Blogging Hibernation

 To set the mood-

 

                        Alright, all five of you reading this right now, I have some terrible news. If you are one to stand while doing your blog reading, then I must ask you to sit down, lest you go weak in the knees. You see, I am around these people called “family.” I’m not just around them, but living under their roof. The presence of these other bipedal creatures has disrupted my hermit equilibrium, which is the source of my blogging energies. Without a supply of blogging juices to spew, I can’t reliably write reviews that don’t suck. What this all translates to is this: for the next two or so weeks, while I’m around these fellow human beings, I will be entering a blogger hibernation. Glad that I had you sit now, aren’t ya?

                                                           

So… See you later?

The Book Notes Project - Spreading the Love

For various reasons I won’t be putting up a review today. Instead, I’ll be talking about something far more interesting, The Book Notes Project. Spreading a little happiness, bit by bit.

 

The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway

“Adam Strand isn't depressed. He's just bored. Disaffected. So he kills himself—39 times. No matter the method, Adam can't seem to stay dead; he wakes after each suicide alive and physically unharmed, more determined to succeed and undeterred by others' concerns. But when his self-contained, self-absorbed path is diverted, Adam is struck by the reality that life is an ever-expanding web of impact and forged connections, and that nothing—not even death—can sever those bonds.

In stark, arresting prose, Gregory Galloway finds hope and understanding in the blackest humor.”

Top Ten Tuesday #2 : Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like More/Less than I Did

                        You know that book, which had such promise, that you were ready to just love, but served to only break your reader heart? Or perhaps you know its brother; the quiet book, unassuming, which you were prepared to read and forget about, but in the end loved, went so far as to use your silken bookmark with? Who hasn’t been there? Follow me as I recount the Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like More/Less than I Did.

The Stages of Madness in One Email

            I’m not going to give much explanation for this, but allow me to say that the following was written at four in the morning, right after I finished my review of Seraphina. I needed to send it to my teach/editor so I wrote this email, with the intention of it being nice and short, sticking to the facts. However, my conscious mind fell out of favor with my hands, allowing my subconscious to rise. You are about to read an unedited glimpse into my (sleep deprived) mind.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

"Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they've turned the final page." -taken from Goodreads

Guest Post: The Kite Runner by Klaled Hosseini

This week, I'll be joined by Andrea from The Intrepid Book Moth, an absolutely fantastic blog dedicated to indiscriminate reading, who has reviewed Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

"A novel set mostly in Afghanistan. The introverted and insecure afghan narrator, Amir, grows up in Afghanistan in the closing years of the monarchy and the first years of the short-lived republic. His best and most faithful friend, Hassan, is the son of a servant. Amir feels he betrays Hassan by not coming to his aid when Hassan is set on by bullies and furthermore forces Hassan and his father Ali to leave his father´s service. Amir´s relatively privileged life in Kabul comes to an end when the communist regime comes to power and his extrovert father, Baba emigrates with him to the U.S. There Amir meets his future afghan wife and marries her. Amir´s father dies in the U.S. and Amir receives a letter from his father´s most trusted business partner and, for a time, Amir´s surrogate father, which makes Amir return, alone, to a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan in search of the truth about himself and his family, and finally, a sort of redemption." -taken from Goodreads