Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Borrowed from my local library. I was expecting this book to be a grownup horror story. It started off strong and properly spooky, but the second half devolved into some sort of teen X-Men-wannabe action-adventure with an icky-if-I-think-about-it-too-much love story thrown in. It was a promising premise: I loved the strange old photos, but the story took a wrong turn for me. If Riggs had finished the story he started, or started the story he finished, I probably would have liked both books better than this amalgamation.

Books Read in 2011

Another year has come and gone and my mind is 51 books richer--that's 29 fewer than in 2010, which is almost entirely due to my discovery of and obsession with David Tennant and Doctor Who. My reading in 2011 was rather destination based: I read a number of books only because I was travelling somewhere where I wanted to release them, and I wanted to read them first. It was a good way to get them off Mt. TBR, but it often felt like I was assigned to read them rather than wanted to read them at that particular point.

Here is a list of the books I finished in 2011. You can follow the links to their journal entries on BookCrossing; those books without a link were either borrowed, or are in my permanent collection for the moment. (K) indicates they were read on my Kindle Fire, which I unexpectedly love. My favorite reads this year? The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, by Louise Murphy; Alice Bliss, by Laura Harrington; The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins; Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins; Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins; Airman, by Eoin Colfer; and my reread of Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen.

January

1. The Next Queen of Heaven, by Gregory Maguire 

2. Unpleasant Ways to Die, by Evan Fleisher
3. Just A Geek, by Wil Wheaton
4. Getting Rid of Bradley, by Jennifer Crusie
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (audio)
6. Strega Nona Meets Her Match, by Tomie dePaola

February
7. Boy: Tales of Childhood, by Roald Dahl
8. Swapping Lives, by Jane Green
9. The Swallows of Kabul, by Yasmina Khadra
10. The Inside Ring, by Mike Lawson

March
11. Everyone Is Entitled to My Opinion, by David Brinkley
12. Murder In The Supreme Court, by Margaret Truman
13. Weight, by Jeanette Winterson (audio)
14. 101 Things You Didn't Know About Einstein: Sex, Science, and the Secrets of the Universe, by Cynthia Phillips, Ph.D., & Shana Priwer
15. Waiting-for-Spring Stories, by Bethany Roberts
16. Sizzling Sixteen, by Janet Evanovich

April
17. Murder at Ford's Theatre, by Margaret Truman
18. The Land of Narnia, by Brian Sibley
19. In the Company of a Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant (audio)
20. Murder on the Lusitania, by Conrad Allen

May
21. Skeleton Hiccups, by Margery Cuyler
22. Dream When You're Feeling Blue, by Elizabeth Berg
23. The Wright 3, by Blue Balliett
24. Austenland, by Shannon Hale
25. A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore (audio)
26. I'm A Stranger Here Myself, by Bill Bryson
27. The Venetian Betrayal, by Steve Berry

June
28. Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
29. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy (audio)
30. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, by Louise Murphy

July
31. Inés of My Soul, by Isabel Allende (audio)
32. A Reporter's Life, by Walter Cronkite (audio)

August
33. Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger
34. Alice Bliss, by Laura Harrington

September
35. The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough (audio)
36. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

October
37. Dance of Death, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (audio)
38. Hallowe'en Party, by Agatha Christie
39. Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman
40. Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin

November
41. The Case of the Glamorous Ghost, by Erle Stanley Gardner
42. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
43. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (K)
44. Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen (reread) (K)
45. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
46. Smokin' Seventeen, by Janet Evanovich (K)
47. Airman, by Eoin Colfer (K)

December
48. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (K)
49. Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson
50. Plugged, by Eoin Colfer (K)
51. Explosive Eighteen, by Janet Evanovich (K)

Wild Releases #1160 & #1161

CAKE put on a fantastic show last night at the Riviera Theatre, even though the fans were *really* bad at identifying what kind of tree was being given away. I swear that added a half hour onto the show, so we got home pretty late. Unfortunately, we had to get up obscenely early for a full day of seeing Chicago by bus. The weather was dreary again, and since it was Sunday, some of the buildings we were supposed to be able to get into were closed, but overall it was a good day. I left Elizabeth Berg's "Dream When You're Feeling Blue" on a blue seat on the 151 Sheridan bus around 8 a.m., and Blue Balliett's "The Wright 3" on a wall outside the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Robie House around 11 a.m.

Wild Release #1159

I'm visiting friends in Chicagoland this weekend and we have a full schedule of sightseeing and CAKE worshipping planned, even though the weather is rather chilly, rainy, and yes—windy. We just got back from a tour of Wrigley Field, where we got to go up in the press box and down in the dugout. We were even witnesses to a wedding proposal on the big scoreboard! (He said yes, but we're not sure he really wanted to.) After our tour, we walked to El Burrito Mexicano for some delicious takeout (excellent guacamole!), and I left Gary Larson's "The Far Side Observer" on top of a newspaper box on the sidewalk outside.

Catch #185!

The mystery of where "Summer Garden Murder" is now has been solved. An AnonymousFinder writes: "I love the concept of  "Catching a Wild Book". It was a good story. I had not read any of this series before."

Wild Release #1158

I smuggled John Bellair's "The Hand of the Necromancer" into the Greensburg-Hempfield Area Library book sale because the front cover scared me too much to leave it in my car any longer. I left it on the table with the children's books and bought a nice big bag of books that don't scare me.

Catch #184!

"Abe Lincoln's Hat" has been found (again) by 6of8, who picked it up at the convention, but somehow missed journalling it. It sounds like it is ready for a big adventure now!

Wild Release #1157

I found myself at Lowe's in Greensburg this evening, so I took the opportunity to leave "Evening," by Susan Minot, on an inviting lawn chair in the garden section while I was there.

Catch #183!

It's been a little over eighteen months since I released "The Resident Witch," so I was very happy to receive a journal alert from an AnonymousFinder today. "It's a difficult read.. it took me awhile," they report. I'm glad it was read, no matter how long it took!

Wild Release #1156

If Greensburg were home to an Outback Steakhouse restaurant, it would have been the perfect place to leave "Mutant Message Down Under," by Marlo Morgan. Unfortunately, we are limited to steakhouses that hail from Texas, so I had to make do, leaving the book on a window ledge in the vestibule of LongHorn Steakhouse.

Catches #179 – #182!

Convention catches continue to trickle in! Today, "George Washington and the General's Dog" and "101 Things You Didn't Know About Einstein" were journalled by FutureCat; "Under the Duvet" was journalled by melydia; and "Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles" was journalled by azuki.

Wild Releases #1154 & #1155

I was kind to my car today and took it for an oil change at Jiffy Lube (I had a coupon, and they are jiffy). Before I hit the road, I left "Miss Julia Hits the Road," by Ann B. Ross, on a table in the waiting room.

Later, Sister No. 6 forced me to go annual and perennial shopping with her at Laurel Nursery in Latrobe, so I took the opportunity to leave "Summer Garden Murder," by Ann Ripley, tucked in a trellis display.

April Stats

Wild Releases: 49

Catches: 21
Wild Finds: 19

Year-to-date 

Wild Releases: 90

Catches: 26

RABCKs: 1
Wild Finds: 19

Wild Release #1153

It's the day the media has been waiting for breathlessly since the boy who will be King was born: the Royal Wedding of Prince William (the pilot) and Catherine Middleton (his new wife). In hono(u)r of today's festivities, I left Anita Shreve's "The Pilot's Wife" on the window ledge at King's.

Catch #178!

"The Great American Road Trip" was the first book to leave my hands at the BookCrossing Convention, liberated by the first BookCrosser I met in real life: discoverylover. Little did I know then that she and Skyring were planning a great American road trip of their own, travelling from coast to coast before heading home to New Zealand and Australia, respectively. I should do that myself someday!

Wild Release #1152

What better place to find a western than Texas Roadhouse? I left Larry McMurtry's "Sin Killer" in the free newspaper rack in the waiting room around 5 p.m.

Catch #177!

It's funny to get journal alerts for my books from people I actually know now. Having spent a day at Arlington National Cemetery with bronwyna, I was pleased to see that she caught and enjoyed "Suite Francaise" and is showing it around Australia.

Catch #176!

authorauthor picked up "The War of the Worlds Murder" at the BC Convention and she's already read and reviewed it! I'm always glad to see books that were given to me by other BookCrossers reach new readers.

Wild Release #1151

It's been awhile since I released a book at the Westmoreland County Courthouse, so I remedied that this afternoon. I left "The Trials of Rumpole," by John Mortimer, on a lamp post flanking the old entrance to the Courthouse around 3 p.m.

Catches #173 – #175!

Three more convention catches were journalled today: "Rebecca" was chosen from the Wrap-It-Up book buffet by nancynova; MaryZee chose "Getting Rid of Bradley" for one of her OBCZs; and KateKintail found it impossible to resist "LOST: Signs of Life." Enjoy!