Tuesday, September 29, 2015

TELL ME TUESDAY #63

TELL ME TUESDAY is a feature that oozed from my post Twitter party fried-brains. It is a weekly, or bi-weekly feature (depending on your reading style), where you tell us what you are reading now, and why, and what you will be reading in the future from your tbr pile, and why. I am oh so curious why people read what they read. So tell me!

JOINING US THS WEEK
Shannon from REX ROBOT REVIEWS
Go have a peek at their latest grabs and tell them about yours.



This Middle Grade pubs tomorrow, so I had better finish it quickly. I put this book aside last month (August) because it was slow to start, but when I picked it back up things started to happen a couple of pages later. That was a bit before 10%. I have read 25% now, and should have it finished by the first.



As you know I was going to read my eARC of AN INHERITANCE OF ASHES next because it publishes on the 6th of October, BUT... this beautiful creature was waiting for me in my inbox yesterday from Month9Books. It is the sequel to one of my top five books last year, and I know I will eat it up in a day. 

Chauncey wants to know what you are reading.
So tell us!

Monday, September 28, 2015

THE SUNDAY POST #29

THE SUNDAY POST is a weekly feature hosted by Kimba at the Caffinated Book Reviewer. It is a chance to recap the previous week, share news, showcase books and/or bookish things we have received, and tell about what is coming up on our blog in the next week. You can view the guidelines, HERE.

THIS LAST WEEK
I don't even remember what I talked about. Ha!

I post a strange word and its definition every Wednesday on my Facebook book page, my FB personal page, Twitter and Tumblr, so I thought I would start sharing them here on my Sunday Post, too. This was this last week...


THE SORCERY TAG


SATURDAY FAIL
Once again no blogversary post. I figured out the font problems earlier in the week. For some reason Blogger is inserting garbage code when I am composing my posts. I have to go in and remove it all, so it will set the default color, font, and background color as per my design. It is time consuming, and then add in some internet problems * shakes fist at Time Warner* and you have me saying forget it. It will be posted on Monday, which is funny because I finally had my The Infinite review ready to go! 

First 17 chapters of THE DEAD HOUSE, FREE, HERE.

My birthday twin, Shelly from READ. SLEEP. REPEAT., is celebrating her birthday all month long with DIVERSITY posts. I am going to participate by reviewing ORLEANS (finally), as a guest revew, and having a giveaway of a hardcover of the book with signed bookplate! You can read all about it, HERE.

I found this musical gem when I was looking for a tutorial of Classical Gas to quickly fullfill one of my 2015 New Year's resolutions to finish learning Classical Gas on guitar, after I basically quit playing 24 years ago. This is Mason Williams the composer playing it in a duet with a harpist, but not a pedal harpist.



MONDAY - BLOGVERSARY
TELL ME TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY - BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: For Writers
THURSDAY - MONTHLY STS HAUL
TOP FIVE FRIDAY:
THE SUNDAY POST

I SEE IN THE FUTURE...
1. WITCHES! All month in October, I will be featuring WITCHY THINGS on my Children's book blog, TICKLING DRAGONS. Kaylee, the five year old daughter of Shannon from REX ROBOT REVIEWS, will be contributing her first review on KOOKIES AND MILK: with Kaylee and Mommy. She will be reviewing the first book in the WORST WITCH SERIES. I will be spotlighting the author Ruth Chew and her series of standalone Children's chapter books about witches and magic, and also Debi Gliori's witchy books from the Pure Dead Magic series. I will also be spotlighting the anime movie KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, and the very first witch I became aquanted with as a child, Wendy from the CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST cartoons and comic books. I will also be doing a Harry Potter themed Halloween post on my Middle Grade blog PAPER DRAGONS.

2. I reviewed the YA Paranormal OF BREAKABLE THINGS last Halloween Day, and this year I will be reviewing it's sequel, OF DELICATE PIECES, which publishes on October 20th. You all know how I gushed about the first book!
To add to the spookiness... about a month and a half before I saw this cover I started collecting gifs for my review, and guess what the gifs were? Hands!


Have and incredible week!

Friday, September 25, 2015

TOP FIVE FRIDAY #12


TFF is based on TOP TEN TUESDAY by The Broke and the Bookish. I always frown in a defeated manner when trying to come up with ten answers for TTT, so...

TOP FIVE BOOKS ON MY FALL TBR

1. OF DELICATE PIECES
This is the sequel to my heart-love book from last year, OF BREAKABLE THINGS. It was supposed to be published in April, but was pushed back not once, but TWICE, and pubs on October 20th. I requested an eARC a couple of days ago, so we will see how that goes. I pre-orderd the ebook, so no matter what happens with the ARC, I will be reading it soon! I am planning a reread of the first book in preparation for this title. I usually don't love YA Paranormal ROMANCE, but... the romance in this story is sweet. 

I have the audiobook, so when I finish listening to WICKED, this will be my multitasking book.

3. AN INHERITANCE OF ASHES
I devoured this author's first YA title, ABOVE, and even though she is a #@$%&!, I am excited to read this one, too. It is an eARC from Edelweiss, and it publishes on October the 6th.

4. THE WORLD OF POO
I have only read THE COLOR OF MAGIC by Pratchett, but I intend to read ALL THE DISCWORLD BOOKS! I have WEE FREE MEN on my Kindle (which will probably end up being another fall read), then I saw this on Netgalley about a week ago and requested it right away. His final book, THE SHEPARD'S CROWN,  was also there, but was suggested for the UK and I was declined for that title. This is a novella, so it should be a quick fun read.

5. TOXIC HEART
I thought the first book MYSTIC CITY was marvelous. It was refreshing reading romance scenes written by a male author, too. Plus, these books are about mystics. MYSTICS, PEOPLE!


What is your top book for this fall?

Thursday, September 24, 2015

THURSDAY TAG: The Sorcery Tag


This is September's monthly tag from LL & A (the LL is not me). I follow this meme via Library Luv's (there's your LL) blog, BEYOND THE BOOK REVIEWS. I won't be tagging anyone, so if you like this go to the highlighted link above and play!


1. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK THAT CONTAINS MAGIC OR SORCERY?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MUGGLE MOVIE?
The Original Wizard of Oz

3. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HP BOOK?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

4. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY MAGICAL POWER WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Healing

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FANTASY BOOK COVER?

6. WHAT TWO BOOK CHARACTERS WOULD YOU LIKE TO PRACTICE YOUR SPELL CASTING WITH?
Kel and Rhys


7. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK WITH MAGIC AUTHOR?
JKR

8. WHAT WIZARD/SORCERER/WITCH WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET?
Luna Lovegood
She loves to twirl, just like me!

9. WHAT MAGICAL WORLD WOULD YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF?
Harry Potter (post Voldie)

10. IF YOUR ELEMENT COULD BE WATER, FIRE, EARTH, OR AIR WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
air
I always feel re-energized on windy days.


What would your element be, and why?

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

TELL ME TUESDAY #62

TELL ME TUESDAY is a feature that oozed from my post Twitter party fried-brains. It is a weekly, or bi-weekly feature (depending on your reading style), where you tell us what you are reading now, and why, and what you will be reading in the future from your tbr pile, and why. I am oh so curious why people read what they read. So tell me!

Joining us this week...
Shannon from REX ROBOT REVIEWS

Go have a peek at their new grabs and tell them yours!



Yes, I am still reading this Adult Fiction by MARGARET ATWOOD, author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE. It took me 10 days to read the first half of the book. It dragged and it seemed like the torture would never end, and then... at about 55%... the book started filling with GOODNESS. After several highly predictable plot turns, there was an unexpected twist around 52% and then it slid back into tediousness for a bit, but then BAM, it was like a different author took over the writing. STRANGE. Even if it remains wonderful until the end it is still getting a bad rating because no reader should have to wait until past the 50% mark to become invested in a story. I almost DNFed this three different times.



After I read my next ARC due, The Middle Grade RULES FOR STEALING STARS, I am going to tackle...
AN INHERITANCE OF ASHES 
The author Leah Bobet is a stuck-up @#$%&!, but her first YA, ABOVE, was magnificent, and I am excited to read this one. She said in an interview that the only reason she wrote ABOVE was to prove Young Adult could be written intelligently (oh excuse us), and she would never (ever) write another YA novel. Never say never, I guess her mother never gave her that bit of advice.
 

What are you reading? Tell me!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

THE SUNDAY POST #28

THE SUNDAY POST is a weekly feature hosted by Kimba at the Caffinated Book Reviewer. It is a chance to recap the previous week, share news, showcase books and/or bookish things we have received, and tell about what is coming up on our blog in the next week. You can view the guidelines, HERE.



THIS LAST WEEK

No, this is not a new feature; it is my Blogger blogging experience this week. About a month ago my posts started mixing fonts, font sizes, and text colors. I had to fix them by highlighting and changing the fonts, sizes, and colors via the top toolbar. Last Sunday afternoon when I changed the masthead, I also changed the font on the blog and text color thinking this would remedy the problem. However, it made it worse... there started to be three different fonts instead of two, there was more tiny text and the link colors were also changing! Plus, my sidebar started to come and go, images were randomly being made small, and there was white background behind non copy and pasted text! The weird thing? When I previewed the posts they were perfect, but when posted they were all wonky. THEN... after fixing them the post would look fine, but when I came back the post would be all wonky again. I have been fighting with it all week. The blogversary post was morphing all over the place, so I finally gave up. I don't want people coming to the blog for the first time, to enter the giveaways, and seeing a chewed-up and spit-out page. I also scheduled my Top Five Friday and it didn't post. I discovered this when I got home after work and grocery shopping about 6:00 pm.


* UPDATE: Monday... I went in and fixed the code. Let's see if it holds this time!




THE HEART GOES LAST is killing me and I tell you all about it.

It was a freebie this week, so to shock people I chose PARANORMAL YA ROMANCE SERIES I HAVE READ. Ha ha!

There was a war on Twitter a couple of weeks ago started by someone's blog post about "Do ARCs Symbolize Blogger Status". Luckily I missed it. However, a blogger that I follow retweeted the link to that blog post this week. Why? Do these bloggers thrive on conflict? I unfollowed her. We are supposed to be a community.
NEXT WEEK
TELL ME TUESDAY
THURSDAY TAG
TOP FIVE FRIDAY
SOMETIMES SATURDAY - Blogversary


Have a magnificent week!