Okay people....tell me what to do. So I borrowed The Mortal Instruments Series from my sister. I burned through City of Bones in like a day (Yeah....I know I'm late to the party....by like a lot, I know its unforgivable for a book blogger but get over it and keep reading!). I burned through the first half of City of Ashes in about another day. Then I stopped. It just got too creepy. I'm at a point where I want a spoiler. Jace and Clary's relationship is so icky to me it is ruining the books. Please tell me in the comments if I should keep reading or bail.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
If Jace and Clary are really brother and sister, I seriously don't want to read anymore, its just too gross. So hit the comments and tell me if I should keep going. My muscles are super sores from cringing through the reading.....please spoil it for me!!!
***IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE SERIES, THE COMMENTS ARE GOING TO BE FULL OF SPOILERS.....YE BE WARNED!***
If you are out of the loop on NaNoWriMo, don't feel bad, most of the world is. When I first read it, it sounded like Robot-ese. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's a month where writers just go nuts and write write write with the goal to get a novel written in one month. Trust me, as someone whose had writer's block on their own novel for a few years, writing a book in a month is a hefty feat indeed.
A lot of great stuff has come out of NaNoWriMo including the best sellers Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
So, if you are participating, are you stuck? It's the middle of the month and you may be losing some steam, especially in anticipation of the Holidays quickly approaching. A few weeks ago I ran across this article from GalleyCat, but I was saving it for mid month, so that y'all could get reinspired if you were losing steam. This article houses Two Years Worth of Tips in one article. You've got name genrators, title testers, pandora station ideas, you name it. So if you are stuck, or just bored, check it out!
Y'all know how I like to keep things fun and light around here on The Book Buff, but I'm about to change pace for a moment and get all deep and sentimental up in this piece.
^^^^actual depiction of what I looked like writing this post^^^^
I remember as a kid I preferred my book friends to real friends. It's true, and I know it's true for many of you. Your book friends were there whenever you needed them and didn't care if you were an awkward preteen suffering through the agony that is puberty. You didn't ever have to think of anything clever to say to impress them, and it didn't matter if your face had broken out terribly that day. You could still be a co adventurer, a co conspirator or co whatever was happening in the story. I know this may sound dumb to some people, but not to the people who get it, and those are the people I'm talking to. I remember growing up and not understanding why I didn't quite fit in. I wasn't a horrible outsider, but I wasn't an insider either, and that weird in between-ness was a terrible place to be. I could always find solace in my books, the books themselves were my friends and the characters were my soul mates. I think this connection early on in my life is why characters are so important to me now when I review a book.
We all had characters that we connected with more than others. These are our bookish besties. Here are the ones I've had throughout my life....
First off are the girls in the series that introduced me to my life long love of history, The American Girls Collection. These books really taught 6 year old me that people in the history books really were people with hopes, dreams and feelings. I remember crying my eyes out while reading a book about Addy, one of their featured girls, who was a slave. There was a scene where she had to eat slugs she missed while tending to the tobacco, and a scene where her brother was sold off to another plantation, these scenes taught me so much about compassion. The books weren't perfect, but they taught me so much. I felt like these girls were my own little historical clique. Yes, I was a nerd from the very beginning. So here were my bookish besties from my early childhood:
Kirsten Larson
Molly McIntyre
Felicity Merriman
Samantha Parkington
Addy Walker
Next up in my list of literary BFFs was the lovely little Lucy Pevensie from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Next came Hermione Granger (you know I had to fit a HP reference in here somewhere) This girl had frizzy hair and was too smart for her own good sometimes, which described me to a tee at that age.
Next on the list is the always popular, Elizabeth Bennett. Who doesn't love miss sassy pants Lizzie?
I HATE HATE HATE books whose titles start with "Confessions of a .....". This hatred is totally random and mostly unfounded, but I can't help it, I hate these titles! I feel like it makes the book or movie sound so generic because I really think the whole thing is overdone. I must be the only person who feels this way though, because one of James Patterson's September releases is called....
I just googled "Confessions of a" and got the following:
Confessions of an Economic Hit man
Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber
Confessions of a CPA: Why What I Was Taught to be True Has Turned Out Not to Be (a terrible title for a number of reasons, aside from the confessions aspect)
Confessions of a Working Girl: A True Story
Confessions of a Surgeon: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated...Life Behind the O.R. Door
Confessions of a Las Vegas Motorcop
Confessions of a Scoundrel
Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge fund Manager
There were about a billion more titles just like that out there, which is why these titles feel way overused and cliche to me. That being said, there are a lot of books and movies with this sort of title that I do like, but their unfortunate titles do make me cringe!
So how about you?
What do you think about "Confessions of_____" titles, are they cliche?
Lame?
Interesting?
Don't care either way?
What's your literary pet peeve? We all have 'em, so spill!!! Hit the comments to rant!
This week for Follow Friday the question raised by Miss Parajunkee is.......
What is the BIGGEST word you’ve seen used in a book lately – that
made you stop and look it up? Might as well leave the definition &
book too.
This is going to sound so dumb, but I can't remember the last time I looked something up! If its a contemporary book, I never need to look words up. Gosh that sounds so uppity *cringe* The reason is when I was young.....I was so weird....I used to straight up read the dictionary, I seriously started reading it in 2nd grade and read it several times a year until high school. It used to be my bathroom reading of choice. I know that is a bit of an over share but....too bad. We aren't squeamish about such things over here on The Book Buff. Anyway, I do like to read a lot of Historical Fiction, so I do have to look up some random stuff here and there. How about you? What word was your most recent vocab Kryptonite?
Well people....its almost here. The moment we've all been waiting for!
No, not the apocalypse....
The release of J.K. Rowling's new book! A Casual Vacancy makes it's appearance this Thursday! Yes yes I'm a Harry Potter fanatic and this is not going to be a Harry Potter book, I know :( ....sigh...
But I'm still excited! I'm working very hard to maintain my expectations, I know it won't have the same, pardon the pun, "magic" as Harry and the gang, but good ol' Jo is a dang fine writer, so I'm expecting it to be a dang fine book. The plot doesn't exactly catch my eye, but if her characters are half as engaging in The Casual Vacancy as HP, I'll be a happy girl. We'll see!
Unfortunately I'm not going to get to read it right away because the list price is just a touch above my budget. I'm a stay at home mom of two kids in married student housing of a major University up to my eyeballs in medical debt from kid #1 and student loans from husband, so yeah.... I'm too broke to shell out the 35 bucks :) But I've got a library card and I ain't afraid to use it people!
So what are your thoughts?
Are you looking forward to the book?
Do you care at all?
Is it a tad too pricy to you or are you too excited to care?
Well Book Buffs, it's getting to be one of my favorite times of the year..... Halloween! I love creepy stuff (not too creepy, I suffer from night terrors) and to celebrate this fun time, I'm going to be highlighting a few of the spookiest books I've ever read leading up to the big day.
Up first is one of the creepiest books I've ever read.....
...............drum roll please....................
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Wait...Whaaaah? Yup. I said it. A Christmas Carol is straight up creepy. First of all, there are the ghosts. Here are some of the representations of the ghosts over the years...
See. Creepy. I told you so.
Here is The Book Buff's synopsis of the plot. Rich man takes cheap to a whole other level, let's his miserly ways ruin his life, having complete disregard for his family, his employees and their very sick children. Man gets a nighttime visit on Christmas Eve from his long dead business partner. Partner tells him in a super creepy way that he'll be doomed for eternity if he doesn't change his ways and that he'll be visited by 3 spirits to b-slap him into learning the error of his ways (I don't Dickens used that term, but I'm just going to go with it) So the first ghost to visit him is the Ghost of Christmas past, a he/she candle looking ghost described thus:
"being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty
legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of
which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom
wherein they melted away."
Right. So. This weirdo ghosty thingy shows him past Christmases that were happy, as well as the Christmas Eve where he was (rightfully) dumped by his rockin' fiancee he was totally in love with.
Moving on, the Ghost of Christmas Present, who seemed to be a borderline functioning alcoholic, and is described to be a "jolly giant" which, naturally, to my 11 year old brain the first time I read this story looked like this in my head...
Jolly Green Giant, or JGG as all the cool kids are referring to him, shows Scrooge what's happening in the present. He shows Scrooge the depressing little Christmas scene unfolding at Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit's, house. He sees Cratchit's infirm child, Tiny Tim, who is deathly ill because his father cannot afford treatment on his awful salary. The spirit tells Scrooge that if he remains untreated, he will die. Scrooge's heart begins to crack. *Sniffle sniffle*
Enter Spirit the Third. More like Spirit the Creepy. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is the dude who really pushes this story over into my creepy list.
"The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him,
Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this
Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in
a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and
left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. ... It thrilled
him [Scrooge] with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the
dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he,
though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a
spectral hand and one great heap of black."
Here is a clip of one of the things Scrooge was shown by this ghost from my favorite version of A Christmas Carol (Scrooge, Albert Finney, 1970)...
You know you're a bad dude when a whole town dances on your coffin, jeez...The ghost also shows him that Tiny Tim kicks the bucket in a most decidedly depressing manner. He also sees himself going down to the big bad place that starts with an H and ends with an E DOUBLE HICKEY STICKS.
After these harrowing encounters, Scrooge awakens a new man and changes his miserly ways, leading to the reprise of Thank You Very Much (and my favorite musical number in the whole movie). The town dances off into the distance and all is well, but not before Tiny Tim proclaims, "God Bless Us, Every One". The End.
Sorry guys, I grew up doing musical theater and I am a sucker for big musical numbers. Got an empty street? Well fill it up with people dancing and singing and waving I always say :)
So that's that. I'm not the biggest fan of Mr. Dickens, but this is one I really love. Honestly, I think it is jolly enough for Christmas and creepy enough for Halloween. What do you think?
What do you think of A Christmas Carol?
What is your favorite creepy book?
What creepy book do you think I should feature on my blog?
Sound off in the comments!
Stay tuned for more spooky stories in the weeks to come!
Photo used under Creative Commons fromKevin Dooley
Yeah. So. On April 1st of this year, I did a little April Fool's joke on all of you. You can see the post here. The joke was that they were announcing a 4th Hunger Games book and as far as I've heard, they aren't. Well. Let me tell you, as if everyone in the whole universe didn't already know, there are some cuh-raaaazy people out there cruising the interwebz. Okay, I expected to bug some people with my April Fool's joke but man, some of the comments I've received are certifiably insane. I received 2 death threats (not real sounding ones of course, just impotent internet addicts raging the only way they can) numerous curse outs and an uncountable amount of "I hate you"s. Seriously. All because I made a joke. I haven't posted any of these comments, so if you've already raced over to the post to read these crazy comments and come back, you've realized they aren't there. You won't see them because I don't allow language on my blog. Anyway, if any of you crazies are reading this post IT WAS A JOKE! CHILL OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have any of you other bloggers out there ever had a disproportionate amount of backlash on something you posted? Do tell, I am very interested to hear any war stories out there!
I looooooved Safe Haven (see why here), and I was overjoyed when I saw that it would be turned into a movie. I cried at the end of this book and I don't cry at anything! Not even The Notebook and everyone cried at that, even my hubby! (Shhhhhh! That's a secret) Anyway, I just found out that there is a big star in talks to star as Katie. Nothing against Miley Cyrus, but I'm glad they are looking at more experienced actors. So who is this big star you ask? A very polarizing actress indeed....
...Keira Knightley
Now, I happen to think she would look about a zillion times better if she ate a cheeseburger or two but I feel like her frame would actually be perfect for our sweet damaged Katie. If you are a romance fan and you haven't read this book yet, you need to!
What do you think of this casting rumor? Perfection? Travesty? Can this adaptation live up to The Notebook? Hit the comments!
I'm gearing up to read the series, I've been interested for a while but just haven't gotten to it yet. But for those of you out there that are already big fans, the newest in the series, Infamous, is out today! Here are some fun little goodies for you to peruse until you can get over to the bookstore to get your copy...
About "Infamous":
"The
world has fallen in love with Nick Gautier and the Dark-Hunters. Now
Nick's saga continues in the next eagerly anticipated volume...
Go
to school. Get good grades. Stay out of trouble. That's the mandate for
most kids. But Nick Gautier isn't the average teenager. He's a boy with
a destiny not even he fully understands. And his first mandate is to
stay alive while everyone, even his own father, tries to kill him.
He's
learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and
clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive such a difficulty? But that
isn't the primary skill he has to master. Survival is.
And
in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in
comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero
mankind has ever known.
Details: international, the prize is an ARC, ends 3/12, opportunities for extra entries, post also includes preview chapters
This Giveaway Hop is being hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Bookworm Lisa and features giveaways of books having anything to do with the moon. There is a wide variety going on here, some space travel, some paranormal, some YA, you name it. Anyway, here is a list of some of the blogs I ran across that are featuring the Lunar Love Giveaway Hop:
Hey everyone, just a quick little note to let all of you know that I'm coming out of my hiatus! After having my new little Book Buff and moving to another state, I'm ready to jump back into blogging. I've missed everyone, I can't wait to get back into the conversation! I'm working on getting my posts together, so in about a week or so I'll be back online, until then-happy reading!
