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Jun. 13th, 2005 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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50bookchallenge*
Would it be declasse of me to reveal that I've already read fifty books this year? Would it ruin the challenge? I hope not, because I'm going to do it anyway. The first ten are a direct copy from a post in January.
1. Are You Really Going to Eat That? Confessions of a Culinary Thrill-Seeker, Robb Walsh. Whee, travel writing plus food!
2. Neutron Star, Larry Niven. Short stories.
3. A Woman Alone: Travel Tales From Around the Globe, Faith Conlon, Ingrid Emerick, and Christina Henry de Tessan, eds. Some of the women are complete idiots. One falls asleep on a beach with her passport in a purse. Honestly. But others do really cool things and write about them in a really interesting way -- Faith Adiele, who visted Buddhist nun centers in remote parts of Thailand; Joan Chatfield-Taylor, who lived in France for six months; Marianne Ilaw, who writes about Ambergris Caye; Jamie Zeppa, who taught in Bhutan; and Bernice Notenboom, who traveled through the wadis of Petra on a camel. Sadly, the women who writes about Turkey, Margaret McConnell, is kinda lame. Not bad, just... boring. (My mom, who also read the collection, said so too -- so it's not just me. Tres bland and bus-toury. Sigh.)
4. Gaudy Night, DLS. Again. Comfort reading!
5. Methuselah's Children, Heinlein. I read it when I was really young, I think, but I wanted a new perspective.
6. Pledged: The Secret Lives of Sororities, Alexandra Robbins. On the plane back from Seattle. Creepy. Really, really, really creepy.
7. The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett. I finally actually bought the book -- I'd previously read it in a Barnes and Noble. (Which I view as a non-lending library with comfy chairs.)
8. Frumpy the Clown Volume One: Freaking Out the Neighbors, Judd Winick. A gift from my sister. Frumpy kicks ass and the series is great. Even if he did leave it to do...
9. Pedro and Me, Judd Winick. Re-read in a B&N, prompted by reading Frumpy. Wah!
10. Opus: 25 Years of His Sunday Best, Berkeley Breathed. Hey, guess where? B&N.
11. Frumpy the Clown Volume Two: The Fat Lady Sings, Judd Winick. From my sister for my birthday. Awwww!
From the library:
12. Have His Carcase, DLS. Re-read. After watching the BBC Petherbridge-Walters.
13. Strong Poison, DLS. Ditto.
14. Busman's Honeymoon, DLS. Re-read. Sadly not available on DVD, or in fact on tape, or on anything. But I really do think it's important -- a lot of people seem to consider it a mere coda, but I really love it as a book.
15. Presumption of Death, Jill Patton Walsh. I kept meaning to read this, since it's JPW's second Lord Peter Wimsey book, but then I kept... not. Because I don't actually like her style at all. And I found this mystery both a) far too short and lacking in emotional depth to really fit into the Harriet Vane stories, and b) really, really obvious. Le sigh.
16. The Golem's Eye, Jonathon Stroud. I liked it even better than the first Bartimeus book! It was tons of fun, and getting some narration from Kitty's viewpoint was fun, and I love Bartimeus. Whee!
17. Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold. I really do enjoy the Vorkosigan books, although I'm uncomfortable with the Ekaterin plot -- she said herself that she was trying to reference the Lord Peter and Harriet romance, but she seems to have fallen too much in love with Miles herself to be that mean to him. Ekaterin gives in too quickly; despite all the talk about resisting steamrolling, she is steamrolled. And Bujold seems to have forgotten her plot formation mechanism: think of the worst thing that could happen to Miles, and then do it. ANYway, I'd never read the Chalion books, in part because I couldn't find them at used bookstores, and I can't afford to pay that much for new books. I really, really liked Chalion, though. In a way I think it's better than the recent Vorkosigans, since she had more freedom to do what she wanted with the characters without fear of disappointing her audience.
18. So, having really liked Chalion, I went over to the library and got ... Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold. I liked it, though not as well as the first Chalion. I appreciate a fantasy novel where the protagonist is a middle-aged woman, and I appreciate the way Ista can't save everyone, but at the same time... a little too pat. (Today I get to go pick up Hallowed Hunt, yay!
Just sitting around the house:
19. Trickster's Choice, Tamora Pierce. Whee Alanna's daughter wheee!
20. Keeping Watch, Laurie R. King. Re-read. This is the book that we got signed at the 2003 BEA.
21. A Darker Place, Laurie R. King. Not a re-read -- I'd never read it, because I get really irritated by cult-thrillers, but otoh it is Laurie King, and we owned a copy, so I finally broke down. I liked most of it, but was annoyed by the fact that after nearly 500 pages it STILL ended abruptly. An epilogue would have been nice, yo.
22. O Jerusalem, Laurie R. King. Also not a re-read, because I kept looking for it at used bookstores and never finding it. I finally gave up and bought it for myself before a flight. Whee! I really should have read it before reading Justice Hall, but, um, I totally didn't. It lead me to...
23. Justice Hall, Laurie R. King. Re-read. Wheeee! Marsh and Alistair and poor Gabriel and a costume party! I love costume party scenes in murder mysteries. They always remind me of Golden Age authors.
Which leads me to the Great List of Pratchett Re-reads:
24. Pyramids, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Oh how I do love the reference to the Book of Going Forth By Day! And the jokes about archaeoastronomy! Sometimes I must read this after Stargate is excessively ridiculous.
25. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. This was one of my favorite Pratchett books before Night Watch came out.
26. The Truth, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. I periodically re-read this to see if I can get over Vimes' characterization as an idjit, which sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. I still love the dwarves named after typefaces, though.
27. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Pied Piper from another perspective.
29. Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Because ... Nac Mac Feegle and a witch on the Chalk.
30. Going Postal, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Letters that talk!
31. Dream Park, Larry Niven. Re-read. I have a shameful love for this book. SHAMEFUL.
32. The Doorbell Rang, Rex Stout. Re-read. I don't re-read Stout until I've forgotten whodunit, so depending on the book it make be more or less time.
33. The Red Box, Rex Stout. Re-read. Poisoning case. My copy is completely 70s and ridiculous.
34. Not Quite Dead Enough, Rex Stout. The WWII one. I love it when Archie gets himself arrested on purpose. :)
35. Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle. Re-read. It's the Holmes novel that I find weirdest, so.
36. The Innocence of Father Brown, GK Chesterton. Stories. Re-read. If you've never read Father Brown, you should at least check out this, the first book. The first two stories alone are totally wow, especially in combination -- plot twist of DOOOOM. It's old enough that you can read it online, here, and it's got all sorts of standards in it -- "The Hammer of God," "The Invisible Man," "The Flying Stars," and "The Queer Feet."
37. Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold. Re-read. The first fifty pages of this book are hell to read, and I still think it's possibly her strongest Vorkosigan book. It's the one where she really does do the worst thing she can think of to Miles, the one where she takes away what he's always been able to count on, the one where Miles becomes Vor. Sniffle. Still, making it through the whole book, I always have to re-read...
38. Komarr, Lois McMaster Bujold. Re-read. Because it immediately follows Memory, and makes me feel infinitely better, even if I don't think it's as strong of a book. And because it's the book where Ekaterin strikes me as most Vor, most a suitable match for Miles.
39. Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin. Re-read. I adore this book. People who say it's boring can bite me, because it's tense and dramatic without being action-packed. (amazon.com'ing for this book to see what the current cover art looks like got me this review: "Le Guin has one prevailing trait in her books (well 2 actually, boring being the other)She is one of those who firmly believes in the communalistic approach (in her books) to life and society. No individual that is their own man/woman is whole, they need society to be part of and to be supported by. The whole it takes a village thing you'd think would be anthema in this nation but I guess all the years of government spoon feeding has set us up for this kind of stuff. Fine, this makes for some mindless at times reading but I thought this was crap when I read it in HS so many centuries ago and now I KNOW it to be crap..." Yeeeesh.)
40. Deadly Decisions, Kathy Reichs. I'm not sure how I feel about Reichs -- her books are better than Cornwell's, and definitely more scientifically accurate, but sadly often fall into the thriller-suspense category more than the mystery. I hate it when the only way our protagonist solves the case is by being attacked by the villain. (Though really, it seems like most so-called "mysteries" these days don't actually get solved. Lame! I want clues that lead up to something, not clues that we say "huh" about. It makes the writer seem much less intelligent -- that the only way they can solve their crime is to resort to a kidnapping or whatever.) Still, sometimes there are clues, and sometimes they're more mystery-ish, and the characters are often fun, which is more than can be said for a lot of modern day murder mysteries. Plus, I got each one for fifty cents, so.
41. Grave Secrets, Kathy Reichs. Takes place in Guatemala, which I thought could be interesting, but mostly it was just "eh."
42. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams. Re-read. I haven't owned a copy of this book since I gave mine to an eighty-year-old co-volunteer at a library booksale. I was twelve, and it was a slow day, and we took turns reading out loud and giggling madly, and she said she'd never read Douglas Adams, and I said she should keep it. I recently spotted one at the Friends of the Free Library Store and got it for free, which just goes to show that what goes around comes around. I have to say, I find LDTTotS funnier, but I was glad to reread this.
From the BEA:
43. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Filming of the Douglas Adams Classic, Robbie Stamp. Whee with the artwork! And the pictures!
44. The King in the Window, Adam Gopnick. He's a New Yorker writer, and this is his second YA book. I'd like to say that it's good but, sadly, while it was in many ways quite fun plotwise, it was ... well. It reminded me of the words of another famed New Yorker writer: "... And it is that word 'hummy,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up." Because he's just a little too precious, and uses "we" to say things like "and we all know what that feels like, don't we?" which makes most children say things like "bite me!" and "'we' my ass!" and other, similar, precious children's sayings.
45. Whales on Stilts!, M.T. Anderson. Also a children's book, in theory, though I think adults may find it way funnier. It references the 60s formula kids books -- there's Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, who recalls Tom Swift and Danny Dunn, and there's Katie Mulligan of Horror Hollow (more Goosebumpsy, I suppose, although she's a supernatural Nancy Drew as well), and there are rocket cars and whales on stilts. It even contains book ads for fictional serieses -- the Boy Technonaut series, for example -- and long digressions and footnotes and is tons of fun.
46. The Ethical Brain, Michael S. Gazzaniga. Problem: I agree with him, but find his logic often not so great. Also I want him to go into more detail and not just say "so, okay, we know X." Ah well; still quite interesting.
47. All the Fishes Come Home to Roost, Rachel Manija Brown. When I was posting about BEA books the other day, I read the first few chapters of this. I found it incredibly entertaining, witty, and brilliantly written, so I read the rest of it. I adored it -- a wonderful find.
48. Hour Game, David Baldacci. Baldacci's a bestseller, another one of those "mystery" writers, and I've never read him, so I was pleased to see Warner passing out copies of this so I could check him out. Overall response was mostly "eh." I mean, I thought it began well, and the two detectives are well drawn and fun to read. The serial killer bits are not too death-porny, and the idea of a serial killer copycating different famous serial killers is fun. But once again -- solve the mystery? Nonsense! We shall set a trap instead, and then be kidnapped and dragged all over a lake, and nearly killed, blahblahblah. (To be fair, King seems to have solved the case based on clues, but since we instantly drop out of his narration at that point, the overall effect is that of the kidnapping-to-solve-the-case dealibob.)
49. Haunted Hillbilly, David McCormack. Um... weird. Very, very weird. I didn't like it much, but then I'm not usually into the recent-historical fiction. (Set it in Elizabethan England and I go "sure!")
50. Nancy Drew, Girl Detective #1 - The Demon of River Heights, Stefan Petrucha and Sho Murase. OMG so funny! It's a Nancy Drew graphic novel, vaguely manga-style. I think the color needed to be corrected before printing, too. Bess and George are a stereotypical butch-femme couple, and George has spikey hair and a tablet PC and hides in the bathroom with it to do net research. She's become a total net-geek. And Nancy fights off a grizzly bear. *giggles*
And... I probably read other things as well, but that'll do for now. I've probably forgotten more fifty+ re-reads, especially since my library account will only show me what I've got checked out right now, but close enough.
50bookchallenge*Would it be declasse of me to reveal that I've already read fifty books this year? Would it ruin the challenge? I hope not, because I'm going to do it anyway. The first ten are a direct copy from a post in January.
1. Are You Really Going to Eat That? Confessions of a Culinary Thrill-Seeker, Robb Walsh. Whee, travel writing plus food!
2. Neutron Star, Larry Niven. Short stories.
3. A Woman Alone: Travel Tales From Around the Globe, Faith Conlon, Ingrid Emerick, and Christina Henry de Tessan, eds. Some of the women are complete idiots. One falls asleep on a beach with her passport in a purse. Honestly. But others do really cool things and write about them in a really interesting way -- Faith Adiele, who visted Buddhist nun centers in remote parts of Thailand; Joan Chatfield-Taylor, who lived in France for six months; Marianne Ilaw, who writes about Ambergris Caye; Jamie Zeppa, who taught in Bhutan; and Bernice Notenboom, who traveled through the wadis of Petra on a camel. Sadly, the women who writes about Turkey, Margaret McConnell, is kinda lame. Not bad, just... boring. (My mom, who also read the collection, said so too -- so it's not just me. Tres bland and bus-toury. Sigh.)
4. Gaudy Night, DLS. Again. Comfort reading!
5. Methuselah's Children, Heinlein. I read it when I was really young, I think, but I wanted a new perspective.
6. Pledged: The Secret Lives of Sororities, Alexandra Robbins. On the plane back from Seattle. Creepy. Really, really, really creepy.
7. The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett. I finally actually bought the book -- I'd previously read it in a Barnes and Noble. (Which I view as a non-lending library with comfy chairs.)
8. Frumpy the Clown Volume One: Freaking Out the Neighbors, Judd Winick. A gift from my sister. Frumpy kicks ass and the series is great. Even if he did leave it to do...
9. Pedro and Me, Judd Winick. Re-read in a B&N, prompted by reading Frumpy. Wah!
10. Opus: 25 Years of His Sunday Best, Berkeley Breathed. Hey, guess where? B&N.
11. Frumpy the Clown Volume Two: The Fat Lady Sings, Judd Winick. From my sister for my birthday. Awwww!
From the library:
12. Have His Carcase, DLS. Re-read. After watching the BBC Petherbridge-Walters.
13. Strong Poison, DLS. Ditto.
14. Busman's Honeymoon, DLS. Re-read. Sadly not available on DVD, or in fact on tape, or on anything. But I really do think it's important -- a lot of people seem to consider it a mere coda, but I really love it as a book.
15. Presumption of Death, Jill Patton Walsh. I kept meaning to read this, since it's JPW's second Lord Peter Wimsey book, but then I kept... not. Because I don't actually like her style at all. And I found this mystery both a) far too short and lacking in emotional depth to really fit into the Harriet Vane stories, and b) really, really obvious. Le sigh.
16. The Golem's Eye, Jonathon Stroud. I liked it even better than the first Bartimeus book! It was tons of fun, and getting some narration from Kitty's viewpoint was fun, and I love Bartimeus. Whee!
17. Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold. I really do enjoy the Vorkosigan books, although I'm uncomfortable with the Ekaterin plot -- she said herself that she was trying to reference the Lord Peter and Harriet romance, but she seems to have fallen too much in love with Miles herself to be that mean to him. Ekaterin gives in too quickly; despite all the talk about resisting steamrolling, she is steamrolled. And Bujold seems to have forgotten her plot formation mechanism: think of the worst thing that could happen to Miles, and then do it. ANYway, I'd never read the Chalion books, in part because I couldn't find them at used bookstores, and I can't afford to pay that much for new books. I really, really liked Chalion, though. In a way I think it's better than the recent Vorkosigans, since she had more freedom to do what she wanted with the characters without fear of disappointing her audience.
18. So, having really liked Chalion, I went over to the library and got ... Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold. I liked it, though not as well as the first Chalion. I appreciate a fantasy novel where the protagonist is a middle-aged woman, and I appreciate the way Ista can't save everyone, but at the same time... a little too pat. (Today I get to go pick up Hallowed Hunt, yay!
Just sitting around the house:
19. Trickster's Choice, Tamora Pierce. Whee Alanna's daughter wheee!
20. Keeping Watch, Laurie R. King. Re-read. This is the book that we got signed at the 2003 BEA.
21. A Darker Place, Laurie R. King. Not a re-read -- I'd never read it, because I get really irritated by cult-thrillers, but otoh it is Laurie King, and we owned a copy, so I finally broke down. I liked most of it, but was annoyed by the fact that after nearly 500 pages it STILL ended abruptly. An epilogue would have been nice, yo.
22. O Jerusalem, Laurie R. King. Also not a re-read, because I kept looking for it at used bookstores and never finding it. I finally gave up and bought it for myself before a flight. Whee! I really should have read it before reading Justice Hall, but, um, I totally didn't. It lead me to...
23. Justice Hall, Laurie R. King. Re-read. Wheeee! Marsh and Alistair and poor Gabriel and a costume party! I love costume party scenes in murder mysteries. They always remind me of Golden Age authors.
Which leads me to the Great List of Pratchett Re-reads:
24. Pyramids, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Oh how I do love the reference to the Book of Going Forth By Day! And the jokes about archaeoastronomy! Sometimes I must read this after Stargate is excessively ridiculous.
25. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. This was one of my favorite Pratchett books before Night Watch came out.
26. The Truth, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. I periodically re-read this to see if I can get over Vimes' characterization as an idjit, which sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. I still love the dwarves named after typefaces, though.
27. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Pied Piper from another perspective.
29. Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Because ... Nac Mac Feegle and a witch on the Chalk.
30. Going Postal, Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Letters that talk!
31. Dream Park, Larry Niven. Re-read. I have a shameful love for this book. SHAMEFUL.
32. The Doorbell Rang, Rex Stout. Re-read. I don't re-read Stout until I've forgotten whodunit, so depending on the book it make be more or less time.
33. The Red Box, Rex Stout. Re-read. Poisoning case. My copy is completely 70s and ridiculous.
34. Not Quite Dead Enough, Rex Stout. The WWII one. I love it when Archie gets himself arrested on purpose. :)
35. Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle. Re-read. It's the Holmes novel that I find weirdest, so.
36. The Innocence of Father Brown, GK Chesterton. Stories. Re-read. If you've never read Father Brown, you should at least check out this, the first book. The first two stories alone are totally wow, especially in combination -- plot twist of DOOOOM. It's old enough that you can read it online, here, and it's got all sorts of standards in it -- "The Hammer of God," "The Invisible Man," "The Flying Stars," and "The Queer Feet."
37. Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold. Re-read. The first fifty pages of this book are hell to read, and I still think it's possibly her strongest Vorkosigan book. It's the one where she really does do the worst thing she can think of to Miles, the one where she takes away what he's always been able to count on, the one where Miles becomes Vor. Sniffle. Still, making it through the whole book, I always have to re-read...
38. Komarr, Lois McMaster Bujold. Re-read. Because it immediately follows Memory, and makes me feel infinitely better, even if I don't think it's as strong of a book. And because it's the book where Ekaterin strikes me as most Vor, most a suitable match for Miles.
39. Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin. Re-read. I adore this book. People who say it's boring can bite me, because it's tense and dramatic without being action-packed. (amazon.com'ing for this book to see what the current cover art looks like got me this review: "Le Guin has one prevailing trait in her books (well 2 actually, boring being the other)She is one of those who firmly believes in the communalistic approach (in her books) to life and society. No individual that is their own man/woman is whole, they need society to be part of and to be supported by. The whole it takes a village thing you'd think would be anthema in this nation but I guess all the years of government spoon feeding has set us up for this kind of stuff. Fine, this makes for some mindless at times reading but I thought this was crap when I read it in HS so many centuries ago and now I KNOW it to be crap..." Yeeeesh.)
40. Deadly Decisions, Kathy Reichs. I'm not sure how I feel about Reichs -- her books are better than Cornwell's, and definitely more scientifically accurate, but sadly often fall into the thriller-suspense category more than the mystery. I hate it when the only way our protagonist solves the case is by being attacked by the villain. (Though really, it seems like most so-called "mysteries" these days don't actually get solved. Lame! I want clues that lead up to something, not clues that we say "huh" about. It makes the writer seem much less intelligent -- that the only way they can solve their crime is to resort to a kidnapping or whatever.) Still, sometimes there are clues, and sometimes they're more mystery-ish, and the characters are often fun, which is more than can be said for a lot of modern day murder mysteries. Plus, I got each one for fifty cents, so.
41. Grave Secrets, Kathy Reichs. Takes place in Guatemala, which I thought could be interesting, but mostly it was just "eh."
42. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams. Re-read. I haven't owned a copy of this book since I gave mine to an eighty-year-old co-volunteer at a library booksale. I was twelve, and it was a slow day, and we took turns reading out loud and giggling madly, and she said she'd never read Douglas Adams, and I said she should keep it. I recently spotted one at the Friends of the Free Library Store and got it for free, which just goes to show that what goes around comes around. I have to say, I find LDTTotS funnier, but I was glad to reread this.
From the BEA:
43. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Filming of the Douglas Adams Classic, Robbie Stamp. Whee with the artwork! And the pictures!
44. The King in the Window, Adam Gopnick. He's a New Yorker writer, and this is his second YA book. I'd like to say that it's good but, sadly, while it was in many ways quite fun plotwise, it was ... well. It reminded me of the words of another famed New Yorker writer: "... And it is that word 'hummy,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up." Because he's just a little too precious, and uses "we" to say things like "and we all know what that feels like, don't we?" which makes most children say things like "bite me!" and "'we' my ass!" and other, similar, precious children's sayings.
45. Whales on Stilts!, M.T. Anderson. Also a children's book, in theory, though I think adults may find it way funnier. It references the 60s formula kids books -- there's Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, who recalls Tom Swift and Danny Dunn, and there's Katie Mulligan of Horror Hollow (more Goosebumpsy, I suppose, although she's a supernatural Nancy Drew as well), and there are rocket cars and whales on stilts. It even contains book ads for fictional serieses -- the Boy Technonaut series, for example -- and long digressions and footnotes and is tons of fun.
46. The Ethical Brain, Michael S. Gazzaniga. Problem: I agree with him, but find his logic often not so great. Also I want him to go into more detail and not just say "so, okay, we know X." Ah well; still quite interesting.
47. All the Fishes Come Home to Roost, Rachel Manija Brown. When I was posting about BEA books the other day, I read the first few chapters of this. I found it incredibly entertaining, witty, and brilliantly written, so I read the rest of it. I adored it -- a wonderful find.
48. Hour Game, David Baldacci. Baldacci's a bestseller, another one of those "mystery" writers, and I've never read him, so I was pleased to see Warner passing out copies of this so I could check him out. Overall response was mostly "eh." I mean, I thought it began well, and the two detectives are well drawn and fun to read. The serial killer bits are not too death-porny, and the idea of a serial killer copycating different famous serial killers is fun. But once again -- solve the mystery? Nonsense! We shall set a trap instead, and then be kidnapped and dragged all over a lake, and nearly killed, blahblahblah. (To be fair, King seems to have solved the case based on clues, but since we instantly drop out of his narration at that point, the overall effect is that of the kidnapping-to-solve-the-case dealibob.)
49. Haunted Hillbilly, David McCormack. Um... weird. Very, very weird. I didn't like it much, but then I'm not usually into the recent-historical fiction. (Set it in Elizabethan England and I go "sure!")
50. Nancy Drew, Girl Detective #1 - The Demon of River Heights, Stefan Petrucha and Sho Murase. OMG so funny! It's a Nancy Drew graphic novel, vaguely manga-style. I think the color needed to be corrected before printing, too. Bess and George are a stereotypical butch-femme couple, and George has spikey hair and a tablet PC and hides in the bathroom with it to do net research. She's become a total net-geek. And Nancy fights off a grizzly bear. *giggles*
And... I probably read other things as well, but that'll do for now. I've probably forgotten more fifty+ re-reads, especially since my library account will only show me what I've got checked out right now, but close enough.
