BOOKS 6 & 7

Travelling, with extended weather delays, has its advantages. One gets to read. Alot. Two books in 3 days is pretty good. And for the last leg of my trip from Atlanta to Dallas, I only had about 10 pages in my second book. I thought about buying a new book but couldn't do it. Couldn't disrespect the pledge. Instead I slept on the way home.

Soulless was rollickin' good fun. A combination mystery/romance/vampires and werewolves kind of novel. The main character is a "spinster" of 28 who has no soul. Soullessness neutralizes supernatural abilities. So when she comes into contact with any supernatural being, they can not harm her and revert to their human state. This book again set in the 1800s (what is with me and the 1800s lately, anyway?) is funny and sweet and I swooned in all the right parts when she fell in love with the werewolf. I definitely recommend this book. It is the first in the series with the second one coming out this April. Damn.

And of course, for travelling, one can never go wrong with a good John Sandford book and Dead Watch stayed true to the Sandford formula. Lots of shadows and spies and government conspiracy always make long lulls in airports not so bad. I actually would say that Dead Watch is one of his finest in his long list of books. I definitely recommend this one as well.

Running Behind....as usual.....

OK, so I'm a little late to the show, but I did finish reading The Black Tower last night. I did not love it as much as Karen, but I did find it very enjoyable. I say that I like historical fiction, but maybe, really I don't. I loved Vidocq's character, and that alone will encourage me to check out Bayard's other book....that I DO ALREADY have in my stack.

BOOK #5

The Pale Blue Eye is Bayard's 2007 release following Mr. Timothy. Not quite as good as The Black Tower but definitely better than Mr. Timothy. For a change, this book takes place at the West Point Academy (vs London in his other books) in the late 1800s. For this book, we meet Edgar Allan Poe. As a cadet. And Bayard cleverly inserts him into the mystery without BEING the mystery.

His take on a young Poe is as I would have imagined him. An outsider, beyond brilliant, a little lost and a big romantic. Bayard drew him perfectly in my mind. For this romp, Poe is only assisting the main detective, Mr. Landor but they make a great team. I enjoyed this duo more than any Sherlock Holmes story. The story gets graphic at times but after reading Bayard's other works, I would not expect less from him.

This would make a great film.

But, fair warning, don't sit and eat while you read the last 2o pages or so. I was eating my lunch and pretty much lost it due to Bayard's famous twists and turns at the last minute. But, as Bayard said in his reply to my email about the ending - "Hey, hearts are nutritious too!"

Be intrigued.

last of the Library Books

Fort Worth Public Library, how I will miss you. I'm devoted to the pledge, but I'll still miss browsing for books while some hippy in a costume sings and plays guitar for a bunch of little kids sitting on the floor. Good times...

As a farewell, but not forever, here's my "review" of my last library book for a long while.

It's called In the Garden of Iden, but Kage Baker (cool name, right? I hope it's her real name. That would be neat!). Again, here I am with the chick sci-fi, but it was really entertaining. It had semi-time-traveling cyborg humans, who lived in Tudor England (good old Bloody Mary - she makes fear an easy story element, with all the burning-at-the-stake); it had lovely gardens, thanks to English weather; and also, thanks to the English weather, lots of sexy moments by the fire.

Time travel, cyborgs, Tudor England and cheap romance novel steaminess.... yeah!!!
I'm going to latch on to this series once I'm through with the pledge!

15 DAYS IN!

I'm holding steady with the pledge and it hasn't been as difficult as I imagined. Talk to me in six months. The others are doing well also. Although at dinner last week, there seemed to be alot of questions regarding loopholes. And the only one loophole we have found is we are allowed to receive books as gifts. But they cannot be read until all the others are finished. Again, on the honor system.

I miss the hunting down and finding my next great book but look how much money I'm saving! (this is what I try to tell myself).

Thoughts?

BOOK #4

A few pages into Mr. Bayard's 2009 release The Black Tower, I decided not only was he my new favorite author but my new BFF as well. Well, the BFF part is only in my head but he is INDEED my new favorite author.

Mr. Timothy is his 2004 release and while not AS enchanting as The Black Tower, it was still a great story. Basically, he picks up Tim Cratchit (or Tiny Tim as we all know him) and deposits him into the underbelly of London in 1860. Tim is struggling to 'find himself' after losing his parents and his siblings are lost to him- emotionally and physically. He gets involved in murders and kidnappings on a ride not to be expected of such a beloved character. Mr. Bayard's perfect English prose in this book takes a while to get used to but after a few pages the rhythm catches on and you get sucked into the story.

By turns, it is funny and sad, sadistic and sweet and as with The Black Tower, Bayard proves to be a master at big surprises. I swore at Bayard when he killed off a great character but I suppose it made sense. I still cried though.

My next book is another Bayard release, The Pale Blue Eye and I'm eager for another good round of well-written words.



P.S. I reached out and sent Bayard an email to tell him that he was my new BFF and author and since then we've exchanged some funny emails. Funny, smart, hip guy.

DAMN YOU, STEPHEN KING.

I just stumbled across his Best Books of 2009.
All his best of lists (movies, TV, CDs, books) are always well thought out.
I'm trying very hard NOT to read any book blogs or book columns or anything that smells of books.
But, this link was on one of my daily blogs.
I read all of the books on his summer recommended reading list and Drood was on that so that's one down...

DAMN YOU, STEPHEN KING!

One of my pre-pledge library books

You guys know I'm the sci-fi buff in the group. In fact, that's why I joined the group... to be exposed to more than just sci-fi, but my stack is chock full of it, so bear with me...

Prior to the pledge, I picked up a few library books to read. The Year of the Flood is one of them. (I promise to read them, turn them back in and get on with the pledge. Karen gave me the OK to finish the Library books that I already had.)

So anyway, the book...
I'm a fan of Margaret Atwood. She's sci-fi, but not. The stories she tells are typically post-whatever-bad-we-are-currently-doing and full of conscience and "prophecy," but close enough to modern day reality that they really are quite intriguing.

The Year of the Flood is a "companion" to Oryx & Crake - both tell the same story, but from different points of view. Apocalyptic, yes. Happy ending? Sort-of...

Atwood has a great skill for details that one can easily imagine, but not too many that the book is tedious. In this book, she's shown that in the not too distant future, the language has changed (obviously due to texting) and that we citizens are quite willing to turn over authority to big corporations, just so they can do the "heavy lifting/thinking for us."

Atwood is never afraid for her heroes to be women. And, they aren't always "tough chicks," but average girls, like us, who are forced by circumstances to step up and be tough. Her heroines are always survivors.

If you're willing to read sci-fi-ish material and aren't squeamish, this is an very entertaining book. But plan to read Oryx & Crake as well, to get the whole story. (There may be other books in this same story line. I plan to find them).

BOOK #3

Many lives ago, it was destined that I read this book.

If you know me at all, you'll understand why the title of this book killed me. And that reason alone should have been enough for me to read it. But it was not to be. After stumbling across the cover of the book on amazon, I sarcastically sent it out to the others saying 'we need to read this'. And an email from Rachel came back sarcastically saying 'I already have.' Which set me off into fits of laughter. Because Rachel is one of the funniest most unpredictable people I know and I never dreamed that she would have read it (and I don't dream about her at all either.)

As I finished re-telling this story to Meredith, while we were in Half-Price Books, I looked down in whichever aisle we were in - and there sat the book. Plain as day. So you see? I was indeed destined to read this book.

As far as chick-lit goes, it's a cute little book. But I wouldn't rush out to buy it. If you find it somewhere for a few pennies and need a beach read, then by all means buy it. Not good. Not great. Just so so.

And now I can proudly say that I have indeed read a book titled Phi Beta Bimbo.

I'm so excited!

Thanks, Karen for coming up with this quest to read from our stacks! I owe you big for this one!
I'm looking forward to finishing my first book and posting about it.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel! And won't my house look cleaner with all those stacks gone! (In my mind, I'm dancing like Snoopy at the thought!)

BOOK #2

I didn't want to like this book. I very rarely read books that EVERYONE is talking about. Mostly because the hype is ALWAYS better than the book. Case in point Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I hated this. I tried to like it. I tried to finish it. It was overhyped and it underdelivered.
But with Eat, Pray, Love, for me, the hype came through.

It was a nice change for me to read and really enjoy a book as it spoke to my spiritual side. Or what's left of my spiritual side, I should say. It's pretty much a wasteland these days. One friend told me she had heard the book was self-indulgent and it is. It really is. But it didn't bother me. I enjoyed all of Gilbert's temper tantrums and trials and tribulations as she figured out and learned her lessons in life. Her emotional trysts with herself will easily be self-recognizable by a lot of women. Who better to beat ourselves up but our own self? "Depression and loneliness stopped by last night."

I would LOVE the opportunity to blast out of my own life into a year or two of travelling to places in this world that speak to me. I would LOVE the chance of another do-over in my life. I'm just sorry Liz Gilbert wrote it all down first.

As a rule, I don't keep books I've read. Mostly because I rarely re-read any one particular book. However, I will keep this one. It's a great buffer for when the ever-hovering friends, Loneliness and Depression, come to visit.

P.S. Don't be in awe, folks. I really don't read this fast. I had started Eat Pray Love at beginning of my vacation and only read sporadically. But when I got time back to myself, I finished it and the previous one rather quickly. Doesn't happen often.

BOOK #1

During my last day of scavenging book stores before the new year, I came across this book. Mer snorted at it but it intrigued me. As most of these type books do. I clearly do not understand myself, men or my relationship (or lack of relationships) with men.

I enjoyed this book. Alot of my confusion about men can be explained biologically - or in other words, how men and women DO differentiate due to DNA. It also clued me in a bit better on how to communicate with men. Basically, I don't really have to. Not as much as I THINK I should. Less words supposedly will bring about better results.

And the book was funny. Man bashing? Sure. Women bashing? Of course. It's written by a married double doctor team so each sex takes its share of hits.

An odd choice for the first book of the year but I honestly couldn't put it down. But, then again, I can't put down chocolate either.

AND SO IT BEGINS!

THE PLEDGE.

As of January First, Two Thousand and Ten, we have made a pledge. Individually and collectively. We do so promise to only read the books we have stacked up in our homes. For me, that's about ninety books. For Meredith, it's about thirty. For Rachel, it's about sixty. And for Caren, somewhere in the middle.

This is a commitment on our parts. Sworn to each other. On the honor system. We are all book addicts so the hardest part won't be in reading all the novels. The hardest part will be not having the luxury of buying new books or checking them out from the library. No more hours of wandering through Barnes & Noble or Half Price books (unless one of us has great willpower...which I doubt!).

And to really put pressure on the commitment, each participant is to log in, write a post that contains the review of the latest book read. I'm hoping this little blog takes off and some people find it interesting enough to follow. I admit I know I'll be doing most of the writing but who knows? We all read so much that I know each of us has a good author in us as well.

Stay tuned.