Tamora Pierce, Book Rebound, and Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series

Where to begin....

Since my last post nearly a year ago I have been very, very busy.  However, this does not mean that I stopped reading for enjoyment.  I haven't stopped.  With the addition of a Nook I will can have almost any book at my fingertips instantly, which can be a problem.  Also the fact that Borders stores closed has not limited my supply of books.  I have read quite a bit over the past 10 months or so and I am not going to attempt to write about everyone of them.  It would take too much effort, and I'm not quite sure it would be worth it to write about them.  That's not to say they weren't good,  I can't really remember any of thing I read that was really terrible.  Instead I will briefly mention about my trip to NYC to meet Tamora Pierce with my best friend and the book series that I just finished and is the reason I wanted to write this entry.

So Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite authors.  Probably my favorite young adult author.  I was introduced to her in high school and have read at least one of her books (more likely one of her series) a year for nearly ten years.  I have honestly lost track of how many times I have read her Song of the Lioness Quartet, not to mention her other series.  Anyway my best friend and I went to meet here and it was great.  I don't think I've ever gotten to meet someone I had been such a huge fan of.  It was a great experience.  I also met two other authors and they signed my books.  It was a very memorable day for me. 

On to the reason for my post...

I have read a ton of books.  There have been bits an pieces of nearly everything.  No horror...or at least no Stephen King type horror (although I do want to read "Secret Window, Secret Garden").  The horror I read has to have some bits of humor in it...it can't been too scary.  I've ventured into paranormal books and dark fantasy, but I think those are my limits.  Anyway...there have not been many books or series that have involved me on an emotional or a physical level.  And I do mean this literally.  Harry Potter comes to mind, Anne Bishops Black Jewels books and Ephemera books, the Twilight series (although I don't like including it, it still affected me), most of Tamora Pierce's books, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (I only finished the first book and boy what a first book that was!), Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries/Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series (to a lesser extent that the others, but still), and Karen Marie Moning's Fever series which I have just finished.  I have not been on such an intense journey with a book in a very long time.  It has be extremely interesting.

I found the books through a post on my favorite romance blog Smart B******, Trashy Books.  The post was about "book rebound", the feeling a person has after they have read a book that was so incredible they don't know what to read next because nothing feels as if it will measure up to what you have just finished.  I was very happy to find I was no the only person to have felt this way.  I experienced this first hand at the end of the Harry Potter series.  No matter what I read after it, nothing was satisfying.  Then someone told me to read Twilight and well I had something that allowed me to move on.  That was probably one of the worst time I needed to rebound.  I just felt so bereft after reading it.  I mean it was a series that had been part of my life for nearly ten years so I had more invested in the series than simply the fact that it was over.  But back to the Fever series.  The reader was at this point and was asking Sarah, one of the authors of the blogs what to read after Karen Marie Moning's Fever series because the character of the character of Jericho Barrons.  She was looking for life after Barrons and was having some trouble.  Well this had me intrigued.  I read into the comments a bit and found that many others felt the same way about the series and could not stop singing its praises.  I looked into the series, found out I could rent it on my Nook for free through my library (so convenient!) and decided to see if it was really as good as everyone claimed.  Well it was.  I will say this though, if I had judged the series based solely on the first book, I would not be praising it as much as I am now.  Particularly the first third or so of the book.  It was very slow going.  But I think what kept me going was the need for answers and the need to find out more about Barrons.  The only other character who comes to mind and is just as compelling (and mysterious, and a whole mess of other things) is Daemon Sadi.  Even if I knew everything there was to know about these to characters I don't know if it would be enough.  If these two characters were to ever meet, I would think they would look at each other and understand each other perfectly.  But Barrons was enough to keep me interested to read the next book. 

After reading the second book through my library's e-book subscription I was too impatient to wait for my turn on the hold list and bought books 3, 4, and 5.  I finished book three and began book four but then I was distracted by my new Tamora Pierce book ( I had been waiting for it for about 3 years) and I forgot about it for a little bit.  Well now that school is over for the semester I can become completely absorbed in books without having to worry about homework.  Boy am I lucky I waited.  I would not have been able to finish my semester if I had been reading books 4 and 5.  The cliffhanger between books 3 and 4 was bad.  It stopped mid-scene.  I didn't think it could possibly get any worse than that cliffhanger, but then I got to the end of the book 4 and I was left mid-scene yet again and this time I was pretty sure I knew what happened, but my mind still did not want to accept it.  I had tears in my eyes as I sat at work reading it.  If I had been home, I probably would have been more vocal and probably hit my bed a few times out of frustration and anger.  I don't know how anyone could have gone an entire year without knowing what happened in between books 3 and 4 and 4 and 5.  I would have yelled and ranted to anyone who would listen.   And the 5th book, well that took me on such a ride.  I did not want to do anything but finish this book (love that feeling!).  It was very difficult for me to put it down last night when I had a little over 100 pages left.  If I didn't have to go to work today I would have stayed up and finished it.  I could not wait to finish this book.  My mind was constantly racing because I could not stop thinking about all of the possible answers to the questions.  I don't know how I functioned yesterday.  I only functioned today because I knew I would finish it.  The book had me as confused as Mac (MacKayla Lane) as to what the answers would be.  I had so many ideas I didn't know which one it would be.  I would put the book down for some reason (even though I really didn't want to) and I would just feel so excited/energized.  I felt as if I was Mac and had just been through all the battles she had.  Having now finished the series it was so worth it.  I finished the last book so fast it don't feel as if I absorbed it all (I know I didn't because I had to go back a read two or three scenes because I had gone through them so fast).  I want to read the books again, but not just yet.  I need a break, something that would have me going through it at a breakneck pace.  I don't quite feel as if I'm on the rebound, yet, (I do feel as if I've been on a very intense roller coaster, one I will enjoy visiting again and again) and already lined something up to read since I finished the book in the middle of work and I needed something else to read to pass the time.  I think that may have been my way to get around the rebound part.  I don't have the same bereft feeling as I did with Harry Potter or the Black Jewels.  Barrons was an amazing character, and definitely a top 10 of mine, there was just something missing about the series that did not make me feel like the other series.  Maybe it's because the story is over yet.  I read today that there is going to be a few more books and the 5th book ended with room for more to happen.  So maybe the rebound will hit me when the books are well and truly finished.

I highly recommend Karen Marie Moning's Fever series.  I know I didn't actually explain what the book series is about but you can always as me if you want more info, or you can look it up for yourself.  You definitely need to get through at least the first book before decideing if you want to go on.  I know its alot to ask and I usually all for not finishing a book if it doesn't grab you, but this one you need to finish.  If you like urban fantasy, dark urban fantasy, then I think you will enjoy this.  I couldn't get enough of it....I actually want to read it again right now from begining to end...but I really have too many other books to read...

Oh!  Just as a side note, I loved the way the author used music in the novels.  It was great to almost have soundtrack.

Here is a list of the books in order:

1. Darkfever
2. Bloodfever
3. Faefever
4. Dreamfever
5. Shadowfever

Hopefully I'll be updating this blog more often in the new year.  Oh and pleas excuse the spelling and grammatical errors...the post is really way too long to go back and edit.

Listening to "I Am" by Bobby Darin

A best books list of things I have never read, or how to cave to commets about books chosen for a book list

I follow a number of blogs about books and today on Bookshelves of Doom the author posted about comments causing three books to be removed from a list of 100 young adult books for the feminist reader by B**** Magazine (here's the link for the list 100 YA Books for the Feminist Reader ) I am a sucker for lists of books, movies, tv shows, almost anything pop culture related so I felt the need to check this list out when I saw it before the uproar.  Now I do not consider myself a feminist, but I do think that as a woman I can do what ever I want regardless of my sex.  I have only read 9 of the books and as of my original viewing of the list was in the process of reading what would have been my 10th book from the list Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, a re-imagining of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  When I went to look at my regular blogs today, I found the post on Bookshelves of Doom saying that three of the books on the list, including Sisters Red were removed because of issues that certain people who commented on the B**** Magazine's website (the author of the list) claimed were in these novels.  Now I'm not going to argue whether or not these books include such things as "triggers" (which to my understanding is something that causes a person to remember or relive a painful experience.) Some people felt that certain scenes in some of the books which were removed could be triggers.  It is my understanding that what maybe a trigger for one person is not going to be a trigger for someone else.  Something as innocuous to me as a red hat may be a horrible trigger for someone else.  Who has the authority to pull something off of a list claiming it has the potential to be a trigger for someone???  They cannot have claim to know all the triggers in the world and use that as a reason to remove the book.   I am not trying to belittle triggers by saying this because triggers are very real and terrible for people, but a trigger could be anything!  It doesn't have to be a rape or another violet act.

I have not read any of the books that were removed and have not yet finished Sisters Red, so I am not going to try and argue against these points.  To begin with when I read, especially for my own enjoyment I am not thinking about different interpretations of a book or other stuff because unless I am reading the book for a class, I only care about my own thoughts while I'm reading the book.  I am arguing against the people at the magazine who caved to the those peoples comments and removed the books instead of the defending them.  The reason they were not defended?  Well apparently not enough people had read the books in question to defend the choices.  If something such as this is going to be created you as the creator need to be able to defend what you created and not immediately cave to the pressure that it should be removed!  Also, make sure you have READ the books you are going to list this way when your judgment is questioned, you can defend your decision.  As someone going into the library field, I am sure I will run across people who have issues with a book that is in the library's collection and they will give me reasons why it should be removed.  I want to be able to tell them, if I have read it, why it is there and if I have not read it, then read it for myself and see if the claim is unfounded or not.  I am a strong believer that people should read what they want and not have the decision to choose what they want to read taken away from them by a higher authority.  This list is by no means the "be all and and all" of YA books for feminist readers, but it does carry some weight because this publication has come credit (that's what I've read, I don't know because I haven't read the magazine).  By removing the books from the list, B**** Magazine has now given the impression that these books are somehow "wrong"  they have taken away their stamp of approval (as a publication supporting feminism) of the book by taking it off the list (even though it is still in their lending library) and chosen not to recommend it as a YA book for feminist readers.  For me, this list has now been marred by the incident and hardly seems worth what it could have been.  Yes, it is only the opinion of one group of people, but since it was their idea they should have stuck by it!  Now whatever weight this list may have held is gone for me.  Several authors have commented and requested that their books be removed after they found out about the removal of the first three books from the list but B**** Magazine said they will not do so.  Well, to me it seems a little too late now.  If I was an author, I would not want my name to be associated with such a list.

If you care to read another reaction check out the blog post over at Smart B******, Trashy Books


I find this situation very upsetting.  It could have been solved if the group that put the list together had done their homework, stuck to their decisions, and explained why the books belonged there and addressed the comments against them. 


Listening to "Under Osaka - Pure Madness!" by Ellery Klein
 

New Year, New Books

Happy New Year!!!

Well it has been quite some time since I have posted here despite the fact that I have read more than a few books.  A little thing called graduate school got in the way of both reading for enjoyment and free time for other things.  But hopefully that will change with the new semester.  Luckily my reading for the next semester should be more interesting.  I have two classes where the reading selections are more my taste:  Reading Materials for Adults and Reading Materials for Young Adults.  I'm really looking forward to both of these.  I have the list of books for my YA class and I have already browsed through and begun to read some of them.  Some of the authors are familiar to me, but out of all of the books, I've only read two of them previous to this class.  I actually had to laugh when the professor stated that four the fantasy category of YA books I was "expected to have read at least one of the books in the Twilight series".  I really thought that was great, I mean how many people can say they have a class where they are expected to have read something so popular.  The other book I have read is The Hunger Games.  I've also read two during the break and would like to have at least two more done, but we'll see how dedicated I am to that.  

I have continued to add to my ever growing list of books I own that I want to read.  A book sale at the library did not help me with this habit, but .50 cent and $1 books are really hard to pass up!  I was making a good dent into the list, but then I bought more and I was right back where I started from.  Not to mention I got about 20 books free from a cousin of mine.  I had really good intentions of reading alot over break too, but that hasn't counted.  I've read 3 graphic novels (1 was for school) and one book for school.  Plus I've started two books I already had....

Anyway, here's a list of all the books I've read between September and December that I didn't have time to blog about.

1.  A Charmed Death - Madelyn Alt
2.  Hex Marks the Spot -  Madelyn Alt
3.  Never Marry a Stranger - Gayle Callen
4.  Captive of Sin - Anna Campbell
5.  Blameless - Gail Carriger
6.  The Gates - John Connolly
7.  Tall, Dark, and Wolfish - Lydia Dare
8.  The Wolf Next Door - Lydia Dare
9.  One Dance With a Duke - Tessa Dare
10.  Twice Tempted by a Rogue - Tessa Dare
11.  Three Nights With a Scoundrel - Tessa Dare
12.  And Babies Make Five - Judith Durate
13.  Wicked Appetite - Janet Evanovich
14.  The Perfect Rake - Anne Gracie
15.  Mr. Perfect - Linda Howard
16.  Gabriel's Bride - Samantha James
17.  Promise of the Rose - Brenda Joyce
18.  Straight Up - Deirdre Martin

Graphic Novels
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Wang
Fables 14:  Witches - Bill Willingham
Cinderella:  From Fabletown With Love - Chris Roberson

And for 2011

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Hopefully I'll have more time this semester to read and to blog about what I've read.  Here's to the new year!

Listening to:  Fuel - "Shimmer"

Re-living High School

For years I have seen Megan McCafferty's lime green book Sloppy Firsts I've even checked it out a couple of times in an attempt to start reading it.  The first time was when my friend moved from New Jersey to Louisiana.  I had heard the book was about something similar and thought it would be great to read.  I mean I'm from New Jersey (relatively the same region in the book, though I can't quite pinpoint where the author has located Pineville) and my friend had just moved.  Well I couldn't get through it that first time.  I then picked it up again and that attempt failed also.  Must be third time's the charm.  I finally read it.  It seems fated that I hadn't read it yet.  The series starts of with Jessica Darling in the middle of her sophomore year of high school.  If I had started reading this at the oh-so-young age of 14 I really don't think I would have understood it or been able to appreciate what happens to Jessica (this coming from someone who started to read adult romance novels and the age of 15).  But I honestly think any appreciation I would have had for the book would have been lost.  

To begin with, I can appreciate where Jessica lives.  I think this has always been the most intriguing factor.  Its about where I live.  Someone actually thought the place I live in was important enough to write about!  Other than wining the Little League World Series over a decade ago (wow it's scary that it has been that long) and a few other local things my town (small city by population definition) is just like most other American towns, unless that town is called Forks.  Oh and I forgot that I also live near the former(?) summer home of MTV.  Nothing (other than the gobs of money poured in to the area) makes this fact a good thing.  But anyway...The mall mentioned by name is the same mall I go to for all my mall needs.  Jessica listens to 98.5 at a time when it was the hottest music station around.  The newspapers she reads are the ones that are regular visitors to my house every Sunday (although one has now become a free paper delivered on Fridays).  For all intents and purposes, Pineville might as well be my town!  It was so weird to have such a strong connection to something fictional

What else was great?  The fact that I practically re-lived my high school years.  Now, that's not something I would have elected to do given the option, but this was as a completely observant person who has already gone through high school and the highs and lows that come with it.  Jessica seemed to have a foot in everything and so you had a bird's eye view of this microcosm and the emotional roller coaster it can be.  A little be of everything is thrown in and I loved every minute of it.  Even though the series is for young adults (minus the fifth book, which is, at least in my library, shelved with regular fiction and not young adult fiction) it really should be something someone reads not long after high school and even college, but ruling is still out on that since I haven't finished the series yet.  As good as the books I can't stress how great I think they are having been through high school and college.  I finished Second Helpings and I am currently reading Charmed Thrids (with Fourth Comings and Perfect Fifths waiting in the wings).  I also think this series is best read consecutively.  I know everyone who was a fan of the books before had to wait most likely a year if not more for the next book in the series and was in agony waiting to know what happened next, but I don't think that necessarily works in the favor of the books here.  This series doesn't have the same effect that has me dying to know what happens next.  I'm not left on a cliff desperately wanting to know if Jessica is going to survive to the next book.  But I do want to know what happens.  The books aren't quite consecutive (at least the first three aren't) because they don't pick up immediately where the last one left off.  The first ends in the middle of Jessica's junior year and the second picks up the summer before her senior year.  I like this.  I don't think anything is lost by the gap.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series because I've "been there and done that".  It just seems very appropriate to be reading this right now.

Listening to "Just Ran Out of Whiskey" by Gaelic Storm

A bit of a let down followed by something that has me intrigued

So I recently read the book Maneater by Gigi Levangie Grazer and I was thoroughly disappointed.  Earlier in the summer I had someone ask me if I had ever gotten to the end of a book and realized that it was a waste of time.  I thought about it and said yes.  As a literature major there were a number of books I read that I thought were a waste of time The Scarlett Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Frankenstein are among them.  But those didn't really count because I had to read those.  He meant if there was anything I read for pleasure that ended up feeling was a waste of time.  I thought about it again and was reminded of a book that I had recently read over the summer and wrote about here called Belle.  By the time I finished it, I wanted the time I spent on it back.  It wasn't very well written and the plot just went nowhere.  It was just very boring and went on for no reason.  Since I was asked the question I have encountered yet another book I wish I had the time I spent reading it back.  While I was not extremely impressed with Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse novella, I wouldn't call it a total waste of time.  Maneater on the other hand was.

Listening to:  "Turn This Ship Around" by Gaelic Storm 

In case anyone is curious, this is the book the that two-part movie with Sarah Chalke shown on Lifetime a few years back was based on.  I thought the bits of the show I was able to catch were interesting.  So one day at the library I was saw the book on the sale rack for 50 cents and picked it up.  I finally finished it and I'll say it again, I want my time back.  I enjoy chicklit like Bridget Jones and Jane Green's books (Love her!) and I've even read some of the teen series Gossip Girl (not that chicklit and Gossip Girl deserve to be in the same sentence).  So I was prepared for the idea of someone who has alot of money (or was raised that way) who cares about nothing except themselves and what they can get from other people.  So I was prepared for this.  Usually at some point those characters have an epiphany and realize the world does not revolve around them.  This character did not at all.  Even after someone dies, she is still self absorbed.  I think that was one of the biggest disappointments.  After everything went wrong for this person, she learned nothing!  The plot twist that I should have enjoyed was nothing because the main character didn't deserve it!  It only left me annoyed and showed me how stupid the book was.  I was even further annoyed when I read that this came from the same woman who wrote the movie Stepmom (a good movie) and the book The Starter Wife which also ended up as a tv movie/series.  I watched The Starter Wife and thought it was good.  It wasn't too bad, about what I was expecting.  Maneater on the other hand was just a waste of time.

Luckily, I had something to intrigue me after this.  I was told to read the series The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I started it as an audio book so it seemed to be pretty slow going at first be after I got a copy of the book it really picked up.  It hasn't quite caught me the way Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or Twilight did, but I think that may be because I started it on audio and also because I am not into dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories.  I never read The Giver and skipped other things like it.  I did finish The Hunger Games which is set in dystopian America (very very weird) and I am looking forward to reading the next installment and the final book.   My anticipation is only enhanced by the fact that I can see the second book Catching Fire has shipped to the library, but is not quite ready for me to pick up.  Its at my fingertips and I just can't reach it and its driving me bonkers!  I can't stand it!  Its even worse because I am sitting in the library where it is and I am at my computer compulsively checking my account to see if it has come in!  I can't read anything right now because I don't want to get involved in something and have to stop to read Catching Fire.  This is beyond frustrating.  If I knew there would be no consequences for my actions, I would go over to the circulation desk and find my copy just to speed things up, but I don't even want to think about what would happen if I went over there.  I think what has me most intrigued is the love triangle that is bound to develop between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.  I like that as of The Hunger Games  Katniss seems oblivious to boys/men in romantic terms.  I personally am rooting for Gale, there's something that reminds me of George Cooper from Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet.  I don't want anything to happen to Peeta, I like him and feel for him, but I want Katniss to end up with Gale.  He seems to understand her better.  I'll see what happens.  I'm glad there are only 3 books in this series.  Nice and short so I won't have to continually keep up with it (even though I enjoy that, I have alot to read right now!).

Book Musings: Irish Moonlight by Kate Freiman, Wicked All Day by Liz Carlyle, and The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison

Again, I haven't been able to update lately so I've got more than one book.  On top of that, I went to the library the other day and I went to the sale rack.  I really hit the jackpot.   I found twelve books (3 were hard covers and would have normally been about $20 a piece) and only paid $3.00 for the lot.  If I had bought all of them individually, it would have cost me about $135.  I felt so good about buying them, only to find when I came home that I now have run out of room on my To Be Read shelf and have now had to resort to piling them on the floor in front of my shelf next to my dresser.  It's really hard to pass up books when they are 25 cents for a paper back and 50 cents for a hardcover.  Half the time they look brand new or in really great condition so its even better!  I've really learned the value in buying used and looking for ways to be more thrifty when it comes to movies and music, but most of all books.  The value of the library, a good used book store, a library's discard and sale rack, and of websites like Paperbackswap.com.  Its a great way to feel not so guilty about spending a lot of money on books :).

So let's start:

Irish Moonlight by Kate Freiman

This is a book in a series called Irish Eyes by various authors.  I've finally been able to track down all of the titles included in the series and have started to read them.  Before this, I had only read about four of them.  This wasn't one of the best in the series (My favorite is To Marry and Irish Rogue) but it was good, some nice fluffy reading which is always good.  I don't expect the series to be much more than some light reading to take me away from New Jersey and plant me in Ireland for a little while.

Wicked All Day by Liz Carlyle

I was really excited to finally get a chance to read about Zoe Armstrong's story.  She's a character from The Devil You Know, which I already talked about on here.  However, once I got to the end of the book I was disappointed.  I thought so much more could have been done.  Zoe deserved a really good story, and I just don't feel this matched up well with her.  I think I have read too many stories recently where the main characters are in love and fight it for as long as they can until the eventually just give up.  Irish Moonlight was similar to this.  Hopefully my next book won't be like this. 

The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison

I picked this up at a library book sale for a quarter and figured I'd give it a try.  Well it took me awhile to get through and although it was an interesting story, I was kind of disappointed in the end.  It was a new idea for a fairy tale dealing with animal magic.  This type of magic allowed a person to speak with an animal in their language and in some cases to even become an animal.  The book seemed to have good potential, but just didn't go very far.  Very disappointing.  And the resolution to the prologue about the kind who was turned into a man was never finished.  It is left for another book.  

Book Musings: Belle by Melanie Jackson

I'm usually able to find something enjoyable about most books, no matter how bad they may seem or other people find them to be.  But, in reading Belle by Melanie Jackson, I really couldn't find anything good about the book.  I didn't hate it, I just found the writing and content to be very poor.  Nothing exciting seemed to happen.  The idea of the hero and heroine constantly playing cards was interesting, but seemed to be a poor attempt at making something central to the idea of the book turn out wrong.  It just never took off.  Everything in the book seemed to just drag.  I don't expect to like every book I read, but this one was just dull.  I couldn't really connect with the characters.  They seemed to be missing something.  Some background information was given about them, but it seemed incomplete.  A reference was made to a scar on the hero's face, but nothing much else was discussed about it.  Usually, a writer describes something like that and then uses it in the story some how.  It never figured in any part, and by the end of the book I had completely forgotten about it.  This really was just a bland read.

Listening to:  Billy Joel - "I've Loved These Days"