Lasher by Anne Rice

This is a re-read. I read the entire Mayfair witches series in high school when I may have been overly obsessed with Anne Rice (what can I say, she went well with my late 90s grunge, alterna-girl, angry at the world persona).  However, now that I've been rereading it, I'm getting a lot that I didn't get earlier in life. Thank you life experiences and background knowledge.

The thing that really helped was having gone to New Orleans. The traditions, the landscape, the knowledge of the town's geography has made the book make even more sense. This series is much more attached to the town than the Vampire Chronicles ever were. It may be the reason I like this series a little more now.

I will admit the rest of it deals with some odd topics: incest and pedophilia, to name a few. But, it's still an amazing story. Rice has always done a great job in creating her own lore when it comes to supernatural creatures. She takes what we know and turns it on its head without being too disruptive to our "natural" beliefs.

So, even though some of the subjects are touchy, I'd still recommend this series (this is the 2nd one; start with The Witching Hour.)

City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare

It's been a few weeks since I've finished a book. That's a bit embarrassing, I have to admit. But, in that time, I finished my thesis (I'll be an official Master's graduate in five days) and bought a house, so, I've been a bit busy. Still, I don't think I've ever gone that long without finishing a book of some sort.

Remember how I said I wasn't going to buy any more books until I read quite a few of the ones I had ... that was a lie. On April 9, I administered the ACTs, so I downloaded City of Fallen Angels onto my Kindle and then promptly left it in my classroom over the weekend after the tests.

This is the fourth in Clare's Mortal Instruments series, and I've really liked the previous three. I've described the series as "Twilight, but good" to other people as well as "Buffy with less focus on vampires and more focus on other creepy crawlies." I started the series because I had a crapton of my students tell me I HAD to read them, and they usually don't completely steer me wrong:) And, they were definitely right on these. Even though they're written with the YA audience in mind, they'll still hold the attention of adults, and the universe Clare's created is pretty fantastic and compelling.

It took me quite a while to get into this book. I thought the beginning dragged a bit, and that's also probably why I've gone so long without finishing anything - I couldn't get into this one. Then, I read the last quarter of the book last night. Holy buckets! That part was the most exciting out of the entire thing. (So, Natalie, you were right!)

Now that I look back, there's a few plot arcs that Clare could have cut, but I'm also guessing that they will make more sense in future books in the series. The cliffhanger at the end was very compelling, and I am excited for the next book to come out.

Woes of a Bibliophile

It is no secret that I love books. I can't explain how excited I am that one of the rooms in the new house will be a library. After having my books boxed up for three years, they will be free, and I will be in heaven.

However, this love also becomes a problem.

Jeremy and I organized some of the books we've bought (many of them have been boxed up to decrease clutter) a few weeks ago.

There is now a pile of 31 that neither of us have read. Nineteen of those are mine. This does not include ones that Jeremy has read and I haven't.

Because of this, I have banned myself from buying any new books.

Problem with this: Books I REALLY want to read have just come out. (City of Fallen Angels and Kingdom Keepers IV, for example).

But, now that my thesis is done, I may actually have time to start reading books again and can power through these in no time.

Maybe...

Shades of Grey: A Novel by Jasper Fforde

I picked this up because I like Fforde. I stumbled onto his books through his Nursery Crimes Series on one of the buy 2 get one free tables at Barnes and Noble. I like rewrites of fairy tails/nursery rhymes/classics/etc. so I decided to give it a whirl, and it was fantastic. Did the same with the Thursday Next series, which is lovely in all of its literary dorkiness.

I cannot say the same for this book.

The first strike against the book was the print. I couldn't even read the paperback version of it, thanks to bad leading (spaces between the lines - too small), kerning (spacing between the letters - too small), and paper (bad color and bad quality). I had to buy the Kindle version because it was so unreasonable. That didn't really set me off on the right foot with this book.

The premise of the book is that the society is based on colors and color perception. The society is somewhat dystopian as there is oppression based on your color as well as lack of supplies. People are also "branded" with their code and expected to fulfill certain jobs based on their rank and ability to see colors. The conflict centers around the fact that the world is slowly becoming monochromatic, which results in some of the characters having to go on color quests.

However, I could have cared less. There wasn't the world play as there has been in previous Fforde books (although one of the "Greys" - the lowest class possible - is named Dorian Grey, ha ha ha) , and it was just kinda boring.

I think the key sign that this book wasn't that great is how long it has taken me to read it. Typically, I'll finish a book in a few days. It's been a week, and I can't read this book for more than 20 minutes without wanting to fall asleep.

I suggest just skipping this one and picking up the next Thursday book - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing.

No reviews yet ...

Thanks to a few students asking for contact information for the summer, and the number of people who ask about what I'm reading, I decided to create a "one-stop shop" for my thoughts on what I've read. As a disclaimer, none of these authors are paying me, and I'm not getting any money from any publishers either. I'll give my honest opinion, and if a book is stupid, most likely, I'll say it's stupid.

I'm going to try my best to be super vigilant and super organized on the categories, too, which will be listed over to the right. I'll definitely do author, and I'll try my best on genres. I'll probably use how Amazon categorizes them.

It'd also be great if you've read one of the books to give your feedback on it in the comments!