Amanda A. Allen's Blog, page 12

To Be Read: July

DISCLAIMER: I totally didn’t make it through last months TBR.  Even though I was really looking forward to Siege and Storm.  And I will certainly not make it through this month’s TBR.  But duuuuuudes, I’m finishing my own book and doing CampNaNo.  Also, I’ve set the HUGE goal of reading The Book of Mormon in a month.  This means…I might only make it through the audio books.  Anyhoo, we’ll see.  These, however, are the books on the TBR pile.  And once in my life, I would have been able to easily read all of these.

That time has passed.

But On To The Books:

FOR THE CLASSICS: I decided to stick to American Literature for classics this month.  A little bit of celebration of the national holiday.  You know.  Whatever.  The ones I think I can get through are:

House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  It’s possible I once pretended to read this for a college class.  Dude.  I only had so much time.  Shut up.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.  I don’t know much about this.  Maybe one of my brothers liked it?  I don’t know.  It was published by an American.  It qualifies as a classic.  It’s super cheap.  The end.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  I might have been supposed to read this in that same American Lit class.  Or possibly another Melville book.  I can’t remember.  But I know I haven’t actually read this one.  You can still shut up.

The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain.  Mark Twain is easy to figure out as a classic American novel.  Hence the choice.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Also a book I was supposed to read. I know right? Did I even read any of the books for this class? Well the answer is at least two. Since my grade was based off of those two essays.  I’m pretty sure one of them was The Coquette. Have you even heard of that one?  I hadn’t either.

Totally might not finish all five.  Don’t hold your breath.  :)  They are audio books, so maybe…  I picked them like follows: one a week.  Now that I think further about it.  It seems unlikely.

FOR THE BOOK I CAN’T REMEMBER WHY I BOUGHT:

The Unnameables by Ellen Booraem.  I know nothing about this.  That’s not true. Someone wrote it.  And it was published.  Bound up and then randomly purchased by myself.  I think it might be a middle reader.  You are still welcome to shut it.

FOR THE RANDOM MIDDLE READER SELECTION:

The Infernals by John Connolly.  It’s the sequel to The Gates, so not that random.  But it IS a middle reader.

FOR A BOOK FROM A SERIES I HAVEN’T FINISHED YET:

Love is a Many Trousered Thing by Louise Rennison.  These books are great.  Go read the snarky Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging.  This is book 8.  I have not-quite-finished this series for, forever.  Maybe longer.

But also qualifying on this front:

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.  Book two of the Shiver trilogy.

Macrieve by Kresley Cole.  This one is an adult fiction book likely to be full of smut.  Fair warning.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.  I’ve read this before.  I’m re-reading it before finishing the trilogy.  I’ve partially read Inkspell many times.  Time to Just Finish Already.

Other random books from my shelves that I’d like to read and not have such large Not Read Yet Shelf(vesss– again shut it)):

Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel.

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  Pretty sure I’ve read this one before.  I plan to read the series though, so I thought I’d refresh.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey.  This one is on the list because of how much I loved The 5th Wave.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.  (I bought the UK one, cause I liked the cover better.  The US version is called Midnight Riot.).  The tagline is “What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz.”  You can sell me on just about any book by using the two magic words–Harry Potter.  We’ll see.  You also oversell me and set expectations that can rarely be met.

I can’t help but add the following books to this month’s list.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, The Wide, Wide, Sea by Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness, and Snowscape by Patrick Ness.  Essentially these are the rest of the series that belongs with The Knife of Never Letting Go.  Which hasn’t let me go.  Tee hee.  Yeah, I made that joke.

Shut it.

And yeah, I just decided to add Mansfield Park by Jane Austen to the pile, so I can do the read-a-long with thebookrat.com but hey, I have that on audio too.

And to be fully honest, I can completely see myself dumping the TBR Pile in favor of Forever by Maggie Stiefvater rather than not finishing out that one.  And then there’s last month’s TBR which are still on the pile.  Scarlet, Siege and Storm, and The Too-Clever Fox.  

Oi!

So, yeah, this is a long list.  We’ll see.  Many of them are audio books.  But the ones that are not audio books are also not short.  So maybe.  And there is the fact that my life is stressful these days–both a positive and a negative.  Can’t not wash bottles and baby clothes.  But it turns out that stressed out times are the times I need to read more.  Keeps me from pulling out my hair and breaking down into tears.  So, we’ll see.

~Amanda

Monthly Reads: June 2013

These are the books I finished reading in June and whether I recommend them.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.  Recommended?  Totally.  I have fallen in love with the author Maggie Stiefvater.  She’s a wonderful writer.  But start with The Raven Boys that was extraordinarily wonderful.

The Neddiad by Daniel Pinkwater.  I both figured out why I bought this book and the author’s name.  Cause I”m clever like that.  This was the book I chose to read this month “because I couldn’t remember why I bought it.” (I might have a few of those.)  Turns it this one came from Powell’s books (a magical place) in Portland; it was hardcover; it was cheap, and it came with a GLOWING review from Neil Gaiman.  So, Neil Gaiman recommends it.  I wish I could say the same.  But meh.

The Girl in the Boat by P.G. Wodehouse.  Recommended?  Yes, always for Wodehouse.  As usual several laugh-out-loud moments.  But it’s really a middling Wodehouse; which means, it’s very funny.  (But Jeeves is always a better choice.)

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs.  Recommended?  For me, no.  It is intended for a younger YA audience I think.  Which is fine, but not what I prefer.

The Witch of Duva by Leigh Bardugo.  Recommended?  Sure.  It just adds layers to the universe of the Grisha trilogy.  Fun, but not earth shattering.  I enjoyed it.  Just a short, btw, so will only take a few minutes.

Doll Bones by Holly Black.  Recommended?  Yes!  Another book likely to make my books of the year.  Loved it.  Delightfully creepy, totally wonderful.

Deathless by Catherynne Valente.  Recommended?  Maybe…   I didn’t finish, but my bag of choice has characters that I love.  And that wasn’t happening here for me.  But Catherynne Valente has awe-inducing writing skills and those are fully flexed here.  So, it depends on what you like.

The Tailor by Leigh Bardugo.  Recommended?  Sure, another short that adds dimension to the Grisha universe, but it’s certainly not necessary for the overall story line.  Then again, it’s like 17 pages and takes minutes to read.

The Gates by John Connolly.  Recommended?  Yeah.  It was fun.  Very British.  I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series.

The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines.  Recommend?  No, I don’t think so.  I was so SURE I’d love this book.  It still surprises me that I didn’t.  It’s not terrible or anything, but again, another book that just didn’t call to me.

I just love this cover.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  Recommended?  Absolutely, yes.  I expect this one may hit my book of the year list too.  It’s just a lovely book.

Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi.  Recommended.  No.  Let me follow that up by saying I’ll probably read the sequel.  Take that as you will.  :)

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers.  Recommended?  Yes.  With hesitation.  The book itself was fun, but I did not care for the sexy parts.

And this one.  Just lovely.

The 13th Reality by James Dashner.  Recommended?  No.  Not my bag.  There were a few flaws I thought, but this author is certainly well-loved and respected.  People love his Maze Runner series.  I still plan to read that trilogy myself, but didn’t really like this one.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  Recommended?  Um… Please.  Obviously.  And shut up and all that.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.  Recommended?  If you read this blog regularly, you already know I do.  I have been blessed by a great number of lovely books recently.  This one is in the top 3 of the year.  I am actually looking forward to reviewing the list of books I’ve read this year and seeing which one makes me most achy to read it again.  That will be my number one regardless of whether others were “better” in you know… other literary ways.

Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.  Recommended?  Pshaw.  And of course! Also I prefer this one to the first.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.  Recommended?  Yes.  Though I really preferred The Raven Boys.  But I dreamed about this book after reading it; I’ve thought about it a fair amount since then, and I have only increased my admiration of Maggie Stiefvater.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.  Recommended?  Yes.  This is one of those dystopian/ post-apocalyptic pieces.  I started reading it on my phone while walking the dogs and read every spare second until it was done–the very same day.  The story takes hold of you and does’t let you go.  The premise is clever; the author sells the telling of it.  It felt unique in my head, and when the giant jerk-hole of a cliff-hanger occurred, I didn’t hesitate in purchasing the next one.  I followed up by buying the third before second even arrived.  After all, I remembered too clearly the cliff-hanger at the end of book one and decided that next time, I’d be immediately following it up with cracking open book three.  So there, cliff-hanger.  So there.

The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.  Recommended?  I don’t know why I keep trying to like Dickens.  He’s bipolar.  The first halves of his book are so boring it’s painful.  The second halves are beautiful and exciting.   Even when you like it later, you’ve just plowed through an epic pile of meh to get to the payoff.  I’m not sure I can convince myself to trod one of his roads again even though I actually enjoyed the last few pages of this one.  :)

The Book of Mormon.  Obviously, as a Mormon I recommend this book.  No other book provides greater comfort.  When my life is falling apart, should I not be shaking my fist at the heavens, I’m curled around this book letting it sooth my soul.  Do with that what you will.

I also started Moby Dick, Scarlet, Siege and Storm, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Breadcrumbs, and Rapunzel’s Revenge.  If you’ll notice Siege and Storm and Scarlet, as well as the short by Leigh Bardugo called The Too-Clever Fox, were all failures on my To Be Read list this month.  I also played wtih reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver, and I didn’t.  Oh, well.  Hardly the end of the world and all that.

~Amanda

 

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I was going to make myself read the rest of my TBR pile for June before letting myself pick up this one.  A sort of saving the best for last, having my cake, eating it, whatever.  But when I picked up my copy, I saw how little it was, and I ran my fingers over the cover, and it was all pretty and soft and enticing, and I cracked it open.

Just to, you know, admire it.

So then I read that quote that authors put at the beginning of a book….and I was done.  Sucked in.  Taken away.  I gobbled this book, slurped it down, nuzzled it, and then dreamt about it.  Literally, I dreamt last night about how much I liked The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  I was too tired to stay awake thinking it over, but my dream wasn’t a visit to the book.  It was like my brain couldn’t shut its admiration down enough to just dream, but I was so tired from baby, that I couldn’t stay awake, so my dream compromised–oohing over the book while I slept.  When I finally got up, I hunted my copy down, though I was running late, just to nuzzle it a little more.

I’m not going to try to recap or tell you what its about.  But I will say I found it delightfully creepy, reminiscent and true of my childhood, and whimsical in the best of ways.  And then it was just true at other parts.  There were several points where I stopped, re-read a sentence and then shook my head with both awe and agreement.  Gaiman is a master of craft.  

That’s no surprise.

But to my surprise a book I thought I would enjoy became my favorite Gaiman.  I already want to read it again, and I would suggest you give it a whirl.

~Amanda