The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan

I don't know where I first heard about this book, but I had been looking for it in Cleveland for quite a while — I wanted to read it, but I had too many other books to read to bother putting it on hold. When I was at my library in Jacksonville the other day looking for a completely different book, that I could not find for the life of me even with the help of a librarian, I was like, hmm. Is it here? It was!

And then I read it. Way.

At first, I was concerned that the book would be like the movie The Village, which was TERRIBLE and no one should ever have to watch it. It starts off rather the same, with creepy things in the woods that break in every once in a while and then the villagers have to hide lest they be taken away. I don't remember what's supposed to happen to those villagers in The Village (traumatic experiences and all that), but in this book they get eated and turned into ZOMBIES. A zombie book! Yessssss!

That's all you really need to know about this book — well, I guess also that it's a young adult novel so it's all full of teenage protagonists and whatnot. But whatever, ZOMBIES. Nomnomnombrains.

Welllllll... okay, so there are zombies, which is awesome, but they are really secondary to this story of a crappy future where zombies have taken over and there's a village run by fundamentalists who keep lots of secrets and they tell everyone that there's nothing else out there, just this village and these zombies (well, they say Unconsecrated, but zombies) but our hero, Mary, is all "My mother told me about the ocean" and not really down with what those fundamentalists are selling. It's more than zombies. But there are zombies. And sequels, which I will definitely be reading.

Rating: 8/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
book-a-rama
Book Addiction
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
books i done read
Devourer of Books
Book Nut

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go, by Dale E. Basye

Teehee. This is a really cute little book. Do you remember watching your favorite shows as a kid and loving them, and then watching them again as an adult and going, "Wooooow. There are a lot of jokes in here that I would not have gotten all those years ago"? That is totally what this book is like. For example, when the kids get to Heck, after dying in a freak marshmallow explosion accident at the Mall of Generica in Kansas, Marlo says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Or when one of the many other dead kids in Heck realizes he's heard of his teacher, a Mr. R. Nixon, before, he says, "You're that crook from the history books!" Nixon's response? "I was NOT a crook!" There is a lot of that. It is mostly hilarious.

The story itself is iffy, but who needs it? Basically, the aforementioned flaming marshmallows land Marlo and Milton (oh, gosh, another pun: after Milton loses the dice off his ferret's collar, he puts up a sign reading "Milton's pair of dice: lost." It's terrible and awesome all at the same time) in Heck, where the bad kids go, until forever or their eighteenth birthdays. Marlo, a bad kid, is not really okay with this, but Milton, a very very good kid, is incredibly upset. After a few days of lame Heck school and lame Heck food, they decide to bust out, with the help of someone called Virgil, of course.

This is the first book in a series, but I probably won't read the rest unless I have a craving for delicious fluffy puns.

Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
books i done read
Reading in Appalachia
Back to Books

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Invisible Gorilla, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

A few months ago, I listened to a pretty interesting book on CD called How We Decide. I liked it, it was an interesting topic, but by the end of the CD I was all, "I am going to pistol-whip the next guy that says 'pre-frontal cortex.'"

Basically, you could go to that review, swap out the titles, and replace "pre-frontal cortex" with "illusion" and you've got my review of this book.

Don't get me wrong, it was good for the first five or six hours (out of nine-ish?) that Scott and I listened to it on our drive from Cleveland to Jacksonville. The title story is really the best, and there are a lot of other good examples of people overestimating themselves or being overestimated by people — the book is basically about how we think we're awesome at remembering things or at talking on cell phones while driving, but we are so not.

But then it starts getting old, and THEN the authors go into a diatribe about how you should totally get your kids vaccinated, which I agree with but man, I was starting to think about not vaccinating my hypothetical children out of spite. It was seriously annoying.

Once we weren't stuck in the car anymore, it was hard to get up the will to finish this book, but we did, and it does end on a good note. But like How We Decide, I would highly recommend getting it in book form so that you can skim the super annoying and super boring parts.

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2010, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer Ouellette

This is the first book I checked out from my new library system in Florida, so I'm glad it was fairly decent. :) It was on a shelf full of non-fiction science books, which are okay in general, but one look at that title and I was sold. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even though I've seen probably only half of the episodes (this is getting slowly rectified through the wonders of Netflix), and I've been in an on-again, off-again relationship with physics for a long time, so why wouldn't I pick up this book?

Now, I'd say you really need to have some sort of relationship with physics to read this book. It's not so much "The Physics of the Buffyverse" as it is "Regular Physics Explained Through the Use of Events in Buffy and Angel," which is still cool but by the time you get to string theory, your head might explode, and not because of a scream that resonates as the same frequency as your head (Ouellette's explanation for the death of the Gentlemen).

Other than that, the writing is solid and Ouellette does a pretty good job keeping the confusing bits interesting. I was just really hoping for some creative made-up physics rather than the "Well, this could never happen, but here's something similar that could" avoidances, so I ended up disappointed. In the book, anyway. All of the little spoilers Ouellette gives out have made me even more excited to watch Buffy, and even Angel, which I have never actually seen. Let me just run off to my television now...

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2006, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Tell-All, by Chuck Palahniuk

What a... very odd book. I'm not really sure what to say about it. I definitely would not have picked it up except that my book club is reading it this month, and I almost didn't want to read it anyway.

Maybe it's because I don't follow a lot of celebrity things and have never read a tell-all book, but I really really really hated all the name-dropping, made even more irritating by the fact that every proper noun was in bold face. It's mostly spread out, but every once in a while there's a sentence like, "By now, Lillian Hellman wraps two fists around the invisible throat of Adolf Hitler, reenacting how she sneaked into his subterranean Berlin bunker, dressed as Leni Riefenstahl, her arms laden with black-market cartons of Lucky Strike and Parliament cigarettes, and then throttled the sleeping dictator in his bed." And then I cry.

The really exciting bit (one might call it the plot) doesn't come until halfway through the book, but once it starts it's quite interesting. I was sure the book was going to end one way, and it sort of did but there was more to it that I had not at all anticipated. I like that. But I wouldn't read this again, or make you read it, either.

Rating: 5/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2010, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Booking Through Thursday — The Meme

Today's Booking Through Thursday is a big long series of questions, which is awesome 'cause I haven't done one of these in a while. Let's begin!

1. Favorite childhood book?
The Secret Garden — I had three different copies of this book. Sadly, I couldn't really tell you the plot of this book today. I should really go re-read it.

2. What are you reading right now?
Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
-goes to look- Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (because I hope it's better than Catching Fire); The Lifecycle of Software Objects, by Ted Chiang (that one is for the hubby); Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1, by Bryan Lee O'Malley; and Death Note Vol. 4, by Tsugumi Ohba.

4. Bad book habit?
I am pretty much incapable of reading a paperback book without cracking the spine. I try not to, but it is inevitable.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Let's see... Foiled, by Jane Yolen (which I just finished); Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters; The House of Tomorrow, by Peter Bognanni; One Amazing Thing, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni; Girls on the Edge, by Leonard Sax; Get Connected, by RoseMary Honnold; The Island of Lost Maps, by Miles Harvey; and finally Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, by Roddy Doyle.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
No, but I may break down and get a Sony Reader someday.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I can't really do several, but I often end up taking a break from one and reading another, like I did with Foiled because I wanted to read it and knew it would be short. Or I can be reading a book and have an audiobook going in my car. Once it gets past, like, three books I'm done.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I certainly read a lot more, though I don't know if that's a blog thing or a having-lots-of-time being-unemployed thing. I also don't have as many impulse reads as I used to, because I've got this big long list of TBR books from the blogs I read!

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Cat Breaking Free. Wow, that was a painful one.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
I'm going to go with I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President. Highly amusing.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Often, I suppose? Because I get most of my recommendations from the blogs, I'll read pretty much anything that sounds interesting to me.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
I'm not sure I have one! There are genres I avoid in general, like romances and westerns and epic fantasy, but if someone tells me there's a good book in one of those genres I'll go read it willingly.

13. Can you read on the bus?
Back when I worked ten-hour days, those fifteen-minute train rides were the only time I had for reading! I got through books very slowly those days. Then I got jobs that required car rides. I miss public transit like whoa, especially here in JAX where buses come every hour or more instead of every fifteen minutes.

14. Favorite place to read?
I'll read pretty much anywhere. I do like reading in my comfy brown chair, though.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I only lend to people I trust to return my books.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Nope.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Only if I'm planning on writing a paper about them!

18. Not even with text books?
Especially not textbooks. I resell them as much as possible.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
Well, English. I am a very slow reader in French.

20. What makes you love a book?
The same things that make me love a person — not that I know what those are. :)

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
It depends on the book, and the person I'm recommending it to. But if I am madly in love with a book, I'll tell pretty much anyone to read it.

22. Favorite genre?
Anything with a bit of fantasy in it.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Mysteries... I used to read these all the time but have fallen off recently.

24. Favorite biography?
Haha, I don't read those.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Yes. I highly recommend He's Just Not That Into You, if you are a lady with man troubles, which is an entirely-too-large number of ladies, I think.

26. Favorite cookbook?
Um? I have a few cookbooks, but I tend to be a simple cooker — hamburgers and chicken and pasta and every once in a while a really tasty lasagna.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
Er... I guess The Game On! Diet, which has inspired me to kick some butt.

28. Favorite reading snack?
I am way too busy reading to eat at the same time.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Catching Fire.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
Well, I generally only take recommendations from people or critics that I have agreed with in the past, so really quite often.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
Dude. Castle. I felt even less bad about hating that book when I got an e-mail on GoodReads from someone saying, "I see you read Castle, I bet you'd like this incredibly similar book!" Mmhmm.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
I wish I could read better in French. But if I had to pick a new language, I'd pick Japanese. I always feel like I'm missing something in those translations.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Pillars of the Earth. Looooooooong book, and historical.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
World Without End, by the same author.

35. Favorite Poet?
William Cullen Bryant. Love me some "Thanatopsis."

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Usually about ten, depending on how fast I read and how fast my holds come in.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Not too terribly often. I usually end up speed-reading them right before they go back, and then loving them.

38. Favorite fictional character?
Thursday Next.

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Hmm, I don't think I have one! I'll have to think about this.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Anything not very heavy (hence the need for a Sony Reader!). Also things that I might not read without all the free time of vacation.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Hmm. I probably went a month or two at a time without reading anything fun during all those years in school.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Nightlight: A Parody... it was worse than Twilight.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Not much, if I'm really into the book. If I'm not... really anything will distract me.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Stardust.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Any of the Harry Potter movies after the third one.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Goodness. Probably around $50? It's been a long time since I've gone bookstore spree-ing.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Never.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Lack of plot line, terrible characters, poor writing... a lot of things.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
My books aren't really organized, though I do keep series together and I try to keep genres together (with varying levels of success).

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I only buy books that I've read and loved, so they stay with me unless I lend them out.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
The Lord of the Rings series. I read maybe 100 pages of the first one a long time ago, and I have been making excuses for not having read them ever since.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
See my previous note on Castle.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
On the Road. You win, Mary.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
The Weatherman's Daughters.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Graphic novels. So much good artwork!

The Chalk Circle Man, by Fred Vargas

I have... absolutely no idea where I heard about this book, but I heard about it somewhere and was like, "zomg I must read this!" So I put it on hold at the library, and many moons later it finally came in, and I read it. I know, you're like, "No way." Way.

Right. Back on topic. No idea why I read this book, and no real expectations going in, which was probably a good thing, as it is French and therefore super-weird. Just a couple pages in, there is the greatest dialogue of the whole book, which I cannot transcribe for you because I had to return the book to the library pretty much ten seconds after I finished reading it, but which involves Shakespeare-level puns on blindness. The dialogue goes downhill from there, but it is still amusing.

It is a mystery, and the mystery is that there is some guy drawing chalk circles around Paris. Terrifying, yes? He's been drawing them around random bits of garbage, but a detective called Adamsberg who is sort of like Sherlock Holmes but French and a little daft thinks that soon enough there will be a dead body in one of them, so he has his officers go out and photograph garbage for a while. Then, of course, there is a dead body, and the hunt is on!

There are a lot of potential killers, and I thought Vargas did a really good job of leading me around — I thought I knew whodunnit, then I was like, crap, no I don't, and then I was like NO WAY that is ridiculous and also awesome. There is really no character development to speak of, but I still enjoyed all of the characters that she created in their one-dimensional wonder. I guess this is part of a series of Adamsberg mysteries, so I might have to check the rest of them out someday.

Rating: 7/10
(Orbis Terrarum Challenge: France, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
Back to Books

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Faithful Place, by Tana French

And finally, we get to the new book! I have been very excited for this book ever since I heard it was coming out, which was maybe not that long ago, but still! And I got it from the library the first day I could, but I was all busy with reading other books and it took me like A WEEK before I could read it. The travesty!

Maybe it was all that excitement from the first paragraph, or maybe it's because I got myself all worked up by reading the previous two books first, but I felt rather let down by this installment. :( No, I know what it was... French's books have always been more character-driven than mystery-driven, but this book pretty much threw away the mystery story in favor of an in-depth look into Frank Mackey, who I didn't care much about in the first place. Sigh.

The mystery, what it is, is first that a suitcase shows up in Mackey's family's neighborhood, and it belongs to the girl he meant to run away to England with many years ago. She never showed, but Mackey went off anyway and never went home... until this suitcase thing. It quickly turns out that his girl, Rosie, is dead under some concrete in a dilapidated building, and then before you can wrap your head around that Mackey's brother ends up dead, having fallen out of a window in some manner or other. Mackey, being Mackey, goes off to do his investigating while being bombarded on all sides by family and history.

It's interesting, sure, but I'd gotten used to hearing about French's characters in bits and pieces and anecdotes, not all at once, and because there's so much focus on Mackey's history the mystery part of the book falls flat. I wouldn't tell you not to read this book, but I would personally rather go read In the Woods again first.

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2010, A to Z Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

My new library relationship

So I moved to Florida recently, and the first thing I did after getting my driver's license was head over to the library and get a library card, as one does when one is a NERD. Sigh. Even better, the library I went to turned out not to be the closest library to me, so I was compelled to head over to my neighborhood library just a couple of days later. And then I went back today. I now have a pile of eight books (after returning two today) on my counter. It's just like old times!

What's weird is how spoiled I was in Ohio without even realizing it. That's not saying that my new libraries are bad, not at all, and in fact I'm a bit in love with the downtown library, which I visited back in April. But I am just not used to branch libraries, with their more limited collections and smaller staffs. Both of the libraries I frequented in Ohio were main libraries, and my practicum library in particular had a large and wonderful collection, especially of the audiobooks I learned to love on my long commute.

But, I mean, I checked six books out today. And I've got holds on the ones I can't find in the library. So it's not like I'm deprived or anything.

Aaaaaand, I could walk to this library in about the time it took me to walk to class in undergrad. I declare this an excellent improvement. Now to read!

The Game On! Diet, by Krista Vernoff

So I've gotten lazy over the past, oh, couple years or so. And after I started grad school, it only got worse, what with the hour-long drives to and from school, and the insane amount of reading and homework and work-work, and when I had time to do anything I would usually spend it napping. In February, when I realized I had gotten (for me, anyway) super fat, I at least cut out the Oreos and most of the pizza from my diet and lost that weight again, but recently I decided that exercise is probably important, too. But problem — I am simply not motivated to exercise by myself. Like, at all. I need to have a friend to exercise with, or I'm just not gonna go.

And then second problem — I up and moved 900 miles away from all my friends! Well, except my husband, of course. Hi handsome! So I was like, "Craaaaaaap." But then! The internets told me about this book, and I am pretty much a sucker for anything that sounds like a competition. I am really competitive, if I think I can win. (I am not competitive in chess, or first-person shooters.)

The proverbial lightbulb went off over my head, all blinky from years of disuse, and I called up my Spoon (read: best friend) and said, "Dude. I am going to kick your ass in this dieting game and you're going to like it." She said, "Let me read that book. -reads- No, see, it says right here that I am going to kick your ass. GAME ON."

I think she might win, because she eats small children (who are very good for you, if you are an AMORAL CHEATERFACE) for breakfast, but I do have a fighting chance and an unreasonable love for rules. Rules are the backbone of this game — there are rules on when and what you should eat, how often you should exercise, how much sleep you should get, how much water you should drink, etc., but they are all super-easy and are things you should be doing anyway, so it's like it's not even a challenge! And you get POINTS for things, and they only way this could be better is if it were STICKERS, and omg I think I need to go buy some stickers and why didn't I think of this before?!

Oh, and the book is a fun read, too.

We've been at this diet about a week, and it's pretty sweet. I highly recommend it if for nothing else than a reason to get off your butt for 20 minutes a day. Spoon and I and my hubs are doing it one-on-one-on-one, but it's really meant to be played in teams, so you should find a big group of competitive people and then kick all their butts. It's a real self-esteem boost.

And if you want to read about the exploits of my spoon and me (the hubs is not a blogger), you can go to our little blog and be amused. Or horrified. Or both.

Rating: 8/10
(A to Z Challenge)

See also:
She Is Too Fond Of Books

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Likeness, by Tana French

So after I finished In the Woods, I had a dilemma. Should I just read Faithful Place, French's new book about a character introduced in her second book, since the books are definitely standalone? Or should I go read those 450 pages of The Likeness again? Obviously, I chose the latter, mainly because I get twitchy about reading things out of order and also because in discussion with my friend Cari I had realized that I could barely remember a thing about this book, the one that I loved so much more than In the Woods.

So I sat down and read this book, but it was not nearly as good the second time around as In the Woods was, nor was it as good as I remember it being in the first place. The premise is spectacular: Cassie Maddox gets called in to help in a murder investigation because the dead girl not only looks startlingly like Cassie but is also carrying around ID that says she's Lexie Madison, a person that Cassie and her boss made up when she was in Undercover. Creepy, right? Said boss, Frank Mackey, has sort of commandeered the investigation because he has decided that it would be awesome to see if Cassie could go undercover as the dead girl into the house where she lived with her four nearest, dearest, and possibly only friends.

It's an interesting thought experiment, but I think the main interest I had in this book came from wondering if and when Cassie was going to get caught. Knowing what eventually happens really takes the suspense out of it, and I was just sort of like, "Okay, whatevs." In the Woods had a cleverly psychotic killer, but (spoiler alert?) this one doesn't, so there isn't that same awe at watching the investigation unfold. But I'm still amazed how realistically Cassie embeds herself into the house, and I do love how the house itself is an important character in the story, so I will maintain my love for this book. Just maybe I won't read it again.

Rating: 9/10 (was a 10... sigh...)
(Flashback Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge, Chunkster Challenge)

See also:
Reading Matters
reading is my superpower

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Gaudy Night, by Dorothy Sayers

This was a weird pick for my book club, largely because we all liked it. :) When we hopped on Skype to chat about it, we were all like, "Um, it's good... and stuff... can we read some more Dorothy Sayers now?" Which is interesting, because it's not really a straight-forward mystery novel like others of Sayer's, it's more of a treatise on marriage with a mystery thrown in. You'd think that three marriage-age women (with me married!) could have come up with something to say about that!

Of course, I had only just finished the book before the club, so I hadn't had too much time to think about what I might want to say about the institution of marriage (not that I've got any ideas now!). I was still all, "I can't believe that that was the murderer! I'm so terrible at guessing these things!" The mystery part goes as follows: Harriet Vane goes to a reunion at her college, and while there picks up some not-very-nice notes. She ignores them and goes home, but soon gets a call from the Dean or the Warden or someone from the college asking if Harriet might oh-so-kindly stop by and help them with this mystery, since she did so well solving that other mystery and also in writing all those mystery novels. The mystery is, of course, that a bunch of other people at the college are also getting these terrible notes, and also some manuscripts are being defaced, and it would all be such a scandal if the real police found out about it.

Harriet takes her sweet time (500 pages!) to figure it out, because there's also a bunch of stuff in there about Peter Wimsey, an amateur detective who has been attempting to woo Harriet for a very long time, and his relationship with Harriet, as well as many, many long, tedious discussions about whether women should marry and if they do should they have jobs because they're just going to flake out on their jobs every time their kids hiccup and if you feel you really just must marry someone should you pick someone you actually like or someone who is convenient for you and oh my goodness.

Sayers seems to side with those who choose to marry, seeing as how the women who argue against marriage read as more uppity than those who are for it, but she does throw in a woman for nearly every stereotype — the married and happy, the married and unhappy, the unmarried and happy, the unmarried and unhappy, the completely apathetic — and they all felt pretty real to me.

And of course I can't argue against marriage, being married myself, but I can certainly see the downside to a woman who gets a wonderful education and then abandons it to motherhood. Of course, I am also in awe of people who can spend all day with multiple children and not want to strangle them, so it's not like motherhood is all bonbons and soaps, right? So really, I am very unopinionated about this topic! Or possibly my opinion is "do whatever makes you happy." Yes, that's it. I like it.

I also like the ending of this mystery, but it's a hard slog to get there — take it on at your own risk!

Rating: 8/10
(Orbis Terrarum Challenge: England, Chunkster Challenge)

See also:
Of Books and Bicycles

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Clue of the Broken Locket, by Carolyn Keene

It was kind of a bad idea to read this book basically immediately after reading In the Woods, but it was all I had left to read so that's what happened!

It's your average Nancy Drew story... we have doubles, and a sinking canoe, and someone trapped in a house... I could probably go on, but I just don't want to think about this too hard.

Sadly, I think I'm going to have to call it quits on the Nancy Drew Challenge. I've gotten through 11 of the 56, and I think the other 45 are just going to have to wait until next year. Or the year after. Or when I'm really old and can make my descendents read them to me — they are so much easier to take in audio form!

Rating: 5/10
(Nancy Drew Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

In the Woods, by Tana French

I read this book once before, waaaaay back in the day (well, relatively speaking). I absolutely loved it, and I told everyone who had ears that it was a wonderful book and that they should go read it and why were they still talking to me etc. So when I got to pick the book for and lead a discussion group for my library practicum, I was like, "Have they read In the Woods? Because they should have. I will now make them."

And then I packed up my books to send down to Jacksonville with Scott, and I packed this book omg! So I had to borrow it from the library. The library must really love me.

So I got like six people to read this book all at once, which was delightful, and of course I had to read it again, because although I remembered how it ended I knew there was a lot more in the middle that I was missing in my memory. Oh boy, was there. I had forgotten how much confusion there is — they're looking for a killer, obviously, but then there's this other case that might tie in, and there are so many leads to follow up on and people to talk to and it's a wonder this case even gets solved at all!

And knowing the ending already... man. I could see where all of these threads were leading, slowly but surely, and I was still like, "No! Don't let it happen! CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!?!?!" Oh. It's kind of devastating. You can see how ridiculously clever, and plotting, and foresight-having, and completely insane the killer is, and I have a certain respect for that even though of course we should use such powers for good. Of course.

What I'm saying is, if you haven't read it already, seriously, go do that please, and if you have read it and you have some free time on your hands, read it again. Wonderful.

Rating: 10/10 (it was a 9 before, but the ending is much less disappointing the second time around!)
(Countdown Challenge: 2007, Flashback Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge, Chunkster Challenge)

See also:
Reading Matters
reading is my superpower
books i done read

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Death Note Vol. 3, by Tsugumi Ohba

I am like super in love with this series. It's like one of those television shows that you start watching because you're bored and then you have to watch to the end because OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? You know? No? Oh.

Well. Anyway. I'm not going to worry you with the details of the series, you can read about that at that linky I gave you just now. The important thing in this book is that Light and L are going head to head against each other. As in, L has decided to show himself to Light, which devolves into the mind-twisting-est of mind-twisting plot lines, wherein both Light and L are trying to predict and out-predict each other, all, "If I say this, it means I'm the killer, but if I don't say it, L might think I'm hiding the fact that I'm the killer, so maybe if I say it in just this exact way I will protect myself!"

It hurts the brain, it does, and it takes up waaaaaaaaaay too much of the book. If Volume 4 is anything like this, I'm giving up.

Rating: 6/10
(Support Your Local Libary Challenge)

See also:
things mean a lot (Volumes 1-3)
Rhinoa's Ramblings

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Musing Mondays — TBR woes

Today's Musing Mondays question asks, "What book tops your TBR (to be read) pile right now? Is it something you own, or something you have to borrow, or something you’ll be purchasing? Why do you want to read it so badly?"

Oh, my TBR pile. I have just pulled it out of the various corners of my house, stacked it up, and made sure I had all of the books I thought I did... because it's time for the pile to go back to the library. :( There are so many sad, unread books, but with this whole moving-900-miles-away thing, I can't really take them with me. But rest assured, the second I get my new driver's license I am off to the library to rectify this situation.