The Painted Garden, by Noel Streatfeild

Wonderful Noel Streatfeild book about an English family who stay with a relative in Los Angeles for a winter. The painted garden the title refers to is the painted sets of a film version of The Secret Garden that Jane, the youngest child, gets to be a part of. Not her strongest, but a lovely read.

The Abolition of Death, by James Anderson

No image because new computer and/or blogger is being evil and oppressive.

This was totally bizarre, confusing, and pretty terrible mystery, set in an unnamed Soviet bloc country with eeevil rulers and terrible place names (District 49, etc).

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, by G. Neri

Graphic novel. Sad as hell, about an 11 year old in Chicago who joined a gang, killed a neighborhood girl in a shooting, and then was killed by his gang. Ooof.

Misguided Angel, by Melissa De La Cruz

Book 5 in the Blue Bloods series, and for all it's nonsensical teen vampire mayhem, still so much better than most of the YA out there.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Flat documentary from Michael Moore. Some great interviews and interesting topics, but all so heavy handed, one sided, and polemical.

King Corn

Rather depressing documentary about corn. Not only was this a tough sell to my long suffering husband (hey, want to watch a movie about 2 guys growing some corn?) but it took a startling and graphic detour into cow slaughter. However, it was still interesting, if kind of horrifying.

Gimme a Call, by Sarah Mlynowski

Ridiculous YA. Time travelling cell phones... I don't have enough energy for this.

Ivy & Bean: What's The Big Idea? by Annie Barrows

Ivy and Bean are marginally less loathsome in this, the 7th of the series, but the book itself was depressing, shallow, and, well, depressing.
Ivy and Bean learn about GLOBAL WARMING from the seemingly dim witted 5th graders in their school, and when the whole 2nd grade class goes into deep funks about the planet's impending DOOM, their teacher assigns them all to do projects that will help save the planet.
Ivy and Bean waste a lot of time, energy (both theirs and consumer fossil-fuel based energy) on a lot of different ideas, before coming to their inevitable and sappy and insulting-to-adults conclusion.
Hideous, on about 20 levels.

Beyond the Vicarage, by Noel Streatfeild

Either the new computer or blogger or the combination is being a pain in the ass ( I really hate this new computer).
Good book.
Too irritated at the world to say any more about it.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, by Jeff Kinney

#5 in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Greg Heffley's journals are still funny, but it's hard to see how he'll go into the high school years and 'keep it clean'.

The Making of A Marchioness, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

God, it really is so interesting to get to read some of these rather obscure early 20th c books, that are, thanks to Persephone Press and The Bloomsbury Group, being re-released. Wish Amazon would link to ther very attractive new cover, but it won't, and I'm feeling lazy, so that's that for cover images.
ANYWAY.
Best known for her childrens' writing, such as The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett also wrote adult fiction, and this is a really surprising example of that.
A bit of fairytale, a bit of romance, a bit of gothic suspense and danger, but with a heartily, astonishingly down to earth heroine- 35 year old Emily Fox-Seton, who, to the surprise of all, marries the dashing Marquis of Walderhurst. Emily's later-in-life marriage causes upheaval among her family and new in-laws, but she carries the day in the nicest of ways.
She is a bit of a Sara Crewe, in that she sees the best in every situation, but she also, as a woman and not a young girl, has passion and a lust for life that unworldy Sara never seemed to have.
Very interesting book!

The Barefoot Contessa: How Easy is That?, by Ina Garten

Some great ideas from my favorite chef-character.

Bright Young Things, by Anna Godberson

Great cover, no?
Best thing about it.
Much like Godberson's The Luxe, set in Gilded Age New York,this, her take on 1920's Manhattan is facile, improbable, and as melodramatic as a daytime soap.  

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser

Wonderful classic American literature. Longer than I remembered (800+ pages!) but still so so so good. Book club book.

In the Woods, by Tana French

re-read for book club.

The Stately Home Murder, by Catherine Aird

Enjoyable but forgettable sort of mystery.

The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie

Fantastic book, of course, but this was a TERRIBLE edition- footnotes all over the place translating (wrongly) English to American English in the most obnoxious, insulting (to both sides!) and wrong way possible. Bizarre.

The Unexpected Guest, by Agatha Christie

She is perfection.

Garden Bouquets and Beyond, by Suzy bales

Lovely and so made me wish it was spring!

Liar, by Justine Larbalastier

And I have read some awful books, but this was way, way, way up there.

Dirty Little Secrets, by C.J. Omololu

TERRIBLE trauma porn YA. The girl's mother is a hoarder, so when the girl finds her dead, smothered to death by magazines, naturally, she tells no one and alternates between cleaning and going to parties. STUPID BOOK!

Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird

Older British mystery- from all the praise I've read, I was expecting more, but the datedness of the entire concept made it hard to enjoy.

The Affair of the Mutilated Mink, by James Anderson

Another kind of homage to British golden-age mysteries, with the same characters and setting as the Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cozy. Very neatly done.

Heist Society, by Ally Carter

Weird but fun and fast YA. Teen thieves who alternate between acting and looking like children to looking and acting like adults- lots of suspension of disbelief in this, but at least it wasn't trauma porn.

The Unidentified, by Rae Mariz

I really enjoyed this book, but felt that it was thematically so similar to so many books that it didn't feel fresh (I see the comparisons to Westerfeld, but more to Claire Carmichael's Leaving Simplicity and even Suzanne Weyn's The Barcode Tattoo). Also, I thought the language was likely to date VERY fast- unlike Westerfeld's created slang, using current (and some already dated) terms weakened the book. (Isn't craftster so 2004??? ;) Still, it would be thought provoking if one wasn't already immune to that same Larry-brand anti-consumerism rah rah rah.

What's New Cupcake? by Karen Tack

Absurdly cute and time consuming cupcakes that I sincerely hope I am never lobotomised enough to make.

Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry, By Ronna Weltman

Interesting ideas, but not my style.