11. Valiant by Holly Black (2005)
Modern Tales of Faerie, Book 2

Read my review of book:
1. Tithe

Length: 316 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Started: 28 January 2009
Finished: 29 January 2009

Where did it come from? Christmas present from a friend.
Why do I have it? See above; but it was on my wishlist after reading Tithe.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 25 December 2008.

Don’t do drugs, mmmkay?
Especially not if they
come from the fey folk.

Happy Sunday, all!

We didn’t get nearly as much snow as other parts of the country did during the recent Snowpocalypse, but it’s enough to make me feel like curling up and hibernating… so that’s what I’ve been doing all morning. I probably should have gotten up and gone to the gym and gone in and done a little work, but instead I curled up with a big mug of tea and a knitted afghan, and finished the book I’ve been working on for the past few days, Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton.

I say “working on”, and maybe that was the case yesterday, but today I got totally sucked into the story and zipped through 200 pages like it was nothing. I’ve got a bit of a backlog, so the review won’t be up until next week, but it’s this totally charming blend of Austen-esque Victoriana and dragons, and it left me wanting to do nothing so much as pop in the Pride and Prejudice DVDs and snicker to myself all afternoon imagining Colin Firth as a dragon… but I probably should be a responsible grown-up and bundle up and go work out and run the errands I didn’t get to yesterday (due to the library being closed because of Snowmegeddon.) Phooey.

Re-Read. Tithe by Holly Black (2002)
Modern Tales of Faerie, Book 1

Length: 331 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Started: 28 April 2008 (original) / 25 January 2010 (re-read)
Finished: 29 April 2008 (original) / 26 January 2010 (re-read)

This is a bit of a new thing for me. Not so much that I’m reviewing a book that I’m re-reading; I’ve done that before in my highly sporadic and infrequent Love Letters to Lit and other Review Revisited posts. What’s new here is that this book is the first that I’ve already reviewed once on this blog. I don’t want to post too much of the same thing twice, so I’ll direct you to my original review for the summary, vocab, etc., and for this post I’ll focus on why I re-read it, and how my opinion has changed since the first time.

Search Terms!

As always, thank you to all of the lovely people who left a comment in January!

- A Bookshelf Monstrosity - Abby from Abby (the) Librarian - Allyson from Magnolias and Mimosas - Alyce from At Home With Books - Amanda from Life and Times of a New New Yorker - Amber from Amber Stults - Amy from My Friend Amy - Anastasia from Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog - Anna from Diary of an Eccentric - AZ from Bookie Woogie - Beth F from Beth Fish Reads - bookworm from The Bookworm - Cara from Oooh…Books! - Care from Care’s Online Book Club - Carl V. from Stainless Steel Droppings - Charley from Bending Bookshelf - Christina from Stacked - Christina from Reading Through the Night - Christine Dosa from Okay…..So…. - Claire from The Captive Reader - Colleen from Books in the City - Darren from Bart’s Bookshelf - Dawn from She Is Too Fond of Books - Debbie from ReaderBuzz - Dominique from Coffee Stained Pages - E. Kristin Anderson from The Hate-Mongering Tart - Fyrebyrdbooks from Fyrebyrd’s Book Blog - Gavin from Page247 - Hazra from Advance Booking - Janelle from Brimful Curiosities - Jen from Devourer of Books - Jenny from Jenny’s Books - Jessica from Overflowing Bookshelf - Joanne from Book Zombie - Kailana from The Written World - Kara from World According to Books - Kathy from Bermudaonion’s Weblog - Kay from Kay’s Bookshelf - Kay from The Infinite Shelf - Kelly from Yannabe - Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness

- Ladytink_534 from The Movieholic & Bibliophile’s Blog - Laura - Lenore from Presenting Lenore - Lexie C. from Poisoned Rationality - Lightheaded from Everyday Reads - Literary Feline from Musings of a Bookish Kitty - literarykitty from The Literary Kitty - Literate Housewife from The Literate Housewife Review - Maureen from Confessions of a Bibliovore - Meghan from Medieval Bookworm - Melissa from The Betty and Boo Chronicles - Melissa from An Artist’s Journey - Melissa from One Librarian’s Book Reviews - Melissa Walker - Memory from Stella Matutina - Michelle from Literarily Speaking - Michelle from Michelle’s Masterful Musings - Mike Madrid from Heaven 4 Heroes - Natalie from This Purple Crayon - Nina from We Adore a Happy Ending - Nish from Nishita’s Rants and Raves - Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot - PhoenixTerran from Experiments in Reading - Reading 100 - rhapsodyinbooks from RhapsodyinBooks’s Weblog - sadiejean from Sadie-Jean’s Book Blog - Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit - Shanra from Libri Touches - Sharry from Always Dream - Sheri from A Novel Menagerie - Shonda from Me, My Book, and the Couch - softdrink from Fizzy Thoughts - Stephanie from Reviewsbylola’s Blog - Susan from Bloggin’ ’bout Books - The Literary Omnivore - thekoolaidmom from In the Shadow of Mt. TBR - Tracie Yule from Yule Time Reading - unfinishedperson from Just a (Reading) Fool - Vivienne from Serendipity

Also: alice, Angela, angela pitta, Catriona, Christine, drakon, Erin, karen, Mike, Murphy, Nancy, readwhatyouknow, Sofia, Sophia Ginger, Zara

And now, everyone’s favorite…

tales of dunk and egg in dreamsongs?
Yes, in part. The first story starring Dunk and Egg, “The Hedge Knight,” is in Dreamsongs. (Volume 2 if you’re going for the print versions and Volume 3 if you’re going for the audio versions.) The second Dunk and Egg story, “The Sworn Sword,” is not a part of the Dreamsongs compilations, but can be found in the Legends collections edited by Robert Silverberg.

i will survive dance steps
Ah, the death-polka. So many think they can handle it, and so tragically few do.

is there going to be a follow up to an e
Yes. We like to call it an F.

cormac mccarthy, horse
No; Cormac McCarthy, author.

vanger family tree tattoo
Wow, I like Stieg Larsson’s books too, but that’s getting a little extreme, not to mention permanent.

how to make little titanic cake
Step 1: Make big Titanic cake.
Step 2: Fire ShrinkRay(tm) at cake.
Step 3: Profit!

when will a sequal to “wind” come out
You do not know how hard it is for me to resist making a fart joke right now.

…but I’ll refrain, because I’m mature and classy like that. ‘Til next month, wacky searchers!

Ye Grande Olde TBR(e) Challenge Update

I started January with 245 unread books sitting around my house. And I ended with … *drumroll* … 252! *sigh* At least I was good about only reading two from-the-library-(but-not-graphic-novels) books, and I did manage to clear a decent number off the TBR pile… I just added a whole bunch more.

…anyways, let’s take a look at the breakdown:

Audiobooks - The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson – Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Read but not owned – Need by Carrie Jones – Splendor by Anna Godbersen – Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan et al. - Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles by Brian K. Vaughan et al. - Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3: One Small Step by Brian K. Vaughan et al. (review coming soon)
Re-reads - Tithe by Holly Black (originally reviewed here; revisited review coming soon)

Cleared from my TBR pile (huzzah!) – The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox – On Fire’s Wings by Christie Golden – Captivate by Carrie Jones – The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines by Mike Madrid – Valiant by Holly Black (review coming soon)     Added to my TBR pile (shame!) - Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (I can’t pin this one on anyone in particular, so many people have read and loved this, so, all of you… this is your fault.) - Mélusine by Sarah Monette (Memory’s fault.) - We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle (Nymeth’s fault) - The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (Ohhhh, Clive *Barker*!) (….just realized that that sounded way dirtier than it actually is. For an explanation, see the beginning my review of Abarat.) - Diplomacy of Wolves by Holly Lisle (I loved the two books of hers that I’ve read, so when I saw the first two of this series at the booksale, I had to pick them up.) - Dust by Elizabeth Bear (also Memory’s fault, and indirectly Shanra’s.) - Vengeance of Dragons by Holly Lisle - Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (Marisa’s fault.) - The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen. (I can’t really call this one Trish’s fault just for hosting the blog tour, can I? Sure I can! Trish’s fault.) - The Summer Country by James A. Hetley. (Total impulse buy. I need to stop going to the library when the booksale is open.) - The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (Kim’s fault.) - Kindred by Octavia Butler (Kristen of BookNAround recommended this to me way back during the 4 Rs Challenge, so: Kristen’s fault. Which reminds me… I really need to get off my butt and resurrect the 4Rs Challenge for another go-round.)

10. Going Bovine by Libba Bray (2009)

Read By: Erik Davies
Length: 15h 08m (496 pages)

Genre: Young Adult, Humor, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy (kind of)

Started: 13 January 2010
Finished: 25 January 2010

Where did it come from? The library.
Why do I have it? I’d read Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series and liked them well enough, so when I heard she had a new book I thought I’d check it out.
Verdict? Going Bovine just won the Printz Award, and I can absolutely see why. I’m going to be buying a copy of this to keep.

A dying kid goes
on a quest to save his life…
and the universe.

Happy Sunday, all! I hope everyone is keeping warm and cozy today… it’s cold enough here that me and clogged sinuses are in full hibernation mode. I’ve got blankets, a good book, plenty of tea, some Dayquil, and all of my errands already accomplished. Yay!

Ever since I made my “best of 2009″ list, I’ve been thinking. Picking the five or ten best books out of a pool of 140ish was a damn daunting task. Picking the best one out of a pool of twelve or thirteen is substantially less hard. (Still not easy, though, of course.) So, I think I’ll start doing a pick of the month, and that way, when next New Year’s rolls around, I’ll have an already-culled pool of 12 to pick from.

In the future, I might start putting this in my monthly wrap-up, but this month’s wrap-up is already quite long – I’ve been a bad kid when it comes to book acquisitions. Not only did a lot of my wishlisted books come up on Bookmooch, but I also really need to start scheduling my weekly library trip at a time when the booksale is not open. Bad Nicki!

Aaaaaanyways. Pick of the month. It was a close call between two books, both of which featured angels and deep thoughts about the nature of life and love and such, and which were otherwise about as different as possible. Elizabeth Knox’s The Vintner’s Luck and Libba Bray’s Going Bovine were both excellent books, but in the end I’m going to give the nod to Going Bovine. I’ll have my full review up tomorrow, but the short version is that not only did it make me think deep thoughts about the nature of life and love and such, but it also the cause of quite a few bouts of very loud, often very public, very uncontrollable laughter, and more than a few tears. Good stuff.

What about you, readers? What’s your best read from January 2010?

9. The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines by Mike Madrid (2009)

Length: 324 pages
Genre: Non-fiction

Started: 20 January 2009
Finished: 24 January 2009

Where did it come from? Gift from one of my few friends who will still buy me books. :)
Why do I have it? Well, see above, but I suspect he picked it based on NPR’s list of the five best books to share with your friends, and because he knows I like graphic novels.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 21 December 09.

Things are better now,
but women superheroes
have come a long way.

8. Splendor by Anna Godbersen (2009)
Luxe Novels, Book 4

Read my review of book:
1. The Luxe
2. Rumors
3. Envy

Length: 392 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Started: 18 January 2010
Finished: 20 January 2010

Where did it come from? The library.
Why do I have it? I’ve read the rest of the series, and my reading attention has been limited lately, so something light and fluffy fit the bill.

Amidst the pretty
dresses, lives get ruined, and
loves get lost and found.

7. Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, José Marzán Jr., Pamela Rambo, Clem Robins, J. G. Jones (2003)
Y: The Last Man, volume 2

Read my review of volume:
1. Unmanned

Length: 192 pages
Genre: Graphic Novel, Sci-Fi

Started: 17 January 2010
Finished: 17 January 2010

Where did it come from? The library.
Why do I have it? The first volume was awesome, so.

The last man on Earth
finally gets some lovin’.
About damn time, too!