Tuesday 31 May 2011

Teaser Tuesday (34)




Teaser Tuesday 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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Flawless - Lara Chapman
FlawlessWith one last smack of her freshly glossed lips, she closes the visor mirror, then turns and smiles, affording me the full view of her spectacular face, and for an instant, a moment, a nanosecond, I hate her. Every single featureon her face is the right shape and textbook proportionate,




The Girl in the Steel Corset - Kady Cross

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles)"Coming back for more, eh?" Felix grinned at her. "I like a little fight in my girls."

She grinned at him, causing blood to dribble down her chin. "Then you're going to love me."

Monday 30 May 2011

It's Monday (53) and Weekly Round Up




It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week hosted at Book Journey, Post the books completed last week, the books you're currently reading, and the books to be read this week. Please comment or leave a link to let me know what you're reading this week!

Completed last week

Sweet Valley Confidential (Sweet Valley High) Angel Burn

Sweet Valley Confidential - Francine Pascal
Angel Burn - LA Weatherly

Currently Reading

 Flawless The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles) The Kane Chronicles, Book Two: The Throne of Fire

Flawless - Lara Chapman
The Girl in the Steel Corset - Kady Cross
The Throne of Fire - Rick Riordan (Still reading this - I do a lot of reading on the go and hardbacks aren't so good for that)

Up soon (Liable to change on a whim)

Dunkirk (Duty Calls) Infinity: Chronicles of Nick

Dunkirk (Duty Calls) - James Holland
Infinity: Chronicles of Nick - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Reviews

Awaken Doctor Who: the Hounds of Artemis (BBC Audio) Act of Love

Awaken - Katie Kacvinsky
Doctor Who: The Hounds of Artemis - James Goss
An Act of Love - Alan Gibbons

Books Received

In My Mailbox

Posts of Interest

Teaser Tuesday
Waiting on Wednesday
Booking Through Thursday: Rut

Review: An Act of Love - Alan Gibbons

Title: An Act of Love
Author: Alan Gibbons
Format: paperback
Pages: 224
Genre: Young Adult, War
Published: 2nd June 2011 (Orion Childrens)

Childhood friends Chris and Imran celebrate the Millenium as inseparable blood brothers, they are both seven years old. But by 2011 their lives have taken very different paths. One has joined the Army and served in Afghanistan, the other is a potential jihad recruit. They are no longer friends, and there are bitter wounds between them which remain unhealed. Will their childhood bond be strong enough to overcome an extremist plot? In a highly-charged, honest and life affirming story, told in flashback from both Chris and Imran's viewpoint, Alan Gibbon's cleverly explores the very real issue of terrorism that affects everyone today.

At seven-years-old Chris and Imran are best friends. The story follows them as they grow up and apart from each other. As children they had so much in common but they end up with dramatically different lives.

The book deals with the difficult issue of terrorism which is dealt with in an accessible way by viewing historical moments such as the Bradford Riots, 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings through the eyes of two young boys who at first don't understand the importance of what is happening around them but soon find out just how these much impact these events have.

Throughout the story we get to know the two boys through their different feelings and emotions regarding their friendship as well as racism and terrorism. At times the book is not easy to read - in terms of subject matter, the writing is outstanding - and it makes you question your opinions of the whole issue.

An Act of Love is a great way for young people to learn more about the war on terrorism, particularly on how it affects individuals, and it would no doubt prompt discussion about this as well.

Sunday 29 May 2011

Review: The Hounds of Artemis (Dr Who) - James Goss

Title: The Hounds of Artemis (Dr Who)
Author: James Goss
Format: audiobook
Genre: Science fiction
Published: 19th February 2011 (BBC Audio)

When Lord Woolcroft and his team break open the fabled Tomb of Artemis, sealed for thousands of years, they are astonished by what they find inside... The Doctor and Amy have come to Smyrna in 1929 to investigate a mystery. The Doctor knows something very bad happened there: something caused a lot of people to die and an entire, magnificent Temple to be found and then immediately lost again. But he doesn't know what is picking off the archaeologists one by one, or how it is connected to the terrifying howling in the night. And as he and Amy get closer to the terrible truth behind an ancient evil, he begins to wish he'd never found out.
A relatively short (at just over an hour) but exciting story, The Hounds of Artemis provides a great listen which would most certainly live up any boring car journey.

The Doctor and Amy are at the site of an archaeological dig in which the Tomb of Artemis is opened. As expected with a Dr Who adventure, the contents are the tomb aren't quite what was expected.

The audio book is duel narrated by both Clare Corbett and Matt Smith (the Eleventh Doctor). Personally I enjoyed listening to Matt's parts a little more as he brought a touch of the Doctor's franticness to the story but that's not to say the other bits weren't good as well.

In My Mailbox (52)




In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books received this week and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren. What books did you get this week?

For Review (from publisher unless stated)



Haunting Violet - Alyxandra Harvey (Bloomsbury)
Halo - Alexandra Adornetto (Atom)
Chasers - James Phelan (Atom)
Die For Me - Amy Plum (Atom)
Dr Who: The Hounds of Artemis - James Goss (Amazon Vine) [audio book]
Smut - Alan Bennett (Amazon Vine) [audio book]
Ultraviolet - RJ Anderson (Netgalley) [not shown]
Ashfall - Mike Mullin (Netgalley) [not shown]

Saturday 28 May 2011

Review: Awaken - Katie Kacvinsky

Title: Awaken
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Format: ebook (netgalley)
Pages: 352
Genre: Dyslit, Science Fiction YA
Published: 23rd May 2011

Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her.

Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.

In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.

In Maddie's near-future world, everything can be done through a computer. For Maddie this means school, socialising, excercise ... even a walk in the park. She rarely leaves her house partly because she doesn't need to and partly because of restrictions set down by her father. Maddie's father is the head of Digital School and a few years previously Maddie hacked into his computer and caused all kinds of trouble - I won't explain any more as we don't find out any more details until later in the book - which essentially has had under house arrest since. Only now is she starting to get a little more freedom.

I found the whole idea behind this book completely fascinating. It's set fifty years into the future, so in a time that most of us will see (hopefully!) and to me it was completely believable that things could go that way. Today so much can already be done through computers and the internet, more and more of us are using it for shopping and socialising and there's already a whole bunch of online learning. Many of us have smartphones/laptops/tablets that mean we're constantly attached to the internet. Awaken is really just taking it a step further. Even the reasons given for the start of the Digital School make sense.

To start with Maddie is okay with the life she has but after meeting one of her online contacts in person, things start to change. Justin is against the solitary, digital life that most people lead and her introduces Maddie to a whole new world and things she's never experienced before.

I really liked the characters in this book, Maddie was both fiesty and in some ways innocent to the real world. She had a clear rebellious streak but it had mostly been trodden down by her father and we get to see it coming alive again as the book goes on. There was no surprise that there was some romantic element to the relationship between Maddie and Justin with a heap of "I'm not good enough for you" on his part to add to the tension.

I don't know if there's plans for a sequel but it certainly seemed like there was more of this story to tell and I definitely want to read more to find out what happens next.

Friday 27 May 2011

Friday Fun!



Book Blogger Hop

Read My Review is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews, related to a theme. It is hosted here at A Trillian Books. Make sure you leave your OUTDOORS reviews on the current linky and also visit some of the awesome reviews already there.

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer @ Crazy for Books. It's a chance for book bloggers to connect and share the book love. Check out Crazy for Books (click on the button) for more details and to find the links of some awesome blogs.

This week's question is:
What book-to-movie adaption have you most liked? Which have you disliked?
A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book OneThe King's SpeechI usually say that the only movie-adaptations that I've liked is the Twilight movies because they're shorter than the actual books lol but to be honest, if only actually seen the first one. Umm, I loved the movie of The King's Speech and not quite a movie but Game of Thrones is awesome, although I haven't yet read the books of those.

Basically I pretty much dislike most book-to-movie adaptations. I generally prefer to read the book first if I can and for me the movies never live up to it, even if it's just because they've had to cut parts out to fit in the time. If it's a book I really love I can't help but criticise every little detail - I'm kind of a nightmare to watch Harry Potter with.

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee. Just click on the banner below to see the rules and to join in.

This week's question is:
How many books do you read in a week? And in what format do you read them, or listen to them?

I usually get through 2 or 3 books on an average week, mostly paperbacks and ebooks. Sometimes I read enough that I would have finished the normal amount but I'll be reading about 4 or 5 different books at a time so I don't actually get them finished lol. For some reason this week I keep starting new books before I've finished the one's I'm already reading.

It's also Mega Swagbucks day! If you don't use Swagbucks you should give it a try. Just use it to search as you would your usual search engine and you periodically earn swagbucks which can be redeemed for prizes. Currently I average about 2 £5 Amazon gift cards a month just by using swagbucks for some of my internet searching (I don't even use it all the time). Click below to join.


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