Popularity Papers

The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang Amy Ignatow

Lydia and Julie are on a quest to discover the secrets of popularity before entering junior high. They decide to observe the popular girls and try to figure out what makes them popular. This is the book of their observations and findings. Along the way, they deal with school musical auditions, camping trips, knitting, stick fighting, field hockey, talent shows, and some truly horrendous amateur Norwegian love poetry. Also, some lessons about popularity and friendship, but they're a bit hidden, so don't worry.

What's great about this book is that it's told in a mix of prose (with different handwritings for Julie and Lydia) and pictures and cartoons. Also, the entire thing is in FULL COLOR. It really does look like a notebook of two girls. And it's uproariously funny. I especially liked how the popular girls were... real. They weren't mean girl flat characters. As Lydia and Julie got to know them, they became real people-- with good and bad sides, just like everyone else. Julie illustrates most of the book, because Lydia can't draw, so the parts where Lydia does draw (glorified stick figures) are really funny. Lydia's older sister Melody is another comedic dimension. She's surly and wears a lot of black and heavy eyeliner. She used to be happy and pretty and friendly in elementary school, and then changed in junior high. She's actually the reason the girls are so desperate to be popular--they don't want to turn into Melody!

Readers do have to be able to read cursive, though, because Lydia's parts are all in cursive.

Overall, a most EXCELLENT book. It's like if Candy Apple and Wimpy Kid and Babymouse had a book baby of awesome.

And! Bonus points-- Julie has two daddies (Daddy and Papa Dad).

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday

Lucy Long Ago: Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From Catherine Thimmesh

Ethiopia, 1974. Scientists find an arm bone and quickly realize that they actually have found 40% of a skeleton.

It doesn't look like a human, it doesn't look like a monkey. What is it?

It's Lucy, named after "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles. She completely changed the way we think about how humans evolved.

In extremely easy-to-understand and interesting text, Thimmesh walks the reader through the discovery of Lucy's remains and the questions scientists asked and how they came to their answers. Was she an adult or child? Did she walk on two legs or four? How did she fit in with what we already know about evolution and where we came from? Was she even a she?

A great look at how scientists discover things and how our knowledge of the world is always changing. Great illustrations, sidebars, and quotations from those involved in the discovery and investigation.

Today's Round up is over at SimplyScience!

Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

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Poetry Friday: School's Out Edition

Schoooooooooooooooooooooooooool's out for summer!
Schoooooooooooooooooooooooooool's out forever!

Summer vacation started here this week, which brings all the joy of summer reading lists. A lot of people complain about reading lists, but I really like ours. The libraries and schools* work together to put together lists that have a wide variety of books for a wide variety of readers. They also get revisited every year, so new titles get added. AND! With the libraries and schools working together, every book on the list is still in print and owned by the library (in fact, we have lots of copies, because it's a reading list book!)

I mean, is Babymouse on your reading list? It's on mine.

There are also poetry books on the list for almost every grade. Some grades luck out with multiple poetry books AND verse novels.

Two of those books are ones I want to talk about today-- A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems (for rising 5th graders) and A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms (for rising 7th graders.) Both are selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka

A Poke in the I is a collection of concrete poems, which are very visual in nature, are fun, and a great way to get kids to look at poetry in a different way.

One of my favorites from A Poke in the I is "Swan and Shadow" by John Hollander. I can't do proper formatting in the blog, but it's used in this post on How to Save the World.

A Kick in the Head is a book of different poetic forms. Up in the corner is the name of the form, the main page spreads are an example or two, and down in small print, it explains what the form is. There is more information on the form in the back.

So, it gives us an Aubade, which is explained in the fine print as "An aubade (oh-BAUD) is a poem without formal structure of rhyme that laments or celebrates the coming of dawn."

The example is "Morning Has Broken" by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken
Like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain's new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where his feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning.
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation.
Praise every morning,
God's re-creation
Of the new day!

Which I just love, mostly because I love the way Cat Stevens set it to music. It was in our hymnal growing up, and was always one of my favorites to sing.

*Well, we work with the public school district for the county we're located in. We have a ton of students who go to private, charter, or public schools from other counties who use the library too. And by "we" I mean the library. Personally, I am not involved in the process at all. Sadly.

Roundup is over at Two Writing Teachers. Join the fun!

Books Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Thank You, Jeeves

Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse

Easy-going Bertie Wooster is in a bit of a bind. The neighbors keep complaining about his banjolele playing, so he's being evicted. Instead of giving up the banjolele, he will remove to a country cottage where he can play to his heart's content without bothering anyone. Jeeves would rather resign than live in a country cottage with the banjolele. And he does.

Bertie's off to the country, living in a cottage owned by his good friend the Fifth Baron Chuffnell (aka Chuffy) who, conveniently, now employs Jeeves. Rounding our our comedy are Pauline Stoker (Bertie's ex-fiance) her father (who hates our dear Bertie) and Sir Roderick Glossop (who also hates Bertie and is the reason Mr. Stoker hates Bertie and made Pauline call off the engagement.)

At stake is the fact that Pauline and Chuffy are rather in love, but there's a money issue. Bertie tries to shove them in the right directions, but always gets caught by Mr. Stoker, which only fuels Stoker's feelings that Pauline is still in love with Chuffy.

Hijinks and hilarity ensue.

I've never read any Wodehouse before, and I absolutely loved it and have a great desire to read the rest of his work, at least when it comes to Jeeves and Wooster. It was just pure silliness.

I will, however say, that this book is a product of its place and time (England, 1934). One of the plot points revolves around the fact that there is also a team of Minstrels in the same part of the country. Jeeves refers to them as "Negro Minstrels" while most of the other characters use a different N word. There is also a great deal of people running around in black face. We never actually meet the Minstrels, so we're at least spared that. It is what it is. I did still enjoy the book, but wanted to let you know that it was there and not nice.

I will definitely be on the look out for other Wodehouse.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Lockdown

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 Alexander Gordon Smith

14-year-old Alex was just a petty thief until the day the men in black suits showed up at a house he was robbing, shot his best friend, and framed him with the murder. Sentenced to life with parole, Alex is sent the The Furnace, Britain's prison for the worst juvenile offenders. The Furnace is underground and run by the black suits. They have skinless dogs that eat kids. At night, the Wheezers come. The wheezers have gas masks for faces and take kids away in the night, never to be seen again. At 18, you're transferred out of the Furnace, but no one ever lives that long. Alex needs out. No one's ever escaped before, but Alex is going to try. He'll die if he's caught, but he'll die if he stays.

I really liked the concept of the Furnace, built after "The Summer of Slaughter" when youth gangs got out of control. I wanted to learn more about the world that would create Furnace rather than life within Furnace itself. I was also really frustrated because the book builds and builds to the cliff-hanger ending for the second book. And, it gets really exciting close enough to the end that you know you won't get anything until the sequel comes out next year. (Or you could order the next two books now, from England.)

With lots of gross creatures to keep the kid prisoners in line and the action-filled adventure plot, there's enough here to make this a *great* book for reluctant readers, but it just didn't do it for me. I enjoyed reading it, but have no desire to read the rest of the series. (ok, I did read the plot summaries of the next books).

Book Provided by... my local library

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I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It

I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It Adam Selzer

Zombies of Des Moines!

Alley is known as the Ice Queen of the viscous circle-- the cynical sarcastic kids who write the school paper and will actually leave their Des Moines suburb once they're done with high school.

It all changes when she goes to review a band for the paper. The band itself is awful, but they guy they get to sing a few songs? Alley's immediately smitten and her Ice Queen heart melts all over her laptop.

What she doesn't realize is that Doug is one of the zombies that Megamart created a few years ago to cut labor costs. Once the world discovered the zombies, the vampires also "came out of the coffin" and it's now a post-human world. Only Alley's guidance counselor (vampire) doesn't like the living dating the dead and demands Alley convert on her birthday or dump Doug. Doug can't leave Des Moines-- can Alley leave him? Or should she stay? And what's with all these new zombies roaming around demanding brains?

A few minor points made me really like this--

1. It takes place in Des Moines. While all Alley wants is to leave it, the Des Moines she lives in is not a stupid caractature of "small midwestern hicksville." Des Moines has surburbs, and is very much... Des Moines. Selzer grew up there and it shows.

2. Alley (and her best friend Sadie) are Jewish, but it's not a major part of the book (except that matzoh balls are things zombies can eat. Also, Des Moines has more zombies than Jews, which is just funny.)

Selzer captures well the heady feeling of first love and the willingness the change everything for a relationship before you start to actually think things through. While Alley was this really strong character who was willing to change EVERYTHING for a guy, the way Selzer wrote it made it totally believable and not weak and insipid. I think it's because she thought through her decisions and her parents and friends kept trying to drum some sense into her.

Either way, a light fun book about dating the undead.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels Walter Dean Myers

Richie Perry can't afford college. He's stuck in Harlem with few prospects, so he enlists and goes off the Vietnam.

There are the basics of a war story-- fear, fighting, death, trying to make sense of it all, trying to stay alive.

But there's more to this one-- Perry and most of his unit enlisted for their own reasons, which goes against the standard Vietnam story we tell of draftees. Perry and many in his unit are black. While race isn't a major factor of Myers's story, it's there and sometimes it's an issue.

Myers touches on several issues, never letting them pull focus, but also not merely brushing them off.

Overall, while it's a different perspective on a war story, it holds much in common with other war stories, because the weapons and geography and reasons may change, but there is great universality in battle, in death.

We watch Perry change over the course of his tour of duty. What I really wanted to know is what happens next. Not just to Perry, but to Pee-Wee and Johnson and the others. What world did they go back to and how did they readjust? Did serving in the army open doors to them that weren't open before?

A moving story that stays with the reader.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Bloggiesta Finish Line

It's time to call it a night.

Dan has been incredibly patient with me this weekend, especially given that we has a blog widower last weekend as well. As soon as these cookies come out of the oven, we're off to watch some Lost (we're still on Season 1.)

Here's how I did:

1. Read 1500 blog posts. (I'm currently 1300 behind, but surely 200 more will appear in my reader by the end of this weekend. Heck, probably by the end of today.) I'm still 1000+ behind, but I did read 1001 posts. I was obviously hindered by the large amount of posting that happened this weekend!
2. Write 65 book reviews. I wrote 4
3. Pre-schedule 2 weeks worth of reviews Uh... nope. Just tomorrow's
4. Catch up on my record-keeping YES!
5. Organize my google reader YES!
6. Add reviews to LibraryThing nope
7. Challenge posts nope
8. Tell you about my SLJ reviews couldn't do, because their website's being weird.
10. Write 10 non-review blog posts I wrote 1
11. Tag old posts, add links and pictures nope
12. Clean up the blogroll nope

Not a total bust. I knew not everything would get done, as my goals were EVERYTHING that needed to get done for the website. I would have really liked to get more of those book reviews written, but I've been having reviewing writer's block lately, and this weekend wasn't the cure. *sigh*

Sunday Salon-- TBR

Jen Robinson used to do a series of "reviews that made me want to read the book."

I have a slew of starred posts in my Google Reader of reviews that made ME want to read the book. So, I thought I'd steal Jen's idea and share some of the reviews that make my TBR pile so insane. This is probably become an occasional series:

Grinnell College Libraries Favorite Books and Book Review's review of The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War by David Laskin

It is interesting to read this book about 12 men who immigrated during the great 19th century wave of immigration in light of current debates on immigration and especially recent legislation in Arizona. Laskin's book is about the interesting path these men took to the United States, looking for opportunity, perhaps even seeking to avoid mandatory service in their native countries' armed forces, only to be drafted into the U.S. forces.

Abby (the) Librarian's review of Matched by Ally Condie.

Cruely, she taunts us with a book that doesn't come out until NOVEMBER.

I think Ms. Condie has created an intriguing world and she builds the tension up nicely to keep the reader interested. I started this book before I went to bed last night and ended up staying awake for an extra hour because I wanted to see what happened next. There are some nice plot turns, some I suspected and some that surprised me. This will definitely please fans of dystopian lit and it has a nice element of romance, so I'd recommend it to fans of paranormal romance, too.

Chasing Ray's review of The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt

Colleen hadn't even finished it yet, but...

First, I need someone to explain why you all haven't heard of this book. The easy answer is that it is too offbeat, too unusual, basically just too damn different. And yet in a world that supports Scarlett Thomas and Samantha Hunt I do not understand why Helen Dewitt is not equally embraced by a cult-like following. The Last Samurai is not a page-turning thriller but it is so bloody smart and witty that I can not understand for the life of me why it isn't the book that all the 21st century witty smart readers who like learning and think being curious is truly a cool thing bought the heck out of and made it a continuous, on a scale of David Foster Wallace type massive best seller.


Color Online's review of Moonshine: A Novel by Alaya Johnson

The notion of Moonshine being merely another vampire or paranormal fiction novel is taking it a bit too lightly. Though a quirky and supernatural tale, it's also a guise for a more grounded critique on race. Zephyr struggles daily to get humans to see that the "Others", who openly live, work, and play in mainstream society, are still deserving of humanity even if not human.

Editorial Anonymous had an interview with Adam Rex rather than a review of his upcoming Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story

I have to say the impetus for this book actually came when I misread a banner ad. I was in the middle of my morning web-crawl when I saw an ad for some manga or webcomic or something called My Dork Embrace. And I thought, That's great. I bet it's a story about the kind of awkward guy who's never supposed to become a vampire. And a minute later my brain wouldn't let go of it because the art and tenor of the ad didn't really jive with the assumption I'd made, so I scrolled back to have another look at it. And I discovered it's really just My Dark Embrace. I'd misread it. But then I got excited because that meant I could write My Dork Embrace myself, and it would be a good framework to work out some thoughts I'd been having about high school.

Another one from Chasing Ray. This time it's Touch by Adania Shibli

In many ways it is exactly like a thousand other YA stories and yet the telling is so different that it reads like nothing else. It's poetry in prose; an exotic fragmented tale of often mundane circumstances.

Reading Extensively's review of My Invisible Boyfriend by Susie Day

Heidi is a quirky character with a great sense of humor. She loves to watch DVD episodes of her favorite spy show and has imaginary conversations with the main character, Mycroft Christie...The title suggests that the book is a romance but really the focus is on friendship which I found refreshing. Heidi and her friends are one of a kind.

Emily Read's review of Only One Year by Andrea Cheng

Emily reviews in haiku and I don't want to copy her ENTIRE post here, because that hardly seems sporting, but here's part of the description of the book:

Just before Sharon's mother begins a new job, the fourth-grader's parents send her two-year-old brother, Di Di, to live in Shanghai for a year with their grandmother, Nai Nai. When Sharon questions why a babysitter can't care for him instead, Mama explains that for a sitter, 'Di Di is a job. But for Nai Nai, he is a grandson.'

Maggie Reads has an excerpt from I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui

I walk through an open door and am faced with a group of wailing women and men wearing black robes. This is the place I want to be. It is up to me and only me to find one of those black robed men alone and get what I seek...

The room is empty now and I sit afraid I will be missed as it becomes dark. The lady at the desk goes into the office and speaks to the judge. Suddenly, he is standing in front of me. “What do you want little girl?” I bravely state, “I want a divorce.”

Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot's review of Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs isn’t only a mystery: it’s also a story about an Edwardian young woman growing up, moving from poverty to a world of comfort and education, and having her life irrevocably changed by the war...

There was quite a bit that I liked about Maisie Dobbs: the glimpses into the pre-World War I Edwardian world and into post-war society; the descriptions of the war period and of civilian life during it; the emphasis on how the war was experienced by people of different genders and different social backgrounds; the commentary on class; and most of all the sensitive analysis of the long-term consequences of an experience as devastating as WWI, both at an individual and at a social level.



Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Bloggiesta Check In

Well, I had to go to work today, so that cut out some of my Bloggiesta time. I also realized one of my goals was impossible for this weekend (and not just for sheer numbers. I know most of mine are practically not going to happen, but this one just CAN'T happen) and thought of some more...

Basically, this blog is supposed to be a record of *Everything* I read, so I link to reviews published elsewhere. I have many reviews published in School Library Journal that I haven't linked to yet that I want to, but due to their moving to new systems, their reviews aren't online at the moment, so I can't exactly link to them, can I? (or find out if certain ones ran this June. The work copy hasn't gotten to my desk yet.) So, that goal gets delayed for now.

But, I remembered that my blog roll needs updating and that I my early posts aren't tagged (Because Blogger didn't have tagging functions back then. In fact, I'm not sure tagging exsisted 5 years ago. The internet moves so fast!) So, there are two more goals.

So far, I've been going for 9 hours.

1. Read 1500 blog posts. (I'm currently 1300 behind, but surely 200 more will appear in my reader by the end of this weekend. Heck, probably by the end of today.) I've read 768, which brings my unread posts to under 1000! Huzzah!)
2. Write 65 book reviews. I've done 2
3. Pre-schedule 2 weeks worth of reviews
4. Catch up on my record-keeping
5. Organize my google reader
6. Add reviews to LibraryThing
7. Challenge posts
8. Tell you about my SLJ reviews
10. Write 10 non-review blog posts
11. Tag old posts, add links and pictures
12. Clean up the blogroll

Bloggiesta check in

Hours spent Bloggiesta-ing: 6

Things accomplished:

1. Google reader organized
2. 350 posts read (out of 1500)
3. 2 reviews written (out of 65)

Bloggiesta check in

Carrie wins "most helpful hint of the day" award for pointing out that if I look in Google trends, it will tell me how many blog posts I've read in a given day! Huzzah!

Anyway, I've now been Bloggiesta-ing for 2 hours. So far I have.

1. Organized my google reader
2. Read 178 blog posts.

In my non-Bloggiesta-ing time, I've been to the bank, the dry-cleaners and salon. My eyebrows no longer look like caterpillars trying to eat my face and my hair is shorter and physically lighter (in color, it's actually much darker.) Seriously, I only cut about 4 inches off (plus some thinning to deal with the weight) but I think I might have lost 5 pounds just by cutting my hair. Easiest and prettiest diet ever!

Bloggiest check in PS

Sure, I post the post and then forget a few things I wanted to say:

I'm not reading every blog post. Some get skimmed, some are showing up in my feed multiple times (especially for the blogs that are part of the bloggiesta feed that I already follow, some of the blogs I follow have weird feed issues where some posts will post multiple times.)

ALSO! I just wanted to say that in one of the posts I read today, I discovered that there is a naked Korean spa in the area! I've wanted to try one since reading about it in North of Beautiful.

Bloggiesta check in

Ok, this is just frustrating!

It's hard to accurately track how many blog-posts you've read when more posts keep getting added to your reader. In reality, my "read 1500 blog posts" means "get my google reader back down to 0."

So, I spent an hour reading posts. Yes, it didn't help that I added the bloggiesta feed to my reader. But... all the new posts and the old posts? After an hour, doing the math, it looks like I only read 3. SERIOUSLY. Oiy vey. Ah well. I know that I made a dent and will keep chipping away, slowly but surely.

I did, however, get my google reader organized. I had a lot of new blogs that weren't in folders, so now they're all filed away.

If you're interested, my folders are

Book stuff (my must read round of book blogs)
Book stuff 2 (book blogs I like but aren't "must reads")
China (blogs that cover China or Chinese language)
Friends (blogs written by my friends or people I at least know)
Local (This is a new folder I just created! It's for all my local news/happenings blogs)
Fun (This is for everything that doesn't fit into one of the above catagories.)

So, 1 hour in, I've read 3 blog posts (?!?!?!?!?!?!?) and organized my google reader.

Now, I'm off to run some errands and do something other things that have to get done. I wish I could easily read my google reader on my phone. Maybe I'll try to figure that out... hmmmm...

Bloggiesta!

Maw Books's Bloggiesta has begun!

Here's my list of impossible-to-finish tasks (I aim big! Like the cheesy poster on the wall in the home-ec room in 8th grade, "Reach for the moon, because even if you fail, you'll still land among the stars")

1. Read 1500 blog posts. (I'm currently 1300 behind, but surely 200 more will appear in my reader by the end of this weekend. Heck, probably by the end of today.)
2. Write 65 book reviews.
3. Pre-schedule 2 weeks worth of reviews
4. Catch up on my record-keeping
5. Organize my google reader
6. Add reviews to LibraryThing
7. Challenge posts
8. Tell you about my SLJ reviews
10. Write 10 non-review blog posts

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John Le Carre

There's been a shake-up at the Circus (which is what British intelligence calls itself.) Control is out (and dead). Percy's in charge and swept out a lot of Control's men, including George Smiley.

Smiley's wife has left him for good and he's wondering what to do with his life when he gets sucked back in. There's a mole at the Circus, and they want Smiley to find him, but no one at Circus can know what he's up to.

Smiley doesn't look like much of spy, but he's one of the best, and he's about to blow the Circus wide open.

You know what I loved most about this? That it wasn't all international danger and action. While it did look back at past operations by different characters, all the present action mostly consisted of Smiley sitting in a hotel room, reading stolen files, trying to piece together a story.

And you may not think that makes a very thrilling novel, but it does. The reader gets bits of files, bits of Smiley's memories as they're triggered, and tries to put it together, to get the story of Control's downfall and Percy's ascent, and to figure out who's been passing information to the Soviets...

The tension builds slowly, and different mysteries pile on top of each other, we try to tease out the answers, to see if they're related or not. There's a reason this is considered a masterpiece of the genre!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Beloved Lord

Beloved Lord Mallory Burgess

This is the third book in a series that I love. (Beloved Knight, Beloved Honor, Beloved Lord, and Beloved Heart.) It doesn't really have to be read in order. I reread this one recently because I was thinking about it and got confused on a plot point. I quickly found my answer, but got sucked back into the story and just reread the whole thing.

In 1340, most of Anne's family is in exile, but she remains in Scotland. Her brother is held in the London Tower for killing the man that attacked her. She remains in a small croft on her family's lands, now held by an English lord, trying to find a way to rescue him.

Bayard Berkeley is a lawyer, trying to make the most of the Scottish land that the king gave him. He thought that removing his wife from London society would help their problems, but as soon as she gives birth, she leaves. Not one to let a baby starve to death, his housekeeper finds Anne and brings her home to be a wet-nurse.

Anne's once again living in her family's house, hiding her identity from her boss. But she can't help be attracted to him.

I love, love, love this series. The history, the court intrigue-- full of crosses and double-crosses. You're never entirely sure who is one what side. Burgess can spin a tale that keeps you on your toes, that's for sure.

As an FYI, this is a romance novel and contains several passages of graphic steaminess, as one could probably tell from the cover.

Book Provided by... my wallet, a very long time ago

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Insatiable

Insatiable Meg Cabot

Here's all you really need to know about this book-- it has nuns kicking more vampire ass than Buffy. Seriously. NUNS KICKING VAMPIRE ASS. What more do you need in a book?*

Meena can see when people are going to die. It's a gift/curse she's dealt with for awhile. She's also having a horrible week-- she just got passed over for the head writer job at the soap opera she writes dialogue for. If that weren't bad enough, Shoshona, her work nemesis got it (and somehow managed to purchase the $5,000 Mark Jacobs tote Meena's been lusting after for a very long time.) Even worse? Shoshona is demanding that they work in a vampire storyline, just like their rival show. Meena is SO SICK of this vampire craze. When did we decide that vampires weren't misogynistic monsters and instead objects we should give ourselves to?

Lucien Antonescu is the Prince of Darkness and head of all vampires. He's also dead sexy and on his way to New York, because some vampires have gotten out of control and are killing people again, and dumping their bodies in Manhattan's parks.

Alaric Wulf is a member of the Palatine Guard, the Pope's demon-killing force. After what a den of vampires did to his demon-slayer partner in Berlin, he's hell-bent** on revenge.

When Meena falls for Lucien and then Alaric tells her that vampires are real?

Yeah, she's about to be caught in the middle of a war featuring fighting vampire factions and the forces sworn to destroy all of them.

SERIOUSLY. Nuns go from baking yummy cookies one minute to water balloons filled with holy water and staking vamps the next. What more do you need?!

Definitely for adults (When Lucien bites Meena, it's not on the neck.) But I do love Meg Cabot. Her vampires, while some are definitely sexy and bad boys you could see someone falling for, are not nice guys. Even the good guy is kinda creepy (and at the end, really creepy. I started singing Police in my head.) Meena's not passive and tries not to fall for the vampire thing everyone else seems to be falling for these days. In the end, a very enjoyable vampire book that takes us back to what vampires used to be--villains that were hard to resist, which made them that much more dangerous.

Did I mention the vampire slaying nuns?

*We need more nuns in literature and books that do more than whack your knuckles with a ruler.

**pun totally intended.

Book Provided by... the author, for review consideration

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Hour 48

Hours Spent Reading: 33
Books Read: 10.5
Pages Read: 2860
Money Raised: $725.54
What I'm listening to: Muddy Bubbles Hell

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

Well, it's been 48 hours since I started this thing. I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. My final stats are up at top. I got through half of I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It in this last hour-- I got a second wind so I was up to reading at normal speed again and it's a pretty quick read so far.

But, yeah... bed. I'm exhausted. I've only gotten 6 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, and trust me, starting this thing at 7:30 on Friday? That was unbearably early for a day I didn't have to go to work.

Good luck to those who are still reading!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Hour 47

Hours Spent Reading: 32
Books Read: 10
Pages Read: 2756
Money Raised: $ 723.54
What I'm listening to: Maria

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

The Last Apprentice: A Coven of Witches Joseph Delaney

Much like The Spook's Tale: And Other Horrors, this is a book of background material, to hold us over until the next book in the series, Rise of the Huntress comes out in September.

In this volume, we have the Spook's story of how he met and fell in love with Meg Skelton, and how it went wrong. It sheds further light on why he distrusts witches, especially relationships with witches. We have Alice's story of her first days with Bony Lizzie, we have remembrances of one of the dead witches buried in Witch Dell, and we have a story told by Tom of when he and Bill Arkwright found a Celtic Witch Assassin (rather different than the English witches.) AND! We get the first two chapters of Rise of the Huntress-- upon their return from Greece, Tom, Alice, and the Spook discover that the War has finally come to the County. The Spook's house, and more importantly, his library, have been burned and destroyed. Bony Lizzie has escaped and the Fiend is still loose... CAN NOT WAIT!

If you're a fan of the series, this is a fun book to hold you over until we get to find out what happens next. I like that it's actual stories with characters we know well and characters that are only on our periphery instead of something like an encyclopedia of facts...

Book Provided by... my local library

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Hour 45

Hours Spent Reading: 30
Books Read: 9
Pages Read: 2532
Money Raised: $719.54
What I'm listening to: 2 Become 1

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

Intrigue Grace Cavendish

Ok. We've reached the point of the night where I have to read the same page multiple times.

When the Queen finds out about a new play where the audience has to solve a murder mystery, she can't wait for the troupe to be summoned to court and instead has everyone go to the Inn to see it right away. But, when the play's murder victim is actually murdered, things change.

It seems pretty straight-forward, so the Queen doesn't think there's any further investigation needed, but something doesn't seem right to Grace, so she's on the case!

I especially loved the description of what London Bridge looked like.

I do love love love this series so much. I'm sad they didn't gain enough popularity in the States to keep publishing them here.

Book Provided by... my wallet

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Hour 42

Hours Spent Reading: 27
Books Read: 8
Pages Read: 2330
Money Raised: $715.54
What I'm listening to: Life Begins At The Hop

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

Alibi Junior High Greg Logsted

Ok, so here's a problem with working at a library and read-a-thons. I'm always thinking "Great! This can be when I read all the books that are due back and I haven't gotten to yet, plus all those books that I bought and haven't read yet because my book buying eyes are bigger than my reading eyes..." But then I start checking out all these extra books for the read-a-thon. Because I didn't have enough already?

Then, when you spend a day at the library in the middle of a read-a-thon?

I think it shows admirable restraint that I only walked away with 1 extra book today.

Somehow, I had never heard of this one before, when it caught my eye on the book cart this afternoon.

Cody has grown up with his dad, helping him with CIA stuff, his entire life in deep undercover. He changes identities every week. He speaks 5 languages and knows many, may ways to kill you. After a cafe bombing in Santiago, Cody's facing his biggest challenge-- junior high.

It sounds like it should be a comedic romp, but it's not. Cody has some serious PTSD issues from the bombing. He's completely unprepared for junior high-- how to dress and talk like a normal kid, to not be smarter than your teachers, all the unwritten codes he's never had to deal with before-- it's not easy to adjust. Plus, his dad is still out there, somewhere, fighting the bad guys.

To make matters worse, it looks like the guys who were after his dad in Santiago are now after Cody. Luckily, his neighbor is an Army Ranger who's just returned from Iraq missing an arm. The guys bond (without talking about it) over their mental recovery and physical training.

Not to say that there aren't funny bits. It is darkly comedic. And good. I'm surprised it didn't get more buzz last summer when it came out. It should have.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Hour 40.5

Hours Spent Reading: 25.5
Books Read: 7
Pages Read: 2086
Money Raised: $707
What I'm listening to: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

The Clue in the Diary Carolyn Keene

Oh Nancy, you're so funny. There are two mysteries-- a poor (but clean!) mother and daughter that Nancy and her friends meet at a carnival. The father is off looking for work and supposed to send money, but they haven't heard from him.

On the way home, they see a house burn down. The house belongs to a very rich, but not well-liked character. OF COURSE THE MYSTERIES ARE RELATED!

But! This is the book where Nancy meets Ned! And how! He's moving her car away from the spreading house fire and she thinks he's trying to steal it.

I listened to the first part of this and that was awesome, because all the over-drama was underscored with crazy sound effects and lots of dramatic music. I think I'm going to have to listen to more Nancy Drews for the Nancy Drew challenge. Also, it was narrated by Laura Linney and how can you NOT love Laura Linney?!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.