Happy Halloween!!!!!

So yesterday I was moaning about how I totally forgot about Halloween and ended up not reading a Halloween appropriate book this year. Well, the book gods must have heard me, because yesterday afternoon Charlaine Harris’ new book, A Touch of Dead arrived at my doorstep.

Yes, I was excited. Yes, hugged the book tightly to my chest. Yes, I may have blown off the renos to dig into it.

And while it might not be a scary or creepy read meant to scare the pants off of its readers, it is filled with vamps, weres, shifters and fairies, making it an Halloween appropriate read.

A Touch of Dead is a compilation of short stories about Harris’ main character in the Southern Vampire series, Sookie Stackhouse. Each story has been previously published in other anthologies, but this is the first time that they have all appeared together.

I’ve only had a chance to read the first two short stories and I love them. This is one of those series where as soon as I finish a book, I want to read the next. It’s also one of only a hand full of book series that I am so into that I don’t mind doling out the money for hardcover editions.

So in between renoing today and the kids trick or treating tonight I will finish A Touch of Dead. And my Halloween tradition will live on.

My top 5 scary reads

With the major house renos that hubby and I are doing to our new house, Halloween kind of snuck up on me this year. Normally, I pick one or two scary books and read them during the last two weeks of October. Well, I didn’t get a chance to do that this year.

But over the years I have read some pretty scary books. I thought I’ve share with you my top 5 scary reads of all time.

Amityville Horror by Jay Anson– Yes, I know it’s been debunked. Yes, I know it’s pure fiction. Doesn’t make it any less creepy.

Christine by Stephen King– My first horror book ever. My Mom won it in a Halloween contest and, not knowing the subject matter, handed it to 13 year old me. I fell in love with the genre, despite the sleepless nights after reading it.

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan– Best damn vampire book I’ve read in quite a while. No sparkly teen vamps anywhere. Just pure bloodsucking fiends.

It by Stephen King– Okay, this one freaked me out so much I was in tears when I finished. The premise of a big nasty, evil monster appearing to you in the form that scares you the most is creepy enough. But the ending? Well, without giving anything away, Pennywise’s true form? Yeah, the thing that scares me the most. I was traumatized.

True crime book – I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the book (I think I blocked it from my memory) but I remember reading it while away at university, finishing it and instantly locking my bedroom door and staying awake all night. Why are most victims in these books college-aged girls? Last true crime book I ever read.

100 pages in, and…….

I have to say that I am actually starting to enjoy The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. Now, mind you, I haven’t fallen in love with it or anything, but when I look at the book sitting on my desk, my face no longer scrunches up.

I was told by some trusty book peeps that they, too, had a hard time getting into The Gargoyle, but eventually the book grew on them.

I think part of my problem is that if I don’t instantly fall into a book, I find myself looking over at my TBR pile and wondering if I wouldn’t just be better off chucking my current read and heading on to the next one. And that’s why The Gargoyle sat at the bottom of the pile for a few months.

Has anyone else ever been slow to get into a book at the beginning, only to plod on and end up enjoying it?

Faery Rebel: Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson

Published by HarperCollins Canada, 2009
Reviewed by Colleen McKie

The faeries that live in the Great Oak are a shadow of their former selves. No longer possessing the ability to perform their magic, they never leave the Oak, fearful of the world around them, in particular humans.

Knife is different from the other faeries, not content to merely exist. She wants to find out where the faery magic went and why. Her quest for the truth leads Knife to disregard not only her people’s customs, but also to disobey her Queen by befriending a human.

While I love urban fantasy, this was my first book that was a bit heavier on the fantasy than the urban and I must say that I really enjoyed it. I got caught up in Knife’s quest to find out where the faery magic went and there was just enough mystery surrounding who she could trust and count on to help her and who was an enemy.

Without giving anything away, I was a wee bit disappointed in the direction that the author went with elements of the ending. I feel that she took the expected route and the story may have faired better if she had gone out on a limb, so to speak, and taken a different approach to elements of the subplot.

But with that being say, I really enjoyed Faery Rebel: Spell Hunter and I look forward to the next book in the series.

Browse inside Faery Rebel.

Living up to the hype

Some books just seem to get a lot of hype. Everywhere you go, everything you read seems to be telling you that it’s a “must read”. As a book addict, I will quite often get caught up in the hype and pick up a book because it’s all anyone cal talk about. And because of this, I’ve been burned a few times.

The first book I’ve ever bought because of all the hype surrounding it was Twilight and (go ahead Twilight fans, crack your knuckles) I hated it. The story was kind of okay, but there was way too much romance for my taste, and unrealistic romance at that. Yes, I know, vampires aren’t very realistic, either, but I’m a firm believer that you can do the unreal in a realistic way. And for me, Twilight completely missed the mark. In the end, I have just read much better YA urban fantasy books (like Rachel Caine, P.C. Cast, Kelley Armstrong, Cassandra Clare, Melissa Marr, to name my faves).

Another book that I wanted to read because of all the hype is Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle. I’m 75 pages in, and have been there for about three months. I’ve now heard from several different book bloggers that it gets good after 100 pages, so I’m going to give it a try again this week. But I doubt that I’ll end up loving it.

Two YA books that have been getting all kinds of publicity, hype and general good feelings sent their way are Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush and Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan. Becca is a new author, but some of you may be familiar with Scott’s Uglies series (amazing books).

So I went ahead and bought both books and now they are sitting on my desk, having arrived yesterday. I want to read both, but am a bit leery: what if they don’t live up to the hype? What if I hate them? Or worse, what if they DO live up to the hype and then I end up on a book shopping spree of EVERY book I hear about (don’t laugh: it is a possibility with me!)?

Have you gotten caught up in the hype of a book? What super popular books have you read and now don’t understand what the hype is all about?

Teaser Tuesdays: Bad Apple

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week’s book:  Bad Apple by Laura Ruby

The teasers:

Heather/Feather keeps asking if she’s going to puke until Ms. Rothschild tells her to jump off a bridge.

Today, it’s my job to count how many times John Jarmen, state tennis champion and resident ass, can hit the ball agains the wall in a minute for one of those stupid skills tests.

Page 158

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

I discovered It’s Monday! What are you reading?, a wonderful weekly event hosted by J. Kaye through Twitter. Basically, you list the books you’ve read in the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to finish this week.

Since we’ve started renoing our newly purchased house, I haven’t had a lot of time to read, so my list will be short.  But I think this is a great way to not only keep track of what I’m doing book-wise, but also check in with other readers to see what’s being read.

Books completed last week:

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong – The latest in her Women of the Otherworld series, it features fan faves Elena and Clay. Super read as usual from Armstrong.

Snap by Carol Snow – YA book that is best described as coming of age with a touch of mysticism. Decent read, although not one of my faves.

Currently reading:

Bad Apple by Laura Ruby- Only about ten pages in, but I think I’m going to really enjoy it.  Main character’s voice is snarky and intelligent.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson - Okay, been trying to read this since about May. Put it down for a couple of months, but am going to give it another go.

Books to Complete this week:

With the renos and everything still dragging on, I’ll be very happy to complete Bad Apple and The Gargoyle.