Bayou by Jeremy Love

[torachan]

Title: Bayou
Author: Jeremy Love
Number of Pages: 160 pages
Book Number/Goal: 43/75 for 2009
My Rating: 5/5

Lee is a black sharecropper's daughter in the early 1900s. When her white friend Lily goes missing, Lee's father is blamed for her kidnapping. But Lily saw what really happened, and to save her father from getting hanged, she starts off on a journey to Dixie, an alternative South filled with monsters and talking animals, to try and find the man who really kidnapped Lily.

The story is amazing. It doesn't pull any punches in its depictions of race relations, so it's not an easy read, but it's well-worth it. The art is awesome, too. It has a very unfinished look, just colored-in sketches rather than perfectly-inked drawings, but they're really well-drawn and I love the look.

I have actually been reading this online and have not read the physical book (which is chapters 1-4 of what's been posted online), but I saw several other people posting reviews of the book and was like, hey, I have read that, even if not the physical copy, so I should totally add it to my count! (That's what I do with manga that I read chapter by chapter, after all. I just add it to my list when the volume comes out.)

The Bone Collector: Book Review

[amanda_in_pajamas]

Title: The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme novel #1)
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Number of Pages: 432
Genre: Mystery
Book Number/Goal: 47/50 in 2009

Review: I don't remember why I originally put this series on my to-read list, but I am so happy that I did. I thought it was a fantastic, well-written story. The main character, Lincoln Rhyme, is incredibly unlikable as a person, and totally lovable as a character. I'm also a fan of Amelia Sachs!

I actually finished this novel a few days ago, and am already through the beginning of the next one. When I first started The Bone Collector I thought "at least I don't have to worry about a 'ship in this series". *headdesk* Yeah, so much for that theory, though I have no idea if anything will even hint towards one, but the see has been planted in my head.

On a related note, I have absolutely no desire to see the movie adaptation of The Bone Collector.

Sixty Odd by Ursula Le Guin / Coming Out At Night by Rosie Lugosi

[shanaqui]

Title: Sixty Odd.
Author: Ursula Le Guin.
Number of Pages: 98.
Genre: Poetry.
Book Number/Goal: 49/50 from my list.

Review: Here.

Title: Coming Out At Night.
Author: Rosie Lugosi.
Number of Pages: 28.
Genre: Poetry.
Book Number/Goal: 50/50 from my list.

Review: Here.


Ta da! Finished my list.

The week of reading a lot (hopefully)

[shanaqui]

Name: shanaqui
Goal: 10 books read this week. (31st Aug - 6th Sept.)
Definition of "book": From the list below.

A little about my goal and my reading habits: I finished my first goal, but I like having some kind of challenge to speed me up. This one is going to be terribly short and specific, in order to kick my ass into reading lots. I'm planning to read the following books -- subject to change depending on how easy I find them to get into. Kind of a random mix, really. One is for my course, one for a bookclub, the others more or less random.

List:
1. The Bhagavad Gita.
2. John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps.
3. Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber.
4. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.
5. Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers.
6. Ursula Le Guin, Gifts.
7. Ursula Le Guin, Voices.
8. Ursula Le Guin, Powers.
9. Thomas Love Peacock, Maid Marian.
10. Bernhard Schlink, The Reader.

(9/10)