medieval bookworm

Popular this month on LT: Do you look at this list? Do you get ideas on what to read from it?
Have you read any of the books on the list right now? Feel free to link to any reviews you’ve done as well.

Here’s the list:

1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
3. Nation by Terry Pratchett
4. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
5. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
6. American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
8. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski
9. Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer
10. Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland

So, I’ve read and reviewed four of them.  Three of those were ARCs, at least one of which I would probably not have picked up anytime soon on my own.  I actually bought Guernsey and it’s currently my favorite book of the year.  Of the rest, I’d like to read Dewey and possibly The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, but that’s about it. As many others have said before me, I don’t use this list for anything except to look at as interesting.  I don’t follow bestseller lists of any kind either.  I mostly read what I’d like to read.  If it’s on the bestseller list, that’s okay; if no one has ever heard of it, that’s okay too.  I pick up recommendations from other bloggers and LT mainly, although I am more inclined to pick something up if it’s won an award.  I seem to do this no matter how often I detest award winners because some are just so good that they are worth the duds.

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ETA: Unrelated to Tuesday Thingers, I have just installed a new spam-catcher for Wordpress.  My spam volume has increased to ridiculous amounts lately and I can’t stand wading through it (it’s of the extremely vulgar type) to find new commenters; I’ll go somewhere and come back an hour later to 15 spam comments.  So I’ve got an autocatcher on now and I’m not sure how well it will work, so if your comment has not shown up in a day or so, it may have been miscategorized.  I’ll still monitor for new comments; once you’ve commented and it’s shown up, you will never have to be moderated again.  Just a heads-up!

Do any of you get ridiculous amounts of spam, or is it just me?

Spoilers for The Firemaster’s Mistress are in this review, as this book is its sequel.

Francis Quoynt is still torn up that Kate chose his father over him.  With no compelling reason to stay in England, he accepts Cecil’s command to go to La Spada and fulfill an extremely important loan that Cecil himself granted to the Prince.  The Prince of La Spada is dying and will accept Francis’s services as firemaster as payment.  Francis has no idea why the Prince chose him, and he has even less of an idea about the trouble he’s getting himself into - or about the lovely principessa who has a mind and will of her own.

I was thrilled to discover that there was a sequel to The Firemaster’s Mistress.  As you’ll know if you’ve read my review, I didn’t like the fact that Kate chose Boomer.  Having read this book, I am much more satisfied with that ending, because otherwise there would have been no Sofia.  The dynamics between this couple are intense, and if possible the speed of the plot is even more so.  I greatly enjoyed it.  Since La Spada was fictional, Dickason could create a plausible Italy city-state but provide us with a story entirely of her own making.

There isn’t much else to say about a book I liked so much.  I’d definitely recommend this one if you like historical fiction.  It’s only available in the UK at the moment; here’s the Amazon link.

As I mentioned last week, I haven’t been great at getting reviews up, and this week it’s been fairly obvious.  I’m happy to say that I already have two scheduled to post next week, though.  They are The Principessa by Christie Dickason and The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon.  So it looks like I might be getting back on my reviewing feet!

I’ve still read a ton this week; I guess rather than composing reviews I have been pouring all my energy into reading.  Since last Sunday, I’ve read Natural Talent by Sheelagh White, March by Geraldine Brooks, The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham, The Duke and I by Julia Quinn, The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, and Immortal Warrior by Lisa Hendrix.  A few nights of unexplained insomnia helped a lot; I read the last one from beginning to end after I went to bed.  I didn’t intend to, and to be honest it was a romance novel and thus not really “gripping”, so I doubt it was the book keeping me up.  I liked it but I could have put it off until today as my review isn’t to be posted until the 24th.

I expect this week to be a bit busier.  I’ve done nearly all of my assignments, but that just means I have to start on my essay.  I still have no idea what to write about, but I do have a vague general direction.  I’ll start research and see if anything comes to me.

This week, I’ll be finishing Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer and I hope to get through The Lady Elizabeth  by Alison Weir and The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie as well.  If I finish those three, I think it might finally be time to read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.  We shall see.

A year after the events in The Well of Ascension, the world is ending.  Vin has accidentally released a hidden evil into the world, one that seems impossible to fight.  Their only hope is to follow the Lord Ruler’s instructions and trust that he has the answer, but as things get increasingly worse, Vin and Elend get desperate in their attempts to thwart this new evil as this trilogy ends in an unexpected crescendo.

I’ve been waiting months for this book.  I read and loved The Well of Ascension way back in January; I bought it in hardcover because I didn’t want to wait.  Without question, Brandon Sanderson is the best new fantasy writer that I have read.  He creates endearing, believable characters (I adore Vin), places them in a complex and unusual fantasy world, and has one of the most logical but still really awesome magical systems that I’ve ever come across.  And he can certainly write.  The story here is good and unpredictable.  It feels like they must have the answers, and sometimes I could see them coming, but I could never work out what was going to happen next.  The ending was similarly unexpected.  I love how he picks up many threads from the beginning of the trilogy and weaves them in here.  I can’t wait to read all three in sequence to see what I’ve missed.  I really enjoyed reading this book, as it’s over 550 pages and I read it in about two days.  I had to know what happened.  At the same time, I’m a bit sad that it’s over, but certainly looking forward to more from Sanderson.

That said, I cannot deny that I did have one problem with it.  A portion of the book is taken up with religious questions, mainly Sazed’s sections, and Sanderson draws conclusions in the book that I just can’t agree with.  I’m not a person of faith and I don’t think faith is necessary to be happy; it does bother me that it’s implied here.  Not only that, but these parts of the book move more slowly than the rest.  I did not want to get back to Sazed and his musings.  I think this is a personal preference issue; perhaps if I was still religious it wouldn’t bother me.

Obviously, I still loved the rest of the book.  I thought about Vin and Elend while I was away from it and read it instead of doing my assignments.  I’m waiting to get in the same country as the first two so I can reread them.  As I said, there’s no denying that Sanderson has ridiculous amounts of potential and I can’t wait to see what he writes next.  I just hope he keeps the slow religious musings out of it next time.  This is definitely a series you shouldn’t miss if you enjoy fantasy.

Buy this book on Amazon. You can also visit Brandon’s website, which is really awesome, as it has his blog and annotations for the first two Mistborn books as well as sample chapters.  His tour schedule is up there as well.

Many, many thanks to Dot Lin at Tor for providing me this book and to Brandon Sanderson for helping me get a copy.  I will be holding a giveaway as soon as I have my second one!

I’ve asked, in the past, about whether you more often buy your books, or get them from libraries. What I want to know today, is, WHY BUY?

Even if you are a die-hard fan of the public library system, I’m betting you have at least ONE permanent resident of your bookshelves in your house. I’m betting that no real book-lover can go through life without owning at least one book. So … why that one? What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?

If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?

I am a buyer. I like to own my books. I like to look at them, I take a lot of pride in having so many, especially at my age, and I love that I can re-read them at will. Well, when I’m with them; they won’t be moving in with me again for the next year at least and I’m not sure when I’ll be living in a permanent enough place to deem it worth it to drag them all out of my parents’ house. Still, I know that they are there and waiting for me. I just don’t feel the same way about library books. I borrowed Sharon Kay Penman’s Welsh trilogy from the library and I have wanted to own it ever since. I bought a ton of fantasy books that I had previously borrowed from the library. The thing is, if I’ve read it and enjoyed it, I want to have it. So the library makes my “condition” worse in that now I’ve read the book, I want my own copy, but I’m not likely to read that copy for years.

I have recently “re-discovered” the library. It makes sense right now; I do not have a job and I’m living on money that I set aside for this specific purpose. I’m spending as little as possible and books don’t fit into my budget right now, even though I walk past five bookstores each day. Yes, five. It’s torture, believe me, so I console myself by going to the public library. The problem is that I know I’m going to want a number of these books and I’ll be spending money on them someday - but as long as I can put off that day until I have a reliable income, I will do so.  Books are my main entertainment, so if I see one that I am particularly eager to read I will still buy it (especially when it’s 50p) but I am not looking on purpose.

On an unrelated note: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson finally came in the mail! Woohoo! Just Old English translation is standing in my way now.

Aaron Summers is only a teenager but he knows that acting is his calling; he’s already been in several films and sealed his status as pre-teen poster boy.  His latest film is his biggest yet and features a couple of kids completely new to the acting business.  Everything starts off well, after he persuades his parents to let him take the part, until a few suspicious accidents lead the teen cast, growing closer every day, to realize that someone is sabotaging their movie.  The adults don’t believe them, so it’s up to Aaron and his costars to work out exactly what’s going on and more importantly, why.

As I mentioned, this is YA fiction and is a change of pace for me, but a change of pace that I liked.  This is by far the best self-published book that I’ve read all year.  In fact, it hardly reads like one at all and I had to check several times that it was actually self-published because I found it hard to believe.  The storyline is engaging, the dialogue is realistic, and the characters are endearing, which is more than I can say for quite a few other books I’ve read this year.  What more can I ask for?  I would definitely have loved this as a kid and I’d recommend it as a potential gift for any kids in your life that are interested in the movies.  It combines mystery, love, stardom, and suspense in a very entertaining package and deals with a few challenging teenage issues in a competent way.  I’m looking forward to the sequel.  It’s corny, but Ms. White definitely has some “natural talent” of her own.

Check out the author’s webpage for links to purchase and more information.

Today’s question: LT Things- t-shirts, bags, cue cats- are you into the “stuff”? Do you use a cuecat to enter your books, or do you enter them manually? What do you think of the stuff?

I had at one point two cuecats, but I don’t have any other LT stuff. I had two cuecats because I won one and then Tim sent me a second after my fiance spent hours trying to fix my widget when it was actually LT’s fault that it was broken. Since I didn’t need two, I gave one to a friend to help with her cataloging and I’ve kept one although I almost never use it. It seems more trouble than entering all the ISBNs and I’d done the majority of cataloging before I won the first one. Now I enter books when I buy them or when I finish them if they’re borrowed, so it’s not really necessary. I wouldn’t mind having other LT stuff. Probably not a bag as I wouldn’t like to carry their (or any) logo all the time, but I’d quite like a T-shirt.

First things first, the giveaway winners!  I had 24 entries and two win the prize.  Random.org provided me with numbers 15 and 24, who are Cheryl Free and Bookish Ruth!  Please email me (it’s in “about me”) with your addresses and I’ll get them to Michelle so you can have your books ASAP.  =)

Secondly, I have not been the best book blogger lately.  I feel a bit like I’m falling off the wagon with too much to do.  Not only have my meme posts been late and my commenting has fallen off (I’m still reading blog posts, though), but I have three reviews to write - The Principessa by Christie Dickason, His Wicked Kiss by Gaelen Foley, and The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon.  I’ll be posting those this week.  I liked all three books, so they shouldn’t be hard reviews at all, I just think I’m a bit burnt out on writing them.  I’m also nearly finished with Natural Talent by Sheelagh White, a YA novel about kids preventing sabotage of the film that could make them all stars.  It’s a nice change of pace from all those historical novels and I expect I’ll be reviewing that this week as well.

Wishing everyone a good week; thanks for visiting!

Last day to enter the giveaway for two signed copies of The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran!  See here for details.

What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”

I love getting books as gifts and I get them a lot.  I usually pick the book these days, though, and specifically ask the giver for that book, or I give them a list.  I’d love if I got surprised a bit more, especially since my entire catalog is now up on LT so you can check if I’ve got or read something, but it’s hard and an extra step for people, rather than just having a list.  I think my parents used to surprise me with books but I have too many for them to do it now so they have a list to pick from.  I particularly remember a few of the Harry Potter books in hardcover one Christmas that I was very happy about.

I think the last books that I received as a surprise were from my boyfriend.  We’d only just met and I’d never been to England, but he knew I liked to read, so he sent me a Red Dwarf book.  I love Red Dwarf now, but I hadn’t seen it at the time, so that wasn’t what made it special.  It’s because he wrote in it, before he knew I hate when books are written in.  I like this one though because it’s the only one I have inscribed to me, except for books signed by authors.  I don’t think I’d like many more of them, given the purist that I am, but I like my one example.  He also sent me one of my duplicates, Abhorsen by Garth Nix.  I don’t mind that I had it and had already read it, I liked that he went out and got something he thought I’d like.  No one does that because I’ve read practically everything they’d think of (as you can see by this example), but it was sweet.  I don’t think he quite realized the extent of my reading and/or library at the time.

Overall, I think I’d like to continue dictating what books I receive as gifts, but I do like the occasional surprise, especially if the giver has a look at my LT to see what I have first!