Bookish Holiday Gifts - A Selection of Finds from Etsy

I am up for it if you want to buy me any of these :-)

Bookish Holiday Gifts - A Selection of Finds from Etsy: "

A paperback weekend.

Give my mother three words to describe me and they would be: dramatic, emotional and artsy-fartsy (if the last is indeed a word.)

This last weekend at the very least proved the first two. We were supposed to go away for a visit with friends & family. At the very last minute I reneged and immediately ran out to buy the latest in paperbacks. Definitely time to put down the latest Man Booker Nominee and pick up what ever caught my fancy at the nearest drug store.

So there I was with four books before me: a collection of christmas romances (the first of the season - a bit late actually), Heart & Soul by Meave Binchy, Sunday at Tiffany's by James Patterson & Under the Radar by Fern Micheals.

I hated the Fern Micheals, didn't finish it but only because it really wasn't what I thought it would be. I have never heard of the Sisterhood series before so that is my bad.

As for the other three, there is something to be said for getting exactly what you want. I loved Tiffany just for it's quaint feel. It will make a great movie some day. Heart & Soul was just as engaging as her other books. The christmas title? My obession started after reading a few books that really centred around the holiday. Now I'm finding many stories are just being re-worked to include a mention of christmas now and then. So I wasn't expecting much here but two out of the three stories actually did revolve around what it says to be about. Really. Therefore I was happy. Still not as memorable as the other two which means I can read it again next year.

ARC's

Please, please, please let the future be the new trend in YA. (taking over from fantasy, vampires, pirates or chicklette-lit.)

Hot on the heels of Hunger Games & Catching Fire, comes Clone Codes A very intelligent, exciting look at how we try to backtrack after our experiments with cyborgs & clones go awry. Following the premise that we are bound to repeat history the story incorporates the ideals from key figures in the fight against slavery and constitutional discrimination. Great female lead, cool technology.

My other fav this season is Numbers - not really set in the future but rather timeless, and very realistic give the premise. A young girl deals with the fact that she can see the date of people's death when she looks into their eyes. It was very well presented in conference but they didn't warn me that the ending would make me cry.

There's more like Wolves of the Beyond and Lonely Hearts Club.

July Books - just a quick note for my own memory.

February - Lisa Moore: Thanks H for the copy of this. While the story was a bit different than I thought (not as much focus on the son,) it is so beautifully & simply told that I couldn't put it down. The precarious balance between now and then, in & out in Helen's head is very clear; we easily could fall into that life. Only when the shadow lifts does the light show how much was missed.

Sugar Queen - Sarah Addison Allen: I picked up Garden Spells a while back. A good clean read especially for those who enjoy Alice Hoffman (see below.) Sugar Queen is the same, although I think the characters are better drawn here.

Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman: I often forget how much I love the magical fiction of Alice Hoffman that is until a read an only slightly inferior copy of her type of writing and am forced to find which books I've missed. More will be on the agenda.

But first I have to finish Syliva & get it back to the library :-)

A holding place

I already have two blogs to choose from. This space is mainly to keep track of people who have blogs on this network.