Author Archives

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Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister {audiobook}

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Title: Farewell, Dorothy Parker
Author: Ellen Meister
Narrator: Angela Brazil
Length: 10 hours
Published in: 2012
Genre: fiction
ISBN: 9781620647073
Source: public library
Reason for Reading: Thought a book about Dorothy Parker would be interesting
Rating: 5/5

Summary (from Goodreads):

When it comes to movie critics Violet Epps is a powerhouse voice. Equally unafraid of big Hollywood names and public opinion, her biting reviews are widely quoted.  But when it comes to her own life, Violet finds herself unable to speak up—paralyzed by crippling social anxiety. When a chance encounter at the famous Algonquin Hotel unleashes the feisty spirit of the long–dead Dorothy Parker, the famous literary critic of the 1920’s, Violet thinks she is going crazy. But as the rematerialized Mrs. Parker helps her face her fears, Violet realizes how much she has been missing by keeping quiet. It turns out though, that the shade has problems of her own, not the least of which include equal portions of narcissism and pessimism and the inability to move on to her afterlife.

My Thoughts: I rather enjoyed this story. I admit I was a little skeptical about the whole ghost idea. But it wasn’t terribly “out there.” Not that I’d expect to ever have a similar encounter, but it was “believable” in a sense. Some parts of the story were a little predictable, but nothing too cliche.

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Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

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Title: Etiquette and Espionage
Author: Gail Carriger
Length: 307 pages
Published in: 2013
Genre: sci-fi/fantasy (alternative historical fiction)
ISBN: 9780316190084
Source: public library
Reason for Reading: Gail Carriger wrote the Parasol Protectorate quintet, which I loved, and this is the first in her new series, Finishing School
Rating: 5/5

Summary (from Goodreads):

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners–and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s, young ladies learn to finish…everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage–in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year’s education. Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail’s legions of fans have come to adore

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My Thoughts: I’m really happy that Carriger is coming out with a new series. I thought this book was funny and delightful. I was especially glad to see a character from her Parasol Protectorate series, Sidheag Maccon. I’m hoping this means she will somehow connect the two. I wanted so much to know if Sidheag’s special talent would come out and how it would affect the story. But I guess Tgat@p for another book.

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Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn {audiobook}


Title: Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
Author: William Kuhn
Narrator: Simon Prebble
Length: 9.5 hours
Published in: 2012
Genre: fiction
ISBN: 9781624060519
Source: public library
Reason for Reading: Sounded fun :)
Rating: 5/5

Summary (from Amazon):

After decades of service and years of watching her family’s troubles splashed across the tabloids, Queen Elizabeth needs some proper cheering up. An impromptu visit to the place that holds her happiest memories-the former royal yacht, Britannia, moored in Leith, Scotland-is just the cure she needs. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace, into the freedom of a rainy London day to catch the train to Scotland at King’s Cross. But an unlikely sextet of royal attendants-a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a mistress of the Mews, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that serves the queen’s cheese-join together to find their missing monarch and bring her back before her absence sets off a national scandal.

My Thoughts: I found this book quite delightful. It was funny and light and simple. I don’t really have a whole lot to say about it because it’s so straightforward. But I did get excited to drive to work so I could listen to it some more :)

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sunday salon {4/14/2013}

 

sunday salonBooks Finished: 

Books Currently Reading:

  • Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
  • Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Movies/Shows Watched:

  • Skyfall
  • Looper
  • Frankenweenie
  • Playing for Keeps
  • Anna Karenina

Shows Currently Watching:

  • How I Met Your Mother Season 8 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Two Broke Girls Season 2 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Big Bang Theory Season 6 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Glee Season 4 (currently airing on Fox)
  • Vikings Season 1 (currently airing on History)
  • The Office Season 2 (Netflix)

If you’re interested, here’s a link to my Sunday wrap-up post at my other blog, Me…Healthier: weekly dish {4/14/2013}

 

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The Thursday War by Karen Traviss {audio}

Title: The Thursday War
Author: Karen Traviss
Narrator: Euan Morton
Length: 15 hours
Published in: 2012
Genre: science fiction
ISBN: 9781427226242
Source: public library
Reason for Reading: Nick plays Halo and I saw this on the recent releases for audiobooks at the library. I thought it couldn’t really hurt to try something completely different from what I’m normally reading.
Rating: 3/5

Summary (from Amazon):

Welcome to humanity’s new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for ONI’s black-ops team, Kilo-Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Elites, once the military leaders of the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation―keeping the Elites busy with their own insurrection―turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo-Five from the seething heart of an alien civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo-Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the shield world of Onyx is being put to work while a kidnapped Elite plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction.
My Thoughts: I don’t have many thoughts on this book because I really didn’t understand much of it. I mean, in the larger picture, this wasn’t a standalone novel. So the backstory, which I didn’t know, would’ve made a difference as far as my rating of the book goes. From what I read, it was okay. On its own, I didn’t find it all that interesting. But I wouldn’t mind a similar book that was a standalone or the beginning of a series at least.
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Sunday Salon {4/7/2013}

Books Finished: 

Books Currently Reading:

  • Halo: The Thursday War by Karen Traviss
  • Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Movies/Shows Watched:

  • Perks of Being a Wallflower was really good
  • Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer was too dumb to finish–I watched about 30 minutes or so

Shows Currently Watching:

  • How I Met Your Mother Season 8 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Two Broke Girls Season 2 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Big Bang Theory Season 6 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Glee Season 4 (currently airing on Fox)
  • Vikings Season 1 (currently airing on History)
  • 30 Rock Season 2 (Netflix)

If you’re interested, here’s a link to my Sunday wrap-up post at my other blog, Me…Healthier: weekly dish {4/7/2013}

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Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Title: Shades of Earth
Author: Beth Revis
Length: 369 pages
Published in: 2013
Genre: post-apocalyptic world/dystopic
ISBN: 9781595143990
Source: public library
Reason for Reading: This is the third in a trilogy by Beth Revis and it has been one of my favorite series to follow. (I’m very sad it’s all over!)
Rating: 5/5

Summary (from Goodreads):

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceshipGodspeed behind. They’re ready to start life afresh–to build a home–on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn’t the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed‘s former passengers aren’t alone on this planet. And if they’re going to stay, they’ll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who–or what–else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed–friends, family, life on Earth–will have been for nothing.

My Thoughts: This was a wonderful end to a story I love. While I was sad to see it end, I found it to be just the kind of end I liked.

There is a lot going on in this book. The population of humans from Sol-Earth have been unfrozen and the shipborn people fear them. Despite the differences between them, both groups go to Centauri-Earth. There they are forced to work together to survive some intelligent alien life forms that populate the planet. I’ll admit that I managed to work out, for the most part, what that alien life form was before it was revealed without much thought on my part. But that doesn’t change how excited I can get about how the story leads up to that moment of revelation. And there was a certain character who those who have read the story will know of–who wasn’t all they appeared to be. I hadn’t pinpointed how different this person was, but I knew there was something wrong about them. That should’ve been pretty obvious, considering I’d figured out the other mystery.

Anyways, Revis hardly “ended” the story at the close of this book. The story has barely begun and she left the story open. There are some stories with which I’d like to be told the definite end for the characters and have some nice closure. But considering how much of this story was left to the imagination, I think it was a great choice on her part to let her readers imagine for themselves how the story goes on, or ends if you choose.

I’m sad the story has “ended” but I anxiously await any new worlds Revis might create for me to travel to.

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Sunday Salon {3/24/2013}

Books Finished: 

Books Currently Reading:

  • Shades of the Earth by Beth Revis
  • Halo: The Thursday War by Karen Traviss

Movies/Shows Watched:

  • Hotel Transylvania was a pretty cute movie
  • Life of Pi was

Shows Currently Watching:

  • How I Met Your Mother Season 8 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Two Broke Girls Season 2 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Big Bang Theory Season 6 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Glee Season 4 (currently airing on Fox)
  • 30 Rock Season 2 (Netflix)

If you’re interested, here’s a link to my Sunday wrap-up post at my other blog, Me…Healthier: weekly dish {3/24/2013}.

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Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Title: Dreams of Joy
Author: Lisa See
Length: 353 pages
Published in: 2011
Genre: historical fiction (communist China)
ISBN: 9781400067121
Source: personal collection
Reason for Reading: I love Lisa See, especially Shanghai Girls, which was a prequel to this book.
Rating: 5/5

Summary (from Goodreads):

Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the communist regime.

Devastated by Joy’s flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy’s and Pearl’s separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives.

My Thoughts: I found this a little slow-moving towards the beginning, like I did with Peony in Love, but it turned around and got quite interesting. I’ve never read much about what life was like in communist China, and while this is fiction, I know See is pretty good at her historical fiction :) As usual with her writing, I was easily able to picture life in Shanghai and in the countryside. And the characters’ emotions were so well described that I was excited, anxious, happy, mad, and disheartened throughout the story.

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Sunday Salon {3/10/2013}

Books Finished: 

Books Currently Reading:

  • Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
  • Halo: The Thursday War by Karen Traviss
    I will be starting this on my drive to work tomorrow morning. Honestly, I got it because Nick loves Halo and I saw it on the newly released audiobook shelf.

Movies/Shows Watched:

  • gave up on Felicity–I found it pretty annoying that the main characters seemed more like 15 than 19

Shows Currently Watching:

  • How I Met Your Mother Season 8 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Two Broke Girls Season 2 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Big Bang Theory Season 6 (currently airing on CBS)
  • Glee Season 4 (currently airing on Fox)
  • 30 Rock Season 1 (Netflix)

If you’re interested, here’s a link to my Sunday wrap-up post at my other blog, Me…Healthier: weekly dish {3/10/2013}.