Little Thoughts About Books and Stuff

Adam over at RoofBeamReade r is hosting the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge . The Goal is to read 12 books from your "to be read" pile before the end of 2013. Here is my list: (Completed 7 of  12) Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantle Geektastic edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci - Completed 6/23/13 How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo - DNF American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld The Smart One and The Pretty One by  Claire LaZebnik - Completed 2/11/13 Jack's Widow by Eve Pollard - Completed 2/2/13 The Dead Beat by Mailyn Johnson Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik - Completed 2/17/2013 The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James -  Completed 3/8/13 Casting About by Terri Dulong Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil - Completed 5/27/13 The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil - Completed 5/7/13 Alternates This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel  - DNF People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

A friend posted on Facebook yesterday that we have just entered the last quarter of the year. (It's a little depressing.) Anyway I thought it would be a good idea to see where I stand with my Reading Challenges for 2013. Nora Roberts Reading Challenge I don't really set any goals with this one. I try to stay current on her new releases while putting  dent in her back list.  I've pretty much current (just need to read the novella and wait for the new series to start). I've read about 30 of her back list titles.  I read the MacGregors series. It also helps that they have been re-releasing her back list.  Of course it's two titles to a book so my overall book title count is lower (if I'm reading them in one book, it counts as one book). The 2013 TBR Challenge I started off strong with this one, and then hit a wall. I just couldn't get into the one book I picked up, and then everything just seemed to bump those books down the list. It looks like at least...

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd by Holly Black My rating: 4 of 5 stars As with any collection of stories there are some that you really like and some you could have done without, this collection was no different.  While I didn't completely dislike any one story, there were a few that if they weren't in this collection would have made this a five star book.  Instead of talking about them and why I didn't like them I'm just going to talk about the three stories I liked the most. Once You're a Jedi, You're a Jedi All the Way by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci Imagine you are at a Con and when you wake up you realize you are not in your room.  (This is not always a bad thing.) Now imagine that you are a Klingon and you wake up next to a Jedi. (go ahead freak out for a moment I'll wait.)  That's the plot of this funny story.  After waking up together our Jedi and Klingon characters trying to rationalize their attraction to each other while ba...

Needles and Pearls: A Beach Street Knitting Society Novel by Gil McNeil My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is book #2 in this series, to read my review of book #1 go here . Thing are going good for Jo, the yarn shop is doing good.  The knitting group is doing good. The boys are doing good. Everything seems to point to Jo's life settling down.  Then Jo realizes she's pregnant and promptly freaks out. Daniel gets angry and Martin steps up. Everyone in the town rally's around Jo letting her know that she won't be alone. They prove that a village raises a child. There are two weddings. A stand off between Jo and her arch nemesis, the PTA president. Jo is just settling into this idea of being a mom again, when it seems her world just crumbles in around her.  Again the town rallies around Jo. Then the baby is born and one of the two men in Jo's life makes his intentions known. I kind of feel that just a bit too much happened in this book. Jo's life is just up an...

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil My rating: 3 of 5 stars Jo thinks everything is going well in her life.  She has a husband she adores and two wonderful little boys. Her husband comes home one night and tells her he got a new assignment at work, and he's leaving her. Like any woman in this situation she freaks out.  He gets mad and storms out of the house only to crash his car.  Jo is now a widow. Jo starts over by moving to the little shore town where her grandmother lives and takes over her grandmother's yarn store.  The town has an interesting cast of characters but is completely charming. It reminded me of a British Stars Hallow . One of these characters is Grace, a very famous movie star.  Grace and Jo become an odd sort of friends with Jo becoming Grace's knitting coach. Through Grace, Jo meets Daniel a word famous jet setting photographer. Daniel's foil in every sense is Martin, the lovable but hapless son of Jo's co-wor...

How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo This sadly has been labeled as Did Not Finish. I made it as far as the third chapter and was really forcing myself. I just couldn't get myself interested, which is really sad because this has been sitting on my TBR Pile for awhile now.  I thought the concept was really interesting and reminded me a bit about Eat, Pray, Love , but it just didn't capture my attention. I've said this in other reviews and I'll repeat it here, a character needs to make me want to read their story.  I didn't really care that much about Julie. If this had been a non-fiction book, I may have been more interested in what the author found out about the single life around the world.  As a fiction book, it wasn't enough to keep me reading. *Spoiler Alert* I skimmed ahead in the book to see if anything later on would catch my attention.  Nothing did, and what I did skim, I didn't like.  Julie has an affair with a married man.  I kno...

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James My rating: 4 of 5 stars In the attics of Chawton House is a false wall.  Behind this wall is a trunk and inside this truck there is a treasure trove of works by Jane Austen.  Most notably are her memoirs. This is the set up of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen . This section of her memoirs tells the story of her lost love and her journey to publication. On a trip to Lyme Regis Jane meets a man who sparks within her a love and a desire to write again. Syrie James has given the reader a man worthy of our beloved Jane and a story that let's us believe we can see a piece of her through her novels.  Our fictional Jane uses the world around her as inspiration while editing Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice . I enjoyed this book and I'm a little upset that I let it sit in my To Be Read Pile for so long.  While it was a nice read, I did find myself losing interest every once in awhile.  I can't p...

Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik My rating: 3 of 5 stars Epic Fail is a modern, young adult adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I thought it was a cute and funny take on P&P. Derek Edwards is our Darcy and Elise Benton is our Elizabeth and unlike the original characters thier pride and prejudices are the results of high school.  Derek is the son of Hollywood royalty and while everyone can agree his attitude is due to his parents, what they don't know is the real reason he keeps himself apart from those around him.  Elise is the daughter of the new princepal and awkward teacher at school, she may be embarassed by her parents and her overly hyper younger sister, but hey who wouldn't be during thier high school  years. I really liked these two.  They were great modernzations of the orignal characters and I got sucked into thier story.  I think all the characters were wonderfully adapted.  I think Webster Grant (Wickam) and Chelsea (...

The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book made me think of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility . Ava was the grounded daughter like Elinor and Lauren was the up in the sky one like Marianne. Russell is Edward, at least the was he was described as a child when the engagement agreement was written up.  Lauren even get involved with a man who clearly represents Willoughby. While the book as aspects of Jane Austen's novel, it doesn't read like an adaptation, which I really liked since S&S I my least favorite Austen novel. At times I wanted to strangle Laura and even Russell. They both seemed a little too concerned aboutlooks and appearance. While I didn't want to strangle Ava I did want to hit her for being so closed mined about change.  Some of what I disliked about the interactions between Ava and Lauren might simply be that I don't have a sister and I don't understand their dynamics. I think they have a great...

TBR Challenge - Book #1 Jack's Widow by Eve Pollard My rating: 3 of 5 stars It's not really what I was expecting. It read more like a brief biography of her life after Jack's death with some story elements thrown in, instead of a story with some reality in the mix. The story starts off with Jackie's life right after Jack's death and her quick transition from First Lady to widowed mother of two.  This is interspersed with reflections on their trip to the White House and the connections Jackie made that would later set up the life she will end up living. The middle of the book lost my interest.  I felt that the way it was written was backwards.  There was a lot of political discussion and talk between minor characters and Jackie was just a passing mention.  Yes this is also a lot of set up, but it got to the point where I had to force myself to pick the book back up.  I would have liked a few scenes of these dinner parties she threw at her NYC apartment i...

Adam over at RoofBeamReader is hosting the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge . The Goal is to read 12 books from your "to be read" pile before the end of 2013. Here is my list: Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantle Geektastic edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld The Smart One and The Pretty One by  Claire LaZebnik Jack's Widow by Eve Pollard The Dead Beat by Mailyn Johnson Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James Casting About by Terri Dulong Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil Alternates This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel  People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks You can track my progress here .  I'll be posting (mini) reviews of the books as I finish them.