Thursday, 29 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Bitten by Books » Author Missy Jane Interview and Contest LIVE Here!
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Monday, 26 November 2012
Memorable Monday: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Provoked by a quote, delighted by a quote or
perhaps you fell in love with a beautiful quote?Share the quote(s) with us in your own Memorable Monday post.
I promised you a quote from one of my favorites read this year, The sky is everywhere by Jandy Nelson, because I didn't have any in my book review earlier. This book is about 17-year old Lennie who recently lost her sister and now she finds herself falling in love with a very special guy. She feels guilty and confused about these and all her other emotions because should't she just feel bad and grieve about her sister? It's a very emotional, funny and poetic read that I would recommend you put on your wishlist for Christmas;-)
At 4:48 p.m. on a Friday in April,
my sister was rehearsing the role of Juliet
and less than one minute later
she was dead.
To my astonishment, time didn't stop
with her heart.
People went to school, to work, to restaurants;
they crushed crackers into their clam chowder,
fretted over exams,
sang in their cars with the windows up.
For days and days, the rain beat its fists
on the roof of our house—
evidence of the terrible mistake
God had made.
Each morning, when I woke
I listened for the tireless pounding,
looked at the drear through the window
and was relieved
that at least the sun had the decency
to stay the hell away from us.
(Found on a piece of staff paper, spiked on a low branch, Flying Man's Gulch) (page 18)
Silje
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Book review: I am the messenger by Markus Zusak
Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . .
Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?
The characters:
Ed is a very likable character even though he at first seems a bit hopeless. He feels very human and realistic to me and I really want things to work out for him. His three best friends Audrey, Ritchie and Marvin are also interesting and somewhat fun to read about. Because even though they all have their issues and are presented as almost pathetic characters it is done with both warmth and humor and therefore it is imposible not to like them. Maybe I'm a little dissapointed not to get to know more about Audrey who is such an important character to Ed. In the book we also meet a lot of other people in the different stories and most of them made an impression on me. For instance the old lady Milla that doesn't remember that the love of her life no longer lives, is a touching story.
The plot and construction:
The plot and first of all the construction in this book is really original and is what makes this book stand out. Ed receives his missions on each of the Aces and the chapters of the book are all following the playing cards in a regular deck. This gives the book a drive that keeps the reader interested all the way because you know the story is going somewhere. I think all the stories where Ed plays a part are mixed well together and it is never too much or confusing. The mystery is of course who's sending these cards to Ed, and I did not see this one coming. I even had to read the ending again to get it which might say more about me than the ending being to complicated:-).
The language is quite simple with short sentences that makes it an easy read. As I read this in norwegian I can't really say anything about the original language, but in norwegian it seemed a little simple, but not enough to take too much away from the good experience. The book has an uncomplicated but important message about caring and doing things for each other and that the small things matter. I think Zusak is a very interesting writer and I have to read more books by him soon.
Source:
Gift from the norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm as part of a book blog tour
My rating:
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Friday, 16 November 2012
Free ebook of WAKING UP MARRIED on Amazon.com
If you think of flirting as an art form, Harlequin KISS™ stories are all about the delirium of a potential new romance - where fun-loving heroines and irresistible heroes just can't get enough of each other.
Waking Up Married
By Mira Lyn Kelly
It's the morning after her cousin's bachelorette party in Vegas and Megan Scott wakes up with the mother of all hangovers. Even worse, she's in a stranger's penthouse having woken up with something else as well-a funny, arrogant, sexy...husband! Up until now, finding even a boyfriend had seemed impossible - been there, got the broken heart, sworn off men for good. Then a few martinis with Carter...no, Connor Reed and she's gone from first meet to marriage in one night! Megan wants a lawyer. But Connor's shocking bombshell? "I don't want a divorce."
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
The King of Clayfield by Shane Gregory * * * * *
Author: Shane Gregory
Genre: Zombie Horror
Rating: * * * * *
Publishers: brainofshane (November 18, 2011)
Kindle size: 549 KB (315 pages)
ASIN: B00619GYZ2
FTC Disclosure: Bought from Amazon
In the small town of Clayfield, Kentucky, an unsuspecting and unprepared museum curator finds himself in the middle of hell on Earth. A pandemic is quickly spreading around the globe, and in less than a day has turned most of the residents of Clayfield into murderous zombies. Having no safe haven to which he can flee, he decides to stick it out in his hometown. However, zombies are not his only concern. He must also contend with other survivors, his lack of skills, and his own conscience.
If he is smart, and a little lucky, he can do more than survive; he can live like a king.
New author for me that I ran across on www.BittenByBooks.com just yesterday. Just love that you can read a sample of a book free from Amazon. Without a doubt, this sample of 5 or 6 chapters sucked me in so fast that within minutes I knew I would have to read the whole thing. One of the best and worst things about a Kindle- instant access to anything you can imagine! Needless to say, I sat up until the wee hours devouring this book. If you love the “Walking Dead” this series is for you. I love that though the world is coming to an end due to a zombie apocalypse, the book is focused more on the people who are trying to survive this horror and their interactions with others.
While told from the narrator’s POV, a nerdy museum guy, totally unprepared for the end, you have no problem seeing how it effects many of the other small-town people. I love the gradual evolving of this character from a mild meek Clark Kent to a butting kicking zombie killing superhero.
From a small rural community myself, I can so relate to the individuals and appreciate the advantages of living in the boonies yet having the Wal-Marts and Tractor Supplies within driving distance. Books like these have me appreciating the vast varieties of supplies they (and I) keep on hand. I just need to convince my husband that an eight foot fence around the 30 acres is a necessity not a frivolity.
This was a very quick read and I've already purchased book two and am already hoping there will be many more books in this series. Hard to beat the price on this book and much, much more story here than you would think for a mere $3.
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Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Monday, 12 November 2012
Book review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margareth Stohl
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
Original story
Beautiful Creatures is refreshingly enough without vampires, werewolves, fairys, fallen angels etc. What you do get in this book is dark and light magic, superstition, voodo and many other fascinating things. I find many parts of this story original and intricate. The book is told from a male character's perspective which I think is quite unusual in itself in this genre. We also get flashbacks from the Civil War when both the ancestors of Lena and Ethan lived in Gatlin. This adds debth to the story and makes it more interesting. The Civil War plays an important part in the small southern town of Gatlins history and they have both a museum and an annual play. The small town environment where the community is ruled by the narrowminded women in a local society is one of the things I think works the best in this book. I found it a bit strange that the community treated Lena so harsh from the start though. The adults believed the other girls that claimed there were something strange and evil about her right away. The same adults also removed Harry Potter from the school library earlier, and we know that has happened to many books in real life so maybe I'm just naive.
Love, love, love
One of the reasons I didn't really enjoy this book is the romance. I could probably need a break from paranormal YA, and especially Paranormal Romance which is what I would call this. I would classify this as such because the romance and the relationship between Lena and Ethan is such a large part of the book. I would have preferred to read more about other characters, the back story and not to mention the main plot and what's happening to Lena and her family. I think when you've read a few books in this category you recognize the recipe. A boy/girl who feels left out meets a person from the opposite sex with supernatural abilities. The supernatural one could be dangerous and therefore they shouldn't be together, but of course they just can't stay apart. When I read the first Twilight book and Hush, hush I was all into it and didn't look for all the flaws and annoying details. In this one I can't overlook them. About Lena and Ethan and didn't really feel for them. Lena is too flat and vague and I don't think Ethan is quite credible as a male character. I also missed some tension building between the couple. And even though this is not the worse book in describing only beautiful people (as Mari wrote about earlier), I also thought there were a few too many descriptions of Lenas beauty and not to mention the amazing things that happened when they kissed.
I really thought I would like this book so I have to say I was dissapointed. I thought the story showed promise but the love story partly ruined it for me. It was too long (more than 500 pages) and I got bored and stayed bored for a large part of the book. If I wasn't reading it for a norwegian book blog tour I'm not sure I would have finished it. I know many people really like this book and I can honestly see that it has certain qualities but this wasn't a great excperience for me.
My review:
Source:
Gift from the norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm
Silje
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Memorable Monday on a Tuesday: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.
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| Provoked by a quote, delighted by a quote or perhaps you fell in love with a beautiful quote? Share the quote(s) with us in your own Memorable Monday post. |
You know you want to stop by for a tease! I'm currently reading (well listening really) Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Revolution is a great historical/contemporary young adult novel and I wanted to share a couple of quotes from the story with you my dear blog readers.
This is a story about a girl named Andy, sometime ago she lost her brother in an accident and she is struggling to move on with her life. Andy travels to Paris with her father, in the house the two of them is staying at Andy finds a journal written by a girl during the French revolution. After this the reader is taken back and forth through time, from the revolution to life as we now know it. I'm loving this mix of the contemporary and historical! Anyways here is my memorable quote for the day.
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| Click the cover to visit Goodreads for more information about Revolution. |
I wish I could stop messing up but I don't know how. What is it that mends broken people? Jesus? Chocolate? New Shoes? I wish someone could tell me. I wish I had an answer. Once I asked Nathan what the answer was. I thought he might know, considering all he's been through, but he told me I would have to find it for myself. That everybody has to.
Page 136.
I know I've been a bad, bad blogger lately, but I'm not sure there is need to apologize for it. I mean time just flies by and I do feel that both bloggers and non-blogging readers can relate to that :)
Have you read Revolution?
Sunday, 4 November 2012
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