thursdaybook

This was good. Really good. A very engaging mystery. Well written. I also found myself connecting/sympathizing with the main character. Rather surprising, since I usually don't find myself having much in common with middle-aged men, even in literature.

I'm glad there are two more books in this series. Sucks that the author died before he got to see his writing published.

Up Next: down to the wire with the pseudo thesis, so I really shouldn't be reading anything that doesn't relate to it! However, I did get the next Chelsea Cain thriller out of the library. The boy's away for the weekend, though, and I don't think it's the kind of book I want to read while alone in an apartment.

I actually thought I would find this book more annoying than I did. Something about an early-30s, white, middle-class woman solving her personal problems by travelling for a year to Italy, India and Indonesia rubbed me the wrong way. But Gilbert's surprisingly charming. That said, I skimmed a lot of it because there's only so many paragraphs of introspection that I can read.

Astonishing X-men 4 (Joss Whedon, et al.)
Fun reading, I enjoyed this. Though I'm really not a comic/graphic-novel person. I'm often confused by what's going on when the storyline is partly explained through pictures. Also, I often confuse some characters for others (I have the same problem in movies).

New Amsterdam (Elizabeth Bear)
I'm not sure why I originally put this book on my to-read list, but by the time I tracked it down in the local library I'd forgotten what it was about. Interesting alternative history/fantasy story. Ended up being more of a linked series of short stories. I liked the plot, but didn't particularly connect with any of the characters.


What's Next?
Where getting into crunch time with my pseudo-thesis, so reading time is becoming exceedingly scarce. Though I do have a Michael Chabon book and the next Lady Julia Grey book out of the library.

I should start out by saying I did not enjoy this as much as The Time Traveler's Wife. However, TTW is my favourite book in the history of forever. Symmetry certainly wasn't a bad book, but part of the reason I didn't enjoy it as much was that I had trouble relating to any of the characters.( spoilers )

It was an easy and enjoyable read. I did find it slightly amusing that the cover billed it as "scandalous" and "shocking". Maybe when it was published it was? At any rate, I wasn't surprised to read that an all-male working environment was crude and vaguely abusive. And there were drugs. Shocking!

Good fun! I accidentally spent a morning reading this instead of working on my independent project.

It must've been something I ate (Jeffrey Steingarten)
I didn't enjoy this collection of articles quite as much as the other, but it was still a very good read.

Silent in the Sanctuary (Deanna Raybourn)
Second Julia Grey mystery. I liked this one better than the first. The heroine was much less likely to make silly mistakes. Good fun.

The Likeness (Tana French)
This was good. ( spoilers )

Heartsick (Chelsea Cain)
This book was certainly outside my comfort range. Is this what a thriller is? Or maybe just a really gruesome mystery? It's about a detective trying to catch a serial killer, the journalist who's covering him, and the serial killer who tortured the detective years ago. It was good, but creepy. I skimmed the torture parts. I'll give it a while before I check out the sequels.

Poison Study (Maria Snyder)
By the same woman who wrote Storm Glass. The writing seemed sloppy (though I'm certainly in no position to be criticizing anyone's writing), and I didn't really care about the characters. I liked the idea of the plot, but feel like it could have been handled better.

Up Next
I'm back in school (last year, thank goodness) so I suspect my reading will slow down. I do have the other Jeffrey Steingarten book out of the library. Hopefully I'll be able to get through some of that.

Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Nick Hornby)
A collection of his book review columns. It was fine.

In Praise of Slow (Carl Honoré)
Non-fiction. About various Slow movements (Slow Food, Slow Sex, etc.). It was really interesting but not hugely engaging. Did make me wish my damn bike hadn't been stolen.

This was very good! I'd thought it was a more recent book, but it was published in 1999 and there's a second collection of his writings out since then. It's a collection of his work from the late 1980s up until the time the book was published. I'm not sure if they were all part of his Vogue column, or not. A very distinct voice, which I like, and quite a hefty book (lots of columns!).

Alright, that's it, no more ridiculous urban fantasy books. They're all the same, and none of them are great. Time to turn over a new leaf.

Working for the Devil (Lilith Saintcrow)
Love interest is the demon.

Hunter's Prayer (Lilith Saintcrow)
Sequel to that other Lilith Saintcrow book. Love interest is a werewolf.

Touch the Dark (Karen Chance)
In this one the love interest is a vampire, and everyone thinks the main character is just peachy.

For something different
Tithe (Holly Black)
Actually good! Will get sequel.

The School of Essential Ingredients (Erica Bauermeister)
Short stories. All about a cooking class. Eh.

Cottage reading, and I realize now that I didn't manage to read anything that was fantastic (except for one that was a gift from my aunt, I'll have to hunt to find the title).

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Nothing happened in this book, and then it ended. Why?

Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow
Strong women fighting the hordes of hell. An interesting world the author's created, but it didn't blow me out of the water.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
While I entirely agree with a lot of this post about the book it didn't stop me from reading it. Unsurprisingly it lacked the charm of the original. Plus, it was kind of gross.

Storm Glass by Maria Snyder
The plot moved along briskly and the heroine had problems that she got to work through, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. Decidedly meh. Unfortunately I think it's partway through a series as well, which kind of threw off my reading of it.

The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Quite good, though I didn't feel much for any of the characters. Very well plotted.

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith
I've never enjoyed McCall Smith's books, so I shouldn't be surprised I didn't like this one. Nothing happened! It was dull!

Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

This was really really good. It's billed as short stories, but when they're all about the same characters (more or less) it could have been called a novel and I would have bought it. Very well written.

Heat by Bill Buford

This one's about this guy (Bill) who trains with Mario Batali in his restaurant, and it's interspersed with a biography of Batali at the same time. It wasn't amazing, but was kind of interesting.

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
I have really got to stop reading her new novels and just stick to the nostalgia of the old ones!

Up Next:
I'm off on vacation for a week (as of Friday). I'm trying to figure out what books to take since I'll be flying and hardcovers are so heavy, also my holds at the library ended up being poorly timed, nothing is in when I need it to be. Darn it, I really need to buy a decent sized rolling suitcase.

My choices are nothing if not predictable!

City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)
This was very good. Quite the hefty book for lugging to and from work, but it was worth the extra backpack weight. It's YA urban fantasy but in the best way. Clary, the main character, is tough and reasonable and female (which is nice). And there were some plot twists that I definitely didn't see coming. And it deals with racism and homophobia which a lot of fantasy tries to hand-wave away. Very solid plot, which was awesome. Unfortunately the library doesn't have many copies of the sequels, so I'll be waiting for the second one for a while. Though I suppose I should just be happy there is a sequel.

On Rue Tatin (Susan Herrmann Loomis)
Oh I loved this book. It's one of those non-fiction I-moved-to-Europe-and-fixed-up-an-old-house books. Which I adore if they're done properly (this one was). The author is a cookbook writer (I think) and she and her (artist?) husband, and small son, move to a small town outside Paris. I just want to crawl into their life, it sounds lovely.

Greywalker and Poltergeist (Kat Richardson)
First two in an urban fantasy series. The protagonist briefly dies and comes back a bit different. They weren't bad books, but the characters didn't terribly grab me, and sometimes the plot made me bored.

Home Cooking (Laurie Colwin)
Oddly I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Which is strange, because my favourite article from Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant is also a chapter in this book. It was relaxing to read however, though the author seems to have a peculiarly old-fashioned food experience. The book was only published in the late 80s, but she talks about beef tea and poaching chicken breasts. I've only heard of beef tea from english children's books, and never even knew what it was (the book helpfully cleared that up, however).

Recipe to try: roasted red pepper, sharp cheddar and mayo spread in a sandwich.

Hungry Monkey (Matthew Amster-Burton)
It's subtitled A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater which is perhaps a bit misleading. It's more about how Amster-Burton likes to share his love of food with his small daughter. It was charming, though I don't think I'll try any of the recipes (too complicated).

Magic's Child (Justine Larbalestier)
The final book in that Australian YA fantasy trilogy. It was good, and left you with that unsettled feeling where you know there's more story to tell, and that pretty much anything could happen next.

Didn't finish
I've had practically an epidemic of unfinished books. I think it's because I have so many out from the library, that I'm unwilling to spend time on something that isn't enjoyable.

Powers of Detection - a collection of short stores about magic and mystery. I read a couple of the stories and they were just awful. Which is too bad, because fantasy and mystery are a great combination.

Untangling my Chopsticks - a memoir of a young women who goes to Japan to learn to cook. I didn't get much of a sense of the characters, and couldn't get into it.

The Making of a Chef - a bit too much food and not enough memoir. I don't have the patience to read an entire chapter about broth.

I'm not sure if I really liked this book, or really liked the first half of the book, or was really peeved by this book.
( Spoilers )

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: confessions of cooking for one and dining alone (Jenni Ferrari-Adler)
A really enjoyable series of articles, by various writers, about eating alone. When I picked it up I thought it would be about eating out alone, but delightfully it was more often about what one chooses to eat when alone. It was interesting and well written. I enjoyed the first half of the book best, which was focused more on people eating at home by themselves.

Magic Lessons (Justine Larbalestier)
I think I liked this one better than the first in the series. Though I'm quite worried about Reason, and what's going to happen to her.

Up Next
I've been reading Into the Woods which is good, but a bit slow going, and I definitely have too many other books out of the library. Oh the choices!

Magic Strikes (Ilona Andrews)
I'm really enjoying this series. And I liked this book better than the second one, which is always reassuring. The potential romance was less squicky this time and the annoying teenage sidekick was largely absent.

Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
I was surprised by how much I liked this. Very clever.

Where Serpents Sleep (C.S. Harris)
It was alright, but not wildly awesome. I'm glad that the main two characters didn't swear undying love for each other.( spoilers )

Don't Hex With Texas (Shanna Swendson)
It was fine, but I think I'm done with this series. Unthrilling.

1. Which of these do you most regularly use for purchasing books?... private dealers, second hand or charity shops, second hand bookshops, independent 'new or remaindered' bookstores, large chain bookstores, online bookshops.

I don't buy books very often anymore. I moved half-way across the country 10 months ago, and that pretty much killed the urge to acquire anymore stuff that would have to be boxed up in the future. Also, being a grad student means little disposable income. That said, I buy from second-hand stores, or from amazon for text-books.

2. Where do you leave your books when you are not reading them?

Books I own live on a tall bookshelf in the study, or on the shelves under the TV. Library books live in my backpack, in a tote bag, or on one of the side-tables in the living room.

3. How many piles of books (unshelved) are there in your home? Are they organized in any particular way?

Right now, there's a pile of cookbooks next to the TV, a pile of library books on the side table, and a pile of books to take to the second-hand bookstore next to my bed. That's not so bad.

4. Are you a member of, or do you use, any reading or book related websites or online communities? If so, how many? What is the one you most often visit? Why?

I'm on Goodreads but I never update my booklist. I check out the chicklit forums every once in a while. I use amazon to find out when a book's going to be released, or what it's about.

5. Off the internet, are you a member of, or do you use, any reading or book related facilities, libraries, clubs or communities? What is the one you most often visit? Why?

I go to the library a lot. It's also only a couple of blocks away.

6. Do you borrow books? Do you lend them?

I borrow books from the library, but rarely from people (unless they're family members I'm living with). I rarely lend books, I have nothing against it, it just rarely happens.

7. When you finish a book, what do you do with it afterwards? (i.e. shelve, review, add to a challenge list, recommend to someone, reread, sell on, lend)

When I finish a book I try to remember to add it to this journal. Then I try to remember to return it to the library.

8. How often - if at all - do you cull your shelves for space? What do you do with the ones you take out?

I don't cull for space very often. The last time I did was 10 months ago before I moved. Actually, after I moved I also tried to sell some other stuff on Amazon, but they didn't sell. I think I'll try to take them to the local used bookstore, since they're in pretty good shape (usually my books are too worn to be re-sold, then they go to Goodwill).

9. What happens to the grubbiest, most falling apart books that no longer look good on your shelves? Are you a thrower or a keeper?

Ha! I enjoy the assumption that my books look good on the shelves. A lot of them are in pretty junky shape. I keep books if I think I'll reread them. Otherwise I try to get rid of them.

Wake by Lisa McMann
YA fantasy about a girl who sees people's dreams. I liked the strong main character and the unique writing style. It was quite a quick read.

Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics and Barefoot Contessa - At Home by Ina Garten
Mostly listing these here so I can remember which I've read. At Home was the one sister2 had, and was better than Back to Basics.

Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong
It was fine, but not awesome.

Silent in the Grave Deanna Raybourne
There were some things I really liked about this book: one viewpoint, intriguing mystery, eccentric family and the determined central character. There were also some things I did not like: plot device that briefly locked the main characters together in the same room (contrived), when the main character was being dumb (though I think you can argue societal/cultural factors, but still), and the smoldering/vaguely-dangerous/mysterious main male character cliche. However, I do have the next in the series on hold.

An Embarrassment of Riches
Too many good books came in at once from the library: the next C.S. Harris, the second Justine Larbalestier book (alright, I did pick that one off of the shelves), two books about food/travel, and a mystery novel I want to read. And then I went and picked up back issues of climbing/travelling/outdoors magazines off of the shelf. Ah well, better a flood than a drought.