Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop 4.22.11

Follow Friday is a weekly hop hosted at Parajunkee’s View. Link up to find new books and bookish blogs.

This week’s question:  What is on your current playlist right now?

My answer: Here’s a few…

1. MGMT- Electric Feel
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Cold Night
3. Johnny Cash-Hurt
4. Pixies-Tame
5. Gogol Bordello-60 Revolutions

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted weekly at Crazy-For-Books.

This week’s question if from The Paperback Princesses (I love their blog):

If you find a book you love, do you hunt down others by the same author?

Yes. When I find a new favorite author, I have to find out what else they have written. Sometimes, I am surprised to discover that I am not reading a debut novel, but the first of that author’s novels that was released by a big publisher. A little research can unearth many hidden gems! 

Top Ten Tuesday (Rewind) 4.19.11

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week: Pick a past Top Ten Tuesday that we’ve done that you didn’t get a chance to participate in.

TTT# 3: Top Ten Most Hilarious Book Titles You Have Come Across

Note: I haven’t had the pleasure of reading most of these. I’ve discovered them while working in a public library.

1. Hold Me Closer, Necromancerby Lish MCBride. (Elton John is singing in my head.)
2. Killer Pancake by Diana Mott Davidson. (An aside: The next time you hear someone complain about video games being violent, remember that the emergence and popularity of the subgenres of recipe, cat and knitting murder mysteries are proof that sweet-looking older women also escape into worlds filled with blood and guts. Think Arsenic and Old Lace.)
3. Tall, Dark and Texan by Jodi Thomas. (Romance or Horror? Choose your own adventure.)
4. Crazy Aunt Purl’s Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30 Something who Learned to Knit After He Split by Laurie Perry
5. No Choice but Seduction by Johanna Lindsay. (I won’t begin to imagine the plot contrivances necessary to reach that point.)
6. Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs. (Say it aloud. Then picture Stallone delivering this line after the kill.)  
7. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith. (Sometimes a pastry is just that good!)
8. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers. (How modest!)   
9. Cooking with Pooh (As in Winnie the Pooh)
   
10. The Day My Butt Went Psycho: Based on a True Story by Andy Griffiths.

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop 4.15.11

 Follow Friday is a weekly hop hosted at Parajunkee’s View. Link up to find new books and book blogs!

This week’s question:  Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her.

I work in a public library, so I discuss books with my coworkers and patrons on a daily basis. My best friend Julia and my sister Heidi also love to read, so we are always talking about books, especially fantasy novels.

Julia is from St. Petersburg, Russia, so she has a different perspective based on the Russian literature she has read over the years. I love hearing her thoughts and comparisons. Julia’s tastes range from Juliet Marillier to Gogol to Victor Pelevin.

 Heidi is two years younger, and I remember reading Anne of Green Gables aloud to her back when we were girls. Heidi really loved Howl’s Moving Castle by the late Diana Wynne Jones and the Artemis Fowl series. I’m lucky that to have a best friend and sister who are also booklovers!

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted weekly at Crazy for Books. 

This week’s topic: Pick a character from a book you are currently reading or have just finished and tell us about him/her. 

I’m just started reading Matched by Ally Condie. Cassia’s grandfather is an interesting character. He has a bit of a morbid sense of humor, and I feel like he is hiding a secret. Although he is not outwardly rebellious, I sense that he does not conform to the utilitarian society that he lives in as much as he leads others to believe he does. I can’t wait to read what happens next!

Top Ten Tuesday 4.12.11

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Link up to find new reads and book blogs!

This week’s list:

TOP TEN BOOKS I’D LIKE TO SEE MADE INTO MOVIES

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It’s in the works. I hope I’m not disappointed.

2. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer. The question is: Who is awesome enough to play pirate/privateer Jacky Faber?

3. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. While I was reading this book, I felt like I was reading a movie script instead of a novel with all the action and dialogue. I think this steampunk zombie story would be a blockbuster. Zombies are hot right now. Right?

4. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. There were rumors that this film was being made, but it seems to have been abandoned.

5. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. Again, this trilogy seemed more like three scripts than novels. Hatter would have such an awesome costume! I’m sure some Lewis Caroll fans would be displeased, but I think this version would be an interesting variation to the classic story. IMDb lists it as “in development.”

6. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. This movie would be all about the special effects. Looks like there are plans for a movie version. I also think this book would make a great video game.

7. The Year of the Flood. Margaret Atwood’s novel would make a chilling post-apocalyptic movie.    I can see an actress like Natalie Portman playing Ren.

8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic is ridiculous, but hilarious. I’d go to the theaters to see it, and I’m a Jane Austen devotee.

9. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier.  This story is dark, magical and suspenseful. If the filmmakers did it justice, I’d watch the movie over and over again.

10. Behind Green Glass. Of course, I would love to see my own novel made into a film. I can dream!

 

Book Blogger Hop 4.1.11

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted weekly at Crazy-For-Books. Link up to find new reads and bookish friends!

This week’s question:

“Since today is April Fool’s Day in the USA, what is the best prank you have ever played on someone OR that someone has played on you?”

My answer:

Well, this morning my mother told me to expect a big nor’easter storm. After months and several feet of snow, I was about to fly into a rage against Mother Nature. Then Mom grinned and said, “April Fool’s Day!”

Teaser Tuesday 3.29.11

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To join the fun:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

“Do forgive me,” he said, eyes meeting mine as he brushed gloved fingers over my boot. “I’ve no reputation of my own, and I forget they matter.”

(pg. 80, The Vespertine by Sandra Mitchell)

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop 3.25.11

Follow Friday is a weekly hop hosted at Parajunkee’s View. Link up to find new reads and book blogs to follow!

This week’s topic: List five book related silly facts about you.

My list:

1. Some of my kitchen cupboards are filled with books instead of dishes.

2. If I don’t like the way a story ends, I’ll make up my own conclusion at night before I drift off to sleep. The Little Mermaid was living happily-ever-after in my mind long before Disney came out with their version.

3. Sometimes I read during load times when I’m playing my Xbox 360. This feels über-geeky.

4. One of my criteria for a handbag is that it is large enough to carry a book.

5. If I forget my book at home on a work day, I feel like my hour lunch break is ruined.

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Crazy for Books.

This week’s question:

“If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?”

It’s difficult to choose just one! I don’t think I can.  Here are three book worlds I want to visit:

1. The Great Gatsby:

I wish I could attend one of Gatsby’s parties. I’d wear a slinky 1920s dress, sip from a long stemmed glass, and oscillate between fivolous and political conversations.

This line lures me:

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Chapter 3, The Great Gatsby).

I’m sure I’d get sick of the excess and and affectations, but I’d like a taste of party life during The Jazz Age.

2. The Sevenwaters Series:

I want to live in the lovely ancient forests in the Sevenwaters series, where fey roam and the mortal inhabitants practice powerful hearth magic. Actually, I’d like to visit any of the worlds in Marillier’s novels: Wildwood, the Light Isles, Whistling Tor…well, maybe Whistling Tor is too frightening.

3. The Airborn Trilogy

Kenneth Oppel’s steampunk world is amazing. I want to ride in airships, discovering new species like cloud cats. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to board the Starclimber though. Is Airborn ever going to be made into a movie?

Teaser Tuesdays 3.22.11

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To join the fun:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

“Duels to the death tend to end that way.” Puck grinned, but it was a savage thing, grim and frightening.”

(Pg. 213, The Iron King by Julie Kagawa).

I’ve been reading this book for a long time! I love the description and pacing in this novel, and I’m glad that most of it takes place in the faerie realm of NeverNever.  I just haven’t been able to find enough time to read these past two weeks. Hopefully, life gets less busy soon.

Top Ten Tuesday 3.15.11

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Characters I’d Want As Family Members

1. Jean Valjean from Les Miserables. Sometimes the best family members aren’t blood-related. Jean Valjean is one of the greatest father figures ever, defining unselfish love by protecting and providing for his adopted daughter Cosette.

2. Nobody Owens from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I want to adopt him. The ghosts do a pretty good job raising him though, I must say. Still, he could use some mothering–a hearty dinner, clean clothes and a sympathetic ear.

3. Tobin from Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George. I always wanted an older brother, and this mute bodyguard would fit the role perfectly.

4. Primrose from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Prim is one of the characters that develops the most in this trilogy. The older sister in me would do anything to protect her, just like Katniss.

5. Alice Cullen from Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. She’d make an awesome sister. She’s fun, fashionable and she can predict the future somewhat accurately. However, I’m not sure she’d be good for my moral development.

6. Matt from Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. I’m not quite old enough to be his mother, but I’d be proud to have him as a son a few years down the road. He’s kind, intelligent, adventurous. I’m amused when he lets Kate push him around.

7. Sherlock Holmes. “Uncle Sherlock” has such a nice ring to it! I’d love to drink port with him and unravel mysteries. He seems too distant a character to be a close relative, but he’d be a wonderful family resource.

8. Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I think she’d make a great cousin or older sister, providing a healthy dose of practicality now and then.

9. Ethan from The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. I’m reading this novel right now, and I’m so afraid for the real Ethan. He seems so adorable! I’d like to have him as a son.

10. Do we get to have a dragon? He wouldn’t be a pet…more like a giant brother. I choose Fenuil, the neurotic dog-loving dragon from Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George.

Follow Friday 3.11.11

Follow Friday is a weekly hop hosted at Parajunkee’s View. Link up to find new reads and bookish friends.

This week’s question: “Who are You the Boy/Girl, instead of You the Blogger?

My Answer:

I am Amanda, a thirty-two year girl. I’m a Patron Services Supervisor at a public library, mommy to an awesome little girl, and wife of an English Instructor. I love to write (is that part of “Me the Blogger”?), play my Xbox 360, shop at thrift stores, cook dishes with curry in them, ride roller coasters, wear big earring and tall boots, haunt coffee shops, take pictures, give unexpected gifts and make my family laugh. Have I revealed too much?