The Dark Divine & Magic Under Glass

Hitting bookshelves everywhere today:

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

and

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

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I can’t even bring myself to synopsize either of these books for you because they end up looking like this: “squee!!! !!! !!!” and absolutely incoherent with excitement. Click on the (gorgeous) covers and that will take you to GoodReads where you can read proper jacket copy like normal people. And then descend into the squealing madness that I’m feeling, which I’m about to exacerbate by consuming a large amount of coffee and sugar.

I was going to wait until the mailman could bring my copy, because the wind outside has been howling for about 3 hours now–and throwing things against the side of the apartment building with dramatic crashing noises–but I think I am going to brave the weather and hunt these down today! (…though still hoping husband feels like driving…)

Beautiful Creatures, why you should keep two copies of a few books, and some silly questions

Photos will have to wait because I forgot to charge the camera battery before today.

But (*squee!*) I got to meet Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, the authors of the new YA fantasy novel Beautiful Creatures.

Their launch party was held in the teeny tiny Diesel Books (support thy independent bookstore! – my shopping list follows) at the Brentwood Country Mart.

First of all, thanks to Jane and Alfonso for giving us a ride to Santa Monica–it’s not that I forgot about the signing, but that I had absolutely given up hope of doing anything other than working ridiculous holiday hours for the next month. Thanks for reminding me to have a life and eat some Popeye’s fried chicken.

Next of all, thanks to Margaret and Kami for writing such a fantastic book!

Third of all, thanks to Kristen @ Bookworming in the 21st Century for the ARC. (Although I do also have a hardcover, and an audiobook version… hrm. I may have to splurge for the eBook too, so I can have it with me at all times without fear of scuffing up the jacket.)

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Beautiful Creatures is exactly what I aspire to be as a human being: pretty, funny, and smart all in one package. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl have written a seamless and utterly absorbing tale of a cursed romance: a Mortal boy who falls for a Caster girl in a small Southern town. Meaningful thoughts about love, loyalty, and prejudice unfold from this intricately parsed novel: those who love books will delight in the literary references, those who love love will swoon over the star-crossed couple, and those who love good writing will greedily devour every carefully chosen word.

Better yet, get the print version and the audio, both. The music and sound effects (particularly for the dream sequences) in the audiobook version add yet another dimension to the Gothic atmosphere the authors have built.

Another book for the loaner shelf*.

*You will need two copies of certain books–one to loan out to friends until they get hooked and become convinced that they also need to go out and buy a copy (or two) and one to have handy in the middle of the night so that when you get the hankering to pick up and read a certain passage (or 576 pages), it’s there. Believe me, after the number of times (7) that the Poison Study and Twilight series caused me the distress of not having a copy to read when the book-hunger struck at 1 am (because some “friend” or other borrowed my book) taught me, there are books for which you need to keep a loaner copy. BCis one of them.

**I was asked recently why my reviews are so short. I have a long chain of reasons. 1) I’m very busy. 2) I’m very tired. 3) I’m kind of lazy. 4) I don’t want to give anything away–if you asked me in person, I would probably tell you too much. With blogging I can edit myself and stop before I’ve told you who wins and whether the dog lives or dies. 5) You can find the synopsis anywhere, so why waste time copy-pasting it? (See #3, above.) 6) I’d rather be reading.

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Also at the launch party: Pseudonymous Bosch, suspiciously without any kind of disguise (I wish I’d known–years ago I had him sign my copy of The Name of This Book Is Secret, but my other two volumes are conspicuously missing signatures!)

and, freshly ordered from thebookstorethatshallnotbenamed.com, Katie Alender, author of Bad Girls Don’t Die. (Quick! Add this to your TBR on GoodReads.) Hurry up, mailman! I need this book, stat!

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“Is Beautiful Creatures the Next Twilight?“

I agree with TeamBella76–it’s not the next Twilight. It’s the first Beautiful Creatures. According to the article, the first of five (*squee!* sorry…), and I hope no Patrick-Rothfuss-like delays result in the next four years. I just pray that unlike most book-to-film adaptations, no one screws it up. (Amen.)

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So, it’s a year until the release of the as-yet-un-named sequel to BC. What to read in the meantime? And where to buy it?

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Missed Margaret and Kami at their launch party? It’s all good! You have many more chances to meet them. They’ll be at Borders in Northridge, CA at 7 pm on Thursday, Dec. 3. (Ooh! I’m off that night… wonder if they would take kindly to being gently stalked…)

Turkey Day Splurge (Future IMM)

Bookstores closed? Borders.com is never closed!

I meant to buy this:

and ended up with this:

and

and

and found out that Sony eBookstore also had this:

(which I could never justify buying unless it’s brilliant, because it’s so short, so I’m probably just going to borrow it)

and this:

for just a few bucks, which I might get.

But first, empty bellies must be fed!

Husband made the meal this year–pot roast and chocolate chip cookies. Thanks for my husband who can cook 4 things really well, for my family who doesn’t suck, for books and booklovers of all shapes and sizes, for my coworkers who are the only reason I bother showing up to work any more (even though sometimes they are the reason I don’t want to show up, thanks anyway).

What are you thankful for?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (3)

Huh, this seems to be the only kind of post I have time for right now! Ah, working in retail.

meme hosted by J. Kaye

Books I finished this week:

The Maze Runner by James Dashner: Eh. I liked it, will read the next, but it’s no Hunger Games.

Books I am currently reading/listening to:

I am re-reading Push by Sapphire. It’s as gritty and beautiful as I remember. I read it a while back when I was fresh out of high school. I found that while fluffy stuff like Sloppy Firsts no longer appeals to me after 15 years, meaningful things like Push (the basis for the movie Precious) really stay with me. When I’m done I think I’ll re-read another old favorite, like Kindred by Octavia Butler or Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I don’t actually own copies of those anymore (my cousin Jerome in the Philippines has them, I think), so will have to re-buy.

I’m also reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I love this guest post he wrote on Joe Scalzi’s blog.

Books I haven’t started yet, but recently acquired:

+ through Vol. 5

What can I say, the husband is on a huge graphic novel kick and I promised to read them all, too.

Also acquired from David Y at last night’s YABC meeting:

+ through Vol. 9

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Let’s just hope I get some reading done this week.

For more What are you reading?, go to the source!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (2)

meme hosted by J. Kaye

Books I finished this week:

So, after about 2 weeks of not-reading and utter job depression, I finally picked up Ballad: The Gathering of Faerie and finished it off. It rocked even harder than Lament, mostly because the main protagonist is none other than James, bagpiper extraordinaire. Of the long laundry list of faerie books I’ve read in the last year, this is the only series I’ve actually enjoyed–this, and Juliet Marillier’s Wildwood Dancing.

I also read Death Note, Volume 1: Boredom and Death Note, Volume 2: Confluence, for YABC. I bought those two, but instead of buying all the rest of the manga, although I really want them, to save money and be simultaneously entertained the husband and I are watching the anime, which is *so* much better than reading it. They did a bang-up job on the North-American voice acting so it’s extremely watchable in English.

Books I started this week:

I picked up James Dashner’s The Maze Runner in ARC form a couple of weeks ago, and while it has my attention it’s also giving me the same annoying *give me some answers, dammit!* feeling that you get from watching the first 3 seasons of Lost.

Books I haven’t started yet, but recently acquired:

Louisa May Alcott has a new biography out in hardcover. I snapped that one up right away!

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is one I snoozed on–and thus missed getting a first edition, first printing, sigh. I think this is the 3rd printing already… well, I hope it’s that good!

Downloaded the new Malcolm Gladwell, What the Dog Saw, from audible.com. I usually wait until car rides with the husband to listen to things like this, as we both enjoy them, but with my crazy schedule lately we may have to listen separately and discuss later.

For more What are you reading?, go to the source!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (1)

meme hosted by J. Kaye

This week I finished Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney.

I just started Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater and The Big Burn by Timothy Egan.

I started, then for whatever reason (i.e. laziness) put down Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard, Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, and St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell–all great books, but I just had to put them down and read something easier, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, because my brain has recently been threatening to make an unrecoverable error and lose all saved data. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a backup system on my brain. Wish I did.

Books I plan to start this week if my brain doesn’t crash and burn include The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff, The Keeper by Sarah Langan [on eBook] (I guess you can call it mood-reading for Halloween), and Days of Little Texas by R. A. Nelson.

What are you reading?

The GoodReads/Vroman’s Book Swap! – An IMM Special (5)

Ok, so I hadn’t blogged a whole lot about this before because

a) I’ve been really, really stressed out lately

and

b) I know most of you guys reading this don’t live out here in sunny SoCal

but today from 4 to 6 pm was the 4th GoodReads book swap, held at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena.

Here is my special episode of In My Mailbox, as hosted by The Story Siren:

Jason and I headed down there to meet up with Jane and Alfonso (Dale came too!), load up on books, and chat up the GoodReads folks. Yep, I got to meet Elizabeth, Otis, and Jessica from the good ol’ GR team. I feel like I met movie stars today–with less fainting and awkward silences, phew. They were very friendly and I wish I could remember to bring my darned camera to things like this. (It’s ok, Otis had a camera.) They’re just over there in Santa Monica so I’m sure I’ll run into them at a future event.

Here’s what we scored:

I'll trade you!

Yoinked from Dale Z, one of my favorite booksellers on the planet

Procured for me by the wonderful and thoughtful Jane

Yes, that is a math book. Math is *awesome*! Especially Trig.

This will forever be burned into my memory as the book Paul Giamatti's son wanted when they came to my store. Ok, yeah, my old high school P.E. teacher's son also wanted it, as do a lot of other 12-year-old boys. But, I mean, Giamatti! *swoon*

This was the husband's big score.

Formulas for everything! We could make our own ink for crying out loud.

Anti-Kink Hair Cream? This book is now at the top of my TBR list.

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Great fun was had by all, and I hope someone is enjoying my copy of Jonathan Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You. I thought it would be good book karma to swap a book I loved and totally wanted to keep. (But just one, hehe.)

Anonymous swappers, thank you for your fine taste in books.

As soon as I find out where the next one is, I’ll let you know. I do hope they have another one there–it was an excellent location!

In My Mailbox – IMM 4

Ohohohoho.

The Wild Things (fur-covered edition) by Dave Eggers

You make my heart sing.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

And Hush, Hush showed up just as I was leaving work today. I’m glad I hung out waiting and hoping the CEO of my company would come around… well, I don’t know if he came or not because I was hungry and wanted to go home and read :/ sigh. Maybe next time, Ron Marshall.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney

Oh yeah, and it was time for this, too. I got the t-shirt! On a thin day, I can fit into it… hmm. I might have to try that trick to make a small t-shirt bigger, where you splice one shirt you do fit into with a shirt that’s too small. Hmmm….

Um. Guys. This is unusual. I hardly bought *any* books this week! (“Dear FTC, I bought all of these with my own money. I kept the receipts. These are *not* ARCs!” Sheesh. Is this going to be standard with every blog post to disclaim about getting free books?)

I feel sick… I got very few but very cool things this week ^_^

In My Mailbox – IMM 3

This meme is hosted by The Story Siren! IMM covers all the books I received in the mail, bought, donwloaded, or got as ARCs this week.

So, I tried to curb my book spending recently, since Husband just dropped $200 on the Sony Reader Pocket for me (henceforth to be called “Pocky”, or “Blue Pocky” if you want to be more formal about it).

I know, I know, there is no try.

addiction...

Do, or do not. And I apparently do not.

From the top, then, starting with what I bought (gulp):

I picked up Sally Garner’s The Silver Blade, and now of course I have to pick up The Red Necklace, which is the preceding volume.

The Musician’s Daughter by Susanne Dunlap is getting mixed reviews, but let’s face it, I’m a sucker for 18th century European tales.

Days of Little Texas by R. A. Nelson, I actually know next to nothing about, but just look at it!

Days of Little Texas by R.A. Nelson

I think this is going to be a future YABC pick for me, if it’s good.

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough put me off at first, I didn’t like the cover. Then I read the blurb, which claims that the protagonist “will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all.” Hidden identities, check. Family skeletons, check. Apocalypse, check. Sold! This is right up my alley. I just hope it’s not disappointing like Immortal.

I’d been waiting impatiently for this:

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Now, I’m not a *huge* fan of steampunk sci-fi, but alt-history 1914 Europe + Austrian prince + flying whale warships = a damn good time, don’t you think?

One for the adults: In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke. You’d think after just having finished The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood that I would have had enough of pandemics, but I guess it’s contagious (aauggh! did I really just write that? disgusting.)

One for the kiddies:

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart is not to be missed. I just love Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance; so glad their adventure continues. I’m surprised the audio reader they picked for this series was Del Roy, not Jim Dale. But he sounds pretty good.

Not pictured: The Everafter by Amy Huntley (bought), already started while waiting for Husband in the parking lot of a hotel in San Diego after our uncles took us to Extraordinary Desserts for dinner. Subsequently passed out in a sugar coma (damn you, Raspberry Linzer Torte! you were just too good) and forgot about the book which spent a few days buried in the clean laundry. (Distracted for a moment, looking for a chocolate pithivier recipe… aaaaand, I’m back!) October really seems to be turning into a YA ghosts-and-witches month for me, which is a nice change after all the grown-up books I read last month…

Also not pictured: The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Stacey was opening up the mail at work and found this–I think I may have squealed. Of course she knew who to give it to right away ^_^ , since it’s being compared to The Hunger Games. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Mentioned in a previous post, the Norton Critical Editions of Jane Eyre and Pride & Prejudice, Thornfield Hall by Emma Tennant, and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

But wait! I’m not done yet.

I got sick of waiting for copies of Soulless by Gail Carriger to turn up, so I got it from the Sony eBookstore. In total, for the 50 books I have on my eReader I have spent less than $50. That, *and* I figured out how to get the graphic novel I bought (Black Hole by Charles Burns) to display larger on the screen: change the orientation to landscape and you won’t have to worry that the image won’t resize when you hit Zoom–the display automatically stretches to fit, thus giving you larger text! Phew.

Also picked up the new Audrey Niffenegger on Audible. The new Richard Dawkins, too. Although trying to listen to that while Husband was driving us home from San Diego in the cold and dark, in the midst of a Varlhona-chocolate-induced coma, was not a good idea. We may have to rewind.

That’s it for this week! Hopefully I’ll have less to report next week… If I “do” instead of “do not”.

A Blank Book after My Own Heart

I got an email update from Vroman’s Bookstore (my favorite local indie bookshop) re: the new Indiebound journal line they’re carrying:

Indiebound Journals

Love. Eat. Sleep. Read.

They’re not in the online shop yet, but if you’re in the Pasadena area be sure to stop by and check out their store–I could spend hours in there. Days in the children’s department alone. And thousands of dollars (if I had them, which I don’t, but I do bring the credit card with the lowest balance whenever I shop there).

I know for a fact Maria V. Snyder was almost late to her own book signing at my store because she was mesmerized by the seemingly endless treasures at Vroman’s!

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Ahem.

In other news, I succumbed to temptation and now own 2 of the 3 books (Atwood + Moore) I lusted after in the previous post, plus a paperback copy of Paper Towns (whosoever does John Green‘s book design over at Speak/Penguin Teen deserves to be showered with flowers and cookies, and possibly some lolcats-style baby kittens–they are just so beautifully designed, I can’t help but want them!) and Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy (Bloody Jack, Book 7) by L. A. Meyer.

The John Green gallery of awesome book covers:

An Abundance of Katherines

Looking for Alaska

Paper Towns (HC)

Paper Towns (QP)

Whoever you are, anonymous designer whose name does not appear on the cover or the back of the title page, thank you.

Also of interest: John Green’s blog post: Book Covers and the Death of Publishing. I don’t quite agree with him 100% (and I’ve revised this next sentence since yesterday since I don’t think I adequately expressed what I wanted to say).

I do agree that book covers should be targeted to the ideal reader (i.e. if you like this cover, you will like this book) and not the broadest possible buying audience (i.e. if you like this cover, you will buy this book whether you like what it is about or not), but I think that taste is so subjective when it comes to either side of the cover that it’s difficult to gauge. There are more important things to get right. Take for example the cover of Bill Cosby’s last book, which through the unfortunate omission of a comma, changed the meaning of its title completely. (And kids, if you don’t get the joke, it’s ok. You’ll get it when you’re older.) The publishers seem to have fixed it on the paperback version.

But–I do think books with African-Americans portrayed on the cover will still sell–in fact, they would stand out on the shelf since so few, unless you’re in the Social Studies or African-American Lit section, have such covers. Due to the constraints of WordPress.com (I really should have made a whole separate post of this) I can’t put the gallery in this same post, but I’ll do a new page for it today.

Now that I think about it, quite a few of the books I like with African-Americans in the cover art are either required reading for schools (like Kindred or Their Eyes Were Watching God), but a few of them, while they have what I consider to be good cover art in general, don’t portray the main, African-American character on the cover. (Again, a separate gallery to build. Will link as soon as I finish it.)

And while Green’s outlook on the brick-and-mortar bookstore becoming obsolete in the next decade is gloomy, I’ll have to respond with the Monty Python line “I’m not dead yet / I feel happy”. Sure, we’re not in the best place right now. But new readers are born every day. And some of them have parents with jobs. So I’m hopeful, that in 10 years’ time there will still be a physical bookstore and a physical book. Whether I’m running the store or just shopping there remains to be seen.

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Digressing…

My husband wants this book, but I hesitate to buy it–reviews on The GR are medium-low.

As for Ishiguro, only time and paychecks will tell. (Speaking of paychecks, that means you all who won my 09/09/09 contest and have not received your books yet can expect them in the mail soon–they go out tomorrow! Yay for payday!!)