Theresa’s Comments (group member since May 30, 2014)

Theresa’s comments from the DC Public Library group.

Ooh that sounds great. Thank you!

Adding both of these to my tbr. Thanks!

Thanks, Rich! I've been slowly making my way through all these great recs!

Thanks for the recommendation, Molly!

Ahh I Am the Cheese is amazing. I should definitely reread it. Don't think I've ever read Fade. Will need to add to my tbr!

This week is Banned Books Week! Have a challenged or banned book you plan to read or reread this week, or a favorite challenged book you would recommend? I might need to reread The Giver by Lois Lowry, a childhood favorite and one of the most frequently banned/challenged YA books.

Nice job getting in early with the hold! I'll have to get on the Rachel Dratch! Thanks for the recommendation.

Not an actress/comedian book, but a fun and funny humor/memoir I also liked was It Looked Different on the Model: Epic Tales of Impending Shame and Infamy. There's a bit of Portlandia-esque poking fun at hippie Portland stereotypes there.

Did you try to see her when she was in DC?

Yes, I'm looking forward to grabbing Why Not Me? from the library. Adding myself to the hold line!

I also am curious about I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star. Have you read that one?

Aha! That does make it a more compelling recommendation!

I'll have to save Unbroken for when I'm in a very weepy mood.

Have you read any other humor/bios featuring women that you've liked? I love Tina Fey but I can't say I was completely sold on Bossypants. I also read Amy Poehler's Yes Please recently, and to be honest, I don't know that I would've finished it except that I was on a plane and didn't have many other entertainment options! They're both incredibly funny, smart women, but it didn't translate as well as I'd hoped.

Unbroken might be too real/depressing for me. Even war stories in fiction destroy me.

Thank you! Yes I've heard great things about Roach's nonfiction, and Gulp sounds intriguing though very visceral. Not That Kind of Girl has been so popular! I liked Dunham's movie "Tiny Furniture" and I mostly like "Girls" so I might give that a try, too.

I'm an avowed fiction lover and tend to avoid nonfiction, unless it's a cookbook with beautiful pictures or travel books. But there are some humor or narrative fiction I've enjoyed this past year. In the humor arena, I found myself laughing out loud at some passages in Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?. I've been meaning to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for years, and seeing it in the news because of a parent challenging the book has reminded me I really need to move it from my TBR to my Currently Reading list!

Do you have a favorite nonfiction book you like to recommend to friends? Are you my reading nemesis and only read nonfiction?

I've read the whole Mistress of the Art of Death series because I really liked her as a character, though the first book's mystery was probably the best!

I think I didn't like the amount of exposition in Morrell's writing. I know the endnote in the book talks about how he's imitating the Victorian era style, but it just personally wasn't my favorite.

Not a book but a BBC TV series that DC Public Library has on DVD is The Bletchley Circle. A group of whip smart women who worked as code breakers during WWII are gathered together by one of them when there's a serial killer on the loose in 1952 England. The police aren't catching on to the patterns in the killings, so these women approach the murders like a complex code to break, and find themselves in all kinds of tight spots while trying to bring the killer to justice. Terrific characters and extremely engrossing.

Ok so I read both recently and they hit my detective ahead of his time antihero mark and historical fiction mark, but I felt like the writing left something to be desired and the second book was basically a retread of the first!

Somewhat in the same vein - serial killers, historical, is Mistress of the Art of Death, but much better writing and more believable scenario. So very creepy though.

I'm a huge mystery books buff, especially if they're Sherlock Holmes related or are historical fiction. I've really enjoyed David Pirie's "Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes" series, which fictionalizes Arthur Conan Doyle's early medical career and his relationship with mentor Dr. Bell, the supposed inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes. It's much more gruesome, creepy, and tense than the classic Holmes mysteries, but I really love the period details.

On the lighter end of things, Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness series featuring a very, very distant young relative of Queen Victoria is what I like to call cozy, but not TOO cozy. The protagonist, Georgie, is sweet, smart, and fun, and the other characters like her movie star mom, are very entertaining, too. The mysteries are pretty fluffy, but I'm in it more for the character interactions.

Are you a mystery reader? Is there anything you've read that you've loved recently?

Shira - that book sounds very tough but really interesting. The amazing reviews it's getting on Goodreads definitely piques my interest.

Samantha, I have to admit that all the controversy around Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic just makes me want to read it more. Plus, Alison Bechdel seems pretty awesome.

Have you also read Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang? I wanted to like it more than I did. I felt somewhat unsatisfied with the ending, but I did find it a very easy read.

Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family and East of West, Vol. 1: The Promise sound pretty intense! I love mythology so I think I'd really like The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act. Thanks for the recommendations!