30 Before Thirty: update

It's been awhile since I've visited this blog and updated my 30 Before Thirty list. It's also been ages since I've finished a book, and yet, I'm a couple behind on my updates. Time to remedy that, eh?

Here's the updated list:

O1. The End of America

O2. The Omnivore's Dilemma

O3. French Bull Dogs

O4. Your Money or Your Life **

O5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

O6. Mr. Darcy's Diary

O7. Scott Pilgrim series*

O8. thrift

O9. Living Rich by Spending Smart

1O. Money Girl's Smart Moves to Deal With Your Debt

11. The American Frugal Housewife

12. The New Frugality

13. The Cheapskate Next Door

14. Ghostly Awakening (This link was taken down for some reason. Not sure why it's gone.)

15. Green With Envy

16. Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef

17. No Impact Man

18. STUFF

19. The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking

20. Food Rules

21. Loki's Daughters

22. The Dead Travel Fast

Fiction books. Two of them. Unusual choices for me, as can be seen by the rest of my list.

21. Loki's Daughters is a junk food read that I downloaded for free on my Kindle. It has serious flaws in the plot, isn't the best written, and it's a bodice ripper (Which really aren't my thing. I will not be started on my mother's collection of about 10,000 of said books). And yet, I enjoyed it enough to read it 3 times before being done with it. Despite its flaws, it was funny and quirky. The characters, even if not developed as well as could be, were endearing. Really, the only annoying and too flat character was the main one, strangely enough. I think with as stressful as my life has been, I needed something silly and not serious to ingest. What may intrigue me most is that this piece was the author's first book, and she's stated that she intends to revisit it and polish it at a later date. I like when an author can admit that she didn't do the best job when writing something and she wants to fix it. When she does, I would gladly read it again.

22. The Dead Travel Fast was a book I tried on a whim after seeing Felicia Day blog about Ms. Raybourn's other work, the Lady Julia Grey series. This book was a bit of a gamble based on the Amazon reviews: most people who are a fan of the Julia Grey books did not have much kind to say about this book. Most called it her weakest piece and didn't like that she had dabbled in a different genre, apparently. I wasn't looking to start a series at the time and this was the only stand alone book Ms. Raybourn has written, so I gave it a go. It was surprisingly enjoyable. It involved elements of the horror vampire genre, mystery, and a little light romance. It had some plot twists I didn't see coming, which was nice... but I was a bit miffed that it was due to the information's not being given earlier in the book. It's really easy to surprise your audience if you hold back character information.

I'm in the middle of another book right now and based on what I've read so far, I'm not going to have much nice to say about it. Thank goodness I managed to download it for free instead of paying. :)