Ughhhh

Hey, readers.  I’m sick.  I can feel things battling it out in my stomach.  So I’m going to use this “relaxing” time to catch up on my Week in Books.

As you’ve no doubt realized, now that I’m homeschooling my daughter and no longer live in the boring-as-heck woods, “Week in Books” is more a concept than a set thing.  I’m reading a lot less right now, although I’m hoping to get back into regular reading JUST IN TIME to have it all taken away from me by grad school.

Oh fab, all my end-of-the-year stuff is listed by title but not author.  Ah well–my problem, not yours.

So, to catch up till the end of December:

I finally read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier and let me tell you, internets, I am very, very glad that I didn’t do my thesis on the series like I had originally planned.  I mean, the topic was “hypertextuality,” so it would’ve worked out great, but then I would’ve had to write about this book (moreso than I am here, obviously).  There were good things about this and bad.  The 3D part was pretty cool.  The gender-swapping Orlando is cool too.  The main story is pretty interesting.  Some of the stories are good.

But yeah, go figure, I could live without the porn.

I know that Moore is trying to show the art in pornography, but…I don’t care.  I didn’t care when I read some of Lost Girls, and I don’t care now.

Moving on.

Then I read A Contract with God by Will Eisner.  The only excuse I have for not reading this before is that it wasn’t on the graphic novel cart at the old-old library, but when I saw it on the shelf at the new library, I grabbed it.  I’m so glad I did.  There’s some compelling stuff in there.  Everyone should read it, of course; it’s one of those things we call “a new classic.”

Then I read Starcross, the sequel to Larklight, by Philip Reeve and David Wyatt (it says “Someone Wyatt” on the master list; how did I forget “David”??).  I enjoyed this one a lot more, actually.  The universe is well-set and I…don’t know.  It was just better, somehow.  Maybe it’s because I wanted to read it, whereas I was sort of iffy about Larklight.  (As I am about Inkheart, our book club choice of the month.  I’m hoping to get over it, but there’s a torn-out page which just makes me crankier.)

I finally made my way through the second and third trades of The Exterminators.  They say it’s going to be a show.  I don’t think I could watch it, even though I enjoy the premise and a lot of the characters.  (The women are pretty awesome, by the way.)  There are just so many bugs.  Bugs bugs bugs.  I kept thinking I’d have nightmares, but I didn’t.  Thank goodness, cuz…bugs.

I picked up Oddly Normal Volume 1 at the library for my daughter and myself, and it’s really cute!  There’s a girl, who is named Oddly Normal, and she has green hair and pointy ears and a witchmom, and she feels like an outsider compared to all the “normal” kids at her school.  But when her parents disappear and she enters the realm from which her mother’s family comes, she’s an outcast there for being part human/from the human world.  Poor Oddly!  Great series for kids.  I hope to find the second volume at my NEW LIBRARY.

Next came Perry Moore’s Hero.  This was DAMN good.  It’s a YA novel of a young superpowered man coming to terms with his family, his sexuality, and his–oh yeah–his superpowers.  There were little things that bugged me, but heck if I can remember them now.  Also, this is very yay.  Stan is truly The Man.

Then things got a little less super and a lot less heavy with Kelly McClymer’s Must Love Black, a quick read about not-Goth Phillipa and her nanny adventures with two smart but sheltered female twins.  The blurb is somewhat misleading, and I could’ve lived without the Lifetime ending, but it’s cute, if wobbly.  More for younger readers than older ones looking for a good YA fix.

Finally (and what a finally), I read the third trade from Buffy Season Eight.  I LOVE this season!  And yes, I’m thinking of it as a season.  I never thought I would, but they’ve got me: the little things that are going on, the romances, the arc of the Big Bad.  I was happy to see Goddard back, as he was my Favorite of the Drews.  *happy sigh*  Awesome Secret Santa present.

All right, so that’s everything.  My tummy’s still bleh and so I’m sorry if this is a little lackluster.  Also, that brought me to an even 380, barring any missed books (and there are always missed books), which made me kind of mopey because I couldn’t hit 400, but…I should really shut up.  Not many people have the kind of leisure time I have for reading.

New Year’s Resolution: to be more grateful about books?

My friend Robert sent me a box of books yesterday.  A BOX!  It included stuff by Ray Bradbury, Banana Yoshimoto, books about writing, and, omg, the second Vampire Diaries reissue.  Heheheheheheh.