Membrecitygirl

Real Name

Citoyenne Shoelust-Girl

About My Library

These are the books I'll admit to reading and wanting to read. A reflection of my reading life, but I imagine it will be challenging to make it accurate. These are the books that are in my consciousness, somewhere. The ones I want to read but haven't yet is telling, too. I don't own all of them; I own a good number of them. The children's books included are those that were special to me as a child (or that I still have around), excepting of course Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter. If you have good references for fiction writing or really good mysteries (a la Eliz. George, Carol O'Connell, Minette Walters...), please leave me a note.

Rating System:
Every book gets at least one star for having been written and published. That's more than I've yet been able to accomplish. If there are no stars, either I've not read it or I haven't gotten around to rating it or I've read it but don't remember it well enough to rate it. The nonfiction books are rated a little differently. While quality of writing is considered, more weight is assigned to usefulness or coverage of the topic.

1/2 of a * - I'm insulting the book and the author.
* - Not sure why I'm admitting to reading it, but there it is.
* 1/2 - If I ever have occasion to use this one, then maybe I will know what it signifies.
** - Not so good, but there may be merit somewhere: storytelling, plot, social impact.... Or, it might be well written, but really boring or disappointing in some way. Maybe it didn't compel me to finish it. Definitely would not recommend it to anyone.
** 1/2 - I wanted to like it. I almost liked it. But I didn't like it.
*** - Either it's a really enjoyable read despite lack of literary merit, or it's quite well done despite not being very interesting. Or maybe it just did a lot of things pretty well, but nothing exceptional. Happy to include it in my library.
*** 1/2 - A bit better than average, but not quite outstanding, or details are fuzzy but I remember that I thought it was outstanding at the time.
**** - Outstanding. Personally significant. Remembered in detail years later. Feel connection upon seeing or hearing the title.
**** 1/2 - Almost perfect.
***** - The reason I read and/or the reason I write.

About Me

citygirl’s 2015 pseudo-literary-awards-show results.

Best Worst Villain: Tulkinghorn, Bleak House, Charles Dickens

Best Protagonist: Nombeko Mayeki, The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, Jonas Jonasson

Best Artist New to Me: Jhumpa Lahiri

Best Book in Which Nothing Much Happens (or Who Needs a Plot When You’re a Jeeeeeenyuss?): None

Most Implausible Plot That the Magic of Your Writing Got Me to Swallow:

Brutal Can Be Good; It Can Also Be Very Disturbing:

Tastiest Guilty Pleasure:

Most Enjoyed Mystery: Garnethill - Denise Mina

Most Enjoyed Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Uprooted - Naomi Novik

I Feel like We’re BFFs Now (Best Autobiography/Memoir):

Biggest Disappointment Based on Other Works by Same Author, (a.k.a. the Slide):

The Bitter-Maker (a.k.a. the citygirl Narcissist Award, as in "I cannot believe that this got published and yet here I sit agentless and advanceless”), combined this year with The Puh-Leeze (or Just How Far Do You Think You Can Suspend My Disbelief?):

Book that Everyone Should Read:

Cheesiest Ending:

My Narrator Is More Unreliable Than Yours:

Best Portrayal of an Intimate Relationship (or Three):

Top New Reads of 2009


The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao;
Special Topics in Calamity Physics; Bastard out of Carolina; Open; American Wife; The Remains of the Day; Fortune’s Rocks; The Gathering; The Line of Beauty; Burger’s Daughter; Someone Knows My Name/The Book of Negroes

Top New Reads of 2008



Ada, or Ardor; David Copperfield; Pale Fire; The Blind Assassin; The Autobiography of Henry VIII; Pnin; American Gods; The Kite Runner; The Book of Lost Things; The Post-Birthday World

Top New Reads of 2007



The Thirteenth Tale, Never Let Me Go, Sharp Objects, Trust, Lunar Park, Nora Jane, Prep

Ubicació

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Pàgina d'inici

http://takemetocitygirl.blogspot.com

Memberships

LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Autors preferits

Megan Abbott, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Charles Baudelaire, Charlotte Brontë, Michael Chabon, Suzanne Collins, Junot Díaz, Charles Dickens, Bret Easton Ellis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tana French, Neil Gaiman, Ina Garten, Elizabeth George, Margaret George, Ellen Gilchrist, Kazuo Ishiguro, P. D. James, Erica Jong, Henning Mankell, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Carol O'Connell, Sara Paretsky, Mervyn Peake, Edgar Allan Poe, Terry Pratchett, J. K. Rowling, James Sallis, Dorothy L. Sayers, David Sedaris, William Shakespeare, Lionel Shriver, Curtis Sittenfeld, Lemony Snicket, William Styron, John Updike, Andrew Vachss, Minette Walters, Joss Whedon, P. G. Wodehouse

Preferits locals

Llibreries: Friends of the Library Bookstore - Gaithersburg, MD, Kensington Row Bookshop, Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe, Politics and Prose, Wonder Book Gaithersburg

Member Connections

Amics

anna_in_pdx, barefootwriter, blackdogbooks, chamekke, ChocolateMuse, clamairy, copyedit52, dchaikin, dperrings, Jesse_wiedinmyer, jfetting, littlegeek, MaryNovik, MeditationesMartini, michaelbartley, Mr.Durick, philosojerk, posthumose, raka339, RidgewayGirl, Sean191, theaelizabet, TheresaWilliams, Tim_Watkinson, Timi, TScientist, urania1, VictoriaPL, VioletVie, WholeHouseLibrary

Biblioteca interessant

aemilys, BellesLettres, Bibliophiliacattack, bookstothesky, Caroline_McElwee, clareborn, dawnlovesbooks, douglaseby, dr_zombieswan, EarlyReviewers, Eat_Read_Knit, fyrefly98, Hera, INTPLibrarian, LipstickAndAviators, LolaWalser, maggie1944, MeditationesMartini, Morphidae, msbaba, MusicMom41, NativeRoses, no1likesamartyr, philosojerk, posthumose, raka339, researchgirl, RidgewayGirl, SouthernBluestocking, the_red_shoes, tootstorm, yeschaton