Teaser Tuesdays #7

Morning All! Well I don't know what time you'll be reading this but it's coming to you from the past (approximately three days in fact) I've figured out how to schedule some posts for a later date so although I'm writing this at Stupid o'Clock on Sunday morning, you goodly folk won't see it until Tuesday Morning :D

Teaser Tuesdays 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!
• Share the title & author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teaser!

My Teaser

"Frank waggled his eyebrows at me. 'You're supposed to moan ecstatically, not giggle,' he admonished in a whisper. 'She'll think I'm not a good lover.' " page 14 of Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon

I've literally only read as far as this page so far, it sounds most intriguing and it'll be the first book I read on my trip. 

Now this is going to be the last post I will do before I come back from Barbados on the 6th July so unless by some lucky happenstance I find an internet cafe nearby and I have the time to do some posts, I will see y'all in two weeks!

Happy Tuesday Folks!

LadyV

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It's Monday What are you Reading (6)

OoooOooo... by the time you're reading this folks I shall probably be on a plane heading back through time(zones) to Barbados as I'm off on cricket tour for two weeks. I'm hoping the scheduling will work correctly and that this will post when I tell it to rather than have a special moment on me. I should have probably planned better for getting posts ready ahead of time but my brain is far too lazy to think of stuff to say. Hopefully I'll come back with several reviews written of books that I can type up and get all post-happy with plus I'll do a special Barbados pics post to show you the fun times I had on tour.

But I'm digressing

It's Monday What are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Sheila of One Person's Journey through a World of Books where we gather to share what we've read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs and add new titles to our reading lists.

Books I read Last Week

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - Reviewed Here

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray - Review Coming Soon

Last Chance by Sarah Dessen (re-read) - Review Coming Soon

Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris - Review Coming Soon

Books I plan on Reading in the next TWO Weeks

As I'm going to be away for two weeks I plan on taking several rather chunky books with me although I will be limited by the weight restrictions which sucks because if I run out of books to read I may have to resort to buying more and that will make things even worse!

 The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier (I haven't read a du Maurier yet this month and this looks to be rather interesting)

The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell (I'm determined to finish this while I'm away)

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (It's enormous but I want to finish this trilogy)

Cross Stitch (Outlander) by Diana Gabaldon (I found a rather beat-up copy which I wouldn't mind replacing after I've read it)

Emma by Jane Austen (This is actually a copy which my parents had randomly in the study that I'm "borrowing")

I may take a couple more, smaller books but those are the main ones I intend to read. That should last me... a while anyway but on a 9 hour plane journey I could get a lot read. Dang it I may have to read slowly for once!

Well I hope folk are having a good Monday and I'll  be back soon!

LadyV

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In My Mailbox #12 The one before I vanish

I've just realised that I may have actually misnumbered three of my IMM posts :S ooer how silly of me- I'll fix them after I finish this.

I'm typing this up on Saturday and hoping like crazy that I will have time to post the link onto the MrLinky form over at The Story Siren before I leave because otherwise people who don't follow me won't know my post is there. *Sigh* the aggravations of going on holiday when you have a blog to maintain (god I am not looking forward to seeing the number of unread posts on my Google Reader when I get back)

Anyway never mind on with the Post!!

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren which was inspired by a post from Alea @Pop Culture Junkie

I actually have some books this week! And a Vlog which fails slightly because about a minute of the sound gets cut off :(




Books mentioned in the Vlog
Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Minor Works of Jane Austen


Now this is my last IMM post for TWO WEEKS, I seriously hoping that I don't buy any books while I'm in Barbados cos that'll be rather bad for when I'm coming back as my luggage could end up being too heavy and I wouldn't want to leave anything behind.


I have my Monday post scheduled and I'll be doing my Teaser Tuesdays post later today but obviously I won't be able to add my link to the host site on the day so any folk interested in the posts will have to come find them. Unless of course I manage to find a decent internet cafe in Barbados then I may be able to do some posting!


I'll see y'all real soon
LadyV

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Book Blogger Hop #3

It's been a couple of weeks since I participated in the Hop so I'd best get hoppin'!

Howdy to anyone who's hopped over to this 'ere blog feel free to have a look round and leave me a comment.

Happy Hopping!

My latest review of A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin is here

LadyV

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Book Review - A Clash of Kings

Good evening I'm gonna try and reel off a couple of reviews before I pass out for the night - wish me luck!

Title: A Clash of Kings
Author: George R.R. Martin
Date: 15/6/2010 AM
Source: Bought
Description: The Seven Kingdoms have come apart. Joffrey, Queen Cersei's sadistic son, ascends the Iron Throne following the death of Robert Baratheon, the Usurper, who won it in battle. Queen Cersei's family, the Lannisters, fight to hold it for him. Both the dour Stannis and the charismatic Renly Baratheon, Robert's brothers, also seek the throne. Robb Stark, declared King in the North, battles to avenge his father's execution and retrieve his sister from Joffrey's court. Daenerys, the exiled last heir of the former ruling family, nurtures three dragons and seeks a way home. Meanwhile the Night's Watch, sworn to protect the realm from dangers north of the Wall, dwindle in numbers, even as barbarian forces gather and beings out of legend stalk the Haunted Forest. (Taken from Goodreads)


My Review


Oh god it so hard to try and review a book this massive and complex without giving away huge chunks of the plot from both this book and the first one but I'll try my best.


First off I'll say straight out that I think this series is awesome, yes I'm only two books in but still Martin has created an epic masterpiece which literally dwarfs any other High fantasy series I've read. I know that LotR was pretty complex but seriously the number of characters in A Clash of Kings and the different plot threads is *INSANE*. I think there's at it's maximum 10 different POV characters and a cast of a couple of hundred who are all scheming against other factions to further their own ends.


What I really love about the book is getting to follow certain characters through their own plotlines and the feeling of frustration I get when I feel it's been too long since one of my favourites had a chapter. I noticed that this book was predominantly Arya and Tyrion driven as their POVs were the most frequent (when I flicked through it a minute ago - I didn't sit down and tally up their chapters, honest) and they happen to be two of my fav characters although Tyrion is kind of the bad guy who you don't really want to trust but he's bizarrely endearing. My other fav characters are Bran and Jon, Arya's brothers who are far up in the North during the book and are dealing with their own problems.


All the political intrigue and maneuvering is really interesting because with 4 people claiming kingship you just know that the shit is gonna hit the fan at some point in a *very* messy way and a heck of a lot of people are gonna get trampled while all the big people wage war against each other for power. That's a slight downside to the series if you don't really like your fantasy big and bloody - a fair amount of people, sometimes even major characters get killed over the course of the books and when deaths are described they're sometimes done in a pretty blunt and crude fashion. Another slightly off-putting thing is the hard time some of the women in the book get, since men who are still high off battle fever tend to get a little promiscuous after they've taken a town or whatever there will be inevitably be some poor women who get passed around the men like a whorish box of chocolates (take your pick, enjoy it and then pass it along). But in the grand scheme of things those kinds of scenes are not so frequent as to make the entire book overly distasteful - also you kind of have to forgive the book being written by a man who obviously doesn't have the kinder sensibilities towards women that a female writer would have - I mean you wouldn't see Kristin Cashore or Trudi Canavan being so blatant about a gang rape now would you?


So despite the flaws in content the book as a whole is still amazing in my opinion, to make those 700+ pages flow by so effortlessly is a skill which Martin has in buckets and you really become wholly invested in the characters and you want them to succeed in their aims and gosh darn it do you hate it if they don't. After the shocking ending to A Game of Thrones I've realised that Martin may not give all my favourites a happy ending as his is not a perfect world where there will be casualties some may actually break your heart. I know I nearly got *very* upset when I thought a character had died but thank the gods that it was only a clever deception by another character (who was still a bastard despite his moment of goodness) - people who've read the book will probably know what I'm talking about. 


Therefore I'm extremely eager to continue with this series onto the third book, which oddly comes in two parts for us Brits. I already have the first part of A Storm of Swords but I'll certainly have to make sure I have the second volume to hand when I finish because I get the feeling that there will be some awful cliffhanger from where the book is split.


So if you like your high fantasy to be epic and sprawling, with intrigue, battles and dragons (only baby ones though) and you don't mind waiting for aaaages for the next book to come out - seriously the fifth book has taken nearly 3 years now I believe - then you really should check out the Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with A Game of Thrones and this being the second book, because it is *ah-mazing*! And I mean that, I stayed up until nearly 4am to finish this cos it had me so badly hooked.


My Rating: 4.5 out 5 Stars


This was also my 100th book of the year!!! WOOO!! *Happy Dance* 


Now I must go to bed
Ciao
LadyV

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Booking Through Thursday - Now or Then?

I'm rather late in doing this weeks BTT question but here I am finally.

"Do you prefer reading current books? Or Older ones? Or outright old ones? (As in, yes, there's a difference between a book from 10 years ago and say, Charles Dickens or Plato)

This is quite an interesting question since I read books from all three categories, admittedly the majority are books published within the last 5 years but I do have quite a lot of books which were originally published in the 19th and even the 18th century (I haven't actually read them all but it's on my to-do list :P). I do quite enjoy reading classics as you can get a good feel for what society was like at that time because unlike historical fiction set in that particular era classic novels were the contemporary works at that time and it's obviously a more authentic picture of the times.

Of course with modern literature it's much easier to read as the language is more what we use in everyday life. I find that when I read Jane Austen aloud I tend to make mistakes because the word order is different to what I'm used to.

I think the main reason I like reading books published in recent years is that the range of genres available is vastly larger than what was around back in the 19th Century because our ability to imagine strange and crazy things has grown so much and there's a lot less of a taboo on certain subjects i.e. homosexuality - you'd never have seen a GLBT book even as recent as the 1950's when being gay was still a crime in several countries.

So to sum up this rather short and terribly incoherent post (I've written bits at three different times) Although I do like reading out-right old books such as Jane Austen's and older books such as Daphne du Maurier's my greatest preference is for the new and awfully exciting books which have come out these past few years and are going to be coming out in the near future - hel-lo Mockingjay anyone??

Gah I so should think these things through more :S
LadyV

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75 Followers Giveaway WINNERS!!!

Good evening! I bring glad tidings to three of the people who entered my 75 Followers Giveaway! I didn't get a massive turnout for it but since it was my first contest that's ok, I can try and do things slightly different next time to see what works best.

So now on to the Winners! Using Random.org I got 3 separate winners for the books.

The Winner of Divine by Mistake is Janet Johnson!! (link goes to her own blog)

The Winner of Grave Sight is Cassandra!

The Winner of Kiss of Death is Felicia (Geeky Blogger)!! (Link goes to her own blog)

Winners shall be emailed shortly and you'll have 48 hours to reply with your mailing address so I can get the books sent out although it'll be after the 6th July when I return from Barbados. If I get no reply within that time I'll select another winner from the entrants for that book. Only the winners will be emailed and all personal information will be confidential and the form containing this information will be deleted once the contest is completely finished.

Big congrats to the winners, I hope you enjoy your prizes once they get to you and thank you to everyone who participated!

I'm going to try and get a couple of reviews up either later tonight or tomorrow so keep an eye for those and then I'm gonna have to figure out how the heck to set up a schedule for posting some stuff while I'm away cos I want to do my It's Monday What are you Reading post and Teaser Tuesdays plus get some more reviews up (although that means I'll have to write some first).

LadyV

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Teaser Tuesdays #6

Holy moly it's early! I haven't been up this early for a few days but then since I'm sleeping so crappily at the moment it's probably better to be awake than trying to sleep with a cold and a wisdom tooth which feels like it's erupting through the back of my mouth *sad face*

But anyways on to business!

Teaser Tuesdays 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!
• Share the title & author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teaser!

My Teaser

"Once she has found the Temple, and the power is ours, what is to become of her?"

The room was silent save for the flickering of the candles in the slight draft. At last the voice echoed down into the chamber.

"Then you must kill her." Pg 10 of Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Don't that make you feel just a *leetle* bit wigged out? I know I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this just from the first chapter or so. 

Well I've got to be off, I've things to do today so I'll be looking through other folks Teasers later on. Also the closing date for my 75 Followers Giveaway is tomorrow so if anyone is still interested check it out HERE)

Ahh.. painkillers have kicked in...

LadyV

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It's Monday What are you Reading (5)

Whoa Monday again?! Seriously time is going crazy fast this year - I'm going to be packing up to go back to Uni before I know it!
Apologies for lack of IMM post yesterday - I had absolutely *nothing* to show since I'd hardly been out of the house all week so there's no point doing a post when you have no books. But it's perhaps a good thing that I'm not buying many books this month because when my friend Jess and I go on our little book-buying excursion next month we're probably gonna go a bit mad and then I'll have *lots* to show y'all :D.

It's Monday What are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Sheila of One Person's Journey through a World of Books where we gather to share what we've read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs and add new titles to our reading lists.

Books I Finished Last Week

I had a very slow week and literally read *one* book

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray (Reviewed Here)

Books I'm Currently Reading

Since last week I've made no progress with Cranford or the Life of Charlotte Bronte but I'm still going with my other book.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - I'm still loving this and I really hope I can get it finished in the next day or so because it's taken me far too long to get through.

Books I Plan to Read This Week

Just the one as with my current lack of reading mojo I'll only really be able to manage one before I jump on a train on Sunday.

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

So What are *You* Reading this fine Monday?

Reminder: There's still TWO DAYS left until the deadline of my 75 Followers Giveaway!! (Enter HERE!!)

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Book Review - A Great and Terrible Beauty

Aft'noon folks I finally got a review done although I vlogified it because my brain is pretty fuzzed up right now so it's somewhat easier to ramble to the webcam than it is to write it out (I think anyway).

I'll put a better synopsis for the book just below because the one I try to give in the vlog is ruddy awful, do forgive me I'm kinda ill right now as will be evident shortly.

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Author: Libba Bray
Date Read: 12/6/2010 AM
Genre: Historical/Supernatural Fiction
Source: Bought
Description: Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order. (Description taken from Goodreads)


Review







My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars


Apologies for general crappiness of review vlog, I should definitely work of doing more written reviews and actually put a fair bit of thought into them instead of rambling like I normally do *sigh*
But since tomorrow is normally IMM day and I've not actually got *any* books this week I'll do a nice and hopefully vaguely interesting post on some of my favourite series - which is gonna take some thought since I read a heck of a lot of series.
Anyways have a good Saturday Night!
*dematerialises*
LadyV

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Summer Reading List

Evening folks, terribly sorry for the general lack of posting these last few days, I've been in a rather lethargic mood and haven't really had the mental energy to write reviews (which I badly need to do) or come up with any other vaguely original post. Since last Sunday I've almost mindlessly devoured nearly two seasons of Stargate SG-1 which is one of my nerdiest guilty pleasures but it's all I can really concentrate on right now. This weekend I will try and get some posts done and hopefully next week I'll be able to have a fairly regular week of blogging before I go away for two weeks - I'll have to see if I can get several reviews ready to post over that time so the blog won't be completely silent until I get back.

Now that I've waffled long enough I shall get back to the point of this post which is to share with you lovely people the books I'm hoping to get read this summer before I go back to University at the end of September.
My TBR list according to LibraryThing is currently at 108 books although I have at least 5 books in the Currently Reading collection. I want to try and cut down my TBR pile and buy fewer new books this summer so I can feel slightly less guilty when I read a book I bought that day over a book which I've had over a year.

Books to Read this Summer

1. Complete Novels of Jane Austen (not all in one go but I'd like to read all of them over the holiday)
2. The Gemma Doyle trilogy (I have read this first book but I want to re-read it before I tackle the others)
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (It's just one of those books that you kind of have to read)
4. The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick (For my Books off the Shelf challenge)
5. The last 4 Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (For my BotS Challenge)
6. American Gods by Neil Gaiman 
7. The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks (I started the 1st book ages ago and got sidetracked)
8. By Royal Command by Charlie Higson (the last Young James Bond book)
9. All the Things we Didn't Say by Sara Shepard (my ER book which I need to finish)
10. Four Daphne du Maurier books (For my Monthly du Maurier challenge)
11. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (For my BotS challenge)
12. Sepulchre by Kate Mosse (Also for my BotS challenge)

That's all I'll put on the list that I'd really like to get read because my reading mood can change rather dramatically so I might spend several weeks re-reading books I really like instead of reading books I've got on my TBR pile. There's enough variety there to suit several different moods and I really hope I can get most if not all of those books crossed off. If you add up the multiples of books for each entry there's actually 27 books in total on that list which will be a fair target to reach over the next 3 months although I reckon I can do it even with re-reads of other books. 

So there you go that's my hopeful Summer Reading list, not including the books I'm anticipating getting in the next few months - hello Mockingjay anyone? Those books will probably be read straight away regardless of any commitments I may have ;-)

Anyways I'd best be off as it's getting kinda late and I want to actually get some reading done before I go to sleep.

Ever Lazy

LadyV

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You want to see books? I can show you some...

Evening all! Today I bring to you the fruits of yesterday's rather irksome vlogging session which took *waay* longer than I'd planned due to general YouFailage.
Since I came home I completely rearranged most of the books in my room - a hefty task when I have over 500 books in quite limited space- and I wanted to film a vlog showing the books that I have on the extra set of shelves I have outside of my cupboard (I actually asked for shelves for christmas :P). In the end I had to do three videos and even then the last one cuts off early but I couldn't deal with doing it again so I shall post below what my efforts produced. It is only a small proportion of my whole collection and it's specifically YA Paranormal, Contemporary and Historical Fiction with a couple of other sub-genres as well but it's going to be rather challenging to show the rest of my books with only a laptop webcam to film with.

If you have comments or questions please leave them below -Enjoy!










So there you have a brief(ish) tour through my bookshelves, I hope folk found it interesting and please bear with me as regards to reviews and whatnot because a lot of my time is being eaten up by having to run about the place doing errands and pick-up duty so my time for blogging is severely reduced. I may be able to get something up tomorrow but I'm not yet sure what book I'll review.


Ever Frustrated
LadyV

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Teaser Tuesdays #5

Mornin' All this'll have to be a fairly speedy post again as I've got to get ready to take my sister to school soon and then I've got a whole day of rushing about ahead of me *sigh*

Teaser Tuesdays 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!!
• Share the title & author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teaser!

My Teaser

"The King stood. "A cask from the cellars! I'll see him drowned in it!" Sansa heard herself gasp. "No, you can't."

Joffrey turned his head. "What did you say?"

Pg 33 of a Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Right I've gotta fly but I'll be looking forward to reading other peoples Teasers when I get back to my computer later.

*flies*

LadyV

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It's Monday What are you Reading (4)

Good morning! I keep forgetting how fast time is going this year as it's Monday again already!
Last week was a rather slow week for me reading and blogging-wise but I'm hoping to be able to sort out a schedule for my posts so that they're not too infrequent. But anyway to more important matters

It's Monday What are you Reading? is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Sheila @One Person's Journey through a World of Books where we gather to share what we read this past week and what we plan on reading this coming week. It's a great way to meet other bloggers and find new titles to put on our reading lists.

Books I read last Week

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (Review coming soon)

Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine (Review Coming Soon)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My bad for not getting any reviews up last week, I'm going to try and get several done this week. If you want to know my thoughts on a specific book that I've read so far this year then check out my 75 Book Challenge Page here and comment on this post with what book(s) you'd be interested in seeing a review of because I'm not going to be able to review *all* 98 books that I've read so far.

Books I'm Currently Reading

The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell - I'm only a little way into this but I'm hoping to make progress this week.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - I haven't made much progress with this either since last week

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - I've only read a few pages so far but I loved the first book so I should get through this quite quickly once I get to it.

Books I'm planning to read this week

Aside from those three above I won't put many books here because I don't know how much time I'm going to have to read this week so I may not even finish anything *gasp* because my parents are determined for me to be doing something useful all the time (I've been home from Uni all of three days and I'm already kinda wishing I was still there) so for the rest of today I've got to be getting a load of ironing done which won't be all bad as I've borrowed a truckload of dvd boxsets off my uncle (Kudos to anyone who can guess what TV show I'll be watching - clue= I'm a right nerd for Sci-Fi tv shows).

Persuasion by Jane Austen - I've got a hankering to read this one of Austen's books out of my huge compendium because of all the Austen Mania over at Book Rat where Misty is hosting the awesome Jane in June which is going on all month. Since I've only read Pride & Prejudice although I've seen adaptations of all the others except Persuasion, I decided that this month should be when I go a little Austen crazy as well.

So that's what I've got lined up for this week- What are You reading?

Also I have a 75 Followers Giveaway going on until the 16th June so please enter Here

LadyV

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In My Mailbox #11 Slim pickings and a whole lot of mess

As it is now after midnight I'll get my IMM post up before I head to bed.
I know I've been a bit absent over the last couple of days but I was moving back home from university for the summer on Friday and Saturday was spent trying to unpack stuff, do craploads of laundry and basically I didn't have the time nor privacy to do some proper blog posts (My parents don't know about my blog and they would actually flip out if they found out that I spent rather a lot of May on my computer when I could have been revising for my exams).
But hopefully when my sister is back at school on Monday and the parentals are at work so I'll have some time to myself *yay!*

Anyway I digress, In My Mailbox is a bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren which was inspired by a post from Alea @Pop Culture Junkie

I did another vlog even though I only have one book enjoy! It's part books, part cuddly ramblings :P




Book Acquired this Week
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sorry for the blurry picture it is the only I could find with the actual cover image that my book has.












So that's all that I got this week - What did you guys get?
Now back to completely re-arranging my books at this rather silly hour
LadyV

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Booking Through Thursday - The Long and Short of It

HAPPY THURSDAY!!! (sorry I'm just really cheerful at the moment)
Since I am now completely finished with exams for my fresher year of university *happy dance* I have the whole summer to be free and make merry which means bucket-loads of reading and hopefully some adventures. (I already have a trip to Barbados at the end of June but I also have a little book-buying excursion in the pipeline which shall be blogged about as it is book- related)

But this has nothing to do with today's BTT Question! *gasp*

 Which do you prefer? Short stories or full-length novels?


Well this is a terrifically simple question (which is good because I don't have long to answer it - la familia are due to appear soon) and doesn't require a huge amount of thought on my part (also good cos my brain is *fried*).

While I do like short stories on occasions, I don't tend to read them unless I happen to have bought a collection of them because I like the author or whatever i.e. The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier which has about 6 short stories all of them being rather creepy and somewhat disturbing. The problem with short story collections is that if there's only one good story out of the lot, then you're stuck with a book you only like to read a tiny part of which sucks really.

So it's fairly easy for me to say that I *much* prefer full-length novels because it gives me time to really get into the world and feel like I really know the characters. With short stories you never really have time to really get into the story before it's over. In fact, the longer stories are the happier I tend to be cos then I get more time with the awesome characters which is excellent.

This post is having to be stupidly short (for me anyway) because the parentals are on their way to the flat and we're going out for lunch. :)

So are you a short story person or a chunky book lover?
LadyV

If you didn't know- I'm having a 75 Followers Giveaway over HERE Check it out!!

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75 Followers Giveaway!!!

Good afternoon my lovelies!! I am in a cracking mood thanks to this morning's exam which went rather well (I believe) and since yesterday I reached 75 followers of this 'ere blog *happy dance* I decided I've have a contest for all you awesome people who've put up with my rambling weirdness since I started this blog.

The Prizes (yes prizes)

I am giving away Three books to three separate winners and they are as follows.

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (1st book in Harper Connolly series)

Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine (8th book in Morganville Vampires series)

Divine by Mistake by P.C. Cast (1st book in Goddess of Partholon series)

The Rules

1. International Contest so come one, come all!

2. BUT you *must* be a follower to enter! (I know some people don't like it but it's not all that fair if people only come to my blog because I'm having a giveaway, not because they're interested the content of the blog)

3. I'm *not* doing extra entries for Twitter, blog posts etc because it's confusing and with it being my first giveaway I want to keep things reasonably simple. But if you want to do that- great *hugs and cookies* for you!

4. Pick One of the three books in the form please as I'm doing three separate draws for the winner of each book.

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED AND WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED !!

Cheers m'dears

LadyV

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Teaser Tuesdays #4

Blimey you really lose track of what day it is when you neglect to go to sleep (insomnia hit earlier like a royal pain in the arse). So anyways it's Tuesday!!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along, just do the following;
1. Grab your current Read
2. Open to a Random page
3. Share two "Teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE ANY SPOILERS!!
5. Share the title and author too, so others can add the book to their TBR piles if they like your teaser!

My Teaser: " 'I appreciate your concern,' I said very softly. 'But I'm just going to run, now.' " - from page 118 of Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris


I actually finished this around 3am but I thought that I'd use it for my TT post rather than Cranford because I haven't really read enough of that yet to find good teasers.

Intrigued? Watch this space because I've just this second decided that when I reach 75 Followers I am going to do a 3 book giveaway which shall include this book and two others.... *pauses for dramatic effect*

Ever Cliff-hangery
LadyV

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Awards Post - Double Trouble!

Well this is unexpected! I've received two different awards over the last few days so I thought since I've tried and failed getting to sleep tonight I'd kill some time before normal people wake up and pass on these awesome blog awards!

The first award I received was the Prolific Blogger Award from Flo @Sweet Happy Ending (which is a fab blog so go check it out)

" A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive, keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content"

After accepting this award, thank and link back to the person passing it on and recipients are asked to pass it forward  to seven other deserving blogs and also let them know they are awarded.

So a massive thank you to Flo for giving me this award and now I shall pass this on to 4 other bloggers (I'm only doing four because trying to find people to give it to who haven't already received it is quite hard) 

Emily @Emily's Reading Room

Erika @Erika Breathes Books

Jess @Lost in a Book

Naomi @Naomi's Book Reviews

Now the other award was given to me by Paula @Community Bookstop which was a total surprise as I'd not seen her blog before yet she'd found mine via the Book Blogger Hop. (I am now following her blog and I'm looking forward to reading the backlist of posts)

 

"If you are given this award you must first accept it  by leaving a comment  on the post you were nominated on. Then copy and paste the post and add it on your own blog. Make a list of the last 5 books you read and pass the award on to 5 other bloggers (no backsies!).

Please identify the blog from which you got the award and don't forget to tell your picks that they have a blog award!

My Last Five Reads:

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (finished it a couple of hours ago)

Paper Towns by John Green

The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Again I'm going to shorten the number of people I pass the award onto as I'm ruddy tired and scouring through my blog following list takes a while. So the 3 bloggers that I'm passing this award onto are:

Kirthi @Pages (whose ipod widget is awesome and is playing the sound of rain which is freaking me out as it's raining right now outside!)

Anne @Potter, Percy and I

Ria @The Beaucoup Review

So there we go! Now I'm off to go tell all these lovely folk that they've won an award! Thanks again to Flo and Paula for passing them on to me, it brightens my currently rather wet day :D
Ever bizarrely cheerful
LadyV

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May Round-up

Cripes when did we get to the end of May? This year is flying by so fast it's making my head spin - before I know it it's going to be the end of September and I'll be on my way back here to my new flat that's not quite by the sea, like this years has been, and I'll be starting my second year of university which is damn scary. Not to mention that I'll be turning 20 this October (Lord when did I get so old??). Hopefully over this summer I can get myself into a routine for maintaining my blog which doesn't mean I spend all day sat online stalking my inbox and twitter etc.

This month has been when I've finally hit the ground running with this blog, although I've had it since January it has only been in the last 4 weeks that I've been participating regularly in several weekly memes and posting reviews at least semi-frequently although compared to the number of books I've read so far this year I have a massive deficit of reviews which may be impossible to make up unless I go insane writing backlog reviews over the next few months. What's really great is how literally over the last two weeks my follower count has jumped from just under 30 to nearly 75 - I'm thinking of doing a giveaway when I reach 100 followers so I'll have to start giving some thought as to what I might have as a prize. Thank you to everyone who has followed me so far!

Books Read in May
77. Looking for Alaska by John Green 4.5 Stars Review Here
78. Shadows and Strongholds by Elizabeth Chadwick 4.5 Stars
79. Becoming Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty 4.5 Stars
80. Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty 4 Stars
81. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong 4.5 Stars
82. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson 4 Stars Review Here
83. Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander 4 Stars
84. The Birds and other Stories by Daphne du Maurier 4 Stars
85. Fade Out by Rachel Caine 4 Stars
86. Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty 4.5 Stars
87. Company of Liars by Karen Maitland 4.5 Stars Review Here
88. Pride by Rachel Vincent 4.5 Stars
89. A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Austen-Leigh 4 Stars
90. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green 4.5 Stars
91. The High King by Lloyd Alexander 4 Stars
92. Forget You by Jennifer Echols 5 Stars Review Here
93. Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead 5 Stars
94. The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan 4 Stars Review Here
95. Paper Towns by John Green 4.5 Stars


Books Bought in May
Looking for Alaska - John Green
Becoming Bindy Mackenzie - Jaclyn Moriarty
The Owl Killers - Karen Maitland
The Return: Shadow Souls - L.J. Smith
The Taste of Sorrow - Jude Morgan
Lord of Misrule - Rachel Caine
Carpe Corpus - Rachel Caine
Fade Out - Rachel Caine 
Kiss of Death - Rachel Caine
Julius - Daphne du Maurier
Classical Mythology
The Reckoning - Kelley Armstrong
The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Mary E. Pearson
Feeling Sorry for Celia - Jaclyn Moriarty
A Memoir of Jane Austen - James Austen-Leigh
Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Pride - Rachel Vincent
Radiant Shadows - Melissa Marr
Paper Towns - John Green
An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
The Complete Fairy Tales - Brothers Grimm
Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead
Grave Sight - Charlaine Harris
Grave Surprise - Charlaine Harris
An Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris


Whew! 26 books is a little bit steep  for a month and since I've read over half of them it's clear to me that in June I need to do a *lot* less buying of books and read the 100 or so which are loitering about on my TBR shelves!! I think that I shall try very hard to read more of the books which I bought back in 2009 so that I can read the many books that I've bought so far this year without feeling guilty!


Memes I've Participated in This Month
In My Mailbox - Hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren
It's Monday! What are you Reading? - Hosted by Sheila @One Person's Journey through Books
Teaser Tuesdays - Hosted by MizB @Should Be Reading
Booking through Thursdays - Hosted by Deb @Booking through Thursdays
Book Blogger Hop - Hosted by Jennifer @Crazy for Books


I think I'm happy with the number of memes I do at the moment. I don't do Waiting on Wednesday or On my Wishlist because I'm not terribly clued it on what awesome books are coming out in the future unless it's a book in a series that I already read so I'd probably end up mentioning books which other people knew about weeks earlier because I posted about them after seeing someone else's WoW post or whatever.


I do want to create my own unique feature but obviously there's always the problem of there being lots of book bloggers who all have their own features so coming up with something marginally original is rather difficult (although I have just had a slight brainwave which may be feasible so keep an eye out in the near future)


Plans for the Summer
Over the next week or two I am hoping to do some kind of vlog about my potential Summer Reading list and I shall also try and show people the full extent of my book collection (which is ridiculously big and I have serious shelving issues) but considering how I only have my webcam on my computer it's going to be hard - unless I borrow my mum's iPhone for the camera *ponders*


Of Course there'll be reviews, hopefully more than this month with maybe a mixture of written and vlog reviews.


From the 20th June until the 6th July I shall be away on a cricket tour to Barbados (Aren't I a jammy sod?) so I shall have to sort out some posts ahead of time or maybe get someone to do guest posts - If anyone would like to write a guest post on a bookish subject of your choice then please send me an email as I would love to add some variety to the blog and not leave it hanging while I'm away. *pretty please?*


Also I have plans in the works for a Harry Potter Party in the last week of July up to the 31st which would be Harry's 30th birthday (were he real) so I was thinking of going mad and doing reviews of every book on each day of the week, doing posts on my favourite characters of the series, hosting a Potter-Themed giveaway and just generally celebrating how awesome the series is and the influence it's had on my life. I had hoped to get some other Potter-loving bloggers on board to join in the mayhem but unless some step forward now or in the next week I shall either be forced to plow ahead alone or abandon the whole venture. So if there is folk who are interested please send me an email (address in the sidebar) I will be super grateful :)


Now this Round-up has took me so long it's already June (in the UK at least)
Ever Verbose
LadyV

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