Curiouser and Curiouser

Creepy Reads

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:09:00 +0000

I finished two books last week for two work book clubs. They were both appropriately creepy for the season.

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor was inspired to write these three short stories by "The Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti. The first story is about a girl who longs to be wanted and that longing attracts a goblin's attention. The second is about a girl cursed into silence which is only challenged by first love. The third is a complex story told in a non-linear way about a woman running from her past and her daughter trying to find out who she is. These stories are spooky and creepy and I love them. I can see why this was a National Book Award finalist. Jim Di Bartolo, Laini's husband, illustrated this book beautifully. I posted a picture of the hardcover with his art gracing the cover. The newer paperback edition has a different cover which I do not like. I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys dark faerie stories.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

A menacing carnival comes to an Illinois town and 14 year olds Will & Jim try to fight the main baddie, owner Mr. Dark. While Will & Jim may be the main characters, Will's dad, the janitor at the public library, is really the heart of the story. I love Fahrenheit 451 so I expected to love this. I did not. I liked it, but no love. It can get pretty wordy at times. There was something about the writing in this book that made me think Stephen King read it as a young boy and it influenced him. I read that Dandelion Wine takes place in the same town as this book and it makes me want to read it to see the differences.

Angel: Immortality for Dummies

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:43:00 +0000

I'm not as much a fan of the Angel graphic novels as I am the Buffys. I also find the series numbering confusing. The first four are all volumes of Angel: After the Fall, which was one large story arc. Volume five was a new story arc called Angel: Aftermath. Then came Angel: Last Angel in Hell, which was labeled volume 6. Now suddenly this is volume 1. I feel like IDW should have either made this volume 7 or made volume 5 a volume 1 since it was a new story arc. Whatever, I only have two more Angel graphic novles in this particular IDW series left so it will no longer drive me bonkers!

This volume begins with Angel missing and Team Angel does not know whether he is in hiding from his new found fame or if something is wrong. I feel very meh about this book. I like the bits with Angel and I like the promise of the new character that is presented. There is a lot of Connor in this book and he is not my favorite character. I also don't think Spike sounded very Spike like. I like him much better in his mini-series which was published after this. The first four volumes, which were scripted by Saint Joss, are my favorites. I purchased volume five only because it was 50% off. I'm glad I've been getting these through the library, especially since they are only available in hardcover. I think it would take a big sale for me to succumb to my fandom OCD and buy this book.

I am counting this toward the RIP Reading Challenge.

RIP Challenge VI

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Every year I anticipate the RIP Challenge hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. The challenge is all about reading novels that can be classified as mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, or supernatural. I also don't follow through very well, but I still like reading all the posts. There are lots of different challenges so that everyone feels like they have time to participate. I will definitely read at least two books because the September and October selections for the book club I help facilitate at work fit perfectly: World War Z and Something Wicked This Way Comes. So, I am participating in Peril the Second. I will also participate in Peril on the Screen. Some films I love watching this time of year are The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, and Sleepy Hollow. Read more about the Perils here.

Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Tara is a former criminal profiler, current recluse, who used her skills with a deck of Tarot cards to help catch killers. Unfortunately, one serial killer caught her, leaving her scarred and not so keen on being around people. An old family friend, who is part of a secret society of women, tracks her down and asks her to help find a missing scientist. This is pretty cool urban fantasy because it also throws in science, secret military facilities, a government conspiracy, and a charming Agent Harry Li. I will definitely read the second book in this series, Rogue Oracle. Alayna Williams is a pseudonym used by Laura Bickle. Go to her website here. I've met Laura / Alayna a couple times and she's super nice and encouraging to aspiring authors.

I love the blog Forever YA and they often cast actors in the main roles of books they review. When I was reading this I couldn't help but picture a couple actors as characters.

Rose McGowan as Tara Sheridan - Maybe it's all the Charmed I watched this spring. I've liked Rose since I was in high school and saw Scream.

John Cho as Agent Harry Li - He's Harold, he's Sulu, and he's awesome! He also guest starred in a season one episode of Charmed. Huh!

Once Upon a Time V

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:43:00 +0000

I love the idea of a book challenge: a group of people deciding to read a certain type of book. I am horrible though at follow through. Luckily, Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings has levels of commitment for his challenges. I will be participating in The Journey. That just means I will read one book that falls into the challenge requirements before Midsummer. Read the about the challenge here. This, along with R.I.P., hosted at the same site, are my favorites of the year.

Great Graphic Novels!

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:31:00 +0000

I've read several graphic novles so far this year.

Batgirl 1: Batgirl Rising

I'm a huge Batgirl fan (hello, librarian!). This was the first Batgirl I've read where Batgirl wasn't Barbara Gordon, which is bad because Stephanie Brown is not Barbara's immediate predecessor. Barbara is in it though as Oracle, guiding the newest Batgirl. This is part of the Batman Reborn event (should I call it an event?) so Batman is not Bruce Wayne. I liked it well enough to read volume 2 when it comes out. I should read the actual Batman books from this series too so I can have a better understanding of the background story.

Wizards of Mickey Volume 1: Mouse Magic

I saw the newest issue reviewed on tfaw.com and thought I'd check out the trades. Mickey is a wizard who is supposed to guard a magical stone for his village. He loses it and follows the wizard who tricked it away from him to a wizarding tournament. There he meets Goofy and Donald. This was adorable and I might buy it for my nephew.

Angel: Blood and Trenches

This story shows one of the many things Angel, of the tv series, did during World War II. It was done in black and white except for the blood, which was obviously red. I didn't love the artwork. For me, it didn't look like amazing black and white work, it looked like concept art. The story was okay enough, but I didn't like it enough to want to purchase it for my collection of Whedonverse comics & graphic novels.

Astonishing X-Men Volume 4: Unstoppable

I'm a Whedon fangirl at heart. The combination of Whedon and X-Men makes me happy. His entire run on Astonishing X-men has both his witty dialogue and that one gut wrenching moment that reminds you tat he is not all fun and games. I'm planning on reading volume 5, even though volume 4 contains the end of Joss's run.

Revenge of the Spellmans & The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:23:00 +0000

I love the Spellman family so of course I continued with the series. I'm actually quite sad that Lisa Lutz's forthcoming book is not about them. The third and fourth books in this series have the same quirky qualities as the first two books. There is a satisfying resolution to one storyline in the fourth book that has been ongoing since book two. I'm sure if there is a book five though Izzy will muck it up. But I will be there reading all about it!

Absence

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:15:00 +0000

So I missed a few days on here. But I posted on Livejournal one of those days, so it totally counts right?

The King's Speech

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 04:49:00 +0000

Today I went to see The King's Speech with my parents. What a great film! It was touching and funny at times. My love for Colin Firth grows. I would love to read more about King George VI. I do think the MPAA ratings system is ridiculous. There is some swearing. I'm guessing this film received an R rating because of that forbidden word beginning with the letter f. Considering the context and how little it was used, it seems foolish to rate this film R. Maybe instead of rating a film R for using that word at all it should be what percentage of the film has cursing. Aside from the movie, I loved it when the theatre began filling with old people and my mom whispered, "It's starting to smell like Cardinal," referring to the assisted living facility where my grandmother spent her last three years.

Yarn!

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:47:00 +0000

Today this blog doesn't have to count as my creative thing of the day! I actually did some knitting in one of my favorite places to knit, my friend's house while we watched Grey's Anatomy. Now, I'm going to go enjoy the lights of my Christmas tree on this twelfth night of Christmas since I will rak it down tomorrow.

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:53:00 +0000

I love this series! Sometimes I have trouble committing to a series because there are so many books in the world, I don't always want to spend tons of time with the same group of characters. But I want to be BFFs with the Spellman family because they are CRAZY in a fun way. The story includes Izzy in court ordered therapy, Rae caught in a possible cheating scandal, the Spellman parents possibly selling the business, and David (who for some reason in my mind is Eric Mabius) in casual clothing. I NEED book four now. And Lisa Lutz needs to write more books about the Spellmans.

Books, Books Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:12:00 +0000

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I am a book hoarder. I buy books, and I read a lot of them, but manyremain unread for a long time. In September, a friend and I went to Cincinnati to see a group of teen paranormal fiction authors. We got to meet Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Kelley Armstrong, Allyson Noel, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl. At the time I had only read books by two of them. Now, I've only read books by two of them. But I bought books by each of them to have autographed! One of my goals this year is to read all of those books I bought and had autographed at that event.

New Year's Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:59:00 +0000

I kind of stink at sticking to New Year's resolutions. It's only January 3 and I'm struggling to keep up with the blog challenge, which is only a month long. The resolution I wrote down was to do one creative thing a day. I'm counting this blog as doing something creative. While I'm not working on fiction, I am creating something that did not exist before. I hope as the days go by this resolution will evolve and grow into me spending more time knitting, writing fiction, etc.

5 Favorite Teens Books Read in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:47:00 +0000

In no particular order

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

One Will Grayson tries to live a life of apathy despite the efforts of his exuberant best friend, Tiny Cooper. Another Will Grayson lives across town dealing with first love. I started this book because I love John Green. I

love this book because of Tiny Cooper.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Scarlett receives a high maintnance guest to care for at her parents' historic hotel on her fifteenth birthday. I want to visit New York and stay at the Hopewell.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Leslie tries to reclaim her life and her body by getting a tattoo. Instead, she unwittingly gives herself up to dark faeries. Unfortunately for the faeries, Leslie is used to fighting for herself. This story is dark and bittersweet. Melissa Marr's books are a nice change of pace from the typical paranormal books that lean more toward romance.

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

When Aura loses her boyfriend on his birthday, she gains an intense relationship with his spirit. This book had a great balance of world building and plot. I cannot wait for the sequel.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Dash discovers a notebook in a book shop containing instructions. In choosing to follow the instructions he enters into a relationship of words with Lily. Will their expectations of each other be met when they finally meet? I was charmed by this book from the beginning.

Welcome to more blogging in 2011

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:42:00 +0000

In August I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge at the suggestion of Ama from Get Booked. And then my computer crashed and that didn't happen. But Ultimate Blog Challenge is back for January and I am jumping in!

5 Favorite Adult Novels Read in 2010, In No Particular Order

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:30:00 +0000

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Annie is in a relationship with Duncan a music snob, especially when it concerns reclusive singer Tucker Crowe. When her relationship with Duncan starts to crumble Annie starts to form a life of her own and oddly enough stumbles into an e-mail correspondence with Tucker. I'm looking forward to reading more of Nick Hornby's books.

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Isabelle Spellman narrates the adventures of her kooky family of private investigators. This is for fans of Harriet the Spy or Veronica Mars.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Flavia de luce is a precocious 11 year old growing up in a small English village in 1950. Early one morning she finds a body in the cucmber patch and makes it mission to solve the murder.

Push by Sapphire

This is an inspirational story about the importance of literacy and education. Before I started reading I assumed the focus of the story was abuse. I love the first person narrative because you experience first hand the improvement in Precious's grammar, writing, and sense of self.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This book was from the "Yes I have a degree in English and no I haven't read it" list. I love this book. I read slowly because I wanted to spend as much time in Maycomb as possible. From now on I will go forth and preach the gospel of Harper Lee.

2011 Debut Author Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:48:00 +0000

I haven't tried a reading challenge in some time, so here goes nothing! The goal is to read 12 2011 debut authors of middle grade or YA fiction. I will most likely stick with YA since it is the age group I work with. Thanks to the Story Siren for hosting this challenge. Click the button for more information!

Shade by Jeri-Smith Ready

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:49:00 +0000

I read this because I love Melissa Marr and Jeri Smith-Ready was on the Smart Girl's Kick It Tour with her. Since I was going to hear her speak I thought I'd read one of her books before I went. Sixteen years ago there was a Shift in the world. Everyone born after the Shift can see and interact with ghosts and those born before cannot. Aura was born the day of the Shift and works in her aunt's law firm which is very pro ghosts rights. She has been in a relationship with Logan for about a year when he suddenly dies. Death may end a physical relationship between them but since she is a post-shifter he is still in her life. Things get a little more intersting when Aura is teamed with cute new Scottish student Zachary on a big project she's doing exploring what made the Shift happen. And Logan's parents hire Aura's aunt to head up a wrongful death suit, which may reveal some private information on Logan and Aura's last night together, hoping that it will help him move on to the afterlife and not become a bitter Earthbound Shade. There's also the small matter of the government being interested in Aura due to her birth date. This book does a good job of setting out the rules of what ghosts can and can't do. It is also grounded in the reality of high school by having all the gossip that happens when a teen dies suddenly. Of course there's always the question of when is it too soon to move on, but it's more interesting when the deceased party is still hanging around. I'm looking forward to book two next spring.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:23:00 +0000

I really enjoyed Wicked Lovely and thought it was about time I read it's companion book. Ink Exchange has some of the same characters as its predecessor but the story focuses on new characters. Leslie has been trying to avoid her brother and his drug dealer friends. She hasn't even told her best friends the entire truth about how bad things have been at home. In order to reclaim her life and her bodyLeslie saves up to get a tattoo. The tattoo she chooses however has dangerous repercussions and will tie her to one of the dark faerie court. Ink Exchange is darker than Wicked Lovely. I like that most of the characters are not good or bad, but have facets. I will definitely read the next book, Fragile Eternity, which is a sequel to Wicked Lovely. I'm super excited that I'm going to Cincinnati this weekend to see Melissa Marr and several other teen paranormal fiction authors!

White Cat by Holly Black

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:52:00 +0000

I was a little disappointed when I read the description of White Cat and saw nothing about faeries. I love faeries and I love the way Holly Black writes about faeries so I wanted more. Then I read White Cat and I was no longer disappointed. What a fantastic world she has woven into our own. Much like mutants are every day citizens in X-Men, curse workers are in this story. Everyone wears gloves because workers need to make contact with skin in order to perform a charm. Workers can change your memory, change your feelings, or even kill you. White Cat focuses on Cassel, the only non-worker in his family. Cassel wakes one night teetering near the edge of the roof on his boarding school dorm following a white cat. His subsequent suspension sends him home and leads to all kinds of family trouble. This is a suspenseful crime story that just so happens to have magic in it. I eagerly await book two, Red Glove due out Aprill 2011.

Football and Romance

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:43:00 +0000

I was reading the latest Romantic Times and noticed an article on a new series from Kimani Press, which is an imprint of Harlequin. Harlequin has a series of novels that revolve around NASCAR so I wasn't too surprised to see a series involving football. I don't read many romance novels, but I love football. I was super excited to see the author of the first two football themed romances, Farrah Rochon, is Brian Robiskie's cousin! Brian played for The Ohio State Buckeyes and is currently playing for the Browns. I hope Kimani uses this imformation to market her books in Ohio. It might seem silly, but it will probably get the books a second glance from people who might not normally read romance. I know I plan on purchasing the first two for our library's collection.

Blood Price by Tanya Huff

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:07:00 +0000

I read this because a good friend loves this series. I've also seen several episodes of Blood Ties, the Canadian tv show based on this series, and enjoyed them. Vickie Nelson was a decorated homicide detective in Toronto before her degenerating eyesight forced her out at age 30. Refusing to take a desk job, she quit and opened her own PI office. When murder victims across the city are found with their throats ripped out newspapers begin blaming vampires. Vickie is hired by a victim's girlfriend and while investigating meets an actual vampire. Henry Fitzroy, the bastard son of Henry VIII, wants to stop the murders and remove the media spotlight from the undead. It was nice to read a vampire novel that doesn't revolve around a romantic couple. The reader knows who is behind the murders so it definitely falls into the thriller category rather than mystery. It's also fun to see Vickie working and arguing with her former partner Mike while figuring out how to work a homicide without police backup. Vickie working the daytime angles while Henry works the after hours shift makes them a great pair. I will definitely read the second book.

Get Ready For More Blog

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:11:00 +0000

I have signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge! Thanks to Ama at Get Booked for posting the info!

A new program and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:49:00 +0000

The library is starting a new night book club called Books Unbound which will be meeting at different bars and restaurants around town. We want to reach residents who don't come in the library by bringing a program to them. Since our potential members aren't coming to us, we wanted to pick a book available in paperback. We also wanted to pick a best seller, something that would be super easy to get from your local bookstore. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo fit the requirements perfectly. Found guilty of libel, economic journalist Mikael Blomkvist temporarily steps down from his position at a Swedish magazine. A retired businessman Henrik Vanger hires Mikael to sift through evidence in the forty odd year old investigation into the disappearance of his niece Harriet. The large Vanger family has plenty much of dirt for Mikael to sift through. He finds help from security specialist Lisbeth Salander, a young woman who has recently had trauma of her own.

I do not typically read crime novels. There are some absolute brutal scenes that had my stomach in knots. The novel moves at a swift pace and I'm glad we chose this for book club because I'm not sure I would have read it otherwise. I look forward to reading the Larsson's other two novels.

The Magician's Nephew

noreply@blogger.com (wonderlandchick) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:39:00 +0000

I saw Eclipse this weekend and one of the trailers* I got to see was for Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This made me want to reread the book, which made me want to read the entire Narnia series, etc. I have not read the entire series so I started with the book my particular box set has labeled as 1. I knew this was the last Narnia book C. S. Lewis wrote and I knew it was a prequel to the series. That was it. I was pleased to discover a fun origin story. I love a good origin story. And this was it. We got the origin of Narnia, the White Witch, even the lamp post and the wardrobe. I did think the Christian tones were a bit heavy handed in one particular chapter of this one. The last chapter though won me over and made me smile and sigh!

*I also saw a trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so I suspect I will be revisiting that series as well before November. Oooh, and a trailer for Red. Need to put that graphic novel on hold!