One imperfect letter, one missing page

Final books of July (yeah, I'm a bit behind) :

107. *Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci (403) YA/SF-Fan-Fic

Short stories about geeks and nerds of various stripes. Some of them are more-or-less realistic, some of them aren't realistic at all, most of them are hysterically funny. Authors include MT Anderson, John Green, David Levithan, Garth Nix, Cythia Leitch Smith, and Scott Westerfeld.

108. *Fathom by Cherie Priest (384) A/Fan

For an unknown purpose, a sort of earth elemental convinces a man to build a tower in a specific place. In pursuit of a way to awaken her father (Levithan), a kind of water goddes takes a drowning girl and changes her into something new. The girl's cousin is turned into a statue and set in a garden near the shore for reasons which we don't find out until much later.

The book follows a number of different threads and it's not obvious until far into the story how they relate and who is good or bad.

Actually, it's never entirely clear, but if I were a human living in that world, I know who I would want to win.

It's rare to find a book where not having answers is as fascinating as having them would be. But in this book, in which very little has concrete explanations and most of the characters aren't human (even if they once were), the story is more important than the explanations, and I loved it.

109. *Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich (320) A/Mys

Hey, more standard Stephanie Plum. Lots of crazy grandma in this one, a little more Morelli than Ranger as I recall, and some amusing computer geeks to add to the weird.

110. *Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier, read by Freema Agyeman (2:20) A/SF

This one was odd (well, they're all odd, aren't they?) but fun.

110 / 150 books. 73% done!

61 / 75 *new books. 81% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

31248 / 45000 pages. 69% done!
Audiobooks: 26h30m

Originally posted in November of 2007 in fiveforsilver:

138. *Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff (404)

Second book in the Smoke Trilogy, sequel to the Blood books. I liked this, although it was definitely one of the creepiest books I've ever read. I don't usually read horror (at all) and while this probably isn't as scary as as "real" horror books, it was scary enough in the middle that I had to put it down and read something else before I went to bed.

Tony, Henry, and the various other characters were strong enough in themselves that I didn't find myself missing Vicki and Mike much as I read it.

139. *Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff (407)

Third and final book in the Smoke Trilogy. This book was actually...hilarious. There were so many pop-culture references - and Tony was dealing two old-beyond-measure people who didn't pay attention to that sort of thing - that it made me laugh out loud about every third page. I also enjoyed the story, and the characters. Leah was a well-written character and Tony really came into his own.

140. *The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi (100)

I'm counting this as a new read because listening to the audio version and reading the actual book are two very different experiences. I love the audio version, but there are things I got out of the book that I didn't catch or understand in the audio. It's a wonderful novelette.

141. Squire by Tamora Pierce (380)

I'd misplaced this before when I really wanted to read it, and when I found it I used it as my "I must read something else now" book while I was reading Smoke and Mirrors. This is possibly my favorite Tamora Pierce book - Kel is my favorite, the most realistic, the least Mary Sue, of her heroines, and Squire is my favorite of the PotS books.

I read more than one book at once, and my reading speed drops dramatically:

142. *The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones (480)

Loved it, absolutely loved it. I love the old Chrestomanci books like Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant but the latest ones are, if possible, even better. This one starts out just a little bit slow with some necessary build-up, but once it gets going, it gets going and is a cracking good story the rest of the way through.

143. Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich (352)

I forgot I'd already read this until I was halfway through, but these books don't take long to read. And I couldn't remember what happened, so I finished it anyway. They're brain candy, light, (mostly) fluffy, fun books. Hilarious, too, I kept laughing out loud at things that happened or bits of dialog (and I was sitting in the bookstore cafe, so I was trying to be quiet).

144. Sunshine by Robin McKinley (416)

Still up there as my favorite book.

144 / 150 books (96.0%)
70 / 70 *new books (100.0%)
47,314 / 50,000 pages (94.6%)

Currently reading:
*Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones

Originally posted in February of 2007 (multiple posts combined) in fiveforsilver:

16. *The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi (1hr 20min)

Well, this was a first - an audiobook. I haven't listened to an audiobook in probably 10 years. It's a novellla or novelette or some other shorter-than-a-regular-book term. It is an in-between book, written in the Old Man's War universe but from the perspective of Jane Sagan (as opposed to John Perry). Timeline wise, it is between The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony (not out yet).

It is fabulous. If you are a OMW fan, The Sagan Diary audiobook is available free here. I don't suggest listening to it if you haven't read the first two books, though - one, it contains spoilers and two, it really wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.

17. *Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin (226)
18. *The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin (246)
19. *Tales From Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (296)

The rest (as far as I know) of the Earthsea books. This is a good series; I liked all of the books.

20. *Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi (286)

Hilarious, absolutely hilarious. One of the funniest things I've ever read. This was Scalzi's first novel, apparently written to see if he could. It's very accessible, even if you're not a science fiction reader (as with all of his novels, but maybe even more so). I read it online free here (I took the page count from Amazon). It's not available in print anymore, sadly. Someday, I may be able to afford the $90+ that used book websites are asking for copies of it, since I love me my print books and sort of want a complete Scalzi collection (or at least complete early Scalzi, since he's fairly prolific).

21. Spindle's End by Robin McKinley (422)

A re-telling of the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. I really like this book, and more each time I read it I think. There is just so much worldbuilding detail packed in there, it's fascinating how much depth McKinley can put into a world without falling into either cliches or inconsistancies.

22.*Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich (164)

I love Stephanie, her family, her boyfriend(s), even her goofy coworkers and some of her weird friends (if you can call them friends). There was a weird little supernatural-ish element to this book that I wasn't so sure about. Much as I love fantasy books, that doesn't really jive well with this series and I found it kind of awkward. At least nothing really unnatural happened, but... Well, whatever. That thread aside, I thought this book was laugh-out-loud funny, like the others. The nice thing about it (as opposed to some other books I've read) is that there was no extra fluff. Well, the whole book is fluff, of course, but it's not overdone; I mean, look at the page count - I read this book in one evening.

22 / 85 books (25.88%)
14 / 25 *new books (56.00%)
6439 / 30000 pages (21.46%)

Currently reading:
*Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson