Ach, I suck.

However, I feel a new layout coming on and along with that some happy tasty fine content. You'll be proud, I promise.

Until then, you get crap. Excited? Me too.

I finished Year Of Wonders: A Novel of The Plague by Geraldine Brooks last night. The novel is about a village in 1666 that is infested with the Plague thanks to a bolt of infected cloth brought in by a tailor. In order to keep the Plague from spreading to the nearby villages, the Rector of the town convinces the people the best thing to do is to self-quarantine.

The village decides to do so, and then has to deal with all of the harshness of the plague, social injustice, and religious extremes all while being prisoners of their own town. The novels protagonist is Anna, barely 18 and a widower with two children, she loses everything she had to the plague, but finds the courage to come out of it a stronger and completely different person then she ever thought possible.

The novel was very well written, and I enjoyed it up until the last chapter, which had a 'twist' that to me felt out of place and rushed, and not entirely possible in the way that it was set. Not that the character couldn't have developed into what she became, but it was still a stretch. Not that this makes it a bad novel by any means.

I recommend it if you're looking for a well written, emotionally charged something to entertain you instead of doing Trig homework...I mean, you know, instead of doing whatever, laundry or weeding.

Year Of Wonders: A Novel of The Plague

Rated:

Four and a half Duckie-Wuckies out of five. Don't judge the ducks, people.

It's been winter now for 11 days, so I figured it was time to get my Winter Reading List up and cracking, before I ran out of time and had to start thinking about the Spring Reading List.

For those of you Figs who don't know, every season I post an ever-growing list of books that I want to read before the season is up. This book contains everything except textbooks directly required for my classes. Everything else, including old textbooks and papers, get added to the list. I also take suggestions for tasty reading.

I read pretty fast, and can usually do 35 - 40 books in a normal season list, and if I'm really reading I can do over 100. Usually though I don't have that kind of time, which makes me sad in my insides.

If I own the books, usually they get released into the wild unknown through Book Crossing when I'm done with them. Two of my books are BC books that I picked up from Wordstock in November and just haven't had a chance to read them.

This seasons list includes medical stuff, non-fiction, fiction of all kinds, cooking books, and of course zombies. I'm looking for a good biography and anything else that you might think would be a fun read.

I add to the list anything I find or read during this time. My deadline for reading them is March 20th, which is the Spring Equinox.

Winter Reading List:


Bad Moon Rising - Katherine Sutcliffe

Beyond Nose-To-Tail:More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook - Henderson & Gellatly

Blue Justice - Illona Haus

Complete Guide MD/PhD Degree - Ben Rosner

Cold Hit - Stephen Cannell

Examkrakers: MCAT study package - Jonathan Orsay

Learning To Play God - Robert Marion

The Last Light of The Sun - Guy Gavriel Kay

The Face of Death - Cody Mcfadyen

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin

Med School Confidential - Miller & Bissell

Tales of the Otori: Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn

The Wheels of Darkness - Preston & Child

Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver - Arthur Allen

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations - Cave & Mitchell

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse - Ben Templesmith

World War Z: An Oral History/Zombie War - Max Brooks


Give me any suggestions you have!

I've finished both Blue Justice and Bad Moon Rising both are junk food fiction, but Bad Moon Rising is much more junkier, and not really in a good way. Technically these would go on the Fall Reading List, since I read them before the 22nd, but I'm a cheater so I'm cheating. It's my list! I can if I wanna!

I enjoyed Blue Justice though, and would say if you're looking for a fun thriller it's worth it. I read them both while delayed in the airport for five hours on my flight home from Vegas. They served their purpose well, and kept me from gouging the eyes out of the other people waiting with me.

The lovely tastiness that is my vacation ends in a sad six days. Although classes do not start up again until the 8th, there is lots of work to be done in the office that I really need to get in and get going before I have to start studying every waking moment again.

Today I'm kind of just mellowing out from the crazy rushing that has been the last couple of weeks. I've got myself a nice mug of blueberry green tea and a good book, and I'm just bumming around. Truth be told, I didn't even get dressed today, which was kind of nice.

I'm reading Through A Glass Darkly, because it's always on someone's list of must reads, and I've never read it. I'm not a big fan of these kinds of novels (it's pretty much just 742 pages of angst), it's not that it's bad, it's just very much Gone With The Wind/Jane Eyre-ish, and I can only stand so much of it before I retch a little in my mouth.

There is a prequel (Dark Angels) and a sequel (Now Face To Face) and I may or may not read them just to see what happens, but they're not going to be high on my list I don't think.

I'm on my way back to the Library tomorrow to pick up some more tasty reads to finish out my vacation. I could use some suggestions, so leave them for me would you? I makes me sad not to get any comments at all anymore!

HotD:

House is all quiet.
Vacation slowly slips by,
Closer to new years.

I've added a sidebar for Tasty Books that I plan on reading through the rest of summer. Here they are thus far:

Legacy of Masks - Sallie Bissell
Deception Point - Dan Brown
Sweet Dreams, Irene - Jan Burke
Storm Front - Jim Butcher
Lost Lake - Phillip Margolin
Black Water - T.J. MacGregor
Carter Street Hangman - Anne Perry
Book of The Dead - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Cabinet of Curiosities - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Dance of Death - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Relic - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
The 1st Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders
The 2nd Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders
Crow In Stolen Colors - Marcia Simpson
Sound Tracks - Marcia Simpson
The Beach Road - James Patterson
Three Days To Never - Tim Powers

I am looking for more suggestions for books to add. Most of the books I have here are fantastic junk food books (books that are fun and quick to read but most likely have very little substance) although Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (my two new favorite authors...viva le Agent Pendergast!) write some pretty damn good stories.

As many of you Figments know, reading inhumanly fast is my super-secret mutant power. On average can get through a 250-300 page book in about an hour to an hour and a half. When I get going, I can read a little over 1000 wpm, which is nutso, as the average is about 200-350 wpm. Reading fast is really the only thing I've got going for me. Seriously, I'm a freak of nature.

With the current list I have, all but six of these books are in my possession, and I will most likely have them done within the next week, so I really need some more suggestions on what to read.

So throw them at me, Figments! I will read anything, fiction, non-fiction, you name it. I'd prefer stuff that won't bore me to sleep, with a decent plot and characters that do not make me want to rip my eyeballs from their sockets, but I trust your judgment Figments.

If you don't give me suggestions I'll be forced to pick books at random, and although sometimes those give good results (like Mr. Preston and Mr. Child's books) sometimes it's just a very bad, bad thing.

I'm counting on you.

I, being a complete slacker, wasted a fantastic day off from the SL Office and classes in the best way possible: by going to the library.

Because I'm a book addict, I only got one of the books on my Winter Reading List, and nine more that weren't on it, but are going to be added for addings sake. Yay! Ten crunchy, juicy, tasty books to read!

I need help. Like a 12-step program or something.

HotD:

I am nervous, yo.
Applying for new positions,
And not told the old.

So, I've read 12 out of the 58 books on my Winter Reading List, which isn't bad for a list that is only four weeks old. That comes out to three books a week, which is really good considering I work three jobs and go to school full time...and whatever else. Yes, so I spend a lot of my time at one job reading, but that's a defense mechanism to save me from the brain melting westerns. I also read with mutant-like speed, it's the only thing I've got going for me.

Last night I finally read Alice Seabold's The Lovely Bones in one sitting. Much like Savanna said I would, I bawled like a gigantic baby through the majority of it. I do have to say though, it's one of the few books that has actually lived up to it's hype for me. I really enjoyed it. I have a tendency to stay away from hyped books because they're never as good as people say they are.

I guess somehow judging a book by it's hype is probably akin to judging a book by it's cover.

Now (aside from Jane Eyre which I'm reading for a class, and am loving!) I am finishing up Pride and Prejudice and starting Emma Donoghue's Life Mask I read Slammerkin and liked it, so I'm hoping this next book of Donoghues will be just as good.

Man, I'm such a nerd.