2016 is off to a bad start....

After Alice by Gregory Maguire (273 pages). I've read almost everything Maguire has written. And his books are totally hit or miss. Some of them I've loved, some of them I've hated. This was one of the later. It literally took me all month to finish. I read "finis" on the 31st!  Yet I only actually read for 4 days. That should definitely tell you something!  Admittedly, I read half of it in one day. But I was going to finish this book before January was over, by George. Anyway, this story is about Ada. She is Alice's friend. And is on her way to visit Alice when she finds herself falling down a rabbit hole, right into Wonderland, mere minutes behind Alice. She has her own set of adventures in Wonderland. Meanwhile, Alice's sister Lydia (only briefly mentioned in Alice's adventures) finds adventure herself in Oxford. I enjoyed that the book showed what was going on Up Here while the girls were Down Under. But that's about all I liked. 

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (62 pages). This was a short story.  And the first one I've read by her that I didn't wonder whodunit. There wasn't a real ending here. The narrator is a psychic, of sorts. She is hired by a woman who is terrified of her Victorian home. And her stepson. But is it the house, the stepson, or the woman who is true the threat here?  Who knows. It was an easy read- it took me about an hour. Thus endeth January.   2 books, 335 pages. Ouch. 

2015 ended pretty well

In December, I read 4 books for a total of 1,968 pages. Not a bad way to end the year (thanks to a little beach vacay). Here we go!

Good Christian Bitches by Kim Gatlin (291 pages). This was a short lived series on ABC in 2012. Which I loved. So when I saw the book in the bargain bin, I decided to give it a read. The book was literally nothing like the tv series. But equally as enjoyable. Amanda Vaughn was born and raised in Dallas. And when her philandering husband finally causes her to give up hope on their marriage, she moves her children from Newport Beach back home. Dallas hasn't changed at all since she left. The neighborhood is still rich, the people are still big and some of the women are good Christian bitches. When two of her old high school friends decide to set her up to fail, Amanda manages to succeed. With a little help from her mother, her new friends and her new beau. It was a very easy read. I just haven't been in a reading mood. It took me 26 days to read it (but only 3 days of actual reading time). 

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (396 pages). This was the second in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Jacob and the peculiars are now firmly ensconced in 1940, dead in the middle of a war. A war that they now know has a lot to do with them. Their headmistress is still a bird, but they have vowed to find a way to get her back. As they travel around England, searching for other peculiars and loops, they eventually find one of the last remaining ymbrynes who can help them restore Miss Peregrine. Little do they know that their troubles have only just begun. I'm super excited that I bought this book and the next book at the same time. The world of the peculiars is completely fascinating!  It took me 12 days to read (but only 2 days of actual reading). 

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (458 pages). The third and final book in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Jacob and Emma, the only ones left of their group of peculiars, must venture into Devil's Acre, the slummiest of slums of Victorian England, in order to save their friends, their ymbryne and their kind. The ensuing battle pits wights against peculiars, brothers against sister, in an epic battle to save peculiardom.  Once it's over, will Jacob be able to live a normal life ever again?  I'm kind of sad the series is over. But super happy I could read the last two together. So much better than forgetting characters and events, huh?  Anyway, I read this book in 2 days (hoorah for vacation!)

Winter by Marissa Meyer (823 pages). The final boom in the Lunar Chronicles. Cinder (aka the rightful Queen Selene) and her friends make their way to Luna. There, earthen Emperor Kai has agreed to marry lunar Queen Levena. But with many allies, including Levena's stepdaughter, the beloved Princess Winter, Cinder/Selene might just stand a chance. When the revolution breaks out, who will be victorious?  Some of the book reminded me of Hunger Games (the outer realms on Luna were dirt poor and provided a luxurious lifestyle for those in the capital). But all in all, a very enjoyable series. This book took me 3 days to read. 

So there we go. This year I read 48 books. For a grand total of 17,143 pages. Not too bad of a year!  Here's to 2016 being even better, reading-wise

This was seriously No Read November!

For some reason, I haven't been in much of a reading mood lately. Or really, at all. I finished one book last month. One. And it was a book that I began in October!  It's sad. But it happens. So here goes.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan (466 pages). Fanny Osbourne was in her late 30's when she met much younger Robert Louis Stevenson. He fell hard and fast; her love for him took a while to grow. But eventually she divorced her husband and they began a life together that saw his greatest literary successes, travel all over the world, and his constant poor health. Fanny was a fighter and a survivor. This author also wrote Loving Frank, which was an amazing book about Frank Lloyd Wright and his love, Mameh. This book was just as great. Unfortunately, I just haven't been in much of a reading mood lately. So it took me 40+ days to read (just 6 days of actual reading though). 

Ouch

October was a bust

I am completely humiliated by my lack of reading this month.  Literally, I finished one book.  And I'm not even sure it should count.  But it will!

The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by (duh) The Brothers Grimm (729 pages, 279 stories).  I bought this book a while ago (because seriously, has anyone read every single story by the Brothers Grimm?).  And I started it on New Years Day this year.  I read one story a day.  Which is why it took until October to finish the darn thing!  I will be the first to admit, I thought I was going to be reading children's stories.  For anyone who thinks these would be super great for their kids to read, think again.  Some of these stories were seriously disturbing.  Some of them were really stupid.  But most of them were great to read.  We definitely weren't in Disneyland, Toto.

Anyway, this is the only book I finished this month.  I got about 2/3 through another one (which I'm loving).  But it's just been one of those months.  Between the flood and turning a year older and no pool weekends or vacations, I just found myself not wanting to do a lot of reading this month.  But I'll try to do better next month.  Key word being TRY!

September was a great month, reading-wise

Thanks to a holiday and some vacation, I managed to get myself back on track with readings this month.  7 books and 2,454 pages.  Not too shabby!  So here we go.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman (321 pages).  I go back and forth between liking Hoffman as an author and not understanding her style in the slightest.  One third of the way through and I was thinking this one might be one of the later.  By the end, I knew I was right.  Eighteen year old Coralie lives on Coney Island with her father in 1911.  He owns the Museum and Coralie has been one of his wonders- a mermaid, thanks to her webbed hands and ability to hold her breathe for a very long time.  But the Museum is faltering.  Coralie happens upon photographer Eddie Cohen, a former Orthodox Jew, on the banks of the Hudson.  A mystery and two fires later, Coralie learns some truths about herself and her father that finally allow her to escape the Museum.  I didn't like the book very much.  Some of the passages were very beautifully written, but a nice turn of phrase isn't the same thing as a great book.  I wanted this book to be better than it was- the premise of a freak show seemed so good!  It took me fifteen days to read (only four days of actual reading time), but the bulk of those days were in August!

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (353 pages).  The Andreas sisters have always been a little different than everyone else.  Probably because their father, a Shakespeare professor, named them after Shakespearean characters and peppers his speech with the Bard at every opportunity, a trait that rubbed off on the girls.  The sisters are all adults now, but find themselves back at their parents' when they learn of their mother's cancer.  Each sister is at a very different place in her life, but each of them seem equally lost.  They book was a very easy read and a lot of fun for this English major (who took two different Shakespeare classes in college)!  One thing I really enjoyed was that the narrator uses "we" and simultaneously refers to each sister by her name or as "she."  It's like the narrator was all three of them somehow.  It took me three days to read it (only two days of actual reading time).  I actually read half of it each day.  Hooray for pool time over the holiday weekend!

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (375 pages).  This was a weird one.  And more than a little disturbing by the end.  Chip Linton was a commercial airline pilot who was unable to do what Sully Sullenberger had been able to do- he couldn't land a plane in water and have all of his passengers survive.  When Chip was unable to cope, his wife Emily decided that the family needed to move.  So the Linton family, including twin daughters Garnet and Hallie, moved to a very small town.  A very small town with a lot of greenhouses.  And a lot of women with herbal first names.  And into a house where a twin had "committed suicide" many years earlier.  Chip's PTSD has made him more susceptible to the ghosts that haunt their home.  And who knows what the crazy herbal witches have in store for the twins.  One fun line- when a character goes missing, one of the herb-named comments that maybe he did what that South Carolina governor did.  And that was literally the only light point in the entire novel.  It was dark and the ending totally blindsided me (as Bohjalian tends to do).  It took me twelve days to read it (only three days of actual reading time).

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (321 pages).  I watched this miniseries when it came out a year or so ago.  And I remember thinking, did they even read the Bible first?  While I've always been torn on whether or not Dinah was raped, I never had other doubts about the stories of the Bible.  This novel seems to take liberty after liberty with the history of the Bible.  Like making some of Jacob's sons twins.  That's never mentioned in the Bible.  Which you'd think would be a big deal because of Jacob being a twin and all.  Or changing names of people.  I did like hearing about the relationships between all of the women in Jacob's family.  And the creative story that the author gave to explain Dinah's rest of the story (which isn't in the Bible at all).  All in all, if you take it as fiction, it's a good story.  If you take it as historically accurate Biblical truths, it's almost blasphemy.  What baffled me the most was that the author is Jewish.  You'd think SHE would know her Old Testament a little better than most.  It took me three days to read it.

Always the Bridesmaid by Whitney Lyles (321 pages).  A little light chick lit after two slightly heavy books.  Cate Padgett is 26 years old, happily dating a picture perfect man, and the bridesmaid in four weddings in just a few months.  She manages to be the perfect bridesmaid, all while wondering when it's going to be her time to say "I do."  But when an old friend reenters her life and her perfect boyfriends turns out not to be so perfect for her, will she figure out what she really wants before it's too late?  Super cute, super easy.  It took me half a day to read it.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes (369 pages).  I loved, loved, LOVED this book!  It was two intersecting stories- that of Sophie in 1917 German-occupied France and of Liv in modern day London.  Sophie's husband was an artist and painted a beloved painting of her, for her.  Unfortunately, the German commandant in their town took both a liking to the painting and to Sophie.  Decades later, Liv is a young widow.  Her husband purchased a painting for her on their honeymoon.  The Girl You Left Behind.  A painting of Sophie.  The ensuing legal battle over the restitution of the painting was fascinating.  And the ending was everything I wanted it to be and more.  Both of the stories were enthralling - Sophie's quest for survival and Liv's quest for a new life.  It took me three days to read it (only two days of actual reading time).

I read one other book, but for some reason there is a bug on my blog and it won't let me post about it.  While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax (354 pages).  Took me half a day to read.  Really good.  About the lives of residents in an apartment building in Atlanta who become friends thanks to a weekly viewing party of Downton Abbey.

All in all, a pretty good month.  Only one book that I truly disliked and a lot that I really enjoyed!

August readings were not august (see what I did there?!)

So I didn't have my best month.  I blame it on not a lot of pool time/free time last month.  Or any time in the near future.....

Go Set the Watchman by Harper Lee (275 pages).  I went into this knowing that Atticus was going to come out as a bigot and a racist.  So I wasn't shocked.  What did shock me was how big of a deal people made about it.  And I didn't return the book to Books-A-Million for a refund.  For a myriad of reasons.  Not the least of which is that Harper Lee is a BRILLIANT writer.  Absolutely brilliant.  I was reading on the elliptical at the gym and I'm sure people were wondering why I was laughing to myself.  Long story short, this story occurs twenty years after To Kill a Mockingbird (but was actually the first book Lee wrote).  Scout (now going by her given name of Jean Louise) has come home from New York City for her annual visit.  Everything seems normal- her aunt is still bossy, her hometown beau is still hopelessly devoted, and Atticus is still Atticus.  Then Jean Louise's whole world is turned upside down when she sees her father and beau at a community council meeting, aka a citizens against segregation meeting.  Jean Louise must come to terms with the world she grew up in and the world she THOUGHT she grew up in.  I read 220 pages in one day.  And I finished the book in three days (only two days of actual reading time).

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick (377 pages).  Apparently it was a sort of companion book to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (which I haven't read).  But I'm pretty sure that's irrelevant.  The book was really cute- an easy read and a creative idea.  A re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice.  Except Lizzie is a 24 year old mass communications grad student who started a thesis project of a video blog (that's apparently the other book).  This one is the secret diary she kept while vlogging.  I read it in two days (hurrah for pool time!)

The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith (398 pages).  This is the sequel to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  But is totally a stand alone book.  For some background, Abe was a successful vampire hunter.  The Union was a group of vampires who had sworn to protect mankind from vampires.  Abe's teacher and friend was vampire Henry Struges.  And this was his story.  It was AMAZING!  The most creative history novel ever.  All of the mysteries of the world?  Vampires.  The Lost Colony of Roanoke.  Jack the Ripper.  The Hindenburg disaster.  The downfall of the Romanovs.  Vampires were involved.  So, so awesome.  I loved, loved, loved it.  I read it in nine days (only five days of actual reading time).

So there you have it.  3 books, 1050 pages.  I did get about halfway through a fourth book.  But alas, alack- I didn't finish it during the month.  So it couldn't be accounted for this month's readings.

I"m late posting July readings because I am so humiliated

July was not a very successful month for me, reading-wise.  I blame it on the fact that I didn't get a lot of pool time the second half of the month.  Also, that I started a book that I read 40 pages of in 14 days and then put down.  I might try it again in the future.  But I just can't right now.  So this month was 2 books, 695 pages.  Ouch- I hang my head in shame.....

Ruth's Journey by Donald McCraig (372 pages).  Have you ever wondered about Gone with the Wind's Mammy?  Like where she came from?  What her real name was?  Apparently, so did the author.  Her name was Ruth.  And she was born on Saint-Domingue.  Her mistress, Solange Escarlette Fornier, saved her when the rebellion happened.  The Fornier family escaped the island and found themselves ensconced in Savannah.  When Solange lost her first husband, she found another.  Two daughters and another dead husband later, Solange found herself married to Pierre Robillard.  Through it all, Ruth was by her side, save for the brief time she left Savannah for Charleston with her husband (and spent some time with the Butler family).  When Solagne died giving birth to Ellen, Ruth was right there to raise the girls.  And when a heartbroken Ellen lost the love of her life and married Gerald O'Hara, Ruth went to northern Georgia with her.  At this point, the author took some liberties with GWTW that I did not appreciate.  Changing the very story that I have read numerous times, the story that Margaret Mitchell so beautifully crafted.  Thank goodness, that part of the book was mercifully short.  Other than that, I enjoyed the story.  It was kind of like Wide Sargasso Sea, which told the back story of Mr. Rochester's crazy wife in the attic.  I finished the book in two days.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman (323 pages).  I had never heard of Jan and Antonina Zabinski.  Neither had any of you?  It's a shame.  Because they managed to save the lives of over 300 people in Poland during World War II.  They ran the zoo in Warsaw.  Once the war came to Poland, they were able to remain in their home (albeit with far fewer animals).  Jan became involved with the resistance.  And they managed to house several Guests for the length of the war.  Sometimes for a few days, others for several months.  Some lived in outbuildings meant for animals, others in closets.  Their story was absolutely fascinating.  The author culled from Antonina's journals, from people who knew them, and from events of the time.  I finished it in five days (only three days of actual reading time).

So there you have it.  The books I read were great.  I blame the stupid Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on my downfall this month.  I thought, every guy my age has read it.  I'm cure it'll be fine.  It.  Was.  Not.