Book 39-depressing 43

Book 39: Mischief Under the Mistletoe
Finished: July 1
Pages: 339

I really liked this book, because it showed Turnip in a good light, and finally he gets a little respectability. It was lighthearted and I enjoyed it. I'm writing this review from many months down the road, but I remember enjoying myself.

Book 40: The Forgotten Garden
Finished: July sometime
Pages: 552

One of my favorite books of the year, this follows my trend of reading gothic fiction at the wrong time of the year. It's what has kept me from reading Great Expectations and Jane Eyre each summer, but this book overcame the difficulty of being set in a completely different time and place by being very well written and interesting. A friend of mine, Lynette, emailed me this summer and mentioned this book the day after my bookclub picked it as their next read. It was kismet. Since she also loved the Pink Carnation books, I can only say that her taste in books is excellent. I loved this book, with its tragic twists and turns. A great read.

Book 41: Into the Beautiful North
Finished: September 18
Pages: 368

A much more lighthearted take on a very emotional issue. This is the story of three young girls and their gay friend who travel from their small town in Mexico to find the Magnificent Seven, to save their town from a gang of druglords. Although the novel has quite a bit of Spanish to it, I didn't feel the narrative lost its punch in translation. I really liked the voice of Nayeli, and the interesting characters that she meets along the way are funny as hell. A true hero's journey, we follow Nayeli all the way to her father's front door, before she turns around and heads back to Mexico. I think that we often think of immigrants and the impact that they have on America, but the story of the women left behind, the women who wonder where their husbands, brothers, and fathers have gone, and this story tells us of a woman who tries to get the men to come back.

Book 41: Starcrossed
Finished: September 23
Pages: 359

Nothing to do with Romeo and Juliet, this is a young adult book about a girl named Digger who is a spy and a thief who changes her ways when she meets up with a group of untimely allies.


Book unfinished-doesn't count
I tried to read The Widow's Tale, Boneshaker, Tigerheart, and a couple other books. Everything that I picked up, even books I was interested in reading, I put down because I was either too busy, too tired, or just being lame. I probably started at least five books, maybe more and just couldn't get through them.

Book 42: Fortune and Fate
Finished: October 15
Pages: 448

The latest in the Twelve Houses series that Sharon Shinn writes, this was candy for my brain.

Book 43: The Name of the Star
Finished: December 7
Pages: 372

Young adult book, a ghostly tale of Jack the Ripper told from the point of view of a young American girl from Louisiana who has the ability to see ghosts. It was a little touristy, as far as London was described, but an interesting idea by the end of it. Some of the ghosts were wonderful characters.

And that's about it for 2011. A little depressing, but this semester was just too hard to get any reading done. There's always next year, I suppose.

Good Reading,
Caitlin