i have been on a bit of a hiatus lately. i recognise this.

i don't actually have much to say about my absence (brought to you by some sulking, performance anxiety and mostly, sheer laziness...) other than that i read....

the keepers- lian tanner

brizzlehounds!

oh broo.

i do love you.

thoroughly enjoyed it.

3 quarters of before i fall- lauren oliver

i was extremely overtired when i read this. i didn't mean to read it, just picked it up to get a sense of it, and then ooooops i read most of it. then i had to stop cos i felt a bout of hysterical, unstoppable crying coming on. and also i knew what was going to happen (although then when i skimmed a bit before the end to double check, i realised i didn't know exactly hooow it was going to happen, and props for the curly jigsaw twist, although it had nothin' on when you reach me-rebecca stead) and didn't really want to hear it. it was pretty good, but there is only so much of this type (depressing, heartwrenching, depressing, depressing) of book that i can read.

also i read the tall man- chloe hooper

oh god. i don't really want to talk about. tears. fury. more tears.

erm...

what else?

the last dragonslayer- jasper fforde.

i thoroughly enjoy the crustacean references. i quite enjoyed the book also. i then read the eyre affair and enjoyed that too. (although i did sometimes stop and think (very quietly) to myself; douglas adams does it better)(although just what it is adams does better i'm not entirely sure of... i suspect i just prefer douglas adams in general for when i want that sort of mad, clever, skewed reality type book, but what fforde does is also rawther excellent and so to you, brain, i say, 'do not compare! just read!' and to that my brain says 'silence wench! don't you speak to me until you stop using brackets so stupidly!begone!')

and to you, brain i say ((((((**** you!!!)))))((((())))) bahbahahaha.

sorry. that was uncalled for.

mostly, though, there has been lots of enjoyment, all around!

and i am also perusing the latest lonely planet tasmania guide. yes, that's right. dugong lady may soon be cycling around tasmania. on a bicycle. cycling. and looking at tasmanian things. hurrah!

and now i think we can all be glad that this is my last post for the year, and that this is the end of it.




ps. the post date is wrong. it is currently the LAST DAY OF 2010. i hope everyone has a truly delaightful next year.

rambly book talk

Ruined by Paula Morris
soooooo.... i found this book lurking in a drawer (it wasn't my drawer, but before you go accusing me of thievery, it was a draw i am allowed to take books from) and debated whether or not to read it. it was a debate because i have a fascination with the deep south (this book is set in new orleans) and really want to go there and love reading about it. but because the pages of my found copy were that really crappy, cheap thin paper that probably isn't even partially recycled (bastards) and makes the spine feel awkward and sort of like it is ashamed of being a spine, i didn't want to read it.

but i did. and it was good. it wasn't brilliant, but i did enjoy it, and i absolutely loved the detail about new orleans. oh it sounds so amazing! i want to go! after, of course, i go to bhutan (gross national happiness people!), nepal, new york, the daintree, alaska, the moon... fuck me, i may as well give up now- no! i must remain optimistic, i will get there one day... assuming i don't get distracted and add another sixty thousand places to my visiting list.

err, this has turned into a 'i want to go here and here and here' travel rant, so i shall stop now.

actually, i just want to say that it really was quite a good book. there where times when i wanted to smack the main character, but mostly i was grumpy with the baddies, not the goodies. which is a pleasing characteristic in a novel of this kind, with lots of intrigue and family mysteries. now that i think about it, the plot was like something from 'passions' (and yet again i find myself referencing this ridiculous 90s soap opera), with ghosts and crazy class rivalry, but the way Morris managed it was excellent, and honestly, it is worth reading just for an insight into the gorgeous, multilayered mystery that is new orleans.

au revoir!

oh! wait! i forgot to tell you, i read another Eva Ibbotson (lordy, she is fab) story- Journey to the River Sea- about Maia, an orphan sent from england to live with distant relations in the amazon jungle. it was brilliant! utterly brilliant. i felt excited, scared, angry and ridiculously happy all in the right places, and it left me with the same aftertaste that the Piper's Son did. and now i want to go to see the amazon jungle! well, more specifically Manaus, the capital city of the state of Amazonas, a city hidden in the jungle!
oh, dreams.

librarians do lady gaga

click here

my favourite is 'boolean limits pare things down to just what fits'

can use my can use my yeah you can use my catalogue (but dont forget the databases)

The Cardturner- Louis Sachar

Uncle Lester has always been Alton's favourite uncle. Alton's mother would thrust the phone at him.

'Tell him you love him'.
'I love you, Uncle Lester'.
'Tell him he's your favourite uncle'.
'You're my favourite uncle'.

So when he is designated cardturner for the blind, elderly and very wealthy bridge playing relation, his mother gives him some words of advice:
'Don't screw it up, Alton'.

The Cardturners is not just about inheritance obsessed mothers and strangely named teenagers though. It is fundamentally a novel about the card game Bridge. It also contains family secrets, lunatic asylums in the 60's, girls, and a snippet of Nixon.

As you get to know Alton a bit better, and he gets to know Lester as more than just the old guy he has always been forced to have stilted phone conversations with, they begin to form an eccentric bond. The family secrets begin to unravel, slowly and full of suspense. Bridge terms become less of a foreign language and part of an exciting and frankly, bloody difficult, card game that eventually seduces Alton into playing himself. It also began to seduce me until I remembered I have the attention span of newt, and therefore not much chance of learning all the rules.

Sachar has created another funny, well written, utterly believable and very intriguing novel that is definately just as good as, if not better, than Holes. Just with a few less deadly lizards and more old people.
Highly recommended, I loved it.