Friday, December 16, 2005

Wishlist

I'm in a workshop for teen librarians, and we are supposed to create a blog. I'm updating this with a booklist of books I want to read:

~In the Coils of the Snake by Clare Dunkle
~Uglies by Scott Westerfield

That's all for now!

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Random stuff

So I've been home for several weeks, which means lots of rereading. Some of the stuff I've reread:

Lord of the Rings, The Alleluia Files, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Illusion (the only Paula Volsky book I've ever been able to get through, but I love it), Mansfield Park, The Chronicles of the Chrestomanci Book One, a ton of random romance/ popular novels, and all the Harry Potter books.

New Stuff:
~Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

This book really sucked me in- I read it in one 3-4 hour sitting. It's fairly dense, and uses challenging language, sometimes excessively I felt (I started keeping track of how many times I spotted vertiginous.) However, the language really builds up the imagery in the story, some of which is exceptionally vivid and disturbing. I wouldn't recommend it if you have a queasy stomach- there's TON of mucus imagery along with plenty of violence, but the story and setting completely seized my attention.

~The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

I've just started this, thanks to Lucy. It sure doesn't start off with a "hook"- two chapters about the heath? And I still have trouble picturing it, other than that's it's hilly and dark. Once I came to the character driven chapters I started to enjoy it quite a bit. I've only read this for about an hour so far, but I should finish up in the next few days.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

March 27- Dumas, Flaubert, Bradbury, Stroud

Currently Reading:

~The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged)

Not finished yet, but it's very different from the abridged version. Much more excitement and poison.

~Madame Bovary

Again, not quite finished with this. Lucy tells me I can keep it. :P


Lately Finished:

~Bradbury Classic Stories 1 : From the Golden Apples of the Sun and R Is for Rocket

This is an amazing collection of short stories. They range in length from 5 pages to 80 pages long, but all managed to grab my attention. I think my favorites were "The Fog Horn," "The Murderer," and "Frost and Fire". I hope the library has a second collection like this. This book made me want to reread "Dandelion Wine" aka. "The Bradbury No One Has Read".

~The Amulet of Samarkand

YA/Juv fantasy fiction. The humorous narration really makes this book. I especially enjoyed the demon's many footnotes, which reminded me of Terry Pratchett's work.