In My Mailbox (46) / Stacking the Shelves (1)

September 30, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them! 

This week was CRAZY for me, friends, so to say that I needed some good books to brighten things up is basically an understatement. THANKFULLY, I found a few solid cheapies hanging around for both my eyes AND my ears. I’m STOKED. Plus, I’m taking part in some blog tours for books that sound really great, too!

FOR REVIEW/BLOG TOUR

Goodreads

The Gleaning: Spellspinners of Melas County #2 by Heidi R. Kling (October 2012 from Colliloquy).  I really enjoyed the first book in this series, WITCH’S BREW. It’s basically a choose-your-own story, although it doesn’t have quite as many choices. But still, AWESOME. Also, I’m a big fan of witches, especially these witches, who are all about natural magic and prophecies and danger and STEAMY TIMES between Lily and Logan. Woot!

Amazon | Goodreads

Conjure: The Hoodoo Apprentice #1 by Lea Nolan (October 16, 2012 from Entangled Publishing). WHAT HOODOO! First of all, that word ALWAYS makes me think of this song (even though they only say “hoodoo” once), which I still know all the words to. But focusing back on the book–a 2012 debut!–is all of the words in the Goodreads synopsis that set off my bells: the South, hoodoo, messages in a bottle, PIRATE BOOTY, curses, hellhounds, WAH AWESOME! So excited about this one. Blog touring this one up on November 5.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

The Madness Underneath: Shades of London #2 by Maureen Johnson (February 26, 2013 from Putnam Juvenile). WHOA. I just saw this on NetGalley and I HAD to request it. THE NAME OF THE STAR was one of the first books I reviewed on my blog and I loved it. I’ve been looking forward to the second book in this series ever since.

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads | Audible

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I actually just started listening to this one today and, guys? I’m totally hooked already. The narrator, Scott Holst, has a really nice voice, and I’m digging the alternate paranormal history vibe. I’m REALLY looking forward to reading more about how vamps played some major role in the Civil War. I mean, STOP IT.

Amazon | Goodreads | Audible

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy: The Gallagher Girls #2 by Ally Carter.  I’m always on the lookout for good audiobooks, now that I’m a card-carrying member of the audio fan club, and I’ve heard really great things about the narrator of this series, Renee Raudman. I’ve heard great things about this series in general, and I liked the first book lots. Because SPIES. Spies, boarding school, secrets, danger, etc. Looking forward to this one, friends.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Bastard: The Kent Family Chronicles #1 by John Jakes.  This is a series–the story of a bastard son of an English duke who comes to America before the Revolution and fights with the colonists for their independence–that gives me TINGLES. I will shout my love of historical fictions from Revolutionary America for ever and ever. It’s my favorite time period. So when April @ Good Books and Good Wine dropped the knowledge on me that this book is only $0.99 for kindles right now, I got on that shizz ASAP.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle. I have been hearing OUTSTANDING things about this book! Amish + vampires = AWESOME? Who knew?! But I’m excited. I’m excited to read this book that manages to take something well-tread–vampires–and puts it in a fresh context–Amish communities.

Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Advertisement

Book Review: Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

Title: Storm

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Series: Elemental #1

Genre: Paranormal YA

Publisher: Kensington Teen

Amazon | Goodreads

Challenge: DAC

Source: ARC from Tara @ Hobbitsies

Summary: Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys all the ones she doesn’t want. Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her. Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They’re powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death.

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

Secrets are hard to keep when your life’s at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who’s hiding the most dangerous truth of all.

The storm is coming.

Top Ten Tuesday (46)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Series I Haven’t Finished

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!

***

Hear Me Out

Some Early Thoughts From an Audiobook Newbie

I have just recently hopped on the audiobook bandwagon, friends, and I’m pretty excited about it. So far I’ve listened to four books–THE NAME OF THE WIND, THE WISE MAN’S FEAR, and AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR, which was a reread, and THE GOLDEN COMPASS–and they were all mostly stellar. I’m in the middle of listening to THE SHADOW OF NIGHT, the sequel to A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, and it’s really good, but in my early days as a book listener, I’ve noticed a few things and I thought I’d share them with you.

1. I think I like single narrators better than full casts

So this one actually goes back to an assignment I had in library school to compare listening to a book and reading it. I picked the audiobook for GRACELING, and didn’t even finish listening to the first chapter. It was a full-cast recording, which I thought sounded kind of scattered or inconsistent. Fast-forward to THE NAME OF THE WIND, which was just one OUTSTANDING narrator, Nick Podehl. BIG difference. Big, awesome difference. It’s way easier for me to follow the thread of the story if I only have to listen to one voice. It helps me with continuity. Plus it seems less schizo.

2. The right voice can TOTALLY make an audiobook

Nick. Podehl. But also Suzy Jackson, the narrator for Amy & Roger. She was very listenable. I haven’t yet come across a book whose narrator(s) was annoying to listen to, but I’m sure they’re out there, and I can imagine that ruining an otherwise enjoyable book for me.

3. I hate not knowing how to spell things, like names of people or places. It keeps me from understanding what/who/where, etc.

This happens lots with the fantasies. THE GOLDEN COMPASS has tons of names of people and places that were strange or invented and I had trouble keeping track of some things because I couldn’t understand the words, because they were made up, and I couldn’t look at them to puzzle them out. Same with the Patrick Rothfuss books. Also, this is just plain annoying to me.

3a. On the flip side, I LOVE having a better idea of how to pronounce names/places/things.

Obviously. I NEVER would have known how to pronounce Pantalaimon (seriously had to look up the spelling) or Amyr or a ton of other things, although I could have guessed. Still, nice to hear.

4. Not being able to see a map, if there is one, sucks.

Not being able to see a map ALWAYS sucks. I don’t like not having a picture of the world I’m reading, especially when people are moving around a lot in the book. I always wind up feeling lost. This is obviously heightened when listening to a book. Checking a map isn’t even an option.

5. HEAVY BREATHERS ARE THE WORST.

So, ok. THE GOLDEN COMPASS–which I will be reviewing very soon–was a full-cast recording, but one of the guys did the voices for two characters, and you could hear him inhale before every word. WORST. It was icky sounding. Like, step away from the mike for a second.

6. Awkward pauses are awkward. And annoying.

This is a weird thing that has more to do with the production of an audiobook than the reading, I’d imagine. The book I’m listening to right now, THE SHADOW OF NIGHT, has this all over the place. Weird pauses in between words sometimes; weird pauses between the end of a chapter and the beginning of the next ALWAYS. It’s crazy inconsistent. Sometimes there’s a pause of a few beats, sometimes it’s a few whole seconds. I’m always checking to make sure that something didn’t go wrong with my iPod. ANNOYING.

Guys, I’m LOVING audiobooks right now. They’re the perfect way for me to pass the time on my commute. I’m not so good at listening to books when I’m at home, though. Too many other things to distract me, and I wind up not really listening. But in my car, I can pay more attention, and it makes the drive to and from work something I can look forward to. I’m officially in the fanclub, friends! So tell me: do you listen to audiobooks? What’s your favorite one to listen to?

In My Mailbox (45)

September 23, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees!

It’s FALL!! HUZZAH!! My favorite season of the year. The leaves are starting to turn, the air is getting crispy, and I’ve had hankerings for pumpkin bread and spiced apple cider. EXCELLENT news, guys. But the start of fall also means something else in my reading life: Maggie Stiefvater. I swear, I read her books during this season ALL THE TIME. Maybe because her books come out this time of year, it seems, but they also feel right being read now, too. I got only one book this week, which I purchased for myself.

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads

The Raven Boys: The Raven Cycle # 1 by Maggie Stiefvater. So I’ve actually already read this one because I was lucky enough to get an ARC at BEA this year. Guys, it was pretty legit. Mysterious and creepy in a way that Maggie’s other books aren’t: a bunch of very different boys from a wealthy private school on the hunt for the burial place of an ancient Welsh king, and the girl daughter of psychics who helps them but is cursed to kill her true love with just one kiss. It’s totally different and really enjoyable. I’ll be reviewing it soon–and giving away my ARC to boot! HOLLA!

Also, some quick bloggy business…

So apparently there was some shizz that went down with Feedburner recently that I was unaware of until yesterday. My apologies! But I went and fixed it right quick, and set up shop at Feedblitz. Alas, even though I migrated my Feedburner feed, I lost all of my feed followers, you precious, beautiful few. I’ve updated my RSS feed link on the sidebar, or you can just click HERE to continue the goodness.

Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!