Reading List

I usually have quite a number of books sitting on my nightstand in various stages of being read.  A night without a book is a poor night indeed.  I have to settle on a Sudoku puzzle in those rare instances.  Here's what I've got on the table right now:

Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely, on page 54 (And he sent me an email wanting to know if I was enjoying his book!)
What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire, on page 111
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
The Secret of Castle Cant by K.P. Bath

I vary on what I read night to night because sometimes you're in a fluffy mood, or serious, or information gathering, so I make sure I have a wide variety of material to choose from.  I usually read YA because it suits me, usually it's a little less R rated than adult material, and I don't do rated R.

Let me know what you're reading and if you've found any mighty page-turners!

Book Review - Glimmerglass - YA

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
294 pages



I don't normally enjoy Faerie books. Maybe I'm too simple but it gets difficult reading names like Fafnir and Hreidmar and trying to keep up with who's who.

I enjoyed Jenna Black's Glimmerglass very much, though. It was an easy read, and the pace kept moving along nicely. It did feel just tad dumbed-down, and the characters could have been a bit more fleshed out and the writing a little tighter, but I've bumped up from a 3.5 to a 4 just because I enjoyed the fresh (to my eyes) storyline.

Sixteen-year-old Dana Hathaway is a disgruntled teenager with an alcoholic mom. She's determined to leave her mom and find her Fae father whom she has never before met. Unknown to her, though, she is coveted property in Avalon, the city in which her dad lives and Faerie can be entered through. She never knew she was a Faeriewalker, one who can walk both worlds, and a political asset to the one who can control her.

I thought the characters were likeable or despicable, as the author meant them to be, and each had an interesting story to be told.  We haven't really gotten into Faerie in this book, so there's something to look forward to in the next book.

The ending left me looking forward to the next installment in the series, Shadowspell. I'm hoping Dana can explore her new-found role in Avalon and Faerie, and I'm interested in finding out more about Finn and Keane.

Banned Book Week

It's Banned Book Week!  What are you reading?  Bookstores across the country are having wonderful sales to celebrate the freedom to read.

Speaking of bookstores, not that there's anything wrong with the national chain stores, but have you visited your local indie bookstore or secondhand book shop lately?  Nothing can beat the experience.  Remember the Meg Ryan version of You've Got Mail?  Hers wasn't a secondhand store but indie, and the chain stores just seem more...sterile. 

There is so much for the senses at a secondhand shop.  Meandering the tall stacks, inhaling the musty scent of the written word, scoring deals on out-of-print books.  Bring a list of favorite authors or subjects and plan to spend some time there.

I found the best secondhand shop in our medium sized city.  The shelves were 12 feet tall, and thousands of books, ladders to climb to the top, twisting aisles you can get lost in, a basement chock full of everything and subject imaginable.  I was in second heaven.  Unfortunately, I also brought two impatient children along so that visit was cut short, but I will be back again.  I bought four books for the price of one.

Support your local bookstore this week and get a deal for Banned Book Week!

Stepping Out

I am a lifelong lover of reading.  I can remember tucking Christopher Pike books and others inside my history book in middle school to enjoy a little reading while I was supposed to be learning.  My folks claim to have taught me to read at 2, and my dad was a bibliophile of the worst kind, homemade bookshelves lining his bedroom walls, and moving across country the number of times we did, it was all the worse since we needed to move the many, many boxes of books he'd collected.

I'd hoped to start a little blog to do a few book reviews, comment on reading, and perhaps throw in a little of writing tidbits as well since that's something else I do enjoy.  I don't have a chance to read as much as I would if I weren't a wife and mother, but any spare time I do have is usually found with my having a book in hand, tucked away in some quiet spot, lost in the worlds and adventures I am reading.  You can also find me over at Goodreads.com, which I thoroughly enjoy.

Stop by often, share comments and opinions with me!