Angieville

...and I'm Just. So. Happy.

I've been hearing about  Elizabeth Peters ' Vicky Bliss and  Amelia Peabody  books for quite awhile now and for some reason just haven't found my way to reading any of them until now. I noticed these re-issues of the Vicky Bliss series and decided to pick up the first one and see. Vicky is an art historian with a delightful sense of humor and a certain dry acceptance of her statuesque stature and tendency to intimidate those around her. When we first meet Vicky, she is teaching at a college in the Midwest and maintaining a sort of on-again off-again relationship with her colleague Tony Lawrence. Tony is a hapless, hopeless, skinny version of Vicky who, failing to get her to marry him, decides he'll settle for besting her professionally. Ha. The two soon find themselves racing each other to Germany in search of a medieval artifact presumed missing for centuries.   Here's the thing. I liked Vicky and Tony right off the bat. I liked the whole premise for the story. It ...

I first came across  No Shame, No Fear   in  Adele Geras '  review  in The Guardian . I read and loved  Troy   and was interested in reading a book Geras said, "Needs a trumpet to be blown for it." The narrative alternates between two points of view--that of Susanna, a young Quaker girl, and William, a young man just home from Oxford. Set in England in 1662 just as the Quaker Act is passed, Susanna takes a job as an apprentice in a print shop to help provide for her family since her father has been incarcerated. William is about to embark on a seven year apprenticship for a wealthy merchant in London. The two meet once on the road and again in the print shop and matters get thornier from there. William begins investigating the Quaker faith, expressly against his father's wishes, and the two find themselves drawn to each other at a time when such a connection could prove fatal to both.  This short, simple tale held my interest easily and I found myself learning quite a...

John Green  knows how to end a book. You always hear about killer first lines and great beginnings, but it has  got  to be harder to end a story well. To know what to do with and to the characters and story you've crafted. I thought  Looking for Alaska   had the most beautiful closing lines. The wrap up in  An Abundance of Katherines   was just right. And my favorite thing about  Paper Towns is undoubtedly the ending. Kind of nice to hear going in, isn't it? So the story follows Q (short for Quentin) in his life-long quest to love girl-next-door Margo Roth Spiegelman. The thing is, she's sort of too cool for school, let alone Q. But one night she climbs through his bedroom window and absconds with him on a night full of adventure, breaking, entering, and general tomfoolery. Next morning she's gone. Q, with the occasional help of his two band geek friends, Ben and Radar, embarks on a journey to find Margo. Little does he comprehend just what "finding" her will ...

I was lucky enough to win a copy of The Hunger Games in Cheryl Rainfield 's giveaway not long ago. Thanks, Cheryl! I'd heard so much positive feedback on this one, that I went in with fairly high expectations. Fortunately, I was uninformed as to any particulars, so the entire premise was a surprise. All I knew was that it was dystopian. And that I liked the cover. Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12--the furthest flung of the twelve districts of Panem--in what's left of North America. Every year the Capitol (the governing city of Panem) puts on the Hunger Games. The Games are a brutal reminder of the districts' failed rebellion. Each district is forced to offer up two of their youth as a tribute. Chosen by lottery, the 24 tributes are then forced to engage in a free-for-all battle to the death on live television. The victor wins fame, glory, and food and supplies for his or her district. This bloodbath is considered the height of entertainment in the Capitol. So far...

I preface this review by stating (somewhat sheepishly) that this is my first horror novel. Honestly? I've always secretly longed to read a  Stephen King  book, but I never knew where to jump in. So I contented myself with reading  On Writing   and his book reviews, admiring the talent from afar, so to speak. Then the other day  DH announced the need for the King moratorium to end once and for all. After a brief but intense conference with  a fellow connoisseur , he pronounced himself convinced that  It   was, without a doubt, the one for me. I took him at his word.  It   begins with a great first line:  The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years--if it ever did end--began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. We are soon introduced to a boy named Bill who stutters and his cute little brother Georgie who, even I can tell, doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of making it out...

It's fall once more and I'm feeling that familiar cozy, the leaves are falling outside and it's time to read  Sunshine  again feeling. I tend to get fairly nostalgic when autumn comes around and find myself reliving past holidays, getogethers, trips, and wanting to reread old favorites no matter what enticing stack of new books I have on my nightstand. The other day I found myself remembering one day in particular a couple of years ago... I wandered into the bookstore, fingers crossed. It had been an entire year since  Sharon Shinn 's  Mystic and Rider   came out and I was desperate to get my hands on the sequel  The Thirteenth House . It was due out in a week and therefore not available online or in stores anywhere yet. But I'd checked this particular bookstore's stock online and it was listed as being In Stock. Oh, how I love those two words. So I drove down and wandered in, fingers crossed. After checking the shelves to no avail, I approached a tall, lanky, u...

Brie over at  Musings of a Bibliophile  and Thea and Ana of The Book Smugglers were cool enough to gift Angieville with its first award--the  I Heart Your Blog  award. I, in turn, am happy to pass on the BlogLove.  The rules are that you need to: 1) Add the logo of the award to your blog 2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you 3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs 4) Add links to those blogs on your blog 5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs! I nominate:  Kimberly of  Darque Reviews Li of  Book Daze Rachel of  Rachel Reads Stephanie of  Someone's Read it Already Janicu of  Janicu's Book Blog Emily of  Las Risas Kath of  Bookworm Nation I read you every day.

Now I hestitate to get my hopes up too high, but I couldn't not note that 50 Canon Entertainment has just optioned the film rights to Patricia Briggs ' Mercy Thompson series! Press release found here . Now...who could play Adam?

I can't believe it's been a year already and it's once again time for the  Cybils Awards . I really had a ball last year serving on the Graphic Novels judging panel and I'm excited to head on over and nominate my favorite titles of 2008.  Nominations are open through October 15th and you can nominate one title per category. Hope to see you there!

The Lovely Ladies at  The Book Smugglers  tagged me for this Banned Books Week 2008 Meme, so here goes. The following is the ALA list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. How to Play: 1. Copy this list. 2. Highlight the ones you have read in RED. 3. Tag 5 people to play. Angie's List:   Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling Forever by Judy Blume Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Giver by Lois Lowry It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Pe...