Echo Park by Michael Connelly (#22, Fiction)

Can you imagine how many books I would read in a year if all I read was murder/mystery series? Seriously. Even though the book is over 400 pages, I can still breeze though it in three days max. I could read over 100 books in a year!

But alas, quality over quantity. I really haven't got much to say about this book. For it's genre it fits the bill and didn't make me feel like I was slumming it. (I just came up with that--book slumming it. Steph-- it's our new phrase! I love it!)

The main character is likeable and the writing is not terrible. The story was interesting with a nice little twist at the end.

It passes my guilty pleasure standards.

The Girls by Lori Lansens (#16, Fun)

I received Lori Lansens' The Girls as a birthday gift last year and just now got around to reading it. One of the hardest gifts to give is a book--you have to really know the person to be able to pick something out that they will like and enjoy reading. Unless you know for sure that they want the book it's pretty much like trying to pick out clothing. You have to know the size they wear and the styles they like. 

I liken the art of giving a book as a gift to the art of recommending a book to someone; it is pretty much the same thing because in all essence, you are trying to find something that you think the other person will enjoy reading. I have a poor track record when it comes to recommending books. Becky is of course my victim and I admit to sending her down the Prep road when I knew full well how bad it was. I think I was testing her though--she claimed to be a big reader, a sensible reader and Prep was her hazing. And perhaps I wanted someone else to endure the torture of reading that slop so that we could pick it apart. Curtis Sittenfeld, Booknymphs has no respect for you! 

That said, as a gift, The Girls entertained. I was resistant to liking this book because frankly, I have not had a book picked out for me that I actually enjoyed in a long while. But Lansens is an excellent writer. The characters were real to me and I liked reading about the conjoined twins Ruby and Rose. And while I admit that it was the shock factor that drew me in, the reason I stayed in it was for Lansens' portrayal of sisterhood. Rose and Ruby may be conjoined, but they are first and foremost sisters, the girls of their family. And from someone who is apart of her own girls subset, that is a very powerful, distinct thing. Lansens captures it well.  

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (#15, Just for Fun)

Oh my little friend Steph. Let's just discuss some of the books you have suggested to me over the years.

1) Prep by who the heck cares. I remember sitting on the beach, talking about boys, basking in the sun, and wanting to kill you for not only LETTING me read this book, but actually SUGGESTING it!!!

2) Dogs of Babel . Ditto on the beach, but I believe this was a different summer, yet, you did it again--bad bad bad. She committed suicide! Not fun, not happy, not a beach read. And the whole stealing dogs and cutting them up? I pass.

Really, those are the only two that make me cringe at the thought of the time I lost and can never get back. To your credit, the list of books you have recommended that I did not despise, and even liked is MUCH longer. So now, the question is, where does Diana Gabaldon fall on the continuum?

A week ago I would have listed this as #3. Her writing is mediocre at best, I do enjoy historical fiction, and her characters I like, but they say the silliest and well--MOST SOFT PORN THINGS EVER!!!! Seriously Steph--You needed a boyfriend, BAD!!!!!

But, I am SUCH a sucker for "action" and "suspense" and REALLY??!!!?, the last paragraph of the book just HAD TO GO AND THROW A HOOK.

I hate you Steph.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (#9, Fun)

What can I say but that I was disappointed. This was a book that had much promise but just couldn't deliver. I guess I shouldn't have been expecting that much--it is a New York Times Bestseller and we all know what that means in the land of Booknymphs. I wanted to be amused, entertained, and along for a metafictional ride but the only thing this book delivered were cardboard characters and predictable plot lines. Sadly, this is the first book in a series and I can only shudder to think what Jasper Fforde comes up with in the subsequent installments.

It is really annoying to stumble across such a promising premise for a novel and then to find that the author has squandered it away in such a hideous fashion. There is nothing to love about Thursday Next, our main character. I feel like you never really get to know her and the parts that you do get to know aren't that interesting or great. And I know that some characters aren't meant for us to like (think The Kite Runner) but Fforde is not telling a compelling story about human interaction. The Eyre Affair is science fiction for lit snobs that falls so very short. I made myself finish this book only because I purchased it--had it been a library book it would have found itself tossed in my started-to-read-but-hated-and-gave-up pile. Fforde failed at rule number one for writing books in a series: you have to grip your readers with a lovable character. You have to give them a reason to pick up book two.

Predator by Patricia Cornwell (#6, Just for Fun)

I think this one speaks for itself. I finished Eat, Pray, Love and didn't have another book lined up. Bad things happen when I don't have a book waiting on the nightstand. Regardless, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for criminal thrillers, I admit and embrace my bad taste. Like i've said, no one is perfect.

On a side note, I still plan on reading my genre classics, and I did start Le Miserables, but I didn't finish it before I moved and had to return it to the library. But I will read it at some point this year, that is a promise.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (#1, For Fun)

You can rest assured that unless I am stuck in a house, unable to turn on the tv, and have no books to read other than those by Philippa Gregory, I will not be reading her again.