Daily Life in Medieval Europe by Jeffrey L. Singman (4/5 stars, reread) — nonfiction; covers what life looked like for the people living in Medieval Europe. Excellent resource for writers of semi-realistic fantasy or historical fiction.
The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts (4/5 stars, reread) — YA, contemporary fantasy; girl who has minor powers and creeps people out is in danger of her secret being found out, so she tracks down more kids like her. Read this first when I was the same age as the title character.
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (5/5 stars, audio, second book in the MaddAdam trilogy) — post-apocalyptic literary fiction; two women who survive the global pandemic reflect on what life used to be, while adjusting to a new world. Continues Oryx and Crake by all of two scenes.
Heroes at Odds by Moira J. Moore (4/5 stars, book 6 in the Heroes series) — humorous fantasy; Lee finds out she was betrothed before she became a Shield, magic users go head-to-head, and Taro's home is threatened again. This is the last one that will be available in paperback, much to my disappointment. The author will make the final installment available online.
Feed by Mira Grant (4/5 stars, reread, readalong) — post-apocalyptic horror/political thriller; bloggers follow a Presidential campaign in a world very much changed by a zombie apocalypse. The second part of the readalong is here.
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (3/5 stars, audio, book 3 in the Dresden Files) — detective noir urban fantasy; Harry Dresden contends with ghosts, a possessive fairy godmother, and vampires in what many fans say is a turning point of the series. I'm still only listening because I like how James Marsters reads them.
Map of Time by Félix J. Palma (3/5 stars, book club selection) — steampunk time travel; wins the award for most misleading jacket blurb in my recent memory, as the jacket blurb events don't show up until the last third. The other two parts are about a man who loses the love of his life to Jack the Ripper and goes back in time to save her, and a future savior of mankind who isn't all he seems, and who mires himself in further lies.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (2/5 stars, audio) — YA post-apocalyptic horror; a girl born after the zombie apocalypse pouts her way through woods infested with zombies. Pardon me, "unconsecrated." Possibly a decent read spoiled by a terrible narrator.
Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich (2/5 stars, Stephanie Plum between the numbers, audio) — humor/mystery; not a lot to distinguish this installment of the Stephanie Plum series where she meets a wannabe leprechaun and rescues Grandma Mazur from a small-time gangster.
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (5/5 stars, InCryptid #1, release date 3/6/12) — humorous urban fantasy; Verity Price wants a chance to pursue her dream of a career of ballroom dancing before her family calling as a cryptozoologist takes over. Can't recommend this highly enough, which is why I'm giving away 5 copies of it.
Interview with Seanan McGuire, by a long shot. Likely helped by the giveaway and the fact that Seanan McGuire is awesome.
Writing romance and sex, in honor of Valentine's Day.
Stuff and things, with some random bullet points. This indicates the seat-of-the-pants approach is working for me.
Another progress post, where I discuss my progress on SWANoWriMo, my writing group's answer to the fact that our lives are too hectic to write 50k in November.
Narrative kinks, because nothing gets people's attention like handcuffs. Not as controversial as it sounds; it's about what I like to see in stories I read or movies I watch.
Nice little wrapup there, Alice. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't do this, but I honestly have too much fun doing the long form reviews.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I started doing it when I saw that I had people wandering across my site from really strange places. If they're going to get a good idea of whether my stuff's worth reading, I need to make it easy to find.
DeleteAlso, I'm kinda lazy. As long as these take to put together, it's a day I don't have to write up new content.