July booklist

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

 

I spent most of my birthday weekend reading, and I had some deadlines for finishing some of these ... thus the explosion.

 

1. Emma (vol 1) Koaru Mori

2. Emma (vol 2) Koaru Mori

    Read these manga (and vol. 3, below) ... they were okay, not my favorites, but okay. I guess I can't quite overcome the implausibility factor. 

3. Home, Julie Andrews

    Ab-so-bloomin-lut-ly loved this. I saw some reviewers criticizing her writing for being emotionless, but I didn't feel that way at all. She writes in a reserved fashion, rather like she speaks, but I felt no lack of feeling behind it. The only bad thing is that it leaves off just before she got the role in The Sound of Music! I do so hope she writes a second volume. She's led an interesting life.

4. Mama Makes Up Her Mind, Bailey White

   Oh dear, parts of this had me holding my sides with helpless laughter. Nothing beats a crazy southern mama.

5. D.Gray-Man, Katsura Hashino

    Oooo. Favorite manga ever. (She says, having tried all of three or four different ones.) Prepare to see more of these on next month's list, as  ransomedsea was a dear and let me borrow the other eight. *squiggle*

6. Beauty, Robin McKinley 
    Read this in one misty morning at the park. OH WOW. I immediately went out and ordered Rose Daughter, because I hear that the ultimate ending is changed in her re-written version ... and the ending is the one thing I didn't like about Beauty. It was too short, too little developed, and the Beast seemed like a completely different person from the one I'd grown to love throughout the rest of the book.

7. Emma (vol 3) Koaru Mori

 

8. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

    All of the sudden I had a feeling that it was imperitive that I read some Pratchett. So I picked this hilarious sort-of-parody-of-Hamlet.

9. The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom

    Who knows when I would have ever picked this up again if it hadn't been for ruthette's  summer bookclub. I'm so glad I did. There's so much encouragement contained within ... and so much to be learned from the faith of the ten Booms. 

10. Extras, Scott Westerfield

     A good end to the trilogy-now-quadrilogy. To me it lacked the zing of the earlier books, but I think it can offer good food for thought about popularity even as it entertains.

11. Austenland, Shannon Hale

     I was in the mood for something a bit more fluffy, and this funny little story of a woman spending several weeks in the world of Jane Austen fit the bill. My only complaint is that some things didn't feel explained well enough (was it a high-class dating service? resort? fantasy vacation?) but the ending, oh, the ending was worth the price of the book, or would have been worth the price of the book if I had paid anything for it. :)

12. Albion's Seed, David Hackett Fischer
     Took me forever, but I finished it! I have one word to describe this book: comprehensive. It takes the four major European migrations to America and traces how the folkways each group of people brought with them have influenced the cultures of the places they settled. It covers everything from architecture to food to music to their views of death. 
 

13. American Nerd, Benjamin Nugent

     While reading, it struck me that only a nerd would write a book about the history of nerdism. And more than likely, only nerds would read it. It was interesting. :)

14. A Year with the Queen, Robert Hardman

     A beautifully photographed documentation of a year in the life of the Queen, who, I believe, is likely the busiest woman in England.

15. Before Green Gables, Budge Wilson
     This prequel to Anne of Green Gables surprised me by not being an abysmal failure! It didn't have the some voice and charm of LMM's books, of course, but it really was good.

 

16. Quirkology, Richard Wiseman

      Sort of like Freakonomics or Blink but not quite as good; still very interesting although I take all these sorts of studies with a grain of salt. 

17. Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale

     Oh my word. Loved this so much. The ending? So perfect. It was so real, even though it was a fantasy world.

18. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

     So this book kind of made me scared to eat, but it gave me a LOT of food for thought, pun mostly not intended. I can't recap all his points, he makes so many good ones. I guess what got me most was the realization that most of what we eat - even my generally healthy diet - is so over processed that it shouldn't even be called food. I may have to dedicate a separate post to this book later on. I didn't agree with everything he said, but I think it's just that important.

19. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

     A reread for kiwiria's bookclub. I read it with mixed feelings; I loved it when I was a child and young teenager, but hadn't read it in many years. Coming back to it now, I don't think I would care for it much if I didn't have a history with it, so to speak. Much of the moralizing actually made me cringe. However, I'll keep rereading it so long as I cry over Beth's death and laugh when Jo gets her professor. :)

 

20. Song of the Sparrow, Lisa Ann Sandell

      Finally, someone gives Elaine (lady of Shalott, the Lily Maid, etc.) her happy ending. I kept expecting a tragic ending, and was so happy to be proven wrong. Also, novels in verse are not generally my cup of tea (or coffee, or rum), but I think the style suited this story.

 

21. The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter, Andrew Blake

      Not as good as it sounds. I was hoping for a study of the social phenominon that is Harry Potter, and got instead a glorified essay that tried to read way to much into Harry's world and Rowling's motivations for writing.

22. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
      I reread this sort of by accident, but it was good, even though I just read it in April. I like to keep comparing and contrasting book-Bond with movie(Craig)-Bond.

23. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer

      I reread this one by accident, too. I got my own copy in the mail a few days ago, and I just picked it up and started reading the first page, and ... there you go. I was dazzled again.