Morrigan's Cross - and R.I.P. IV challenge done!

Wow, that book sure was fun! I'd never read anything by Nora Roberts before, I don't read romance novels like hers, but I read somewhere that the Circle Trilogy was cool and I was attracted by the promise of Irish lore. It delivered that and it threw in some vampire action too!

Morrigan's Cross is the first book in the trilogy and basically sets the stage for an apocalypse. The Morrigan, Irish goddess of the battlefield (amongst other things) singles out a group of people to lead the battle against Lilith, vampire queen. What's not to like? Plus, being the Buffy geek that I am, I was happy to see a reference to the Slayer - actually, the whole story had many Buffy similarities, though not in an annoying way.

I know that this book isn't for everyone, but if you like Celtic myths and vampires then try it! It has the required cheesy romance bits in it too, but they're easy enough to overlook!

Challenges: 1st in a series, 2010 Countdown Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Celebrate the Author (October 30), R.I.P. IV
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This book concludes Carl's R.I.P. Challenge for me - great fun as always! Of the books I read... hey, I loved all of them! Here they are - Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts plus

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Linqvist
No Time for Goodbye by Lynwood Barclay
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, volume 1 by Joss Whedon et al.


Thanks Carl, for hosting, I enjoy this challenge every single year!

The Hours

I did not expect to like The Hours by Michael Cunningham and I'm not even sure what about it intrigued me enough to pick it up in the first place. Isn't it nice when a book that you think will be totally over your head surprises you by being touching and, at least at some level, understood? This is what happened with this one.

The Hours is actually three stories in one; the stories of three women, all looking for something different, something more. There is Virginia Woolf herself, working on writing Mrs Dalloway in the 1920s; her husband insists on living in the country because it should keep her more sane, but she yearns for the bustling energy of London, she feels stifled in her environment. There is Clarissa, modelled on Clarissa Dalloway herself, who, in modern New York, spends her day planning a party for a dying friend. And there is Mrs Brown, who lives in 1940s California and tries to be what her family expect her to be; when all she wants is some time on her own to read Mrs Dalloway.

I found all three women's stories engrossing. Cunningham replicates Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness style and does so splendidly. The stories all take place in the space of one day, which is apparently meant to show the beauty in the everyday. But what it showed me was how rich the human mind is; we go through so many thoughts, observations, worries, questions, moments of peace and happiness in each and every day. If we'd take the time to notice every single thing we come across in the space of one day, we'd find it all incredible I think.

The longing of the characters for something else was touching and beautifully portrayed. I understand that the themes running through The Hours are the same as some of the themes in Mrs Dalloway, so I'm now inspired to read the latter. We'll see.

Oh and The Hours won both the Pulitzer and the PEN/Faulkner Award, so I guess many others were also touched by it.

Challenges: 1% Well-Read Challenge, 999 Challenge, Book Awards 3

Murder on a Bad Hair Day

Don't you just love the title? ;-) Murder on a Bad Hair Day is the second book in the Southern Sisters mystery series by Anne George. I read the first one for the Southern Reading Challenge last year, bought the second one immediately and haven't gotten around to reading it till now. Good thing the next installment of the Southern Reading Challenge is on now!

This series features 60-year-old sisters Patricia Anne and Mary Alice - lovable and eccentric characters who live in Alabama. They somehow manage to get themselves mixed up in trouble and this time the trouble involves 2 murders, a disappearance and an art gallery. It's a truly enjoyable mystery and the characters are great. It totally makes me want to go to Alabama, although I wonder if the reality resembles the lovely place in the book.

Recommended if you like reading mysteries... Thanks Joy for introducing me to this series!

Challenges: 2nds Challenge, 999 Challenge, Southern Reading Challenge, Suspense and Thriller Challenge, What's in a Name?

Wicked Lovely and another challenge down

Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely is my favorite audiobook so far. The narrator, Alyssa Bresnahan, was fantastic and totally brought the story to life for me. I will certainly look for other audiobooks that she has narrated.

Wicked Lovely was a great book. Magical and dark, fast-paced, with realistic characters that I really cared about. Ainsling is the story's central figure - she is not entirely a normal teenager, because she has 'the sight', meaning that she can see fairies. When she realises that a whole bunch of them are following her around and not letting go, a wondrous tale of the merging of two world unravels.

Although the setting is different, what with all the fairies around, the story has plenty of teenage issues, including young love. The development of Ainsling's and Seth's relationship is an aspect that I really enjoyed. The descriptions of the growing sexual tension between them and the problems related to their reluctance to do anything to ruin their friendship - well, it was beautiful. And refreshing!

Really, if you like fantasy then this is one for you. I loved the ending too, I was wondering how the author would resolve everything! I heard that the next book in this series, Ink Exchange, is even darker, but I think I'll have to try it anyway!

Challenges: YA Romance, 1st in a series, 999 Challenge, Audiobook Challenge

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This book completes the YA Romance Challenge for me. It was hosted by Becky of Becky's Book Reviews and was great fun. I'm reading so much YA lately, so strange!

Here's what I read - to see my original plans, see my initial post.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (scroll up for my thoughts)

I couldn't pick just one favorite, these were all good! I guess this genre just appeals to me! :-)

Thanks Becky for hosting, looking forward to the next edition!

First Among Sequels

First Among Sequels is the latest (fifth) book in Jasper Fforde's brilliant Thursday Next series. I read the first four years ago so really should have re-read them before moving on to this one, but I didn't, so there.

I won't say too much about the plot, but I will say that if you love books and haven't read this series then you're really missing out. Thursday Next lives in a world where moving between reality and fiction is possible - she can literally jump into a book and hang out with the characters. Cool eh? The stories always include some trouble in the book world - someone has kidnapped Jane Eyre, someone is trying to kill Sherlock Holmes etc.

All the books are also a commentary on various aspects of our modern world - including politics, war, consumerism and the decline of reading. This latest one also includes some thoughts on reality tv, which were hilarious. And a bit scary, because they're so close to the truth.

Fforde's use of language is delightful - loads of plays on words and clever phrasing. I think many of you book bloggers would love these books! Highly recommended.

Challenges: Numbers Challenge

Slaughterhouse 5

I've always wondered what the title of Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war novella referred to, now I know that it's the address of where American prisoners-of-war were kept in Dresden towards the end of WWII. The book is in fact about Vonnegut's experience of the bombing of Dresden, although it doesn't really come up that often.

Slaughterhouse 5 reminded me of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller to which it's been compared many times. When I read Catch-22 last year, I thought it could have been shorter. Vonnegut got the length right, I think. Anyway, the main similarity is of course the topic of the absurdity of war - the story is about Billy, who (yes) is present at the bombing of Dresden, but who also time-travels, gets kidnapped by aliens and displayed in a zoo and is an optometrist by trade. The whole thing is absurd, but with very engaging language making it exceptionally witty.

There are a few things in particular that stayed with me. This passage:

She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn't really like life at all.

Also, I enjoyed the way that the aliens that kidnapped Billy looked at life and death. Basically, when you died it was only in that moment and since time was not consecutive but happened all at the same time, there were still millions of moments in which you were alive. I liked all the talk of a fourth dimension too - that's where the vampires live, for example. :-)

And - a saying that went around by email thousand of times that I really like seems to have originated in this book. Although it could be taken from somewhere too, I guess:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.

This is very pertinent to my current life situation so really struck a chord.

Definitely a book that deserves to be read. I wonder what else of Vonnegut's is interesting!

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Numbers Challenge, 1% Well-read Challenge, 999 Challenge, Support your Local Library, War through the Generations