books 48,49, 50!!!!

hey, the 'bots are back in town.

the wounded hawk, sara douglass
rating:


this is the second book in that fantasy trilogy i started back in june. i really liked the first one, but i got bogged down a little here. too much talk about war and weird angel stuff. this one didn't really leave me hanging like the first one did, so i'm not sure if i'll end up finishing the series or not. will thomas neville trade earth's eternal damnation for the love of a half-angel/half-human woman? i'm not sure if i care that much.

the ruins, scott smith
rating:


i can't give this a full five 'bots, because i thought there was a little too much character typing at certain points. but other than that, WOW! this book is totally creepy and scary. a pretty intense thriller with some serious elements of horror. kind of a departure from a simple plan, because there are more main characters involved in this one, but still the same tight writing. i'll never be able to go into the mexican jungle now.

born confused, tanuja desai hidier


book 50! only 28 more to go until i hit my ultimate life goal. at least for this year.

okay, this is a really great young adult novel. it's about dimple lala, an indian-american teenager with identity issues and a real knack for photography. it sort of reminds me of a few of sarah dessen's books, as it takes place largely over the course of a summer. plus, there's music! and dancing! and cooking! a nice summer read.

books 45, 46, 47

the girls' guide to hunting a fishing, melissa bank

i like this book. you can say all you want about chick lit and how dumb it is, but there are a few books caught in this category that i still find to be very well-written and real. and this is one of them. i read it back in 1999, but, with the upcoming film version (which has just been really horribly casted, i must say), i decided to read it again. it's written like linked stories, in a similar way to bank's second novel, the wonder spot, which i also liked. there's this one story, sort of right in the middle, that i still don't understand. but the writing style is clean, there's not a lot of excess, and this protagonist is relateable.

girlbomb: a halfway homeless memoir, janice erlbaum

i'm not sure why, because this book actually seemed sort of predictable to me, but i really got sucked in. i like memoirs, and this one's nice because erlbaum doesn't really seem to sugarcoat things. she was a promiscuous, drug-abusing (and sometimes drug-addicted) runaway, and she doesn't apologize for it. her writing is good, too, wry and honest, which i always go for.

i am the messenger, markus zusak

OH MY GOD, READ THIS BOOK. this is an australian young adult novel (published originally as simply the messenger. it's all about ed kennedy, a 19 year old cab driver who starts to get these weird playing cards in the mail, which take him on a number of missions across his town. i can't even begin to explain why it's so good, but it is! trust me on this one. if you've ever: had a best friend, wished you had done something in a crisis situation even though you couldn't muster the strength, been in love with someone, felt like you weren't sure what you were supposed to do with your life -- basically, if you're a human -- then you should give this book a chance. I MEAN IT!

book 44, etc.

a simple plan, scott smith
rating:


i know i've been neglecting my little robots, but this book deserved all five, so i brought them back. i read this in anticipation of smith's new book, the ruins, which comes out next tuesday. i've never seen this movie or anything, so i had no idea what to expect, but this book is IN-TENSE! basically: three guys find a wrecked plane with 4.4 million dollars in it. they take the money and come up with "a simple plan" (get it??) to keep the money for six months to make sure no one claims it, and then to split it three ways. but things go horribly, horribly wrong. smith's writing is really amazing, clean and well-paced and very tight. and i was really creeped out by how easy it was for this completely normal-seeming narrator to rationalize the horrifying things he does during the course of this story. CHILLING. now i really can't wait for the ruins!

i also can't wait for the keep, jennifer egan's newest, which amazon says will come out august 1! bookslut gave it a good review and it seems to align quite nicely with my current taste for books that thrill and chill.

books 41, 42, 43

wow, summer flies when you are an idiot, idiotically working too much!

i did take a few days of vacation last week, and here's what i have to show for it:

vacation reading!

sacred and profane, faye kellerman

these days all i want to do is read mysteries/thrillers. i mean, i'm technically in the middle of suite francaise, but i'm just too tired at night to think about world wars, etc. i just want murder! and detectives! and a little police procedure thrown in! this is the second peter decker/rina lazarus mystery (i read the first, the ritual bath, earlier in the year), and it was a lot more gruesome than the first. let's just say: snuff porn. but a really fast read, and it reminded me of being thirteen and staying up really late reading mysteries and then having to sleep with my light on because i'd gotten myself all worked up and scared.

body of a girl, leah stewart

another mystery, and really quite different from stewart's second novel, the myth of you and me, which i read at some point in my life, and which has a very nice cover. this was good, a kind of creepy-feeling mystery in which a memphis crime reporter becomes obsessed with a murder victim she's said to resemble. super creepy: the relationship this reporter, olivia dale, forms with the dead woman's teenaged brother. also, i met leah stewart once, and she's a really nice person, with great hair, so she wins in my book.

the madam, julianna baggott

i love julianna baggot. she's a really great novelist and her poetry doesn't make me want to vomit, which is a pretty big deal. girl talk? loved it. the miss america family? loved it more. but, the madam? only sort of liked it. there are a lot of nice scenes, and of course, nice writing, but the whole thing fell flat for me. the main character is closely based on the author's grandmother, who went to florida with her husband in the 1920s to try to make some money and ended up going back to west virginia alone and opening up a brothel. there are lots of colorful characters: an opium-addicted prostitute named delphine, a giantess named roxy, and more, but this book isn't as funny as baggott's first two novels. it seemed like the dysfunction was just too sad to be humorous, even in a darker way. but, all that said, this is a fast read, and a pretty interesting look at life in 1920s west virginia.