Sunday Salon : Books, Birthday and Read-a-thon

Hola, book people!

Another week has gone by, and I feel like I can finally breath a little. Papers have been given to professors and tests have been completed. Now begins the anxious time waiting for the results : some professors have zealous correctors though, and so I already got some results. I’m quite happy with them, all over the class average (sorry for the bragging, but I was quite proud! )

This doesn’t mean I have no more work to do of course, but at least I have a little more free time. I finished three books this week, and reviewed some :

Books Read this Week :

• Dead Girls don’t Die, by Katie Alender
• Zombie Blondes, by Brian James
• Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

Books Reviewed This Week :

• Blood Bound, by Patricia Briggs
• Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater
• Bad Girls don’t Die, by Katie Alender

There’s also been a lot of Great Discussions going on this week :

• Ti at Book Chatter discusses on being a Cover Snob
• Rebecca at Book Lady’s Blog discusses on Commenting Practices
• The Literary Feline asks : Do you really need to know why I haven’t been around?
• And finally, MjBecky from One Literature Nut discusses What is it about reading!

Also, you might have missed my post yesterday, where I bragged (I know, there’s a lot of bragging going on this week. I’ll probably have to ask Santa a box of humility this year) about the blog’s redecoration for Christmas! I love this time of the year!

And while we’re on the topic of “decoration” and thus, “drawing”, it was the Man’s birthday this week! And not only did I draw a comic for the occasion, he also requested his own, original birthday card, which looked like this :

And there was a silly poem on the inside. He also got expensive Tequila and Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson’s The Gathering Storm. I am giving him books on every occasion I can : Christmas, Birthday, or just because. I am purposefully trying to drown him with books of his own so that he won’t notice how huge my TBR piles are getting. I don’t think that’s working though!

This week, November 12th, will be the day where I’ll have my own, lonely read-a-thon! A day spent reading sounds like heaven right now! I’m turning two papers Tuesday and Wednesday morning, so Turhsday will be perfect for relaxing! I’m planning on starting around 1 or 2 am, my usual time for falling asleep. I’ll read a few pages, then sleep a little and then read all day.

I already picked a selection of titles for the day, which mostly includes short YA novels. I don’t have any number of books I want to go through, but I chose shorter ones so that I wouldn’t get bored or tired by a too long novel. Also, I have a feeling 2010 will be less about YA and a little more about adult fiction, so that should clear my piles a little. Anyway, here are some titles I would love to read this Thrusday:

Farenheit 451 is one that for sure I’ll be finishing. I’m already halfway through, and I put it on hold during midterms because I wanted to give it all of my attention. I can’t wait to read Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, and I have heard lots of great things about The Thief.

Glass Houses I’ve been waiting to read for a while, but many bloggers say the series is really good. Also, I’m missing discovering Uglies, so I picked up Bogus to Bubbly at the store as well as the first of The Midnighters series.

It’s not all of the books that I’ll possibly read, but right now those are the ones I’m interested in. I’ll be blogging a little on that day (I’m thinking 3 posts, Start, Mid-Way and Finish Line), but I think I’ll mostly Tweet. So, I know you read-a-thon’s cheerleaders are officially off-duty, but if you have a minute during the day don’t hesitate to come by to cheer me !

Surprise! A new look for Christmas!

So, if you’re following the blog in a feed reader, you won’t see it, but I did some small changes to the blog tonight to give it a new Christmas-y look!

What changed : the colors, the banners, and the thingies that separate the sidebars widgets.

I know it’s a little soon, but A : I love Christmas and B : I’ll be way too busy at the beginning of December to work on this! I might add a few things here and there by then, but that’s mostly it

I really hope you will enjoy it!

What about you? Have you, or will you change your blog’s look for the holidays?

Review : Bad Girls don’t Die

Bad Girls don’t Die by Katie Alender
Pages : 346
Genre : Horror, YA
My Rating : 

Lately, Alexis’ sister has been acting weirder and weirder. Let alone the fact that her eyes inexplicably seem to change color from time to time, she’s been acting strange, using words she normally wouldn’t and loosing track of time.

Soon, Alexis realizes something evil is taking over her sister, and she’ll need all the help she can get to get rid of it.

Bad Girls don’t Die was your typical horror story : old house, weird temperature changes, doors opening and closing by themselves, creepy dolls, etc. If your looking for a good ghost story, this could be the one for you!

Alender’s writing flows easily and creates the creepy ambiance any ghost book would need. I read it at night, and I was truly scared at times (although, to be honest, I am easily scared when it comes to ghost stories!) Still, I enjoyed the author’s style; it was easy to read, uncomfortable when it needed to be and Alexis’ voice sounded right. Although the story was slightly predictable, I was curious to see what the ghost would come up with next!

Another thing I appreciated was the use of photography through the book. I know a thing or two about photography, and Alender clearly knows a thing or two about it, too. I really, really enjoyed how close to reality its description was. Finally a photographer who doesn’t take pictures in the dark as if in the light of day!

I don’t have much more to say about the book, but I did enjoyed reading it and went through it quick. It’s to be enjoyed for what it is, but it doesn’t reinvent the genre. Still, a good old ghost story is always good from time to time, and this one perfectly fit my end-of-October-start-of-November mood.

Comic : The Man’s Birthday

Happy Birthday, Man of the House!

Today is his birthday, and he has a long weekend to celebrate (some people are lucky like that )

Here’s how it will be :

Of course, I’m kidding! I gave him gifts! But I did tell him all week that he should buy me books for his birthday so that I would be happy, etc etc. Well, I had to try!

Review : Shiver

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Pages : 390
Genre : YA, Romance, Werewolves
My Rating : 

What it’s about :

Grace has known Sam for the most part of her life, except she doesn’t know it : for years now, when winter comes, Sam has been changing into a wolf and spending the cold season in the forest. Grace only recognizes the wolf, her wolf, and she’s ready to protect him no matter what.

When Sam turns up in her yard, shivering and hurt, she recognizes him by his beautiful yellow eyes. They fall for each other, but nothing is easy : Sam has a hard time fighting the wolf in him and staying human, while at the same time a new wolf has been scaring the town. Time passes by and the days get colder; can Grace find a way to keep Sam with her – or will she loose him forever?

There are two things I have said over and over since I began blogging : I don’t mind romance in books but I don’t read pure romance novels, and I didn’t hate Twilight but didn’t love it either. So, when I heard Shiver was “a romance like Twilight but with only werewolves instead”, I had all the best reasons to not read it. Still, I love werewolves and I was curious about the book, and so with very little expectations I decided to read it.

Maybe that’s why I liked it so much and went through it quickly despite all the studying I had to do! That’s not to say the book is without merits though, on the contrary! Stiefvater’s prose made the story very enjoyable. Some metaphors were a little too far-fetched, but overall her writing was easy to read and carried the romance perfectly. And romance, there is! Despite Sam’s condition – yes, the one that makes him go hairy in the cold – the biggest part of the story is about the romance between him and Grace. It’s strong and passionate and, dare I say, believable enough considering she’s known him as a wolf most of her life. The point-of-view alternates between both of them and creates an interesting dynamic, and I found both voices to be distinct enough.

I also loved the mythology Stiefvater chose/created for her wolves. Like I said, the romance took the most importance in the book, but the simplicity of the mythology made it feel more real, more believable. I was curious about it and about the other wolves, too, and I wish I could have read more about them – maybe in the next book? One non-wolfy character I did enjoy was Isabel. Not very likeable at first, she was in fact really entertaining! I would definitely read more about her.

Linger’s cover, the sequel to Shiver, has just been revealed and it looks fantastic! It’s for Fall 2010 though, so it will be a long wait…

Review : Blood Bound

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
Pages : 292
Genre : Urban Fantasy
My Rating : 

From the back of the Book :

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.
But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him.

Blood Bound is the second book in the Mercedes Thompson series, and I enjoyed it even more than I enjoyed the first book, Moon Called. Now that the characters and the world are set and explained, I felt the author dug deeper into the characters stories and personalities.

Mercy was again a strong character in this novel, but like in the first book, she still had her limitations – which, you know, I particularly enjoy since I get easily annoyed by characters who stupidly run in the direction of danger. She’s still trying to figure out who she wants to be with between Adam and Samuel. I have to say that I admire Briggs for how she writes Mercy and her questioning on possible relationships. They felt realistic enough in the context, but also very serious. Mercy doesn’t take her relationships lightly : like other aspects of her life, she takes time to consider things on every angle before making a choice. As I write this review, it is my personal opinion that Mercy probably has more chances of ending up with Adam (yay!), but still, nothing is sure. (I remember reading some spoiler on this, but I can’t even remember what it was!)

Mercy isn’t alone in this story, and once more I really enjoyed the characters surrounding her. I have to say that I have a thing for her vampire friend Stefan. He’s not all evil, but he’s not all nice either, and like Mercy he really thinks things through. Samuel and Adam were great, too : I really, really love how Adam tries to make his relationship with Mercy work, and Samuel’s story is just heartbreaking. I also liked knowing more about Ben in this story. He wasn’t the most memorable character from the first book (he was mostly mean and annoying), but this one revealed another side of him. We are also introduced to a new man and his daughter, and I really hope we’ll know more about them in the next books.

As for the novel’s main plot, I really enjoyed it. It was good, dark and filled with action, but more than that I loved how it affected the characters in a personal way. I’m thinking of Samuel, for instance, but all the others, too. It gave another dimension to the story and the danger, that was more than the usual “life or death” situation.

I’m extremely excited at the idea of reading more books in the series. Lucky for me, there are two more lefts and another coming out in 2010!

1. Moon Called
2. Blood Bound
3. Iron Kissed
4. Bone Crossed
5. Silver Borne (coming March 2010)

Sunday Salon

Happy November everyone!

This week has been insane! It’s been study study study, and writing papers, and then a great friend of mine came home, and it was fun but oye! I do feel a little out of breath! Lucky for me, the mid-term craziness will be a thing of the past by Monday night. I’ll still have work to do of course, but at least I’ll feel like I can breath in between!

I still managed to read a little this week, which was good. I finished Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Both of which I really enjoyed – especially Leviathan.

This week I reviewed :

• Nice Girls don’t date Dead Men, by Molly Harper
• Sophomore Switch, by Abby McDonald
• Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld

Such a slow week on the blogging side, and I do miss it. I’ve left less than 10 comments this week I think, but soon I’ll be around again. Yay! I’ll also post my October recap this week, probably on Tuesday. This week will be a very busy one still, but less stressful : it’s the Man of the House’s birthday, and I’ll try to go see Scott Westerfeld’s event on Wednesday. Hopefully that will work out!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween all!

This year, I’ll be disguised as a student, except that it won’t be a disguise and I’ll really be studying all night. But, with lots of candy!

Have fun all!

Review : Leviathan

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, illustrations by Keith Thompson
Pages : 440
Genre : YA, Steampunk, Fantasy
My Rating : 

I couldn’t summary this better than the book did, so here it is, from the back of the book :

Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She’s a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn’s paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.

Scott Westerfeld, I love you!

There, I said it. After falling completely in love with the Uglies series, I fell in love yet again with Leviathan.

I thought I would like it, but I was surprised by how quick I actually got into it. Often, I find that speculative fiction starts with a disadvantage : it’s a new or different world than our own, and there is so much to be explained that it often takes over the characters and the story, especially in the beginnings. I found Westerfeld dealt with this brilliantly in Leviathan, and from the start I understood who the characters were and I really liked them.

Deryn was a great young woman, intelligent and resourceful, but what I really admired was her sense of responsibility. She wasn’t just passing herself as a boy for fun or rebellion : she really wanted to be part of the British Air Service, and once she was in, she took it seriously. Of course, her secret leads to a few funny scenes, too, and it made her relationship with Alek even more complicated. Alek was also great. I felt for him and admired his strength at the same time. Watching him discover the world from outside his castle was interesting but also realistic.

There is so much I could praise about this book : the wonderful setting, the great action scenes, the characters who surround Deryn and Alek ( I especially loved Dr. Barlow!), the “slang” that was so well written that it actually made the language even more interesting… I don’t want to get everyone’s expectations too high, but at the same time, I find very little to say other than “I loved it”!

So I’ll end on a note about one of the most important aspects of Leviathan : the illustrations. They are detailed and really help create a visual of the world. They also reminded me of those books I read when I was a kid, with an illustration every 2 or 3 pages. Which is not to say that this book felt childish, not at all! I really wish more books had illustrations like this. So make sure to stop by the artist’s website, and also take a look at the beautiful map he created for Leviathan (which decorates the inside of the book’s cover.) It’s brilliant!

Wordless Wednesday : Quiet Day

Still part of my 365 project; day 49 and an extra shot from that day. A couple of you asked me if I had the complete project online somewhere, and the answer is, yes! I keep it all on DeviantArt, and I usually upload the pictures a couple of days late. Books are a regular subject, but there’s more! Here are the links again

Profile Page

Gallery

365 Project

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here!