The Little Bookworm

Well, I had a good month. My favorite book was Lord Sunday followed by Heist Society. I love a good heist. I did quite a bit of reading this, thanks in part to an incredible (for me) 6 books in the last full week of March. All and all, not too shabby.

Nancy Drew March Recap

I'm a quarter of the way through the books so I'm feeling pretty good about that.
Questions that I have asked: Is Nancy Drew really a good detective or is everyone else just really dumb? Why do the villains want to confess so badly? Are the police resentful that an 18 year old girl does all the dirty work for them or are they grateful? Do they mind taking orders (or "suggestions") from her? Why is Carson Drew so famous and well-regarded? Does Ned mind that he is really only there for the muscle?

10. Password to Larkspur Lane
11. The Clue in the Broken Locket
12. The Message in the Hollow Oak
13. The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
14. The Whispering Statue

I also reviewed the old 1930's Nancy Drew movies for fun.

Nancy Drew: Detective
Nancy Drew: Reporter
Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter
Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Dead-Tossed Waves

Living in a lighthouse with her mother, Gabrielle (Gabry), has always felt safe from the Mudo, the zombies who live outside her town. She's been warned about the dangers outside and so she is afraid. Until one night tempted by her friends and a boy she likes, Gabry crosses the fences for a night of fun that ends up changing her life and those around her forever.

Mudo is supposed to mean "mute, speechless," a word passed down from the traders and pirates who used to fill the harbor. But the creatures trailing me, the people-who-once-were, are anything but mute. They're nothing but noise - moans of hunger. p.81

The Dead-Tossed Waves is the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, but told from a new perspective about 11 years after the first book. The protagonist feels the same though. I found Mary in the first book to be a whining annoying child and I found Gabry to be the same. So much whining, so much time spent wishing. I guess she gets it from her mother. But if you can move past that, the story is pretty good. It's the same world as before, zombies everywhere hungry for human flesh; people living in small towns behind fences. In this book, though you get to see more of the outside world and how it works. Mary's village was isolated and she was brought up to believe that they were the only ones so it was nice to see more of the larger world and the government that was set up to protect the people. I wish they had been more of that though. There was a whole of description about the Mudo and the hunger for flesh and a whole lot of discussion about what they really are, but not enough about how the world actually functions. Maybe in the next book? I hope so. It seems like Carrie Ryan is pushing farther out into this world that she has created in each book. The first book was action packed and felt very closed, a little claustrophobic. This was more open but still had that enclosed feel to it.

Hogwarts: Transfiguration
What's In a Name Challenge
Young Adult Challenge
Dystopian Challenge

Monday, March 29, 2010

Weekly Round-Up 3/29 + Awards!

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week and anything of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.

I'm actually waiting on a couple of tour books so my reading might change this week. In the meantime, I'm going to read The Clue of the Tapping Heels (Keene) and Scarlett Fever (Johnson).

I'm still listening to The Year of the Flood (Atwood) and Wicked (Maguire) though I'm having trouble with the discs on Wicked so I might have to switch to reading which I'd rather not do. I started Shiver (Stiefvater) because of my problems with Wicked so I'd at least have something to listen to in the car.

Wow, last week was a great week for me. I read Into the Wild (Durst), Lord Sunday (Nix), Buddha Boy (Koja), The Dead-Tossed Waves (Ryan), The Haunted Bridge (Keene), and The Blonde of the Joke (Madison). 6 books in one week! That might be a record for me.

Other reviews posted:
The Mermaid's Madness (Hines)
Nancy Drew: Troubleshooter
Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase

Books in the mail:
Won from Juju at Tales of Whimsy. So excited!
Donut Days - Laura Zielin

Emma has a lot going on. Her best friend’s not speaking to her, a boy she’s known all her life is suddenly smokin’ hot and in love with her, and oh yes, her evangelical minister parents may lose their church, especially if her mother keeps giving sermons saying Adam was a hermaphrodite.
But this weekend Emma’s only focused on Crispy Dream, a hot new donut franchise opening in town, where Harley bikers and Frodo wannabes camp out waiting to be the first ones served. Writing the best feature story on the camp for the local paper might just win Emma a scholarship to attend a non- Christian college. But soon enough Emma finds the donut camp isn’t quite the perfect escape from all her troubles at Living Word Redeemer.

Awards!
Shantal at Booknerds are pretty too gave me 2 new awards. Thanks so much! Check out her blog and how pretty and stylish it is.

I'm giving the Beautiful Blogger Award to:

The Sweet Bonjour

The Neverending Shelf

Today's Adventure
Bookworm Nation

I'm giving the Stylish Blogger Award to:

Bloody Bad

YA Addict

Tales of Whimsy

Bookworming in the 21st Century

From the Library is my weekly listing of what I checked out from the library recently.
I didn't check anything out worth noting. My son is in a Scooby-Doo phase so I got a bunch of TV episodes and movies for him. Oh and Ponyo because we love Miyazaki.