ampersandinc's reviews
1303 reviews

This is an oral history of women in American comedy. It was totally fascinating, and I loved it! Anyone who's interested in women's history, Hollywood, or gossip should totally check it out!

This is the sequel to Article 5. It was pretty similar to the first book, in that I really enjoyed the story, and the action, and yet, still wanted to repeatedly shake the protagonist!

The protagonist in this is Stephen, whose best friend Marco wants to confess his love to a boy in their class. Stephen gets dragged into helping with an elaborate plan, while they dodge a gang of kids who bully Marco for being gay. I really enjoyed it!

This is a novel that pokes fun at the wine business in the Napa Valley. The main character is an unemployed reporter who is doing duty as a PI trying to find out the origins of an unlabeled bottle of wine left with a prominent wine critic who gives it the top score (20 points) of any wine he has reviewed. Meanwhile, said wine critic accidentally kills himself in a wine vat at an industry party at a winery (the locals wonder if it was murder…). You can tell while reading it that the author knows his stuff and there are a lot of real people in the book, thinly disguised. A fun read.

The opening scene of a girl floating in the ocean amidst wreckage of an airline flight caught me immediately. I was right with her through the many twists and turns of her journey to discover who she really is and how she came to be in that ocean. I was impressed by how Brody managed to make the situation believable and still keep that element of mystery. She revealed the truth gradually and in such a way that I couldn’t put the book down as I really needed to find out that truth. Unlike many YA titles Unremembered did not telegraph the ultimate resolution right from the start and I found myself often surprised and intrigued by the unfolding of the story. No spoiler – but the ending is a cliff hanger in more ways than one!

Anyone who has ever experienced the mind numbing fatigue that accompanies new parenthood will recognize the descriptions in this book. Not everyone responds to the fatigue and challenges to the relationship by absconding to Barbados with the baby, however! The author managed to make that understandable although I did find the father’s character more relatable and more sympathetic than the character of the mother. Although the baby is at the centre of the book it is really about the marriage, friendships and lives of the parents and how they are thrust into crisis by the birth of their baby.

I read this because I love Bill Willingham’s Fables comics. The concept of the book was really interesting, with Max the Wolf (not a real wolf) finding himself lost in a forest he doesn’t recognize. In due time he meets a talking badger, cat, and bear and adventures ensue. It was a sweet book and the ending really did surprise me, which was a nice treat.

This was actually pretty original for a regency romance. The characters weren’t the stereotypical ones, but didn’t seem overly historically unlikely.

This is the first of the Seven series, and it was GREAT! I got right into it, and read it in a few hours. I even cried at one point! I can’t wait to read the rest.

Finally! The third book in the Graceling series was worth the wait. It was the best book so far, and features my favourite crotchety librarian ever written!