Late Birthday Greetings/Catch up Post - Holidays, Books & TV

[mary5958]

I've been pretty much totally absent from LJ since before the holidays and have missed lots and lots of birthdays - I hope everone enjoyed their days!

allyv, marvelgirl_art, elinora, _jems_, anaross, burningeden, Buffy_the_vamp6, basillo_the_cat, bearfacedcheek, shadowlass, nikkimisplaced, strange_f, cissasghost, claritaluna76, molly_may, annapurna_2, 2loud_2proud, mad_brilliant, and jamalov29I was able to go to DisneyWorld for a week in early December with my two younger sibs and my sister's fiance. I love Disney and it was my sister's first visit

Comments

[jamalov29]

Thanks for the birthday wishes, dear !

[mary5958]

You're very welcome. I'm sorry they're late! *hugs*

[molly_may]

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

I just created My Shelf here. It's a pretty random assortment so far.:)

I wasn't very impressed by Twilight either, but right now I'm reading Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, which is in the same YA Paranormal Romance genre, and enjoying it a lot.

[mary5958]

Friended you over at Shelfari and ordered a couple of books off your list to try - the first Amelia Peabody one and Wicked Lovely.

The two books I mentioned in my post - Chima's The Warrior Heir and The Wizard Heir - I quite enjoyed. I also found Anthony Horowitz's Raven's Gate goo enough that I bought the sequel. None of these are absolutely top notch, but they kept me entertained. (Although the Horolwitz one reads a bit too much like the author is visualizing it on screen.) :-)

[enigmaticblues]

I am so glad that someone other than me didn't care for Twilight! It was such a big hit, and I tried to read it, but I ended up really, really not liking it.

For children's/YA fiction, I would suggest The Spiderwick Chronicles. They're very quick reads, but you can get the entire boxed set for $30 at B&N, and they're really good. I zoomed through them, and thoroughly enjoyed the books.

Glad you had such a great holiday! It does sound like a lot of fun, and the Magic Kingdom really is breathtaking.

[mary5958]

It's not that I hated Twilight. I just didn't care a bout the characters and it left me severely under-impressed. *snort* I'm having a bit of trouble understanding all the hype surrounding it.

For the most part, I feel the same way about Charlaine Harris' wildly successful Southern Vampire Series. For the most part, I find the characters flat, the dialogue wooden and the attraction of every supernatural male within a 1000 mile radius of the setting to Sookie inexplicable. But, dang, there are millions of people who disagree with me on that one, too! :-)

I just bought The Spiderwick Chronicles a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to reading them. It's good to know you liked them. Feel free to make book recs at any time! :-)

[mary5958]

Since I liked vampires long before Buffy, I'm enjoying the fact that vampire books are abundant right now. Unfortunately, a lot of them have failed to win me over. I do like Patricia Briggs and Eileen Wilks quite a lot, however, and have found some others readable.

I have A Great and Terrible Beauty, but haven't read it yet and just ordered Kiki Strike on your rec. I thought the Percy Jackson books were fun and I liked the characters - certainly enough that I've preordered book 4 and I just finished The Midnighter's series by Scott Westerfeld which I really enjoyed.

I seem to be reading a lot of YA right now, so more recs would be greatly appreciated. I understand the Buffy/Harry wannabee problem. Usually, I am able to ignore it and look at each book with new eyes. (Of course this doesn't alway work

[mad_brilliant_]

Thanks for the birthday happies! :-D

[mary5958]

You're welcome! I'm sorry they were late. -)

[littlebelleblue]

Just browsing by and saw you were looking for YA recs, so I hope you don't mind me mentioning a few :) . . . If you don't already know who she is, I've always loved anything by Robin McKinley; she just came out with a wonderful new book about dragons. Some of her work also nicely span the bridge between YA and adult (although bookstores tend to put them in YA regardless) and she has very strong female characters. She also has some very good fairytale adaptations and a vampire novel. I remember Sabriel, by Garth Nix, as being entertaining, although I never finished the series. Almost anything by Dianna Wynne Jones . . . Also, if you like mysteries, the Mary Russell series by Laurie R King is a very good take on Sherlock Holmes (even if you don't like Conan Doyle). As far as children's novels, the Bunnicula series, about a pet rabbit and his paranormal adventures were always some of my favorites growing up

[mary5958]

I'm glad you stopped in - and thank you so much for the book suggestions! I have books by a couple of those you noted, but I've not heard of Laurie R. King before. I ordered the first in the Mary Russell series to give it a try.

Again, thank you! I see you're new to LJ. If you're friending people at this point, please feel free to friend me & I'll friend back. (I'd just go ahead and add you to my flist, but I don't know if you're in the market or not.) :-)

[littlebelleblue]

Oh, I hope you enjoy Mary Russell - I always love introducing new people to the series!

I will go ahead and friend you; I've enjoyed your manips for some time now - they're absolutely gorgeous. Plus you have great taste in books! So, thanks!

[mary5958]

I'm always very interested in book recs. One of the things I'm not loving about Shelfari is that so many people don't seem to rate the books on their shelves. There are a LOT of books I've read that I would never rec to others, so knowing someone has read it isn't enough info. Hopefully, as more people join and 'stock' their shelves, they'll take time to do the 1-5 star rating at least. Have you created a shelf there