Friday, January 20, 2012

Suggestions for the Fried Brain.

You heard it here first, because this is obviously headline breaking news (feel free to roll your eyes), my brain is a bit fried. I’ve had some difficult months and to be completely honest the last thing I want to do is have to think too hard. Add that to my annual date with being sick to death with teenage angst, and we’ve got a desperate need for a change in pace.

What I really want to do lately is pick up a book and be totally entertained. So naturally, enter the mystery! In my mind, mysteries are totally written for this purpose. Well, the cozy ones anyway. I tend to steer clear of any of the darker ones. You get to spend some time with (hopefully) interesting and entertaining characters and then forget about them once the book is done. Especially series – does it really matter what happened in the previous book? Rarely! This isn’t Game of Thrones people (which I've also read lately and enjoyed - but all those freakin' names...egad)!

Lately I’ve begun to re-read two different series that I enjoyed quite a bit many moons ago. They both feature strong female characters, although they are very different from one another.

Yes, I’ve been reading Stephanie Plum y’all. And looking forward to the part in EACH BOOK where Ms. Evanovitch finally has her car explode. It is such a silly and predictable series that you can read an entry in one day. Never in my life would I have thought to cast Katherine Heigl as Stephanie, but, you know, this isn’t high art. She’ll probably be just fine and the movie will be as cute as the books.

I’ve also been reading the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. Kinsey is a little more serious than Stephanie, but she’s still pretty darn fun to spend an evening with. I do wish the covers to the books were more eye catching (they do not fly off the staff recommends shelves like I always hope they will. Only when I hand sell them do they check out).

I’m starting to think I may need to spend some evenings with Richard Jury soon too.

Alas, once the ALA awards get posted on Monday, I’m sure I’ll redirect myself to read some of those Alex Award winners. I must admit, I’m looking forward to seeing what wins!

1 comment:

joanna said...

Fried brain! Fried brain! I think everyone can relate. Have you noticed my posts have been picture books?

I did FINALLY read Kristin Cashore's Fire. I was holding out because I knew I would want to read Bitterblue and it's not out until the spring. But I did and I do and I don't care because she is so darn good. I also read Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot. I skipped a lot, mostly Mitchell's stuff for those of you who have read it.

Oh! I did start reading Everybody Sees the Ants, but I left it at home when I went out of town and probably won't finish it before Monday morning.

I am still very much looking forward to the awards on Monday. It's such fun and always surprising.