My Friend is Sad

by Mo Willems.

The love I have for this book cannot be conveyed in words.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: The Long Way Home, Parts 2 and 3

I need to read each of these several more times.

Hi, Warren! I liked your surprise appearance better in American Dreamz.

Ramona is my hero

In preparation for a discussion of the character of Ramona Quimby with RSL, I brushed up on my Beverly Cleary. Ramona was my favorite when I was a little girl, and my mom kept most of my now collapsing paperbacks. I completed, and contemplated, the following:

Beezus and Ramona
Ramona the Pest
Ramona and her Father
Ramona and her Mother

All The Pretty Horses

By Cormac McCarthy.

Although I readily acknowledge that this book is much better written than the only other Western I've read, I still liked The Pumpkin Rollers better.

However, I'm very appreciative of McCarthy's sparse prose.

Microserfs

I have read this book by Douglas Coupland many many times. This time, I tried to read it as though for the first time, knowing that RSL was doing just this.

I still love it.

But I noticed, I think for the first time, that Daniel's last name shifts periodically from "Underwood" to "Underhill."

Oh my goodness, that annoys me. If I'd noticed it on the first read, I never would have read it again.

Now it's on to All the Pretty Horses. My copy from the library has Matt Damon on the cover. HOTT!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: The Long Way Home, Part 1

I liked the jump forward in time as mentioned already by the Rock Star Librarian. The televised seasons did this too - each new season began with actual time having passed over the summer hiatus. With this in mind, I suppose we are to assume that several years have passed in order to get us where we are when the story begins.

This would make sense considering there needed to be time to rally all slayers, and orchestrate the whole intense operation they've got going on here. And for Dawn to grow to ginormous proportions (???). I dislike Dawn even in comic book form.

Is Amy going to be our supervillian? Amy and her unidentified "boyfriend?" I am racking my brain trying to remember how Amy and Buffy left things. I will have to rewatch some episodes to get caught up.

My entry into Season 8 is so preliminary after this reading, that I don't feel like I can fully develop an opinion yet. I am anxiously checking my mailbox today in hopes that 2 and 3 will arrive.

The Chili Queen

I actually read this quite a while ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting. However, now that I am out of school there will be much more reading of, and thus more posting about books, including book discussions with The Rock Star Librarian.

Board Books

The Rock Star Librarian and I went to the public library's children's book sale today. I had heard it could get crowded... I did not expect it to be so CUTTHROAT with all the pushing and grabbing. Nonetheless, I managed to work my way through the rabid masses and nab some good finds for my daughter:

Puppies at Play (not a particularly good book, but it has picture of puppies, so there's that.)
Find the Duck
But Not the Hippopotamus (Sandra Boynton...)
Blue Hat, Green Hat (... is awesome!)
A House for Hermit Crab (Eric Carle... he's more than just a hungry caterpillar)
Baby Pets, Me & My Bear and Smile! (3 from the "Baby Faces" series because my kiddo digs looking at other babies)
Maybe My Baby
Good Morning Baby
Tickle Me Too
Undersea Open Sesame (An unbelievable find. I refuse to believe this lift-the-flap style book actually circulated because it is in near-perfect condition)
Maisy Likes Music (it has a built in rattle! Maisy rules!)

The Secret Life of Bees

I decided this was "multi-cultural." I have actually read quite a bit of multi-cultural fiction that could have met my multi-cultural fiction requirement for Reader's Advisory (Midnight's Children, A Fine Balance, Beloved and everything else Toni Morrison has ever written, Ceremony, etc.), but I wanted to read something new and I really enjoyed this.

The Mediterranean Caper

By Clive Cussler.

My apologies to Cussler fans. I found this to be rascist, sexist tripe.

Amelia's Notebook

The first in a series geared towards 8-12 year olds. I didn't actually read it, I just glanced over my roommate's copies, but I think they might be good gifts for my niece, so I wanted to remember it.

The Pumpkin Rollers

By Elmer Kelton.

The first Western I've ever read. I actually quite enjoyed it. A lovely coming of age story.

Cinderella's Lucky Ticket

by Melissa James.

I am not a reader of romance, so I purposely chose a series romance that I would NEVER read on my own to fulfill the romance requirement for my Readers' Advisory class.

It was pretty terrible. But I can see why they're addictive.

The Positronic Man

Robot Science Fiction, an expansion of Isaac Asimov's short story "The Bicentennial Man." I enjoyed this a lot. I think robots are interesting.

The Fairy Godmother

A Romantic Fantasy by Mercedes Lackey.

I read this for my Readers' Advisory class. I like Harry Potter, but otherwise don't enjoy fantasy. And I realized while reading this that I really dislike Romance. The steamy scenes make me blush.

Origin in Death

A mystery by J.D. Robb (pen name for the Romance author Nora Roberts). Set in 2059. Suspenseful and fast-paced. I would like to read more from the In Death series when I have more free time.

Science Fiction

I thought of another genre that I have read from.

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Another book that I absolutely love and have read several times, even though I don't consider myself into science fiction, is Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It is a modern-day interpretation of Dante's Inferno, and I think it's brilliant.

Fiction books I have read over the last 5 years

These are just the ones I can remember. The question is, what are the dominant genres? Chick lit, yes, and a little mystery, but into what genre do the other fall?

About a Boy - Nick Hornby
All Families are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons - Lorna Landvik
Basket Case - Carl Hiassen
Caravans - James A. Michener
Citizen Girl - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
Diary of a Mad Bride - Laura Wolf
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Hoot - Carl Hiassen
The Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving
In Her Shoes - Jennifer Weiner
Jemima J. - Jane Green
Kill the Messenger - Tami Hoag
Little Earthquakes - Jennifer Weiner
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Miss Wyoming - Douglas Coupland
My Friend Leonard - James Frey
Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon
The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination - Helen Fielding
The 158-Pound Marriage - John Irving
Persuassion - Jane Austen
Play it as it Lays - Joan Didion
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
Skinny Dip - Carl Hiassen
Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins
The Stranger - Albert Camus
White Noise - Don DeLillo
White Teeth - Zadie Smith