Angieville

Well, they asked me to! To be precise, the lovely trio over at The Readventurer invited me to contribute a guest post for one of their excellent features and I chose If You Like This, You Might Like That . It's my own fault what happened from there on out. So if you'd like a peek into the randomness that is my bookpushing brain, hop on over and give it a look-see.

Two pretties posts in a month (barely)! You can tell I'm looking ahead these days. Just the two pretties for you this Wednesday morning/afternoon. But truthfully I was so taken with this pair of covers, I didn't even really want to slap anything else up there with them. I'm content to sit and gaze at them admiringly, imagining what they'll feel like when at last they're in my hands. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell I read Rowell's first book, Attachments , with uneven results. I adored the first third of the book. Loved the hushed setup full of awkward longing. Unfortunately, the pacing stuttered for me after that and it was a chore to finish. Many loved it though, and I always sort of planned on checking out what she wrote next. This one takes place in 1986 and features a couple of misfits wrestling with first love and mix tapes. I am in deep smit with that cover. Everything about it is awesome. And check out that cover blurb. Not too shabby. Due out...

It was hard to guess, when the initial information on The Raven Boys was released, which Maggie Stiefvater it would be. I discovered Maggie's writing through her first book-- Lament --and I have never looked back. I've enjoyed her urban fantasy, her fantasy, her paranormal romance, whatever you want to call it, in spades. I am  honestly up for whatever she chooses to write. However, her style does vary from book to book, series to series. And I was very intrigued to find out what we would be getting here, especially as I was somewhere in the vicinity of absolutely floored  by The Scorpio Races . Perfect books always have that effect on me. Particularly ones that come five books in when you think you know an author. The early word was sparse, but inviting. And, as always, she had a great title and  a lovely cover. So it was with grabby hands that I picked up a copy at BEA and took it home with me in my carry-on bag. Blue is the lone normal in a family of female psych...

You've likely already seen this, but it's quite beyond me not to post it here. I have very little to say except that, what with this one and The Hobbit , it's going to be a lovely Christmas.

I've been coasting lately. Reading steadily to be sure, but not falling very hard. I've got a host of options at my fingertips, but . . . well, you know. None of them calling my name as of yet. The urge to reread is strong, but I really would like to find something new. Something I'll fall for so hard I'll want to take it home with me and make it breakfast in the morning. So I'm asking for your very best. These recommendations, they need to be amazing. As in you needed to own them amazing. You know without a doubt you'll be rereading them amazing. The writing and the characters had you at their MERCY amazing. So on this late Sunday afternoon, could you possibly trouble yourselves to sift through your beloved bookshelves and throw me a rope? I'd be ever so grateful.

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here @ Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! So I had another one of those uncomfortable realizations while musing on which book to review for this edition of Retro Friday. It came to my attention that the only Shannon Hale book I've actually reviewed is The Actor and the Housewife . That's the only one! As Grover would say, "How embarrassing . . ." I read and loved Hale's Books of Bayern long before that ill-fated meeting between myself and the Book That Shall Not Be Named (even though it just was). It's high time I went back and shared my thoughts on those first books. Because they are so good. I remember passing by the original hardcover of The Goose Girl in the bookstore and doing a double take, halting in my tracks over that...

Today you can find me over at Book Harbinger guest blogging for Holly's Seven Days for Sevenwaters . This week-long event highlights Juliet Marillier 's Sevenwaters series, a set of books I've been attached to for quite some time now. I hope you find the time to stop in and share your thoughts as I ruminate a bit on  Daughter of the Forest , the first time I gifted it to someone, and why I return again and again to this special series.

Today is one of my favorite days to be a blogger because it means (thanks to Book Blogger Appreciation Week ) I get to let my favorite bloggers know how much they bring to my days. I usually like to highlight a new-to-me blog (or blogs) from the last year. This year I'm picking three blogs that I knew of before but that I became a full-fledged  fan of this year, meaning when they post I click on the link. No questions asked. And I can honestly say, I never regret it either. In addition, they all happen to possess three of my favorite site titles and  designs. Clean, clear, and absolutely unique to them as well. Brava, ladies. Jess runs The Bluestocking Society , and she's just as intellectual, informal, and conversational as the society her site is named after. I click on Jess' links because she always surprises me. I never know what she's going to read next or what her reaction will be. I'm lured in by the possibilities and the frank honesty she exhibits in eve...

Because I am a Lady Julia Grey addict , I am obligated to report that the cover of Deanna Raybourn 's upcoming novella has been released and it is a Lady Julia Grey Christmas novella! Christmas novellas and I do not have a long history together. But as I recently made the acquaintance of one I quite liked , I'm thinking we could have a future together, Christmas novellas and I. And so I plan on pursuing the relationship with renewed determination come November 1st when Silent Night (love the title) is released. Julia, Brisbane, a return to Bellmont Abbey, the crazy Marches, a prowling ghost?! Who could ask for a better way to kick off the holidays?

So never mind that these three pretties aren't due out until next spring . Let's focus on how awesome they are likely to be and how ecstatic I was to run across their covers. I trust all three of these authors (two of them new-to-me discoveries this year) to come through with beautiful writing and a sophisticated tale. One is a direct sequel, one a companion novel, and one a standalone. All three bode well for 2013. Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers This is the second in the His Fair Assassin  trilogy and sequel to the most excellent Grave Mercy . Though I'm not quite as enamored of this cover as I was with the first one, I am no less excited for Sybella's story. And I love the tagline, "Vengeance is divine." You spend most of the first book wondering what in the world is going on with this girl, so it's going to be just very good to find out! Due out April 2nd Under the Light by Laura Whitcomb At last! A cover! My heart can only stand so much hap...

The moment I heard about   a steampunk retelling of Jane Eyre, I geared up for its release. I am always up for a retelling of this book. And I've had spectacular success in the past. This one is not YA, or even New Adult, and I could tell it relied more heavily on the rich fantasy aspects of the world and story, all of which I was eager to fall into. I love the cover, particularly the iron mask, and everything about it just had the ring of excellence to it. This is not to say that I wasn't apprehensive, because there's always a bit of that when you go into a retelling of any kind, isn't there? But do any of you ever start to tire of your own wariness when it comes to upcoming releases? I go back and forth between feeling justifyingly jaded (particularly when it comes to oversaturated genres or tropes) and feeling like shaking off all my suspicion and caution and just jumping in like I used to as a kid. Because the exhaustion of both maintaining expectations and forci...