Day 5 Book Photo Challenge: Favorite Non-Human Character

Couldn't split this one. These are Marvin; the paranoid android from Douglas Adams' Hitch Hiker's series and The Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

Luggage was made from sapient pearwood and is featured in (amongst others) the very first Discworld book The Colour of Magic (1983) and I have always wanted one. Most of the time he is mildly annoying but some times he saves lives. (see luggage is a he as they find a female luggage in Interesting Times and they have children.) 

Marvin on the other hand, I have always loved because I felt a kindred spirit with him. Not so much the "brain the size of a planet" thing but the "life, don't talk to me about life" thing really spoke to me as a teenager. Where as others had grunge and rock stars, I had Marvin. And now he's on my car keys wherever I go.

The Ask and the Answer By Patrick Ness Review

Patrick Ness has succeeded in continuing a truly unique young adult story without all the trappings on most of the other series in that genre.  The Ask and the Answer is the second book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness.

The first book in the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, was a fast paced story of the chase of Todd Hewitt across largely uninhabited frontier land of a newly colonised planet with new comer Viola Eade, who’s parents were killed in the crash landing of their scout vessel.

In this instalment of the story, Todd and Viola are caught in between two warring factions when Major Prentiss (now President Prentiss) finds resistance to his hostile takeover of Haven (renamed New Prentisstown) in the form of Mistress Coyle (a local Healer) and her reformed gorilla group from the Spackle Wars, The Answer.

The Answer snatch the uncooperative  Viola away to help in their bombing raids of New Prentisstown. Whilst Todd is held captive and manipulated into working for President Prentiss’s cause.

This book is written in an amazingly graphic and compelling manner, with the change in font for both main characters POV and that of the “noise”. I felt like screaming at the characters at points when I knew they would be walking into a trap, and crying with them in others when everything seemed so without hope. These emotions, I believe are the signs of a well written book. Can not recommend this series enough. 4/5 Stars 

24 hr Reading Challenge Completed

Well i took part in the 24 hour reading challenge on tumblr today and completed my first book on the first day of 2014. According to goodreads that makes me 1% through my reading challenge for the year (1/70).

I read Doctor Who and The Carnival of Monsters by Terrance Dicks, a book of a mere 125 pages.  Picked because I didn't know how my dyslexia would go with anything to long and it satisfied my 1 Doctor Who book per month clause on my reading challenge.)

I set myself up for a good day of reading in the library and Colin, in turn set himself up for a good day of lap sitting:

Now for the review: (as this is also part of my book challenge and I can't very well fall at the first hurdle.)

Doctor Who and The Carnival of Monsters By Terrance Dicks

This book was published in 1977 and hence stars the 3rd Doctor played by Jon Pertwee with Jo Grant played by Katy Manning.
Once again the Doctor's overconfidence in his ability to steer the TARDIS is the catalyst to the darama in the story with the Doctor thinking they were headed for Metebelis Three that is described as if some utopia but arrive in the haul of a 1920 steam liner. As it turns out they are not on earth as Jo is trying to convince the Doctor either.

With the Doctors usually bluff and blunder they manage to save the day.  Written in a style that portays the Doctor and not going outside that ethos, this was a nice simple read to start my foray back into Doctor Who books.
 3 out of 5 stars.

Amari By Steven Atwood Review

Amari is a science fiction, dystopian future, space adventure where the UN took over the running of the known universe after the GFC. They became power hungry tyrants that basically became thought police. They shipped people off to Mars to be “Re-educated” in the mines and others who escaped colonised Europa and beyond, creating places ripe for piracy and black market trading.

I think I was hoping for Firefly and was sorely disappointed.  I also thought I could read around the religious aspects of the book but couldn’t. The idea that all the religious people were calm and righteous and all those against religion were cruel, callous and fear their own death more than anything else really grated on me. Mainly because I read science fiction because it reflects the world quite well and I don’t see this as the way the world is. Simple being religious does not suddenly make you a perfect person as it seemed to do in this story.

The further you go in the book the more grammatical errors there are, which slows down the reading process dramatically.

If religion is the saviour of you world and you like science fiction with that flavour, this would be a great book for you but not me.

I received this book from Library Thing’s Members Giveaways. 2.5 stars out of 5

Day 16 Book Photo Challenge: Guilty Pleasure

The Sookie Stackhouse series is most defiantly my guilty pleasure. I don't want to bag it but it is a bit trashy and not exactly written in a manner that will make it a long lived classic but i love the characters and the world and they just make me feel like I'm talking to old friends without that whole tedious going out and talking to people thing.

These are one of the few things that I chew through in about a few days a book because it is so simply written.

I will admit, I watched the TV show first and after about a season, I went out and found the books. I find it's a bit like reading fan fiction becasue the characters aren't quite the same and the plot line now differ greatly but anything to slake the need.

My Guilty Pleasure (other than reading in general) The Sookie Stackhouse Series By Charlaine Harris. 

Day 15 Literary Photo Challenge: Currently Reading

I am currently reading reading a few books. Mainly I' reading Amari by Steven Atwood which I got through Library Thing for free. I'm halfway through Catwoman vol 1. I'm listening to the Collected Public Domain Works of H.P. Lovecraft from Liborvox. 

The Widowmaker: A Thriller For Horror Buffs I have been reading on and off for a while now but it hasn't really grabbed me.

Literary Photo Challenge Day 11: Frustrating Read

My frustrating read will always be the first book in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever series, Lord Foul’s Bane.

It wasn’t just the dilapidated condition of my copy that made this book frustrating.

This book actually belonged to my Dad and he would read it (and the rest of the series) in the down time on the trucks at work. To Quote him “there is only so many times you can read the paper.” He must have liked the book and read it several times because this is the condition that I found it in the bookshelf as a teenager (having been published in 1977, seven years before I was born.) complete with duct tape (because duct tape fixes everything.)

So there is the condition of the book that is frustrating adding to the fact that the old paper and the small font size is messing with my dyslexia (even if I didn’t realise it at the time) and the idea that my dad had read it so I would definitely enjoy it. conglomerated in a book that took me seven attempts to finish. To add to this, even though I at least the next five, possibly more, books in the series, I have never read them. 

All together the epitome of a frustrating read.

Literary Photo Challenge Day 10: Best POV

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was the first Gregory Maguire book i had read. I picked it up really cheap at a "middle of the mall" book sale tables because it was ripped but the title was too interesting to resist, that and the art work of the cover. 

*spoilers*

The POV part comes right at the end when you think you have been hearing the story of one of the ugly stepsisters the whole way through but it is actually the sister that is mute and they think retarded. Great twist and great POV switch up. Really should re-read it.

Once again spoilers.

Snow Crash was my first Neal Stephenson book book second hand (its bee well loved and I wont lend this copy to anyone because its about to fall a part.) There are a couple of scenes in it from the point of view of a dog that has gone through a cyberman type process but that isn't obvious to begin with. Good little tension builder.

So I couldn't decide today so i gave you all two but i don't think anyone will complain. 

Book Photo Challenge Day 8: Happily Ever After

I first read Threshold in year 12 and completely fell in love with her and her writing.

Threshold has an amazing twist "Happily Ever After" ending and I was devastated to find that at the time it was a stand alone book. This was rare even back then. So I read her other books.

What made it amazing for me was the maths involved and it being set in a fantasy world. Interests were colliding on the page in front of my very eyes.

Then, a few years ago, I was in the bookstore with my partner looking for books to take on a holiday with us and i found "The Serpent Bride" and i think I swelled with delight when I realised that is was a continuation of the "Threshold" world and story. I then tried to explain my reaction to my partner and give him a sense of how important it was that I start reading this book right now or I would die on the spot but couldn't get the words out over the hyperventilation.

Literary Photo Challenge Day 6: Most Anticipated This Year

I heard about The Bone Season a week or two before it came out because of Tumblr posts about this new, young, highly thought of university student that got a huge book deal without actually having published a book; Samantha Shannon. I thought, wow, in this day and age of the indie publisher, this Shannon must be brilliant. 

I was not disappointed. Plus, considering I work in a high school, I  told my librarians about it too. 

Literary Photo Challenge Day 5: Plot Twist

Yay! I am all catched up with this now and the oddly timed Ender's Game is my choice for plot twist. I wont tell you what the plot twist was but it was a biggy and I don't now if its is the same in the movie that opened here today.

I got given this book as my year 12 english text and I will admit that it was the first and only english text I ever read in full. It was the first ever book in english class that was of the sci fi or fantasy genre and I loved it. 

Photo challenge (catch up day 1) this months reading list.

Technically day 1 of the photo challenge my proposed reading list for December. I stress the word proposed because the list in my head always changes as I actually come to the end of a book.

Also I have a list of ebooks that need reading because they need reviews.

But yay for comic books, sci-fi and historical fiction.

List:

Comic Books

•  Catwoman, vol 1 of new 52, Judd Winick and Guillem March
• Witch Craft, 1,2 & 3 of 3, James Robinson, Peter Snejbjerg and Teddy Kristiansen
• Ballads, Charles Vess

Novels

• Insurgent, Book 2 Divergent trilogy, Veronica Roth
• Allegiant, Book 3 Divergent trilogy, Veronica Roth
• The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett 

Time to introduce some of my friends and where we hang out.

I thought it was high time to introduce you all to some of my friends. Some of which I have had for a very long time and some I have met and befriended quite recently. Also some of them are much older than I am but i think they are cool anyway.

This is the main place that we hang out.

I recently went and found a new large group of friends.

This group has fallen in with some high caliber, exclusive friends of a friend in a secondary meeting place (in other words my person best friend needed somewhere to store her books whilst she made room for the newest member of the family due in march, lucky me)

The bottom half being her's and the top half being mine.

I hope you liked being introduced to some of my friends and seeing where we hang out.

Ardent Forest by Nancy Jane Moore

This was a nice, if not overly complex, quick read that did not take much effort to get through.

The two privileged girls, Rosa and Cecily, are the step daughter and daughter, respectively, of the governor of Texas in a post economic meltdown of the US (and apparently that means the world too.)

The Governor, Guy Gisborn, seized the governorship from Rosa’s mother 5 years before the story takes place and in a fit of paranoia exiles Rosa from the city.

This sets up the rest of the story but I felt that everything came to the girls without the hardship and trials that make a good science fiction/ fantasy story.  It had all the elements and the set up but the complexities were not there.   The people or things they were looking for were found almost effortlessly.

If Moore was trying to also make a statement about sexuality and gender stereotypes in the modern world, that was also done poorly as the characters that were addressing these issues did not face any sort of judgement or hardship because of who they were, which is unfortunately the case at this point in time.

I gave this 2 out of 5 stars.

I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers