Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Friday, October 26, 2012

Giveaway! Sweet Peril cover reveal and giveaway!

Hey guys! Wendy Higgins's new book, Sweet Peril (Sequel to Sweet Evil), is coming out next year and the cover was just released today! My friend Sharon (Check out her blog)  is hosting a giveaway on her blog, so you should all jump on that. Just scroll down to the bottom of this post to participate in the giveaway!




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Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Best Halloween Book!

I apologize to anyone who read my top ten tuesday this week; I made a grave error. I didn't include the BEST HALLOWEEN-SPIRIT BOOK EVER! So, to make up for this, I will include a special "#0 book" addendum.

A Night of Blacker Darkness
by Dan Wells

I have two words to convince you all that this is the best halloween book:

Vampire bunnies.

This is a brilliantly witty, darkly humorous book by Dan Wells. John Keats and Mary Shelly are both prominent characters, and it's really just a literary explosion of hilarity. (Disclaimer: there actually aren't any vampire bunnies in this book; that's just a joke because Dan always refers to the book as "the vampire bunny book." The vampire bunnies do not actually appear in the published version, although they are still mentioned)

Have a delicious blurb:  
"Wrongly imprisoned, Frederick Whithers is desperate to commit the crime he's already being punished for: defrauding the bank out of a vast inheritance. He fakes his death to escape, but when he's seen climbing out of a coffin everyone assumes he's a vampire; when he shows none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, they decide he must be the Great One, the most powerful vampire in the history of the world.

Half horror and half farce, Frederick's tale is an ever-growing avalanche of bankers, constables, graverobbers, poets, ghouls, morticians, vampires, vampire hunters, not to mention some very unfortunate rabbits. With a string of allies even more unlikely than his enemies, can Frederick stay alive long enough to claim his (well, somebody's) money? And if he can't, which of his innumerable enemies will get to him first?"

Monday, October 22, 2012

Top Ten Books to Get into the Halloween Spirit (Top Ten Tuesday)

Top Ten Tuesday is an event hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. This is my first time participating, but I hope to keep doing it for a while! So this week it's Top Ten Books to Get into the Halloween Spirit. For me, the Halloween Spirit means a lot of different things, so my picks aren't all on the same note, but hey-- nothing wrong with a little diversity, am I right?



  #10 Dune by Frank Herbert

I'm going to be honest here; I haven't read this book. To quote Howard Taylor, "Dune broke my brain." I know this book to be of the Halloween spirit, though, because there is honestly nothing scarier than a giant, heavy, daunting book screaming "Read me! Read me!" Because a) Oh my god stress! and b) I'm pretty sure books aren't supposed to talk...




#9 Ogre, Ogre by Piers Anthony
Halloween makes me think monsters, and when I think monsters, I think Piers Anthony. Now, Ogre, Ogre isn't a scary book by any means (unless you find an overusage of puns scary-- hey, it's a legit fear!) But there is a plethora of awesome monsters (who sometimes rhyme) that screams Halloween-lite to me.
#8 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Pirates. Need I say more?
#7 The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City. Prologue by John Scalzi
This is a great story. It's hilariously dark, not to mention it's a reader's worst nightmare: unfinished, and not likely to be finished. See, it was written as a joke, which turned into an award winning prologue with no book attached to it. 
#6 I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells
Creepier than a creepy thing on creepy tablets, this book is. It's about a boy who has serial killer tendencies and is trying to avoid becoming one, but then he's faced with fighting a real serial killer-- who turns out to be a demon! Totally Halloween worthy!
#5 Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts
Another creepy read-- very dark-- with zombies galore!
#4 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
This novella was written to emulate the gothic style literature that became popular during Jane Austen's time and to satirize it. Lots of creeking doors and spooky mysteries in this one! Plus, a Jane Austen romance to boot.
#3 Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
ZOOOOOOOMBIES!!!!
#2 Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Halloween just wouldn't be complete without witches! And this one has plenty, plus some faeries, shapeshifters, warewolves, and vampires! Not to mention, an evil demon-ghost!
#1 The Adventure of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss
The scariest children's book ever written. This is gloriously dry and witty, creepily upbeat, with a shocking twist ending that's perfect for halloween!


Hope you enjoyed that. I'd recommend all of these books (with the obvious exception of Dune). I'd love to hear some of your favorite spooky reads so I can add them to my list!

Shadow of the Mark Cover Reveal!

Leigh Fallon just revealed the cover for Shadow of the Mark, the sequel to Carrier of the Mark! Isn't it gorgeous? I'll be doing a review of Carrier of the Mark soon, so look for that. But in the meantime, go check out Leigh's blog and her giveaway that she's got going on!


Book Haul #1

Hey everyone! I decided to do a vlog for you guys today. I'll be back later in the week with another review, but for now, have some delicious youtube:




Books mentioned in the vlog:

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.

Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.


The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.


Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.

At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
 


Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human. 



That's all for me tonight. I'll be back with a review sometime this week! 

Friday, October 19, 2012

Book Review-- Variant by Robison Wells (and blog news)

Variant by Robison Wells 

 

UPDATED: I reviewed this in a vlog too for those of you who prefer vlog reviews/are too lazy to read this 


Variant 
Genre: Dystopian/Thriller
Pages: 373
Rating: 8/10
In a word: What?!
In a sentence: Maze Runner meets upper east side boarding school.



 "Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he's trapped in a school that's surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school's real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape--his only real hope for survival--may be impossible."

This story is remarkably unique in many aspects, but I couldn't help but draw the parallels to The Maze Runner by James Dashner: A male protagonist stuck in a seemingly inescapable place attempts to lead his fellows to freedom. The major plot structure has similarities for sure, but the feel of the books is also comparable. They're both mysterious and suspenseful thrillers and I was at the edge of my seat (so to speak, because I wasn't in a chair-- but I was up until 4am so that I could finish the book) for the duration of the book. I'm going to avoid talking about plot points, because spoilers suck and especially for this book because there are some seriously epic reveals halfway through the book.

This brings me to an important note to mention: Variant has two very distinct parts. The first half of the book reads very much like the beginning of The Maze Runner with Benson focused on trying to unravel the mysteries of Maxfield Academy so that he can escape. Around the middle point of the book, everything goes a little Gossip Girl or High School prom with people coupling up and preparing for a school dance. At this point in the book, I almost put it down-- almost. It all just gets a little too froofy for me and I just wanted to yell at them all for being idiot teenagers. However, just as I was about to give up and read something else, something AMAAAAAAZING happened. And it crushes me inside that I can't tell you all what it is. I don't think I've ever read a book with a more epic plot twist. When I realized what was happening, I jumped up and down and spluttered a lot. I tried to make words happen, but I honestly couldn't verbalize my excitement (not that it mattered because I was alone) and I texted my friend, Sarah (she'll probably come up a lot since she's my literary bro), a jumble of keyjamming and accidental emoticons. What I'm trying to say here is that the lull that happens right before the reveal is totally worth it. The false sense of security Wells creates is SO AWESOME in retrospect, and it makes the plot twist just that much twistier.

I want to take a moment to talk about the characters. I'm not usually a fan of male main characters or narrators. This is probably because I'm female and raging feminist etc. But also, I find that male protagonists often narrate very minimally or don't notice the things I would notice (I mean, they're dudes so I guess it makes sense that they'd describe boobs before... well... anything else) but Benson worked for me. I was only ever struck with how very male he was a few times when he did something stupid and typically male (not that women don't do colossally stupid things too, they're just very different varieties of stupid). Benson's narration was to the point, but not dismissive of details, and it wasn't too minimal, but definitely didn't even venture into the realm of flowery or purple prose. I found Benson entirely believable as well as a pleasant narrator.

As for the supporting cast, the other male characters were all interesting and well developed; there's no mixing up Isiah and Curtis (who is totally swoon worthy). The girls, however, are a different story. The gangs (The Society, Havoc, and Variant) differentiate the characters somewhat, but aside from the traits associated with their gangs they're all remarkably similar. This may have something to do with the romantic aspect of the story. Apart from the girls who are clearly taken (Carrie) or treat him like a sack of dirt (Laura and Mouse), Benson had chemistry with all the female characters. At first I thought he was going to fall in love with Lily-- it would have made sense since they share the desire to leave maxfield-- but then it starts looking like he's going for Jane. I also felt like he and Becky had something going on the whole time, or at least there was some attraction/flirting going on, especially near the end. I guess the main problem I had was that with the exception of Lily (who turned out to be pretty awesome just when Benson moved on to Jane) all the girls seemed a little weak-- like they didn't have strong desires or leadership qualities. Aside from the female characters' apparent weakness in some areas, they were okay. None of them were unbearably annoying, which I'd say is a pretty good achievement.

All in all, Variant is a strong debut from Robison Wells. The sequel, Feedback, came out October 2nd, so look for both in stores or online! If you haven't read Variant, I recommend it to anyone who likes intense thrillers or dystopian. If you've read it already, I'd love to hear your opinions. Which would you be: Society, Havoc, or Variant? 

~~~

Some blog info: Midterms have hit me pretty hard this week so I haven't been able to update until now. I'm going to try to post full reviews when I can, but I'm actually reading faster than I can post reviews, so I'm going to employ a new method. I'll post full reviews of books I feel deserve one/ones I have a lot to say about, but if it's an older book or one I feel has already been reviewed and talked to death, I'm going to start posting just very short (one or two sentences) reviews. Next up: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Book Review-- Alcatraz Series by Brandon Sanderson

So, I've never reviewed a full series before, so I'm afraid this is going to be fairly short, since I don't want to talk about any one of the books more than the others, but I also don't want this review to be spoilerific!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the series, here's the blurb for the first book:
A hero with an incredible talent...for breaking things. A life-or-death mission...to rescue a bag of sand. A fearsome threat from a powerful secret network...the evil Librarians.

Alcatraz Smedry doesn't seem destined for anything but disaster. On his 13th birthday he receives a bag of sand, which is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians plotting to take over the world. The sand will give the Librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!...by infiltrating the local library, armed with nothing but eyeglasses and a talent for klutzines.
There are four books in the series so far: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones, Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia, and Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens. Brandon Sanderson, the author, is primarily a fantasy writer, famous for writing the latter Wheel of Time books after Robert Jordan's death. The Alcatraz series is unlike anything else he writes and are the only middle grade books in his repertoire so far. I, for one, am hoping he writes more for this age group, since I thoroughly enjoyed these.


The best thing, by far, about these books is the incredibly self-aware humor. The narration is downright hilarious, what with Alcatraz rambling off on a new topic at the beginning of every chapter, and his repeated breaking of the fourth wall (what a talented boy he is) every couple of scenes or so. The narration is only rivaled by the sheer ridiculousness of the story itself. One minute the gang is sneaking through a heavily guarded library, and next one of the Smedry talents activates and all hell breaks loose. It's a wonderfully schizophrenic story with all the wonder and joy of childhood packed into a literary smack in the face. The fourth book ends with much of the story nicely tied away, but with much room for sequels. Sanderson's contract with Scholastic was only for four books, though, and he's very busy with his high fantasy books. However, Sanderson has promised that he will write a fifth book someday, although it's anyone's guess as to when.

I loved these books. Plain and simple-- loved them. Sanderson wrote them as a way to sort of cleanse his pallet after writing a giant fantasy novel and I'd suggest reading them in a similar fashion. The Alcatraz series is utterly hilarious, extremely witty, and remarkably self-aware, but should be spaced out in between other books so the childish humor doesn't get old. I'd recommend these books to anyone who likes to laugh and doesn't take reading too seriously. Anyone who liked The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster should definitely give this a try, and fans of Piers Anthony's Xanth series will find similar avenues of humor in Sanderson's work here.


So that's two down on my list of books to read, and... a lot to go. Next up is Variant by Robison Wells!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

My Nasty, Naughty, Neighbor

I was going to post my first book review today, since I finished Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia, the third book in the Alcatraz series by Brandon Sanderson, but I got my hands on the fourth book, Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens, this morning so I'm going to go ahead and wait to do that review until I've finished the series so I can give you a complete review of the series as a whole. Instead, I come to you today with a tale of scandal, involving a dangerously high pair of heels, a transparent shirt, and a nosy neighbor (I swear it's not Desperate Housewives.)

Yesterday afternoon I was in my room getting ready to go dancing (not the clubbing type of dancing-- I mean swing dancing... because I'm a swing dancer) and I was trying out different tops. I checked in the mirror to discover that a top I'd worn a few times already was, in fact, see-through. Now, this doesn't really bother me, since half of my tops are transparent and in dance you sort of just roll with it, but this top was particularly transparent, so I thought maybe I'd try it with a shirt underneath. As I was crossing my room to my dresser, I pulled the top off over my head. Some sort of weird, powers of the universe or some such must have been in motion because I suddenly looked out the window and made eye contact with my neighbor. What he was doing, as a first floor resident, looking up into my second story window, I could easily guess, except the moment our eyes met he did not look embarrassed that I had caught him in the act of being a peeping tom, nor did he look like a dirty, dirty boy hoping to catch me in my undies. He looked, of all things, offended. Now, at the risk of sounding conceited, it has to be said I'm not ugly. In fact, I'm pretty dang hot, so why on earth this college aged guy was judging me for being partially clothed in my own home instead of high-fiving his roommates and catcalling, I will never know.

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To make matter more hilarious, that was not my last encounter with him. I stayed at my friend’s house last night, as I was too lazy to drive home (read: I don’t have a car). So, at the early hour of 9AM this morning, she dropped me off at the corner of main street and I walked the block and a half back to my apartment. Now, keep in mind that I am a terribly lazy person and so I woke up about thirty-five seconds before leaving my friend’s house. So, it should not come as a surprise to you that I was still wearing my pajamas—which consisted of yoga pants and no bra—but also my high heels from the day before. Classy. I know. Anyway, as I was tottering—I don’t have great balance, okay?—down the street, I spotted my peeping-tom-neighbor walking toward me. We both averted our eyes, which proved troublesome because neither of us could see where we were going—although I couldn’t before either, since I had forgotten to put on my glasses that morning and they were at the very bottom of my bag. However, it was not what was at the bottom of my bag that was important, but what was on top: my bra. As my naughty neighbor and I passed each other, still unable to gauge relative distance, he knocked into me. As I said before, I was wearing heels—and as a very inept walker at the best of times, this did not bode well. I went spinning around and my bag, already precarious on my arm, emptied. It was as if in slow motion that my bra went flying through the air and landed in the middle of the street. We both stood there for a second staring at my underwear and then we bumped into each other again as I made to retrieve the article of clothing and he attempted a hasty departure.

The whole ordeal was quite the awkward encounter, but as my best friend said not moments later when I related to story to her, it makes for the perfect beginnings of a romantic comedy. I’ve always wanted my life to be like one of those serendipitous movies with the perfect guy and me being the perfect girl, but alas that is not the case… me neighbor’s kinda boring looking and, judging by his reaction yesterday, he might be gay. But such is my life…

I promise the next post will actually book related. I’m finishing this post way later in the day than I expected, so I’m almost done with Alcatraz #4 and I’ll be able to write up a review soon!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

My Mid-College-Life-Crisis

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Yesterday evening I was lolling (the laying down lazily kind, not the laughing out loud kind) around in my GIANT bed reading my facebook newsfeed for the hundredth time that day, and I had what I imagine is the modern version of Constantine’s religious epiphany. While I digress, my revelation may not be as historically influential (although, who knows—maybe I’ll take this new-found direction in my life and beat up a bunch of barbarians with my knitting needles and then we’ll see who’s the better war leader!) I think I can finally say I’ve had my mid-college-life-crisis. You see, I’ve spent the last two years of university lazing around watching Netflix and occasionally glancing over the eighty page hagiographies I’m supposed to read for my history classes, but really not doing anything except hanging out in my room and going to class. I don’t know what clicked exactly, but there I was, doing nothing once again, and suddenly the urge to do something productive hit me like a frying pan in the face.

Now, I’m not really the do-something type of person. I’m not going to suddenly decide to start an exercise regime or really leave my apartment at all, if I don’t have to, so I only got as far as my bedroom door before I changed my mind. As if by fate (and I imagine there was some mystical music—maybe chimes) my eyes fell upon my bookshelf and an idea slowly formed inside my brain.

You might see where I’m heading with this, but let me assure you, I sure as hell didn’t. I plopped down on my laundry-strewn floor and began to peruse my bookshelf. I soon discovered that out of the 125 non-academic books that I owned, I had read less than half. Now, don’t think I’ve only read roughly 50 books, because that would be just plain sad, but the truth is I’ve only recently gotten into the habit of keeping the books I read. Usually I would just exchange them at a used bookstore and go on my merry way, but I actually had an income this summer, which I primarily spent on books. Unfortunately, while I had the money to buy them, I didn’t have the time to read them.

I did some complicated calculations (long division. Oh yeah.) and if I read about one book a week, I should be able to finish them all in a year. I know that doesn’t really sound difficult—one book a week should be doable, right? Well, I’m also a college student, I work, and I’m a competitive swing dancer, so I’ve got a lot on my plate. Hell, it would be easy to just cop out now and say I don’t have time, but I really want to make time. So that’s where you, my imaginary blog readers, come in. Whether you actually exist or not, I’m using you (or the delusion that you’re real and not just the void that is cyberspace) to keep me honest here. So, I will read one book a week and to make sure I actually do it, I’ll post my thoughts about each book (a review, if you will) on here! I might try doing vlog-style reviews too, so look out for those, and I’ll try to post at least two or three times a week so you don’t get too bored.

Well, I’m off to go read (or alternatively get distracted by the internet) for an hour before class, so hopefully next time I'll have a review for you.