Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold (Landover Series #1) by Terry Brooks (read 1/5 to 1/30)

This is the next series in BOTM.  Meet Ben Holiday, a trial lawyer from Chicago, grieving the loss of his wife and unborn child in a car accident. He finds an advertisement in an upscale Christmas catalog claiming to offer a magical kingdom for one million dollars by a man named Mr. Meeks. Although skeptical, Ben pursues the offer out of a desperate need to start a new life. Ben receives a magical medallion and is transported through a swirling mist to the kingdom of Landover. Unfortunately, he finds it not exactly as described.
This is my favorite type of book, lightweight fantasy with sarcastic and a bit self-depreciating humor.   I can't believe I have missed this series before now.  I am liking how easy this read is, nothing heavy and maybe I'm not laughing out loud, but I have absolutely caught my self snorting now and then.  I think the simplicity of the story is what is so great, this was written in 1986, so I'm not sure if it is a landmark in the genre, but it wasn't a common style then either, at least as far as I know.  This is light with humor, not a real thinker but something to go hey I feel like reading, and I don't want to be a better person when I'm done, but I want to enjoy it.  Even if my book club doesn't read the rest of the series I will.

Change me into Zeus's Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss (read 1/1 to 1/14/15)

Book Club read, was nervous going in sounded like another depressing read.

This is a memoir about growing up poor and undaunted in the South. Barbara Robinette Moss chronicles her family's chaotic, impoverished survival in the red-clay hills of Alabama. A wild-eyed, alcoholic father and a humble, heroic mother along with a shanty full of rambunctious brothers and sisters fill her life to the brim with stories that are gripping, tender, and funny.
Moss's early fascination with art coincides with her desire to transform her "twisted mummy face," which grew askew due to malnutrition and lack of medical care. Gazing at the stars on a clear Alabama night, she wishes to be the "goddess of beauty, much-loved daughter of Zeus."

I had a hard time with this time flow in this book, it seemed really slow at first, then we suddenly had skipped high school and she was a single mom.  WTF?  Then the fixing of her face was in the epilogue, not in the story itself? It happened during the fast forward part, it was confusing.  I'm not sure what the point was, I mean there was no conclusion, she just stopped writing.  I had a ton of unanswered questions when I was done reading.  Did she confront her Mom about why did she stay with her Dad?  Did she ever find or confront her parents about Mary Louise?  Why was Janet so sheltered?

Kill Smartie Breedlove by Joni Rodgers (Read 12/30 to 1/1)

This was a quick filler book for in between book club books.  It was a free book on my Kindle that I had downloaded ages ago and not gotten around to reading before now.
Recently widowed private detective Shep Hartigate is hired by a pulp fiction writer Smartie Breedlove to find out who’s killing the exes of Texas, including Smartie’s best friend, Charma Bovet.
This was really good, I love the idea of an author trying to solve a mystery, while writing her next book, and elements of her real life leaking into her fantasy life, until the two are parallel.
This was an easy light read, with fun characters, and it poked fun at writers not letting them take themselves too seriously.  I would read more in this series, in fact I think I should check now to see if there are more.

A Feast for Crows (Fire and Ice #4) by George R.R. Martin (read 12/12 to 12/29)

We continue the tale of seven kingdoms in A Feast for Crows.  

In 2005, Martin announced that the "sheer size" of his still-unfinished manuscript for A Feast for Crows had led him and his publishers to split the story into two books.  Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, he opted to instead split the books by character and location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters.  A Feast for Crows was published months later, and the concurrent novel A Dance with Dragons was released in 2011.

In A feast of Crows we find ourselves following the stories of many minor character's whom we haven't had their point of view much before now:  Cersei Lannister; Ser Jaime Lannister; Brienne, Maid of Tarth; Sansa Stark; Arya Stark; Samwell Tarly; Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy; Princess Asha Greyjoy; Victarion Greyjoy; Areo Hotah, Captain of the Guards of Dorne; Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard; and Arianne Martell of Dorne.

Tommen is now the King of King's Landing, with Cersei as his regent, and Margaery Tyrell as his wife.  Brienne, the Maid of Tarth, is on a mission to find Sansa Stark, aided by Jaime Lannister. Sansa Stark is hiding in the Vale, protected by Petyr Baelish as his daughter Alayne.  Petyr has murdered his wife Lysa Arryn and named himself Protector of the Vale and guardian of eight-year-old Lord Robert Arryn.  On the Iron Islands, Aeron Damphair calls a Kingsmoot to identify a successor as king of the Iron Islands.  In Dorne, Doran Martell is confronted by three of his brother Oberyn's daughters, who want vengeance for their father's death. Because they are inciting the commonfolk, Doran has them imprisoned in the palace.  Doran's daughter Arianne Martell plots  to crown Doran's ward Myrcella Baratheon as queen of Westeros under Dornish law. Upon arriving in Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the House of Black and White, a temple associated with the assassins known as the Faceless Men and becomes a novice.  Jon Snow, now Commander on the Wall,  has ordered Samwell Tarly to sail to the Citadel in Oldtown to research the Others and become a Maester. 

The writing is still great and the movement is fine, but I think splitting the story the way he did and focusing only on these minor characters (beside the Stark girls) was a bad idea.  These were not characters I was engaged with or really cared about, the characters I wanted to hear about, Tyrion, John, and Bran, Rickon, and of course the Girls, and Dany were not there.  It felt like filler chapters and I just couldn't get through them quick enough.  I was bored and I admit a bit pissed that no one I cared about was talked about, I just have to say he better make it up in the next book.

A Storm of Swords (Fire and Ice #3) by George R.R. Martin (read 11/29 to 12/7)

The next book in this epic fantasy did not disappoint, and finally I moved beyond the show and read something that I didn't already know.  Although, my library due date came, and I hadn't finished the book but I couldn't extend my time because someone else had reserved it, so I had to literally read the last 424 pages in 24 hours, whew!  But I didn't really get to digest either.  The Red Wedding was horrible but in the show, so I knew it was coming, although in the show Robb's pregnant wife was at the wedding, and in the book she wasn't so maybe he knocked her up and their is a chance for a Stark baby.  I love that Sansa married Tyrion, I just wish she wasn't such a bitch to him, he deserves a good woman.  I think Sansa could actually come to appreciate him, and the good man that he is if she could just get her head out of her ass.  He has always been kind and respectful to her, and the fact that he didn't force himself on her shows that he is more of knight than any of the stupid pretty boys she thinks she wants.  I hope that they actually work out, it would redeem Sansa in my eyes for getting her father killed, at least she would grow beyond the stupid girl she is.  I hope Ayra becomes an assassin, she would be awesome.  I'm glad she got her Needle back, now to find her wolf.  Jon deserves the command of the Wall, he will save the world!

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (read 11/10 to 11/28)

I had originally planned on posting each book as a separate entry, however whenever I finished one book, I couldn't seem to take the time to write a post before starting the next one.  So I guess I will talk about them as a set.  This series consists of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.  From what I understand these were the first three in a series the author had intended to be 10 books, but sadly his death limited the vision.  His own life and death seem to be as full of intrigue as his books,  I have already gotten lost in the articles surrounding the controversy of who has the rights to his work, his family or his long time lover.
These books are about Lisabeth Salander, a girl with a photographic memory and major trust issues that have lead to poor social skills.  At first you don't realize Salander is the main character, you think it is the journalist she has been hired to do research for, Mikael Blomkvist.  And yes the first book does revolve around him a lot, but he isn't it, Salander is the first book is just a set up, and introduction so to speak to the meat of the story, to Salander and her amazing detective skills, and her amazingly complicated and in many ways tragic life.
During my book club for The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo, one of the members stated that she was annoyed about Lisabeth falling in love with Blomkvist, since he was such and obvious player and so much older.  I never saw this as a love story at all, it feels the exact opposite of a love story, it is a mystery thriller with some sex thrown in. Lisabeth falling for Blomkvist isn't really a love story, it is about a socially awkward and walled off individual finally letting some of her walls down and trusting someone besides herself, I think it is sad that she feels so betrayed by Blomkvist, because who she really is betrayed by is herself. She knew going in what he was like and she is mad at herself for falling for him anyways. And because she has never had to deal with those types of feelings she is projecting her hurt and anger at him, rather than herself, I know I have projected bad decisions not the person I made the decision with rather than myself for making that decision too. I think the love angle was thrown in at the end to give a lead in to the next book.  And Blomkvist is not bad looking, but he has the personality that puts women at ease and allows them to let their guards down, again why Lisabeth is so mad at him.
This story was about the crimes, the murders, the corruption. I really do think Larsson was trying to make a statement about the corporations in Sweden and the corruption in government. If you read between the lines he really does not like the big companies and he seems to have little faith that the Swedish Government is doing anything to regulate or correct. These books have much more social commentary than I expected, and the next book goes into a similar but new issue. I don't know much about Sweden and how the country is run or its laws, but I can see the same issues being present in the US. This book came out in 2008, right in the middle of the "recession," so I can see how a lot of people could relate because of what was happening at the time. There was so much loss of trust in traders, the stock market and banks, and I think this was published at a great time to ride that wave. At the same time I think it was more than the timing that made this book so good, we are 6 years past and it still grabbed me. Maybe it is because I work with business that are now always not the up and up, and I can see this in action. But I was way more enthralled with the mystery and the uncovering of the corruption, the love story that wasn't was a side bar for me.
In the next two books we really get into Salander's life and why she is the way she is.  It makes so much in the first book clearer, and explains why she acts the way she does.  By the end of the third book Salander is not healed or whole, but she has started down the path, I would have really loved to see where Larsson had her end up.

Getting Waisted: A Survival Guide to Being Fat in a Society That Loves Thin by Monica Parker Read (11/4/14 - 11/9/14)

This was a book that my book club won through book movement.  It is the memoir of Monica Parker, apparently a famous writer and actress in Hollywood that I have never heard of and I did't recognize her picture not the back cover either.  This is her story of her struggle with her weight and her need to be accepted and loved.  She is born in Scotland and moves to Canada during childhood, somehow she becomes involved in a Canadian Fitness show, although she is overweight, or as she puts it fat.  She meets the love of her life in Canada, then after her parents death she decides to move to Hollywood.  Why, she is already struggling with her self esteem and body issues, and she move to the most superficial place on earth and seems surprised that it causes more complexes.  At some point she comes to accept that she is a fat woman in a thin society, after a meal in complete darkness of all things.
I didn't get this book.  It was supposed to be super funny, and it wasn't.  I mean I got a few chuckles, but nothing to write home about.  Monica didn't really seem to learn to love herself, at the end of the book she is still struggling and still trying to loose weight, just not on a fad diet anymore.  I think I missed the point entirely.  I struggle with body issues, I have gained weight after my children were born that hasn't gone away.  I am lazy though, and I haven't really tried to loose the weight.  I suspect if I actually attempted and ran into a wall I would be more sympathetic to her.  She never joined a gym, and the one time she used a personal trainer she decided it was too hard and fired her.  I understand struggling to love your body, but it never seemed that Monica did learn to love herself.