down two short reviews. Two down, three to go...




49. The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

This was another enjoyable book by Allen but I didn't think it was as strong as her previous ones. I thought this one was choppy, had a few too many cliches, and wasn't balanced well between the two protagonists.

I still liked bits and pieces, though, and I'll read her next one but I won't rush out for it.




50. The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer

Oh, I love Georgette Heyer. This was a good one with a very sensible heroine who accidentally winds up in the middle of an adventure involving accidental death, espionage, secret passages, and a man who somehow keeps convincing her to do exactly what she wishes not to.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book but my favorite parts tended to involve either any of the Carlyon brothers interacting with one another or the elderly governess constantly remarking about how much fun she’s having amidst the whole adventure. I also loved the resolution to the intrigue as well, which involved a masterful battle of wits. Battle of wits are my favorite kind of battles.

So, I had expected to do some damage at tonight's library sale. I had not expected to do 16 books worth of damage.

New Additions to the Newly Acquired List:
31. Girls' Night In - Various Authors
32. Love Walked In - Marisa De Los Santos
33. The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar
34. Sweet Dreams at the Goodnight Motel - Curtiss Ann Matlock
35. Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson
36. The Secret of Joy - Melissa Senate
37. Avalon High - Meg Cabot
38. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
39. Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli
40. Just Ella - Margaret Peterson Haddix
41. Someone to Love - Kasey Michaels
42. Maybe Baby - Lani Diane Rich
43. Mine Till Midnight - Lisa Kleypas
44. Don't Tempt Me - Loretta Chase
45. Young Avengers Vol. 1: Sidekicks - Allan Heinberg
46. Jinx - Brian Michael Bendis

Wow. And I know next to nothing about most of those new titles as well. And I was so proud of myself for getting caught up this week with April's new acquisitions. It's gonna be a long year...

51. Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk

I put this Early Review book off for the longest time, but it was actually pretty good. It’s a contemporary romance that reminded me of Nora Roberts although I’m sure there are better comparisons but this isn’t a vein of romances that I read much of.

The plot centers around an inevitable romance between Jennifer, a young woman trying to keep her flailing business afloat while still trying to heal from her fiance’s death less than a year ago, and Jared, an emotionally scarred fighter pilot who just wants to collect a debt Jennifer unwittingly owes him and retreat as far as possible. In addition to Jennifer and Jared, a large chunk of the book is devoted to Jenn’s sister and nephew and how they both try to cope with the delicate balancing act between career and family that’s taken over their lives.

Overall, I’d say the book is a pretty standard and straightforward contemporary romance. You can see exactly where all of the plot points are going from miles away but the trip isn’t an unpleasant one. I’d say it’s a solid bet for fans of the genre.





52. Teen Idol by Meg Cabot

I’m a huge Meg Cabot fan but if I hadn’t found a copy of this book for fifty cents, I probably would have passed it over. And it would have been a shame because the book was great and I was more than charmed by the time the ending rolled around.

It’s a short, standalone YA about a universally liked Indiana high school student who takes a movie star heartthrob under her wing and learns a valuable lesson about being liked versus being respected and appreciated, or in Meg Cabot speak “being the mayonnaise” versus “ being the special sauce.” Although I think both mayonnaise and special sauce are seriously gross, I loved the analogy.

Boy do I wish Meg Cabot books had been around when I was an actual teen. I would have loved them and they would have made high school a lot more bearable.

#128: This is a first! Someone following my advice :)

The Girl Who Chased the Moon is already in the BlackHole because I loved Allen's first two books. I hope I like it better than you did, Tabs.

I have added The Reluctant Widow to the BlackHole. I read one of Heyer's romances, Frederica, for the first time last year and am game to give her another go.

#129: I have a copy of Lake Magic sitting here waiting for me to get to it. Hopefully, this summer!

I will have to let my daughter Catey know about Teen Idol. She is a big Meg Cabot fan, but I do not know if she has read that one or not.

Ooh, Lake Magic would make an excellent summer read.

53. The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’Neal

This was an excellent contemporary romance. It’s unique and engaging and marvelously passionate.

Elena Alvarez is a remarkable heroine. She is an accomplished chef who is hoping to finally find a place and position she can settle down permanently in. She is also a severely damaged person, still physically suffering from a tragic accident from more than twenty years previously and still literally carrying around the ghosts of her past.

I loved a great many things about this book but I especially appreciated how incredibly natural and sincere the romance felt and how well-integrated the mystical aspects were. The book also has a great deal of recipes and food porn in it and if you’re a fan of southwest cooking in particular, it may very well do you in.

I didn’t know when I started this book that Barbara O’Neal is apparently another pseudonym for Barbara Samuel so if you’re interested in the author be sure to check out her work under both names. I read and thoroughly enjoyed Madame Mirabou's School of Love a few years ago (you should click the touchstone to, at the least, see the incredibly gorgeous cover on that one) and now I really need to get around to more of her books.

And now for two graphic novels/comics that have nothing in common besides featuring teens. Although the babysitters are technically tweens at this stage...



54. Mary Anne Saves The Day (BSC Graphix) by Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier

Ah, the Babysitter's Club. I wasn't obsessed with the books as a kid but I did read my fair share of them and I still fondly remember the briefly aired television series.

I read the first in this series of Babysitter's Club graphic novels, Kristy's Great Idea, a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely. The black and white illustrations were, and still are, incredibly fun and lively.

Unfortunately, I didn't like this entry as much as the previous one. The artwork is still great overall, but the faces some of the girls were pulling irritated me to no end. I know they're fighting and acting out towards each other, but the malicious grins did not work at all for me. Also, I don't usually have a problem with dated references, but the constant writing of apology letters and "are you still mad at me notes" somehow felt wildly out of place.

Oh well, I still have high hopes for the two I have yet to read in the series.





55. Young Avengers Vol. 1: Sidekicks by Allan Heinberg

I found this trade paperback for sale for a measly dollar and it has Jessica Jones, my absolutely favorite comic book character (sorry Spiderman, you're in second place), in a supporting role. Score!

I'm not the biggest fan of the main Avengers titles, but I like this series.

#133: I will give The Lost Recipe for Happiness a shot. Thanks for the recommendation, Tabs.

Those library book sales are notorious to us in LT, aren't they. My library book sale starts this Saturday. I still haven't read all the books I got at the last one. Will that keep me away? Probably not.

See, I'd been on a roll lately of mostly buying books for others, mostly my young brothers, lately and was feeling pretty good about that. And then I dutifully scoured the children's section first... and ended up with more for me than for them even in there.

Heh, I guess it was just my turn. :)

Happy hunting at your sale, Mamzel!

56. Girls' Night In by Various Authors

For my first stab at a TOLI challenge, I dipped my toe into the short story pool with an anthology of chick lit.

This anthology has 21 short stories by popular chick lit authors. Overall, I thought the collection did a good job of spanning the genre. I already owned or had read books by nine of the authors. Going into it, Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella, and Jenny Colgan were my favorite authors in the bunch but I did find some new authors I'm excited to check out.

Most of my complaints/dislikes with the collection were those that I tend to find with the genre in general. Most of the stories were of the single gal looks for love/regrets a lost love/tries to get over a bad relationship variety which got old after a while and after about ten stories or so I started yelling "Come on! There are cities in the world besides New York and London! Argh!" And ugh, boy did this book remind me that I don't care for Anna Maxted's work at all and that I've got one in my basement that can go in my Yard Sale pile.

There was plenty to like, though, as well. My favorite story in the bunch was easily “Siren Songs” by Stella Duffy which stood out quite a bit from the pack with a male protagonist and a unique writing style.

I also really enjoyed “Cat Lady” by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and additional stories by Chris Manby, Jenny Colgan, and Sarah Mlynowski. I'm especially glad the book reminded my how much I enjoy Jenny Colgan. Now I've gotta work on tracking down her recent imports since the US is no longer publishing her hilarious books here for some reason.

#137: What a great big sister you are!

I am trying the first Princess Diaries book tonight thanks to your recommendation. I will let you know how it goes, Tabs.

57. Changes by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden's back! Yay!

Twelve books in and this series is still trucking along with a blistering pace, insane obstacles, epic battles, and lots more heartbreak and pain for Harry Dresden. So, the status quo, really. Harry never does get a break.

I can’t imagine it’s a popular opinion, but I quite loved the infamous cliffhanger at the end of this one. I even laughed out loud. And I usually HATE cliffhangers. To me, the cliffhanger says "Don't worry folks, the adventure continues! No time for wallowing and feeling sorry for yourself here." and I didn't have any problem with that.

Extraneous note: Gosh, I have always disliked Susan Rodriguez and my opinion has not changed. She continuously makes incredibly poor decisions, suffers the dire consequences, and then Harry ends up feeling responsible for her. Sigh.





58. Someone to Love by Kasey Michaels

I can’t say this was a stellar book or that I’d recommend it. The repetitive writing was downright getting on my nerves until I just started skimming parts that I felt like I’d already read. However, I’m still gonna hold onto it for a while because I did enjoy the chemistry between the two leads.

I really want to get a hold of the sequel, Then Comes Marriage, which sounds incredibly ridiculous in the best way possible.





59. Sweet Dreams at the Goodnight Motel by Curtiss Ann Matlock

A good but not great tale about a woman dissatisfied with her stagnant life who finds just what she needs in a small town. I really liked the town of Valentine, Oklahoma and its various inhabitants who weren't insanely quirky or stereotypical. I also liked that I had no idea this was the sixth out of seven books the author has set in Valentine. I didn't feel at all like I was missing information I was supposed to have.

The only problems I had with the book were pacing and perspective issues, not character ones. For me, the book spent far too much time getting the main character, Claire, to Valentine in the first place and then getting her settled. And I found the constant head-hopping from Claire to various supporting characters to be awkward and confusing at times.

Also, Claire is not the most decisive character. She takes long stretches of time to let things simmer before she figures them out and acts. I liked that in a heroine, because that's exactly what I myself do, but I could see others getting annoyed by her.

Overall, I enjoyed it and would not be opposed to checking out some of the other Valentine books.

Plans for the rest of the week include aiming a little high and using two TIOLI challenges to get Knitting Rules! and Coffee and Kung Fu out of my unread stacks and doing a write-up on the DNF's I've been accumulating.

We've got a yard sale coming up in two weeks and I'm trying to clear some dead weight so I expect the DNF tally to be unusually high for the time being.

Good luck with the yard sale, Tabs! If I lived anywhere close, I would come and buy something :)

Thanks Stasia! My biggest problem is that even though I keep adding to the stack of books to get rid of, I also keep pulling things out with a "I just might want this one day!" rationalization.

60. Coffee and Kung Fu by Karen Brichoux

Well, this was unexpectedly great. The plot involves a twenty-something copy editor named Nicci who has a love of Kung Fu movies cultivated during her teen years spent in Hong Kong, and a general dissatisfaction with the current direction of her life. The main character actually felt like a real person rather than a caricature, which can be a big problem in chick-lit type novels. I also surprisingly loved the way Nicci talked about Kung Fu movies and how the themes relate to real life. It was thoughtful and interesting rather than cheesy.

I thought the sex was a little on the graphic side, although with nothing more racy than the standard romance novel, but I also thought it was essential to the plot and not gratuitous or extraneous.

Overall I thought it was an interesting book. I’d have to give it a second reading before deciding whether I love it or not.





61. All That Matters by Stef Ann Holm

Yeah, Stef Ann Holm is just not for me. I really liked Lucy Gets Her Life Back and Undressed but every book I’ve read since has been disappointing, especially her most recent ones. I’ve got two of her older novels in the Unread Box of Doom that I’m not ready to toss without reading yet, but I won’t be checking out any others.

#143: I know exactly what you mean!

Hmm... would it be possible to skip the pages of sex and still enjoy Coffee and Kung Fu? LOL. It sounds good, but the "a little on the graphic side" makes me wary...

146: Well, I picked the book up to just thumb through it for you and happened to open it up to a chapter that starts with a sentence I can't print in this here family-friendly forum. So... probably not. :)

But, as a consolation prize, I am 80 pages in and already utterly charmed by A Little Ray of Sunshine so I'll probably be able to recommend that one instead in a day or two. It also has a rather atypical chick-lit heroine, albeit one who up and ran from her life instead of one who is dissatisfied with it. There's no talk of kung-fu movies so far... but there are also no unsettling sex scenes either.



ETA: I'll stop editing this post when I stop finding grammatical errors, I swear.

And to get all caught up with April's reviews:



62. Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase

Another extremely entertaining romance novel form Loretta Chase and much better than her previous one, I thought.

The premise was a bit odd. The romantic leads are former childhood best friends who were separated when always spirited Zoe, at the age of twelve, was assumed to have run away and gotten herself kidnapped on a trip to Egypt. Zoe, not dead of course, returns to England twelve years later and tries to overcome her "harem girl" manners and the stigma attached to her past to re-enter respectable London society. A bored Duke and a spirited young lady proceed to push eachother's buttons and have a heck of a lot of fun.

The leads in this one were incredibly compatible and I especially enjoyed how much they simply enjoyed being in each other’s presence.

I'm definitely on board the "Loretta Chase Is Awesome" train now...

I have not read any of Loretta Chase's books in years! I wonder where my copy of The Last Hellion is . . .

Coffee and Kung Fu sounds great--even with the graphic side of sex! (I'll just stick it in my 'smut' listings, hee.)

#149 I'm keeping an eye out for that one and a bunch of her other ones. I am thoroughly enjoying them.

#150 Oh, I love the "smut" tag so much.

Ack. I finished four books in one day (It was a truly excellent Sunday) and then didn’t write about any of them. And then I didn’t finish any books the rest of the following week. Ah well, here are half of my back reviews:





63. A Little Ray of Sunshine by Lani Diane Rich

I really loved this book. I finished it over a week ago and have thought about it every day since.

The heroine, E.J., is coerced and shanghaied, by a former friend and a strange yet well-meaning woman who thinks she’s an angel, into returning to her family after spending six years on the run from her intense insecurities and the toxic mother who fueled them.

There’s fighting, and apologizing, and heartfelt gestures, and honest making of amends.

This book reminded me a lot of A Field Guide To Burying Your Parents, which I read and loved earlier in the year, but this was the gentler and funnier of the two. And no one buries a parent in this one.

I love that happy, sunny cover with the darn pink umbrella. I also loved how realistic it was that the heroine often got overwhelmed and upset and cried. Even when it was inconvenient and she’d try desperately not to! Oh, I loved that so much.

It’s a quick read and I heartily recommend it. Especially if you enjoy crying and laughing at the same time. It seems like an odd pairing, I know, but it really works well.





64. Jinx by Brian Michael Bendis

I finished my first TIOLI for the month with a black and white crime fiction graphic novel that follows two lowlife criminals and the gritty female bounty hunter whose paths intersect.

I don’t read much crime fiction but I thought the story was good. I’m a big fan of Bendis’ comics so I thoroughly enjoyed his characteristic dialogue and overlapping speech bubbles. Once again, though, I disliked the black and white illustrations. Ah, well.

I’d like to get a hold of the rest of the series and finish the story, but I now have an even greater desire to acquire and re-read Bendis’s stellar Daredevil run so finishing this one will likely go on the back burner.

#152: A Little Ray of Sunshine looks good. I will keep an eye out for that one. Thanks for the recommendation!

A Little Ray of Sunshine sounds good... and so does Don't Tempt Me, though I don't typically read those kinds of books... ah, but that's the joy of LT! LOL. I'lll probably pick it up if I see it at the library as it sounds pretty entertaining.

Oh yeah, finding books outside of your usual zones is one of the best things about LT. I've got a number of books in the TBR that I wouldn't have looked twice at a year or two ago. :)

65. Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

This is an overview book from popular knitting blogger/writer The Yarn Harlot. I have friends who love The Yarn Harlot to death and I do think she’s funny but I’m only an occasional knitter so the obsessiveness can put me off at times.

That being said, I thought this was a good book for beginner-ish knitters. I say beginner-ish because it assumes you know how to knit already and have tried at least a few projects. There are walkthroughs and basic patterns/strategies for approaching hats, socks, scarves, shawls, and sweaters. I will admit to completely skipping the section on shawls, though, since I don’t personally like them and can’t imagine ever knitting one.

I will definitely pick it up again when I decide to knit my first pair of socks.





66. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

This was a gift I received and was fully prepared to hate because I don’t tend to enjoy much non-fiction and I really didn’t feel like reading letters from star-crossed lovers.

Oh, it was lovely. It wasn’t at all what I expected and there were no star-crossed lovers to speak of. Essentially, Helene Hanff forms a loving friendship with an entire bookshop. Yes, she forms a particularly strong friendship with Frank Doel, the clerk who personally oversees her book requests, but she quickly starts corresponding with a slew of other employees of the shop and a number of their friends and family members as well.

My favorite part is when Hanff protests, with mock horror, about a book she received that was wrapped in pages of another book. The eventual payoff to that one had me in stitches.

A great collection of letters and an extremely quick read as well. Very much recommended. Also, there are a number of beautiful and eloquent reviews for this on the work page so I will heartily recommend them as well.

#156: I love 84, Charing Cross Road, which I learned of through the movie by the same name (a strange happening for me.) I am so glad I found it though, because it is destined to be one of my lifelong favorites.

I love 84 Charing Cross Road too. And I recommend The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street as a follow-up: it's Helene Hanff's account of when she finally managed to visit London.

My local library doesn't have The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and I felt like 84, Charing Cross Road was contained enough that I didn't necessarily need more. But, if it crosses my path, I'll definitely pick it up.

Ugh, I once again got backed up with reviews and have just been lurking around other threads for the last couple of weeks. Well, here’s a TIOLI Triple-Header to get back into the swing of things. Three books I didn’t have either high or low expectations for (I don’t know why. I’m just a hater apparently) and I ended up liking all of them to varying degrees.





67. Acceptance by Susan Coll

This one’s a satire about the college admissions process that is split between the perspectives of six different people-an admissions officer, three fellow students from a particularly competitive high school, and two of the students’ mothers. For all of the satirical craziness, like a teenaged addicted to stealing mail for instance, there was a surprising amount of heart there as well. It’s a slow build, it has the reader rattling around in too many different people’s heads, and most of the stuff at the college could easily have been dropped but I enjoyed it overall.





68. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

I thought this was going to be hippy-dippy and obnoxious. It was not. The central message is all about nonconformity and individuality and being true to yourself. It was sweet, and awkward, and smart and I really enjoyed it. There’s a sequel of sorts and I will eventually track it down.





69. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I tend to have mixed feelings on Gaiman but I enjoyed this very short tale. I especially loved the terrifically unusual ending. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the film version and they kept popping in so much when I was reading it that I’d like to see it again and actually pay attention this time around.

Have you read The Graveyard Book by Gaiman yet, Tabs? If not, I recommend it!

I checked The Graveyard Book out of the library once but returned it without getting far into it. I think I just wasn't in the mood for it at the moment. I will definitely pick it up again one of these days, though.

70. Maybe Baby by Lani Diane Rich

This is an earlier Lani Diane Rich book that I had recently acquired. It’s both a romantic comedy and a wacky caper involving bird thievery, a smelly bird that looks like a green chicken, and an evil New Zealander. It was fun but not nearly as good as her later books. I liked the sequel, The Comeback Kiss, which follows Finn the bird thief, a bit better. On the plus side, both books have Babs in them and Babs is terrific.





71. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

And here’s my first re-read in quite a while. It’s got destiny, adventure, and romance all wrapped up in one package. It’s my favorite McKinley and I’ve read it too many times to count at this point. I still love it but it fell a little flat this time around for some reason. I guess I just wasn’t in the right mood for it.

#163: I love The Blue Sword, as well. A many, many, MANY times reread for me...did you read Chalice, her latest take on Beauty and the Beast? I love fairy tale adaptations, and McKinley's in particular. Plus, all that talk about honey makes me hungry...

Yes, I quite liked Chalice. Although I now realize that I completely missed the whole "beauty and the beast" aspect of it. Hah. Not surprised, though, as I am the girl who didn't realize Ella Enchanted was a variation on Cinderella until the second or third time I read it. Perception certainly ain't my middle name. :)

I have not yet read Chalice although I really liked The Blue Sword. Thanks for the reminder.

You're welcome, Stasia!

May Stats:

I read 13 books this month (and one audiobook). 12 were owned by me and only 1 came from the library. 3 were acquired in May, 3 were acquired earlier in the year, and 6 were prior to 2010.

I’m choosing not to actually add up this month’s acquisitions. Sigh.

My genres were all over the map this month with the only notable stats being 5 YA/IR reads and somehow only one lone romance novel.

June’s forecast: a lot of my unread children’s books fit TIOLI challenges this month… we’ll see how much I can handle.

72. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

I tend to enjoy most of Sarah Dessen’s books and I thought this one was one of her best.

The main character, Macy, is a teen who has been putting off grieving for her father by following her mother’s lead and immersing herself in other things. When summer unexpecedly brings some much needed disruptions to Macy's carefully constructed routine, in the form of an erratic catering job, new friends, and an incredibly endearing friendship with a boy who channels his own grief at losing a parent into something positive, she learns to embrace a little chaos, let loose a little, and finally let herself grieve the way she's needed to.

A sweet, endearing book. I’d recommend this one, especially for a comfortable summer read and/or for younger teens wishing to break into Dessen’s books.

Also, bonus points for a teen romance plotline that's touching and sweet and honest rather than a complete cheesefest like some of my other recent reads.





73. Jinx by Meg Cabot (Audiobook Version)

I had already read this book but decided to listen to the audiobook on a trip. It wasn’t my favorite Meg Cabot novel to begin with but listening to it out loud really reinforced what I didn’t like about it in the first place. The main character, Jean, is supposedly smart and sensible and has a good head on her shoulders yet is incredibly obtuse. I’m fine with characters having blinders on when it comes to certain things but Jean had her blinders on about EVERYTHING. Oh no, despite extreme evidence to the contrary, magic couldn’t possibly be real, she couldn’t possibly have magical powers, the cute boy constantly spending time with her couldn’t possibly like her, and her consistently horrible cousin couldn’t possibly be really horrible. Ugh.

I love Meg Cabot but I’d recommend passing on this one.





74. Runaway by Meg Cabot

This is the final book in the Airhead trilogy about a teen that ends up in the body of young supermodel.

I really enjoyed the first half of this one, which had a lot of action going on. But then things slowed down considerably and all of the characters annoyingly started pairing up and my interest quickly wained. I also think my tolerance threshold for teens expressing their eternal love and devotion and talking dramatically about the state of their romantic relationships must be especially low at the moment.

It's a satifying conclusion, and there are lots of fun bits in both this entry and the series as a whole, but I can't help wishing it had all been executed a bit better.

#169: The Truth About Forever is already in the BlackHole, I just wish whoever had it checked out of the library would return it as it has been overdue for a while now.

I think I will pass on the Cabot books.

Ugh, I hate when people do that. A couple of days is one thing, but weeks and months is quite another.

#171: It irritates the fire out of me, too.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I tried reading this one for the TIOLI “I can't believe you haven't read that yet! (10,000+ copies on LT but new to you)” challenge in May and abandoned it about 2/3 of the way through. I didn’t dislike the book at all. I just had absolutely no desire to keep reading it. Ever. Oh well.





75. Operation Sunshine by Jenny Colgan

This was very nearly another DNF because the standard chick-lit tropes were in full force. The heroine was clueless and incompetent at her job and all of the supporting characters were crazy mean-spirited caricatures. Ugh. And I hate when characters repeatedly embarrass themselves–another chick-lit staple.

However, the ending redeemed the book for me. The heroine finally digs down and manages to save the day entirely on her own with incredible amounts of determination and spur of the moment inspiration. And the love interest was pretty cute by the time the whole thing wrapped up.

I can’t say I think I’ll ever read it again, but I am glad I finished it.

And I've hit my first 75! I think this calls for a shiny new thread.

Now all I have to do is come up with a snappy title...

Congrats!

Congrats on hitting 75!!!

Thanks everybody!

And wow, that dancing graphic is mesmerizing.

Shiny new thread over here .