Every Sunday I try to find a new bookish topic to discuss. Have an idea for a discussion post? Just leave a comment below or email me at christinathebookreader@gmail.com.
This week I want to talk about getting bored with what you're reading.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Review: Spinning Starlight
Title: Spinning StarlightAuthor: R.C. Lewis
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.
Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.
Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?
Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen'sThe Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Waiting on Wednesday (29) The Girl from Everywhere
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to highlight upcoming releases we're excited about.
This week, I'm excited about...
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
Review: The Rig by Joe Ducie
Title: The RigAuthor: Joe Ducie
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Fifteen-year-old Will Drake has made a career of breaking out from high-security prisons. His talents have landed him at The Rig, a specialist juvenile holding facility in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. No one can escape from The Rig. No one except for Drake...
After making some escape plans and meeting the first real friends of his life, Drake quickly realises that all is not as it seems on The Rig. The Warden is obsessed with the mysterious Crystal-X - a blue, glowing substance that appears to give superpowers to the teens exposed to it. Drake, Tristan and Irene are banking on a bid for freedom - but can they survive long enough to make it?
Sunday, October 4, 2015
#SST Interview with Lindsay Smith + GIVEAWAY!
Title: Dreamstrider
Author: Lindsay Smith
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Goodreads: Add Here!
Goodreads: Add Here!
Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighborhing kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage.
A richly conceived world full of political intrigue and fantastical dream sequences, at its heart Dreamstrider is about a girl who is struggling to live up to the potential before her.
So let's get the interview started!
- Tell me a bit about yourself.
I live in Washington, DC with my husband and our rotten Sheltie, and I’m pretty much always either writing or reading! I’m a foreign affairs junkie, and I’m fluent in Russian. I love traveling, eating, and downtime.
- Describe Dreamstrider in three words or less.
Nightmares. Kissing. Spies!
- Oooh that sounds intriguing! Where did the idea for Dreamstrider come from?
I came up with Dreamstrider while thinking about the dual nature of dreams--the kind we experience when we sleep, and the kind we experience when we’re awake. I wanted to design a world where they were one and the same, and so the concept of the Dreamer, a religious figure who tries to inspire waking dreams through sleeping ones, grew naturally out of that. I also wanted to subtly dismantle the Chosen One trope, but to say anything more about that would be spoilerrific ;)
- What was the most difficult aspect of Dreamstrider for you to capture?
Livia was a challenging character. I gave her an incredible gift in her ability to dreamstride, so in order to balance that out, I wanted to give her other difficulties with things that came easily to other characters. She struggles with feelings of inadequacy, especially after putting her teammates in grave danger. She comes from a hard life, and therefore feels ill at ease around people of means. And she doesn’t feel deserving of her gift. I love flawed characters like this, though, who don’t always meet our expectations off the bat, and have to work hard to prove themselves--especially to themselves.
- What was your favorite book growing up?
Slaughterhouse V was the first book that really made me want to be a writer, strange as that is! I loved how many different genres Vonnegut toyed with--war dramas and science fiction and domestic disputes. But I was also a huge fan of Nancy Drew and the Babysitters’ Club.
- Was becoming a writer always your life goal? Or did you have other ideas in mind?
I’ve always wanted to write, but I knew it couldn’t be my sole profession. I’ve bounced around a lot of pursuits--musician, linguist, researcher, even computer scientist. Writing, though, has always been a constant in my life.
- To keep in theme with Dreamstrider... If you could choose to take over the body of one of the characters, which one would you choose?
Ooh, great question! I think Vera would be a lot of fun. She’s so impulsive and unafraid. I’d love to see what sort of trouble I could get up to as her!
- As readers, we all know that book worlds can be pretty terrible. But that's one of the things that make them so excellent to read about. If you could live in any of the worlds you created (from any of your books), would you?
I don’t know! They all start out in pretty horrible shape, but I like to think the story leaves them in a better place. The Barstadt Empire would certainly be an intriguing world to jump into and try to shape.
- What piece of advice do you wish someone had given you while growing up?
To never let perfection be the enemy of the good. It wasn’t until I learned to shut off my inner editor that I was really able to get anywhere with my writing. I had to actually FINISH a book before I could worry about making it better!
- And finally, where can your readers find you online?
Website: http://lindsaysmith.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LindsaySmithDC
Tumblr: http://lindsaysmithdc.tumblr.com
About Lindsay:
Author of YA historical thrillers SEKRET and SKANDAL and the forthcoming YA fantasy DREAMSTRIDER (all from Macmillan Children's). Russophile, foreign affairs junkie, nerd.
Blog Ahead Challenge
Blog Ahead 2015
Purpose: Increase the number of scheduled blog posts you have ready to publish by 31 posts during the month of October. (You can set your own goal) All post will be scheduled from November 1st or later.
The Blog Ahead Challenge is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Anna @ herding cats and burning soup to help us silly, procrastination-prone bloggers get ahead during October!
Who Can Join: Any blogger or author can join. Brand new, been around for years.Blogger, WordPress or other platform. Any heat level, genre or theme, etc. If you blog…you’re welcome to join!
Types of Posts that Count: Any finished posts count! Meme, review, guest post, interview, discussion. Top Ten Posts, Favorites posts, Shopping Guide Posts, Cooking posts, pet posts, photo posts, etc. Posts do NOT have to be book related.
Required: The post must be complete and scheduled from November 1, 2015 onward. (So not just blurb, buy links, etc for a review post. The review needs to be complete for the post to count.)
So there is pretty much no way I see myself doing 31 posts. But that will still be my goal, because why not?
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