The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I don't conside myself a huge Gaiman fan. I loved his American Gods, but found Coraline only ok. For the first half of The Graveyard Book, I put it in the 'only ok' category - but it seems that I was mistaken, because as soon as I read a bit of it each day, consistently, I got into it more and started to really love it.

The Graveyard Book is about Bod Owens, whose family is killed when he's just a baby and who ends up being brought up the ghosts of a graveyard close to what was his home. He is given certain special powers to be able to live in the graveyard comfortably and he does just that until he starts growing up and venturing out bit by bit. He of course gets himself in and out of all sorts of trouble... and basically has loads of adventures.

What I remember most from my reading experience is sitting on the couch, all snug and warm, and sipping my glass of wine while reading, immersed in Bod's world. When I allowed myself the luxury of reading it like that, I loved it. When I was reading snippets here and there while also reading other books, I didn't enjoy it at all. Does that ever happen to you?

It's definitely a 'mood' book, perfect for the R.I.P. Challenge if you need suggestions and also perfect for this Saturday's Read-a-Thon.

(Ooh, I can't wait for Saturday!)

I'm told that I would love Neverwhere, so I think that'll be my next Gaiman book!

Challenges: R.I.P. Challenge, 2010 Countdown Challenge, Four Month Challenge

Gods in Alabama by Joshlyn Jackson

"There are Gods in Alabama. I know because I killed one." - says the back cover of Joshlyn Jackson's book. How could I not be intrigued?

I started reading the first chapter and immediately found out about the body that Lena successfully hid and the deal she made with God, certain things she promised to change in herself and in her life if the body was never found. Thing is, Lena's past is catching up with her and her future beckons. How can she agree to a serious longterm relationship when she has these kinds of secrets?

Gods in Alabama is about teens who think they know it all and about the adults they become, trying to correct some of the mistakes they made along the way. It's also about the power of family and the loyalty that comes with it.

It's a good book about the American south and about personal values. Enjoyable.

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge, What's in a Name 3

On chick lit

If I don't sit down and write and actual review I'll end up with quite a backlog at the end of the year!!! Since Shane arrived I've had so little time for reading and even less time for blogging... Actually the blogging part isn't so much a time problem as a concentration problem. I've had completely different things on my mind and I don't always feel like exploring my feelings about what I just read. Plus I tend to think that if I magically get a half hour I should be reading rather than blogging.

But I miss you! I miss the community. I miss all the good stuff. And after reading Trish's post I started thinking that maybe my blogging self needs to be reinvented. Maybe I should be blogging about all sorts of things on here, not just books. I don't read enough to post regularly anyway. Something to think about in any case, I'll work it out.

In the meantime, here I am catching up.

When I have too much on my mind I crave chick lit. Not just romance but chick lit, stories about women just like me who had loads of stuff happen in their lives but who ended up with their happy ending. I don't know too much about the genre, because I'm too wary of most of the books out there. I like intelligent chick lit and I'm always afraid of ending up with something too fluffy, so I stick to my favorite authors.

One author I always thought I'd like but didn't is Candace Bushnell who wrote the book that tv's Sex and the City is based on. I love the show but really didn't love the book - I didn't find the characters real enough. Yet, when I saw that Candace Bushnell wrote  the introduction to Mary McCarthy's The Group, I thought it was a great selling point. McCarthy's book is marketed as Sex and the City in the 1930s - a group of New York women go to college together and then try to come to grips with what being a woman in the 1930s actually means. I love the idea, since I love that time period and anything to do with the challenges of being female (not that it's more challenging than being a man, I mean the specificities of being a woman)... but I didn't like the characters at all. First of all there were too many of them and I couldn't keep them straight. Maybe that's because Baby Shane needed something every 5 minutes and I had to keep putting the book down, I don't know. I also didn't actually care for the characters though. I thought they were over-written and flat. I confess that I didn't bother finishing the book, so perhaps it got better. With such limited reading time though I preferred to just move on to the next one on my list.

Since my craving for chick lit had not been satisfied, the next one on my list was Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. Now this one I loved. Kinsella is my favorite chick lit author - her books are thoughtful and funny and entertaining. This one was no different and I enjoyed it immensely. Great idea too - a girl has an accident and ends up with partial amnesia. She doesn't remember the last three years of her life, which is apparently when she changed from an ugly duckling to a rich bitch living the good life. But , alas, things aren't always what they seem... Defintely recommended, as are all Kinsella books.

That's it for now - I enjoyed writing this post! :-)

P.S. I wanted to include pictures of the book covers but I have a new Mac and I have no idea what the equivalent of 'right-click-and-save-as' is... :-)

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd

When Nymeth reviewed this short story collection, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castelucci, I was so intrigued that I immediately went on Amazon and ordered it. Now, I never do this, because I have such a long list of books to buy that the latest interesting one I hear about just gets added to the bottom of the list. Then when the book arrived I did another unthinkable thing - I actually started reading it straight away! No being put on the TBR shelf, no being added to a challenge of some kind, no forgetting about it.

I'm glad I read it straight away, because I loved it. Geeks rule. Smart people rock. All these stories had such fantastic characters that made me want to re-write my own high school past and wish I'd been a proper geek. But alas, I was too busy trying to fit in and only came into my geekness later in life. It's still considered uncool. :-)

Geektastic has Trekkies, comic book geeks, literature geeks, gaming geeks and two of my favorite sorts - Buffy geeks and science geeks. I'm a total Buffy geek and kind of a science geek myself so those I can relate to. I also felt some connection with the gaming geeks, even though I've never played any of these alternate reality or fantasy games. I've been dying to try World of Warcraft, but I get addicted to these things so fast and I don't want to be addicted so... I haven't tried it.

Anyway. If you're a geek of any kind, you must read this story collection, I'm sure you'll find yourself in it somewhere. Not to mention that you'll discover some great authors - I know that quite a few of the authors included are going straight onto my wishlist. Sigh.

Challenges: Umm, none!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I still can't believe how disappointed I was with this book. I took it on holiday with me because so many people thought it was the perfect read for sitting by the pool - and I was bored! Seriously bored!

The story centers around journalist Mikael and security expert Lisabeth trying to solve the mystery of a disappearance. The other, parallel, plotline concerns business/finance journalism and chasing a story about a crook in the business world. That plotline bored me to bits, I must say.

The action was only vaguely interesting, the writing didn't flow, I kept hoping it would get better but it never did. I found the style simplistic too. It seems that this book was most definitely not for me - am I the only one in the world who didn't like it?? And I so wanted to read something exciting and gripping!!! :-(

Challenges: 1st in a series, 999 Challenge, Orbis Terrarum, Suspense and Thriller Challenge

Garden Spells

I absolutely adored this book. Whenever I sat down to read it, I felt so relaxed and transported into a magical world. Beautiful feeling. The tone and atmosphere is kind of a cross between Alice Hoffman and Joanne Harris - lots of food and culinary magic. I love that kind of thing and wish I knew more about it myself.

The story is about two sisters in a small southern town, trying to overcome their fears and find happiness. The storyline is actually very simple, I guess it's the style that makes the book special. I was worried that it would be too much like Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic, but the similarities in the two stories didn't bother me at all.

What I love about such everyday magic books is the underlying commentary on human nature - to use food to influence people you have to understand how people work. That psychological aspect really appeals to me, even if it is a tad simplified.

The story also deals with the 'gifts' that your family leaves you - what happens if you don't want to be a part of the legacy?

Plus, the cover is so so so very beautiful. It has glitter! What more is there to say? ;-)

Challenges: Southern Reading Challenge, Chick Lit 2, Romance Reading Challenge

Girlfriend in a Coma

I think that Douglas Coupland may well become one of my favorite authors. I've heard so much about him over the years but never got around to reading anything. When my good friend Amy recently moved away and was getting rid of a bunch of books, I snagged a copy of Girlfriend in a Coma and here I am, beginning my Coupland adventure

The girlfriend in the title is Karen, girlfriend to Richard. Karen and Richard have first-time sex one December evening and later that night Karen loses consciousness and goes into a coma that lasts 17 years. She eventually wakes up to a world she hardly recognises and tries to continue on as normal, until a strange sleeping disease kills all of the population except her and her circle of friends. Strange? Definitely. But oh so original and gripping!

It's hard to talk about the story without giving too much away, but let me tell you that every time I thought I knew what was going on, something even stranger happened. I was expecting a different kind of story, but I was not expecting a commentary on modern life. I loved how Karen perceived the new modern world when she woke up - with all the advances and technological improvements making things more efficient, but with the world's inhabitants more empty than ever, with no goals and no soul.

Lots of commentary on the meaning of time and what happens when we don't slow down and appreciate it too...

Are all of Coupland's books like this, I wonder? I can't wait to find out!

Challenges: Every Month is a Holiday (Canada Day!), What's in a Name

Gathering Blue

I fell in love with Lois Lowry's books when I read The Giver and Number the Stars last year. I guess the way that she addresses what I consider important and interesting issues really works for me. I ordered Gathering Blue right after finishing The Giver, since it's part of a loose trilogy, and the book has been sitting on my shelf for about year. Isn't that always the way?

Gathering Blue tackles similar issues to The Giver in that it portrays a community that forms after the end of the world as we know it today. Some cataclysm comes and everything is destroyed and small societies form. In this one, the community lives in primitive conditions, has no technology and few comforts. It is rules by hierarchy though and, of course, the people at the top, the rich ones, have loads more comfort than the others can possibly imagine. They also take more liberties than we'd expect.

The main character, a girl called Kira, is born with a disability and has to constantly prove her worth, to contribute to a society that doesn't tolerate such weakness. She is proud and strong and smart and I liked her very much. I don't want to say too much, as the story is intriguing as it unfolds, so you'll have to get the book yourself to meet Kira.

Gathering Blue wasn't as strong as The Giver, but I liked it all the same and am ordering the last one in the trilogy, Messenger, today. Apparently Jonas from The Giver meets up with Kira! :-)

Challenges: 999 Challenge, It's the end of the world, Countdown Challenge, Young Adult Challenge

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This beautiful book by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is definitely one of favorite books of the year. I wondered about it because it's received so many fantastic reviews and I hate when there's that much hype about a book and then I hate it... but this one is beautiful and touching and interesting and really, really deserves all the praise.

The story is told through letters between the various characters. There are in fact two stories - one of Juliet who is living in London in 1946 trying to come up with an idea for a novel and one is about some inhabitants of Guernsey and what German occupation looked like for them during the war. The two come together because one of the Guernsey men finds a book that had once belonged to Juliet and writes to her.

As the stories of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society unfold, Juliet starts to care about the people involved and begins to realise something about what's important in others and in life. The stories are wonderful, the characters are engaging, the writing is charming.

The way the occupation is described reminds me of the second part of Suite Francaise - the Germans and the locals start to get to know each other and it turns out that they are all human beings who don't want to be in that situation. It doesn't seem to matter who started it...

Here are a few of my favorite quotes - there were way too many good ones to write down though!

Juliet on her old flat being destroyed in a bombing:

"I know that I am fortunate to have any place at all to live in London, but I much prefer whining to counting my blessings."

Juliet on not being able to buy new shoes to go with her new dress:

"...doesn't it seem shocking to hqve more stringent rationing after the war than during the war? I realise that hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe must be fed, housed and clothed, but privately I resent it that so many of them are Germans."

Juliet on finding out more about the German occupation of Guernsey:

"I want to talk to people like him (...) and hear about their war, because that's what I'd like to read, instead of statistics about grain."

The comments on the back cover say that you won't want it to end and it's true. I now want to visit Guernsey and I will be very, very disappointed if the characters from this book don't live there!

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Countdown Challenge, War through the Generations

The Goose Girl

Author Shannon Hale and in particular her book The Goose Girl is one of my first blogging finds. I don't think I would have ever heard of her if I hadn't started blogging. This is one of the aspects I really appreciate about our community!

So I've been wanting to read this for over a year, I think, and it's been sittting on my shelf for about 6 months. I picked it up now for Carl's Once Upon a Time challenge.

I'm disappointed that I didn't love it. I liked it but there were so many fantastic reviews that I so wanted to love it! I wanted it to be one of those books that engrossed me completely, I wanted to read it and forget our world and become part of the story. For whatever reason - and it may well be that I have some big stuff distracting me at the moment - this didn't happen. Well, maybe until the last third of the book - I didn't really want to put it down then.

I guess I should be happy that I really liked it, rather than upset that I didn't love it, but hey, that's what happens when you have too many expectations!

The Goose Girl is a fairy tale about Princess Ani who has led a sheltered life and is forced to grow up very quickly when certain events come to be. She has to learn to be independent, she has to deal with her friends betraying her and she has to learn who she really is, aside from her background and her title. And it's not like she fits in where she ends up - she looks different than the others, has serious secrets and can communicate with animals... it's certainly not easy but she gets through it and comes out a winner.

The tone of the book is completely magical. I'd start reading and feel all warm inside. The characters are great and the story has some nice twists that keep it interesting. Most interesting is Ani's coming-of-age journey of self-discovery. She does it so well too - she has the perfect balance of confidence and strength and self-doubt. I think her thinking process is beautifully captured.

I'll definitely try another Shannon Hale book, her writing is superb - any thoughts on which one I should get next?

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Countdown Challenge, New Authors, Once Upon A Time, What's in a Name?, Young Adult Challenge, YA Romance

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes... But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes

These two books were written by Anita Loos, the first was published in 1925 and the second in 1927. They are both diaries written by Lorelei Lee, a pretty flapper living it up in the 1920s. The subtitle of the first book is 'Diary of a Professional Lady', so I'm sure you get the idea.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is Lorelei's diary about her day-to-day life, her relationships with various men, her trip to Europe and her getting married. She is hilarious - she is striving for intellectual knowledge and loves to learn things. She thinks she is educated and fairly high-class, which makes her social gaffes even funnier. She is very likable. I enjoyed listening to her adventures and her interpretation of how the world works and what men are for.

But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes is in Lorelei's voice once again, but tells the story of her friend. I thought this was much, much weaker... kind of more of the same.

Apparently, Anita Loos got the idea to write these books when she noticed that all the men around her were falling over the blonde in the room and paying no attention to her, a brunette, even though she was pretty and intelligent. I liked that bit of information, I like knowing where an author is coming from.

These books are the pre-cursors of chick-lit - all about men and going out and getting jewellery - entertaining and fluffy.

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Audiobook Challenge, Classics Challenge, Decades Challenge

Getting Rid of Matthew

What a fun book! Jane Fallon's Getting Rid of Matthew was the perfect chicklit - believable characters, interesting plot, romance, man problems and career problems too. Not simplistic but not too serious either. Perfect for this genre.

Helen is dating Matthew for four years. The only problem is that Matthew is married to Sophie and has two daughters and he doesn't want to leave them. When he finally does, Helen realises that this is not what she wants and she does her best to get rid of him and get her life back. How does she do this? By using a fake identity and befriending Sophie of course. :-)

I really enjoyed this, as I do most intelligent chick lit. I'm definitely going to read anything else Jane Fallon writes - she gives Sophie Kinsella a run for her money!

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Countdown Challenge, New Authors, Themed Reading Challenge, Chick Lit 2, Romance Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge

The Good Women of China

January 26 was the start of the Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year because it's start is linked to the moon. I thought this would be a perfect choice for the January holiday for the Every Month is a Holiday challenge.

The book I read was Xinran's The Good Women of China. Now, I would NEVER have heard of Xinran if it's hadn't been for Joy and the A-Z Challenge that she hosted last year. X authors are hard to find! I decided to do this challenge again this year (this time hosted by ...) and so was in a fix once more. I am so incredibly glad that I picked up Xinran's book when I saw it in a secondhand bookstore. I really think that my life is richer because I read this one.

The Good Women of China is non-fiction. Xinran is a Chinese journalist who had a radio show about Chinese women and their lives. Women could call in or leave messages and had the opportunity to tell their stories. Xinran gathered these stories and her experiences getting them and meeting the women involved and put it all in a book.

What she created is very powerful. Women in China had to live through so much - not only the traditional society aspect of things but also the political side of things. Women were married off by either their parents or by the revolution. They were used, abused and thrown out. They lost their children, they lost the loves of their lives, they ended up alone or with husbands they didn't care for. Survival was the main goal and everything else got buried in the process.

But these women's stories show that some things can't be buried, not really. The emotions in this book are so powerful that I couldn't tear myself away from the stories. Who knew that a non-fiction book about women in China could be such a page turner?

I think that this one sentence sums up how the Cultural Revolution affected people:

"Humanity and wisdom were banished to places which did not know there was anywhere in this world where women could say 'no' and men could read newspapers."

Reading this made me sad for the people of China and very interested in reading more about their country, including about the Cultural Revolution. If you've read anything interesting on these subjects, please let me know!

Challenges: 999 Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Countdown Challenge, Dewey Decimal System Challenge, Every Month is a Holiday, New Authors, Well-Seasoned Reader, World Citizen Challenge

The Great Gatsby

I didn't read this in high school for some reason and have heard people rave about for many years before finally picking it up. My first impression after I finished was that it was only ok - I certainly wouldn't call it the best thing I've ever read. I didn't hate it but I wasn't wowed either.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's book is a classic. It shows not only the surface of glittery 1920s high society in the US, but also its 'shady underbelly'. It juxtaposes the immense over-the-top parties that many lived for and went to whether they knew the host or not with the pain and sorrow of broken love - as well as other misery people wanted to forget.

Since the main driving force of the story is love and since Gatsby's love is so, how should I put it, simple and therefore strong, I think that I would definitely have been wowed by this book if I had indeed read it in high school. It would be have meant the height of romance for me, I can really imagine that. As it is, perhaps I'm too cynical now to appreciate that side of the story.

I can definitely see why it's considered a classic and enjoyed the glimpse into 1920s society. And high school students should cetrainly continue reading it, because they will be able to relate. As for me, I'm glad I finally got to it, but I have to admit I'm more than 15 years late!

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Classics Challenge

Getting Things Done

I think I've been slowly reading this since January... I wanted to go through David Allen's Getting Things Done methodologically so I wouldn't miss anything. And to implement his advice as I went along. Well, I was a bit too lazy to do much of the implementing, but I still think I will.

Getting Things Done has a subtitle: The Art of Stree-free Productivity. Is there anyone out there who doesn't want to know how to achieve that? Seriously, it sounds fantastic! Does it deliver? I don't know - I guess you can only ask that of someone who has been following the advice for a while... But I think it just might.

Allen offers advice on getting oneself organised, both at work and at home. To set up a system where things don't fall through the cracks, a system that is trustworthy and so stress-free. Since we're dealing with so many things coming at us from all directions these days, we need a new way of looking at how to handle it all. The difference between this and earlier systems is that Allen's aims to capture everything, both big and small, in the same system. The idea is that we're stressed because of all the unfinished things on our minds - so if everything that we need to do and want to do is captured in our system, we won't worry about it any more. The trick seems to be to capture everything - from needing to pick up milk to possibly wanting to learn Italian one day.

So after the initial organisation phase it should be fairly straightforward. Allen's system makes sense, it's logical. Oh and it requires lists!! Yay! :-)

Have you read this? Has the system worked for you?

Challenges: 888 Challenge, Non-Fiction Five Challenge