Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Marg has the Mr. Linky here.

I haven't done this before, but I love the library. After a few years of buying all my books new, I realized just how much money I was spending on books. And I always had more books I wanted to buy. I started an experiment last fall to see if my library system could handle the different books on my Amazon wishlist. Well, the library did so well that I ended up taking almost all of the books off my Amazon wishlist and I created an Excel spreadsheet with all the books I wanted that I could get from the library. That list has grown to almost 800 books at this point. I've been slowly chipping away at my list, but it seems to grow faster than I can possibly read. The library is especially valuable to me now that I have all of my books in storage (temporarily).

I took these books out last week but I didn't get to the library over this last weekend. So this will have to do for this week.

This one is for book club with a few friends in a few weeks. I love The Little Prince. I read it in French when I was younger (for school) but I hadn't read it in English until a couple years ago. And I'm able to use this as an excuse to get together with friends and put together Christmas boxes for kids (think Toys for Tots). :)

 I have no idea why I waited so long to get this. I love Neil Gaiman (I've read the first half of The Sandman series, as well as Stardust and Smoke & Mirrors - I'm working on the rest of it). I actually read this on Sunday in the airport and on the plane for a business trip to Massachusetts this week. And I loved every bit of it.

 

I remember liking the movie a few years ago, so I grabbed it. I'm a chapter in and I'm not sure what to think at this point. It's good but it's not really grabbing me. I'll likely hang on to this for a bit and read it here and there in hopes that I get more interested in it. If not, that's okay too because I can always borrow it again.

That's everything for now (aside from perviously read books that I haven't had a chance to return yet), but I have eight books waiting to be picked up on Sunday, so I'm pretty excited about them.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"She opened the large, communal thermos on the table next to the cash register; but when she poured herself some coffee, none came out. What came out instead was poison oats and poison corn."
Page 318, The Cider House Rules by John Irving

The Amaranth Enchantment

I know I read a few really positive reviews of this book (which was why I borrowed it from the library in the first place), but I sat on Julie Berry's The Amaranth Enchantment until I had it out from the library for almost 9 weeks and had only one day left until it was due. And then I sat down and read the whole thing in one sitting. I have a really hard time sitting still so that's saying a lot.

Lucinda is kind of like a twist on Cinderella, with a horrible step-aunt who takes Lucinda in after her parents died when she was a child. But Lucinda is more than just a kind heart - she goes after what she wants and is willing to fight hard for it. I absolutely loved that about her.

Overall, I found this a sweet Sunday afternoon read that warmed my heart.

Wicked Lovely

I stumbled across Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely at the library just grabbing any books in the YA section that looked interesting. I haven't read anything that really focuses on fairies before this (aside from pieces of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series). The cover also drew me in with the shades of blue. It's so pretty.

I actually had a hard time getting into Wicked Lovely, but about 100 pages in, I found myself absorbed by it. Ash gets herself into a crazy mess with the fairies and does her best to figure out how to deal with it. I wasn't really surprised by anything that happened, but I loved seeing it all play out. Ash grows throughout the novel and makes the best of a bad situation.

It's the first of a series, and I think Wicked Lovely is a promising start.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

I will admit that I decided to read this based solely on the title. I stumbled across this gem in the library early last week and couldn't resist it. I expected it to be a lot cheesier but it turned out to be a fantastic read. I managed to get through it one night (thanks in part to insomnia as well as simply wanting to know what happens), which isn't too common for me since I tend to only be able to read a little bit at a time due to time constraints.

I discovered early on that the location is Lancaster County, PA. I live kind of close to there, which made it feel special. The author is from this area too, so it felt like finding a new friend.

After all the buzz about Twilight* which has Bella fall madly in love with Edward almost immediately, it was a breath of fresh air to find a teen vampire romance with a stubborn, smart female lead. I found Lucius to be far more enjoyable and likeable as well. That's not to say that neither Jessica nor Lucius made me angry at times. But I really liked the characters. And I probably would have fallen for Lucius, flaws and all.

I did not expect the twists and turns in this one, and was pleasantly surprised by them. I laughed, I teared up a bit, and had a great time reading this overall. When I finished, I immediately looked up Beth Fantaskey to find out that she does not have any other novels just yet. However, sometime in the future Jekyl Loves Hyde will be released and I am so excited for that day.

* I read all of the Twilight saga and enjoyed it, but I found myself yelling at both Bella and Edward (out loud sometimes) fairly frequently.

Ann Rinaldi, Or Give Me Death

My amazing friend Laura reminded me of Ann Rinaldi's books. I didn't remember which ones we read back in middle school and I couldn't remember if I liked her stories or not, so I decided to do a search online. Turns out, I LOVED reading her novels. So while I was at the library early last week, I picked up Or Give Me Death and I read it in one night. It's amazing how much I loved this little story about Patrick Henry's family. It was an easy read and perfect for a hot summer night just trying to get some rest.

Also, I appear to be on a young adult and vampire kick. I find it quite amusing.

One more to GOAL

I am currently one book away from reaching my goal of 40 books for 2009. It looks like I'm on track to read between 60 and 70 books this year. I'm exceptionally impressed with myself, because I thought this was an insane number of books to read in one year and still manage to have a social life. Well, I have been proven wrong yet again. But I'm rather happy with it. I have a huge to be read list (about 800 books on my library list, plus three bookcases), and I'm excited to be making my way through it all.

Audio books have been so fun this year. I had planned to listen to 6 books this year. But I'm pretty sure I'm in the double digits now. I'm learning which types of books I like to listen to versus which ones I prefer to read on paper.