The House on the Cliff, by D.E. Stevenson

Lovely D.E. Stevenson book. Light and cozy romance with a great dose of real-estate porn- struggling actress Elfreda inherits a family estate, and learns to leave Lond'ns bright lights for country pleasures.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, by Jerry Pinkney

Just about the most beautiful childrens' book I have ever seen.

The Velvet Room, by Zilpha Keately Snyder

Just a lovely children's book. Migrant farm family has a car breaksdown near a farm with an abandoned mansion nearby. When her father finds work on the farm, Robin finds her way into the round, velvet curtained turret room, and finds an escape in books. This was just really lovely.

The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie

My first e-book! I read this on my awesome new Kindle-fire, which I love more than words can say. I chose to read an Agatha Christie first, to combine the familiar with the new, and it was a match made in heaven. Great classic Christie, amazing new format. so cool.

The Scrapbook of Francie Pratt, by Caroline Preston

A moving graphic novel following the protagonist through the roaring 1920’s, from Cornish New Hampshire to Vassar to decadent ex-pat writer’s refuge Paris and back. Frankie is a heroine to remember, and the vintage details in the “scrapbook” add depth and interest to the story.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson

Excellent YA fantasy with an unusual heroine and vividly imagined, vaguely Spanish/South American setting. I couldn't put this down.

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis

Well done YA Sc-Fi. Amy is frozen with her parents for a 300 year journey to terraform a new planet, but is woken 75 years early in suspicious circumstances. This was an exciting blend of scifi and romance and philosophical points about what compromises might be necessary for the human race to survive.

The Village that Slept, bu Monique Peyrouton de Ladebat

This was a strangely addictive children's book about 2 children who wake, dazed and amnesiac, high in the Alps after a plane crash. They find a baby among the wreckage, and then take shelter in an abandoned village for 18 months. Strange, dreamlike, and quite haunting.

The Mystery of the Haunted Pool, by Phyllis Whitney

Cool little children's mystery, very reminiscent of Nancy Drew, with hidden gems and pirate treasure and secret hiding places.

Missing Melinda, by Jacqueline Jackson

Really lovely hidden children's gem- twin sisters Cordelia and Ophelia move into a new house, and promptly begin a mystery involving the disappearance of a valuable old doll named Melinda. Delightful .

The Twisted Thread, by Charlotte Bacon

Ok but familiar feeling college girl secret society murder mystery- reminded me much of The Sixes, by Kate White.

Easily Amused, by Karen McQuestion

Light and quick read. After inheriting a house in the suburbs, dizzy girl gets absorbed into the neighborhood and finds Mr. Right, blah blah. Predictable but comforting. Comfort food lite, like Cheetos.

Comfort and Joy, by India Knight

Light and charming Christmas book. Upscale Bridget Jones-y characters, celebrating Christmas over many years. Rather like One Day without the tear-jerkyness.  

Bad Kitty Meets The Baby, by Nick Bruel

Not as delightful as earlier entries in the series, but still fun and charming. I do love Bad Kitty, I'm just not sure about this title.  

Lost Girls, by Alan Moore

Now, usually when I say something is porn on here, I mean food porn, or lifestyle porn, or most often real-estate porn, but this was just straight up hardcore comic drawn porn. Ick.

Martha Stewart Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations

Beautiful, unachievable lifestyle porn. Ugh.

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Ah.

Quickly making the Top Ten Books of 2011 lists (Publisher’s Weekly and Amazon, so far) Eugenides’ latest is clearly a great read. But is it a great book? That I’m not sure of.

I have to say that The Virgin Suicides is one of my all time favorite books, so my expectations are insanely high, so grain of salt- hell, pillar of salt.

The college and post-college experiences of Brown students Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell rang true, and parts were heartbreakingly real, but I never felt fully absorbed in the story, and the lyricism that defined Virgin Suicides was not present.

What hit me hardest with this book was the heart-panging recognition of first love, all night conversations about philosophy or semantics or religion, how devastatingly accurately Eugenides portrayed those (ludicrous in retrospect) days when it seemed like ideas and ethics and books mattered at all- when friendships and relationships could be broken by reactions to Barthes or Derrida, when it seemed normal and natural for conversation to revolve around theory. That broke my heart, the dreadful mirror he held up to the college experience, but he never took it to the next inevitable point- when all of these people compromise (as they will have to)- when Madeleine finds there are no jobs for Victorianists, when Mitchell realizes that unless he goes Unibomber style, he will be one of the great hypocrites of the earth, and when Leonard will (again, seemingly inevitably) commit suicide.

I might sound bitter.

Ok, this book fucked with me.

But, for all that- the book stayed firmly in lucky, intelligent, mostly wealthy white people territory, and while that is fine, and no necessary detriment to great literature (see, Salinger, Updike, WHARTON, for god’s sake), the characters never bled for me or made me weep.

It was a great read. I don’t think it was a great book.

Fever, by Lauren DeStefano

A fantastic follow-up to the phenomenal Wither.

In this novel, unwilling bride Rhine and house servant Gabriel have escaped the luxurious prison of her husband’s mansion, only to find that the world outside the gilded cage is even darker and more dangerous than it had been inside. With their freedom the only thing they truly have, their struggle to remain free is all the more poignant. After being captured in a surreal and vividly painted brothel/circus, Rhine must use all of her strength to save herself, Gabriel, and a young straggler they pick up along the way. Without giving spoilers, it’s hard to describe more of the plot, but once again, DeStefano’s writing reimagines the familiar ground of YA post-apocalyptic dystopian near-future America, and creates a fully imagined world fraught with danger, but touched by hope. Different in tone from the nearly claustrophobic Wither, Fever is a fantastic sequel that doesn’t feel like “the middle book” at all- while leaving me panting for the next in the series!

A Killer's Christmas in Wales, by Elizabeth Duncan

This was a bit of a dissapointment plot-wise, but I really enjoy the North Wales settings of Duncan's EXTRA-COZY mysteries, and although the characters don't ring to life, and the plots are a wee bit threadbare, still, the thrill to my heart of the murder happeining at Conwy Castle, and the frequent mentions of the train from Chester to Llandudno etc keeps me reading her books. Rhys Bowen's Constable Evan series was better, but seems to have stopped.

A Dark and Stormy Night, by Jeanne Dams

Pretty blah country house mystery. I have no problem with mysteries featuring older protagonists, but some of the characters in this spent more time worrying about slipping on the stairs than about the killer loose in the house, and that kind of put me off. I was hoping to adore this,  as I love a good locked door country house storm-isolated inheritance plot, but I did not, and will not try another by this author.