Kara's 75 in 2013

"The White Queen" by Kirsty Mitchell Photography

Everything in the queen mini series has been made or designed by Kirsty by hand. She has written an enormous blog about the creation of the images, and the concept behind the characters on her website diary that you can see here - http://www.kirstymitchellphotography.com/diary/?p=1333 I love her Wonderland series and will probably start my threads this year with pictures from her collection.

For those that don't know me my name is Kara and again this year I will have 2 tickers. One to track my goal of 75 books in 2013 and the other will be a BOTS goal. I read 80 books in 2012!!! And surpassed my BOTS goal and read 14! My RL has been unkind and busy in 2012 so I was absent from LT toward the end of last year. I made a promise to a FB birdie and I am here again this year but I can't promise to visit everyone's threads and I need to not feel bad about it. I just do not have the time like some. I will try my best to post on my thread when I can.







Currently Reading

My Favorite Reads of 2012 Were

Anything below 2★: Stinker!

2★: Disappointing but I finished the book for one reason or another

3★: A solid read

3.5★: Above Average

4★: A very good read

4.5★: An excellent read, a book I will remember and recommend

5★: Perfection, the right book at the right time for me

January:
1. BOTS Bee Season by Myla Goldberg (2★)
2. BOTS The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss (4.5 ★)
3. Imago by Octavia Butler (3.5 ★)
4. NF Mob Daughter by Karen Gravano (2 ★)
5. NF My Booky Wook by Russell Brand (3.5 ★)
6. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates (3 ★)
7. This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski (4 ★)
8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind (3 ★)
9. The Reckoning by Alma Katsu (3 ★)
10. NF The Serial Killer Whisperer by Pete Earley (4 ★)

Best of January


February:
11. FAY by Larry Brown (4.5 ★)
12. BOTS Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (3.75 ★)
13. There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced... by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (4 ★)
14. archy and mehitabel by Don Marquis (3 ★)
15. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (4 ★)
16. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth (3.75 ★)

Best of February


March
17. War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (3.5 ★)
18. YA Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull (3.5 ★)
19. Angels by Denis Johnson (4★)
20. NF Grave's End by Elaine Mercado (3.5 ★)
21. Breathers: A Zombie's Lament by S.G. Browne (4★)
22. Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead (4.5 ★)
23. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe (4★)
Stories
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Black Cat
Ligeia
The Tell-tale Heart
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Pit and the Pendulum
Poems
Annabel Lee
To My Mother
Lenore
The Raven
The Bells
To Helen
For Annie
A Paean
To Isodore
Hymn

Best of March


April
24. Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey (3.75 ★)
25. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (3.5 ★)
26. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (4.5 ★)
27. Father and Son by Larry Brown (4.5 ★)
28. The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson (3.5 ★)
29. Serena by Ron Rash (4★)

Best of April


May
30. The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan (1.5 ★)
31. ER BOTS Auraria by Tim Westover (3 ★)
32. ER BOTS Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth (3.5 ★)
33. ER BOTS The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman (3.5 ★)
34. BOTS Montana 1948 by Larry Watson (5 ★)

Best of May


June
35. The Other by Thomas Tryon (4.5 ★)
36. Sorry by Gail Jones (4★)
37. Poachers by Tom Franklin (4 ★)
38. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig (3.5 ★)
39. Soul Catcher by Michael White (4★)

Best of June


July
40. Sophie's Choice by William Styron (2★)

Best of July
NONE

August
41.BOTS Plainsong by Kent Haruf (5★)
42. BOTS Eventide by Kent Haruf (4★)
43. Smonk by Tom Franklin (4★)
44. Benediction by Kent Haruf (3.5 ★)
45. Down River by John Hart (3.5 ★)
46. Fox's Earth by Anne Rivers Siddons (2.5 ★)
47. Two Rivers by T. Greenwood (4★)

Best of August


September
48. The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly (4★)
49. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaimen (4★)
50. White Crosses by Larry Watson (3.5 ★)
51. Highland Witch by Susan Fletcher (4★)

Best of September


October
52. The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds (3.5 ★)
53. At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen (3 ★)
54. Fires in the Dark by Louise Doughty (3.5 ★)
55. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (3 ★)
56. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz (3.5 ★)
57. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (3.5 ★)
58. Possessed: The True Story of An Exorcism by Thomas Allen (3.5 ★)

Best of October


November
59. NF Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau by Martha Ward (4★)
60. Herland and Selected Stories (The Yellow Wallpaper) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (5★)
61. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (4.5★)
62. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (4★)
63. Dimiter by William Blatty (2.5 ★)
64. BOTS The White by Deborah Larsen (3.5 ★)
65. BOTS The Name of the World by Denis Johnson (3.75 ★)
66. BOTS The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (3.5 ★)

Best of November


December
67. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (3.5 ★)
68. Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada (4.5★)
69. In the Forest by Edna O'Brien (3★)
70. NF Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction by Martin Gilbert (4.5★)
71. Provinces of Night by William Gay (4★)

Best of December

Hi Kara - Great to see you. Hope you have a wonderful 2013:)

>3 curlysue: all those book covers are making me salivate! Great lot of them stacked up there, and no doubt Ill be reading a few of them myself this year. Hopefully Montana 1948 and Buddha in the Attic at the least.

Hi Kara! It's great to see you here and of course you do not need to feel any guilt about the level of activity you maintain here. It's supposed to be fun :-) I'm sorry the last part of 2012 was not good. Here's hoping for a much improved new year!

Hi Calm! Nice to see you! Happy 2013 to you! I hope to make it to your thread soon :)

Well jeez Megan it's a nice new thread! What's a little saliva gonna hurt I guess ;) Oh! Montana 1948 is just LOVELY!!!! Read it sooner then later, you won't regret it! Buddha in the Attic is good also! enjoy them when you get to them :)

Thank you Katie! I will work on the guilt part :)

Hello dear, starred. *smooch*

WOW - that is one stunning picture in your opening post! I see we share a couple of favorite reads - Touch, and lullabies for little criminals. Happy New Year and looking forward to following your reading in 2013!

Oooh I love that opening picture!

Hi Kara!
GLad to see you are ok - missed ya.
Don't ever feel you need to "keep up with" my thread. I'm not sure what I can and can't do this year myownself.
Hope this is a better year for you and the ones you love. Hugs.

Welcome back!

You're back! Hooray! Kara, good to have you with us again. I love your opening image -- WOW!!!! Don't worry about keeping up with everybody's threads -- it is impossible. Just post as you can, when you can . . .

*smooch* back richard

Hi Lori! Happy New Year to you! Don't you just love my white queen! Check out the link I posted below the picture- it's really amazing to see how she made all the costumes! Touch is a great read! Lullabies is a rough one if you get my meaning but I really enjoyed it. When I have some time I will scout out your thread :)

Thanks Faith! She demands attention doesn't she :)

Thanks Cee I hope this year is better! *all crossables crossed* {{hug}}

Thanks Jim!

Thank you Terri! I will- you feeling better I hope?

I finished 2 books so far this year! Yeah me!

one was meh the other was REALLY good! If I have some time later I will post them :)

I have 9 books on reserve and 4 are in

Beasts

Fay

Mob daughter :the Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and me!

The serial killer whisperer

Probably won't pick them up tonight, I like to wait until the last possible moment so it gives a chance for all my reserved ones to come in.

So I'm bookless tonight!
Well I guess I can continue reading The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales- that should do until I pick up the library books ;)

Edited to fix pesky touchtones

Wow! Two done already! You're ahead of me.

Maya Angelou's Face Book Status yesterday. I thought I would share :)

In 2012 nature and the mad nature of some human beings caused us to wonder how can we go on. From super storm Sandy to the Colorado movie house shooting and the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we have been pressed to find some answers to the question, why, me why us, why now? As we come into 2013, we bring with us the need to find answers and the hope to find what can we do to prevent the recurrence of these despairing occurrences. I think we must commit to a commitment to all human beings and a decision to accept our responsibility to nature's outpouring and human misbehavior. I wish that we could say with Horace Mann that each of us should be "ashamed to die until you have won some victory for mankind." I think we must surrender the despair of unexpected cruelty and extend the wonder of unexpected kindnesses to ourselves and to each other. 2013 can bring us the chance to be kind to each other and kind to ourselves. We deserve each other and each other's generosity.

To be fair Terri I started one at the end of Dec. but I finished it News Year Day! The other one I couldn't put down and finished it this afternoon :)

1. BOTS Bee Season (2★)
This one was a meh for me. I see by the reviews that you either like it or you don't. I fall in the later category. The young girl Eliza was the only likable character and was quite endearing and that is the only reason I continued reading this book. The rest of the family were just nutty to me and I didn't give a damn about them - sad because I think without all the spiritual mumbo jumbo this could have been really good.

2. BOTS The Hearts of Horses (4.5★)

In those days, even before the war had swept up all the young men from the ranches, there were girls who came through the country breaking horses.

The Hearts of Horses is the story of Martha Lessen, a 19-year-old female broncobuster who uses gentle methods to tame and train wild horses in a fictional county that borrows its name and landscape from eastern Oregon's Wallowa Mountains. The year is 1917, and young men have enlisted to fight in World War I, which is why Martha's able to find work breaking horses to saddle her own way, without brute strength. This book beautifully presents a vision of the west through a woman's eyes, without losing sight of the larger context of global events at the time. Martha is a horse whisperer, who does a circle ride. She travels between area ranches, gentling and finishing a variety of horses for their owners. As Martha rides the circuit, we get fabulous vignettes about the other characters she meets.

The time period is actually the strength of this novel, especially in how well it portrays how difficult it was to survive as a rancher during this time. I enjoyed the history angle of the novel — and the characterization, although there are many characters to keep straight. In fact, this may be one of my objections to the novel: at the start, we think we will be following Martha’s journey soley, but then there comes a shift of emphasis to the other residents of the area. Their stories are interesting, but I missed Martha and would have preferred a different point of view. In fact, I think first person would have been more effective; we could have learned about the other folks, but through Martha’s perceptions and perspective as an outsider. But my complaints are minor overall because I really did enjoy this book.

Total agreement re: Bee Season; never heard of the horse one.

*zamia* a book bullet narrowly misses

Wow, The White Queen is amazing!

:(
missed bb

it is a good one richard....you might like
it's not heavy in " I am woman hear me roar"

but maybe next time :)

ooops crossed posted Ren!

she is amazing isn't she!
thanks!

You hit me with the bb for the Gloss book!

Oh goodie Katie!
hope you enjoy!

Good. Found you... !

HI Kara. Happy new Year!
I love that picture in the top of your thread! I'll be checking that website out asap!

glad to be found kath! :)

Happy New Year Chelle! let me know what you think when you do check out the site. maybe it will give you some cake ideas :)

I hope you find a little time for LT this year.. I know how hard it can be. but you are important here!

Adding The Hearts of Horses to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Kara!

Hi Kara, I love your book montage of favorite titles. Some of my favorite books are in there: Montana, 1948 and Mudbound. Don't worry about visiting my thread. I'm just glad you're posting again!

Thanks for sharing those words by Maya Angelou, a very wise woman. I have been working hard on the kindness thing.

I was really touched by The Hearts of Horses when I read it several years ago. I need to look into other books by Molly Gloss.

Just stopping by to say hello! Great pic at the top of your thread.

Sandy K

Found a little time so decided to pop in ;)

Thank you Kath. finding time can be difficult but I will try my best! You're important here also! as a matter of fact everyone in the 75ers is important or else there would be no 75ers!

Stasia!!! Welcome! I think you will REALLY like The Hearts of Horses :)

Oh Donna, I melted into Montana 1948 I need to get it for my home collection :) Touched is a good word for The Hearts of Horses. I found it had a very good balance of sweet and innocent vs strong and determined. The Jump Off Creek by Gloss I heard was good- I might check that one out next :)
2013 can bring us the chance to be kind to each other and kind to ourselves. We deserve each other and each other's generosity.
I'm hoping to do/see this this year! I need it :)

Hello Sandy K!

3. Imago (3.5 ★)
This is the third and final book in the Xenogenesis series. Not as good as Dawn but it held it's own. If you like smart and sexy science fiction with aliens and genetic engineering this series is the one. Really enjoyed this series and I have Kath to thank for it!

4. NF Mob Daughter (2★)
Jeez I hate to say anything bad about this book for fear of getting whacked! ;)
Look, I will admit, my guilty pleasure is watching Mob Wives on VH1. Karen came out with this book about her life with her father Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, who in 1992 was the highest-ranking member of the Mafia in America ever to defect and brake his oath of silence and testify against his boss, John Gotti.

fuhgeddaboudit!

read Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia by Peter Mass instead.

5. NF My Booky Wook (3.5 ★)

Exceptional combination of candor, enthusiasm and humor. There is nothing Russell won't reveal in search of a laugh and nothing he hasn't done in search of love or experience or acceptance. And he is genuinely, alarmingly, funny to me.
My Booky Wook is actually a very entertaining and even endearing read. Brand has a very amusing way of phrasing things and for the most part, seems to unflinchingly reveal his deepest darkest thoughts and deeds.

One of his quotes relating to his dad

My dad's philosophy was (and I think still is) that life is a malevolent force, which seeks to destroy you, and you have to struggle with it. Only those who are hard enough will succeed. Most people get crushed, but if you fight, in the end life will go, 'Fucking hell. This one's serious. Let him through.

Brand is certainly serious, and has been his own worst enemy. So it will be interesting to see how he channels his natural, anarchic tendencies into a more sober world.

Have you seen "Brand X," his TV show? He's quite interesting.

6. Beasts (3 ★)

I love you, rotten, Delicious rottenness, ... I say, wonderful are the hellish experiences Orphic, delicate Dionysos of the Underworld.
-D.H. Lawrence, Medlars and Sorb-Apples from Birds, Beasts and Flowers

I find Oates's work draws you in but leaves you feeling disturbed (and often dirty). But I have always appreciated her talent and her style. Oates is really clever in the way she makes you feel uneasy even in scenes that have no graphic content and she has a knack for not revealing too much too soon. You just get this eerie feeling that things are not right.

The novella's atmosphere is full of erotically suggestive imagery from D.H. Lawrence poems and the innuendoes and allusions that emerge naturally in conversation between characters charge their interactions with sexual tension.

Beasts is a a wicked little 138- page novella and a quick read, maybe not one of her best but I couldn't put it down until the last page.

I have not Richard
it's on FX right?
late night?
Brand is a funny twit to me and absolutely interesting

ETA: On November 27, FX announced the series will be renewed for a 13-episode second season, which will begin on February 7, 2013 and will expand to an hour-long format.

Currently Reading

#40 I agree with you, there....Oates can be rather "spotty" in her novellas, but this one was pretty tasty...

'-}

yep

I love you, rotten, Delicious rottenness

tasty ;)

"Slurp"

Oh, I do like the Octavia Butler!

It is so good to see you here! I'm doing the happy dance!

Hi Kath!
Have you read her Kindred?
I so want to read that one

yes... I have 3.5 stars for that one.. I liked well.

good :)

She is a strong writer.. I like that.

yes
fearless I think of her as

All good news re: Brand!

Oates...very spotty...but at her best she's at the top of the class.

Hi Kara! I've got you starred and will be following you this year. It's been years since I read the Borowski but I'm interested to see what you think of it.

Kara dear... hello!

I agree with out about Octavia Butler. Have you ever read anything by Sherrilyn Kenyon?
I was given two of her books... they look interesting, but they are part of a series. I will read them,
but not sure I will read the series.

How is life /work treating you? I think of you there ( work) all the time..
I hope this year is kinder and gentler to you then the last part of last year...

Hi Kathy! Thanks for stopping by and for the star :) My thoughts on Borowski coming right up!

Kath- Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote/writes the Dark Hunter series and no I have never read them BUT I have had them on my wishlist for awhile now!
Work is interesting......
Life can be interesting....
pre trial court date coming up end of this month
don't think I will go but I need to go for the trial date in Feb.
*sigh*

7. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (4 ★)

This is a short story collection by the late Polish Holocaust survivor Tadeusz Borowski. Borowski had been a student of literature in the underground university of Warsaw. This was sufficient reason for him to be detained at Auschwitz and Dachau as a political prisoner. Because of his non-Jewish background, however, his views toward both his captors and his fellow prisoners are somewhat different than those normally reported by concentration camp survivors. For this reason I had a tough time reading it. I think because there seemed to be no hope or some kind of compassion between prisoners like in The Seventh Well by Fred Wander. I understand that they are two different books by two different people with different religious backgrounds imprisoned for different reasons but the darkness and the unsettling nature of the human beast disturbed me in This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Clearly Borowski's feelings toward his Holocaust experience are very conflicted, as evidenced in the wide range of emotions exhibited in his story. He is unquestionably sickened by his situation, he feels there is no point to anything, literally no point at all, and this lack of meaning in his life becomes unendurable; it is scarcely surprising that six years after the end of the war, Tadeusz Borowski committed suicide by gas.

Yet saddest of all is Tadek's suggestion that his point of view was not an uncommon one among the non-Jewish survivors of the concentration camps. Tadek's reactions to the Jews range from indifference to intolerance to hostility. Under the extreme pressure of existence in the concentration camp, these feelings harden into a kind of numbness, because this is the only way he can get from one day to the next.
As his friend Henri says
It exhausts you, you rebel -- and the easiest way to relieve your hate is to turn against someone weaker. Why, I'd even call it healthy.

I have one more to post...Perfume but I must run :)
I will try to get to it tomorrow!

Currently Reading

Hi Kara! Sadly I'm fuzzy on the details of the stories these days but I think you got it right with the overall mood of nihilism. It's a theme that comes up a lot in both Holocaust and Soviet gulag memoirs, though it is usually tempered with that unremitting gleam of hope, which human nature forces us to cling to. As for the non-Jewish survivors, yes, it was common for them to blame the Jews simply for being Jewish, for being the original target of the pogroms, for being too weak to rebel or stand up for themselves. Which is of course, like your quote above suggests, a way of projecting blame onto another group for what they really were perceiving in themselves.

Sorry about the whole court date thing. So reasons to dread it..
hugs

Well said Kathy, that's what I wanted to say in my review but I had the "dumb" that day! :)
I will say that I'm glad I read it for the different "view" it gave even if that "view" is an ugly one. I still love The Seventh Well by Fred Wander. So beautifully written.

Thanks Kath :) pre trial is the 29th (I don't have to be there)
trial week is the week of Feb 18th (I have to be at that one).
Hope they can take care of "business" on the 29th so it doesn't get to Feb :/
*sigh*
just want my jewelry back

So, on a lighter note! I have 2 books to post- I'm behind again :( But I won't get to post them until maybe Sun. because hubby and I are going to Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village for the weekend!

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/animal-kingdom-villas-kidani/

Our brother-in-law received free rooms from his employer for Christmas and he invited us to go :) We are leaving today after work and will be back Sun afternoon. I hope to relax, get some good pictures of the animals and eat some amazing food!

Currently Reading

You didn't have the "dumb", silly! Your review was great.

WOOHOO on the free Disney room! That sounds like great fun. All adults, I take it? Enjoy your weekend!

Oh, have fun!!! We're going to Disney and staying at the Animal Kingdom lodge later this year... enjoy!!! Show us your pics afterward!

Have fun at Disney, Kara!

Hope you are enjoying the free room at Disneyworld! I LOVE Disneyworld--and we always stay in one of the hotels at the resort. They really make you feel as though you are far away from the "real world"! Hope you get to see some of the animals at the Animal Kingdom villas.

Sandy K

Hope you had a great time at Disney!

I'm hopelessly behind on everything related to the internet.
There have been major changes at my work. My boss (director of nursing) quit, the second in command (my friend) took the Director of Nursing position. So that leaves me doing double work to pick up some slack. I have been working some weekends to try to clean/catch up on the mess she left us. It has been crazy and I have been running like a mad woman!
There is talk of them offering me the position of Assistant to the Director of Nursing. This position has always been for an RN (which I am not). I am capable of handling this position but it is a matter of if they offer it would I take it. My mind is not made up and I need to think it through. I need to figure out what I want in the offer and if they can't deliver I need to decline and stay where I'm at. This company will bleed you dry if you let them, I have been there for a little over 15 years and I'm not going to let them do that to me. If they want me, then they will have to come to the table with a great deal.

My LT thread has suffered but my reading has not. I'm behind in posting my reads so I will do that now. Obviously I'm not going to write a review for them all but maybe I can put down some thoughts.

Wow I'm farther behind then I thought! this might take awhile :(


8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (3 ★)
What an odd book. It started as a Gothic tale (which I like) but then Suskind took it in a really weird direction. He mixed fantasy and 18th century France and it just didn't work for me.
My immediate reaction when I finished was I don't know what the fuss is all about. It is certainly unique, it is creatively written, it is engaging but something is off. I think the fantastical killed it for me.


9. The Reckoning (3 ★)
This is book two of the Taker trilogy. It stands very well on its own but it would be a good idea to read the first one in the series so you can understand the characters. It is full of the supernatural and is fast-paced. I look forward to the third one.


10. NF The Serial Killer Whisperer (4 ★)
What a creepy book. Warning-this book contains very disturbing accounts of actual murders. This book interested me for two reasons. For the insight into the psychological make-up of the mind of a serial killer and the psychological insight into the mind of a TBI victim and survivor.

------------------------------------------------------
That's the end of my Jan. list so my
Best of January are

11. FAY (4.5 ★)
I LOVE Larry Brown and it is sad that we will not have anymore great books from him. I read JOE and loved it and FAY is no different. Larry's writing is addictive to me. He knows the "South" and creates these incredible characters that stay with me long after I have finished his books. His Father and Son is to be my next Larry Brown adventure.


12. BOTS Crooked letter, Crooked Letter (3.75 ★)
Good one. Thanks Mark for sending this one to me! It only took me like forever to read ;)


13. There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories (4 ★)
I'm not one to pick up a short story book but I have been trying to broaden my horizons some this year. Despite the book’s subhead, these are not love stories. They are snapshots and stolen scenes of the heartache of everyday life, painful interactions played out in public. Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s stories are not about dissidents or defectors. They are about something far more dangerous to the Soviet ideal: ordinary people. These short stories confront the farce of a system that took away more than it ever gave.
Written between 1972 and 2008, these seventeen stories are haunted by the legacy of communal living—grown children squeezed on cots in hallways, couples having sex in the same room as a grandparent—reflect the characters’ lives as they try to find space to develop in a stunted society. The fates of Petrushevskaya’s characters are devastating because they are true, based on real people’s lives.
Born in Moscow in 1938, Petrushevskaya has worked as a journalist as well as a playwright and author. She has been described as a contemporary Russian voice comparable to past heavy-weights like Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. Although the Soviet system she grew up under disintegrated more than two decades ago, it lingers in her writing and in the mindset of her characters. In describing the little injustices, she offers not an excuse, but an explanation for human failure. The young girl in “Milgrom” can never raise her hand in school because of the sweat stains on her second-hand dress. The country men in “The Goddess Parka” quit work to become full-time alcoholics after being “tormented by rumors about fabulous Moscow wages.” It is no wonder her writing was banned until 1988.
I look forward to reading her book There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby

Hey you! Nice to see you. I was wondering what was going on since the great exit occurred. I hope that whatever happens, it is the best possible thing for you!

hugs

14. archy and mehitabel (3 ★)
A quirky collection of poems told from the unusual perspective of a cockroach and an alley cat.


15. The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories (4 ★)
These are Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder and almost all are erotic and violent. In lyrical prose, haunting phrases and quite ghastly, gore-soaked imagery, Ms. Carter weaves her fatal spell, drawing the reader into worlds inhabited by perverse and bloodthirsty bridegrooms, longing wolves, yearning vampires and always intrepid heroines who willfully take their lives into their hands as they seek not necessarily happiness but the fulfillment of their innermost selves.
Loved it.


16. A Kind of Intimacy (3.75 ★)
Ok, Imagine, for a moment, that you live on a nice quiet little middle-class street policed by the local volunteer neighborhood watch. All the lawns are tidy and well-kept. The neighbors know one other, and nothing much ever happens here. And then imagine that a madwoman moves in next door.

Now switch scenarios and imagine yourself as that madwoman, and that you’ve moved into that nice little neighborhood. You’ve not only moved there, but you want to belong, you want to mingle, you want to make friends................
I can compare A Kind of Intimacy's unreliable narrator, anti-heroine Annie Fairhurst to Stephen King’s Annie Wilkes from Misery. Need I say more?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's the end of my Feb. list so my
Best of February are

17. War for the Oaks (3.5 ★)
A nice little urban fantasy read- moved a little slow for me. The music parts got boring but that's probably because I'm not in a band and I'm not musically inclined. The phouka was my favorite character and he had me snorting throughout the book.


18. YA Summer and Bird (3.5 ★)
This one felt a tad scattered to me but it was a good fantasy story about two girls on a quest to find their parents in a magical universe. I really enjoyed this book while reading it but maybe more so later on. It stuck with me and made me think about it, which to me, is a sign of a really good book. There is a lot of imagination in the story, some interesting characters and ideas explored in this book. As this is Ms. Catmull’s first book, I’m looking forward to reading her future books and seeing her writing getting stronger.
I’d really recommend it to those who love fairytales and who wouldn’t mind a slightly flawed execution.


19. Angels (4.5 ★)
This is the story of people who slip helplessly into their own worst nightmares. Jamie Mays has left her husband in a trailer park in Oakland, Calif. She's traveling with her two young daughters on a Greyhound bus when she meets Bill Houston. She is at first put off by his tattoos and silvered wraparound sunglasses. But loneliness and plain lack of energy throw them together, and they become lovers. After a terrifying time in Chicago, they head for Arizona. There they find white-hot afternoons, yards filled with junked cars, the sort of religion that simmers with demons and - most dangerous of all - Bill's family.
Angels is clearly not for everyone and I will say no more about the storyline. Some may be put off by its melodrama and nearly overwhelming sense of desperation. These characters can not be ignored. These are people. These are humans. And their ugly little misbegotten world is hardly the sort of thing you want to stumble into, let alone engage in, let alone be affected by, let alone be moved by. But I was affected and I was moved.

20. NF Grave's End (3.5 ★)
This was a fast and entertaining book, nothing better than a good ghost story to read late at night.


21. Breathers: A Zombie's Lament (4 ★)
Breathers was just rip roaring fun to read! What a unique spin on the whole zombie story we all know. I enjoyed every minute of it! It was funny, it was sad, it was gross and I laughed at parts I really shouldn't have laughed at.


22. Coal Black Horse (4.5 ★)
In 1863, a woman has a premonition that tells her the war is over. She wants her husband to come home, and she sends her 14-year-old son to find him. Robey is given a gift to help him on his journey, and that is the coal black horse. The boy is smart enough to know that the horse is smarter than he is, and he allows the animal to be his protector and guide. As he travels across a country at war with itself, Robey sees chaos and carnage. These images will change him forever and make him into the man he will become. Coal Black Horse is beautiful, simplistic and graphically depicted. Powerful and poetic.
Long afterward, he would remember how fifty miles away he heard the thunder of cannons echoing through the blue mountains, the reverberations of the bombardment that preceded, he was to learn, the final charge of the fateful battle. The next afternoon, he rode through a drenching rainstorm that leeched the July landscape of all color and after dark he met the saturated vanguard of the gray retreating south.


23. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (4★)

I did not read ALL of the stories and poems but I read enough that I'm counting this as a book read :)
Stories
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Black Cat
Ligeia
The Tell-tale Heart
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Pit and the Pendulum
Poems
Annabel Lee
To My Mother
Lenore
The Raven
The Bells
To Helen
For Annie
A Paean
To Isodore
Hymn

Oh my goodness I think I'm caught up!
Jeez that took forever it seemed

hi Kath! nice to see you :) It will go as it should I guess. They like to "talk the talk" but I will not hold my breath on just talk ;)

Currently Reading

Hi Kara! Nice to see you. I hope things work out in the best way possible for you. Sounds like you've been run ragged...

That's a boatload of reporting on a shipload of reading! Thanks, Kara. *smooch*

Wow, Kara, good to see you back! I hope things work out the way you want them to at work.

You've done some great reading, and that was a lot to post all in one day! I think you got me with a book bullet -- Grave's End. . . . nothing better than a good ghost story to read late at night. Agreed!

Hi Katie! Yep ragged is about right and I see no end in site for now!

Did any of my cargo strike your fancy Richard?

Thanks Terri! I think you would like Graves End! I always wonder why people stay in a house that frightens them so. This family was put through hell for years! Hope you can read it soon- mine was a library book or I would send it to you :)

Going to bed, was a long day and more of the same tomorrow.
I hope to get some free time soon to visit threads :)
*fingers crossed*

See that? Now I want to read Graves End. Sorry about the insomnia... it does indeed suck.

It's nice to have you back!

Kara - great to see you back. Hope that work sorts itself out soon and that you get some relief. You have been doing some great reading:)

Oh! Kath if you have it at the library read it! You would like it :) She had so many different things happening in her house I would have ran for the hills myself when "they" came too close for my comfort. I can deal with orbs and things of that nature but when things start touching you or holding you down that's no dice for me!
I had every intention of going to bed at a decent time last night. I read for an hour then shut things off and WHAM!
No sleep (hubby was snoring away) my brain was running and I could not shut it down. Got up and read some more.
Sleep at 3am up at 4:30am back to sleep at 5am up at 8am.......
Uggh!

Hi Calm! Thinks for dropping by :) I hope things work out how they are supposed to- I need not fret over things I can't control :)

I feel that all I'm doing is spinning my wheels. So many important things were left undone and I keep finding more. That doesn't include the daily things that need to get done.

It is unbelievable what she didn't do and she was the director.

I had every intention of going to bed at a decent time last night. I read for an hour then shut things off and WHAM!
No sleep (hubby was snoring away) my brain was running and I could not shut it down. Got up and read some more.

Kara, that sounds like me some nights. I always think it's better to get up and read than to stay in bed and just toss and turn. Sounds like you have a lot going on at work to keep your brain running overtime.

You have no idea Terri.
She quit, well resigned really with a months notice......but the company wants to bring her back and fire her!
That's how bad she left us.
Can they do that!?!?

They should just thank the goddess that she's gone. I hope it sorts out soon....and life becomes more calm for you...hugs

Happy Easter Kara!
Sorry to hear you are being run ragged at work! Hope it gets back to normal soon for you!
Love all the reading you've been doing!

They are very glad she is gone Kath. I can't see calm in my near future :(

Hi Chelle! Happy Easter to you! I worked Sat. and Easter Sun. :( after work I went to my mom's and had dinner then went home and crashed. Tired, just tired.

My Best of March

24. Observatory Mansions (3.75 ★)
Gothic, eccentrics, bizarre = an incredibly imaginative work of fiction. Was a bit disappointed in the end but overall it was a fun read.

Currently Reading

25. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (3.75 ★)


26. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (4.5 ★)


27. Father and Son by Larry Brown (4.5 ★)


28. The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson (3.5 ★)


29. Serena by Ron Rash (4 ★)

Best of April

Hi, Kara! It's good to see you posting, and that you're doing some good reading.

I hope you are well. Best wishes to you!

30. The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan (1.5 ★)
Augh! BORING and ANNOYING


31. ER BOTS Auraria by Tim Westover (3 ★)


32. ER BOTS Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth (3.5 ★)


33. ER BOTS The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman (3.5 ★)


34. BOTS Montana 1948 by Larry Watson (5 ★)
My second reading of this.
Better then the first. *sigh*

Best of May

Hi Terri!

Glad to see you!
I thought I probably lost everyone and I came to the conclusion that my thread will be just for me to track my reads :)

Work is extremely busy (no time for much of anything) ...2 people doing a 3 person job. I refused to go into work this weekend and brought some work home to do instead. I should be doing it but I'm on LT ;)

Thanks for stopping by!
Really, I mean it!

So I brought home from the library today

The Other by Thomas Tryon
Sorry by Gail Jones
Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig (kinda mad because my library only has this one and not the rest in the series)
Soul Catcher by Michael White
Sophie's Choice by William Styron (what a beast of a book this looks like-515 pages and small type)

think I will start The Other

Good to see you Kara. Hope work eases up soon.

Have only read a couple of your recent reads. Bravo for reading Lolita, I read that when I was quite young and don't think I could manage to re-read it. Though maybe I should as 4.5 stars is a very good rating. Montana 1948 was a good one pleased to hear it stands up to re-reading.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of Soul Catcher - I really liked that one when I read it last year.

Nice to see you, Kara! I hope you get a a chance to catch your breath soon...

Hi calm! I did not like the story. it was horrid but how Nabokov manipulates you with his writing like Humbert manipulates Lolita and she him was brilliant I thought. I disliked all the characters but the writing was beautiful, there were times I felt myself feeling a tinny bit of sympathy for Humbert but then I had to check myself. For Nabokov to do that to me I gave Lolita a 4.5. I would love to hear Jeremy Irons read it since he is the one that does the audio version. I would definitely think about a re read calm. You can always pearl rule it. :)

Hi Katie! My breath will be caught at the end of June when we go to the beach for a week. Then it starts all over again :(

Thomas Tryon! Been a million years since I read one of his. I'm pretty sure it was The Night of the Moonbow so it must've been, ummm, 20 years ago.

I have The Night of the Moonbow on my shelf :)
patiently waiting

I haven't read anything by Thomas Tyron Kara and his work looks a tad creepy. Hope things are going well and that you are having a good weekend.

Hope things are well in your world Kara!

Just stopping by to say hi, Kara!

Guaranteed.

miss you kara....

Oh Richard, does that include Christmas lights being put up also? Because that's what they are doing at my job. No lie. The damn things are on all the time and they are not even half way done putting them up.
Reindeer will be on the protected list or extinct by Thanksgiving. ;)

miss you Kath!
I need to drop in more often
just busy
busy
busy
New position at work. I am a Clinical Care Coordinator now. Second in command (their direct supervisor) to the nurses.
Frustrating when people don't "work" like I do, if you can understand that. Sometimes I think my expectations are too high for the nitwits or that they just do things differently then I do. But then I slap myself and say.....nope, they are just lazy and sloppy in their work. *sigh*
I have become very good at writing disciplinary actions :)

Oh, and I have enrolled in school. Going back for my RN BSN.
Hopefully next spring, need to take the rest of my transcripts in and maybe sit for a placement test or two. :)

So, you can see now where I have been and what I have been doing. I have still been reading and logging my books "read" at the top of this thread. That's something I have accomplished on LT!

Just glad you're not dead under an ICU bed from "friendly fire" my dear! *smooch*

Ha!
nope!
still alive and kicking :)

Good to see you here, Kara. Congrats on the promotion and the furthering of the education! RL has offered plenty to keep you busy.

And I hate when the Christmas decorations go up this early. We were in Lowes a couple weeks ago, and the Christmas Tree display was already up. I felt like just walking out without even looking for anything.

Thanks Terri!

My hubby told me the same thing about Lowes. It was 2weeks ago and he came home and said they had the Christmas trees up :/
crazy, Halloween and Thanksgiving get robbed all the time!

In fond hopes that 2014 will bring you back to these shores to play some more, Kara:



Celebrate the return of the light with feasts, merriment, and gratitude for all the wonders of this wide green earth.

RMD

Best wishes, Kara!


glitter-graphics.com

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, Kara!

My favorite reads for 2013 were:

I have made a 2014 thread (better late then never I guess) here if you wish to follow.