3.27.2012

Top Ten Tuesday #5

If you're a fan of lists as much as I am, head on over to The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic:

Top Ten Books I'd Play Hooky With
I've mixed it up with books I own, books that aren't out yet, books I've already read..

1. Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling) (All)-being my favorite series in the history of forever, I'd gladly skip work to reread these gems.
Harry Potter Boxset

2. Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood #10) (J.R.Ward)- I LOVE this series, and the newest one just came out today. I'd love to spend my day getting to know the brothers better.
Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #10)

3. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)-  I haven't seen the movie YET so maybe I should skip work tomorrow and reread this awesomeness to distract me until I can get to the theater.
The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

4. Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Laini Taylor)- I just finished this book like 2 weeks ago, but it was so fantastic that I could read it again.right.now.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1)

5. Insurgent (Veronica Roth)- I'm so looking forward to the next installment and know I will devour this one. Work be damned.
Insurgent (Divergent, #2)
6. Bitterblue (Kristin Cashore)- I have been stoked about this book since I found out about it. Graceling was amazing and Fire was also great. I have a feeling I won't be able to put this one down.
Bitterblue (The Seven Kingdoms, #3)

7. The Immortal Rules (Julie Kagawa)- I mean, it's Julie Kagawa. The End. p.s. LOVE THE COVER.

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)
8. The Princess Diaries Series (Meg Cabot)- One of my favorites, I could easily stay home and hang with my bff Mia. And one of my favorite bookish boys, Michael.

The Princess Diaries Collection (The Princess Diaries, #1-8)
9. Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3)- I want to spend all day (and night) with this book.  Why?  ZSADIST!!
Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #3)

10. Witchful Thinking (H.P. Mallory)- I love this series, and really need to read the next installment in the Jolie Wilkins series. Like tomorrow..during the day..when I'm supposed to be at work..
Witchful Thinking (Jolie Wilkins, #3)

3.25.2012

In My Mailbox #12

Head over to The Story Siren to check out other people's bookish buys.

I haven't posted my bookish purchases since January.  Since that time, I have accumulated just a few more...  I find myself just staring at them.   I can't be the only one who does this.

All of these books were bought by myself with either my hard-earned money or through gift cards I received for my birthday last month. Except for one, which was loaned to me by a fellow book lover.

I'll start with the first pile:


-I'm in love with Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series (if you haven't read it, you should), and am in the process of collecting them. So I bought the next 3 in the series:
Princess in the Spotlight, Princess in Love, and Princess in Waiting.
-The Mammoth Book of Merlin (edited by Mike Ashley): As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm obsessed with anything Merlin, Knights of the round table, Camelot..etc.
-Rot & Ruin (Jonathan Maberry)
-Across the Universe (Beth Ravis); I finished this the other day, will post my thoughts hopefully later in the week.
-Other Words for Love (Lorraine Zago Rosenthal); also finished this last week
-Daughter of the Centaurs (Kate Klimo); hoping this will be as amazing as it sounds
-Bloodrose (Andrea Cremer); I started this, but put it down for now and started a different book. I'll get back to it at some point.

So when it comes to book fairs, or discount books I tend to get a little excited and freak out a bit with the buying. About 2 weeks ago I went to the The Green Valley Book Fair, which is about 1.5 hours from where I live. It's held in a giant 3 room warehouse and it hosts thousands upon thousands of all different kinds of books, all different genres, ALL. FOR.DISCOUNT.  I'm talking I paid as little as $2.50 and no more then $6.50 for my books, depending if they were paperback vs. hardback and depending on how massive they were. They had an excellent young adult section and I filled up 2 baskets in no time. When I took my initial haul to the checkout, the lady was like "Is all of this for you", and I was like, well yeah. I may have a bit of a problem.

 I walked away with 24 books and only spent $110.  At retail price, I would have spent well over $300.  If you live anywhere close to this book fair I HIGHLY recommend you go, I promise you will not be disappointed.  I couldn't get a good picture of all the books together so I broke it up in to 3 pictures:



-A Certain Slant of Light
-Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist
-Wintergirls
-Dust
-Will Grayson,Will Grayson
-Knightley Academy

Next Batch:
-Wither
-The Sky is Everywhere
-Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
-The Summer I Turned Pretty
-It's Not Summer Without You
-We'll Always Have Summer
-Uglies
-Pretties
-Specials
-Extras


And finally:
-Slice of Cherry
-The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
-Eona
-Blood Red Road
-Five Flavors of Dumb
-Red Glove
-White Cat
-Dust & Decay

 Whoa man. Can you dig it?

Lastly, but certainly not leasty, my fellow bookish friend whom I like to call Jeskuh loaned me her ARC of Tempest.    


Even with all the above awesomeness, apparently my needs weren't satiated as I just ordered 7 more books from Amazon. AHHHH.  Sweet, sweet books.

3.23.2012

My Thoughts: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Laini Taylor)


Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1) Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself? (Goodreads)


Cover: I like it because it actually has something to do with the story.

My Thoughts:
I don't have the words to give enough justice to the amazingness of this book. Beautiful does not begin to describe the incredible artistry that is contained in these pages. I fell in love with the world, and more importantly I fell in love with the characters. This is one of those books that is going to stay with me.
Instant favorite. Highly recommended. 

I am so sad that I have to wait until November for Days of Blood and Starlight.  Oh my gah.

Favorite quotes:
"Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic."

"It was what she had always wanted and thought she'd found: someone who was for her, as she was for him, whose blood and butterflies sang to hers and answered them, note for note."

Final Thought: Breathtaking, heartbreaking, magical. Wow.    5/5

3.22.2012

My Thoughts: Five Flavors of Dumb (Antony John)

Five Flavors of Dumb

The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.

The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.

The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?

Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.  (Goodreads Summary)



Cover:  I really dig this cover; it's cool, it's hip, it's unique.

My Thoughts:  So when I read the synopsis of this book, it sounded like it should be good. I blew through this book in a day, and although I wasn't left with that "OMG that was incredible" feeling after I finished, I'm glad I read it. Part of the appeal for me was that it was based around a band.  If I could come back for another life I would totally want to be in a band. Who wouldn't?

 I was also attracted to the main character, Piper, being deaf.  This is what gave the book a twist and helped make the story interesting.  The dynamics between her and her family were real and honest.  You get to see the growth and positive change of a lot of the characters, which I appreciated, especially with her dad.  I loved the character of Ed.  Having a boy join the chess club, that he doesn't even enjoy, only to be subjected to never winning a single game just to be near the girl he likes...well that's sweet. I enjoyed getting to know the different band members and seeing how Piper deals with the challenges she faces because she's deaf.  I also appreciated the fact that the author didn't take the route of making Piper feel sorry for herself or having her view herself as disabled. This book also had some funny moments that made me giggle.

Favorite quotes:
"I watched Josh strutting, Ed practicing, Kallie hiding, Will spacing, and Tash gazing at Will, and realized that Baz was right. This wasn't a group at all. There was no togetherness, no blending-just five separate flavors of an indigestible dish called Dumb."

"I turned off the light and crawled into bed. I wanted to fall asleep, to escape the thoughts clawing at my consciousness, but instead the evening just replayed in my mind, a crappy movie on endless loop."

"It was the smallest, gentlest, most earth-shattering kiss in the long and glorious history of kisses, and it took my breath away."

Final Thought:  An enjoyable read. 3.5/5

3.21.2012

Back to Basics

This blog layout was looking all sorts of crazy. I have no idea what I'm doing or how to change stuff. So, for now I changed the layout to something simple and easy to read.  Sometime in hopefully the near future, I'll get a blogging-for-dummies book, and perhaps find someone who can design a cool-ass header for me. I was using all sorts of different font colors, so past blog entries may not be so easy to read. You live, you learn.

I think I was going about this whole blog thing all wrong.  I was concentrating and worrying too much about how my posts were coming across. Especially when it came to my thoughts on the books I was reading. When it comes to writing professional, succinct "reviews", well, that's not me. I have a friend whose writing is very witty and funny. Yeah, things like that just don't come out of my brain.  I use the word awesome a lot and sometimes my thoughts are a bit jumbled. But, I didn't start this blog for other people, I started it because reading is one of my passions, and I wanted a place I could record my thoughts about all the books I've read. The in my mailbox, top ten tuesday, etc are just fun extras.

So. Back to the basics. Write for myself. And if on the off-chance people like what I write, perhaps they'll be back.  If not, who cares.





My Thoughts: DIVERGENT by veronica roth

Divergent (Divergent, #1)In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.  (amazon)



If you want a well-written synopsis or professional sounding review, you're in the wrong place.

My Thoughts:
I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. It sucked me in from the first sentence, and hooked me until the last. I found the concept very interesting.  I was instantly drawn in by the writing and found the explanation of this dystopian society to be easy to understand. I would have liked some more background information about the factions and how they all originated, but I def don't hold that against the book.
I couldn't put it down.  Everyone should read this book.  Now let's talk about Four.  He's most definitely one of my new favorite bookish boys. I liked both him and Tris because they both showed just enough vulnerability.  Not too much, not too little.
My attention was kept the entire time, which is a feat in and of itself.  I'm struggling to write a half-way decent review, so let me just say this: READ IT.  I am STOKED for Insurgent.  (May 1st)

Favorite Lines:
 "I feel like there is a bubble in my chest that expands more by the second, threatening to break me apart from the inside."

"Something about him makes me feel like I am about to fall. Or turn to liquid. Or burst into flames."

"Why do people want to pretend that death is sleep? It isn't. It isn't."

"I have never been carried around by a large boy, or laughed until my stomach hurt at the dinner table, or listened to the clamor of a hundred people all talking at once. Peace is restrained; this is free."

Bottom Line: Divergent is one of those books that as soon as I read the last word I squealed in glee. 5/5