Death of Swans and Singular Mysteries; the November and December book lists

Jan 21, 2008 17:52

Winter and the holidays hindered my reading schedule so I combined the two months. I also didn't keep as neat as records so it's possible that I forgot a book. I also decided to not include the purchased books section anymore.

November

1. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
3. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

December

1. Stone Garden by Molly Moynahan
2. Abridged Children Classics of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
(containing The Cases: of the Speckled Band, the Red Headed League, and the Copper Beeches)
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The list starts of with my first Sherlock Holmes book. I'm ashamed to admit that marathoning House is what peaked my interest. I had known for awhile that the character and bits of the show were based on the stories of Sherlock Holmes, and the hiatus mixed with the marathon made me decide to go pick up a copy of the first Sherlock book. The first half I loved, and the second part was not so easy to get through (the second isn't narrated by Watson, making it slightly harder to follow/care).

I had purchased the first princess diaries book when it first came out, my boyfriend at the time had suggested it as a joke, and the back cover caught my eye (it features big black boots, very similar to those I was wearing) and I bought. and loved it. Since then I'm pretty much willing to read anything by Meg Cabot (although I did outgrew the princess series by the fifth book, maybe I'll give them another go..)Size 12 is not Fat is pretty cute, and it fit the bill for my desire to read more mysteries. Heather Wells is pretty amusing narrator. My only qualm was the incessant correction of dorm to resident hall.

I read Twilight in October and decided to try the next book in the series, 'New Moon'. I have to say it fell short of my expectations. It seems to be a pretty popular series of lj, what with all the icons, which is why I tried it to start with. Bella Swan can be quite annoying, sometimes I want to slap her. I did like the development of Jacob, but the love triangle - not so much. I might eventually read the third book, but it's not high on my list.

Stone Garden was a $1 impulse buy at my local used book store, and it was hypnotic. I had trouble putting it down. Once it was done it stuck with me for weeks. The characters felt very real, I hated them, and loved them. Maybe it's just something that I have for well portrayed grief, because The Cranberry Queen, and Alison Rules pulled me in just as much.

I was tidying up my boyfriends closet and came across a box of old children's books. The one that caught my eye was the Sherlock Holmes book. I was curious to see how they dealt with the drug references (completely took them out, which is what I suspected) and complicated words so I sat down to read the first case, and kept on reading until I ran out. I had already downloaded the Adventures on my ipod but had yet to read it so I immediately started in on that, starting with the three that had been in the book so I could compare. And then I continued reading one chapter each night before bed until I ran out. The children's book worked as a bit of a rosetta stone for me, because in the Adventures I didn't have any issue trying to work out what he meant with his strange combination of words, like I did with A Study in Scarlet. Or perhaps Conan Doyle just got better at being clear. And his favorite word to use over and over again? Singular. There were many a singular case, or singular problem.

published fiction

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