catch-up book list

July:

Real Murders by Charlaine Harris, which is the first Roe Teagarden book.
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, which I have passed on to my 12yo. Also a YA anthology, Vacations from Hell, which was a bit too horror for me.
Also read The Secret History of The Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig, which I found amusing and annoying by turns. But I'm borrowing the sequel, so I guess I liked it overall.
I read a bunch of Black Dagger Brotherhood books by JR Ward, which I think probably turned my brain to mush, but are strangely addicting. In retrospect, I realize that Alyssa Day's Atlantis books are inspired by this series, but I think I prefer JR Ward's writing.
Also The Companion by Susan Squires, a regency vampire romance, which was better than I expected.
I am reading The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, which I am putting down for a bit to read Travelling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly.

June:

Really good stuff:

Stargazer by Claudia Gray, sequel to Evernight. It's a YA series about a vampire academy. The first book has a very neat twist. The sequel manages to surprise and raise the stakes. I'm looking forward to the third book.
The funniest book: Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Wendell & Tan.
Marta Acosta's Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, The Bride of Casa Dracula.
Charlaine Harris' Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, #9)
Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
New Blood by Gail Dayton
Norse Code by Greg Van Eekhout

Good stuff:

Elizabeth Hoyt's Raven Prince, Serpent Prince, Leopard Prince. And To Beguile A Beast, To Seduce A Sinner, To Taste Temptation.
Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater.

The Courtesan's Wager by Claudia Dain, which is 3rd in a series of Regency romances that read like comedies of manners. The first two were great, this one is funny but a little lacking.Stephanie Laurens' The Taste of Innocence (Cynster, #14), What Price Love? (Cynster, #13) , All About Passion (Cynster, #7), All About Love (Cynster, #6) , On a Wild Night (Cynster, #8)
Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase
Burning Alive by Shannon K. Butcher

So-so stuff:

Amazon Ink by Lori Devoti.
Alyssa Day's Atlantis Rising, Atlantis Awakening, Atlantis Unleashed.

Two I didn't finish: Eve of Darkness by S.J. Day and What A Scoundrel Wants by Carrie Lofty.

May:

Coventry by Helen Humphreys.
Two Mary Balogh romances - First Comes Marriage & Then Comes Seduction
Arianna Franklin - The Serpent's Tale & Grave Goods
The Pretender's Crown by C.E.Murphy
Darkborn by Alison Sinclair
Rick Riordan's Olympians YA series (love this).

DC Field Trip

I accompanied my daughter's 6th grade class to their Washington DC trip yesterday (3 hour trip each way), and the teachers just wanted them to see whatever museums we could. I was in a goup of 2 moms & 7 girls. So we went to Natural History (and oohed over the Hope Diamond), then Air & Space, then they said they wanted to go to an art museum, so we went to the National Gallery, which is just across Air & Space.
The girls were quiet and awed ( and appreciative of all the couches). They spent a lot of time watching an artist copy a panel of Ruben's Daniel in The Lion's Den (the artist's skill was amazing).
I was in heaven looking at all the paintings. As we were leaving, we passed through the French paintings on the ground floor and I saw Fragonard's A Young Reading" which, as a reader, is one of my all-time favorite paintings. I felt so happy!
If I had to be locked into a museum overnight, I would want it to be an art museum with a lot of old masters. In fact, I would love best of all to be locked in the Louvre.

YA Books that should have an NC-17 rating

Do you read Young Adult (YA) books and if so, do you think the some of the newer ones are too graphic/mature?

Yesterday I passed by the library and saw a Young Adult fantasy book on the new arrivals shelf that had an intriguing cover and a shiny medal/award (best children's book of the year list) of some kind and a blurb that made it seem like a fairytale retelling. So I picked it up for my 12yo bookworm.

I decided to read it first and ugh, so glad I did. It is, in my opinion, horribly dark and graphic. I only made it midway then skipped to the end. I'm returning it.

The title is Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. I'm not much of a prude, but I thought it was really inappropriate for teens. I'm 40 and I feel like I need to scrub my mind of it. I am upset by it.

(spoilers in white font, highlight to read)
It starts off with the "real" - cruel -world, rather like a dark ages village. The main character is a girl being sexually abused by her father, and repeatedly dosed so she miscarries. Then her dad gets his head bashed in by a horse before he can make her miscarry again. She has a baby. Then she gets gang-raped. Suicidal, she attempts to kill her baby first but some kind of magic intervenes and she and the baby are whisked into a perfect world -- just like her old world but everything made nice. She has a second baby (from the gang-rape) there. The babies are obviously versions of Snow White & Rose Red.
In the meantime, a 1st person character, a greedy dwarf, uses the village witch (an old flame)to trespass into the perfect world and steal gold. (Same witch who had supplied the abortifacients to the father in the beginning). Somehow the two girls run across him, but by then I skipped to the last chapter, where Rose Red is now an apprentice witch. Snow White is staying in perfect world to be happily married to a bear, while still somewhat mourning her first love, a wolf. The mother (main character) is happy for her kids but heartbroken because she is also in love with the bear. I don't think (though I skipped a lot) that any reason for the magical intervention was given.
(end of spoilers)

What makes it ultimately horrible, for me, is that none of the characters engage my sympathy. The 1st person dwarf is selfish and greedy, the mother and daughters are written so remotely, like wooden puppets.

Sorry for such a long post, but I guess I just want to vent. This is an award winning YA book? What the heck?

40 days of rain

Been raining since the weekend (at least) and won't let up until Sunday. I forget what sunlight feels like.

My sprouts stare at me accusingly from their jugs. "We should be in the ground, you slacker!"

Have started building an ark. Um, how long is a cubit?

In happier news that I should have blogged earlier:
- The three bare-root blueberries (Reka, Bluegold, Jersey) are two weeks in the ground, and seem to be doing ok (knock on wood).
- The 25 bare-root Mesabi strawberries are planted in painted styrofoam coolers, and are showing nice leaves. I daresay I have crowded them a bit, but I promise to clip runners to help them stay modest-sized.
- The two rose bushes(Morning Has Broken and Therese Bugnet) arrived last week. They are in gallon-pots, which I stuck in slightly bigger post, filled in with rocks and peat moss. I've just moved them from the very wet deck to the front step, which has a wee bit of roof to keep the rain off. I don't want them getting blackspot before they are even planted.
- the rain let up a wee bit on Saturday, and I planted the rest of the pea sprouts and some baby yellow onion bulbs (sets, I think they're called).

Last of the April reads

My lord and spymaster by Joanna Bourne. Regency romance with a plucky heroine, much like The Spymaster's Lady.

The Weaver Takes a Wife and Brighton honeymoon by Sheri Cobb South. Funny G-rated regency romances in the Heyer style, but without the disturbing Tory sensibilities of Heyer.

Symphony by Jude Morgan tells the love story of composer Hector Berlioz & his muse actress Harriet Smithson. Too gloomy and ill-fated for me -- I skipped the middle and read the last chapter.

River of darkness and The blood-dimmed tide by Rennie Airth. I like these two mysteries very much. The first follows Scotland Yard Inspector Madden as he solves the mystery of a terrible family massacre in post-WWI England. The second is set 10 years later in 1932 when a happily domesticated Madden is drawn into the search for a serial killer of young girls.

Bone crossed by Patricia Briggs is the latest in the Mercy Thompson, mechanic & coyote-shifter, series. This one deal with a vampire problem. I like this series a lot.

Just read

Should list these before I return them to the library:
Two Regency mysteries by Sheri Cobb South: In Milady's Chamber and A Dead Bore.
I like these a lot; fun, light reads, very much in period, rated only PG, I would say. I am looking for more of her books to read.

An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan, a Austen-styled regency romance, also very good and amusing. I am also reading more of her.


Hangman Blind by Cassandra Clark, which is the start of a medieval mystery series featuring Sister Hildegard, a rich widow turned nun who wants to establish her own abbey. Engrossing; I look forward to forthcoming books.

Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier, a sequel of sorts to her YA novel Wildwood Dancing. I like Marillier's writng very much; I think I've read all her books. So it's a shock to read on her blog that she's undergoing chemo for breast cancer. I very much hope for her recovery to complete health.

Fast Ships, Black Sails, a collection of pirate-themed fantasy stories edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer. I didn't like the stories much.

Demon's Delight, a collection of 4 paranormal romance novellettes; I borrowed it for the Yama "demon" story by Emma Holly. The MaryJanice Davidson story in it was also fun.

Recently read

Death in Devil's Acre by Ann Perry. - I somehow skipped this book in the Inspector Pitt series (I think I am two books ahead of it).

A Pale Horse by Charles Todd. I think I only have one book to go in the Inspector Rutledge series.

The Secret Wedding by Jo Beverly. Although I wasn't really in the romance mood, read it because I usually like her books.

Mistress of the Art of Death. - Saw this rec'd on Dear Author. It's quite good after you buy into the idea of a forensic doctor in the 12th century. I'll be looking for the rest of the series.

A Christmas Visitor by Ann Perry. Henry Rathbone (Sir Oliver's father in the Monk series) solves a mystery. Quite unrealistic ending though.

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng. My 12 yo made me read this. It's a fun read.

Computer issues

Hopefully now resolved.

In the meantime I planted out some of the pea seedlings in jugs which is hard because it turns out peas have one long root! LOL. Next time I will just plant peas directly. Also planted some of the lettuce and pak choi seedlings.

I have no rabbit fence ... I put some bloodmeal in little yogurt cups covered with rocks, and bits of irish spring soap scattered around. The peas are also protected by cardboard collars (half of a tp cardboard) and plastic collars (small water bottle with ends cut off). The other seedlings were too big, so they are naked. I hope that's enough to keep the critters away.