Taking a Break

So you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as often lately, and there is a simple explanation: I haven’t been reading a lot lately. Life has been crazy with both holiday and non-holiday-related stuff, and I’ve wandered through the last few weeks feeling pretty much like this:

In case it needs to be said, I am Thor in this scenario.

As a side effect of the crazy, I haven’t cracked a book in three weeks. And you know what? It’s kind of hard to run a book review blog when you’re not reading.

Since I don’t want to turn into a memes-only blog (which is basically what I’ve been recently), I’ve decided to just officially drop off the grid for a few weeks. Hopefully, over the holidays, I’ll get some reading done and recharge my batteries. And then I’ll be back in January, ready to climb back on the horse.

So enjoy your holidays, and have a fabulous (and responsible) New Year’s. I’ll see you on the flip side.

 

Throwback Thursday (December 13) – The Shawshank Redemption

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate! You can put up a Throwback Thursday post on your non-bookish blog; or if you don’t have a blog at all, just use the comments to tell us about a book you remember fondly.

And NOW! We’re expanding! Throwback Thursday is no longer limited to just books! Throwback Thursday is dedicated to shining the spotlight on any book-related old favorites that need to be remembered.What’s your favorite classic television show or movie adaptation? What about your favorite song? Was your favorite toy a character from a book?

Here’s how it works:

  • Pick any media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago. Remember to keep it book-related!
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

The Shawshank Redemption

Based on the short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

This is the story of Andy Dufresne, a mild-mannered banker wrongfully accused of killing his wife and her lover, and his subsequent imprisonment in Shawshank Prison. It covers the nearly two decades Andy spends in Shawshank, the friendship he forms with Red, another convicted murderer, and the trials and horrors he suffers and overcomes while in prison. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, and has one of the best movie endings I’ve ever seen. The novella it’s based on is quintessential King — beautifully written, harsh, poignant. But my heart lies with the movie. It’s difficult to watch at times, but so very worth it. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve seen it, yet I never get tired of it. If you’ve never seen it, and if you have the stomach for it (it is rated R for language and prison violence), I’d say it’s a must-see.

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!



Top Ten Tuesday (December 11) – 2012 New-to-Me Authors

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic is easy, because nearly every single book I read in 2012 was a new-to-me author. I branched out a lot. It was splendid.

Here are the ones who stood out (and yes, some of them I only read one of their books, or they only have one book…but that one book was really good).

Also, some are on here because I did read their book in 2012, and they are new to me, but mostly because I met them and I think they’re just fabulously awesome people. If you get a chance to meet them, you should.

Disclaimer: There are a lot of Nashville/Southern authors on here. If you live near me, so do many of these ladies! Read their books! Go to their events! You’ll be glad you did!

Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012 (in no particular order, because that is way too hard)

Ruta Sepetys

First book I read in 2012: Between Shades of Gray

Why she’s awesome: Everyone told me to read Between Shades of Gray for MONTHS before I did, and they were totally right. Her writing is beautiful and moving, the story she told was incredible. Seriously. Everyone should read it. But aside from that, Ruta is one of the sweetest, most genuine people I’ve had the privilege to meet this year. She’s even lovelier than her writing. If such a thing is possible. Rest assured, her personal awesomeness combined with how much I loved her debut means I won’t be putting off reading any of her books in the future.

Myra McEntire

First book I read in 2012: Hourglass

Why she’s awesome: Myra was at the very first author event I went to, and I’ve been to several more of hers since then, because she is delightful. Not only are Hourglass and Timepiece amazing books, which I tend to shove into people’s hands to force them to read, and then they yell at me because I didn’t bother to tell them that the series isn’t finished and the next book isn’t out yet (P.S. Everyone loves them anyway), but Myra is hilarious and fun and is responsible for my decision to start watching Doctor Who, for which I am eternally grateful. She’ll be one of my favorites forever.

Lauren Oliver

First book I read in 2012: Delirium

Why she’s awesome: I haven’t actually met Lauren (YET), but Delirium was one of the first books I read after finishing The Hunger Games, and it made me realize there’s a whole genre of fiction out there that I want to discover. Also, her writing is gorgeous, which was also evidenced in Before I Fall, a novel that was just enough of a contemporary for me to realize maybe I wanted to read contemporary too. Requiem is one of my most anticipated reads for next year, and I hope to one day be able to tell Lauren how much I enjoy her books.

Veronica Roth

First book I read in 2012: Divergent

Why she’s awesome: Another author I haven’t met yet, which will hopefully be remedied someday. Not only are Divergent and Insurgent great fun (can’t wait for the third one!), but Veronica’s blog is one of my favorites. She chronicled her journey to publication and her life as a writer in terms I really understand. I think our brains work similarly. Which I mean as a good thing.

C.J. Redwine

First book I read in 2012: Defiance

Why she’s awesome: First off, Defiance is amazing. It’s a great mishmash of genres, full of action and adventure and romance and intrigue. I am ready for #2 ASAP. Also, I’ve had the opportunity to meet C.J. several times, and she is hilarious and my kind of people. Also, she’s the one who yelled at me to read Anna and the French Kiss, for which I am eternally grateful. I’m eternally grateful to many people for many things.

Rae Carson

First book I read in 2012: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Why she’s awesome: I love that I discovered several new fantasy series this year, and Rae’s series is one of the best. She writes amazing characters (Hector is one of my favorites) and intricate worlds. I am on the edge of my seat for The Bitter Kingdom. Again, haven’t met her yet, but hoping to remedy this someday.

Sarah Maas

First book I read in 2012: Throne of Glass 

Why she’s awesome: I actually met Sarah before I read her book, and realized pretty quick that her epic love of all things geeky also makes her my kind of people. One thing I never realized before I started book blogging was how many authors like the same sorts of nerdy things I do. It’s fabulous. After getting to spend some time with Sarah, I read Throne of Glass, and it was incredible. I know she has big plans for the series, and I can’t wait to read all of them.

Stephanie Perkins

First book I read in 2012: Anna and the French Kiss

Why she’s awesome: I dragged my feet on reading Anna because I just don’t think of myself as a contemporary romance kinda gal. But once I finally got around to reading it, I loved it. I met Stephanie once at a multi-author event, and she is delightful. I’ve definitely got it on my agenda to read more of her books next year.

Kat Zhang

First book I read in 2012: What’s Left of Me

Why she’s awesome: What’s Left of Me is unique and thoughtful and intriguing, and I loved the fascinating world Kat created. I’ve also gotten to spend time with her on several occasions, and she is a genuinely sweet person. I always am happy when I see her at an event, and I’m really curious about how she resolves Eva and Addie’s dilemma in her books.

Sharon Cameron

First book I read in 2012: The Dark Unwinding

Why she’s awesome: Sharon is another author who I met before reading her book, and at the risk of sounding creepy, I just love her. She’s down-to-earth and funny and easy to talk to, and — yet again — my kind of people. As happened with several authors on this list, I liked her so much, I bumped her book up my list of to-be-read titles, and I loved it. Her writing is gorgeous, her story is fascinating, and I adored the way everything unfolded. I can’t wait for the next one.

Well, now that I’ve gushed (possibly too much) about my favorite author discoveries from 2012, I hope you acquaint yourself with some of these lovely ladies (or at least their writing). Who are some of your favorites?

Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Received from the publisher in exchange for my honest review

Linger is Book 2 in Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. If you’ll recall, I recently read the first book, Shiverand while I thought the writing was lovely and the premise was intriguing, I had some problems with certain aspects of the plot. But even so, I was anxious to read Linger, in the hopes that perhaps my qualms did not…er…linger.

Warning: Spoilers for Shiver ahead.

The Plot (From Goodreads)

In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

My Thoughts

Once again, conflicting emotions. The good news is this book doesn’t spend nearly as long dwelling on the girl-falls-in-love-with-an-animal plot point, which I still find creepy. Grace and Sam are now both human and in love (in a relationship which may be a tad too obsessive to actually be considered healthy) and…happy? Well, no, not really happy, because Sam still has angst about being a wolf, and about the rest of his pack who is currently a wolf, and about the strange unknowns of the new wolves. Sam is just an angsty kind of guy.

However, Linger is not entirely the Sam-and-Grace show, because now we add in the viewpoints of Cole and Isabelle. Cole was not a very likable guy. I’m not even sure if I was supposed to like him. He’s charismatic and charming, but not the kind of person I really want to spend any time with. Add in that half the characters also don’t like him, and I think it’s okay that I didn’t either. He was interesting. Just not likable.

However, I did like Isabelle, which is funny, because she’s also not a very likable person. But a lot of the time, she had the sole voice of reason, making the same observations I was and pointing out obvious things that really should be priorities for the other characters. And despite everything Isabelle went through in the first book, she was surprisingly non-angsty and down-to-earth. Yes, there was the weird thing between her and Cole, which was kind of out-of-the-blue, but it wasn’t a central plot point like the Sam-and-Grace relationship. For the most part, the Isabelle chapters were my favorites.

The plot for Linger is, in my opinion, more interesting than the one for Shiver because there’s a bit more mystery about the whole thing, a bit more of the danger and unknown that makes a story interesting. Also, less focus on the romance (although it is still very much present), which was good because while I love a good romance, I need it to be more sub-plotty and less main-plotty.

My biggest problem with Linger was Grace’s conflict with her parents. I got SO FRUSTRATED with that whole thing, and it was for three reasons.

1. Grace’s parents’ concerns were totally valid, as were their reactions to what Grace was doing and the way they decided to deal with it. If anything, I thought she got off easy.

2. Grace acted like a disrespectful brat, throwing out basically every teenage angsty cliche in the book, driving her parents bonkers, then acting like their reaction was completely unreasonable and over-the-top, and being utterly narrow-minded and self-centered. I honestly couldn’t stand her in those chapters.

3. Grace’s relationship with her parents for all of Shiver and the first part of Linger undermined them when they actually attempted to do some decent parenting, and I hated that that was the case. While I still don’t think Grace’s melodramatic hissy fit was justified, I can at least understand why she was disinclined to listen to her parents’ concerns after they spent most of her life decidedly absent.

Everything about this part just rubbed me the wrong way, and while I understand that it makes sense for the characters (because after all, Grace is a teenager in the throes of her first serious relationship, and her parents are uninvolved 95% of the time), it was beyond frustrating. I think this is a matter of perspective, not the writing or storytelling. If I was a teenager reading this, I may have completely sided with Grace. But I’m a parent, so I couldn’t. You may think this is the best part of the book, and if so, good for you. I’m glad you don’t have to be frustrated.

Then there was the ending, which was actually kind of neat. I saw half of it coming, but the ultimate resolution took me by surprise. It’s the reason I’m going to keep going and read Forever, because I’m really curious how they’re going to work out a solution to this problem. I’m just hoping they don’t turn Cole into a deus ex machina, because I could see it going there. I’m also hoping that we get less angst, less brattiness, and more Isabelle-as-the-voice-of-reason.

Content guide: Language, drug use, profanity, sexual situations, implied violence.

Throwback Thursday (December 6) – Les Miserables

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate! You can put up a Throwback Thursday post on your non-bookish blog; or if you don’t have a blog at all, just use the comments to tell us about a book you remember fondly.

THIS PART HAS CHANGED! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR GREATNESS!

And NOW! We’re expanding! Throwback Thursday is no longer limited to just books! Throwback Thursday is dedicated to shining the spotlight on any book-related old favorites that need to be remembered.What’s your favorite classic television show or movie adaptation? What about your favorite song? Was your favorite toy a character from a book?

Here’s how it works:

  • Pick any media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago. Remember to keep it book-related!
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I love this story. It’s beautiful and epic and inspiring and so, so sad. It is the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict recently released after serving 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Upon realizing he will never be able to build a new life for himself when he’s forced to show all potential employers his yellow ticket marking him as a felon, he breaks his parole. Flash forward a few years, he’s built a new life for himself. Unfortunately, others aren’t so lucky, and after Fantine is dismissed from one of his factories, she becomes desperate to provide for her child, Cosette, turning eventually to prostitution. When she is on her deathbed, Valjean promises to care for Cosette, as he feels responsible for what happened to her. He raises Cosette as his own, and when she grows up, she falls in love with passionate young student Marius on the eve of the Paris Uprising. As Marius attempts to choose between love and duty, Valjean realizes that Javert — the Inspector who has been hunting him since he broke his parole — has found him, and he is faced with a decision: Should he take Cosette and run, or should he stand his ground and finally face the ghosts of his past?

I KNOW. THIS STORY IS AMAZING. And yes, it is 150-year-old French literature, so it’s a bit hefty and doesn’t exactly fly by. But it’s worth muddling through.

AND NOW! Since we are changing Throwback Thursday to include other media inspired by books, I’ll also call attention to the musical, because it is fabulous and my favorite stage show of all time. I’ve seen it live five times and yes, I am BESIDE MYSELF with anticipation for the movie. (There was another movie, but I can’t recommend that one because although it follows the book pretty well, it ends WAY too early). But I haven’t seen the 2012 movie yet, so I can’t yet give it my shining stamp of approval, but I HAVE seen the stage show (five times, remember?) and can tell you that it is worth seeing. You will cry and be astounded.

(P.S. You don’t have to highlight the book and the movie/show/musical/play/whatever in the same post. I’m just doing it because I feel like it.)

Here, have a song.

Oh, also, Colm Wilkinson who plays Valjean in that video — and originated the role in London and New York — plays the bishop in the 2012 movie. How awesome is that?

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!