Crud.

This way of keeping track of what I am reading is not working for me either. I gave up on Library Thing and Good Reads, as I started them but continue to fail to keep them updated.

And now I have failed with the blog-a-book idea, too.

I guess it’s back to pen and paper. Maybe I just need a secretary…

It’s rare that I find a book that will hold my interest for over a day. Usually, I start on one then find another shiny new one to distract me and end up reading 3-4 books in rotation over a period of time.

These two books I read one at a time and every moment I could:

First, Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik (which is the fifth volume in the series). An original twist of historical fiction and fantasy (yes, there are dragons but they are not twee!).

Second, The Writing Classby Jincy Willett. A funny, cutting mystery with an interesting protagonist.

Maybe I’m just in a mood…but I started off really liking this book and then it just sort of petered (there’s a pun there…stay tuned) out on me.

Peter David’s Tigerheart is a reworking of the Peter Pan (see, told you there was a bad pun connection) story. The best parts of the book are when the narrator gives his asides. It reminded me a little of The Princess Bride movie version. Oddly, the book is listed at our library as Adult, when it could equally be at home under Children’s or Teen. In fact, I think tweens would enjoy it the most.

Since, as you know, I am too lazy to actually write a review…please enjoy this one. Peter David must be writing in his sleep, as he has published more books in more formats than you can imagine. Just take a gander here for example.

…or something like that. Don’t ask me to hand jive as it always ends badly (more like Monty Python’s fish slapping dance).

Through some strange twist of fate, I ended up reading books that seem to mesh quite well together.

www.fromoldbooks.org

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman is just fantastic (for fun, look at this quick study). At first, I thought it would be rather depressing as it deals with what would happen to our world if humans were to suddenly just disappear one morning. It’s not a doomsday scenario or anything like that, however. It just takes the premise that humans are gone in a magic “poof” and then uses science to predict what would likely happen to our houses, cities and industrial areas.

It’s actually quite fascinating stuff! I had also picked up, on a lark, a copy of A Handful of Dust: Photographs of Disappearing America by David Plowden. It is a coffee table-sized book featuring black and white pictures of human places that are crumbling back into the dirt. It pairs nicely with Weisman’s book. Good stuff to ponder while thinking about our impermanence…

I had bold ambitions to read all of the Newbery winners this year, including the honor books. Um…yeah…that didn’t happen…ahem. (Here is someone who is doing a far better job of that).

I managed to read Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (illustrated by the amazing Robert Lawson), which won the Newbery in 1943. While it lagged in some parts, all in all I rather liked it. Of course, pairing it with Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (won 2008 Newbery) is inevitable. I think today’s kids would probably like Schlitz’s short, engaging character studies better. I know I did! She really does a great job capturing the essence of the era and personalities.

While I really love Andre Norton’s Witch World books, some of the collaborative series have been stinkers. Sadly, this is true for one the last collaborative books she created: A Taste of Magic by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe.

The dialogue is stilted, clunky and ridiculous (although Three Hands for Scorpio is much, much worse). I gave up around page 50. Perhaps the fact that the main character is called “Wisteria” should have been a clue. Try a different one of Norton’s many books, instead (it should be noted that she was once a children’s librarian!).

Also, I happened upon the teen book Pirates! : The True and Remarkable Adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates by Celia Rees while in the back shelving room at work. We had just been talking about International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so I thought it might prove an interesting read.

I was disappointed. The author can’t seem to decide if she wanted gritty realism or Hollywood drama and the switches back and forth make it seem unbalanced. Maybe it’s just me, but I found this question from the reading group guide in the back of the book to be laughable: “Describe your best friend and why he or she would or would not make a good pirate.”

Good grief.

Sigh. I am such a marketing sucker.

But, seriously…what a cool cover! And frogs…love frogs!

I’m on an E. Lockhart reading jag. The Boyfriend List was funny and quick. I was telling someone that the protagonist seemed like a teenage, female version of Woody Allen and then I quickly realized maybe that was an icky comparison (as related to Mr. Allen’s freaky relationship).

Anyway, another great book by Lockhart (who is from my generation and is a successful career novelist…I’m really going to have to start hating her now).

Just finished up a teen book that was a quick, fun read. Fly on the Wall by e. lockhart is about an art school teen and what happens when she transforms into a fly a la Kafka. Oh, did I mention that during this fly incarnation she is stuck inside the boy’s locker room?

This book is continuously checked out at our branch so I wanted to see why teen girls liked it so much. Despite the premise, there’s no sex and very minimal swearing. So many teen books don’t read “true” to what it is like to be that age, but this author does a great job of finding that right fit. A surprisingly funny and empowering novel…I liked it!

Makes me think of Heywood Banks’ song “Fly’s Eyes“…”I’m lookin’ at the world through fly’s eyes and you can just buzz off!” 

What the hell and I doing?!

I’m never going to find time to read all of these books. But they are so shiny and new and, and… book-y. Sigh. It’s a sickness…

LOVED this one:

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

Go out and read it! No, I don’t do book reviews as others do that much better than I can. But, I will list some favorite lines here:

“I feel sorry for the Brits, deprived as they are of the salutary benefits of the self-help industrial complex. Isn’t there something we can do for these sad souls? Perhaps a New Age Marshall Plan. I picture planeloads of Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer books and CDs dropped by airplane over the English countryside, with little parachutes slowing their descent to earth, of course, for there is nothing more painfully ironic than being clocked on the head by Deepak Chopra and being knocked unconscious.”

I particularly like this turn of phrase:

“Over the years, I have been spiritually promiscuous…”

 And on a related note:

Maybe I should stop plucking my eyebrows…(read to the near end of the article and you’ll understand).

Yes, there should be some sort of organization at the start of a blog. A way to set up how you want things to logically flow and how things are laid out.

But not at this blog.

I can barely find any flat surface area in my house, let alone neatly arrange how this should work. So, I’m just stumbling ahead and I’ll pick up the pieces later (and, yes, I do know what’s in all those piles…more or less…).

Right. I’m just going to start off keeping track of noteworthy books I’ve been reading. Perhaps a rating system will come later…yeah, I’ll get started right on that.