50bookchallenge, 15000pages
Book #36 -- Robin McKinley, Pegasus
, 400 pages.
This was probably the most hyped book in my ALA haul -- the one I ran for as soon as I got to the exhibit floor and the one I had to stifle a squeal over when it turned out they still had some. It was also the first one I read - I started right away. And I loved it. I've read other reviews that complained that the main character was whiny, but I thought she was realistically overwhelmed without being timid. I loved Ebon. He's a great character - snarky, and a little naive, and amusingly disgusted with the way humans always have to make simple things complicated. The only thing I didn't like about Pegasus was the cliff-hanger ending - I somehow missed the memo that this was really just the first half of a longer story. One of the drawbacks to getting advanced copies of series books is that you have to wait twice as long for the next book unless you're lucky enough to score another advanced copy.
Book #37 -- Diane Gilbert Madsen, A Cadger's Curse (A DD McGil Literati Mystery)
, 336 pages.
It's rare that you get both high-tech espionage and historio-literary mystery in the same novel but it somehow worked in this one. Half of the fun was trying to figure out which shady characters were trying to cover up corporate misdeeds and which were after the secret Burns manuscript.
Book #38 -- A. S. King, The Dust of 100 Dogs
, 336 pages.
I missed scoring a copy of this last year so I was happy to get it this year. It's a very different take on the pirate narrative, and the way the perspective changes from Cromwellian Ireland, to 17th century Caribbean, to modern working-class Pennsylvania, to modern Jamaica, and back again is amazing in that it actually works. As a pirate enthusiast and Hibernophile, there was no chance that I *wouldn't* like this book, of course.
Progress toward goals: 191/365 = 52.3%
Books: 38/100 = 38.0%
Pages: 10255/25000 = 41.0%
2010 Book List
cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven
, 400 pages.
This was probably the most hyped book in my ALA haul -- the one I ran for as soon as I got to the exhibit floor and the one I had to stifle a squeal over when it turned out they still had some. It was also the first one I read - I started right away. And I loved it. I've read other reviews that complained that the main character was whiny, but I thought she was realistically overwhelmed without being timid. I loved Ebon. He's a great character - snarky, and a little naive, and amusingly disgusted with the way humans always have to make simple things complicated. The only thing I didn't like about Pegasus was the cliff-hanger ending - I somehow missed the memo that this was really just the first half of a longer story. One of the drawbacks to getting advanced copies of series books is that you have to wait twice as long for the next book unless you're lucky enough to score another advanced copy.
Book #37 -- Diane Gilbert Madsen, A Cadger's Curse (A DD McGil Literati Mystery)
, 336 pages.
It's rare that you get both high-tech espionage and historio-literary mystery in the same novel but it somehow worked in this one. Half of the fun was trying to figure out which shady characters were trying to cover up corporate misdeeds and which were after the secret Burns manuscript.
Book #38 -- A. S. King, The Dust of 100 Dogs
, 336 pages.
I missed scoring a copy of this last year so I was happy to get it this year. It's a very different take on the pirate narrative, and the way the perspective changes from Cromwellian Ireland, to 17th century Caribbean, to modern working-class Pennsylvania, to modern Jamaica, and back again is amazing in that it actually works. As a pirate enthusiast and Hibernophile, there was no chance that I *wouldn't* like this book, of course.
Progress toward goals: 191/365 = 52.3%
Books: 38/100 = 38.0%
Pages: 10255/25000 = 41.0%
2010 Book List
cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven