books 13 & 14

infernal devices, philip reeve
rating:


i feel like i can't really describe this without giving away plot points from the preceding books in the series. now having read the entire series, i think that this, the third book, is the best.

a darkling plain, philip reeve
rating:


the finale. very intense. also, very long. and good.


i'm getting over a nasty flu and i'm about to hunker down and finish a lot of neglected schoolwork. i've got a big fat stack of appealing-looking books to read, but sadly, i think they'll mostly have to wait. at least until i have secured gainful employment. which will hopefully happen at some point between now and graduation.

books 11 & 12

predator's gold, philip reeve
rating:


second in the series. more crazy future adventure. more hungry cities and a wunderklammer. i'd hate to say more and spoil anything.

about alice, calvin trillin
rating:


i debated with myself about counting this as a book. it's hard to know, really, because it's only 80 pages, but it packs a big punch. if you're not familiar with calvin trillin, he's a super great writer who has done lots of different kinds of essay writing. prominently featured in my of his books is his wife, alice, who died in 2001. the first book he published after her death had the best love-related book dedication i've ever read -- "I wrote this for Alice. Actually, I wrote everything for Alice." so this is a little slip of a book that's sort of a memoir of their relationship, and it's really well done. i read several chapters more than once (one way i'm justifying counting it as a full book) and i laughed AND cried. it's really a lovely tribute. if you've got a free hour, you might want to pick this up.

book 10

mortal engines, philip reeve
rating:


this is the first of four books in reeve's hungry city chronicles series. matt's been trying to get me to read these for months, and i've been resistant, but i finally decided to give it a try. and i'm glad i did, because this book is phenomenal. i've been trying to play it cool at home so that matt won't know how much i liked it, but here i can gush. so, it's pretty much about a time way in the future, when things have gone to municipal darwinism. i.e., towns and cities are on wheels and they eat each other. seriously. my favorite repeated line in this book is "it's a town eat town world." anyway. tom is a third class apprentice in london who gets his mind TOTALLY BLOWN and finds out that things aren't quite what they seem when he meets hester, a girl about his age who is horribly disfigured facewise as a result of a run-in with valentine, london's golden boy and tom's hero. the story starts in london but tom and hester travel all over the place. excellent book. i'm on the second in the series now.

jackie asked me to include genres in my reviews, so this one is a young adult sci-fi/fantasy type of thing.

i've let myself go: books 7, 8, 9

popco, scarlett thomas
rating:


i actually finished this over a week ago so i don't have a lot to say about it now. alice is a creative for a british toy company called popco, and she suddenly starts receiving encoded messages while at a business retreat. i should say that she's really into codes and things... her grandfather was a big cryptanalyst. anyway, very entertaining, though i wasn't a big fan of the end and it also took me forever to read it.

londonstani, gautam malkani
rating:
ABSOLUTELY ZERO ROBOTS.

i am so angry about this book that i can't even really talk about it.

let the northern lights erase your name, vendela vida
rating:


this was a nice, quick read. it helped cleanse my palate a bit after my HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE WITH LONDONSTANI. anyway. clarissa's dad dies, and she finds out that he wasn't her dad after all. uh oh. she decides to find her real father (her mother disappeared when she was a teenager), so she travels to an extra cold region of scandinavia, and things get even more confusing (but there's an ice hotel, so it's all okay). i didn't particularly like or dislike the main character, but i found myself somewhat surprised by the ending, which was pretty refreshing.

book 6

little children, tom perrotta
rating:


here's another recommendation that i've been avoiding, thinking that it was actually about little kids. it's really about this suburban town, and what happens there one summer. sarah, a bored stay-at-home mom, starts to experience marriage problems when she finds herself attracted to stay-at-home dad todd, nicknamed "prom king" by the ladies in town. meanwhile, her older husband is distant, negligent and obsessed with his fantasy life. most if it is about sarah and todd, but other characters fill in, as does a backstory involving a convicted child molester who moves back to town to live with his aging mother after a stint in prison. the whole thing had a nice, suspenseful feel, and i kept trying to pace myself better so that i wouldn't finish it all at once, but i really wanted to know what happens. it's going to be a movie, though it looks like the movie might take a different turn than the book does. the book, at least, i'd highly recommend.

book 5

a family daughter, maile meloy
rating:


awesome, awesome book. i'm so glad i stopped in the middle to read the earlier one, though. so, this book is also about the santerre family, but the REAL santerre family. a young member of the family, abby, decides to write a novel based on her family's history. the novel that she writes is meloy's liars and saints. confusing? it doesn't really seem like it when you're reading. it was interesting to find out what was "true" about the santerres, and what was "fiction." as someone who has written fiction and memoir, i found this to be particularly interesting, though it really made me a little sad that i don't have time to hunker down and work on writing that novel i've put on hold since last year. but maybe someday. also, maybe i'll be like abby and name all of the characters in my novel after my real family members and really throw them for a loop.

book 4

liars and saints, maile meloy
rating:


look at me, plugging along! the semester starts tomorrow, so i've got to pack in my last-minute vacation reading. this book was pretty great. alicia had it on her faves list from last year, along with a family daughter, meloy's most recent novel, and after reading a few reviews, i was intrigued. it's all about the santerres, a family living (mostly) in california. the multi-generational story leaves plenty of room for interesting family drama. it was a little strange to read this, because i was already halfway through a family daughter, which deals with the same family, when i decided i needed to read this one before finishing. so now i know a little more background and it's hard to know what i'd think of this one if i didn't know that. but i'm sure i'd still like it. i only knocked off that robot's head b/c things felt a bit rushed for me at the end.

book 3

digging to america, anne tyler
rating:


people have been recommending anne tyler to me for years. people i know, people i trust. but i sometimes vehemently resist book recommendations, for no apparent reason. i get very "pffft. as if you could possibly know what i would like!" just out of nowhere sometimes.

now i just feel dumb, because this was a really solid book. two youngish baltimore couples adopt babies from korea at the same time, in 1997. they meet at the airport and then things happen from there. really, it's less about the little girls and more about the two families. it sounds simple, but i found it really hard to put down. really good, but in a quiet way. nothing flashy, just good writing and an interesting story. i didn't really want to finish it, because i have a feeling that what i read next won't be as impressive. but who knows? maybe i just need to have more faith.

2007, books 1 and 2

running with scissors, augusten burroughs
rating:


why do people love this book so much? i found it unfunny and completely disturbing. and i don't mean in a quirky way, in an "oh how funny this dysfunctional family is?" kind of way, as the trailer for the movie seems to spin things. burroughs is clearly a good writer and there were a few funny details about things like his polyester pants. but. ugh.
anyway. apparently the family depicted in the book is suing him or something along those lines. but i only heard that from my mom, and haven't been invested enough to actually confirm.

the thirteenth tale, diane setterfield
rating:


this was an enjoyable read. a well-known but enigmatic british writer, vida winters, requests that amateur biographer margaret lea write the true story of her life. very consciously gothic, with the moors as a backdrop and a strange story full of twists and turns. i'm even still a bit confused by a few of those twists. i'm somewhat surprised that this was a best-seller, but it was definitely worth reading.


now if i could just get my hands on a copy of vendela vida's new book, i'd be set. i honestly don't even remember what happened in her last book (and now you can go), but i know it was on my best of 2003 list.