Wow, it has been WAY too long since I last posted! I got a part-time job and have had a lot of school work, so a lot of what I've read these past three months have gone unreviewed. Hopefully I'll be able to straighten myself out and get started again!
What I've read since last posting includes:
The Heist Society by Allie Carter (audiobook)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Scepter of the Ancients by Derek Landy (audiobook)
How the Hangman Lost His Heart by K. M. Grant
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (audiobook)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy
Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy
Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer (audiobook)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days by Derek Landy
Death Watch by Ari Berk
Eragon by Christopher Paolini (almost done with audiobook)
Honey and Clover by Chica Umino (graphic novel)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil by Derek Landy
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (audiobook)
I'm in the middle of a few more.
So yeah, I've been busy! Unfortunately, not all of these will be reviewed simply because it's been so long since I've read them, giving a proper review would be difficult. Heck, all of the Skulduggery Pleasant books will probably be done in one post due to their sheer number.
I will be participating in an In My Mailbox soon, seeing as I've acquired so many books over these past months and I feel compelled to share them.
So, I just wanted a more formal announcement to show that I am indeed still up and reading, albeit busy with with senior year of high school. This blog likely won't pick up again until late January, and even then will proceed at a snails pace due to my multiple AP classes, but thank you for hanging in there if you have!
Peace out!
12.17.2011
10.08.2011
Happy Ada Lovelace Day! A List of my Favorite Female Characters.
A late Ada Lovelace Day post is better than no Ada Lovelace post at all! Ada Lovelace Day is in dedication to all of the lovely ladies out there in science/ mathematics/ technology/ engineering, and is named for who is considered by many to have been the first computer programmer. Yeah, so chances are I wouldn't be writing/ typing this if it wasn't for Ms. Lovelace, so no doubt I should write a post in her honor.
Seeing as this is a book blog, I'm putting a different spin on things though, and instead of listing actual ladies here's a list of my top five favorite (in no particular order):
5) Clove (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins)
Her part was incredibly short, but Clove is still one of my favorite characters in the series. What really struck a chord for me with Clove was her brutality, namely in her scene attacking Katniss. It really defined, at least to me, what the Hunger Games was all about. Collins didn't want us forgetting that love doesn't fuel the hunger games, pain and anger does, and Clove defines that perfectly. Katniss and Peeta weren't the rule, they were the exception.
4) Offred (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood)
Offred's narration of the life of a handmaid, flashing back now and again to her former life as a wife, mother, and working woman, is cold, tragic, and haunting. I think that almost every woman can see at least a little of themselves in Offred, whether we've been in a place similar to hers or not. She has a very observant and intelligent nature, something that is a crime for women in her world, and her thoughts on her new everyday life demonstrate that. She shows that you don't have to kick doors down, guns a'blazing to be a strong female protagonist.
3) Georgia Nicholson (Series of the same name by Louise Rennison)
Has she saved babies from a burning building? No. Has she jumped from helicopters or lead nations to revolution? No. Has she stalked boys at the local grocers with her best friends and stuffed lunch foods in her beret just to mess with her teachers? Yes, and that's why I love her. Rennison's books never fail to make me laugh out loud, and the snarky, teenage voice of her protagonist is spot-on and hilarious.
2) Holly Short (Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer)
One of the few women in her line of work, fearless, has a good head on her shoulders, strong, along with a bajillion other reasons are why Holly is always at the top of my favorite character lists. Her being an elf is irrelevant to me; she's a woman who I'd love to grow up to be like. Juliet Butler (same series) is in my top ten, for a lot of the same reasons as Holly combined with the witty teen girl quality that makes me wish she had shown up in the series more often.
1) Stephanie Edgley (Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy)
I hope that I'm not getting ahead of myself, seeing as I'm in the middle of book two of six, but I have a strong feeling that I'm not. I listened to the first SP book on my iPod while at work and loved it (along with the fact that the male narrator did three different voices for the three female characters, and did a pretty good job), and since I'm only through the first that's the one I'll be referring to.
The reason she makes number one sounds surprising, but I mean it in an honest and respectful way: I like her because she needed to be saved throughout the book. Before you flip tables in a Mary-Sue induced rage, I'll explain. The first book takes place over just a few days, where Stephanie goes from twelve-year-old, average, Irish schoolgirl to being thrust into a strange, magical world that she doesn't understand, full of things that can/ want to kill her. Instead of taking the route that many books seem to follow nowadays, and dumping a crazy-ton of magical powers in her lap and telling her to go to town, Landy sat down and thought for a moment: "Hmm. You know, granting a twelve-year-old supreme, ultimate power in two days is almost as unrealistic as my talking skeleton. Better scrap that idea." Stephanie needs saving, on more than one occasion, because she's a normal girl (well, mostly), and only after time and training does she hone her abilities.
Don't get me wrong, she has her time to shine (and definitely does, more than once), is witty, quick, caring, eager to help out where and when she can (despite her very-human setbacks compared to her magical counterparts), and has a thirst for knowledge relating to the new world that she's found herself in. Having been an average, magical-world-loving twelve-year-old myself, well, it's been a while since I've been able to relate to a character like I can Stephanie. As the books progress, so do any abilities of Stephanie's, so in a way the reader grows along with her, and it feels good knowing that I've only scratched the surface of the series.
*It's worth noting that, though they didn't make the list so that it didn't become clogged with characters from the same books, China Sorrows and Tanith Low of the SP series are two very powerful, important characters who've put years into their training and are respected in their world. Just because Stephanie is a fledgling to magic doesn't mean that the series lacks in ladies who can save themselves.
I hope that your Ada Lovelace day was a good one, and that soon I'll stumble across more great ladies to fill blog posts with!
Seeing as this is a book blog, I'm putting a different spin on things though, and instead of listing actual ladies here's a list of my top five favorite (in no particular order):
5) Clove (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins)
Her part was incredibly short, but Clove is still one of my favorite characters in the series. What really struck a chord for me with Clove was her brutality, namely in her scene attacking Katniss. It really defined, at least to me, what the Hunger Games was all about. Collins didn't want us forgetting that love doesn't fuel the hunger games, pain and anger does, and Clove defines that perfectly. Katniss and Peeta weren't the rule, they were the exception.
4) Offred (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood)
Offred's narration of the life of a handmaid, flashing back now and again to her former life as a wife, mother, and working woman, is cold, tragic, and haunting. I think that almost every woman can see at least a little of themselves in Offred, whether we've been in a place similar to hers or not. She has a very observant and intelligent nature, something that is a crime for women in her world, and her thoughts on her new everyday life demonstrate that. She shows that you don't have to kick doors down, guns a'blazing to be a strong female protagonist.
3) Georgia Nicholson (Series of the same name by Louise Rennison)
Has she saved babies from a burning building? No. Has she jumped from helicopters or lead nations to revolution? No. Has she stalked boys at the local grocers with her best friends and stuffed lunch foods in her beret just to mess with her teachers? Yes, and that's why I love her. Rennison's books never fail to make me laugh out loud, and the snarky, teenage voice of her protagonist is spot-on and hilarious.
2) Holly Short (Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer)
One of the few women in her line of work, fearless, has a good head on her shoulders, strong, along with a bajillion other reasons are why Holly is always at the top of my favorite character lists. Her being an elf is irrelevant to me; she's a woman who I'd love to grow up to be like. Juliet Butler (same series) is in my top ten, for a lot of the same reasons as Holly combined with the witty teen girl quality that makes me wish she had shown up in the series more often.
1) Stephanie Edgley (Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy)
I hope that I'm not getting ahead of myself, seeing as I'm in the middle of book two of six, but I have a strong feeling that I'm not. I listened to the first SP book on my iPod while at work and loved it (along with the fact that the male narrator did three different voices for the three female characters, and did a pretty good job), and since I'm only through the first that's the one I'll be referring to.
The reason she makes number one sounds surprising, but I mean it in an honest and respectful way: I like her because she needed to be saved throughout the book. Before you flip tables in a Mary-Sue induced rage, I'll explain. The first book takes place over just a few days, where Stephanie goes from twelve-year-old, average, Irish schoolgirl to being thrust into a strange, magical world that she doesn't understand, full of things that can/ want to kill her. Instead of taking the route that many books seem to follow nowadays, and dumping a crazy-ton of magical powers in her lap and telling her to go to town, Landy sat down and thought for a moment: "Hmm. You know, granting a twelve-year-old supreme, ultimate power in two days is almost as unrealistic as my talking skeleton. Better scrap that idea." Stephanie needs saving, on more than one occasion, because she's a normal girl (well, mostly), and only after time and training does she hone her abilities.
Don't get me wrong, she has her time to shine (and definitely does, more than once), is witty, quick, caring, eager to help out where and when she can (despite her very-human setbacks compared to her magical counterparts), and has a thirst for knowledge relating to the new world that she's found herself in. Having been an average, magical-world-loving twelve-year-old myself, well, it's been a while since I've been able to relate to a character like I can Stephanie. As the books progress, so do any abilities of Stephanie's, so in a way the reader grows along with her, and it feels good knowing that I've only scratched the surface of the series.
*It's worth noting that, though they didn't make the list so that it didn't become clogged with characters from the same books, China Sorrows and Tanith Low of the SP series are two very powerful, important characters who've put years into their training and are respected in their world. Just because Stephanie is a fledgling to magic doesn't mean that the series lacks in ladies who can save themselves.
I hope that your Ada Lovelace day was a good one, and that soon I'll stumble across more great ladies to fill blog posts with!
9.29.2011
Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (6)
Follow Friday will be updated here when it pops up later, so this week starts with Book Blogger Hop from Crazy for Books!
“In honor of Banned Books Week, what is your favorite “banned or frequently challenged book”?”
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. According to the ALA website: A parent had complained that the book has a “high volume of racially offensive derogatory language and misinformation on Native Americans. In addition to the inaccurate imagery, and stereotype views, the text lacks literary value which is relevant to today’s contemporary multicultural society."
Does it contain racial slurs? Yes, and the book was originally published in the thirties; racial slurs and comments in books that are deplorable today were perfectly normal in an older era, though that is no reason to ban a book. Any teens reading this, assuming that they are mature enough to read the book, should recognize that much.
Also, what is this about lacking value in today's society? I'm pretty sure that the person who made the complaint has never read one page of any edition of Brave New World ever published, ever. Between test-tube babies, a disregard for those who reject technology/ live "off the grid", recreational drug use, and little to no concern within society regarding one-night stands, Brave New World is an eerie portrait of the twenty-first century (at least, the Western world), and definitely a book that changed my life when I read it.
Ahoy! NaNoWriMo Approaches!
(Picture from The Booksmith)
What does Water for Elephants, The Night Circus (pictured above), and dozens of other books all have in common? They had their humble origins as rough copies from NaNoWriMo.
This Saturday, October first, marks the date where the NaNoWriMo website reboots itself, letting members new and old alike come in and set up their pages before the fun, challenging, totally off-the-wall awesome event that is National Novel Writing Month.
If you have never heard of it, National Novel Writing Month is an event spanning all 31 days of November where a participant writes a 50,000 word novel (or rather, novella, but it is generally agreed in NaNoWriMo that "novel" is a cooler word.) That breaks down to around 1667 words a day to make the deadline, unless you are like me and blow through 10,000 in the final weekend.
I'm writing about it for two reasons:
1) I first learned of it a few years (four, to be precise) ago on a blog, and am now using my blogging abilities to spread the word further
2) The book bloggosphere has been up in arms with love for The Night Circus recently, and today it was revealed to me that not only has it hit the New York Times bestseller list, but it started when Erin Morgenstern decided to sit down and takes the challenge that thousands of other people just like you take every November
Needless to say, it isn't easy. But then again, most of the worthwhile things in life ever are. And you only need one thing to start: that tiny spark in the back of your mind that says "Yes, I can do this."
9.23.2011
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer book trailer
The book trailer for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, which will be released next week on the 27th, has just been released and honestly it is one of my favorite book trailers. It plays out more like the preview for a movie or a show than a book, and there's no doubt that it's release to the public will be the talk of the year (or at least what's left of it.)
You can read my review of Unbecoming here, and you can watch the trailer below. The song is "Black Dog" by Kelli Schaefer:
You can read my review of Unbecoming here, and you can watch the trailer below. The song is "Black Dog" by Kelli Schaefer:
9.22.2011
Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (5?)
I'm losing count, my days have been so busy recently D;
First is Follow Friday, from Allison Can Read and Parajunkee:
Next (as usual) is Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books!
First is Follow Friday, from Allison Can Read and Parajunkee:
Q. Do you have a favorite series that you read over and over again? Tell us a bit about it and why you keep on revisiting it?
The only novel series that I constantly go back to is the Artemis Fowl series, which for many reasons I continue to mention here on Follow Friday. In my eyes, the series has a great plot, awesomely snarky humor, characters that I've grown to love/ loved since the first page, and is long enough to be satisfactory without feeling ripped off (final book, #8, is scheduled for next year.) I know that many times it's humor is seen as childish (and rightly so), and that the books are in both the childrens' room and YA section of my public library, but I swear I will go and see the movie even if I am forty when it comes out.
Also, I put the graphic novel on a display stand in the childrens' graphic novel section while I was working last week, and had a happy-dance moment when I came in this week to find it gone. Another soul converted!
“As a blog reader, what information (besides the book review) do you like to see in other bloggers’ reviews of books? (For example – Author bio, social media links, book synopsis from Amazon/Goodreads or one written by the blogger, page count, ISBN number, link to purchase, etc.)”
I'm actually not that picky about it. I like seeing the publication date (and subsequently forget to put them in my own reviews), and the Goodreads link for the book. I'm on GR a lot, so I like to be able to click on a link at the bottom of an interesting review and be taken to the page so I can mark it to be read. Personally, I find author bio to be a bit unnecessary in a book review, and I'd rather those go on a separate post (about new and upcoming author posts, NYT bestseller posts, etc.)
As for which synopsis that I like, for a while I would write them on my own but recently switched to writing down the ones from the inside/ back cover of the books. That's obviously easier on my part, and I can then devote more time to writing the review itself. I see a lot of other book bloggers do it too.
9.17.2011
Insurgent (Veronica Roth) cover revealed!
Mark your calender for May of 2012, because Veronica Roth has recently released the (very beautiful) cover for her next book, Insurgent, and I am spazzing out at the beauty of it.
They kept the set-up the same, with the symbol in the middle against the cityscape, but changed the color scheme to a darker, rather ominous green. If I'm being completely honest I like this cover more than the first one. I also like that they added the train, since it was such a big symbol in the first book, and it is finally getting the love it deserves.
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