Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories, by Cecilia Ahern

Sometimes I pick up really interesting stuff at conferences. This one is a bittersweet story about two people who start to share each others' memories. I thought it was going to be kind of lightweight, but it really stuck with me and wasn't as chicklit-ish as the pink cover led me to believe--not that I have a problem with chicklit if it's good. Anyway, I remember not being able to put this down until I finished it.

The story is set in Ireland. There are two main characters, Joyce, who has recently had a miscarriage and had to have a blood transfusion, and Justin, who donated the blood Joyce received. It doesn't take long before they start running into each other all over town and taking one each others' thoughts and some characteristics. It's not realistic, but it's believable in the universe of the story. I can't ask more than to be completely entertained by a book, and this one did that for me.

11. Tall, Dark, and Dead

Tall, Dark, and Dead, by Tate Hallaway (2006)

Last year, I read Halloway's Dead Sexy, the second Garnet Lacy book. I finally got around to reading the first. This was more of an adventure than I expected. I requested the book from a partner library and didn't read it right away when it came in because I always go on sprees and order several at a time. Then, I realized it was coming due soon and I couldn't find it anywhere, so I renewed it and hoped I'd run across it at home or in my office, but hoping I didn't do something stupid like take it with me to Midwinter and leave it in the hotel or on a plane somewhere. When the renewal was finally up, I still couldn't find it and just paid the replacement fee so I wouldn't have a block on my account.

Of course you know what happened. I moved offices a couple of weeks later and found the book wedged beween my desk and the wall, suspended in the air. I hadn't been able to see it when I crawled around the floor and rummaged through every stack of paperwork and books in the office, so I had thought it was gone for good. But, to make a long story a tiny bit shorter, I quickly read the book before turning it in for a refund of my fine.

I have to say I really like these books. The treatment of wicca, while very much magical in the spells and possessions kind of witchcraft, is still pretty respectful to the religion. The characters are interesting, and nobody's all good or all bad. Garnet, the main character, could easily go wrong, but she feels pretty real to me. She makes mistakes and hooks up with (the wrong) guys too quickly, and she doesn't always get what she wants. I like her. It's chick lit in the best sense of the term. I'm trying to get over that label, and was happy to read this in a Q&A with Jennifer Weiner she posted to her blog today:

The good news is, no matter how the publishers and booksellers label the books, and what the critics say (that’s if they bother to say anything at all), readers know what they’re getting with quote-unquote chick lit. They know they’ll laugh, they know they’ll identify with the heroine and her dilemmas, they know her voice will be familiar and that her story will end well. And if that’s what chick lit is, I don’t think it’s so terrible, or so dangerous.

Right on. I read more so-called chick lit and young adult lit than most other stuff, and that's okay. More "serious" stuff is great, but I don't always feel like it, especially these days when I'm reading about research methods, pedagogy, and library trends and services all day long. Sometimes I just want something fun to curl up with in the evening. The Garnet Lacy books really do the trick.

48. Dead Sexy

Dead Sexy (Tate Holloway, 2007)

A few pages into this, I realized it was a sequel. I hate reading things out of order, but it's okay. Most authors summarize what's happened before, so it doesn't take too long to get into the story. I can't remember where I heard about this book and why I thought I'd like it, but it came in on request at the library. I'm borrowing so much stuff that it's hard to keep track of it.

Basically, the Garnet Lacey books are chicklit romances with a magical theme. Garnet is a witch and both her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend are vampires. In the previous book, Garnet's coven was murdered by Vatican assassins. Lilith, the goddess who lives inside Garnet (and partially in her boyfriend--yeah, weird) slaughtered the assassins. A year later, the bodies surfaced and the FBI started investigating. I was not buying any of this for the first couple of chapters, but it was such a quick read that I thought I'd give it a shot. I ended up finishing the whole thing last night.

It's not a great story, really, but I ended up liking the characters. I'd like to call it a mystery, but besides the FBI agent, nobody's really investigating anything. It's more like Garnet and her boyfriends are trying to figure out how to keep themselves out of trouble. There's a subplot involving voodoo and zombies, but it doesn't amount to much besides a few extra action sequences. Dead Sexy is a fun, easy read, but I'm not sure I'll stick with the series.

37. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling, 2007)

Like eleventy million other people, I pre-ordered this and waited impatiently for the UPS truck to bring it on Saturday. When it still hadn't arrived after 6pm, I was vexed. A Twitter friend of mine told me hers came via USPS, and when I ran to the mailbox, I found that mine had, too. Why didn't UPS's tracker tell me they were handing it off to the (often unreliable in my neighborhood) mail delivery? Grr. In any case, I had an errand to run at dusk, so I was finally able to start reading it a little before 8pm. Interrupted only by an hour long phone call, I finished at 3:20am.

I'm not saying anything about the story, except that it was a really entertaining read that had me hooked from the first chapter.

23. Sisters of Isis: The Summoning

Sisters of Isis: The Summoning (Lynne Ewing, 2007)

I keep reading the first book in new YA series' with supernatural storylines. This time, three girls find out they're descendants of a line of Egyptian pharaohs, duty-bound to protect the line from the evil Cult of Anubis. The girls get to cast spells, call on Egyptian gods, and transform into animals. It's pretty great. It's a quick, fun read, and I think I'll return to the series.