Flight into Fantasy

I’m kind of giddy, because I’m at the state of exhaustion where I should have been to bed hours ago but I didn’t, because I was doing schoolwork, and now I’m really wanting sleep in a huge way.

Incidentally, I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I really liked it, though after about the 8000th mention of vomit, I’m sure you can all guess what I was ready to do. But the book was definitely awesome, particularly the line, “Girls! Pentagram of Death!”

Anyway… Here’s this week’s Booking through Thursday:

Which is worse?

Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or

Reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

Definitely the second. My only experience with the first has been Jude Deveraux. I read her famous Montgomery series when I was a teenager. Oh, the drama! Oh, the romance! I wanted a Montgomery of my own. Then, as an adult, I tried with some of her other books and wondered exactly how much crack either the author or I had been indulging in, because they were so bad I couldn’t finish them.

In the second case, though, there is Charles de Lint. I’ve loved most of his books, and the sad day when I will have no more De Lint to read ever will be a depressing day for me. I love the sense of wonder his books create, and I adore the way he does urban fantasy, and his blending of folk music and Native American and Celtic traditions. I want to live in his head, I really do.

Then… well… there was Spirits in the Wires. Maybe it was the often jarring switch from first to third person, a style I absolutely loathe but which De Lint continues to use. Maybe it was the way that, even though Jilly Coppercorn made no appearance in the story, there had to be a few random asides about her. Maybe it was that I listened to it on audio and hated the narrators. All of these things are true, and I suspect that, in a different combination, they wouldn’t have bugged me. But they did, and I can’t even think about that book without sighing.

So this past weekend I started reading Pride and Prejudice. I decided to read this book for two reasons:

• You apparently can’t be considered a real fantasy reader unless you’ve read Lord of the Rings. You can’t be considered a romance reader until you’ve read Pride and Prejudice. And, well, Mr. Tolkien and I have since agreed that we don’t suit, and he’s agreed to let me read other books, so I thought Miss Austen might suit me better.

• I’ve been dying to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ever since I heard of its existance, and I wanted to say I’d read the original before I started the one with lots more ultraviolent zombie madness.

I really liked the original P & P, and I think Elizabeth Bennet deserves her place among the most compelling literary characters of all time. I was also really surprised how *funny* Ms. Austen actually is. I loved the antics of the Bennets, and Lady Catherine De Bourgh was awesome in a man-you-just-love-to-hate-this-lady kind of way.

I’ve also got my eye on a few other books I want to dip into sooner rather than later.

• The Etched City by K. J. Bishop: I blame Primavera for this one, since she raved about it over IM. I started reading it today, and I’m really intrigued by the setting, which seems to be partly post-apocalyptic, partly more standard fantasy. I like the idea of fantasy with guns, furthermore, and for some reason, I really like the fatalism of Raule, the female doctor we meet early on. *

• Doppelganger by Marie Brennan: I happened to be, um, not as engrossed in my studies as I should have been and opened the ebook to take a glance at it. I was intrigued by the first few paragraphs, and am excited to learn more about Mirage and to hope she kicks as much ass as the opening lines promise.
• tomorrow by Samantha Kane: Samantha Kane’s on my very small auto-buy list. She is the only author to consistently sell me on menage romances, but I have to admit, the blurb makes this story look so. incredibly. cheesy. All it takes, really, are two words: space pirates. Avast, maties, I’ll not be a lyin’ landlubber, because the very idea of space pirates makes me want to walk the plank. Or, y’know, shove someone out of an airlock. but it’s Samantha Kane, so I have already bought the book, and plan to devour it.

In less cheerful news, I made it official and gave up on the blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I was kind of sad about that, too, because had I finished the book when I first started reading it, I might have continued loving it. But I took a break from it, came back and realized that the only characters I didn’t actively dislike were the token female and her brother. the girl definitely deserved a better book, or at least a potential love interest that wasn’t such an asshat.

So what about you guys? What are you reading this week?

*I don’t know why the cynicism intrigues me in the Bishop book whereas it’s an active turnoff with Abercrombie. Maybe it’s that Raule seems to have enough of the optimist buried inside her that I don’t feel suicidally depressed reading her thoughts on the world, whereas Abercrombie’s characters are either resigned or, well, annoyingly self-absorbed.

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author:John Green
Genre: contemporary YA fiction
Reason for Reading: I know for sure that both Renay and Nymeth have read and loved this book. I want to say that Kailana does, too, and I trust these women’s reading tastes.

Synopsis:

Before. Miles ‘Pudge’ Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave ‘the Great Perhaps’ even more (François Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

Other Takes:

• Nymeth

• Valentina
• An Adventure In Reading

My thoughts: Like everyone I have spoken to about this book, I loved it. I have a soft spot for boarding school stories, probably because boarding schools still hold a certain romantic mystique. But Harry Potter this is definitely not.

I loved the characters. From Pudge, whose thing is memorizing people’s last words and who is so very adorkable, to the Colonel, genius, prank mastermind and scholarship student, to Alaska herself, I had a very clear picture in my head of who each of these kids was. I loved their interactions with each other, and I loved the pranks they pulled. Alaska in particular reminded me of a girl I went to high school with, and I loved that particular pleasant memory getting dredged up. I especially liked that these kids felt like real teenagers. They’re all brilliant, but I never felt they were self-important, and I liked that the things they did, like smoke and binge drink, are treated almost casually. This isn’t an issue book the way some YA novels can be, and I was grateful for that.

The plot is fairly low-key, and largely centers on a pivotal event in the lives of Pudge and his friends which I can’t reveal because that would be spoilery. This event changes all of them, Pudge most of all, and I appreciated the sensitivity and realism Mr. Green brought to his characters.

Reading this book was a complete and unadulterated joy. I wanted to savor it, because I didn’t want to leave the Culver Creek kids, but at the same time, the pages fairly flew by, and I know I stayed up way too late because I was unable to put it down. There were places where I cried with laughter and places where I wanted to bawl with the characters.

Final Thoughts: this book is marvelous. I credit it for keeping me on the YA kick I’ve been experiencing lately. It is beautiful and poignant and sad and smart and authentic, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I don’t think I am expressing the epic awesome that is this book, and don’t think I should even try any harder, for fear that I will tread deep into the territory of unabashed fangirldom.

Final Grade: A

I read this post on Katiebabs’ blog yesterday, and have been trying to figure out what I want to say about this topic in general ever since.

for those of you who are clicky-phobic, Kate linked to a reviewer who was told she would no longer be allowed to post negative reviews on a site she reviewed for. Which, of course, caused the comments to explode in yet another old tired debate about mean grrls vs. nice girls on the Internet.

My opinion boils down to this. Reader bloggers are not professional reviewers. It’s nice if we act like professionals when we review, but ultimately our blogs are our own spaces and we don’t actually owe anyone anything. Free Internet and all that. Sure, good manners dictate that possibly saying, “I would rather stare at the contents of my cat’s litter box than ever read anything this untalented, clap-infested whore writes because she obviously got her publishing contract by blowing her editor” might not be the best way to approach a negative review, but, well, it’s not like there aren’t several very successful bloggers who manage to be snarky and fairly well-respected in the book-blogging world.

I, personally, don’t think my online voice is terribly snarky. I’m much better at snark in one-on-one situations with friends, and I do try to be professional when I review a book I didn’t like. This is because I am such a small potato in the book blogging world that every time an author notices one of my reviews, I get all tingly inside, and, since I hate confrontation, I try to be as classy as I can be when I post negative reviews. I don’t know if I succeed even some of the time, but I do try. I also believe in being honest, which has involved giving a few books the dreaded D and F grades. If that bothers people so much, then it’s not like there’s any great loss by them not sending their books to me, right?

Also, I think there’s a difference between snark and outright cruelty. Like, I don’t think I could ever liveblog a book on Twitter, though I have been sorely tempted a time or two. I also think personally attacking an author, speculating on her physical attributes, sexual orientation, or level of education, or calling for books to be burned crosses that line. But I still maintain that sometimes you just gotta say, “This book sucks big hairy donkey balls”.

Another important thing to remember is this: I write reviews for other readers. There is nothing more thrilling for me than turning someone whose reading tastes are similar to mine onto a book I think they’ll love. I mean, think of it. If they love the book, too, we can squee about it endlessly. But my reviews aren’t meant for the edification of the authors of the books I read. I figure that, if an author really wants constructive feedback on the writing process, that’s why she has an agent and/or an editor. By the time the book gets past both of those people and hits my computer, there’s not really anything further I can do to aid the writing process, and I don’t believe I should have to.

Ultimately, though, my blog is not a democracy, and neither is anyone else’s. I do what works for me and I assume other people do, too. That’s the great thing about the book blogging community. There are so many diverse voices, and I really think there’s room for everybody from the uber-snarky to the sweet and cheerful people who have never met a book they didn’t love to those of us somewhere in the middle. And, quite frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way,.

Here’s a question for all of you who write book reviews. How do you address a book’s author?

While I have made friends with a few authors online, (Hi, Bree and Donna! Hi, Kirsten! Hi, LB!) I firmly believe there should be a little bit of a disconnect between an author and readers. I don’t write reviews for the authors whose books I read. I write them because I hope someone somewhere shares my taste in books and will find them helpful.

To that end, if I write about an author in my posts, I tend to refer to them in formal terms. (Ms. Rogers, Ms. Saell, Ms. Gregg.) I guess it seems a little more professional to do that, and gives a slight vineer of increased objectivity. But maybe that’s in my head. I know of several reviewers who are perfectly comfortable with first-naming the authors whose books they review, and hey, it works for them. I’m just not comfortable with it.

So what about the rest of you? Do you first-name the authors of the books you review, or do you address them formally? Have you ever thought about why you choose the form of address that you do for authors? Authors, what’s your preference?

When it rains it pours. When I have inspiration for stuff to blog about, I could post multiple times a day. When I don’t, well, you get posts like this.

I’ve really done a lot of reading lately. Today, in addition to homework reading, I finished Anne of Green Gables , which is one of those books I really should have read growing up. I’ve been on kind of a YA kick lately, since before that I’d read the awesome Looking for Alaska by John Green. I’ll try and get both of those reviewed.

Now, though, I’ve settled in with Larissa Ione’s amazingly addictive Desire Unchained , the second in her Demonica series. I love this series, since I love meaty paranormal romance, and this one fits the bill quite nicely with, so far, no completely silly female characters. I have a ton of romances I need to read, and lately I haven’t felt all that interested, so I’m grateful to Ms. Ione for bringing me out of my romance reading slump.

I’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time blogsurfing this weekend. I have added a ton of new feeds to my bloglines because of the readathon, and one of these days I will update my links to reflect that. I’m even trying to be better about showing people my love via comments, which I’ve always sucked at. Which brings me to an issue.

One of my favorite reader blogs ever is Marg’s blog. She reads such an interesting variety of books, and I always look to her for recommendations and interesting challenge opportunities. She also comments a lot over here. But alas, I cannot reciprocate, for she has turned off anonymous commenting, and blogger doesn’t believe that I have an open ID using this blog URL. Other blogs offer the option of entering my name and the blog URL, but Marg’s doesn’t, which makes me sad since there have been several times I’ve wanted to leave her comments and couldn’t. I actually sent her an email about this, but figured the spam monsters got it, so here I am, begging for the name/URL option on her blog, so I can leave comments. Please? With sugar on top? I would be ever so grateful!

And on that note, I’m off to bed. Hopefully, there will be more substantive posts and less Shannon running off at the keyboard in the future.

Happy Sunday!

It’s finally getting to be vaguely springlike in my part of the U.S., which is exciting because I can have the window open in my bedroom and actually get some fresh air. Plus I can go outside and enjoy the weather without having to wear layers!

Anyway, I hope those of you who participated in the 24 hour readathon met your reading goals. I realized after keeping up with some bloggers who participated that I basically had no excuse at all for not playing, In fact, I didn’t crack a book at all yesterday, mostly because I don’t know what I want to read. But in October, I will be there. With bells on.

As for today, well, hopefully I can settle on a book soon. After, of course, I satisfy my craving for a sweet roll and get caffeine into my bloodstream.

I hope everyone else is having a relaxing–or at least marginally less chaotic than usual–Sunday!

I mentioned a few days ago that I couldn’t participate in the Dewey’s 24 hour Readathon even though I wanted to. I also mentioned that I’d be hosting a mini-challenge.

Well, here it is.

Write a letter to the protagonist of one of the books you’re reading. The letter can be about anything–why you like him or her, why you don’t like him or her, things you’ve learned from him or her. Post your letters either on your blogs or in the comments!

Have at it! You have until the end of hour 13–two hours!

And, where there is a challenge, of course, there must needs be prizes, and this one is no exception. For this challenge, I’m giving away Suzy’s zoo-themed gift bag with awesome reading-themed bookmarks and stationery from Bok Smith. Thanks for the awesome prize, Suzy!

I can’t wait to read what you have to write to your characters!

Once more I’m hitting the Booking through Thursday question early, because I’ll be getting all edumacated tomorrow. This week, the question is surprisingly… not book-related.

Yesterday, April 15th, was Tax Day here in the U.S., which means lots of lucky people will get refunds of over-paid taxes.

Whether you’re one of them or not, what would you spend an unexpected windfall on? Say … $50? How about $500?

(And, this is a reading meme, so by rights the answer should be book-related, but hey, feel free to go wild and splurge on anything you like.)

I suspect that if I got an extra $500 I would tend to be so overwhelmed with the fact that I could spend it on anything that I actually wouldn’t. The money would sit there getting spent on piddling inconsequential stuff.

But supposing I actually had $500 drop in my lap? I’d probably buy a new laptop. My desktop is five years old, which is ancient in computer terms. It’s an old warhorse, though, and I haven’t actually needed to worry about it for a while. In fact, the most recent computer-related problem I had was replacing the keyboard, and if that’s my biggest problem, I’m doing well. But I have to admit, having a new laptop would be nice so I could take my Internet addiction and make it portable.

If not a laptop, I could easily spend $500 at Fictionwise. Or maybe I’d buy myself a new reading chair, because I really want one. Right now I either sprawl out on my bed or I sit in my hard plastic desk chair. What I really want is a nice rocking recliner.

What about the rest of you? What would you spend an unexpected windfall on?

Well, today is Wednesday, and that means it’s time for the monthly entry into Avid Book Reader’s TBR challenge. I know that the deadline was extended until tomorrow, but y’all really don’t want to see what I’m capable of after a long and grueling day getting edumacated.

Anyway, here’s the review:
Title: Hunter’s Moon
Author: CT Adams and Cathy Clamp
Genre: Urban fantasy/paranormal romance
Reason for Reading: this month’s TBR challenge was to read a paranormal/science fiction romance/urban fantasy book. Since I have a ton of those TBR, this was a tough choice, but I went with this one because I couldn’t remember why I had a copy.

Synopsis:

What do you get when you cross an assassin with a wolf?

A good reason to stay indoors on the full moon.

Welcome to a new reality. Shapeshifters live among us. The Sazi are wolves and bears, snakes, raptors and cats. With each full moon, their bodies sprout fur, or scales or even feathers. They are all races, all cultures, but are forced to hide from the human population — hide in plain sight. If anyone had proof of their existence, they would be captured for testing, or slaughtered en masse.

Tony, a hitman for the Mafia, was brutally attacked during a hit gone wrong. He woke up furry, and now, with every full moon, he changes into a wolf. Months later, Tony has a bad feeling that the wolf-senses are encroaching on his human life. This is confirmed when he meets a new client, Sue, and feels an immediate attraction to her. But there’s a bigger problem – she wants to hire him to kill her. As he’s drawn further into her life and her problems, the wolf inside of him clamors to be let out – and he realizes he’s not the only one in the Midwest whose life is ruled by the moon …

But Tony and Sue’s enemies aren’t only those in the mob and aren’t just furry. Sue’s family has their own agenda, and Tony is definitely in the way.

Other Opinions:

• Mrs. Giggles

• All About Romance

My Thoughts: I’ve been drawn to dark fantasy lately, the kind of books where the dilinniation between good and evil isn’t glaringly obvious, where the good guys have suspect motives and there’s some actual interesting development to the villains. It’s one of the reasons I come back to urban fantasy so often. The characters are often complex and much more interesting, especially when the stories are done well. And this book had so much potential for being awesome. I loved the idea of a werewolf mafia hitman. I’m fascinated with how different authors play with the werewolf tropes in these books.

This book features everything I could want in those respects. Tony, our hero and narrator, is a great character. He’s witty and sardonic without being self-conscious about it. He is brutally honest with himself, and he has a great group of companions, even if they all totally come from the place where mob cliches go to die.

If this book had been a standard urban fantasy story about the mafia, with shapeshifting thrown in, I would have loved it unreservedly and joined the ranks of Tony’s fangirls. Alas, it isn’t. And the thing that brings this book from something I would recommend without reservation is, well, the romance.

In Shannon’s ideal world of romance novels, every romance would have two equally compelling protagonists who did something for each other and weren’t merely drawn together because of author fiat. Sadly, we do not live in Shannon’s ideal world, and this book doesn’t do that. Because Sue? She’s the sort of character that only a compassionate therapist would love. She’s a trainwreck and a doormat, and a character like Tony should have, by all rights, steamrolled the hell over her. Sadly, he doesn’t, and some of his credibility as an OMG amoral antihero!!!11 disappears because he’s too busy fixing Sue. Sure, he makes nods to the fact that Sue should be fixing herself, but it’s Tony that deals with her mom, Tony that gets her a therapist, Tony that literally saves her life on numerous occasions. never once did Sue actually attempt to stand on her own, and when she did, she kept looking to Tony for validation, which read very squickily to me, and I couldn’t help comparing supposedly bad-ass hitman Tony to, say, legitimately bad-ass Burke and finding Tony wanting.

The plot was also a bit scattered. I felt like the introduction of the Sazi at the end was an awkward bit of deus ex machina, and, while it may be an important element of the next books in the series, I wish it had been integrated a bit less awkwardly.

Final Thoughts: I knew I was going to have problems with this book when the authors thanked Laurell K. Hamilton and her assistant, Darla. And while there is definitely stuff to recommend this book, like a likeable protagonist who has some fascinating friends, the romance, which is, arguably, the point of this book, not only fell flat but was actually irritating.

My Grade: C-

I’m not proud of any of these, but I figured I would throw them out here in hopes I’m not alone.

1. I absofreakinglutely hated the one book by Laurie Halse Anderson that I tried to read, that being Speak. I am apparently the only reader in the history of people who read YA fiction for whom this is true. I certainly know Liviania has politely informed me that I should stop with my crack smoking.

2. I have no interest whatsoever in reading the Wheel of Time series. The one time I tried to read something by Jordan I found the writing style annoying.

3. I would much rather not notice an author’s prose style. Serviceable, workmanlike prose will generally get the story told without me feeling like the author is smirking smugly thinking to himself, “I freaking rock at coming up with original turns of phrase, don’t I?” Not that I don’t appreciate lush prose, because I absolutely do, I just want the story more.

4. Sometimes I do skim through my romance ebooks looking for the smut when I’m in a particular mood. I know that’s so terribly stereotypical, but I also know I’m not the only reader who does this.

5. Sometimes I consider reading books just because I have to know if they’re going to be as bad as they’re made out to be. The only reason I have yet to buy touched by Venom by Janine Cross is that it’s not available via fictionwise. I mean, we’re talking about the infamous venom cock book here. I have also considered reading the gor series for similar reasons. Thankfully, in the first case, the book appears to be the kind of dark fantasy where everyone suffers and is miserable the whole entire time because people suck, and in the second case, well, my inner feminist is nobody’s slave girl. But I can’t deny the temptation to check out the crack is there.

So those are my book confessions. What are yours?

Some of the new to me book bloggers I’ve been reading have been all abuzz with anticipation for the 24 hour readathon being held this Saturday. I think the idea is a cool one, and I would love to participate. Normally, I even could manage it, except I have plans this Saturday.

Anyway, if you, unlike me, have the day free and are a masochist, feel free to visit that site for all the detes. And because I truly am a masochist, I emailed the organizers and plan on hosting a surprise mini challenge on the day in question. (I have no idea what the challenge will be. Hence why it will be a surprise.)

I just finished writing a major paper. I’m at the stage of post-paper production where I’m glad it’s over but feel like the professor would probably much rather read a bunch of monkeys typing random crap than the paper I wrote. This will pass once the paper is graded.

Anyway, I totally wrote this post up this morning and then got distracted with homework, and since I don’t have anything else to say at the moment what with brain fryage, have it now anyway.

First of all, the obligatory Amazon Rank. Because protecting teh childrens from teh gays is seriously not cool, Amazon.

Secondly, I thought I would steal this meme from Ciaralira. She stole it from the whole rest of the world, so I’m sure she won’t care that I snitched it, too.

Hello, my name is Shannon and I’m a bookaholic.

1. What author do you own the most books by?
At this point, I have no idea. I do seem to have copies of everything by Jean Johnson and Nalini Singh.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?

I’m not that much of a book nerd. I don’t think I have multiple copies of anything.
3. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

Just one? OK fine. I’ll have to go with my longest-lasting fictional character crush to date, Miles Vorkosigan.

4. What book have you read more than any other?

A Wrinkle in Time, which I’ve read at least five times.

5. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. It truly is a lovely book, which I recently reread, but at ten I was totally awed by it. (I think, incidentally, that I first read A Wrinkle in Time a year later.)

6. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

Retreat by Mari Carr. So much ugh and WTF should not be allowed in one book.

7. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
I think I’m going to have to go with Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry. I want the next book. Like now!

8. If you could tell everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Geek Love by Katharine Dunn. It and A Wrinkle in Time are my favorite books of all time.
9. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
We had to read Nietzche for one of my classes. Ugh.
10. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Neither. Except I do like some of Chekhov’s stories.
11. Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.
12. Austen or Eliot?
Er… Can I have neither, please?
13. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I haven’t read Jane Austen.
14. What is your favorite novel?

Another plug for Geek Love here.
15. Play?
I really liked “Raisin in the Sun”.
16. Poem?
“I’m Nobody” by Emily Dickenson.
17. Essay?
You know, this survey is either hopelessly pretentious or I’m hopelessly unread. Does the collected works that I’ve read of David Sedaris count for this question?

18. Short Story?
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by charlotte Perkins Gilman.

19. Non Fiction

Can I go ahead and list Beyond Heaving Bosoms by the Smart Bitches? I realize it doesn’t actually count since I haven’t read it yet, but this survey is totally making me feel dumb, so I’m just going to embrace that.

20. Graphic Novel?
*Sigh* If I weren’t blind, I would totally read the Fables graphic novels. But since I am…

21. Science Fiction?
Hmm. Of all time? I have no idea. Mowst recently I’ve loved Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold and Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
22. Who is your favorite writer?
This changes on a daily basis. But I’ll still go with Lois McMaster Bujold.
23. Who is the most over rated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer.
24. What are you reading right now?
Going to finish Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner, and then I have to decide what book I’m reading for the TBR challenge. I’m waffling between three that will fit the theme– Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn, and The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe,.
25. Best Memoir?
I don’t think I’ve ever read a memoir in my life. This is not likely to change.
26. Best History?
Again with the not well read.
27. Best mystery or Noir?
Oh, easily, the Burke series by Andrew Vachss.

I’ve been noticing that many bloggers have been awarded the Zombie Chicken Award lately. Lest you wonder what the heck I’m clucking about, let me explain.

The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…

You know what has me so fried? Not one of the brood of hens whose squawkings I read regularly thought to nominate me. I wonder what they were thinking? Did they think that, as soon as the Zombie Apocalypse hit, I would fly the coop, hoping for free range? Well, I cry foul! As soon as those zombies came swooping in, egged on by my hen-pecked friends and associates, I would fight those zombies until all of them were sufficiently yolked. After all, zombies weren’t meant to rule the roost!

But thanks to no one giving me this award themselves, I guess none of the rest of you will ever know that, will you? Why, even now, you probably think I’m just going to grab your leg and pullet. Well, I intend to be proactive about this. As soon as I hear the faintest hint of zombified creatures running around with their heads cut off, I’ll lay in wait. Because goddammit, I am a bad-ass, kick-ass zombie-fightin’ chick!

Things that Are Good: Yesterday, I went to Fictionwise, and I bought books. I have the latest books from Ann Aguirre, Jean Johnson and Carrie Ryan. I haven’t started any of these books, but rest assured, they will not languish on my TBR for long.

I’m also doing really well with picking good books this week. I finished Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh earlier this week, and now am reading Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardener, on the recommendation of Wendy the Super Librarian. Though, should you decide to go find that book yourself on Amazon, keep in mind even Wendy, who is a suspense junkie, thought the book was creepy. She is not wrong.

The Bad: I have class work out the yin-yang to accomplish this weekend. Tomorrow I’m going to go with a friend to view some art, which is one of those pointless activities if you’re blind but which will net me some extra credit. Then on Saturday I’m helping out at our local AIDS walk, which requires being up at an hour of the day I used to believe did not exist. Which means Sunday and Monday will be spent in homework.

On the Internet, there is a lovely rant over at Dear Author about the author’s Guild’s completely fucked-up position regarding text to speech. Maili said everything I would have said, except with less bitchy defensiveness. The thing is, I really do wish actual blind people’s voices were being heard in these discussions. I joked with a friend that Dear Author must have missed my presence because of the fact that an entry like that is guaranteed to elicit at least one comment from me. I think it’s telling that the best and most cogent explanation for why the blind that, well, live inside my particular head are so upset about this issue comes from someone who is presumably not herself blind. I’m not exactly sure what that says about blind people and Internet discourse, but I’m not sure it’s a good thing.

Speaking of Internet discourse, though, I’m excited! I have added several new blogs to my RSS reader after the comments to my Booking through Thursday post. I may rarely post comments elseblog, but I lurk plenty and it’s always nice to find other people to read.

I’d been considering writing up another rant today about the Author’s Guild in light of the fact that the National Federation of the Blind protested outside their offices on Tuesday. But the powst I was working on was way more bitter than I liked, so I hit refresh on the Booking through Thursday site and, voila, today’s BTT question! So thanks, Internet memes, for keeping Shannon from getting all growly on the Internets!

This week’s question:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

• Are you currently reading more than one book?

Yes. I have the book I read during the day, and the nonfiction book I use to lull myself to sleep at night.

• If so, how many books are you currently reading?

Two at the moment. Though I have countless others I’ve started and then not finished.

• Is this normal for you?

Yep. I’m horrible at multitasking, and I prefer to concentrate on one book at a time when I can.

• Where do you keep your current reads?

On my ebook reader, because that’s how I generally prefer to read. Actually, I also have a PDA type device I take notes with in class, and I have my ebooks folder copied onto it as well, for those times when the professor is just not being interesting enough to pay attention when I should be.

Title: Impossible
Author: Nancy Werlin
Genre: YA fantasy
Reason for reading: Thea’s review (see below) caught my interest, and then I found out it had been nominated in the Dabwaha romance novel tournament.
Synopsis:

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child’s birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won’t be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents beside her. And she has Zach, whose strength amazes her more each day. Do they have enough love and resolve to overcome an age-old evil?

Inspired by the ballad “Scarborough Fair,” Impossible combines suspense, fantasy, and romance.

Other Opinions:

• Thea
• Angieville
• Kidliterate

My Thoughts:

Are you going to Scarborough Fair,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives thereThen she’ll be a true love of mine.

Lucy’s a smart and a sensible lass,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Til a rape on her prom night knocked her on her ass.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Like Mama before her, Lucy is cursed,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
To take up a quest or in madness immerse
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

But Lucy has something her mother did not
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
With the help of her loved ones she’ll foil this mad plot.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.
I found the idea of this book to be grand
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
But the characters all were so shallow and bland
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

The romance plot was cheesy and cliched
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
I found myself missing Rhage, Wraith and Shade.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

The villain did not fill me with bliss,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
He should have read over the Overlord list.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.
None of the characters struggled at all
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Sometimes it seemed they had too much of a ball.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Weddings and babies may be some girls’ dreams
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
But it’s not quite as easy as these kids make it seem.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

The narration of this book in its audio form,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Seemed kind of self-conscious, not friendly and warm.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

I wish that this tale had worked better for me,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
For I do enjoy me some YA fantasy
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Sadly, cute premises aren’t enough,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
So I give it a D, though that may be tough,
Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

P.S.: I wish I could link to a video of my favorite version of “Scarborough Fair,” but alas, I can’t. Here, have Simon and Garfunkle’s version instead.

Title: Old Man’s War
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: science fiction
Reason for Reading: The Herding Cats challenge. Also, I follow Scalzi’s blog and love his blogging voice.

Synopsis:

With his wife dead and buried, and life nearly over at 75, John Perry takes the only logical course of action left him: he joins the army. Now better known as the Colonial Defense Force (CDF), Perry’s service-of-choice has extended its reach into interstellar space to pave the way for human colonization of other planets while fending off marauding aliens. The CDF has a trick up its sleeve that makes enlistment especially enticing for seniors: the promise of restoring youth. After bonding with a group of fellow recruits who dub their clique the Old Farts, Perry finds himself in a new body crafted from his original DNA and upgraded for battle, including fast-clotting “smartblood” and a brain-implanted personal computer. All too quickly the Old Farts are separated, and Perry fights for his life on various alien-infested battlegrounds.

Other Opinions:

• Nymeth
• Renay
• Carl V

My Thoughts: If anyone were to ask me, “Shannon, do you like military science fiction?” I would laugh, shake my head and say, “No. Space battles just aren’t that interesting.” Nonetheless, I’m a huge fan of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, and now I’ve become officially converted to the Old Man’s War universe.
John Perry, our narrator, is a great character. He’s as charming as any Heinlein narrator, with just enough snark and enough heart that I fell instantly in love with him. At first critical glance, he could be something of a Marty Stu, too perfect and flawless to be taken seriously, with his luck seeming to always run perfectly. But you know, I didn’t even care. Unlike a lot of action hero type characters, who seem like people no actual human being could hope to have a real conversation with without immediately wanting to start punching them in the face, John Perry’s a genuinely decent guy who loved his wife and is just trying to do the best he can for himself. And it was because he seemed like such a nice guy that I rooted for him and bit my nails during the action scenes.

I don’t want to talk much about the plot, because I don’t want to give away spoilers, but I was never bored. In fact, I started this book during a lull while I was at school and it was all I could do not to start reading during what spare moments I had. What I will say is that Scalzi manages to tell a story with plenty of ambiguity. I never felt like I was being preached at, and I liked that war was neither glorified nor villified.

Old Man’s War has sequels, and I intend to read them. I find myself reluctant to part company from such interesting characters, and I’m curious about what the rest of the universe has in store for John Perry and his friends.

Final Thoughts: I’m not quite sure this is a keeper, but I do have to give it a strong B+. There’s plenty of heart in this military SF story, and Jonhn Perry, the narrator, is a fun guide on his journey.

Title: The Dazzle of Day
Author: Molly Gloss
Genre: Science Fiction
Reason for Reading: It came up in a blog discussion. I found that I couldn’t resist a premise like, “Quakers! In space!”
Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Earth is ailing, and Quakers from various countries band together for a brave mission: build a self-sustaining spaceship, and travel to the stars to find another home. The Dazzle of Day chronicles the lives of people who grew up on the Dusty Miller and lived to see it reach its destination.
Spiritual, steady Kristina plays the middle note in Gloss’s triadic exploration of the inner lives of women; Verano begins the journey from Earth, and Vintro’s story comprises the finishing notes after the journey’s end. Onboard the Dusty Miller, a depressive malaise spreads throughout the colonists, and Kristina’s daughter-in-law Juko witnesses a suicide by a co-worker while mending the ship’s solar sails. Other players include Juko’s son Cejo, her quiet ex-husband Humberto, and her husband Bjoro, a scientist who visits the new planet’s inhospitable surface and lives to bring back reports. The colonists, who’ve lived their entire lives on a small climate-controlled ship, must decide whether to adjust to life on the chilly planet, prepare to terraform a section on its surface, or continue on to search for a more suitable home.

Gloss’s lyrical and leisurely prose describes the lives of the spacefarers: religion and politics, quarrels and friendships, love and despisal, illness and death. At times this science fiction feels homespun as the gentle but human Quakers strive for consensus in their community during a time of wrenching change.

Other Thoughts:

• The SF site

  >

• Clew’s reviews

My Thoughts: I was definitely expecting something else entirely from the premise of this book. It’s definitely, as Clew says in the link above, unromantic, and maybe I just have a romantic notion of Quakers, and so I miss the fact that, like all of us, they’re human. I think I wanted The Dazzle of Day to be Zenna Henderson in space, which it really isn’t.

The premise itself and the things the characters had to deal with were fascinating. I enjoyed the reflective contemplations of the characters on the Dusty Miller as they tried to come to consensus about what they should do about things from invading ants eating the wrong plants to whether they should colonize a new planet. I also really liked the diary of an old Quaker woman who was trying to decide if she was going to actually board the Dusty Miller.

But most of the rest of it lost me. The thing is, I’m a character-driven reader. The most beautiful settings and plots won’t work at all for me if there’s not at least one person I can root for. And with the exception of Dolores from the first chapter, I didn’t root for any of the characters. They were all so very self-involved, and I couldn’t imagine living in close quarters with any of them.

Not a lot actually happens in terms of plot. All the characters face some big life-changing things, and the book describes how they deal with them, but the book ends with nothing really resolved. Which is more true to life, yeah, but is ultimately unsatisfying for me.

I also hated the author’s style. I’m not sure I can describe why adequately and with only a few words, except to say that I wasn’t very clear on why she was doing what she did. Like, why did we need the scene in the bathhouse where all the men start talking about their penises and tell a horrible story about a troll who has to cut off his? For that matter, I could really have lived without the part where a character, fresh from a life-changing experience, forcibly anally rapes his spouse. I’m not a prude, I swear, but really, that was gross. And of course the man doesn’t get the kind of punishment I think he deserved.

Final Thoughts: A really good premise is spoiled by characters I absolutely loathed and despised. Also, if I never read another book with surprise! buttsecks in it again, it will be too soon.
Grade: D

I know a lot of other bloggers do this, so… why not me?

I thought I’d read a lot more than I did in March. Maybe I’ve missed something, in which case I need to be a lot better about making notes on my book spreadsheet. Also, I sucked at writing reviews this month so I’m not going to link to any of them because I am teh lazy.

Books Read in March

• Bound by Steel by Kirsten Saell: It’s not my favorite entry in her series, but since she’s one of my favorite ebook authors that’s not saying a whole lot.

• Crux by Moira Rogers: I love the dynamic duo that is Moira Rogers, both as people and as writers. I really liked this book, and I’m excited about this series continuing. Very fun sexy urban fantasy!
• Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione: It’s cheesy as hell, but I was sucked in completely while I was reading it.
• Rapture Ready: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian pop Culture by Daniel Raddosh: A fascinating bit of nonfiction about Christian pop culture. I’ve been kind of surprised at the fact that I have suddenly developed an interest in reading pop culture analysis, and I blame this book. (Yes. Some people develop real hobbies such as stamp collecting or selling Mary Kay. I, on the other hand, am a nerd.)
• Strega by Andrew Vachss: Loved this second entry into the Burke series. I think Vachss is going to be my go-to author for a definite sense of grit.
• Savage Love by Dan Savage: I love Dan Savage’s weekly syndicated sex advice columns, and I’ve loved the other books he’s written. This was interesting, but not so much remarkable.
• In the Night Garden by Kathrynne Valente: Part of her Orphan’s Tales series. I loved the sense of wonder involved in discovering these fairy tales.
• Gobsmacked by LB Gregg: A full review of this is in the works for TGTBTU, but I will say that I enjoyed this, despite the fact that the book’s main character was hard to like in spots in the same way I find heroines of het romances marketed as humor to be… He was all about the wacky hijinks and I didn’t connect with him well as a real person.
• Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh: This one was just way overhyped. I liked it, I’ll probably read the next one, but it wasn’t teh most awesomest thing evar!!!11
• A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly: I read this shortly after reading some of the endless commentary on Racefail 09. I have no idea if she got the struggles of an educated black man in pre-Civil War New Orleans right, but it felt authentic to me and I loved it.
• Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James: I was expecting it to be way worse, so I was way happy that I liked this book. The thing I didn’t like? Both the hero and heroine had parents straight out of flagrant stereotype central casting. Seriously, every time the heroine’s hippie mom showed up, I had to restrain violent tendencies.
• Through Wolf’s Eyes by Jane Lindskold: Really liked this. Nice start to an epic fantasy series that shows promise.
• The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss: Review forthcoming. You know when a book starts out with an awesome premise and you read it and you’re absolutely blown away because it’s so much better than you thought it could ever be? Well… that did not happen with this book. At all. Also, it features surprise! buttsex, and I was just not all upons.

Overall, not a bad reading month. Only one real dud, which is awesome!

This month’s amusing search terms

• flipper boy freak picture: Um, sorry I couldn’t help you there?

• Valdemar Fanfiction: I don’t write it, but I know people who do. Or did.
• Fantasy Rants: Just give me time.
• Disabled Character Romance: I want to write a post about that in more detail, but the gist of my thoughts on the issue is that I don’t want to read them.
• Neil Gaiman wife: I’m sure she’s a nice person.
• japanese tv show mentioned in andrew vachss: Er, I don’t know! Now I’m curious!
• why should i read flowers from the storm: Because it sure beats robbing convenience stores!
• shannon life flight: Oh dear. I hope she’s OK.
• romance novels made into movies: The only ones I know about are those Nora Roberts Lifetime movies which, by all accounts, are horrible.

So… that’s been my month. Stay tuned next month for more flipper boy pictures! Or… possibly not.

This week’s Booking through Thursday asks:

Suggested by Barbara::
I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

Ever since I was a little girl, libraries fascinated me. All those books! Stacked on high shelves across a vast space! The ability to simply go wandering the stacks to pick out whatever you wanted seemed like the most glorious thing ever!

Of course, as a voracious reader who is also totally blind, that dream has never been reached for me. This makes me sad in a vague sort of way, because I feel that accessing the etexts available through Bookshare (which is about the closest there is to a library service aside from the National Library Service for the Blind)isn’t as inherently satisfying. I can’t pick up the books in my hands and hold them or run my fingers over their spines.

I also know that even as an adult if I ever were to go visiting a library for the blind, I don’t think I’d find it very satisfying. So few books are actually produced in Braille, and institutions like that are so rarely funded adequately that I don’t know if it’s even possible to find a functioning library like the one I used to dream about wandering through.

Still, I do appreciate the fact that, through the Internet and the advent of ebooks, I can read much more than I could have otherwise. And having the actual variety more than makes up for not being able to get lost in the stacks.

Title: Through Wolf’s Eyes
Author: Jane Lindskold
Genre: Epic fantasy
Reason for Reading: Once Upon a Time challenge, it’d also been recommended to me by a number of people.
Synopsis: Firekeeper is a young woman who has only dim memories of her life as human. She has instead spent her life raised by wolves. Recently, though, a group of humans has entered the lands where her pack range, and she is sent to figure out who they are and to embrace her human heritage.

The humans are, for their part, seeking information about a colony founded by their king’s disowned son. When they meet Firekeeper, Earl Kestrel, the man in charge of the expedition, decides she must be the prince’s daughter Blysse and adopts her accordingly. They bring Firekeeper to Eagle’s Nest, their capital city, and begin to groom her for human society, because Kestrel wants to present her as a possible heir to the throne, which, of course, would further his own ambitions. Firekeeper, for her part, finds humans strange and their ways incomprehensible, but soon she is drawn into a web of intrigue, sorcery, and political machinations.

My Thoughts: I really do love the gritty dark fantasy of George R. R. Martin fame, but sometimes, I want something that harkens back to Mercedes Lackey–a book where the good guys are always good, the villains are always evil, and justice in the end triumphs. Through Wolf’s Eyes fits all these criteria quite nicely, and though not the most brain-engaging book, I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

Firekeeper herself is the best part of the book. She’s very well-drawn, with definite strengths and weaknesses, and I loved her reactions to human society. I love that she was neither hopelessly naive nor a font of all sage wisdom. In many ways, she’s a predator, and I liked that the reader is never allowed to forget that.

Firekeeper is by far the most interesting character in the novel, but she’s not the only well-drawn one. We also meet Derian Carter, the requisite commoner destined for greatness, Lady Elise archer, a young noblewoman with more strength than she lets on, King Tedric, who is craftier than many people suspect, and Blind Seer and Elation, Firekeeper’s companions, a fellow wolf and falcon respectively. All of them were a joy to read about, and I particularly loved Tedric and how he kept his cards close to his chest and knew how to play the court games well. Blind Seer and Elation are, in their turns, nice subversions of the animal companion trope, as they both have minds of their own and stay with Firekeeper because she’s their friend, not because of some mystical bond.

In fact, the only sour note of characterization comes from one of the book’s villains. It made me a little sad, because as interesting as all the good guys were, the villain was so flat. I expected him to twirl a moustache, beat on some puppies, and laugh maniacally at some point. In fact, I think he even does laugh maniacally at one point.

The plot is actually fairly simple, in spite of all the court intrigue. Which isn’t to say that not a lot happens, because stuff definitely does. There just aren’t a million subplots to bog down the action. The book ends on a satisfying note, with all of the conflicts resolved but with enough left hanging to make me feel like I’m not being manipulated into reading the second book right this minute. The book was well-paced, and kept me interested throughout. In fact, I don’t remember reading many 500-plus page books that have gone as quickly.

As for the setting, it, too, is fairly simple. I never felt like I was being thrown a list of complicated names I needed to learn. There are also not many descriptions of the landscape and geography and culture, which I found refreshing. In fact, though there is info-dumping, it tended to be about the relationships between the characters, which kept the pacing quick.

I did have some stylistic problems with the book. Even though I mentioned being mostly OK with the info-dumping, it is present, and not always well-integrated. There were lots of “As you know, Bob…” moments, (moments where the characters tell each other stuff that you wouldn’t think they’d have to reiterate just to provide exposition for the reader.) I also didn’t like that certain characters got POV sections late in the book. Those sections served their purpose, but I thought they could have been handled better, or maybe the POV could have been given to other characters.

I did like the end, for the most part, though there was one bit of court intrigue that puzzled me, and seemed pasted on so we could have further conflict in other books.

Final Thoughts: This is a strong start to a series I will be keeping up with sooner than later. It is flawed, but it was a book I enjoyed despite its flaws. I’d recommend it to readers who like slightly lighter fantasies in the tone of Mercedes Lackey.

Final Grade: B

There’ve been a few posts on the blogosphere recently that I find interesting enough to highlight. So, in lieu of content today, have some links!

• Tumperkin has a guest post on Racy Romance Reviews on what romance is really all about. I haven’t figured out a satisfactory answer to this question for me. I do wonder sometimes if I fit the stereotype of the romance reader who reads romances because I’m not involved with anyone, and I have some trust issues involving actual members of the male gender that have kept me from actively pursuing relationships. But I don’t think that’s entirely it, and it’s a simplistic explanation anyway.

• Ann Aguirre, who is one of only about five authors whose blogs I actually read, has some thoughts about inspirational romance. They pretty much mirror mine, so amen, sister!
• Especially for Primavera, Mrs. Giggles has had a makeover this April 1. I don’t actually know that Primavera has ever heard of Mrs. Giggles, but I figured she would appreciate anything that linked to cute bunny pictures. Because I’m a good friend like that. However, if your name is not Primavera and you like cute bunny pictures, you, too, should feel free to make with the clicky.
• And, more for me than for anyone else, have a link to Fantasy Book Critic’s spotlight of books released this month.