The Sunday Salon: The Treadmill Book is Back!

Yep. I've taken a little treadmill vacation, but no more. The treadmill is back, and along with that, a book to read while walking. My first treadmill book is to finish J. Scott Savage's Farworld: Land Keep. The uncorrected proof version I have of that book is perfect for the treadmill book holder. See, it can't just be any book that's designated as the treadmill book! It's got to work in that holder!

Today I've spent a good chunk of the day reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. This is the book for my "other" book club (the one were I just go but don't lead) coming up in a few weeks. I'm learning much about the Japanese evacuations and round up, in Seattle particularly, during World War II.

Yesterday I finished up The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. I remember it making quite a buzz a few years ago, but I sure haven't heard about it in recent years. Anyway, it was on my TBR Challenge list, so I decided to get another one of those done, though I think I won't finish my list before the year is over. It was a fun and quite intense SF like I haven't read for a long time.

Coming up in my pile:

Her Fearful Symmetry... because it's due soon at the library

Hide and Seek... for the Wilkie Collins Classic Circuit tour

When you Reach Me... a quick read, also from the library

A review of Tom Sawyer... for my book club

A Fatal Waltz... because it's borrowed and I need to get it back

Maybe something else from the TBR Challenge list

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Book: Fallen by Lauren Kate
Genre: YA Paranormal
Rating: A
For: ARC sent for review from Random House/Delacorte Press: To be released Dec. 8

The premise for this book sounded too intriguing to pass up, so I requested an ARC and actually got one! (I know, old news for many of you, but for me, it's still extremely cool.) I was very anxious to get to it, but it had to wait it's turn for a week or two, which wasn't too bad really, considering.

Anyway. So here's the deal. The promotion and marketing for this book is bothering me, because it seems to me that if most of the book is the main character trying to figure something out, then we as readers, should be learning and figuring and discovering right along with her. So I don't WANT to know from the get go what that conclusion will be. Know what I mean? So anyway, be careful if that sort of thing bothers you too. Don't read too much about this book if you want to learn things along with the character.

All that, of course, makes it awfully hard to review! Let's just say this has a bit of a Twilight feel, but don't let that steer you away, all you Twilight haters! There's many twists and turns and scenarios that makes it quite different from Twilight.

So it's about a girl named Luce, who ends up in this school for delinquents and crazy kids. Her parents don't quite know what to do with her because she's been having some problems, particularly a strange incident at her former school. At the new school, she makes a bunch of very unique friends and eventually starts digging into the past of one particular guy. Then things get very intense and Luce is totally confused for most of it.

So, yes, I loved it. It did get a little sappy in parts, and there's plenty of violence too, but not overly done. And yes, there's more to come. Of course! Every book I read these days is the start of yet another trilogy! What is UP with that?

Other Reviews (esp. if you want a little more info than what I revealed!)


The Book Lush

Jo's Fantasy Book Reviews


Here's a trailer that I liked that kinda gives you a feel for the book without giving anything away. (Sorry, I tried to embed it, but it was doing strange and funky things... so click on the link then pick Fallen which you'll see on the right. This is also where you can see the trailer to Maze Runner, if you haven't seen it yet.)The only problem with it... the dude does NOT fit the look needed. Not even close! Sorry dude.

Review: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Book: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Genre: YA

Rating: A-

For: Fun

This was the book JJ read during all of the readathon, and she seemed to totally love it. So as soon as I could, I picked it up and also read it quite quickly. Gotta love those Sarah Dessen books!

This one is about a girl named Auden, who decides to spend the summer before college hanging with her dad and step mom and their brand new baby. The step mom has major adjustment problems to the baby, the dad is a total jerk, and Auden ends up doing much to help them. Of course, she meets a quiet, mysterious, brooding dude. It appears he was a major biker in his former life, but something has happened to completely change him, and now he apparently is not himself... quite.

They discover that they have an interesting thing in common.... they can't sleep, so they end up spending their nights together roaming the town. Interesting premise. I would freak, as a mom, if my kid was doing that. Sheesh.

Anyway, great story. But now that I've read, I think, five Dessen novels, I'm tending to rank them. This one would fall in the middle. Lock and Key, and Just Listen remain at the top! This one tended to focus on the parent's problems too much... and I didn't really care about them. They were most irritating. I did like that the language wasn't as rough in this one as it has been in others. It was still there, just not as abundant.

Other reviews:

Persnickety Snark

Becky's Book Reviews

Books. Lists.Life.

Library Queue

Em's Bookshelf

Booking Through Thursday: Biography vs. Autobiography vs. Memoir

Booking Through Thursday asks: Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?

I think when it's written by the actual person, of course it's going to be better. That being said, I do love biographies too. In fact, I even thought about making a Suey's Top Ten list of favorite biographies and/or autobiographies, but as I was thinking about what I'd put on that list, I started wondering if what I was coming up with were actually memoirs.

So, I got confused, and now am asking a question back to YOU, my readers, what is the difference between an autobiography and a memoir? Is a memoir only a small part of a person's life? And an autobiography their whole life? So is Angela's Ashes a memoir? A Girl Named Zippy? Or are they autobiographies? And they're not, I'm now wondering if I've even read any actual autobiographies!

I know you'll know, and am looking forward to your answers!

The Bookword Game: Winning Word and a New Word

And the winner is...

A Throne Tome:

A book that's good to read in the bathroom!

Congratulations to CarrieK of Books and Movies for coming up with the winning word!

For our next word, let's think of something to describe a book that has a very distinctive smell. Perhaps it smells so good that you find yourself constantly sticking your nose all the way in and taking a big whiff. Or maybe it smells so bad that you find yourself stopping to put the book down because you feel a headache coming on!

What should we call a book that has such a distinctive smell that we find it distracting?

Comment with your suggestions! Don't be shy! Voting will be next week at An Adventure in Reading.

NaNoWriMo... NOT... and other stuff

I got a kick out of John Green's latest vlog so I thought I'd share.... especially for all you NaNoWriMo types! He cracks me up...



Good luck to all you writers. I wish I could try it, just for fun, but I decided to put that little thought on hold for now. Maybe some year.



In other news....


Want to learn more about my book club? We're featured today over at Booking Mama's so be sure to go check it out!



Oh, and it's time for all the fun blogger Christmas festivities to begin. If you want to participate in the Book Blogger's Holiday Swap, go sign up before Nov. 12. I promise, it's very fun. Then there's the Blog Advent Tour that's coming up during the month of December, so be watching The Written World for more details on that. And finally, we've got the Buy Books for the Holidays cause starting up again too, so don't forget to check that out!



Whew. What fabulous ideas everyone comes up with and all the work and organization that goes into everything. It's very cool.

Review: The Seer of Shadows by Avi

Book: The Seer of Shadows by Avi

Genre: MG Paranormal

Rating: B+

For: Fun (Readathon)

This was the last book I read on Readathon day. It was pretty quick and easy, yet engaging enough to hold my attention as I was getting tired. It's one of the books Scholastic is promoting at their book fairs this year, and so of course, I bought one.

The story is about a photographer's apprentice, back in the early beginnings of the art of photography. One day, he and his boss get a job to come and photograph this rich lady who appears to be in major mourning for her recently departed daughter. Then the photographer gets this sneaky idea to have his apprentice take pictures of the daughter (from other pictures on display in the house) on the sly, and then they will double expose both pictures so it will look like the daughter is in the picture with her mom.

Horace, our apprentice hero, feels a little bit worried about the scheme, and as it turns out, he had reason to be because it unleashes a whole huge can of worms!

A fun and interesting ghost story perfect for upper elementary grade levels where they end up learning something (the history and process of photography) at the same time. My low-ish rating is because I think I was expecting it to be a little more scary, and so I was disappointed that it didn't creep me out more.

Other reviews:

Words by Annie

Charlotte's Library

KidsReads.com