50 Book challenge (or, Goddamn Lillian Reads a Lot)
Laura Lippman Books
Life Sentences Laura Lippman
Baltimore Blues Laura Lippman
Charm City Laura Lippman
Butcher's Hill Laura Lippman
Mysteries
The Writing Class Jincy Willett
Copycat Erica Spindler
Breakneck Erica Spindler
Hold Tight Harlan Coben
Caught Harlan Coben
Chick Lit
With you and Without You Deborah J. Wolf
Young Adult Novels
Wish Alexandra Bullen
Kindle Books
Least Wanted Debbi Mack
Identity Crisis Debbi Mack
Alone Lisa Gardner
Protector Laurel Dewey
Laura Lippman Books
Tess Monaghan Novels
In Big Trouble
The Sugar House
In a Strange City
The Last Place
By A Spider's Thread
No Good Deeds
Another Thing to Fall
The Girl in the Green Raincoat
Standalone Novels
Every Secret Thing
Other Books
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest ~ Steig Larsson
Long Lost ~ Harlan Coben
Murder In the Rue Ursulines ~ Greg Herren
Kindle Books
Without Reservations: With or Without ~ J. L. Langley
Turned (Book 1 in the Vampire Journals) ~ Morgan Rice
Beautiful Demons ~ Sarra Cannon
Bitter Demons ~ Sarra Cannon
Inner Demons ~ Sarra Cannon
Medical Error ~ Richard Mabry
Intervention ~ Terri Blackstock
The View from Here ~ Rachel Howzell
Thoughts:
I finally finished Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) and it's as good as everyone says it is, except the books are a million pages long because Larsson had no idea how to edit himself, so he detailed every excruciating little thing no one gives a fuck about, like what people ate for breakfast (no I am not kidding you) and the books could have easily been cut by a hundred pages each without losing anything. The third book is the best (and the worst for those annoying diversions like what people ate, what they wore, why they wore it, what pets they had, etc.) The descriptions of what happened to Lisbeth Salander were horrible, but I enjoyed seeing how it turned out. I can't say anything else without spoiling it, but I was happy with the denouement.
Laura Lippman is a genius. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, she makes me want to get home every day so I can finish reading her books. I love her to pieces. And "Every Secret Thing" is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. Seriously, everyone should read this book. I want to go door to door in cities across the world and give away copies of this book to everyone so they will read it. It's THAT good.
Those "Demons" novels on the Kindle are a young adult series by Sarra Cannon, and I love them. they might not be the pinnacle of authorial genius, but they're so much fun that I can breeze through them in a few hours and be left wanting more. I'm happy to have found this fun series and excited to read the new book when it comes out in May.
"The View from Here" is also one of the best books I have ever read. It's another book that I wish more people would read. It kind of irks me that books like this get ignored, whilst rage-inducing fare like "Something Borrowed" become bestsellers and get made into movies. Ugh.
"Turned" isn't your usual "vampire romance" novel. It's in-depth and mysterious and dark, and I'm interested to see how the story plays out in future novels.
"Medical Error" and "Intervention" are two "Christian fiction" titles, but they're not overly preachy or insulting (no "strong sperms" here, Dani). "Intervention" is probably the better of the two, but the author includes a preachy, annoying "note" at the end beating people over the head with a bible in order to drag them in the basement and make them ask Jesus into their hearts. I advise you to skip the author's note, because the book is a million times better without it.
"Without Reservations: With or Without" is a gay smut book. I bought it for a laugh and actually ended up enjoying it. The two main characters don't have sex until chapter 6, but then that's pretty much all they do for the rest of the book, even while people are trying to kill them and stuff. The two main guys are werewolves, and they're soul mates (it's kind of complicated but it's interesting lore if you can keep a straight face for the explanation, which I couldn't) and the funny thing is, the werewolf thing is treated like an afterthought. "Oh, by the way, we're werewolves. Moving on..." I don't want to be mean, because the book is fun for what it is, but it's kind of hilarious too. I still wouldn't mind reading more of the series, though. The writing isn't bad, but OH MY GOD the author uses cliches like they're real dialogue. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, after all." "In for a penny, out for a pound, I always say." And the BEST ONE EVER OMG. The two main characters have their first sex scene, right? And they finish and they're lying there...wait for it..."Happier than a pig in shit." NO I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP OMG OMG OMG.
I was talking with my friend Cindy recently, and I realized that while I miss some shows on cable (haven't had cable for over a year) I actually read a LOT more because I don't have cable, and I like it better this way. I can't believe it's only the end of April and I've already read 35 books!