Angieville

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted @ The Broke and the Bookish The truth is that I never look at anything book related as a problem . Books (and everything they encompass in my life) are the bright spot. They save me on a daily, sometimes an hourly basis. They are where I go to recover from the 99 problems calling for my blood at any given moment. They're the plane, and the train, and the road, you know? What I'm trying to say is that when I do stress, it's never about the state of my mountainous TBR, or when I'll get around to picking up the seventh book in that series I love, or how I'll ever scrape together the money for those shelves I really need.  That said. I know that the people near and dear to me would be able to slap together a list of my book related problems in no time flat. So I thought it would be fun to compile a list of ten five problems they would definitely say I have and that I would think fondly of their extreme patience with m...

It's February and the color red is everywhere, in windows, on cookies, and threading through the most lovely of upcoming book covers. These three. They are so beautiful, they would grace any shelf. Two of these authors are new to me, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know their work. The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore This one sounds almost like a magical realism take on Romeo & Juliet , and I am down with that, people. The two families are the Palomas and the Corbeaus. They operate rival traveling performance troupes. There's a touch of black magic. Then a Corbeau boy saves a Paloma girl's life, and well . . . Due out September 15th Sword by Amy Bai Thanks to Li for the heads up on this one! Kyali is the only sword-wielding girl in the realm. Charged with the care of the heir to the throne, her life falls apart when the ancient nursery rhymes of her people begin to manifest themselves in reality. It sounds all epic and doomed and ...

I enjoyed a number of things about last night's Super Bowl, but this thing was the best thing. I had my arm around my 6-year-old girl as we watched it and, yes,  that is what it means.

Teenage Sherlock Holmes, Watson is a girl, and the story is told from her perspective. This is essentially all the information I needed in order to make the decision to dive into Every Breath at the earliest opportunity. But in case you're wavering, it's also fun to know that this is Australian author Ellie Marney 's debut novel, that it is a YA contemporary mystery, and the first in a series to boot. Next up, I think we should just take a moment to talk covers. I have yet to purchase my own copy (that's earmarked for the next paycheck), but both the US (seen here) and Aussie covers have a lot going for them. The Aussie one gets tons of points for having Watts actually on the cover, for one thing. But in a very rare move, I'm leaning US if only because it's not a photo of actual people (never works out well for me) and because, well, his throat. Also his hair and his entire posture. But his throat. That's Mycroft. I love him this cover. Rachel Watts...

I started a Meredith Duran book some time ago and stalled out early on for reasons I can no longer quite remember. I know it wasn't the writing, which definitely struck me as adept. I think it was more to do with the setting and I not clicking. Also the sense I was getting that the characters were going to hurt each other—possibly at some length—before they found any middle ground. Either way, I wasn't up for it at the time. And then I'm fairly certain I went on to mix Ms. Duran up with Tessa Dare and forgot to return after trying and sort of spectacularly failing to engage with Dare's Spindle's Cove series. Which is why I'm very glad Fool Me Twice was brought to my attention a few days ago. It jogged my memory and I remembered I'd always meant to go back and investigate Duran's work further to see if there might be a better fit among her backlist. As it turns out, her most recent novel and I were destined to get on in spades. Olivia Mather has set...

This Choose Your Own Edition comes to you via my thus far failed attempts to foist a copy of  The Ruby in the Smoke   off on my friend Beth. The Sally Lockhart series is my favorite of Pullman's work, and I am just so eager for her to read that first incomparable line. My own copy is currently on loan in a different city and won't be returning soon. I did run across an older library copy for sale with a somewhat dismaying pale blue 90s cover and naturally turned my nose up at it (I did go back later but it was gone, naturally). Full disclosure: I am such a snob sometimes about the  cover  that accompanies someone's first impression of a book I love. Honestly, someone needs to beat it out of me. It's the reason I own three editions of  Sunshine  and yet only ever loan out one (my favorite first edition), so that new readers come into the experience with the right (IMHO) packaging.  SIGH .  In any event, with no copies ready to hand, I've bee...

First review of the year, guys. I hereby promise you I chose a  good one. In fact, I really feel as though I have exercised great restraint in waiting this long to review it. Due out in just under two weeks now, I decided I could wait no longer. It's not that I haven't made my feelings about Liza Palmer 's books abundantly clear, because I know that I have. It's that her latest novel— Girl Before a Mirror —is so good it's giving her others a run for their money as my favorite (and I honestly didn't think my love for Nowhere But Home could be surpassed). So good I've already reread it once and am fending off a second reread even as I type this. There are other books out there, and they all deserve a chance. I know this, and I feel their call keenly. But. I had supreme difficulty letting go of this one, and I can see myself diving back in regularly and indefinitely just to spend time with these characters again and to experience Anna's hilarious and t...