Book Title: Chosen
Author: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Category: Fantasy; Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B-

Short description/summary of the book: (from Goodreads.com) Dark forces are at work at the House of Night and fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird’s adventures at the school take a mysterious turn. Those who appear to be friends are turning out to be enemies. And oddly enough, sworn enemies are also turning into friends. So begins the gripping third installment of this “highly addictive series” (Romantic Times), in which Zoey’s mettle will be tested like never before. Her best friend, Stevie Rae, is undead and struggling to maintain a grip on her humanity. Zoey doesn’t have a clue how to help her, but she does know that anything she and Stevie Rae discover must be kept secret from everyone else at the House of Night, where trust has become a rare commodity. Speaking of rare: Zoey finds herself in the very unexpected and rare position of having three boyfriends. Mix a little bloodlust into the equation and the situation has the potential to spell social disaster. Just when it seems things couldn’t get any tougher, vampyres start turning up dead. Really dead. It looks like the People of Faith, and Zoey’s horrid step-father in particular, are tired of living side-by-side with vampyres. But, as Zoey and her friends so often find out, how things appear rarely reflects the truth

My Thoughts: You could probably read my reviews for the first two books and have a good idea of what I think about this one, but let’s write it it’s own review, shall we?

This one was predictable, as were the others, but it was still entertaining. It took forever to get into the action of the book, with the main conflict not really showing up until halfway through. The amount of typos was god awful. I felt like I was reading a manuscript that hadn’t been proofed yet. Along with the stereotypes, the predictability and the constant repetitive summaries and descriptions, this made me sad about how lazily the book was written and edited.

On the plus side, I do believe not one word was defined for us! Though Damien’s amazing vocabulary was still a point of discussion. Also, I can’t remember where it is, but I think Zoey also made a reference to something geeky without explaining how she knew about it or telling us that she indeed knows liking it makes her geeky! Hallelujah, there is hope! But then the hope is dashed when we get the same silly Brady bunch reference, complete with explanation, as we got in the second book. Lazy writing, ladies!

So. Many. Stereotypes. Alright, fine, every book is going to have stock characters in them, but when you are writing a series, your main characters really need to develop a tiny bit by the third one. Yes, I get it, Damien is gay! He should be a lot more than that though! The way the Twins talk is really starting to irritate me. Neferet went from flat mother-figure to complex, developing character to flat villainess. And Zoey’s boys. Do they have personalities? Why does she like them? Why should we? They’re hot? That’s all we get. Heath is the hot jock, Erik is the hot nice guy, Loren is the hot poet. That about sums them up. I liked Erik more than Loren and didn’t trust Loren. But when I tried to think of why I liked Erik, I couldn’t remember what he was like. And why didn’t I trust Loren? Because the book is predictable, and I knew what would happen. So, let’s give the characters some depth, Cast duo!

I liked Aphrodite even more in this one. She actually develops! She is complex! She is not the flat villainess from the first book! And I agree with her a lot of the time, which may or may not make me a bitch, I’m not sure.

I really liked what they did with Stevie Rae. They didn’t find some miracle cure that returned her to her fledgling state with nary a consequence from being undead. They made her something new. This could turn out to be more over-the-top amazing vampire nonsense. Or it could turn into a very nice twist in the story. I hope for the latter.

Zoey pissed me off the entire book. I want her to be real, so I can slap some sense into her. Ok, so, we have Zoey who starts off as this innocent girl who believes that everything adults want kids to avoid is disgusting (boo for sex, boo for alcohol, boo for makeup!). She calls everyone a loser for various reasons, most of them judgmental and shallow. Yet she is supposed to be this extraordinarily wise, gifted, intelligent leader who makes great choices. Now we see her in this third book having matured a bit (not everyone is a loser, and not everything is dirty, thank God). Yet she has not sense enough in her priestess-in-training brain to avoid clearly messed up situations. Three boyfriends? Really? For being so innocent, that is pretty screwed up, Zoey. I don't find it to be a cute, exciting or sexy dilemma to have, considering it's gone beyond just liking 3 different guys. Alright, so you imprinted with Heath. Stop seeing him! Learn some self-control! Stop sucking his friggin blood! Or pick him and break up with Erik! And Loren? This relationship irritated me because it was so obviously an authority figure taking advantage of a student even before we actually find out what he’s up to. He makes her imprint with him without even telling her what is going on. But up until the point when we hear him talking to Neferet in his room, there is nothing within the book to suggest there is anything wrong with that type of relationship. So, what Zoey should have done was grow a pair and break up with someone. Use that supposedly-intelligent mind to not just whine about the situation and cry about knowing what she should do, but actually do it! Control yourself and be strong, Zoey. Maybe I just have no patience for characters that spend an extensive amount of time whining about what they know they should do instead of doing something about it. Also, I think the Cast duo need to develop a more consistent character for her.

The lessons Zoey learns are less obnoxiously thrown at us than the earlier lessons the Cast ladies wanted us to see (boo sex, boo alcohol, etc), and are well-done. They are good lessons for anyone to learn, and it looks like Zoey actually does learn something. She accepts that she has royally screwed up and doesn’t try to weasel out of it. She is ready to face the consequences and to move forward with trying to heal the relationships she has broken.

Equal measures of being crap and compelling. I’m looking forward to the next one, though it would be nice if they could actually tie up some of the storylines instead of dragging them out through book after book.

Book Title: MirrorMask [BOCD]
Author: Neil Gaiman
Category: Bildungsroman; BOCD; Fiction; Sci-Fi; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Goodreads.com) Helena is about to embark on a most amazing journey. Raised in a family of circus performers, she's always dreamed of leading a more ordinary life. But when haunting music draws her into a strange and magical realm, one where anything can happen, her real life is stolen by a runaway from the other side. Helena must rescue the realm from chaos in order to win back her own not-so-ordinary life. MirrorMask is a breathtaking film written by bestselling author Neil Gaiman and brought to life through the vision of acclaimed artist and director Dave McKean. This original novella is Helena's tale in her own voice, a stunning and magical journey.

My Thoughts: I just finished listening to the BOCD today. I enjoyed the story, the writing and the reader. It was simple, but creative and engaging.

Book Title: Little Earthquakes
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Category: Fiction
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (from Amazon.com) Weiner's novel centers around four new mothers, all of whom must learn to adjust their lives and their marriages to deal with the challenges of raising children. Ayinde is a beautiful, biracial newscaster who moves to Philadelphia after her husband, a star player for the NBA, is traded to the 76ers. She meets Becky, an overweight chef who plays the "pregnant or just fat" game every time she passes a mirror, and Kelly, an overachieving event planner who has her whole life mapped out down to the most minute details, after going into labor at a prenatal yoga class. The three become fast friends, and come to rely on each other for everything from burping techniques to intense emotional support. The group grows to include Lia, a semi-famous Hollywood starlet who leaves her husband and returns to Philly after a sudden tragedy. While Little Earthquakes may leave little to the imagination, and some of the characters are laughably stereotypical (the Mama's boy Jewish doctor and the cheating ball player, to name a few), it is Weiner's gift for creating compelling characters with whom her readers can identify that make her such a successful storyteller.

My Thoughts: It took me awhile to get into this book. I am single, do not want to get married anytime soon and do not want to have kids. This made the story one I could not relate to and one I had a hard time caring about, really. But the more I read, the more I started to like the characters and get involved in their lives. I enjoy Ms. Weiner's writing style, and it is a good story with well-drawn characters; I just think I would have liked it more had the topic been one I really cared about.

My favorite character was Kelly, who started out as my least favorite. I think she ended up being the most interesting because she grew so much by the end. Second favorite was definitely Becky, who was funny and irreverent and the one I could relate to the most. I love that they created a game in which the purpose was to throw yarmulkes at babies' heads and try to make them stay. That is definitely the type of activity I would participate in were I ever to become a mother.

Book Title: Betrayed
Author: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Category: Fantasy; Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B-

Short description/summary of the book: (from Amazon.com) Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night.  She’s come to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her, and is getting a handle on being the new Leader of the Dark Daughters. Best of all, Zoey finally feels like she belongs--like she really fits in. She actually has a boyfriend…or two. Then the unthinkable happens: Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey’s old life, she begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night, and Zoey must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world.

My Thoughts: I like Betrayed a bit more than Marked. I thought the story was more interesting and complex, and (some of) the characters have been fleshed out more. It still has all the things I like from the first one as well.

I enjoyed the main conflict in the book, though the villains were a bit over the top. It was more interesting to me than coming in and taking down the evil queen of the school within the first two days of being there. I am glad that certain characters (Aphrodite & Neferet, especially) have become more complex than the cardboard cutouts everyone acted like in the first book. I like that we see not even the main characters are safe, though the fact that Stevie Rae is not exactly dead has me wondering if they are going to miraculous find a cure and she will be restored to her fledgling form? I hope not, though I liked her character.

All the repetitive information recapping the first book was quite annoying. This, along with various other things I do not like, makes the writing feel forced and awkward. I think it's an interesting premise overall, but it just seems like they are trying too hard to create this cool, hip, original vampire world.

Still do not like all the pop culture references, making all these celebrities into vampires, and defining words for us. Also do not like the authors' need to explain why the main character knows certain pop culture references or that liking certain things makes her a dork. And I do not like that the authors' feel the need to explain the characters to us, how gay Damien is or how country Stevie Rae is. Stop shoving them into stereotypes and just let them be!

Still annoyed that Zoey is the most amazingest vampire fledgling eva!!! And that she gets not one, but three of the hottest guys around interested in her. I know fiction can be used to fulfill fantasies that could never happen in real life, but come on now. Also, Zoey is supposed to be wise and mature and a great leader, but she is still sounding very immature. I'm still annoyed by how casually she runs around calling people losers for how they look, what they wear, and choices they make that she doesn't like. She has good ideas and makes a lot of smart choices, but the way she reacts to what she is deciding against makes her seem less mature.

So, lots of annoying things still! But they were there to a lesser degree than the first book, and the story was more interesting. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Book Title: Marked
Author: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Category: Fantasy; Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B-

Short description/summary of the book: (from Amazon.com) In 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres not only exist but are also tolerated by humans. Those whom the creatures "mark" as special enter the House of Night school where they will either become vampyres themselves, or, if their body rejects the change, die. To Zoey, being marked is truly a blessing, though she's scared at first. She has never fit into the human world and has always felt she is destined for something else. Her grandmother, a descendant of the Cherokee, has always supported her emotionally, and it is she who takes the girl to her new school. But even there the teen stands apart from the others. Her mark from the Goddess Nyx is a special one, showing that her powers are very strong for one so young. At the House of Night, Zoey finds true friendship, loyalty, and romance as well as mistrust and deception. She realizes that all is not right in the vampyre world and that the problems she thought she left behind exist there as well.

My Thoughts: Typical teen story in which there is a black and white delineation between the heroes and the villains, and you will never mistake one for the other. Our heroine comes from a troubled family, longs for a place to belong, is marked as incredibly and shockingly extraordinary amongst her new peers, butts heads with the queen of the school who is also the flatly drawn villainess, immediately catches the eye of the hottest guy at school who is also the ex of our villainess, shows remarkable powers and wields them with a confidence and skill even the most advanced prodigy would not have after one day in a new world with new rules (after suffering from slight self-esteem issues easily erased by her upbeat and encouraging friends), and is wise beyond her years leading her to take on the benevolent savior leader role amongst her friends and eventually the entire school.

The author captures the teenage voice well enough (though it did seem she was trying a bit hard at times), but all the pop culture references got annoying. Also, while she did sound like a teenager, the narrator’s voice irritated me. She spent a good deal of time passing harsh judgments against particular types of people and behavior. Girls who wear lots of makeup are losers (as are a great many other people throughout the book). Teenagers drinking and smoking is horrifying and disgusting. Wanting to kiss someone you are attracted to apparently makes you a slut. She dislikes one of her classmates because he is not only annoying but also unattractive. While I am not saying that teenagers having sex and drinking and smoking is a good thing, I felt this moralizing had more to do with the author wanting the kiddies to know how dirty these things are than with the character really holding these opinions. It felt that her reaction to them was more immature than the character the author wanted us to see.

Also, not a fan of all the hatred for religion. More of the author pushing her point of view than creating anything compelling within the story. What does this really add to the story? Nothing that couldn’t have been done some other way.

The author does more telling than she should, which always annoys me. You don’t need to tell me that you hate homophobes; I can tell that by the way you’re speaking about their intolerance. You don’t need to tell me you’re a dork; I can tell that by the Star Trek sweatshirt you wear. You definitely don’t need to tell me that you have no choice in being the villainess because that is the role you are meant to play, I can tell that by reading the rest of the book. Also not cool? Defining words within the text. Not necessary! Are we writing an SAT prep novel? No!

I am getting a bit tired of the vampires who are so much more powerful, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful than humans and have all these amazing abilities and gifts. This just makes it too easy to use these abilities to get out of whatever trouble pops up in the story. Neferet showing up at the Samhain ritual? Why would she? Because she’s intuitive? I’m not buying it. It’s just too convenient.

Ok, so, those are some pretty negative bits that I did not like about the book, but I did enjoy it overall. I do like the vampires the author created. I like that becoming a vampire is a biological change that your body could reject, thus killing you. I like that they are mortal and just have a longer life span than humans. I like that they can go out during the day, it’s just really uncomfortable. I like that they have a vampire school. I like that they are part of society, excelling in the arts. I like that vampires have a matriarchal society. I think the mixture of the goddess and vampirism is interesting. I like the main character’s new friends. The concept is interesting and fun, and I will probably pick up the sequels at work tomorrow.

Book Title: The Very Virile Viking
Author: Sandra Hill
Category: Fiction; Historical Romance
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C+

Short description/summary of the book: (from Amazon.com) With its boisterous humor and lovable characters, the newest entry in Hill's time-travel series (following Truly, Madly Viking) will charm the socks off of readers. Magnus Ericsson, a brawny Viking from the 10th century, sets out with nine of his 11 children to find new lands when his longship drifts off course and ends up smack in the middle of a Hollywood set. Mistaken for an "act-whore" auditioning for a Viking film, he snags the producer's attention as well as the interest of gorgeous realtor Angela Abruzzi. Angela agrees to take Magnus and his kids in, with the caveat that her family's Sonoma County vineyard, be the setting for the producer's next flick. Though buff, Magnus is none too swift, and it takes him a while to realize he's time-traveled. Instead, he thinks he's discovered new lands. He and Angela make ideal sparring partners and bedmates: the only problem is that Magnus has taken a vow of celibacy. Despite a daunting number of characters, Hill manages to give each child a unique voice while still keeping the focus on the sexy shenanigans between Magnus and Angela. A subplot involving a nasty neighbor who will do anything to get his hands on the winery is underdeveloped, but, all in all, this is an engaging, hilarious and entirely winsome read.

My Thoughts: I decided to read this because I wanted something fluffy, and for years I have known of this book (I work in a library) and found the title hilarious, so I thought maybe it's time to pick it up. It was pretty ridiculous, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is supposed to be amusing. The attempt at archaic language used by the Vikings was annoying as was the way they all so easily understood a language that has not only evolved 1,000 years but is also not their native language. The main characters were flat and filled the expected roles of heroes and heroines in romance novels: the man was strong and masculine and believed men should lead and women should do as they say, yet he cared only about the woman's pleasure; the woman was emotional and wanted sex and babies. I didn't expect great character studies from this though, so I enjoyed it while reading it and am even contemplating reading the others in the series (which I wasn't aware of beforehand, how annoying to now get dragged into it).

Book Title: Inventing the Victorians
Author: Matthew Sweet
Category: Non-Fiction; Victorian History
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (from Amazon.com)  Commonly perceived as stodgy, stern, pious, humorless and deeply repressed, Victorians are frequently invoked in contemporary society as embodiments of everything their more liberated descendants are not. But this perception, Sweet suggests, is far from accurate. Noting that our image of the Victorians is based on a very selective range of materials, Sweet, a British writer, argues that we have almost willfully developed a distorted idea of 19th-century society largely in order to flatter ourselves with the belief that our own age is far more enlightened. Working with a wide-ranging array of documents letters, diaries, newspapers, novels and plays Sweet sets out to prove that the Victorians not only were in some ways more progressive, more sophisticated and less neurotic than we are, they also had a lot more fun than we give them credit for. To that end, he leads readers on a whirlwind tour through the more outr‚ aspects of Victorian life and culture, demonstrating that the 19th century was in many respects as much an era of thrill-seeking, sexual liberation and social upheaval as our own time. While he's arguably as selective in his own source materials and interpretations as are those whose perspective he seeks to debunk, Sweet does paint a more complex picture of the Victorians than we're used to seeing; this is a lively, entertaining trip through a side of 19th-century society most of us are probably unfamiliar with.

My Thoughts: This was an enjoyable and insightful book. The author’s main point is that the Victorian stereotype of the stuffy, prudish, repressed society is inaccurate. They were more like us than we think, and they may even have been more open about some things than we are now. They were the beginning of our contemporary ideas on all manner of topics. The author himself says that there is so much information from the period it would be easy to make whatever case for the Victorians that you wanted. But I think this just shows that the Victorian society was more varied and difficult to categorize, as any society peopled by diverse personalities would be.

There was a lot of fun, anecdotal evidence given throughout and covering a wide range of topics. The Victorians loved sensationalism, sex and scandals. And, contrary to popular belief, they did not seek these things in secret, hiding away from the light of day in which they maintained their prudish and repressed façade. Their sexuality was more fluid and less defined than it is today. Pornography was one of the most lucrative businesses of the time. They were the initiators of junk mail, commercial tie-ins for books and other entertainment, publicity stunts and other intense marketing schemes. Their seemingly-uptight and complex etiquette may have actually had common sense behind it.

An idea he brings up is not judging previous periods by today’s standards. Things we may now consider horrible were not necessarily thought of in a negative way and were often considered normal. We can see this in the Victorian view of children. They created an ideal of childhood innocence but they also sexualized children. We judge the Victorian’s harshly for this, yet we perpetuate both of these views today. Anti-pedophile campaigns v. teenage pop stars prancing around in something akin to underwear. We also view the Victorian fascination with freak shows as monstrous and cruel, yet the author shows how this lifestyle could be immensely lucrative and freeing for those who may have few other options. They were celebrities and had more control over their lives than we see in the modern stereotype of the poor victims locked up and mistreated. Of course, the reality of any morally ambiguous situation is difficult to pin down and will make most people uncomfortable, especially since morality tends to be viewed as absolute, not fluid.

He also makes a case against the concept of ‘separate spheres’, claiming that the domestic and professional worlds were far more complex than this. Women worked in the home and outside while men helped with house work. The Victorian concept of masculinity and what was proper conduct for a man was rife with contradictions, leading to a lack of consensus on the subject. Women had more power and men were less confident in their power than the one-dimensional stereotypes will allow.

Overall, this is an entertaining intro to the Victorians.

Book Title: The Sugar Queen
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Category: Fiction; Magical Realism
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (from Amazon.com)  In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever. Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother… Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life—because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding. Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and—most amazing of all—has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time—even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place—and what Chloe has to do with it all—is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life.

My Thoughts: This book has a lot of the same problems as Garden Spells and I don’t think Allen’s writing has improved much, but I enjoyed it much more. I think what made me like this one better is that I can relate to the main character. She has two qualities that are very important to me: She is a 20-something woman still living at home and desperate to get away, and she loves to eat. While my home life is not as sad as hers and the people around me don’t judge me for the brat I was as a child (which I was, absolutely), there’s still that desire to escape from the town I grew up in and not end up settling and sucked into a monotonous life. Also, I love food. I don’t hide mine, but I have stashes all around. I like to snack in my room, in the car, at work, wherever. So, I guess these things helped me to understand and appreciate the story more.

I love that Chloe randomly has books appear to her when she needs them. I love how persistent they are, how alive they are. I love that Josey has someone randomly appear in her closet and live there while helping her grow. I enjoyed watching Josey grow. I enjoyed the development of her relationship with Adam. I also like how Allen uses a food-related motif throughout the novel. That could seem a bit too cutesy and overdone, but for the type of book it is, it works.

I was a little annoyed that Chloe and Jake got back together. Allen made a big deal about how Chloe had never gotten to know herself, she had gotten lost in Jake, and how she needed to find herself. But I don’t think one month on your own and buying a house constitutes finding yourself. I guess it’s not as annoying since Chloe realizes this and vows to not lose herself again, but that’s hard to do when you’re focusing on someone else.

Something else that bothers me in most books is the way the main female character is portrayed. Often the main character will initially be described as plain or ugly or fat, but what we gather from the descriptions of the character and the responses of the other characters in the book, is that they are actually gorgeous and thin. Either the main character just thinks they are ugly or the author is using the Hollywood definition of ugly. Or, even better, nobody finds the main character in anyway attractive until she puts on makeup or loses lots of weight. So, Josey is initially described as, “pale and plain and just this side of plump” (p. 5). But once she starts wearing makeup, suddenly everyone realizes what a beauty she is. Bad message to send Ms. Allen! And “just this side of plump” is really not as bad as it could be, is it? This book is really not the worst of the offenders in this regard, but it’s the latest one I’ve come across. Just once I would like to find a book in which the main female character is described in a way that is very clearly unattractive in our society yet ends up finding someone who thinks she is beautiful. Why can’t we have more stories like that?

I did think the book was predictable, I called some things that happen later in the novel before it was even half through. I also think that the characterization is not great. Each character has a back story that explains why they are the way they are, and they are interesting stories. But I felt it was too flat. It wasn’t real enough. I felt like she was following a formula for characterizing these people instead of trying to make real people. The whole book was a little underdeveloped, like Garden Spells. It could be much better if she tried to flesh out the characters and the story a bit more.

Book Title: I'm Not a Feminist, But...
Author: Susi Rajah and Adele Lang
Category: Feminism; Non-Fiction; Sociology
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C-

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) Why, with a majority of women on the planet, is it still a man's world? I'm Not A Feminist, But... astutely and wittily delves into the world of the sexes. This book probes into our conscience's underbelly with over 100 funny yet stimulating questions, such as: Why are the only two fields in which women can out-earn men modeling and prostitution?; Why, when it's women who account for two-thirds of the world's work hours, is it men who mostly "work late" at the office?; If men are more capable than women, why can't they perform simple household chores?; Why is cooking "women's wokr" when the world's most celebrated chefs are men?; If men lived longer than women, would senior citizens get a better deal from the government?; Why do we say older women look great for their age only when they don't look their age? Comical graphics accompany each query, making I'm Not A Feminist, But ... a humorous, thought-provoking must-read for women of all ages.

My Thoughts: It has a few intriguing points, but mostly I was unimpressed by all the questions that were not especially thought-provoking or interesting.

Book Title: My Swordhand is Singing
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Category: Fantasy; Fiction; Folklore; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) When Tomas and his son, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know. But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.

My Thoughts: I love that Sedgwick bypasses all the modern conceptions of vampires and focuses on the early folklore. It was pretty slow in the beginning; it took me awhile to get into it. But the middle was fantastic. It pulled me in, it made me wonder, it creeped me out. I liked it so much I worried that the end wouldn’t live up to it. And it didn’t. It was a bit too contrived, predictable and abrupt. It felt forced and false and too easy. There was cliché after cliché.

At first, I liked the song that was woven through the story. The prologue about the song was beautiful. But then suddenly it had magical powers to defeat your enemies which is explained no further than, “I believed.” At least give me a better explanation than that, please.

And the Shadow Queen. What happened there? Everyone is terrified of her, she is behind the new power of the hostages, yet once they are defeated everyone acts like it’s suddenly spring. There is no more fear, yet the villagers were terrified of her before there was ever a hostage in their village. Have they suddenly all understood the meaning of the Miorita?

I thought the theme was a little undeveloped. It seemed like Peter would occasionally ponder the song’s meaning, get frustrated because he didn’t know what it meant or thought it was saying to passively give up and die instead of fighting back, and then we’d move on to something else. It wasn’t until the very end that there was a shift in the understanding of the song. Throughout the book we imagine death is a bad thing because the main character thinks it is, and then suddenly everyone realizes that death is part of life and it’s ok. It would have been nice if the understanding grew subtly to the full realization, but I didn’t feel that happen.

Overall, I thought it was a clever and well-organized story. I like his approach. Parts of it were just solid, great storytelling. I like how he uses a vampire story to explore his theme, even if I don’t think it was developed enough.

Book Title: Before I Die
Author: Jenny Downham
Category: Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) Sixteen-year-old Tessa Scott's surrender to cancer unfolds through Charlotte Parry's unrelenting performance. Tessa's list of 10 things to accomplish before she dies is chronicled through first-person narration and strong secondary characters. Parry pulls no punches as she portrays Tessa's involvement with sex, drugs, hospital treatments, and a best friends pregnancy. Well-timed dialogue and imagery add to the quality of the recording. While most characters are fully realized, Tessa's brothers accent slips in and out of Cockney, and her mothers voice isn't always distinct. Nevertheless, Parry builds the books momentum with professional skill. Listeners should stock up on tissues for this heartrending story.

My Thoughts: I mostly liked this one. I enjoyed Downham’s writing style. Bits of it were a little prosaic and bits of it were a little purple, but she has some surprising and beautiful ways of expressing thoughts and feelings. I had a hard time really connecting to the characters. They occasionally didn’t feel very realistic. I did like the form she used towards the end to emphasize the difference between what was going on around Tessa and what was going on in her mind as she was dying. I love how her list expands to include things going on in that moment, things like having a cup of tea or “Number thirteen, to hold my brother as dusk settles on the window ledge” (p. 288). She goes from wanting to accomplish big things in the near future to living in the moment and savoring what’s going on around her. By the end I was emotionally invested in the story, and spent the last few pages trying not to cry.

Book Title: Deadline
Author: Chris Crutcher
Category: Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) After being diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, 18-year-old Ben Wolf elects to forgo treatment and keep his illness secret from his family and friends in an attempt to have a "normal" senior year at his small Idaho high school. Free from long-term consequences, he connects with his crush, frustrates his biased U.S. Government teacher, and tries out for football. However, Ben's illness slowly exacts its toll on him, and he begins to realize the consequences of keeping his condition hidden. Crutcher brings his signature blend of sports action and human emotion to this powerful novel. Emotionally spare but deeply touching, the relationship between Ben and his brother will resonate with many readers, while others may find the several strong father figures comforting. Secondary characters add humor and balance, though the government teacher's voice occasionally veers too far toward that of a right-wing pundit. Rudy McCoy, a former priest and child molester, evokes both compassion and revulsion through his confession of guilt and struggle to avoid hurting another child; reflecting Ben's secret-keeping behavior, McCoy serves as a foil for the destructive impact secrets can have. Some discussion of sexual molestation and child abuse is present in the text, but is not graphic or overwhelming in its depiction. Crutcher uses dark humor and self-deprecation effectively to avoid maudlin situations, and teens will appreciate the respectful tone of the work.

My Thoughts: This is a very Very Serious Subject-heavy book, which I think can be a problem in most books. The book is only 316 pages long, and Crutcher tries to tackle death, suicide, racism, incest, teen pregnancy, child molestation and depression. I mean, he portrays them all in varying degrees of detail, and while they all tie into the main story, it would probably have been best to just deal with a couple of these topics in depth.

Toward the beginning of the book, I thought the emotions were pretty flat for the heavy topics that were portrayed. It seemed that Crutcher brought in Dallas being molested and having a kid and Rudy molesting and killing himself just as cardboard-cutout plot points to add onto the issues Ben was dealing with in his life and in his dreams, and they didn’t have any weight behind them. I didn’t think Ben’s response to his diagnosis was genuine either. It felt almost too cavalier. But! By the end he had really tied everything together nicely and created an engrossing, moving story. I saw the shift in emotion being caused by Ben moving from a state where maybe his diagnosis didn’t seem entirely real to really coming face-to-face with the effects of his disease.

I thought the writing was clever and interesting, though probably not realistic to an 18 year old boy. I recall nobody using words like ‘ambulatory’ or ‘congruent’ when I was 18. I do remember having an I-know-everything-and-will-teach-the-silly-adults-where-they-are-going-wrong attitude accompanied by a passionate pursuit to change everyone’s mind and open their eyes to the truth.

There are some pretty great descriptions in the book. I think he has captured what it is like to fear and what it is like to have fear sneak up on you. I like that he describes death as changing, not dying.

I don’t agree with Crutcher’s message of moral relativism entirely, but he presents it well. He has people suffer for their actions and for the things done to them without everyone finding absolution and happiness in the end. I liked that Rudy doesn’t suddenly forgive himself thanks to the miraculous help offered by Ben, and I like that Rudy isn’t black & white. I like that Ben struggles with his friendship with Rudy and his discovery of what Rudy has done. I was a little disturbed by his suggestion that Dallas’s trauma from being molested is only present because she allows it to be.

I do think to an extent that the effect on us from the things we do and the things that are done to us is reliant on our response to those things and how we let them affect us. We cannot overcome anything without choosing to. And I do agree that life is made up of lots of gray areas. But I also think there are acts that are inherently wrong no matter what and that are going to leave scars no matter what. Harming others is wrong, and molesting someone is harmful. Fine, Crutcher wants to tell us about a hypothetical culture in which fathers or uncles sleep with daughters or nieces because that is what is expected in the culture and the girls would be shunned otherwise. I am going to assume the girls are not forced into this against their will, as he suggests there is nothing morally wrong with his hypothetical situation. I am also going to assume that being forced into a sexual situation you do not want to be in is going to have serious psychological ramifications no matter what culture you’re part of and which can’t be wiped away just by ‘telling the truth’ as he would have it (though that, in itself, is a difficult thing to do).

So we’ve got the effects of molesting and being molested being written off as people just not rising above the challenge and defeating it. Maybe that’s not what Crutcher is trying to say, but that is how it comes off. And right next to his moral relativism message in which being molested only seems like a bad thing, he tells us that racism is inherently bad. Which is it? Why is racism inherently bad but people suffering psychologically as a result of horrible events just need to buck up?

But in the larger picture surrounding his moral relativism, he has a lot of good stuff on humanity and relationships and connecting with others and pain and decision-making and living life, and he expresses these ideas well.

I do wholeheartedly agree with his message on the importance of being fully informed. Knowledge most definitely is power. And I like that he has Ben debate with his teacher over the importance of education, even if I did find Ben to be a bit obnoxious and self-righteous during these bits.

I really liked watching Ben’s development over the course of the book. I liked watching him go from a kid who thinks he knows what’s best, to realizing that maybe he doesn’t, to accepting that he was wrong and maybe made some crappy decisions.

So, quick recap: good writing, interesting ideas (though I do not agree with them all), good characters.

Book Title: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007
Author: Dave Eggers, ed.
Category: Anthology; Fiction; Non-fiction
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C

Short description/summary of the book: (From Goodreads.com) A selection of the best writing, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics, published in American periodicals during 2006.

My Thoughts: This collection was pretty hit or miss for me. There were a few essays that I really, really enjoyed, and there were a few that I had to force myself to get through. I was pretty disappointed overall because previous editions in this series have sucked me in start to finish.

Essays I loved:
-The Introduction by Sufjan Stevens. Love the writing style.
-"Ghost Children" by D. Winston Brown. Interesting look at boys becoming men. Great writing style.
-"Rock the Junta" by Scott Carrier. Interesting look at Burma. Great writing style.
-"What is Your Dangerous Idea" from the Edge Foundation. Dangerous ideas are always an interesting read.
-"Selling the General" by Jennifer Egan. I didn't think I liked her writing, but I really enjoyed this story.
-"Darfur Diaries" by Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro. Very engrossing.
-"The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground" by David J. Morris. Interesting look at the war and wonderful writing style.

Essays I enjoyed but didn't love:
-"Best American Six-Word Memoirs"
-"Middle-American Gothic" by Jonathan Ames
-"A Happy Death" by Alison Bechdel
-"American" by Joshua Clark

Book Title: Damsels Not in Distress: The True Story of Women in Medieval Times
Author: Andrea Hopkins
Category: Medieval History; Non-fiction
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (From RosenPublishing.com) The image of the damsel in distress is rampant in medieval literature. In fact, as shown in this fascinating book, women were participants in the culture of the time. They were often heads of noble households, and played an active role in the church and in industry. Women were at the heart of medieval Europe's textile industry. With primary source material and illuminated manuscripts, this book shows the impact of women during this historic period, including these fascinating stories of famous women.

My Thoughts: This is a book that I stumbled across while pulling RHA at work a couple weeks ago. It's a short kid's book, which I think is a great jumping off point if you want to learn about a topic. The book covers two historical topics that fascinate me: Medieval history & women in history. It is a very simple, very easy read. Since it is a topic with which I am already familiar, I didn't really learn anything new, as it is a kid's book which is meant to create a broad picture of the subject. It did reinforce what a badass Eleanor of Aquitaine was. And I did enjoy the pictures of illuminated manuscripts and stained glass. I love Medieval art. Sometimes, in the author's attempt to make things simplistic for a young reader, she ended up muddling the sentence so the meaning was not always clear. Overall, an enjoyable way to spend half an hour.

Book Title: The Sweet Far Thing
Author: Libba Bray
Category: Fantasy; Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Goodreads.com) It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds. The Order - the mysterious group her mother was once part of - is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.

My Thoughts: I think I liked this one the best of the three in the trilogy. I can’t be sure because I read the other two about two years ago, and I just have a vague impression of them. The first two were interesting, but I didn’t really connect with the story. Clearly, I liked them enough to read the whole trilogy though. Looking at the size of each book, I am guessing the first two were more tightly plotted, at least.

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The Sweet Far Thing had a lot of good and a lot of bad. First, Libba Bray has a lovely, poetic writing style. I love some of her descriptions. I was surprised by how well written I found it because I remember being a bit indifferent to the prose in the first two. But it probably could have been quite a bit shorter. It seemed to wander aimlessly, and I sometimes wondered what the point was. It also took a long time to find out anything of importance. It was rather repetitive in going over the same information we already had again and again.

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Something that really bothered me was the magic. Maybe I was reading too quickly to catch everything, but it was a bit confusing. So, we are told numerous times that the magic is changing. That’s fine. It could have been really interesting to look at the magic as an organic, living thing. But. We didn’t really get that, did we? Instead, the changing magic was used as an excuse to make the magic do whatever the heck Bray wanted with no rules or guidelines. Rules are mentioned, Gemma said she doesn’t know what the magic is capable of, but we never see any rules in action and we don’t really see them trying to figure that out. Once with the healing Gemma tried, but other than that it’s all talk.

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I like how she dealt with our illusions v. reality. I guess what we are generally told through books and movies and other forms of art and communication is that we must rip down our illusions and embrace the truth. But here she’s saying that, yeah, facing reality is the best, but sometimes the illusions are necessary. While it’s an interesting message, it wasn’t really the most subtle one, but she doesn’t seem to do subtlety. This is clearly seen in her push for female empowerment.

If you’re writing a historical novel, it’s probably a good idea to attempt to keep things accurate instead of stuffing it with anachronistic ideals. The characters in this were way too modern for their time. This bothered me in all the books. Their language was often too modern, and they would not have gotten away with everything they did. Felicity debuting? Probably not. Which is not to say feminism should not be portrayed in historical novels, because clearly women didn’t just up and decide sometime in the 70’s that they wanted rights too; it’s just a bit inaccurate for the period. So, good ideas, but it got a bit preachy, especially in the end. I tend to get a little annoyed when authors spend paragraph upon paragraph telling me what they want to say. If you’re going to do that, try writing essays not fiction.

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I think there was a lot of potential to work out how one deals with power and becomes a leader and makes decisions, but she failed with this. Along the same lines, I thought she could have dealt with facing the consequences of your actions, developing responsibility or maybe working hard to get what you want, but another fail. I put these together because I see the failure coming from the same place.

Gemma is in charge of all this magic and is supposed to be protecting it and making decisions regarding the realms and she and Felicity and Anne are going through a variety of issues at home, but they just play with the magic. They use the magic to get what they want with no work on their part. They suffer no consequences from doing this. Maybe I’m just used to stories that try to teach that taking the easy way is bad. But using the magic to get what they want denies them growth and is an easy answer on the characters’ part and on the writer’s part. The only one who does learn anything from using the magic is Anne.

Allowing the characters to use magic with no negative consequences, and creating girls who are too modern for their time, and allowing them to have fun and get what they want may be exactly Bray’s point. She’s writing a fictional novel, so perhaps she wanted to create a world in which magic could be used for your own purposes without backfiring on you. She is writing about multiple characters who all have a lot of suffering in their backgrounds prior to when the novels start, so perhaps for a fictional fantastical book it is not necessarily bad to portray these characters trying to free themselves and be who they are without suffering the often necessary compromises of real life.

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The character development and growth was lacking, though I did think the characters were pretty round. I love Kartik; I think he is the most interesting character, possibly the most well done despite his fairly small part. I think all the girls are well-realized teenagers with their own unique qualities and flaws. I loved watching Pippa’s decline and seeing how it took shape.

Anne grew the most, I think. We actually saw a progression in her. Pippa changed at least, though it was her corruption we saw. Even Tom grew as a character, though maybe it was a bit abrupt. Gemma & Felicity just kind of stood still.

Gemma would waffle between being insecure and confident, but nothing she did really lead to any actual change in her. She was told numerous times to search her dark corners, which could have provided for some great realizations and growth, but she just brushes it off. She feels she is all alone in the world (as any normal teenager would) but is told time and again that she doesn’t have to be. Tom says, “We’re every one of us alone in this world, Gemma. . . . But you have company, if you want it” (p. 695). This seems to be a theme of Bray’s, yet she sends Gemma off on her own to a new country in the end. Why? Is Gemma incapable of internalizing any lesson taught her?

Felicity especially bothered me, but I think the reason she didn’t grow as a character is that the author had already made her the perfectly liberated female character. She did what she wanted, she didn’t care what others thought, the suffering in her background spurred her towards this, but we never saw any growth in the novels. The front flap of the book says, “Rule-breaking Felicity must do what she’s told or risk losing her inheritance….” But she doesn’t do what she’s told, does she? The most we see is that she charms the family who is sponsoring her for her debut. So, maybe she should have learned that sometimes we need to do things we don’t want. Maybe she doesn’t need to grow in that way necessarily, but some growth would have been nice.

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I really didn’t like that Kartik died, not because we need to have a perfectly happy ending but because it made no sense. At all. Nobody can deny this. Why did he have to die? He said the debt must be paid, but the Winterlands creatures wanted to sacrifice Gemma to get the magic and to make the tree’s power stronger? And we do not want this to happen, right? That’s why they are fighting? To save the magic from the Winterlands? Am I missing something? What debt is there? Why should there be any debt? Why is it necessary for someone to die? I am totally willing to admit that I am missing something here, because again, I find the magic muddled and confusing.

I read a rumor that Bray killed him because she didn’t want readers to think you needed a man to be happy. Alright, fine, that’s her prerogative as the author, but at least have the death make sense. Also, there’s a difference between needing a man to be happy and finding your soul mate, which Bray clearly showed was the case for Gemma and Kartik. I don’t necessarily believe in the idea of one soul mate, but throughout the books we are shown just how enmeshed in each other they are and how they are meant to be together. After emphasizing how not alone Gemma can be (through a number of relationships), why take away the relationship that could arguably be the deepest?

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So, lots of complaints, as is my way, but I really did enjoy it overall.

Book Title: The Host: A Novel
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Category: Fiction; Romance; Sci-Fi
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) A species of altruistic parasites has peacefully assumed control of the minds and bodies of most humans, but feisty Melanie Stryder won't surrender her mind to the alien soul called Wanderer. Overwhelmed by Melanie's memories of fellow resistor Jared, Wanderer yields to her body's longing and sets off into the desert to find him. Likely the first love triangle involving just two bodies, it's unabashedly romantic, and the characters (human and alien) genuinely endearing.

My Thoughts: I originally had not planned on even reading this book because the Twilight series instills much rage within my soul (though I love it, how frustrating!), but I was given an advanced reading copy by a coworker. At the time, I was in a dry spell for reading, so I decided to give it a try. I have to say I really enjoyed it much more than the Twilight series. I have seen a lot of people complain about how slow the beginning was, but I didn’t really notice. It sucked me in pretty quickly. It was very clearly a Stephenie Meyer book, though, which did lead to certain amounts of anger and eyes rolling nearly out of my head.

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First, for sci-fi, it was pretty light on the sci and not exactly original. That doesn’t necessarily bother me because when I read sci-fi, I am not really reading for all the high tech gadgetry and sciencey stuff. I like a good story and good characters whatever form they come in. But, the problem comes in when she doesn’t build her world properly. All the other worlds she described felt like cartoonishly bland paper cutouts. I understand her point in making them so bland, but at least make them feel real. Also, could she not be bothered to at least Latinize names or something? No Pain? Heal? Blind Planet? A bit simplistic, no?

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My biggest complaint with Stephenie Meyer is her romantic plots. Specifically, her attempts at romantic dialogue. I feel like I’ve accidentally picked up a Harlequin romance. It is super cheesy and super melodramatic. It makes my brain hurt. Here’s an example: “I stared into Jared’s eyes, and the strangest thing happened. All the melting, melding, welding that I had just been through was shoved aside, into the smallest part of my body, the little corner that I took up physically. The rest of me yearned toward Jared with the same desperate, half-crazed hunger I’d felt since the first time I’d seen him here. This body barely belonged to me or to Mel—it belonged to him” (595, ARC). WHAT! First, horribly cheesy. Second, nobody but you owns your body, and if you find it romantic to think otherwise, that is unhealthy. Let’s learn some emotional and physical independence!

What the hell is up with underage characters and older men?! Why could the females not be slightly older? This is supposedly being marketed as an adult book, so maybe it’s a bit alienating to make your main character(s) 16 when she first meets Jared who was 26, then 17 when she was starting in a new body (which they thought was younger!) when Ian is in his mid-20’s (I am guessing).

 I’m just glad the romantic interests were not supposed to be seen as perfect. They had their flaws, and we were not reminded every 20 seconds how easily they dazzled everyone. Jared can barely stand Wanderer for most of the book. He would kill her easily if it weren’t Mel’s body. He is cruel and violent towards her. Ian is the first to physically assault her. And then in the end he does it again, while also being a bit violent toward Sunny & Jared. This shocks everyone. Of course, Ian is pretty near perfect with his perfect understanding and perfect kindness and perfect love. But I will accept this because I think that his perfect personality fits with the gentle, loving, peaceful personality of Wanderer.

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While still cheesy, there were bits that were not romance-based that made me cry a little on the inside. I felt Wanderer’s fear about what she had to do in the end. In the tunnel on the way to Doc for the last time, when she asked Jared where everyone slept when it rained, my heart ached for her. I thought that was a lovely way of noting how much she still really wanted to find out about this world and how much she was going to miss and that life was going to go on without her. I know, I know, we are being emotionally manipulated, because it you don’t know how it’s going to end before you even pick it up, you haven’t read enough in life. But if you put yourself in the character’s place when she has a very clear idea of what is going to happen, it’s pretty sad.

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The thing that made me love this is that it is not a romance. It is a story about humanity with romance thrown in. I liked looking at humanity through alien eyes. I liked learning what it means to be human with Wanderer. I like the interactions between Melanie and Wanderer. I like that Wanderer picked up sarcasm from Melanie. I love how absolutely confused she initially is by humans. Souls are gentle, loving, peaceful. She views humans as violent, hateful creatures. She is confused when they feed and protect her. This completely goes against her view of humanity.

I like how we perceive the humans through her eyes, how we get an idea of their motives from her which she is normally wrong about, and then we slowly see the change. For instance, when we first see Doc, he is kind and gentle; then Wanderer realizes that he wants to take her to his tunnel and chop her up. It is uncomfortable for us to see someone who is so kind being portrayed as a torturer. But then we learn that he had taken it upon himself to protect her, and Wanderer is shocked by his compassion for Walter and wonders how she could have been viewing him as a torturer. But we discover that he is still dissecting souls, and even though he is distraught at having to do this, Wanderer is back to seeing him as a monster. And finally, she comes to realize that this is the only way the humans can fight back and she accepts that.

I enjoyed seeing how Wanderer reacted to humans and how her perception of them changed. She goes from being terrified of humans to constantly surprised and confused by how good they end up being to loving them and embracing her own humanity. But throughout it she is ashamed of betraying her kind and feels like a traitor. She constantly second guesses herself, whether it’s in favor of the humans or the souls. It’s not until the end when she really accepts that maybe what she does is wrong, but if it brings about good then it’s the best thing for her to do.

I love how the book explores different types of love, not just romantic. Wanderer loves Jared & Ian, but she loves Melanie & Jamie just as much. She is willing to die for all of these people. I think her love for Jamie might be even deeper than her love for Jared. It is what spurs her on to defy everyone and risk her life by going back out into the world to find medicine to save him.

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I like the question of how much of yourself comes from some ethereal personality/soul and how much comes from your physical body. What makes us human? What parts of us do people fall in love with? Are we more physical, spiritual, emotional? It’s a bit cheesy (how I hate it!), but I like the idea portrayed when Ian says, “It’s not the face, but the expressions on it. It’s not the voice, but what you say. It’s not how you look in that body, but the things you do with it” (p. 397, ARC). And then we get to see Wanderer in two different bodies which change her a bit. We have weak v. strong, etc. When in Mel’s body, Wanderer feels a physical longing for Jared but an emotional one for Ian. After she is put in a new body, she still loves Jared. Melanie occasionally seems overly familiar with Ian before remembering who she is. Jared stares searchingly and confusedly at Wanderer. What makes someone who they are? What part of a person do others connect with?

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There are a lot of small touches that really pleased me. I love how people act and react in this book.

In the desert, Wanderer starts referring to “we” and “our” when talking about things done before she was around. We see how completely one they are becoming.

I thought it was hilarious when Wes (?) said, “You may have taken the planet, but you’re losing this game,” when they were playing soccer. This is totally something I would joke about, but I think a lot of people would be shocked by someone being so flippant about something so serious.

A reaction that rings completely true is when, after Wanderer walks in on the dissections and is absolutely horrified, the guys are confused about why she is so upset when they were sure to cover the bodies so she couldn’t have seen anything. However, they only covered the human bodies. They still see the souls as alien and other which negates understanding and compassion.

I love how they treat the seeker so well because they have learned from Wanderer and have gained understanding and don’t want to feel like monsters, but Wanderer is jealous and doesn’t understand why they would treat the seeker so well when they treated her like crap. I think that would be a miscommunication that would be very likely to occur.

I love what happens in the following bit: “’Ah,’ the seeker’s familiar voice moaned from the human body. ‘Ah.’ / The room went utterly silent. Everyone looked at me, as if I were the expert on humans” (p. 553, ARC). Of course that is how they would react when she is the one who knows how to bring the humans back!

I think Jamie is hilarious when he pushes Ian & Wanderer together when they are all sleeping in the game room.

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One of Meyer’s themes is hope. Bringing the human inside the seeker back brings the people hope. They are able to accept her so easily because of this. But the first instance we have of hope is when Wanderer sees the soul mother playing with her human child. She believes this means hope for a world in which souls and humans live together peacefully. But my problem with that is that the only way for the souls to keep living on earth is to keep taking over human bodies. How is this going to allow them to live peacefully with the people they must take over to survive? Are they going to have kids and then take over their bodies? I have no idea how there could be hope here.

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Another theme of the book is belonging. What makes one belong? Wanderer does not think she belongs in the cave because she is not human. Many of the humans agree. But she becomes part of the community, and her friends, who have gotten to know her and thus care about her, believe she belongs. Jeb never calls her ‘it’, and as the others get to know her they stop doing this. Lacey is instantly accepted by many of the humans because she is human (or becomes human again). But she has a hateful personality, and most of the main characters do not like her. Jeb refers to her as ‘that creature’. So what makes us belong somewhere?

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I think the characterization is pretty good in this.

Ian, for instance, initially comes off as cruel and violent (he tries to kill her), but he’s just reacting to his world being taken over by beings who want to basically kill all humans. We see that he has the capacity to be kind, to gain perspective, to learn to understand. Granted, it seemed a bit incongruous to go from Killer to Most Compassionate & Loving Person Alive Ever in such a short time, but I'll take what I can get.

Even Kyle is well-developed, though it mostly comes up in the end. Initially, he is just the villain of the story, but once Sunny is brought in we see that, yeah, he is rash and selfish and arrogant and angry, but he can be gentle and kind. And we don’t see this 180 done on his character where all of a sudden, out of the blue, he is capable of love. We know he had a girlfriend before this all started. Someone, at some point, must have seen some good stuff in him. And his grief at losing his world is manifest through anger and violence towards those who destroyed it. Sunny looks at him as her protector, but he doesn’t jump into a relationship with Sunny. He wants Jodi back. But through his interactions with Sunny, he gains understanding. He is confused by her reaction to initially meeting him and is surprised he can be so kind to her. He is compassionate when she realizes what is going to happen and is terrified, he didn’t realize it would be that hard. Once Jodi doesn’t come back, he has Sunny put back in her body, and he takes care of her. But he’s confused by it all; he doesn’t know what he’s doing or how to have a relationship with her. Meyer is able to create a character that grows but still remains himself.

Then we have the differing personalities of Wanderer. Wanderer is peaceful, loving, gentle, a loner. But then we have Mel, who is feisty, tough, strong, fast, practical, sarcastic. Once Wanderer is put in Pet’s body, she is shy, bouncy, giggly, hyper.

The one character I had a problem with was Jamie. Granted, it has been many years since I hung out with 14 year old boys, but he seemed quite immature for his age. I don’t know many teenagers who would act as he did, but I am giving him the benefit of the doubt since he grew up in a post-apocalyptic world with only his sister whom he thought he had lost.

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I did have a problem with the ending. It’s just too neat and happy. While I was amused and pleased that Jared held a knife to Doc to get him to save Wanderer, it’s way too pat of an ending. Of course, you knew it would happen from the beginning, but I have to wonder whether it would be a better ending to just let her die. She’s lived, she’s learned, it’s her time to go. Life and love go on even in the face of death, as Meyer reminds us numerous times. Show us how the humans cope, how they do on their own once she’s gone. Of course, she is the main character of the book, so maybe allowing her to continue learning how to be human is not such a bad thing.

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Questions I still have which perhaps more adept readers can help answer: When a soul is placed in a baby/child’s body, do they become psychologically infantile? If they’ve lived numerous lives already, they are adults and think as such, so what happens when they are physically children being raised by adults? If Mel and Wanderer inhabit the same body, why does Mel get so angry when Jared kisses her when she knows it is Mel, not Wanderer he is kissing? She can see, hear & feel? Just because she can’t control the body she gets angry at Jared for kissing her? In the end, why is it ok to send souls to other planets instead of killing them? Aren’t they just continuing the enslavement of other sentient beings by doing this? Wanderer says there was never any resistance from the other planets, but what about the mass suicide in one of the See Weed forests?

Book Title: The Martian Child: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son
Author: David Gerrold
Category: Fictionalized Memoir
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (From Goodreads.com) David Gerrold tells a touching, hilarious, infuriating, and searingly honest story about the trials and tribulations of fatherhood. An autobiographical novel based on his own experiences, The Martian Child is a valentine from a father to a son. A son who thinks he's a Martian.

My Thoughts: I was a bit wary about reading this because I am not a fan of overly emotional, heartwarming tales of love and suffering and ultimate triumph. But I found this book to be emotional without being overwrought. The author writes beautifully and has some pretty great descriptions. However, it seems a bit shallow. I felt like we were just skimming the top of the story. It's a complex topic, but it seemed the author was telling us about how difficult adopting a troubled child was or he had been told/read it would be but didn't show much of this. Mostly he showed how wonderful their relationship was. I am guessing his point in doing this was to create a dramatic climax (but not before showing us how easy it is to heal with lots of love), as it is a fictionalized account (why?), but I think it took away from watching them grow and learn how to be a family together. There were some interesting bits about story telling as part of communication and how we create our realities, but they seemed misplaced at times. Overall, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Book Title: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Author: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Category: Economics; Non-Fiction; Sociology
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet.

My Thoughts: I decided to read this because I had heard only glowing reviews of it from people around me. Maybe I rate it so poorly because my expectations were unrealistic. It was a fairly interesting read, though I did spend a portion of it not paying too much attention to what was being said. A lot of it wasn't all that important. Most of his questions had obvious, logical answers and didn't really need 20+ pages of exploration to tell me what I already knew or could guess. People act based on incentives and use information for their own agenda? Utterly shocking. I found his chapters on drug dealers and the drop in crime to be the most interesting sections. Mostly it answered questions and looked at topics I had never thought about or found especially interesting. Maybe that's the point. The most annoying bit is in between chapters where they've put a long quote from the article Dubner wrote about Levitt. Seems terribly narcissistic to me. What did it really have to do with what was being discussed? At any rate, it shows how a "rogue" economist thinks.

Book Title: The Lady in Blue
Author: Javier Sierra
Category: Fiction; Historical Religious Mystery; Translation
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) Destiny propels an agnostic journalist to rediscover his faith in this intriguing paranormal puzzler about a mysterious bilocating lady in blue from bestseller Sierra (The Secret Supper). In 1629, Sister María Jesús de Ágreda appeared more than 500 times to the Jumano Indians of New Mexico and converted them to Christianity—without ever leaving her monastery in Spain. (The Inquisition suspected her of witchcraft.) In 1991, Spanish journalist Carlos Albert interviews Giuseppe Baldi, a Benedictine priest and musicologist about his 1972 Chronovision machine reported to recapture sounds as well as images from the past. (The Vatican censured Baldi.) Albert later stumbles on Ágreda's monastery in Spain, while in Los Angeles, Jennifer Narody, a former U.S. intelligence agent working on a secret project for the Vatican, deals with unusual dreams and receives a startling stolen religious text.

My Thoughts: This book came highly, highly recommended by multiple coworkers who absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, it was not a book that engrossed me. I had to force myself to read it, and it took me a long time to get through. The topic was somewhat interesting, but I felt no connection with any of the characters or any of the events and didn't really care what happened.

I decided I would finish it because what I kept hearing was that the ending was shocking. It was not. If anything it was abrupt and kind of annoying. Here is a quote that will show you why I found it annoying: "Your mission will be to let that information out into the world in small doses so that it does not have so traumatic an effect when our enemies make it public, for we seriously fear that the matter is already out of our hands. / "And how will I do it?" / "That's what we must agree upon. But I have several ideas. For example, you can ask someone to write a novel, film a television series, shoot a movie . . . whatever! They could use a version of our propaganda. As is well known, when the truth is disguised as fiction, it for some reason ends up being less credible." / . . . / "Why don't we simply invite this journalist to write the novel you propose? When all is said and done, he already possesses certain elements with which he can begin to weave the story. He could even title it something like The Lady in Blue . . ." Ugh, that is cringe-worthy to me. Sometimes being self-referential or incredibly self-aware is not a bad thing in books. In this one, it is just an ugly bit of writing. Why do that? Why bash us over the head with trying to say, "OH Ho! Look at my book for it is full of hidden conspiracies and truth! Just kidding. No really, the Vatican told me to write it. Really. *Wink*" It makes me roll my eyes, and it was the most annoying part of the book.

Now, as a translation, it is horribly awkward. Much of the dialog & exposition is clumsy and unnatural. I'm sure a lot of this is due to the translation, but I have to fault the author for making some of the dialog seem like poorly written narrative instead of actual dialog. I guess in Spanish he might explain things in a more colloquial manner, so I am mostly blaming the translation as I can't read Spanish well enough to tell.

Also, it occasionally feels like you are being beaten over the head with the excessive repetition of certain facts. It unfolds way too slowly, in my opinion. While a lot did happen and a lot of info was exchanged, I feel as though nothing happened and nothing was learned.

I guess a good thing about the book is that it introduced me to some interesting historical tidbits, which are probably more interesting in their own right than this fictional account of them.

Book Title: The Heroines
Author: Eileen Favorite
Category: Bildungsroman; Derivative (sort of); Fiction
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C-

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) "On a picturesque acreage near Prairie Bluff, Ill., 13-year-old Penny Entwistle, and her mother, Anne Marie, run a retreat where literary heroines seek temporary refuge from their tragic destinies. Franny Glass, Madame Bovary, Scarlett O'Hara, Catherine Linton and others find respite from their varied crises, but must return to their books eventually and suffer the fate that awaits. Penny, in the first throes of teenage rebellion, has little patience for her mother and the heartbroken or otherwise distraught women Anne Marie refuses to counsel (lest she change the course of their stories). And Anne Marie lavishes on her heroine lodgers the attention her daughter longs for. But when a mythical Celtic knight arrives, searching for his lost heroine Deirdre, Penny gets caught up in a web of deception that lands her in the loony bin. While the staff diagnoses her fabulous story as an attempt to deal with the long-ago death of her father, her mother commits Penny as a means of protecting her from peculiar goings-on at the house, and Penny must rely on the very fictional characters her mother favors to help her."

My Thoughts: Awesome idea, again. Terrible execution, yet again. It is just a mess. The writing is awful. I almost didn't make it through the first paragraph. It is much darker than I thought it would be, which is not bad in itself. The darkness didn't really do anything to me emotionally though. I didn't care about the characters at all. Also, the Heroines the novel is named after are underutilized. I thought it would be a story about what all the heroines got up to at the B&B, why they came, etc., but it was more the narrator occasionally telling us random stories about some of the heroines that came to the B&B. I would have liked to have seen more of the heroines and had them play a more central role. And the end is way too abrupt and easy and predictable. The author just kind of throws it at you in her attempt to scramble away from this mess as quick as she can. I think the idea has a lot of potential, but we hardly got to know any of the characters in this book.

Book Title: Flight
Author: Sherman Alexie
Category: Bildungsroman; Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon) "Half-Indian, half-Irish, acne-beset Zits is 15: he never knew his alcoholic father; his mother died when he was six; his aunt kicked him out when he was 10 (after he set her sleeping boyfriend on fire because the boyfriend had been forcing Zits to have sex). Running away from his 20th foster home, Zits ends up, briefly, in jail; soon after, he enters a bank, shoots several people and is shot dead himself. Zits then commences time-traveling via the bodies of others, finding himself variously lodged in an FBI agent in the '70s (helping to assassinate radical Indian activists); a mute Indian boy at the Battle of Little Big Horn; an Indian tracker named Gus; an airplane pilot instructor (one of whose pupils commits a terrorist act); and his own father. Zits eventually comes back to himself and to an unexpected redemption. While the plot is wisp-thin, one quickly surrenders to Zits's voice, which elegantly mixes free-floating young adult cynicism with a charged, idiosyncratic view of American history. Alexie plunges the book into bracing depths."

My Thoughts: I really like Sherman Alexie. I think he has a great writing style. He's able to twist your insides into whatever he wants with a simple, seemingly-innocuous phrase. He's pretty funny quite often. And, I hate when people describe writing this way, but he weaves all these bits and pieces together effortlessly. He'll mention something, and awhile later he'll make an off-hand comment bringing the idea or phrase or metaphor or whatever back in a way that kind of hits you. That's just in general. In particular, I really enjoyed this book. It does a good job of exploring a bunch of different topics like identity, revenge, hate, abandonment, shame. However, Alexie has a tendency to tell instead of show. Or he'll show and then explain to us what we're seeing. And you know, I'm a big girl; I can figure it out on my own. It can get a little preachy, but I didn't really mind too much. Also, the ending was a bit too pat, but I won't dismiss a book for giving a character I like a happy ending.

Book Title: Betwixt
Author: Tara Bray Smith
Category: Fantasy; Fiction; YA
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C+

Short description/summary of the book: (From the front cover) "For three teenagers, dark mystery has always lurked at the corners of the eyes and the edge of sleep. Beautiful Morgan D'Amici wakes in her meager home with blood under her fingernails. Paintings come alive under Ondine Mason's violet-eyed gaze. Haunted runaway Nix Saint-Michael sees halos of light around people doomed to die. At a secret summer rave in the woods, these teenagers learn of their true origins and their uncertain, intertwined destinies. Riveting, unflinching, and beautiful, Betwixt shows a world complex and compelling as any ordinary reality."

My Thoughts: I am not familiar enough with the world of fantasy to know when ideas are original or hackneyed; however, I did think that the basic concept behind the book was interesting. I liked that changelings were called thus because they change energy and that they must inhabit a human to learn to concentrate their energy before becoming part of the universal consciousness. BUT! The book was a bit tedious at times. It could have been edited down considerably. Also, it was really confusing. Half the time I had no idea what they were doing, why they were doing it or how they were doing it. The author tried to slowly leak information in order to keep the reader interested (I'm assuming this was her aim), but she hasn't quite discovered the balance between maintaining the mystery and giving the reader information that makes sense. Even when she explained certain things, my brain melted a little trying to figure out what the heck she meant. And she leaves important stuff out. I think the problem is she knows the whole story and the world she's created, so to her, what she writes makes perfect sense because her brain fills in all the missing information. Mostly, it comes off as a big mess.

Book Title: Garden Spells
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Category: Fiction; Magical Realism
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: C+

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) “Two gifted sisters draw on their talents to belatedly forge a bond and find their ways in life in Allen's easygoing debut novel. Thirty-four-year-old Claire Waverley manifests her talent in cooking; using edible flowers, Claire creates dishes that affect the eater in curious ways. But not all Waverley women embrace their gifts; some, including Claire's mother, escape the family's eccentric reputation by running away. She abandoned Claire and her sister when they were young. Consequently, Claire has remained close to home, unwilling to open up to new people or experiences. Claire's younger sister, Sydney, however, followed in their mother's footsteps 10 years ago and left for New York, and after a string of abusive, roustabout boyfriends, returns to Bascom, N.C., with her five-year-old daughter, Bay. As Sydney reacquaints herself with old friends and rivals, she discovers her own Waverley magic. Claire, in turn, begins to open up to her sister and in the process learns how to welcome other possibilities.”

My Thoughts: The Bad: The writing is rather prosaic. Some of the relationships make no sense and seem to be there simply because the formula requires a love interest. It is predictable. The descriptions and metaphors are bad. It is underdeveloped overall. The Good: I like the concept. I usually end up liking concepts for books and not liking the execution of those concepts. I found the garden interesting, especially the tree. I like that the magic of the family is common knowledge around town. That is all.

Book Title: Enchantment
Author: Orson Scott Card
Category: Fairy Tale; Fantasy; Fiction; Folklore
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B

Short description/summary of the book: (From Amazon.com) “Enchantment is the story of a Ukraine-born, American grad student who finds himself transported to the ninth century to play the prince in a Russian version of Sleeping Beauty. Early in the story, he muses that in a French or English retelling of the tale, the prince and princess would live happily ever after. But, "only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale.”

My Thoughts: I like fairy tales, and I appreciated the bit about traveling between the past and the present and the practical use of magic in every day life. I found the book generally entertaining and bits of it were clever and very well-written. However, I was mostly unimpressed with it. I didn’t care for the protagonists. Ivan especially was dull and flat. Katerina was more interesting (though somewhat of a bitch), but I didn’t feel we saw their relationship develop enough to where it made sense for them to love each other. It felt like they disliked each other then suddenly they were in love. It was also a bit tedious in parts.

After I graduated from college, I decided I would keep a list of all the books I had read starting from graduation. Unfortunately, I did not decide this until about 6 months after I graduated, so the beginning of the list may or may not be complete. I am fairly certain it is, but there could be a book or two floating through the dark reaches of my memory to which I just can't get. Anyway, I'll update this list and maybe write my thoughts on particular books occasionally. Dates refer to the date I finished the book (and occasionally they cover the entire period for reading a specific book).
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BOOKS

2005

1. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald – 5/05
2. The World According to Garp by John Irving – 6/05
3. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
4. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller – 6/13/2005
5. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
6. Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles – 7/05
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling – 7/16-7/17/05
8. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – 8/05
9. Rebel with a Cause by Franklin Graham
10. Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller
11. Passing for Thin by Francis Kuffel – 11/05
12. Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller – 12/05
13. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom – 12/16-12/18/05
14. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde – 12/05

2006

15. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman – 1/11/06
16. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult – 1/06
17. Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen – 1/23-1/24/06
18. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis – 1/06
19. The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – 1/06
20. Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C.S. Lewis by Lyle W. Dorsett – 2/2/06
21. Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland – 2/06
22. The Children by Edith Wharton – 2/16/06
23. A Great & Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray – 2/19-2/20/2006
24. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery – 2/06
25. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray – 2/27-3/1/2006
26. Timeline by Michael Crichton – 3/06
27. The Funny Thing Is… by Ellen Degeneres – 3/06
28. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – 3/06
29. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis – 5/03/2006
30. Gossamer by Lois Lowry – 5/06
31. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis – 5/06
32. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis – 5/06
33. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis – 5/10/2006
34. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis – 5/06
35. What Janie Found by Caroline B. Clooney – 6/06
36. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger – 7/2/2006
37. Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery – 7/10-7/15/2006
38. Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson – 8/06
39. Persuasion by Jane Austen – 8/16/2006
40. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – 8/23/2006
41. Mapping the World of Harry Potter edited by Mercedes Lackey – 12/14/2006
42. The Keep by Jennifer Egan – 12/18/2006
43. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobels – 12/26/2006

2007

44. The World's Shortest Stories edited by Steve Moss -- 1/2/2007
45. Best American Travel Writing 2006 -- 1/10/2007
46. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson -- 1/18/2007
47. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett -- 1/21/2007
48. Emma by Jane Austen -- 1/29/2007
49. Divine by Mistake by P.C. Cast -- 2/1/2007
50. Possession by A.S. Byatt -- 2/22/2007
51. Divine by Choice by P.C. Cast -- 2/23/2007
52. Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams -- 2/23/2007
53. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier -- 2/24/2007
54. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey -- 2/26/2007
55. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler -- 3/5/2007
56. Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott -- 3/10/2007
57. American Gods by Neil Gaiman -- 4/10/2007
58. Stardust by Neil Gaiman -- 4/13/2007
59. Brick Lane by Monica Ali -- 4/21/2007
60. Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse -- 5/2/2007
61. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman -- 5/7/2007
62. England, England by Julian Barnes -- 6/14/2007
63. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield -- 6/2007
64. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman -- 6/25/2007
65. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner -- 6/30/2007-7/1/2007
66. Sex God by Rob Bell -- 6/24/2007-7/3/2007
67. Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde – 7/2007
68. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – 7/15/2007
69. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – 7/20/2007
70. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling – 7/21/2007-7/22/2007
71. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 – 8/7/2007
72. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde – 8/12/2007
73. Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman – 8/19/2007
74. Sandman: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman – 8/19/2007
75. Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman – 8/20/2007
76. Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman – 8/2007
77. Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman – 8/2007
78. Sandman: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman – 8/2007
79. Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman – 8/2007
80. Sandman: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman – 8/29/2007
81. The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline – 9/2/2007
82. Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman – 9/2007
83. Sandman: The Wake – 9/5/2007
84. Sandman: Endless Nights – 9/6/2007
85. Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes – 9/7/2007
86. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams – 9/9/2007
87. Desire Lines by Christina Baker Kline – 9/10/2007
88. Austenland by Shannon Hale – 9/20/2007
89. Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams – 9/23/2007
90. Thursday Next in First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde – 9/24/2007
91. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams – 9/29/2007
92. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams – 10/5/2007
93. The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner – 10/6/2007
94. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin – 10/11/2007
95. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott – 10/15/2007
96. Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – 11/12/2007
97. My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay – 11/18/2007
98. Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris – 11/22/2007
99. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis – 11/27/2007
100. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – 11/30/2007-12/1/2007
101. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer – 12/1/2007-12/2/2007
102. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer – 12/2/2007-12/3/2007
103. Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore – 12/9/2007
104. You Suck by Christopher Moore – 12/10/2007
105. Tithe by Holly Black – 12/17/2007
106. Ironside by Holly Black – 12/19/2007
107. Valiant by Holly Black – 12/21/2007
108. Lamb by Christopher Moore – 12/23/2007
109. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – 12/24/2007
110. Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint – 12/26/2007

2008

111. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card – 1/2/2008
112. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen – 1/4/2008
113. Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith – 1/30/2008
114. Flight by Sherman Alexie – 2/11/2008
115. The Heroines by Eileen Favorite – 2/22/2008
116. The Lady in Blue by Javier Sierra – 4/22/2008
117. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner – 4/28/2008
118. The Martian Child by David Gerrold – 4/29/2008
119. The Host by Stephenie Meyer – 5/3/2008
120. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray – 5/7/2008
121. Damsels Not in Distress: The True Story of Women in Medieval Times by Andrea Hopkins – 5/12/2008
122. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 – 5/18/2008
123. Deadline by Chris Crutcher – 5/24/2008
124. Before I Die by Jenny Downham – 6/3/2008
125. My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick – 6/9/2008
126. I'm Not a Feminist, But... by Susi Rajah and Adele Lang – 6/10/2008
127. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen – 6/15/2008
128. Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet – 6/19/2008
129. The Very Virile Viking by Sandra Hill – 6/23/2008
130. Marked by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – 7/18/2008
131. Betrayed by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – 7/23/2008
132. Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner – 7/25/2008
133. Chosen by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – 7/27/2008
134. The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau – 7/29/2008
135. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer – 8/5/2008
136. The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau – 8/17/2008
137. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett – 9/2/2008


2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling -- 7/14/2009

AUDIOBOOKS

2006

1. A Natural History of the Senses [abridged] by Diane Ackerman
2. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier

2008

3. Stardust by Neil Gaiman – 7/24/2008
4. MirrorMask by Neil Gaiman – 7/25/2008
5. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – 9/4/2008

EDIT January 26, 2008:

Mostly, this journal is going to be a private place where I can just play. I love writing, but it's something I do just for me. However, I am also going to attempt to use it as a reading journal. I will probably be very bad at this and rarely update. I would like to at least update my list, though on extraordinary occasions I may actually post my thoughts on particular books. We'll see how it goes.