Unorthodox Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I am reading a few books are once at the moment and I wasn't sure which one to go with. This is from a memoir:

I am not aware at this moment that I have lost my innocence. I will realize it many years later.

Unorthodox, Deborah Feldman, page 29

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT at Should Be Reading with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

The Stone Cutter

More Camilla Läckberg! And then I have to take a bit of a break while I wait for my parents to finish the next books and pass them along!

I liked how the story of Erica and Patrik continues. I complained that I missed Erica's detective work in The Preacher and while this book picks up not long after the other ended (it ended with Erica about to have the baby, now the baby, Maja, is a couple of months old), I actually enjoyed the way it followed Erica as she dealt with the challenges of a new baby.

I was a bit confused in a few places as there were a few blips in the translation, but overall I liked this one too! There were a lot of twists again, but this time I thought I might know who did it almost immediately - and I was right!

I am enjoying the way Läckberg carries some of the more personal story lines through the books. I am particularly enjoying the Erica and Patrick story and am certainly gripped by (and anxious to know more about) the Anna and Lucas storyline (I've seen him referred to as Maxwell in some reviews. I don't have the copy I read anymore - does anyone know if that's just some weird translation thing or if it's his last name or if it's just a mistake?)

I waited far too long to write this because I had much more to say about it when I first finished it...

The Preacher

Finally! Something I liked! The Preacher picked up pretty much where The Ice Princess left off. Erica and Patrik are expecting a baby and Erica is basically on bed rest. That was the only thing that disappointed me about the book. In The Ice Princess, the book was written from Erica's perspective with a healthy dose of Patrik (although it is third person omniscient), but with Erica at home resting, Patrik and official police work are the focus in The Preacher.

Again, Läckberg does a great job of weaving story lines so that they are at once connected and separate. I appreciated that she carried on Erika and Anna's storylines and that she catches the reader every once in a while. More than once I thought I had the mystery all figured out and then she'd bring something else in and I'd question my thought pattern. It turned out, again, that I figured out who it was, but I was missing a few key pieces of information to string everything together so I bounced around a bit.

The translation on this was also quite good. There were a few little things - farmor (father's mother, paternal grandmother) gets translated as mother's father (maternal grandmother) and I got a bit confused and there is a weird thing with decades at one point, but overall the translation worked for me.

I'm on to The Stone Cutter now and when my parents were here on the weekend, they picked up The Gallows Bird/The Stranger (same book, different titles) and The Hidden Child and they have The Drowning already, so I think I know what I'll be reading this summer!

The Gods of Gotham

Sigh. This book came with high praise and excellent reviews. And I just thought it was kind of ho-hum. It wasn't horrible. I didn't have to force myself to read it, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. I had to get it back to the library (I may have possibly incurred a small fine so I could finish it) because I had four books come off the hold list at the same time and they all had additional holds on them so I couldn't renew any of them. So maybe I didn't enjoy it because I was rushed?

There were plot twists and there was flash English and there were prostitutes and crooked cops and priests and preachers and good girls who weren't really good and bad girls who might not really be bad and a big fire and a crime scene or two, but it just wasn't doing it for me. And the map in the front of the book sucked - I figured out where Five Points was and the wards were labelled, but the streets weren't.

The flash or flash-patter bugged me. I had to keep consulting the glossary but not all the words were there. And I can't really find any references online to flash - is it real???

Has anyone else read this? I'd really love to hear someone else's thoughts on it!

City of Lost Souls

City of Lost Souls is the fifth of six in the Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments series. I wasn't thrilled with the ending of the last book and some of that spilled over into this book. It got a bit strange and there was a lot of waiting for something to happen. I will read the sixth book because I need to know what happens, but I am not as excited about it as I was about the first three book in this series or the books in The Infernal Devices. The best part of this book? I managed to get a brand spanking new copy because I was one of the first in (the virtual) line when they received the shipment!

I also heard that Cassandra Clare is writing another trilogy called The Dark Artifices that takes place sometime in the future. From what I've seen it appears that the books will follow a similar plot line to the other two series - talented teenaged Shadowhunters who have intense romantic feelings for one another that are problematic in someway. What do you think, should I read those too or am I going to be increasingly annoyed??

Teaser Tuesday - Another Swedish Translation

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm tearing my way through the Camilla Läckberg books, so here she is again this week (from a different book than last week):

Agnes didn't care much about where the money came from. She was born rich and had always lived as rich people do. It made no difference whether the money was inherited or earned, as long as she could buy jewellery and fine clothes.

The Stone Cutter, Camilla Läckberg, page 8

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT at Should Be Reading with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment there (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

The Ice Princess

Oh I should have known better than to pick up a book at my parents' house when I had packed a stack of library books to read (and return before they were due)...J was having a bath and I had left my book in the basement, so to entertain myself, I pulled a book off the bookcase at the top of the stairs and got myself hooked. I read The Ice Princess quickly...I really liked it. Camilla Läckberg is a Swedish crime write and this is the first book in a series about Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström. My mom sent me home with this book and the next two. I'm on the lookout for book four and five because they have number six but haven't been able to track down the other two...

This book is a translation and I think it was well translated. Some of the nuances surprised me as sometimes translations miss those or mistranslate themm because they are so subtle, although, the translator for this book is the same man who translated the Stieg Larsson books and the Henning Mankell books. I like how the various story lines are woven together - and how some of the story lines that appear to have nothing in common actually intersect.

Erica Falck, an author, is one of the first on the scene when an elderly man discovers Erica's childhood friend dead and frozen into the bathtub. While at first it appears that Alex committed suicide, it soon comes out that she was murdered. Erica ends up getting involved in the investigation, first purely by circumstance and then out of interest as she writes a book about the victim.

I knew who murdered Alex right away. And then it was someone else and then it was someone else and then...well, you get the picture. I was right on one of my guesses though, but I loved that the book twisted and turned and kept me guessing. I appreciate the multiple threads - some related to the crime, some not - as they kept the story interesting.

I can't wait to read the new one, The Preacher

Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

This is my first re-read of the year. My friend Virginia sent me a copy of this book from Australia a few years ago - it was one of the books I wrote about for the 30 day challenge. I have a love-hate relationship with Paris that I haven't quite figured out. I dream about Paris, I want to visit Paris, I want to visit Paris for an extended period of time, maybe I even want to live in Paris, but once I get to Paris, I'm not so excited about it...

Anyway, I read this book a few years ago. I had been back from living in London long enough that it was time to get on with life and stop wishing I was back there. I had days were I coped well with my reentry into Canadian life and days where I didn't cope at all. I was wrestling with all kinds of stuff, including buying a plane ticket and quitting my job and heading back to Europe. Now, I don't think I was ever going to do that...I was working at a job that barely paid my rent and groceries, so there was no way I was saving enough to get myself to Europe, find somewhere to live, and feed myself until I found a job and I was far too scared to think about putting all that stuff on my credit card. This book helped me realize that part of the reason I came home was because I missed my friends and family and I didn't want to be far away from them (and unlike Sarah Turnbull I hadn't fallen in love with a Parisian, so my decision was far less complicated) and I really probably didn't need to put myself through all that again.

I know I finished Almost French but as I reread it, there were parts of the book that I didn't recognize at all. It was like reading it for the first time...I liked it this time as much (or maybe more) that I did the first time and I'm glad I read it again. After I wrote about it for the 30 days challenge, I tried to find it, but neither the bookstore nor the library had it, but they both have it now...which is interesting since the book was written almost 10 years ago!

I think I enjoyed this book as much as I did the last time - possibly more. When I read it the first time, I read it partly as advice for where I should be heading with my life. This time I read it simply as a memoir.

Return to Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I did Teaser Tuesdays for ages...and then for some reason I stopped, but it's time to play again...so here it goes:

Soon she had the coffee on, and she started setting the breakfast table for herself and her guests. They trickled into the kitchen one by one, each more bleary than the last, but they came round quickly when they began helping themselves to the breakfast she had prepared.

The Preacher, Camilla Läckberg, page 44

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT at Should Be Reading with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment there (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

Okay, so, Ree Drummond. I stumbled on her blog long after thousands of people started flocking there daily. I actually think I found her blog when I was attempting the GAPS diet because someone linked to one her recipes saying this was what they wished they were having for dinner (I think I was lasagne - full of cheese and wheat that wasn't allowed on GAPS)

After I found her blog, I started poking around and I read most of the first part of the book there but I still wanted to read the extras in the book. I really enjoyed reading it - even a second time. The thing is, I know there are at least two sites dedicated to hating this author and I don't really understand the hate...they don't like her love story, because how could it be real? Especially since she came from a privileged family and married someone from one of the wealthiest ranch families in Oklahoma. But I still like it. It's totally a love story and it's a memoir, so there are omissions and there are probably some instances of hyperbole and all the other things that happen when you tell a story...whatever.

I don't understand the hate towards The Pioneer Woman. Here is someone who has built a brand around what apparently was a hobby. So what if the reason she is able to do this is because she's a housewife? The hate seems to stem from her brand and its success...I have made a few of her recipes and they worked out just fine...two of them are favourites in our house. There seems to be anger towards her because instead of talking about how she homeschools her children, she has two or three bloggers who do that. She has built the successful Tasty Kitchen Community...she's obviously smart. I didn't see it in the book, but I seem to remember her plan before she met Marlboro Man was to move to Chicago to go to law school...I guess I don't understand why the hate...I get not necessarily liking her, but the stalker-like behaviour on the hate sites is scary. Why is it a problem that when your blogging business grows and you can't do it yourself any longer, you hire people to help? Who, besides Ree, her husband and kids, really care if she's the one homeschooling them or if they employ a tutor?

Sorry...this has become a rant and it was supposed to be about the book. It's a good, fast, summer book. It's kind of syrupy and a bit (over)dramatic in places, but if you're going to the beach, the cabin, the cottage, the lake house, camping or flying over continents or oceans, it's definitely a book to consider.

My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love and Laughing Out Loud

I finally made it into the realm of non-fiction! Kevin (and Elmo) were pretty funny...there were a few editorial things that drove me nuts (incorrect use of whom...), but the stories were cute and there were some good lessons. I thought there might be a little bit more about Elmo though...

The Sisters Brothers

The Sisters Brothers is the 2011 winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. I really liked this book...the tone was great and it was pretty funny in some parts! Eli Sisters narrates the book and he is a very compassionate hired assassin. Charlie Sisters, Eli's older brother, is more ruthless and has no (very little?) conscience. The ongoing ordeal of Tub the horse is both humorous and heart breaking. The imagery of the Wild West and the lawlessness and debauchery that went hand in hand with the gold rush is excellent. Their journey down the West Coast and back again really does bring them full circle from young boys living in an abusive home, to hired guns, to grown men, safe in their home...

Oh, and can I just say, I love the cover!

Halfway to fifty-two

A Secret Kept marked halfway to completing the challenge. I can't believe I'm here already! If I can keep reading at this speed, I'm on pace to read 75 books this year. SEVENTY-FIVE. That's a lot. And I'm pretty sure I won't read that many...I have some busy times ahead of me this year.

But, I'm pretty sure I can make it to 52!

A quick round-up of the first 26 books:

All 26 came from the library
Only one book was classified as a book for adults
The 26 books belonged to 12 authors and 19 of the books where shared between four authors (apparently I've been drawn to series this go around)
There were 8 mysteries and 12 fantasy novels
Every single one of these books was new to me!

For the second half of the challenge, I'd like to think I might read a few more "grown-up" books and maybe some non-fiction. Anyone have any suggestions for either of those?

A Secret Kept

Hey guys, look, I've returned to the grown-up books! This is also the halfway point for my challenge, but more on that in a later post.

I really liked Sarah's Key, another book by Tatiana de Rosnay that I read last summer, when I say this one at the library, I was happy to give it a try. It was a quick read. I finished it the same day I started it and it was a day when I had J with me most of the day and no one to help with her. Which means it was a super quick read. I was a bit disappointed because I felt like this book was quite formulaic, which isn't a bad thing except that it felt like it was written to fit into a model.

While I enjoyed the book enough, there wasn't a character I really liked. Antoine's life just felt lost although, maybe he was finding his way when the book ended. I felt like Mélanie's character started to develop in the opening chapters, but then she just dissolved into a supporting character later in the book even though she played an important role in what was to come. Her change of heart about finding out the truth about the secret just happened with no explanation and didn't fit with the other decisions characters made. It was too abrupt.

I would recommend this book as a light read for a holiday or other escape from reality! I have a hold on The House I Loved, so I'll see if it was just something about this book that rubbed me the wrong way...

The Warlock: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT (unless you've read the first four books, then you're probably okay)

The Warlock. The Deceiver. The Traitor. There were a few warlocks in this book. As I've made my way through The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, I have discovered that I really need to read it with a dictionary, an open web browser and maybe a professor of mythology by my side. I think this is a series that I will one day want to share with J, but I need to better educate myself on mythology. My biggest problem is that most of the myths I know about, apart from the Bible, are Roman and some Greek. Michael Scott doesn't just include those two, he also refers to Mayan, Egyptian, Norse, Irish, and Japanese myths among others. The books are also full of other historical figures, some of whom were instantly recognizable (Mr. William Shakespeare or Joan of Arc anyone?), some of whom I recognized but had very little context for (Machiavelli, Billy the Kid), and some who are most certainly interesting but I had no idea who they were in any context (Virginia Dare).

I read The Necromancer and The Warlock back-to-back over a few quick days. I was away from home with J and had lots of downtime and when I finished The Necromancer, I literally put it down and picked up The Warlock and kept reading. That's mostly why my post on The Necromancer is so short and refers to this one. I can't remember where one book ends and the other begins.

The Enchantress, the last book in the series, is due out very soon and I get to have one of the first copies from the library, fresh off the shelves, before anyone else reads it and I'm hoping that soon there might be a box set, maybe of trade paperbacks, so that I can read them slowly and refer to earlier books as I plug along. Oh, and so I can pay closer attention to the covers.

I wish I had made a map of the main characters and their relationships and drawn myself a family tree of sorts, because I can't remember who goes with whom now...

So far I've enjoyed this series. I am looking forward to the last book and to rereading all of them too...

The Necromancer: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Book four in Michael Scott's series about Sophie, Josh, the Flamels and a very interesting cast of supporting characters was good. I am feeling like I'd like to have all of them around me when I read them though...more about this with The Warlock, coming soon to a blog near you...

The Tin Princess

This is and isn't part of the Sally Lockhart series, The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North and The Tiger in the Well being the others. It features some of the same characters, including Sally, but it focuses on her friend Jim and Adelaide, a young girl who vanished in The Ruby in the Smoke. As with The Tiger in the Well, I started reading this book to get through the series, but then it actually became kind of interesting. I felt it was a bit farfetched, but it was interesting.

And now I'm quite happy to moving forward to something else...

Would I recommend The Tin Princess? Maybe. I feel like I probably would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't thinking of it as part of the Sally Lockhart series.

The Tiger in the Well

Does anyone else remember when I started this challenge I made some rules? Mostly rules for me, but rules nonetheless? (Although really, I'd call them guidelines more than rules...) Specifically, rule #1? About not finishing a book if I wasn't enjoying it?

Yeah. Me too. I remember that.

But I didn't follow that rule with this book. I struggled with this one. It was long. It involved plot elements from the first book, which I read back in February and that book is back at the library, so I couldn't flip back and check things out. I had trouble concentrating, mostly because I was reading to distract myself and it was only working some of the time...

Once I got to the last five or six chapters, I did start enjoying what I was reading, but before that, not so much. I felt like there was too much going on and too many little threads of story happening, some of which were relevant and some of which were not. And I was frustrated. And I'm sure that was the intention of Philip Pullman. Lots of the stuff going on in the book wouldn't be tolerated in our society and yet it was commonplace in late 19th century London. I also really wanted them to Google a bunch of things and maybe use GPS cell phone pinging to locate people and things. And that is a sign that I watch too many procedural dramas. Yes, that I do.

Do I recommend it? Well, I didn't think it was a good as The Ruby in the Smoke or The Shadow in the North (what's with Pullman and this series and it's "The Blank in the Other Blank" titles?), but it was interesting. It was maybe too long. And I maybe need to let go of my sentimentality...I'd read the first two, so I had to finish (sort of) the series.

So do I recommend it (yes, I asked that already and got all parenthetical on myself)? Well, maybe. I'd recommend the first two and then suggest you try number three...you might like it better than me...you also might be more focused than I was...

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

Flavia de Luce is back and it's Christmas at Buckshaw and there is a film crew on site and a baby is born (it is CHRISTMAS after all) and of course, someone is murdered...

This might have been my favourite of the four so far - the relationship between Flavia and her sisters is expanded just enough to make me feel better about it. Flavia is still quite isolated and I'd love to see her make some friends. We learn a little bit more about Dogger - was he a medic during the war? Flavia sets off the most spectacular fireworks display. Buckshaw might be saved from creditors by Shakespeare, but will it? And maybe Santa Claus delivered some amazing chemistry supplies to Flavia.

I can't wait for book five...

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

This was also a one day read - I really liked the idea of the book...a teenaged girl leaves a diary in a used bookstore and dares a male reader to go on a little scavenger hunt. They go back and forth with the diary until they finally meet...I'm a nerd and that would totally have appealed to me as teenager. Heck, even as an adult it would appeal...I love the choas and disaster that happens. And when the book ended, I kind of wanted to know what happened next...

Princess of the Midnight Ball

Princess of the Midnight Ball is The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I wasn't sure how the fairy tale would be extended to novel length, but I really like how Jessica Day George did it. I don't have a whole lot to say about this book, but I am planning to read the others - I'm looking forward to the Cinderella adaptation - Princess of Glass.

Goodnight Mister Tom

I read Goodnight Mister Tom in just a few hours. (WWII obsession...check) I loved this book even though there are some painfully sad parts. I love that grumpy Mister Tom softens and that scared Will becomes comfortable and happy and I love that something so wonderful could happen in the middle of such a horrible place in history. I haven't read a book recently where I wanted the book to keep going and not stop - I have been reading a bunch of series and I know there is more to come, so even though I feel like those stories are not complete, I know there is more coming...it's different - I really wanted to read page more about Will and Mister Tom.

The Sorceress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

First of all, I need to remember to take these pictures with my camera, not my pathetic phone. What a hideous picture!

Secondly, I need to post these soon after I read the book...especially when I am reading a ton of books, close together.

Third, I'm kind of looking forward to this series being done. But that might be because I have read four whole books and two partial books since I read The Sorceress, so my memory might be fuzzy. I am still convinced I need a good, basic course in world mythology, so I'll work on that. In any case, I liked this book well enough - it takes place simultaneously in San Francisco and London...there's time travelling...there's magic and twins and twin magic. I have The Necromancer sitting on the table waiting for me to finish another book and then I'll be back in the thick of the Nicholas Flamel world...

The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Whew. I finished this at the physio yesterday. I've figured it out, the physio is part of the reason I've been devouring book...I spend an hour 2-3 times a week lying on her table with the acupuncture needles or vibrating cup things or heat on my leg and that gives me a nice quite hour to read. No kid. No phone. No husband. No chores. No distractions. I also spend about 30 minutes each session on the bike and elliptical, so there's that too...

Anyway.

The Magician mostly takes place in Paris and introduces some new characters like Machiavelli and Joan of Arc. Seriously. It also provides more information on Nicholas Flamel's background and I'm beginning to wonder about him...

I've mentioned my obsession with London and how I always feel homesick when I read a book about it over there, but I also have this thing for Paris. I always wanted to go to Paris and for a while I thought I wanted to live there. And then I visited Paris and I didn't like it. And then I visited it again and I figured it would be fabulous the second time, but I didn't like it. But you know what, I visited it again and I still didn't like it.

But I still want to go back...especially after reading books about Paris (like this one) so I'm now in "Let's visit Paris" mode.

I'm still enjoying this series - I love all of the characters - the traditional mythology ones and the quirky others (Hi there Joan)...I am planning to do some background reading once my library book pile is substantially reduced.

Clockwork Prince

Ahhh...I've been waiting for this book for ages...and it came out last fall, but the waiting list was huge! I had to get it back right away too as there are something like 200+ people waiting for it after me!

Where do I start?

I really should have reread, or at least skimmed, Clockwork Angel before I started Clockwork Prince. I read it so long ago that I had trouble recalling some of the basics of the plot...I feel like this is a series (along with the Mortal Instruments) that will one day find it has a home on my bookshelves...

Will and Jem. Tessa. Jessamine and Sophie. The Fairchilds. The Herondales. Mortmain. Vampires. Shadowhunters. Downworlders. The Clave. The Institute. The Silent Brothers. I don't even know where to start.

I think I might actually like the Infernal Devices more than the Mortal Instruments, but that may just be my London obsession showing...

I like Tessa and she reminds me of Clarry - both in her innocence of a world she is part of but didn't grow up in and her overall being. I still haven't figured out WHAT she is (but that's probably the point!) or why she was in the City of Glass...

This booked was fast paced and not without some interesting twists and turns. I finished it much faster than I thought I would, which might be why I feel like I need to reread parts of it.

I'm torn between Will and Jem and I'm not sure if Tessa made the right decision...And I'm still mad about the last few pages of City of Fallen Angels. I'm itching for the next Cassandra Clare book - City Of Lost Souls is out in May.

Has anyone read any Cassandra Clare? What do you think about Will and Jem? And (totally about a different book) what do you think of the last scene in City of Fallen Angels?

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

I have had this book waiting in the wings for so long...and I had to finish it last night because the library wants it back today. I can't wait to start the second book, but before I do that I have another book that the library wants back on Tuesday that I have to finish first. Because I know I won't be able to renew it because there were something like 200 people on the waitlist after me. But more about that book in a few days.

The Alchemyst was book number nine in February. I got off to a slow start to the month - only two books in the first seventeen days, but I made up for it with seven books in the last twelve days. I don't think that's a sustainable number for me, but whatever, this month it happened. I happened to have a four day holiday that involved a plane ride and two sick days in the last part of the month, so that likely helped me out.

I had seen the various books in this series floating around the library for a few months and finally was able to grab the first three a few weeks ago. And then, after I had them, the series was highly recommended by a couple of friends, so I figured I had chosen some winners.

This book was great - I love how modern times and mythologies of multiple cultures are interwoven. I love the characters. I do not love how these books have made me acutely aware that I have little knowledge of most mythology...but I can easily remedy that! I keep looking characters up on the internet, just like Josh.

Once I'm done this series I think I need a break from the YA Fantasy genre...Ancient mythologies might be a good choice...we'll see...

Little Blog on the Prairie

Okay, let's be honest. I picked this book up from the children's section of our library while I waited for J to choose her books a few weeks ago. I didn't expect much of it and I only picked it because, well, I'm most certainly, without a doubt, a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. No question about that one! When I was in grade three, I went through a phase where I would only wear a dress because Laura and Mary wore dresses and did farm work, so I could wear dresses and be in grade three. Oh and did I mention that I was a tom boy? My mom tells me I'm the only person she knows who could grass stain the knees of a dress.

So this book, Little Blog on the Prairie, well, Gen's mom decides that a great, bonding family vacation would be to head to the farm for six (or so?) weeks as a family and live in 1890 in a one room cabin. Except that they don't usually spend time together. And her dad is connected to a Blackberry all the time. And none of them have ever done anything remarkably farm related.

So they go, they give up their modern conveniences and everyone is miserable. At first. But then Gen develops a crush and starts sending text messages (on a cell phone she's smuggled in) to her best friends who turn them into a blog.

And then everything goes nuts. There's a television crew and a disaster and a few heated arguments.

It was cute. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and would certainly recommend it to the 11-14 year old crowd. I'm not sure that J will appreciate it when she's that age though...the technology will have all changed by then!

Oh, and if you'd like to read Gen's blog, it's here and it looks just like she described it in the book!

Under A War-Torn Sky

As I've mentioned before, I inherited a bizarre love of World War II from my mom - not just novels, but history too - so this story about Will, an American pilot, and his journey through occupied France after being shot down by a German plane grabbed my attention and held on. And I've just discovered there is a second book - A Troubled Peace - that I'm trying to track down in the library system.

The story of Will's journey through France and all of the people who helped (and some who hindered) his quest for freedom reminded me of how lucky we are to live in a time of relative peace. At least in North America.

The book also reminded me of a book I read when I was a kid - it was a banned book I think because it told a sympathetic story of a family on the wrong side of the war. I'm trying to track it down, but I can't remember many of the details...

Anyway, Will relies on the generosity and discretion of the people he encounters in the French countryside to find his way back to Allied troops so that he can go home - he meets a variety of resistance workers - the farming family who's young boy is Will's caretaker, Claudette, a feisty young girl who wants to be more involved than her boyfriend will allow and various groups of maquis of assorted political persuasions, but all with the common goal of liberating France from the Germans and the puppet Vichy government.

I'm on a hunt for good non-fiction about the French resistance now, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

I LOVE Flavia de Luce. I love these books and I can't wait to read the fourth one (my pile of library books in getting smaller and I'm now tackling them by due date...which means I have to wait a bit to read it). This time Flavia gets herself mixed up in a bloody murder, a brutal beating and a counterfeit antique business...and of course she solves most of the crimes. In this book more than in the first two, I really felt bad for Flavia - she is very isolated at Buckshaw and her only friends seem to be Dogger and Mrs. Mullet. Her sisters torment her, as older sisters do, and because she doesn't go to school, she doesn't seem to interact with the other children in the Bishop's Lacey.

I love Flavia's obsession with chemistry and I love even more that she has her own lab. I would have loved to have a my very own lab when I was 11...

I've wondered from the very beginning about the fate of Flavia's mother, Harriet and it looked like maybe this book had some clues that confirmed some of my suspicions, but no, it was just a trick Ophelia and Daphne played on Flavia that Bradley played on his readers. Hello actual red herring.

I'm so glad I discovered Flavia de Luce!

The Shadow in the North

I didn't enjoy The Shadow in the North as much as I enjoyed The Ruby in the Smoke, but it was still quite good. I found it harder to follow because Sally and Fred weren't exactly working together but were working on the same case. There was a big gap between books and I missed Rosa. Pullman did a good of explaining the changes to the business and in the characters' lives during the gap.

I loved how independent Sally was, but I wonder how realistic it would have been. The University of London was the first university in England to admit women and grant them degrees in 1878, so I guess it's possible...

I hope I like The Tiger in the Well more than this one!

The Ruby in the Smoke

I'm not sure why I picked this book up. Actually, I picked the first three of four up. I really liked The Golden Compass and have meant to read the other two books in the series His Dark Materials, but I have never gotten around to doing it. I also had a stack of about ten other library books to read when I decided to take these three books home.

Well, I'm glad I did. Sally Lockhart is a great, independent character. She had a very unconventional upbringing by a single father after her mother was killed in a mutiny in India. After her father dies, she is sent to live with a distant relative, Aunt Caroline. She gets mixed up in a big mess involving stolen books, opium, a cruel woman living in Wapping, a photographer and his sister, Trembler their employee, a young boy named Jim and a few other assorted characters. And with the help of Jim, Trembler and Frederick and Rosa Garland, she gets to the bottom of the mystery and finds out a few pieces of her own story that are a great surprise to her.

So, it's on to The Shadow in the North. I have a lot of reading to do before the library demands all of their books back!

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

This is the second Flavia de Luce book and I just got an email from the library that the third and fourth ones are waiting for me to pick up! I am really enjoying this young British sleuth!

In this book, a travelling puppeteer shows up in Bishop's Lacey with a broken down van and a very unhappy assistant. Two shows are arranged for the church hall and during the second one, the puppeteer is killed. Flavia noses around and collects clues and discovers a surprising connection between the pupeteer's death and a death five or six years earlier.

Alan Bradley does such a good job of weaving his mystery that I wasn't sure who did want and who was innocent and who wasn't innocent, but had no hand in either death...I love Flavia and her potions and chemistry! I'm looking forward to A Red Herring without Mustard.

Septimus Heap: Darke

Darke is so far my favourite of the Septimus Heap books. And it was dark! I did have to keep reminding myself that this is a kid's book, because there was a whole lot of "happily ever after" that happened, but it was good. Some of the key characters from the other books were noticeably absent (the Wendron Witches, the four Heap brothers who live in the forest, and Aunt Zelda and Wolf Boy conveniently arrive at the end of the book) and I missed them.

Compared the number of pages dedicated to the rest of the book, I thought the time that Septimus spent in the Darke Halls was short and not as detailed as I would have liked.

I'm also a bit frustrated that six books in, I don't really have a picture in my head of what any of them look like, except maybe Merrin (ugh). The sketches in the book don't show the characters the way I think they should be, but I'm not sure what the way I think they should be is. Confused?

With Harry Potter, I pictured this scrawny kid with messy dark hair, glasses and a lightening bolt scar. With Septimus Heap, I see green eyes, a tall teenaged boy and messy straw-coloured hair, but I see all those things independently of one another. Maybe it's because there is a picture of Harry on the front of the first book or maybe it's because J. K. Rowling is better with description, but I feel like I'm missing out on something because I can't picture the characters.

I'm looking forward to book 7...apparently it's still being written, so maybe it will be 2013 before I read it?

Septimus Heap: Syren

Oh, I enjoyed Syren so much more than Queste! I'm so glad!

I took this book with me to Guide Camp, but of course I only read a few pages. This week has been a bit ridiculous, so I was thrilled last night when J put herself to bed 45 minutes earlier than usual and I had a bit of time to do some reading.

This book had an adventure and introduced some new characters and new kinds of characters, but I felt like it also could have been the last book in the series if it wanted to be. The loose ends all seemed to be tied up at the end and there's a two year jump between Syren and Darke.

I love that the book developed Milo, Jenna's father, a bit more, but I wish there was more of Silas and Sarah Heap. The strong family relationship is often mentioned, but they don't get a lot of print themselves.

I'm curious about Syrah and what happens to her and I'm hoping that Darke will have more about her in it (the signs are good so far!)

And I've decided that this is a series that I'd like to read with J when she's older...which means I must like it!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Quick housekeeping:

Today is the last day of January and I'm on pace to read 60 books this year. Looking back to the last two years where I kept very close track of my reading and the three or so years prior to that where I kept loose track, I am confident that I won't read 60 books (there are months when reading drops off...December, May), but I'm still aiming for 52 books. I didn't read finish any non-fiction this month, but I'm not going to force myself to do that (see the RULES)...but if you have any good non-fiction suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Okay, so do you know why I picked this book up? Because of the cover. And the fact that it was the only non-fantasy/vampire/wizard/weird futuristic novel in the turning bookcase right beside the picture books. I know: don't judge books by their covers, but the stamp drew me in. Good thing I missed the scary dead bird. But I really did enjoy this book. I also need to get out of the kids' side of the library...or not. I have a pile of non-kidlit beside my bed to read.

Anyway.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. That's what I'm supposed to be talking about.

It was really good. So good that when I discovered, by turning  the last page, that there are at least two more novels featuring detective Flavia de Luce, I knew I'd try to track them down.

Just another momentary aside. It drives me bananas that paperbacks aren't catalogued by title and author at our library. So if I find something I want that either the library only bought in soft cover or was only printed in soft cover, I just have to keep searching the (unalphabetized) turning shelves for the titles I want and hope that maybe someone got the book at another branch but returned it to one of the two we visit.

Back to the book. Flavia is an eleven year old English girl, living in a crumbling manor house in the English countryside in 1950. She has no mother (although maybe her deceased mother isn't actually dead?), an eccentric father and two horrid older sisters (aren't all older sisters horrid from an eleven year old's perspective?). She is also a chemistry prodigy and has a wild imagination. She's smart and she's nosy curious, which makes for a good detective.

I quite liked this book. It had enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes and was very well written (and is a Canadian novel...I wrongly assumed it had a British author). I was particularly impressed that a retired man could capture the essence of an eleven year old girl so well!

I just discovered there are six Falvia de Luce books, four released with the fifth to come in 2013...guess what will be gracing my bedside table next! (oh wait, one more update. An additional four have been added...that make ten [ahem, yay math skills])

Oh, and bonus points. Alan Bradley lives(d) in Kelowna.

If you hadn't already figured it out, I highly recommend this book. And I'm a geek.

Septimus Heap: Queste

Book four. Not my favourite. This book took so long to get to the actual Queste and then I felt like the Queste was rushed and, quite frankly, a little bit too easy. The House of Foryx confused me. And maybe it was supposed to confuse me because the House of Foryx was confusing.

Ugh.

I don't know. I'm into book five now and I'm already enjoying it more than Queste, so it's all good...

PS The horrible picture is a cell phone shot...sorry. I really should know by now that my real camera takes far better pictures!

Septimus Heap: Physik

I'm on track for 52 books this year...so far...but January was one of my better months last year too!

Physik is the third Septimus Heap book and so far I think it was my favourite. It introduced new characters like Snorri, the Northern Trader and Marcellus, the Alchemist and there was time travel (hmmm...there was time travel in the Prisoner of Azkaban too).

I quite liked the way the book ended with a bit of a surprise, especially from Marcellus. My favourite part of this book? Even though there is an evil Wizard that Septimus probably needs to focus on, he didn't really feature in this book. He was there and acknowledged, but the excitement and action and danger came from some else, just as evil. As much as I love Harry Potter and I understand why battles with Voldemort (or because of Voldemort) are so important to the story, it's too bad every year for seven years was focused on escaping one villain. I haven't quite figured out the time line of the first three books...I think maybe it's about two years (can anyone help me out?) but I know that the third simultaneously covered just a few days of present time and a few months of other time, so that might have something to do with it too.

I already started Queste and I'm having trouble keeping the two books apart in my brain, so that's all for now!

Septimus Heap: Flyte

After leaving this at work two nights in a row, I finally brought it home with me last night. And finished it. I enjoyed it, but, as with the first book, the foreshadowing was a little too obvious for me (I'm still chalking it up to being a grown up reading a books written for 9-12 year olds)...

I have started the third book, Physik, and I'm already enjoying it. I'm looking forward to when J is old enough to read these books with me. Chapter books are fun!

Septimus Heap: Magyk

A few years ago we gave Magyk and possibly Flyte to our nephew. I wanted to read them then, but I never got around to it. Last winter, J took gymnastics at the Community Centre and the gym happens to be right next to the library. So we would go to the library after gymnastics and this library is a lot bigger than our library. I kept finding Flyte and Physik, but I could never find Magyk. Well, I lucked in last weekend. I found the first five hanging out in the racks and I scooped them up. Fiona was over tonight and told me it was a good thing I read quickly - I think they all have over 500 pages in them...

Anyway.

I finished Magyk tonight and have already started on Flyte. I really liked it. I had figured out some of the twists pretty early on, but it is classified as ages 9 and up, so that is probably more to do with me being an adult than the plot devices being too obvious.

The book started with Silas Heap's seventh son, Septimus, dying not long after birth. Silas and his wife raise a baby girl born the same day who turns out to be the princess. On her tenth birthday, the Supreme Custodian tries to take her from her family, but the ExtraOrdinary Wizard saves her. And then everyone is on the run. And there are ghosts. And yucky Magogs and Brownies. And Boggarts. Although these boggarts are different from Harry Potter's boggarts. Somehow in my multiple readings of Harry Potter, I never looked up boggart. Apparently I should have!

I'm ready for book two...two chapters in and there are already twists and turns. Probably a good choice for my first book of the year!

Fifty-two books in 2012?

What was I thinking...I must be INSANE. Fifty-two books in 2012 is a book a week and it's 18 more books than I read in 2011.

I think it's possible. Look over there to left at my stats. I came flying out of the gate in 2011 - I read twelve books in the first three months of 2011. That was half of my 2011 goal and if I had managed to maintain that pace, I would have devoured 48 books last year. That's just 4 short of my goal. I guess I better get moving and finish my first book for 2012 before I go back to work on Tuesday.

There are no restrictions on where I get my books this year (the book diet ended in the summer). I have to read at least 26 NEW books. I can read more, but at least 26 should be new reads. That's to get me to move away from my old favourites (hello Harry Potter series). And I'm going to try to read more non-fiction. I don't know what that will look like, but I'm going to try.

I'm hoping to make it through the six shelves of books in my bedroom that are either new, borrowed or I read so long ago I can't remember if I want to keep them or not...

As always, I'd love your recommendations. Heck, I need your recommendations. See number 56 of my 101 in 1001 challenge. I need 5 recommendations and no matter what they are, I will read them.

What are your reading goals for 2012?

Wrapping up 2011's reads

How many books read in 2011? 34 + 2 that I gave up on

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio? 28:6

Male/Female authors? 5 male, 18 female, 1 unknown

Favourite book read? Room

Least favourite? Crazy Love (didn't finish it)/Goddess For Hire (did finish it)

Oldest book read? The Courilof Affair (even though the translation wasn't published until 2008, the original was written before 1942)

Newest book read? When We Were Strangers

Longest book title? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Shortest book title? 29

How many re-reads? 12

Books in translation? 1

Most books read by one author this year? 7

How many books were borrowed from the library? 13 (+ 1 reject)

Name a book you've read this year which was recommended by a blogger? Clutter Rehab

So 2011 was a success for me in terms of my reading habits. I made my goals. I read a few more non-fiction books than I thought I would, although I seemed to stay within my comfort zone of memoirs. I read a few horrible books. I skipped a couple of hideous books (those aren't included in my totals, but they were a victory for me since I tend to have trouble putting a book down even when I hate it). I found some new authors.

What fun!

The Woman's Book of Simple Delights

Santa left this in my stocking. It's one of those miniature books. I'm going to stick it in my bag because it has some great suggestions. I love that each page has two sort of related suggestions:

Spend an afternoon at an art gallery

OR

Go to a small neighborhood branch library and browse all afternoon (don't you love that old book smell?)

I guess Santa is trying to tell me to slow down and smell the flowers a bit...probably something I need to be reminded of a little more often.

And with that, step two of my challenge is complete. I'll recap in the morning. Or on Monday. We'll see.

Happy New Year!

Memoirs Are Made Of This

Okay, I enjoyed this. It was kind of fluffy and light, but it was what my brain needed before bed this month (Yay, I'm into December and even though it's now barely January, I'm still in December). I liked Venus. I liked the story. It reminded me of a cross between The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries. It reminded me of my life when I worked for the downtown corporate office. I had just come back to Vancouver and was figuring out my life - my job, my friends, what exactly it was I was doing...

It hasn't been donated yet, so if you're in Vancouver and you want it, I'll give it to you. Or if you're heading this way sometime in the next few months, I'll keep it. It's hard cover, I'm not mailing it. I hate how expensive postage is.

Our Iceberg Is Melting

Um. Yeah. This is a bathtub book that my boss gave us all to read. It's a fable about change and the obstacles and personalities that a group faces when moving forward (or not) with change. I need to read it again because I've already forgotten most of it, but I know that when I read it, I was struck by how well the author illustrated change and our reactions to it.

Mafiaboy

My grandma gave Mafiaboy to Alex for his birthday, but I ended up reading it first. I really enjoyed it - the technical aspects of how and why mafiaboy hacked a bunch of big name companies like Yahoo! and eBay in 2000 where easy enough for my non-computer brain to understand. There was a human element to it - we'll never know what was actually going on in Michael Calce's head the day he launched the attacks, but I'm happy to believe he was a teenaged computer geek who just went a little too far. I know a bunch of people who hack for fun...one particular group of people claims to do it for fun but leave messages in the systems they hack so that the security people at the hacked website/computer system can improve security...

I vaguely remember the mafiaboy attacks...I was living in a Swiss-Italian bubble at the time of the attacks and had very little access to the internet (and when I did have access, I used it primarily to check hotmail). What I likely remember is the arrest and ensuing fall out and probably only because Calce is Canadian...who knows...

Anyway, I liked it.

My Great Book Challenge resolution for 2012: post books right after reading them so I don't forget what I want to say...

UGH.

You Have To Kiss A Lot Of Frogs

Um, You Have To Kiss A Lot Of Frogs? It was a frog. But not a magic frog. I tortured myself and finished it, because I kept hoping it would get better. Somehow. But it didn't. It's gone. I can't believe I spent $4 on it. Ugh. Maybe I'm too far removed from it...I don't know...because it got some good reviews on Amazon. But I didn't like it. It was just not me.

It Sucked and Then I Cried

October...almost there...

I have followed Heather B. Armstrong's blog, dooce.com for a long time. I wanted to get the book when it first came out and didn't and then I forgot about it.

And then I found it in the bargain section of the bookstore.

Even though it's a pretty serious subject, I found myself laughing a lot. I recognized the early days of having a kid. I loved the voice. I'm trying to convince Alex to read this...actually, if you have kids or might have kids one day, this is a great book that honestly addresses postpartum depression.

And this is why I should post these as soon as I read the book...I can't remember anything else!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

SPOILER ALERT (but I think most of you have already read these books)

This is September's second book. I devoured it after I read the Half-Blood Prince. And then I was done with Harry Potter for a long time I thought. It's December and I'm already thinking it's time to reread these. I've read the Deathly Hallows three or four times now and every time I discover a whole bunch of things I didn't notice before (or at least that I'd forgotten). There is so much packed into those pages that I feel like I have to read it a few more times before I grasp all of it...

And now, as an aside, I need to talk about the movies. And how the last three really piss me off. I feel like they left out a bunch of details that were important. Like the horcruxes and Dumbledore's pensieve. And where was Harry's Mokeskin pouch? And why didn't he repair his wand at the end of the movie? I hated the final battle scene. And the lack of evacuation of Slytherin and subsequent return of Slughorn and the humanity that takes over the Malfoys and the way they kill Voldemort and I could go on and on and on. I know that there is so much in the books that there was no way it could all be in the movies, but I really feel like there were some key things missing...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

SPOILER ALERT (but I think most of you have already read these books)

Okay, so we're finally into September and with September comes the end of the Harry Potter series.

I reread the first four books of the series so many times that I could recite the plot lines in my sleep. I can tell you what happened in the Order of the Phoenix but not in as much detail as the other books. When I get to the Half-Blood Prince, I find myself thinking, oh, I didn't know that or gee, I forgot that.

Half-Blood Prince is so dark and there is so much information packed into it. I know it annoys some Harry Potter fans that the concept of the Horcruxes isn't introduced until this book, but like so many of the other devices J. K. Rowlings uses, they're well placed.

I liked how the relationship between Harry Potter and Dumbledore grows in this book and I like how Dumbledore is real. He made some big mistakes where Harry is concerned and he acknowledges them. The relationship between a teacher and a student is always tricky, especially if there is a potential for (real or perceived) favouritism.

I still cry every time I get to the end. I hate that Dumbledore dies. I hate that Snape kills him. I hate that Snape kills him even though I've read all of the books and I know what really happens. I hate that Dumbledore didn't tell Harry the curse was killing him. And I hate the funeral. It feels real and raw and it makes me cry again. I can't read the end of this book when J is around because it worries her (yes, I found that out the hard way. I thought I could control my tears, but apparently I can't). 

I feel like I should go back and reread the series, but I think I need to go back and just read books six and seven a few times so that they can catch up with the rest of the books in my brain!

Bonus Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

SPOILER ALERT (but I think most of you have already read these books)

This book, along with the Goblet of Fire, is my least favourite of the Harry Potter books. I still like it, but it's not one of the best. I feel like J. K. Rowling padded this one up too. My copy is starting to fall apart because it's so heavy the spine can't handle all the pages!

I remember when this book came out - I had just moved into my own place and my birthday was a few days away. I used my birthday money to buy the book and spent the weekend inhaling it. I was SOOOOOOOO sad when Sirius died. In fact, I cry every time I read that part.

Harry annoyed me to no end - he was so cranky. I get that it was a combination of hormones, not knowing what was going on and the whispers at school and Voldemort, but hey, he didn't have to be that cranky.

I ended August with Harry Potter, just as I started August...phew. Five sevenths of the way into the series...after writing these, I feel like I need to read the books again. I'm going to try to wait until the new year though!

Bonus Book: Sarah's Key

It's time for me to get moving...it's now less than a week before the end of October and I still have part of August, all of September and now all of October's books to post.

I saw Sarah's Key ages ago, but the book diet was still being enforced (common theme or what?) I needed a book to keep me entertained when we went to Manning Park for my cousin Amy's wedding and I thought this would be the perfect book to take. Except one evening I picked it up and started reading. And that was the end of that plan. It only took me a couple of nights to devour this book.

I inherited my love of reading from both of my parents, but my strange love of all books World War I and World War II and Holocaust and Russian Revolution I'm going to attribute solely to my mom (my dad introduced me to the Hardy Boys and spy and detective novels and Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell and books of that genre). So this book was definitely on my radar for a while before the book diet ended.

I loved how the first part of the book alternated between the stories of Sarah and Julia and then Julia picked up the whole story and became Sarah's voice. Sarah is a young Jewish girl who locker her young brother in a secret cupboard when the rest of the family is arrested in the Vel d'Hiv. She struggles to survive and return to Paris to save her brother. Julia is an American journalist married to a Parisian who is assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv, a piece of French World War II history that is seems many know little about.

Julia's investigation into the Vel d'Hiv leads her to Sarah's story and in turn a story of her own.

I really liked this book. I flew through it and I think I will go back and reread (parts) of it. I have this bad habit of reading really quickly and enjoying what I read, but then I can't remember what the story was, or I mix two or three stories together.

Definitely a book I recommend - has anyone else read it?