Waiting On Wednesday #2

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Bitter Kingdom

(Warning, third book in the series!)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature any book(s) that we are eagerly waiting to read. 

So, if you don't already know by now, I am really bad at waiting. It just doesn't work for me. I want that book and I want it NOW. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, this mindset does not make the publication date get here any faster. So I have to read other books and push these to the back of my head, until Wednesday comes along and they force their way in so I can bemoan the lack of them in a blog post. You know, like, right now. 

Isn't it pretty?!

 

Title: The Bitter Kingdom
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher: HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books

On-sale date: August 27th 2013
Genre: YA, Fantasy
  Pages: 448

 

 

Summary (From Epic Reads):

The champion must not waver.

The champion must not fear.

The gate of darkness closes. 

Elisa is a fugitive. 

Her enemies have stolen the man she loves, and they await her at the gate of darkness. Her country is on the brink of civil war, with her own soldiers ordered to kill her on sight. 

Her Royal Majesty, Queen Lucero-Elisa n�e Riqueza de Vega, bearer of the Godstone, will lead her three loyal companions deep into the enemy's kingdom, a land of ice and snow and brutal magic, to rescue Hector and win back her throne. Her power grows with every step, and the shocking secrets she will uncover on this, her final journey, could change the course of history. 

But that is not all. She has a larger destiny. She must become the champion the world has been waiting for. 

Even of those who hate her most. 

I CAN'T WAIT. I. JUST. CAN'T!!! See, now I am having a meltdown because I need to read it so bad. I'm gonna go dunk my head in a bucket of ice water, or fire, or something, before I pitch a fit.

I'll see you all next time on Let's Test My Sanity. Thanks a lot Rae Carson, really, thank you.

Not "Top Ten Tuesday"

Hey guys! I'm back! Yes I disappeared. Weren't you obsessively checking my blog every day to see if I'd posted?


Anyway, I had a really busy week, plus I got bit by two different spiders a total of four times. Ah yes, I do love having numb limbs. And then I got The Major Wicked Double Book Hangover that you will hear more about in the post.

This is NOT "Top Ten Tuesday", which is a weekly meme hosted by BrokeAndBookish. I was going to do today's "Top Ten Tuesday" but this list rushed into my head. So I will be posting it instead. It is just a Top Ten list that happens to be posted on Tuesday, not a part of the "Top Ten Tuesday" meme.

However, I will be participating in "Top Ten Tuesday" in the future.

My Top Ten Ways To Break A Book Hangover.

 

1. Reread all the lovey-dovey scenes until you are a warm, giggling, puddle of foot popping goo.

This is the one I normally use; it makes me feel like the book didn't really end. P.S. Hillary T. Smith, I reread and reread until I was rolling on the floor chanting "love-bison".

2. Run around the house clutching the book to your bosom, hugging the life out of it, yelling "This is so good, this is so good, THIS IS SOOOO GOOOOOOD!!! Until a poor unsuspecting member of your family asks what it is, then proceed to melt their ears off with the whole story reiterated at top speed and maximum volume.

I tend to use a combo of 1 & 2 when the hangover is really bad. Just ask my poor siblings with no ears.

3. Sit in a big comfy chair, hold the book in your lap, and just bask in the glow of it. Occasionally stroke the cover and pages, and rub your face on the book like a cat would to your leg. Don't forget to sniff it!

I usually do this with all books, hangover or not. I have issues with endings, I always think I must have missed something, and keep looking to make sure there isn't another page. Doing this makes me feel one with the whole book, not like I must have forgotten to read something.

4. Throw yourself with the force of Yoda being launched out of a high pressure cannon into another book immediately.

This one is very effective, although brutal. It's as if someone brought you out of a trance by knocking you off the high-dive into a pool freezing water.

5. Watch an eighties movie.

So far the most enjoyable of cures, and the most thorough. Example: I had two over lapping book hangovers. Yes, TWO.

I had the brilliant idea, after having a hangover from Hilary T. Smith's "Wild Awake" (WA) for a full day and NONE (besides #4) of the other methods working, to use #4 and throw myself into Sarah Dessen's new book "The Moon and More" (TMM) which did work at first, and #4 was way less harsh because I had already been done with WA for a day. But every time I stopped reading TMM my WA hangover came back, so when I had finished TMM I still had the WA hangover PLUS the fresh one from TMM. I was FREAKING OUT. It was too much for my poor brain, I needed a distraction. So for the first time I watched "Dirty Dancing" AND IT COMPLETELY WIPED MY MIND. Watching crazy teenagers with gravity defying hair as they grind on one another, kicked those books right outta my head. After that I just stared at the wall and drooled for a while. Talk about mind wipe.

6. Read other books by that author.

If I hadn't used #5 and gyrating teenagers to break my "The Moon and More" hangover, I would have just reread the rest of Sarah Dessen's books. As a nice bonus, all of her books are set in the same world and often in the same town, so characters from past books run into each other, which is awesome, it makes you feel like you never left the other book's world. 

7. Go to the author's website and read the WHOLE THING, including as far back into their blog posts as you can before your eyes cross.

I am guilty of doing this WAY too often and losing up to hours at a time. It is a very informative and calming way to break the hangover, although it does make your eyes hurt.

8. Write a blog post/diary entry/just write on a scrap of paper, about the book. 

All your thoughts on it, anything that is circling around in your head, just get it out. I promise, you'll feel much better.

9. Go on the internet and hunt down non creepy people who have also read the book and MAKE THEM TALK ABOUT IT WITH YOU DAMMIT.

I get sucked into one liners back and forth across twitter that could go on forever, but they are more fun than a lengthy email holding all you have to say in one go.

10. Just bang your head against a wall! Knock those suckers right out.

Have I actually done this? Yes, yes I have. Until I realized that if I continued in that fashion I would have no brains left to read with. Even though sometimes I still find myself attempting a head-butting contest with my wall, I refrain by thinking what it would be like to never read Harry Potter again. *shudder*

So these are my top ten ways to break a book hangover, feel free to use any of them, or make suggestions of your own. How do you guys break your hangovers?

Review: Entwined, By Heather Dixon

Review: Entwined

Title: Entwined
Author: Heather Dixon
   Publisher: Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins

On-sale date: March 27th 2012
Genre: YA, Fantasy
  Pages: 472

Summary (From Epic Reads):

Come and mend your broken hearts here.

Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing—it’s taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He’s trapped too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. So he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest, but there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

Where do I even begin?! 

Let me start by saying: Thank you Heather Dixon, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your book made me feel that magic that has no name.

Now, on to the fangirling! 

The characters, good lord the characters! I don't think I have ever loved a cast of characters as much as I love the vibrant, heart wrenching, hilarious, brilliant characters in this incredible book. It takes talent to have 12 girls, sisters, in one book, and make them all as lovable and unique as the last. And to create three different love interests who are hardly there, but still make them important characters in the story who stand out, yet never upstage the girls. They were the most perfectly imperfect men I have ever read. And the King! You'll just have to read about him. I'll start crying if I talk about him.

I cannot begin to express how much I LOVE the dialogue. Every time I got up from the book and opened my mouth I was furiously upset that I didn't talk like the girls, especially Bramble. I mean, who wouldn't want to say things like: "Dry your tears young peep." and "The food looks corking!" or "Not there, Ivy, you great idiot" As Lord Teddie would say: "I say, now, I say, that is absolutely corking!"

The world is gorgeous, and by world I mean the palace and the secre-, I mean it's incredible, you should go read it.

I love the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" and I was worried at first that this wouldn't live up to my expectations. I put off reading it for a long time, and I am currently making a "Why, why did you wait so long?!" face print in the wall because of my silly, silly thoughts. I never learn my lesson. Every time there is a book I put off reading because I am worried it won't be that good, it BLOWS MY MIND.

List of procrastinated books that BLEW MY MIND:

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Entwined

The Madman's Daughter

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Boyfriend App

Clockwork Princess


And more to come, because, as I said before: I NEVER LEARN MY LESSON. And it schools me every time. (He he, punny.)

So, I recommend this book to anyone and everyone, and everyone and anyone, and the whole world, and any English reading Martians. 

Also, someone please box Keeper for me, would you?

Thanks.

5 SCARABS!

 Plus this extra one, just because of Bramble. (It's colorful, like her language.)

Waiting on Wednesday #1

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Crown of Midnight


(Warning, this is a sequel. Spoilers abound!)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature any book(s) that we are eagerly waiting to read. 

I am late posting this seeing as today is decidedly not Wednesday, but I was in a funk yesterday, and I can't just not post it.

Here is the book I am waiting for, if you can call what I'm doing waiting... *pets cover through computer screen*

Is this not the prettiest thing you ever did see? My cover lovin' heart is weeping.

Title: Crown of Midnight
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury U.S.A Children's Books

On-sale date: August 27th 2013
Genre: YA, Fantasy
  Pages: 432

Summary (From Goodreads):

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice.

Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she most willing to fight for?

                               Yayyayyayyayyayyayyayyay!

 

 I. Cannot. Wait. *fist pump*  AND, for some reason, I thought this book came out in OCTOBER. It does not. IT COMES OUT AUGUST 27th!!! Only 7 weeks 5 days, or 54 days, or 1296 hours, or 7776 minutes, or 46656 seconds. Somehow that makes it seem smaller, so I'm just going to count to 46656 now, see you on publishing day. *waves* *goes to counting cave*

What are you waiting on?

My Top Ten Books and Movies in this year so far.

My Top Ten Books and Movies in this year so far.

I have read 68 books this year so far. My goal at the beginning of the year was 200, but that doesn't seem likely now. I may have gotten distracted by various movies and twitter. So, since I have also watched a lot of movies this year, I have decided to give you two Top Ten lists: Books and Movies. Here we go!

Books:

1. In the Shadow of Blackbirds, By Cat Winters

This book is so amazing I can't even begin to tell you, but I did try. If you want to see my attempt at expressing how amazing this book is, go to my last post, if you want to experience the amazingness for yourself, go read the book. I recommend both. With a cookie, an onion cookie .

2. Splintered, By A.G. Howard

This book is a morbidly lovely twist on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The first two lines gave me a delightful whole body shiver of anticipation for the wonderful wonderland my mind was about to enter. And I don't think I ever really left it.

3. Girl of Fire and Thorns, By Rae Carson

This whole book is steeped in the story world's religion. All religion intrigues me, I find it all very interesting, but this author created a new one that I got to learn about, which I really enjoyed. I love religious conflict in a story, and there is heaps abound of that in this book, it's great when people start arguing about faith. The main character is VERY religious at the beginning of the story, and I loved seeing her beliefs change and her faith waver as more history and secrets behind the religion she trusted and so diligently followed were revealed.

4. Shatter Me, By Tahereh Mafi

This book was my first dystopian read and I am infinitely glad it was. Tahereh's writing is beautiful, prose like. The book is told from the perspective of a girl who is going insane, and I just love that. If  you want to know more of my thoughts on this book the post is third from the top.

5. Invisibility, By Andrea Cremer, and David Levithan

This is a great standalone, the story is like nothing I have ever read, and the characters and world are amazing. I love that it's told from two different points of view, the story opens up a lot more when you're not confined to one person's mind. The only thing I wanted more out of this book was, well, more.

6. Throne of Glass, By Sarah J. Maas

I love this book because I love badass assassin girls soaking* arrogant meat heads. Oh, and a mystery murderer ripping people up and leaving their bloody carcases for people to wonder and worry over. Yippee, splayed organs!


7. Born of Illusion, By Teri Brown


I love historical fiction. Even more so, historical fiction with supernatural happenings in it.  But more than that, I love a book set during the 1920s with a protagonist who is the illegitimate daughter of one of the most famous magicians of that time, who has real psychic abilities that she hides from everyone, including her stage hog of a mother. Oh, and she pulls scallions out of people's ears. Needless to say, she is very handy in the kitchen.

8. The Boyfriend App, By Katie Sise
 

This book really surprised me, I went into it thinking that it would be a fun flirty read with enough originality to keep me from falling asleep. And I came out with my mind blown. This book is smart and scary possible. The main character is a computer genius (read: hacker), and I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have the girl, when she is pissed off at the Queen Bee (read: bitch), instead of plotting something like putting glue in QB's lip gloss, scheme all the ways she could take her down by hacking her computer. Let's just say it involves the FBI, and you should be nice to those trogs. Really.

9. The Madman's Daughter, By Megan Shepherd

Creeeeeeeepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. What do you get when you take a Mad Doctor (technical term) who likes to vivisect, his daughter who thinks she's off her rocker, two very different boys vying for her affections, and a whole lota danger, suspicion, suspense, and the experiments that come with a Mad Doctor, and put them on an island full of people that may not be people? You get The Madman's Daughter! Hint: It's about the Mad Doctor and his daughter. He is really, REALLY, mad.

10. This is what happy looks like, By Jennifer E. Smith

First, GREAT title, second, the book is better than the title. If someone told you about this book you would think it's insane, the plot is totally unbelievable, never in a million years would I have thought someone would come up with this. It's crazy and is not realistic in the least, but the characters are achingly real and the way Jennifer writes makes it all seem like the most possible thing in the world. By the time I was done with this book I was thinking: How could I have thought this book was unrealistic? This could totally happen! It probably, totally, won't, but it seemed like it could, and really, isn't that every author's goal, to make their story feel real? At least, that's what I want from all stories, I want them to be real. Because if they aren't, I would have to accept the world I live in to be the only reality, and I just don't accept that. Someday, I will go to Hogwarts, you mark my words.

Movies:

This list ranges from the best to the least best, though all very good. Also, these are all movies I watched for the first time this year, not movies that I love and watched again.

1. Newsies* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104990/?ref_=sr_3 

Possibly the best movie ever, also, when I said "soaking" up there in #6 it was in reference to this movie, you probably guessed that it's another way of saying "beating" or "roughing" them up, but if you want to know why it is so funny and why my brother will likely spray food out his nose from laughing when he reads this, I strongly suggest you go watch it. CRUTCHY!!! *cough* Sorry, had a Newsies spasm there.

2. The Perks of  Being a Wallflower http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659337/?ref_=sr_3

Best. Cast. Ever. You could actually feel the feels they were feeling. I was all felt out. That sounded wrong. Ignore that last part.


3. French Kiss http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113117/?ref_=sr_3



Never have I ever loved a Meg Ryan movie more. AND IT MADE ME, COMPLETELY, INSANE!!!

4. The Perfect Score http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314498/?ref_=sr_2

So many funnies! And smart cheating, I LOVE smart cheating!

5. Pitch Perfect http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981677/?ref_=sr_2

Aca awesome y'all.


6. Sliding Doors http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120148/?ref_=sr_2

Watching, watching, OMG IT'S THE GUY FROM THE MUMMY! Watching, watching, crying, crying, running through the house screaming: IT'S SO GOOD! THIS IS SO GOOD! *shaking siblings* I LOVE THIS MOVIE! 


7. Big Miracle http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430615/?ref_=sr_1

I cried, and cried, and cried, and cried, until I couldn't cry anymore. Until...


8. The Ramen Girl http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806165/?ref_=sr_1


More crying, I love crying movies. And I cried more because Britney Murphy is dead, I was going: *cry* This movie is so good! *sob* But Britney Murphy is dead, she will never be this awesome again! *breakdown* And then....


9. The best exotic Marigold Hotel http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1412386/?ref_=sr_1

So, sad. Can't, cry. Must, cry. Crying and laughing at the same time. Annnnd crying again.

10. Parental Guidance http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1047540/?ref_=sr_1

Yay, I get to laugh! More laughing. Wait, oh no, it doesn't, it does, it gets sad. But happy sad, tears of family love. *sob* The girl told her mother she loves her, and she doesn't want anyone else to be her mom! *floodgates opened* *emotional arm flapping*

It's a good thing this is a screen and not paper or the whole thing would be tear soaked. So, what are your top ten books and movies of this year so far? And do you like crying movies? We could make an ocean together! 

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