Title: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
First Publication: 1890

Project Gutenberg Hamlet (free download)
The Book Depository (€1.58 / $2.13 + free shipping)

Whew, old English people talk weird!

The only Shakespeare play I know is Romeo and Juliet, which I listened to as audio-play (is that a thing?). I missed a lot of what was going on in that one, but since it was people talking I didn’t rewind to try to understand it better. When reading Hamlet as a book, I noticed I don’t understand a thing this guy is saying.

Seriously.

I barely notice that I’m a non-native English speaker when I read normal books. I’m at that stage where you just understand the words instead of translating them to your own language in your head, and I read English as fast as I do Dutch. For me it seems that Shakespeare doesn’t speak English at all at times. I understand the words – but in the sentences he makes they just don’t make sense at all. I was constantly rereading parts to no avail. I understood what was happening and the general story, but once a character started a monologue I was completely lost.

I did enjoy the parts that I did understand. A girl that completely loses her mind, an incestuous marriage, emo dude that sees ghosts, what’s not to like? People drop like flies in Hamlet, which I found amusing.

I’ll try to watch the play – maybe that will help me understand it better. As for now, I feel a bit lost.

There are so many new “Look at my new books!” memes that I’m having troubles choosing. I know a few of the hosts personally and I don’t feel like picking teams on this one. So, I introduce my own conglomeration of all the memes out there! If you’re hosting a similar meme or if one of your friends hosts one, let me know and I’ll add their graphic (:

Studying… studying… studying. And some reading! That’s my horribly boring life right now. Just two more weeks to go until (relative) freedom!

Click on the titles to go to their Goodreads page.

For Review:

Interesting looking science-fiction book by Erec Stebbins about a seventeen-year-old girl that goes on a space adventure. Review copy courtesy of the author.

Translated from (I think) Swedish, Thin Ice is a contemporary book about a boy that goes to live with his aunt near a frozen lake. I have no idea what to expect, but sometimes that is a good thing (: Review copy received through the Book Depository reviewer programme.

So what do you have in your mailbox, on your shelf or to showcase? Leave a comment!

Title: In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Author: Cat Winters
Series: None
Rating: 5/5 Stars

387 pages
Published April 2nd 2013 by Amulet Books
ARC received from the publisher

Goodreads | Author | Publisher | Amazon Kindle & Paperback| Book Depository

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is one of my favourite books of 2013. Aside from superb story-telling and great characters, it features séances and ghosts, a flu epidemic that hangs over everyone like a dark cloud, the war that costs the lives of thousands of boys and men and one sixteen year-old girl stuck in the middle of it.

Her father imprisoned for being anti-war, Mary Shelley is forced to live with her aunt in San Diego. Returning to the place her love, Stephen, used to live and to see his family again brings back memories. Stephen is at the front, and he hasn’t been returning her letters for a while. Life during 1918 is hard, but it gets even harder when you start to see ghosts.

The main reason I loved In the Shadow of Blackbirds so much is the wonderful backdrop of the story. If this had just been a romantic story between a girl and her childhood sweetheart that has gone to war, I wouldn’t be all that interested. The influenza is a huge part of the story, just like it controlled almost everyone’s thoughts in 1918. The book has chilling vintage photos of nurses and soldiers wearing influenza masks, a tiny barrier between them and almost certain death. The fact that millions were dying at that time isn’t glossed over in this book. Death is everywhere, and can hit anyone at any time.

The combination of the flu, the war and the tendency to fall back to Victorian notions of spirituality because of all the casualties provides an amazingly rick background for the story. It’s scary, and otherworldly, yet still feels so close because so much of what is described in In the Shadow of Blackbirds actually happened.

I was starting to get tired of young-adult fiction with its shallow plots and characters (at least, in the books I seemed to be reading lately), but In the Shadow of Blackbirds proves to me that there are still amazing young-adult books being written that transcend the genre clichés. It has a heroine I can actually root for that isn’t dependant on a guy, it has a love I can believe in and it has villains that are more of a dark-gray than pure cartoon-y black. The pictures just make an already amazing book even more haunting. I can’t wait to read Cat Winters’ next book.

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?

Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.

• Review: Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross (4/5 Stars)
• Review: Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle (2.5/5 Stars)
• Review: Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black (3.5/5 Stars)
• Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (5/5 Stars)
  

For the sake of making my blog as easy to follow as possible, I caved and claimed my blog on Bloglovin. It would be great if you followed me on there too!

Most of the time blogging slumps are caused when real life is busy and taking care of your blog is just too stressful. You don’t want to keep your followers hanging, but you also don’t have time to really pay attention to your blog, so you get into this vicious circle of guilt and stress.

One of the (many) ways to help keeping blogging slumps at bay is to schedule posts. If real life gets stressful, you can forget about the blog and let it run its course. I know bloggers that have scheduled posts for up to two months in advance. Two months! If you get sick for a week, none of your followers will ever notice.

There are many ways to handle scheduling posts. Some people only schedule reviews – others schedule everything up and including to memes, guest posts, interviews, events and discussion posts. It’s one of those things where you have to find what works for you. Below I’ll give some tips to start scheduling some posts, as beginning it is quite hard. I know it took me a year to figure the perfect system out!

1. Dedicate a certain time or day to blogging

Do you always have Sundays off? Try to blog a few hours every Sunday. Or maybe you usually just hang around and watch TV on week evenings. That would be a perfect time to schedule some posts for next week!

If you set a certain time for blogging, you can make sure you won’t get interrupted. Tell your spouse or family that you’re going to blog for a few hours, and that you’ll do something fun afterwards. Being able to give a time frame reduces chances of them complaining of you not spending time with them.

2. When you’re being more productive than usual, schedule them instead
of posting them right away

Most successful blogs have a fairly regular blogging schedule, in the sense of that they post roughly the same amount of posts every week (unless they’re hosting a big event). That amount of posts can be as high and as low as you’d like it to be – some blogs post once or twice a week, some post multiple posts every day. If you have a regular schedule, your followers will know when to come back and check for new posts.

If you find yourself in an awesome creative urge (great!), make sure you don’t get crazy and all of a sudden post three reviews on one day when you normally have one every week. I’ve tried this, and usually they barely get read. Just keep two of them behind and save them for a later date when you’re feeling less creative.

3. Become organised

I’m awful at this one myself. I consequently forgot I had scheduled blog tours or interviews or review deadlines. On one hand it was nice (no stress if you don’t remember the deadlines!) but on the other hand, maybe not so good. One of the many solutions is using a blogging agenda. I bought a seperate calendar for blogging events so they wouldn’t get drowned out by personal stuff. You can pencil in every release date of your review books, you can check whether or not you’ve already committed to a guest posts that day… It’s a great tool to keep track of stuff, especially once you get more ARCs. If you’re very computer-savvy you can also use a digital calendar, or Excel, or maybe an App on your phone. I personally prefer the real thing.

4. Schedule drafts that you write out later

This is my absolute favourite. If you look at my WordPress posts dashboard, it looks like the picture on the left (click it to make it bigger). As you can see, I’ve already scheduled three posts; one review of Belle Epoque and two Release Day posts. In between I have posts that I haven’t written yet – including this post, an interview, a feature I’m doing in a few weeks, and a review of Thin Ice. When I open my WordPress, I am now reminded every time that I still have to write these posts. (And in the case of Thin Ice, still have to read the book).

The best thing about this is that you can make notes when you don’t have enough time to write the whole post. For example, inside my interview draft I’ve already pasted the answers Robyn sent me. It still need a lot of work including formatting and adding a bio and pictures, but when I do decide to work on the post I don’t have to go looking for the questions.

5. Take a break

If blogging is really stressing you out, the best thing to do is to take a break. If during your break you feel like writing a review or a post, do so! But make it a goal for yourself not to post anything during your break. Instead, schedule them for when you get back. This way you don’t feel obligated to blog when you don’t feel like it and you’re creating leeway for yourself later on. Win-win situation!

Do you schedule posts? If so, how? Let us know! (:

There are so many new “Look at my new books!” memes that I’m having troubles choosing. I know a few of the hosts personally and I don’t feel like picking teams on this one. So, I introduce my own conglomeration of all the memes out there! If you’re hosting a similar meme or if one of your friends hosts one, let me know and I’ll add their graphic (:

Finally, FINALLY a slow bookish week! After last week’s ARC box and the week before that’s buying spree I don’t need so many new books right now. Just requested one lonely Netgalley book which will be released in August.

If you’ve commented on my blog this week and I haven’t responded – I’m sorry, studying for exams is keeping me extremely busy. I do read every single one of them! In three weeks I’ll (hopefully) be done for this year.

Click on the cover to go to the Goodreads page.

For Review:

A mystery set in 1850 about Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley. The reviews for A Fatal Likeness are ambiguous, and I’m looking forward to see which camp I’ll belong to.

So what do you have in your mailbox, on your shelf or to showcase? Leave a comment!

Nyx Book Reviews: Hi Robyn, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Robyn Wyrick: I could bore you with platitudes about my history and accomplishments on the journey to superstardom; or I could just say, I’m just a guy with a story to tell.

So let’s do the platitudes.

I started writing as a gamer geek in 1980, making game worlds for Dungeons and Dragons. And naturally, I was a brilliant.

In my mind; which it turned out was not terribly trustworthy.

Reality didn’t matter too much back then, because I was fifteen years old, and so were the people playing in my game. And if I loaded up a few improbable, 3rd level battles with Tiamat, the Goddess of Evil Dragons, who could fault me: she was in the Monster Manual. A few Random Treasure Table rolls later, and I had the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd!

In the 90s I started writing murder mystery parties. In the 00s, (2000s?) I began writing screenplays. Eviction Notice was originally a screenplay.

Then in 2009 I turned the mostly finished screenplay of Eviction Notice into a novel. Now I’m writing a sequel. It’s brilliant. In my mind.

Could you describe your book, Eviction Notice, in one sentence?
One sentence? Okay: “The book, Eviction Notice, has three hundred and twenty five pages.”

Really, one sentence? I wrote a whole book to describe Eviction Notice.

Okay, here we go: Eviction Notice, is a raucous, save-the-world fairy-tale, packed with comic missteps, alien abductions, eco-terrorism, space battles, invisible lawyers, romance, rednecks with super powers, crop-circles, magic, and of course, kissing.

The premise reminds me a bit of the opening scene of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Where did you find inspiration for your book?
Certainly Hitchhikers Guide was inspirational. So was the Princess Bride, which surprisingly few people seem to have read. It’s a real treasure; every bit as good as the movie. After you’ve bought nine copies of Eviction Notice, I encourage you to go buy The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. Then go buy more copies of Eviction Notice.

Mostly, though, I think I’m a creature of my time. These days, you can mash up everything, and you can choose any voice you want – I went with First Person Omniscient, which cracks me up. And you can make your narrator as accurate or unreliable as you want. My narrator is dead by page six, so even I don’t know if I trust her.

I originally got the idea for Eviction Notice in 2002 as I was buying a house. There were these gigantic stacks of paper, written in lawyer jargon, that I pledged to have read and understood, and which require fifty signatures, and a hundred initials. And at one point I noticed I was signing something that laid out exactly how cooperative I would be when they came to kick me out of my home.

Which seemed ridiculous. It should have said, “When the creditors come, I (the buyer) shall barricade myself in the house, shotgun in hand, a bottle of caffeine pills, five boxes of adult diapers.” You know? I mean, that would be something people could sign with a straight face.

Anyway, I just thought how funny it would be if space aliens came to Earth with the news that humans were being evicted. None of this conquest stuff, just, “the lease is up.” So sure, that’s very Hitchhikers Guide.

Your book is self-published. Was this a conscious decision, and if so, why did you pick self-publishing?
The E-Book is actually published by Tantor Media, a lovely bunch of people, but you’re correct that the paperback is self-published.

That was not my preference. After I signed with Tantor for the e-book some smart person said, “Now you’ll never get the paperback published. Who the hell wants to publish just the paperback? They will put marketing money behind it, but someone else will get at least half the revenue.”

So, it was a live-and-learn moment for me. However, now that it is self-published, I’ve spent a small fortune living and learning about self-publishing.

Frankly, I think you’re better off becoming an academic. In France.

Are you a full-time author or do you have a day-job as well?
I have a day job, but you have to dream. I dream about getting eight hours of sleep.

What do you like best about writing?
I’m an exceptionally eager audience for my own writing. I write because the story is interesting to me, so that’s mostly it: I like reading my own stories.

I don’t know if I even like writing, exactly. Writing is work, and I don’t know if I like working.

I definitely get satisfaction from accomplishments. But I could probably be pretty satisfied reading Eviction Notice on a beach, if someone else had written it, maybe someone funnier.

Thank you for answering my questions! (:
I don’t know if this is a question, and if it is, I don’t know how to answer it. So let me instead answer the question I *wish* you had asked: Yes, I am willing to accept a MacArthur Award.

Also, since the question I *wish* you asked was a two parter, the answer to the second part is: Yes, I agree, Amy Adams should play Alice in the film adaptation. She was quite literally the voice I was shooting for in certain points while writing it. Years ago I sent a preview copy to her manager, but they haven’t called me back, which I thought was pretty rude, considering all I had done for her in my book.

Thanks you so much for all your questions, both real and imagined.

Robyn Wyrick is a novelist, screen- writer, musician and artist. He is a new father and husband, and lives on a quiet home with lots of trees in Nanjemoy, Maryland. Robyn began writing as a game-world designer, and then spent several years writing murder mystery parties. Wyrick began writing screenplays in 1997. Some of his screenplays include, a television pilot called Trading With Justin, a feature film called Wake Up Little Suzy, and The Zombie Cookbook, A New International Guide To Zombie Cuisine. Eviction Notice is his first novel. In his spare time he runs DC PHP, LLC, a website and database development company located in the Washington DC region.

Title: Belle Epoque
Author: Elizabeth Ross
Series: None
Rating: 4/5 Stars

336 pages
Expected publication June 11th 2013 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ARC received through the author

Goodreads | Author | Publisher | Amazon Paperback| Book Depository

Set during the building process of the now world-famous Eiffel tower, Belle Epoque is a lovely historical young-adult novel about beauty and friendship.

After running away from home Maude Pichon can’t find a job in Paris. The only agency that will hire her is one for ugly girls. They are rented to society ladies that will look even more beautiful next to their deformity.

I LOVED the repoussoir (to repel in French) business. As stated in the Author’s Note in the final page of the book, Belle Epoque is based on a short story by Émile Zola. Knowing now that he has thought up such a wonderfully bizarre yet believable concept, I’m looking forward to read some of his work. Back to Belle Epoque; Ms Ross deserves massive kudos for using Zola’s idea and making it her own. The novel is highly original, especially in the way it deals with being and/or feeling ugly or inadequate.

It was lovely to read about historical Paris this way. I actually knew that Parisians thought the Eiffel tower was grotesque and couldn’t wait for it to be destroyed again (which was scheduled for a few years later). This construction works perfectly as a backdrop of Maude’s story, and of the changing era. There is some clear girls’ oppression – emancipation kind of theme going on, but I was glad it didn’t turn into a massive “girls should all go to college!” rant. Ms Ross keeps the characters within the bounds that constitute the characters, and doesn’t use them as sock puppets just to make a point.

Belle Epoque had some very strong parts where I felt connected to the main character and her thoughts. At moments though I missed a bit more introspection, and I wanted some more thoughts and a bit less descriptions of actions. It’s a minor flaw which didn’t stop me from enjoying the book, but it’s just that tiny difference that didn’t make it a 5-star read for me.

Great historical young-adult book set in Paris (and light on romance, for those of you that like a more story-focussed book) with an amazing concept that’s executed well.

When Maude Pichon runs away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive.

Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect foil.

But Isabelle has no idea her new “friend” is the hired help, and Maude’s very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to lose.

• Review: Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle (2.5/5 Stars)
  
• Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (5/5 Stars)
• Review: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest (2.5/5 Stars)
• Review: The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann (4/5 Stars)
  

Nyx Book Reviews: Hi Daniel, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Daniel Clausen: I read too much. Sometimes, I write too much. Luckily, I do most other things in moderation. Up until this very moment of my life, I’ve been most proud of my short story collection, The Lexical Funk. The book was almost everything I wanted it to be. In a year or so, I hope I can look back with some kind of objectivity and say that Ghosts of Nagasaki was a great book.

Nyx Book Reviews: Hi ST, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews! Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
ST Bende: Thanks for hosting me Celine. As a debut author, I truly appreciate the awesome blogging community for showing my imaginary friends so much love. Y’all have been so kind!

I’m a baking aficionado, an IndyCar fan, and a lover of all things Scandinavian… except for fish. I make up stories about Norse gods, and I love writing to the band Imagine Dragons.

Could you describe your book, Elsker, in one sentence?
You don’t win the heart of an immortal assassin without making a few enemies along the way.

Elsker incorporates a lot of Norse mythology. What kind of research did you do before writing the book?
I have to confess that I wrote Elsker quite by accident. It was a story I wrote in my journal, just for me, that got a little out of control. And since I adore Norse mythology, the story was just another excuse to research the old myths. I must have checked out every book our little library had, from textbooks to children’s books. Then I read them
cover to cover. It was one of my favorite parts of this experience.

Your book is marketed as New Adult. Both bloggers and publicists have a hard time defining New Adult. What does it mean for you?
I think of New Adult as stories that cover the college period – where the protagonist is too old to be fully Young Adult, but too young to be fully Adult. It’s about that time of life where everything is changing, where characters have heaps of freedom but minimal responsibility, and they have to figure out how to balance that. NA has been stereotyped as steamy YA, but that’s not necessarily true — Elsker is pretty darned clean. And while much of the current crop of NA is contemporary, I think we’ll see a lot of development into other areas as the genre takes off.

Do you still have time to read yourself? If so, have you read any books lately that you’d recommend?
I love to read! I’m currently on a Chick Lit kick, and I’ve been working my way through a group of authors I lucked into on Twitter. If you search the hashtag #goddesslit you’ll find them. (Such a fun name, right?) I just finished Tracie Banister’s In Need of Therapy, and I’m about to start Libby Mercer’s newest, Karmic Connection. Every single book I’ve read by the authors in that group has been fantastic.

What do you like best about being a writer?
I’ve loved discovering the incredibly supportive writing community. I’ve met some of the nicest people on this journey, and they’ve all been willing to share their experiences and advice. I’m so grateful to them.

And getting to daydream about a 6’5” Nordic Adonis all day hasn’t been too terrible either. Ull can’t wait to meet y’all.

Thank you for answering my questions! (:
Thank you for letting me visit!

Before finding domestic bliss in suburbia, ST Bende lived in Manhattan Beach (became overly fond of Peet’s Coffee) and Europe… where she became overly fond of the musical Cats. Her love of Scandinavian culture and a very patient Norwegian teacher inspired the ELSKER series. She hopes her characters make you smile and that one day pastries will be considered a health food.

Title: Teacher’s Pest
Author: Charles Gilman
Series: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

170 pages
Published May 7th 2013 by Quirk Books
ARC received from the publisher

Goodreads | Author | Publisher | Amazon Paperback| Book Depository

The third book in the Tales from Lovecraft Middle School, Teacher’s Pest features alternate dimensions, portals, a ghostly friend and a two-headed pet, and a ton of creepy crawlies on top.

The school seems to be overridden with bugs lately. The teachers say it’s because the janitors are on a strike – but Robert knows there is more to the pest than meets the eye. Together with his friends he sets out to stop a crazy scientist from overthrowing humanity.

The Tales from Lovecraft Middle School are extremely fast reads. It takes me about an hour, maybe two to finish one of them. The writing style is very clear and easy to follow, and I think these books would be great for kids that have difficulty reading. They have a nice clear-cut science-fiction/horror kind of plot. All of the books follow a self-contained story, but now the series is starting to span more books the over-arcing plot line is starting to show too. I love following the progress of both the plot and the characters throughout the books. Things are getting more and more interesting, and I’m quite looking forward to the next instalment, Substitute Creature.

The other side of the coin is that the first few chapters of Teacher’s Pest still felt a bit choppy. It takes a while for the central plot line to kick in, but once it does the book is great. I do see improvement in writing throughout the books, but there is still just that little bit to be done until these books will turn from good to awesome for me.

A fair warning: Teacher’s Pest is not for the squeamish or insect-o-fobes. Remember the scene in Fellowship of the Ring where the hobbits hide under a tree and the insects are crawling all over them? Well, there is a lot of that. I personally hate everything with more than four legs, so I shuddered quite a lot during Teacher’s Pest.

DON’T BE FOOLED by his friendly smile, his perfect manners, or his shiny red apple. Student council president Howard Mergler is actually a sinister bug-monster in disguise—and he’s summoning swarms of roaches, wasps, fleas, and head lice into the corridors of Lovecraft Middle School!  Twelve-year-old Robert Arthur is the only student who can stop him–but he’ll need help from his best friends: the school bully, the school ghost, and an extremely courageous two-headed rat.

This third novel in the Lovecraft Middle School series begins right where Professor Gargoyle and The Slither Sisters ended—with more action, more adventure, and more outrageous monsters!

• Review: The Slither Sisters by Charles Gilman (4/5 Stars)
  
• Review: Deadlands by Lily Herne (4/5 Stars)
• Review: Twerp by Mark Goldblatt (5/5 Stars)
• Review: The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann (4/5 Stars)