Teaser Tuesdays: Fade Out

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: Fade Out by Rachel Caine

From a distance, she looked like one of the marble angels – pale, dressed in white, unmoving. But her long, pale blond hair was down, falling in waves around her face and down her back, and the icy wind lifted and fluttered it like a flag.

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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.

I was pretty sick this past week, so I actually managed to get some reading done! Here’s the breakdown:

Books completed last week:
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson – Finally, I finished this book! And, yeah,  I didn’t care much for it.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick –  What a  wonderful, gorgeous book!

Secret Society by Tom Dolby – An okay read, but not a fave by any means.

Currently reading:
Fade Out by Rachel Caine – The latest in Cain’e Morganville Vampires series

Books to complete this week:

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

What I picked up at Indigo

The past couple of months have been pretty rough. I’m still renoing the house and after being home for a month, hubby is back out West working. Add to the mix exhaustion and a killer cold and I’ve been down in the dumps, especially this past week.

As I posted a couple of days, ago, Indigo had a sale this week end. I hit it yesterday and picked up half a dozen new books. As it turns out, all of them have something to do with the supernatural or urban fantasy. Here’s what I bought:

Bloody Good by Georgia Evans – This is an urban fantasy that takes place during WWII.  I never realized that historical urban fantasy was a genre before. I’m just newly introduced to historical fiction, so I’m intrigued by this book.

Tithe by Holly Black – As a fan of YA urban fantasy, I was a bit ashamed that I hadn’t read anything by Holly Black yet.

Kitty Raises Hell by Carrie Vaughn – I love Vaughn’s books about Kitty the DJ werewolf and I usually read them in one sitting. I didn’t even realize that there had been a new one out since last March.

Extras by Scott Westerfeld – I received Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy last year for my birthday and loved the series. This book is set some ten years later, but in the same world.

Heck:Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale E. Basye – A story about Milton and Marlo Fauster who die and end up in Heck, an otherwordly reform school? No way I could pass this one up.  It sounds like it’s going to be very funny and will probably be the first of the 6 that I read.

The Den of Shadows Quartet by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes – This volume includes In the Forest of Night, Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror and Midnight Predator. The cover of this book caught my eye (it reminded me of the cover for Hush, Hush) and once I read the back of the book I decided to give it a try. Besides, 4 books for the price of one plus 25% is a great steal.

What should I buy?????

So, Indigo and Chapters are having a sale this week end. For irewards cardholders, it’s 25% all regular priced books. Of course when I found out I did a little happy dance. I love books sales and 25% is nothing to turn your nose up at.

My plan is to buy a bunch of paperbacks to really take advantage of the sale. I have a few that I know I want to buy, but I have a really bad feeling that I’ll get overwhelmed once I get into the store. So I’m doing up a list.

I’m looking for some suggestions on great paperback books that you guys think I should read. I’m going to be focusing primarily on YA and children’s books, but plan on picking up some adult books also.

So, what say you? What books must I absolutely, positively buy?

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

Random House, 2009

In the latest installment of her Women of the Otherworld series, Kelley Armstrong returns to one of her most beloved characters, female werewolf Elena Michaels.

This time around Elena and her mate Clay are off to Alaska in pursuit of a mutt (a werewolf without pack affiliation), while also checking in on two werewolves who left the pack but remained friends. There are also some suspicious deaths in the area that their pack leader, Jeremy, wants them to look into.

While there was a lot going on in Frostbitten, Armstrong once again hits a literary home run, giving her readers what they want and expect: excellent storytelling, character growth, elements of the supernatural and a touch of romance.

The plots were tightly woven and as usual the characters were not only believable, but our understanding of their past, especially Elana’s, deepened, allowing the reader to get a better grasp on who she is.

Some new characters were introduced and while they may have been minor characters, I have a feeling that we will be seeing a few of them again in future books.

I have yet to read anything by Armstrong that I haven’t loved, and Frostbitten wasn’t an exception.

Browse inside Frostbitten.

Green Books Campaign: From a Speaking Place

This review is part of the Green Books campaign . Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a  a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website .

From A Speaking Place: Writings from the First Fifty Years of Canadian Literature
Published by Ronsdale Press

When I signed up to be a part of Green Books Campaign, I was very excited.  I buy a lot of  books and quite often I feel guilty about the environmental impact my little addiction has. What better way to promote green book making and buying than having 100 bloggers review books published by green publishers?

Ronsdale Press published a great looking book called From A Speaking Place: Writings from the First Fifty Years of Canadian Literature. As a reader and a writer, I was very excited to delve into this book.  Printed using both recycled paper and FSC certified paper, it’s doubly responsible.

Now, since this event is book bloggers reviewing books for the Green Book Campaign, I imagine you are expecting a review, right? Unfortunately I only received the book last night and while I am a fast reader, I’m not that fast. So instead of a review of why I liked the book, here are a few reasons why I am looking forward to reading it.

As a writer, I am always looking for books to help me not only improve my art, but to understand it better. So many people think that writers just get up and write, the words flowing effortlessly.  While this may sometimes be the case, most of us have to practice, using different techniques and exercises to get the words out. Writers also read books on writings and literature, so I knew that this book would be right up my alley.

Canadian Literature is Canada’s “it” magazine when it comes to writing. Offering up articles, book critiques and poetry, most, if not all, Canadian book lovers and readers have heard of it. This volume celebrates the first 50 years of Canadian Literature and at over 400 pages includes what some of the best articles written during that time.

I’m really looking forward to sitting down and reading From A Speaking Place. And I know once I am done it will find a nice, snug spot with all my other writing books.

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

This is a great weekly book meme hosted by J. Kaye. All you have to do is list what you read last week, what you are currently reading and what you plan on reading this upcoming week.

Okay, so I didn’t finish one freaking book last week. Nada. I am still plugging through The Gargoyle, but at this point it’s out of spite. And stubborness. I can’t let the book win. I must finish it. I’ve put way too much time into this book to only put it away and not finish it.

As for what I would like to read this week? Anything, anything at all as long as it isn’t as tedious and long-winded as The Gargoyle. Which I will finish this week. I swear. Even if it kills me.

Book shopping

Okay, so yesterday was one of those days. I woke up in a decent enough mood, but as I started to get ready to head out to the house to work on it, my mood slowly started to drop. By the time we got out to the house, I realized that I needed a break. See, since we took ownership on the 1st of October, I have only had one day off from the renos, and that was to drive Jason to Moncton.

So we decided to take yesterday afternoon and evening off. On the way home I also realized that I hadn’t been in a book store since September. And for a book lover, that is a long, long time.

It felt so good to browse among the books! And, yes, even though I have a huge pile (or two) of TBR books I ended up buying a few. But dont blame me! Blame Indigo and their discount YA books. I walked away with 4 books for 25 bucks, which is amazing, considering 3 of them were hardcover editions and all 4 were books I wanted to read.

Here’s what I snagged:

Fade Out by Rachel Vincent
Rumors:A Luxe Novel by Anna Godbersen – hardcover for 6.99
Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore – hardcover for 4.99
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters – hardcover for 5.99

A NaNoWriMo giveaway from Well-read reviews

It’s no big secret that a fair share of book readers are also authors. For those of us that wear both hats, November is a big, big month. Why? Because it’s National Novel Writing Month, a time when we get crazy and attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.

In honor of NaNoWriMo, my friends over at Well-read Reviews are giving away a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a wonderful book on punctuation.

So pop on over and visit them. Enter the contest and stay and browse awhile.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Gargoyle

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: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

It did not matter, the fact that you coughed fitfully in the middle of your singing. Simply because it came from the throat of a recovering man, it was more beautiful that any song that I had heard ever lifted on the nuns’ voices in salute to the glory of the Lord.

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