Books I read in March 2012

From Powell's bookstore in Portland, OR comes this image of a "tattoo"...

There but for the... by Ali Smith (library) enjoyed it
I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley this is the latest Flavia de Luce Novel and I think she is an EXCELLENT successor to Nancy Drew. These books have been so much fun to read and I absolutely LOVE Flavia as a heroine.

Red Ruby Heart in A Cold Blue Sea By Morgan Callan Rogers (library) coming of age in Maine-liked it
Sybil Exposed The Extraordinary Story behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case By Debbie Nathan (library)
Finding Everett Ruess The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of A Legendary Wilderness Explorer By David Roberts (library)-liked it If you liked "Into The Wild" you might try this one too.

Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon by Mark di Vincenzo

Why We Broke up By Daniel Handler (library)

Trixie Belden and the Sasquatch Mystery by Kathryn Kenny

The Good Thief's Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan another by this author and I am enjoying them immensely!
Her Fork in the Road edited by Lisa Bach (short stories) gift from a friend
The Neon Jungle by John D. MacDonald
The Invisible Line by Daniel J. Sharfstein (library) very interesting about African Americans and mixed race African Americans passing as white in America.

Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer (library) mystery

Haunted Hikes by Andrea Lankford, serendipity, one of the hikes in this book concerns the disappearance of Everett Ruess that I read about earlier this month!

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (library) yeah, my excuse is that Ryan had it laying around the house. Like a pint of Ben and Jerry's, I couldn't resist

We bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee (library) the book that the movie is based on
Murder for the Bride by John D. MacDonald

When in Germany, do as the Germans do by Hyde Flippo

The Bountiful Container by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey--getting tips about growing veggies on my deck

20 books read this month

Monday's Postcard: Indianapolis

This postcard is from a layover in Indianapolis in 1991.

Wild Card: Nancy Drew

Today's wild card is from Applewood Books. They published reprints of the original Nancy Drew books, and I always loved getting their postcards! A great addition to my Nancy Drew collection. And appropriate because of the Nancy Drew convention going on in Phoenix, AZ this coming weekend!!

Monday's Postcard: Tikal

I visited Tikal in 2002 and sent this postcard to my Granny.

Monday's Postcard: Newport Beach, CA

A postcard from my family visiting Newport Beach, CA. Thanks so much!!

Monday's Postcard: Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock, yes there is an actual rock and here is photographic proof!!

Books I read in February 2012

The Children's section of the Camarillo, CA public library! I just love those columns that look like stacks of books.

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz--fun if you like Evanovitch, try these

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (library) and incredibly sad, I have to make sure I don't read stuff like these around Ryan. He hates it when I cry and I do cry while I read. I also cannot watch sad movies around him. In fact, he has already forbidden me to watch this movie. And I don't know if I can watch it after reading the book. --might have to wait a year or so.

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors (library) YA Romance/literary fun read it for valentine's day

Pauline Kael A Life in the Dark by Brian Kellow (library) Bio of New Yorker film critic

Sister by Rosamund Lupton (library)

Talk Talk by T. C. Boyle (library)-thriller with a deaf protagonist who is a victim of identity theft enjoyed it

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton (library) love these, unlike Evanovitch, Grafton seems to grow with each book, her mysteries are unique and not the same old same old

Shine by Lauren Myracle (library)

The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock (library)-wonderful!

Life as We Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer (library)-YA dystopian fiction--good

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler (library) Fun YA timetravel

20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak (library) book was the basis of the movie "what's your number"

Feng Shui for Beginners by Richard Webster -wanted a little info while decorating the new condo :-)

Barry Manilow The Biography by Patricia Butler -yeah, I'm a fan

Unwind by Neal Shusterman (library)-YA really good

The Children of Men by PD James (library)--a bit different from the movie of course

Adverbs by Daniel Handler--Handler is Lemony Snicket and I love those books. These are short stories

Bad Haircut by Tom Perrotta (short stories)Perrotta wrote Election which was made into the movie with Reese Witherspoon. So I love his stuff. If In Zanesville was teenage girl angst, this is teenage boy angst. Great

The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan-fun reminded me of the Donald Westlake novels about Dortmunder (a thief) and very good in their own right.

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen (library)-Thumbs Up, Spanish Flu in small town in 1918

I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure -very cute memoir about weight loss and life of a single gal in Chicago

Favorite quote from a book this month: From Mad Love, they are talking about romances that have happy endings:

"'Bella and Edward have a happy ending', I said...'Bella ends up an undead, married teenage mom. If that sounds like a happy ending to you then you've got issues,' Realm said."

Part of what makes it funny to me is that the Realm character is such a dark, goth character and number two, I feel the same way about the Twilight books!!

21 books read

abandoned books:

A Small Hotel by Robert Olen Butler (library) too sappy romantic for my taste at the moment
Swan Song by Robert Mc Cammon (library) got tired of post-apocalyptic fiction but might give this one another go at another time.

Monday's Postcard: Mono Lake

Happy Birthday to my sister and this postcard is from her! She visited here in 2008 on a photography field trip. The crazy rock formations are called tufa towers, they are made of limestone.

Monday's Postcard: Malaysia

A postcard of some palaces in Penang, from my Dad in 1993. Penang has a huge expatriate population from many other Asian countries and the UK. Many folks from other countries retire to Penang, they promote this through a special visa program that allows people to stay for 10 years at a time.

Monday's Postcard: Casares

A postcard from the Costa del Sol in Spain.

Burts Bees Shimmer equals puffed up Lips!!

I love Burts Bees lip balm. I use it all the time. And the other night I could not find a single tube in the house, so instead, I used what I thought was the next best thing, the Burts Bees Shimmer.

The one on the left in this photo that has some red color to it. Well, I walk back into the living room and Ryan asks me what's wrong with my lips. "They look all puffed up," he says. "It's just chapstick," I say. "I don't like it," Ryan says. "Looks like Clown Lips," he says. Seriously, I thought that puffed up lips was what guys wanted. After all, why do all the movie stars get their lips pumped up? Why is Angelina Jolie so popular? Supposedly, it is all about the pouty lips. But not in my house. My boyfriend likes plain old chapstick lips. :-) Good, cause that is what I like too!

Monday's Postcard: Peabody Ducks

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis is famous for it's ducks who live on the roof and march through the hotel to frolic in the fountain in the lobby.

Books I read in January 2012

I know you guys were wondering if you would see this again this year!
I really wanted to quit posting my reading list, but I had emails from so many people asking me to continue.

Writing the little "reviews" of each book was so much work and that was what I was resisting, so this year, I am not going to review EVERY book that I read. I will give you the list and perhaps write a bit about the books that were my favorites each month.

Also, I want to add the books that I abandon. These are books that I start that I never finish. There were many every month last year. Often I get a recommendation and I start the book and I don't like it, so I don't bother to finish it. So this year, you will get that list too.

Photo is from Kansas City, KS public library.

Miracle Cure by Harlan Coben

The Cutie by Donald Westlake
First Cases ed. by Robert J. Randisi (short stories)
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese (library) ***great, I recommend to my foodie friends!!
The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol (library) dark thriller

Haunting Jasmine by Anjali Banerjee (library) romance with a literary twist very cute
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (library)
The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch (library)-time travel thriller
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot (library)
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee (library)-- set in Hong Kong, if you like Empire of the Sun/Lisa See etc.
The Faculty Club by Danny Tobey (library) fantasy
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan (library)-short stories
The Exile by Diana Gabaldon (graphic novel)--cartoons for adults :-)

Nancy Drew The Legend at Miner's Creek by Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew The Legend of The Emerald Lady by Carolyn Keene
Three Day Town by Margaret Maron (library) one of my favorite authors, but I prefer when her protagonist is in NC. In this one, they visit NYC.
What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz
Swamplandia by Karen Russell
Clemmie by John D MacDonald

The Total Tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet by Erin Dionne (library)-YA fun

Murder One by Robert Dugoni (library)

Abandoned:

Veracity by Laura Bynum (library)--scifi fantasy and I just got tired of this stuff too, couldn't finish and got other books from the library that I wanted to read more!
Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce--just got tired of this author

21 books, Hard to pick a favorite.

Wild Card: Yosemite

Today's wild card is from my good friends, Diane and John Steele. They were visiting Yosemite last year and sent me this gorgeous card. I just love these retro advertising posters for the National Parks!!

Monday's Postcard: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Point Pleasant, West Virginia, this park is the site of the first battle of the American Revolution! I received this postcard from my Granny.

Monday's Postcard: Sebastian Inlet, Florida

Florida is where you want to be in January! I love the beaches along the east coast of Florida. I could walk them for miles.

Wild Card: Isle of Wight

This wild card is from my good friends, Slade and Tammy Lewis when they visited the Isle of Wight in 1991! A blast from the past! They were having a wonderful time and waiting to board a ferry when they wrote this card to me. Thanks you guys!!

Monday's Postcard: La Ceiba

I received this postcard from Ryan in 2002 while he was in Honduras learning Spanish.

Monday's Postcard: Snowmass

I received this postcard from my parents while they were vacationing at Snowmass in 2005.

New Year's Resolution: December Update

My final post for my reading in 2011! This is a used bookstore in Chester, UK. When I was stuck in Manchester, England during the Icelandic Volcano eruption in April of 2010, I traveled to Chester to do a little sightseeing and of course I visited all the used bookstores!

From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor by Jerry Della Femina (library)
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
Dreamside by Graham Joyce
The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin (library)
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle (library)
The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb (library)
This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman (library)
Next to Love by Ellen Feldman (library)
A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano (library)
Maine by Courtney J. Sullivan (library)
The Maid by Kimberly Cutter (library)
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Accident by Linwood Barclay (library)
Furious Love by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger (library)
The Mysterious North ed. by Dana Stabenow (short stories)

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

I am a huge fan of the TV show Mad Men and 'From Those Wonderful Folks..." is about NYC advertising agencies in the glory days of the 60's and 70's. Like the book, "Coffee, Tea or Me" which was about the glamorous airline business of that era, "From Those Wonderful Folks..." tells about the advertising world from a fellow who lived it. If you like Mad Men, give it a whirl.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is a memoir about a girl who was raised Mennonite, but rebelled a bit. And how her family and her faith are there for her when she is in her forties and getting divorced and hitting rough patches in her life. I was reluctant to read this thinking that she was going to just be all about rebelling and trashing her upbringing. But it was refreshing to hear her acknowledging that it was not such a bad way to grow up. And she explains the difference between Mennonite and Amish :-)

Dreamside, another creepy book by Graham Joyce and I think I am getting tired of his stuff. I really liked Silent Land and had such high hopes for his other books, but I am just not enjoying them as much. Dreamside is a bunch of college kids who get involved in some dream experiments and the line between the dream world and the real world is dissolved. Odd stuff.

The American Heiress is a romance novel plain and simple. It was pretty good. But basically a bit of fluff.

The God of Animals is another "young girl coming of age" novel. The protagonist lives on her family horse ranch and there is all sorts of dysfunctional family stuff going on, I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The Ballad of Tom Dooley is a fictionalized account of the true story that inspired the song. Loved it.

This Beautiful Life is a cautionary tale of the damage that can be done by sending videos over the internet. In these days of bullying and facebook and everyone's personal business being sent over the internet for the whole world to access, it is worth thinking about the things that could go wrong. Very similar to another book I read this year, "Want to Go Private?" by Sarah Darer Littman Very Good

Next to Love is a novel about WWII, the women who are left behind when their husbands go off to war and how they respond when their men come back...or not. It reminded me of the Elizabeth Berg novels about the same time period. So if you like Elizabeth Berg, I would recommend this one too.

A Good Hard Look is a southern novel about Flannery O'Connor. It is a fictionalized account of the last years of her life through the eyes of her neighbors in Georgia. I enjoyed it more than I do O'Connor's own novels. Very melodramatic.

Maine is one of those sprawling novels about a dysfunctional family. It was recommended to me as a great beach read. It features a large Irish family full of alcoholics and repressed emotions. They have a summer house in Maine that features in the plot. I enjoyed it.

The Maid is about Joan of Arc and I enjoyed it. Another historical figure that I did not know that much about (like Cleopatra, who I read about earlier this year). So it was good to learn about her.

11/22/63 is the newest Stephen King novel. I loved it. Of course I am a huge fan. I got this one for Christmas and read it immediately. I loved the time travel part about life in late 1950's early 1960's. It got a little boring for me when it delved into the minute details of Lee Harvey Oswald's life prior to his actions on 11/22/63. For those that do not like horror or are afraid of the horror aspect of Stephen King, there was not anything worse than the "everyday horror" of men who beat their wives and children. The only supernatural part of the book was the ability to time travel. And yes, I read it in about 8 hours. I can't be sure, probably less. I was at work and had to keep getting up to answer call bells and get people drinks etc. :-) I read it in two days, first day on a 4 1/2 hour redeye flight and the next day a couple of hours while waiting to go to work and then about 2 hours on the 5 hour flight back to the West Coast, After all, I was WORKING! They don't pay me to sit around reading all day (if only!! :-)

The Accident is Linwood Barclay's latest thriller. I liked it a lot, his books move quickly and get you swept up immediately in the story.

Furious Love is the story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The Original "Brangelina" who originated the Paparazzi. Before them scandal was the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Taylor and Burton lived their romance totally in the public eye. They got together at the end of the Hollywood studio system and the beginning of the swinging 60's. A fascinating story.

Mysterious North is a collection of short stories about Alaska lots of famous mystery authors contributed. Sue Henry, John Straley, Anne Perry and more. I love to read these on the plane, I can read a story and then do some work then read another story.

Another Sarah Vowell book, this one is a collection of different essays on all kinds of subjects. I kept wanting to read stuff aloud to Ryan.

Only 16 books read this month. 250 books read in 2011.

favorites were:

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

At Home: A short history of private life by Bill Bryson

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

Buried Prey by John Sandford

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

InZanesville by JoAnn Beard

and 11/22/63 by Stephen King