July Book Photo Challenge

I love the monthly book photo challenges over at Books and Cupcakes - so I decided to do July's!

You can check it out on my Tumblr. :)

Teaser Tuesday: The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

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!

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From my current read (as I described yesterday), The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker. Here is the first line:

Much later, Nora would learn magic for dissolving glue or killing vermin swiftly and painlessly or barring mice from the house altogether, but that morning--the last normal morning, she later thought of it--as she padded into the kitchen in search of coffee, she was horribly at a loss when she saw the small brown mouse wriggling on the glue trap in front of the sink.

See, this is why I couldn't not check this book out from the library! What a great first line.

Book Quiz - with bonus reaction gifs!

I love doing quizzess and also reading other people's responses to them! So if you do this too, please leave me a link in the comments. :)

I grabbed this from Miz B over at Should Be Reading who did it courtesy of Alicia @ Awesome Book Assessment.

Top 3 bookish pet peeves?

1. Bad writing with a great premise.
2. Good writing with an unoriginal premise/characters.
3. People who don't return books they've borrowed. (To be fair, I only get annoyed after a year...)

 
Perfect reading spot?
One of my great pleasures in life is finding a new perfect reading spot every other week. Right now it's a folding chair in the backyard.

3 Bookish confessions?

1. I'm a sucker for tragic romance.
2. Sometimes I let books stack up in piles all over my house just because I like the way it looks.
3. Roughly half the books I own I've started reading and never finished. Not because I didn't like them, but just because I got distracted by something else!

When was the last time you cried during a book?
I definitely teared up when I reread Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Peterson a few months ago. Even though I knew it was coming. Sigh.

How many books are on your bedside table?
There are 3 right now: The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. All of which I started reading months ago and have subsequently suffered the "Rachel go distracted by something else" curse.

What is your favorite snack to eat while reading?
I have found that I don't really snack while I read anymore. It's either nothing - or sitting down to a full meal.

Name 3 books you’d recommend to everyone.

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
2. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
3. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Write how much books mean to you in 3 words.
Past, present, future.

What is your biggest reading secret?
Probably every fourth book I read is a schlock-y romance novel. Just because they're fun and brainless.

Who I’m tagging:

Musing Monday: The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

Musing Mondays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just muse about one of the following each week:

Describe one of your reading habits.
Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

On GoodReads

 So last week I had a job interview. It went well, but I also left with the unfortunate feeling that they were really looking for someone with more experience. Feeling a bit low, I hightailed it over to my local library so I could bask in the glow of book-y goodness.

I ended up checking out three books. I already finished The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - which I thoroughly enjoyed although I'm not sure I feel compelled to read the rest of the series. And now I'm reading The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker.

I picked this one off the shelf because of... you guessed it. The title. It's so intriguing! It sounds exactly like the kind of fantasy I'd enjoy.

The book starts out with an erstwhile English grad student, Nora. The man who just broke her heart is now engaged to someone else. Her dissertation is going nowhere and her adviser is increasingly annoyed with her. And she's been invited to a friend's wedding that she doesn't really want to go to... She goes - and ends up wandering into another world.

Soon she's entrenched in a world of fairy-like people who seek to use her for their own devices. She manages to break free and seeks out a magician who might be able to help her..?

That's as far as I've gotten. So far, I'm loving this book. The language is superb. The fantasy world is deliciously dream-like. And for the most part Nora is a sympathetic main character without being too whiny. It's easy to see myself in her, and I always enjoy that in a story where we shift from reality to fantasy and back again.

I'll give my full opinion when I've finished!

Grave of the Goddess

Hello, all.

Remember that young adult fantasy novel I worked so hard to finish this spring? Well, I'm finally editing it. I'm using something called the "One-Pass Manuscript Revision" as detailed by Holly Lisle, and so far it's going extremely well. I have a lot of work to do, but I'm confident I can finish this thing to be ready for querying by the end of the summer.

Here is my recently reworked back cover blurb:

Luca has trained with the Northern Sun Sages for as long as he can remember. Soon he hopes to become a full member of the order and pledge his life to the service of the ancient and eternal Sun God.

Kai is the oldest of seven siblings. Living on the edge of the Sun Sages' lands working a failing farm, every day is a struggle to survive. Kai does what she can to help her family, but she feels like the only one to notice that summer is wearing out its welcome.

When the devout Brother Martin comes from the capital to train Luca and his mysterious new powers, Luca's master reveals to the boy that his destiny is much different from that of the sage he hoped to become. On the run from this new destiny, Luca's world collides with Kai's - and she is not happy to meet him.

After a shared vision of a woman bound and calling to them for help, Luca and Kai set out on a journey of discovery together. But their ultimate goal is a grave... The grave of the Moon Goddess.

What do you think? Intrigued yet?

Summer Solstice

It's officially summer!

In New England this means soft serve ice cream places and farm stands pop up all over the place, and everyone tries to figure out which weekend is the best to brave the traffic out to the Cape. (Hint: no weekend. Every weekend is crowded. Go in May or September.)

For me, it means playing my "Summer" iTunes playlist ad nauseam, pulling weeds at 8pm, and eating dinner on the deck. Damn, I wish could afford to buy a grill! The cats are happy because I let them out on the porch all day. The boy is happy because he can play ultimate frisbee a couple of times a week. And I'm happy because the steady dose of sunlight means it's unlikely that my mood will take any sudden dives for no reason. Yay!

The Smoke Monster on the porch.

Thea is actually starting to like her leash because it means SNACK ON THE GRASS TIME.

We were out taking a drive last year and the boy spotted some of his students tossing a disc so of course we stopped and he joined them for a while. It was awesome.

So how have I spent the first day of summer 2014?

I slept in until 1030. Got up and had waffles with strawberry jam. Sat out in the yard with Thea on her leash for awhile. Finished reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (Yes, I realize I am the last person in the world to read this YA staple.) Then the boy and I went off to sample the Taste of Amherst festival. We had: lobster sliders, fish tacos, a smoked turkey panini, and the perfect lemonade. We also watched a brass band and an eating contest. We grabbed some mochas on the way out of town and went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 in 3D. A brief stop at Trader Joe's later, we came home and had a nice jog together.

Now I'm relaxing on the couch and trying not to think of all the stressful things in my life because dammit it's summer and I want to just enjoy this wonderful day.

Recent Reads

Book review time!

I've been making decent progress on my GoodReads Challenge this year (see sidebar). The two most recent novels to hit my "Read" pile are Jim Butcher's newest addition to the Dresden Files, Skin Game, and Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl.

Skin Game was great and definitely in keeping with Butcher's previous success with this series about Harry Dresden, Chicago's wizard PI. I'm not going to give a detailed review for fear of spoiling potential readers (or those who don't read books in the 24 hours after they are released!). But I will say this this one cracked my top five list for The Dresden Files. Somehow he continues to top his own Crowning Moments of Awesome. In this book, we return to my favorite antagonists - the Denarians. And we get something of a classic heist plot - but with all of Butcher's insane twists and turns.

If you do read this series and you're interested in my top five, here they are:
1. Turn Coat #11
2. Dead Beat #7
3. Cold Days #14
4. Changes #12
5. Skin Game #15

Fangirl is the first book by Rainbow Rowell that I have read. I picked it up in Barnes and Noble one day because of the title, and as soon as I read the first two pages I knew I needed to devour the whole thing. This book basically describes my own transition from high school to college as a Harry Potter fangirl and fanfic writer. Well, I didn't have as much drama in my life as protagonist Cath seems to, but I definitely had the introverted writerly reaction to finding myself in a place that no longer valued all of the things I placed such a premium on when I was getting myself through high school.

The negative: I did feel it was a bit melodramatic at times. I also closed it with the feeling that Rowell missed some opportunities in the wrap-up at the end. Again, I won't go into detail for fear of spoilers, but there were some Big Important Plot Things that seemed to get swept under the rug at the end.

The positive: It was extremely evocative of the time of life it described. The language was stellar. And I really loved how we got the full gamut of reactions to fanfiction from the various characters (but most of all from Cath's creative writing professor which is the one that most of us who got our "start" writing fanfic get).


To sum up: Both of these books gets 4/5 stars from me. Satisfying reads, but each had minor issues that I really believe their authors are good enough to have resolved. Otherwise, these both would've made it to my favorites shelf!

Life Update: May-June Edition

Usually when I am remiss in posting to this blog it's because I don't think anything interesting is happening in my life.

That is definitely not the case this time.

I haven't been writing much since I finished Grave of the Goddess so maybe that fact alone is why I haven't been keeping up with my blog. But I've also been extraordinarily busy trying to keep up with all of the crazy things suddenly going on in my life.

Just after finishing Grave, I went to stay with my BFF for a few days in Boston. (Psst, the Quilt exhibit at the MFA right now is stellar.) I drove her back to my house and our other BFF from college came up from FL with her boyfriend to visit for a long weekend. We all took a trip to see said college (and town) for a day. Oh happy nostalgia. When she had to leave, I took BFF back to Boston and then came home ready to buckle down on the job hunt before diving into editing Grave.

Yeah right. You know what they say about best laid plans and all that... I spent a WEEK trying to fix unexpected car trouble. And then I found out that my grandparents are trying to sell their house this summer. So now I'm in New Hampshire with them, my dad, and my aunt helping them arrange a gigantic yard sale and generally get ready to move.

I haven't had much time to think, let alone write. We are all also trying to rally around another relative who is struggling with depression. ....and then to top everything off, my boy just found out that he probably won't have a job in the fall.

So... yay. Life.

Apologies

Going on hiatus while college friends are in town. Should resume regular posting in a week or so.

Brief update on my writing before I go...

I finished the first draft of Grave of the Goddess last Tuesday. (A million hip hip hoorays because it's only the second full draft of something I've ever finished!) I'm not looking at it for the rest of the month while my beta readers tear it apart. Planning to edit it into a query-worthy draft during June and July. Wish me luck because this will be the first time I have attempted to edit an entire draft like this.

That's it for now. See you next week sometime!

Teaser Tuesday: The Beauty Bride

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

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!

Current read: The Beauty Bride by Claire Delacroix

Synopsis: Alexander has a problem. It's that he has to marry off his sister Madeline, who has refused to ever wed. Madeline's betrothed died on the same boat as their parents and she won't even discuss it. So Alexander is forced to take matters into his own hands by auctioning Madeline off. He never intended Rhys Fitzhenry to take part. Rhys is a warrior who has fought the king to gain land. Clever and resourceful, he knows he needs an heir, and this auction is the perfect way to get one. Furious that her brother would dare auction her off, Madeline flees...but Rhys won't be cast aside so easily. Can this strong and witty warrior catch his impetuous and bold bride?

Teaser:

Rhys had always found women somewhat incomprehensible and a goodly amount of trouble. It was small consolation that his new wife proved his earlier conclusions to be valid.

I picked this up for free on my Kindle. (I am always looking for free romance novels to read via the Kindle app on my phone when I'm caught somewhere without a book.) For a historical romance with a pretty insane premise, its main characters are rather endearing. I'll say more about it when I finish it!

Musing Monday: A home without books is no home at all!

Musing Mondays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just muse about one of the following each week:

Describe one of your reading habits.
Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Last week I mused about how I am a "messy" reader - and got some interesting responses. It seems a lot of people fall into extremes with their reading style, either being messy like me or neat as a pin like my dear BFF.

This week, I think I'll continue to muse about my reading habits. After all, the best part about a blog is talking about yourself!

Reading Habit #2

Before I talk about my reading habit, I think we need some background information. Because not only do I think a well-worn book is a well-loved book... I also think a house that looks more like a library is the only kind of house for me. Fortunately for me, my boyfriend agrees! Our house currently has six standalone bookcases, and at least five shelves on other pieces of furniture that I have turned into bookcases. There are regularly piles of books on both coffee tables, both of our nightstands, the filing cabinet in my office, the end table in the living room, and sometimes the kitchen table.

Of course, we spend a lot of time in the Barnes and Noble cafe reading books we don't own as well.

 ...we own a lot of books. I counted all of them when we first moved in together (and actually took them all out of boxes) and we had four hundred and some odd books. That was three years ago. Since then, we've moved into an actual house and managed to rescue nearly all of the books that remained at our respective parents' houses. I wanted to count our new collection when we put up the bookshelves here... But it was far too daunting a task. I would assume we own over a thousand books now.

Yep. And they are in every room of the house EXCEPT the bathrooms. Which is silly because we both definitely read in the bathroom! (Maybe that can be the subject of another Musing Monday.)

I took this picture when I had finished counting all the books we had in our first apartment together.

So, my second reading habit is this: I delight in finding new places to read in much the same way that I am always looking for new places to write. Having bookcases all over the house really aids in this venture. I can say with certainty that I've lived here for less than a year and I have spent time reading in each and every room of the house - as well as on the porch and the deck out back!

Are you like me, always seeking the next reading nook? Or do you like to curl up in the same chair every time you open a book?

As for me... I'm so intrigued by listing all of my book-y assets that I'm thinking some pictures of my collection might be in order soon...