bluesalamanders 2008

2007 Challenge

I'm starting my new challenge for the new year. My goals for 2008 will be to read at least:

75 new books
10 nonfiction books
110 total books
33000 pages

Numbers may rise at some point depending on how much and what kinds of books I read (particularly total books/pages), but I think this is a good starting point.

Comments and discussion are welcome!

Best of luck to you!

This looks like a great goal to me. Good luck!

Thank you both :)

I have no doubt that you'll reach your goal! I'll be following your books.

Good Luck with your goal!

1. *Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (446)

I enjoyed this book a lot. The Wintersmith was an interesting characterization of Winter and Tiffany and the other characters were just a lot of fun.

2. *Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (213)

I also enjoyed this one, although I'm not sure I entirely agree with the 'feminism and sorcery collide' blurb on the cover. There wasn't really that much feminism.

2 / 110 books. 2% done!

2 / 75 *new books. 3% done!

659 / 33000 pages. 2% done!

Currently reading: A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley

3. A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley (192)

The Healer
This may be my favorite story in a book where I like them all. It's about Lily, a girl who is born without the ability to speak. She has the Gift of healing and earns her place in the village and countryside where she grows up, but she can never forget what she doesn't have. Everything changes when she meets a mage who can mindspeak. This takes place in Damar.

The Stagman
Ruen's parents died when she was a baby and her uncle is to be Regent until she is of age, but of course he doesn't want to give up the power. Instead of just sending her away, he leaves her to die at the hands of a monster, who instead saves her. Ruen frustrates me, because she's so totally passive most of the time, but given her upbringing I guess it makes sense. I do like the end, though. This is also set in Damar.

Touk's House
Erana is adopted by a witch and grows up with her and her half-troll son Touk. She has to go away before she can realize what she has to return to. I like Erana, she's smart and persistent.

Buttercups
Another one of my favorites, I read this story in a new way after reading recently how McKinley and her husband met. Pos's first wife died years ago and he never considered marrying again until he met Coral, a young woman new to the town. Then he began to doubt, as the difference in their ages and his lack of wealth made him more and more uncomfortable. What will happen when disaster strikes - and who will cause it?

A Knot in the Grain
This story is in a totally different vein and it always seems odd to me, coming after four high fantasy tales. It's sort of a pre-urban fantasy story - it's not urban in the sense of big city and so on but it is set in modern times and has a very different feel than the others. Anabelle's family moves the summer before her junior year of high school and, partly as a protest, she picks the attic to be her new room. Something happens that even she doesn't expect when she finds the knot in the grain.

4. Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (312)

Just as much fun the...third time around, I think. Although I admit I skipped the short chapters about parasites. I read them all the first time through; I don't need to read them again. Ew.


4 / 110 books. 4% done!

2 / 75 *new books. 3% done!

1163 / 33000 pages. 4% done!

You have set some high goals for yourself. I don't plan that far ahead. I look forward to keeping up with your books. I read about 75% non-fiction and following your books will give me some tips for some good fiction.

5. *Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (337)

Wow.

It's taken me this long to review this book for two reasons: 1) because I'm tired all the time from my new job and 2) because this was a very stressful book and it took me a while to get past it. Anyway.

This is the journal of a girl - 16 years old, something like that? - at the end of life as we know it. At the beginning of the book, everyone is excited about a meteor that is going to hit the moon, big enough to see the impact from Earth, during the day. Everyone (well, most everyone on the right side of the planet to see it, presumably) goes out to watch it happen, and...somehow the astronomers got it wrong and the impact doesn't happen quite how they predicted. Because of what does happen, the climate starts to change, all sorts of natural disasters, basically the end of the world. It's apocalyptic fiction; those aren't spoilers, it's expected. The story is about how the girl and her family - and the people around them - deal with it.

As I said, it's in journal format. It is just at the cusp of being too neatly written to be a diary - whole conversations transcribed word for word, that sort of thing, but it wasn't that big an issue because the writing in general, and the story and characters, were so strong. Overall, it made me want to go out and buy lots of bottled water and canned goods, just to be on the safe side...

6. The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley (216)

I generally read this when I'm stressed (reading the previous book is a good example of that) and need to calm down considerably. They're all beautifully written and none of the stories are particularly tense (sometimes to the point of being anticlimactic, unfortunately).

The Door in the Hedge
The kingdom borders the fairy land and the occasional infant boy and teenage girl are kidnapped by the faeries. Nobody expects the beautiful, accomplished (though surprisingly not Mary Sueish) princess to be taken, because the faeries have always before been careful not to end families, and she is the only one. But, of course...

The writing, the language of the story is standard fantastic beautiful McKinley. The first half of this story is wonderful and I always tear up when, well, what happens happens. But the resolution doesn't really make much sense or explain things, unfortunately.

The Princess and the Frog
I like this story much better - we're dropped into the middle of a story where an evil smiling wizard or mage or what-have-you is slowly, insidiously taking over the kingdom from the inside. The princess is spunky and holds her own as well as she can, and the frog is great. Once again the climax leaves a little to be desired, though.

The Hunting of the Hind
The princess in this story is one of my favorite fairy-tale princesses. She is reminiscent of Aerin from The Hero and the Crown, the all-but-forgotten daughter of a king's second marriage who nonetheless loves her country and her family. For her beloved brother, she embarks on a quest that a dozen men have failed at before her. As with the others, I like the first half of the story but the second half doesn't quite live up to it.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses
The twelve princess dance holes through their slippers every night and an aging soldier goes to find out how and why.

Definitely the strongest story of the bunch, start to finish. There are a few unexplained bits, but overall it works regardless. This is my favorite story in the book.


6 / 110 books. 5% done!

3 / 75 *new books. 4% done!

1716 / 33000 pages. 5% done!

Blue - I read Life as We Knew It last year and loved it! I'd like to find another young adult book that held my attention as much as that one.

Haven't read Life as We Knew it yet, but will check it out. I know what you mean, I feel that way after watching Jericho or The Day After Tomorrow. Of course, I always have water anyway, being in earthquake territory-however, things like this make me believe I never have enough!!

11 Georgia

I've probably recommended all my favorite YA fic to you already, but most of it isn't as captivating as Life As We Knew It - I think it's different when it feels like it's something that could really happen, you know?

12 homeschoolmom

I hope you like it (although that always feels like a strange thing to say about books like this :).

Last books of January:

7. Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman (176)

A beloved J or YA (I can't always tell) book that is written as the journal of the daughter of a country knight. Her brother Edward (a monk) taught her to write, and her mother wants to please him, so between them they convince Catherine to keep the journal. It is by far the most entertaining journal-book I've ever read and Catherine is a fabulous character.

8. Spindle's End by Robin McKinley (422)

Another beloved McKinley book - for all I don't like all of her books, she's still my favorite author, because the books of hers that I like, I love.

This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty and the story is very different from any other version I know. There is no swooning Disney-esque princess in this one. The first part of the book is about the king and queen, before the princess is even born, and how the curse comes about, the middle part is about the princess growing up, and the last part is about trying to break the curse.

9. *Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (317)

This is the book that the movie is based on. I like the movie a lot - it's different from the book, though, if I'd read the book first I probably wouldn't like the movie at all. This way, it was fun to pick out which parts were taken from the book and used in the movie, which characters were combined or deleted.

I enjoyed the book, but I can't say how much I would have if I didn't already like the movie. As much as I like the writing style, it doesn't seem to have much of a plot (which is why there's no attempted plot summary here). It jumps from one event to another, from one character to another, without any warning or even any division on the page. I liked it because I already knew some stuff about the characters and the story - the movie cuts a lot out, but many things are still the same, or close enough to recognize - but I don't know if I'd like that without the prior knowledge.

10. Old Man's War by John Scalzi (313)

Love this book. Some people like it because it's a good sci-fi battle book with lots of blowing things up and fighting weird alien species. Some people like it because it's a fun story, fast-paced and exciting. Some people like it because there are strong charaters with deep friendships and the beginings of an unusual love story. I'm sure there are other reasons to like it, too. (Some people don't like it; I can't speak for them, of course.)

I enjoy the alien battles and the blowing things up and the fast-paced and exciting, but I admit my favorite part of the book (indeed, in all of Scalzi's fiction) is the relationships between the characters. Not just the friendships - there is an non-friendship between the main character and a superior officer that amuses me from the get-go, no matter how often I read it.

11. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi (317)

I like this book. In a hurry, and too tired, to write another review of it. I read it last years and write reviews then.


11 / 110 books. 10% done!

4 / 75 *new books. 5% done!

3261 / 33000 pages. 10% done!

I hadn't heard of A Knot in the Grain before, but it sounds like a really good collection. Definitely something I'll be keeping an eye out for.

15 xicanti

It's definitely my favorite anthology with Robin McKinley books (if I hadn't already made that abundantly clear :) and is one of the few short story anthologies (in fantasy OR science fiction) that I regularly reread in its entirety. I certainly recommend it!

First books of February:

12. The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi (100)

I love this book, I love the way it captures the voice (voice? not exactly...close enough) of a very unusual, unique woman in some very strange situations.

The Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine
13. *Glass Houses (247)
14. *The Dead Girls' Dance (256)
15. *Midnight Alley (245)

These were better than I expected. Most books I read these days don't particularly surprise me in what happens, in the plot, I mean. But I was totally in the dark in all of these, I had no idea what was going to happen. I'm not saying that this is great literature or anything, but they really kept me guessing and it is definitely an enjoyable series.


15 / 110 books. 14% done!

7 / 75 *new books. 9% done!

4109 / 33000 pages. 12% done!

Currently reading:
The Fuzzy Papers by H Beam Piper

I'm waaay behind on updating, so there are going to be several posts in a row.

16. The Fuzzy Papers by H. Beam Piper (406)

I like this book - it's actually two books, Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens - a lot. It's a combination of about the cutest aliens ever (think Ewoks, only cuter and less annoying) and an good story. It's horrible dated, of course, the technology and everything, but looking past that, it's an interesting story of meeting alien races. The one thing that strikes me every time I read it, though, is that (in the book) humans are so much more intelligent than any of the other races, it's practically insulting. But the Fuzzies...

There's a third book in the series, which I got for my dad a couple of years ago. I didn't like it as much - I think Little Fuzzy is definitely the best in the bunch, Fuzzy Sapiens is pretty good but not as, and the third one, whatever it's called, is definitely downhill from there.

17. Young Warriors: Stories of Strength by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman, eds (312)

This is a short story anthology, so here's a review of each story:

The Gift of Rain Mountain by Bruce Holland Rogers
I like this story alright. In a way, it's a twist on the visit to the fairy realm or or land of the dead, where if you eat the food, you're there for a hundred years or are bound there forever or whatever. The kid is almost smart, but if he'd been completely smart, well, there would be no story, would there?

The Magestone by S. M. Stirling & Jan Stirling
This story I like - I've found I enjoy mermaid/water people stories when they're interesting, because the idea of people living under the ocean has such possibilities.

Eli and the Dybbuk by Janis Ian
This is fun, and very like the traditional Jewish or Yiddish folk tales that I've heard before in many ways.

Heartless by Holly Black
This...I've never quite understood this story. But the end is very emotive.

Lioness by Pamela S. Service
I like this story pretty well. I often enjoy well-written stories of women warriors, which this is.

Thunderbolt by Esther Friesner
This is an entertaining look at Helen of Troy from her perspective as the unimpressed - but not helpless - kidnap victim.

Devil Wind by India Edgehill
I like this one - it reminds me a little of The Secret Garden, which may just be because of the setting. It takes place in India and has to do with the friendship between an English girl and her Indian maid or servant. And magic, of course, and revenge.

The Boy who Cried Dragon by Mike Resnic
This one is just cute and funny and if anything reminds me of Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest books, a little.

Student of Ostriches by Tamora Pierce
I like this one, actually. It's entertaining to read about the background of one of the more fascinating minor characters from the Tortall universe, and also I liked the reveal at the end, because the first time I read it, I didn't realize who it was until the very end of the story.

Serpent's Rock by Laura Anne Gilman
I don't really remember much about this, so I didn't like or dislike it particularly, I guess.

Hidden Warriors by Margaret Mahy
I did like this, with the apprentice there and anther amusing reveal at the end.

Emerging Legacy by Doranna Durgin
Another one I enjoyed, Kelyn from this story reminds me some of Aerin from The Hero and the Crown.

An Axe for Men by Rosemary Edgehill
Not the biggest fan of this story, but oppression is oppression and when women are oppressing men, it's just as bad as men oppressing women, so my not liking it has to do with my feelings about the real world, not about how things are in the world of the story.

Acts of Faith by Lesley McBain
I liked this a lot, and at least it was a short story - I don't read books (fact or fiction) in this setting very often, because they're too stressful.

Swords that Talk Brent Hartinger
"You want a quiet weapon, get a mace."
It's funny and smart in a "think before you act" sort of way. I enjoy this one, and it makes me think of a line from...A Wizard Abroad, where someone tells Nita that "it was a rare sword that didn't tell you its history, back in the old days" and suggested that it's not necessarily a good thing that weapons are so passive these days.


17 / 110 books. 15% done!

7 / 75 *new books. 9% done!

4827 / 33000 pages. 15% done!

18. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (312)

I felt like reading another apocalyptic fiction, so I picked up an old favorite that...I don't think I like as much anymore. There is a lot of (now that I know what it means) "As you know, Bob..." sort of explanation and rambling that I just don't care about. I did a "good parts" version this time and skipped a lot of that, moving on to the actual story, which was what I was interested in. It's not a bad book - it's actually a pretty good book, though dated - but I wasn't in the mood for political and military rambling.

19. The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce (539)

I like it and I don't. I think it's noticeably better than the other Circle books, but has a lot of the same flaws - too many separate stories going on at once, with not enough time to focus on any one of them. And the final conflict, the climax of the story, is a bit of a let-down.

I think I still read Pierce's books because of what they could be, not because of what they really are.


19 / 110 books. 17% done!

7 / 75 *new books. 9% done!

5678 / 33000 words. 17% done!

I think I still read Pierce's books because of what they could be, not because of what they really are.

Aw, I thought the Trickster books really were great!

I've only read the first four Circle books, though, and wasn't impressed enough to continue.

I liked the Trickster books a lot when I first read them, which says something, I guess.

I've read them two or three times since then, and realized that Aly is the biggest Mary Sue I've ever seen, and there are dozens of (potentially) fabulous secondary characters that are completely and utterly wasted because Aly is a pretentious, precocious know-it-all who never lets anyone else do anything, she has to do it all herself.

And re the Circle books, there are a couple of them that I like - I like Daja's Book and Shatterglass, but I like them despite and around the flaws.

I've only read them once, so it's possible that they aren't as good as I first thought.

But at the same time, I have nothing against Mary Sues. I actually dislike reading books about average people.

There's a difference between an extraordinary person and a Mary Sue, though. A character doesn't have to be average to not be a Sue.

That's true. But I just don't think I've ever minded a character being too perfect, while it's not unusual for me to hate a book because the protagonist is too stupid.

I hear you there, I can definitely get frustrated by stupid protagonists.

And if Mary Sues don't bother you, then, well, ok. To each their own and all :)

:)

20. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (518)

Still my favorite of the HDM trilogy, several discussions about the books recently inspired me to reread it.

21. *The Black Sheep by Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout (352)

Hey, a non-f/sf book! The Black Sheep is about a teenage girl who, in a moment of despair, writes a letter to a reality tv show (called "The Black Sheep"). The moment passes and she forgets about the letter, but she is picked to be on the show, which involves switching places with another teenage girl (in, of course, a radically different situation) for a month. Embarrassment, hilarity, frustration, romance, and more, follow.

I picked this book up because of the cover - no, really! It's all black with a white embossed outline of a sheep in the middle and it really caught my eye. The last time I read a book because of the cover, I was disappointed, but this was an entertaining if occasionally frustrating book.

22. The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint (368)

I bought this the last time I was at the bookstore. I've been wanting to reread it almost since I put it down the first time I read it, and there we go. It was pretty much as good the second time around as the first. It's an urban fantasy about a new girl (Imogene) coming to school and strange things start happening to and around her. But she's the type to go and figure out what the heck is going on, so she does, bringing her new friend Maxine with her.


22 / 110 books. 20% done!

8 / 75 *new books. 11% done!

6916 / 33000 pages. 21% done!

March

23. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (231)
24. In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce (240)
25. The Woman Who Rides Like A Man by Tamora Pierce (253)
26. Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce (320)

It was interesting to read these (yet) again. Alanna isn't nearly as much of a Mary Sue as I remembered, especially in the first couple of books.

27. Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (404)
28. Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn (439)
29. The Last Command by Timothy Zahn (467)

I really like these. They really are a continuation of the movies - the characters have the same feel, the universe has the same feel, and they're darn good stories to boot.


29 / 110 books. 26% done!

8 / 75 *new books. 11% done!

9270 / 33000 pages. 28% done!

30. Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales ed. by Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin (285)

I'm not reviewing 50 stories. They're all short-short stories (their definition of short-short, anyway), between 500 and 3,000 words. I really like some of them (e.g., The Haunted Space Suit by Arthur C. Clarke, Stair Trick by Mildred Clingerman) and I don't like some others at all (e.g., Hilda by H. B. Hickey, The Rag Thing by David Grinnell).

31. Lythande by Marion Zimmer Bradley (237)
Anthology of short stories about Lythande, a woman who must stay disguised as a man or lose her sorcery and her life.

The Secret of the Blue Star
Not my favorite story, but a poignant look at how difficult it can be for Lythande to have to hide the truth from everyone.

The Incompetant Magician
Lythande performs a task for a fellow magician in exchange for a remnant of her past. The story itself isn't that interesting, but I like the end.

Somebody Else's Magic
Lythande's secret is threatened when she helps a dying woman and is bound by somebody else's magic. A frustrating story with a weird ending.

Sea Wrack
Lythande decides to help a fishing village rid itself of a murderous mermaid. I really quite like this one, and it brings to mind several old fairy tales I've heard.

The Wandering Lute
Lythande attempts to disenchant a lute and has several amusing adventures on the way. There is a sequel story, The Gratitude of Kings, that isn't in this book. I like both stories; there are several entertaining characters and situations.

Looking for Satan by Vonda McIntyre
This story isn't told from Lythande's perspective at all, but that of Wess, a girl from the North who has come south with her friends to find their kidnapped friend Satan. It is definitely the strongest story in the bunch and my favorite.

32. *Dune by Frank Herbert (510)

I'm counting this as a new read because while I did read it back in high school, I didn't understand any of it. It's very complex and quite an interesting book. It was hard for me to separate what was happening in the book from what I remember from the SciFi miniseries, though, which made things interesting when, for instance, the same line was spoken, but by a different character (which happened frequently). There were a number of characters that I liked better in the miniseries - almost all the women were much stronger there.

33. *It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh (230)

I originally bought this book because I'm a big fan of his (now cancelled) tv show Clean Sweep. On it, he would help a person, or a couple (usually a couple), or a family go through the clutter from two room of their home, while the rest of his team redesigned and redecorated those rooms to be more functional and more beautiful (well, usually more beautiful; I didn't always agree with their aesthetics, but that's to be expected).

This book is supposed to be how to do that (the decluttering part) for yourself.

Mostly I liked it. I got some sticky pagemarkers to keep track of things I wanted to look back at later, and I have a bunch of pages marked. The main problem I have with this - which is the problem I have with most declutter/get organized stuff I've looked at - is that it's for a family, in a house. Many of the suggestions involve getting the family involved, do stuff with the kids, etc, etc, and maybe it's supposed to be easier to convert things from "do it with the family" to "do it by yourself", but I found page after page of how to do stuff with the kids frustrating. And frankly, I skipped a lot of it, which means I may have missed advice and information, but that's the way it goes.


33 / 110 books. 30% done!

10 / 75 *new books. 13% done!

1 / 10 non-fiction. 10% done!

10532 / 33000 pages. 32% done!

34. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (280)

I love this book. I think this is one of my favorite books. It's told from the perspective of a watchdog, Snuff, and it's a gathering of all sorts of fantastical literary characters - some I recognize, some I don't. It's easy to figure out who the Count, the Good Doctor, the Great Detective, and Jack (who is under a curse and keeper of "the Knife") are. There are half a dozen more that are probably just as recognizable, if you've read the right books. They are all gathered together to participate in a sort of ritual on Halloween night - some trying to let the Elder Gods into the world, others trying to keep them closed out. The book is about October, preparing for Halloween and then at the end performing the rite. From the perspective of the dog. It's really pretty hilarious.


34 / 110 books. 31% done!

10 / 75 *new books. 13% done!

1 / 10 non-fiction. 10% done!

10612 / 33000 pages. 32% done!

Currently Reading: Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Last book of March:

35. The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (122)

YA historical fiction about a homeless orphaned girl who is taken in by a local midwife as her apprentice. The girl learns, grows, and changes, eventually discovering that she has desires beyond her immediate needs. She is a complex and interesting character to read about and it is a thoroughly enjoyable book.


35 / 110 books. 32% done!

10 / 75 *new books. 13% done!

1 / 10 non-fiction. 10% done!

10734 / 33000 pages. 33% done!

Currently reading I see by my outfit by Peter S. Beagle

First books of April:

36. *^I See By My Outfit by Peter S. Beagle (237)

Memoir (is that the right term?) of a trip Peter Beagle took with his artist friend Phil something from New York to California on their scooters (which apparently were less un-cool back then, or maybe that meant something different). I don't know how this compares to today's memoirs; nothing really happens in this one. They take a trip. The most stressful thing that occurs is Peter's scooter breaks down on the highway and they have to jury-rig it to get to a place that can fix it properly.

But even so, it is a great read. It's not exactly a trip that could be taken in this day and age, or maybe I just don't know the right kinds of people. They camp, they rent rooms in cheap motels, and they stay with friends-of-friends who they've never met before. They hear fascinating stories, play guitar and sing, watch the landscape change as they cross the country, and eventually get where they're going (to Enid, Peter's future wife).

37. *Jennifer Government by Max Barry (321)

I think I put this on my tbr list mostly because of the title, which I found intriguing. And the cover, which I think is fantastic. And, amazingly enough, the cover is actually relevant to the book (unusual with F&SF books).

So, this is a science fiction - speculative fiction? - book that takes place in a future where the government is weak and almost laughable, and corporations are governments unto themselves. More or less. People take the last name of the company they work for - hence Jennifer Government, also John Nike, Claire Sears, Buy Mitsui, and so on. A Nike marketing rep decides to artificially increase the value of the new product by fast-talking some poor schmo into doing something he doesn't want to do, and then it all goes to hell.

This is a very fast-paced book, I think the whole think takes place over just a few days, and one thing after another just keeps happening, bam bam bam. I liked it, but at the same time it's kind of terrifying, because I can see ways that our world may be headed in that direction, and that's not my idea of a great future.


37 / 110 books. 34% done!

12 / 75 *new books. 16% done!

2 / 10 ^non-fiction. 20% done!

11292 / 33000 pages. 34% done!

I read most of Feed by M.T. Anderson at B&N today, but I had to leave before I was done. I'll finish it next week.
I guess next up is Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.

38. *Feed by MT Anderson (320)

Excellent book. Absolutely not what I expected.

39. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (283)

I always forget how much less stupid book-Buttercup is than movie-Buttercup. Also, this is one of the few instances where I love both the book and the movie.

40. *My Own Kind of Freedom by Steven Brust (168)

Free e-book, Firefly novel. In character, fitting plot and motivations, enjoyable story. Available for download here.

41. *Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier (271)
42. *Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier (275)
43. *Magic's Child by Justine Larbalestier (291)

I bought these, but I sort of regret it. I liked them well enough, but now that I've finished them all, I doubt I'll ever read them again. I'll probably be passing them on soon.

44. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (394)

Reread. I love this book. There's going to be a sequel sometime in the near(ish) future. I hope it lives up to TAD.


44 / 110 books. 40% done!

17 / 75 *new books. 23% done!

2 / 10 ^non-fiction. 20% done!

13294 / 33000 pages. 40% done!

Currently reading *Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest (285)

45. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (615)

This is a well-written fantasy novel that I enjoyed even more the second time around.

46. *Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest (285)

I really like Cherie's blog (cmpriest on livejournal), so I decided to check out one of her books. This will make her the third author whose books I read after I was already a fan of their blog. I am not a big fan of horror, though, so I made my sister read it first, so she could tell me if I'd be able to read it or not.

Eden is an orphan who occasionally sees the ghosts of her dead relatives, has a cousin who keeps trying to kill her, and that's just the beginning of her family dysfunctions. She finds out just how crazy it all is when she starts probing into her family's past - but if she hadn't, things could have turned out a whole lot worse...

I did like it, although not quite as much as I expected. Eden never seemed to take much of anything seriously, and the book was in first person, so the whole book had a rather sarcastic tone and a pretty even level of emotion. Which on the one hand, meant it wasn't especially scary, even for a horror-phobe like me, but on the other hand...it felt like it should have been scarier.

47. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (246)

This has been one of my favorite books since I first read it in high school. It is definitely dated, with an optimistically organized and truthful version of the internet (or "data net") and pessimistic views of the US future, but I've always enjoyed the way the story is told - it starts out as a series of flashbacks that eventually work up to the present time, and has random thought-provoking (to various degrees) quotes and questions peppered throughout the book.


47 / 110 books. 43% done!

18 / 75 *new books. 24% done!

2 / 10 ^non-fiction. 20% done!

14440 / 33000 pages. 44% done!

Currently reading:
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Steampunk edited by Ann Vandermeer & Jeff Vandermeer

Elantris was amazing! I remember staying up until 4am to finish it. Also did you know he was chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series now that Jordan died?

He's really nice, I met him one day back in December, I think it was. He stopped into my bookstore, out of the blue, to sign his books. Unfortunately we didn't have many in the store - but he was pretty cool. We talked for a while and he signed a copy of Mistborn for me and gave me a signed ARC of Well of Ascension. The odd thing is that I wasn't even supposed to be there that night, someone called me and asked if I could work their shift...funny how these things happen. And I'm really the only big fantasy reader that works there, so if I hadn't been working that night there wouldn't have been anyone interested in his books.

Have you read Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians? Really entertaining young adult novel by him, check it out.

First books of May:

48. Sunshine by Robin McKinley (405)

Still my favorite book. It's funny, because all the things that so many people dislike about it - the informal, somewhat scattered narrative, the random bits of information that aren't really related to the plot, the shadowy half-defined secondary characters that nonetheless are important parts of the story - are all things I love about it, that makes it perfect for me.

I heard an interview with Salmon Rushdie that likened oral storytelling to a juggler that keeps throwing more and more balls into the air and how you're just watching to see how they keep them all in sync, and I think that's the kind of story Sunshine is - not a straightforward, beginning-middle-end story but a meandering, sidelining, keep-adding-another-ball kind of story.

Most of McKinley's novels are like that, actually.

49. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane (226)
50. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane (272)

One of my favorite YA series, although that's becoming a long list. Deep Wizardry is without question my favorite book in the series. My only problem with it is that the whalespeak is inconsistent - sometimes S'reee understands and uses human terms for things, sometimes she doesn't.

51. *The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (250)

I'm glad I bought this, because I definitely will have to read it again before I can really make a judgment on it. I love the movie. I mean, I love the movie. I don't think it's the best movie ever or anything, but I'm not sure when I last saw a movie that really got book people, especially such a variety of them. I adore movie-Grigg, the geeky sci-fi guy. The conversation between him and Jocelyn where he says he thinks she would like Ursula Le Guin is so perfect, so realistic, so exactly how that kind of exchange really goes. As are the other conversations they have about SF books (well, I can't speak to the last one personally, but I'm sure it's happened somewhere).

Um. The book. I'll have to not watch the movie for a while, and then reread the book, I think. I liked it, I liked it well enough to reread it, but I keep seeing scenes from the movie when I try to think about what happened in the book.


51 / 110 books. 46% done!

19 / 75 *new books. 25% done!

2 / 10 ^non-fiction. 20% done!

15593 / 33000 pages. 47% done!

Currently reading: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (yes, for exactly the reason you're thinking)

36 Ilithyia

Yes, I heard about Brandon and Wheel of Time, but I've never read those books, so it doesn't mean much to me. He's a great writer, so I expect he'll do a good job and I hope the fans like it, though.

I haven't read Alcatraz yet, but I've heard very good things about it and it's on my tbr list, for sure. I'm glad to hear he's as nice in person as he's been online.

52. *Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (247)

Having recently seen and read The Jane Austen Book Club, I've decided to quit wasting time and read Austen's books myself. I've only read Pride & Prejudice previously and not very thoroughly, either.

I liked Catherine immediately. I can relate to her (and I can't usually relate to characters in books) - I often don't know quite how to act in social situations, and there are many things about social interaction that confuse me, so her general confusion and naivate was endearing and understandable. Most of the other characters were irritating - they told half-truths or just made things up, waffled and chattered about unimportant things when there were important issues to discuss, and were altogether frustrating. Only the Tilneys (and only the Henry and Eleanor; not the father) were genuine; not even Catherine's brother was.

53. ^*The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies by John Scalzi (296)

A fun overview of the history and evolution of science fiction movies. It is entertainingly written and Scalzi isn't shy about saying this is a good movie and that isn't, this worked, that didn't, and these are so bad they're still worth watching just for laughs. "Sci-fi" is rather loosely defined, with quite a few fantasy (usually darker fantasy) movies included.


53 / 110 books. 48% done!

21 / 75 *new books. 28% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

16136 / 33000 pages. 49% done!

Wow, you have a very impressive book list here! I picked up 4 books for my wish list (and I really needed those... )! Excellent taste, I'll be checking in more often ^^

Thank you! Which books did you add to your wishlist, if I may be nosy? :)

It's your thread, nosy away! ^^

I added:
Brandon Sanderson - Elandris
John Scalzi - Old man’s war
Max Barry - Jennifer Government
Susan Beth Pfeffer - Life as we knew it

I already read Alas, Babylon and I totally understand about the bottled water thing! I feel like keeping chickens so as to have 'currency' should anything happen...

I also read the Fuzzy books and I really liked them. Wanted to get me my very own Fuzzy, settled on a cat instead (who looks a lot like yours by the way!).

And last but not least, I already had Feed on my wish list. Maybe our book tastes were separated at birth? ^^

Have you ever read Children of the dust? It's a post-apocalyptic YA book, reminded me of your description of Life as we knew it. And two sci-fi books that I feel are underappreciated that you might enjoy: Gateway and Roadside Picknick.

I want Jennifer Government, too! I have read Old Man's War, and really liked it.

I agree that this is a great thread. I haven't found many other people that like both science fiction and Jane Austen, so I appreciate that.

42 Vonini

Ooo, nice list! Those are all books I liked very much indeed. If you like Old Man's War, there are the sequels The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, and a couple related novellas (not all easy to find, unfortunately), plus a new book from the same universe coming out later this year (I'm so excited! Zoe's Tale will be out in the fall, I think).

I haven't heard of Children of the dust or the other books you suggested, but I will look at them and perhaps add them to my (ever growing) TBR list.

43 sussabamax

I'm glad you liked OMW, Scalzi is really one of my favorite authors these days, between his books and his blog.

I realized upon further reflection that I knew about Jennifer Government from back in college, when Nation States, the online game that the author created, was all the rage. The intriguing title and really awesome cover art were a bonus, I guess? I don't know. I had forgotten about the game until I either read about it in the back of the book or googled the title, I don't remember which.

Either way, I enjoyed the book more than I ever liked the game.

I agree that this is a great thread. I haven't found many other people that like both science fiction and Jane Austen, so I appreciate that.

Aww *blush* Thanks! I like to think I have somewhat eclectic tastes, even though I generally stick to the f/sf vein.

54. *Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster (340)

This book is hilarious. Want to see what happens if Elizabeth Bennet had married Mr. Collins, or hadn't gone to Pemberly? It is a choose-your-own-adventure version of Pride and Prejudice. I thoroughly enjoyed it and, well, I probably didn't exactly read 340 pages (I haven't gone back to try every different choice) but I've read enough other stuff that I don't mind putting that number in.

My only problem with the book is that every ending I caught that wasn't the "right" ending was miserable. There weren't any that were just unhappy or dull. I wish there had been more of a range of possibilities.

55. Wise Child by Monica Furlong (228)

My parents gave me this book when I was 10 and I still enjoy rereading it from time to time. It is a historical fantasy about an orphaned girl known as Wise Child who is adopted by Juniper, essentially the village witch. She struggles between the joy in her new life and the disapproval and fear of the villagers - especially the priest - and later between her love for Juniper and the temptation of living like a lady with her real mother, Maeve.

One of my favorite lines in the book is something Juniper says to Wise Child, who grew up spoiled and stubborn:

"You always feel someone must be to blame when you are tired or miserable or frightened, Wise Child. It may not be so at all - it may just be the weather of life - but even if they are to blame...does it matter?"

56. Juniper by Monica Furlong (198)

This was written several years after Wise Child and is the story of Juniper's childhood, growing up as a princess in Cornwall and learning to be a doran (like a kind of witch). I like it nearly as much as I like Wise Child. It is a more dramatic book, with chases and fights and magic. It's interesting to see Juniper grow from a prideful, spoiled princess into a resourceful and powerful doran.

57. *Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (369)

I liked it. Of course I liked it. I love the BBC/A&E miniseries and that is a very close adaptation. One thing I found very interesting, though, is that in the book, Elizabeth seems slightly less clever and sophisticated, and Darcy seems less proud and nasty. Of course, having a window inside their heads and hearts is part of it, but also some of the lines of dialogue were cut in such a way as to make character traits more exaggerated.

Are there spoilers in a classic book like this? If so, then spoilers ahead. I think my favorite part was the very end, when we found out things were like after the weddings. Maybe that's just because I had nothing to compare it with - the miniseries ends with the wedding - but I also liked to read that Kitty and Mary weren't left to stagnate, that Jane and Elizabeth helped Lydia and Wickham as best they could, and so on.


57 / 110 books. 52% done!

23 / 75 *new books. 31% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

17271 / 33000 words. 52% done!

>46 bluesalamanders:, blue, I had the same problem with Lost in Austen. It seemed to me that the only "good" ending was the one that followed the plot of Pride and Prejudice. I was hoping for a little more creativity from the author.

47 fanny

Yeah, I mean, I understand that that should be the best ending, the right ending, but that doesn't mean that every other ending had to be so painful and horrible! It was a disappointing part of an otherwise great concept.

>48 bluesalamanders:, Agreed. :)

Final books of May:

58. The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley (278)

A fun story that is, as McKinley puts it in the afterword, "historically unembarrassing". I enjoy reading about the doubtful Robin, a Robin who worries more about keeping his people fed than tormenting the Sheriff of Nottingham. The second half of the book concentrates on another member of Robin's band, and so we see a different perspective of Robin and, at the end, of the sheriff and the king - a slightly less dire view, since that member has no price on their head.

It's a new take on an old story, the characters are interesting and fun to read about, and the writing is McKinley's typical good storytelling.

59. *Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (328)

Aislinn was born with the Sight, the ability to see the fey who usually walk around invisible to humans. It runs in her family, so she is taught as she grows up to ignore them, to pretend she can't see them, because if they know she can, who knows what they'll do?

But how can she keep ignoring them when two of them start following her around?

This is an excellent book, well-written and a very enjoyable take on the fey-among-us trope.

60. *Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr 325

I like this, it is well-written and a fun read, but it is pretty much exactly the same plot as Wicked Lovely. Not the details mentioned in my review of Wicked Lovely; it's the underlying structure of the story that is the same.

61. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (212)

Cimorene hates being a 'proper' princess, so she runs away and volunteers to be princess for a dragon. This is an old favorite, a sort of fantasy/fairy tale parody or whatever you want to call it. It's a wonderful little book, a quick read with great characters and a fun story.

62. *Princess Ben by Catherine Murdock (344)

This is a nice little Sleeping Beauty retelling. Not my favorite fairy tale-retelling ever, but Ben (Benevolence) is a fun voice to read and there are other interesting characters as well. I would have loved this book when I was younger.


62 / 110 books. 56% done!

26 / 75 *new books. 35% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

18758 / 33000 pages. 57% done!

First books of June:

63. Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. (242)

Mendanbar (the young King of the Enchanted Forest) decides to go for a walk one morning and ends up on a quest in which he encounters Morwen (a witch), Cimorene (a dragon's princess), Telemain (a magician), and a variety of other unlikely individuals. Second book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, full of more fairy tale parodies, and a lot of fun to read.

64. *The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (267)

This is a rather dystopian SF book with some fantasy elements. A boy escapes from an orphanage/testing facility and is thrown into a world he barely understands, and then even stranger things happen after he almost dies.

Not my favorite book ever, but it was an interesting read. The writing felt kind of frantic, which fit the storyline. I found part of the ending surprising.

65. Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (244)

The wizards steal Mendanbar's magic sword, so Morwen, Cimorene, Telemain, Kazul, and a couple of Morwen's cats (and a rabbit...sort of...) go adventuring to steal it back.

I like this one a lot; the characters interactions are amusing and the cats sound just like you'd expect cats to sound.


65 / 110 books. 59% done!

27 / 75 *new books. 36% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

19511 / 33000 pages. 59% done!

66. *Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn (416)

The first three of Zahn's Star Wars books are still the best, but the others are enjoyable as well. I think there might be another one coming out, too.

67. Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (255)

Daystar's mother melts a wizard, gives him a magic sword, and sends him on a quest, all in the same day. But...she doesn't tell him what the quest is for. Part of his quest is figuring out just what he's supposed to be doing.

Not my favorite book in this series, but fun nonetheless.

68. *Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (367)

Technically this was a reread, but I remembered nothing but a few names from the first time I read it. I liked it.


68 / 110 books. 62% done!

29 / 75 *new books. 39% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

20549 / 33000 pages. 62% done!

69. Book of Enchantments by Patricia C. Wrede (234)

Short story anthology:

Rikiki and the Wizard
A cute story about a clash between a pompous wizard and an animal god, with the wizard's daughter thrown in for good measure. Who do you think turns out to be the cleverest one?

The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn
Princess Elyssa decides to go adventuring with the support and help of her family (to the frustration of the kingdom's advisers, since they live in a kingdom where fairy tale things never go quite right). But what does the palace cat lead her to the Unicorn Pool?

Roses by Moonlight
This is a more serious story and one of my favorites. It's set in modern times and it's about two sisters and what kind of relationship they have - and more importantly, what it could be.

The Sixty-Two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd
Another funny, cute story. The main character is a young girl whose father is adviser to the Caliph (a sort of king). The Caliph is also a wizard, and when he gets angry at someone, he curses them and their immediate family off his list and it's up to them to figure out how to break it. But what can they do about an unbreakable curse?

Earthwitch
A story about love and relationships as much as about magic and war. This is an excellent story, where a few carefully chosen words conjure up an unwritten saga.

The Sword-Seller
It's all about flaws and mistakes. One man does something out of desperation and doesn't think - or doesn't want to think about - the consequences, and the ripples effect people he knows and people he doesn't.

The Lorelei
Another modern story. I like this one a lot. A school trip to Germany and a couple of kids go up against a magical creature.

Stronger Than Time
Something went wrong in the curse of Sleeping Beauty and nobody woke her up, and now everyone who tries to dies. Can a prince and a woodcutter together succeed? It's a sweet story, and sad. I like it.

Cruel Sisters
This is a sad and serious story. The middle princess, Meg, has always tried to play peacemaker between her sisters Anne and Eleanor, but their rivalry and hatred for each other is beyond her influence as they grow older, and is also somehow invisible to everyone else. Until the younger sister steals the suitor of the elder without so much as a thought. And then the two sisters take a walk by the river...

Utensil Strength
I'm pretty sure this is the reason I bought this anthology to begin with - it's an Enchanted Forest story, with Cimorene and Mendanbar and so on. An enchanter was in the process of making the Ultimate Weapon when his wife stormed into his workroom waving her best frying pan around. The spell fixed itself to the pan and suddenly instead of the Sword of Doom, he's stuck with the Frying Pan of Doom, which nobody can hold without a potholder. In order to find the wielder of the Frying Pan of Doom, Cimorene and Mendanbar decided to hold a tournament - but to include a bake-off, so all the contestants will have to touch the Frying Pan in the process. It doesn't quite go as planned, of course, but everything turns out well, and they still have the bake-off, too. The winning recipe - Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake - is available in the back of the book.


69 / 110 books. 63% done!

29 / 75 *new books. 39% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

20783 / 33000 pages. 63% done!

70. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (425)
71. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (370)
72. Specials by Scott Westerfeld (372)

Got the box set for my birthday. I adore these books.

73. Extras by Scott Westerfeld (417)

74. The Last Slice of Rainbow by Joan Aiken (144)


74 / 110 books. 67% done!

29 / 75 *new books. 39% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

22511 / 33000 pages. 68% done!

July:

75. Squire by Tamora Pierce (380)
76. Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce (409)
Rereads. Protector of the Small is my favorite of Pierce's Tortall series, in my opinion the best written with the least mary-sue-ish main character and the most developed plots.

House of Night series:
77. *Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (306)
78. *Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (310)
79. *Chosen by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (307)
Not the best YA vampire books I've ever read. I kept reading parts and thinking "oh, that reminds me of" some other YA fantasy book. I'm just getting bored with teenage vampires in general, I think. I won't say that everything good has already been done, because that's silly, but it is the new "thing" and people are jumping on the bandwagon instead of coming up with new ideas. Still, these were enjoyable enough and I'll read the next book when it comes out.


79 / 110 books. 72% done!

32 / 75 *new books. 43% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

24529 / 33000 pages. 74% done!

80. *The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (546)

*may include slight spoilers*

This is a fantastic book. It was interesting to read a whole book that dealt with how people handled the time-traveling issue without dealing with the issue itself much until near the end. I actually thought that the time-traveling "disorder" was the weakest part of the book; after suspending my disbelief about it being possible for a man to slip in and out of time the way Henry does, I had trouble trying to reconcil it to be somehow natural. I would rather, I think, have not be given any sort of a reason at all.

But that is a minor part of the book and the rest of it was wonderful. Many of the time-travel-related issues have been dealt with in other science fiction books, but this is a more in-depth look at how people deal with it rather than at the mechanics of it (there are no "don't cross your timeline" or "touch your other self and the universe will implode" issues that are common in Doctor Who, for instance; however, Henry is unable to change even minor things that for him, have already happened).

After many recommendations both on LibraryThing and in real life, I am glad that I finally picked this up, it was a real pleasure to read.

81. *Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (341)

I will probably read this again some day. I like the added levels of detail in this book as opposed to the movies (which is expected, of course). The characters have so much depth. So far, this and Pride and Prejudice are my two favorite Austen books. I will probably not read another one soon; I need a break from that style of writing.


81 / 110 books. 74% done!

34 / 75 *new books. 45% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

25416 / 33000 pages. 77% done!

I started listening to Doctor Who and Torchwood audiobooks and apparently I just couldn't stop. Interestingly, I have no desire to actually read any of these books.

They're all read by members of the cast. Most if not all are abridged (unfortunately).

82. *Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole, read by David Tennant (2h28m)
Very creepy. Clearly inspired in parts by the second Pirates of the Carribbean movie. David Tennant is a fantastic reader.

83. *Doctor Who: The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards, read by David Tennant (2h25m)
The Doctor and Rose land on a planet that is in a area with no electricity (some sort of perpetual EMP sort of thing) and have to get the TARDIS off-planet and out of that field. Everything within it runs on steam, including spaceships and robots. Very steampunk. They get caught up in a space pirate mystery in the process of getting out.

Fairly predictable at times, but fun. It reminded me of a couple of Star Trek episodes at several points. I liked the end very much, and Kevin was definitely my favorite character.

84. *Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides, read by John Barrowman (1h12m)
An alien warrior starts possessing members of Torchwood. Is it out for conquest or just trying to get home?

The climactic scene with Gwen and Jack is moving, and also very in-character. I wish these books weren't abridged, though, because they all just seem like - well, it's not that the plot isn't there, but it seems like there are things missing. Depth, maybe.

John Barrowman is not my favorite reader. It may just be me, though - much as I like him (and Jack), his (American) accent always sounds just a bit off to me.

85. *Doctor Who: The Stone Rose by Jac Rayner, read by David Tennant (2h23m)
I really like this book - and just about the time that I thought it was wrapping up, I looked and it turned out it was only halfway done!

Rose has a bigger part in this than she (or any companion) has in any of the Doctor Who audiobooks I've listened to. I was not surprised to learn it was written by a woman.

86. *Doctor Who and the State of Decay by Terrance Dicks, read by Tom Baker (57m)
No, really. Alien vampires. Tom Baker is a good reader, though, with a very pleasant voice.

87. *Torchwood: Border Princes by Dan Abnett, read by Eve Myles (3h30m)
Eve Myles (aka Gwen on Torchwood) is a pleasure to listen to. I liked this book, too. It was not predictable, for the most part, and I enjoyed the story.


86 / 110 books. 78% done!

40 / 75 *new books. 53% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

25416 / 33000 pages. 77% done!
Audiobook hours: 13

88. *The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar (64)
Graphic Novel, recommended to me by my sister. Beautiful illustrations and a fantastic, hilarious story. I recommend it to pretty much anyone.

89. *Doctor Who: Pest Control by Peter Anghelides, read by David Tennant (2h24m)
The Doctor and Donna land on a planet being colonized by the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It's the middle of a war. But who is the real enemy?

Overall I found this a predictable and not terribly exciting story. It's always fun to listen to David Tennant read, though.

90. Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (304)
Reread. Without question one of the best YA vampire books. Westerfeld is a superb author.

91. *Torchwood: Hidden by Steven Savile, read by Naoko Mori (2h16m)
Naoko Mori has a lovely voice, but the story didn't make much of an impression. I didn't write a review immediately after I listened to it and now I don't remember what it was even about.

92. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (373)
This is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, Discworld book. I love Susan and Death of Rats is fabulous.


92 / 110 books. 84% done!

43 / 75 *new books. 57% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

26157 / 33000 pages. 79% done!
Audiobook time: 17h40m

I'm so glad you liked The Time Traveler's Wife and Peeps.

I loooove Peeps. I need to get a copy of the not-exactly-a-sequel, The Last Days. I've read it, but I don't own it, and I want to reread it.

And Time Traveler's Wife was fabulous. One of my RL friends practically insisted that I read it, so I went and picked it up...and then couldn't put it down.

August:

93. *Torchwood: Everyone Says Hello by Dan Abnett, read by Burn Gorman (2h24m)
Wow, fantastically creepy. Really. Wow. And Burn Gorman does a terrific job.

94. *Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andrew Lane, read by Burn Gorman (3h18m)
Seriously, seriously, gross. This is really gross. Glad it was a book and not a real episode. Did I mention it was gross?

95. Blood Price by Tanya Huff (272)
Reread, just as much fun as the first time through. Vicki is a fantastic character.

96. *Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker, read by Anthony Head (2h27m)
Definitely one of the better Doctor Who audiobooks I've heard. I had no idea what was going on or how the Doctor and Rose were going to fix it. The end was great and there was a scene near the end that made me laugh out loud.


96 / 110 books. 87% done!

46 / 75 *new books. 61% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

26429 / 33000 pages. 80% done!
Audiobook time: 25h49m

97. Blood Trail by Tanya Huff (304)
I enjoyed this book just as much the second time through. Huff does a wonderful job with the werewolf pack dynamics and, of course, the Henry/Vicki/Mike dynamics mixed in. This whole series is nice sexy fluff reading without being over-the-top and I like it a lot.

98. Blood Lines by Tanya Huff (271)
This is definitely a creepier book, and the mummy is a good villain. The book is so much better than the episode of Blood Ties that was based on this idea.

99. Blood Pact by Tanya Huff (332)
The creepy character in this book is not actually the zombie, but the scientist, or rather, the assistant. The ending makes me cry every time, and was a complete shock the first time I read it. Fantastic.

100. Blood Debt by Tanya Huff (330)
There's not a whole lot I can say about this book without giving too much away, but the tension between Henry and Vicki is astoundingly well done, and Mike is amazing. Even Tony is given more page time, and has clearly grown.


100 / 110 books. 91% done!

46 / 75 *new books. 61% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

27666 / 33000 pages. 84% done!
Audiobook time: 25h49m

101. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (280)

This is one of my favorite books. Here's the review I have posted already:

The narrator is...a dog.

His master is...Jack, who wields 'the knife'.

The characters include...a witch, a vampire, a werewolf, 'The Good Doctor', and 'The Great Detective'.

This is a fun, totally non-serious, absolutely enjoyable book about what happens when 'the right people' gather when there's a full moon on Halloween.

102. Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith (310)

I felt like reading this book once more before I get rid of it, maybe to see if I'm making the right choice. I am. I didn't like it as much the second time even as I did the first, and I didn't like it all that much the first time.

103. *Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (335)

Zoe's Tale is another fantastic book in John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. Zoe is the adopted daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan, who are chosen to head up a colony on a new planet. Except things don't go exactly as expected and along with the normal hazards of colonizing a new planet (unfriendly lifeforms, inedible vegetation, etc), they suddenly discover that they've been made pawns in an intergalactic war.

This book is a retelling of the timeline of The Last Colony from Zoe's perspective. Because she's a teenager, she isn't privy to everything the adults know and do - and, likewise, they don't know everything that happens to her - so Zoe's experience of that time is quite different from her parents'.

Scalzi writes the Old Man's War books so that each of them is a stand-alone as well as part of a cohesive story, and Zoe's Tale is no exception. Also, although I found it shelved in the adult science fiction section of the bookstore, this was intended to, and in my opinion does, bridge the divide between adult and YA. It is also hysterically funny throughout much of the book. Scalzi wrote Zoe as a brilliant, sarcastic, irreverent character who talks back to adults (human and alien alike) and uses her wits to save the day, yet still manages to act and sound like an believable teenager.


103 / 110 books. 94% done!

47 / 75 *new books. 63% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

28591 / 33000 pages. 87% done!
Audiobook time: 25h49m

I've heard so much about John Scalzi and Zoe's Tale recently that I think I'm going to have to give it a try. Thanks for the review!

You're welcome! I'm always so excited when a new Scalzi book comes out - like I said, he's one of my favorite authors. I love his characterization, and Zoe is no exception.

I hope you like it - I look forward to reading your review.

I checked out Old Man's War from the library several weeks ago and never had time to read it. Now you've got me wanting to read it again! I've put it back on my TBR list, near the top. Thanks, blue, for continuing to add to my ever growing and never ending TBR list!

Anything I can do to help, Georgia dear :D I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

ok just this summer i have read over 5500 pages!!! alll of them were by tamora peirce and cinda williams chima. they are such good writers and i just burn through them!!

Last books of August:

104. *Enchantment Place by Denise Little (ed) (338)

I like short stories as a rule. I really like a well-written short story. The premise of this anthology is fantastic - from the cover, "the mall where vampires, were-creatures, sorcerers, witches, elves, and other fey beings go to shop". How much fun does that sound?

Unfortunately, most of the stories fall a little flat. I think a lot of them could have been great fun if they'd been fleshed out more, but as it is they mostly seem rushed or like there are missing pieces. My favorites are the companion stories "Out of the Frying Pan..." by Diane Duane and "...And into the Fire" by Peter Morwood.

105. The Sagan Diary (audio) by John Scalzi (1h18m)

A fabulous book written as the inner thoughts of Jane Sagan, major character in the Old Man's War series. This novelette is set between The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony and listening to it made me want to read The Last Colony again.

106. The Last Colony by John Scalzi (316)

Having just read Zoe's Tale, which is the same timeline as The Last Colony but told from Zoe Boutin's perspective, it adds this whole new dimension to the story. Fantastic.


106 / 110 books. 96% done!

48 / 75 *new books. 64% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

29245 / 33000 pages. 89% done!
Audiobook time: 27h7m

107. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (227)

Aerin-sol, daughter of the Damarian king and his second wife, is practically an outcast at court. Between her pale complexion and flaming red hair, her clumsiness, and the fact that her magical royal 'Gift' has not appeared, and the general disdain the she is held in by nearly the entire country, only her father, her friend and cousin Tor, and Teka, her childhood nursemaid, still acknowledge her.

Then she gets sick and during her convalescence, discovers kenet, an ointment which is proof against the fire of the small dragons that sometimes harass villages in Damar. With that discovery and her subsequent forays into dragon-hunting, she creates a new place for herself in the country and the court. But to save her country and her people, she must go up against Maur the Black Dragon, an evil sorcerer, and her own inner demons.

This was the first McKinley book I ever read, and it introduced me to my now-favorite author. The story-telling in this book is wonderful; McKinley's forte is description over dialogue and action and here there is plenty of it. There are several convoluted sequences that can be difficult to follow - including the timing at the beginning of the book - but at the end of the day, it does make sense and perhaps it adds to Aerin's own confusion about her life.


107 / 110 books. 97% done!

48 / 75 *new books. 64% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

29472 / 33000 pages. 89% done!
Audiobook time: 27h7m

108. *Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (382)

Little Brother starts out with a group of four kids who are in the wrong place at the wrong time - that being, near the site of a terrorist attack in San Fransisco. They get picked up and held for nearly a week as suspected terrorists, and when they're finally released, only three of them are let go. One of those three, Marcus, decides to fight back.

A seventeen-year-old kid fighting against the Department of Homeland Security.

Little Brother is a wonderful, if slightly terrifying, book. It makes me want to pay for everything with cash and get rid of my newly-purchased E-ZPass.

Some books are scary despite how impossible the premise may be. Little Brother is scary for the opposite reason - it really seems like something that could happen, especially in today's climate of the War on Terror, idiotic airport regulations, illegal government phone taps, and so on. The question is, I guess, if something like this happens, will we have a brilliant (if occasionally misguided) high school student to knock sense back into us?

It's also beautifully written. I read the whole book in two days (which would have been less of a big deal to me a month ago, when I didn't have a full-time job to get in the way of my reading) because I just couldn't put it down. There is some 'infodumping' but it's fascinating - to me, anyway - and absolutely necessary. If he'd used terms like ARG, LARP, TOR, crypto and so on without explaining what they meant, the whole book would have been a maze. As it is, it reads like someone (Marcus) telling the story, with these little asides to explain this bit of technological geekery that was mentioned or that bit of just-plain-geekery that is relevant to the plot.

I loved this book. It is every bit as good as I heard it was.


108 / 110 books. 98% done!

49 / 75 *new books. 65% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

29854 / 33000 pages. 90% done!
Audiobook time: 27h7m

Once I again, Blue, you've forced me to add another book to my TBR pile. I don't know if I should thank you or sneer at you. :)

I like your graph!

109. *Confessions of a Jane Austin Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler (293)

When I think about this book, I think about three parts of it - the title, the story, and the end.

I like the title, it is in fact the reason I picked up the book in the first place, but it has very little to do with the story ('Jane Austen' is relevant, but the title as a whole? not really.).

The story. The story is about a 21st century woman, Courtney, who wakes up one morning and finds herself in someone else's body, in someone else's life, a life that could be straight out of one of Austen's books. For a long time, she thinks it's a dream, and she has trouble reconconciling her 21st-century thoughts and ideas - including ideas about hygine and privacy - with the standards of the day. It's an interesting story and the transition from 'it's only a dream' to 'this is my life now' is believably done.

Since I'm talking about the end of the book, I'll speak in as general terms as I can, but below will have some spoilers.

The end, however, was highly dissatisfying. Why did it happen? How did it happened? What happened to the 'real' Jane and to Courtney's 21st-century life? I'm not satisfied with a fortune-teller saying fortune-teller-y things like 'these things happen' and 'live your life as it is' and leaving it at that. I want answers - I don't need answers to everything, but to something would be nice, and there are none provided at all. I was very disappointed with the end.


109 / 110 books. 99% done!

50 / 75 *new books. 67% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

30147 / 33000 pages. 91% done!
Audiobook time: 27h7m

Georgia -

Like I said before, always glad to be of service ;)

And thank you! The graph is actually four separate meters. If you click on one of them, it takes you to the page where they're from. I like it a lot, it's much nicer than the ones I used to use.

Thanks! I should add a meter for next year.

110. *Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (275)

It's kind of an afterlife story. A girl is in a bike accident and wakes up on a boat. She doesn't realize it for a while, but she's dead and they're on the way to 'Elsewhere', which is apparently where dead people go. And live backwards, so you start out whatever age you are and live until you're a baby, then you're sort of sent back to Earth to be reborn.

At first the main character resists starting a new 'life' in 'Elsewhere', instead obsessing about her old life. But she eventually accepts it and learns to enjoy it. At the end of the book, she is sent back to be born again.

It was an ok book. I didn't quite get the point of it. It was decently well-written and the characters were interesting enough, I just couldn't really get into the plot.


110 / 120 books. 92% done!

51 / 75 *new books. 68% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

30222 / 33000 pages. 92% done!

111. *Cycler by Lauren Mclaughlin (250)

Instead of typical PMS that many women get for a few days each month, Jill changes in a more visible fashion: she turns into a boy.

When it first started, apparently she was still mostly herself, just physically male, during that time. But she couldn't deal with being male three or four days out of every month, so she and her parents came up with a sort of guided meditation so she could erase all memory of it. This caused the unexpected side-effect of a sort of forced multiple-personality, with her male side developing into a distinct persona ("Jack") with wants and needs separate from Jill.

This was an ok book, but it didn't quite manage to sell the premise to me, and with a premise this wacky, it needs to be sold hard (or, as Jill would say, it needs to be deeply sold). Beyond the initial weirdness of Jill's condition, in some ways the book is a fairly standard high school story, with Jill worrying about being invited to the prom (and acting like an imbecile trying to get the boy she likes to ask her). I didn't like Jill very much, actually

Not that I liked Jack much better, although to be fair since he spent his whole existence locked inside Jill's bedroom, it isn't entirely his fault. But he does go rather creepy-stalkery at one point, and that's not cool in Twilight and it's not cool here.


112 / 120 books. 93% done!

52 / 75 *new books. 69% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

30470 / 33000 pages. 92% done!

112. ^*Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger (309)

This was an Early Reviewer book.

The anecdotes and bits of data that make up this book are intriguing and very interesting to read. I've heard about some of them elsewhere - the "wisdom of the crowds" idea, that a large group of people guessing the answer to an impossible question (how many marbles does it take to fill up a car, that sort of thing) will average to near the right answer, even though most of them individually get it very wrong, for instance. The discussion about why traffic happens the way it does was also fascinating. I especially liked the chapter that compared the function of cities to the function of bodies.

But that's all it seems to be - a collection of interesting stories. Which, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading. I do find these things quite fascinating. But there weren't any any connections made between them or any overarching theories coming to light, so as much as I enjoy the stories, I don't really understand the point of the book.


113 / 150 books. 75% done!

53 / 75 *new books. 71% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

30779 / 33000 pages. 93% done!

113. *The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (386)

It's no surprise that I liked this book. A Little Princess, also by Burnett, has been one of my favorite comfort reads for many years. I loved the movie of The Secret Garden growing up, and I have seen and frequently listen to the sountrack of the musical.

No, the surprising thing is simply that I've never read it before.

As with A Little Princess, The Secret Garden is a sweet book, with lovely writing. Even what could be major disasters - the cholera in India, Mary's bad manners and temper and Colin's as well - are written so beautifully that there's no real sense of menace. The store is moved along by little mysteries - can Mary adapt to her new life? Can she find a way into the garden? What is the crying she hears and why doesn't anyone acknowledge it? And so on.

It was great to read the book having just listened to the musical. There are lines, especially dialogue, that are pulled straight out of the text, and although there are minor differences in the plot (for example, in the book, Mary's father is Mr. Craven's wife's sibling, and in the musical it is Mary's mother), the musical captures the story well.


113 / 150 books. 76% done!

54 / 75 *new books. 72% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

31165 / 33000 pages. 94% done!

114. *Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce (312)

The latest book set in the Circle universe. I tend to prefer the Tortall books as a rule, but Melting Stones doesn't have the issues that annoy me about most of the Circle books. There is only one main character in this book and one important setting, and there is one main event/disaster happening. Therefore the story doesn't keep jumping from place to place and person to person like most of the Circle books do, and Evvy's story gets more of the depth it deserves and requires.

Evvy, the young stone mage that Briar found in a previous book, got in trouble back in Winding Circle and is forced to travel with their teacher Rosethorn to try and figure out what is causing plants on a distant island to die inexplicably. Not surprisingly (because otherwise what would the point of the book be?) it turns out that Evvy's special talents are required to save the day.

Evvy is one of the most human characters that Pierce has ever written. She's self-centered and rude. She's damaged and yet cares deeply about some things - but because she's a stone mage, most of the things she cares about are stone. She recognizes (some of) her faults and, when she thinks it's necessary, tries to overcome them. She makes some huge mistakes and has to deal with the consequences.


114 / 150 books. 76% done!

55 / 75 *new books. 73% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

31477 / 33000 pages. 95% done!

115. *How to Ditch your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier (300)

I really enjoyed this book. It is fairly light and playful and has a refreshingly new premise. The characters act believably - incredibly stupidly at times, but believably, especially for high school students - and I love the universe that it envisions.

116. *Chalice by Robin McKinley (263)

I'll have to read it a couple more times to form a full opinion, but having read it once, I can say that I definitely liked it and I look forward to reading it again. The feel of Chalice is much more like McKinley's earlier books, such as The Blue Sword, rather than her more recent (and modern) ones. It is a lovely book.


116 / 150 books. 77% done!

57 / 75 *new books. 76% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

32040 / 33000 pages. 97% done!

117. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (248)

An old favorite.

118. *Alex Ryder: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz (3h5m)
119. *Alex Ryder: Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz (3h10m)
These books were chock full of cliches and stereotypes and just not especially good. The first one was ok; the second one was awful. I had downloaded several more books in the series but I just can't bring myself to listen to them.

120. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld (225)

Another reread. I love this book, questioning how we perceive trends, especially popular trends in fashion and technology, and reminding us that everything started somewhere. It's sometimes hard to even imagine something that is now ubiquitous being innovated, done for the first time.


120 / 150 books. 80% done!

59 / 75 *new books. 79% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

32513 / 33000 pages. 99% done!
Audiobook time: 33h22m

I just finished Chalice as well. My comment in my
75 Books Challenge thread (Half-way Point of 2008: 87 and counting) A mood piece. A romance. An enchantment. It felt very much like the best of Patricia McKillip in atmosphere. She's back on top of her game!

I've noticed we read and enjoy a lot of similar books.

A mood piece, interesting - that sounds like a good description of McKinley in general, really. I'm so pleased with Chalice, especially since I was so disappointed with Dragonhaven.

I'm not sure I've ever read any McKillip, although the name is familiar. I think I have a book of hers on my tbr list, though, I'll have to check it out.

These are books that I'm not going to finish, for one reason or another:

Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland (137/unfinished)

LibraryThing Early Reviewer book

I tried, I really did, but I gave up maybe a third of the way through. I just don't care. I don't care about the main character, the two men she's intensely attracted to I find repulsive, and nothing is happening. Also, I really don't care if their world is overrun by evil fallen angels. I gave the book to a coworker who may appreciate it more than I do.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (audio/unfinished)

I love this book on paper, but the lady who is reading it has an uncomfortable, grating voice, especially when she's reading someone else's dialogue besides Tally. It got to a point where I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I don't know how someone with a voice like that got into the business, frankly.

Knave of Dreams by Andre Norton (audio/unfinished)

Once again, I tried, but this book really lost me from about the first chapter, in which the main character learned a whole new language in about two days, without any magical or scientific aide. Sorry...no.

He (the main character) is also rather an idiot. Ok, I grant that he's been thrown into a new and strange situation, but he has a tendency to jump to some very odd conclusions on the one hand, but at other times get exactly the right conclusion on half the information. I give up.

Currently reading (and loving):
The Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede
The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia

121. *Skinned by Robin Wasserman (368)

It's one of those one-chance-in-a-million accidents and Lia Kahn is dead.

Except she isn't.

Her body died, but her brain was sliced, scanned, copied, and uploaded into a new body, a mechanical, numb, distant body that doesn't look like her, doesn't sound like her, doesn't feel like her. What happens when your body isn't your body anymore? When nothing you loved to do before feels the same and even you don't recognize yourself?

This book looks at an aspect of this kind of physical change that is seldom explored in stories like this. When your body changes, it will change your mind as well. The very fact that it did not have the picture-perfect ending that it might have had - the ending was heartbreaking, in fact - made it all the more powerful, all the more real.


121 / 150 books. 81% done!

60 / 75 *new books. 80% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

32881 / 40000 pages. 82% done!

122. *The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia (304)

A lovely steampunk novel with an unusual main character. Mattie is emancipated automaton, created to be a maid but allowed to grow and learn beyond her original skills. She chooses to learn Alchemy and also learns to tread the line between the human world and the mechanical. Mattie is a wonderfully sympathetic character, naive and intelligent at the same time. She is tied inextricably to her creator, the Mechanic Loharri, who - although he emancipated her - keeps the key she needs to wind herself up.

There are many different plots running parallel in this book, often twisting around or through each other. It's impressive, actually, how much story there is in what seems like such a short book.


122 / 150 books. 81% done!

61 / 75 *new books. 81% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

33185 / 40000 pages. 83% done!

123. The Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede (288)
124. Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede (280)

After reading a number of new books, I switch to some old favorites for a while. I actually read these in reverse order for some reason - Magician's Ward is the sequel, but I felt like reading it and then picked up Mairelon the Magician when I was finished. I enjoy Wrede's characters and her humor; these books never fail to make me smile.


124 / 150 books. 83% done!

61 / 75 *new books. 81% done!

4 / 10 ^non-fiction. 40% done!

33753 / 40000 words. 84% done!

125. ^*Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? by Allyson Beatrice (233)

I put this on my tbr list on the strength of the title alone, I think. This book is a look at how fandom - specifically online Buffy/Angel fandom - changed one woman's life.

I haven't been deeply involved in a fandom since I was in high school, but I was deeply involved for several years and it has effected my life in some ways similarly to Allyson's - the threads of that involvement linger in old friendships and in-jokes and fond memories. It was fun to read about a fandom that was as close and intense as the one I was involved in, but because it was filled with adults rather than teens, the members could do things like travel across the country (or in some cases, across the globe) to gather and meet, contact the actors and other people involved in the shows and actually have them respond and occasionally get involved, and so on.

Overall it was a very enjoyable book, often laugh-out-loud funny and at times poignant (the story near the end about everyone donating money to bring their friend from Israel to the US for two weeks almost brought me to tears). It was a fairly easy read, too, especially for non-fiction, written in a conversational tone, perhaps similar to blog or forum posts.

126. *Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin (184)

George Orr's dreams change reality. He is sent to a psychologist with a specialization in sleep and dream disorders and for the first time in his life, he has hope that he'll be able to stop his "effective dreaming", which is a responsibility he does not want. Instead, the doctor starts using his dreams to change the world. But dreams aren't as easy to control as the doctor would like to believe...

I was expecting another book as dense and difficult as The Left Hand of Darkness, but Lathe of Heaven was both shorter and much easier to read. That doesn't mean it was less powerful or fascinating, however.


126 / 150 books. 84% done!

63 / 75 *new books. 84% done!

5 / 10 ^non-fiction. 50% done!

34170 / 40000 pages. 85% done!

127. A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley (192)
128. Wise Child by Monica Furlong (228)
129. Juniper by Monica Furlong (198)
130. Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn (416)

I've been ill and loopy (due to prescription meds) all week, so the idea of reading new books is pretty much beyond me. These are all books I've read before - all except the Zahn are books I've read many, many times before.


130 / 150 books. 87% done!

63 / 75 *new books. 84% done!

5 / 10 ^non-fiction. 50% done!

35204 / 40000 pages. 88% done!

Abandonded books:

Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

I tried. I really, really wanted to like this book. I think the characters and the story and the humor have a lot of potential, and I generally think Sanderson is a great writer, but something about this book just rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps it was the way that Alcatraz kept talking to the reader, which I tend to find uncomfortable. I think I would have liked it a lot better if it had just been a straight fantasy book rather than one of those books that insists that it's not actually a fantasy book, it's really actually true!

101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Dan Karlan, Allan Lazar, and Jeremy Salter

The idea of this book is fantastic. The excecution? Not so much. I was expecting a book by people who had researched how various characters had influenced Western society. With, you know, actual research and credentials and stuff. Not a couple guys sitting around trying to think up who they thought were the most influential fictional characters. I was extremely disappointed by this book.

Blue, I absolutely loved The Lathe of Heaven. My son suggest I read it a couple of years ago. I should reread it soon.

First books of November:

131. Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (212)

Old favorite. Picked it up when I wasn't feeling well.

132. *Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (192)

Nick sees his ex walking toward him and asks the girl standing next to him if she'll be his girlfriend for five minutes. Norah sees someone she hates walking towards her and decides to take him up on it. Unfortunately, it turns out to be the same person...

My sister recommended this book to me and I really enjoyed it. It alternates chapters between Nick's perspective and Norah's perspective - and they aren't just one after the other, they overlap a little, or sometimes a lot, so you get to see what each person is thinking about the same situation. Which is really interesting when, for example, they're having a conversation and one of them thinks it's going really well and the other is wondering what the heck is going on. The voices of both characters felt very genuine, very real.

133. ^*Bogus to Bubbly by Scott Westerfeld (224)

I'm classifying this as non-fiction even though it's about half non-fiction and half fictional non-fiction. In Bogus to Bubbly, Westerfeld talks about how he came up with the idea for his Uglies series and for various things in the books, including the slang, the names, and the technologies. He also includes "instruction manuals" for some technologies, like the hoverboards, and "history" passages, such as how future generations would view what happened in the books. It was an interesting, if quick, read.

134. Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (242)

Another old favorite, sequel to Dealing with Dragons.

135. The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld (304)

Sequel to Peeps, or at least, a related book that happens at a later time. It's about different characters and a different aspect of the vampire parasite. I like it, but Peeps is far superior.

136. *Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover (410)

This book was fast-moving and action-packed. It was dark and intense, with many deaths and frequently no clear right or wrong answers - even the questions were unclear, which is often true in moral dilemmas. The setup made sense, some of the characters had interesting stories and motivations, and the end worked and was satisfying, even if it wasn't exactly a happy ending.

It all seemed a bit heavy-handed, though. I can't really remember any happy or funny or even really very neutral scenes in the book - almost the whole thing is depressing, stressful, angry, horrifying, or some combination. Anything positive gets cut off pretty much before it starts. And it also seemed to happen rather fast, although granted there is a lot that happened prior to the beginning of the book - the setup I mentioned - that we only hear about.

137. Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (244)
138. Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (255)

Third and fourth books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. The first two are definitely my favorites, but I like all four, and Morwen in particular (main character of Calling, along with her cats) is a wonderful character.


138 / 150 books. 92% done!

66 / 75 *new books. 88% done!

6 / 10 ^non-fiction. 60% done!

37287 / 40000 pages. 93% done!

I love the Wrede Enchanted Forest Chronicles too. I like her other fantasy too, but there is an element of whimsy and fun in the Chronicles which makes them perfect for a droopy day. I read the first chapter of Talking to Dragons to fourth or fifth graders when I'm a reader on Read Across America day. Then I buy the set for their classroom.

93 ronincats

Yes, exactly. They're definitely some of my favorite pick-me-up books.

139. ^*The Jewish Princess Cookbook by Georgie Tarn and Tracey Fine (220)

Early Reviewer book

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was that physically this is a very solid book. It looks solid, it feels solid; it instantly reminded me of some of my parents' older cookbooks that have lasted intact over years or even decades of frequent use. The pages are heavy and the binding is actually sewn, not just glued. There's also plenty of margin space around the recipes for notes, even taking into account the little graphics that are scattered throughout the book. This is a well-designed and well-constructed book that I expect to last a long time.

The introduction (or, introductions - it's separated into four parts) were maybe a bit much, but they were entertaining and sometimes informative to read and obviously don't need to be reread every time you open the book. There are little snippets and jokes peppered throughout the cookbook that are entertaining as well. There are no photographs but there are illustrations similar to the front cover that are amusing and attractive.

Now, I can't say that I read every word on every page, but I did go through all the recipes and flag the ones that immediately look interesting to me. I'm a fairly picky eater, so as I expected I'm not interested in all of them, but that said all of the recipes looked fairly easy to make, with a limited number of ingredients - the introduction said they tried to keep it to ten or less per recipe, many with far fewer, and they are mostly everyday things. I haven't tried cooking them yet - I've only had the book for a day - but my guess is that they're going to be very good indeed. After all, as it says in part 2 of the introduction, "food and eating lie at the very center of Jewish culture." Oh, how very true.


139 / 150 books. 93% done!

67 / 75 *new books. 89% done!

7 / 10 ^non-fiction. 70% done!

37307 / 40000 pages. 93% done!

140. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (384)

A British ship captures a damaged French vessel which is carrying a dragon's egg back to Napoleon.

I like this book very much. Temeraire, the dragon, is a fantastic character, Laurence is nearly as interesting, and as much as I am not a history buff, the setting is fascinating - the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons (the ariel corps).

141. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (432)

Laurence and Temeraire travel to China to see Temeraire's homeland and meet his kin.

Temeraire is still a fantastic character in this book, but Laurence gets on my nerves some. I understand why he does and says many of the things he does and says, but it's very frustrating to me (and to Temeraire, although he is loyal to a fault).

142. *Black Powder War by Naomi Novik (400)

The way back from China is a frustrating and frequently dangerous journey.

I only made it halfway through this book the first time around, and I realized this time that it's because the middle section is all about war and battles. All these books are about war, of course, and there are battles in all of them, but His Majesty's Dragon is really about Temeraire's youth, Throne of Jade is about traveling to distant lands and seeing new and amazing sights. Black Powder War really is about war. I skimmed a lot of the middle so I could get past it and get on to the end. I really liked the end.


142 / 150 books. 95% done!

68 / 75 *new books. 91% done!

7 / 10 ^non-fiction. 70% done!

38523 / 40000 pages. 96% done!

143. Deerskin by Robin McKinley (320)

Deerskin is a powerful and dark fantasy book based on the fairy tale Donkeyskin. It is very hard to summarize or describe; I tried but ended up outlining the entire plot (too much for a review).

144. *Blood Bank by Tanya Huff (336)

Short stories about Henry and/or Vicki from Tanya Huff's Blood books. Fantastic, as much fun as the books themselves.
144 / 150 books. 96% done!

69 / 75 *new books. 92% done!

7 / 10 ^new books. 70% done!

39179 / 40000 pages. 98% done!

145. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey (176)

A gifted musician is forced to leave her home when her teacher dies and she's told that girls can't be Harpers. I don't much care for McCaffrey's Pern books, but the Harper Hall trilogy is the exception.

146. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey (288)

Menolly moves to Harper Hall and has to learn to get along with new kinds of people and a new way of life.

147. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey (223)

Menolly's friend Piemer grows up and gets into a new series of scrapes.

148. Catherine, Called Birdy by Monica Furlong (176)

Written as the journal of the daughter of a country knight. Catherine's brother Edward (a monk) taught her to write, and her mother wants to please him, so between them they convince Catherine to keep the journal. It is by far the most entertaining journal-book I've ever read and Catherine is a fabulous character.

149. *Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice (352)

I liked this book very much, up until the end. The last page or two annoyed me. The rest of the story, however, was intense and interesting and I enjoyed it.


149 / 150 books. 99% done!

70 / 75 *new books. 93% done!

7 / 10 ^non-fiction. 70% done!

40394 / 40000 pages. 101% done!

Wow! Congratulations on reaching (and exceeding) the number of pages you set for yourself.

Thanks, Georgia! I've also exceeded my total books goal, though I'm a bit behind on posting. Unfortunately I didn't make my new books or non-fiction goals this year. On the other hand, I read more than 3 times as many non-fiction this year as I did last year...

You had a great year! I'm very impressed. I enjoy following your progress and seeing what you're reading.

Final books of 2008:

150. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (394)

One of the funniest books I have ever read. The book group I'm in is reading this for next month, so I reread it again.

151. *The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld (352)

I liked this book, though I'm not going to run out to grab the next in the series. As much as I love Westerfeld's writing, being manipulated irritates me and the end of this book is a cliffhanger that neglected to answer basic questions posed in the book, questions that I felt really should have been answered.

152. The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun (192)
153. The Cat Who Turned On and Off by Lillian Jackson Braun (272)
154. The Cat Who Went Underground by Lillian Jackson Braun (288)

Whenever I'm in Ohio visiting my grandmother, I read a few of these Cat Who books. I love them, they're short, sweet, and light reading (for all they're murder mysteries).

155. Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce (384)

Christmas gift from my sister, book one in the Immortals quartet. Daine takes a job as assistant to a horse buyer and ends up with new friends, a new home, and skills she never dreamed of.

156. The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (122)

YA historical fiction about a homeless orphaned girl who is taken in by a local midwife as her apprentice. The girl learns, grows, and changes, eventually discovering that she has desires beyond her immediate needs. She is a complex and interesting character to read about and it is a thoroughly enjoyable book.

Abandonded book:
Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
I was reading this for the book group I joined recently and...well, I probably never would have picked it up if I'd known what it was about, book group or no. I read a lot of Holocaust/WWII fiction when I was younger, so I pretty much stay away from it now. An alternate history in which WWII ended the other way is not something I would have picked up by choice.

That said, I did get about halfway through it and of course the writing is very good, and I found the culture clashes interesting.


156 / 150 books. 104% done!

71 / 75 *new books. 95% done!

7 / 10 ^non-fiction. 70% done!

42398 / 40000 pages. 106% done!

Here are some stats regarding my reading habits over the past year:

Total books: 156 (last year: 151)
Total new books: 71 (last year: 72)
Total pages: 42398 (last year: 49196)
Total audio book time: 33h22m (last year: no clue, very little)
Total graphic novels: 1 (last year: probably none)

F/SF rereads: 65 (last year: 72)
F/SF new reads: 51 (last year: 67)
Fiction rereads: 4 (last year: 4)
Fiction new reads: 11 (last year: 5)
Nonfiction new reads: 7 (last year: 2)

Average pages per day: 116 (last year: 135)
Unique books: 135 (last year: 132)
Books read two times during 2008: 12 (last year: 17)

I have no idea if these numbers add up. They're in the ballpark, though, which is close enough for me.

I'll be following your reading again in 2009. Have a great year!