Feature and Follow Friday: December 7

Q: Activity! Who do you want to be? If you could choose any character from a book. What do you think that character looks like and what do you have in common?

This is a hard one.  Generally, I'm pretty glad that my life is not nearly as exciting as the main characters in books because they go through some pretty harsh stuff and make some really hard decisions and live in some pretty gritty and not-so-nice worlds.  What makes for an interesting book doesn't necessarily make for happy living.  For the sake of sticking to the question, though, I won't cheat and pick a minor character, so my answer has to be an old favorite: Sandry from Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic books.

The one thing I think I could never give up no matter what world I live in is my sewing.  I love the craft and the challenge behind making something from a yard of cloth.  I think that Sandry gets this too: the simple joy of making something utilitarian, the thrill of doing something you've never done before, and the spark behind having something come out exactly like you expected.  I love the thought that there's magic in my sewing.  And yes, I'm working on the outfit above, someday soon I'll even cosplay as Sandry!

Feature and Follow Friday: November 2nd

Q: What is a deal breaker for you in a book? For example, do you abhor love triangles? Or can’t deal with bad editing?

The only thing that makes me truly dislike a book is no-win scenarios.  If I have no hope that the situation will get any better for the protagonist and her people it really doesn't do it for me.  I first discovered this with Life as We Know It.  Even though the book was excellent technically I knew, logically, that what had happened was the end of life on this planet as we know it, and that no matter how long the protagonist held out things weren't going to get better.  A lot of zombie books are like this, too, so I'm not too big on those.  Otherwise I can tough out pretty much any issue in a book, even if I do throw it across the room repeatedly while I finish it.

Feature and Follow: October 19

Q: When you step out of your USUAL genre, what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

I really don't read much out of my genre at all.  I rarely read horror, so I guess Anna Dressed in Blood is the closest I come.  I do have Shine and The Fault in Our Stars on my TBR pile, but I dunno if I'll ever actually get to them.

Feature and Follow: October 12th

Q: What book do you think would make a great Halloween movie? Please explain in graphic detail of goriness...

I am not really a horror person, so I don't have a lot of books to go on, but I really thought Anna Dressed in Blood was chilling and would probably have more action than This is Not a Test or Forest of Hands and Teeth, which are really my only other choices.

Feature and Follow: October 5th

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Is it to one day become an author yourself, just for fun, maybe get some online attention, or maybe something very different?

I blog so that my opinion of books gets out there.  I love inflicting good books on people, so I like to get the word out there on what I think is good.  My main target when I created the blog was other adults who read sci-fi and fantasy and would like to read good YA sf/f without having to weed through the stuff that wouldn't interest them.

Feature and Follow: September 20

Q:  What hyped up book do you think was worth all the talk?

Oh, there are so many!  Harry Potter and the Hunger Games . . . more recently I loved Blood Red Road by Moira Young and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore, and Beth Revis' Across the Universe series is great, too.

Feature and Follow: September 13th

Q:  What hyped up book do you think was not worth all the talk?

The Halo series by Alexandra Adornetto!  It's just . . . not good, I think.  The covers are lovely, but I just can't get into the first book let alone any more of the series.


((note on comments: I accidentally reposted a copy of last week's ff at first, that's where the Artemis Fowl comments are coming from))

Feature and Follow: September 7th

Q:  What book(s) are you reading right now? What do you think of it?

I just finished the 8th Artemis Fowl book (not my fave, but definitely up there with the other great books in the series) and I'm trying to figure out what to pick up next.  I've got Adaptation by Malinda Lo, UnWholly by Neil Schusterman, and Caught by Margaret Peterson Haddix on the brain though!

Feature & Follow Friday: August 3rd

Q: Do your reading habits change based on your mood? Do you read a certain genre if you are feeling depressed or happy?

I definitely have sub-genres or styles that appeal based on mood.  I'll go for a kick-ass girl book when I need a pick-me-up or I'm working hard on something.  Fairies are generally escapism.  Vampires and scarier stuff appeals when I'm more down, and I go for Sci-Fi less when I'm doing academic stuff and more when I'm doing creative stuff.

Feature and Follow: July 20

Q:Christmas in July! Someone gives you a gift card for two books (whatever that costs). What two books will you buy?

Hmm, that's tough because I pretty much buy the books I want to have.  How about autographed copies of a First Edition Harry Potter or Hunger Games?  Or two upcoming books that I'm really looking forward to getting: Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton and Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake.


Note to commenters:  I appreciate your comment, but I'm going on vacation to another country right after I post this, so I won't be replying or following back for more than a week.  Don't worry, though, it'll be first on my list after I return!

Feature and Follow: July 13th

Q: What drove you to start book blogging in the first place?

I think I kinda fell into it.  I started giving my opinion of books I read on my LJ.  After a while I decided to start a blog just for reviews to interact more with the book review community and get more visibility on my reviews.

Feature and Follow: July 6th

Q: Jumping Genres: Ever pick up a book from a genre you usually don’t like and LOVE it? Tell us about it and why you picked it up in the first place.

I'm not very likely to jump genres.  I'm pretty set on sci-fi and fantasy for my reading.  I'm much more likely to read adult sci-fi or fantasy, though.  Right now I'm reading book 4 of Game of Thrones which is absolutely NOT a YA book.  I do like to get in some more adult situations and lead characters, but I like female leads that aren't cookie-cutter, so I keep coming back to YA where they seem to be the rule rather than the exception.