Angieville

So get this. In all my years of blogging (I can't believe I just typed that), I've never written up a post on my favorite literary opening lines! This strikes me as funny given the fact that I somehow have made time to discuss my favorite first kisses , favorite endings , favorite big bads , and all manner of other Very Important Lists. So. Today, we're going to dig into the best first lines, the ones that sucked me in so fast my head spun. For purposes of space, we're going to exclude classics. I know . It's just that once I get started with Austen, Dickens, Tolstoy, etc., I have a feeling we'll start spiraling out to sea.  Some of these lines make me laugh. Some make me cry. Some fill me with the kind of nostalgia only a pivotal book in my life does. And some woo you in gently with their come-hither eyes, deceptive in their simplicity. No matter their ilk, all of them belong to books that reside firmly on my Beloved Bookshelf . And so. Favorite openin...

Stop the presses (except not really because I need this baby in my hands pronto )! Entertainment Weekly has revealed the cover for the brilliant Sarah Rees Brennan 's upcoming novel Tell the Wind and Fire . For those of you savvy readers who recognize the title quote, this book is a modern, magical retelling/adaptation/what-have-you of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Which fact sent me into paroxysms of joy when I found out. We finally have a release date for this beauty, and it is April 5, 2016. I know it's a ways down the road yet, but I feel like I've been waiting forever and an actual date helps set my jitters at ease a bit. As part of the reveal,  Entertainment Weekly  has an exclusive excerpt from Chapter One. Go check it out and let me know what you think of the excerpt. Personally, I'm still reeling from the excellence.

This Choose Your Own Edition comes to you courtesy of my Instagram rambles through evil, evil Maggie's feed . She posted a pic of the playing card edition of Markus Zusak 's The Messenger (published as I Am the Messenger here in the States), and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. I need that edition, you guys. My copy is the red and black American paperback from 2002, I believe. And while I am attached to it because I love the size and texture of it (and because it was the very first Zusak book I ever read), I've never loved the artwork. So one thing led to another and I found myself scouring the web for different editions.   Here you have my three favorites. They are—perhaps coincidentally—all Australian versions, and as such are not what you might call "readily available" to the likes of me. But availability (and funds) aside, let's talk covers. I love aspects of each, particularly the white figure of the juggler (whi...