The King's Rose; Bite Me; The Way I See It; The Bedwetter; Paul and Me

Okay, first up "The King's Rose" by Alisa M. Libby, a tepid YA novel about the life of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good or interesting. Sort of forgettable, like little Catherine herself.
"Bite Me" by Christopher Moore was pretty funny: vampires in San Francisco. The characters were funny and well written, and I enjoyed the way he switched voices and perspectives throughout the novel. I was very glad he didn't voice the whole thing in Abby's voice, because that would have made me quit reading the book early on. A little of her slang goes a long way.
Melissa Anderson, otherwise known as Melissa Sue Anderson, who played too-good-to-be-true older sister Mary on TV's "Little House on the Prairie", penned a memoir of her life on the show in "The Way I See It". It wasn't a bad book, just kind of dull and very, very vanilla. The worst trouble Melissa and her teenage friends got into was not pulling over for a cop after running a stop sign. Well, I guess it's good that not every child actor in Hollywood did drugs and slept around, but it sure doesn't make for an interesting story when they didn't!
"The Bedwetter" is Sarah Silverman's autobiography. I've never seen her show, a coworker recommended it to me. It was fairly funny and she seemed very real and self-aware and able to laugh at herself, which are all nice qualities in people. It was entertaining enough to hold my interest.
And lastly, A. E. Hotchner chronicles his lifelong friendship with Paul Newman in "Paul and Me". It was a worthy tribute to a great man, very touching. I teared up more than once, but Hotchner was never sappy or sentimental. He obviously cared very much about Paul and valued their friendship and business collaboration on "Newman's Own", and that came through in a beautiful way.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the Graphic Novel

Graphic adaptation by Tony Lee and Cliff Richards. I thought Lee did a good job of paring the story down while still keeping the fun tongue in cheek elements, but Richards' artwork seemed fuzzy and slapdash. I would have preferred something a bit sharper and of course, color would have been excellent.

Spoken from the Heart; Darkness; Mouse Guard Fall 1152; the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I'm falling behind again. What can I say? Things happen.
Moving on. "Spoken from the Heart" by former first lady Laura Bush was a very enjoyable autobiography, although I did find her mother bear defending her cubs type of tone when talking about her husband a bit tiresome. I totally understand why she feels the need to defend him, and I think their love for each other is amazing and special, but I also think that most people open minded enough to read her book are not going to be that insanely critical of former president Bush. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but at any rate, I found her to be a warm and personable author and I enjoyed hearing about her perspective on her years in the White House. The time after 9/11 was especially terrifying. I can't imagine how awful it must have been to have been living through that kind of high alert.
"Darkness" was a collection of not very good short stories edited by Ellen Datlow. I'm just not a big short stories person, and none of them were really all that memorable, except for the one by Stephen King, which I of course had read before.
"Mouse Guard Fall 1152" is a graphic novel by David Peterson. I wasn't terribly impressed by this one. The artwork was nice, but the story was so thin and juvenile compared to the other graphic novels I've been reading lately. It only took me 20 minutes to get through it. I know I read fast, but c'mon. I gotta have a little more substance than that. And the little mice as the heroes just didn't cut it with me. Although it was funny to see them battle a snake and some lobsters.
Rebecca Skloot's "Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was amazing. Henrietta died in 1951 from cervical cancer. Before she died, doctors biopsied and saved a piece of the tumor growing in her, and it began to grow and divided, and her cells haven't stopped growing and dividing since, the first cells scientists were ever able to keep alive for so long. Her cells have been used all over the world to find cures for diseases and study how cells form, grow, change, react to certain toxins and outside influences, etc. It's impossible to calculate just how much advancement has been made in the field of medicine based on Henrietta's cells. Absolutely, utterly fascinating, and not the least bit over my head with the medical jargon, which is usually hard to comprehend.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; The Sandman Vols. 1 and 2; The Sound and the Fury

Okay, I'm two weeks behind because I suck, what can I say.
"Dawn of the Dreadfuls" by Steve Hockensmith is a prequel to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith (which I promptly reread after reading Dreadfuls). Hockensmith told how the Bennet sisters became zombie hunters. He didn't follow what Grahame-Smith had set up in PP&Z, like the girls going to the Orient to get their training, but it was still entertaining. And then I reread PP&Z and caught a lot of the jokes I had missed the first time around.
Then I read volumes one and two of the "Sandman" graphic novels by Neil Gaimen. I didn't care too much for the first one, "Prelude and Nocturnes". It was kind of slow and seemed disjointed. The second one, "The Doll's House", was a bit better. The story seems to be picking up a bit. We'll see how the rest of the series goes. The artwork was nice, it reminded me of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comics I used to read as a kid.
And then I reread William Faulkner's brilliant, shining "The Sound and the Fury". Every time I reread it I love it more. I was tempted to try to go the Faulkner conference in Mississippi this July, but unfortunately I have a work obligation that I can't get out of. Disappointing. I'd love to see Faulkner's typewriter :)

Wake; The Baby-Sitters Club: the Summer Before

"Wake" by Lisa McMann was a rather thin YA novel about a girl who gets sucked into other people's dreams. There wasn't a whole lot of explanation going on as to how this actually happened or why, but I found myself not really caring all that much. It's a good concept, I think, just not written well.
And I have a guilty confession to make: I grew up reading the "Baby-Sitters Club" books. And "Sweet Valley High". At any rate, I gave away all my BSC books a decade ago (donated them to my local library! Yay me!), and I felt nostalgic for them after reading this new prequel by Ann M. Martin. She tells the story of the summer before Kristy came up with her great idea. Sometimes when you reread books you loved as a kid you wonder why in the hell you read that crap and liked it, but not the BSC. It was still a good story with good characters. I think I'm really just longing for simpler times in my life right now, before I became an adult and everything got all complicated :)

The Lexicographer's Dilemma; Superfreakonomics; 703

Whole bunch of good nonfiction lately--I've really enjoyed all of them. First up is Jack Lynch's study of the English language and how it came to be the language we know today, "The Lexicographer's Dilemma". It was interesting to see how "proper" English evolved over the years and how our dictionaries were compiled.
"Superfreakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is their follow up to their wildly popular (and amazingly good) "Freakonomics". It challenges the way we think about things, like why it's actually safer to drive drunk than to walk drunk, and how safety studies show that regular old seatbelts are safer and better at protecting children than car seats. Great reads, both of them.
And "703" by Nancy Makin. At her heaviest, Nancy weighed 703 pounds. How she got that way, and how she lost over 500 pounds, is a great story in her words. I really liked her--she seems like a great person, and I'm so happy she's gotten her life back after being so miserable for so many years. As someone who has battled with my weight my entire life (thank god never to the extremes as poor Nancy) I can certainly empathize. I think she's dead on by saying that people who struggle with weight issues are failing to fix what's really the problem: on the inside, their own lingering doubts regarding their self-worth. Obese people are severely damaged inside, and that needs to be corrected before we can expect any diet and exercise regime to work. Listen to her! She knows what she's talking about.

Hellraisers

The life and times of four fine actors: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed, by Robert Sellers. Great fun, these guys really enjoyed life and lived it to the fullest. Some of the stories were so incredibly outrageous, but good fun. Richard Harris found a picture of himself with a Rolls Royce, and having no recollection of ever owning such a car, called his two ex-wives, neither of which could remember him owning such a vehicle, either. He called his accountant, who confirmed he'd purchased the car 20 years previously and had been storing it in a garage to the tune of some $92,000. Can you even imagine? They went on legendary benders, lasting days. I'm ridiculously jealous.