Happy New Year - ramblings about December reading

Happy New Year !

Started out this year reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (288 pages) - I am enjoying the story but can't shake the feeling that the female characters are pretty 2-D fantasy characters. A series of quirks and ideals of what a female should be - like a character in a computer games or movie.  I am hoping that they round out more.  Either way, the whole secrets in/with/of books idea is, of course, catnip to a bookworm so I am still happy reading the book.




Have enjoyed several fluffy books during the break - turns out that I like Jill Mansell. Who knew.  I zoomed through three of them - Staying at Daisy's (471 pages), Miranda's Big Mistake (498 pages) and Rumor has it (420 pages). I think my favorite so far was Staying at Daisy's not so much for the primary characters but for the secondary ones. Actually that holds true for all of the books so far.  They all have some deep issues - death, infidelity, and divorce, so not totally fluff but still left me feeling happy after reading them. Definitely what I need after such a lousy semester. I am already starting another one and will keep reading the ones that are cheap on Kindle until I run out probably.

Rainbow Rowell's Attachments: A Novel (338 pages) was also a quick, sweet read. I loved the character of Lincoln and can see how you totally could get sucked into reading emails like that. It kind of reminded me of grad school/cubical work - where you get to hear all sorts of drama played out over/through the walls and get involved in all sorts of stories that are not really your business. Could easily have gotten creepy but I think it was deftly handled. 


Before that I re-read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (320 pages) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (324 pages), in reverse order for no particularly good reason, also in search of a laugh. I really want Douglas Adams to come back from the dead and write the next book. There is a next book there and I want it!  I am almost certain he gave an interview where he indicated that he didn't know that there was a next to that story, but LDTTOTS ends like someone flipping a switch and you go - ARGH! wanting to know what happens next.  Now that I think about it, this is probably exactly why I read them in reverse order. DGHDA actually has an end so it doesn't make you go ARGH! on the last page.

Emilie and the Hollow World (304 pages) was quite fun and I am looking forward to the next book. I know that several people complained of the lack of detailed world building, but I didn't have a problem with it - and really liked the descriptions of the people of the Hollow World.  I also really, really liked having a girl stow-away for a classic, "other-worlds" style adventure.  Looking forward to my daughter being old enough for this one.
 
 
Discount Armageddon: An InCryptid Novel (368 pages) was also fun and read quickly. I really like the idea of a central character with a family instead of the ubiquitous loner.  I haven't gotten into the second one yet for some reason though.  A third is due out soon so I will give the second book in the series another try at some point.




Well - this is everything that I remember reading in December, not including books for work, books I read to my kids or random bits of stuff I picked up off the shelf.  I know I am missing things. Not a bad recap for a first try I think.