Hours Spent Reading: 2.5
Books Read: 1
Pages Read: 296
Money Raised: $591
What I'm listening to: I Fall In Love Too Easily
Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.
Up Over Down Under Micol Ostow and Noah Harlan
It wouldn't be a 48 Hour Book Challenge without a Students Across the Seven Seas book! And a super-special to boot!
As a super-special, we get 2 stories. Billie is an Australian studying in DC and interning at the EPA. Eliza is an American studying in Melbourne and doing fieldwork in Melbourne bay. They're living with each other's families.
The chapters tend to alternate between the two girls. Billie's a super-hard core environmentalist (and occasionally annoyingly sanctimonious about it.) Eliza, the daughter of a high ranking politico at the EPA, is used to growing up in the spotlight and is looking to cut loose when she's on the other side of the world. It was a bit painful to watch Eliza make a ton of decisions that even she knew were bad.
BUT! Overall, super fun, even though it's a bit odd to read a SASS book about my own city. The map of the city is comical. Also, I must chafe when Eliza claims the DC doesn't function very will because of it's design-- traffic is confusing? The streets are a grid and go in numeric or alphabetic order! Traffic is confusing if you aren't used to it, yes. I found it very confusing for awhile, but I doubt that a born-and-breed DCer would claim it was confusing...
Also, if they're driving from Dulles to DC, why are they going through Maryland? If you work for EPA, your office would be on the Mall, not the Hill, and the Washington Monument is in the middle of the mall, not the end of it, no building in DC proper has 17 floors, and while Billie's disappointed that she doesn't get to do much as an intern, she's doing MUCH MORE than any real intern, especially a high school one would get to do...
Ok, I stopped cataloging the little details after awhile (never watch a DC-based movie with me. The highway signs are always a mess and I will tell you all about it!!!!)
Book Provided by... my local library
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Hours Read: 3.5
Books Read: 1.5
Pages Read: 399
Great Call of China Cynthea Liu
Frequent readers know how much I love the SASS series. I was so happy when a new one came out, but I saved it for this weekend, because I read 3 SASS novels during my first 48 hour Challenge and that's when I really fell in love with the series.
OMG. A novel that uses standard Pinyin?! Be still my geeky heart. This means I understood things much better than Cece did, because I only had to translate Pinyin to Mandarin to English, but wacky-made-up-by-the-author-system to Mandarin to English. AND! Cece's fav Chinese food? Muslim! MINE TOO. (Seriously, they need to start exporting that to the US. I could eat dingding mian every freakin' day. When I lived in Nanjing, I practicly did!) Also, I love the way she comes up with stories to remember her characters. (Although da, meaning big is NOT an exploding star. It's a man with his arms stretched wide! If you think of it as a man, you can add on to the story for other characters. Also, what's with always taking a soft sleeper train?! Way too expensive. Hard sleeper's where it's at. (Says the girl who gets street cred for once attempting to travel for 16 hours with a Standing Room ticket. Luckily, around hour 5, which was 4 am, a hard sleeper bed opened up and the ticket collecter took pity on me and offered me the upgrade.)
Anyway, and excellent addition to the series. I've been wanting them to do one on China since forever. This one does it justice.
Well, I didn't mean to drop off the face of the planet there. Last week featured a paper, a presentation, and the sinus infection from the deepest bowels of hell--one of those where you can feel your pulse in your face.
Things might be a little touch and go here until after the holidays. Dan and I are hosting Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. AND! On the first night of Hanukkah, which is in 4.5 weeks, I will graduate from Library School. But classes end the week before that. And I have 2 research papers due before classes end (and this is where I start hyperventilating).
Also, today featured flurries! Flurries count as snow! SNOW! Yay!!!!!
Anyway, books!
Pulling Princes Tyne O'Connell
Calypso isn't poor, but she isn't part of the unbelievably uber-posh set that her classmates belong to. Plus, she's American, which is another strike against her at her all-girls British Catholic boarding school. But, this year, she's determined to break into the inner ranks of popularity.
And, thanks to a fake boyfriend, she totally does. But, then the Prince, (yes the Prince of England! he attends the nearby boys school) takes a shine to her. Calypso is thrilled, or would be, but she already "has" a boyfriend, and the meanest girl, the one who never accepted her, has claimed the Prince for her own.
Hilarious hijinks ensue!
Funny, sweet, and a little frothy, I look forward to reading the other books in the series.
My favorite part? The nuns. (This is a Catholic school after all!) How often to you get anything with awesome nuns? They aren't overly strict, they aren't overly mean. They're super nice and listen, and like a good gossip with the girls. Also, they totally save the day a million times.
The horrible mean teachers? Are the non-nuns. And the Mother Superior can be strict, but not any more than the head of such a place has to be. Hurray for O'Connell for writing nun characters who aren't stereotyped charactertures used for a cheap laugh!
French Kissmas Cathy Hapka
Wahoo! Another addition to the SASS series! But this one's a little different, this one is a sequel to
Pardon My French (also by Hapka, reviewed
here.)
So, after Nicole finally got used to France, she went home, graduated from high school, and then took a year off to travel the world! Now it's Christmas and she's back in France to film a SASS recruitment video with some of her old friends, and plenty of new ones.
So, there's Luc (oh la la, Luc). Nicole doesn't need the trouble of rekindling that romantic flame, so she's firmly keeping that relationship set on "friends only." Well, she's trying to. Then there's fellow DC-area American Mike, a great new friend, until it's obvious that she wants more. All Nicole wants is an uncomplicated holiday with no strings to hold her back!
Great SASS fare. I loved seeing the long-term effects of the SASS experience on a character. Plus, Christmas! In Paris! *swoon*
It's an odd week so far here at Biblio File. First off, I was really hoping to get The Sisters Grimm Book 6: Tales From the Hood, but Amazon is saying that they don't know when it will ship. (It was supposed to ship Monday.) All the other book sites say that it's not coming out until May. Poo.
Then, a book I had ordered used, Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century got refunded because the used seller ran out of copies. (WTF?!) So, no book for me. It's a little on the pricey side to be buying new. Luckily, it looks like my school library has it, so I can still read it for the paper I'm writing.
Also, I'm having serious problems understand how to assign LC classification numbers to books (last week's lecture was a very, very bad one to miss. Stupid back.) I'm also completely blocked on this paper that's due tomorrow, and I need to come up with about 1,000 more words. I also fear that the 1,500 words I have so far don't make much sense. Oh, the insecurities of school.
AND THEN BRETT FAVRE RETIRED FROM FOOTBALL! I mean, ok, he's had a good career and it was a good season to end on (even though the last pass he threw in his career has to be one of the most painful) but... still. I feel like I should go home to Wisconsin so I can mourn with my people.
But! I found the rest of the Drina series at a price I'm willing to pay. And, inspired by the movie Helvetica, I added some super-fun buttons to my Zazzle store. More fonts will be added soon.
Also, I started physical therapy today, which I know a lot of people complain about. Yes, it's hard work, but it makes my back feel so much better! So, in the end, it's all good! And, while driving up the GW Parkway this morning to get to my appointment, the Potomac was super muddy and brown, because of the rain we got last night, but there were daffodils! In bloom! A whole host of little yellow heads that were so... jocund. (So, we all know what Friday's poem will be. 9th grad English has severely warped my mind when it comes to daffodils.) The ones in my yard are only about 7 inches tall, but there's a clump of them coming up.
Did I mention it might snow on Saturday?
But, let's talk about some books, m'kay?
She's a Witch Girl Kelly McClymer
Pru, our magical cheerleader, is back! In this latest installment, Pru is out of remedial magic classes, which means doing even
more studying and homework--to the point where she's almost failing math--the one class she was good at. It's a good thing she doesn't have time for boys, because the only way she can get head cheerleader Tara to buy into mortal cheer competitions is by giving Tara along time with her Pru's super-hott next door neighbor, Angelo.
Of course, then it turns out that Angelo might not be as mortal we we thought, and when Agatha finds out about the squad's mortal cheering, she puts a stop to it completely, including cheering at games against mortal schools. This might just get the squad actually working together.
With Pru worrying about things like school and getting Agatha to change her mind, she doesn't spend as much time worrying about being kewl--her social status isn't as precarious as it was in previous volumes. Pru's greater concern about bigger issues, as well as more exploration of the mortal/witch divide takes away some of the plot lines that were becoming annoying and opens new doors for the series to stay fresh. My favorite installment to date!
When Irish Guys Are Smiling Suzanne Supplee
A new Students Across the Seven Seas!
This time we have Delk, who's moneyed Nashville, but after her mother dies, the whole debutante scene just isn't for her. This is especially true when her dad remarries someone young enough to be Delk's sister!
So, Delk is off to Ireland. Holed up in a castle in the Irish countryside, Delk tries to hide her mother's death from her new friends, trying to get fresh start, plus there's the super-cute Pather, who works at the school and lives at a farm down the lane.
Delk's having so much fun, she may never want to go back to Tennessee!
This is my favorite SASS book so far (ok, it's tied with
The Sound of Munich). There isn't a lot of drama between Pather and Delk--there's is a pretty straight-forward romance. Delk's drama is much more internal, and her friends have some serious drama, which breaks the mold of this series a little bit.
Miki Falls: Winter Mark Crilley
This is the last volume of the Miki Falls series! And just when Miki and Hiro think they're going to get away with their forbidden love...
Well, we wouldn't have much a story if they didn't get caught, now would we? Of course, all traces with Hiro's existence in Miki's town have been erased, so people are thinking she's a little cuckoo...
I continue to adore Crilley's unusual framing structure, lots of trapezoids and small and large frames on one page--many of his pages remind me of a shattering mirror.
There's also a cool feature-ette at the end of the book on the making of Miki-- including early character sketches, and how the story line has changed over time.
This book will make NO SENSE if you haven't read the previous 3, but I adored this series and highly recommend it.
I usually like these SASS books too, but the DC stuff would drive me crazy.
When Bill and I watched that action movie Independence Day ages ago, we had no trouble with any of the aliens or flight scenes, etc. But what we couldn't get over was the idea of getting from NYC to DC in four hours during an alien invasion. Come on! Now that's ridiculous!
Ohhh, sounds like a good one! I don't have any SASS books in my pile this year, but this makes me want to track this one down. (The only time I've been to DC was KidLit Con and I had no problems navigating. There are so many maps everywhere (at least the touristy parts I went to) that it was really easy!)
Oo! There is a new SASS book and I didn't even know about it. I'll have to check it out even though the DC stuff will drive me mad (if some of the other books did and I wasn't even so familiar with all the locales they were talking about).
Ok, the DC comments made me laugh.