Book Reports and Glory Holes

It is stupidly creepy that Justin forces his kisses on Elinor just like the guy he fought off of her in the first place. At least he realizes what a shitty move it was, but Jesus he doesn't need to be a PNR 'alpha male'.

Seriously disappointed in him >/

I thought this book would be great - interplanetary colonization, telepathic cats, a strong YA heroine...and it just didn't work for me, This was one of those books where you talk aloud to the story and tell it everything it's doing wrong, and there was a fair amount of that in this book.

One of the more disappointing books I've read in the past few years.

Favorite book?!? I can't choose just one, that way lies madness.

So I'll just do a few quotes from my favorite 5-star books:

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

“In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Miss Tarabotti was not one of life's milk-water misses--in fact, quite the opposite. Many a gentleman had likened his first meeting with her to downing a very strong cognac when one was expecting to imbibe fruit juice--that is to say, startling and apt to leave one with a distinct burning sensation.”
― Gail Carriger, Soulless

Right now it's Yeine Darr from the Inheritance trilogy. She's just such a BAMF and Jemisin is an amazing writer, so how can I not love Yeine?

Runner ups: every Tammy Pierce heroine, Lirael, Sgt. Angua

Rincewind!

He's a really good runner, always full of witty quips, and he has the Luggage.

He's probably about as well traveled as Twoflower and he's a great Wizzard.

“Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad.”

“He’d always felt he had a right to exist as a wizard in the same way that you couldn’t do proper maths without the number 0, which wasn’t a number at all but, if it went away, would leave a lot of larger numbers looking bloody stupid.”

Guys the Ella Enchanted book is so so so GOOD...the movie made me cry with how bad it was.

It's kind of like Card Captor Sakura vs. Card Captor's (a mystic adventure!) - the names and the bones of the plot are there, but other than that there are no similarities.

Gail Carson Levine did not deserve that shit show of a movie and it should be wiped off the face of the planet.

Terry Pratchett.

This cannot come to a surprise to anyone who's seen my previous days, the man is my God.

Let's just do a run down of how awesome he is, shall we?

Even with Alzheimer's he still manages to put out at least one book a year. In 2012 he published five books, in 2013 he'll be publishing four books.

He's a knight who MADE HIS OWN sword out of meteorite!

There is a village who used Discworld names on all of their streets.

There is an asteroid named after him.

The motto on his coat of arms is "Don't fear the reaper".

He fights for the right of UK and World citizens to be able to choose death. Instead of feeling defeated by his disease he gives talks and appearances about dignity in death.

I love him. When he finally passes I will probably wear black for months.

Oh definitely the Study series.

Poison Study was so so so so good! I couldn't sleep, I just stayed awake listening to the first book. I literally hung on every word waiting to find out what happened next.

And then everything after it just got worse and worse. The rest of the books in the series aren't great and I actually hated them for a while. BUT THEN I read the Glass series and realized how lucky we got with the rest of the Study series.

Seriously the Glass series is AWFUL. Read Poison Study because it is fantastic, but then never read another Snyder book again.

This is really hard for me, because I always try to see the good in everything (not just books). Even if I can't stand a book I can usually find someone who it works for (see my husband's love of The Great Gatsby and my hatred of it)

But if there's one book that has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, it would be The Lost Gate by Orson (homophobic) Scott (anti-science) Card (asshole).

You know for a man who thinks that gay people are mentally ill and should not be given the rights of everybody else in the United States, he sure does like to write about a young boy pulling his pants down at every male adult with authority. And being molested by older women. And sexually harassing other kids.

See my review here.

I lived at home for a long time (no college dorm room for me) so every book I read before the age of 25 reminds me of home. But these are the big ones, the ones that I read with my parents when I couldn't read by myself, the ones we read together, and the ones I was able to recite from memory.

They remind me of when I was little enough to snuggle with my Mom and escape into a story, so for me that's home.

I actually have some creepy books for this!

We are doing this in October. October has 31 days but the challenge only has 30.  And the challenge has no category for scary books.  What better day could there be than Halloween to share favorite scary books?  So I am adding an extra day to this challenge on the 31st:  Day 31 - Favorite Book that Scared the Snot Out of You.  At least for myself. I hope a lot of people join me because I really want to know your favorites in this category.

Edited because I had a really stupid typo in the title.

This book sounds insane - basically it's steampunk. In the future. With Vampires. And a post-apocalyptic-Victorian human empire. WHAT IS THIS CRAZY TALK?

But but but...this book is so much fun and the world-building is good and solid, which you need with a premise as far out as this one. I was seriously just blown away by how entertaining this book is, because when I bought it I thought I was going to rip it shreds. Instead it was one of the more enjoyable books I read that year!

Bonus embarrassment time! - Pyr was at Dragon*Con last year and inadvertently told the authors that I thought that their book sounded crazy and was really surprised when it was as good as it was. They where very sweet about it, and even signed the next two books in the series for me.

The Great Gatsby is my MIL's and my husbands "favorite book" but hate it. It's full of horrible people doing horrible things and I can't stand it.

Everyone is awful, nobody deserves happiness, and I wish they would all die in a fire in the first chapter.

It's just not good at all, I don't know why it's considered the great American novel.

Oh my god, these books certainly keep you on the edge of your seat.

Elinor, you in danger gurl, you better run!

Also Justin x Kira is the one true ship, I'm nhft bullshit that's going on with Elinor

It's Douglas Adams, I mean, really...he was just the best ever.

I do like Dirk Gently better than HHGTTG though, I wish he had gotten the chance to write more than just the two books. And that the BBC series was better than it was. Dirk makes me wish a lot of things actually.

Runners up: Robert Asprin, David Sedaris, Terry Pratchett (duh)

Katherine Paterson wrecked me emotionally as a child. To this day I still haven't found books that make me as sad as these two. Sure the end of The Amber Spyglass killed me and the final battle for Hogwarts made me cry, but Wheeze and Leslie just make me think about the vulnerability of life and then I'm crying all over the place.