Thursday 31 January 2013

January Wrap Up

January Wrap Up:
Challenges
Whilst I guess number-wise it looks like I've read a lot, in theory I actually haven't. 6 are short stories, 2 are graphic novels and then of course we have the evil sneak peak. But I haven't read a terrible book yet so 2013 is going well. But I did make a rather good progress with all my other challenges too!
Total: 2 / 10

Total: 2 / 6

I plan to have the reviews up for Cameron Jace's during a week in February.
Total: 7 / 16

Shelf Stacking
I thought I had done well on my intake of books, woops.

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (34)


Oppression (Children of the Gods, #1)Oppression by Jessica Therrien caught my eye with a lovely cover, as do as lot of books that end up on wishlist and mythology is just a great thing that I love to read about!
GR: Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (39)


Bought, Borrowed and Bagged is a weekly event hosted by Talk Supe where you can share the books you have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews and on going events. 

Borrowed:
The Grimm Diaries Prequels #1-6 by Cameron Jace
Borrowed from Amazon Kindle Lending Library
Snow White Blood Red (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #1)Ashes to Ashes and Cinder to Cinder  (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #2)Beauty Never Dies (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #3)
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #4)Mary Mary Quite Contrary (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #5)Blood Apples (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #6)

This week on Northern Plunder:
Review: The Archived SNEAK PEAK
Books Creating Art
Wishlist Wednesday
Book Blast: Hidden Gates


I read the first three of the books mentioned above this week and they're really good, I'm going to have a lot of trouble not to buy the actual series soon. I also applied to University earlier in the year and I've started to get through all my interviews during next month so I'm probably going to aim to tone down the blogging for next month so I can work on pumping out work for my portfolio and preparing myself for the interviews themselves seeing as though I'm very, very shy! I'm scared, very scared :c

Thursday 24 January 2013

Book Blast: Hidden Gates




Hidden Gates by D.T. Dyllin 
Expected Publication: 24th January (eBook) and 28th February (paperback)
Publisher: Dragonfairy Press
Series: P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy #1
Synopsis: For P.J. Stone, being a “Seer” who has never seen anything is less than fun. And P.J. isn’t known for her patience. 
To make matters worse, she must choose a suitable mate to continue the Seer bloodline. Duty always comes before her heart…at least that’s what her parents taught her. When she finds herself wanting someone who is considered off-limits, P.J. is forced to question everything she believes.
As if navigating her love life isn’t complicated enough, P.J. finally receives a vision—of a threat to her world that only she can perceive. But no one will believe a fledgling Seer’s warnings. With nowhere else to turn, she may decide to trust a stranger with her life, her world, and maybe even her heart.


Author Bio:
D.T. Dyllin
Cynical-Optimist. Chocolateholic. Sarcasm Addict. Paranormal Believer. Self-Imposed Insomniac. Sci-Fi Geek. Animal Lover. Writer . . . are just a few words to describe D.T. Dyllin. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two very spoiled German Shepherds.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (33)

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead is on my wishlist after I read Bloodlines and realised I should have read this series first, woops.

GR: St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...
Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever. 




Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Monday 21 January 2013

Review: The Archived SNEAK PEAK


The Archived SNEAK PEEK (The Archived, #1)The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Published: January 22nd 2013
Publisher: Hyperion
Page Count: 108
Synopsis: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive. Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous - it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall. In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.
Review: I would like to start of by stating I was unlucky enough to get to read a sneak peak of The Archived by Victoria Schwab. Unlucky you say? But surely Lauren this is not the correct word to use for a book you rated so highly. Why yes this exactly the correct word because holy mother of jelly, I honestly didn't want to put it down! The sneak peak was 108 pages short and in that time not only did it give us complete introductions to the main and not-so-main characters, but the full background details were filled in along with the introduction to what the plot revolves around and then of course it cuts you off just at that exact moment in which she meets that guy. Yes that guy, you know the one guy who is probably going to be a love interest and he's all mysterious and is in the same profession as her. I think what I like best about the part of the book I've read is that Mac isn't just a paper thin character, everything that she has been through - the loss of her Da and brother, moving home and leaving her best friend behind, finding out about a murder in her new home and dealing with becoming a Keeper on top of trying to be convince the rest of our world that she's a normal teenager means she has a lot of layers to her and to see her character develop even more will be a treat. I would have a guess to say that this isn't going to be one of those easy reads because it definitely has the option to go very deep and dark if it wanted too and I' very very very irritated in not being able to finish it just yet, why oh why did I agree to a book buying ban. I can't even ask for it for Valentines as I already know what I'm getting so I'm going to have bite my nails down a lot and wait until I've read enough of my read pile and I'll be allowed to purchase it, in the mean time I'll be right here pulling my hair out and dying to know more about the beautiful world I have so wonderfully be introduced too. 

4 / 5 stars

GR

Victoria Schwab: Website | Twitter | GR

Sunday 20 January 2013

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (38)

Bought, Borrowed and Bagged is a weekly event hosted by Talk Supe where you can share the books you have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews and on going events. 

Bought:
Sealed with a Curse by Cecy Robson
This doesn't count as breaking my book-buying-ban cause I preordered it in October!
Sealed with a Curse (Weird Girls, #1)

Bagged:
The Water Witch by Carol Goodman
Thanks to the girls at Book Chick City for this giveaway
The Water Witch (Fairwick Chronicles, #2)
Dare You To by Katie McGarry
I got approved at NetGalley, omg yes.
Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2)
Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man by Justin Richards
Thanks to my friend for gifting me this.
Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man


This week on Northern Plunder:
Review: The Unwords
Teaser: Warm Bodies
Wishlist Wednesday
Cover Reveal: Fire Country
Series Review: Uglies, Pretties, Specials & Extras
Cover Reveal: Taking Shots & Trying to Score


Saturday 19 January 2013

Cover Reveals: Taking Shots & Trying to Score

Author Bio:

Toni Aleo

Toni Aleo is a mother of two and married to her high school sweetheart. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading the latest romance novel, taking pictures, and going to as many Nashville Predators game as she can!





Taking Shots
Goodreads

Expected Publication Date: 13th May 2013

Synopsis: 
In Toni Aleo’s exhilarating debut, the first in a series featuring the hockey hunks of the Nashville Assassins, a reformed bad boy helps a charming, willful woman face off against the demons of her past. 
No matter how hard she tries, Elleanor Fisher never thinks she’s good enough, from her job to her weight to her love life. After enduring years of abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, Elli has been drifting through life in a daze. Until, that is, she meets Shea Adler on a promotional shoot for the NHL’s Nashville Assassins. Before Elli knows what’s happening, the gorgeous Shea breaks the ice and shatters her world. 
A brilliant athlete inside the rink, Shea Adler is tired of the life he’s living outside of it: the girls, the money, the drinking. But everything changes when he meets Elli. After laying eyes on this feisty, witty, beautiful woman, he feels like he’s just taken the hardest hit of his life. No matter how skeptical she is, Shea knows they are meant to be together—if only he can convince Elli to put her insecurities aside throw her insecurities out the window before she misses out on a shot at love.

Trying to Score
Goodreads
Expected Publication Date: 10th June 2013
Synopsis: In a captivating novel of hockey and healing hearts, the newest member of the Nashville Assassins pulls a power play to make things right with the one that got away. 
Fallon Parker’s dream has always been to turn her family’s wine company into a runaway success and eventually to start a cellar of her own. Since graduating from college, she has worked relentlessly to make that dream a reality, especially after taking a chance on love—and losing. By the time Fallon becomes an official sponsor of the Nashville Assassins, she feels like all her hard work is finally paying off. And then the man who broke her heart skates back into her life. 
On the ice, Lucas Brooks is the NHL’s leading scorer—at least when he’s not in the box. Off the ice, he’s a mess, with all his anger and misery bottled up inside. He threw away the most important person in his life and has regretted it ever since. But when Lucas returns to Nashville in a trade, he’s determined to convince Fallon that he’s a changed man. The attraction is still there. The tension is electrifying. But the odds are stacked against them—especially after Lucas finds out that Fallon has been keeping a devastating secret.

Friday 18 January 2013

Series Review: Uglies, Pretties, Specials & Extras

Uglies (Uglies, #1)Pretties (Uglies, #2)Specials (Uglies, #3)Extras (Uglies, #4)

Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld
Published: 2005 - 2007
Publisher: Simon Pulse
I wanted to hold of reviewing these until I had completed the series and publish my thoughts and feelings all together much like I did with The Hunger Games trilogy, this way I don't have to keep referring to previous posts or feelings and it should make things a little easier to follow for both you as a reader and myself as a keyboard masher - you know when you have too many feels and just can't stop the ramblings.
I can not promise any of this will be spoiler-free.

Uglies.
Page Count: 425
Read Date: February 19th - 23rd 2012
Synopsis: Tally Youngblood is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait for the operation that turns everyone from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to party. But new friend Shay would rather hoverboard to "the Smoke" and be free. Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The "Special Circumstances" authority Dr Cable offers Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.
Review, thoughts and feelings: I'd seen it in the shops a lot but always turned it down based on the cover and title, it looked too girly for me, of course when it popped up for Book of the Month in one of my Goodread groups I read the synopsis for once and decided it was worth trying out. When I read this I hadn't read much, if any, of this genre or style before which really helped with my positive attitude towards it, with it being completely different to anything I'd read in the past I was sucked into Westerfeld's world and loved almost every moment he provided. At the start I really enjoyed the relationship between Tally and Shay, seeing how they developed and grew as a pair was fantastic but I must say I felt like I related more to Tally because becoming a Pretty didn't seem like too much of an issue to myself. Upon the introduction of the Special Circumstances you start to become aware that there is a lot of secrets and hidden facts of the Pretties world and they don't half sound scary. Whilst I'm not an outdoors-y type, I really enjoyed reading about Tally travelling to The Smoke, I loved the descriptions of the world we got to see through Tally's eyes and her experiencing all these new things that we take for advantage and do day to day if we so wished and it just opened your eyes to the beauty of the world surrounding them yet they're taught how much evil potential it holds. Tally's time at The Smoke also held very similar feelings for me cause whilst I understood everything she was going through I had a small issue with seeing it as a good thing because I don't think I could handle living without a comfy bed and nice clean clothes daily, not to mention all the hard work too - in short I'd rather be a braindead Pretty because I'm that lazy ;_; that's bad huh? Any how I loved the freshness of this book and how it made me question a few things about myself and couldn't wait to dive into Pretties.
4 / 5 stars

Pretties.
Page Count: 370
Read Date: March 21st - 22nd 2012
Synopsis: Gorgeous. Popular. Perfect. Perfectly wrong. Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she's completely popular. It's everything she's ever wanted. But beneath all the fun -- the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom -- is a nagging sense that something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what's wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold. Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life -- because the authorities don't intend to let anyone with this information survive.
Review, thoughts and feelings: After such good impressions of Uglies I couldn't wait to continue the series, I had to see how Tally and Shay's friendship turned out of all the drama Tally managed to cause, unfortunately what I couldn't handle was Pretty-talk, I hated it so much and I just wanted to tear my hair out. However the story line was good, I'll give you that. I loved watching Tally and Zane tackle curing themselves of being Pretty-minded with some bad side-effects on Zane part and their plan and break out to get to The New Smoke, and Tally stumbling across an interesting and not so guarded secret conservation of "Primitive Humans", an aspect of this story I didn't like was Shay, I felt so unconnected from her and all she needed to do was listen, I mean I know girls have their bitchy personalities and all but if Tally and Shay could have just spoken and listened to each other I'm sure things wouldn't have turned as nasty as they had and I know she was't really a big part of the story but it did really irritate me, along with Tally's conflict between Zane and David, it just got super frustrating and because it followed a similar plot outline to Uglies it lacked the freshness that I felt and I just didn't feel as attached throughout the book hence the lower rating.
3 / 5 stars

Specials.
Page Count: 372
Read Date: May 4th - 5th 2012
Synopsis: Special Circumstances. Tally though they were a rumor, but now she's one of the them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid. But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else. But it's easy for her to tune that out—until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.
Review, thoughts and feelings: In this book we get through into the world of the Special Circumstances, specifically The Cutters. Tally and Shay are back, tougher than ever with their new surges and honestly this just made them more annoying. I guess I kind of just lost my shit when reading this book cause I could no longer stand the "friendship" of Tally and Shay, it irritated me beyond belief. I tried to ignore it, the best I could by getting engulfed in the world surrounding them and the rebellion they cause and such but it just put a whole damper on the story. I'm not going to lie I'm writing this in January 2013 because I just couldn't bring myself to review it after finishing as I had such a bad run with it and thinking back on it now I'm failing to remember anything good about it, other than I remember vaguely enjoying it at times. If this had been any other book I'd have probably given it a lower rating but as its part of a series it ties up any loose ends and ends in a way that makes sense so because of this I was happy awarding it three stars, not to mention it was interesting seeing this messed up world from the view of a Special and very fast paced.
3 / 5 stars

Extras.
Page Count: 417
Read Date: January 4th - 8th 2013
Synopsis: Fame. It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends, and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules. As if being fifteen doesn't suck enough, Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. But Aya doesn't care; she just wants to lie low with her drone, Moggle. And maybe kick a good story for herself. Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks, yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity... and extreme danger. A world she's not prepared for.
Review, thoughts and feelings: Needless to say the foul taste I had with Tally and Shay's friendship from the last book put me off picking up this one for almost a year even though I knew the story focused around a new character - Aya. This book is set three years after Tally ends the reign of terror but without the government keeping everyone as prettyheads, the world is left trying to make up for centuries of lost time which cause tech-heads and surge monkeys to go pretty crazy with their new looks, there are also kickers who spread gossip and stories. Each individual has a face rank now and this can be made higher by a multitude of things, in short Aya wants to boost her face rank much like her brother does - by kicking very intersting stories, her new story is of the Sly Girls who well don't want any kind of fame but Aya is willing to betray them to get hers. This really irritated me because she started to really enjoy being a part of the Sly Girls and if it wasn't for them she wouldn't have stumbled across the "Aliens" luckily though the Sly Girls end up giving her permission to kick the story because of everything they stumble across whilst pulling crazy tricks, its a matter of life and death for the whole planet ...or is it? I honestly think this is the best book of the series, but it wouldn't have worked as a stand-a-lone, the previous books do great at setting the world and giving us the correct knowledge regarding each "type" of person as well as letting us know a lot about Tally and Shay (I say this because they make an appearance in this book and with the knowledge of the previous books their characters make sense but they still really irritated me). I really want to say more about it but I really don't like giving away any big spoilers and for me to talk about my favourite parts in it would just completely ruin the story, I've already mentioned Tally returns and it was actually a pleasant surprise or Aya would have been in some deep shit so I feel like I've given enough away as it is. If it wasn't for this nice ending to the series I probably wouldn't recommend the series at all, luckily I now do.
4 / 5 stars
Amazon UK: Uglies | Pretties (Uglies) | Specials (Uglies) | Extras
Scott Westerfeld: GR | Twitter | Facebook | Website

Thursday 17 January 2013

Cover Reveal: Fire Country by David Estes


Author Bio:
David Estes
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. David grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife. A reader all his life, he began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and started writing full time in June 2012. Now he travels the world writing with his wife, Adele. David's a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table.



Fire Country
Published On: 1st February 2013
Synopsis: In a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer's even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely.
Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter.It is their duty as Bearers.
Fifteen-year-old Siena is a Youngling, soon to be a Bearer, when she starts hearing rumors of another tribe of all women, called the Wild Ones. They are known to kidnap Youngling girls before the Call, the ceremony in which Bearers are given a husband with whom to bear children with.
As the desert sands run out on her life's hourglass, Siena must uncover the truth about the Wild Ones while untangling the web of lies and deceit her father has masterfully spun.




Early praise for the author
“David created a world I was excited to learn about and characters I cared about. I'll remember this story for
a very long time!”
Alexandria Nicole ~Goodreads

“Estes delivers a winner with confident writing that truly draws you into the story. “
Think ~ Goodreads

“The author, David Estes, has forged his name into writers to be watched and read.”
Marni ~Goodreads

“David is such a fantastic author and he really knows how to pull at the heartstrings.”
Kay ~K-Books

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (32)


Candy
I don't know when I added Candy by Luke Davies onto my wishlist but it still sounds interesting, I'm pretty sure it was recommended to me!
GR
"Candy is beside me, drenched in sweat. She's breathing gently, long slow breaths. I imagine her soul going in and out: wanting to leave, wanting to come back, wanting to leave, wanting to come back. The day will soon harden into what we need to do. But for now we have each other.." He met Candy amid a lush Sydney summer. Gorgeous, sexy, free-spirited Candy. They fell in love fast, lots of laughter and lust, the days melting warmly into each other. He never planned to give her a habit. But she wanted a taste. And wasn't love, after all, about sharing lives? Candy had a bit of money and in the beginning, everything was beautiful. Heady, heroin-hazed days, the world open and inviting. But when the money ran out, the craving remained, and the days ceased their luxurious stretch. But there was still love. Only now, it was a threesome. Heroin had its own demands, its own timetable, and thoughts of nabbing the next fix hurled them into each day. Then, when desperation sets in, Candy will stop at nothing to secure a blast, as she and her lover become hostage to the nightmarish world of addiction. Painful, sexy, tender, and charged with dark humourCandy provocatively charts the daily rituals of two lovers maintaining a long-term junk habit. Told in stunningly vivid prose and set against the backdrop of suburban and urban Australia, Candy is both an electrifying and frightening glimpse of contemporary life and love.

Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Teaser: Warm Bodies

It's time for a teaser. This isn't anything I've done before and I know there are more than one or two blogs out there who have a weekly feature, possibly even meme where the whole point is to entice their readers into picking up a certain book by including some form of teaser. I could go and search them out I guess, make this some kind of official Teaser post but in short, I don't want this to become an occurring feature, only for those books that deserve it, that make me think "Oh my, you need to read this!".

I'm writing this up after reading one chapter of Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, one chapter. That's how much it grabbed my attention, ideally I'd still be reading right now but if I didn't get this post scheduled now it would probably slip my mind.

Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies #1)
About the Author:(Taken from the book itself)
Isaac Marion was born in north-western Washington
in 1981 and has lived in and around Seattle he whole
life, working a variety of strange jobs like delivering
deathbeds to hospice patients and supervising
parental visits for foster-kids. He us not married, has
no children, and did not go to college or win any 
prizes. Warm Bodies is his first novel.

About the Book:
(Taken from Goodreads)
A zombie who yearns for a better life ends up falling in love—with a human—in this astonishingly original debut novel. 
R is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He doesn’t enjoy killing people; he enjoys riding escalators and listening to Frank Sinatra. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. 
Not just another zombie novel, Warm Bodies is funny, scary, and deeply moving.


I am dead, but it's not so bad. I've learned to live with it. I'm sorry I can't properly introduce myself, but I don't have a name any more. Hardly any of us do. We loose them like car keys, forget them like anniversaries. Mine might have started with am "R", but that's all I have now. It's funny because back when I was alive, I was always forgetting other people's names. My friend "M" says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can't smile, because your lips have rotted off.

So that is the first paragraph of the book, there is just something about it that really sucked me in and I loved it, I love Isaac Marion's writing style and the whole concept of this book, not to mention that in the movie trailer they seem to have pinned it down perfectly too.

Monday 14 January 2013

Mini-Review: The Unwords


The Unwords by Unauthor
Published: January 18th 2012
Publisher: the author
Page Count: 90

Synopsis: "There is nothing more dangerous...than a character with no author."
With the use of an unusual, modern poetic verse and enhanced with provocative, artistic imagery, The Unwords take full advantage of their author's lack of identity and almost inhuman levels of introspection, as they set out to inform, to educate, to criticise and hopefully inspire, by pushing the reader out of his comfort zone and into a world in which so many things have already been left undone...but nothing will be left unsaid. Psychology, poetry, philosophy, linguistics and social sciences blend together with the arts, as the author partners the reader through a disturbing, thought-provoking journey in which education, relationships, religion, politics and social behaviour are stripped down to their bare foundations and de-constructed through the eyes of a man who has no name, no face, nothing to gain...therefore no reason to lie.

Review: 
I just...
can't deal...
with such a large...
amount of... 
ellipses... 

I think I adored...
the compositions...
of the pages...
much more... 
than the poems... 
themselves... 

However... 
I did particularly enjoy...
the first part of the book...
and the third...
the second part was a little less... 
enjoyable... 
for myself. 

3 / 5 stars
Unauthor: Website | Twitter | GR | Blog

Sunday 13 January 2013

Bout of Books: Wrap Up


Bout of Books Read-a-Thon
So I finished Warm Bodies last night before going to bed and felt very happy to have read it all in one day. The books I had decided to read this week though are at home and I'm not there so I rummaged through my boyfriends book shelf (which is basically just a lot of graphic novels that I've bought him over the years) and decided to read two of those, I'm happy I did!
Progress:
Day 1
Extras by Scott Westerfeld
Pages Read: 144
-
Overall Books Completed: -
Overall Pages Read: 144

Day 2
Extras by Scott Westerfeld [completed]
Pages Read: 141
Pandora Hearts Volume 2 by Jun Mochizuki [completed]
Pages Read: 192
-
Overall Books Completed: 2
Overall Pages Read: 447

Day 3
Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies Compendium Monstrum: From the Papers of Herr DOktor Max Sturm & Baron Ludwig VonDrang by Bruce Waldman [completed]
Pages Read: 82
The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn
Pages Read: 9
-
Overall Books Completed: 3
Overall Pages Read: 538

Day 4
-
Pages Read: -
-
Overall Books Completed: 3
Overall Pages Read: 538

Day 5
Word and Breath by Susannah Noel
Pages Read: 23%
-
Overall Books Completed: 3
Overall Pages Read: 538 & 23%

Day 6
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Pages Read: 136
Word and Breath by Susannah Noel
Pages Read: 9%
-
Overall Books Completed: 3
Overall Pages Read: 674 & 32%

Day 7

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion [completed]
Pages Read: 104
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life [completed]
Pages: Read: 168
Lost At Sea [completed]
Pages Read: 160
The Archived SNEAK PEAK [completed]
Pages Read: 100%
-
Overall Books Completed: 7
Overall Pages Read: 1,106 + 132%

Goals Completed?
- By the end of the week as long as I've finished 7 books I'll be happy
- I hope that I wont leave a book unfinished too which'll help keep things tidy /
Word & Breath was left unfinished, as was TAFWVG.
- I'd like to visit a minimum of 10 blogs a day
- take part in at least one of the twitter chats / I totally forgot about these
- visit every single blog on the wrap up posts like I did during 4.0 / ongoing [25 / 108]


I don't think I did too bad considering I took a day out and had no glasses for a day too.

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (37)


Bought, Borrowed and Bagged is a weekly event hosted by Talk Supe where you can share the books you have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews and on going events. 

Bought:
Hollow by Richard Denney
This is completely free to download on GR, the author decided against publishing it so there's an unfinished PDF for download.
Hollow
Lunangelique by Kristin R. Campbell
Found this freebie on smashwords thanks to a tweet
Lunangelique (Lunangelique, #1)


Bagged:
Sister Assasins/Mind Games by Kiersten White, Geek Girl by Holly Smale, Elemental: The First by Alecandra May, The Stone Demon by Karen Mahoney and Othermoon by Nina Berry
All three from NetGalley, the last two I'll probably have to decline due to it being the third/second in a series.
Sister Assassin (Sister Assassin, #1)Mind Games (Mind Games, #1)
Geek GirlElemental: The First (Primord, #1)The Stone Demon (The Iron Witch, #3)Othermoon (Otherkin, #2)


This week on Northern Plunder:
Bout of Books Day 1
Bout of Books Day 2
Wishlist Wednesday
Bout of Books Day 3
Bout of Books Day 4
Bout of Books Day 5
Bout of Books Day 6



Hope everyone's been having a lovely year so far, I broke my glasses this week and designed some book covers for my college class, I think I may have to share some of the work I've been doing seeing as though everything I've done so far has been related to books.