Upcoming Review: Something a Bit Different
Aug
07
2009

I had to laugh a little when I saw a post about a bookcase giveaway at Temple Library Reviews since I had the same initial reaction when I was contacted by CSN (a company that apparently sells things like office furniture, bookcases, desks, and mattresses) about reviewing one of their products: puzzlement. In fact, I nearly deleted the message until the word “bookcase” caught my eye. Then I figured why not write a bookcase review – anyone who loves books enough to follow a book blog like this one is probably afflicted with problems similar to mine – having eight bookshelves and still not enough space for all these books that pile up. Plus the bookshelves I do have tend to bend under the weight of thick epic fantasy hardcovers. This is actually what got me thinking that a review of this sort of product would be useful; I’ve had so many crappy bookshelves that I know I would have appreciated a bit of up-front testing.

While looking through their site, I was positively drooling over some of the shelves – someday I want to have the money and space to have a library wall or a gorgeous corner bookcase. I’ve always wanted to have a library with enough shelf space to actually alphabetize my books since now I have to double stack them all, which means keeping similarly sized books together. So I can’t alphabetize them by author very well (especially since they are also spread throughout the apartment) and it drives the anal side of me crazy. (Plus I just like for sets of books to look like they go together because well… have I mentioned I’m anal about some things?) I was about to ask if I was the only one who had that problem, but fortunately, I remembered this discussion from Orannia’s blog. It was such a relief to discover I wasn’t the only one.

Books of August
Aug
05
2009

So, what’s everyone reading or hoping to read this month? After reading a few long books, I plan to read some shorter ones and hopefully read a few more this month than I have been lately. I just finished Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie and will be reviewing that soon, and I just started on Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire last night. After that, I am hoping to read:

  • Dreamdark: Silksinger by Laini Taylor (or possibly Fire by Kristin Cashore or Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – to celebrate Young Adult Appreciation Month over at The Book Smugglers)
  • The Magicians by Lev Grossman
  • The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
  • The Drowning City by Amanda Downum

There are many more I’d like to squeeze in this month but 5 books is probably about my limit unless I win the lottery in the next couple of weeks.

2009 World Fantasy Award Nominees Announced
Aug
04
2009

This year’s World Fantasy Award nominees were announced today. Listed below are the nominees for novel, novella and short story, but a full list can be found at the World Fantasy Convention site.

Best Novel

  • The House of the Stag, Kage Baker (Tor)
  • The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
  • The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury)
  • Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
  • Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)

Best Novella

  • “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel”, Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
  • “If Angels Fight”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
  • “The Overseer”, Albert Cowdrey (F&SF 3/08)
  • Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury; HarperCollins)
  • “Good Boy”, Nisi Shawl (Filter House)

Best Short Story

  • “Caverns of Mystery”, Kage Baker (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy)
  • “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
  • “Pride and Prometheus”, John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)
  • “Our Man in the Sudan”, Sarah Pinborough (The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories)
  • “A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica”, Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 5/08)

Sadly, the only one of these I have read is Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which I loved. I’ve wanted to read something by Kage Baker for a while so I would like to read The House of the Stag at some point, and I am also curious about Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. It made me happy to see Catherynne M. Valente was a nominee since I really loved her novel The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden (her reaction on Twitter was actually the first I saw about the nominee announcement). I loved The Last Unicorn so seeing Peter S. Beagle on the list makes me happy, too. If you’ve read any of the nominated works, what did you think of them? Do you have any favorites you’re rooting for?

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week
Aug
02
2009

September 14 – 18 is the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Here is the rundown on this celebration from the Book Blogger Appreciation Week site:

WHO Anyone who blogs about books is invited to participate. In fact, we want everyone who blogs about books and reading to be a part of this week!
WHAT A week where we come together, celebrate the contribution and hard work of book bloggers in promoting a culture of literacy, connecting readers to books and authors, and recogonizing the best among us with the Second Annual BBAW Awards. There will be special guest posts, daily blogging themes, and giveaways.
WHEN September 14-18, 2009
WHERE Here at the new Book Blogger Appreciation Week Blog! (Please note that this year there are three separate blogs and feeds—one for the main event, one for giveaways, and one for awards.)
WHY Because books matter. In a world full of options, the people talking about books pour hard work, time, energy, and money into creating a community around the written word. I, Amy, the founder of Book Blogger Appreciation Week love this community of bloggers and want to shower my appreciation on you!

Book bloggers can register to be included in the database of book bloggers and for a chance at winning the grand prize. To nominate book bloggers for awards in various categories (there are many – I just filled it out and it was very hard to choose), go to the Book Blogger Appreciation Week awards page sometime between now and the end of August 15. Also, you can follow Book Blogger Appreciation Week on Twitter.

Big Patricia Briggs Giveaway
Aug
02
2009

Today over at SciFiGuy, I saw this awesome giveaway mentioned and wanted to share it. There is currently a month long contest running over at the Patricia Briggs forum to celebrate its second anniversary. To sign up, one just has to register on the Hurog forum and leave a comment on the appropriate thread. There are 4 weeks of contests, and the first one for copies of Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood is already over. This week’s contest is for When Demons Walk, Steal the Dragon, and Cry Wolf (one winner per book).

Upcoming prizes will include the books in the Mercy Thompson series and the Homecoming graphic novel, Hunting Ground (the second Alpha and Omega book, which will be out later this month) and a Mercy’s Garage mug. There will be lots of great opportunities to win some fabulous prizes if you are a Patricia Briggs fan!

Last Argument of Kings
Aug
01
2009

Right now I’ve only read one book that I haven’t given at least the mini-review treatment – Last Argument of Kings, the conclusion to Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy. Since I read it about a month and a half ago now, I’m not going to review it. I put that one to the back of the review queue when I was busy with wedding planning then getting caught up once that was over, figuring the world didn’t really need yet another review of this novel (as you’ll see if you scroll down to the links below) and that anybody who had read the first two probably had a pretty good idea of whether or not they wanted to read the final volume in the series (which should definitely be read before this book, starting with The Blade Itself and followed by Before They Are Hanged). Plus I’m a little over halfway through Abercrombie’s latest novel, Best Served Cold, right now and will most likely be discussing it in relation to the series in that review.

So I’m just going to say a little bit about the series in general and link to some of the aforementioned numerous reviews for anyone who does indeed want to read a review of Last Argument of Kings.

The First Law trilogy is a partially serious, partially humorous epic fantasy series in the tradition of the trend toward “gritty” fantasy. (Yes, I used that word. Oh well, I’m straying from my review rules in this and just saying whatever comes to mind and not rereading it 100 times and revising it. Note: Haha, that was funny of me as I am writing this sentence after reading it for about the tenth time.)

On the outside, it may seem a little bit like stock fantasy but what sets it apart is the way in which it is told, although I still wouldn’t say it’s one of the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. It’s full of dark humor and is very readable. For the first part of each book, it didn’t seem like a lot was happening plot-wise, but the characters themselves and their cynical observations kept me reading. The part I really enjoyed in the latter part of the series is the way the author started out with a fairly standard predictable, fantasy plot and then took it in a different direction.

Although I found these fun to read, they are not for everyone – especially those who prefer to stay away from books with violence, bad language, and sexual content. I also would not recommend them to people who enjoy likable characters who tend to do the right thing. If you are looking to read uplifting stories about heroics, nobility, and the goodness of human nature, these are not for you, and the final volume is the most depressing of the three.

Now I need to get back to reading Best Served Cold so I can review that one soon. I was hoping to have it finished by Wednesday (the US release date) but that didn’t happen so I’m hoping to finish it this weekend instead. If only I could read faster… Now, for the promised links of actual reviews of Last Argument of Kings (conveniently found on the review index on Fantasy Book News & Reviews, with the exception of Jeff’s own review):