Hunger (Making Me Hungry!)

Hunger is a short novel that tackles anorexia in an interesting and new way.  Not unlike the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony (a great series for you sci-fi/fantasy fans), a teenage girl suffering from a eating disorder is given a new job- that of Famine (one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse).  The main character, Lisa, is given this job by Death, in the form, at least physically, of Kurt Cobain.  As an older reader I appreciated that. 

Hunger is the second book I've read recently dealing with eating disorders, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson was the first book.  I'm glad to see attention put on this disorder, especially in today's society where teen girls are expected to be a size zero.  While Wintergirls is more of a realistic telling of the physical and emotional toll of anorexia, Hunger is more of a fantasy but doesn't flinch from showing the underbelly of those "to die for" figures of young women.

I was dreading the end of Hunger, sure that Lisa would suddenly be "cured" of her anorexia, but the author surprised me.  I don't want to give away the ending, but I will say that it's not all just tied up with a neat little bow.  If it had been, this would have been a far lower rated review! 

Hunger is a quick, easy read and I will definitely invest the time into future entries in this series.  The only problem with reading about teens who won't, can't, don't want to eat though is that it makes me hungry.  And then I feel bad for eating, while my poor heroine is counting the calories in a stalk of celery.  It's worth the risk of extra snacking to gobble down this book!

Hunger gets a Midnight Book Rating of 11pm, you can read this book easily in one sitting and still have time for midnight snacking!

Last Day To Be Abducted!

Between my work schedule and NaNo I've had hardly anytime to be on the internet, but I wanted to do a quick post to remind people that today is the last day to enter my Abducted By Books giveaway.

To win your chance at a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card just give my friend Bittner a follow over at Abducted By Books.  Sign up for the giveaway here!

I'll pick a winner early in the morning and send them an email and announce the winner late tomorrow night.  Remember, there will be additional winners if enough people follow her.  Which you all should because she's funny, witty and adorable.  Bittner's also a great friend and because she's new to the blogging world she'll most likely give you a follow right back (it may take time because she's entangled in work and NaNo too).

UPDATE: The winner is Marie!  She has been notified by email and her gift certificate has been sent.  Thank you so much for giving my friend some follow love!

So Happy Monday to all of you out there (yeah, I'm not feeling it either but sometimes you have to fake the happy in order to feel it).  I've been reading Stephen King's latest collection of novella's, and it's like pulling out your skinny jeans from the closet and realizing they fit again.  If you're a King fan, then you probably want to check it out.

   Full Dark, No Stars

Eleven On Top

I like the Stephanie Plum series, I especially get a kick out of the minor characters like Grandma, Lula, Connie, etc. The problem is now that I'm on book 11 I'm getting a little tired of the Joe/Stephanie/Ranger love triangle. I'm not sure I get it, and it just feels like we're not getting a lot of character growth from Stephanie. That said, I realize that I'm reading this series to be entertained, not enlightened. So I shall continue my journey with Plum and co and hope the things I love (the talk of food, the exploding cars, Grandma's obsession with funerals, and Lula's character) continue entertaining me. The once feverish pace that I read the earlier books has now slowed down. I don't really see an end in sight of the love triangle, but I guess the question is, would there still be a series if Stephanie settled down? Could she be a bounty hunter and a loving wife and mother? I think she could, maybe Evanovich will give Plum a chance to grow and mature (plus think of all the food talk that could arise from a pregnancy!).

Book Eleven has Stephanie in more peril than usual, and she quits her job as a bounty hunter. The threat follows her as she moves from crappy job to crappy job, until finally landing a office job at Ranger Enterprises. Is Stephanie just a magnet for trouble, no matter what her career? Nice resolve of some past story lines, and for those of you that love a romantic triangle, there's plenty tension between Ranger and Stephanie in this story.

Eleven On Top gets a Midnight Book Rating of 10pm.  It's good, but I'm not sure this is a stay up all hours of the night to finish series anymore.  Still, I'm more than willing to curl up with Joe Morelli and Ranger on a cold November night!

And don't forget my giveaway! There's still time to sign up:

Click here!

11/5 Blog Hop and Follow Friday

Am I crazy for trying to do a blog hop during NaNoWriMo?  I don't think so, at least not for that reason.  I'm a fast writer and things are going good.  I give myself permission to do a little less blogging and commenting this month if my novel writing time starts to suffer, but I'm managing to keep up with my Google Reader and still make comments.

So this week's Blog Hop question is:

"What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?"

 I actually lost a follower today, I went from 250 to 249.  But it's okay.  I realize that my blog doesn't appeal to everyone, that the books I read aren't to their genre tastes, or maybe they already follow so many they simply have to stop following every blog they stumble across.  I'm striving constantly to become a better reviewer, a better blogger, but this might be as good as it gets folks.  I love having followers, because I love comments,  but I'm not offended if you choose to unfollow.  Perhaps someday I will woo my lost little readers back.


As for me, I follow a lot of people.  I've been a little more discriminating lately as I spend most of my internet time on Google Reader, but I rarely unfollow blogs.  I've done it once due to a distaste for a blogger's posts, and a few times I've unfollowed a blog if there hasn't been activity in more than 6 months.  But it's rare.  I'd rather do a quick scroll through my Reader and only really read the posts that interest me than give up on a blog.  (And it's okay if you scroll through my posts too!).  I do my best to comment on blogs, but only if I really have something to say or if it was post I really enjoyed.  During the blog hop I do try to follow some of the more newer blogs, because I remember what it felt like to be new and have no followers.  So if my blog roll grows as the book community grows, so be it.  Just means less time wasted on Facebook, right?

And now, onto Follow Friday!

And the question this week is:

What are your favorite authors?

I have lots of favorites, but here's a few:

Stephen King, Christopher Pike, Maeve Binchy, Dean Koontz, Sarah Addison Allen, Laurie Notaro, Tess Gerritsen, JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins, Joe Hill, Alice Hoffman, Peter Abrahams, Charlaine Haris, Kristan Cashore, Jane Austen and many I'm sure I'll be upset with myself for not adding when I read this post later on!

And don't forget my awesome Giveaway!  Just go here to enter!

Depp and Burton to do Dark Shadows?!

Image Credit: PR Photos; Everett Collection

 

I'm 33 years old, so I'm a bit young for the original Dark Shadows tv show.  But I'm just the right age to have adored the 1991 short lived series that starred Ben Cross and Joanna Going.  In fact, I loved it.  Dark Shadows was one of my first introductions to the sexy, tormented vampire lover.  My only fear with the remake is that Johnny Depp's innate awesomeness will make the name Barnabas popular and a whole generation of baby boys will be afflicted with the unfortunate name.  

 

So what makes this book related?  Um,...

Oh, yeah!  Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, will be writing the script, that's book-related enough, right?  And even if it's not, just take a moment to drool over Johnny's beauty.  I'll wait. 

 

I was in 8th grade when the rebooted series of Dark Shadows made it's run.  The main reason I watched it was because Joanna Going was going to be the star, and I'd been a fan of hers from the days when she'd been on Another World (see how terribly old I am?  I bet some of you can't even remember Another World being on the air!).  It was a crazy mix of vampires, witches, ghosts, curses and time travel.  It also made me waste a year in French class my freshman year, fighting to get the french name Josette or Angelique. Sadly I was not the only Dark Shadows fan and I had to settle for Suzette.  

 

Ebay being the wonderful, magical site it is even scored me some comic books based on the 1991 series.  So it's easy to say I'm a fangirl of Dark Shadows, although not as hard core as you fans of the original 1966 series, although I've watched lots of old episodes. I love how better looking Barnabas Collins is getting, from Jonathan Frid to Ben Cross, and now to Johnny Depp.  It's like the vampire's has some kind of ugly duckling to swan makeover.

 

So what of you, my lovely readers?  Are you eagerly anticipating watching Johnny Depp sink his teeth into the role of Barnabas Collins?  Are you wondering just what Tim Burton will do with the crazy mythology that is Dark Shadows?  Or are you wondering if I've lost my mind by awakening past obsessions?  

The answer is, yes, I have lost my mind.  I blame NaNoWriMo and Johnny Depp.  

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!  Just follow my friend Bittner @ Abducted By Books to get your chance at winning a $15.00 Amazon gift card!

Logline Blogfest

Because I'm already doing NaNoWriMo I thought I'd participate in the Logline Blogfest.  A logline is basically a one sentence hook that sums up what your novel is about.  So here's my humble submission:

On the run from her vampire ex-boyfriend and his business associates, Ollie must turn into the one creature even vampires fear- a werewolf! (1st attempt)


Ollie discovers that her vampire lover has been selling the blood she's been stealing from the job she just got fired from, and now she has just 7 days to get the blood he owes or supply it with every last drop in her body.  On the run from her ex and his "business associates", Ollie must turn into the one creature even vampires fear- a werewolf! (2nd attempt)


Fired from her job for stealing blood to feed her vampire boyfriend, Ollie is shocked to discover that her beloved Conner's been selling the blood to other vampires, and they're expecting their next shipment on schedule even if it means taking every last drop of blood from Ollie's body.  Now on the run from Conner and his "business associates", Ollie must turn to the only allies she has left- werwolves! (3rd attempt)

Not sure I'm completely happy with it, but it sums up the story in one sentence.

Any of you NaNoWriMo-er's want to share your loglines?

And don't forget my awesome Give-Away!

NaNo, Horns and more Abduction!

It's that time of year again and I've been sucked back in to the craziness that is NaNoWriMo.  But I'm still trying to make time for you, my blog readers!  I won't get much reading done, which is okay since I've been horribly lazy about review writing.  I'm ahead of my writing schedule so hopefully I can churn out some reviews today.

In fact here's a quick review of Horns by Joe Hill

From Goodreads:
Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: Best known for his terrifying (really) debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and his famous dad, Joe Hill continues to make a name for himself with Horns, a dark, funny exploration of love, grief, and the nature of good and evil. Ignatius William Perrish wakes up bleary and confused after a night of drinking and "doing terrible things" to find he has grown horns. In addition to being horribly unsightly, these inflamed protuberances give Ig an equally ugly power--if he thinks hard enough, he can make people admit things (intimate, embarrassing, I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that details). This bizarre affliction is of particular use to Ig, who is still grieving over the murder of his childhood sweetheart (a grisly act the entire town, including his family, believes he committed). Horns is a wickedly fun read, and reveals Hill's uncanny knack for creating alluring characters and a riveting plot. Ig's attempts to track down the killer result in hilariously inappropriate admissions from the community, heartbreaking confessions from his own family, and of course, one hell of a showdown. --Daphne Durham

Joe Hill won me over from the very first short story I read of his. Maybe the fact that he's Stephen King's son swayed me a bit, but he's more than proved himself a fine writer.  I don't feel like I'm reading a Stephen King novel, Joe's got his own style and unique voice.  Horns is fantastic!  I liked it better than Heart-Shaped Box because I found myself relating more to the main character, who's just your average kind of guy until his everyone, including his family, thinks he murdered the love of his life.  There are parts of this book that broke my heart, but by the end it had begun to mend.  There's a saying that honesty is the best policy, and in most cases that's true, but as this book points out, sometimes a lie is kinder.  When Ig wakes up with actual horns growing from his head it makes the people around him tell them their deepest secrets, their true inner thoughts.  It is not a pretty thing.  For me this book is more mystery than horror, although horrific things do happen.  There are some surprises in the book, some nice, some nasty.  Definitely one of my favorites of the year!  Hill is swiftly becoming one of my favorite authors. 


Horns gets a Midnight Book Rating of Midnight, it'll keep you up and flipping through the pages to find out if Ig can find his girlfriend's killer and exact revenge!


And don't forget my giveaway!

Abducted By Books Giveaway!

Just click on the link to get your chance at a $15.00 Amazon gift certificate (you simply need to follow my friend's blog to be entered!)

Abducted By Giveaways

Many moons ago, I kind of bullied my good friend Bittner into starting a book blog.  She's a bit internet challenged but I was more than happy set it up for her before she could even say "Uh, I'm not so sure I want to start a book blog".

Her blog is called Abducted By Books and I have to say, she's an awesome blogger.  But she's still new and unsure of how to attract people to her blog.  So I've decided to surprise her with the gift of followers!

I had so much fun doing the Spooktacular Giveaway and the hosting the mini-challenge for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon that it seems I just can't stop!  Because both Bittner and I will be busy with NaNoWriMo and our blog posts will be a little thin on the ground (or possibly non-existent), I thought a giveaway would be a good cover for my absence (and seriously, where the heck are all the reviews I need to post?  *sigh* If only they would write and post themselves!).

The rules of the giveaway are simple, follow my friend's blog!  I don't know if I've told her this or not, but she's a wonderful blogger, and her posts are so much better than the drivel that spews from my keyboard.

What am I giving away?  How about a $15.00 gift certificate from Amazon?  That way the giveaway can be international as well.  And for every 100 followers Bittner gets, I'll give away another $10.00 to another winner.  (But I'm stopping at 3 extra winners, because I'm not made of money).

Of course, there's an extra entry earned for everyone who's already a follower of mine or becomes one.

This Giveaway will be open until Novemeber 15th, so get your entries in!

Spooktacular Giveawy Winner

And the winner-winner-chicken dinner of my Giveaway, and lucky recipient of a $10.00 Gift Certificate is...

Lisa B! 

*winner has been notified and gift certificate has already been sent.

A HUGE thanks to all that entered, and to all my lovely new followers, and my lovely and loyal older followers!  I was simply amazed by all the entries!  In fact, I had so much fun, I'm going to do it again!  Look for my next post and new giveaway!