Category Archives: Books

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for September.

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Bought:

  • Evil at Heart, by Chelsea Cain (iphone/kindle)
  • Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (iphone/kindle)
  • Sweep 10: Seeker, by Cate Tiernan (iphone/kindle)
  • Sweep 11: Origins, by Cate Tiernan (iphone/kindle)

Read:
  • Evil at Heart, by Chelsea Cain (iphone/kindle)
  • Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (iphone/kindle)
  • A Pair of Blue Eyes, by Thomas Hardy
  • Sweep 1: Book of Shadows, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 2: The Coven, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 3: Blood Witch, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 4: Dark Magick, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 5: Awakening, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 6: Spellbound, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 7: The Calling, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 8: Changeling, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 9: Strife, by Cate Tiernan (sarah’s)
  • Sweep 10: Seeker, by Cate Tiernan (library)
  • Sweep 11: Origins, by Cate Tiernan (library)
  • Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour, by Scott Westerfeld (library)

Best of May

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Oh good grief, I am so far behind on my own recordkeeping. Maybe I should toss it all!

The best movie I saw in May was Star Trek. I saw things that considered themselves more important than that movie, but they didn’t live up to their own forecasts.

The best book I read in May was a three-way tie between The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris and two really awesome sci-fi books: Wanderlust and Grimspace both by Ann Aguirre. But you know, unlike with going to shows, I’ve been reading a LOT this year (June was the first month of 2009 to see me read under fewer than 10 books), and for the most part I have really liked the stuff I’ve been reading. So you know, pinning it down is a bit…silly. Mayhaps. 🙂

The best gig I went to in May doesn’t exist (as with April and March). (I have NOT been going to shows this year. Not sure what’s happening there.)

My favorite tunes in May were new albums from Telekinesis!, Eminem, Green Day and Phoenix. Perhaps I’ll get caught up on album reviews soon and come back and give ya a link. 😉Write-up here.

Best of April

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Oh good grief, I am so far behind on my own recordkeeping. Maybe I should toss it all!

The best movie I saw in April was Sunshine Cleaning. Not mindblowing but certainly worth seeing.

The best book I read in April was Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Really intense and thoughtful. Wasn’t totally thrilled with the ending, but that wasn’t enough to make me stop thinking about it and recommending it to people.

The best gig I went to in April doesn’t exist (as with March). (I have NOT been going to shows this year. Not sure what’s happening there.)

My favorite tunes in April were new albums from Gomez and Great Lake Swimmers, two of my very favorite bands. And my favorite single was “Lights Off” The Dears.

Random personal highlights: I paid a visit to my friends in Milwaukee. Was that the month the Settlers of Catan craziness started? I think it may have been. One of several goodbye parties for Jen & Naz (fun party, sad occasion.

Lowlights? You know, at this point, really, I don’t remember! Fortunately for my mental health, I tend to only jot down the good things.

Best of March

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Oh good grief, I am so far behind on my own recordkeeping. Maybe I should toss it all!

The best movie I saw in March was The Reader which I was oddly unprepared for the subject matter of but thought Winslet’s performance was really tour de force.

The best book I read in March was… Wow that one is really hard to narrow down (especially after all this time!). I’m going to call it a tie between “City of Refuge” by Tom Piazza, which was really heartbreaking fictionally as the Katrina situation was in real life; “Bone Crossed” by Patricia Briggs, because honestly that woman cannot write a book that doesn’t keep me up all night savoring every word; and “The Girl Who Played with Fire” by Stieg Larsson, a satisfying sequel that had me on the edge of my seat.

The best gig I went to in March doesn’t exist. (I have NOT been going to shows this year. Not sure what’s happening there.)

My favorite tunes in March were new albums from Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Boy Least Likely To, and U2 and I was really digging these singles (still am, frankly): “Afterglow” Kate York, “Airport Surroundings” Lonely, Dear, and “Sweet Dream” Greg Laswell.

Random personal highlights: I applied for a ginormo lifechange which you may know I am now about four weeks into; Lauren and I went on a photowalk in the wastelands of downtown Chicago; awesome dinner out w/ Monica, Jen and Cinnamon (all part of Jen’s extended goodbye series); and I’m not even sure at this point what some of the notations in my calendar mean so we’ll just leave it at that.

Lowlights? Who knows. It was just so long ago now! 🙂

Fantasy/Mystery: “Cry Wolf” and “Hunting Ground”, both by Patricia Briggs

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I’ve talked a LOT about Patricia Briggs here, all of whose books I love, particularly the Mercy Thompson series.

These books take place within the same universe, concentrating on events in Bran’s pack instead, particularly his son Charles. While I think they discussed the concept vaguely in the Mercy books, these books also focus on Anna, who is an “omega”, a sort of “powerful submissive” who can stand up to alphas in a way no other wolves can.

Just as with the Mercy books, the action is great, the romance is great, they feel very real and believable and oh my god I cannot wait for her to write another one!!!!!

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for August.

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Bought:

  • Sea Lord, by Virginia Kantra (iPhone/kindle)
  • My Life in France, by Julia Child
  • Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch
  • Cry Wolf, by Patricia Briggs
  • Hunting Ground, by Patricia Briggs

Read:
  • Sea Fever, by Virginia Kantra (iPhone/kindle)
  • Sea Lord, by Virginia Kantra (iPhone/kindle)
  • Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill
  • Carved in Bone, by Jefferson Bass
  • Cry Wolf, by Patricia Briggs
  • Happy All the Time, by Laurie Colwin
  • Hunting Ground, by Patricia Briggs
  • White Time, by Margo Lanagan (stories)

Short stories: Emerald City, by Jennifer Egan.

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I read Egan’s (fairly) recent book “The Keep” right before I moved all my book thoughts over to this page (see it right at the top of the old readin page), but I think this collection was published well before that novel.

I thought these were great. Unexpected and tense. The main characters are often in moments of conflict or deception. Very different from each other. And all very finely detailed.

SciFi: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

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I’ve been reading his blog for awhile (have gotten some great recommendations from it) so I decided to try out his (from a while ago) debut.

It felt sooooo familiar that I kept checking my lists over and over to see if I had read it before and finally I realized that it was just really (REALLY) reminding me of Haldeman’s The Forever War. The difference for me being that it doesn’t have the strong underlying anti- (or “futility of”) war message. i.e., This one is more about the surface story.

Decently written but the dialogue felt very stiff to me. One of the blurbs inside calls it “The Forever War with better sex.”

I think I’ll like sequel The Ghost Brigades better, when I get around to that one, as that’s the part of this story that interested me the most.

Fiction: Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn

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In the end, I wound up liking this book. But if you had to choose only one of her books to read, Sharp Objects is by far the better.

It took me a while to really get involved in the story. And it didn’t have the really intense (and awesome) imagery that Sharp Objects had, nor the inviting main character. The mystery seemed much more ordinary to me / not as creative.

However, at a certain point, I really couldn’t put it down. And even the things about it I was disappointed in were still well-written. Similarly to Sharp Objects, however, there is a lot of really, really icky family stuff. So, you know, if you can’t handle that, well, you may want to avoid this.