FF (163)

Follow Friday is an opportunity to discover and follow other book related blogs! Want to join? Check it out at Parajunkee or Alison Can Read

This week's question feature is Orange Owls and Books

Have you ever convinced someone to read a book, a series, or a whole genre? What book(s) and who was it? Did they like it?

My Answer: I actually have an advantage here, as I work in a public library and very often recommend books and love it when someone takes a book I've convinced them to try and then have them come back when they return the book and tell me they want the next one in the series. 

I got my mum to read The Hunger Games, which then got her into Dystopian and things like Divergent. She loved them and read them really quickly.

Happy hopping and Blogging!

 

And don't forget to check out and comment on my new weekly discussion post 'Thursday Thoughts' this week I looked at Books and Films.

Thursday Thoughts (2)

Hi,

Welcome to my new Weekly post - Thursday Thoughts.

This is going to be a weekly discussion post that I hope will get all my blog readers commenting and giving their opinion. I will pick a topic and write how my thoughts and feelings about it and then hopefully all you lovely readers will leave a comment below with your own opinions.

The only rule I have is that everyone is respectful of each other's opinions, there is no real right or wrong here, this is a chance to experience a topic from someone else's perspective. Please listen to each other and be nice.

If you wish to take a more active part in this discussion and make your own blog post about the topic, I will create a Linky list below that you can link your post to. If more and more people take part - the bigger and better it will become.

Some discussions will be light and silly, others will be more serious but they will all be about books and book related things.

So come on everyone, pull up a chair and lets hear your voice.

This weeks topic is:

'Books into Films - Is it always a good thing?' 

If you look at the recent and upcoming film releases you will realize that a large percentage of them are book adaptations. It seems that film producers are taking their inspiration more and more from the literary world.
If you are a fan of the book, this can be great, exciting and one of the best ways of delving further into the world. If you're not a fan of the book it can introduce you to the world which can lead you to reading the book.
But is it always a good thing? Are there some books that just shouldn't be made into a film. How do they decide which ones to make?
Obviously best sellers and prize winners are often picked up. Just think Hunger Games, Fault In Our Stars, Harry Potter - all these books swept the nation and sold thousands of copies, and had a big online presence that only got bigger and bigger with the making of the films.
I haven't seen Fault In Our Stars yet of course, but I'm hoping too, as for Hunger Games and Harry Potter - these films were expertly done, I think they did an amazing job with these films and although some details were changed the overall story retains the heart of the book. But what about the films that don't live up to expectations.

One of my all time favourite books was Eragon, I loved it, still do for the most part, so when the film came out I thought my dreams were coming true, but when I saw the film I was terribly disappointed - in my opinion it was awful! They changed so much and it just didn't really make sense. I don't think the producers/writers had even read the book before they wrote the film script, it's like they were told a quick summary, an outline of the story and they just filled in the gaps themselves. I felt so let down and it actually put me off the books for a while, it tainted my view of it.
Do you think a bad movie could also put someone off reading the book? I've seen films I didn't enjoy and would never consider reading the book afterwards.

But then again I ended up finding one of my favourite books through a film - I saw a trailer for 'Now is Good' starring Dakota Fanning, I was always a fan of Dakota so I knew I would see the film no matter what it was about, when I heard it was based on a book (Before I Die) I tracked it down and loved it. If it wasn't for that movie release I wouldn't have ever picked up that book and missed out on such an amazing book, which then led me to some other great books.

So I want to know, is it always a good thing to have a film of the book. If someone offered to turn your favourite book into a movie would you agree or decline, knowing that the film could be totally awesome or really bad. Would it change the way you see the book?

Got your own post? Link it here:



Next Weeks topic will be 'TBR piles - how long is too long to wait to read a book?'

Cover Reveal - FAE

“FAE”
EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH 

Fae- a new anthology of fairy stories from classic tales to urban fantasy, edited by Rhonda Parrish, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, July 22, 2014. 

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. Fae is full of stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles to computer technologies and modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis.  

Fae covers a vast swath of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and complex characters. Enjoy the familiar feeling of a good old-fashioned fairy tale alongside urban fantasy and horror with a fae twist. 

 Can i just point out how awesome that cover it, really mysterious with gorgeous colours. It certainly makes me want to read it. 

With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories from Sidney Blaylock Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek. 


Fae will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. 
You can also find Fae on Goodreads. 

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.
World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. We believe in great storytelling. 

Publication Date: July 22, 2014 • Fantasy / Horror Anthology Trade paperback, 250 pages • ebook
ISBN: 978-0692207918 Publicity/Reviews: publicity@worldweaverpress.com
Information: www.worldweaverpress.com/books/fae

worldweaverpress.com 
@WorldWeaver_wwp

#####

Book Review - The Weight of Water

Title: The Weight of Water
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens
Release Date: 3 Jan 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1408830239

Synopsis
Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother head for England. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother's heart is breaking and at school friends are scarce. But when someone special swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there might be more than one way for her to stay afloat. "The Weight of Water" is a startlingly original piece of fiction; most simply a brilliant coming of age story, it also tackles the alienation experienced by many young immigrants. Moving, unsentimental and utterly page-turning, we meet and share the experiences of a remarkable girl who shows us how quiet courage prevails.

My Review
I read 'Breathe' and 'Resist' by Crossan and absolutely loved them so when I heard she had written something else I wanted to read it. So i put in a request at the library.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but was very surprised by what I got. The whole book was written in verse, I was tempted to just put it back without reading it, but decided that it was worth a try.
It only took me an hour to read, and is very easy to get through. It took me a while to get used to the writing style but soon found myself racing through and I think it was very cleverly done. 
Kasienka is polish, she has come to Coventry, England with her mum who is heartbroken but determine. Her dad left, only leaving them a note saying he was moving to England, so now her mum is determined to track him down. Leaving her home, family and friends is hard and fitting into a whole new school in a different country is hard too. Kasienka just wants to go home, but then she meets someone who makes her realise that life her could be good.
The story is very simply done and covers topics like immigration, bullying and separation. It's all done very well and gets the messages across without being offensive or too preachy. 
I did find it a bit hard to relate to the character and her situation but it was cleverly done, certainly very different.
Good if you want a quick read with a different angle. 

My Rating

    

Cover Reveal - Gone

Tess Waters’ life is perfect. She has everything she’s ever wanted all wrapped up in her boyfriend Alec. But Alec has a different plan and one day, he’s gone.

Tess is devastated. She doesn’t remember how to be herself and she doesn’t want to.Her family believes she needs to move on and get over him. It’s easier said than done.

Tess doesn’t know where to begin because everywhere she turns, she thinks of Alec. She doesn’t think this heartbreak will ever stop. Eventually, Tess finds comfort in places she never realized she had. From there she discovers a person she never knew she could be.

Book Promo - Kissed

Summary:

 

Trapped in a dark cult, sixteen-year-old Naomi Aren has lived a quiet, albeit unhappy, life nestled deep in the hills of the Ozarks.  With uncut hair, denim skirts, and only roses for friends, Naomi seldom questions why her life is different from other kids at school. Until the day her abusive father, who is also the cult’s leader, announces her wedding. Naomi must marry Dwayne Yerdin, a bully who reeks of sweat and manure and is the only one person who scares her worse than her father.

 

Then she meets Kai, the mysterious boy who brings her exotic new roses and stolen midnight kisses. Kisses that bring her a supernatural strength she never knew she had.  As the big day approaches, Naomi unearths more secrets of about her father’s cult. She learns she has power of her own and while Kai may have awakened that power, Naomi must find a way to use it to escape Dwayne and her father—without destroying herself.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Kissed-Thorn-Chronicles-Kimberly-Loth-ebook/dp/B00JVAQLTE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399715088&sr=8-1&keywords=kissed+loth

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20612227-kissed 

Author bio

  

Kimberly Loth can’t decide where she wants to settle down. She’s lived in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Utah, California, Oregon, and South Carolina. She finally decided to make the leap and leave the U.S. behind for a few years. Currently, she lives in Cairo, Egypt with her husband and two kids. 

She is a high school math teacher by day (please don’t hold that against her) and YA author by night. She loves romantic movies, chocolate, roses, and crazy adventures. Kissed is her first novel.

Social media links–

https://www.facebook.com/kimberlylothbooks

http://kimberlyloth.com

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20612227-kissed

https://www.amazon.com/author/kimberlyloth

Twitter: @kimberlyloth         https://twitter.com/Kimberlyloth

To purchase:  http://amzn.to/1ix9Bcd

 

 

Chapter 1 Extract
Birthdays are supposed to be special like my Kaiser Wilhelm rosebushes. They bloom once a year, huge violet and crimson cups full to bursting with petals. When I part the petals with my nose and inhale, I go weak in the knees from the fruity perfume. But my birthdays are more like the daisies that grow alongside the roses. Ignored.

 The sink looked odd next to our front door. My mother had it installed after I kept tracking in dirt and fertilizer from my green house. I washed the soil off my hands with the warm water and used a file to clear the dirt out from under my nails. Then I exchanged one dirty pair of ugly tennis shoes for a pair of clean ugly tennis shoes and made my way into the kitchen. Mother didn’t allow a speck of soil from my greenhouse to dirty her home. 

 

 Paint on the cabinets peeled away in white curls. A single light bulb gave enough light to cook but not enough to read a recipe. My mother stood by the tiny window, her bottle blond hair twisted in a bun on the back of her head. She wiped her hands on her apron then smoothed a stray hair from my braid. I knelt down to tie my shoes, anything to avoid her touch. Physical touch burned, even something as little as a finger brushing my forehead.

“Wash your face. We have guests for dinner.” My stomach knotted. I tied and untied my shoes three times, wondering how to respond. Years ago, my father had closed our home to visitors. No one crossed our threshold. I was allowed to leave only to go to school and to church.

Well, if you want to call it that. I’ve watched movies in school and I went to the Baptist church until I was eight. Our new church, Crusaders of God, was a bigger shock than no more pants. But Mother and Father called it church.

 “Why?” I asked. My curiosity overrode my memory of the last question I asked when Grandma died and I wanted to know why I couldn’t go to the funeral. I stood and waited for the slap and the lecture


Instead, she smiled like she was hiding something important. “For your birthday. They’re friends of your father’s from church. We have a big surprise Of course. Friends of my father. Nothing ever happened in our house unless he was the center of attention. Even on my birthday. At least they remembered. The surprise concerned me though, as the last surprise they announced turned out to be a drastic lifestyle change complete with long denim skirts and strict obedience. Oh, and no more birthdays. Until now, apparently.

Maybe the surprise would be that my father finally found his sanity. That would be an amazing birthday present. I doubted I’d get that lucky. Dinner took place in the dining room. The cheap chandelier struggled to fill the room with light as two of the bulbs were out and nobody bothered to replace them. Our mysterious dinner guest turned out to be familiar. And not the good kind of familiar either.

 Dwayne Yerdin sat at the table. He was a senior at my school but ended up in quite a few of my classes even though he was two years older. I probably shouldn’t judge him. But with his heavy lidded, half closed eyes, buzzed head, and classic bully laugh, I had disliked him the moment I saw him. Perhaps he would prove my judgment wrong tonight. Seated next to him was a pudgy man in a suit. He wore a tie, but his neck was too thick to fasten the top button. He had the same heavy lidded eyes as Dwayne.

My father, a tall thin man with thick blond hair, saw me waiting in the doorway.

Book Review - Eona: Return of the Dragoneye

Title: Eona: Return of the Dragoneye
Author: Alison Goodman
Series: Eon (book 2)
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Release Date: 1st August 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1849920162

Synopsis
Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon's army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona's power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled "Emperor" Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power - and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . .

My Review
I first took this book out of the library 2 years ago, I was really excited to read it as I remembered that I really enjoyed book 1, but I had a pile of books and reviews to do that I kept pushing this back. I didn't realise that quite so much time had passed and I feel bad for keeping a book for so long. By the time I decided to get round to it (about a month ago) I couldn't really remember book 1, so I picked that up to re-read instead. I didn't love book 1 but enjoyed it enough to want to read this one, but for some reason i still didn't pick this book up. One factor was that it was too big for my bag so i couldn't carry it around but there was something else stopping me too. I read 2 other shorted books in between and nearly started another. But this book is due back at the library tomorrow from it's last renewal and I just couldn't renew it again - so I gave myself an ultimatum, read it this weekend or return it unread. 
So I finally picked it up. 
Eona has been revealed as a girl, the first female dragoneye in over 500 years. After Ido killed the other 10 dragon lords a war is breaking out and the dragon spirits are in pain. Eona must find a way to appease the dragons, fight for the Emperor and keep everyone safe. But she is young and inexperienced, is it too much for someone of her position?
I have to admit I mostly skim read this in the end. It is 469 pages, big pages and fairly small font which means there is a lot of content, and if I am honest i don't think all of it was relevant. There is a lot of description and back story and thinking - bits that you could quite happily do without, or at least that is how i felt.
The actual storyline is interesting and compelling, I like Eona as a character and found myself hoping she would win, she isn't perfect by any means - in fact she is very flawed, she is moody and irrational, uncertain and at times a bit weak but that just makes her more realistic. I liked the cross between her, Ido and Kygo, that was very well done and created good tension throughout. 
When it actually got down to it, the plot was good and I did enjoy it, the ending was very exciting and it drew together fairly nicely, I have a few unanswered questions but overall I was happy. I just wish it hadn't taken so long to get there, I was losing the will to read at times.
High fantasy fans may enjoy this more, but I just struggled with the pacing.

My Rating

      

FF (162)

Follow Friday is an opportunity to discover and follow other book related blogs! Want to join? Check it out at Parajunkee or Alison Can Read

This week's question feature is Orange Owls and Books

Have you met a favorite author and have a picture? Share.

My Answer: I've actually been fortunate enough to meet a lot of awesome authors:

The most awesome Derek Landy - author of 'Skulduggery Pleasant'

The Children's Laureate and very lovely Malorie Blackman - author of 'Noughts & Crosses'

The super cool Teri Terry - author of 'Slated' trilogy

A great group- Steve Cole - author of lots of cool things, Kim Lakin Smith and Sarah McIntyre

The very nice Meg Rosoff - author of 'How I Live Now'

The cool Andy Briggs - author of Hero.com & Villain.net

 I've met some more but don't have photos, but they include Steve Feasey, Louise Rennison, David Melling, Lucy Christopher and more.

Happy hopping and Blogging!

Thursday Thoughts (1)

Hi,

Welcome to my new Weekly post - Thursday Thoughts.

This is going to be a weekly discussion post that I hope will get all my blog readers commenting and giving their opinion. I will pick a topic and write how my thoughts and feelings about it and then hopefully all you lovely readers will leave a comment below with your own opinions.

The only rule I have is that everyone is respectful of each other's opinions, there is no real right or wrong here, this is a chance to experience a topic from someone else's perspective. Please listen to each other and be nice.

If you wish to take a more active part in this discussion and make your own blog post about the topic, I will create a Linky list below that you can link your post to. If more and more people take part - the bigger and better it will become.

Some discussions will be light and silly, others will be more serious but they will all be about books and book related things.

So come on everyone, pull up a chair and lets hear your voice.

The first topic I am going to start with is:

 'Should we re-read the books we loved as children'.

I'm starting with this one as it is currently in my mind, I had to re-read a book for my children's group at work and it was my all time favourite book when I was a child. I was nervous about picking it up again now in case I didn't like it as much.

Have you ever felt that? When you pick up a book you have loved for years and you worry it won't give you that same feeling.
When you read books as a child I believe you are more open and innocent, literally anything is possible and books are a magic gateway into another world (if we're lucky this feeling remains in adulthood). Even if you read a lot there is a limit to the number of books you can absorb at that age and of course you just don't have the life experiences behind you that can change your perceptions.

The book I had to re-read was 'Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh' by Robert C O'Brien, this was the book I always said was my 'all-time favourite'.
I first read this book when I was in middle school and fell in love with it. I even drew some fan art (before I even knew what fan art was) for it, and spent weeks telling all my friends how incredible this book was.
The imagery and wonder of this book swept me away, I remember even then, being able to visualise the story as i read it and wanting to absorb as much off the pages as possible. I must have read it at least a dozen times but it never lost that wonder for me. Mrs Frisby and the Rats seemed like friends I could turn to again and again.

And then I moved on to other books and whilst I would occasionally revisit this one as you do with favourites, it happened less and less often. As I was introduced to books about dragons and fairies and magic and Harry Potter my reading tastes changed, I still loved animal stories - in fact one of my other all time favourites is 'The Animals of Farthing Wood' by Colin Dann. But the more I read, the more I wanted to read and soon I had so many books I didn't have time to revisit those favourites as much. And I started to grow up, my views, tastes, time and reading habits all adjusted and changed opening up hundreds of different worlds and experiences.

It must have been at least 5 years since I last read Mrs Frisby if not closer to 10, but even so it remained in my mind as a favourite. So when I chose to re-read it, I really was nervous. I had picked it for my Children's Book Group at the library as I thought it would be something different, and I wanted to see if the next generation with all their magic, monsters, diaries and technology could also love a classic like Mrs Frisby, but in order to lead a proper discussion about it I knew I would have to read it again.

When I picked up that book I had a moment of pure fear - what if this book disappointed me now? My reading tastes have changed so much over the years, especially since doing this blog - what if I didn't like it anymore. Could I really throw away over 10 years of love for a book, could I risk ruining my memory of it.

I started to read and the fear didn't go away, I wasn't instantly hooked and I thought this meant I didn't like it as much, but then I realized that if I stopped thinking about it so much and just let myself read without the pressure maybe I would enjoy it, and I am happy to say I did. I wrote a review for it which you can check out here if you want.

Luckily this turned out in my favour, I read it and still loved it. I wouldn't say I thought it was as incredible as i did as a child but it still struck me as an excellent book so I am pleased. But what if I had ended up hating it?

It has happened before, I used to love, and I mean absolutely adore a book I had about a dragon. I think it was called something like 'A Dragon in Spring Term'. In fact I think it was a series, and i was obsessed. I re-read it a few years ago and just couldn't get on with it at all. I ended up giving away my treasured childhood copies to make space for other books. But I was really upset. What made me love them so much as a child and dislike them so much as an adult? I'm sure timing and mood has a lot to do with it, but some books just last the test of time better than others.

I think in the grand scheme I would have to judge each book as it comes, I mean I would love to re-read the Farthing Wood series, but those books meant a lot to me as a child, they really set up my love of animals and I used to always re-read them when I was down or needed something familiar to go back to. So if I didn't enjoy them now, it would be really hard and feel like I had lost a friend.
I guess it depends just how much we loved those books.

I am pleased to say that my book group did enjoy the book, they said it was like 'nothing they had read before' but that it was 'pretty good'. High praise from them I can tell you.



So tell me - would you revisit old favourites and read them again or would you rather just cherish the memory?

Do any of you not get that feeling? Am I just mad?

Talk to me Book Lovers - do you re-visit childhood favourites and why?

Got your own post? Link it here:





Next Weeks topic will be 'Books into Films - Is it always a good thing?'

New Things for this blog

Hi all,

I haven't been as on top of this blog as I used to be. To be honest it's just been ticking over, I would review a book when I'd read it (and that's slowed down) and post Promo posts for authors when I was sent them. This is fine in the grand scheme of thing but doesn't really offer variety.

I want my readers to get something out of this blog when they visit and I would like to get something more out of running it. So I am looking to try some NEW THINGS.

What are these 'new things' you may ask - well I'm not entirely sure. If you have any suggestions of things you would like to see please comment below.

The first thing I want to try though is a sort of Weekly Discussion Post, this will mostly be me rambling on about something book related, but I hope that enough people will read it and that we can start discussions in the comments.

I ultimately want to increase traffic to my blog, I have a lot of followers and I love that you've clicked that button to follow, but hardly anyone comments and I don't think that my blog is really that out there- people don't know I exist. I want to get people coming together and talking about the thing that brings us together - books!

I will be posting my weekly discussions on Thursdays - starting tomorrow (15th May) and will call it 'Thursday Thoughts' I will offer a linky so if you want to do your own post on the discussion and then link to it on my blog you can. I want as many people talking as possible.

Here is a little Button I made quickly for it, this may change in time but for now it's cute!

Tomorrow's post will be about Reading Childhood Favourites. Is it wise to revisit the books we loved as a child now we are older.