January 2011

A new year, another month…Time for a book round up.

Books Read: 20

Books Partially Read: 8

Books Bought: 8

Money Spent (approximately): $70, technically. But $30 of that was a gift certificate and the other $40 I got in trade from selling books so I really really want to count this as $0.

Books Borrowed: 20

Books Given: 4

Books Re-read: 0 (but I did buy two books I’ve already read–The DUFF: (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) and Sunshine. So I’ll be re-reading soon.)

In other news those links are totally serving my Associate Account at Amazon. Which I have, admittedly, had this entire time and just not taken advantage of. Maybe it will net me something this year. Maybe I’ll get tired of having to cull the links though and copy/paste them and give up on that enterprise.

Ooh, new category!

Money made (from selling books): $134.

None too shabby. $48 of that was pocketed in cash and I still have $45 in trade at Powell’s to spend in the coming months. Possibly online instead of driving all the way up there as I am prone to do on a whim.

And lastly, and embarrassingly:

Books on To-Be-Read Shelf: 26

A lot checked out from the library I haven’t gotten to yet. Also 3 of my Powell’s purchases. Heh.

To the meat of it.

Favorite books this month: The Lady Most Likely by Julia Quinn, Connie Brockway, and Eloisa James and Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore.

Bite Me was the third in the SF based vampire books by Moore and it was fabulous. Also I got it for free last month from Catherine (Kim’s mom) as an ARC. Score. Uh. ARC stands for Advance Reader’s Copy if you didn’t know. Catherine used to work at a book-store and still gets boxes of these to dispose of at libraries/the prison system. I sometimes get to look through them first! Lucky. Anyway, it could or could not be the end of the series. Hard to tell with that ending. But it’s told from Abby Normal’s perspective and she is biting sarcasm girlie gothic hotness. Lots of hilarious characters, brisk pace and plot. Excellent use of the Emperor and bringing back the downtrodden cops and Animals from the Safeway. All of this would make sense if you’d read Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story or You Suck: A Love Story or this one. And why haven’t you anyway? They are all great. Go read them right now. Also, that cover of Bloodsucking Fiends is better than the cover on the one I’ve got. Jealous.

The Lady Most Likely is a sort of three parter story written by three great romance authors. I *think* I know which one wrote which part but they blended it really well. They also continued the story-line throughout mostly OK–the main MAIN guy kind of vacillates between being an ass and being awesome in a couple of the transitions. But otherwise it’s good. Also it introduced me to Connie Brockway which I am unsure yet is a good or bad thing. I have now read four of her novels and have three left from the library here on this shelf. I am kind of methodical in my reading habits. Find a new author I like, I will place holds on their whole back catalog at the library. I liked two of the ones I’ve read so far, not so much the other two and these other three I’ve kind of lost interest in already.

Books I liked and want to give honorable mentions to: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve, Bridal Season and Bridal Favors by Connie Brockway, Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Zach Whedon, Seth Baumgartner’s Love Manifesto by Eric Lopez, iDrakula by Bekka Black, and Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

Sorry that was kind of a lot. Short reviews! This post is already way too long!

Odd: Almost a favorite of the month. It was a great fairy tale. And very short. And by Gaiman. Can you go wrong? Well, you can. I almost exclusively only like his YA/kid stuff.

Fever: I reviewed on Good Reads

Bridal Season and Bridal Favors: Main female characters running a wedding service. The second one (Favors) is better. Typical romance novels. Good characters and dialogue though. Enjoyable fluff.

Dr. Horrible: Have you seen the web show? This is background info on the characters in comic form. The Bad Horse stuff is the best.

Baumgartner: Ha, a Powell’s buy almost exclusively for the title and the author bio. Also it looked hilarious. It was good but not AWESOME.

iDrakula: Dracula told through emails and text messages. Kind of genius. Also updated obviously to modern day teens. Totally enjoyed it.

Universe: Also reviewed on Good Reads

Books I disliked: Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story by Adam Rex, Anxious Hearts by Tucker Shaw, and Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg.

Two of these–Fat Vampire and P&P–I mostly disliked because I liked the author’s other books so much. Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday and Eulberg’s The Lonely Hearts Club. Fat Vampire starred a completely unlikable fat kid. I should be kinder to America’s obese young. But he was morally corrupt. Dislike. Prom and Prejudice was just too closely modeled after Austen’s original P&P without making her characters interesting in their own right. I love P&P OG and variations on it, but it’s nice if they at least try to make it a little different.

Ok, and Anxious Hearts. Ugh. It’s based on Longfellow’s poem Evangeline and it starts off good but then it just goes downhill. So boring! So poorly planned and executed! So obvious in its third act conclusion. Pah.

So already after one month I can say that I’m sick of the whole Amazon Associate linking. Till next month, friends. Kisses.