Book #42 - The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

This was a bloody brilliant book.  I loved every moment of it.  A re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, I thought it would probably annoy me like a lot of reimaginings tend to... (Wicked, for example) but while it was definitely a whole different spin on the story, even going so far as to saying that ( Read more... )

Book #39 - River Secrets by Shannon Hale

The third book in the Books of Bayern series... I didn't think this was half so well put together as The Goose Girl or Enna Burning, as it felt very uneven, and even contrived in some places.  I also just don't care as much for the narrator of this one, though I guess he's Hale's favorite character.  The ( Read more... )

Book #37 - The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde

Since First Among Sequels is finally in paperback, I really wanted to read this series all in one go, and it'd been long enough since I read it to have enjoyed it immensely again.  I've noticed the strays in POV and things like that a bit more this go around (especially as Fforde has ( Read more... )

Book #30 - The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Reread this almost entirely because I'd lent it out and it changed hands a couple of times before getting back to me, which sort of thing gets me panicky a bit.  Enjoyed it a bit more the second time around, since the background characters are all very interesting, and it was easier to keep them straight ( Read more... )

Book # 27 - The Life Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty

Once again, it has been proved that Jaclyn Moriarty is smarter than me.  It took me about half the book to figure out that one of the secondary characters in this is actually a main character from The Year of Secret Assignments, and then another while to realize another character was ( Read more... )

Book 22 - The Circle Opens: Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce

This was my favorite of the four narrators, but this book was So.  Bloody.  It disturbs me that kids read these.

Book 23 - The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

This continues to be fun to read.  I love that there are no limits whatsoever in what can happen.  It always amazes me when fantasy writers ( Read more... )

Book 20 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Surprisingly fun re-read.  I hated this book so much the first time through that I'd blocked most of it out of my memory by the time HBP came out, but the movie managed to soften the edges that my imagination had rendered unbearably sharp in my first read-through of the book.  ( Read more... )

Book 15 - 101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon

Exactly what it says.  This was really interesting because despite having taken a class on Jane Austen, I didn't know much about her at all.  My only criticism is that Hannon tries too hard to make herself sound as witty as Austen at moments, and parts feel like you're reading ( Read more... )

Book 11 - Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull

Besides having a fairly embarrassing title, along with the dust-jacket-most-likely-to-embarrass-an-adult-in-public of the three Fablehaven books so far, this new edition was fully satisfying and just as amazing as the other two books in the series.  The two main kids are learning and ( Read more... )

Book 9 - Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

I had a legit. reason for rereading this one, honest!  Our church book club that I've been all but forced to join is reading it (not my idea) and I wanted to refresh.  Now my mother is reading it, which is amusing, because it's so not her type of book.  We've been enjoying making fun of Edward's whiteness/ ( Read more... )