michele

Keep in mind that I wrote a 50K word novel this month too. So my book reading stats may not be on par with October or even September. Or any of those other months this year which I haven’t gotten around to blogging about. But it’s still…you know, not bad.

OK, it’s pretty bad for me

Stats:

Books Read: 16 (+6 unfinished)

Books Bought: 6

Books from Library: 14

Books Loaned/Given: 1

Money spent (approximately): $40 (Better than last month! Also read less this month and bought way less. Stupid book from Australia being all expensive. Shipping costs. Pah.)

Favorite Books: Halt’s Peril by John Flanagan, Alcatraz VS the Knights of Crystalia by Brandon Sanderson, and Rapture of the Deep by L.A. Meyer

Other Worthies: Runaways Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughn, Let It Snow by John Green et al., Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by e. lockhart, Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson, My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer, and Ouran High School Host Club #13 by Bisco Hatori.

Least Favorite Books: UGH. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, and The Hollow by Jessica Verday.

NOTE: I am going to diss A. Niff in graphic terms below with spoilers. So read on at your peril after the SPOILER warning which I’ll provide.

Books remaining on To-Be-Read-Shelf: 20

Number of Boxes of Books for Sale: 6 (am going to Powell’s after a Christmas spent in Grants Pass, OR)

As for the books I liked: Halt’s Peril was the one I ordered from Australia. It’s a series about this group of archer/woodsman/peace-keeper men and one of them in particular from when he starts training up until the current book where he’s off on missions. It’s book 9. They’re kind of fabulous. I mean, they’re pretty badly written but I am engrossed all the same. I like the repetitive nature of the snarky conversation between the three main characters. And I’m totally excited for the next one where the girls will be in it again, even if I have to order it from Australia again because they are way behind in publishing here.

Alcatraz VS the Knights of Crystalia is also a book from a series which I love. It’s the third in Sanderson’s books about a boy named Alcatraz who has to protect the world we know and the world a cult of evil Librarians has hidden from us. They control all the information in the world so it’s not so surprising that there’s a whole continent no one knows about somewhere down by Australia. Seriously, Librarians are evil. It’s genius. Also it’s written well and the main character has excellent presence within the point-of-view writing.

Lastly, Rapture of the Deep by Meyer is ALSO a series book. It’s the sixth in the series about a British girl who joins the Royal Navy back during the Napoleonic Wars and has adventures in the navy, on pirate ships, a slaver, a whaler, the Mississippi, etc. In this one, she’s diving for treasure down off the coast of Florida and gets into trouble with the Spanish Navy, the British Navy, and some pirates. With deep sea diving! These books are great for giving the reader a strong, young female character who fights, sings, is unapologetically sexual, and makes her own living. The only thing I don’t like about them is her love interest: Jaimy. He annoys me. I like most of the other guys she makes out with though–and there are a lot of them. A girl’s got to use her charms, after all.

As for the bad: Jessica Verday’s book, The Hollow, was just plain awful. Totally juvenile in plot and writing. I couldn’t stand it. Liar, by Larbalestier, I was trying because she’s a member of John Green’s writing group and I’ve been trying books by all of them lately since I am fascinated/obsessed by their society. But I couldn’t deal with the entire conceit of the book. Was it true, was it not true, what was true? I really do not like lying.

********SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER*************

Her Fearful Symmetry. ARGH. You know what? I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife. LOVED it. But this sophomore effort on Niffenegger’s part failed to live up to that book in almost every respect. The language was pretty enough, I suppose. The problem was that I was presented with a whole cast of characters that had almost no redeeming qualities. Yes, literature can show us bad things and horrible people, but I don’t LIKE that kind of book. I think a book should be escapism and present us with good things happening to good people. They can meet bad people and have set-backs, but they should triumph in the end. Good should win. In this book, I could see by about the middle that nothing good was going to happen to the main characters, but I kept reading. Then a couple chapters from the end it was made absolutely clear to me that the love triangle between the guy, the girl, and the girl’s mother’s ghost was going to end with the mom killing the daughter, stealing her body, and getting back together with the guy. SERIOUSLY? First off the whole love triangle thing was just wrong on so many levels to begin with. She was DEAD, fer chrissake’s. And also it was her DAUGHTER. I cannot deal with dysfunctional families in my escapism whether it’s books or movies. And I could not deal with this. I skimmed through to the end and threw it down in disgust. Except really I treated it gently because Ellie loaned it to me and I didn’t want to ding the cover. But I wanted to fling it as far as I could into a muddy puddle. Stupid book.