The Meanest Doll in the World

This is a sequel to The Doll People, which I read years ago. This book focuses on the same group of dolls but two of the dolls get lost and end up in Princess Mimi's house, a doll who all other dolls are afraid of. I saw Toy Story 3 a few days ago and some things in the book remind me of things in the movie! Another wonderful doll book!

The Lost Girls

The Lost Girls focuses on Wendy's (from Peter Pan) great grand-daughter. All daughters in Wendy's family are taken away by Peter to Neverland to live for a time. Wendy's great granddaughter is really an unlikeable character. Too whiny, doesn't stand up for herself, weak etc. I just didn't care for her. Or the book really. I could never understand why the Darling women keep returning to Neverland since it seems to change their whole life and not really in a good way. This is one of the worst books I've read lately.

Little America

This was a strange little book. Some strange comical story lines. Basically about a man who wants nothing else but to live and work at a huge gas station complex in Little America, Wyoming. Oh, and kill his father. The story of how he gets there is hilarious. And strange. Strange, but it worked somehow and I enjoyed this book.

The Dolls' House

I know I have said this before but I love books about dolls and dolls' houses; seem to be reading a lot of them lately! This is an older one, which are really the best. A doll family finally gets a dolls' house to live in but then a mean doll comes to live with and threatens their peaceful lives. Great book!

The Elegant Gathering of White Snows

The premise of this book sounds interesting: 8 women suddenly decide to leave their lives and just walk off in the middle of the night. They just keep walking for days, finding out more about themselves and each other, etc, blah, blah, blah. I'm not really a big fan of books about a group of friends but this sounded somewhat interesting. After the first 100 pages or so, I started skimming a lot especially all the descriptive prose. I got the women confused too. I didn't like her style of writing either. Needless to say, I'm not going to be reading anymore of Kris Radish's books.

Twice Upon a Time-Sleeping Beauty

This book is from the recent genre of retelling of fairy tales. This one retells Sleeping Beauty from the side of Sleeping Beauty and the prince. They alternated chapters telling their sides of the story. It was a fun and cute book. There is also a retelling of Rapunzel by this author and I plan to read that one too.

Flashforward

I received this book at Christmas but hadn't read it yet. I decided to read right after the series ended and I heard it had been cancelled. I'm still a bit bummed about that. I found the series fascinating at the beginning, then a bit predictable and boring, but loved it again in the last episodes. But I never really liked many of the main characters, but that's another story.

The book mainly takes place around CERN in Switzerland, while the TV series took place in Los Angeles. The cast of the book had a much more international flavor as scientists around the world worked at CERN. The only name in the book from the series is Lloyd Simcoe, but it is not the same character at all. I saw where they took certain story lines from the book.

The book was a real page turner for me until the last quarter of the book. You thought it would end and it went on and on, like the movie A. I. did. When it did end it ended rather abruptly. But overall I really enjoyed the book.

Disney War

I'm a big of Disney, especially Disney theme parks. This book is about Michael Eisner's reign as CEO of Disney. This book was fascinating. I felt like I learned a lot of the movie business and Hollywood through this book. It gives a great inside look about how Eisner and company turned the Disney company around in the 1980s to produce mega hits and also of its later downfalls, Eisner's feud with Roy Disney and many others. Great reading.

Beauty Queen Blowout

I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure book when I was a kid (who didnt?) so I had to try this updated version for adults. This book focuses on an unlikely beauty queen, Miss Vermont, and her adventures in the pagentry world, depending on what scenario you choose. This was fun, just like the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I remember. It took a while but I made it through all the possible stories. Lots of fun!

Blasting into the Past

Like a doll story, I also can't resist time traveling books. This is another young adult story. I didn't care for it very much. It is written in the first person, and while I generally love this type of book, I didn't like how this one was done. I think this book is part of a series too and I didn't read any of the other Humano Morphs so some was a bit confusing.

The Orphan and the Doll

I just can't resist a doll story. This is about an orphan during (or shortly after) the Civil War and a doll that was sent to her and who helps her find her real family. The doll meets other dolls at the orphanage, has adventures and helps the orphan find her family. A quick and fun read.

Into the Forest

Wow, this book really makes me think. The story is about 2 teenage sisters living in northern California in a post apocalyptic world. They are far enough out in the country to survive. It was fascinating to read how they learned to grow more of their own food, find out what was edible, and how to live off the land. I was a little surprised to find out what they did in the end but their decision is something that made me think. I still think about this book at times. A fascinating story.

The American Porch

I've always loved porches, especially big wrap around porches on a house. I always wanted a wrap around porch; don't have one but our porch is pretty big.
This book gives the history of the porch from ancient Greece to modern times. Some parts were great while others were a bit boring, like most non fiction books that I read. I learned a lot in this book and even looked some more stuff up to read about further. I highly recommend this book.

Lucy's E-journal

Hmmm, I read this book this book several months ago but can't remember much about it! It's a kids book told in email form, which is why I read this. Guess it wasn't too memorable!

If Andy Warhol Had a Girlfriend

I'm not really into chick lit so much but I really enjoyed this chick lit book. The main character, works in a chic art gallery. She is extremely likeable (unlike some other chick lit characters) but hates her job. The turn of events is pretty predictable but I really enjoyed this book. A fun read.

Carry Me Across the Water

I think I orginally picked this book because it is partly set in Pittsburgh, my hometown. It's a story of an elderly man, near the end of his life, looking back on key moments of his life and also important things happening in the present.