Vacation Wrap Up

I am back from the beach, a little tanner, a little more rested, and a little sadder than 3 weeks ago.  I really need to move to the beach someday!  I got a little lazy about posting, but here's what I read in the final week of my vacation:

First I finished Curse of the Wolf Girl by Martin Millar.  It was a fairly thick book and not the quickest beach read, but it was still endlessly entertaining and I have high hopes that there will be more books in this series.  Plus I now love the name Decembrius.  Millar's characters are not stand up citizens, even for werewolves and fire elementals- they are selfish, they are shallow, more than a few are fashion obsessed.  There is much drinking of whiskey and taking of laudanum.  There are a lot of characters and Millar bounces back and forth, but not in a confusing way.  Would I recommend this book to everyone?  No, I learned my lesson, Millar's books are not for everyone (yes, Courtney, I do mean you and the Lux the Poet debacle),  but if weird and quirky and paranormal is your thing, then Millar's got the books for you.  Start with the first book, Lonely Werewolf Girl.

Curse of the Wolf Girl gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

In order to feel like I actually read a book or two on vacation, my next read was Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

 I actually ended up liking this short, quick read more than I thought I would.  It tries a little too hard to be cool and all hipster, and Nick and Norah can be infinitely annoying at times, but overall it's a fun book.  What saves the book from being cliched is that Nick and Norah, while big on the music and club scene, aren't promiscuous drug users. They aren't lily white or vanilla, either.  It seems that sometimes in YA in order to feel real or gritty, authors tend to go to the extreme. Of course, they all do swear and all of them are having more sex than you are. ;)  I've only seen parts of this movie, but I really want to go back and watch it now.  While I enjoyed this book and would totally recommend it for a Readathon read, I don't know that I'll be checking out more by either of these authors.  I'm glad I rated this on Goodreads right after I read it, because it's already been downgraded a bit in my memory.  So I'll go with my first impression, because it really made for a good vacation read.  Plus it makes a reference to Heathers, which is so awesome and more books should have Heathers references.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist gets a Midnight Book Rating of: 

The last book I actually finished at the beach was The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

This is actually my book club's current read, and we'll be discussing it on Saturday.  I don't want to say much about it here, other than to say that I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series.  Any book that can make chemistry interesting is a winner in my eyes.  And while Flavia de Luce is not your average 11 year old, that's what makes her a compelling character, average 11 year olds are fairly boring in real life and would make very poor mc's for a mystery novel.  I was surprised by how engrossed I became in this book, making it a perfect beach read.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

 The last book of my vacation was Forever by Maggie Stiefvater.  It's the last in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series and I thought it was a good way to end it.  While I like this series, I've never really loved it, and waiting between books made it fade in my memory.  Sam and Grace are sweet, but a bit boring and Sam can be a major emo although he's got a cool job.  What kept me reading this series was Isabel and Cole, and while I'm okay with saying bye to Sam and Grace, I want more of Isabel and Cole although I know I should be a little troubled over their age difference.  Especially Cole. More Cole, Ms. Stiefvater, please!  I am interested in reading more books by her, although right now her only other books are about fairies, which I'm not particularly fond of, so I'll just wait for her future endeavors. I finished Forever after I got back from vacation, but technically I'm still off work until tomorrow so I'll count it as a vacation read.

Forever gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

 So now it's back to the real world and a daily routine that does not include eating ice cream every night and eating my weight in Pizza Tugos.  I did get a chance to visit lots of used books stores while at the beach and of course I had to bring some books home with me.  I have a post planned on some of the book stores the beach has to offer. 

I don't really know what I'll be reading next, although I do need to play catch up on the Gone With the Wind read-a-long.  Right now I'm waiting impatiently for my new cell phone (a HTC Inspire) and the first app I'm downloading will be the Kindle app!  And now that stores are bringing out the Halloween decor and candy, all I can think of is my October Readathon pile- so excited for it once again!    I'm ready for fall!

Pool Side Reads

The best part of apartment life (and really, one of the few perks at all) is our swimming pool!  This summer is even better because I'm working less hours and the creepy pool guy from last summer is gone.  Yay!
I am not much of a sun worshiper since my skin is pale and prone to burning and freckling bad enough to make me look diseased. But I do love swimming and sitting in the shade and reading.
Now pool reading is not quite as much fun as beach reading, mostly because some of my neighbors prefer to use the pool area as a babysitter for their noisy broods, but I have always loved reading outdoors... as long as it's in the shade and mostly bee free because bees scare me... 

So what have I read this past week at the pool?

The Genesis Code 
by John Case

From Goodreads:

A phone call in the dead of night brings Joe Lassiter shattering news. His sister and young nephew have died in a fire in their home near Washington, D.C. Yet Lassiter soon learns a chilling fact: His loved ones were brutally murdered before the blaze was set. . . .The mysterious suspect's identity only raises more questions. Then Lassiter uncovers another crime--another innocent mother and child murdered. The more he unearths, the larger the web of conspiracy grows, as his search for answers leads him on a dangerous international chase toward a truth that will shock him--and the world--to the very bone. . . .

My Thoughts:  I was not sure I was going to like this book at first, because it opens up in Italy and there's much Catholic church inner workings and my eyes were glazing over a bit. Lucky for me, I managed to process enough of the information to help me when the book started to pick up, which it does as soon as the story switched to Joe Lassiter and his journey to uncover the mystery of the deaths of his sister and nephew.  There is a lot of action, and it was cool to read the action parts that took place in my birthplace of Northern Virginia.  You get to visit a lot of cool places with this novel, and Joe is a pretty cool guy- he's not quite Jason Bourne but he's no slouch in the area of kicking butt and getting answers.

My friend Susan brought this book to our book club swap meet awhile back, and the Hubs ended up with it.  He rarely reads, being more of a computer guy, so it helped me stick with the book despite the initial misgiving.  I was weary of it because I thought it was going to be too much like a Dan Brown novel. Not that I've actually finished a Dan Brown book, I haven't.  I guess the hype of the Da Vinci Code scared me away (plus all the people who were either outraged by the novel or totally convinced that it was all really true), and normally I'm not big on conspiracy plots.  And while I think the Catholic church has lots of problems and issues (that may be an understatement), they do seem to be the go-to bad guys in movies and books nowadays.  I realize that I was just limiting myself by not reading these books- I love thrillers, I love the action and trying to figure out who's going to make it and if good will ultimately triumph over evil. 

Will I be reading more John Case books?  Absolutely- the Hubs is already reading another book by the author (which is actually two authors writing under a pseudonym).  The Genesis Code gets a Midnight Book Rating of 11pm!  It's a great pool side read :)

And when the noise gets unbearable I listen to Discovery of Witches on my iPod- yes, I am STILL listening to this book.  I love the book, I really do, but I usually can only listen to audio books in my car, and I just haven't been driving much these days.  I have come thisclose to just buying the darn book so I can finish it, and I know I'll cave someday simply because I would like to own a hard copy of it.

Next up: 

Love You More
by Lisa Gardner

This is the book I'll be taking to the pool today.  It's hardback, and I normally prefer to read paperback whenever I'm near water but I've had this sitting on my tbr pile for awhile and I'm itching to get to it.  I read the first four books in this series in a bit of a fever, which I tend to do when I find an author I like. 




Other Pool Side Reads Planned:

The Night Season by Chelsea Cain
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

So what are your pool side recommendations?  I obviously prefer reading mysteries and thrillers, but do you have a particular genre you like to read while relaxing outdoors?