Surfer of the Century, by Ellie Crowe

Another picture book biography. Not as good as Wilma Unlimited, not as bad as A Boy Called Slow.

Dreadful pictures, I thought. Didn't capture the magic of water at all and make Duke look like Frankenstein.

Wilma Unlimited, by Kathleen Krull

A better picture book biography of Wilma Rudolph. Much better than A Boy Called Slow.

A Boy Called Slow, by Joseph Bruchac

Children's picture book biography of Sitting Bull.

NOT my favorite, but the illustrations were lovely.

And Justice There Is None, by Deborah Crombie

Pretty fantastic police procedural English mystery. Policewoman Gemma James gets involved in what initially looks like unrelated slayings in the Portobello Road antiques area but soon uncovers a web of connections going back to the swinging sixties.

Well written, reminded me of Elizabeth George and even of Ruth Rendell's kind of realistic writing.

I liked this very much.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn

Children's

Ali goes to Maine with her Aunt Dulcie and Dulcie's daughter Emma, against her mother's objections, to spend the summer at the family's long neglected summer cottage. Aunt Dulcie, an artist, will paint, and 13 year old Ali will help watch over 5 year old Emma in exchange for a summer at the lake.

Moody Sissy begins spending time around them, and drives a wedge between them all, while Aunt Dulcie acts stranger and stranger.

Could there have been a reason that Ali's mom didn't want her to go to the lake? Could it have to do with the ripped photographs and crossed out names on boardgames that Ali finds everywhere? Could Sissy be...?

I think that really only the dimmest of children would be surprised by the denouement, but I guess they're out there and need something to read too.

The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom

This feels almost ridiculously meta, but here it is.

I'm a librarian who likes to read mysteries, writing about a book about a librarian who likes to read mysteries whose work as a librarian is interrupted by the disappearance of an entire library's collection of books.

As wildly geeky as it sounds, this was fun, funny, and really different a mystery.

Israel Armstrong made such a nice change in protagonists, (geeky out-of-shape career-challenged male), and it's rare (for me at least) to read a laugh-out-loud book set in Northern Ireland, and England the minister was a dream of a character, with his brothers Scotland and Wales.

Great fun.

Pushing Up Daisies, by Rosemary Harris

Yay!

I enjoyed this very much. Paula Holliday has left her job in television to live out in the "wilds" of suburban Southeastern Connecticut to start a landscaping business. After placing a ridiculously lowball bid for the work to restore the historical society's newest aquisition's gardens, she digs up more than was expected, and mystery ensues.

Great characterizations, unexpected twists (love Felix!), and, so satisfying- fantastic and horticulturally realistic gardening added up to a read I was sorry to finish.

I've already requested The Big Dirt Nap -the next in what I hope will be a long series.

Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead, by Livia Washburn

Well.

This is supposed to be the first of a series - Delilah Dickinson has opened an agency offering literary tours, and naturally, the first is based on Gone With The Wind, and the group (after some capery problems that I enjoyed, and that seemed to point to the kind of Andrews/Hess comic mystery I enjoy) headed to a plantation filled with actors playing the characters, and then the murder happens, and unfortunately, it kind of went downhill for me from there.

I am also a little stumped as to where else the series will go- I suppose there are more Southern authors for Delilah to herd tourists about to their homes and hometowns, but....

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, by Maggie Jackson

This was a great look at our collective, well, distraction. The lack of focus, the emphasis on multitasking, the constant clamor for our attention from a million noisy sources, and what that all might mean for our society.

Interesting bits about brain development and children- some scary stuff- and some even creepier bits about video monitoring and Bentham's panopticon. Eeep.

Good book, but somehow didn't grip me and keep me reading straight through, but I have a nasty cold or something and feel lobotomized, so that probably didn't help.

Legend in Green Velvet, by Elizabeth Peters

Fun, clever and kind of romantic mystery.

Another Scottish caper based on the search for the Stone of Scone - I kind of want to see that movie Stone of Destiny now.

This was a nice read- no Agatha Christie, mind you, but an entirely enjoyable alternative, and luckily, she has a lot of books out there so I'll have a good time with them.

Barefoot Contessa Back To Basics, by Ina Garten

Lovely food of course but nothing that made me run out for ingredients.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, by Lauren Tarshis

Logical minded Emma-Jean has never minded not fitting in with her classmates in 7th grade, but when Colleen Pomerantz is crying in the bathroom one day at school, she finds that getting involved with other people's lives is even messier and more complicated than she had thought.

This was pretty good, but the contrast between Emma, Colleen, and villainess Laura was too much for me. Maybe kids do want things to be black and white, but it seems like pandering, a bit. Also, Colleen's focus on the importance of 'niceness' above all else frustrated me and made me a bit angry- girls have been told to 'be nice' for so long that to see a 2007 kid's book reinforcing this damaging idea was upsetting.

A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park

Odd but good book.
Orphan Tree-Ear lives under a bridge with crippled Crane-Man in 12th century Korea.
After an accident caused by curiosity, he begins to work for a local potter- a master craftsman.
Lots of pottery talk, and then a voyage.
I think this was a strange choice for the Newbery (2001)- it was so very pottery-focused, and the culture is so very foreign, and the names- well, not my favorite kind of thing, but it was a good book- I just don't know who would voluntarily read it.

Ten Cents A Dance, by Christine Fletcher

This was absolutely fantastic. One of the best books I've read in ages, adult or YA.

Ruby's world, the seedy backside of Chicago in the 40's was so real I could swear I've been there, and the descriptions of the music and dancing made me wish I knew the Lindy.

Really really wonderful.

Mystery Mile, by Margery Allingham

Nowhere near as good as Death of A Ghost. Campion really annoyed me in this.

I miss Agatha Christie.

Far to Go, by Noel Streatfeild

The further travels of Margaret Thursday, from Thursday's Child. I love Streatfeild like I love breathing, but I do prefer the Shoes books.

Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Well, it's YA.

So does that mean I shouldn't expect it to be very good? Maybe. I'm in a bit of a muddle about that actually.

It was (to me, at least) predictable, the violence seemed gratuitous, and the plot a mish-mash between Survivor, Running Man, The Lottery, and Reality TV 2083, with all the freshness implied thereby- but if I was a teen, and had no store of cultural expectations for what might happen in such a scenario, would I be excited by this book?

I doubt it. But for what it was, it was well done.

Dark of the Moon, by John Dickson Carr

Very middling 1967 mystery. Very middling indeed. Southern wierdo family stuff, and wildly improbable jabs at "yankees" and "damn yankees" all the way through. Really?

Angel, by Cliff McNish

This was, hands down, one of the worst books I have ever read and finished.

It was utter crap.

Freya, recently released from a mental hospital after becoming obssessed with angels after thinking she saw one, has now become part of a bitchy popular clique. (right.) A new girl, Stephanie, starts at her school, and is ostracized because she too is obsessed with angels. Then 'real' angels get involved, and well, it isn't worth the words to say what disgusting crap this was.

I think handing this to a teen would be abusive.

Death of a Ghost, by Margery Allingham

Pretty fantastic - from the golden age of British mysteries.

Campion gets involved with an artistic community- the widow,models, family and assorted hangers-on of the late painter John Lafcadio, whose eccentric will left 12 paintings to be exhibited, one a year, after his death, to keep his name in the press and to annoy a rival.

At one of these annual showings, something goes terribly wrong.

Such a good read, and wonderful details about the mixing of the paints, the furnishings, the models, and the painting itself.

I'm trying to fill the yawning void that opened up when I realized that I think I've read all of Agatha Christie and have no more to look forward too- although, I am reading her plays and finding the little changes from book to stage interesting and (sometimes) satisfying- Vera and Lombard at the end of 10 Little Indians!

Best of 2008- the big list.

ADULT FICTION
Death of a Cosy Writer, by G.M. Maillet
Songs for the Missing, by Stewart O’Nan
Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O’Nan
The We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris
Real World, by Natsuo Kirino
The Man in the Brown Suit, by Agatha Christie
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, by Mil Millington

ADULT NON FICTION
Freakonomics, by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt
Flower Confidential, by Amy Stewart
Lost on Planet China, by J. Maartin Troost
The Dumbest Generation, by Mark Bauerlein
The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein
Bottlemania, by Elizabeth Royte
Parenting, Inc. , by Pamela Paul
Rock On, by Dan Kennedy
The Men Who Stare At Goats, by Jon Ronson
Six Degrees, by Mark Lynas
Devil in the Details, by Jennifer Traig
House Lust, by Daniel McGinn

YA
The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary Pearson
The Earth My Butt and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
The Mother Daughter Book Club, by Heather Fredericks Vogel
The Gospel According to Larry, by Janet Tashjian
Enthusiasm, by Polly Shulman
So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld
Exodus, by Julie Bertagna
Kitty Kitty, by Michelle Jaffe
Rash, by Pete Hauptman

CHILDREN’S
Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild
Millions, by Frank Cottrell
Catherine Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman
The King of Mulberry Street, by Donna Jo Napoli
The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit
Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright

MOVIE
High Society
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Atonement
Across the Universe
Children of Men
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Paradise Now

DOCUMENTARY
Rivers and Tides
No End in Sight
A Crude Awakening
Maxed Out
Why We Fight
The Corporation
Koyaanisqatsi
Spellbound
Sicko
Winged Migration

Six Geese A-Slaying, by Donna Andrews

The latest Meg Lanslow mystery by Donna Andrews. I enjoy these hugely. There it is- I am a huge fan.

In this one, Meg has been drafted/coerced into heading the annual Caerphilly Christmas Parade, and, of course, chaos ensues. With more than the usual wacky crew of animals (including of course, the small evil one Spike and First Llama Ernest), floats paying homage to every line in the darned song are filled with costumed geese, swans, pipers, drummers, and so on.

A fun read, and what more can you ask for? Well, I guess at times, one wants something else, but when you want a fun and comfortable read, well, these are like the favorite fuzzy pants you pull on when it's snowing.

Stop in the Name of Pants, by Louise Rennison

The most recent Georgia Nicolson.

Still babbling constantly about boys and lipgloss, but this one was somewhat better than the last.

Angus the cat is lovely.

High Society

Re-watch.

Wonderful every time. Laugh out loud funny, great singing, great romance, and oh wasn't Grace Kelly stunning.
Nice to see Newport looking so good too!
I wish I could have seen it then, and from that point of view!

Death of a Cozy Writer, by G.M. Malliet

Pretty fantastic kind of tribute-to-the-classics English country house mystery.

One large, ancient English estate, 5 heirs, one surly writer, and murder let rip.

Fantastic stuff- Christie like twists and such, and at the end, it all really did make sense, which is always such a relief.

Not the kind of psychological portraits that Ruth Rendell or even Martha Grimes get up to, and certainly not the humor of Joan Hess or M.C. Beaton, but an almost straight-up drawing room mystery, which I think in some ways is my favorite kind.

The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett

This was short, but not sweet. At least not saccharine- it was, in many ways, hopeful. Also strange, and kind of wonderful.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Re-watch.

One of my favorite movies.

I Hate Myself And Want To Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs Youve Ever Heard, by Tom Reynolds

Freaking hilarious. This was great.

The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman

This was fascinating, but depressing as hell. Weisman imagines a world without humans, and goes into how long it would take for our structures to fail, for nature to regenerate, and what would be left in geologic time to show we were ever here.

Some parts were heart-wrenching and made me long to visit some of the places he discussed- the ancient forest on the Polish/Belorussian border known as the Belaveskaya Pushcha sounded especially amazing. Well, it all sounded amazing, but that bit really took my mind. It's the last untouched bit of primeval forest in Europe.

The numbers and consequences started to boggle after a bit- the endless damage, which seems almost irreparable, unless you look at it in terms of geologic time, where we become mere blips. Towards the end I was crying.
A beautiful, thoughtful, but thoroughly and seriously sad book.

This image is from Weismans site, it is "Warsaw without us".

The Nanny Diaries

Meh.

Scarlett Johanssen is so lovely to look at but this was a pretty terrible movie. The book was much better.

Hamish Macbeth, Series One

TV series based on M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series of mysteries set in the small Scottish Highlands town of Lochdubh. I saw it on DVD, so I'm counting it as a movie.

It was weird, but pretty good, and god, the scenery is splendid.

Revelations, by Melissa de la Cruz

This is the 3rd in the Blue Bloods rich New York teen vampire series.

I really liked the first two, but this just didn't do it for me so much. Schuyler's plot line just isn't working for me so much and as for Bliss... well, I know it's fantasy, but I just had a hard time suspending disbelief.

Consumed : how markets corrupt children, infantilize adults, and swallow citizens whole, by Benjamin Barber

This was fantastic. I read it a while ago, and it never made it onto the list, but there was one set of dualities, outlining the differences between childhood and adulthood that I loved, and wanted to save for myself.

Child / Adult
Impulse over Deliberation
Feeling over Reason
Certainty over Uncertainty
Dogmatism over DoubtPlay over Work
Pictures over Words
Images over Ideas
Pleasure over Happiness
Instant Gratification over Long-term Satisfaction
Egoism over Altruism
Private over Public
Narcissism over Sociability
Entitlement over Obligation
The Timeless Present over Temporality
The Near over the Remote
Instantaneous over Enduring
Physical Sexuality over Erotic Love
Individualism over Community
Ignorance over Knowledge

so well said.

Violet by Design, by Melissa Walker

The second Violet book was as good as the first. I love the way Melissa Walker makes Violet such a believable, relatable chaeacter without resorting to cliches- like the perennially leggy clumsy creatures who stumble and prat-fall their way through everything from The Princess Diaries to Twilight.

Violet doesn't need to fall over to make her likeable- she already is. That adds a lot of weight to a teen series about the challenges of being a 19 year old model on the verge of becoming huge in the field.

Love is a Many Trousered Thing, by Louise Rennison

The 8th in the really cute Georgia Nicolson series has Georgia trying to decide whether she likes Robbie the Sex God or Masimo the LurveGod, but finding out that after all, maybe it's Dave the Laugh who she's most comfortable with. I think once you're up to book 8 in just about anything (except maybe the Wheel of Time or something) you mightas well keep going, so I'll have a go at Stop In The Name of Pants! but to be honest, the gloss is wearing off. I wish Georgia would find something else to think about.

History Mystery And Lore of Rhode Island, by Kelly Sullivan Pezza

Lots of quick breezy bits in here. Some new to me- I did not know about Hell's Half-Acre, an intersection in West Greenwich where Widow Sweet's Road and Congdon Hill Road meet, where in the 1880s prostitutes were so common as to cause consternation.

Some neat bits about the Kingston jail, too.

Ghost and Vampire Legends of Rhode Island

Well, I couldn't find an image of the dvd cover (which is very plain, anyway) so the pic was actually used in the movie- many photos by Cyril Place are in the dvd. This one is of Sarah Tillinghast's family graveyard.

The dvd covered Newport, the Palatine, and of course, the vampires. Christopher Rondina, the author of "Vampire Legends of Rhode Island" was in the movie, as were some spookily bad actors.

Ghosts Along the Road - An Offbeat Look Off the Beaten Path in a Special Part of Rhode Island and Connecticut, by Rona Mann

Quick quirky read. Very very quick- in a twist I have never seen before, the author left a whole bunch of blank pages at the end for the reader to "write their own chapter" which is either charming, or extra lazy! lol

Some fun bits, and it's just not that often that you get to read a book that even tries to talk at length about Perryville, Usquepaugh or Shannock.

The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner

This was very cool.

Eric Weiner travels to places that rank highest (Bhutan, the Netherlands) and lowest (Moldova, Qatar) and tries to figure out what makes them so. Swiss contentment, British stiff-upper lips, Thai laissez-faire sexual mores are all (in varied degrees) sampled, and he's a good writer. This was a good read.

I'm seeing it on a lot of best-of-the-year lists, but I'm not sure it's going to make mine, but it really was good.

She's Not There, by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith

Pretty dark murder mystery set on Block Island. Very good descriptions of Block Island, but bleh, kind of horrible story.

Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott

Pretty miserable YA book. Trauma porn- I am just so sick of all this nonsense. Blah blah misery blah.

Teaser, by Jan Brogan

3rd Hallie Ahern Providence-based mystery, this time focusing on internet chat and amateur porn and silly teenagers. The series is really good, I think- Hallie is a great protagonist, but I am slightly weary of Matt Cavanaugh the love interest. He's not as well developed a character as she is.

Still, a very satisfying read.

Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Fortune and Really Bad Weather, by Jincy Willet

I loved this- funny, cruel, and dead-on. And Rhode Island is as much of a character as librarian Dorcas or her blowsy twin Abigail.

"Rhode Island natives, including those born overseas, are under ordinary circumstances so shy and mistrustful around people they don't know as to seem almost deranged. They never look a stranger in the eye, or if they do, they unfocus their own eyes. I don't mean a stranger you pass in the street, I mean a stranger who's lived next door to you for twenty-fine years, or a stranger you ask directions from or hand his dropped wallet to or knock down with your car.

This probably has something to do with the tradition of overcrowding, of living cheek by jowl for two hundred years. Whatever the cause, we have no stage presence at all, no Southern theatrics, Midwestern irony, Western hyperbole, New York cynicism. We don't even have the famous and overrated Maine understatement. We have instead an Unfortunate Manner.

We literally don't know how to act. We have no roles to play. We are the nakedest of Americans..."

In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan

Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

Despite a really annoying reader, this was a really interesting book (audiobook?).

I'm definitely going to join a CSA come spring.

The link between soy and estrogen was pretty scary.

Lots of common sense, but also some really thought provoking nuggets.

Yesterday's Fatal, by Jan Brogan

The 2nd Hallie Ahern mystery. This was also set in the seedy underbelly of RI- insurance fraud, body shops, South Side of Providence.

These are pretty good though- Hallie is a really solid character. I do kind of miss the South County bits, but that's, well, yeah.

Still looking forward to the next two, but it'll take a bit.

Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie

Bath book, re-read.

Oh, Agatha Christie, you are so good. I've read it before, and knew 'who done it' but still enjoyed it again, and how many mysteries can you say that about? Love the school setting- reminds me of Mallory Towers from Enid Blyton. Love Julia Upjohn. Love Poirot.

I am just filled with love about it all, aren't I?

War Inc.

Uneven but kind of entertaining movie. Hillary Duff was kind of great, but overall the meh reigned.

The Ex-Debutante, by Linda Francis Lee

Flufy fluffy fluff.

Texas flavored fluff.

Pretty bad, actually. At least it was fast.

A Confidential Source, by Jan Brogan

Very well done Rhode Island based mystery! Hallie Ahern is a reporter who left her high-profile job in Boston to work at the South County Bureau of the local Rhode Island newspaper (wonder which one? lol). She lives in Providence, though, and that's where most of the action takes place. Casino gambling, trips to Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun, a charismatic mayor, lots of scratch tickets, and 2 great showdown scenes during Waterfire!

Great fun, and a pretty good mystery to boot! Will read the next ASAP. I think there's 3 in the series now.

Freakonomics, by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt

Of course this is amazing. I listened to it, actually, but do own the book and had read most of it before.

From the legalized abortion cuts down the crime rate argument to the discussion of names given to children, they take on somr very touchy topics, but manage to keep it all so focused and clear.

Fantastic.