Finished The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This is a prequel to my favorite book ever, The Shadow of the Wind.
This is very different from Shadow of the Wind but it's still great.
Here's the synopsis from the back of the book--I don't want to spoil anything, because this is really good.
"In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at an unsolved mystery.
Like a slow poison, the history of the place and an impossible love bring David close to despair. But then he receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike any other - a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realzies that there is a connection between this haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.
Set in the turbulent 1920s, The Angel's Game takes us back to the gothic universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and the Sempere & Sons bookshop, in a masterful tale about the magic of books and the darkest corners of the human soul."
The Cylon tester is now operational and Adama and Roslin each want the other to get tested first. Adama thinks it's a good idea for people to have confidence in the president and Roslin remembers that the captured Cylon told her that Adama was another Cylon.
It's hard for her to doubt that when he starts acting very strangely. He's distracted a great deal of the time, and he's been making mysterious phone calls and takes a ship, leaving no flight plan.
Turns out he isn't doing Cylon business--he's picking up Col. Tigh's estranged wife, Ellen.
Ellen's pretty awful. She drinks a lot (she was drunk in almost all of her scenes) and she's manipulative and just wretched.
Adama canceled his test and had Baltar test Ellen first (only one test can be done at a time and the results take 11 hours to come in). Ellen is not a Cylon, just an awful person.
(Except, of course, the "Cylon detector" is a joke and all the results will come back human. So I guess technically, she could be a Cylon after all.)
Here's Bekki's take. She didn't like Ellen Tigh, either.
Finished Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl.
This book is a mix of two of my recent favorite genres--paranormal YA and gothic fiction.
It's set in the south, a town called Gatlin. (There are not corn children and He Who Walks Behind the Rows does not appear.)
Ethan has been having a lot of weird dreams lately--he's trying to save a girl he loves (who he has only seen in these dreams) and failing. When he wakes up, there's generally a ton of dirt in his bed.
A new girl shows up on the first day of his sophomore year and it's the girl from his dreams. And things get weirder from there.
Such a fantastic book.
Up was just named one of AFI's 10 best of the year. (In case you're curious, the others are Coraline, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, Precious, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sugar and Up in the Air.)
I just watched Up a few days ago, so I'm counting it as one seen. :)
It's the latest Pixar offering, so not surprisingly, it's really good.
From the time he was a child, Carl has wanted to be an explorer like his hero, Charles Muntz. That's how he met the girl who would become his wife, Ellie. They never ended up going anywhere, though. After she dies, he decides he's going to go on an adventure, the one he should have taken with her. Except there's a stowaway (Russell, the little boy on the cover) and things continue to not go as planned.
This is a really cute movie, and I liked it. (But why are you so bloodthirsty, Disney/Pixar? Why do you always kill people?)
Finished The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble for Thomas Nelson.
Addie learns (as an adult) that her parents aren't actually her parents. Instead, she's the daughter of Henry Eaton (beyond wealthy man) and has been presumed dead for 23 years. She wants to get to know her family, but won't say who she is without more proof (all she has is a locket that belonged to her biological grandmother). So she decides to become a governess to her nephew (by marriage).
Her nephew's father turns out to be quite the good looking widower and sparks fly pretty much immediately. (Again, they're not related, John was married to Addie's half-sister.)
It's an entertaining book, but I had two problems. The first was that John and Addie fell in love pretty much instantly, which I didn't think was all that realistic. And the second is that Addie is perfect. Like Beth in Little Women, perfect.
Still, a fun book and especially appropriate to read at Christmas. There are also a lot of twists and turns (some I did see coming and some I didn't).
So basically ever since I reached the 250 (books read this year) milestone, I haven't read anything longer than Vanity Fair's article on Meryl Streep. (Really good, incidentally; I love her.)
I've read the first chapter of Churched by Matthew Paul Turner, and I can tell I'm going to love that book once my brain starts working again. I've also read the first chapter of The Angel's Game (thank you again, Rob!) and same thing. I'm going to love it. But right now? Now I don't want to read anything. (This may even include the ARC of the new Joe Hill novel, which I am really looking forward to. But it hasn't come yet, so there's no way to know for sure.)
So probably this weekend will be an exercise in not reading (except for People and Entertainment Weekly). I need to do laundry and I'm definitely watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'm also planning on getting Julie & Julia and Up from OnDemand.
I'm also trying to remember that I've read a ton of books this year (101 more than last year!) and so even if I don't read any more books for the rest of the year, I've more than done my part.
(And then I think, "Not read for the rest of the year?!")
Best. Surprise. EVER.
Yesterday, the mail came after I had already left for work. When I picked it up last night, I had a little notice saying there was a package. When I got that package this morning, it was a parcel of books.
Automatically fantastic, right?
Turns out it was from my friend Rob. And it consisted of two books I had loaned him and a copy of the new Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Angel's Game). And upon closer inspection?
"To Kelly, Friend of the Shadow" and a signature.
My awesome friend Rob sent me a personally signed copy! He met Carlos Ruiz Zafon at a bookstore in Germany (where he and his wife Tasha now live) and snagged me a book. :)
I am a very happy Kelly. :)
Finished A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
I haven't read this before, but of course I've seen several different movies (and TV show episodes) that are based on the story, so I knew it going in.
In case you've lived under a rock: Scrooge is a miserable bastard who does his level best to make everyone else miserable, too. He pays his one employee incredibly poorly and wishes that the sick among us would just die already. He doesn't want anything to do with his nephew and said nephew's family. And then three ghosts come (four, really, counting his dead business partner) and show him the error of his ways. And God bless us, every one.
One thing I didn't realize going in was that this is actually really funny. (Scrooge tells Marley that he's not a ghost so much as a case of indigestion.)
But it's a sweet, funny (and, thanks to the final ghost) creepy tale. If you've only known the story through movies, you should read the book, too. (It's also pretty short, so it probably won't take too long.)
Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
I hadn't read this before, but I have seen the Disney cartoon (and the one that aired on TV in the 80s, the one with Sammy Davis Jr. as the Caterpillar).
So pretty much if you've seen the movie, you know what happens. (Except the book didn't have Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum or the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter--are they in Through the Looking Glass?)
It was really cute (and insanely short) but I wish I had read it when I was little, because this is definitely a book for children.
The best part was reading this right after Alice I Have Been and seeing how some of the characters in this related to people in the real Alice's life.
Finished Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. (This is a review copy; the book comes out January 12.)
This is a fictionalized account of Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. The book starts when she's a little girl and friends with Mr. Dodgson (who you know better as Lewis Carroll), but continues through her entire life. In fact, most of the book takes place after her family stops speaking to Dodgson.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. The last part (where she's a wife and mother) dragged a little for me. It's not so much that it was boring (it wasn't) but that the first two parts (Alice as a child and Alice in love) were so interesting that the third part was almost doomed for me.
There's an author's note at the end where she explains which parts of the book were true and which weren't, and that was very interesting, too. (No, I'm not going to tell you.)
You don't need to have read Alice in Wonderland to appreciate this book (although I'm going to read it next).
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