Goodbye to Blogger...but not to Blogging!

I'm being a royal pain in the ass :p Have no fear, I'm not leaving blogging, I'm just moving. I switched to Wordpress. This has been a project in the works for awhile and I'm finally happy with it, so you can now join me over at my wordpress blog! I won't be posting on Blogger anymore. So if you don't mind, please update your blogroll links...I'm sorry I'm such a pain! But even better yet...I bought my own domain name! So you can get to me either by typing in stuffasdreamsaremadeon.com (I know, annoyingly long) or you can go to chrisa511.wordpress.com. See you on the other side!

Uh-Oh Part 2...And Lots Of Other Stuff

It's all gone to shite! Anyone placed bets on my New Years resolution not even lasting a whole month? If you did, you won! To be honest, this is the longest a resolution has ever lasted I think, lol...sad, huh? A couple of days ago I thought I'd take "just a peek" over at bookcloseouts.com and it all went downhill from there and I left with 5 books :/ And with shipping they were all under $30, so who can blame me :p Here's what I got:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbuy - I've been wanting this one for awhile. I fell in love with Ray Bradbury's writing last year and this one came highly recommended by plenty of people! It can be a bonus read for the plant category in Annie's What's in a Name challenge!

Time and Again by Jack Finney - This one came recommended by Carl and I've never been disappointed by anything that he's recommended. So I'm really looking forward to it! Love those time travel books!

The Pinhole Egg by Diana Wynne Jones - I've been wanting to read some Jones for ages. I know that both Nymeth and Darla D. are huge fans of hers and I loved Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle which was based on her book. Can't wait!

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami - This one came recommended by Scott at Booky Ooky and I'm really excited about it. I've been on this Japanese kick and I wanted something different. This one looks sexy, violent, and sadistic...I love a book like that every now and then ;)

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King - This is my super bargain buy! Hardcover version for $4.99 and I got the last copy on their website! It first came recommended by Eva, Dark Orpheus seconded that recommendation and then Deslily sealed the deal for me on this one. I really can't wait to read this whole series of Mary Russell books!

As if that wasn't enough (heh....) I went and ordered two books from England today through Amazon UK :p I had to pre-order my copy of Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. It's not being released here in the states. It was written for World Book Day which is a UK thing and the books only cost 1 Pound (about 2 dollars)! Of course with shipping over seas, that comes out to about 12 bucks....but it's a new Neil Gaiman book, so I bought it and while I was there, I also picked up The Lost Boy by Duncan Staff which Quixotic reviewed on her blog today. It sounds great and I haven't read a true crime book in a long time. Don't know if "great" is the right word, but interesting...

Other news...I've been selected for Barnes and Nobles first look program for the month of March! Anyone else make it in? We're reading a book that sounds really good and reminds me a little of The Thirteenth Tale from the synopsis. The book is called The Sister and is written by Poppy Adams. This is her first book and I can't wait to join in the discussion and talk with her about her book! You can read more about the book and read an excerpt here.

More good news of the day...there's going to be an Ender's Game video game!!! It was announced today! The game is going to focus just on the battle room. They decided that there was so much that they could do that they would choose just one aspect of the book and the battle room is what the game will be. I can't wait! It's going to be on all of the gaming consoles including PCs and the handheld consoles. A company called Chair is doing the game. The same company is also making Empire, one of Card's latest political thrillers into a video game. Card is fully on board with the game and is excited about it. Me too :)

Now for a meme...Literacy Chic tagged me for this one and I love these. They're fun.

Book Meme Rules

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The book nearest me is Watership Down by Richard Adams. Actually it's the ARC of the new Fablehaven that I'm about to start, but I can't release any of that yet ;) so we'll use Watership Down, the next book on the stack!

"Later, Hazel had said that there was nothing for it but to cross the open pasture and under Silver's direction they had crossed it, with Dandelion running ahead to reconnoiter. When Fiver said the iron tree was harmless they believed him. Strawberry had had a bad time."

I can't wait to really read this one! Ok...so tagging five people...Nymeth, Debi, Bellezza, Stephanie, Rhinoa! Have fun :)

And finally, I wanted to give big hugs to Eva for giving me the You Make My Day Award :) Her blog makes my day too. It's one of the many blogs that I visit every day always hoping that there's a new post...and there usually is. Partially out of laziness and partially because I can't decide who to pick, I can't pick 10 people to give this to right now! But I'm sure you all know how much I love visiting all of your blogs everyday and you really do all "Make My Day"! Seriously...the first thing I do after waking up is go down all of my live bookmarks and check for new posts and then I check (borderline obsessively) for new posts all day from you all. So have a great day guys!

Tomorrow, a review of The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World. Then a break from the rat...

I'm Back Again and Eva's Reading Meme

I'm exhausted from playing the tourist in my own city this weekend, but we had so much fun. I know Megan had a great time going to all of our favorite "New Orleans places" and we had a tad bit too much fun on Bourbon Street Saturday night which left us in bed for most of the morning on Sunday, but that's what Bourbon Street's all about :p The trip was short, which sucked, but we definitely made the most out of it and turned it into a really good visit and hopefully I'll be reporting to Texas soon for some interviews and visiting time! And then all of this long distance stuff will finally be over with. That will indeed be a great day!

So I'm back now to book blogging after the weekend hiatus, and I thought I'd start with Eva's reading meme that I've been tagged for by quite a few people! Here it goes:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

You know, I thought and thought on this one and I really can't think of a particular book that I cringe away from. I can however think of a genre that I cringe away from....All that late 19th/early 20th century period piece literature. I know there's a literary name for that (someone help me out here, I'm not a lit major :p) . I'm hoping to remedy that by reading two Jane Austen books this year...we'll see how it goes. I've tried Edith Wharton twice and couldn't get into her. And I've just completely avoided anything else from that period despite people loving it. I do love Dickens, but his writing tended to focus on the every day person and real life stuff rather than high society...maybe I have the wrong idea of the genre, we'll see!

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

I'd like to have a little back yard barbecue for my guests. Something where people could sit around, talk, pick on food and just mingle with one another. Maybe listen to some good music in the background...I'm currently listening to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman on audiobook and forgot how great of a character Richard Mayhew is...he'd definitely be invited along for the BBQ. He seems like he'd be a nice guy to sit down and hang out with and he'd have some interesting tales to tell. I would LOVE to have a hobbit at a backyard BBQ while we're telling stories. And tell me they wouldn't enjoy an outdoor meal! The problem is, which one? I suppose I'd go with Frodo, although I've always loved Bilbo's story so much...I do have 4 editions of The Hobbit after all. And finally, I don't know how many of you are familiar with The Bone People by Keri Hulme, but it's an amazing Maori book and there's a sort of tragic character that I absolutely loved by the name of Kerewin. She's an awesome Maori native who I'd love to get to know more.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

I'll prepare to be shot down by some, though I know by not all....but I would rather shoot myself in the foot than to ever have to read The Great Gatsby again. Call it a classic, but I couldn't stand it! Sorry to those who love it :O

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

I've never blatantly admitted to having read a book that I haven't before, but I've hinted that I have when it comes to people talking about books or books being made into movies that didn't stick to the book and blah blah...This happened recently with Lord of the Flies actually (yes, I haven't read Lord of the Flies! I know, I need to remedy that!) I just nodded as if I knew exactly what they meant :p

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t?

No, it's usually the opposite...Sometimes I'll think that I hadn't ever read a book and then I'll go read it and think "wait a minute, I know this story". Not that this happens often, but it has. Last time this happened was with Tom Sawyer. I thought it was ashame that I had never read this, so I started reading it and realized that I had and it brought back a flood of memories of being a kid. Kinda neat experience actually.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)

Definitely Lois Lowry's The Giver. It's an amazing book that really focuses on what's important in humanity and what makes human relationships special and what makes our bonds work...what makes our civilization work. And it shows how trying to aim for sameness,trying to erase our differences just doesn't work. The world needs diversity. Plus, if the VIP isn't a big reader, it's short :p

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Hi good fairy! Easy answer here..Japanese! I love Japanese literature and I'm really stuck in that state of mind right now with Bellezza's challenge. I've always had a fascination with the Japanese language though. I love their written characters, I love their spoken language, and there's even expression in the way that the characters are written. As Nymeth mentioned in her answer to this question, I would love read a Haruki Murakami book in it's original Japanese. As much as I enjoyed Norwegian Wood in it's English translation, I'm sure that much of it was lost. Same goes with The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima. I'd love to read it in it's original, and I could just tell when I was reading it that some of it had been "americanized". I guess it couldn't be helped.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

Well this fairy doesn't sound mischievious at all...it sounds like the good fairy again ;) This one's easy for me too...American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Yes it's chunky, but I could never tire of it. It's such an amazing book. Each page blew me away.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

The main thing that I've discovered from book blogging is reading outside of my genre of choice which was fantasy. I still LOVE my fantasy books and they're still my favorites, but looking at my list of books read last year, I read about half and half fantasy and non-fantasy which was a BIG change for me! I've also loved this community that I've discovered of people to talk to about books. I've never had this before and it's just amazing. It makes me all warm and fuzzy. Before it was just me and occasionally my classmates if I happened to be in a literature course. And that was back when I was an undergrad.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

Oh-ho-ho-ho....how I wish...First of all, I was thinking...we would all have to have mansions in order to have our dream libraries...you do realize this? Of course it would be a decent sized room, but not huge...I'm going for cozy. And I'd like to have a nice domed ceiling with marble floors. Definitely Mahogany shelves from ceiling to floor with the rolling ladder. I'd love to have a few large windows that let plenty of sunlight in during the day with window seats and then soft yellow lighting for night time. And I'd love a fireplace! I would definitely need to have some plush chairs or sofas with an ottoman that were just right with a coffee table. An espresso machine would be nice along with a tea kettle, so I could have my choice of reading beverages. As far as the books go, I'm a fan of hardbacks or trade paperbacks and I'd need to have all of my authors entire collections :p preferably signed, first editions and I'd love to have the special editions (like Neil Gaiman's Hill House editions *drool*) Getting the idea yet?

And Now to tag four people!

Deslily @ Here, There, & Everywhere
Scott @ Booky Ooky
Quixotical
Bookfool!

This was an awesome meme, Eva :) I have to say that it's the most fun I've ever had filling one out...great job!

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge by Harry Harrison

This is just one of the most fun series I've read. Thanks to Carl, I discovered The Stainless Steel Rat last year and I have to say that I enjoyed the second book in the series even more. So far, these books are classic crime/detective/space adventure sci-fi at it's best. It's everything you can hope for in a nice solid throwback novel. Whenever I hold this book in my hands, I feel like I have something special there, like I'm being brought back to that golden age of sci-fi. So The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge was the perfect first read for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience.

In this sequel, James DiGriz, aka The Stainless Steel Rat, is sent on another mission by Inskipp, a colonel who made a somewhat honest man out of this master criminal in book one of the series...or as honest as you're going to get. His mission this time is huge...he has to stop the invasion of a planet by a war hungry civilization. The book is non stop adventure from cover to cover and when I say non stop, I mean it - it never slows down and never takes a breath. Just as the first book did, this has a very James Bond feel to it which I loved. The Rat has some very cool gadgets and some awesome escape plans and I loved all of the combat.

The characters are wonderful too! Angelina is back in this book and that's all I'm going to say on that front as she was a character I had questions about after the end of the first. I was happy to see her back and I think that Harrison has created one of the hottest characters ever with her!
James DiGriz is just a top notch character. He's smooth, he's sharp, he's skillful, he's a crook, he's a sharp-shooter. He really reminds me of James Bond in the future! Harrison has something special with him. I can see why Carl fell in love with this series with the adventures surrounded around this guy. And then there was Kraj...the military general...the villain. This guy was pure evil and I just couldn't stand him. Complete with torture devices, no emotions, no respect for anyone, etc. Perfect villain that you just loved to hate.

If you're looking for a good sci-fi read, this series comes highly recommended from me! The books are such quick and fulfilling reads. I was going to go on to something else after this, but decided to read one more book in the series first, so tomorrow I'm starting The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World. I love the titles of these books :p

Uh-ohhhhhh....

I did a bad, bad thing....can you guess? Well, I didn't exactly go to a bookstore, but....I got my new Netflix movie in the mail today and they always attach this little advertisement thing to the envelope for some company or another which I usually throw away without even looking at. Well this one had books on it, so of course I looked!

Now I had talked about maybe changing my resolution to possibly limiting myself to one book a month :p Well this little ad worked perfectly! It was for this website called Zooba.com. Ever heard of it? It's awesome! It works kind of like Netflix. You set up a queue of books you want...a list, and enter your credit card info. You're automatically billed $9.95 a month and each month they send you the next book on your list! (But of course you don't have to return them like Netflix ;) And shipping is free! They don't have every book you could possibly want, but there's a decent selection and all hardcovers. Can't beat $9.95 for a hardcover! I'm getting Stephen King's new book, Duma Key for $9.95 with free shipping...very cool ;) So that will limit me to one book a month and I was even good by selecting books that I need for challenges. If you want to join, I suggest entering the website by typing the URL as zooba.com/netflix...by adding the "/netflix" you get your first book for only $4.98.

Here's the first 10 books I've added:

1. The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (contains Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon)
2. Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
4. Heroes: Saving Charlie by Aurie Wallington
5. Duma Key by Stephen King
6. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
7. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
8. Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
9. Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis
10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Those should take me through my book buying until October (unless of course Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman and a few other authors come out with books ;) Speaking of...Neil Gaiman released the cover of The Graveyard book today...oooh!

Are There Really People This Ignorant Out There???

I got this link in an email today and it angered me to no end! You can click here to read the article from Fox News. The same idiots who were protesting at soldiers' funerals are now protesting at Heath Ledger's memorial services because he played a gay man in Brokeback Mountain. And of course, the reasoning behind doing so is because they're Christian! Duh, of course! You know...it's idiot fundamentalists like this who horribly misrepresent religions and completely turn people away from religions. Do they think they are going to attract people to Christianity by doing this? What about preaching tolerance? I don't discuss my religious beliefs on this blog, so I'm not going to go into all that, but this really aggravated me and angered me to no end. They said some of the most hateful things in the article....I was literally shocked by some of what I read. Just sickening. The name of the fundamentalist group alone is disgusting. Anyway...I needed to vent about this. People like that don't further the human race. First they protest at the funerals of soldiers who have died for their country and now this...

Edit to add: Carole McDonnell (author of Wind Follower who sent me the article) wrote an excellent post on her blog about this same news article.

The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason

I've been waiting patiently since early December to review this one, and now that there are only 2 more weeks until it's released, I think it's safe to release the review! Fans of Colleen's first two books in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles will not be disappointed with The Bleeding Dusk...not at all! It hit me with this book that the term "Chronicles" aptly describes this series. It's like one big work, with this middle book being the peak...well, so it seems.

There is quite a bit revealed in this book and I don't want to go too much into plot intricacies as this is the third book in a series, but it's good! It's dark, and ominous. It picks up where Rises the Night left off and opens with Max in Lilith's (queen vampire) lair. We then join Victoria, our heroine, in Rome where a carnival is taking place. Amidst the carnival, she has a chance encounter (or not so chance) with Beauregard, Sebastian's grandfather...a vampire. We soon learn of Akvan, a demon trying to break through the Door of the Alchemists to gain secrets that will restore him to his full power which would prove to be terrible for Rome and humanity in general. All of these stories intertwine as Victoria is faced with some of her toughest decisions yet. Who can she trust? Where does her heart lie? She is unsure as always of Max and she can never be sure where Sebastian's allegiances lie. On top of this, she is now Illa Gardella - head of the venators and is faced with a huge task. There's tons of weight on her shoulders in this one but she must find a way to balance it all.

Like I said in my review for Rises the Night, I really feel that Colleen grows as an author with each book that she writes. I loved the setting for this book. It was dark with a hint of melancholy and mystery throughout and I feel like it really echoed what Victoria must have felt as she went through all of this. This book slowed down a little bit more at the beginning and really took the time to build up the story. Relationships were explained and explored thoroughly and it made all the difference in the latter half of the book.

The finale of this book is every bit as heart pounding as "that scene" in Rises the Night. Just wait. There are questions answered that you never knew you had! I really just can't imagine what else Colleen could possibly have in store for us with the last two books, but while you're waiting for those unasked questions to be answered, pick this one up on February 5th and enjoy it as much as I did!

First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata and One Down, Another Started

My first thought after finishing First Snow on Fuji is that I think I'd like to try one of Yasunari Kawabata's novels. Like the other two books that I've read for the Japanese Reading Challenge, the language in this book was beautiful. Kawabata had a gift for capturing the fragility of human relationships and explores that in this collection of short stories. I thought that all of the stories were very well written, some I liked better than others, but I wanted more...as I so often do with short stories. Maybe I'm just not a short story guy, or maybe I'm reading the wrong authors. There are some authors that can deliver a short story perfectly for me and in fact, there were a few in this collection that worked perfectly for me. But the more I dive into short stories, the more I find that it's a true art form, to write a satisfying tale, a moral tale, a voyage, whatever the author sets to do, in so few pages.

My favorite of the stories in this collection was the first, titled This Country, That Country. It's the story of a young woman who reads a column in a local paper that talks about extravagant goings on in other countries (mostly European countries) and she reads an article about spouse swapping. She tucks the paper away after deciding not to show the article to her husband, a man who she is comfortable with and has a good life with, but there's no true passion. Her neighbors next door seem to have the perfect marriage and her neighbor's husband seems to be the perfect man. Her thoughts wander to what life would be life in another situation.

Another great story in the collection was Nature, which begins "To begin by saying that I heard the life story of a traveling actor at a spa is rather an old-fashioned narrative technique, but then...perhaps the story itself is old-fashioned..." And it is. I loved this story. It's the story of a man who has come to visit a spa where his deceased friend who was a writer used to stay. He finds there is an actor staying in the room where his friend used to always stay and goes to meet with him one night. They spend the night talking and the actor tells quite an interesting story of his past.

Silence was the last story that really stuck out to me. This was the story of an author who is now paralyzed, unable to write or speak. The narrator of the story goes to visit him, contemplating why he chooses not to use what little use he has left of his left hand. He could after all communicate, writing the Japanese characters of W for Water or T for Tea, but instead, he chooses to live out the rest of his days in silence. This was a beautifully contemplative piece and I really enjoyed it.

So as you can see, this one definitely had it's high points, but some of the other stories just didn't do it for me, or I just wanted a little more. But I'm glad I read this book. And with the end of this one, I'm done the Japanese Literature Challenge! My books read were:

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata

I'd like to also fit in Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask by the end of the month! Thanks again to Bellezza :) You rock!!!

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So, I've finished one challenge, why not add another to the list! Becky's hosting another great challenge. How she manages to participate in and host all these challenges is beyond me. This one is the Margaret A. Edwards Reading Challenge and the challenge is to read 3-5 books between February 1st and June 1st by winners of the Margaret A. Edwards award. The award is given each year to an author who makes a lasting contribution in the field of young adult literature and this year it was given to Orson Scott Card!!! Guess who one of my authors will be? ;) So here's my list:

1. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (Deslily's review here) I can see that smile Pat ;)
2. Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin
3. Something by Orson Scott Card

Coming Up For Air

Gasp! I'm still alive...After a very exhausting five days of work, I've managed to get in 8 hours of sleep finally and I actually have a day off! I'm constantly talking about looking for a job and being out of work, but I do still have a job, it's just not directly in my field, working towards a licensure. I'm back to working with the family of kids with disabilities that I was working with before and I worked a very long weekend with them as their mom went out of town on a retreat. At least my check will look good!

I'm spending today recovering and will finish First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata which will officially end the Japanese Reading Challenge for me! Yay, first challenge of the year completed! It's my least favorite of the 3 books that I've read for the challenge, but that doesn't mean that it was bad at all. It's a book of short stories, and I still have two left. I'll save the review for later though. This has been an awesome challenge and I owe huge thanks to Bellezza. I'll definitely be reading more J-Lit this year ;)

I crumbled last night and bought a book :O But it's not a novel...don't you just love the way I justify things. After Carl's last Friday Favorite's post, I had to go out and buy Spectrum 14! And it really is absolutely amazing. I've never seen the Spectrum books before, so I was blown away by it. It's quite overwhelming actually...there's just so much great art in them. Highly recommended. So I'm still kinda good on my New Year's Resolution....still haven't added to the TBR stack...just the to be stared at stack. It's only a matter of time...

I apologize for being a horrible friend to everyone and being a stranger on blogs. I'll be back in the swing of things now that the weekend from hell is over. Good news! Megan's coming in town on Friday and staying til Monday :) She's coming with her roommate for a little bit of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras isn't actually until February 5th this year, but the parades have already begun and I can't wait til this weekend...yay!

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Just in case you can't tell by the length of time it took me to read A Clash of Kings, this book is quite an epic! It's the second book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and picks up where A Game of Thrones left off. I read A Game of Thrones last year and believe it or not, I actually got through this one faster. That's by no means attributed to it being a dull read, it's not a dull read in the least bit...but it's mighty involved.

This series is certainly considered high fantasy, but as I said in my review of A Game of Thrones, it broke the barriers of what I thought high fantasy to be. I've always seen high fantasy as focusing mainly on the quest or the war and not so much on the characters. Martin balances these aspects of the stories perfectly and creates an amazing cast of characters that are all intricately carved. He's created some of my favorite characters in modern fantasy, Daenerys, mother of dragons, Bran, a young heir to a king who is disabled and unable to walk, Jon Snow, a bastard child of a king removed from his siblings and serving with others who have been stripped from their families, and Arya, the daughter of a king who defies gender boundaries and seeks to make a name for herself. For those who have read this, can you tell I like the Starks?

A Clash of Kings picks up as a war between four kings is beginning. The war will decide who is the one true ruler of the Seven kingdoms. There are tensions between the many families involved and even tighter tensions within some of the families involved. There is treachery, betrayal, sorcery, jealousy. It really is a thrilling ride. Each family is willing to stop at nothing to claim what they think is their right to the throne and no family is willing to form a truce or share a throne. Whatever chance there was a peace is slowing being destroyed by the atrocities committed out of spite and anger for past crimes.

Each chapter begins with a characters name and the chapter focuses on that characters story line, though other characters' storylines' interweave within the chapters. I love this way of telling the story and it works perfectly for this series. His characters are created so well that there really wasn't a single character whose chapters I didn't look forward to. Though there were some that I would be more excited about than others.

I also loved the scenery, the battle scenes, the cultures, the history, the castles, the food, the palaces...all of this stuff that he created. He put so much detail, description and effort into this series. Really an excellent job.

Martin's writing just amazes me. As I read this book I just remained amazed by the enormous task of putting something of this scale together. He's a genius writer and this is really becoming one of my favorite series out there. And there's dragons in it now :) If you're a fan of fantasy books and haven't read these books, I highly recommend that you pick these up. I'd consider them a must read even if you don't think you like high fantasy...I certainly didn't think I would. I'll be reading book 3, A Storm of Swords soon, though not right away. I need a break from these massive books.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Well here I was thinking that I had absolutely nothing to post about and Nymeth reminded me that I still owed a review for Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. In all honesty, I delayed this one a bit because I didn't think I could do it justice. And I probably still can't, but I'll give it a try. If I would've had time to let this one sink in for a bit before I posted my top 12 list of the year, it probably would've made it on to the list as it was my last read of 2007. It's characters and language haunted my mind and the book is still very fresh in my head...floating about in there somewhere. I've heard many people say this about Murakami, that his books stay with you, and this is no exception.

This is my first experience with Murakami, so I can't compare it to anything else written by him, but from what I understand, it's quite different from many of his other novels. I've heard that there's a bizarre aspect to quite a few of his books that's not so prevalent in this one. This book is mainly a love story and a quite beautiful and tragic one at that. It's set in Tokyo and other parts of Japan in the 60's and follows a young college student by the name of Toru who is in love with Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend who died in an accident a few years back. There relationship begins with silent walks around Japan, both of them recalling thoughts in their own minds of their pasts with their lost friend and their relationship eventually blooms into something more than just a friendship. But a night of intimacy with Toru reveals a tortured side to Naoko and she leaves Tokyo to examine her life and her problems. They exchange letters back and forth leaving Toru unsure of where anything is going between him and Naoko and he isolates himself, retreating even from the one amazing, unique girl that he's met, Midori, who's willing to do anything to be with him.

This is not a happy book, but it's a beautiful book, a serene book. The Japanese have a true gift in their story telling that echoes in aspects of their culture. I always get a sense of peace when I'm reading a Japanese novel or short story and this was no exception. As tragic and lost as these characters seemed at times, I always saw hope for them, always had a vision of calm. This is a book that will definitely pull at your heartstrings and draw you into the characters. Murakami really has a gift for making his characters real. I kept thinking that this must be somewhat autobiographical of his own experiences in the 60's, but the afterword says that it is not at all, that he actually had quite a boring life in the 60's and put nothing of himself in this novel. If that's true, he's extremely perceptive of other people.

It's also been said that this is the most erotic of his novels, and there are quite a few sex scenes in here and they're extremely voyeuristic. This goes back to him making this such a personal book. At first I thought that the dialogue was really awkward during the sex scenes and it was going to be a complaint of mine, but then I realized that what was awkward was just the fact that he was including sexual dialogue where I didn't expect it...it was reality and a real intimate look into these characters lives.

This book was extremely well written and a great introduction to Murakami in my opinion and I'd definitely recommend it as a starting point to anyone else looking to pick something up by him. It's also only 296 pages which is short compared to many of his other books! I think I'll read Kafka on the Shore next...Both Nymeth and Jean Pierre have written great reviews on that one. I just want the British cover! It's so much better than the US one.

And I think I'll finally finish A Clash of Kings today! Yay! And then it's on to First Snow on Fuji which will fulfill my 3 books for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge :) I'm still going to try to read Mishima's Confessions of a Mask though before the end of the month!

Winner Time!

This is going to be an awfully short post, because life has been boring and I really don't have much to say...but I do have 2 winners for the book giveaways!

The Time Traveler's wife goes to Ikkinlala!

and

Wind Follower goes to CJ!

You can send me your email addresses at chrisa511(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll get them out to you ASAP. Hope everyone's having a good day and congrats to the winners!!!

TV & Movie Day And Megan's New Art Blog

Today was very much a lazy Sunday. Well not entirely lazy...I did manage to go walking 2 miles again! But aside from that, I sat in front of the TV and watched one Manning lose and another win! I'm talking about football for those that don't follow. The Mannings are very special to us in New Orleans as they grew up down here and went to high school down here. In fact they went to high school right across the street from the coffee shop that I used to work at where I met Megan. So it was very sad to see Peyton Manning get knocked out of the playoffs today, but it put a huge smile on my face to see Eli win! I'm hoping that he goes all the way and takes home a Super Bowl ring this year! Sure, I would've liked to see the Patriots finish undefeated, but I'm all about the Giants now :p Of course, the Giants have one more game to go before they get there.

After that was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!! Anyone else see it? I've been looking forward to this show for so long and I was not disappointed. I'm not a huge Terminator fan. I like the movies well enough, but I'm not a die hard. But the first episode of the show was great. What had me most excited about the show is that Summer Glau (River from Firefly) is in it and she's absolutely fantastic! Kyle from Roswell's in it too! It was action packed from beginning to end and we get another hour tomorrow night. This looks like one that I can get into. The acting was good, the special effects were good, and the plot looks to be good. I just hope that the story remains good and that they take it in the right direction.

A few weeks ago, Neil Gaiman wrote about seeing Guillermo del Toro's new movie, The Orphanage and wrote that it was one of the best ghost stories he had seen in years. I had no idea when it came out and just assumed that whenever it did come out, I would have to wait until it came to DVD as nothing foreign or independent ever gets released here. Well I hopped over to Carl's blog today and he had an excellent review of the movie up! I got so excited that it was out thinking that I wouldn't have to wait long for it to come out on DVD. I decided to check to see if by any chance it was showing here and it was! So I went and saw it tonight and it was just amazing. Del Toro is one of the best directors out there right now. He creates some of the most beautiful and haunting films that just etch into the mind instantly. And I love the storytelling aspects of his movie. Every movie is a story, but del Toro tells stories within stories. This movie was so touching and endearing, yet thrilling and chilling. And it was just filmed perfectly. The acting was amazing and I'm ready to see it all over again. Don't be surprised if you see this one up for best foreign film. In fact, I'd be willing to bet it's an easy contender.

And finally, I wanted to let everyone know that Megan's started a new blog for her art projects and if you're a fan of art you may want to check it out. I've had the pleasure of admiring her stuff for years and I think it's great that she's sharing it with others now. I think she's mostly putting up her collages and painting stuff for now, but hopefully when drawings and art stuff for the book starts happening, that stuff goes up too!

Driving Around With The Dream King

I got all excited today about going to use the library for the first time today in 2008! After my last post, I had a few suggestions that I read something shorter to break the monotony of this chunkster that I'm in the middle of. Then I read this wonderful review of The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain that Becky wrote, so I was going to go get it at my library. Then I started thinking of other stuff I wanted to check out ;) Oh yes...this could just as much of a hindrance to my TBR shelf as the bookstore, but at least I'm not adding permanently to the TBR shelf. I was also going to check out Alice in Sunderland since I've been dying to read it since Nymeth's review and I've been wanting to listen to Neil Gaiman's American Gods on Audiobook for ages, so I was going to get that too! Well needless to say, I'm so disappointed with our library system here. We have 12 libraries in our parish...yes 12 libraries that I can use my card at!! Not a single one of them carries any of those three items...not even the Mark Twain book! I searched the online catalog and I called. No luck. It makes me so mad!

Well after that, I had a craving for American Gods on audiobook and I just happen to have a brand new shiny iPod that I treated myself to last weekend ;) So I went to iTunes, and of course they don't carry it. But I did find the author's preffered, complete unabridged text of Neverwhere read by Neil Gaiman and bought it! It's an audio book, so it's fair game. It's not taking up shelf room and I listen to it while I drive or walk, so it's not cutting into other reading time :p I am in love with this thing so far and I'm only 2 chapters in! I've always loved Neverwhere. It's my favorite of Gaiman's after American Gods. I've never really been sold on audio books before, but now I see how they can work. To hear an author read their own work is truly an amazing experience. I didn't want to get out of my car. It's wonderful to hear the story exactly as Gaiman intended it, exactly as he saw the scenes and created the characters. And I could just listen to Gaiman's voice for hours....as I will be because it's nearly 13 hours long. Seriously, this man has a voice that is meant for reading things aloud and you can hear his passion for his work in his voice. It makes me appreciate his work that much more. Carl has been plugging this one for quite some time and I don't know why it took me so long to buy it, but I'm so glad I did. I add my recommendation. Neverwhere is an incredibly unique, dark, eerie, quirky story and the audiobook adds a whole new dimension to it...and it's great to revisit the story again.

Making Good On Resolutions

I walked today. Resolution #1...well, it doesn't have to be #1, but it's one of them, is to lose weight! I was going to go to the gym, but I wanted some scenery, so I went to the park instead and walked along the trail. Now my shins are killing me after walking just 2 miles...pathetic :p I totally got my ass kicked by a woman pushing a stroller in front of me. She just took off. But it was a pretty day and I really enjoyed my walk and I'm going to make a habit out of it. I'll save my gym membership for rainy days and when I'm feeling motivated enough to do some weight lifting.

Resolution #2: I went to a book store today and didn't buy a book for myself! This is the third time this year that I did this! I bought The Time Traveler's Wife for the book giveaway since I had Border's Bucks, but nothing for myself. It was really quite comical. I was in the bookstore for literally under a minute so as not to tempt myself. Walked in the doors, straight to the "N's for Niffenegger" and straight to the checkout and out the door. Didn't look at anything else. By the way, you still have until January 15th to enter the giveaway's for Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower. Just comment on This Post and let me know you want in.

Resolution #3: Find a job that will make me happy. I applied for a couple of jobs in Austin today that I'm really excited about. They're not the greatest paying jobs in the world, but they're comparable but to what I was making before and benefits are paid in full by the company which makes a big difference. If I have to get a second job to make things work, I will...hmm, maybe a book store on the weekend ;) I had this plan that popped in my head to apply for grad school for my PhD in Austin at UT, and I got all excited about that only to find out that the deadline for applications was January 1st. But I'm not letting it get me down too much. I'm just going to start getting my application together for next year. Not that my chances are that great of getting in, but I have to at least try. It would be amazing.

As far as reading goes, I feel like an utter failure so far this year. I made a horrible mistake by starting with A Clash of Kings, the second book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It's not that it's a bad book, I'm enjoying it...it's just that it's so frickin long and a slow read! It's the 11th and I'm still only 350 pages into my first book of the year...400 pages left to go still! There's so many words on each page...it's one of those :/ But January always seems to be a slow month for me. Last January, I only read one book...Lisey's Story by Stephen King. So if that happens again, it won't be a total failure. But I need to at least fit in one more book for Bellezza's Japanese Challenge because I'm determined to finish that one!

For the rest of the night, I'm watching Masterpiece Theatre's version of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca. Wasn't crazy about it at first, but I'm about half way through it now and I'm enjoying it now. It's pretty faithful to the book, though there are things that were left out. At least no liberties have been taken yet. Though I would've liked to hear those famous first lines spoken at the beginning...

A Post Of Things...

I was keeping this one under wraps for a few days because I didn't know if it was really going to happen, but it looks like it will now. You've heard me rave about Brandon Mull's Fablehaven books on my site before. If you haven't read them yet, I can't recommend enough that you go out and pick up copies of his first two books in the series. They're written for children/young adults, but can certainly be enjoyed by readers of all ages. They're a couple of my favorite young adult books to be written in a long time. It's fantasy/fairy folk/mythical creature story telling adventure delight all told with a complete air of pure fun. Well about a month ago, I got an email from Brandon Mull's publisher asking me if I would be interested in reviewing the third book which is due out on April 8th. It's called Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague. Now it looks like not only am I going to get to review it, but I'm getting an interview with Brandon Mull! Needless to say, I'm thrilled. So I'm letting everyone know in case you have any questions you'd like to ask. The interview is going to focus mostly on the third book in the series, but if you have any questions for him (I already have a couple from Deslily) I'll be more than happy to try to fit them in and see if I can get some answers ;)

I'm also back to trying to do a little bit of editing on my own book, A Sunset in Nowhere, that I wrote for NaNoWriMo and I'm really excited about it now! Why, you might ask? It's become a collaboration with Megan! I want to do a Stardust type of thing with it...the Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess version of Stardust that is. Megan is an amazing artist and she's done a comic in the past with a friend of ours as well as quite a few of her own creation. It's one of the many things that first attracted me to her. So she has my book now (in it's god-awful first draft) and she's going to start drawing some scenes that will be interlaced throughout the book. I can't wait to actually see some of my characters!! I have a few examples here of some of the pieces that she's given me, but none of her characters. I wish I had them to show you! The first two are a series of "hand drawings" that she's done for me...the first for our 1 year anniversary and the second for another anniversary. The third is a little Buddha that she drew me for Christmas this year. My photos don't do any of these justice.

And finally, I had to go download "Oh, you pretty thing" by David Bowie today and put it on my iPod because I couldn't stop singing it after I got my copy of Coraline in the mail from Subterranean Press! It's by far the most beautiful edition I've ever bought from Subterranean. I'm just blown away by it. The new McKean art is gorgeous, the Irish puppet production photos are incredible and it's signed by Gaiman and McKean :D And I got a really early copy...number 174 of 1000. There are still some copies left for sale on the website...go get it!!!

Geaux Tigers! And Sweet Bloggers...

It's official!!! LSU won the BCS Championship game tonight and the city is going nuts! I'm so happy for LSU, my dear alma mater. It couldn't have happened to a better group of guys and a better group of fans. Tiger stadium is like nothing you'll find anywhere else...the fans and the players are just electric and you can just feel the energy driving around Baton Rouge and it's all been transported down here to New Orleans this week! I went to school on LSU's campus in New Orleans for my Master's and after Katrina, we were transported to the Baton Rouge campus and during football season it was just incredible. I'm so proud of the team for winning tonight! Bourbon Street will be nuts tonight! We went down to the quarter for lunch yesterday and ended up turning around because we spent an hour just trying to find parking...and we were on the outskirts of the quarter which usually isn't too bad parking wise. Needless to say, I won't be braving it down there tonight :p

As for sweet bloggers, I got a package in the mail today and a card in the mail from two different bloggers! Both unexpected! The first was from Deslily. She sent me her copy of The Dragon Quintet which she just read not too long ago with a very sweet note. It has a short story by Orson Scott Card in it and she knew I'd enjoy it. Thank you so much, Pat :) You're taking care of me, I see, since I made a resolution not to buy books! (more on that in a second) The second thing was a card from Bookfool and inside were three beautiful homemade bookmarks with her photos which I love so much!! And one of them is a poppet pic :) Thanks Bookfool! They're already being put to use. You people are just too nice!!

So an update to the no buying books resolution. NO, I haven't bought any books! But I've decided that it's a totally unreasonable resolution. So here's a more reasonable one. There are books that I had already planned on buying. For instance...if a new book by Orson Scott Card or Neil Gaiman comes out, or a new book in a series I'm reading, I'll make an exception...but no more impulse buying and just shopping the shelves. I'm thinking maybe like 10 books for the whole year. Aside from that, I like Carl's idea of using the library more, and I'm going to do that. For challenge books that I don't have, I'm going to get them from the library! Sounds good. Proud of me Darla??? ;)

And another reminder that if you haven't signed up for the book giveaways for The Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower, go to The Catch Up Post and sign up!

Yep...2 More Challenges

First a reminder...don't forget to sign up on my previous post, "The Catch Up Post...", to be entered for the drawings for The Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower. You have until January 15th. Sticky posts always bug me, so I'll just keep reminding people until then :p

So I figured that I can sign up for these 2 more challenges and I won't have to buy any more books which fit with my New Years resolution of reading from the shelves. These were just too cool and I couldn't pass them up!

The first is Foxy Writer's Mythopoeic Challenge which runs from January 1st through December 31st. Here are my picks:

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
2. The Wood Wife by Terri Windling
3. Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
4. Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
5. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
6. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
7. The Stolen Child by Keith Donahue

The second challenge is Joy's A to Z challenge which is just too much fun to pass up :p It's basically a fill in the blanks challenge. You have to read a book whose title starts with each letter of the alphabet and an author whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet...52 books total. So you can just plug in books as you go! I love this one.

The Catch Up Post...

I'm back! I had a great time in Texas as you might have imagined and the visit seemed entirely too short, but it always does. A week just doesn't cut it. But we made the best of our time and did lots of fun stuff. What little weight I had managed to lose, I'm sure I put back on as we seemed to eat out a lot, but that's one of our favorite things to do :p We saw Sweeney Todd...twice!...and bought the soundtrack! Go see it now! I have to agree with Neil Gaiman in saying that it may just be my favorite Tim Burton film now. It was just amazing. And who knew Johnny Depp could sing so well? My favorite part of the movie was the super preppy girl sitting behind us announcing after the closing scene "I'm never watching that again!" :p Aside from that the trip consisted of just spending time together, going out and doing things we enjoy doing together...just being together. It was perfect.

There's lots of decisions to be made in the future. The job scene is bleak in New Orleans...very bleak, and Megan has lots of friends now and a good job in Texas. I have a few leads for jobs in Austin which is a beautiful city and an hour away from Megan as opposed to 7 hours away...so we'll see where all this leads. Things just need to change from the way they are.

So our New Year was spent together again as we've always made that work since Katrina. And I wanted to thank all of you for the wonderful New Year wishes that you sent back to me. Sorry I didn't respond back to everyone like I normally do :/ I fell behind on comments from being away and then it just got overwhelming. But I read each and every one of them and it made me smile to think of how many great people I've met in just a year.

And yes...it's been a year!! January 3rd was actually my 1 year Blogiversary :) It's been a great year of blogging and I've made some great friends, read some great books, and have really just made some great opportunities too. After Rhinoa's mention of Buy a Friend a Book Week and her giveaway, and Eva's giveaway for her Blogiversary, I thought I'd do my own! So leave me a comment by lets say January 15th letting me know that you want in on the drawing and you can be entered for the books. I'll do two: one for Buy a friend a book week and one for my blogiversary. You can be entered for both or just one or the other if only one interests you...just let me know so that I know which ones to sign you up for.

The Buy A Friend a Book Week Book is Carole McDonnell's Wind Follower. It's a great book that I just reviewed it a few weeks ago. I've gotten to know her over the past couple of months and she's a wonderful person as well as a great author. I'm giving this book away because I think everyone should read it ;)

The Blogiversary book is The Time Traveler's Wife. It was my number 1 pick from last year and my review is here. Since it was my top read, I figured it would be the most appropriate to give away for the blogiversary.

So have your pic at those two :)

And finally, I've been nominated for an award!! I don't think I've ever been nominated for anything, to be honest, but Carole McDonnell, author of the above mentioned Wind Follower, nominated me for Best Review Site on the Preditors and Editors Poll! How cool is that?? You can vote by going to this page. Voting closes on January 14th or 15th depending on what page you look at. There are a few other cool review sites that I like too, but they only let you vote once which sucks. There are some other awesome categories too. I nominated Carole's book under Science Fiction/Fantasy novels, so please go vote for her! I'd love to see her book win.

That's all for now folks. Back to reading A Clash of Kings now which is good so far, but a little slow to start. Of course I'm only 100 pages in to this massive thing though. What's with everyone reading chunksters right now? Good to be back!