Monday, October 31, 2011

Creepy Reads

I finished two books last week for two work  book clubs. They were both appropriately creepy for the season.

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor was inspired to write these three short stories by "The Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti.  The first story is about a girl who longs to be wanted and that longing attracts a goblin's attention.  The second is about a girl cursed into silence which is only challenged by first love.  The third is a complex story told in a non-linear way about a woman running from her past and her daughter trying to find out who she is.  These stories are spooky and creepy and I love them.  I can see why this was a National Book Award finalist.  Jim Di Bartolo, Laini's husband, illustrated this book beautifully.  I posted a picture of the hardcover with his art gracing the cover.  The newer paperback edition has a different cover which I do not like.  I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys dark  faerie stories.







Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

A menacing carnival comes to an Illinois town and 14 year olds Will & Jim try to fight the main baddie, owner Mr. Dark.  While Will & Jim may be the main characters, Will's dad, the janitor at the public library, is really the heart of the story.  I love Fahrenheit 451 so I expected to love this.  I did not.  I liked it, but no love.  It can get pretty wordy at times.  There was something about the writing in this book that made me think Stephen King read it as a young boy and it influenced him.  I read that Dandelion Wine takes place in the same town as this book and it makes me want to read it to see the differences.

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Angel: Immortality for Dummies

I'm not as much a fan of the Angel graphic novels as I am the Buffys.  I also find the series numbering confusing.  The first four are all volumes of Angel: After the Fall, which was one large story arc.  Volume five was a new story arc called Angel: Aftermath.  Then came Angel: Last Angel in Hell, which was labeled volume 6.  Now suddenly this is volume 1.  I feel like IDW should have either made this volume 7 or made volume 5 a volume 1 since it was a new story arc.  Whatever, I only have two more Angel graphic novles in this particular IDW series left so it will no longer drive me bonkers!

This volume begins with Angel missing and Team Angel does not know whether he is in hiding from his new found fame or if something is wrong.  I feel very meh about this book.  I like the bits with Angel and I like the promise of the new character that is presented.  There is a lot of Connor in this book and he is not my favorite character.  I also don't think Spike sounded very Spike like.  I like him much better in his mini-series which was published after this.  The first four volumes, which were scripted by Saint Joss, are my favorites.  I purchased volume five only because it was 50% off.  I'm glad I've been getting these through the library, especially since they are only available in hardcover.  I think it would take a big sale for me to succumb to my fandom OCD and buy this book.

I am counting this toward the RIP Reading Challenge.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

RIP Challenge VI



Every year I anticipate the RIP Challenge hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. The challenge is all about reading novels that can be classified as mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, or supernatural. I also don't follow through very well, but I still like reading all the posts. There are lots of different challenges so that everyone feels like they have time to participate. I will definitely read at least two books because the September and October selections for the book club I help facilitate at work fit perfectly: World War Z and Something Wicked This Way Comes. So, I am participating in Peril the Second. I will also participate in Peril on the Screen. Some films I love watching this time of year are The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, and Sleepy Hollow. Read more about the Perils here.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams


















Tara is a former criminal profiler, current recluse, who used her skills with a deck of Tarot cards to help catch killers. Unfortunately, one serial killer caught her, leaving her scarred and not so keen on being around people. An old family friend, who is part of a secret society of women, tracks her down and asks her to help find a missing scientist. This is pretty cool urban fantasy because it also throws in science, secret military facilities, a government conspiracy, and a charming Agent Harry Li. I will definitely read the second book in this series, Rogue Oracle. Alayna Williams is a pseudonym used by Laura Bickle. Go to her website here. I've met Laura / Alayna a couple times and she's super nice and encouraging to aspiring authors.

I love the blog Forever YA and they often cast actors in the main roles of books they review. When I was reading this I couldn't help but picture a couple actors as characters.

















Rose McGowan as Tara Sheridan - Maybe it's all the Charmed I watched this spring. I've liked Rose since I was in high school and saw Scream.



















John Cho as Agent Harry Li - He's Harold, he's Sulu, and he's awesome! He also guest starred in a season one episode of Charmed. Huh!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Once Upon a Time V


I love the idea of a book challenge: a group of people deciding to read a certain type of book. I am horrible though at follow through. Luckily, Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings has levels of commitment for his challenges. I will be participating in The Journey. That just means I will read one book that falls into the challenge requirements before Midsummer. Read the about the challenge here. This, along with R.I.P., hosted at the same site, are my favorites of the year.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Great Graphic Novels!

I've read several graphic novles so far this year.



Batgirl 1: Batgirl Rising



I'm a huge Batgirl fan (hello, librarian!). This was the first Batgirl I've read where Batgirl wasn't Barbara Gordon, which is bad because Stephanie Brown is not Barbara's immediate predecessor. Barbara is in it though as Oracle, guiding the newest Batgirl. This is part of the Batman Reborn event (should I call it an event?) so Batman is not Bruce Wayne. I liked it well enough to read volume 2 when it comes out. I should read the actual Batman books from this series too so I can have a better understanding of the background story.



Wizards of Mickey Volume 1: Mouse Magic

I saw the newest issue reviewed on tfaw.com and thought I'd check out the trades. Mickey is a wizard who is supposed to guard a magical stone for his village. He loses it and follows the wizard who tricked it away from him to a wizarding tournament. There he meets Goofy and Donald. This was adorable and I might buy it for my nephew.







Angel: Blood and Trenches

This story shows one of the many things Angel, of the tv series, did during World War II. It was done in black and white except for the blood, which was obviously red. I didn't love the artwork. For me, it didn't look like amazing black and white work, it looked like concept art. The story was okay enough, but I didn't like it enough to want to purchase it for my collection of Whedonverse comics & graphic novels.






Astonishing X-Men Volume 4: Unstoppable

I'm a Whedon fangirl at heart. The combination of Whedon and X-Men makes me happy. His entire run on Astonishing X-men has both his witty dialogue and that one gut wrenching moment that reminds you tat he is not all fun and games. I'm planning on reading volume 5, even though volume 4 contains the end of Joss's run.

Revenge of the Spellmans & The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz











I love the Spellman family so of course I continued with the series. I'm actually quite sad that Lisa Lutz's forthcoming book is not about them. The third and fourth books in this series have the same quirky qualities as the first two books. There is a satisfying resolution to one storyline in the fourth book that has been ongoing since book two. I'm sure if there is a book five though Izzy will muck it up. But I will be there reading all about it!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Absence

So I missed a few days on here. But I posted on Livejournal one of those days, so it totally counts right?

Friday, January 07, 2011

The King's Speech

Today I went to see The King's Speech with my parents. What a great film! It was touching and funny at times. My love for Colin Firth grows. I would love to read more about King George VI. I do think the MPAA ratings system is ridiculous. There is some swearing. I'm guessing this film received an R rating because of that forbidden word beginning with the letter f. Considering the context and how little it was used, it seems foolish to rate this film R. Maybe instead of rating a film R for using that word at all it should be what percentage of the film has cursing. Aside from the movie, I loved it when the theatre began filling with old people and my mom whispered, "It's starting to smell like Cardinal," referring to the assisted living facility where my grandmother spent her last three years.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Yarn!

Today this blog doesn't have to count as my creative thing of the day! I actually did some knitting in one of my favorite places to knit, my friend's house while we watched Grey's Anatomy. Now, I'm going to go enjoy the lights of my Christmas tree on this twelfth night of Christmas since I will rak it down tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz


I love this series! Sometimes I have trouble committing to a series because there are so many books in the world, I don't always want to spend tons of time with the same group of characters. But I want to be BFFs with the Spellman family because they are CRAZY in a fun way. The story includes Izzy in court ordered therapy, Rae caught in a possible cheating scandal, the Spellman parents possibly selling the business, and David (who for some reason in my mind is Eric Mabius) in casual clothing. I NEED book four now. And Lisa Lutz needs to write more books about the Spellmans.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Books, Books Everywhere

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I am a book hoarder. I buy books, and I read a lot of them, but manyremain unread for a long time. In September, a friend and I went to Cincinnati to see a group of teen paranormal fiction authors. We got to meet Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Kelley Armstrong, Allyson Noel, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl. At the time I had only read books by two of them. Now, I've only read books by two of them. But I bought books by each of them to have autographed! One of my goals this year is to read all of those books I bought and had autographed at that event.



Monday, January 03, 2011

New Year's Resolutions

I kind of stink at sticking to New Year's resolutions. It's only January 3 and I'm struggling to keep up with the blog challenge, which is only a month long. The resolution I wrote down was to do one creative thing a day. I'm counting this blog as doing something creative. While I'm not working on fiction, I am creating something that did not exist before. I hope as the days go by this resolution will evolve and grow into me spending more time knitting, writing fiction, etc.

Saturday, January 01, 2011

5 Favorite Teens Books Read in 2010

In no particular order

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

One Will Grayson tries to live a life of apathy despite the efforts of his exuberant best friend, Tiny Cooper. Another Will Grayson lives across town dealing with first love. I started this book because I love John Green. I
love this book because of Tiny Cooper.







Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Scarlett receives a high maintnance guest to care for at her parents' historic hotel on her fifteenth birthday. I want to visit New York and stay at the Hopewell.









Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Leslie tries to reclaim her life and her body by getting a tattoo. Instead, she unwittingly gives herself up to dark faeries. Unfortunately for the faeries, Leslie is used to fighting for herself. This story is dark and bittersweet. Melissa Marr's books are a nice change of pace from the typical paranormal books that lean more toward romance.








Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

When Aura loses her boyfriend on his birthday, she gains an intense relationship with his spirit. This book had a great balance of world building and plot. I cannot wait for the sequel.









Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Dash discovers a notebook in a book shop containing instructions. In choosing to follow the instructions he enters into a relationship of words with Lily. Will their expectations of each other be met when they finally meet? I was charmed by this book from the beginning.

Welcome to more blogging in 2011

In August I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge at the suggestion of Ama from Get Booked. And then my computer crashed and that didn't happen. But Ultimate Blog Challenge is back for January and I am jumping in!