Our Little Geekling

So since I suck at blogging in 2013, here’s a list of books I read from January-March!

And here’s a link to all of my books for this year! Which… so far is just the books listed below.

As a refresher, my goal for the year is 50 books.

14. Trader (Newford, #7) by Charles de Lint. See #12 and #9. This book kept me longer than the other two I read this quarter by de Lint. I still think I need a break, though. I found myself a bit annoyed with the characters at times. I think maybe a de Lint break will be in order after I finish his book that I’m currently reading.

13. Among the Missing: A Novel by Morag Joss. I checked out this book because my favorite audiobook reader was one of the readers. (That’s becoming a theme for my audiobook lists. Kate Reading (stage name). Check her out.) And it was amazing. It made me sad, made me want to cry, made me look forward to listening to it again, and then I’m still thinking about the end. A week later.

12. The Ivory and the Horn (Newford, #6) by Charles de Lint. See #9. This was a collection of short stories based in Newford, similar to Dreams Underfoot by the same author, but a little more versatile. I liked it well-enough, but not all of the stories engaged me as much as I had hoped.

11. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Oh, this book. I was skeptical, I’ll admit. And a few chapters in I was PISSED OFF about the attitudes. But I wound up loving it. It was great.

10. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. I kept seeing the movie Hugo on Netflix and wanted to watch it, but wanted to read the book first. And it was great. I will love reading it to Eriana someday. She liked the movie, although it was a little scary for her, since it’s loud and there’s a lot of yelling and Ben Kingsley is kind of a grumpy old man a lot of it. But the book made my heart leap and fall and soar.

9. Memory and Dream (Newford, #5) by Charles de Lint. I’m still plugging away at the Newford series, but even though I’m still loving them, they’re beginning to wear on me. This book was LOOOOONG. I wound up really liking it, but the consistently dark themes in the book make me think I need a break from de Lint for awhile. Of course there are two more of his books on this quarter’s list and I’m currently reading another. So.

8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1) by J.K. Rowling. I don’t think this needs any explanation. It’s awesome. This year’s read-through has begun.

7. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (Theodore Boone, #1) by John Grisham. John Grisham will forever be one of my favorite authors. I’ve read almost everything he’s written, and I really liked this book. I’ll be excited to read more of this series and to introduce Eriana to it when she’s older.

6. Southern Charm: A Novel by Tinsley Mortimer. I wasn’t really expecting to like this book, but I did. I googled the author after I finished, and was surprised that she has a reputation from reality tv. Overall, I think she should write more books!

5. City of Thieves by David Benioff. Another book that pissed me off but I loved. Although I listened to this one and Ron Perlman was the reader, and it took at least half the book to stop hearing Clay Morrow. 

4. The Right Way to Do Wrong: A Unique Selection of Writings by History’s Greatest Escape Artist by Harry Houdini. This book bored me. Some of it was interesting, about how sideshow performers train and stuff, but it seemed like the rantings of a madman, most of it. Which, I suppose, it was.

3. The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. LOVED this book. It pissed me off, but I loved it. 

2. Every You, Every Me by David Levithan. Weird book. But good. Just weird.

1. The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30, Tiffany Aching, #1) by Terry Pratchett. This was a recommendation when I was looking for books for my nephew’s eighth birthday, and I got the illustrated version from the library and adored it. I love that it’s a strong female lead, it’s girly without being too girly for a boy who doesn’t like stuff like that, and it’s not prissy. I will be excited when Eriana is old enough for the Tiffany Aching series! And I’m excited to read more of the Discworld stuff!

Okay, y’all. My blogging needs a jump start. So I created a SUPER DUPER silly list of Harry Potter-themed blog prompts to get me through the short month of February. If you’d like to participate I’m happy to send you my list.

Day 1: What is your favorite book?

I have always been partial to Prisoner of Azkaban. I just adore Sirius, and the whole book makes my heart thump wildly and I get really pumped up. Even though the number of times I’ve read it is WAY into the double-digits, I never stop getting nervous during this book.

Image from Amazon.com.

I read some books in December!

For the rest of my reads from 2012, visit my cleverly-named 2012 Books page.

I’ve gotta admit: I’m a little disappointed that I only read 74 books. Considering my goal for the year was 25, it’s ridiculous. But 75 would have been much better. (I’m crazy, yes. Why do you ask?)

74. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoners’ Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart. The third in the series. This was a good book! I adore thia series. Mostly I read children’s chapter books in anticipation of the days when Eriana and I can read books like this together. Screening, if you will.

73. Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn. You guys. This book is such a great read. It’s interesting and makes you wonder and makes you laugh and makes you say, “Aw!” and is just great. Four stars out of five. (Five being reserved for books like Harry Potter.)

72. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer by Seth Grahame-Smith. Meh. It was a good book, but not the greatest ever. The movie SUCKED, though.

71. Trapeze by Simon Mawer. I adored this book. Until the end. What the crap?

70. James Potter and the Hall of Elders’ Crossing by G. Norman Lippert. This is a fan fiction book about Harry Potter’s oldest son, and starts the year James begins Hogwarts. Several old characters are in it, and the author is no JK Rowling, but it’s excellent. There are three books in the series (so far?).

69. The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint. The second in the Newford series. I loved it. LOVED it.

68. The Chaperone by Laura Moriarity. I really liked this book! I did a lot of Googling about Louise Brooks while reading it. I didn’t go into this book thinking I’d like it, because I thought it was by Liane Moriarty, and I didn’t so much like What Alice Forgot. But it’s not Liane! It’s Laura! And a good book.

I read some books in November!

For the rest of my reads from this year, visit my cleverly-named 2012 Books page.

67. True Believers by Kurt Anderson. It took me FOREVER to finish this book. Forever. (Like 2 weeks.) But I really liked it anyway. A lot of unnecessary big words. I was thankful to read it on my Kindle so I could highlight and look up words.

66. Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint. #1 in the series mentioned below. Again. LOVE. This one was especially great because it is a collection of short stories and introduces a LOT of characters that I assume are in the other books in the series. Certainly some I read about in The Onion Girl. Oh, man, I can’t wait to get further into the series!

65. The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint. Oh. Oh, this book. I loved it. I thought it said #1, but it said #11 in the series. So now I’m reading the first one. And will continue my quest through them all.

64. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Meh. I learned a lot about Ernest Hemingway, but wasn’t super impressed with the book or the writing overall.

63. Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn. I liked this book. It pissed me off a lot, but I liked it, overall.

I read some books in October! (A lot of books, apparently.)

For the rest of my reads from this year, visit my cleverly-titled 2012 Books page.

62. Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper. Good. Better than the last book I read by this author. Not so redundant.

61. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I adored this book. Highly recommend for any not faint of heart kids and tweens.

60. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I loved this book. LOVED it. I got to 94% and ran out of library time and I was really upset. I had to wait, like, two weeks to get it back.

59. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Also meh. Apparently this is my word for the month. I’m super eloquent. It was okay, if a little predictable. Also, I’d just read a book about memory loss and was kind of over it.

58. The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger. Meh. It was okay. Kind of pissed me off.

57. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin. Excellent. Oh, I adored this book.

56. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai. Interesting book. Very interesting. I really liked it!

55. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. Oh. I hated this book. I was so disappointed. Sorry, Jo. HP will always be my favorite.

54. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Meh. I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t really get it. I’m interested in seeing the movie, though because I think Emma Watson rocks.

I read some books in September!

For the rest of my reads from this year, visit my cleverly-titled 2012 Books page.

53. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. I wanted a book to read that was mindless and easy and this fit the bill, although the topic is sort of heavy. I was annoyed by the very British slang and familiar speak in the book, though. Definitely wore out my Kindle’s dictionary on this one trying to understand the British-English.

52. The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett. I loved this book until the end. Then I hated it. I NEED MORE INFORMATION.

51. I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson. I haven’t watched the movie yet, but I kind of liked the book. (Ducks as you throw a copy of it at me.) I don’t know. I mean, certainly parts pissed me off and frustrated me. And of course I was annoyed part of the time. But I liked it okay overall.

50. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. This book. Oh, man. Are you freaking kidding me? Loved it. Took me until the second section to get it, but WOW.

49. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. Excellent. Excellent book. It’s a children’s book, of course, but I would say a mature 6 or 7 year old who isn’t easily scared could read and love this book. (Although! I listened to this on audio and then also checked out the hardcopy from the library so I could see the illustrations. Definitely get a hardcopy or eBook that has the illustrations.)

48. Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness. This was a typical second book in a trilogy book. It was about 10 pages of sludge and filler for every 1/2 page of good book/information. Ridiculous. I trudged through because I want to finish the trilogy. But geez, was this an annoying read.

47. The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper. Oh, this book. I listened to it, and I feel like I would have not finished it if I’d read it instead. It exhausted me! It was okay, all around, but it was exhausting. Someone with an eReader count for me how many times he says “17 years”, because it’s A LOT.

And because no post is complete without a picture of my ridiculous child, here she is after her nap today when I dared tell her that I love her. Silly, grumpy girl.

I read some books in August!

For the rest of my reads from 2012, visit my cleverly-named 2012 Books page.

46. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. I liked this book. Mostly. The point of view was weird, and kept throwing me off. And there were unnamed, important characters, which bugged me. But all-in-all, I enjoyed the story. And as a woman with two sisters, I could relate to how we are VERY different and also VERY similar.

45. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Oh, this book. This was a LONG book. I listened to it on audio, and two of the three weeks I had it were the ones Eriana was off from school, and I don’t listen to audiobooks when she’s with me because I don’t want her next word to be a swear word. So it took me a LONG time to get through this one because I hardly had any time away from her those two weeks. But it was okay. It was well-written. (My friend Shalini has hilarious opinions of Franzen (and here, and here, and here), but this was the first I’d read by him.)

44. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. This book was frustrating and exciting to me. I was INTENSELY into it. It was a short read, and kept me intrigued the whole time, but it also regularly pissed me off. Good read.

43. The Imperfections by Tom Rachman. This was a weird book. Every chapter was focused on a different character and they all related together. There were surprises and I was intrigued, but I wasn’t super excited every evening to pick up this book.

42. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. This book was hard for me. It came VERY highly recommended, and it was a disappointment in that regard. I wound up liking it, but I sure had a hard time getting through it. It finally took audio to get me through it, but I started it several times on my Kindle. Thank the heavens for the library and it having several types of this book available.

41. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. This is such a great series. Although, I was CERTAIN the children were British in the first book and in the second they were American. So I guess I was wrong. I’m not sure why I thought they were from England. Oh well. Anywho. If you have elementary-age children it’s a great series, and if you like children’s/YA books, this one’s great.

I have two others I’m ALMOST done with, but I’m not sure if I’ll finish them by the end of Friday.

And because no post is complete without a picture of Eriana, here she is super enthralled in my textbook, Organizing Knowledge. Riveting stuff, obviously. Think she’ll do my homework for me, too?

I’ve been thinking about trying to organize a book exchange! I was inspired by Raven’s Flip-Flop Swap and Scarf Swap, and I love the idea of buying something inexpensive but GREAT for someone I may or may not know.

But when I pitched this idea on Twitter, not only did I not have a lot of interest, but I think I gave the impression that we would be sharing books we already own. That wasn’t really my intention, but would be, obviously, okay. Here’s what I was thinking:

-You would sign up to participate.

-I would make up a survey of some basic questions about you, your reading tastes, your reading preferences (physical or eBook), to where you would be okay sending a package, anyone participating you DON’T want to swap with, etc.

-You would answer the questions (probably via e-mail).

-I would pair you with someone, most likely with as different as possible of tastes in books as you, to provide some diversity.

-You would email that person for their address, and with a few book ideas to make sure they don’t already have the one(s) you’re thinking about sending.

-You buy them a book (or give them one from your library) and send it to them. You also get one from them.

-If you prefer eBooks, it is SUPER simple to gift someone a book via Amazon or B&N.

-If you have a physical book with which you’re willing to part, you can send it, but you probably won’t get it back.

-Media mail is really inexpensive, so I was thinking this would be a fairly cheap exchange.

I wasn’t thinking about a sharing service for books we all already own because there are already those out there, and it’s not something I’d like to take on. If, after my notes, you’re still wanting to participate, comment below, and make sure the e-mail address you use to comment is one where I can contact you about the exchange! Signup will close on Friday, August 31, and if at least 10 people are signed up I will go ahead and send out the survey. If not, well, I tried.

WOO, BOOKS!

I read some books in July!

For the rest of my reads from 2012, visit my cleverly-named 2012 Books page.

-Broken Harbor by Tana French. This was a good book. Not as good as her other three, but good. It took me awhile to get into this one! I would say I was about two-thirds through before I was really into it and couldn’t put it down. Then I was hooked, though.

-Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall. This was a recommendation by my pastor’s wife (HI, MISSY!), and I happened to own a copy I’d forgotten about. It was a really sweet story. And inspiring about what one person can do.

-The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani. Trigiani is one of my favorite authors. I adore her works. This book was average, and probably my least favorite so far of her books.

That appears to be it. I really thought I read more this month. SLACKER. But when I update my Goodreads from my phone it doesn’t put in a date read. So I’ve found a few books I read this year that didn’t get on my list. They appear on my “read” list, but with no date, which is what I use to make these posts every month. So here are so books that slipped through the cracks.

-Room by Emma Donoghue. I hated this book. HATED it.

-My Booky Wook by Russell Brand. This book was SO not what I was expecting. Russell Brand is a bigger freak than you might realize. I haven’t read his second autobiography yet, so I didn’t get to his courtship with Katy Perry or his super stardom in the US.

-Kris Jenner… And All Things Kardashian by Kris Jenner. Shut up. You know I love the Kardashians. This book was interesting. I actually liked it. Although she OBVIOUSLY had big help because the way she talks on their shows you KNOW she probably isn’t a proper writer.

-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. Excellent book. Excellent.

-This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. I thought this book was great was a great (GREAT) book about family.

Shalini (and then several other friends) have written this post, and I thought I’d join the fun.

First Book I Loved
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien 
This has been one of my favorite books since first grade. I will be so excited when I can share it with Eriana.

First Book I Hated
The first time I remember quitting a book was just a few years ago when I read Beautiful Children by Charles Bock
I don’t remember not finishing any other book I started before that, though I’m sure I must have. Probably books I was supposed to read for school and I didn’t finish.

First Series I Read
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warren 
Before my mom thought I was ready for Nancy Drew, Babysitter’s Club or Sweet Valley High (and before the tween version of Babysitter’s Club came out), I was super enthralled with the Boxcar Children. I adored those books. I still have some of my old books that are in reserve for my girl.

First Fantasy/Sci-Fi Book I Read
Oh, Lord. I have no idea. I have never really been into Sci-Fi. I read some in high school for a class, but can’t remember the names.
Fantasy, I guess Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (also linked above). Mice and rats that can read? Pretty fantasy to me!

First Book That Made Me Cry From Laughing
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that did that. I’ll have to read through some that others linked to.

First YA Book I Read and Loved
I think Just as Long as We’re Together by Judy Blume falls into this category?
I remember reading a lot of Judy Blume, but some I wasn’t exposed to very early on (I just read Forever a few months ago!).

First Horror Book I Read
Um. No clue. It’s possible (nay, LIKELY) that it was The Shining by Stephen King, which I read in 2009.
When I started it I was alone at Yokota because Jim was TDY in the States. When I finished it was in Colorado, right after we’d gone to the Stanley Hotel for a ghost tour. I’m just glad Jim was there for me to finish it and cling to him for dear life.

First Book I Was Completely Obsessed With
Oh, that’s a tough one. I’m a chronic rereader. Maybe Harry Potter? I’ve read all of those so many times I’ve lost count. The one I recommend the most is New York: the Novel by Edward Rutherfurd, and despite its 882 pages I’ve read it at least three times.

How about you?