Angieville

I actually don't remember the last booky meme I filled out. And so when I ran across this fun (quick!) one over at Read the Book , I decided it looked like just the thing. 1. Book I am currently reading: Cinder by Marissa Meyer I love everything about this idea. I'm about 80 pages in right, and so far so good! 2. Last book I finished: Untying the Knot by Linda Gillard Linda writes some of my very favorite contemporary adult titles. This is her latest and, as usual, I fell right into it. Review to come. 3. Next book I want to read: The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams Entirely because of this review . I can only hold off a trip to the bookstore for so long. It must be mine soon. 4. Last book I bought: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce Because even though I wasn't crazy about the previous book in the trilogy, this is the third and final book, and I find I do want to see how Beka's story turns out. 5. Last book I was given: Imaginary Lands by Robin McKin...

R etro Friday   is a weekly meme hosted here at  Angieville  and focuses on reviewing books from the past.  This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. I look forward to this season every year because it means I get to reread Sunshine . This is one of my few solid seasonal reads. I revisit it every year for so many reasons. Because it originally came out in October. Because it absolutely encapsulates autumn for me. And Halloween, of course, what with all the vampires and the midnight outings and the smell of fallen leaves and cinnamon rolls in the air. And because it's just one of the biggest Angie books there is. I remember being almost apoplectic with excitement when I heard Robin McKinley was writing a vampire novel. The whole notion filled me with tingles. And imagine how happy I was when it turned out to be better than I could ever have imagined. I know people have strong f...

Shatter Me came across my radar purely through the blogosphere. I'm fairly certain I wrote it off initially based on the cover alone. Having read it now, I'm even less of a fan of the cover. In fact, I vastly prefer the plain white cover of my ARC. It retains the slashed title (which I love), but otherwise it is just a field of white. The final cover sells the book short, in my opinion, especially Juliette herself. The model, her expression, and the dress are just too froufy and faux intense for Juliette and for my taste. I feel like the story deserved a starker, more ambiguous cover. So what encouraged me to check out this debut novel was definitely not the cover, but rather the collective heart attack it seemed to be giving a slew of my favorite bloggers. I heard "beautiful writing" and "awesome dystopian" and I hoped. But I made sure to go in with carefully measured expectations, because I've had a few of those "beautiful writing awesome dys...

R etro Friday   is a weekly meme hosted here at  Angieville  and focuses on reviewing books from the past.  This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. I decided to pull this one out not long ago, because I've been feeling like pirates lately. Sometimes you just feel like some good piracy, don't you? The boy has chosen to be a pirate for Halloween this year, and so the various  accouterments  and necessities have been swirling around the house, and so the whole thing has been on my mind. I ran across Misty Massey 's debut novel somewhere over three years ago on the shelves of my local bookshop and the cover pulled me in right away. It's wonderful, isn't it? So many possibilities in it . You don't know whether it's historical fiction or steampunk or fantasy or a combination of all two or more of those. I love it when a cover allows you to avoid genre stereotyping like tha...

And here we have the cover for John Green 's upcoming book The Fault in Our Stars , due out January 10th. I like how simple it is (yay for simple these days). I like that there are no people on it. And I like the chalk writing. It's a little hard to fall utterly in love with, however, because of the countless unbelievably awesome  fan-made covers sent in. Happily, they impressed his publisher so much they're holding a contest for fan-made covers for the next edition of An Abundance of Katherines . I cannot wait to see the results! For now, I'm off to go pre-order my signed copy of tFiOS. 

I wasn't really planning on reading Virtuosity . I'm not sure why, because I'm actually often drawn to stories featuring prodigies or people with highly regimented lifestyles due to their skills/abilities/life choices. Also, I like the title. But, the cover doesn't do a whole lot for me (it looks more paranormal than contemporary). Nothing wrong with it, but I will say that it would help if she was at least holding a violin. Then a galley floated my way, and so I went on the hunt for a few reliable reviews. And wouldn't you know, I found them (see links below). Enough of them to prod me to see for myself. I actually started Virtuosity right after finishing another book, somewhere in the vicinity of midnight, and I was absorbed quickly and deeply enough that I just read it straight through. I kind of feel like it's one of the ones best read that way, one of the ones that benefits largely from a quantity of undivided attention and a lack of breaks throughout. ...

For those of you who've read The Scorpio Races , you'll know what these are. And for those of you who haven't yet (it's due out tomorrow), you'll soon be in for a treat. Reading about the November cakes was like reading about the Cinnamon Rolls as Big as Your Head from Sunshine . You just want one Right Now. Served at the local bakery and festival around race time, the description of the November cakes made my mouth water while reading. And then Maggie went and posted her very own recipe for them, and I just had to try making them for dessert yesterday. I had to grin as I ate one, picturing Finn smiling as he placed one in Puck's hand and Sean and Puck munching on them quietly as they sat atop the cliffs gazing out to sea. So, here's the recipe: And here's what it makes: Yum.