read 100 books in 2007

Started Reading: January 30, 2007
Completed Reading: February 3, 2007

Book rating: 8 out of 10 stars

My review
This is a very good book about feminism in daily life. It gives you ideas on how to strive for equality both at home and a work, and it serves also as an introduction to feminism.

See my review at LiveJournal (in Finnish).

Book Description
Tunnetko itsesi tasa-arvoiseksi parisuhteessa? Tienaatko vertailukelpoista palkkaa työstäsi? Onko sinulla samat taloudelliset, sosiaaliset ja poliittiset mahdollisuudet kuin miehillä? Saatko samanlaista huomiota ja kunnioitusta yhteiskunnassa? Onko sinulta kysytty työhaastattelussa lastentekosuunnitelmia? Oletko joutunut seksuaalisen ahdistelun kohteeksi? Kavahdatko silti sanaa feministi?

Started Reading: January 29, 2007
Completed Reading: January 29, 2007

Book rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Book Description

Welcome to Morganville, Texas. Just don’t stay out after dark.

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation, where the popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school’s social scene: somewhere less than zero.

When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don’t show many signs of life. But they’ll have Claire’s back when the town’s deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

My review
I read this book in one day as I couldn’t put it down! Glass Houses was the first full-length book by Rachel Caine that I read, and I’m definitely interested in reading more. I really liked the main character, Claire. She was easy to relate to, and mature enough not to get on my nerves. I guess The Morganville Vampires is a teen series, but I don’t see why adult vampire fans wouldn’t like it. I for one loved it! The atmosphere was great, truly chilling at places.

See my review at bookcrossing.

Started Reading: January 23, 2007
Completed Reading: January 28, 2007

Book rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Book Description

Allegra’s Dictionary of the Paranormal

Dark One n. [Origin: Czech, also known as vampires] A Moravian Dark One is doomed to spend his liftime cruising the singles’ scene in search of the one woman who can redeem his soul. You think dating is hard? Try it when you’re nine hundred years old and you’ve used every pick-up line in the book. Forming a lasting relationship is even more difficult when the woman who makes your heart sing sees dead people and likes to play with demons.

Summoner n. [Origin English] Someone who summons ghosts, poltergeists, and demon lords. Summoners tend to hang around cities like London that are filled with portals to Hell, haunted inns, and other locations dishy vampires might be found lurking. Most Summoners are female, which makes for difficulties when it comes to explaining to the man who haunts your dreams and fills your soul with love why your pet ghosts can be found hovering around even the most romantic of circumstances.

My review
The second installment in Katie MacAlister’s vampire series was definitely better than the first. Set in London, this story still suffers from some of MacAlister’s trademark problems (no sense of location, annoying sidekicks) but the author is also starting to show some of that magic that makes her later books so good.

Allie is a terrific protagonist, as she is not an annoying bimbo, like Joy and Roxy in the previous book (who by the way, are minor characters in this book). Allie might even have been a heroine in a Charlaine Harris book, which is saying a lot, because at least in my opinion Charlaine Harris is a far better writer than Katie MacAlister. Allie’s determination to overcome her past and establish herself as a summoner make her likeable and interesting.

This book definitely had a stronger plot than A Girls’ Guide To Vampires. We get acquainted with the otherworld, and people who are in touch with it, like Summoners and Guardians. It is obvious that Katie MacAlister’s vision of the world, which she developed further in the Aisling Grey series, began in this book. Actually, reading Sex and the Single Vampire after having read the Aisling Grey series can be a bit disconcerting, as there will be some déjà vu-experiences. (Or déjà lu, in this case.)

The ghost troupe served as the annoying sidekicks in this book. I don’t really see why they had to be included, as they weren’t very funny. Other than that, Sex and the Single Vampire was actually a pretty good, if somewhat fluffy, vampire romance. A strong plot with good characters, and the first glimpse into the otherworld as created by Katie MacAlister, this book was definitely worth my time.

See my review at bookcrossing.

Started Reading: January 23, 2007
Completed Reading: January 26, 2007

Book rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Book Description

Ajankohtainen puheenvuoro nuorten koulutettujen naisten työuupumuksesta

Miksi hyvinkoulutetut, menestyvät ja kunnianhimoiset nuoret naiset palavat loppuun jo työuransa ensimmäisten vuosien aikana? Mistä kaikki nämä tunnolliset tytöt tulevat? Kuinka uupumukseen johtavaa tunnollisuutta voitaisiin ymmärtää ja parantaa?
Teos esittelee kuusi tyypillistä ylitunnollista 26–37-vuotiasta naista, jotka ovat joutuneet sairauslomalle arvostetusta työstä. Vaikka naisten ongelmat ovat erilaisia, voidaan syyt johtaa yhteiskunnan kohtuuttomiin odotuksiin, naisten ja miesten eriarvoisuuteen sekä lapsuudenkodista opittuihin asenteisiin.
Käytännön esimerkkejä ja tilastotietoja tuoreesti yhdistävä teos antaa neuvoja sairastumisen välttämiseksi, evästää omaisia ja peräänkuuluttaa esimiesten vastuuta.

My review
See my review at LiveJournal (in Finnish).

Started Reading: January 26, 2007
Completed Reading: January 26, 2007

Book rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Book Description
One day in the life of Minna, a web designer in a big firm before the burst of the IT bubble, and her daughter Jenna, a kindergartner.

My review
See my review at bookcrossing (in Finnish).

Three months gone, nine left.
20 books read so far, but only 4 of them reviewed here.
3/12 = 1/4
20/100 = 1/5
A fourth of the year has passed, but only a fifth of the books read… I need to pick up my pace. Fortunately the Easter holiday has just begun. :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Started Reading: January 19, 2007
Completed Reading: January 20, 2007

Book rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Book Description
The plays that 25-year-old Jennifer Ward writes for Off-Off Broadway are no match for the drama being played out in her mind on a minute-to-minute basis. She worries that she’s getting hooked on a health food sleep aid. She didn’t pass her last Cosmo quiz. And she can’t eat cheesecake, take a meeting, or indulge in a sexual fantasy without being overpowered by a completely hilarious chorus of desire and doubt battling for control of her head space.

But beneath the noise of her own thoughts lie more painful voices Jennifer would rather not hear – voices that whisper to her about the dramatic life and heartbreaking death of her sister. Their love/hate relationship hanuts more than Jennifer’s memories; it colors her work, finding its way into the relationship of the two sisters in her latest play. Not that Jennifer intends to let anyone know about all that stuff – certainly not Peter, the sexy director who seems to be finding his way into her fantasies more and more… or Kelly, the gorgeous, ambitious actress who may be playing up to Peter, too. But the person Jennifer needs to hide form the most is herself, and when things take a wild turn for the worse, she just may get the role of a lifetime—and a chance to confront her real life.

In this wickedly funny and heartwrenchingly honest debut novel, Stephanie Lehmann introduces a true-blue heroine in Jennifer Ward who proves that no matter how booming our self-doubts can sound, nothing speaks louder than hope—and love.

My review
I had no idea what to expect from this book, I just had a vague notion that it would be some kind of chick lit. Well, I would definitely not call it chick lit, but I must say I really liked the story and the main character.

The title Thoughts While Having Sex might be a bit misleading, as there isn’t really any sex in this book. But that’s the point – the main character, Jennifer, is so at loss with the sexual side of herself that she doesn’t know why she should have any. Earlier, when she has tried having sex, all she could think of was her sister mocking her.

My only complaint is actually that there is so little in this book about Jennifer’s struggles with her sex life. Instead most of the story deals with Jennifer’s struggle to come to terms with her sister’s suicide. She has written a play based on herself and her relationship with her big sister, and as the opening night is getting nearer, Jennifer is projecting more and more of her feelings towards the actress who plays her sister.

Even though I haven’t experienced anything similar to the main character, I could still relate very well to her. Her low self-esteems and constant need of approval wasn’t annoying like in many regular chick lit novels. Instead I found it intriguing, especially combined with her ego which never ceases to have hope that good things will come to her. I guess I found something familiar in that.

Stephanie Lehmann wrote in her amazon blog that her books could be classified as “sexual anxiety lit”, and that probably everyone has some sort of hang up about their sex life, even though “we’d all like to come off as if we’re having a great time doing it”. I found the post very illuminating.
Stephanie Lehmann’s comments on her novels

I will definitely add the rest of Stephanie Lehmann’s books on my wish list.

See my review at bookcrossing.

Started Reading: January 17, 2007
Completed Reading: January 18, 2007

Book rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Book Description

It’s a predator eat predator world for the Were-Hunters. Danger haunts any given day. There is no one to trust. No one to love. Not if they want to live…
An orphan with no clan that will claim him, Wren Tigarian grew to adulthood under the close scrutiny and mistrust of those around him. A forbidden blend of two animals—snow leopard and white tiger—Wren has never listened to anyone when there was something he wanted. Now he wants Marguerite.
Marguerite D’Aubert Goudeau is the daughter of a prominent U.S. Senator who hates the socialite life she’s forced to live. Like her mother before her, she has strong Cajun roots that her father doesn’t understand. Still, she has no choice but to try and conform to a world where she feels like an outsider. But the world of rich and powerful humans is never to meet the world of the Were-Hunters who exist side by side with them, unseen, unknown, undetected. To break this law is to call down a wrath of the highest order.
In order to have Marguerite, Wren must fight not just the humans who will never accept his animal nature, but the Were-Hunters who want him dead for endangering their world. It’s a race against time and magic without boundary that could cost Marguerite and Wren not just their lives, but their very souls…

My review
I loved the 8th book in the dark-hunter series as much as the ones before it. Unleash the Night is the second book that focuses on were-hunters, after the 5th book, Night Play. I was delighted to see some familiar faces (Vane, Fang and Fury Kattalakis, for example) and I think the time-traveling aspect was better in this book than in Night Play.

I think the reason why I liked Unleash the Night so much is that I was in exactly the right mood when I read it. Now that I’ve given the book a little more thought, I think there are several things that could have been better… One thing was the weird character change in Mama Bear. It seemed like a cheap plot device, and made me lose some respect for the author. And who is Savitar? He seems a bit too much like Acheron, do we really need two charaters like that? One thing I both liked and disliked was how people put Wren down because he was poor, and how Maggie then gloated with the fact that he was in reality incredibly wealthy. While reading, I got a cheap satisfaction out of this, because who wouldn’t like to humiliate idiots who measure worth in money… But on the other hand, the whole scene in jail wasn’t very realistic, and I thought the lawyers were acting like little children – i.e. “my client has more money than your client”. I don’t remember the previous books being this childish…

I’m very much looking forward to reading the next book, Dark Side of the Moon, despite of the bad reviews it has gotten at Amazon. The series has been in a downward spiral, but all of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s books have been entertaining nevertheless. I just wish she would keep the universe she created tight and well maintained – the glossary at the end was a nice addition, but it also makes me scared that more and more characters will be introduced in each book until it really becomes impossible to tell them apart without the glossary.

See my review at bookcrossing.

Started Reading: January 3, 2007
Completed Reading: January 7, 2007

Book rating: 6 out of 10 stars

Book Description

– Jännittääkö?

Ei Tapio kehtaa myöntääkään. Tarkkailijan rooliin tottunut Tapio ei tiedä ollako innoissaan vai nyreissään viikosta Prometheus-leirillä.

Ennakkoluuloista huolimatta edessä olevista päivistä tulee elämäntäyteisiä ja tärkeitä. Kun toisilleen tuntemattomat nuoret kohtaavat, Tapionkin on otettava kantaa moniin kysymyksiin, joihin ei löydy yksiselitteisiä vastauksia. Miksi ihokarvat kasvavat? Mitä on erilaisuus? Onko Jumalaa olemassa?

Kauimmas kuitenkin kantaa hänen ystävystymisensä leirin apuohjaajaan Moonaan. Tapio on matemaattisesti lahjakas, Moona taas hyvä valokuvaaja, mutta riittääkö heidän kunnianhimonsa tekemään harrastuksesta jonain päivänä ammatin?

Kipinä aloittaa uuden kotimaisen nuortenkirjasarjan. Salla Simukan kesäisen hyväntuulinen kerronta kannustaa lukijaa punnitsemaan omia näkemyksiään ja jättää tilaa jokaisen omanlaisille, risteävillekin kannanotoille.

My review
Minulla on varmaan Simukka-kiintiö täynnä, kun jouduin pakottamaan itseni lukemaan Kipinän loppuun. Se oli ehkä huonoin tähän menessä lukemistani neljästä Simukan kirjasta. Eniten minua ärsytti se, että huomasin että kaikki henkilöhahmot, kaikissa neljässä kirjassa ovat aika samanlaisia. Erityisesti Viimeisissä Simukka yrittää luoda kolme hyvin erilaista tyttöä, siinä kuitenkaan onnistumatta. Simukkamaisuus paistaa läpi kaikista, kuten myös tämän kirjan Tapiosta ja Moonasta. Kipinä vaikuttaa siltä että se olisi kirjoitettu Prometheus-leiri mind mapin ympärille, kuten Viimeiset neitsyyden ympärille. Silti Viimeiset oli selkeästi parempi, koska se sentään herätti ajatuksia ja tunteita. Kipinä ei herättänyt oikein yhtään mitään. Kirja jää kauaksi takakannessa ilmaistusta tavoitteestaan: “Salla Simukan kesäisen hyväntuulinen kerronta kannustaa lukijaa punnitsemaan omia näkemyksiään ja jättää tilaa jokaisen omanlaisille, risteävillekin kannanotoille.” Harmi vaan että Kipinä on niin pintapuolinen raapaisu, ettei se todellakaan herätä lukijaa ajattelemaan näitä asioita, ainakaan jos ikinä ennen on niitä sattunut pohtimaan.

See my review at bookcrossing.

Started Reading: January 1, 2007
Completed Reading: January 2, 2007

Book rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Book Description

His interest in her was purely professional . . . Or so he told himself. Nash Kirkland had sought out the alluring Morgana Dovovan to help him research his latest screenplay, though the hardheaded skeptic didn’t believe for a minute she was what she professed to be. But, as Morgana revealed herself to him, Nash found himself falling under her bewitching spell. Nash had never trusted his feelings and always kept them in check. So how could he be sure the irresistible passion he felt for Morgana was real and not just some conjurer’s trick?

My review
I read this book because I saw it on a list of fiction dealing with modern day witches. It was published in 1992 by Silhouette Special Edition, and I have to say it wasn’t as good as the first book I read by Nora Roberts, Dance Upon the Air, from 2001. I think her writing has definitely improved. I somehow couldn’t really get into the book, nor did I care much about the main characters. The story wasn’t that interesting either, it was mostly just about the interaction between the main characters… I’m glad there are much better books about witches out there.