Friday Finds & Quotes from The Wise Man's Fear

Friday Finds

Hosted by Should be Reading

I've recently started spending more time on Goodreads, hanging out in groups and chatting with other book lovers. Thanks to some of the new people that I've met there I've added a whole bunch of new books to my TBR pile.  

If you've read any of these books tell me what you thought of them.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

The body you are wearing used to be mine.

So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, THE ROOK is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine, Kiri Moth

Come inside and take a seat; the show is about to begin...

Outside any city still standing, the Mechanical Circus Tresaulti sets up its tents. Crowds pack the benches to gawk at the brass-and-copper troupe and their impossible feats: Ayar the Strong Man, the acrobatic Grimaldi Brothers, fearless Elena and her aerialists who perform on living trapezes. War is everywhere, but while the Circus is performing, the world is magic.

That magic is no accident: Boss builds her circus from the bones out, molding a mechanical company that will survive the unforgiving landscape.

But even a careful ringmaster can make mistakes.

Two of Tresaulti's performers are entangled in a secret standoff that threatens to tear the circus apart just as the war lands on their doorstep. Now the Circus must fight a war on two fronts: one from the outside, and a more dangerous one from within.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Double by Jenny Valentine

When the sixteen-year-old runaway Chap is mistaken for a missing boy named Cassiel, his life changes dramatically. Chap takes on Cassiel's identity, gaining the family and friends he's always dreamed of having. But becoming someone else isn't as easy as he hoped—and Chap isn't the only one hiding a secret. As he teeters on the brink of discovery and begins to unravel the mystery behind Cassiel's disappearance, Chap realizes that he's in much deeper danger than he could have imagined.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This isn't the kind of book I would normally have any interest in reading since I've had my fill of teen vampire stories but a review that I read (unfortunately I can't remember where) convinced me that this books is different and that I should give it a try. I hope they are right.

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier, Sarah Rees Brennan

Just because Mel lives in New Whitby, a city founded by vampires, doesn't mean she knows any of the blood-drinking undead personally. They stay in their part of town; she says in hers. Until the day a vampire shows up at her high school. Worse yet, her best friend, Cathy, seems to be falling in love with him. It's up to Mel to save Cathy from a mistake she might regret for all eternity

On top of trying to help Cathy (whether she wants it or not), Mel is investigating a mysterious disappearance for another friend and discovering the attractions of a certain vampire wannabe. Combine all this with a cranky vampire cop, a number of unlikely romantic entanglements, and the occasional zombie, and soon Mel is hip-deep in an adventure that is equal parts hilarious and touching.

Acclaimed authors Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan team up to create a witty and poignant story of cool vampires, warm friendships, and the changes that test the bonds of love.

After all, you can't just steal a life and expect to get away with it.

Book Quotes : The Wise Man's Fear

 

It's been a couple of months since I finished reading Patrick Rothfuss's The Wise Man's fear and I still haven't gotten around to writing the review. The truth is that I can't think of what to say other than "this book is awesome and you'll love it, unless you didn't like The Name of the Wind (Bk 1), in which case you won't want to read this one either."  So in the meantime, while I try to find the right words to express how much I really loved this book, I'll share with you a few of my favourite quotes from it.

- It is as they say: a heavy purse makes for a light heart

- No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name.

- It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers.

- Death was like an unpleasant neighbor. You didn’t talk about him for fear he might hear you and decide to pay a visit.”

- I knelt and opened up my lute case. Moving the lute aside, I pressed the lid of the secret compartment and twisted it open. I slid Threpe's sealed letter inside, where it joined the hollow horn with Nina's drawing and a small sack of dried apple I had stowed there. There was nothing special about the dried apple, but in my opinion if you have a secret compartment in your lute case and don't use it to hide things, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.

- I walked across the polished marble floor and sat on a red velvet lounging couch. I idly wondered how exactly one was supposed to lounge. I couldn't remember ever doing it myself. After a moment's consideration, I decided lounging was probably similar to relaxing, but with more money in your pocket.



Have a great weekend!

Friday Finds

Friday Finds

Hosted by Should be Reading

Hey Guys,

Sorry for going AWOL on you this past two weeks. Due to some complications with my job I've been have trouble finding the time to write reviews or blog, but I'm hoping things will get less complicated soon and I'll be able to return to my regular schedule (I have a job interview on Sunday, wish me luck!).

In the meantime here are a couple of new books that I came across this past week along with some fun images and links.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett

The Ransomes had been burgled. "Robbed," Mrs. Ransome said. "Burgled," Mr. Ransome corrected. Premises were burgled; persons were robbed. Mr. Ransome was a solicitor by profession and thought words mattered. Though "burgled" was the wrong word too. Burglars select; they pick; they remove one item and ignore others. There is a limit to what burglars can take: they seldom take easy chairs, for example, and even more seldom settees. These burglars did. They took everything.

This swift-moving comic fable will surprise you with its concealed depths. When the sedate Ransomes return from the opera to find their Notting Hill flat stripped absolutely bare—down to the toilet paper off the roll (a hard-to-find shade of forget-me-not blue)—they face a dilemma: Who are they without the things they've spent a lifetime accumulating? Suddenly the world is full of unlimited and frightening possibility. But just as they begin adjusting to this giddy freedom, a newfound interest in sex, and a lack of comfy chairs, a surreal reversal of events causes them to question their assumptions yet again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not familiar with this author but after reading her praises on Kate Elliott's blog I because intrigues and decided that I'll have to try Wells' books for myself.

The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells

Moon has spent his life hiding what he is - a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save and himself... and his newfound kin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And from around the web..

The Guardian imagines how the story of the Three Little Pigs would be covered in modern times, on news stations, in newspaper headlines and in social media discussions. Once again this brought to my mind the last Jasper Fforde book that I read, The Big Over Easy, in which detective Jack Sprat tries to bring a case against the Three Little Pigs for murdering the wolf. I imagine Fforde must have gotten a big kick out of this video.

For those of you who can't decide if the zombie apocalypse is something to really worry about, this article in Cracked.com give you 5 scientific reasons why you should be afraid. 

5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen

#5. Brain Parasites  

Parasites that turn victims into mindless, zombie-like slaves are fairly common in nature. There's one called toxoplasmosa gondii that seems to devote its entire existence to being terrifying. This bug infects rats, but can only breed inside the intestines of a cat. The parasite knows it needs to get the rat inside the cat so the parasite takes over the rat's freaking brain, and intentionally makes it scurry toward where the cats hang out. The rat is being programmed to get itself eaten, and it doesn't even know.  

Of course, those are just rats, right?  

How it can result in zombies:  

Hey, did we mention that half the human population on Earth is infected with toxoplasmosa, and don't know it? Hey, maybe you're one of them. Flip a coin. Oh, also, they've done studies and shown that the infected see a change in their personality and have a higher chance of going batshit insane.

  Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: Humans and rats aren't all that different; thats why they use them to test our drugs. All it takes is a more evolved version of toxoplasmosa, one that could to do us what it does to the rats. 

So, imagine if half the world suddenly had no instinct for self-preservation or rational thought. Even less than they do now, we mean.

If you think you can stomach more of this, read the rest of the article here.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds

Hosted by Should be Reading

I can't remember where it was that heard about this book (I really need to start keeping track) but whatever it was that I read it was flattering enough that I immediately added The Troupe to my wishlist.

The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett

George Carole ran away from home to join the Vaudeville circuit. Sixteen years old, uncommonly gifted at the piano, he falls in with a strange troupe -- even for Vaudeville.
Under the watchful eye of the enigmatic figure of Silenus, George comes to realize that the members of the troupe are more than they appear to be. And their travels have a purpose that runs deeper than entertainment.
George must uncover the mysteries of Silenus's Company before it is too late. He is already entangled in their web of secrets and if he doesn't learn where they are taking him, he may never find his way out.


This one hasn't come out yet but it already has some really great reviews.

The Scar by Sergey Dyachenko

Reaching far beyond sword and sorcery, The Scar is a story of two people torn by disaster, their descent into despair, and their reemergence through love and courage. Sergey and Marina Dyachenko mix dramatic scenes with romance, action and wit, in a style both direct and lyrical. Written with a sure artistic hand, The Scar is the story of a man driven by his own feverish demons to find redemption and the woman who just might save him.

Egert is a brash, confident member of the elite guards and an egotistical philanderer. But after he kills an innocent student in a duel, a mysterious man known as “The Wanderer” challenges Egert and slashes his face with his sword, leaving Egert with a scar that comes to symbolize his cowardice. Unable to end his suffering by his own hand, Egert embarks on an odyssey to undo the curse and the horrible damage he has caused, which can only be repaired by a painful journey down a long and harrowing path.

There are a lot of fairy tale retellings that reimagine the story from the perspective of the princess but I've never heard of one that focuses on the prince. I can't wait to see Christopher Healy does with the fairy tale prince's in this book.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Enter a world where everything, even our classic fairy tales, is not at all what it seems.

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You've never head of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as "Prince Charming." But all of this is about to change...

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Guztav stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it's up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other associated terrors to becom the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds

Hosted by Should be Reading

I recently read a review of this book at Drying Ink which was so enthusiastic that I went and preorderd it even though I haven't heard of this book or author before.  But I like the cover and a good review and a good cover is enough for me to want to give it a try.

The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle

When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods--and a skrayling ambassador--to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital?

Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is seconded to the ambassador's bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally--and Mal his soul.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To my surprise I've discovered that I really enjoy space operas and this one by Elizabeth Moon looks good. I wasn't impressed with the one other book that I've read by Moon, The Sheepfarmer's Daughter, but I thought I'd give her the benefit of the doubt, since it was her first book, and see if her writing has improved over time.

 

Trading in Danger (Vatta's War #1) by Elizabeth Moon

Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father’s only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it’s no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can’t hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It’s adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family’s misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.

Expelled from the Academy in disgrace–and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future–Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity’s door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride– and a shot at redemption–as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.

It’s a simple assignment: escorting one of the Vatta fleet’s oldest ships on its final voyage . . . to the scrapyard. But keeping it simple has never been Ky’s style. And even though her father has provided a crew of seasoned veterans to baby-sit the fledgling captain on her maiden milk run, they can’t stop Ky from turning the routine mission into a risky venture–in the name of turning a profit for Vatta Transport, of course.

By snapping up a lucrative delivery contract defaulted on by a rival company, and using part of the proceeds to upgrade her condemned vehicle, Ky aims to prove she’s got more going for her than just her family’s famous name. But business will soon have to take a backseat to bravery, when Ky’s change of plans sails her and the crew straight into the middle of a colonial war. For all her commercial savvy, it’s her military training and born-soldier’s instincts that Ky will need to call on in the face of deadly combat, dangerous mercenaries, and violent mutiny. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every so often I like to take a break from my genre reading for a romance and when I saw that Julie James has a new book coming out, I immediately added it to my wishlist. You can never go wrong with a Julie James book.

About That Night by Julie James

HE’S PLAYING GAMES

Though Rylann Pierce tried to fight the sparks she felt for billionaire heir Kyle Rhodes the night they met, their sizzling chemistry was undeniable. But after being stood up on their first date, Rylann never expected to see him again. So when she finds herself face to face with Kyle in a courthouse nine years later, she’s stunned. More troubling to the beautiful Assistant U.S. Attorney is that she’s still wildly attracted to him.

BUT SHE’S MAKING THE RULES

Just released from prison, Kyle Rhodes isn’t thrilled to be the star witness in a high-profile criminal case — but when Rylann comes knocking at his door, he finds she may be the one lawyer he can’t say no to. Still as gorgeous and sharp-tongued as ever, she lays down the law: she doesn’t mix business with pleasure. But Kyle won’t give up on something he wants — and what he wants is the one woman he’s never forgotten...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Favorite images from around the web

I got a Pinterest account this week which I am having a lot of fun with, "pinning" favorite images from the web to share with you and browsing through other people's favorite images as well. On the downside, I've been spending way too much time browsing through Pinterest when I should have been working.

So here are some of the images that I recently pinned and if you have Pinterest account you can follow mine here.

I have to get some of these cards made up because such friends are rare and very deserving of an appreciative card.

This picture reminds me of the many hours I used to spend swinging in a hammock and reading in my grandparents' forest- like backyard.

t

I love anything to do with Calvin and Hobbes and this one, of an older Calvin who has outgrown Hobbes, gets me all emotional. Though I wonder who the little girl is since she looks a lot like Suzy...

Friday Finds

I really enjoyed Ari Marmell's The Conqueror's Shadow and have been looking forward to his upcoming fantasy Thief's Covenant, though I only just discovered that it was coming out really soon. And I love this cover!

The Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell

Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city’s aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces—human and other—stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder.

Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon’s underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It’s not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it’s hers.

But now, in the midst of Davillon’s political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she’s built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, something ancient is reaching out for her, a past that refuses to let her go. Widdershins and Olgun are going to find answers, and justice, for what happened to her—but only if those who almost destroyed her in those years gone by don’t finish the job first.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds intriguing.

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. While everyone else portals between worlds, 18-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’, but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.

Jarra invents a fake background for herself – as a normal child of Military parents – and joins a class of norms that is on Earth to excavate the ruins of the old cities. When an ancient skyscraper collapses, burying another research team, Jarra’s role in their rescue puts her in the spotlight. No hiding at back of class now. To make life more complicated, she finds herself falling in love with one of her classmates – a norm from another planet. Somehow, she has to keep the deception going.

A freak solar storm strikes the atmosphere, and the class is ordered to portal off-world for safety – no problem for a real child of military parents, but fatal for Jarra. The storm is so bad that the crews of the orbiting solar arrays have to escape to planet below: the first landing from space in 600 years. And one is on collision course with their shelter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is not the kind of book I would normally even consider reading, it is so far out of my reading comfort zone, but a discussion of this book on one of my podcasts left me burning with curiosity as to how it ends, so I think I might give it a shot.

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

Friday Finds

 

Weird Things People Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

Jen Campbell is a book seller who often shares on her blog some of the funny comments that she receives, or overhears, at her bookstore. Apparently this feature is so popular that she has been commissioned to write a book, which will include annecdotes of her own as well as those of other booksellers. This sounds like a really fun book one that I definitly intend to get my hands on as soon as it becomes available.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know that Punky Brewster grew up and wrote a book!? (and that her name is Soleil Moon Frye!) OK, maybe I'm totally behind the times but I had kind of forgotten about the former child-star that I had spend so many hours of my childhood watching on the TV, and it's a bit of a shock to see her all grown up, and with kids. So now I have to read this book and find out what she's been up to all these years. Plus the book has a really cute trailer.

Happy Chaos: From Punky to Parenting and My Perfectly Imperfect Adventures in Between by Soleil Moon Frye

Enthusiastic, spunky, and positive, Punky Brewster was the quintessential eighties kid. Nearly thirty years later, Soleil Moon Frye-the adorable girl who played her on TV-is all grown up. Now she's a married mom of two, an entrepreneur who parlayed her successful kids' clothing line into a partnership with Target, and a social media whiz with millions of followers. Many of the same girls who watched Soleil on television are now grown up with children of their own, too, and they look to her as a go-to source for realistic, in-the-trenches parenting advice, inspiration, and fun. Happy Chaos invites those women into Soleil's world, and makes them revel in the chaos of their own lives, too.

Soleil believes that "happy chaos" is the sign of a family operating at its best-when parents accept that they'll make mistakes, that there will be messes, tears and skinned knees. She learned to love a jumbled life during her own childhood, when her own mom created an atmosphere that was thoroughly unconventional. Their house in Los Angeles was a haven for many young stars of Soleil's generation, often far from home and looking for a safe place to hang out. In this book, she shows how her happy but chaotic childhood informed her parenting: Each chapter begins with a telling reminiscence before moving into insightful advice and fun stories about life with her husband and two adorable daughters.

Internet Finds

I find most flash mobs to be kind of awkward and embarrassing to watch, especially if they are done on a small scale,  but this one in, in a Jerusalem outdoor mall, is really awesome. It even includes belldancers! (wish I had been there because I've never seen anyone bellydance in real life)

Friday Finds

 

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

I love memoirs and I love Jenny Lawson's blog The Bloggess (which you are probably tired of hearing about from me) so Jenny's memoir Let's Pretend This Never Happened has me very excited, even though it doesn't come out until April.

There doesn't appear a book description yet on Goodreads for it so here is an excerpt from Jenny's blog:

I know I will never be Charles Dickens. I will never use a semi-colon correctly. Or know what a semi-colon is. I suspect it’s this thing : ; It looks like a sideways man who had half of his handlebar mustache shaved off when he passed out drunk at a frat house. But that’s not the point. The point is that I have story to tell and it’s filled with unpredictable raccoons and accidental stabbings and profanity and it is nothing like all the fancy books on my shelves…but maybe that’s what makes it special. And in all my talk about how strangely and beautifully unique each of you are, I never apply that same logic to myself which kind of makes me the biggest hypocrite ever. So starting today I’m going to start practicing not hating myself quite so much because then maybe when this book actually comes out I can say how proud I am of myself and it won’t be so much of a lie. Luckily for me, I have a long time to practice. Luckier for you, I’m about to shut up about my book and not mention it again until it comes out in 2012, which is coincidentally the same year that the Mayans predict that the world is going to end. I can’t help but suspect that these two things might be related.

I can't wait for this one, though I really hope it's better than Alan Alda's memoir Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned, which was far less entertaining than the title suggested it would be.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just found out that Mary Robinette Kowal has a new book coming out later this year and since I really enjoyed Shades of Milk and Honey I am very much looking forward to reading this one as well.

Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal

In the tumultuous months after Napoleon abdicates his throne, Jane and Vincent go to France for their honeymoon. While there, the deposed emperor escapes his exile in Elba, throwing the continent into turmoil. With no easy way back to England, they struggle to escape. But when Vincent is captured as a British spy, Jane realizes that their honeymoon has been a ruse to give them a reason to be in Europe.

Left with no outward salvation, Jane is left to overcome her own delicate circumstances and use her glamour to rescue her husband from prison... and hopefully prevent her newly built marriage from getting stranded on the shoals of another country's war.

Friday Finds

Unfortunately I haven't had any free time lately to go on my usual blog rounds and see what everyone is reading so I haven't discovered any new books to add to my TBR list. Though if you know of anything good I should be reading please tell me about it in the comments below (and I'm also really sorry that I haven't been responding to comments lately. I promise to get back to doing so).

But even though I don't have any books to tell you about I have managed to stumble across some interesting stuff on the web that I think you will like.

1) The awesome Jenny Lawson of the Bloggess shares a link to some pictures of her haunted dollhouse, and if you are a fan of horror I'm sure you will want to take a look at these. While I'm not into horror I have to admit that this is one awesome looking dollhouse, though if I played with it as a kid I would probably be a very different kind of person than I am today.

2) Shmuel Hoffman, the producer of the book trailer for The Unbecoming of Maya Dyer (a pretty cool trailer which has even caught the attention of MTV) has an interesting post about what's involved in creating a book trailer.

Mara Dyer kind of lives two lives, one the unconscious one and the other a “real” one. I wanted to have this expressed in our style. That’s why I decided to go with black and white and using color to distort the reality. Michelle expressed that she wanted parts of it to look a bit like The Blair Witch Project. So we shot the asylum scenes on our phones and small cameras to have it look self-made and gritty. It was very important that we got a mixture of mystery and sexy across for the teenage audience.

I've really never given much thought to how book trailers are made, especially since most of those that I've seen haven't really impressed me, so I found this pretty interesting.

3)  Architecture students at MIT developed these really cool solar powered rocking chairs that allow you to lounge in the sun while charging your electrical devices. With a chair like this you never have to worry about your eReader suddenly running out on you (unless it gets cloudy, of course)

Plus the strip of battery allows it to light up at night for reading in the dark.

 4) I had just finished reading Ready Player One when I came across this video from Softkinect, demonstrating the possibilities that will be open to us with the use of gesture-recognition software, such as Microsoft's Kinect. It blew me away, coming right after the book I had just read.

It seems that it won't be long now before we can live within a virtual reality that won't require us to ever leave our houses. Kind of scary, though I imagine that with the cost involved in acquiring all the equipment necessary this isn't a danger most of us will be facing any time soon.

Friday Finds

I'm glad to say that for once I've actually managed to easily acquire all of my recent book discoveries, and I can't wait get started on them during the upcoming week.

These first two books I found on Netgalley.

Andrew Kaufman is the author of another book on my TBR list that I haven't yet gotten hold of, All my Friends are Superheroes, and so I was interested in sampling his writing with this intriguing novella.

The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman

A thief charges into a bank with a loaded gun, but he does not ask for money; what he asks for, instead, is the object of greatest significance currently in the possession of each patron. The thief then leaves, and the patrons all survive, but strange things soon begin to happen to them: One survivor’s tattoo jumps off her ankle and chases her around; another wakes up to find that she’s made of candy; and Stacey Hinterland discovers that she’s shrinking, incrementally, a little every day, and nothing that her husband or son do can reverse the process. The Tiny Wife is a fable about losing yourself in circumstances and finding yourself in the the love of another.

The Emperor's Knife caught my attention because it sounds so much like Brandon's

Sanderson's Elentris, at least the first part of the synopsis. I haven't yet heard anything about this book, author, or publisher so I'm not sure what to expect but I really hope it will turn out to be as good as it sounds.

The Emperor's Knife by Mazarkis Williams

There is a cancer at the heart of the mighty Cerani Empire: a plague that attacks young and old, rich and poor alike, marking each victim with a fragment of a greater pattern. Anyone showing the marks is put to death. That is Emperor Beyon's law . . .

But now the pattern is reaching closer to the palace than ever before. In a hidden room, a forgotten prince has grown from child to man, and as the empire sickens, Sarmin, the emperor’s only surviving brother, is remembered. He awaits the bride his mother has chosen: a chieftain’s daughter from the northern plains.

Mesema travels from her homeland, an offering for the empire’s favour. She is a Windreader, used to riding free across the grasslands, not posing and primping in rare silks. She finds the Imperial Court’s protocols stifling, but she doesn’t take long to realise the politicking and intrigues are not a game, but deadly earnest.

Eyul is burdened both by years and by the horrors he has carried out in service to the throne. At his emperor’s command he bears the emperor’s Knife to the desert in search of a cure for the pattern-markings.

As long-planned conspiracies boil over into open violence and rebellion, the enemy moves toward victory. Now only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary killer, and a young girl from the steppes who once saw a path through a pattern, among the waving grasses.

I just got this book out of the library, and it's another one that I haven't heard of before, but am really hoping that it turns out to be as good as it sounds.

Before Ever After

Samantha Sotto

Three years after her husband Max's death, Shelley feels no more adjusted to being a widow than she did that first terrible day. That is, until the doorbell rings. Standing on her front step is a young man who looks so much like Max; same smile, same eyes, same age, same adorable bump in his nose; he could be Max's long-lost relation. He introduces himself as Paolo, an Italian editor of American coffee table books, and shows Shelley some childhood photos. Paolo tells her that the man in the photos, the bearded man who Paolo says is his grandfather though he never seems to age, is Max. Her Max. And he is alive and well.

As outrageous as Paolo's claims seem; how could her husband be alive? And if he is, why hasn't he looked her up? Shelley desperately wants to know the truth. She and Paolo jet across the globe to track Max down; if it is really Max and along the way, Shelley recounts the European package tour where they had met. As she relives Max's stories of bloody Parisian barricades, medieval Austrian kitchens, and buried Roman boathouses, Shelley begins to piece together the story of who her husband was and what these new revelations mean for her "happily ever after." And as she and Paolo get closer to the truth, Shelley discovers that not all stories end where they are supposed to

Fun links of the Week:

First I came across this article listing 10 of the strangest items that have been left unclaimed at airlines, but which is just my kind of thing, but then, even better, was this link to a store in Alabama that sells all these items which no one has ever come to pick up. How have I never heard of this place before?! I've never had a reason to go to Alabama but before now it's at the top of my list of place to go the next time I'm in America.

Some of the recent Imagur pictures that made me laugh, along with their original headlines:

Um... I'll catch the next bus.

 

Should I "use soap" too?

Friday Finds

 

Hosted by Should be Reading  

Two new book discoveries this week:

Q: A Novel by Evan Mandery (discovered at The Bodacious Pen)

Shortly before his wedding, the unnamed hero of this uncommon romance is visited by a man who claims to be his future self and ominously admonishes him that he must not marry the love of his life, Q. At first the protagonist doubts this stranger, but in time he becomes convinced of the authenticity of the warning and leaves his fiancée. The resulting void in his life is impossible to fill. One after the other, future selves arrive urging him to marry someone else, divorce, attend law school, leave law school, travel, join a running club, stop running, study the guitar, the cello, Proust, Buddhism, and opera, and eliminate gluten from his diet. The only constants in this madcap quest for personal improvement are his love for his New York City home and for the irresistible Q.

A unique literary talent, Evan Mandery turns the classic story of transcendent love on its head, with an ending that will melt even the darkest heart.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

by Elizabeth Stuckey-French 

Seventy-seven-year-old Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs come hell or high water. In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study that had horrible consequences.

Marylou has been plotting her revenge for fifty years. When she accidentally discovers his whereabouts in Florida, her plans finally snap into action. She high tails it to hot and humid Tallahassee, moves in down the block from where a now senile Spriggs lives with his daughter’s family, and begins the tricky work of insinuating herself into their lives. But she has no idea what a nest of yellow jackets she is stum­bling into.

Before the novel is through, someone will be kidnapped, an unlikely couple will get engaged, someone will nearly die from eating a pineapple upside-down cake laced with anti-freeze, and that’s not all . . .

Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters and written with the flair of a native Floridian, this dark comedy does not disappoint
 

And a fun video from Improv Everywhere (I love those guys!)

The Mute Button

Friday Finds (on Saturday)

Hosted by Should be Reading

This book blurb isn't very descriptive but I really enjoyed the one book that I have read by Marmell and I'm always drawn to books about thieves (for reasons that are probably best left unexplored), so when I heard about this book I immediately added it to my list. Plus I really like the cover.

Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell

She is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon's underbelly looking to find answers, and justice with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshipers but Widdershins herself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I always come across really interesting books over at At Home with Books, which is where I found this memoir, which I now desperately want to read.

Nothing Daunted by Dorothy Wickenden

In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, close friends from childhood and graduates of Smith College, left home in Auburn, New York, for the wilds of northwestern Colorado. Bored by their soci-ety luncheons, charity work, and the effete young men who courted them, they learned that two teach-ing jobs were available in a remote mountaintop schoolhouse and applied—shocking their families and friends. “No young lady in our town,” Dorothy later commented, “had ever been hired by anybody.”

They took the new railroad over the Continental Divide and made their way by spring wagon to the tiny settlement of Elkhead, where they lived with a family of homesteaders. They rode several miles to school each day on horseback, sometimes in blinding blizzards. Their students walked or skied on barrel staves, in tattered clothes and shoes tied together with string. The man who had lured them out west was Ferry Carpenter, a witty, idealistic, and occasionally outrageous young lawyer and cattle rancher. He had promised them the adventure of a lifetime and the most modern schoolhouse in Routt County; he hadn’t let on that the teachers would be considered dazzling prospective brides for the locals.

That year transformed the children, their families, and the undaunted teachers themselves. Dorothy and Rosamond learned how to handle unruly children who had never heard the Pledge of Allegiance and thought Ferry Carpenter was the president of the United States; they adeptly deflected the amorous advances of hopeful cowboys; and they saw one of their closest friends violently kidnapped by two coal miners. Carpenter’s marital scheme turned out to be more successful than even he had hoped and had a surprising twist some forty years later.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

I've really been enjoying Y.S Lee's The Agency series (which includes A Spy in the House and The Body at the Tower) and was delighted to discover that the third book has just come out.

The Traitor and the Tunnel by Y.S Lee

Queen Victoria has a little problem: a series of petty thefts from Buckingham Palace. She calls the Agency for help, and they put Mary Quinn - on her first case as a full-fledged agent - on the case. Going undercover as a domestic servant, Mary's assignment seems simple enough. But before long, a scandal threatens to tear apart the Royal Family. One of the Prince of Wales' irresponsible young friends is murdered in scandalous circumstances and the story, if it became public, would disgrace the young prince. Should the Queen hush things up or permit justice to take its course?

Mary's interest in this private matter soon becomes deeply personal: the killer, a drug-addicted Chinese sailor, shares a name with her long-lost father. Meanwhile, James Easton's engineering firm wins a contract to repair some sewers beneath Buckingham Palace. Trouble is, there's a tunnel that's not on the plans. Its purpose is unclear. But it seems to be very much in use - it's just not clear by whom. These overlapping puzzles offer a perfect opportunity for James and Mary to work together again. If they can still trust one another. If they can suppress the emotions that still torture them. If Mary can forget the sight of that exquisite blonde she sees in James' drawing-room...In this, Mary's most personal case yet, she faces struggles at every level - legal, political, personal. And she has everything to lose.

Favorite Links

And another funny customer service anecdote from one of my favorite websites, Not Always Right:

Of Empty Threats And Even Emptier Stores

(I work at a large bookstore which is in the process of liquidation sales. One of the rules of this sale is that we don’t take any returns. There are huge signs all over the store that say, “Going out of business.”)

Customer: “I want to return this book, but I don’t have the receipt.”
Me: “I’m very sorry, ma’am, but we are no longer accepting returns since the store is closing.”

Customer: “What? You’ve always let me return books.”

Me: “I know, but we are closing now, so there are no returns.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! I’m taking my business elsewhere.”

Me: “That’s fine. We’re closing.”

Customer: “I mean it. I’ll never shop here again.”

Me: “Yes, I know. We’ll be closed.”

Customer: “I spend a lot of money here, and now I’m going to go buy my books online or something.”

Me: “Yes, you probably should. This store will be gone.”

Customer: “I’m leaving here and I’m never coming back. Do you hear me? Never!” *storms out*