Summer 1

So it's been a while.  I meant to take part in the 48-hour reading challenge, since I actually had a nice long weekend, but I ended up being busy with other stuff.  It's crazy busy here at work, and home isn't any better, so I haven't gotten much reading done in the last 2 weeks at all-- just a few pages every night before I can't keep my eyes open any longer.  These are mostly books I didn't finish.

Feet of Clay and The Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett.  I continue to meander through this series.  They are easy to read, funny, and it's not hard to pick the story up again if I fall asleep in the middle of a paragraph. 
Feet of Clay had a horrendous number of surface/proofreading errors.  I am disappointed in the quality of this edition.  Otherwise, good.

The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, by Norman Doidge.  This book is super cool, but it isn't the sort of thing I can read at bed time.  I've had it checked out for ages, and I'll read a few pages or a chapter maybe once every Saturday, so I'm not really making a lot of progress.  Someone else has requested the book, so I've got to bring it back.

Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia, by Richard E. Cytowic and David M. Eagleman.  This is another completely awesome science book.  I checked it out a long time ago when I read a news article about synesthesia.  I read a few chapters in this book and was then describing it to my husband who said, "You mean it isn't like that for you?"  Turns out Fridays are brick-red.  (!!)  Like hearing children who think their deaf parents are faking, my husband won't talk to me about his synesthesia because he thinks I'm making fun of him or making it up.  I now feel like I live in a black-and-white world. 
This is a really informative, interesting book, but, once again, I don't have non-bed-time to read it.

Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley.    The premise for this one sounds very interesting, but it totally didn't grab me ("I am completely un-smegging gripp'ed").  I didn't get enough detail in the first 15 pages, so I felt like I was just floating, without anchor.  Authors need to give me the world first before throwing me into it.

The Secret Wedding, by Jo Beverley.  I figured I needed a trashy romance to read in the sun during the first official weekend of summer, but I couldn't even get through the first chapter.  The language was laughable.  Authors need to be able to offer variations in sentence length and construction, and shouldn't aim for a way of speaking they aren't comfortable with.

Wonders of Terrariums, by Sigmund A. Lavine.  Doing a little trend-spotting, I saw terreria popping up in several places online a few months ago.  I checked out our only book on the topic (from 1977) and it's actually very interesting.  Since this isn't exactly a science or anything, the content isn't outdated, but some color pictures would be nice, so I got my coworker to order a newer book on the topic.
I now have 2 terraria at home!

Very LeFreak, by Rachel Cohn.    I thought I reviewed this already, but I can't find it in my blog anywhere, so here ya go.  Once again, I liked the plot premise, but the execution was terrible.  No one's college experience is like this; it is completely unrealistic.  Talk about suspension of disbelief.

So there you go, all the things I've started but couldn't bring myself to finish in the last couple of weeks.