99 - Once upon a time in the north

I love Phillip Pullman - it's such a nice change to read something well-written! This is a kind of pre-quel to His Dark Materials. It's mainly about Lee Scoresby and his daemon Hester.
About half the size of the other books & very easy to read:)I'm taking a point off because there were only 2 human female characters & one was vapid & the other was hardly in it.
****

98 - Girls' Night In

I finished this book ages ago...but it was so mundane that I couldn't be bothered adding it to the list.
It's a compilation of short stories, chick-lit if you will. Some are tolerable, but the majority are eye-rollingly bad.
i'll give it 1 star because all profits go to charity.
*

97 - Blair Underwood?/!!!

Whilst I was in the library trying to find Slaughterhouse Five which wasn't where it was supposed to be:( I came across a book by Blair Underwood - one of the hottest guys ever. True he co-wrote it, but it was pretty good. It was about an actor (ex gigolo) who hooks up with an old acquaintance then she turns up dead. The cops suspect him, so he sets out to find the real killer.
I think he puts its in the genre of erotic-mystery....weird. Very different from things I usually read, it gave a pretty good (i assume) insight into the african-american rapper's world.
AND it wasn't too violent, like the normal who-dun-its.
***

oops the title - Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel

96 - Ashling by Isobelle Carmody

Before I started reading this book (which is the 3rd in the Obernewtyn series) I was determined it was gonna be my last fantasy for awhile. I've had my fill of trying to remember all the weirdo names & places. AND the romance that I was reading it for was still miles away from happening - the 2 involved barely saw eachother! But it sucked me in & now i wanna read the 4th:( The animals are probably still my favourite characters & Elspeth's perfection & ability to be fantastic at everything she does is getting a little old. She's also one of those characters that everyone appears to fall in love with - yawn. I probably liked this one best of the series so far, though.
***1/2

Tara Road - Maeve Binchy

This was my first Maeve. Meh.....it was supposedly set in the '90s, but it felt more like the '50s. It's mainly about an irish girl who falls in love and gets married to a go-getter. It has a few too many characters, there's the colleagues and the neighbours and the mum and the sister and the kids and their friends, and then the sam for the american broad.
when it ended the characters were in a much better headspace, but there were still a few details i wanted to find out...but it was a pretty big book, so i guess maeve was over it by that stage.
i don't think i laughed at all - her son was amusing. defo didn't cry - but did get shocked at one point - the other million pages were pretty predictable.
**

Ever - Gail Carson Levine

Meh - interesting idea, but this is probably my least fave of Gail's books (that I've read). I like my literature nice & light - so human sacrifice doesn't really do it for me.
Interesting characters - but left a few unanswered questions.
She could have been a bit more explicit in her descriptions, because I can't really remember what the places looked like. And the GODS and their powers could have been more impressive (like in Percy Jackson - the movie).
After Ashling (which I'm currently reading) - I think I'll go back to contemporary adult fiction for a couple of books.
**1/2

93 - The last battle

I've finally finished narnia! (Except I haven't bothered with Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but if I see it in the library I will.) I was pretty over the series by this point. This last one had a couple of new characters & schemes that were interesting, but it didn't delve deep enough into anything. I know it's a kid's book, but you're talking about God and Heaven - it's not all black & white Clive!
***Spoiler alert following: plus he wrote Susan out of it! She was too busy with nylons & lipsticks! Sexist alert! I guess it's good he didn't kill her off like everyone else!***

Anyway, I'm glad I've read it - but it's not something I'll be in a hurry to read again.
**

The Farseekers - Isobelle Carmody

This is the follow-up to Obernewtyn.....I really liked it:) There are once again too many characters & places & i can't keep track with all the weird spellings (what is it with fantasy?). But the story is really good & suspensful - i actually gasped out loud once or twice. I like how the animals are important characters too & have their own personalities. The romance isn't moving along fast enough though:(
***1/2

91 - The Silver Chair

I don't know whether it's because this is the 5th narnia book i've read, or whether clive was getting a bit over it...but i found this quite predictable....it wasn't really suspensful at all. The characters were nothing new - I did like the Marsh-Wiggle though.
The first 3 chronicles are defo worth reading, and I'm hoping the last one will be too.
**1/2

Dave at Night - Gail Carson Levine

I really liked this book, not too sad for me to handle. It's about Dave who's 11. His dad suddenly dies & no one in the family can afford to look after him so he gets sent to an orphanage. It's based on the author's own dad. Some lovely characters and New York during the 20s sounds awesome.
She's a very interesting writer.
***1/2

I've gotta double check - but I think I'm up to my final 10!!!

Di Morrissey - Tears of the Moon

I finally got round to reading Di Morrissey. Man, what an effort - it exhausted me. She's obviously a fan of researching her topics thoroughly - i found all the info about pearling and Broome in the early days of colonisation very interesting....but once again it comes back to the characters for me...and while the women were all smart or beautiful or gutsy...it just didn't seem natural.
Really gave me the urge to revisit Western Australia though:)
***

Obernewtyn - Isobelle Carmody

I've never read any Isobelle Carmody, but I know she's written heaps - fantasy really isn't my fave genre. But I liked this because it had talking (sort of) animals and a powerful heroine and a possible love interest. Sometimes it was a bit hard to keep track of all the characters and who was good and who was evil. The reading minds ability and the link to the "machines" was also a little confusing. But I'm keen to read the next one - I know she started to write this book when she was in high school and it took years - it's obviously well thought out.
***1/2

more marian keyes - watermelon

ok - i just wanted something light, but i think this will be the last m.k. i read for awhile. she thinks she's all that...she actually had her main character dissing other chick lit writers...take a look in the mirror woman!
anyhoo this is about a woman whose husband leaves her the day she gives birth so she moves back in with her family in dublin...her quirky family are cool, but it all ends up a little too convenient...she very easily loses all her baby weight & hooks up with the hottest guy in town...and her husband turns out to be a loser...
anyway...fine holiday fun...
**