October Accomplishments

2:29 PM Nikki

These are a few of my favorite 'first' lines read in October 2010.Some things start before other things. In the beginning there were nine of us. We left when we were young, almost too young to remember. Almost. It was a pleasure to burn.  I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one. Or at least as close as we're going to get.Ask Paris if a phone call can be deadly. She'll tell you. She learned the truth of it last night.  October's Top Five Ten:They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group. Susan Campbell Bartoletti.The Wee Free Men. Terry Pratchett.Wintersmith....


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Frankenstein's Monster

1:25 PM Nikki

Frankenstein's Monster. Susan Heyboer O'Keefe. 2010. October 2010. Crown Publishing. 352 pages.  I killed my father again last night.I'm not sure I can say I loved this one. At least not love, love, love. But. I really liked this one. There were places that I just LOVED it--and other places where I began to have doubts. Frankenstein's Monster is a sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. For the most part, it is set ten years after the original novel.Time has not treated Robert Walton well. For his brief friendship with Victor Frankenstein has led to madness. After Walton speaks with the monster--the creature--he has no choice (or he claims...


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Sunday Salon: Reading, Read, To Read #44

12:29 PM Nikki

Happy Sunday! October has been a great month for me! I've read so many amazing books. Discovered--and rediscovered--some great authors. My 'monthly accomplishment' post will be up later today. But. You'll probably notice that some authors are dominating! Do you go through periods like that--where you want to read everything an author's ever written? I've also read more graphic novels and short stories. What I've Reviewed:Frankenstein's Monster. Susan Heyboer O'Keefe. 2010. October 2010. Crown Publishing. 352 pages. Behemoth. Scott Westerfeld. 2010. October 2010. Simon & Schuster. 485 pages. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Terry...


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R.I.P Challenge Completed

12:29 PM Nikki

What I've read for the challenge:1. Paul is Undead. Alan Goldsher.2. Moonstone by Wilkie Collins3. Bleak House by Charles Dickens4. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley5. The Maze Runner. James Dashner. 6. Jane Eyre, the Graphic Novel;7. Frankenstein, the Graphic Novel8. Jane Slayre by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin.9. I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore10. A Pleasure to Burn by Ray Bradbury (review coming Tuesday)11. Frankenstein's Monster. Susan Heyboer O'Keefe. Short Stories: Ray Bradbury, Part One; Ray Bradbury, Part Two; Part Three;  © Becky Laney of Becky's Book Revi...


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Weekly Geeks: Books You Waited Too Long to Read

8:51 AM Nikki

This week's weekly geeks asks us to share books we wish we'd read sooner.  Once in a while I read a book I have had for years and I think “How the hell did I miss this one?  Why did I not read this one before?Is there a book that has hang around your reading pile for far too long before you got to it, A book that probably got packed away until you accidentally got to it or a book that you read a few pages in and never got back to.If so share or ask your readers about that book that really made an impression on them (good or bad) after having it or hearing about it for far too long?Connie Willis' Doomsday Book. As much...


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Book Review: Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires by Molly Roe

8:36 AM mixagrip

Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires by Molly RoePublisher: Tribute BooksPublication date: November 2008ISBN: 9780981461953 Source: Review copy provided by publisher Katie is growing up in the coal districts of Philadelphia, right at the beginning of the Civil War.  Her family, and most of her friends' families, depend almost exclusively on the coal mine owners for their entire sustenance, including where they live.  When her father suffers an accident that renders him unable to work, it falls to her and her mother to help pay the bills.  But, when Katie takes a job working for a rich mine owner, she finds herself getting...


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Doomsday Book

7:27 AM Nikki

Doomsday Book. Connie Willis. 1992. Random House. 592 pages. Mr. Dunworthy opened the door to the laboratory and his spectacles promptly steamed up."Am I too late?" he said, yanking them off and squinting at Mary.I loved Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. I just LOVED it. But I think I loved Doomsday Book a little bit more. It was incredibly compelling. It was intense, emotional, and impossible to put down.The writing was as great as I expected. Willis does a wonderful job with her characters. They feel very real--very human. The setting--the world building--is also amazing. She does a great job building the past--the fourteenth century--and...


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Library Loot: Sixth Trip in October

6:18 PM Nikki

New Loot:Impossible Things by Connie WillisThe Heat of the Day by Elizabeth BowenA World of Love by Elizabeth BowenThe Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian MortimerBellfield Hall by Anna DeanThe Postmistress by Sarah BlakeNaomi and Her Daughters by Walter Wangerin, Jr.Frankenstein's Monster by Susan Heyboer O'KeefeDark Water by Laura McNealMiss Hargreaves by Frank BakerThe Illustrated Man by Ray BradburyThe Martian Chronicles by Ray BradburyThe October Country by Ray Bradbury Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa VolokhonEast of Eden by John SteinbeckThe Spoils of Eden by Linda Lee ChaikinLeftover...


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The Memory Bank (MG)

7:10 AM Nikki

The Memory Bank. Carolyn Coman. Illustrations by Rob Shepperson. 2010. October 2010. Scholastic. 288 pages."Don't forget your whistle!" Hope reminded Honey--every morning of every day. Honey needed that whistle, in case of emergency, in case things went terribly wrong. Hope and Honey Scroggins were the closest of sisters, had been right from the start. Truly, they were lucky to love each other so! Not so lucky when it came to their parents, though. Mr. and Mrs. Scroggins were simply awful people.The Memory Bank is told through words and pictures. (Though not to the extent that The Invention of Hugo Cabret is.) It reminded me--in a way--of several...


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Rot & Ruin

7:00 AM Nikki

A not-so-funny thing happened. We confused the release of this novel with that of another. We feel pretty awful, because Jonathan Maberry is one of our favorite authors. So, we offer our sincere apologies to one of the greats in the Horror genre. With that said, we feel we should mention how completely awesome ROT & RUIN is. It is...uh...completely awesome!ROT & RUIN is an expansion of the short story "The Family Business" that was found in the anthology THE NEW DEAD. It ranks as one of our absolute favorite anthologies of the year, and we said so in the review we wrote. In that anthology, Maberry's YA zombie story was one of our...


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Slumping NOT Over

1:57 PM mixagrip

It's official.  I'm in a rut.  I've been trying to plow through lots of books recently, both library and review copies and I'm just plain tired.  I'm feeling sad that I feel like I have to "plow" through books at all.  I need some kind of literary pick-me-up.  Something that reminds me of just how much I love reading.  I'm open to your suggestions, cause I've got nothing.Not only is it a reading slump, I'm feeling very unmotivated to blog as well.  You may have noticed a proliferation of book reviews and not a lot of anything else.*  That is a symptom of my slumpage.  I've just been taking my huge back log of reviews (from July - yes, I'm almost four months behind on my reviews) and posting them once a day.  It's almost as tiresome for me as...


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Lockdown (YA)

6:57 AM Nikki

Lockdown. Walter Dean Myers. 2010. HarperCollins. 247 pages. "I hope you mess this up! I hope you blow it big-time! You're supposed to be smart. You think you're smart, right?"Reese, just fourteen, is serving time at Progress--a juvenile detention center. Because he's shown promise in the twenty-two months he's been there, he's chosen for a new work program. He'll be working ten days a month at Evergreen, an assisted living center for senior citizens. He's hoping that his good behavior and his new and improved attitude, will help him get released sooner.But. Nothing is ever that easy. Life at Progress isn't easy. No matter how much he tries to...


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Book Review: The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

1:24 PM mixagrip

The Cardturner by Louis SacharPublisher: Delacorte Books for Young ReadersPublication date: May 2010ISBN: 9780385736626 Source: Library  Alton Richards was not intending to spend his summer turning cards for his old, rich, blind uncle.  But, when the opportunity arises, his mother can't wait to volunteer him.  Despite knowing nothing about bridge, Alton is willing to earn a little money driving him to his bridge club and telling him what cards he has.  Little does he expect to become fascinated with the game and with his Uncle Lester's interesting past.  Things I Liked: There is definitely nothing I've ever...


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The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (MG/YA)

7:33 AM Nikki

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Terry Pratchett. 2001. HarperCollins. 242 pages.Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats, and--But there was more to it than that. As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats. And the difficult part of it was deciding who the people were, and who were the rats.But Malicia Grim said it was a story about stories.It began--part of it began--on the mail coach that came over the mountains from the distant cities of the plain.I loved The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. I just LOVED it. I loved the characters. Maurice, the cat, and many of the rats--including...


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The Ragged Man

7:00 AM Nikki

As you all are well aware, we reviewed the first three novels in Tom Lloyd's Twilight Reign series and basically said they were the best thing since sliced bread. So with the release of THE RAGGED MAN, the fourth book in the series, it really became a question of "What more can we say?"As it turns out, quite a bit. Those of you who recently read THE GRAVE THIEF are probably still picking your jaw off the ground after that COMPLETELY INSANE ending. Main characters dying, other characters becoming the Mortal-Aspects of Gods, Gods dying, and Styrax being completely awesome. It seems like after every novel in this series we say to ourselves "How...


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Book Review: It Started With a Dare by Lindsay Faith Rech

10:37 AM mixagrip

It Started with a Dare by Lindsay Faith RechPublisher: Houghton Mifflin (Graphia)Publication date: September 2010ISBN: 9780547235585 Source: e-book provided by NetGalley When CG Silverman moves to a new town and a new school, she's determined to be a new person.  When she manages to worm her way into the good graces of the most popular cliche at the school, she must maintain her new persona of rebel and dare devil.  But, she finds lying about her past, her present, and just about everything else is required to maintain all those intricate and complicated relationships she has.  Will she be able to keep all her secrets?Things...


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The Plain Janes (YA)

7:20 AM Nikki

The Plain Janes. Cecil Castellucci. Jim Rugg. Minx. 176 pages.  Metro City. Last spring. When it happened, I fell. There was a pop and then nothing. I didn't know what was happening. I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed The Plain Janes. I didn't expect to like it so much. I didn't expect it to be so compelling. I was surprised by the depth, the substance, of the characterization.Jane, our heroine, is just one of many Janes in her new school, new town. And at first, she finds her new world to be uninviting. But. After meeting the other Janes, she finds hope and makes a plan. A plan that will include bending a few rules. She'll...


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Name That Book, Episode 3

12:45 PM mixagrip

Name that Book is a biweekly game where you get to guess a book title from the photo clues.  Occasionally there will be prizes for the winner.Hopefully these ones will at least give you some pause before you can rattle off the answer.  Feel free to make your guesses in the comments, I don't have a prize this week. Book 1:Book 2:If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percent...


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Kitty Goes to War

7:00 AM Nikki

Carrie Vaughn's urban fantasy series about werewolf Kitty Norville who hosts a paranormal call-in radio show adds #8 to list with KITTY GOES TO WAR (there are two more slated to finish the series). Vaughn's series is the kind where you can read each book as a standalone, but they're that much more layered if you've read the others. The same applies to WAR, you can enjoy the story on its own.In KITTY GOES TO WAR, Kitty is contacted by a doctor at the government's center for paranatural biology to help with a problem. Three Green Beret soldiers have been brought back from Afghanistan after their unit went haywire. Unfortunately, they're werewolves...


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Behometh

6:02 AM Nikki

Behemoth. Scott Westerfeld. 2010. October 2010. Simon & Schuster. 485 pages.Alek raised his sword. "On guard, sir!"Deryn hefted her own weapon, studying Alek's pose.His feet were splayed at right angles, his left arm sticking out behind like the handle of a teacup. His fencing armor made him look like a walking quilt. Even with his sword pointed straight at her, he looked barking silly.Behemoth is the sequel to Leviathan. It's a science fiction action-packed historical novel that presents an alternate what-if to the Great War. Its alternative world is fascinating. A world divided into two camps: Clankers (those who love machines and technology)...


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Sunday Salon: Reading, Read, To Read #43

1:10 PM Nikki

Happy Sunday! I thought I would talk a little today about obsessions. Though I'm not sure obsessions is the right word. I'm talking about discoveries and journeys. But I'm also talking about needing wanting more, more, more of something. Like Greek Mythology. Like Terry Pratchett. Like Ray Bradbury. Like graphic novels. Which leads to me joining the Odyssey readalong hosted by Love, Laughter, and A Touch of Insanity. Since reading the graphic novel, I've been wanting more. I've checked out Robert Fagles' translation of Homer's Odyssey. And The Penelopiad. And The Lost Books of Odysseus. And Waiting for Odysseus. And King of Ithaka. What books/authors/series...


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