I love getting books in the mail. You could shorten that to just, I love getting mail. But I love getting books in the mail especially. Say Hello to Zorro! showed up last week, out of the blue. Such a nice little surprise. My kiddos were jumping around wondering what it was? Can they have [...]
About: Jodie K
Website: http://www.mydarlingcurse.com
Lots of things came to mind when I sat down to write about James Dashner's The Maze Runner. How books can be good, but not great. How books can have some annoying, bad elements to them, but not be horrible. Phrases like “damning with faint praise” and “mediocre at best” kept pressing my brain. I [...]
I thought that I’d have a hard time coming up with five good books this year. 2010 was full crap for me, reading-wise. But looking back, it was nice to see that I didn’t hate everything. Any little thing to starve off the jaded bitterness helps. 1. The Hunter by Julia Leigh: This was such [...]
I read about Matched by Ally Condie in Entertainment Weekly of all places. I’m liking their ‘Books’ pages more and more. Coming off The Hunger Games trilogy and the craptastic Fallen, I was craving another YA novel, a really good one too. Thanks EW! Matched is the Fahrenheit 451 future come to life. All but [...]
Fallen by Lauren Kate was my other cupcake pick at the bookstore this last time around. I had abandoned so many “adult” books that I made a conscious decision to only pick up Young Adult Fiction and give my mind a break. And while there are some killer YA novels out there, this isn't one [...]
Did I tell you that because I haven’t been able to actually finish a book for six months, I went to the bookstore and only bought young adult novels? Yummy, yummy cupcake teen fiction. Holy Crap! It might be all I read from now on. Here’s a little tidbit about your little darling here. I [...]
Insatiable by Meg Cabot is the kind of vampire lite schlock that chaps my hide. How the hell can you have a vampire book with no sexual tension at all and no biting, no draining of blood? The only reason Stephenie Meyer got away with that shit is because she was writing about teenagers and [...]
Sometimes you need to break your own rules. I recently bought a paperback pulp-fiction sci-fi/fantasy book at the supermarket (do we even call them that anymore, supermarkets? Grocery store? Can I just say Cub or is that too Minnesotan?). There were two rules I had as a stay-at-home Mom. One, no Oprah (still in tact). [...]
Stephenie Meyer is going to become the Madonna of authors if she doesn’t watch it. The Twilight Saga books made her a millionaire. The movies are making a mint and giving millions of women, young and old, “practice” material. Then she agrees to a graphic novel concept – after all of the words have been [...]
I read Julia Leigh’s Disquiet last year and it was so brilliant and haunting that I’ve been desperate to read more of her work. (I have a thing for brilliant and haunting.) In my scouring of the internet – an by scouring I mean one click on Google – I found that Disquiet was her [...]
Disclaimer: I went to college with Adam Rapp for two years I think, might have only been one. We knew each other in the way that you know your boyfriend’s friends. He’s a great guy but I couldn’t tell you his favorite food is or his favorite band. I read The Year of Endless Sorrows [...]
I know nothing of Kevin Sampsell. I’d never heard of him or his publishing house – Future Tense Publishing – before an online publicist put me in touch with him. So I came into A Common Pornography a blank slate. I must say how grateful I am that he touts his book as a “memory [...]
Every year I participate in the Barnes and Noble Gift Wrap for charity. And every year I get about ten new book ideas and recommendations. Two years ago it was Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – you can listen to the BCB podcast here. Last year I only had [...]
Jodie’s Top Ten 2009
{Best of: Adam Rapp, Ann Leary, Best Books of 2009, Bill Scheft, Janine Latus, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Jonathan Carroll, Julia Leigh, Lynn Roberts, Neil Gaiman, Stacey O'Brien}
10. The Fractured Fairy Tales of Lynn Roberts: Ms. Roberts, along with her illustrator brother, give us three charming renditions of some old classics. Cinderella as an 1920's flapper girl, Rapunzel as a long-haired hippie of the 1970's and Little Red, a brave little guy who gets the wolf to burp out Grandma with ginger [...]
God Bless Twitter. And not just any Twitter, but celebrity Twitter. If it weren't for Neil Gaiman, @neilhimself– I know, we are still working on our relationship – I would never have discovered Jonathan Carroll, @JSCarroll. With a title like, The Ghost In Love, I was expecting an eerie, sad love story. Instead, The Ghost [...]
Bill Scheft doesn't need me to tell you how funny his book is. Larry David has a blurb on the front cover. Larry fucking David (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld). Also, Lewis Black (The Daily Show) weighs in with a blurb on the back. Which makes me wonder if 50-year old white comedians from New York [...]
I picked this wonderful little book on title alone, because who doesn’t like cake or ghosts? The story revolves around Miss Merriweather, the town sour-puss spinster and bake shop owner. When Miss Merriweather dies, the bake shop closes and the town mourns not her passing, but their loss of delicious goodies. But like all who [...]
I love a new take on an old tale. It’s why I see every version of Hamlet I can. There is a comfort in knowing what comes next, but there is also sheer excitement in never having seen it in such a way before. Lynn Roberts and her illustrator brother David Roberts have given us [...]
Yes, I've been reading vampire novels in October. Shocking. Not just any vampire novels, serial vampire novels! I understand if you question my judgment. I certainly do. After reading eight books back to back they all blend together. However, I can tell you that while Ms. Harris has created a new rush in reading, her [...]
I need to publicly thank Jodi Chromey for introducing me to Jeanette Winterson. Jodi recommended I read Written on the Body several years ago, and it was so beautiful and wonderful that when I finished I flipped back to page one and read it all over again. I read a few more Winterson novels after [...]
The title of this book comes from a line in a note written by Janine Latus's sister Amy. Drowning in a horrible relationship, Amy tapes the note inside her desk drawer at work saying, if I am missing or dead, it's probably this guy's fault. Turns out she was absolutely right. Amy did go missing [...]
Let me begin by admitting that I did not intend to read Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien. I'd never heard of it. It didn't come recommended; I hadn't even seen a review or anything. It was a total impulse buy. Allow me to also [...]
I am a sucker for vampire novels (pardon the pun). I love them, pure and simple. Some are cliché and try too hard, e.g. Mary Janice Davidson's “Undead” series. But some, like John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let The Right One In, are so subtle and so horrifying that it makes me shiver with fear and delight. [...]
