67:120 Ready Player One by Ernst Cline

It's the year 2044 and humanity is in trouble.  After using up available fossil fuels and other sources of power, there is now a severe lack of power, food, jobs, and everything else.  People are living in RVs stacked 20+ high with multiple families to a stack.  Most people are using OASIS as their escape, going into the incredibly complex computer world and living much of their lives there.

Wade Watts is no different.  A high school senior with deceased parents and no home life to speak of, he has spent most of his life in OASIS so when Halliday, the creator of OASIS, dies a few years back and announces that since he has no heirs his fortune will go to whomever can win his game, Wade figures it's his chance at making it big.  Of course, so does everyone else.

It's been 5yrs and many have given up.  Those who haven't are known as gunters and they study everything Halliday every said, did, or loved religiously in the hopes of finding the first key and moving on with the game.  Then there is IOI, the greedy company that has outspent everyone so that they can try to win the game first and control OASIS forever.  But now Wade has found the first key and gotten through the first gate and the game is heating up.  IOI will stop at nothing to win so how can Wade with nothing at his disposal stand a chance or will he just sell out to the big guys?

The plot is nothing new.  It's a typical poor trailer trash kid with nothing trying to win the big prize against the big nasty hugely wealthy corporation.  BUT...

This is so well done.  The entire book is an homage to the 80s and as a child in the 80s I found the whole thing hilarious.  I was actively laughing and smiling through more than half the book.  It was well-written, you find yourself routing for the good guys and really hating the bad guys, it's fast paced, it's fun, it's everything you want to see in a book like this.  Highly recommended!

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66:120 Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

The 13th and final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Arlene was released on bail even after being part of an attempt on Sookie's life and shortly after, she is found dead in the dumpster behind Merlotte's, strangled with Sookie's scarf.  Sookie is a person of interest until someone decides to 'help' the cops feel differently about her when she becomes the main suspect.  Now she's trying to prove her innocence all while dealing with her extremely cold relationship with Eric and a sudden houseful of guests.  How is one to be a good southern hostess in times like this?

Honestly, I'm glad the series is over.  It's really been drifting the last several books with very little happening and lots of pointless filler to make up for a distinct lack of real plot.  Sookie hasn't grown.  She is still constantly whining about how she has become a horrible person, blah blah blah, and then screams when someone comes to kill her or kidnap her or whatever yet again and then screams louder when people end up getting hurt or even killed in her defense.  Apparently tho, every male is just lining up for a chance to be the one to deal with it since she hasn't really been without a guy in her life since she met Bill.  I had a hard time originally getting into these books due to the writing style that seemed forced.  It got better and I was happy to stay for a few books but then the last few seemed like they would have been better all combined with the filler thrown out and the series ended around book 10.  YMMV of course.

Oh, and I totally predicted who she would end up with back in book one.  No surprise at all so I'm not really sure what the fuss has been about.

Page count: 338p/16,160p ytd/160,580p lifetime

65:120 The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich

This is the second time I've read it since it's a staple in our high school curriculum so I'm just copying my previous review here as it's just as true now as it was the first time I read it a few years ago.  There was so much detail that I had forgotten that it was a joy to reread and I look forward to reading it again in a few more years.

I have to start out by saying that I enjoy looking at the masterpieces and have been known to go to art museums from time to time but had really no clue about what brought about the changes in styles that we see through the centuries.  This was an incredible book for me to read in that it detailed how each style of art learned from and then grew from the previous.  It wove in not only the art and artists but the politics of the time that influenced what, how, and why they did it.  The book was of course filled with pictures to show us the details of things as art moved from cave drawings to modern day (that being the 1970s for this edition) but more than telling us "Hey, this is great art and you should like it", it told us what the art meant to the people of the time, to the artist that created it.  Did I like everything I saw in the book?  No.  There were pieces that did not appeal to me but at least now I can look at them and have a basic understanding of what it represents.  I also admired the way he added to the end in the later editions to tell of new discoveries or show how things had changed from the previous edition and to show how trends had altered yet again. 

This is yet another time when I am so glad to be homeschooling.  This is a book that I never would have picked up on my own but I truly feel that my life has been enriched by reading it and learning from it and I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to better understand the history of art.


Page count: 637p/15,822p ytd/160,242p lifetime

64:120 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Written as a series of letters to someone only addressed as 'friend', Charlie takes us through his freshman year of high school with all its accompanying ups and downs for him as he tries to find his way through it.  It's a tough time as anyone who has been there knows and for Charlie it's no different.  One minute he's on top of the world making friends, hanging out, going to the RHPS, and the next life is horrible as he deals with family drama or friend drama.  It's an incredibly difficult time for anyone and as Charlie tends to stay on the fringe, it seems especially so for him.  I saw a lot of myself in this, as I think most people who read it will, but it came out just after I graduated but my brother talked about how it was a lodestone for him.  Reading it now as a parent with one in college, one a freshman in high school, and two younger ones I found it a good reminder to me to be attentive and present for them as much as possible while still allowing them to find themselves at this critical time of their lives.  Definitely a poignant and powerful novel.

Page count: 213p/15,185p ytd/159,605p lifetime

63:120 Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance

The 5th book in the Cassie Palmer series.  Cassie is just days away from the ceremony confirming her as Pythia but her enemies simply see this as a reason to up their attacks upon her and if that doesn't work, go after her mother to ensure that Cassie is never born.  Ain't time travel grand?  Now Cassie is facing attacks in her own time and constantly being pulled into other times to try and save her mother as well.  The confusing part is where are all the attacks coming from now that she is on good terms with the Circle and Apollo vanquished?  Jonas, the new head of the Circle, has a theory on that and if he's right that means even more gods and demi-gods are going to gunning for her and if they win, it will bring about the end of the world.  No pressure or anything Cassie.

Started a bit slow but by half-way through it was impossible to put down.  Lots of backstory on Cassie, Mircea, and Pritkin which was nice after all the hints we've gotten up til now.  Cassie at the end is finally catching on to what all this means for her and seems to be growing up quite a bit and being much less the ditz of the day and more the Pythia she can be.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how things progress in the next book but at this point since I'm caught up in the series, I'm going to have to wait a bit.  *pout*

Page count: 419p/14,972p ytd/159,392p lifetime

62:120 Lover at Last by JR Ward

The 11th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  Qhuinn appears from the outside to have it all.  After having been disowned by his family, he is now living at the King's mansion, working side-by-side with the BDB, and has a young on the way.  He's miserable tho as he goes through every day watching the love of his life, Blay, go through his nights and days with Saxton, Blay's lover and Qhuinn's own cousin.

Blay has tried hard to move past his love for Qhuinn and outward appearances say he has but love is never so simple.  When Saxton finally leaves him after realizing that he will always be second place, will Blay find it in his heart to accept when Qhuinn finally seems ready to offer?

There is the obligatory stuff with the Lessor's, the Band of Brothers, and Trez and iAm but really, all of that is more about setting up future love matches and not really much about true storyline.  This is the book that many people (including me, I'll admit it) were waiting to see if Ms. Ward would actually write, a book about two males coming together and finding their HEA at last.

She did.  She wrote the book that I think many fans of Qhuinn and Blay wanted to see.  It was rocky but she didn't pull punches and she didn't shy away from their scenes or their love.  Their story was truly beautifully written.  It's a shame that she still tends to put in txt speak for no obvious reason in the middle of otherwise decently written thoughts or dialog and it really detracts from the story for me but at least she did the right thing for the story she has been setting up for so long.

For me tho, I'm now done with the series.  I can see that she has just added some new characters and is working to set up the next several matches to keep the series going but at this point, the world has become fairly pointless and I can see that she is just going to keep adding people so she can match them up and I'm just not interested.  This book really felt like a good place to end the series, a positive note and a beautifully written love story.  Thank you Ms. Ward.

Page count: 591p/14,553p ytd/158,973p lifetime

61:120 Questing Beast by Ilona Andrews

A short story by a favorite author.  A report needs to be written but on a planet where the native lifeforms like to eat the circuitry, that is a more difficult proposition than one might think especially when the unthinkable happens and your computer has contracted a virus that has wiped out everything.  Your only hope?  A nannybot that has also contracted a virus but one in which it needs to fulfill a specific condition to fix itself.  What condition?  It must find and deal with a Questing Beast!  A what?  A beast that is only to be found in books, not on Earth and definitely not on this planet.  If your report isn't done, your career is over and so is the last two years of work of several people.  Go figure out how to get yourself out of this one.

A fun little romp for no other reason I can figure out other than they could and it was fun.  I'm all for that.

Page count: 20p/13,962p ytd/158,382p lifetime