Thursday, June 28, 2012

Follow Me Friday (#38)



This is the day of the week where we get to know each other better by answering a question devised by our lovely hostesses Parajunkee & Alisoncanread. We also gain new followers by joining each other's sites via GFC, so please let me know if you're a new follower. And now for this week's question....
Q. Birthday Wishes:  Blow out the candles and imagine what character would pop out of your cake.  Who is it and what book are they from? 

A.  This was a hard one for me.  I hate picking the typical same old characters (but yes of course I would love it to be Dumbledore).  So I pick Wade Watts from Ready Player One.  In case you don't know I love love love video games.  So I would so play some Halo with him... or Mass Effect!!  Here is my review on Ready Player One by Ernest Cline .  

I don't know how geeky my blog followers are... but Harry Knowles (from Ain't It Cool News) interviews Ernest here and it is fun fun fun!! 




Who would you pick? 

Colorado Springs Waldo Canyon Fire

I live in Colorado Springs, CO where we have recently been through extreme wild fires.  364 houses have burned, 34 streets gone. 32,000 people evacuated from their homes.  I was not one because I live on the east side of town.  Though every time I stepped out the door I would smell smoke. I thought I would share some of the pictures I took.  You can go onto the news sites to see better pictures.  I just hope all the families who lost homes find peace.  These are in order from day 1 to day 3 (the fire is still burning).


If you can do anything to help the families who lost homes go to the Red Cross' website to find out how.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Insurgent by Veronica Roth-Review


I love Veronica Roth's writing!  She tells such a good story.. though this did remind me of a lot of the movie The Village. Here is the goodreads description:
One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so. "New York Times" bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian "Divergent" series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

I waited for so long this book to come out! And now I have to wait forever for the next one!! ERRRR This was a great follow up to the first book Divergent... though I liked the first book better. Sometimes in this book I couldn't figure out why we were doing what we were doing. We kept bouncing from faction to faction and that kind-of annoyed me. And I agree with others that since this books starts off exactly where the other book leaves off with no re-cap whatsoever that it is a little confusing at first if you are like me and haven't read Divergent since it came out a year ago.

Spoilers to come:  Honestly it had been so long since I had read Divergent I forgot there was an "outside" world.  So I was quite surprised at the end to even learn about the outside hahaha!  But then of course I remembered.  I have to admit I really loved the blog campaign that was going on for this book!  It was a lot of fun to watch even though I didn't actually participate.  (wasn't really sure how to join a team). 

All in all I enjoyed the book... it was missing that WOW factor that Divergent had which is why I gave it four cats instead of five.   By the way... my faction is totally Dauntless!



Thursday, June 21, 2012

Follow Me Friday (#37)



This is the day of the week where we get to know each other better by answering a question devised by our lovely hostesses Parajunkee & Alisoncanread. We also gain new followers by joining each other's sites via GFC, so please let me know if you're a new follower. And now for this week's question....
Q. If you could unread a book which would it be? Is it because you want to start over and experience it again for the first time? Or because it was THAT bad? 
Honestly I would like to read Bram Stoker's  Dracula again.  I was pleasantly surprised by this book and it made me love vampire lore even more.  It was a perfect story... and I love the edition I have which is the one that is illustrated by Edward Gorey!  Even better since I love his art work.


So a book I would to unread that I didn't like... hummm... if I don't like a book I usually quit it. And I will read it for a while too before quitting.  Very few books have I quit.  But one book I would like to forget is Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.  I heard so much hype about the Corrections (never read it) so when Freedom came out and everyone was loving it I gave it a shot.  Oprah had the author on her show, he was on the cover of Time magazine (who hardly EVER feature authors.  So I had to read it.  This book was 600 pages long and I quit at 500 pages!  Only 100 pages to go.  I just couldn't put anymore time into that book! It was so odd about a divorced couple... and that was it.  Just how they lived. 


So what about you???  Leave me a link to your blog so I can come and read about what you want to unread!

Vote for our young adult book club pick!

Looking for someone to read a young adult book with and discuss??  Come on by the YA Book Club.   We are currently voting for our August book club pick so come and vote and then join along!  We really have a lot of fun!



Monday, June 18, 2012

Blood Red Road by Moira Young- Review


I just finished Blood Red Road by Moira Young for my Young Adult Book Club .  Here is the goodreads description:
 
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back. Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization. Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

I thought this book was good but not my favorite distopian that I have read lately. But I still enjoyed it. It was very slow for me though when I first started it. I'm not sure why.. the story was moving along just fine but didn't take off for me until after Hopetown.

I will read the next book. I am interested in what happens to everyone. Though I did think the end was odd with Jack just leaving without saying goodbye and then Saba having to have to chase him down. That part was a little dramatic for me. Who leaves without even saying bye?

Also, I read this about the names used in the book: Lugh is an extremely appropriate name--he is a Celtic god/mythological hero, often associated with the sun. Maev and Epona are also goddess names. So that is interesting. Don't know if Saba and Nero mean anything?


I am quite curious about the movie now. Ridley Scott picked it up?? That's pretty big. Of course sometimes it takes forever for a book to actually become a movie, just because the rights were purchased doesn't mean this will actually happen.

The no quotation marks in the book drove me nuts!! I had to re-read a lot of lines because of this. Ms. Young did stop by the YA Book Club for a questions and answers session .   She said this about the no quotations:  " My failed attempts to tell Saba's story conventionally over a period of more than three years forced me to start all over again, with a blank sheet of paper. As I sat there, not knowing what to expect, only knowing that I had to get out of my own way and stop thinking so much, Saba began to speak. Clearly, directly and really very much as you see it on the page in the finished book. I could hear her voice in my head.

It's not a dialect of any one place or time. I've used words that my husband's Nottinghamshire aunt used, phrases from my Cornish grandfather, my Scottish father, friends, people I overhear on the bus. And what I found was that in her cobbled together, scavenger world, Saba uses a cobbled together, scavenger form of English.

I tried to feel the rhythms and arcs in the simplicity of the language in order to urge the story on, so that the language of the book and the way it appeared on the page would match the pace of the story. So that we'd feel the sharp urgency of Saba's quest and how she is feeling inside.

That's also why I chose not to use quotation marks or closed word endings. I wanted the reader's eye to move across the page without interruption and without the insertion of a narrator (which quotation marks do). My main aim was to write a page-turner that would be hard to put down and I wanted the language to be part of that."

I will read the next book and am looking forward to it's release!




Thursday, June 14, 2012

Follow Me Friday (#36)




This is the day of the week where we get to know each other better by answering a question devised by our lovely hostesses Parajunkee & Alisoncanread. We also gain new followers by joining each other's sites via GFC, so please let me know if you're a new follower. And now for this week's question....
 
Q. Happy Father's Day!  Who is your favorite dad character from a book?
 
A. Yeesh.. I just went through my read list and didn't see too many father's that I just loved.  It seems anymore in most young adult book the parents are missing.  Convenient to the plots that's for sure.  I am going to pick Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.  This is a man who is not rich and has five daughters who must be married off.  Yet he accepts each daughter how they are.  He probably should step in more but I like how he just let's them live their lives.  I love how he wants Elizabeth marry who she loves... not just someone out of convenience.

My review of Pride and Prejudice.

What father did you pick?

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Deadlocked by Chalraine Harris- Review

 
Oh man... only one more book???  NO WAY!!  It is perfect I finished this book tonight right now because season 5 of True Blood just started right now!  Here is the goodreads description:
 
With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank. Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.

This book was really a great lead up to the final book. Some characters stories are coming to a close and a lot of plot lines are finally getting some answers.  Personally I am sad that the series is about to be over but I suppose then again it is best to end it on a high note.. not after people are just totally sick of it. 

Spoilers to come:  I am so glad the fairy business is done.  That went on and on... but Claude as the bad guy?  I don't even know how to feel about that.  I am also sad about how Sookie's relationship ends with Erik.  It felt hurried.. like I don't know it should've happened differently to me.  I do think that Sookie will end up with Sam and that is fine with me.  I like Sam and he and her both have some supernatural abilities which makes them understand each other better. 

This wasn't my favorite Sookie book... and after reading other reviews some people really disliked it.  But I like that things are coming to a close.   I read a lot of Stephen King who never packages things up in a neat bow so it is nice to finish a series that does!  I went to a Charlaine Harris book signing by the way.. you can see pics here.

I am very nervous about what to expect in the next book... another whole year!!! GAWWWWW!!



Saturday, June 9, 2012

Martha's American Food


I love Martha's cookbooks! Here is the goodreads description:


In this beautiful volume, a love letter to American food, Martha Stewart, who has so significantly influenced the American table, collects her most favorite national dishes, as well as the stories and traditions behind them. These are recipes that will delight you with nostalgia, inspire you, and teach you about our nation by way of its regions and their distinctive flavors. Above all, these are time-honored recipes that you will turn to again and again. Organized geographically, the 200 recipes in Martha’s American Food include main dishes such as comforting Chicken Pot Pies, easy Grilled Fish Tacos, irresistible Barbecued Ribs, and hearty New England Clam Chowder. Here, too, are thoroughly modern starters, sides, and one-dish meals that harness the bounty of each region’s seasons and landscape: Hot Crab Dip, Tequila-Grilled Shrimp, Indiana Succotash, Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Whitefish, and Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Meyer Lemon, Arugula, and Pistachios. And you will want to leave room for dessert, with dozens of treats such as Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie, New York Cheesecake, and Peach and Berry Cobbler. Through sidebars about the flavors that define each region and stunning photography that brings the foods—and the places with which we identify them—to life, Martha celebrates the unique character of each part of the country. With all the dishes that inspire pride in our national cuisine, Martha’s American Food gathers, in one place, the recipes that will surely please your family and friends for generations to come.

OK I have a confession... I never cook anything from Martha's books. UGHHHH I always want to cook things but they are so complicated. I love to look through the pictures and get ideas though.  And the photography is great.  I usually always check these books out from the library since thwy are so expensive.  Some are $75.00!!!  I own one that my aunt gave to me as a gift, Martha Stewart's Cooking School .  Which is a great book but not a lot of recipes in that one.  The American Food book has deserts, main dishes, drinks, just about everything! Here are some pictures I took from this book...



Also... I found a great picture on the web about Martha...

oh Martha I love you!!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Dragon Age:The Silent Grove- Review






I received this as an ARC through Dark Horse Comics from netgalley.com, Thanks guys!

Here is the goodreads description: 

Dragon Age #1–#6, previously available only on the Dark Horse digital store! It's unusual for a king to embark on a dangerous quest himself rather than send emissaries, but King Alistair Theirin has caught wind of a rumor big enough, and personal enough, that he is compelled to investigate. With the deadly pirate Isabela and underworld merchant Varric Tethras by his side, Alistair travels to Antiva - the nation of assassins - to learn the fate of his long-lost father, King Maric. There, they will engineer a prison break, battle an assassin prince, encounter the mysterious Witch of the Wilds, and uncover the secret history of dragons

I thought this graphic novel was OK.  I have played both Dragon Age 1 and 2.  I didn't care for the map of two.  We were in the same places over and over.  But I did like the characters.  I must say I was surprised that Alister hung out with Varric and Isabela on a journey.  I mean they weren't even in the same games!!  


I was going to read it on my Nook but whenever I read graphic novels on it I have a hard time reading the words because they get real blurry so I just read it through Adobe reader on my computer.  It's nice I can read it either way.  


Also I looked up this Dragon Age graphic novel on goodreads and discovered there are sooo many Dragon Age novels!!  Very surprising to me.  This one is the first one I had heard of for the game.