Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, the
I borrowed this kids' book for the Scrabble geekery, which only kind of worked. I'm sure the book is fine, it's just out of scope for me.
reviewdate:
Feb 13 2013
isn:
978-0-525-42304-1
Tagged with books
Hot Flash Club, the
The first entry in my menopause book club with Kate Haas, The Hot Flash Club did not meet many of the criteria for what we're looking for in middle-aged lady lit, but it wasn't the worst read either. The Club consists of four women, ages 52-62, all of them going through changes, if not The Change.
reviewdate:
Feb 11 2013
isn:
0-345-46916-X
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Ever After
With my read of book eleven of the Hollows series, I've logged enough time with Rachel Morgan that I'll probably stay with her indefinitely. That's why I stuck with this entry, even though it was pretty far off the rails with lots of mystical shit like balancing ley lines and detecting aura signatures.
reviewdate:
Feb 7 2013
isn:
978-0061957918
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Dead and the Gone, the
A companion to Life as We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone tells us what it was like in Manhattan after the moon got knocked out of place and messed up life on Earth.
reviewdate:
Feb 1 2013
isn:
978-0-15-206311-5
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Always Hiding
"Do you still love him?" I asked.
"With all the bile in my body."
That exchange between a Filipino daughter and mother was basically the high point of the novel for me.
reviewdate:
Jan 29 2013
isn:
0-688-15632-0
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Blood of Eden
Sloan Skye is a summer intern at the FBI. She got bumped from the Behavior Analysis Unit to the Paranormal Behavior Analysis Unit, a joke of a new department. They're tracking a vampire serial killer, but Skye doesn't believe in the supernatural. Of course she gets disabused of that notion, but it takes longer than you might hope.
reviewdate:
Jan 24 2013
isn:
978-0-7582-7405-2
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Without a Net: the Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class
Do you really need me to say an anthology was uneven? Do I really need to say it? Unfortunately, I do. I loved some of the chapters and was less taken with others. You might chalk up the difference to writing quality and/or to my personal taste. I prefer the contributions that make their point by telling a story, rather than with a straight up essay.
reviewdate:
Jan 18 2013
isn:
1-58005-103-0
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Along for the Ride
A young adult novel about a smart loner girl's last summer before college, this book felt substantial while I was reading it, but ended up a teen romance. Not that a teen romance has to be a bad thing.
reviewdate:
Jan 17 2013
isn:
978-0-14-241556-6
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Grace, Gold & Glory: My Leap of Faith
Like lots of people who watched the Summer (for the northern hemisphere, anyway) Olympics, I was immediately enamored by Gabby Douglas. She's so talented! Pretty! And her being Black in a sport disproportionately dominated by White athletes, at least per this USA Gymnastics Diversity Study is part of her appeal, especially considering how biased the media coverage was. Consider that Jordyn Weiber was the girl-to-beat going in, but Douglas is the one who won the Olympic trials.
reviewdate:
Jan 12 2012
isn:
978-0-310-74061-2
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Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines
This is another book I wished I'd enjoyed more, as I did Griest's previous memoir Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana. After having explored cultures foreign to her own, Griest decides to spend a year in Mexico, examining the roots of half of her bloodline. The parts where she explores her Mexican and mixed race identities are compelling, but the reportage in most of the book is less so, at least for me.
reviewdate:
Jan 6 2013
isn:
978-1-4615-4017-5