Nyotaimori

Oh December. How I have failed you.

At the beginning of the month, I was all set to go. It’s almost Christmas, I told myself. You will get many books for Christmas! Better catch up on your reading in advance. Did I? No. Total fail.

Book Stats

Books Read: 9 (+5 unfinished.)

Books Bought: 1

Books Borrowed (from Library): 1 (Right? I’m not sure what happened there. I didn’t even read it.)

Books Given: 18 (ARCs) + 7 (Christmas presents) = 25

Money Spent: $13

Books on To-Read Shelf: 36 (GAH.)

You know what I did do in December though? Cleaned my entire house in preparation for Christmas guests. It was a lot of cleaning. So much that we had to have extra garbage pick up day for the additional 14 bags of trash my brother and I cleaned out. And then I finally got to my room and thought I might as well FINALLY finish cataloging my books on GoodReads.com. So I did. It took a couple days. I have 1,286 books on my “shelves”. Probably only 1,100 or so on my actual shelves. Ridiculous. I now have several boxes of books to sell. Powell’s is in my future (additional Xmas present? Powell’s gift card. Aw, yeah.)

So this month I actually read 2 books for a second time. I was starting the series over in prep for the 5th book coming out in two weeks which *someone* has already bought off my Amazon Wish List. I’m guessing my mother. But then I got sidetracked by the cleaning. Anyway, it’s the Karen Marie Moning Fever series. So bad. I’m still looking forward to the conclusion.

I liked this month: Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn and Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead. I also wanted to like NoMansLand by Lesley Hauge.

Troubled Waters is a politically involved fantasy book by Shinn. She writes a lot of that. Also lots of made-up designations for luck and personal attributes in the world building. Which, generally, I get annoyed by but I let it slide this time. I kind of enjoyed their practice of picking lucky attributes out of a barrel, Religious differences are interesting. Anyway it’s got a romance and a decent plot. Worth reading.

Last Sacrifice was the final book in the Vampire Academy YA series I’ve been reading for years. BIG sigh of relief. Over. Admittedly, now she’s going to do some spin-off. Presumably about….well a secondary character who becomes important in this one. I can see how it’s going to go already so I’m leery of it. This was a pretty good end. Not great. And honestly there were at least five glaring editing errors both in easy grammar and continuity that I spotted. There might have been more. That is incredibly annoying and kind of insulting. Can’t they do a better job before publishing? I didn’t pay good money for this but my mom did–(Christmas present).

NoMansLand probably isn’t capitalized that way but whatever. It’s about a post-apocalypse society of amazon women living on an island and the way of life and lies there. It seemed so awesome! But then the writing wasn’t actually great and the end was kind of…lacking. It needed better conflict that was less easily resolved. And more about the society and…well, really it just needed more. It was pretty short.

Books I didn’t like: Bleh. Nothing much to talk about. I will tell you that I tried another Elizabeth Bear novel. Remember I raved about Bone and Jewel Creatures a while ago? So I tried All the Windwracked Stars. Great title. But I was bored and didn’t make it far. Sad. But see it’s good for you that I raved about this author and am now carefully taking back my recommendation. Be leery of her other writing! You never know what might be good. I’ll try another one someday.

I did, of course, also read MY book in December. This would be the NaNo novel I wrote in November. I settled on the title of Book ‘Em. Which is good both for the main character owning a book store and the crime solving aspect. I gave out two copies already to family and have one more. I need to order a couple more copies so I can loan it to people who care to read it. I’m still kind of waiting for a little more feedback before I decide if it’s good enough to loan out though. I think it’s unremarkable. But sophomore efforts aren’t supposed to be sterling, right? Sigh. And on that note, onwards to the year 2010 in review post.

Do you see what day it is today?! How impressive is it that I am actually doing this on time? Pretty darn impressive, I’d say. You know, I was just skimming through past months to get the stat thing to copy and paste and realize I should totally do a Year End one next month. How many books have I read/bought/borrowed THIS YEAR? And how much money did I spend on them? This is a curious thing to me. I’ll do it. Next month. For now! November!

Book Stats

Books Read: 10 (+13 unfinished. THE SHAME.)

Books Bought: 1

Books Borrowed (from Library): 20

Books Borrowed (from friends): 1

Books Given: 2

Money Spent: $10

Gah. This is so embarrassing. I started so many books this month (well, 13 anyway) that I just couldn’t finish. Couldn’t do it. Some of them were honestly bad. Some I just wasn’t in the mood for. Some were just way too predictable and I couldn’t stand the boredom of being unenthralled. Hoo. Look though at how my total read/unfinished is the same amount as the total bought/borrowed/and given. That’s cool. Not accurate though since several from the library this month I haven’t read yet.

You would think that the ten I did manage to finish would all be my favorite books from this month, right? But sadly, no. Even though I managed to finish them, I didn’t necessarily really like all of them.

Favorite Books: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg.

Others worth mentioning: Angel by L.A. Weatherly, The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, Behemoth by Scott Westerfield, and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher.

(The three that I’m not bothering to mention I probably only finished because they were really short.)

Least Liked Books: Pegasus by Robin McKinley, Me, Myself, and Why? by Mary Janice Davidson, The Oracle Betrayed by Catherine Fisher, and Jane by April Lindner.

So, Incarceron and Sapphique are a series by Fisher. Incarceron was way better than Sapphique although I think my anger at the ending of the second book has dissipated enough that I could technically move Sapphique up to a favorite. The story is about a world which had a huge war and created a Prison to hold society’s dregs so the rest of the world could support itself on limited resources. There are two POVs: one is a high-up society girl in the “real” world and the other is a male prisoner who may or may not be the lost heir to the throne. There’s a lot of mythology about escaping the prison and the one man who has been said to do it (Sapphique). The back story there included in snippets from songs, myths, stories, writings, etc at the beginning of each chapter was fascinating. The writing was really good and the story was well set-up and convincing in the world-building. I liked the idea and the characters a lot. So I recommend these highly.

The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg was just delightful fluffy fun. It’s about a girl who starts a club based on Beatles songs to get over a bad break-up and the way in which girl power club can transform their lives and the school. It had some annoying parts (taking girl power to the stupid place) but also several laugh out loud moments and I really enjoyed it. She just came out with a book titled Prom and Prejudice that I am super eager to get. Sadly the library doesn’t have it yet.

Angel and The Last Dragonslayer were purchased for me by Eydie in London when she was there recently as they aren’t available in the states yet. I can tell you that they are going to be super popular. I enjoyed both of them and will fully read the sequel to Angel when it comes out. The Last Dragonslayer was great but it was also a little lacking in plot development at times. It proceeded a little too quickly in places–particularly the end and I was confused by the action that happened.

Behemoth is a solid sequel to Leviathan (which I read last November!). It’s an alternate reality story of World War…I? that’s steam-punk/alterna-Darwinist. They’re kind of awesome. I recommend reading both. Hrm. The main characters are both teenagers–one is the son of…basically Franz Ferdinand, I think. Heir to Austrian throne on the run from the Germans. And the other is a British girl-disguised-as-boy serving on an air-ship. The war is between the Clankers (mechanical stuff) and the Darwinists (engineered living organisms) but basically is World War I twisted.

Ice was good but not great which disappointed me. It’s a retold fairy tale of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Which kind of at the most basic level is also the story of Beauty and the Beast and that of Eros and Psyche (which I assume are more familiar to most people). Anyway, it’s mostly good…just the writing wasn’t always great. Sometimes the main characters were less believable than at other times. I did enjoy the updates to the story with the whole soul delivery job. Anyway, I would recommend it. And I would also try reading something else by Sarah Beth Durst (currently waiting on one at the library)

Annnd least liked. So there were obviously more than those 4 (since I didn’t finish 13 books) but I’m not even going to bother listing all the ones I didn’t like and why. But these four were disappointments to me on a level which I feel like sharing. First: Robin McKinley. Seriously, woman. She is soooo hit or miss. Let’s be honest: The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown? Amazing, wonderful books! Chalice? Bad. Dragonhaven? Actually I enjoyed it. Spindle’s End? Kind of lame. You see what I’m saying. Pegasus–the newest book–I was hopeful for. But then it was boring and poorly written and I’m pretty sure was going to have a romance between a flying horse and a human girl. Who knows since I didn’t finish it. So sad. I did skim through the end and was horrified by what I found there though. Just so we’re clear. Stupid ending. I don’t see how reading the whole thing could have made that better.

Me, Myself and Why? honest to God was about a schizophrenic with three personalities who works for the FBI in some paranormal division. I was snoozing after like five pages and also kind of terrified. I’ll continue to read the Queen Betsy ones (library only) but MJ Davidson needs to work harder to get my business otherwise.

The Oracle Betrayed I got because I’d enjoyed Incarceron so much and it was an ancient Egyptian-esque type tale (actually I think kind of Greek, but whatever). However, I didn’t find it nearly as riveting and gave up half-way through.

Last one. Jane by April Lindner is a modern day retelling of Jane Eyre. Yeah. Gag me. I don’t know why I even tried. I think I was all: Oooh, Rochester as a rock star? This could be exciting. Turns out I was oh so wrong. Modern day’ing that horrible story doesn’t make it any better. Actually kind of worse when you’re confronted by the fact that she is 19 and he is 30 something (tactfully Lindner never mentions how old he is exactly. At least not in the part I read. Wise.) So it’s conceivable that other people who hated Jane Eyre might like this more that aren’t me. Maybe if all they hated was the language but not the basic story? But I doubt people who love Jane Eyre will like it.

Actually, wait. One last mention. One of the ones I didn’t finish was Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (sp?). I started reading it and decided I couldn’t actually read anything zombie related yet until I finish my novel. But what I did read (one zombie and one unicorn story) were really good. So I’ll get that again some day.

October 2010

I pretty much completely slacked again on my book reviews. Whoops. I don’t even have an excuse. I haven’t been that busy this November. I mean, writing 1,667 words a day, sure, but that doesn’t take very long. Well, better late than never anyway. And I’ve got a couple days before the end of November and I can take that time to prepare my entry for this month. Maybe. We’ll see.

Book Stats

Books Read: 44 (+7 unfinished)

Books Bought: 0

Books Borrowed (from Library): 50

Books Borrowed (from friends): 4

Books Given: 1

Money Spent: $0

There are a lot of books to discuss this month. Hopefully you find this interesting. Or at least beneficial in your own decisions on whether to read a book or not.

Books which were actually good and which I would recommend: Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken. I Will Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett. Gravitation (the series) by Maki Murakami. The Cardturner by Louis Sacher. The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade. Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear.

Brightly Woven was interesting in that it was a semi-original plot of a wizard and a girl who can weave magic into cloth. Mostly the world was well-developed. The plot kind of jumped around a little (hello rapidly executed second opposition at the end); it could have used some more fine-tuning and the romance aspect could have been a little better set-up but I still liked it.

Pratchett’s latest in the Tiffany Aching series was good. I was glad to see lots of characters from previous books and the final nail in the coffin of her romance with the spineless boy was excellent.

Gravitation, which I started reading in like…2003?, I finally got all of them from the library and read them in the kitten room while they were still tiny and locked up for weeks. I’ve seen the anime so I know the plot but it was fun to see it further explored in comic form. I’m glad now to have finally read all of them.

Louis Sacher, of course, is an award winning author. We can all remember Holes, I’m sure, and The Beef, right? Cardturner is his latest and is ALL ABOUT Bridge. I am not even kidding around with the caps lock there. There are whole sections of the novel which outline bridge rules. They’re easy to skip or skim though since there’s notation surrounding them as a warning. I’m pretty sure I could kick ass at Bridge. It’s kind of like Pinochle and I dominate that game. The actual story was touching with the old man, teenage boy, and teenage girl. Plus, it’s Sacher so you know you can’t go far wrong there.

The Ghost and the Goth. Ha. Ok. I know it sounds ridiculous, and honestly: it kind of was. But it was cute and occasionally sweet. It’s about a girl who gets run over and comes back as a ghost and the goth boy who can see ghosts that she never paid attention to at the high school before. It’s typical high school ghost romance story line but I enjoyed the two main characters a lot and thought it was written well.

And Finally! Bone and Jewel Creatures: Gorgeous, lyrical writing, excellent plot, fabulously written. How have I never read anything by this author? This situation needs to be rectified immediately. I am actually mad at myself as I write these words that I have yet to get anything else by her from the library. My only defense is the insane amount of other books I’ve gotten from the library lately (and, sadly, almost universally hated. November has not been a good reading month). So I recommend this a lot. It’s super short, an easy read, and really good.

Books which I read which I vaguely enjoyed but would not bother recommending: The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff. Shade by Jeri Smith Ready. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White. Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey. Once A Witch by Carolyn MacCullough. Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin. Sleepless by Cyn Balog. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto. As You Wish by Jackson Pearce.

These are all YA novels (if you can’t tell from the titles and ridiculous author names. Seriously, those cannot be their real names.) These books ranged a gamut of currently popular YA themes with one exception. We had urban faeries, magical creatures, vampires, witches, more faeries (not really urban), sandmen/women (hello, that’s new), angels and djinn. None of them was BAD just none of them was good. Replacement, for example, started off strong but then it was like a switch flipped and she rushed through the resolution/plot about 2/3rds of the way through and it fell apart a little. Shade was, irritatingly, a first in the series which I didn’t realize right away and was then annoyed when I found out. Also many of the characters, in particular the female lead, were shallow. Hearts at Stake was just one more in the series of sub-par vampire YA novels you can find everywhere. Nothing special or new really. Once A Witch was the best out of this bunch, but again I was frequently bothered by the actions and opinions of the female lead. Extraordinary was a disappointment after Impossible, Werlin’s other (fabulous) faery book. Sleepless was actually not bad except for the whole creepy idea of teenage sand-boys watching girls sleep in their rooms. It had such promise, I thought. Sandmen/women! At last, something different. But then I was quickly reminded of how creepy stalkers are. And the opposition the main character faced was weak. Halo was just saccharine and the female lead was completely pathetic. Show some backbone! But I can see it being super popular with the Twilight fans. As You Wish was actually not bad. Djinn! I do love them. But it was pretty poorly written and unoriginal in the basic plot and structure.

Books which I don’t recommend at all: Gimme a Call by Sarah Mylonowski. One Dance With A Duke by Tessa Dare. Didn’t even finish these.

Ok. Seriously now, as mentioned up in there November has been a poor month. So the very very few I’ve read all the way through and then liked will be small. Currently out of the 20 books I’ve read so far, I’ve only actually finished 8. Pathetic, right? Yeah. Crappy, crappy books. Or possibly, and this is just speculation, they’re not actually all that bad, I’m just being super hard on them because I was writing a book myself and couldn’t help but notice everything in them that was poor and be editing in my head. My brain would not turn off this month, I admit it. Constantly I was comparing their writing to my own and finding theirs bad and mine either better or also bad but theirs still worse. Enough about that though! I need to save something to write about on December 1st. (Setting myself a goal there.)

Not only was this the month of the San Francisco Public Library book sale at Fort Mason center but I also held a mini contest on FaceBook for friends to guess how many books I read. Yeah, because I am just that impressed with myself. I feel a little shame maybe.

Maybe. A little.

Stats:

Books Read: 46 (+7 unfinished)

Books Bought: 49

Books from Library: 33

Books Loaned/Given: 1

Money spent (approximately): $81 Well…..SFPL Big Book Sale, what can I say? Also $25 spent at Amazon. Whoops.

Favorite Books: Gah. I read so many. So many! Let’s see.

D.U.F.F. (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) by Kody Keplinger. All right, I know, I know. The title is offensive and awful but I enjoyed the book. There was a lot of sex in it for a YA novel which was both fascinating (because that’s not normal, let me tell you. Or maybe I’ve just been reading the wrong YA books) and giggle-inducing. Because I’m like a pre-pubescent.

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett which I finally, FINALLY read. It did seem to have a little repetiion which I know I shouldn’t blame on the Alzheimer’s but…well, I dunno. I enjoyed the Patrician and the wizards and Nutt. Plus now I just got his newest book–Tiffany Aching! Yey. So obviously letting it go stale and than finally reading it the month the new one came out wasn’t such a bad plan.

Size 12 Is Not Fat, Size 14 Is Not Fat Either and Big Boned by Meg Cabot. I was re-reading these obviously since I, of course, have already read everything by Cabot. But these were just as delightful the second (ok, maybe third) time around. Unlike the Queen of Babble trilogy–that I also re-read this month–and which were not so great anymore.

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich. It’s a new series by Evanovich–who writes the Stephanie Plum ones. They’ve got Diesel from the Plum books and are about the seven deadly sins and him tracking users. There’s also romance. And a cat! Annnnd a monkey. Also cupcakes!

Millennium Snow vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori. Sigh. I am annoyed that she stopped writing these to work on Ouran High School Host Club even though I love those. But now I love these too and am sad not to know how they end.

Meagan Meade’s Guide to the McGowen Boys by Kate Brian. Bought this at the sale even though I’d already read it from the library. Still totally liked it.

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. Not AS great as I was hoping it to be but still pretty good. I think I need to re-read The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale because as stories of famous people becoming friends with ordinary people go that one was killer.

Least Favorite Books: Oh.My.Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs. Should have known better from the title. She’s So Dead To Us by Kieran Scott. Was hopeful it would be about zombies! It wasn’t. Never Slow Dance With A Zombie by E. Van Lowe. Was actually about zombies. Wasn’t actually good. All this talk of zombies…I should be working on my own book.

Last one! Last one! And this, my friends, is a doozy. I have previously discussed (possibly in person and not so much via a blog) that I appear to read a ridiculous amount in the end of summer/beginning of Fall. This was true last year anyway–do you remember my stats for Sept/Oct? I think it was 48 and then 66 books read those months. Though lots were graphic novels. The same is true for August this year. Maybe it’s something to do with publishers rolling out a lot of new books in the August-December range for people to buy as Christmas gifts? I read some article about the publishing industry and that phenomenon recently. I think it also mostly has to do with how bored I am in the summer and how I am preparing for the September Big Book Sale in San Francisco and then recovering from said sale in October. Anyway it is a trend that needs more data because 2 years in a row is not cutting it as a sample size. Let us discuss again next Fall.

Stats:

Books Read: 46 (+5 unfinished)

Books Bought: 1

Books from Library: 44 (Horrifically Kris just told me that the Alameda library only allows 52 book requests A YEAR. I would have blown almost my entire allotment THIS MONTH.)

Books Loaned/Given: 5

Money spent (approximately): $11

Favorite Books: A tough call. I read a lot of books this month, yes, but did I really love any of them? Also, could I have? I mean I obviously read them so fast and multiples in a day it seems unlikely I could have truly appreciated anything enough to call it a favorite.

Well…I loved the experience of reading #3, 4, and 5 of the Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls series by Meg Cabot because that was an afternoon spent lying in bed with my cat reading one after the other while sunshine streamed in through the window and down across my legs. This was bliss to me and the books were adorable.

I also really enjoyed re-reading Uglies, Pretties, and Specials by Scott Westerfield. Though they were not quite as good as my memory of reading them the first time portrayed the experience.

I enjoyed Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas and Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson. I both liked and vehemently disliked Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy.

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey was interesting with the Maori myths. Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan was not quite as great as the first in the series, but the interactions between the brother and sister were awesome and hilariously written.

And I liked the manga I read: Her Majesty’s Dog vols. 1-11 by Mick Takeuchi and Girl Got Game vols. 1-4 by Shizura Seino.

Least Favorite Books: Caught in Crystal by Patricia C. Wrede. Ugh. Bad fantasy. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. Ugh. Child rape and torture. Shut Up and Kiss Me by Christie Craig. Ugh. Bad romance. And Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Ugh. YA werewolves, PASS.

Book Quotes:

“Amelia smiled at her fondly. ‘No marriage stays in the same pattern forever. It is both the best feature of marriage and the worst; that it inevitably changes.'”

From Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas.

“I’ll tell them how I survive it. I’ll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I’m afraid it can be taken away. That’s when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I’ve seen someone do. It’s like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years.

“But there are much worse games to play.”

From Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

I’m getting so close to caught up. What a delight that will be. And then I can skip several months in a row if I want. But I won’t. Because catch up is annoying.

Stats:

Books Read: 9 (+4 unfinished)

Books Bought: 2

Books from Library: 9

Books Loaned/Given: 2

Money spent: $2. Again with a library book sale.

Favorite Book: Absolute best book this month was The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. I cannot recommend this enough. It’s fantasy and epic though so be prepared for that. But it’s also very human (even though like 4 of the main characters are gods.) Really excellent writing. And fascinating (to me) is that it was written by an African-American woman and I realized that after reading it and also must admit to not reading that much fiction written by Black people. I mean I’ve read lots in schools obviously because school likes to harp on the American melting pot and racism and the evolution of societal frictions. But the vast majority of books I read are by either white male sf/fantasy writers or white female YA authors. This is just the general break-down in the written word for me. So it was interesting to read something by a Black woman that did not significantly broadcast that fact in the writing. Honestly, it seemed much like any white male sf/fantasy book I’ve ever read. Maybe a little more feminine, but not that noticeably. So that was interesting to me is all I’m saying. I probably had more thoughts about how and why that was interesting but I had them back in July so what you get is this pared down version which probably is making me seem more racist than anything else. Sigh. I am not.

Other worthies: The Smoke Thief and The Dream Thief by Shana Abe and Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey.

Least Favorite Books: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, The Laird Who Loved Me by Karen Hawkins, This Can’t Be Love by Kasey Michaels, and Fallen by Lauren Kate.