Review: The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

Series: Standalone
Genre: Steampunk (YA)
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Set in turn of the century London, The Friday Society follows the stories of three very intelligent and talented young women, all of whom are assistants to powerful men: Cora, lab assistant; Michiko, Japanese fight assistant; and Nellie, magician's assistant. The three young women's lives become inexorably intertwined after a chance meeting at a ball that ends with the discovery of a murdered mystery man.

It's up to these three, in their own charming but bold way, to solve the murder–and the crimes they believe may be connected to it–without calling too much attention to themselves.

Set in the past but with a modern irreverent flare, this Steampunk whodunit introduces three unforgettable and very ladylike–well, relatively ladylike–heroines poised for more dangerous adventures. (from Goodreads)

'"I can't do this alone. I don't want to. Together we're unbeatable. Apart, we're just…assistants to men in London society. In other words, nobodies."'

Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014 -- bookish, blogging or otherwise!

Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015 -- bookish, blogging or otherwise!

This was almost easy to start with, but the more I wrote the less I thought of. Instead of ten, I only have nine and the ninth is more of a joke than anything. (Though I would really like to.)

Review: A Change of Fortune by Jen Turano

A Change of Fortune by Jen Turano

Series: Ladies of Distinction
Genre: Christian/Historical/Romance
Add on Goodreads



(Synopsis in review)

Review: The Bane Chronicles by Clare, Brennan and Johnson

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson

Series: The Bane Chronicles #1-11
Genre: Short Stories
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This collection of eleven short stories illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality, flamboyant style, and sharp wit populate the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. (from Goodreads)

Top Ten Books I Read In 2014

Top Ten Books I Read In 2014

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I've read a lot of good books this year. Some that were a surprise to me, but others that I was sure I'd like. Honestly, the hardest thing about this was not listing some books that I truly adore because there are so many others that I like more. I could have easily turned this into a top twenty five, but I thought it would be best if I didn't. To boring, too. This list is in reverse order, with my favorite at the bottom and my least favorite at the top. If I've read more than one book in the series and really liked all of them, I'll only list my favorite from the series. It was really fun for me to compare this list and the list back in June of my favorite o the year up to that point. Interesting note, the top two books have stayed the same.

TBR Organization

I was just over at Goodreads, going through my 'to-read' shelf and I was hit with a sudden question.

How do you organize the books you want to read?

Now I'm not talking about the ones you already own and have sitting on your shelf. I'm talking about the books you don't own and don't want to forget about.

Really, that's what I use my Goodreads list for more than anything else. Find a book that I know I'll love? Just add it to my list. Of course, I am extremely OCD and even somewhat anal retentive when it comes to organizing my books on that list.

First, I hate it when my list reaches over a hundred books because then I feel that I'll never actually read them all. About once every six months I go through my list and cut all books that I've lost interest in or that just doesn't sound good anymore.

At the top of my list are the books I currently own but haven't read yet - and ones that I actually do plan on reading. Not the ones that I started and realized that I'd never be able to finish. Next on my list come the books I plan on buying soon.

From there, I have my books categorized by genre: Steampunk, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Historical, Contemporary, Fairy Tale Retellings, Romance, Next-In-Series, Only-On-E-Reader and, finally, Not-Yet-Released (and these are listed according to release date).

Before I knew about Goodreads, I used to keep a list on my computer of all the books that I wanted - and long before that, I kept a simple sheet of notebook paper that I wrote book titles and authors on.

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014

I did a lot of reading outside my comfort zone this year. For some of my reading, that meant trying other genres - but it also meant trying authors whose work I had never read before. Sometimes, getting the best of both worlds, I managed to do both. After compiling this list, I am surprised to discover that these are entirely women authors. Now, I read a lot of stuff written by men too, it just so happens that most of those authors either weren't as impressive this year, or I'd already read their writing before.

Review: Sabriel by Garth Nix

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Series: Abhorsen #1
Genre: Fantasy (YA)
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When Sabriel was a young girl, she was sent from the wild-magic lands of the Old Kingdom, over the wall to Ancelstierre. Now, over a decade later, her father is gone and she has inherited his mantle. Now she must make her way into the heart of magic to save what she most holds dear.

Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward To In 2015

Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward To In 2015

I've gotta say, there are some awesome sounding books coming out next year that I am so excited for.

e-readers

Well, I waited too long.

On Friday, Amazon was having a big sale on their kindles (saving thirty bucks on the cheap one) but I wasn't quite ready to buy it yet. So I waited until their 'Cyber Monday' sale, and kindles were no longer on sale. So, I'll probably be waiting another year before buying one.

I'm not really all that convinced to buy an e-reader. I've not had one yet and the only reason I'm even considering it is because so many more books are available. (Books that have been re-released only for e-readers or books that were never conventionally published to begin with.) Honestly, I love real, physical books - but they seem to be something of a dying breed and I bet they'll have been almost completely phased out in my lifetime.

So, I'm wondering, am I the only one that doesn't have an e-reader yet? If you don't have one, why not? If you do, would you recommend nook or kindle?

Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR

Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR

I've really been all over the place with my reading lately. Not that I mind, after all, it is nice to change up my reading a little. This was an easier list to make than some because almost all of these books are ones I've got sitting on my shelf right now - and I'm promising myself to read them before I buy any more.

Book Snob

No, I'm not talking about how you cannot leave two books sitting on your shelf together when one is so obviously of a higher caliber. I'm not even talking about how silly two books with vastly different quality of covers look sitting side-by-side.

Nope.

I'm talking about being a book snob. Not that I am, but I've been there - stuck my toes into the shallow end as it were.

When?

When all the 'cool' kids were reading Harry Potter. No thank you, I said. It's a children's book and I, I am a teenager (almost a twenty-something, in fact). It is beneath me. Okay, thanks to the wonderful blogging community - and always being told to read those books - I have now had to eat my words. I'm over twice the age the main characters are in the first book and you know what? I had fun reading it.

What, is that the only time this happened to me? Nope.

Did you know by now that I love fantasy books? Well, I do. Fantasy's my favorite genre. My go to both for times I need something comforting and for times I want my world shaken up a little. However, and even though I saw the movies, I never read The Lord of the Rings books.

Well, thinking that every proclaimed 'fantasy fan' should read what is arguably the most well known fantasy series (and the one that's the granddaddy of the genre as we know it today) at least once in their lives. So, about three years ago I picked up The Fellowship of the Ring and started reading.

You know what? I didn't like it. It was too wordy for me and too much of a boys club.

Both these books have helped me to not be a so called 'book snob'. I read what I want - regardless of if it's a well-known best seller or a 'eh? what's that?' kind of book.

How about you? Are you a book snob? Have you ever been one? Share your thoughts on this and your own book snob experience.

Top Ten Authors I've Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Okay, this prompt this week really got me thinking. To be honest with you, most of the books that really stand out as 'loved it' in my mind, I've already read other work by the author. In fact, going through my Goodreads list to help me compile this list, I discovered that there are very few books that I've read as the single work of the author, that gets a three star or higher rating from me.

Why YA

Honestly, I am amazed at how many twenty-somethings (and older) read a lot of young adult books - in fact, some almost exclusively. When I was an actual 'young adult' (as defined by the YALSA being between the ages of twelve and eighteen) I didn't know what 'young adult' was. I would have summed it up as those Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in novels. I seriously had no clue what it was.

Only after I reached my twenties did I discover what young adult as a demographic meant. And I had hit my mid-twenties before I ever read any young adult directed books. According to this wiki article, they say that young adult authors and readers define the age group as sixteen to twenty-five. In fact, if the article is to be believed, only 45% of young adult fiction is actually purchased by readers under eighteen.

So, I was wondering, if you read young adult books, why? Why do you like them? What do you get from them? If you don't read young adult, why not?

Personally, I enjoy reading YA books for the same reason I like any books. Likable characters, good story, well written. All those things. However, YA is rather nice because it doesn't often suffer from long winded prose and a plot that moves slower than molasses in January. (As some adult directed fantasy novels are wont to do.)

Also, I've been lucky in that most of the YA books I've read are a bit cleaner (in terms, specifically, of crass language and even some sexuality) and I do prefer cleaner books as a whole. To put it in terms of movie ratings: I always choose PG13 over R.

Leave me comments, please, as I would love to hear what you think about YA.

Review: The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding

The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding

Series: Tales of the Ketty Jay #2
Published by Spectra
Pages: 536
Genre: Steampunk
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Darian Frey is still reeling from his last failure (stealing from orphans - or rather, not stealing from orphans) when the promise of riches beyond measure practically falls into his lap. So what if to reach it he has to drag his crew to a place where few ever return alive? So what if he is forced into partnership with a man even less trustworthy than he?

Killing and Maiming Characters

Have you ever bruised your finger? I did, and let me tell you, it's not fun. My poor little pinkie turned funny colors and puffed up. However, it did give me this idea for a topic, so maybe something good did come from it.

I don't like characters in the books I read to die. It's that simple. If it's a good, meaningful death, I won't complain about it - but anything less and the book pretty much killed itself in my eyes. This is very odd, considering that I used to read nothing but murder mysteries.

It seems that in mystery novels though, more often than not in the ones I read, the more villainous person was the victim. Usually it was a really vile character that got killed first. Sometimes you could even sympathize with the murderer (though I probably shouldn't be saying that).

Then, once I started reading fantasy novels, I realized how often likable people were killed in the worst ways possible. I can deal with death - even if they kill off my favorite character - as long as it's meaningful. It seems that, entirely too often, death is just a shorthand way to say that battle/war sucks. I guess it could be there to be more realistic, but I've never really needed my reading to be realistic.

One of my favorite fantasy series ever left everyone alive at the end of the story. Of course, they weren't all exactly 'whole' by that time. One character lost his arm, from the elbow down I think. Actually, two characters lost one arm each, but the first one got a really cool knife prosthetic. Another character lost an eye.

For me, I really liked the way that trilogy handled it. Yeah, it was a difficult fight - but everyone was still alive and, even if not 'whole', doing fine.

So, what's your experience with death and injuries in books? Does it bother you? Do you like it because it's more realistic? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Top Ten Book Characters That Would Be Sitting At My Lunch Table

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

I am actually going to limit this to only - or at least, close to - high school aged people. (Okay, the rule of thumb that I am using to compile this list: one of the main characters in a YA novel - automatic pass.) As much as I would want to have some of my favorite characters at my lunch table, they aren't teens in the book. So…

(Please note: I own none of the pictures. Where available, I went with the picture that the author approved of. If not possible, I went with...Well, a picture I like of the character. (Also, oddly enough, we started with books popular enough to have fan art and then started in on the books that weren't.) Or and actor that I think could play the character - or simply what I think they look like.)

Review: The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan

The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan

Series: Riyria Chronicles #1
Published by Orbit
Pages: 416
Genre: Fantasy
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A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach.

The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn't gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadius can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.

There's doing what's right, and there's doing what's safe. Most of the time you do what's safe because doing different will get you dead for no good reason, but there are times when doing what's safe will kill you too. Only it'll be a different kind of death. They dying will be slow, the sort that eats from the inside until breathing becomes a curse. Understand?

Series: Yay or Nay? How Long's Too Long?

I like series (even though I'm never sure of the most grammatically correct way of writing it).

This probably can be traced back to the days when I first started reading fantasy books and (thanks to a resurgence of Tolkien due to The Lord of the Rings movies) everything was in trilogy format. I started to love trilogies because of that. When I graduated from D&D tie in novels, (though I still have a few favorite authors in that universe that I will read, repeatedly) I still paid more attention to trilogies and series.

For me, this is because I feel a character can be better developed over the course of a series than just one novel. Of course, this doesn't take into consideration those endless series that will suffer from Author Existence Failure. Besides, I haven't a clue where to start with those long series...

For me, a perfect length series is somewhere between the three books of a trilogy and six or seven books. Even now, after having read many good stand alone novels, I still tend to gravitate more towards series.

Am I the only one? I do hear many complaints about how all the new books are part of a series, do you like this? Are you a fan of series books? Why? Are you like me and prefer to get out before you're staring at several dozen volumes, or do you like those series?

Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Own Yet

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

After taking a week off from this meme (I really had nothing say for last week's topic) I am ready to go. Seriously, these type of prompts are always the easiest for me - as long as I don't buy the book between the time I type this post up and the time I can let it go live.

Review: Full Steam Ahead by Karen Witemeyer

Full Steam Ahead by Karen Witemeyer

Series: Stand Alone Novel
Published by Bethany House
Pages: 346
Genre: Christian/Romance/Historial
Add on Goodreads

Nicole Renard is on a mission: find the perfect heir and husband before her father dies and his company, Renard Shipping, is overtaken by their business rivals. However, a wrench is thrown into her plans when she finds herself short of funds and takes a job working for Darius Thornton - a man obsessed with boiler explosions after one nearly took his life. Although the mutual attraction is almost immediate, Nicole must continue on to find the heir her father needs because this man is completely unsuitable. But...Does God have other plans for the pair?

Too Meme or Not Too Meme

As you might have noticed, I didn't post a Top Ten Tuesday this week like I usually do. So, I want to talk about memes this week.

I actually started up with probably four or five memes a week when I was first doing my blog. I discovered really quickly that would never work for me. So, I kept my favorite 'Top Ten Tuesday' - which also happens to be one of the most popular.

I just didn't have enough to say about their chosen topics to post - even Top Ten Tuesday won't be getting me every week anymore because - like this week's topic of 'ten books people tell you you must read' - I don't have ten books in my life that have been recommended to me. Much less ones I haven't even read.

The fact is, I love seeing those page view numbers go way up each time I do a meme - but, too often, all you get out of a meme is a quick comment about your post and a link to another blog. That's great, but the fact is that big meme days are so hectic that you don't spend any time at the blog. You just click comment, leave a quick reply and link. Which starts the whole cycle over.

I don't know if you ever get new readers from memes. It would be great if you did, but... I rather doubt it happens often if ever. What I hate about memes - and the list ones are even worse - is when you keep seeing the same one or two books everywhere. It just takes the fun out of it and I'm over there going 'I've only seen this on eight other lists today. Yeah, helpful'.

To be fair, I do love it when Top Ten Tuesday has a 'free' week - because everyone has such different and unique topics and I will always participate in those.

So, that's what I dislike about memes. What do I like about them? That you get a pretty easy post for that day. Usually memes aren't the most difficult posts to write and if it's something you really feel strongly about, they're even easier. (Did I mention I'm a rather lazy person? Because I am.)

I'd love to know what you think of memes. Are they something you post religiously? Something you never post? Only post on topics that interest you? Please, do tell me why as well.

Review: Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey

Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey

Series: Once Upon A Time Fairytales #14
Published by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 199
Genre: Fairytale Retelling (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Mulan is unlike any other girl in China. When the emperor summons a great army, each family must send a male to fight. Tomboyish Mulan is determined to spare her aging father and bring her family honor, so she disguises herself and answers the call.

"How can one so young, a stranger I've just met, see so clearly the conflicts of my heart?"

Indie, Self-Published Or Large Publisher?

Honestly, before I found Goodreads, I probably never read an indie or self-published author. It wasn't a conscious choice I made, just that I never found information on them or their books didn't interest me. Besides, back then I was reading a lot of the TSR/Wizards of the Coast stuff, which was a pretty small book publisher anyway.

But, the point is, now my favorite fantasy series ever (probably my favorite series, but I have a hard time ranking books through all genres) was originally self published. In the past year, I've read a lot of books that were published by either an indie or self-published. Some of those books were really, really good and some weren't - just like with large publishers.

I have noticed though, usually the author's writing stays more consistent with self or indie publishing. Is this because they don't have the level of editor feedback? And, is this really a good thing?

Not long ago, I read a self-published book that read like a first novel - only the author had published nearly a dozen others. This tends to not happen with large publishers, and I do feel like self-publishing tends to stunt an authors growth - but I still like how involved most self-published authors are with their readers.

Now, I know it doesn't make a difference for me, but does publisher matter to you? Is there any publisher type - or, indeed, publishing company - that you prefer to read/don't want to read?

Top Ten Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

This is a really interesting topic this week. I generally try to stay away from books that leave me confused as to if I should read them or not. So, let's see what I come up with.

Review: Also Known As by Robin Benway

Also Known As by Robin Benway
Series: Also Known As #1
Published by Bloomsbury
Pages: 308
Genre: Contemporary/Espionage (YA)
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When safecracker Maggie gets her first solo mission, she had no idea how difficult it would be. All she had to do was enroll in a private high school in New York and get close to a well known media mogul's teenage son. Simple: get the information she needs to stop a personally dangerous news story from ever being leaked and scrub the proof. Instead she makes her first friend and finds herself falling in love with her target!

I'm the only spy in the world who has someone telling them to go to bed.

Sophomore Slump?

This is something I've really been curious about for quite awhile.

Is there such a thing as 'sophomore slump' for books? When a new, never published before, author gets a contract for a trilogy or series, is this a good thing?

 I know that personally, in my own reading, the outcome is surely mixed. I've read new authors books that I love the first in the series, but cannot stand the second. The opposite has happened too, when I read the first book, I almost didn't continue the series, but when I read the second book it is so much better than the first. Other times, the books are very consistent - leaving me with the same feelings of like/dislike after each book.

I know what they say in the music industry, about how you have your whole life to write the songs on your first album, but you only have eleven months to write the songs on your second album. I cannot help but wonder, does it work the same for books and authors?

Some people work better under a deadline, so are those the authors whose second book turns out better than the first? What about non-series books? Do you think they still follow the same pattern? Is the reason you always hear more rave-reviews for the next books in a series because the people that didn't like the first quite reading - or do they really get better?

What kind of experience have you had with the second books from new authors? I'd love you hear your thoughts.

Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read...

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

After quite a long hiatus, I'm back. I've been really looking forward to this prompt this week and I hope to suggest some good books to you guys.

Back For Good (I Hope)

Hello again, everyone.

I know it's been a long time - and I wish I had a real reason to give you. The only thing I can say is off-internet life started getting in the way. I also went through a length of time where it honestly felt like I had nothing to say. Even (oh, the horror) about books.

Well, I've really missed the book blogging community since my unexpected absence. It's going to take some juggling to fit this blog into my life - as it's a lot more time consuming than I ever expected - but it's something that I really want to do so I'll try my best to make time for it.

I am wondering though, how do you make a blog work for you? Is it your primary job? I've actually got a mostly full time job, but that works only to my benefit because I don't actually have internet service at home.

Well, I just wanted to welcome myself back and let you know that I shall be doing my best to keep up with this.

There will be a few changes from the way I ran my blog before. First, and the biggest is that I have dropped out of two challenges: The Monthly Key Word challenge (as I failed to read/review any book for this in July) and The Lucky No.14 challenge (as this challenge was simply way too structured for me to complete while enjoying it). I have updated my challenges page to reflect this.

Review: Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Series: Kingdom of Xia #1
Published by Greenwillow Books
Pages: 338
Genre: Fantasy (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Ai Ling can see into other people's minds and reach into their spirits. But she doesn't know why this power has awakened inside her. She only knows that it is growing. It leads her on an epic journey—one that brings her to the edge of the deepest evil.

Chen Yong has a quest of his own, but then his path crosses Ai Ling's. And there's a connection so strong that neither can ignore it.

Now they must face terrifying demons determined to kill them, and battle through treacherous lands. It is their destiny. But can destiny keep them together?
(goodreads synopsis)

*Warning*
This review will contain some light spoilers. I've tried to keep them as vague as possible, but there is a spoiler

Blogger Thoughts: But I Can't Review All Of Them

When I started this blog, I had the completely insane notion that I'd be able to review every book I read this year. Now, that might have worked out just fine - if I actually had any reviews already written. Basically, I was sitting there for my first few weeks with no cushion, trying to turn out two or three reviews a week along with a full line of other posts.

I quickly (though not quickly enough, honestly) found out that this would never work for me. So, I was left scratching my head going 'what do I do now?'

For some bloggers, I know, they could probably review ARC's for the rest of the year and never run out of reviews to post once or twice a week. I've never received an ARC for review - or, actually, any free book for review. (Not that I've really tried though either.)

But the point is, if I don't have required books to review, what books should I review?

Then I realized, I have certain challenges I joined that require reviews of every book read for the challenge. Well, that helped me out somewhat, but that's only maybe two, at the most three, books a month. I want at least one review every week and if I start being able to plan out reviews till the end of the year, I'll up that to two reviews a week.

Finally I realized what worked the best for me would be to review books I actually have something to say about. Whether that be positive or negative, it's so much easier reviewing books that I want to talk about.


So, what works for you? Do you review every book you read? Only the new ones, to help readers decide if the book is for them? Only the older ones, to draw attention to books that might have slipped through the cracks? Or do you have a completely different system? Maybe even no system at all?

Review: Poison by Bridget Zinn

Poison by Bridget Zinn

Series: N/A
Published by Hyperion
Pages: 276
Genre: Fantasy (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Kyra, at sixteen, is a self proclaimed Master Potioner - along with ex-boyfriend Hal and friend Ned. However, when Kyra decides to kill her best friend, also known as the Princess, her world falls apart. For the first time, her poison dart misses and now Kyra is on the run from the military and her friends.

How had it come to this? How had she ended up a hungry, friendless fugitive in the middle of a frigid river wearing completely ridiculous underthings?
With a pig balanced on the top of her head?

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

I actually had some difficulties with this list. At first I was just going to list all the books, regardless of series. Like if I read three books in a series and I loved all of them, they would all be on this list. Then I decided that really wouldn't be fair to all the other awesome books I've already read this year. (I counted them and I had seven books from three series on this list.) So, if I read more than one book in the series, I just selected my favorite one. These books are in rough order from least favorite to most favorite.

Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
Published by Square Fish
Pages: 452
Genre: Sci-Fi/Romance (YA)
Add on Goodreads
My Cinder Review

Scarlet Benoit's Grandmother is missing. While the police claim she has either ran away or killed herself, Scarlet knows better. She knows someone kidnapped her Grandmother. Determined to figure out who, she sets off to rescue her - and gets help from the street fighter Wolf. However, not everything is as it seems, and Scarlet discovers an unexpected connection to the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive, Linh Cinder.

"We're having another moment, aren't we?"
"If by moment, you mean me not wanting to strangle you for the first time since we met, then I guess we are."

Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

I'm really particular when it comes to 'beach' reads. Okay, it's not like I've ever actually been to the beach - but to me a 'beach bag read' is usually lighter than any other books. It's not something that really makes you think, it doesn't shake your ideas. It's just fun, fast reads. Things that can be devoured like popsicles.

Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag

June Schedule

After trying this for the month of May and it actually making me post when I said I would, I decided to keep this around for June as well. I guess you could view this as an agreement between me and my readers that - barring unforeseen complications - I will be posting what I say, when I say. I'm still not planning on posting on either Saturday or Sunday - so I've just left those days off this schedule.

Monday - June 2nd - Schedule for June (This post)

Tuesday - June 3rd - Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag

Wednesday - June 4th - Free

Thursday - June 5th - Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Friday - June 6th - Free

Monday - June 9th - Free

Tuesday - June 10th - Top Ten Favorite Book's I've Read This Year

Wednesday - June 11th - When I'm Not Blogging (Movies)

Thursday - June 12th - Review: Poison by Bridget Zinn

Friday - June 13th - Blogger Thoughts (Review Books)

Monday - June 16th - Free

Tuesday - June 17th - Top Ten Books On My Summer TBR List

Wednesday - June 18th - Afternoon Tea

Thursday - June 19th - Review: Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey

Friday - June 20th - Untitled Feature About Tropes & Such in Books

Monday - June 23rd - Tips & Tricks (Blogger Organization)

Tuesday - June 24th - Top Ten Cover Trends I Like/Dislike

Wednesday - June 25th - When I'm Not Blogging (Cooking)

Thursday - June 26th - Review: Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Friday - June 27th - Blogger Thoughts (Comments)

Monday - June 30th - Early posting of the July Schedule

So that's a quick overview of my plans for this month. Last month I managed to post exactly what I was supposed each day - somewhat surprising myself - so I hope I can keep it up for this month also. One reason I don't have much to post at the start of this month is because I'm hoping to re-organize my blog a bit and get things straightened up a little.

Five Setting's I'd Like To Live In

Ever since I did the top ten Tuesday post several weeks back that asked me to list ten settings I wouldn't want to live in, I've been wanting to do the flipside of that coin. So, today I am going to list five settings that I would want to live in. (Each of these selections automatically assumes that I would be in the same place as the heroes of the story - given abilities if they are common.)

Review: The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

Series: N/A
Published by Penguin Group
Pages: 363
Genre: Romance/Urban Fantasy (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Jenny's brother vanished seven years ago. Ever since then, she's been an outcast, shuffled from one psychiatrist to the next and nearly ignored by her parents. You see, the night Tom vanished, Jenny was there. She saw everything. The tree's took him. Of course, no one believes her - after all, trees can't kidnap fourteen year old boys. They can't. And they certainly can't turn into tree monsters that stalk the forest and kidnap fourteen year old boys that stray too close to the boarder. Although, if they can't, why is that exactly what Jenny saw seven years ago?

Because she knew that feeling - like being broken inside - and she'd wanted to…to fix him, even if she couldn't fix herself.

When I'm Not Reading...

You probably don't know - as I now realize I've never really mentioned them - but I have some pets. And generally speaking, if I'm not spending money on books, I'm probably spending money on them.

Top Ten Words/Topics That Make Me (Not) Pick Up A Book

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

As it was a freebie week over at The Broke and The Bookish, I spent a couple of days going through the old prompts, seeing if one caught my attention. Actually, more than one did - but I chose to combine two for this week and do five words/topics that make me not pick up a book and five words/topics that make me pick up a book. Do bear in mind that these are just generalities and I'm sure I have/will, at least once, find a book that contradicts each of these. Now, without further ado...

Book One In What Series?

Okay, it's like this. I read a lot of books that are in a series. In fact, I probably read more of those than I do stand alone novels. I like series. As long as they don't continue endlessly, but that's a post for another time. But I've been wondering something a lot lately.

Throne of Glass - Book One in the Throne of Glass Series
The Emperor's Edge - Book One in the Emperor's Edge Series
Falling Kingdoms - Book One in the Falling Kingdoms Series
The Green Rider - Book One in The Green Rider Series

What do all these books have in common? (Many more do as well, I just stopped there.)

All these books have the same title for their series as the first book in the series.

Once I started thinking about that I started wondering, why do so many books do that?

The first idea that came to my mind was the extremely uncharitable 'they can't think of anything else to call the series'. Then I started wondering if, maybe, the author/publisher didn't know the book was going to spawn a series and when it did, they just went with the obvious. Maybe, and this is probably the nicest of my ideas, it was decided that having the first book and the series bear the same title would make it easier to remember.

Oddly, there is one series that was really odd in how it handled this. Book three of the series (The Magnificent Devices) had the same title as the series. The two books before that and the, so far, four books after that had a different name. This lead me to believe this series was only supposed to be a trilogy.

Anyhow, what do you think? Any odd series/book title correlations you'd like to mention?

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Series: Graceling Realm #1
Published by Graphia
Pages: 471
Genre: Romance/Fantasy (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Katsa is the king's niece. Instead of spending her days at leisure, preparing for the next ball or dinner he has to attend, she spends her days being the king's enforcer. If someone betrays the king in any way, Katsa is sent out to make an example of them. Because, you see, Katsa is Graced with killing. She's never met anyone she couldn't best in a fight. She can kill with one blow from her bare hands - as she learnt when she was eight years old.

But when Katsa meets Prince Po, she had no idea how her world would change. Now she's discovering more about her Grace than she ever thought possible, and uncovering a secret that might spell the doom of the world.

There's no shame to crawl when one can't walk.

Afternoon Tea #1 (assassins and snowballs)

So, I'm about halfway through The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks and I must say, it's actually pretty good. I was a little taken aback at first when Azoth, who I was thinking (before starting the book) was the main character, turned out to be eleven. Within the first two hundred and fifty or so pages, he does age to 'about' twenty though, which was closer to the age I was expecting him to be. This certainly explains why some people insist on calling it a young adult novel, when I really don't think it is. I mostly say this because it doesn't have the YA structure - thankfully enough. You see, it's been quite awhile since I got by to my roots, as it were, and read a gritty, fantasy novel that wasn't bogged own on romance.

This book is certainly showing signs of being pretty awesome, if a little wordy at times, but still - it's fantasy, so I can forgive that.

The oddest thing for me is while a couple of the characters are essentially assassins, they do not use that term. There are assassins in this world, but the characters that we get to deal with that kill people for a living are - are you ready for it? - wetboys. Okay, I'm not sure what it says about me that I find this term for peerless assassins incredibly funny. Not even the quote early on saying that, essentially, wetboys are assassins the same way a tiger is a kitten. Well, that gives you a pretty good idea what they are, but it isn't explained until later why they don't have a 'target' but, instead, a 'deader'. (This just doesn't sound like proper English to me...)

No matter my light teasing, the book's not bad so far - good enough, even to almost make me forget the very sexist slur one of the men thought. Though, considering that he was a sixteen year old boy - and rather creepy anyway - might have something to do with my ability to forgive.

So far, I think I did moderately well with the book - but it doesn't seem to be anything grand or earth shaking.

*Edit*
And now, I've not even touched it for six days and will probably not finish it. One too many curse words, gratuitous gore scenes and a healthy dose of misogyny. Thought I'd finish it, but barely made it past the halfway mark and will probably never read any more.

With my book I chose to brew myself up a cup of one of my favorite teas. It's brand is Good Earth and it is called 'Original Sweet & Spicy'. It is an herbal tea blend and the one I drink is caffeine free. It's basically a chai tea (love chai tea!) made from Red Rooibos with plenty of herbs added to it. Good Earth has some wonderful teas and many that I like.

I knew I wanted chai tea, and that I would have to chose the perfect cookies to go along with it. I think I did with my Snowball Cookies. The nutty sweetness of these cookies went perfectly with the tea and, even better, the cookies were entirely sugar free - with none of those questionable chemical sweeteners. (Course, your opinion of the sweeteners I did use might vary, as some people say they're no good either. However, the recipe can be easily adapted back to sugar and the recipe can also be adapted for those unable to do gluten.) These cookies really took me back to my childhood when I used to make them with my mom.

Curious about my Snowball Cookies?

Click here for the recipe.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little chat about books and food (and I sincerely hope I've made you hungry - that's what always happens to me when I read recipes on the internet).

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Chai tea; yay or nay? Ever had the Good Earth teas? How about Snowball Cookies? Ever had them? Like them?

Ten Books About Friendship

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

As soon as I saw the prompt for this week, I knew I was going to have a blast with this. I've always loved books with a strong friendship in them. In fact, I'd generally choose friendship over romance in my books. Now, I wouldn't actually say that any of these books are about the friendship (I don't think I've ever read a book whose main plot was the friendship...) - but friendship plays a large part in the story and it is very important. Anyways, I cannot wait to see what's on everyone else's lists.

Ten Books About Friendship

Announcing: Afternoon Tea

Oh, I'm so excited that I finally get to unveil my new monthly feature. This has been in the works ever since I started this blog but now, I get to introduce it!

Ladies and gents, if you turn your attention this way, you will see Pages of Starlight's newest feature (cough cough* only original feature so far): Afternoon Tea!

Each month, tentatively slated for the third Wednesday of the month, I, you're host, will talk briefly about a book I'm either reading or have recently finished - one that I probably won't review - and pair it with the perfect afternoon tea and accompaniment. This will include talk about the tea itself, as well as a recipe (most months, anyway) for the food that is being eaten. This will mostly be sweets, perhaps a few light snacks as well.

Afternoon tea is a traditional repast, usually served between four and six pm as a sort of 'stopgap' for the afternoon doldrums that set in between lunch and dinner. While afternoon tea was popular with the upper-class, High Tea - served between five and seven pm - was usually the actual dinner of the working class

Afternoon tea was usually a social time, with people dropping in on friends, neighbors and acquaintances and snacking and chatting with the hostess. While there were usually more women at afternoon tea, it was not uncommon for the man of the house to be present. Of course, sometimes other men would visit as well, but it seems safe to say that women usually outnumbered men at these events. (Lest if my - admittedly fuzzy - historical knowledge is anything to go by.)

The proper order to eat the treats offered was traditionally: the savories (which were usually more food and less sweets, such as bite-sized sandwiches) then the scones (which I love and are slightly similar to American biscuits) and, finally, the sweets (often cakes and tarts, which are like miniature pies). Now, as I'm only a one person blog - and making all that on even a monthly basis would make me gain weight instead of loosing it like I'm supposed to be, I will unfortunately be choosing only one snack to make with each tea.

So, there you go, a quick and not so short overview of my new feature. I hope to see you again on Wednesday to share my first afternoon tea with.

Discussion: Junk Food Books

I originally got this idea from hearing several people talk about their 'guilty pleasure' reads. Now, this is a foreign concept to me, because I just don't understand feeling guilty about books I read. Sure, there are some books I don't tell my family that I read - but that's more to keep out of the interrogation as to how I could read that than any shame I have over reading certain books.

That being said, I have what I commonly refer to as 'Junk Food Books'. I suppose you could call them 'comfort food books' as well, but I prefer my term (makes me think of gummy bears and jelly beans and soft caramels). These are books that I read to enjoy. If they were movies, they would be 'popcorn movies' - and occasionally 'B' movies. These are books I don't expect to learn anything from, nor do I expect these books to actually give me thoughtful storylines or anything to chew on long after the book is over.

In short, they are fun reads.

Books I consider 'Junk Food':

Pretty much any romance I read, but especially my all-time favorites: Gothic Romance Mysteries. Authors like Barbara Michaels, Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt. Pretty much any book that pictures a wide-eyed woman wearing a dress escaping from a gloomy looking manor. Or any book that should have that cover.

Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. While this series is steampunk and urban fantasy at their finest, it owes most of its life to the bodice rippers. I remember calling the first book in this series a popcorn chick-flick when I first read it. Honestly, that does it some injustice, but is a fairly apt description.

Honestly, even though they are usually few and far between, pretty much any romance novel that I read that doesn't have a controlling, obsessive, creepy, possessive 'alpha' as the love interest (I won't even go into how much I hate those guys) and isn't a gothic mystery, I would be willing to consider 'Junk Food'. The ones with those so called 'alphas' are nothing but 'flame bait' to me.

I'm also currently putting all Middle Grade novels I've read on this list. While I do only have a handful that I've actually read, they've all been fun, light reads.


Honestly, all my reading is a little on the light side, but these stick out as some of the less groundbreaking books for a reader that seldom reads grounbreaking books.

So, how about you? Do you have any Junk Food books? Do you prefer a different term?

Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Series: N/A
Published by Balzer+Bray
Pages: 342
Genre: Romance/Fantasy (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Since birth, Nyx has been trained to defeat the Gentle Lord - a demon that ripped the land of Arcadia from the world nine hundred years ago. Since then the Gentle Lord has ruled over the people from his ruined tower, making cruel deals and bargains and loosing his demons on the unsuspecting. Nyx's duty is to destroy him, even if it costs her her life.

But when Nyx is wedded to Ignifex and taken inside his castle, neither him nor his house was at all what she expected. Can a girl taught to hate learn to love? Or is it already too late for both of them?

I had been the bride of the Gentle Lord for half a day already, and there had been strikingly little torment. And I was not grateful; I was disturbed. What could he be planning?

When I'm Not Reading...

So, this little feature I started last month didn't really take off. That's mostly my fault, because I was supposed to post twice and I only made once. In fact, I didn't really get much at all posted last month. Anyways, I'm giving it another go.

There's several things I can be found doing when I'm not reading or working on my blog. (Or finding new books to read.) One of those things is...

Playing Video/Computer Games

Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't

Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't

Honestly, when I almost put down a book, I find myself wishing I had because they seldom seem to improve. I tried to keep this to just the books that I was glad that I finished (and that I read in the past sixteen or so months) but then I realized that I would have two books on this list. This list has actually been very helpful and interesting for me to look at and see truly how few books improve after my first bad impression of them. This has already helped me to drop a couple of books that I was going to try finishing and hopefully being able to look at something like this will cause me to stop reading more books that are not going well.

SYNC Free Audio Books

This summer, from the of May 15th (this Thursday) until August 20th, SYNC is offer two free audio books a week - one YA and one Classic! I've been wanting to get some audio books, and some of their offerings sound really good. Now, each book will only be up for one week but after you download it, it is yours to keep. I've indicated by 'bold' the few - very few - books on this list that I've read. I don't actually have any of these on my list to read currently, but several sound interesting, and those I've dropped 'italic' over. I'm sure I'll be downloading some of these - but not all as there are some that I'm sure I won't care for. For more information, and to visit their website, click here.

Schedule:

May 15 – May 21

WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library)

THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library)

May 22 – May 28

CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio)

OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks)

May 29 – June 4

CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio)

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narrated by Richard E. Grant (Harper Audio)

June 5 – June 11

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill, Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)

JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare, Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

June 12 – June 18

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)

THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)

June 19 – June 25

I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter, Narrated by Renée Raudman (Brilliance Audio)

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery, Narrated by Colleen Winton (Post Hypnotic Press)

June 26 – July 2

FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin (Hachette Audio)

OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister (Brilliance Audio)

July 3 – July 9

TORN FROM TROY by Patrick Bowman, Narrated by Gerard Doyle (Post Hypnotic Press)

PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Narrated by Jim Dale (Brilliance Audio)

July 10 – July 16

CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, Narrated by Channie Waites (Brilliance Audio)

WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED by Carolyn Maull McKinstry with Denise George, Narrated by Felicia Bullock (Oasis Audio)

July 17 – July 23

THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books)

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II by Arthur Conan Doyle, Narrated by David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks)

July 24 – July 30

HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link, Performed by Deidrie Henry, Ernie Hudson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Scott Wolf (L.A. Theatre Works)

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson, Narrated by Scott Brick (Tantor Audio)

July 31 – August 6

DIVIDED WE FALL by Trent Reedy, Narrated by Andrew Eiden (Scholastic Audio)

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane, Narrated by Frank Muller (Recorded Books)

August 7 – August 13

LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Ben Lesser, Narrated by Jonathan Silverman and Ben Lesser (Remembrance Publishing)

THE SHAWL by Cynthia Ozick, Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson (HighBridge Audio)

Discussion: POV

Okay, this has been on my mind for quite a while. The point of view (known colloquially as POV) in books actually influences if I buy them or not. You see, I've never liked the first person POV ('I did this' or 'I did that') and, honestly, the older I get the less I like it. I say that this POV tells you more than you ever wanted to know about the main character and absolutely nothing about anyone else. (I also seldom buy/read these books unless they sound spectacular.) I much prefer the third person limited (with several narration characters) as a storytelling mode.

(I won't get any deeper into my preferences, as that has little to do with my discussion question.)

My question is thus: Why do so many books, especially those in the young adult genre, use the first person POV?

I do understand that some people prefer this POV, but it seems like the YA market it completely overrun by this perspective - even more so than any other genre that I've read. (The only one that would be close is the Mystery genre, I believe. But at least that one has a pretty strong reason for not using a huge cast of characters as narrators.)

Now, I don't know if the first person POV detractors are just more vocal than its fans, but I have heard people say (essentially) 'less first person POV, please' and have never heard someone say how much they love this POV.

So, what's your take?

About the only idea I've got for this, is that the teen girls that YA is directed towards are supposed to be able to insert themselves as the main character and someone, somewhere, thought this would be easier in first person POV. It sounds absolutely silly, even to me, but that's the limit of me being able to explain this in any rational way.

My question is mostly based on the YA genre, but if you've got input from other genre's as well, I'd love to hear it because I'm really curious about this phenomenon.

Review: The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris

The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris

Series: Cragbridge Hall #1
Published by Shadow Mountain
Pages: 336
Genre: Sci-Fi (MG)
Add on Goodreads

The year is 2074. School has changed drastically: zoology is taught by becoming one with the animals through use of an avatar, history is a truly visual class, events of history playing out as though you are there. All these advancements are thanks to Oscar Cragbridge - founder of the school, Cragbridge Hall. However when he and his son and daughter-in-law mysteriously go missing, it is up to two young students, his grandchildren, to save the day. And possibly the world as they know it.

The history classroom looked normal - except for the full-sized pirate ship emerging from the front wall.

May Schedule

I actually wanted to get this out on Monday but electricity was off, so no internet. (Don't ask...) Anyway, I'm going to start trying to post a month long schedule at the beginning of each month. I'm mostly doing this in the hopes that I will then be encouraged to actually post when I'm supposed to. (Also, please note two things: First: I'm not trying to post every day. It doesn't work for me and I have no internet over the weekends, so all those posts have to be scheduled in advance and then checked Monday morning. Not gonna happen. Second: Monday's are mostly left vacant. I'm doing this both to give myself a 'back-to-work' day as well as a free day that if there's something I just have to post (maybe another review) I can get it out then.)

Thursday - May 1st - Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Tuesday - May 6th - Top Ten Book Cover's I'd Frame as Pieces Art
Wednesday - May 7th - May Monthly Schedule (This post ;))
Thursday - May 8th - Review: The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris
Friday - May 9th - Discussion on POV in Books
Monday - May 12th - Free (May post something; may not)
Tuesday - May 13th - Top Ten Books I Almost Quit
Wednesday - May 14th - What I do when I'm not blogging - Games!
Thursday - May 15th - Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Friday - May 16th - Discussion on 'Junk Food' Books
Monday - May 19th - Announcing a new monthly feature! (So exciting)
Tuesday - May 20th - Top Ten Books About Friendship
Wednesday - May 21st - New Monthly Feature (I've not seen it on any blog before)
Thursday - May 22nd - Review: TBA
Friday - May 23rd - Discussion on Series Titles
Monday - May 26th - Memorial Day (I'll not be posting anything today)
Tuesday - May 27th - Top Ten Tuesday - Blogger's Choice
Wednesday - May 28th - What I do when I'm not blogging - Pets!
Thursday - May 29th - Review: TBA
Friday - May 30th - Discussion on settings I'd like to live in


So, there you go - a quick overview on upcoming posts. I'm really looking forward to my new monthly feature and I hope it's as much fun as it sounds like

Top Ten Book Covers I'd Frame As Pieces of Art

Top Ten Book Covers I'd Frame As Pieces of Art

Ooh, I love this prompt. I will say, sometimes book covers are just so lovely. And, shame on me, I am one of those people that likes to judge a book by it's cover. Seriously, a cover is one of the first things you notice about a book, so it's gotta be eye-catching. Anyway, let's get started.

Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter #1
Published by Scholastic
Pages: 309
Genre: Fantasy/Urban Fantasy (YA)
Add on Goodreads

Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a Cloak of Invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny cupboard under the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in ten years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter. (from Goodreads)

There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

A to Z Bookish Survey

Author you've read the most books from:

Agatha Christie. I used to be a huge mystery reader and this was the author that started it.

Best Sequel Ever:
The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross
This is book two in the Steampunk Chronicles and, while I loved the first one (The Girl in the Steel Corset) I think I might have like this one just a tiny bit more.

Currently Reading:

I've actually got three books that I'm in the middle of - but because they other two are turning out so unpleasantly, I'll go with the one I'm actually currently enjoying.
The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris

Drink of Choice While Reading:

Stevia sweetened, flavored water. My favorite is Watermelon flavor.

E-reader or Physical Book?

Physical book all the way.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:

Most of the characters I like, I would never want to date. However, there is one character that got into my head and I thought, yeah, much to what would have been my friends great surprise, (surprise because he is such a nice, sweet guy compared to what I normally am drawn to) I probably would have dated him. The guy?

Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare
Besides, it's like someone asked 'how can we make Amy fall in love with a guy on first meeting?' Answer in three words: violin, silver hair.

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:

So, so many. I've read a lot of books over the last year that I really didn't expect to like as much as I did. However, I do believe that the best fit for this question would be:

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass

For as much as I wasn't sure I'd like this book, I loved it!

Hidden Gem Book:

I'll be honest: I tend to do something of a scatter-shot effect for my books. I buy some that everyone loved (as long as they sound good) and I but some that most people go 'eh, what's that?'. As a rule, though I don't try to make it that way, I usually like the less popular books more than the well loved ones. Anyway, I think I'll go with a fun fantasy romp that I feel more people should read.

The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker

Important Moment in your Reading Life:

It happened when I was around sixteen. I went to this little bookstore - that also served as a meeting place for the D&D crowd. This was the first time I ever bought a fantasy novel. I actually purchased two and they started my love affair with fantasy. The books were: Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham and Shadows of Doom by Ed Greenwood. Without that little bookstore, I would probably still be reading nothing but mystery novels.

Just Finished:

Actually, the last book I finished was in a genre I seldom read. It was a romance novel - and it was a lot of fun. It was a nice change of pace from what I usually read.
The Butler Who Laughed by Michelle Martin

Kinds of Books You Won't Read:

Horror. I'm actually pretty good about trying books outside my comfort zone - but the few times I've actually tried horror novels, they've not worked for me. At all.

Longest Book You've Read:

Please note: I am not including omnibuses or short story compilations.
The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain

Major book hangover because of:

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
I will admit that, for the space of an entire chapter, I was in tears. And books never make me cry.

Number of Bookcases You Own:

Four. Though I've recently cleared them off and I have stacks of books that I won't read ever again and need to get rid of.

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:

I don't reread a lot. No matter how much I love the book, I'm usually looking for my next new discovery, but I have reread the following book four or five times and it never fails to make me giggle like a schoolgirl in love.

The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

Preferred Place To Read:

I'm not really all that difficult to please. Just give me a book and a decent light, and I can read anywhere. Even when people are talking around me - and, unfortunately, sometimes to me. However, I have this nice, comfy chair in my bedroom that I adore.

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you've read:

I'll be honest, I don't usually keep track of quotes that I like. They really seldom work as a stand alone quote anyway, because the ones I like are more of a build up and then the big reveal for the quote that changes everything. So, really, without looking at the quotes on Goodreads, I cannot really answer this.

Reading Regret:

I try not to have any. Really, my biggest regret was that I kept reading books that never improved - perhaps even got worse. Because, you see, I'm the kind of person that tries to finish each book I start. I'm always hoping that they'll get better so I stick around much longer than I should. I also regret reading the first three books in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher. I loved the show and hated the books - and I've not be able to re-watch the show since reading those books.

Series You Started And Need To Finish(all books are out in series):

The Lord of the Rings

Honestly, I've only read the first one and was so less than enamored with it that I just totally lost interest. Maybe I'll just rewatch the movies instead...

Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:

Percepliquis by Michael J. Sullivan
The Tyranny of Ghosts by Don Bassingthwaite
Timeless by Gail Carriger

Unapologetic Fangirl For:

There's a lot I could mention, but I do believe I'll have to go with the author whose new series I am breathlessly anticipating - and one of only two author's whose blog I've actually visited.
Gail Carriger - steampunk writer extraordinaire

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:

Oh wow, there are so many new books being released that I cannot wait for. However, many of them I've already mentioned the author - or at least something else by the author - so I will go with:

Full Steam Ahead by Karen Witemeyer

Worst Bookish Habit:

Hmm, I'm not really sure what could be considered this... Oh, I know.

Reading while watching T.V. This is usually commentary on how much I like the book and how badly I want to finish reading it. If it's a good book, I'll turn the T.V. off so I can fully concentrate on the book. Of course, this actually works better if it's a show I'm re-watching.

X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:

That would be: Starless Night by R.A. Salvatore
In fact, most of that shelf is full of his Drizzt novels.

Your latest book purchase:

Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes
I bought this and a bunch of other books at a bookstore recently, but I think this one was actually the last I picked up.

ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late):

I don't usually stay up late reading. I work five days a week and have to be at my job at nine - so I know what time I need to go to bed to make it to work on time. I do think though, that the last time I was up pretty late on the weekend reading, it was probably Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that kept me up.

*Glances around abashedly* You know, I thought I actually left a link on here so I could credit the person I got this survey from. Unfortunately, I didn't and now I cannot remember what blog it was as. So sorry. If it's yours though, I credit you for the questions because they certainly weren't mine.