Supsense and Sensibility

So... I'm not really a fan of the classic literature fanfic stuff--Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte--that kind of thing. It doesn't appeal to me.

However, I was at the Allen library and on a shelf across from me, I saw this, and it made me laugh:
Apparently it's the sequel to Pride and Prescience, and since they were both there on the shelf, I grabbed them. I'm sure they'll be ridiculous, but I can't help wanting to check them out. I don't know if I'm going to include them in a 10/10 category or if they'll just be extra, but either way I wanted to share. :)

March

Finished March, by Geraldine Brooks, in my Award-Winners category (it won the Pultizer in 2006). In other news, I think this book was given to me by Sam and Jennie for my birthday one year while we still lived at Glenwood.
But I digress. It was a pretty intense book, and I would have liked it a lot if the protagonist hadn't been the father from Little Women. I had very mixed feelings about him and ended up not liking him all that much, which was a little sad because of how I love Little Women. But judging it independently, it's an amazing, heartbreaking book; one of those horrible war books that just makes you wonder how anyone can ever live through such a thing.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

 So in idea form, this book is hilarious. It's even funny for the first 100 pages or so. But then I got stuck - for 5 months.

The problem is that the zombie parts just aren't written that well and aren't incorporated well either. I know that they made a big deal about it being 85% Jane Austen, but maybe it shouldn't have been. What it mostly did was remind me how good Jane Austen was and how not good this other guy is. While it was funny to have the final confrontation between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine be an actual fight, and while it was funny to have Charlotte's reason for marrying Mr. Collins be that she had been infected by zombies, overall it wasn't well-crafted enough to really pull it off. I've read better spoofs and better serious zombie books. (Serious zombie books - does that work? Either way, World War Z put all of the zombie action in this to shame.)
It was also disappointing because I'd read some really good reviews and knew some people who really liked it. I was sad to come away being so unimpressed. It honestly wasn't any kind of self-righteous indignation about the desecration of Jane Austen either. It was just a big meh for me.
So yeah. A for effort, C for execution.

On the bright side, it wasn't Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, which I saw in the book store the other day and which made me throw up a little in my mouth.

One Series Down

Yay for finishing books! I finished my first series, the Narnia books (started over and read books The Magician's Nephew through The Horse and His Boy so I could say I'd read them all in 2010), and now I'm in the middle of a Nonfiction, an Adult Fiction, and an Award-Winner. It's taking me longer than it should to read them, but I'm really enjoying them all so it's okay.

And Two More!

I think I'm at three more. I am losing track, which is bad when I'm only at the beginning, right?

I finished Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, #9 in the Georgia Nicholson series (which I loved loved loved) and Julie and Julia. I am just over half through with Inkheart (which is a 15 hour audio book) and half through An Assembly Such As This, which is going in my recommended books category along with the other two books in that trilogy.

I also decided to add the Book of Mormon to my reading. I know it's something I should be reading in addition to this challenge, but I just don't read it as regularly as I should and I want to try to take this time to change that. So I'm adding it to my list, not sure where. haha. Non-fiction?

Two more

I just finished These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. It was lovely and romantic and sad and funny - and also a very quick read. I recommend it.

I also read The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon, which was, in fact, a Buffy comic book. So . . . yes.

The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

Just finished The Lacuna for my Adult Fiction category. It is amazing. If your "recommended" categories aren't filled yet, feel free to add this one on there as a recommendation from me! I think you will love it.

Two!

I finished Julie and Julia for my recommended category. Even though I was sometimes highly annoyed by Julie's whining, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think one of the things I liked most about it was that at its core, it's about two women who are drowning and find a way to save themselves by finding something worthwhile and difficult to do. Plus, you know, the Buffy stuff. :)

Thanks for the recommendation, Miri!