Man, I really suck at this whole book reviewing thing.  (When was my last one...?  June?)  Good thing I don't actually do this for a living, because I'd have fired my lazy ass months ago.  To be honest it's been so long that I don't actually remember most, if not any, of the salient details I wanted to touch upon from the following books, so some of these recaps are going to be composed of very half-assed "I think I may remember this book possibly being awesome!"  Let's face it though, how many people actually read through my rambly thoughts anyway?  Right?  All set?  Let's go.

• The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss
  Book one of a very promising looking fantasy trilogy chronicling the life story of a young boy who grows to become an extremely badass wizard.  This was a really fantastic read.  The story, the characters, the writing -- all very engaging.  There were a few lulls, but not many.  As we speak, newly published book 2 is waiting on hold for me at the library and I'm pretty damn excited about it.  Also, the somewhat slashfesty-at-times relationship between Kvothe and Bast cracks me up.  4/5

• The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, #2) by Jean M. Auel
  Sequel to Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, this book picks the story of clanwoman Ayla up where the first novel ended -- banished from the Clan with a death curse on her head, Ayla must survive entirely on her own while she searches out her own people.  Includes some new animal sidekicks and a very Edward Cullen-like male lead who is apparently so brazingly beautiful and talented and perfect that it really just makes you want to gouge someone's eyes out with a spoon.  I really hated this character, which is unfortunate since he appears to continue to be a central figure through out the rest of the series.  Aside from the introduction of the annoying Gary Sue character, both the dialogue and plot this time around were not as strong as its predecessor, though the story did still have its moments, giving it a 3/5.

• Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
  A mother gives birth to a daughter in a remote village in India, and the only way to save her child's life is to give her away.  The book follows the story of both families -- the one who gave the little girl up, and the one who took her in half a world away.  Have to be honest, I don't remember much about this one.  *Fail*  I like reading about different cultures, so the half of the novel set in India appealed to me more than the half with the adoptive family in America.  I remember the story itself being... good?  *So much reviewing fail*  3/5

• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  Muh ha ha, I'm really starting to become an Atwood fan.  Her books always find a way to grab me.  Set in a post-apocalyptic world where mankind has been veritably wiped out by plague, our protagonist tells the story the past, his best friend, the end of the world, and of a new breed of humans.  Very creepy and disturbing at some parts, Atwood seems to have a talent for weaving versions of the non-to-distant future that are compelling, horrifying, and unsettlingly possible.  4/5

• Throne of Jade (Temeraire, #2) by Naomi Novik
  Book 2 in the series where dragons fight alongside British soldiers against Napoleon Boneparte's French forces, only this time Laurence and  Temeraire find themselves shipped back off to China!  Oh noes!  I still greatly enjoy the concept of this series, but unfortunately the characters aren't as endearing this second time around as much as they were the first.  (The relationship between Laurence and Temeraire starts to get a little sap-happy for me personally, and Laurence drives me a little crazy -- for god's sake, just drop the prim and proper stick-up-your-ass act and punch someone in the face!  You are the most boring protagonist personality-wise ever.)   More than half the book is spent sailing to China, and while it does include some awesome sea monster ass kicking, at times you have to wade through some pretty dull chapters to get there.  It's a toss up on whether I'll continue on with the Temeraire series or not.  Goodreads doesn't allow ratings of 2.5 so I upped it to a  3/5.

• When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
  The book summary says this is a book about a brother and sister, but to be honest for most of the novel the brother seemed to be much more side plot to the sister-centered story and her eccentric childhood best friend.  Basically a coming-of-age story with a bit of everything: family, friends, tragedy, overcoming said tragedy, and lots of growing up.  It was okay, I can't remember many details from it aside from some well-written scenes centered around Elly and her pet rabbit; the symbolism and metaphor surrounding the rabbit were great.  3/5
  
  
• The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
  A non-fiction account of the true events surrounding a series of man-eating tiger attacks in Russia's far east in the winter of 1997.  I'm a sucker for any kind of man vs. nature story, I think because much like the concept of coming across a bear in the woods frightens the living bejeezes out of me, I'm also oddly riveted by those horrible true-life tales of bear-attack survivors they always have in Reader's Digest.  Why?  Because I'm crazy, and apparently love to torture myself with terrifying bear nightmares.  The just grab me, I can't help it.  In any event, this book could have been truely amazing if they'd just stuck with the tiger-centered story and facts and didn't waste half the book with history on the Sobolonye region and Russian government.  :P  3/5

• Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
  Picoult's new novel, the theme this time centered around same-sex couples and the desire to have children, and what it really means to be a family.  I don't have to say by now how much I enjoy Jodi Picoult's books and the way her writing always touches me on a very emotional level, and this one was no different.  She has an amazing talent for exploring all of the messy gray areas and making you relate to all of the different characters in some way (even when you really, really don't want to.)  I wouldn't say it was as good as some of her other ones (Nineteen Minutes, or My Sister's Keeper,) but it still earns a ranking of 4/5.

• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
  OMG it's dinosaurs!  And Alan Grant!  And people running for their lives from T-Rex's and freaking Velociraptors!  And loads of super confusing fractal geometry...!  Okay, and there's also that really annoying little girl that acts as the convenient plot device to get the protagonists constantly into life-threatening danger...  But did I mention freaking DINOSAURS and how they're AWESOME?  That's all that really matters.  This is probably my third or fourth time reading the books and they're still wildly entertaining.  5/5

• The Lost World by Michael Crichton
  Ditto.  Repeat everything I said above, only replace Alan Grant with Ian Malcolm and the fact the sequel doesn't in fact resemble the second movie in any significant way.  BUT IS STILL AWESOME.  5/5

• Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker
  At this point I was still deep in the throes of fangirly dinosaur obsession, so I broke out this little gem I originally came across years ago telling the story of a family of Utahraptors through the eyes of one of their own.  I hadn't read this book in ages, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it; except for the bits now and then that focused more on the herbivore species'... which were boring... because, hello, freaking raptors waiting over here.  (It's that whole horrible fascination with animals that could brutally maul me to death that I was talking about earlier.  I'm weird.)  4/5

• I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
  He's an emotionally unavailable, tragically abused, divorcee with an anger problem and an identical twin brother who happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic.  Life can only get better at this point, right?  Wrong.  The story follows a man who's already pretty messed up life starts to unravel even further as he confronts the issues of far too many people in his life on top of his own personal dysfunctionality.  Wally Lamb's writing seems to be wildly popular with many readers, and while I think it was a bit overhyped (and not worth the whopping 900+ pages), I didn't not enjoy it.  My biggest beef with this novel was the protagonist himself -- he's not a very likable character -- one minute he's a well-intentioned guy trying to do the right thing, and then the next minute you think "wow, what an asshole."  (On that note, ironically enough the character I found most interesting was the stepfather... which is a little crazy since in a lot of ways both characters are mirrors of one another.)  In short, lots of messed up characters here.  Another 3/5.

• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  La la la la, I adore this book, I really do~  The first time I read The Time Traveler's Wife I immediately loved it and awarded it a spot on my favorites list, so much so that I was itching to read it a second time.  It's a story about a man named Henry (who's a librarian!  Sexy!), born with a genetic "disease" that causes him to sporadically travel back and forth through time, and he has absolutely no control over when it happens or where he goes.  It's much more love story-esque than the sci-fi premise makes it sound, which is strange for me since I've never been a big romance reader.  Gasp!  It's like a romancey Doctor Who!  :B  Only Henry doesn't fight aliens... or fly around in a blue police box...  and unlike Rose, Clare never gets to tag along and has to sit alone at home watching The Price is Right until Ten Henry returns.  :c  But anyway, yes, the book is splendid.  (NOT the movie, the movie was HORRIBLE.)  I love the characters, I love the writing, I love the premise.  Next year, I'll probably read it again.  5/5

And now obviously I have no choice but to end off with a sexy David Tennant avatar.

A friend on Facebook posted this morning that Sunday mornings should always consist of tea and video games; in my case, however, I prefer to take my lazy Sunday mornings with a good helping of chocolate and a giant stack of Batman comics.

I just finished reading Batman: Long Shadows, and while I haven't actually gotten the chance to read the precursor events that lead up to it after R.I.P. and during Final Crisis (still trying to get my hands on a copy of these ones!), I've patched together a somewhat muddled grasp of the whole Batman-is-all-dead plot and what went down.  Even not having read the material leading up to Long Shadows, it was still so good!  And sad!

For the love of god, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ALFRED A HUG?  D:}  Watching Alfred Pennyworth mourn for the loss of Bruce Wayne is like having all of the happiness in the world shrivel up, blacken, and die.  *Sobs hysterically*  For anyone who is a West Wing fan, you know how your heart feels like it's been ripped out of your chest when you watch Donna get the news that Josh has been shot?  That gut wrenching feeling when Jed hears that Mrs. Landingham has died?  Or when you watch Buffy, how your heart flutters all sad and painful any time you see Willow crying?  It's like that.

He's so sad!  I just want to reach into the pages and hug the stuffing out of him until there's no more bad to possibly squeeze out anymore!  ;_;

As for another of the Batman graphic novels I've read this week, Lovers and Madmen is also a fantastic Batman story, though less in the heart wrenching, soul crushing sort of way and much more in the insane sociopath with a gun way.  L&M is another different take on the Joker's origin story, and it's awesome.  The writing is top notch and the art style fits the story perfectly.  I personally sort of like my Joker background-story-less because the ambiguity is part of what makes him interesting, but canon or not, this version of things fits him to a T.

Two five-star Batman tales in one week!  EPIC GEEK WIN.

Almost two months worth of reading to catch up on!  D:  I may just recap the first half of them now and do the rest later, we'll see how I'm feeling as I go.

• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
  Set in South Africa, a middle-aged divorced English professor is discovered to be having a sexual relationship with one of his students.  Instead of apologizing and trying to save his job, he leaves his career and city to stay with his daughter out on a remote farm she owns, attempting to reconcile a strained father-daughter relationship that is tested even more so when they are victims of horrible violence.  The story wasn't really what I expected at all, ending up being much more about the relationship between him and his daughter than the aftermath of the scandal at all like I was expecting.  It was a slow, tolling read at times, with too much of what I like to call "flowery" literary writing (he is an English professor after all.)  Meh.  2/5

• Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
  Model and actress Portia de Rossi's self-written unflinchingly honest and complex personal memoir recounting her public rise to fame while privately battling anorexia and coming to terms with her closeted sexual identity.  This was a great book, I finished it within 24 hours of picking it up from the library.  Portia is a wonderful writer, and the skill and truth in which she delves into the emotions and behaviors of individuals suffering from eating disorders is at times all together inspiring, amusing, and occasionally shocking.  If you like autobiographies, this is a good one; if you don't, then I'd still recommend it to you anyway.  5/5

• The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) by Stephen King
  The first book in King's well known and highly praised Dark Tower series, set in world that combines sci-fi, fantasty, horror, and western elements; introducing the character of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, as he pursues an evil nemesis known as the man in black.  I had high hopes for this one... but I'm sorry, it was just too weird.  That's all I can really say about it.  By the end of the book I still didn't fully understand what was going on or who the characters were or what they were trying to do.  Maybe it's all explained more in the following books?  I don't know, but I can't honestly say I'm motivated to read further on in the series to find out at this point.  2/5

• The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1) by Jean M. Auel
  Set over 35,000 years ago, 5-year-old Ayla finds herself suddenly orphaned and homeless after her family is killed in an earthquake.  She ends up being taken in by a clan of Neanderthals, a tribe of people both very ideologically and physically different from her own, and as she grows up her presence in the clan is the start of a brutal and dangerous power struggle.  Very enjoyable story IMO.  Interesting characters and fascinating settings and cultures were explored through out.  Being set in the Ice Age it goes without saying that females have little to no social status or rights in this book, a fact that the author repeatedly bludgeons into the readers head to the point of making any woman cringe; however, it serves an important purpose in Ayla's coming-of-age story.  I highly recommend this one.  4/5

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  A popular high school English class novel about a mentally disabled man named Charlie Gordon who becomes a genius through a experimental operation.  The writing style of the book is interesting in that it's written entirely from Charlie's point of view and so the first third of the story is a maze of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes and somewhat confusing trains of thought, all of which slowly corrects and reorients itself as the story progresses and the effects of the operation set in.  The book was originally set in the 60's and so there's a lot of very derogatory terms and treatment directed towards disabled individuals here, so readers beware.  Overall, it was all right.  Mostly, I found the story just very sad.  3/5

• Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley
  I love this book!  As I said in an earlier post, Beauty is a retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale, one that I greatly enjoyed when I checked it out repeatedly from my junior high library and still enjoy now.  It contains the perfect amount of magic and romance (but not the corny, make-me-heave kind in your typical romance novel) paired with what I believe is a great take on the Belle a.k.a. Beauty character.  If not for the somewhat lukewarm exposition-filled wrap up at the ending this novel would have earned a five star rating in my books, but even despite that it's a strong 4/5.

That's all for now.  There's still five more books waiting to have some quick summaries and reviews written up for them but I'll include them on a later blog entry.  (You see?  This is what happens when I procrastinate.  The list grows too long and tedious to tackle in one single post.  I must stop being so lazy and post them as I finish reading each book.)

Another con of being back to working full time again: less time to read.  :c  The kitty and I had a good little ritual going where each morning after breakfast I'd read for an hour or two while he cuddled on my lap.  Now Iroh meows sadly as he watches me walk out the door each morning and I try to squeeze in a few pages any chance I get on my breaks at work.  Let me tell you, the break room at work is sadly lacking cuddly cats.  *Sigh*

In all of the crazed wedding prep hubbub, I've sort of forgotten that my birthday is also coming up right away.  I had a lengthy debate with Mason a few nights back about how old I was turning this year; me insisting I was turning 27 and he quite confident that no, I would be turning 26.  As it turns out, apparently I don't even know my own age.  I am, in fact, only 25 -- not 26 as I've steadfastly believed all this time.  This realization is extremely discontenting.  I've been living a horrible filthy lie for the past year and I didn't even know it!  D:  *Awash in a traumatizing sea of sudden insecurity and double-guessing of oneself*

On the flip side, you know what the perfect present a man could get his soon-to-be 27 26 year-old confused wife?  That's right, a Miche bag! *Glee!*  I decided on the bigger "max" size bag, because I'm always cramming extra stuff in my purse, not to mention the occasional giant hardcover book.  Selecting my choice of two shells was hard, there's a lot of really nice ones, but I finally settled on the "Allison" and "Lauren" styles:

So pretty! Plus you can find pretty good deals on second-hand shells on eBay, so that'll be the next place I hit up next time I'd like to buy a new one.  Very excited for my shiny new bag(s) to arrive in approximately 5 - 10 business days~  :3

In book related news, here's the lowdown on my reads over the past couple of weeks:

• Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
  A once-successful writer, Henry, living in a foreign city receives an envelope one day among his usual fan mail, containing a note asking for help and a single scene from a play featuring two characters named Beatrice and Virgil.  He decides to deliver his response to the letter in person and finds himself in a taxidermist's shop.  There he meets the eldery, mysterious owner who introduces him to the two characters from his play -- a stuffed donkey and howler monkey, and Henry's life changes forever.  *Du du DUUUUUUH*  (Can you tell I totally rip these summaries off from other sources at times?  I'm so lazy.)  I was really excited to hear that Yann Martel had written a new book, as his second novel, Life of Pi, is one of my all time faves.  For whatever reason this new book hasn't been very good reviews on Goodreads, but I liked it myself.  Not amazing, but enjoyable.  I think I actually appreciated it more than others because I'd accidentally spoiled the ending for myself beforehand so I was reading into all of the abstract stuff knowing what most of it meant before the realization is supposed to come at the end.  3/5
  
  BTW, looks like a movie adaptation of Life of Pi is finally in the works.  Like all great books I love that get turned into movies, I'm excited but apprehensive about this news.  Please do the book justice!

• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
  The first novel in a trilogy, this steampunk-ish take on some of the events surrounding WWI splits its time between two main characters -- Aleksandar Ferdinand, fugitive prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; and Deryn Sharp, a daring British airwoman disguised as a boy.  The book pits the mechanical might of mecha-like "clankers" against fabricated splices of specially-engineered "beasties" in the place of the usual WWI war machines (hence the steampunk slant.)  The story was okay, slow to start off with (especially Alek's storyline, which I found dull compared to Deryn's) but it did pick up as the book went on.  To be honest I think the biggest turn off for me in this book was simply the steampunk theme itself, I'm just not a huge fan of the genre in general.  I also have some serious issues with the disturbing way the British forces apply the use of the spliced creatures they create...  Hurling bats into propeller blades as a weapon...?  Engineering giant flying whales with pipes and airship engines molded into it's gut...?  The creep factor is high here, folks.  I hope the WWI equivalent of PETA lays some much-needed smack down in the sequel.  3/5

• Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
  I probably shouldn't even be talking about this one yet since it's our most recent book club assignment and we haven't had our meet up yet, but oh well; I'll just rant about it a second time in much greater detail at our next meeting.  If that wasn't a hint for you, no, I didn't enjoy this book very much at all.  It takes place in a high-tech futuristic version of Cape Town, South Africa, following around a couple different groups of all equally annoying, obnoxious, hipster-like central characters who I spent most of my time just wanting to smack across the face.  It's unfortunate that the characters were all so unlikable because the story concept itself could have been pretty interesting otherwise, if not for the constant feeling like it was being narrated by four punk teenagers from Nexopia.  *Rips at hair*  2/5

While I was by the library today I picked up a few new books, the first one of which I just started this afternoon and isn't actually that new for me at all.  Beauty is a YA retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale that I absolutely loved when I was in Junior High.  I think I checked it out from our school library three different times, and I just couldn't resist picking myself up a copy today and seeing if it was as good as I remember it being.  Turns out -- it is!  :D  I'm really enjoying reading through it again, and I think I may need to track myself down a copy of it to buy permanently for my own bookshelf~

So I managed to score my first and only interview so far in the ever-elusive job hunt, a full-time position at a local bookstore that I was super excited about and received a lot of great, positive feedback for from the interviewer -- but I finally got word back from them tonight and it turns out I didn't get in.  It was a really crummy day of stress and anxiety and waiting, and no dice.

It's depressing more so that I was really wanted this job.  I think it would have been a great fit for me and something I could have enjoyed and been good at, and I was still beat out by someone better.  It's pretty discouraging, especially when independant bookshop positions like that are already few and far between.  *Slumps sadly in chair while she stuffs her face with handfuls of comforting chocolate chips*

C'est la vie though, right?

Anyway, on to other things, still book related but less depressing -- that whole concept where I post recaps of the books I've recently finished sort of fell by the wayside, huh?  *Sweatdrop*  Bad Brenna.  Note to self: do better.

Well, the good news is that I've definitely finished a few books since the last time I posted in September (so SO much fail.)  The bad news is that I no longer remember all of them in detail so the reviews are going to be shamefully short this time around (which, depending who you are, may actually be a blessing if you don't usually enjoy reading my never-ending book ramblings.  Well poo to you.  The books don't want you reading them anyway.  They shun you!  That's right, you've just been paperbackhanded. HA.  Get it?  HA!  HA!)

Anyway.  Here's a very quick recap and rating of my last six months of reading material -- the awesome, the ho hum, and the agonizingly awful.

• The Fourth Hand by John Irving
  I just finished this one yesterday, and I almost didn't finish it at all.  A television reporter gets his hand bitten off by a lion while on assignment and through a series of following events sets out (somewhat half-heartedly) to change his life for the better.  Very boring plot accompanied by equally unrelatable and unlikable characters, and be forewarned that the way the author tends to write every one of his female characters will make even non-diehard feminists cringe.  1/5

• Catopolis by Janet Deaver-Pack
  A collection of cat-themed short stories by different authors.  This has been my backup reader for in between books or when I've had nothing else to read, mostly because very few of the stories in it were good enough to keep me going for more than a couple minutes at a time.  Lots of the same recurring themes in each -- magical cats, cats using doting humans as servants, lots of reference to the Goddess Bast, yada yada.  Part of the problem for me is that short stories are simply never long enough to ever feel fully developed for me.  :P  2/5
  
  
• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
  The tale of The Odyssey, only told from the viewpoint of Penelope; toted for being another one of Margaret Atwood's apparently more feministy works.  (I've only ever read one other of her novels, so I can't really comment all that.)  The book was okay, I guess.  It was entertaining enough and had some funny bits, but lost me a little near the end.  I was a little worried going into it since I'd never read The Odyssey, but it turns out you don't really need to for this version of the story.  3/5

• The Boof Thief by Markus Zusak
  This one was a very good read.  Set during Nazi Germany, it follows the life of a young foster girl who gains an appreciation for pinching books from here and there, in addition to helping hide a Jewish man in her family's basement.  Did I mention that the entire novel is narrated by Death?  The Grim Reaper in this book reminds me vaguely of Terry Pratchett's version, though obviously less hilarious at times and sadly lacking the bacon-greased apron and cats curling around his ankles.  An interesting story style too.  Highly recommended.  4/5
  
  
• Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
  A pregnant 17-year-old girl is dumped at a Wal-Mart by her asshole of a boyfriend and with the help from some kind strangers-turned-friends she builds a life for herself in the small Oklahoma town.  Meh.  I'm ashamed to admit that for whatever reason, any story set in the south tends to immediately turn me off.  It's stupid, I know, there's just something that I instinctively find boring about them.  This was a pretty slow read at times, and I swear the names for half the characters in this book made me physically cringe at times.  2/5
  
  
• The Fionavar Tapestry: books 1 - 3 by Guy Gavriel Kay
  This trilogy was my Secret Santa assignment for book club.  Five college students from Toronto are transported away to the mystic world of Fionavar, where each has a destiny and role to play in the upcoming war.  The first half of book one, The Summer Tree, was, let's face it, not great.  The concept that I had to finish another two-and-a-half books worth of what I initially was beginning to think was a badly written fanfiction was not thrilling.  But I'll tell you, the last half of that first book really started to pick up and by the time I started The Wandering Fire and then The Darkest Road I was hooked!  I especially enjoyed the way the whole Authurian triangle was woven in to the story, and in places there were some really heart-wrenching scenes.  I wasn't huge at first on the author's Tolkein-esque writing style, but you just sort of get used to it after a while.  But yes, overall, surprisingly enjoyable.  3/5 for book 1; 4/5 for books 2 & 3
  
  
• Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
  Another classic cookie-cutter Jodi Picoult story that I can't really explain why I am such a fan of.  They're the same thing again and again, but they always lure me in!  ^^;  This time around it's about a family torn apart by the molestation of their five-year-old son, the ensuing legal drama, and without fail twist ending.  I don't know what it is about Picoult's writing, but I just really enjoy it.  The subject matter is particularly disturbing and hard to read at time in this one, but still a very enjoyable book.  4/5
  
  
• Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
  A story set in late twentieth-century Moscow, about an abandoned boy who's taken in and raised by a pack of feral dogs.  (Think The Jungle Book and Tarzan, but set in Russia and replace the crazy apes with dogs.)  I'm a sucker for tales like this involving the unique relationships that can develop between people and animals; mix in a bit of your classic survival against the odds plot and you've immediately secured my rapt attention.  A very interesting and at times emotional read if you're an animal lover.  4/5
  
  
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
  I would imagine everyone's probably familiar with this story about the last lone man trying to survive in a world where a horrible disease has turned everyone else into rabid, blood-hungry vamps.  As a big fan of the movie rendition already, I went into the book very optimistic, but pre-warned that it differed from it's Hollywood counterpart.  Verdict?  To be honest I enjoyed the movie more.  The book tended to drag in some places, especially when Neville becomes obsessed with the whole scientific aspect of the plague; Will Smith definitely delivered a fuller, action-packed, horrorific romp than this original telling.  3/5
  
  
• Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki
  A personal memoir from a real world former geisha, exploring the truth of the world and traditions surrounding the geisha profession in Japan.  I've always found the Japanese culture fascinating, and it was interesting comparing this biography to popular fictional accounts like Memoirs of a Geisha -- the author repeatedly debunks the Western perception of geisha as prostitutes and popular concepts like patrons bidding for a young geisha's virginity.  For a non-fiction memoir it was an enjoyable enough read, though obviously lacking the emotional drama that kept me riveted in Memoirs of a Geisha.  3/5
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Car
  Another book club pick, this science fiction story about child geniuses being recruited to train as galactic soldiers to fight against a hostile alien race fell drastically flat for me.  I'm not a huge sci-fi fan as it usually stands, but I found this novel really boring and repetitious, with unrealistic characters that were impossible to relate to or feel anything towards.  The concept was there, but the execution was poor in my opinion.  Bah.  2/5
  
  
• The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
  I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of this book for a year or so now, but it's always out of stock at most book stores (I finally just buckled and ordered it off Amazon.)  Staying true to Moore's typical bizarre and hilarious plots, this one is set during Christmas in the little town of Pine Cove when things start to take a turn for the crazy after a little boy watches good ol' Saint Nick take a shovel to the head; and when an inept angel from on high bungles up the kid's Christmas wish to have Santa come back from the dead, chaos and flesh-eating zombies predictably arise.  Not as awesome as some of the author's other work, but still laughs and deep-bellied gufaws all around.  4/5
  
  
• The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
  The first Hunger Games book was selected for our book club, and I have to admit that I went into it a little skeptical, all hoity-toity and "What's that?  A YA novel?  Poo poo to that, I say!" because a little part of my brain can't help but automatically equate any young adult novel these days to Twilight.  :P  However, that's the part where I'm stupid.  The Hunger Games is really good.  So good that I immediately proceeded to read the next two books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  The trilogy is set in the post-apocolyptic, slightly futuristic nation of Panem, which used to be North America.  All twelve districts of Panem are overseen by the Capitol and every year one young boy and girl are selected from each to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death broadcast live on TV.  The trilogy centers around sixteen-year-old Katness Everdeen when she volunteers to take her little sister's place in the games.  It's an awesome series, I highly recommend it.  4/5
  
  
• The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
  The first book in a fantasy trilogy about a poor street kid named Azoth from the slums who apprentices himself to the most renown and dangerous assassin in the city, Durzo Blint; turning his back on his old life, he has to embrace a new identity and name as he learns to cultivate a flair for death.  The story sort of flip-flopped between being really entertaining and really dull.  It sort of feels like you're thrown head first into the author's world without warning -- lots of terms and slang are never really explained fully, and it doesn't help that the plot is a convoluted tangle of characters, politics, and scheming that are hard to all keep straight.  I still haven't decided yet whether I'll be delving into the rest of the series or not.  3/5
  
  
• Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
  I picked this book up after seeing previews for the newest movie rendition of the same title, and trust me, this is one of those cases where the book is infinitely better than the movie.  It takes place in Sweden where a young bullied boy named Oskar happens to befriend the neighbor that moves in beside him -- a little girl, who unknowingly to Oskar, just happens to be a vampire.  (Only without all that prissy sparkling and much more blood.)  If you're a fan of (real) vampire stories, this is a good pick with a unique twist on the monstrous legends.  Be warned though that there's some pretty disturbing and gruesome content here as well, and it's not just restricted to the bloodsucking fiends.  4/5
  
  
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  A penniless young man lucks out during the Great Depression and finds a job with a traveling circus where he falls in love with the lead star of the equestrian act (which puts him in a dangerous position considering who her husband is) and forms a bond with the circus' newest attraction, Rosie the elephant.  To be honest I can't remember a lot of details from this book, but I do remember that I enjoyed reading it.  Apparently they're making a movie out of it which, like most movie adaptations, will probably take a good story and rip it all to shreds.  4/5
  
  
• Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
  Another quirky Christopher Moore concoction about a woman who wakes up in a dirty alley dumpster with a sudden hankering for a good bite.  (Ha ha, I see that pun you just made there, ho ho.)  That's right, she's a vampire!  And the moment she walks through those sliding doors, a certain grocery night clerk's life will never be the same.  Like all Moore's stuff, this is a great book to pick up if you're gunning for a funny read.  (Honestly, there's not much by him that I don't thoroughly enjoy.)  4/5
  
  
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
  When the narrator of this story, a drugged-up, morally ambiguous porn star, gets into a life-changing car crash in the opening chapter he suffers from horrific burns over most of his body and the end of his former life and livelihood.  Lying in the hospital burn ward, he meets a bizarre and compelling woman who insists that they were once lovers in a past life he has no memory of.  Over the course of his recovery, she spins the tale of the man he used to be.  This was am enjoyable enough book that jumps around in time a bit; a little slow in some parts, but really engrossing at other times.  Some of my favorite chapters admittedly didn't even have anything to do with the plot itself, but were sections where the book went into detail about the narrator's recovery process and burn treatment (because for some reason I'm weirdly interested in stuff like that.)  3/5
  
  
• Carnivores of Light and Darkness by Alan Dean Foster
  Ugh, I'm sorry but I couldn't finish this one.  This was actually my second attempt at making it through this book and I just can't.  It's apparently the first in a series about a herdsman from an isolated tribe that makes a promise to a dying man he never knew to rescue a woman he has never met.  He proceeds to set out on this bizarre quest and that's where the story gets a little intolerable.  It's weird, the only thing I can compare it to is an early morning cartoon -- the story is a never ending repetition of the same thing: tribesman walks a bit, he stumbles upon someone who needs his help, he solves the problem or defeats the antagonist of the day, and then moves on again.  Ta da!  *Repeat over and over*  It's as if the author didn't have any actual plot to fill up the book with so he substituted it instead for a bunch of mini guess-the-moral-of-the-day shorts that don't actually do anything to help move the story along at all.  Blaaaaah.  1/5

There.  Whew.  I'm definitely going to try to keep on top of this better in the future so as to avoid another two dozen book pileup.  :P  I should probably go to bed now so I can wake up tomorrow and once again continue the job hunt.  Blarg.  =_=