Soon I Will be Invincible by Austin Grossman

(21)

A fun little comic hero send-up, half written from the perspective of the evil villain and half from the view of a relatively new and inexperienced superhero.  Surprisingly complex for what it was and decidedly enjoyable.

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

(20)

I told you I wasn’t getting anything done because of these books!  Now it’s over and I already miss them all.  Can’t wait for more from Nix.  Sooo jealous this wasn’t my idea.

Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr by Garth Nix

(19)

Audio again, read by Tim Curry.  Can I just say that this series is why I got NO work done for a week?  I was constantly looking for excuses to jump in the car or go for a walk so I could pop on my earbuds and listen.  Sooo good.  New books in the series set in the Old Kingdom coming in 2009 or 2010 and another a year or two later.  Woot.

Don’t Talk Back to Your Vampire by Michelle Bardsley

(18 )

Worse than the first one, sex scenes were lamer, plot was thinner. I read it anyway, what does that say about me?

PS – I’m guessing a 4000 year old Irish vampire was probably NOT circumcised and it stands to reason that no part of his intimate anatomy is likely to be similar to a mushroom… but what do I know?

I’m the Vampire, That’s Why by Michelle Bardsley

(17)

The humor of Charlaine Harris with the raunchy sex of a mild Laurell K. Hamilton. Silly, fluffy little tub read, the literary equivalent of junk food. Fun, but of absolutely no nutritional value. Had Mary Janice Davidson chosen to write about soccer moms instead of a shoe-obsessed old maid, this would be the result.  A little more graphic in the sex department than I like, but all vamp fiction that isn’t bloody horror seems to be going this way…

Sabriel by Garth Nix

(16)

I’m not totally sure I should count this in my booklist, since I am a book snob and it was an audiobook.

But, I will, because it was SO good. I’ve been thinking I needed to read some Garth Nix for a while, and when I noticed the library had it on audio I figured it would give me something to listen to in the car. I wavered, saw it was read by Tim Curry and that made the decision for me.

I also quickly realized that it was not suitable for listening while driving the 6yo around. It is a YA book, definitely older YA though. It is not deeply scary, but some of the concepts of life and death and afterdeath would be difficult to explain to someone to a child with limited life experience. The story was good, really good and original and I never saw the ending coming, which is nice.

Real kudos go to Tim Curry for an excellent reading. You’ve never heard fantasy til you’ve heard Tim Curry voicing a wild magic creature pretending to be a talking cat with attitude. I had the sequels from the library, but I took them back and traded them in for the audio version two days into this one.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

(15)

This is my 3rd CM book, and it was easily the best. While all his books have moments of laugh out loud funny, the general plot of the others I’ve read has turned me off so completely that I keep vowing not to read him anymore. Unfortunately, my book club likes him… lol. Yes, this was a book club book or I never would have picked it up.

My biggest complaint about this book was the cover art. It gave away the “big twist” ending before I even started reading it and I spent the whole time I was reading waiting for poor clueless Charlie Asher to figure out what the art told me.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

(14)

Omigosh this was SO good!  I hate when people talk about writers growing and maturing like we are all closet teenagers, but JJ really is.  Each book is better than the last.  This one I devoured in 2 days.  It would have been one but about 130am my husband came and turned on the TV and I couldn’t read with all the noise.

There was not a single character I didn’t adore.  Not ONE.  I loved Laurel and her closet insecurity, her mother hiding behind manners and refusing to really SEE anything, her Dad living in his own world, happy as long as it kept revolving around her mom, and David.  I adored David, being married to one of those engineer types myself I could totally relate.

I firmly believe this is Joshilyn Jackson’s best book to date, and am already chomping at the bit to read the next one!

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

(13)

Okay, I hate memoirs. Really, as a general rule, I do. And yet, I liked this book. It spoke to me in ways I didn’t expect it to. I even drug out my musty, dusty meditation books after reading this ( and fell asleep the first time I tried to meditate, lol). She expressed a lot of sentiments I could relate to, and she did it in a voice I really appreciated, possibly because it is similar to my own?

She also annoyed me. She is so damn selfish and self-centered. The 9/11 thing made me feel for her, but the ok marriage that lead to ugly divorce and bad boyfriend bits made me want to smack her upside the head and say “Hello! REAL tragedies happen everyday, get over yourself already!”

And yet, I liked it anyway. For the life of me I can’t figure out why, but I did. Can I go one thumb up and one down to express critical ambivalence?

A Lifetime of Secrets by Frank Warren

(12)

I love PostSecret.  It combines catharsis for those who participate with the voyeuristic thrill of hiding behind the curtain in a confessional booth – all those secrets, but no way to tell who they belong to.

It’s also great for writing inspiration.  Stuck?  Find a postcard, write the backstory.  There’s loads to choose from.

This was a library copy, but the latter reason alone I will probably, eventually, buy all the postsecret books.

Spanish Dagger by Susan Wittig Albert

(11) (a China Bayles mystery)

Love this series!

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

(10)

Finally!

This was MY selection for my book club this year, and I hosted in, um, January. I loaned my copy to someone and read a library copy I had to return before finishing and just got around to getting mine back and reading the last half of the book.

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

(9)

Does DB know how to write a book with an actual, long developing plot arc?  I’m beginning to doubt it, seeing as how everything of his I’ve read takes place in 72 hours or less – in the case of this one, about 24.  It works for Kiefer, for DB, not so much.