Read 50 Books in 2012

At Thanksgiving and then immediately after I read and reread the entire Girl Genius series thus far – even got out the actual comics for the beginning.
Still super good.

Reread all the anthologies and then read the Cul de Sac Against Parkinson’s tribute.

I can’t believe it’s over. Such a great strip and so many unresolved questions.

Aah! So good, so very very good.

Ostensibly a mystery though really that’s the third level of story, such writing, such a character. See! It’s not that I can’t read stories that are filled with unbearable sadness, I just prefer the sadness to be spilled from the story – not shot at me with a hose.
Oh, the fucking TRAGEDY of WWI.

What books should be. Immerses you in a world and makes you think and feel but doesn’t manipulate you or insult your intelligence. It’s all I can do not to go and buy all of them and read them all right now since I read this book in 4 hours straight.

You know, if I just read all the books I have half finished by the bed I’d finish this goal by the new year. Here’s the first one I’ve been poking at all year as I got it from my mil for my birthday.

Very interesting and useful reference guide to all things Regency – including fully explaining the Regency. Well written and clear. I learned some stuff!

An uneven book.
Here’s the thing – the parts of the book where she discusses issues that women should be thinking about and talking about – why women now feel the need to remove all their body hair, what it is really like to become a mother, why some porn is horrible and misogynistic but not all, the way women are undervalued in the workplace – she’s amazing and thought provoking and utterly must-read.
The parts where she talks about her own life and upbringing as though it’s a shared experience – weird and off putting. I have never named my vagina nor my nipples and to talk to me as though of course, we all do, is just odd.
But a lot of this should be read by all women. Really thought provoking.

Romances are so good for on the plane and for the tired brain of the plane days.

27. Only a Duke Will Do – Hmm. Not nearly as good as the first one and if your whole story spins off some other story you wrote, shouldn’t you make that information available to the reader? Also – squicky – horrible and ultimately fatal childbirth scene. Ew!

28. The School for Heiresses – anthology
Harris – Why are all these girls so willing to just have sex? I thought there would be at least some sort of moral quandry not just, I’ll have sex with you if you don’t give me away! Well, I won’t make that deal. Fine, let’s just have sex anyway. Right. That’s just how this period worked.
Carlyle – Hey! There’s a man in my bed. Guess I’ll have wild sex with him. Also now I love him! The next day!
London – no sex, naturally, but some good banter about sheep.

Mom read this aloud to us and I hadn’t read it sense so I had only the vaguest memory of what it was about though I did remember some of the characters – the oracular pig, the bossy Eilonwy, and, of course, Gurgi.
Not sure the chum is quite old enough for this. He seemed to enjoy it mildly but not wildly. Maybe later.

And this is the yin to that last book’s yang.

Pretty good, really. Though something about the characterization of the American rang false. Good sex though.

See? Don’t I have fun?

The lives of Antonia Fraser and Harold Pinter from her diaries. I really needed a who’s who for this book. There were British theater people I know I should have recognized, but I didn’t. Also, should have read more of his plays but honestly, the one’s I don’t know sound wildly grim so maybe not. Though I love Beckett and he’s no romp so maybe?

An interesting diary of very eventful lives. I got pretty bogged down in the middle with all of the humanitarian protests (not that it wasn’t utterly worthy, it was.) However, the beginning with their love affair and ensuing scandal and the end with his struggle and death from cancer were fascinating.

And now I need to read another one of her books.