Scarey Ghosts

Who's ready for a quick rambling?  Cool, I'm a bit exhuasted after a 48 hour shift, but I think I can manage a quicky on our next October book of scares.  The book is Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton and is a collection of short stories threaded together with an underlying thread.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book starts with a boy Jack going into a spooky old house and opening a door.  What he finds is 13 chairs, on unoccupied and an invitation to sit down.  Jack sits and the stories begin.  Each person around the room tells a scary story, blowing out their candle when finished.  This is normally where I would list my favorite stories, but they are all only between 5 and 10 pages long, so not really worth summarizing.  Each story is prefaced with conversation and a bit of back ground by each person telling the story, and each story is different and scary.  The second to last story is told by Mr. Osterley who tells his own story.  Turns out he was a mortician in life and when he died continued to help the dead.  Jack is then invited to tell a story and he decides to tell his own as well.  He tells the other story tellers that he knows that they are dead, and that they tell each other scary stories to feel that thrill of fear they felt when they were alive.  He then goes on to describe to them from a living boy's perspective how scared he felt with each story, giving the ghosts a taste of life.  The book ends with a girl headed towards the house after hearing about it from a boy named Jack.

I told you this would be quick teeheehee.  The book was pretty good, the stories were varied enough to keep my interest and the illustrations that went with each one were pretty cool.  I guessed pretty quickly that the story tellers were dead, but I wasn't sure about Jack until about half way through.  The only real issue I had was that I wanted the thread linking them all together to be different...more of a story instead of just a bunch of ghosts trying to scare each other.  The book itself looks spookier then it is (it was a complete impulse buy because of it's awesomely all black cover), but does its job as a ghost story book.  Overall not much to say about it, it is what it is, and it works just fine.  I give it 7 out 10 chairs and recommend it to anybody who wants a quick read, some good ghost stories or a really cool looking book to display around Halloween.  Happy Reading Everybody!

By It's Cover

One of my favorite aspects of a book (besides the content of course) is how they look on my shelf.  I have probably mentioned it once or one hundred times, but I love the various covers that my spoiled self has access too.  If I had unlimited resources I would have a zillion shelves, each with a different set of the same books.  Here are some of the designs I would add to my obsessive collection

Coralie Cloth Bound Classics

Barnes and Nobles Classics

Penguin Horror Classics

Austen

Narnia

This is just a teeny tiny start to what is inspiration for what will hopefully be an IMMENSE collection of pretty pretty books.   Happy Reading Everybody!
PS  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY SIS!

All Sorts Of Bindings

For the most part the most important part of a book is it's content.  The story, information or idea that gets passed through the written, typed, printed, scanned, digitally downloaded word is what makes book so very very very important (I'm really into grouping words, phrases, sentences today).  The other great things about books is there variety, the plethora of genre's the zillions of stories within each category  it's mind boggling. Another place this diversity can be seen is in how a book is bound.  Here are a few examples of books that are bound using a variety of materials and techniques.

Bamboo Binding

This version of The Art of War is bound in bamboo

Apple Binding

Looks good enough to eat

Silver Binding

This book is bound in silver worked by a silversmith

Leather/Stick Binding

Mixing mediums creates a beautiful and unusual cover

Snakeskin Binding

This is a one of a kind snakeskin binding...could be an interesting conversation starter.

All of these cool and unusual bindings just goes to show you sometimes you can judge a book by it's cover, in fact sometimes all a book needs is a cool binding to make it worth sitting on your bookshelf.

What is the most unusual binding you have ever seen?  Do you like your book bindings to be pretty or practical   Would it totally creep you out to have an animal covered book staring at you from your bookshelf?

Cover Model

While I was on my Internet spree of book buying the other day, I noticed a bit of a disturbing trend. I was looking specifically for some older books and when I found them it took me a moment to recognize them because some of the covers had been updated.  Now I understand the need to update covers, especially some of those cheesy/sexist/silly old school scifi/fantasy ones, that was not what bugged me.  What bugged me was some of the beautiful artwork was being replaced with photo shopped photos of young pretty models who were probably not even alive when these books were written.  It's not just old old books either, books that have come out a couple of years ago, or beautiful hardcovers being released in paperback, all of these can be turned into photo shop monstrosities of doom.  And don't even get me started on the movie adaption book covers!  I realize that in the grand scheme of things this does not really matter, as long as the content of the book remains the same, and the cover model isn't whitewashed (the practice of putting a blah nondescript person on the cover when the story is clearly about a character of some sort of color to try and sell more books...which is not only a whole other post, but if you look up the terms you will find some great pieces already written about it) will probably not actually impede my enjoyment of the book, but I still, it's my blog and I will rant if I want too :-)  Here are some examples of what I am talking about.

Freedom's Landing

In the one on the left you have a beautiful landscape of possibilities, on the right, a generic "kickass girl" who looks to be about half the age of the main character in the book. The other problem with this is that this is the only book updated in the series so it does not match the rest which is a huge pet peeve of mine (I know first world problems)

The Two Princesses of Bamarre

On the left an artist rendition, that captures the look and mood perfectly, on the right two tweeny bopper looking girls in a princess costume (seriously the darker haired one does not even have an attempt at a medievalish hairstyle)

The Rowan

This one is not as bad as some, they at least kept the white hair, but the expression on the right...bugs me.  It makes it look much more "I am the great and powerful sorceress who is prone to shoot lightning bolts out of my eyes" rather then "I am a lonely, yet hardworking telepath who was orphaned at a young age, but can still quietly and calmly kick all of your assess" that the character is really about.

The Immortals

Again we have an artists rendition on the left, a scene straight out of the book, given the tone may be a bit dated, but still a decent cover.  Cover on the right gets the coloring of the character right, but again that expression of pained model just makes me want to laugh, the rest of the updated covers on this series are pretty much the exact same expression, just from different angles, so not only silly, but uncreative as well.

Beautiful Creatures

Here is an example of how movies ruin books (full disclosure I have not read the book yet, but it is on my shelf on the short list)  The cover on the left is haunting and sinister and just makes you want to open up the book to see what is down the road.  The cover on the right is generic pretty people who are cast in the movie because they are pretty people and now they are on the cover of my book to remind me that everything must get made into a mass media form at some point!

Updated covers are not always a bad thing, in fact I think I own at least three different version of The Lord of The Rings trilogy and who knows how many of the Chronicles of Narnia because for the most part every new update is awesome (hmmm maybe I'll do a post with a progression of awesome covers).  I am just sick and tired of every book I love and grew up with being blanded down (that's a real word/term I swear) to try and attract more readers.  I however do not want a bookshelf full of pout teenagers staring back at me, I want some creativity and thought.  This is why the publishers should allow the author more input into the covers of their own books.

What is your favorite kind of book cover?  How much does the cover play into the nostalgia factor for you? Do you prefer the pouty pretty people?  Do I have way to much time on my hands to be this upset over a stupid book cover?

Clockwork Covers

Happy Birthday (a day late) to my wonderful Baby Sis!  Steampunk is a fast growing genre in everything from clothes, to music, even to books!  The following are some really awesome covers that highlight the Steampunk world.  (Please note, these are not necessarily books about Steampunk, that is for another post)

Clockwork Sketchbook

Steampunk Cover

Art Nouveau Steampunk

Steampunk Clock Notebook

Jules Verne Steampunk

Now I want to run out and buy all of these just to have them looking good on my bookshelves at home.  I hope these have inspired you to go find/make/explore your own version of Steampunk, especially of the literary variety!

Mismatched Eyes

Just finished rereading Graceling by Kristin Cashore in preparation for reading Bitterblue.  This was and interesting reread because my feelings for the book actually changed with a second reread, but I'll get to that in a second.  First a quick synopsis (Warning Spoilers as Usual)

Katsa is a Graceling, which is a person who possess a very specific skill and is set apart physically by mismatched eyes (in Katsa's case she has one brilliant blue eye and one green eye).  The skill vary by person, some are amazing cooks, some are brilliant gardeners, some read minds, Katsa kills.  Ever since she was little she has been able to defend herself in the most definitive of ways.  In her kingdom the Middluns any person that is Graced belongs to the King.  Katsa is King Randa's niece and also his enforcer, he sends her to hurt or kill anyone whom he deems in
need of punishment.  To counterbalance these heinous acts she is forced to do Katsa along with her cousin the Prince Raffin,  Lord Giddon and Oll captain of the Kings spies form the Counsel, which tries to right the wrongs and protect the people, all in secret of course.  One of these Counsel missions leads Katsa to rescue Grandfather Tealiff the father of the current king of Lienid of of the seven kingdoms that makes up our little world.  All of this leads to Katsa meeting the youngest son of the king of Lienid, Prince Po who is Graced with fighting (his eyes are gold and silver).  The two start to regularly spar, Katsa enjoying the ability to use her full force without killing her opponent.  Po tells the Council that he is trying to figure out who ordered the kidnapping of his grandfather and why.  Katsa gets sent to force a lords daughter to marry for the benefit of the King and finds she can no longer make her self do the King's dirty work.  Katsa runs away with Po to Monsea, a little kingdom separated from the rest by high mountains.  They finally figure out that the King Leck of Monsea, who has a reputation of being extremely kind is actually a monster who can control peoples minds with a suggestion.  They continue on their journey, falling in love in the process and Po reveals that his true Grace is his ability to sense everything and everybody around him.  He has kept it a secret to keep himself from becoming a pawn to any king.  They also discover Katsa does not have a killing Grace, but a survival Grace and that killing and hurting people is just one manifestation of it, she can also heal quickly, go on very little sleep, always catch or find food, and always get a fire lit. This makes Katsa feel more like a person and less like a monster.  They eventually run into King Leck and his army and watch him murder his own wife in front of them (who just happens to be Po's aunt).  King Leck uses his Grace to convince people that it was an accident, including
Katsa, Po's Grace however keeps him safe from Lecks mind numbery (that is really a word...I swear) and grabs Katsa and gets her out of there.  They find the child Bitterblue (King Leck's daughter) who King Leck is hunting and promise to gt her to safety.  Po is injured pretty severely when he goes after Leck on his own and Katsa and Bitterblue must leave him in a cabin hidden in the woods.  Katsa takes Bitterblue (who is one of the best characters in this book) and heads over the impassable mountain pass.  This is one of the most effectively described scenes I have ever read, I actually get cold and tired whenever I read it.  They finally make it over the pass and onto a Lienid ship.  They are taken to Po's castle to try and get help from his family, but it is to late Leck has already beaten them there.  King Leck bends everybodies mind to his will, but when he threatens to expose Po, Katsa's mind clears enough for her to kill him.  Bitterblue is now the queen of Monsea and they take her back to claim her throne and to find Po.  Po however has another secret, the injuries he sustained while fighting Leck have left him blind.  This causes him to be depressed for a while, but then he learns to use his Grace to "see" things with his senses.  The story ends with Katsa setting up training camps for girls to learn self-defense, Bitterblue starting to help her kingdom recover, and Po off to settle things in Lienid with a promise to meet up with Katsa later.
The first time I read this book a couple of years ago, I remember loving everything about it, a kick-ass heroine, a crazy King, a journey across the continent all my favorites.  Reading it a second time I still really like it, but for some reason not as much as the first time.  I'm not sure if I have lost all patience with teenage angst, or if rereading it I picked up on things I did not the first time, not really sure.
Things I loved.  I love the concept of the Graces, I love stories that have a special something that comes in a variety (does that make sense?). The Tamora Pierce series Circle of Magic does this really well too.  I love all the different ways a person could be Graced and the different ways people choose to utilize that Grace.  I like the idea of the seven Kingdoms, each with it's own people and customs, but still all close enough to have an effect on each other.  I like that the main character goes on a personal journey, starting as a pawn of her king with seemingly few options, to putting together the Council, to leaving the king's service all together.  I love, love, love the character of Bitterblue.  She starts as an understandably terrified small 10 year old child, who has witnessed horrible things including the murder of her mother at the hand of her father.  Eventually as she begins to trust people she turns into this snarky, smart, intelligent young lady.  She is nowhere near as physically dominating as Katsa and Po, which is great.  I think the character of Bitterblue shows that there is more than one way to be a kick-ass girl.
Things I did not love quit so much.  The execution of the Graces was a little spotty to me, the few people we meet with Graces seem to have no parameters placed on their skills, it seemed that especially for Po and Katsa a new aspect of their Grace would appear anytime the story needed it to overcome some obstacle.  I'm not 100% sure how hurting other people on the orders of the king is part of survival.  Po seemed a little to perfect at times, always open when Katsa was closed off, skilled, sensitive, even able to overcome his blindness fairly quickly (seriously he went from struggling and depressed over his blindness to the simple "oh I just accept my Grace and now I can sense and make sense of everything" all in one sentence).  The love story was pretty run of the mill, the author tried to make it different by throwing the whole "I will love you, but I won't marry you and I can leave at any time" stuff in there, but as soon as Katsa acknowledged her feelings, it seemed that she fell right into the "oh Po you are the love of my life and all I can think about is you and if you are unhappy so am I and since you are not here your all I can think about sad face" (holy run on sentence batman).  This is all personal dislikes and really most people dig this kind of story so it is not a deal breaker.  I am still not 100% sure the reasoning Leck had for kidnapping Grandfather Tealiff, other than to make his wife miserable.

Overall I am excited to read Bitterblue, I hope the author keeps a lot of the same sass the character had in this book.  I read Fire a companion book to this one and loved it even more than this book so this author has a pretty good track record with me so far.  Also these books have the best covers ever! (well except for Zombies vs Unicorns cause I don't think anything can top that cover).  I would recommend this book to almost any reader, especially people who like fantasy, fighting, kick-ass girls and an interesting fairly well executed premise.
Have you ever been disappointed in a reread?  How many ways are there to actually write a love story?  Do you love secondary characters as much as I do? 

Got You Covered

How awesome are these dust jacket/book covers that these three friends Erin Bowman, Tracey Nethercott, and Sarah Enni made up for our enjoyment?   Best part is they have made them available for download and print for FREE! What nice girls  :-)

Set #1

Set #2

Set #3

These are great for books, Kindles, Nooks, or just leaving all over the place so people get the idea to LEAVE ME ALONE I'M READING!  The sites all have the files and printing and usage instructions so go print off your favorite and let me know which ones you like the best.