More Library Books

It's been a long time since I've actually talked about any books here. I've read countless, but here's what I can remember. I think I need a better method of tracking what I read.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - So this is the original in dystopian fiction, I guess.  I rather liked it despite the fact that the copy I read smelled like cigarette smoke and fascinated the kitten so much I had to read it in secret in rooms far away from little kitty teeth.

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay - This book is a departure from what I normally read.  It's a historical romance/mystery/academic novel filled with unlikeable characters and charming settings.  I enjoyed it despite the fact that every person in the novel was kind of a jerk.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - 600 pages so you can come to absolutely no fucking conclusion?!  Fuck you, Deborah Harkness.  If I had known this tome was the beginning of what I can only imagine is a series of eight million books, I would not have invested my time in it.  I really enjoyed the first third, but then I realized that there was NO WAY she could clear up all the plot points she'd started and then I felt used.  Yes, it's a good book if you like your books to have no ending and a thousand plot points left to be answered.  (Additionally, vampire/non-vampire relationships can never end well.  Can we all agree to this?  And stop writing about it? Buffy and Angel have way covered this ground.)

The Spellman Files and The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz - An incredibly lighthearted series about the Spellman family's private detective agency.  Each book was amusing and made me chuckle.  There are more books in the series, but my library doesn't have them, unfortunately, so I'm debating whether or not to spend some of my "get well soon" amazon gift cards to buy them on my Kindle.  Not sure. But they are a nice, fluffy read.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender - Oh, hell no. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME no matter what the Internetz (especially Elizabeth) tells you to do. This book is NONSENSE.  It has a great premise and that's where it falls apart.  (Also, this is where I tell you that magical realism is not my forte.)  Dumb, dumb, dumb book.  WASTE OF TIME.  I want my hours back, Ms Bender.

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus Book 2) by Rick Riordan - I'm sick of Percy Jackson.  There, I said it.  Percy is NO HARRY POTTER.  I read the Percy Jackson series and I was totally pumped when the first book of this series introduced new characters. I even wrote that I loved the first book of the series (The Lost Hero).  I guess it didn't occur to me (SPOILER ALERT) that the lost hero was indeed Percy Jackson and our boy Percy was going to make a comeback.  I am so done with him, though, that I rolled my eyes through this book.  No more Percy.  Which brings me to...

The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles Book 1) by Rick Riordan - I just couldn't give up on Riordan, though.  The first few books of the Percy Jackson series had such promise.  But this series? It's just like Percy Jackson with Egyptian gods instead of Greek.  It has equally annoying protagonists and I resented every minute I read this book.  I think I'm done with Riordan although I really feel badly about that.  But do read the first few books in the Percy series before he kills you with repetition!!

Somebody Everyone Listens To by Suzanne Supplee - zzzzzzzzzzz

New York to Dallas (in Death) by J. D. Robb - I just keep reading these Robb books because I want the smartness of the earlier books, but I've been let down by the last few books.  I appreciate that Robb tried to shake things up by switching settings and introducing new characters, but it just didn't work for me. I think there's so much she can do with her original characters - a book told from Peabody/McNab/Mira point of view, a book without Roarke (send him to Ireland or something), or something.  This is not doing it for me, despite what looks like amazing reviews on amazon.

Moon Dance, Vampire Moon, American Vampire (Vampire for Hire #1, #2, and #3) by J.R. Rain - A suburban mom becomes a vampire through no fault of her own and now she has to find a way to make a living without the support of her ex-husband and maintain a relationship with her children.  I really liked these books.  The preview for the fourth book made it seem like perhaps there was going to be a child turned into a vampire and I decided I didn't need to read Interview with a Vampire again.

That's all I can think of right now.  I have a list of books I want my husband to get me at the library this week, so I will write about those soon.  Any recommendations to add to my list of books to read?