Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Books, Books, Books!

Since the extreme heat has sent me and my 7 month pregnant belly into hiding indoors I have been on a heavy reading kick in addition to the usually heavy knitting kick! Working on and off at the library hasn't helped since I always feel the need to check out new books while I'm there. I do have a hard time trying to find ways to integrate my reading obsession with my knitting obsession so that I can do both at the same time but that's a story for another time...
Here is my personal rundown of some of the summer reading that is available right now. I won't go into too much detail...
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga)  I figured I would start with one of the worst. While I understand the teenage need to make this series continue for as long as possible I found that this book was severely unnecessary. A short sad look at a small character that should have remained nameless.
Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 10) Another example of a series that has run its course. While the basic story was good it felt a lot like the last 6 books of this series. Sex, murder, mythological creature... same ole same ole.  I think Charlaine should sit back and let the TV series make her some money!
One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum) So I know these two are kinda older but I read them because the newest one (#16) just came out. Both of these were well written, interesting, funny and page turning! I love Stephanie Plum as a character. I'm going to really try to stick with this series and hope that they are all good up to #16!
House of Night, Books 1-4 (Marked / Betrayed / Chosen / Untamed)I read 1-3 of this series and while they were pretty good they were definitely young adult novels. With the first book it was ok and then I started to get tired of that special writing style that is only used in young adult novels... you know the style that's meant to be detailed enough to engage them but not detailed enough to overwhelm them... but for some reason I went ahead and read the third one and ended up wanting to beat myself in the head. Even though I couldn't get passed book 3, I think I just wasn't in the mood for this type of book, I  would recommend it for easy beach reading or young adult summer books!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage) Again I started this book so that I can eventually read the other two. This book was really good. I loved the characters and the story line. It was hard getting through maybe the first 3 chapters, but after that it really picked up and turned out to be a really good book!

So I'm going to Williamsburg for the weekend for our last hoorah before baby #2 comes. I'm taking The Swan Thieves and The Help with me so hopefully I can get a complete summer review up at some point!
The Swan Thieves: A NovelThe Help