Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic - OLD VERSION!

New blog url!!!

2010-04-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

If you subscribe to this blog through something other than the followers function, please change the url to this blog's new location:

secretdreamworldofabookaholic.blogspot.com!

I have decided to change the url so that it matches the blog's name. So far it's still made up to fit the waaaay old blog name!

This blog is under allergies wink

2010-04-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I'm suffering from my allergies and it drains all energy right out of me. I am tired, can't breathe through my nose and wished those stupid pollens would just hurry up doing their job so that I can breathe and live again.
I hope it gets better during the next few days - at least so much better that I can think and read again or at least get used to it...

In My Mailbox Monday (Apr 18)

2010-04-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

Please don’t forget my two current giveaways: My 4th Blogiversary Giveaway ending April 24 and my Birthday Giveaway ending April 26!

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

Last week I've been really, really bad about visiting all your Mailboxes. Sorry! I hope and plan to be better this week.

Beth Fantaskey's Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Gail Carriger's Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)

Batya Gur's The Saturday Morning Murder: A Psychoanalytic Case (Michael Ohayon Mysteries, No. 1) - I'm reading this series a bit out of order, because I can't always find the right book in the book store.

David Remnick's The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama - my first book about the current president of the USA, and I'm already curious!

And two German books:

Entschuldigung, sind Sie die Wurst? (Excuse me, are you the wurst/cold meats?), a birthday gift from a dear friend. It's a compilation of things overheard in public - similar to Overheard in New York and Overheard Everywhere. (You really need to check these out if you don't know them already!)

Daniel Kehlmann's Ruhm (Fame), which is a novel in nine stories, where one story links to the others in one way or another. This was a birthday gift from a colleague and friend.

blame game time (April 16)

2010-04-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

Just Like Me, Just Better by Carol Snow was reviewed by Wendy from Wendy's Minding Spot and it sounds hilarious!

The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano was reviewed by Lenore from Presenting Lenore. I read a lot about the book in the past, but her short review just did it for me.

Taken By Storm by Angela Morrison was reviewed by Lorelei from Tattooed Books. I just have to get it, because it sounds like a nice book to read once I have finished some of my other books.

Wish by Alexandra Bullen has been out there for a bit, and I really don't know why I hesitated. Anyway, the review Kim from The Book Butterfly was the last straw...

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker was reviewed by Stephanie from Juiciliciousss Reviews - while I don't particularly like the official cover (the ARC cover was much better!), I am still curious about this version of The Sleeping Beauty.

The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) by Kody Keplinger was reviewed by Jami from YA Addict and it sure sounds like a fun read of reluctant friends (frenemies???)...

Book Review: Literary Murder by Batya Gur

2010-04-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

Author	Batya Gur
Title	Literary Murder
Publisher	Harper
Date of Publication	October 7, 1994
Page Count	368 (my German copy: 480)
ISBN	978-0-060-92548-2
Series	Superintendent Michael Ohajon #2

On a short vacation to the sea with his son, Superintendent Michael Ohajon witnesses the body of a dead scuba diver being pulled out of the sea. The diver turns out to be a lecturer at the Hebrew Literature Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem - Ido Duda'i. Back home in Jerusalem, Ohajon helps with the investigation in the lecturer's death, when a second murder victim is found: the head of the institute, Sha'ul Tirosh, a world-reknowned scholar and poet. While investigating the two murders, Ohajon heads back into the world of the university, including its academic talking and the lectures.

To be up front, this book can be boring in some parts for those readers who don't know the basics of studying literature (for example what hermeneutics is). Batya Gur recreated two longer lectures on literature in this mystery and some shorter discussions in conversations between the characters. This, of course, could have been expected in a book set around the world of the lecturers and professors of a literature department at a university. You can of course skip or skim those parts, but I really enjoyed them, as they showed some more distant characters in a new light.

Aside from that, though, the murder mysteries and the characters were so well-developped, it was amazing to read Literary Murder. The characters are really three-dimensional, with different reasons that make them tick. It was hard to keep track of every little detail, which made it impossible (at least for me) to guess who did it up until the very last moment.

On top of that, the setting in Jerusalem was one I have yet to encounter in other mysteries. According to SYKM there are a few more series set in Israel, or Jerusalem, more specifically (do authors know there are other interesting cities in Israel? I'd like to read a series set in Tzfat or maybe Haifa *wink* Batya Gur really brought Jerusalem into my living room and my room at my parents'. It was awesome to almost see the streets of Jerusalem with the old buildings and everything!

In my German copy, the publisher even added some explanations about the Jewish terms, as not everyone might know what "shiva" is. I'm really excited about this series, as it is so different from other murder mysteries / police procedurals I've read in the past, yet, it is similar. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book.

This review is part of Jen's Detectives Around the World week. For more posts about detectives from all different countries, please click on the picture:

books, books, and more books - currently reading and not reading

2010-04-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sooo tired! My first week of lectures at unversity is already finished (I only have classes Mon through Wed) and 4 of my classes didn't even take place yet, but I'm so tired, I actually went to bed at 8:30pm yesterday and only read for an hour before I switched off the light and dozed off, happily slept until close to 7am this morning and I am still (or again?) tired!

With all the being tired I haven't read much, but instead I started a few more books. Just what I needed, right? On Monday, I bought and started reading one of Carlo Goldoni's works (the title escapes me, sorry - it's about a notorious liar and his servant, Arlecchino). On Sunday late in the evening I discovered - to my shock and horror - that sometime after my wisdom tooth issue, they changed the class info for my class on Italian lit and I was supposed to read this one *before* the class started. And yes, the class started on Monday! Anyway, I got up early, left for the book shop to get the book and the sat down in the Starbucks right around the corner and started reading. I think I read the first 20 pages before I had to leave for my class, so I really was nowhere near finished (the book has only about 90 pages, but still!). Now, on to said class, with a guilty conscience! And there I found out we won't discuss the book until late May or even early June. Duh! I could have saved myself the trouble (and another currently reading-book. Well, I'm now half-way through, so I will finish it and then skim it once we're closer to the actual discussion date.

Then, I needed something light for the evening, because on Monday already, I was just so tired! So I picked up one of my romance novels which I have here. My small stack of "lifesavers", so to say, because I just can't fall asleep unless I read a few pages. No matter how tired I am, I just won't fall asleep! And then, I'm reading the 4th House of Night book, Untamed. I am on page 45, I think, which really isn't that far into the story yet, and even though I enjoy it, I just haven't managed to pick it back up today (not after the train ride home from the dentist, who took the stitch out this noon, anyway).

Really, right now, I just wished I could sit down with *one* book and finish it. But no, I have a bunch going.

And as if that is not bad enough, I sorted through all the bills from my book-shopping sprees (I collect them :-P ). I filed all those away that have unread books on them, and I have unread books from as far back as 2006 (that's as far back as I could go)! Can you imagine that? 2006!!!

The books are:

1) P.J. Tracy: Dead Run
2) Tamar Myers: The Ming & I
3) Julia Spencer-Fleming: In The Bleak Midwinter
4) Joanne Fluke: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (one would think I read that right away - chocolate chip cookies and all!)
5) Rhys Bowen: Death of Riley
6) Nancy Fairbanks: Death A L'Orange
7) Emilie Richards: Let There Be Suspects
8) Rachel Gibson: Simply Irresistible

And maybe Janet Evanovich's Seven Up, but I can't find it on my TBR piles or shelves. Wherever that book is, I hope I already read it!

This run down really scared me, so I didn't even think about going through the bills from 2007. It can only get worse! *sigh*

Do you have many unread books at home from looooong ago?

Book Review: My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman

2010-04-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

Author	Lauren Bjorkman
Title	My Invented Life
Publisher	Henry Holt
Date of Publication	September 29, 2009
Page Count	229
ISBN	978-0-8050-8950-9

Roz and Eva are sisters who are only one year apart - and up until a few months ago, they were not only sisters, but also best friends. But then they fell out with each other, which ended with Eva deleting a folder from her computer desktop titled "Roz - sister and best friend". Roz calls this the PD - the time Post Deletion. Now the sister are enemies of sorts and very, very tense around each other and argue whenever they're talking. When Eva dares Roz to publicly proclaim she is into girls at the beginning of a new school year, Roz accepts right away, thinking it won't be too difficult and might even help others with their coming out, but is she really ready for what will come her way? And who is actually into girls in this cast? And will this affect this year's play the drama club will perform, Shakespeare's As You Like It?

In this young adult novel spiked with Shakespearean curses and even more references Shakespearean language most of the time, we not only meet two sisters and their friends in times of troubles and secrets. We also are thrown into the world of teenagers today who have to deal with their identity and their sexuality.

Roz is a funny, rather clueless girl who stumbles into difficult situations simply because she wants to help. This makes her a likeable character, even if you sometimes feel like telling her to open her eyes. Her sister Eva is someone Roz misses in her life and she does not know what caused the fraction between them, so she tries to figure it out, to go back to normal. To top it of (like the whipped cream on the ice cream, if you'd like), we get Roz's internal view, her daydreams. And then there are of course the other members of the drama club. These characters are something and they throw you right back to high school - there's drama, lies, betrayals and some good acting going on throughout the book.

I really enjoyed that Lauren Bjorkman used this setting everyone involved in high school art clubs knows, to talk about sexual identity, sibling rivalry and friendship. We all need friends, after all! I found Roz' voice to be clear, even if she was not exactly the most straightforward, that's how it is girl and her daydreams spiked things up.

All in all, I was sad to see this story end, but while I would love to visit Roz, Eva and the entire drama club again, I just don't see a good plot. Unless you take Jonathan as the narrator! Actually, I can't wait for 2011 to come, because then I will at least get back with Lauren Bjorkman's beautiful writing, in her second young adult novel Miss Fortune Cookie.

I got this book through International Book Tours, and I'm really glad the girls are doing this for us international book bloggers!

In My Mailbox Monday (Apr 11) and what else I got this week

2010-04-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

This week was filled with good things for me. After all, it was my birthday and I needed some comfort after having my wisdom tooth extracted.

So, for books I got :

My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman via the International Book Tours. I already finished the book and it is ready to be sent on to the next person.

Then I got a German book written by former Israeli ambassador in Germany (I hope I got his title right!) Avi Primor, in which he talks about his work as ambassador and his life. I'm really curious about that one - and I was really lucky, because I bought a used copy with his signature!

I also got Exclusively Chloe by J.A. Yang. I think I'll break my rule of reading the older books first with this one. I'm cuuuuuurious! :D

William Sleator's Fingers just had to come to me, now that I finally remembered the title of a childhood favorite, which I read only once when I got it from the library. For years I've been trying to remember the title, because the story of a young boy, a wonder child pianist, haunted me! I hope it can live up to my memories.

Do I have to say anything about this? I had to get Hex Hall (Book 1) by Rachel Hawkins!

Also, I got a bunch of DVDs:

Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds - it's the first BBC classic I ever watched and I just had to get my own copy.

Don't worry! I got the collectors box with all three movies for a small price. Persuasion with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry Jones, Mansfield Park with Billie Piper and Blake Ritson, and Northanger Abbey with Felicity Jones and William Beck.
I just love the Jane Austen movies from BBC!

And my brother and his girlfriend got me the 2nd and 3rd season of King of Queens for my birthday. How awesome is that?

Read-A-Thon woes

2010-04-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

Please don’t forget my two current giveaways: My 4th Blogiversary Giveaway ending April 24 and my Birthday Giveaway ending April 26!

I'm really sad I missed out on this read-a-thon! But it was my birthday and I knew right from the start that I couldn't possibly be around for the entire 24 hours. Plus, tomorrow is the first day of the new semester and I'd very much appreciate being wide awake! Also, I thought I would be busy with something, which fell through - and I only found out far, far too late *sigh*

But aw, what have I missed. After reading a few blog posts, I felt so sad I marked every RAT-post as read in my reader. I am so annoyed that I couldn't join in in any way (not long after my family left, our sweet neighbors came over and stayed - for for a quick visit for more than 2 hours!). All in all, it was a fun day with wonderful people, but I missed the whole atmosphere of the read-a-thon!

On the bright side, I'm participating in Jen's Detectives Around the World! I will be posting my review of Batya Gur's Literary Murder and some additional info on Thurday, so watch out for it!

Happy birthday to me!

2010-04-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm another year older! Some days I really feel old, but so what! Anyway, I am not on my computer again for 25 hours, but I want to share this with you. So I just scheduled this post!

Today is my 26th birthday and on top of my blogiversary giveaway, I have a smaller birthday giveaway for you!

You might remember that I'm absolutely crazy about bookmarks. I absolutely love bookmarks and it's pretty much the coolest thing ever! I have all kinds of bookmarks and I collect them. So to celebrate my birthday with you, two of you will get a small bookmark selection - the book marks will be new ones and I will buy them as soon as I have picked some winners, so you can tell me if there's something you really don't like in bookmarks.

And now, here's your chance to enter: Just fill out the form by April 26 12AM CEST! For the exact time, please check out this clock.

blame game time (April 9)

2010-04-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs was mentioned by Rebecca from Lost in Books. She has it on her wishlist - and now, so do I!

Have a Littel Faith by Mitch Albom was reviewed by Nelly from All About {n} and as I really, really loved Albom's previous novels, I have to get this one as soon as it is out in paperback!

Exclusively Chloe by J.A. Yang was mentioned by Ari from Reading in Color - and she gets two points because I already ordered the book. (What the heck happened to my book buying rules???) She also added Love, Shelley by Kate Sakensa and Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah to my wish list.

Never Tell Our Business to Strangers by Jennifer Mascia was reviewed by Naida from The Bookworm.

Prism by Faye and Aliza Kellerman was mentioned by Karin from Karin's Book Nook. I'm really curious about it!

Happy 4th Blogiversary!

2010-04-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? I've been blogging here at Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic since four years! (And about two months from now I'll have my 6 year blogiversary - yikes!)

And to celebrate this, I'm hosting a giveaway! One of you will get to pick 2 books from those I reviewed in the past 4 years (the books have to be available at Amazon.de, as I will order them there) and 2 bookmarks. And three of you will get a 2 bookmarks.
To see which books I reviewed in the past 4 years, please check out my reviews.

This giveaway will be open for 4x4 days - so your last chance to enter will be Saturday, April 24, at 1pm CEST! For the exact time, please check out this clock.

And here's your form to enter the giveaway!

out for a day or two

2010-04-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well,me - the wisdom tooth is out for good ;-) And with this announcement I'm off to bed with a book. See you again once I'm no longer woozy from the drugs... My dentist was nice to me, I think. It's been 6 hours and I still don't feel much... I hope it stays that way!

I'll be back once I feel better! Also: Check back later this week, as I will have a blogiversary & birthday giveaway!

The Book List (Apr 6): Regretable Book Covers

2010-04-06T03:04:00.000-07:00

Once again it is time for The Book List, a meme started and hosted by Rebecca from Lost In Books.

This week's theme is regretable book covers.

Now I admit right away, this one won't be easy! Unfortunately, I judge a book by its cover, so I hardly ever buy books with ugly covers - and therefore have a hard time remembering bad covers.

One book I bought despite a not exactly favorable cover was Cassandra Clare's City of Bones. Not the pretty, colorful cover, but the ugly, two-color dark-grey, shiny blueish (?) cover, which didn't tell anything about the book. It didn't have one of the characters or a scene from the book, it was just - blah! Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately - I couldn't find a photo of the cover. They changed it to the regular cover.

Another one is John Sandford's Rules of Prey.

Now, really, what is up with the green and the light colors? This is a dark book - serial killer, murder, blood and gore all over the place! Why did they have to pick these light colors? The book looks friendly, if bland, like something I'd want to read in my spare time, something that's not all exciting, but still a bit of a pleasure to read.

And third, I'd say: every single cover on a Harlequin romance novel I ever laid my eyes on! They're an abomination! I don't even know where to start with this. they're cheap, ridiculous, never tell a thing about the story other than some semi-good looking guy and some beautiful woman apparently have the hots for each other.

Book Review: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

2010-04-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Author	Ally Carter
Title	I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You
Publisher	Hyperion
Date of Publication	March 20, 2007
Page Count	288
ISBN	978-1-423-10004-1
Series	Gallagher Girls #1

Cammie Morgan is a student at Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. On the outside, this is a fancy prep school for the daughters of wealthy families - but on the inside, it is a top-secret boarding school for girls training to be spies. Their subjects range from culture & assimiliation and advanced encryption to covert operations. The girls are even learning way more than a handful of languages - with the help of lunch time conversations in Chinese, Japanese and all the other languages the girls are studying. On a covered operations mission, Cammie meets Josh, a local boy, who has no clue she's a Gallagher Girl. This sets off a chain of events - from hands-on investigating to lying to Cammie's mother, the headmistress at Gallagher Academy.

My first YA by Ally Carter blew me off my feet! I expected some sweet "girl-James Bond" novel, but what I got was a group of average girls, different characters. There were some technically versed students as well as girls who loved to go undercover. No girl was like another and especially one "transfer student" was a hoot. I'm not telling you more about her, though. You'll have to read it for yourself!

While ITYILYBTIHTKY (wow, even shortened, it's a loooong title!) starts off without too much action during the first few chapters to properly introduce everyone and everything. After all, we have to take in a lot of information, and with tons of action, it could get lost. But as soon as Ally Carter accomplishs that, she moves to action with covered operations lessons for the girls and she brings the reader right along.

The writing and the story line was never boring and it was such a wonderful experience reading this book, I not only brought it along to a friend for her to read, but also ordered the 2nd in series, Cross My Heart And Hope To Spy, and pre-ordered the 3rd, Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover - in fact, I already read the 2nd and passed it on to my friend.

Did you read I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You? Then please leave a comment soI can link to it!

Busy week ahead

2010-04-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

So, the upcoming week will be filled with "events". I will spend some time at my dentist's to see whether or not we'll extract my (last!) wisdom tooth. I'm not sure whether I want it out or not. If it's out, I won't be able to get any decent food for another week (maybe even a few days longer). After 8 days of card board bread and potatoes, I could really use some good food :-P

Then, my blogiversary is coming up. Yay! Also, my birthday is coming up - two days after the blogiversary. So watch out for something nice (I hope)!

And on my birthday? Well, and then there will also be Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon - finally! You can't wait either, can you? If you haven't heard of this awesome read-a-thon yet (really???), check it out and join in! It's the most fun you can have!

And as soon as next weekend is over, I will be back at university, the new semester begins!

In My Mailbox Monday (Apr 4)

2010-04-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

Now, a rainy, sunny, cold, warm - all in all, weird - week is over. Of course, I had some delicious food, and tons of "card board" bread (those of you who have been eating it for the past 6 days know what I'm talking about - and no, I caved and had some real bread when I realized I was about to fall up and down several stairs...)

But I think you want to know more about the book-ish stuff I got last week, right? So there you go.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

I got one book only, and this was one of my pre-ordered books:

Jill Shalvis' Instant Temptation, the last in the Wilder Brothers trilogy - and I'm already sad! I will miss not only the people, but also the surroundings, the places featured and the mountains and everything!

So now you know what I found in my mailbox last week. What did you find?

blame game time (April 1)

2010-04-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

Elizabeth Scott's Grace was mentioned by Elie from Ellz Reads. After my first encounter with Elizabeth Scott's work earlier this year I definitely have to read more!

Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian was reviewed by Jill from The Magic Lasso. I've never read any of Chris Bohjalian's books, but I'm really curious.

Ann Malaspina's FInding Lincoln was reviewed by Natasha from the Maw Books Blog. It sounds like a good kiddie lit book!

Queen of Secrets by Jenny Meyerhoff was reviewed by Laura from Tattooed Books. Even if she didn't absolutely love it, the story sounds interesting to me, so I actually already pre-ordered it.

March summary

2010-03-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

I really need to tune down the frequency with which I'm buying new books! Three months in and I already got 22 books more than I actually read. Maybe I'm a hopeless case? I mean, I pre-ordered 4 books this month alone - and I'm glad they won't arrive until later this year...

new additions
36) Toni Morrison: A Mercy
37) Kate Atkinson: When Will There Be Good News?
38) Ally Carter: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
39) Lauren Oliver: Before I Fall
40) C.J. Omololu: Dirty Little Secrets
41) J.T. Ellison: The Cold Room
42) Lionel Shriver: Double Fault
43) Susan Beth Pfeffer: Life As We Knew It
44) Lionel Shriver: Double Fault
45) Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
46) Laura Kinsale: Flowers from the Storm
47) Becca Wilhite: My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions
48) J.T. Waldman: Megillat Esther
49) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Hunted
50) David Ebershoff: The 19th Wife
51) Justina Chen Headley: North of Beautiful
52) Alan Fox: The Seeker in Forever

read
21) Jill Shalvis: Instant Gratification
22) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Chosen
23) Tzipi Caton: Miracle Ride
24) Becca Wilhite: My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions
25) Michele Wahlder: Alphatudes
26) Melissa De La Cruz: Blue Bloods
27) Melissa De La Cruz: Masquerade
28) Ally Carter: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
29) John Boyne: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
30) J.T. Waldman: Megillat Esther

New background color

2010-03-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Now, I realize I still have to write the review - once I have finished my term paper - but I figured I'd change the background color for my blog first. I hope you like it! I think it is easier to read now.

Do you agree?

best laid plans...

2010-03-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

Now, I had planned to write a review today, for either the first Gallagher Girl book (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls)), and maybe even the second one (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls)). But the best laid plans...

Now granted, we changed to summer time this weekend, so I'm missing an hour and yet I was up and about at 6:30am (technically 5:30am *shudder*) and I was awake! The shock! The horror! I was so awake, I spent more time at work than I had originally planned, because I decided (pretty much on a whim) that I would stay home tomorrow to finish up my term paper. Now, I left work, went to university got myself some numeric list (very, very important, because without it I can't print out the confirmation that I'm still a student - necessary for health insurance, bank stuff etc.). Once I was done I took the subway home with two short stops to do some grocery shopping for the week. As soon as I was home I started the cooking and well, I won't invite anyone in my kitchen until this battlefield is cleaned up again! At least, I had a delicious dinner (lamb, mazzot and a couple other things)! And I even have two more dishes ready for the next days: I made a big portion of my Grandma's potato salad. I just hope it is at least close to her recipe! Because then it will be delicious!

Anyway, the best laid plans fell right through. I spent hours between the kitchen (to prepare said 3 meals) and my computer to talk to a good friend. And once I was done with dinner (after 9pm), I was too tired to concentrate on anything else. Now, I'm really sorry! But as my room mate put it: "This is the first time in ages that you cook something from scratch." Far too often, I'm afraid, I'm too tired when I come home from work / university / both, so I just whip something up real quick and voilà - dinner in 5 minutes! *sigh*

I will try to give you the two reviews as soon as I'm done with my term paper!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 28)

2010-03-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Book List: Books you loved as a child (Mar 23)

2010-03-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is about books you loved as a child.

My picks are:

1) pretty much anything Enid Blyton (plus the later books here in Germany in order to continue her series)

2) Agatha Christie (I started reading those pretty early on!)

3) Tais Teng's YA horror novels

Hidden Treasures (April through May)

2010-03-24T03:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it is time for the second Hidden Treasures! For this, I will let you look at my Mt. TBR again and the first one to pick a book for me and post it in the comments will have picked the book for me to read within the next two months. Basically, the idea is that we all have so many unread books, there must be some hidden treasures we keep ignoring or missing. If you want to join in and have someone pick a book for you, just leave a link in the comments.

Thanks to Wendy @ Caribousmom, I even have a wonderful button for this event. Thanks a lot, Wendy!

The first time you picked Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark for me. I didn't finish Half of a Yellow Sun, as I couldn't get into the story, no matter how far I read (I managed to get to page 100, which is unusal for me), but I'm still working on Dead Until Dark and so far I enjoy it a lot! The second time around, I got The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, which I have yet to review, but I am planning something for April, so bear with me!

So, for this time, you can pick a book from my TBR list. I'm curious to see what you'll pick!

An award!

2010-03-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic received a wonderful award - and from two different bloggers at that! So a big, fat THANKS to Trillian and Stacy :-)

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I am passing this award along to:

Sherry
Ann-Kat
Wings
Jenn
Kristen
The Bookette
Chaviva - she may not be a book blogger, but she has an awesome blog and is a wonderful person! (And Mazel tov on the upcoming wedding, by the way!)

Book Review: Alphatudes by Michele Wahlder

2010-03-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

Author	Michele Wahlder
Title	Alphatudes - The Alphabet of Gratitude
Publisher	Life Possibilities Publishing
Date of Publication	January 15, 2010
Page Count	111
ISBN	978-0-9823645-0-5

I'm still not sure how I'm going to write the review for this one. It is obviously non-fiction, with the purpose to help people realize the positive things in life. I recieved this review copy from Rebecca from The Cadence Group and I'm really glad. Rebecca's mail came at a time when I was really annoyed with life in general and when I read that it was based on the alphabet I decided to read one chapter a day and let it sink. I wanted to take the most out of it, not knowing that the author suggested to read the entire book and then go back to those points the reader would like to improve.

Now, I think the layout is awesome! Each chapter starts with the basic principle, like Joy for J and a short quote about it - all on a double page with the most awesome pictures ever! I in fact missed my train a time or two just because I was so enthralled with the pictures! After this there's one page where Michele Wahlder explains precisely, what she means by the principle before she offers a prayer-like paragraph one can use to focus on it. Now it might sound a bit preachy or religious for those who are not at home with any specific religion, but I can assure you that it does not come across too preachy.

Reading the book helped me realize how I can manipulate myself for the worse, so I really hope I can use the suggestions made by Michele Wahlder. I found it helpful to see the small things in life we can be grateful for and think that we all might not always see the positive in all situations. I will let you know later this year if I could make good use of them - or whether I was too weak, too much of a push-over to go through with it! But I'll keep the book off of my shelves for future references, especially because I took a bunch of notes and have tons of sticky notes to mark pages.

One last thing I should mention: Olivia Newton-John has a song out which those who buy Alphatudes can download for free. You might not know it (yet), but I absolutely love her - ever since I saw Grease and absolutely fell in love with that movie (and her voice)! And for this I have to thank my music teachers who went the extra miles to have a band, an orchestra, two choirs and a few other voluntary groups at my high school. I was a member of our choir from 6th grade on and never left. In fact, I even got the permission to return for another year after I changed schools. And it all started with Grease!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 21)

2010-03-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

As I forgot to write my post last week, I'll give you a run-down of what I got during the last two weeks. Therefore the list will be a bit longer and without pictures.

Double Fault: A Novel by Lionel Shriver - I got this for the THIB 20 Minute Book Club Challenge and am reading it right now. It is my first book by Lionel Shriver and so far I really enjoy it.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which I bought for my online book club. We'll be reading it in April, so it is on my very, very short stack and does not fall in my general rule to read older books first.

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale is another book for the THIB 20 Minute Book Club Challenge. I hope I can read this in time so I can call in and discuss along with Nicole, Kate and whoever else calls in.

My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite - and here I admit right out: I've already finished it! It was so cute and I absolutely love the cover. I enjoyed it a lot.

Megillat Esther by J.T. Waldman. I'm curious about this as it is the Book of Esther in graphic novel form.

Hunted (House of Night Novels) by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast - I have the first four and as I somehow rush through these books and only had one left, I ordered this one to have one more in stock, just in case!

The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff is a book I won from the wonderful Wendy. I first heard about The 19th Wife in a Books on the Nightstand podcast and I hope to read this sooner rather than later!

Look who's won!

2010-03-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

While I realize I still have to post the next podcast review (it is almost finished, but I was too tired today, sorry!), I at least wanted to give you the winners of my 50 Followers Contest. But first I would like to thank everyone who participated and answered my short blog improvement question. I will keep your suggestions in mind and hopefully find a way to implement a few more things.

To give you a quick reminder of what was up for grabs:

Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be (paperback)
Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls (paperback)
Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak (paperback)
Sam Savage: Firmin (paperback)
Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance (paperback)
Rachel Ward: Numbers (paperback - British edition)
C.J. Omololu: Dirty Little Secrets (hardcover)
Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth (hardcover - British edition)
Suzanne Young: The Naughty List (paperback)
Lindsey Leavitt: Princess for Hire (paperback)

But now, without further ado:

The winners are

Courtney from Stiletto Storytime

Wrighty from Wrighty's Reads

Lover of Books

Sara from YA Vampire Books

Carol from Carol's Notebook

Please contact me as fast as possible. I'll give the books away on a first come first serve basis. You can write me here. Just send me the titles of the 3 books you'd like the most and your address.

Note on the side: As I have mentioned in my previous post, I will unplug for a day starting tomorrow, Friday at 6:15pm CET and won't be back before Saturday at 7:30pm, so don't worry if I don't answer right away.

Unplugged for a day!

2010-03-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

I'll be away for a day. Well, I won't really be going anywhere, but I will unplug for a day. I've spent day and good parts of the night on or near the computer during the past months and I have been exhausted for quite a while now. (Hence the bad blogging on my part, sorry about that!)

I realize I have tons of stuff to do and I haven't even posted a Mailbox Monday this week, but I didn't have the energy left. It's sad!

So I just stumbled across a great idea and I'll participate. The idea is to unplug from everything for a day. To be exact, this day will be Shabbat, so it starts Friday evening going through Saturday evening. The times for me would be:

Beginning 6:10pm CET on Friday and ending 7:30pm CET on Saturday (give or take a few minutes).

It is something Orthodox Jews know by heart and do every single week (and on a number of holidays), and I think it is a wonderful idea. In this day and age, I think we're being ruled by technical gadgets and I feel anxious when I don't have my phone or my computer around. It is a sad state and maybe with this I can overcome the negative feelings for at least one day a week to recharge my batteries and get some reading done.

I doubt I will stay away from every technical gadget at all during this time, but I will do my best to keep at least the majority of them at a distance. For me this whole idea means:

no computer
no phone
max. 2 hours of TV (I tend to distract myself with TV when I'm at my parents' and have nothing else to do - especially because I don't have a TV at my place)

Wish me luck! I'll be going cold turkey...

The background story can be found at Sabbath Manifesto and I also found a nice video where some of the participants explain a bit about it:

blame game time (March 12)

2010-03-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Reading For A Cure - I'm in, are you?

2010-03-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

I have come to the conclusion that I would like to join Wendy's Reading For A Cure for Childhood Cancer. I am reading a book about a 16-year old cancer patient right now (as it is autobiographical, I know said girl survived), so this might be just the right time to join in. I am not yet sure just which level of participation I should choose, so for the time being I'll pick one month. I can still add another month (and another) later.

This is really a great thing Wendy has created there, and I think I will donate 5 Euros for every other book I read (I'm a student and if I really do the entire year I'll have finished over 100 books, so I have to keep it at a reasonable amount).

What about you? Are you already Reading For A Cure or will you still be joining in? Do it, it is a great cause and once you've read Wendy's facts, you'll likely be as shocked as I was.

What I'm up to...

2010-03-11T00:35:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

So, right now I'm a bit - read waaaaaay - behind in reviews. I hope to use Sunday for that, though, especially because I have read some great books. I'm also still somewhat busy with my term papers (due March 31) and preparations for my blogiversary in April.

In the mean time, if you have already checked out my giveaway (see above), you might want to check out Extreme Reader's Mega Swag and More Giveaway. There are some really cool things she is giving away!

The Book List: Books that take you back to High School (Mar 9)

2010-03-09T03:54:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is about books that take you back to high school.

My picks are:

1) John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men

2) Jay Asher: 13 Reasons Why

3) Sophie Kinsella: Can You Keep A Secret?

I picked the books for the following reasons:

We read Of Mice and Men in school. 13 Reasons Why reminds me a lot in my time at school. And Can You Keep A Secret? is one of the many books I read during English lessons (without my teacher objecting).

New layout and new header

2010-03-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

As you probably already realized, I have a new blog template and a new header. I completely forgot to mention this yesterday. Sorry!

My awesome brother helped me with the header and I think it's awesome. In fact, he even helped me with a button, which you can grab if you want. You can find it in the right-hand bar. (If you do, let me know so I can return the favor!) I really like my new button, especially because it's my sweetie reading *wink*

Also, this blog now has its own Facebook page, just in case you're curious!

Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic

Promote Your Page Too

Oh, and Kathrin Dreamworld Ofa Bookaholic - that would be me!

50 Followers Contest - now with 5 winners!

2010-03-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I told you I'd add 1 more winner and therefore 2 more books to my contest once my blog reached 99 followers. Now we're at 101, so we would have 4 winners who get two books each, but I'm feeling funny today, so let's up this to 5 winners.

The books are:

Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be
Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls
Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak
Sam Savage: Firmin
Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance
Rachel Ward: Numbers
C.J. Omololu: Dirty Little Secrets
Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Suzanne Young: The Naughty List
Lindsey Leavitt: Princess for Hire

Except for Dirty Little Secrets these are all paperbacks.

The giveaway is open internationally and will end March 17, 2010!

To enter the contest fill out this form!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 7)

2010-03-07T03:40:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

I am a bit disappointed in myself. I wanted to not buy any books until I had at least finished all the books from January. But then I met a good friend on Thursday (March 4) and on our way from university to Starbucks we came across a book store. That's how the story goes, right?

Anyway, it's a small indie and they always have two boxes of marked down books right outside, so we decided to just sift through them, not really expecting to find anything. Right! Sure! Whom were we kidding anyway?

A Mercy by Toni Morrison - acually, we both got a copy because one of our professors had mentioned (and recommended) it during a class on American Lit and Culture (the beginnings up until 1820), so when we saw two copies in the boxes it was clear we would get them.

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson was also in those boxes and I remembered a review I read a while ago (no clue where, but once I find it I'll link back).

And while we were having our coffee I got a text message with the information that I could pick up a package at a "Packstation" (sort of like a PO box, only they're distributed all over the place and you can access each and everyone with a card and a PIN). That's when I got the following three books:

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter is the second in the Gallagher School series and I finished the first one short before I ordered the 2nd (and pre-ordered the 3rd). I can't wait to read it!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - I admit it, I caved. I wanted to wait until it is out in paperback, but in the end... Well, I'll get to it soon, I guess. In - oh! 25 books *sigh*

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu - just because!

The Cold Room by J.T Ellison is a book the wonderful Marcia from The Printed Page sent me so I could also enjoy it. Thank you sooo much!

Book Blogger Blog Hop

2010-03-06T01:58:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Jen over at Crazy For Books has started something I hope you will be part of.

Hey book bloggers! Every day I seem to find another book blog that I start following. In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blog Hop to give us all bookies a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!

Now, I follow a lot of blogs and I haven't seen this feature yet, so if someone else is doing a Book Blog Hop, please let me know!! I don't want to step on any toes or anything!

So, if you'd like to participate, just repost this, sign MckLinky, and check out other blogs in MckLinky! Let's connect and make new book bloggy friends!!

I'll try to make a nifty graphic to go along with this, but give me another week to get that done! :)

Go on and check it out if you're a book blogger or if you just like to read about books online!

Dear Anonymous Spammer

2010-03-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

A short break from book-ish stuff for a public service announcement and a letter:

Dear Anonymous Spammer,

Leave! Do it now! Do NOT come back here ever again! I'm tired of rejecting your comments (13 so far today). In fact, you won't be able to comment here anymore until you get yourself registered and even then I will have to approve your sh*t, which I (obviously) won't do. I have no interest whatsoever in helping you promote your sh**ty money making software or whatever it is. Just leave. Shoo! Go! Do NOT return!

Sorry, everyone else, but until jerk-dumbass-idiot (see, I'm trying to stay semi-polite) leaves, I won't turn anonymous commenting back on. If you want to leave me a note, check out my mail or the various other ways to contact me.

Sincerely (but without any patience),
Me

Geeky Me?

2010-03-03T03:28:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

So, the past two Wednesdays I posted about one particular podcast I really enjoyed, but I can't possibly fill all Wednesdays with podcast reviews (there's only so much time I have). Instead, I decided to give you some more insight into me (as the "me" usually falls short, except for my reading and my opinion on what I read) in this feature I tentatively called Geeky Me. I'd love it if you told me what you think about this idea, so comment away!

As a few of you might know, I am a student at the university in Frankfurt/Main, Germany (it is named after a famous German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, by the way). Our studies are in parts still rather different from the American and British (and most other) systems. I started out early enough to still get my Magister Artium (M.A.) without having to get a Bachelor degree first. Another difference is that I have one major and two minors (although I could also have picked two majors without a minor). When I have my M.A., I can apply to a program for a doctorate degree - if my grades are good enough, that is. So much for the back story!

Now, my major is American Studies, which in essence is a combination of (U.S.-)American Literature, Linguistics/Language, Culture, Politics and History. It covers such a broad range of subjects I will have to specialize in two of them after about 4 semesters (in about a year from now). Last semester I took a class on literature and culture from the first settlers until about 1820. I knew so little about this time, it was surprising. Granted, I knew about the historical aspects, but the literature? There is so much out there, I'm still amazed and I can't wait for the second part (1820 until maybe 1865? That would go with the Norton Anthology.)! In fact, I have decided that I would like to see whether I can read at least one text from the Norton Anthology each month during the semester and two when we don't have classes. (Care to join me?)

And my minors are Romance Studies (capital R for the Romance), but I have yet to decide on whether I'd rather study Italian or French in depth, and Comparative Religion. I love languages a lot, there's no other way to say this, as I would (in theory) be able to survive in a number of countries while using the official languages. (More about that later, if you like the Geeky Me.)

So, I have yet to decide whether I'd rather keep myself busy with the Italian language and literature or the French language and literature. Last semester I took a few classes in French lit and next semester I'll take a class in Italian lit and two language classes. I have been both to France and Italy in the past (like, before 2003), and I enjoyed both vacations a lot, so that's no help either. I tend to prefer Italian contemporary literature more than I do French literature, but I really love French playwright Molière and know practically nothing about Italian classics. You see, it will be a tough call!

And Comparative Religion was an easy decision. I did not grow up overly religious. When my brother and I were younger, Mom used to drag us to church every other week when she wasn't working Sundays, but even for her it was mostly because it was how she grew up (her Dad used to say that they can stay up on weekends, but who can party on Saturday can go to church on Sunday). At least that's how it came across. Now, in Germany we also have (mandatory) religion classes each year, so you (or rather your parents) can choose whether you attend Catholic religion class, Protestant religion class or Ethics. These classes fill two hours each week and you have to take them 1st through 13th grade - there's no way around it! (Note: Today, some schools offer classes for students of other religions as well, if enough people take part, but back in my days and in my previous schools there just weren't enough students for these classes.)
Now, with little knowledge, I always enjoyed the 5-7 weeks every other year that we spent learning about other belief systems. It was fascinating and it was one of the few subjects I actually looked up at the library and later online. So when it came the time for me to pick a 2nd minor, it was an easy choice. And here I am enjoying classes about all different beliefs (last semester: organ donation with a Jewish perspective).

By the way, some of you commented on the size of the writing on my blog and I totally agree! It is a bit on the small side, so I hope this is better. Just let me know those little things. Sometimes I miss them. (More often than not, actually! *sigh*)

update on 50 Followers contest

2010-03-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

So, I have just decided to add two more books (and thus one more winner) to my 50 follower giveaway should I reach 99 followers. The books in question are:

C.J. Omololu's Dirty Little Secrets

and

Rachel Ward's Numbers (the British paperback edition)

You can find the button to follow me at the bottom of this page, and to join the contest please visit the original 50 followers contest page.

Do you think we can do this? Spread the word :-)

The Book List: Best / Worst Sidekicks to a Hero in a Book

2010-03-02T03:29:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is about the best and worst sidekicks to a hero.

My picks for best sidekicks are:

1) Zoey's friends (is this considered cheating?) in P.C. Cast und Kristin Cast's House of Night series

2) Ron and Hermoine in the Harry Potter series

3) Charlie, Jace's sidekick in D.D. Barant's Dying Bites

I couldn't come up with any really horribly bad sidekicks...

February summary

2010-02-28T14:51:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

I believe now all the pre-ordered books from December should be in. I have already pre-ordered two or three books for later this year, though. Despite buying so many books these past two months, I also got quite some reading accomplished, so it was not a complete loss. For next month, though, I have to finish all the 9 (!!!) unread books I bought in January before I start anything else. According to my 2010 resolutions they should have been read already!

new additions
19) Joy Preble: Dreaming Anastasia
20) Lesley Livingston: Wondrous Strange
21) Patrick Ness: The Knife of Never Letting Go
22) Gayle Forman: If I Stay
23) Lindsey Leavitt: Princess for Hire
24) Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl: Beautiful Creatures
25) Emmett James: Admit One - My Life in Film
26) Suzanne Young: The Naughty List
27) Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
28) Michele Wahlder: Alphatudes - The Alphabet of Gratitude
29) Lisa McMann: Wake
30) Art Spiegelman: Maus 1 & 2
31) Jane Austen: Sense & Sensibility
32) Laura Mechling: Dream Girl
33) Tera Lynn Childs: Oh. My. Gods.
34) Becca Fitzpatrick: hush, hush
35) Chloe Neill: Firespell

read
10) Anna Jarzab: All Unquiet Things
11) Kristina Springer: The Espressologist
12) Elizabeth Scott: Living Dead Girl
13) Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be
14) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Betrayed
15) Christa Holder-Ocker: auf Wiedersehen
16) Gayle Forman: If I Stay
17) Art Spiegelman: Maus 1
18) Art Spiegelman: Maus 2
19) Ally Carter: I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You
20) Maggie Stiefvater: Shiver

Book Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2010-02-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Author	Maggie Stiefvater
Title	Shiver
Publisher	Scholastic
Date of Publication	August 1, 2009
Page Count	434
ISBN	978-1-407115-00-9
Series	Shiver

Ever since she was saved from a wolf attack by a yellow-eyed wolf, Grace has been interested in these animals. After a local boy is killed by wolves, everyone is out to kill the pack of wolves, but Grace tries to help them. And when she meets a boy with chilling yellow eyes the summer after, all she wants is try to figure out what it is about the boy that seems so familiar...

A small note up front: This is a review in progress, hurried up to make it qualify for Nicole's THIB 20 Minute Book Club Challenge. I will edit the review in a week or so, so if it sounds a bit rough and "iffy", come back later.

I absolutely love the cover, even though mine is slightly different from the above shown. I have the British version and it is black with a white tree and leaves and one leave (as well as the author's name and the dot on the "i") is in a bright red. It is so beautiful, I find myself looking at it each time I pick up the book. What really amazed me was the wonderful idea of starting each chapter not only with the name of the narrator, but also with the temperature. That way I could keep track of the time throughout the year.

The writing blew me away. I had so much fun and didn't even realize time was flying by. When I was at work, I couldn't wait to get back home again and when I was at the dinner table with my family (I spent the weekend with my family), I rushed back to my book as soon as the table was cleared.

In My Mailbox Monday (Feb 28)

2010-02-28T04:23:00.000-08:00

Book Review: Betrayed by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

2010-02-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Author	P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Title	Betrayed
Publisher	St. Martin's Griffin
Date of Publication	October 2, 2007
Page Count	310
ISBN	978-0-312-36028-3
Series	House of Night

After the excitement in Marked, Zoey sure would have deserved some time to rest and enjoy her life at the House of Night along with her friends, but it is not just that easy for her. Instead, she has to deal with being the new leader of the Dark Daughters and has to come up with new rules and rituals for them, just when death strikes first among the people she knew in her life before she was marked and then even at the House of Night.

With the second installment of the House of Night series, the authors bring back a charming cast of characters with flaws and once again it was hard to take breaks reading it (I am actually already reading the 3rd book).

What made me worry a bit were all the references to actors and their attractiveness. With Nicole Kidman in the first I'm not that worried as she is a good actress, but Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Jackman, who were mentioned in this book, this is a different story. It is true, they both still look really good (especially Hugh Jackman ;-) ), but it could be a problem for future readers. It is not as timeless as I would have wished it to be.

I was amused and annoyed at the same time with Zoey's feelings and thoughts about three boys / men at the same time. She knew it was wrong, yet she acted on all her feelings. Her thoughts about this were:
I wanted Heath.
I needed Erik.
I was intrigued by Loren. (p. 174)
It bothered me especially because it almost seemed as if two - er, three-timing was okay. I think this is a bad example.

The storyline and all the other events made me almost forget this, though, because there were so many other things that happened and new discoveries about certain red-ish people who have been running around in the first book already. And the new people introduced all in all seemed genuine and reliable. In fact, one of the new characters has become a favorite of mine. I'll only give away the initials for now, though: D.M. I hope he's as honest as he seems to be.

Book Review: All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

2010-02-27T04:49:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Author	Anna Jarzab
Title	All Unquiet Things
Publisher	Delacorte Press
Date of Publication	January 12, 2010
Page Count	337
ISBN	978-0-385-73835-4

Neily was shocked when his ex-girlfriend Carly was found murdered, but when Carly's cousin Audrey wants him to help her find the real murderer. The imperative being "real", as Audrey doesn't believe her father killed her best friend, even though he was convicted. Neily reluctantly joins Audrey in her investigation at Brighton, the school they all attended together, in part because even after a year he still feels guilty for not answering his phone when Carly called the night she was murdered.

Anna Jarzab did a wonderful job with this shocking and heart-breaking mystery, exploring love, loss, family and friendship in just 337 pages. With her wonderful, deep writing and a plot that turned in circles (in a very good way) she created something fresh without the happily-ever-after, the-world-is-perfect ending so many other authors would have used. The story is told in alternating points of view, changing back and forth between Neily and Audrey.

Carly is by no means a sympathetic character at the time of her murder, but her backstory gives a hint of what made her the person she was in the end. Audrey was always a rougher version of the "old Carly", I felt. She had been though a lot in the years before she came to Empire Valley. What made them bond, yet feel different at the same time was that both girls lost their mothers, but while Carly's mom died of cancer, Audrey's mom left her and her Dad to live a different life. Neily is the son of a wealthy IT guy and a nurse who got a divorce. With Carly, his world seemed okay, but once she dumped him for a rich bully and publicly humiliated him, his world took yet another turn for the worse. And this is only a very short rundown of the characters Jarzab created.

I absoltely loved the book and was glad I decided to buy it with all the books already on Mt. TBR. It has been a while since I read such a well-written book by a debut author and I will be holding my breath for the next book written by Anna Jarzab.

Oh yes, and a sentence I wrote down? "How many people are we going to lose before the universe decides we've had enough?" Carly asked me.

Busy weeks followed by a busy weekend

2010-02-27T04:30:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

After three busy weeks with end-of-term exams, my take-home exam and far too much noise and strangers running around at my work place, I've decided to ignore the term paper due in about 8 weeks for the weekend and instead work on a few reviews for all the books that are piling up on my desk. You know, I don't shelf my finished books until I reviewed them, so they're piling high on my desk and it looks a bit cluttered right now.

I think I'll start with Dia Reeves' Bleeding Violet, Anna Jarzab's All Unquiet Things and P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast's Betrayed. Watch out for them in the near future. Other books I can't wait to review are Courtney Summers' Cracked Up To Be, Gayle Forman's If I Stay and Art Spiegelman's Maus 1 & 2.

Of course, I also want to read a bit more. I am in the middle of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver and I like the short chapters and the story. Easy to read and it's not much of a problem to put it down every now and then to play with my cat.

blame game time (February 26)

2010-02-26T12:48:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

Jina Bacarr's The Blonde Samurai was reviewed by Monica from The Bibliophilic Book Blog and it sounds like something I enjoy. I have a thing for Japan (among a few other countries).

Olen Steinhauer's The Tourist was mentioned by Marcia from The Printed Page.

Elizabeth Eulberg's The Lonely Hearts Club, because Kristi from The Story Siren seemed to enjoy it a lot and I grew up with The Beatles.

Robin Brande's Fat Cat was reviewed by Nikki from Ramblings of a Bibliophile and it sounds really interesting.

Shannon Delaney's 13 to Life was mentioned in a WoW post by Kim from The Book Butterfly and it sounds right up my alley (werwolves?).

Elizabeth Scott's The Unwritten Rule has been mentioned by Laura from Tattooed Books and as I have only recently read one of Elizabeth Scott's books and really enjoyed it, I can't wait!

Joelle Anthony's Restoring Harmony, Lesley Hauge's Nomansland, Rae Mariz' The Unidentified and Allyson Condie's Matched were mentioned by Lenore from Presenting Lenore. And for 2011 Lenore talked about Lauren Oliver's Delirium and Lisa McMann's The Unwanteds.

Jenna Black's Glimmerglass and Eileen Cook's Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood were mentioned by Steph Su from Steph Su Reads.

Wally Lamb's Couldn't Keep It To Myself was highly recommended by Stephanie of Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic.

Book Review: Marked by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

2010-02-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Author	P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Title	Marked
Publisher	St. Martin's Griffin
Date of Publication	May 1, 2007
Page Count	306
ISBN	978-0-312-36026-9
Series	House of Night

Zoey Redbird really is in for it in this first installment in the House of Night series by mother-daughter-team P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. One encounter changes her life completely and makes the popular 16-year-old a Vampyre fledgling including a saphire-blue crescent on her forehead. After her friends turn their backs on her and her parents react everything but well to Zoey's change, she gets to the House of Night, the boarding school for vampyres, on her own. It is there that she will be trained to be a real vampyre - if she survives the change, that is! But before she reaches her new school, Nyx, the goddess of vampyres, reveals to her that she is the chosen one.

What an adventure! As soon as I started Marked it was over already. I just couldn't put the book down. It takes immense control for me to not grab the next and then the one after that (I have the first four books at home). While the story begins at an unhurried pace, it soon speeds up and you've reached the end before you even realize it.

The best part for me was that the change was not started with the bite of a vampyre, but a slow change after Zoey being marked. And this change does not end in being a vampyre happily-ever-after for every marked fledgling. P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast managed to create an exciting vampyre series that is quite a bit different from the other vampyre books out there I read so far.

In the world Zoey lives, most of the Hollywood actors are vampyres and it is not unusual, because they are stunning and one of the electives at their schools is acting. One scene that made me especially smile was:
"Okay, grab your schedule and let's go. Hey," [Stevie Rae] said as we hurried out of the room and skipped down the stairs, "maybe you'll be the next Nicole Kidman!"
Well, I guess being the next Nicole Kidman wouldn't be bad (not that I plan on marrying and then divorcing a manic short guy). (p. 104)

Podcast Review: Books on the Nightstand - recommendations

2010-02-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

In last week's first podcast review of Books on the Nightstand, I mentioned that I have a special notebook to keep track of the books I got recommended by Ann and Michael. Basically, it's a small, black Moleskine notebook with 76 pages and as I have two such notebooks the one for the recommendations has a sticker of Jenny's Cupcakes, a cupcake bakery here in Frankfurt on it (if you're in Frankfurt, check it out, I can give you directions). It's basically a white sticker with a pink cupcake and "Jenny's Cupcakes" written on it. For each podcast I start a new page, writing down the number and title of the podcast and then I write down the books I want to check out. After each book I leave a lign empty for my own mini-comment on how I liked it.

Now on to the recommendations - at least a few of them.

It all started in the very first podcast Ann and Michael did. There they mentioned The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, a book I had already read, but deemed note-worthy. It is such a great book!

In the second podcast they first mentioned a book by Valerie Martin, Trespass (as well as in podcast #14), and in one of the last podcasts (#60), Mary Reilly by the same author was mentioned. I believe it was Ann who recommended both books, but I really have to see who recommended which book in my notebook! (Maybe I'll do that this weekend, when I try to relax from the take-home exam I have to hand in tomorrow, before I tackle the paper I have to write.)

In the 20th podcast, it was all about sci-fi for the non-sci-fi-reader. With that one, they really got me, as I found Firmin by Sam Savage in a local book shop soon after the show. Let me just say I fell hard for that book and have since given the book as a present to two friends of mine and am now offering it in my giveaway. I guess that shows how much I love this book.

Then, I believe I really should mention The Road by Cormac McCarthy (podcast #30, #42 and #50). Around the time Ann and Michael recommended it, it was also on my reading schedule for a class. Unfortunately, it was the book that was dropped from the schedule as we were a bit too slow, but with a few other students and our lecturer, we set up a special class to discuss it for those interested. It is such a thought-provoking book, and I'm really glad Dr. V agreed to do the extra class!

Right in the next podcast, #31 (and #50 and #58, as it happens), they spoke about Beowulf at the Beach by Jack Murnighan. In this book, Murnighan talks about all those classics out there, the ones you should really know! And gives a short summary, tells you which parts of the book you can skip and adds other useful information! Can you believe it? I absolutely have to get this book.

Now, to give you even more of an impression of the variety of recommendations, here's a short list of books I noted from the podcasts #60 through #62:

David Grann: The Lost City of Z
Eric Larson: The Devil in the White City
Valerie Martin: Mary Reilly
Thomas Mullen: The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers
Jaron Lanier You Are Not A Gadget
Chip Heath & Dan Heath: Made to Stick
Chip Heath & Dan Heath: Switch
Georges Perec: A Void
Georges Perec: Life - A User's Manual
Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Of course, even Ann and Michael's recommendations aren't always fool-proof. I have found one book they recommended that I didn't enjoy so far - Nancy Horan's Loving Frank. But if you take into account the many, many books I wrote down and the number of books I already read, this is really not that note-worthy.

Oh yes, and the books I have on Mt. TBR from their recommendations? They are:

Stieg Larsson: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (actually on Mom's shelves, but so what)
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
Yu Hua: Brothers
Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
Stieg Larsson: The Girl Who Played With Fire (also on Mom's shelves)
Lev Grossman: The Magician
Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Arthut Conan Doyle: The Complee Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Book List (Feb 23): Books that should be made into Movies

2010-02-24T03:17:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

This week's theme is all about books that should be made into movies.

My three picks are:

1) Robert Fate: Baby Shark

2) Dia Reeves: Bleeding Violet

3) Kristina Springer: The Espressologist

The 50 follower contest is growing!

2010-02-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

You guys are awesome! I now have 75 followers, so I'll add two more books and therefore one more winner. So now we'll have 3 winners who get two books each (on a first come, first serve basis once we have the winners).

The books I'm offering as of now are:

Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be
Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls
Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak
Sam Savage: Firmin
Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance
Rachel Ward: Numbers

Maybe I will add even more books and winners later on, so check back!

The giveaway is open internationally and will end March 17, 2010!

To enter the contest fill out this form!

In My Mailbox Monday (Feb 21)

2010-02-21T05:25:00.000-08:00

Please don't forget to check out my giveaway celebrating 50 followers!

Someone just please stop my hands from ordering books! I just ordered 5 books (I think, my memory's a little blurry). But that's subject for later IMM posts, when the books actually arrive.

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

Mailbox Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. To join, please visit her blog!

I got Wake in a weak moment (yeah, I have a lot of those lately), and I'm really curious about it!

And then I finally got Maus 2, if in a combined copy with Maus 1, even though I've owned Maus 1 for quite a while now. Also, I've already read / re-read this one, so it doesn't really count, does it?

blame game time (February 19)

2010-02-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

Sydney Salter's Swoon at Your Own Risk was reviewed by Sheila from One Person's Journey through a world of Books.

Richard Preston's The Hot Zone was highly recommended by Alyce from At Home With Books.

Jennifer Echols' Going Too Far was reviewed by Wings from Storywings.

Anything by T. Coraghessan Boyle based on the blog posts by Teddy Rose from So Many Precious Books, So Little Time.

Catherine Fisher's Incarceron because Lenore from Presenting Lenore seems to have enjoyed it a lot and it seems we have a similar taste.

Janette Rallison's Just One WIsh was reviewed by Nelly from All About {n} and it sounds like a fun, quick read.

Podcast Review: Books on the Nightstand

2010-02-17T02:09:00.000-08:00

As a few of you already know I'm in the lucky position to be able to listen to podcasts or audio books while I'm at work. This has lead me to discover a number of wonderful podcasts I would love to share with you. For this, I created the podcast review here at the Dreamworld, which I will do monthly. I will not necessarily review them as I would a book, but for the time being, I have no better word for it.
If you know a podcast I absolutely have to listen to, please let me know either by e-mail or in a comment. I'm always looking for more literary podcasts to enjoy and dwell in!

So let me start with Books on the Nightstand. This is the first literary podcast I ever subscribed to and it is simply awesome! Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness are sales reps for Randomhouse, so they get to read lots of great books before they’re out and we hear about them. It must be really hard for them to not let it slip and talk about all those wonderful books. In fact, all they might tell is that they are reading a great book they can’t wait to talk about, but that's as much as you get until the pub date is here.
Despite them working for Randomhouse, though, the podcast is strictly personal, so you get their opinion and their opinion only. They give the podcast a very personal note and when I listen to Books on the Nightstand it is as if I was sitting there with them having them recommend books to me.

As it is such a pleasure to hear them talk, I usually wait a bit to gather two to four podcasts so I can indulge at a later moment instead of having to stick to “only” about half an hour of book-ish talk. Ann and Michael have recommended a ton of books since their first podcast and I actually have a special notebook where I write down all recommendations sorted by the edition I heard them mention the book. (For a very small excerpt of books I wrote down, see below!)

At the beginning, they taped a podcast about twice a month, but a poll showed that we listeners would very much appreciate a weekly show – and that is what Ann and Michael are doing now, and sucessful at that! Now at # 65 (as you read this the 65th podcast should be available for download), they have gathered a huge number of friends and you can even find Books on the Nightstand on Facebook, Goodreads and Twitter.

Their podcast is usually made up of three sections. First, they talk about the theme of the show with book recommendations along the way. Then they recommend a few books that will be out the week after the podcast, before they go on the the last part of the show with one book each they can’t wait for us to read.

But that is not all. For the holidays, they went great lengths to create gift guides - in 2009 even a regular one and one for kids to download and / or print. And at the end of each gift guide, there's a checklist to print off and mark the books you intend to buy for your loved ones.

Now here are a few select books Ann & Michael recommended over the past two years:

Jeff Lindsey: Darkly Dreaming Dextre
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Stieg Larson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Sam Savage: Firmin
Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit

You can see they read and enjoy a broad variety of books, and I only selected a few random ones. If you haven't listened to Books on the Nightstand yet, you certainly should try it!

50 Followers Contest!

2010-02-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? My Dreamworld has reached 50 followers and that, I believe, is a wonderful reason to hold a contest. I love you all a lot and I'm so happy you're following me.

I will be giving away a total of 4 books to two of my followers.

The books I'm offering as of now are:

Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be
Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls
Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak
Sam Savage: Firmin

Maybe I will add some more books and winners later on, so check back!

The giveaway is open internationally and will end March 17, 2010!

To enter the contest fill out this form!

In My Mailbox (Feb 14)

2010-02-14T05:24:00.000-08:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

The Naughty List by Suzanne Young is the last title I pre-ordered in December. I can't wait to read it :-)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan also finally arrived!

And then, a review copy of Michele Wahlder's Alphatudes: The Alphabet of Gratitude arrived. Thanks to Rebecca from The Cadence Group!

blame game time (February 13)

2010-02-13T01:03:00.000-08:00

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

NOTE: This is part 2 of 3 for this edition. I hope I can make a real dent in my Google Reader. There are too many unread blog posts right now!

Catherine Gilbert Murdock's Front and Center was reviewed by Alison from So Many Books So Little Time, but I'll have to read Dairy Queen first, as it is the beginning of this trilogy.

J.T. Ellison's The Cold Room was recommended by Marcia from The Printed Page and how could I possibly resist such a wonderful mystery / thriller?

Loretta Ellsworth' In a Heartbeat was mentioned by Kim from The Book Butterfly - a few times. actually!

Tera Lynn Childs' Oh.My.Gods was mentioned by Nina from J'adorehappyendings. The description sounds so good, I'm really curious to read it. Nina also mentioned Jessica Verday's The Hollow.

Robin Palmer's Little Miss Red and Ally Carter's Heist Society were mentioned by Kristi from The Story Siren. The same goes for Allison van Diepen's Raven, Abby McDonald's Sophomore Switch and Sarah Mlynowski's Parties & Potions. And the last of these actually means I add three more books, as Parties & Potions is the fourth in a series! Kristi also added Chloe Neill's Firespell to my wishlist.

Jennifer Brown's Hate List was reviewed by Shanda from Book Thoughts.

P.C. Cast's Goddess of the Sea was reviewed and praised by Monica from The Bibliophilic Book Blog. As I am having a really, really good time with P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast's House of Night series, I can't not have this one on my wish list now, can I?

Stacey Parker Aab's Government Girl was reviewed by Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit when it caught my attention.

Phew! Now I'm at under 400 unread blog posts. Since tomorrow is carneval, I can only hope you will all play nice and not post too much. Lunch is at 11 am and as soon as it is over we'll start the dressing up, partying and having adult fun (read drinking - if moderate, as I have to work on Monday *wink*).

blame game time (February 12)

2010-02-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

It is time for another blame game! I realized I skipped the last week or so, but with my cat and everything, I was too distraught to remember... The blame game was first done by the one and only Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On.

NOTE: This is part 1 of approximately 3 that I will try to post over the weekend. Wish me luck I can get my Google Reader down a bit despite carneval!

Julie Anne Peters' By the Time You Read This I'll Be Dead was reviewed by Karin from Karin's Book Nook and I'm curious about it.

Sarah Beth Durst's Ice was recommended by Alyssa over at Teens Read and Write and I can't thank her enough for making the book show up on my radar. Let's hope they'll put the book up for their giveaway (and that I - for once - have a chance to snatch it :-P ).

Sarah Jane Stratford's The Midnight Guardian was reviewed by Becky from The Bookette. This historical fantasy with vampires sounds intriguing, so I'll have to read it.

Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall was highly recommended by Katrina from Bloody Bad.

Wayne Simmons' Flu was mentioned by Sharon from Sharon Loves Books and Cats (so do I!) and ever since I read this one good zombie book last year I have been looking for other zombie books. She also mentioned Zombie: An Anthology of the Undead, edited by Christopher Golden, Jonathan Maberry's Rot & Ruin and Mira Grant's Feed.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving into the Wreck earns Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings his first point. The cover of the book alone made me stop dead (the woman reminded me of both Katherine Janeway and Seven of Nine), but his review did it for me. I have to read it!

Kitty Keswick's Freaksville was reviewed my Pat from Peave Love & Pat and as you might have realized from my In My Mailbox posts lately, I have a thing for paranormal YA books :-)

In My Mailbox (Feb 7)

2010-02-07T06:32:00.000-08:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

I read a few really intriguing reviews about this book. Some of the reviewers enjoyed the book while others did not like it that much, but I have a feeling I will have fun reading Dreaming Anastasia: A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams!

Then, I was book shopping with a friend in a longer-than-usual lunch break at university (a class was cancelled). Of course, we tried our best to stick to having coffee, but after almost two hours we decided we should just check out the book shop next door. I came away with the following three books (plus the book my friend bought which she'll borrow me to read as soon as she's finished it):

Yes, I gave in and bought Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go! All the reviews made me curious...

How could I not want Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston? It's been on my wish list for a while...

... as has Gayle Forman's If I Stay. (Now my look for the best price list is down to 31 books!

Usually I'm not so much into pink, so I tend to stay away from pink covers, but Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt sounded too good to stay away. I'm pretty certain already it will be a fun read for the break I'm going to have starting a week from now!

Yes, I gave in with this one as well. I wasn't sure at first, but then I read more and more about it and also got to read a bit about their book tour, so Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures had to help feed my mailbox!

I got Admit One: My Life in Film by Emmett James from the wonderful Lisa from Online Publicist for review - and signed at that, with a personal note... A big, heartfelt thanks to Emmett James for that :D I'm really curious about it!

comments

2010-02-03T01:44:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I've had a number of anonymous spam comments in the past week, so comments are being moderated again. Sorry about that, but you'll just have to wait for me to approve them.

Also, I know I haven't responded to a number of comments. Sorry about that! I'll try to do this over the next few days, but give me at least a week to get through everything that is left. I have a grammar test today, a presentation on Friday and a linguistics exam next Wednesday, so I'm very, very busy!

In My Mailbox (Feb 1)

2010-02-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

I got The Espressologist when my brother asked me whether I needed anything from Amazon. Thinking he had something he wanted but wouldn't get over the 20 Euros for free shipping, I said sure. Duh! He got a new electric razor, so he wouldn't have needed me to order anything.
Anyway, now I have The Espressologist and I can't wait to read it.

This is one of the books I pre-ordered in December, when I first watched a few of the Class 2k10 videos featuring authors debuting in 2010. It is the first book in the Iron Fey series.

News on the Blogging front

2010-02-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

I have a few news for you all on the blogging front here. I hope you like most of them!

As of now Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic is an Amazon.com affiliate, so whenever you use the links to books provided on this site, you will help me. That way, I hope to be able to give you even more reviews of new or at least new-ish releases.
As you might remember, I'm a student earning my own money (with some much appreciated help from my parents and grandparents - thanks, Mom & Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, you rock!), so I have only limited money to spend on books (all my current books bought are off of Christmas money, and all that is/was left is all used up with pre-orders up until March).

Then, I registered for BEA, so if you're there, let me know and maybe we can meet up? I'd love that! I just have to book a flight and find a place to stay (no, that doesn't clash with the "being a student" part above - I saved up for over two years to finally get out of Frankfurt and Germany for a change. I haven't had a vacation in years! (Actually, I think my last time away was in summer 2003, when I was in London for 2 days.)

And then, please stay tuned for two new features here at the Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic. I've been thinking about both for a while and I think I now know how I want to handle them. You'll get the first one this weekend!

Japanese Music

2010-01-31T13:59:00.000-08:00

So, for January, tanabata from In Spring It Is The Dawn asked us to listen to Japanese music and talk a bit about it.

For some reason, I was a bit reluctant at first. I had listened to Japanese music in the past - in a rather obsessive way, even, compared to my usual music-listening self. In general, I switch the type of music I listen to several times throughout the day. The louder music to wake up, to get my brain running - then some background noise while I'm at work, to shut out the other sounds in our building (it really distracts me to hear loud steps or phones ringing all the time).

But when a friend of mine first introduced me to Japanese music (through a Japanese TV series, Hanazakari no kimitachi e (you really should watch the first few episodes at least, if you haven't already!), I listened to Japanese music exclusively for a few months. Nothing else, not my usual changes throughout the day, just the few CDs I could get a hold of.

Which leads me to the first music video I'd like to share with you:

This is the theme song for Hanazakari no kimitachi e: Peach, performed by Ai Otsuka. And the video should show a lot about the quirky-crazy characters in this show!

Some more of the old favorites I re-visited in January were Arashi, for which I'll give you their music video for their song We Can Make It!:

This song is one I play twice during the last 15 minutes when I'm out running on my own. I'm not good at balancing my running, so I end up tired way before I'm back home *sigh* And the video makes me smile. Why is it that Japanese boy bands always look so funny in their MVs?

The next one is I'll Be With You by KAT-TUN. One of these young men also played in a TV series. Japanese artists can do a lot of things, not just sing and dance.

And here's a song that is so different from the first few, but I still really love it - I am Fantasy by Hakuei!

And one last video before I go to bed. This is probably the first song after Peach that I listened on repeat, because I enjoyed it so much and it was so different from what I knew before. It is Orenji no tayou by Gackt and Hyde. unfortunately, it is not the entire song (it's over 5 minutes and I couldn't find a good video with them both in it):

If you would like to listen to the song in full, here's a Final Fantasy X video with the song:

Have fun listening and a big thanks to tanabata for getting me to listen to Japanese music again!

January summary

2010-01-31T12:16:00.000-08:00

So, the first month in a new decade is over. Can you believe it? It's the 4rd decade for me, at least the third I get to live for at least part of the time. And I'm only 25 (well, for another 2-3 months)...

Anyway, enough about my age, let's get to the truly relevant stuff, the books I read, bought, abandoned, and much more. I have the feeling, Januarys are always the worst for my Mt. TBR, along with April and September / October when the new semester starts and I use buying books for my classes as an excuse to buy some more for me. But still, I managed to read a good number of books, many of which I bought within the last two months (I keep those on a special shelf, when I remember to put them there and not on the regular shelves).

bought
1) Dia Reeves: Bleeding Violet
2) Nicholas Sparks: Dear John
3) Maggie Stiefvater: Shiver
4) Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (graphic novel)
5) Melissa Walker: Violet on the Runway
6) A.J. Jacobs: A Year of Living Biblically
7) Jennifer R. Hubbard: The Secret Year
8) Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak
9) Courtney Summers: Some Girls Are
10) Courtney Summers: Cracked Up To Be
11) Yoko Ogawa: The Housekeeper and the Professor
12) Anna Jarzab: All Unquiet Things
13) Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
14) Rachel Ward: Numbers
15) Jen Nadol: The Mark
16) Jaclyn Dolamore: Magic Under Glass
17) Julie Kagawa: The Iron King
18) Kristina Springer: The Espressologist

read
1) J.K. Rowling: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
2) Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (graphic novel)
3) Jennifer R. Hubbard: The Secret Year
4) Ann Aguirre: Grimspace
5) Michael Anthony: Mass Casualties
6) John J. LeBeau: Collision of Evil
7) Dia Reeves: Bleeding Violet
8) Yoko Ogawa: The Housekeeper and the Professor
9) Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak

DNF
1) Chimananda Ngozie Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun

Japanese Literature Challenge III - my results

2010-01-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

Well, it's about time for a post about my results for the Japanese Literature Challenge III!

Here is what I read:
1) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 4-7
2) Tomoko Hayakawa: Perfect Girl Vol. 6-9
3) Yuna Kagesaki: Cheeky Vampire Vol. 7 & 8
4) Mayu Sakai: Rockin' Heaven Vol. 2
5) Mayu Shinjo: Kaikan Phrase Vol. 5
6) Yasushi Inoue: Der Tod des Teemeisters (Memoirs of the Priest Honkaku)
7) Yoko Ogawa: The Housekeeper and the Professor -> review coming soon!

Book Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (graphic novel)

2010-01-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

Author	Agatha Christie, Francois Riviere (Editor), Solidor (Illustrator)
Title	Death on the Nile
Publisher	Harper Collins
Date of Publication	July 16, 2007
Page Count	48
ISBN	978-0-00-725058-5
Series	Hercule Poirot / Agatha Christie Comic Strip

I've been a fan of Agatha Christie's mysteries for as long as I know about her mysteries, so I had to get this graphic novel when I saw it in the used book shop! And as soon as I was on the train that day, I started reading it. There was just nothing that could keep me from it - not even my then current book!

In Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot is in Egypt for a vacation. While he is on a cruise on the Nile, a murder occurs and it is, of course, up to the master investigator to figure out who did it.

The drawings are kind of old school, which fits wonderfully with the story. It brings out the dated, but loveable aspects of Agatha Christie's mysteries as well as those of Hercule Poirot, who is an old-fashioned man and an old-fashioned private investigator.

All in all, Death on the Nile is a great adaptation, and I can't wait to get my hands on the other graphic novels in that series:

Murder on the Orient Express
The Murder on the Links
The Secret of Chimneys
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Big Four
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Peril at End House
Hallowe'en Party
The Secret Adversary
And Then There Were None
Ordeal by Innocence
Endless Night
The Murder at the Vicarage
Murder in Mesopotamia
Cards on the Table
Dumb Witness

blame game time (January 29)

2010-01-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

I'm still playing catch up with some old posts - like posts from the very first day of this year...
This time, the following books were indirectly recommended to me, which means the bloggers get a point. Let's see who has the most points at the end of June 2010!

O Juliet by Robin Maxwell, recommended by Kristi @ The Story Siren, Lorelai @ Tattooed Books

The Espressologist by Kristina Springer, recommended by Kate @ The Neverending Shelf - and she gets two points because it's already ordered (or, it should be at my parents' by now!)

Lex Trent versus the Gods by Alex Bell, recommended by Becky @ The Bookette

too much in too short a time

2010-01-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been around much this week. Next week, most likely, won't be much different. Right now there's so much going on I don't even know where to start.

One of our cats, Karlheinz, has been missing since last Sunday. (Yes, that his him, in my closet - he likes it there!)

From what one of our neighbors said to us (Mom, Dad and me), we are pretty much certain he killed him and dumped him somewhere. In short, I'm devastated! He is the sweetest, funniest cat. He constantly chases shadows, he's really into this. Otherwise, he sleeps, eats, and snuggles up to us. He wants to be close to us. He never harmed anyone on purpose and would never do anything! What sick person would do something like that??? (Well, besides our neighbor who clearly has lost the last of his marbles a long time ago.) And we don't even have proof he did anything.
I just want my cat back! I want him back for us, and for his brother (Sano), who is sad and keeps looking for him. We actually don't dare letting Sano out, as we're scared something will happen to him. Damn it, we have "our boys" since they were a week old. We take care of them, we love them, we feed them, look for them, they're family! I keep thinking, just, please, let him come back! Now, tonight, tomorrow morning. Just let him pop back up on our door.

And this is the time I'm supposed to study for exams and prepare presentations. So not happening! I have a presentation and an exam on Tuesday, another test on Wednesday, then a presentation on Friday and the week after, I have an exam on Wednesday. Yay - not!

Hidden Treasures (February through March)

2010-01-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Edit: I got my book. Beth Hoffman, the author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, picked The Boy In The Striped Pajamas for me. Thanks a lot, Beth! And for everyone else - if you want to join in, you can still leave links :-)

Well, it is time for the second Hidden Treasures! For this, I will let you look at my Mt. TBR again and the first one to pick a book for me and post it in the comments will have picked the book for me to read within the next two months. Basically, the idea is that we all have so many unread books, there must be some hidden treasures we keep ignoring or missing. If you want to join in and have someone pick a book for you, just leave a link in the comments.

Thanks to Wendy @ Caribousmom, I now even have a wonderful button for this event. Thanks a lot, Wendy!

Last time you picked Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark for me. I didn't finish Half of a Yellow Sun, as I couldn't get into the story, no matter how far I read (I managed to get to page 100), but I'm still working on Dead Until Dark and so far I enjoy it a lot!

For this time, I have two things for you to consider when you pick a book for me:
1) My semester is almost over, so I'm very busy with term papers and presentations and exams.
2) Once the semester is over I'll be working on a slightly bigger project, in part also for this blog.
So please pick a book that is easy to read of fairly short (i.e. under 300 pages)!

So, to know what books you can choose from, I uploaded my list on Google docs: My Mt. TBR! Have fun browsing my list and pick me something nice!

In My Mailbox (Jan 25)

2010-01-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

My voice is still not what it used to be, so no vlog this week either. I usually like doing a vlog for this event, but well, maybe next week.

This week I got:

Rachel Ward: Numbers
Somewhat early, and I can't wait to read it! When Jem looks in people's eyes, she can see the date they will die.

Jen Nadol: The Mark
A debut novel I'm really curious about. I read so much about it already!

Jaclyn Dolamore's Magic Under Glass
I'm curious to see the new cover the publisher will use, so maybe I will just get another copy once it is out with the new cover as well. I took a short peek at the girl on the cover and while I wasn't sure from the pictures I had seen online, looking at the cover in front of me, I can see the controversity. She is definitely pale for a character who is supposed to be "of darker skin".

Under construction!

2010-01-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

I'm currently trying to figure out whether I'd like to use a new template for my blog, so things might be a bit iffy. Once I'm done I'll let you know!

By the way, as my blog's 4th birthday is coming up in less than three months, I'm currently working on a giveaway for you all. And who knows, maybe my blog will reach 50 followers around that time. I'll then add an extra giveaway for my dear followers to thank you all :-)

Review Survey - help me make them better!

2010-01-23T06:50:00.000-08:00

Now, I'm still trying to figure out how to make my reviews better. For this, I have created a short survey and I really hope you can help me by answering these three short questions for me.
If you want to take peek at the last three reviews I wrote (for reference), here you go:

And for the form, please check out this site!

Thanks already for helping me :-)

Book Review: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

2010-01-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

Author	J.K. Rowling
Title	The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Publisher	Children's High Level Group
Date of Publication	December 4, 2008
Page Count	109
ISBN	978-0-7475-9987-6
Series	Harry Potter

I can't begin to tell you how long I've been craving to read this book! I never got around to buying it, but now I got it for Christmas and couldn't hold back from reading it. Now, J.K. Rowling compiled five fairy tales as told to wizard children: translated by Hermione Granger, commented by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and annoted by J.K. Rowling.

I had a wonderful time reading these fairy tales and Professor Dumbledore's comments, especially because they reminded me in the stories my Mom and Grandma told us when we were kids. The stories were easy to follow and I had finished them rather quickly. The commentary, though, was another story. For Dumbledore's part, J.K. Rowling used a number of words I hadn't heard of before.

What made the book even more fun for me to read where the tidbits I saw while reading Dumbledore's notes. One of these was the name of philosopher Bertrand de Pensées-Profondes - a philosopher with "profound thoughts" as a last name? How cool is that! And later on, in the same commentary on "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump", Rowling mentions a French sorceress, who was convicted of witchcraft (like the main character in the story who turns herself into a rabbit to escape her pursuers), named Lisette de Lapin. And "lapin" happens to be French for rabbit or bunny.

Now while I wouldn't call it a must-read for everyone, fans of Harry Potter while have a good time reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard and when you buy it, you will also be helping the Children's High Level Group (CHLG), founded by J.K. Rowling and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne. The CHLG is a non-governmental organization helping children live in small group homes or families (their own, foster or national adoptive parents) instead of those large institutions that become more and more common.

For more information on the CHLG check out their website!

Friday Follow

2010-01-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

I just found this wonderful celebration hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades at Shelly's blog ! Now, you can join in every Friday to get some more followers - and, mostly, to find more great blogs!

Here's how you can join the celebration:

Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below - Only need to on one blog
Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots - We will follow you back
Follow as many blogs as you'd like to have followers
Comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow
Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

By the way, you don't have to sign up in each of these Mcklinky's, once you add your name and link to one, it'll show up in all of them!

blame game time!

2010-01-22T01:17:00.000-08:00

Veracity by Laura Bynum, recommended by drey @ drey's library, Kate @ The Neverending Shelf, Monica @ The Bibliophilic Book Blog, Wendy @ Wendy's Minding Spot, Bookfool @ Bookfoolery and Babble, Kristi @ Books and Needlepoint and many more

Siren by Tricia Rayburn, recommended by ExtremeReader @ Extreme Reader Book Reviews

Girl In The Arena by Lise Haines, recommended by Kristen @ Bookworming in the 21st Century

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting as well as Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble (+2 as I already pre-ordered it) and Beautiful Dead by Eden Maguire, recommended by Kate @ The Neverending Shelf

The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizake, recommended by Kristen @ BookNAround - I wasn't certain about this one before, but reading Kristen's review I'm certain I want to read this one!

Dream Life by Lauren Mechling, recommended by Kim @ The Book Butterfly and Lenore @ Presenting Lenore

They Never Came Back by Caroline B. Cooney and Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey, both recommended by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson and Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, both recommended by Nina @ J'adore Happy Endings

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, recommended by Ann-Kat @ Today I Read...

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Book Review: Mass Casualties by Michael Anthony

2010-01-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Author	Michael Anthony
Title	Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq
Publisher	Adams Media
Date of Publication	October 18, 2009
Page Count	256
ISBN	978-1-4405-0183-8

In Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq, Michael Anthony tells his experiences from one year in Iraq as an OR medic. Summarizing this memoir simply is not possible without giving away too many details or leaving question marks hanging in the open, so I won't even attempt to do this.

While I read Mass Casualties, a childhood friend of mine, who is a lot like a big brother to me, was in Afganisthan, so it was both an emotional as well as a though-provoking read for me. Without whitewashing the events or taking a side in the ever-present question of righteousness of the war, Anthony tells it the way he remembers it (with confirmation from his fellow soldiers).

Anthony's experiences in Iraq and with his fellow soldiers are in part shocking, to put it mildly. While I expected some of what I read, I would never have expected it to be just so deceptive, so many orders that don't make much sense from a non-military point of view, and so many events and behaviors non of us would call honorable. But that is what makes this book so good, the honesty with which everything is portrayed.

With Mass Casualties, Michael Anthony wrote a wonderful diary-style memoir about his experiences during his time in Iraq, which I enjoyed reading.

(On a personal note: Any recommendations or ideas how to make my non-fiction / memoir reviews better? I'm very open for suggestion and advice!)

Book Review & Win a Copy: Collision of Evil by John J. LeBeau

2010-01-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

Author	John J. LeBeau
Title	Collision of Evil
Publisher	Oceanview
Date of Publication	September 21, 2009
Page Count	323
ISBN	978-1-933515-54-0

The American backpacker Charles Hirter is out hiking in the Bavarian Alps when he is brutally murdered. His brother Robert, a CIA operative flies to Germany to bring his body home and to find out more about the murder. The German detective in charge of the case, Kommissar Franz Waldbaer, faces a hopeless investigation as there are neither clues nor motives nor suspects. Being used to working alone - and also perfectly happy with this - Waldbaer at first seems rather annoyed at Robert Hirter's insistence on joining the investigation, but soon they uncover a truth born in a dark time in history, the Third Reich, that weaves together with a very present threat of radical Islamist terror.

While some may say the general plot idea is nowadays overused, I can only say if it is, I certainly didn't notice that while reading John J. LeBeau's debut novel, Collision of Evil. It is obvious he knows the trade, having worked in CIA operations for numerous years himself, most of them outside the US and in part even in locations that experienced actie terrorism. With this knowledge, LeBeau created a plot that is believeable, maybe even too believeable for those who like to think they're safe right where they are. Throughout the book, I was on the edge of my seat, wondering whether the main characters would find the important clues on time to prevent the looming act of terror from happening.

All in all, there were two minor aspects I didn't like too much. One was the lack of depth in characters, which I am very willing to attribute to this being LeBeau's debut, and the other is the title. In fact, I don't think there was a collision of two evils, rather, I would say it was two evils working together and combined their forces. My experience is that authors don't have much say in titles, which is not always the best of choices.

Adding everything up, I can only say I want to read more of John J. LeBeau's thrillers and I would love to take one of his classes (he is a Professor of Strategy and Security in the College for International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany).

As a German, I also really have to add this one: His depicting of breakfast in smaller German hotels is great! Here's a short quote to illustrate this a bit. Charles Hirter is still at the hotel, having breakfast at the hotel breakfast room:

He lingered over a cup of strong Tchibo coffee, toyed with the remains of a sunflower seed roll, and leafed idly through the sports section of the International Herald Tribune.

Everyone here knows Tchibo coffee, everyone drank it at one point. And sunflower seed rolls? Whenever I get some rolls, it's got to be sunflower seed rolls, they're the real deal ;-)

And this is how you can win your own, autographed copy:
John J. Le Beau is giving away a signed copy of his book, Collision of Evil, to one lucky tour visitor. Go to his book tour page, enter your name, e-mail address, and this PIN, 4893, for your chance to win. Entries from Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic will be accepted until 12:00 Noon (PT) tomorrow. No purchase is required to enter or to win. The winner (first name only) will be announced on his book tour page next week.

The Book List (Jan 19) & Tuesday Teasers (Jan 19)

2010-01-19T05:33:00.000-08:00

The Book List Meme is a weekly event hosted by Rebecca @ Lost In Books.

For this week the theme is: 3 Characters I Love To Hate

1) Bella from the Twilight series. because she got so whiney in the second book.
2) Bubbles Yablonsky in the Bubbles series because she is really TSTL.
3) Cynthia Bigge (Lincoln Barclay's No Time For Goodbye), because she was one annoying character I won't ever forget. Maybe even the most annoying character in literature ever...

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly event hosted by mizb17 @ Should Be Reading. To play along, click the aforementioned link :-)

The rules:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

BBOOOMMM!!! A mortar hits.

source: Michael Anthony - Mass Casualties (p. 86)

In My Mailbox (Jan 18)

2010-01-18T15:27:00.000-08:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books I found in my mailbox and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie. To join in, please visit Kristi's blog!

This week, I won't do a vlog. I've been out cold this weekend (and still am) with a 24x? hour bug that left me first with a horribly sore throat (I'm talking about "swallowing isn't possible" here), then motion sickness whenever I moved only the slightest, and right now I'm dealing with head cold-like symptoms that make it difficult for me to breathe, so talking is not an option right now (great thing when you know that I have to give a presentation tomorrow!)...

So, to make this short, here's what I found in my mailbox this week:

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
I ordered this book for the THIB! Twenty Minute Book Club Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Linus's Blanket, and because I've been dying to read this book for a few weeks now (ever since I first heard about it).

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
I heard so many interesting things about this book, I just had to get it!

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
Same as with Some Girls Are, I heard so many good things about the book, I couldn't resist.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
I am curious about the book and it is part of the Japanese Literature Book Group over at tanabata's blog, for which discussion will start in about a week (so I better hurry!). By the way, is it just my copy that has a "fizzy" cut for the pages or was that the publisher's decision for the book in general?

All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab
I just had to order it after I saw Anna @ Book Nerds tweet about it. Now it's happily on my shelves waiting for me to read it (rather sooner than later, I'd guess).

And one last, that should be waiting in my mailbox since Saturday, but which I haven't saved yet due to unforseen circumstances (see symptoms mentioned above):

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
This one is also for the THIB! Twenty Minute Book Club Challenge.

Series Challenge 4 - reviews and summaries

2010-01-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

So, it's about time I wrote up a post to gather all the reviews and summaries.

The reviews so far:
1) Samantha: Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin

The summaries:

and thus, the Mystery Read-A-Thon begins

2010-01-16T02:37:00.000-08:00

For this weekend, I'm pretty much all set for the 3rd Mystery Read-A-Thon. Except for tonight, when I'll be out celebrating my Uncle's 50th birthday (Happy birthday, Bardo!), I will spend the weekend reading.

1) Give us five fun-facts about you.
I really have to figure out how to make buttons, so we have a button for the 4th Mystery Read-A-Thon in summer!
I completely forgot we'll celebrate my uncle's 50th b-day tonight. Sorry! Just prepared the panna cotta, will then make some mousse à la vanille.
Earlier this week I was worried what I would do if my male (but not gay) hairdresser would leave, and today Mom tells me he took over from the previous owners, so there's no need to worry.
I have two cats - they're brothers and we found them in our garden, sick with the cat flu or something like that and only the two of them survived :-( But they're hilarious! (Pictures will follow later this month, or maybe a vlog.)
I've semi-successfully weeded out Mt. TBR so now I'm back to about 300 books. What a relief!

2) What is on your TBR stack for the next two days?
John J. LeBeau's Collision of Evil - I'm excited!
Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark

3) Do you have any specific hopes and plans for this read-a-thon?
I want to finish the book. Everything else is a bonus.

4) Did you participate in the Mystery Read-A-Thon in the past?
Yes, I participated during the first read-a-thon, but couldn't make it for the second

5) If you already participated, can you give the new participants any tips on what to do and what not to do?
Don't overdo it, take short breaks - and keep hydrated... Nothing is worse than forgetting to drink something while reading and then having a headache. And pick shorter books for in between! Otherwise: Send everyone out so you can read and order-in.

Book Review: The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

2010-01-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

Author	Jennifer R. Hubbard
Title	The Secret Year
Publisher	Viking
Date of Publication	January 7, 2010
Page Count	192
ISBN	978-0-670-01153-7

Julia and Colt have been secretly seeing each other for a year when Julia dies in a car accident. She is from the Black Mountains, the rich part of town where country club parties are a regular event, while helives in the flats and it is an unusual thing that his brother even attends university. Keeping their relationship a secret - even from Julia's boyfriend - at first was not problem, but when she is dead, he can't even mourn her openly. When he receives Julia's journal made up in letters for him, he relives their year together while simultaneously trying to Especially now that he feels he played a part in her death?

What a debut! Jennifer R. Hubbard created a male lead character I could feel for. His pain, his grief practically jumped out of the pages while reading. While everyone, Julia's friends, her family, her boyfriend Austin, is allowed to openly grieve, Colt can't show his feelings, his loss, so it is all restricted to his thoughts and, to a part that is only visible to the reader, to his actions. He was was head over heels in love with Julia, so losing her shook his world as nothing else in his life did.

Hubbard begins to tell the story of a couple no one would be able to picture together with Colt finding out Julia is dead. He gets a phone call from a good friend, Syd, and from then on, we get to see his feelings, the emotional roller coaster he is in. From the beginning, is thoughts, feelings and actions are visible to us, Colt grew on me throughout the book and I was so very sad to see him go as I closed the book after reading the last page.

With Julia, it was quite different. At first, she is a likeable character, one we only get to know through Colt's eyes, and later through the letters to him she wrote in her personal diary (which she never intended to show Colt). It seems she is overwhelmed with the expectations everyone has for her, her family, her friends, her boyfriend, and maybe even society. She is, after all, the daughter of rich parents, she has to be perfect.

After a while, though, Julia's actions and her behavior seemed a lot like that of a spoiled brat. She might not mind getting somewhat dirty, but only when she wants to. Everything has to go her way, her meetings with Colt (whenever she wants it), them ignoring each other throughout the day when they're at school. It's her way or no way, which is even visible in her diary.

I can't wait to see more of Jennifer R. Hubbard's books on Mt. TBR. And I hope it will be sooner, rather than later.

Musing Mondays (January 11)

2010-01-12T05:49:00.000-08:00

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about tidy bookshelves.

Are your bookshelves strictly books only? Or have knick-knacks invaded? Do your shelves also shelve DVDs? Photos? Why not snap a photo – I’m sure we all like to spy on other’s shelves!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

Now, I already posted my bookshelves a while ago (they're now filled with more books, but otherwise it looks the same). As I am not with my bookshelves, you'll have to make do with these shelves (or maybe I'll vlog with them in the background one say)...

I absolutely love my bookshelves and I have sorted all my books first by read and unread and then by author. My new bookshelves, who also divide my room) hold my DVDs and the unread books and the old shelves hold the books and mangas I already read.

Other than that, I only have a few knick-knacks on my shelves: three scented candles (vanilla, chocolate chip cake and some caramel-y dessert), a pen that looks a lot like that yellow bird on Sesame Street, two wooden mini-puzzles, one in form of two cats, the other in form of a bear. Oh, and the plastic and cloth flowers I got at various flea markets/festivities and the wooden rose a good friend of mine gave me as a present are all on top of the shelves, where nothing else would do much use (I can't reach up there anyway, so why not put those up there?)

In My Mailbox: lots of books

2010-01-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

Time for another vlog! This time around, I'm going to share with you the books I read between December 30 and January 6 and the books I bought so far in 2010. Links (to GoodReads.com) for the books can be found below...

As mentioned in the vlog:
books read
in 2009
Vicki Lewish Thompson, Jill Shalvis & Rhonda Nelson: Better Naughty Than Nice
Sarah Mayberry: She's Got It Bad
in 2010
J.K. Rowling: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

books bought
Melissa Walker: Violet on the Runway
A.J. Jacobs: The Year of Living Biblically
Dia Reeves: Bleeding Violet
Christa Holder Ocker: auf Wiedersehen
Maggie Stiefvater: Shiver
Agatha Christie Death on the Nile (graphic novel/comic)
Nicholas Sparks: Dear John (movie tie-in)

challenges mentioned
World Religion Challenge
THIB! 20 Minute Book Club Challenge

And an addition, because it arrived in the mail on Saturday, but I didn't get it until today:
Jennifer R. Hubbard: The Secret Year

Note: In Your Mailbox is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren. For more IMM posts and to post your link go her blog.

Bloggiesta - the summary

2010-01-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

It's getting late-ish here and I can't concentrate any longer, so I'll call it a Bloggiesta and go back to reading for the rest of the evening.

Today, finished up officially following all Blogger bloggers where I could find the follow button.
Then I wrote my bio to send to Nicole at Linus' Blanket for her blog to include it in the That's How I Blog post (For those who haven't listened to it yet, even though I think most already know this great show, That's How I Blog is a web radio show on Blog Talk Radio hosted by Nicole where she interviews/chats with book bloggers and even has a 20 Minute Book Club at the end. And this book club even has it's own challenge!). Now all I have to do is take a picture of me and I can send it off to Nicole. I hope that's the case tomorrow!

Now, with these tasks, I completed the following during this Bloggiesta:

updated blog rolls at this blog and at my German blog

created gravatar and added it to blogger and twitter

worked out a new review template that you will seen early this week

edited labels on all blog posts

created favicon, but couldn't add it

created link on blog to follow me on twitter

created sign up for posts right on the blog

finished a few old reviewlets

now officially following the bloggers I've been subscribing to for many, many months

wrote bio for Nicole to put up

Now, there is still a lot to do, but I think I did okay for this Bloggiesta and maybe I'll just dedicate the week after my term finals to working on my blog. Oh, no! That's the carnival week, so let's say the week after that!

My second Bloggiesta update

2010-01-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Now that the second day for the Bloggiesta at Natasha's blog, Maw Books Blog is almost over (at least for me here in Germany), I figured it's about time I write another update.

Yesterday I updated my blog rolls for both my English blog here and German blog. Then, I also finally got myself a gravatar which I now use for my blogger profile and on twitter.

Today, I worked on my review template (which you'll see very soon, so let me know what you think!) and I fiddled with the labels on all my posts. Now it should be a lot more organized. I also created a favicon, but so far I haven't figured out how (or where) to upload it so that I can even think about putting it up there. (If you can help me, please, please let me know!)
Also, you can now follow me on twitter with the help of a cute button on the right side and you can even sign up to get my posts via e-mail.
Now, I have also finished up a few reviews I started writing a while ago. Technically, they're only reviewlets, though, because I waited far too long to be able to write a proper review...

What is left for this weekend (besides finally getting my a** up and work on the essay due next Friday) is thinking about who could be my blogging buddy (if you have an idea or could help me there, send me a short message at dreamworldofabookaholic AT googlemail DOT com - I'm generally very shy when it comes to meeting people or introducing myself to people, which doesn't really help me going out there, I'm afraid!) and work on a few more reviews.

45th Bookworms Carnival - Series

2010-01-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 45th edition of the Bookworms Carnival!

I had picked series as my theme - and I was refering not to a specific series, but to each and every series you can come up with. In case you're wondering why I picked this theme: I have been hosting the Series Challenge for the past 3 years and we're now in the 4th year. In case you want to sign up, it's not too late, even though the challenge has been going for about a month already.

To get everyone in the mood for series, Samantha from Bookworms and tea lovers wrote a wonderful post on her love for series. And I can sign each point she brings up!
On top of this, she also has a post with each of the series she's reading at this point - and keeps adding the links to her reviews.

Let's start the series themselves with some posts on the first books in new series, the books with which it all begins.

Jackie at Literary Escapism submitted a review for Nancy Holzner's Deadtown, a paranormal mystery starring a young demon slayer. The second book is already in the editorial process.
Then, Jackie also sent in a review for The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay, another new urban fantasy series for which the second book is already in the making.
Two other reviews Jackie submitted are for Anya Bast's Wicked Enchantment and for Tiger by the Tail by Kaye Chambers

Jo of Ink and Paper sent in a few books that are first in a series - series which she will continue (so check out her blog later on, for more reviews!). Forgive me if I don't say something to each of these books!
Magic Bites (Kate Daniels Book 1) by Ilona Andrews
The Summoning (Dark Powers Book 1) by Kelley Armstrong
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments Book 1) by Cassandra Clare
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Night Rising (Vampire Babylon Book 1) by Chris Marie Green
Dead Witch Walking (Rachel Morgan Book 1) by Kim Harrison
Fallen by Lauren Kate
The Sweet Scent of Blood (Spellcrackers.com Book 1) by Suzanne McLeod
Wake (Dream Catcher Book 1) by Lisa McMann
Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires Book 1) by Chloe Neill
Evermore (The Immortals Book 1) by Alyson Noёl
Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells
Prophecy of the Sisters (Prophecy of the Sisters Trilogy Book 1) by Michelle Zink
And from her YA blog, Once Upon a Bookcase, Jo submitted the review for Split by a Kiss by Luisa Plaja
Wow, that's a wealth of first in series books! Admittedly, I only know one of the books Jo reviewed, City of Bones, and I can tell you it is a great YA series, and I also have a few of the books either on Mt. TBR or on my wish list.

And Monica of Monniblog submitted two first books in a series:
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, a series about a group of women of different ages, different backgrounds and very different personalities who regularly meet at a yarn shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, a series many of you already know and a book I'm in fact reading right now. Sookie Stackhouse is a psychic who, by chance, gets drawn into the world of vampires and murder.

Of course, the first book in a series is only the beginning of a story. In the later installments we learn even more about the characters and the world created by the author.

Jackie at Literary Escapism sent in a review for Smolder by Melina Morel. This is the third in the series revolving around the Institut Scientifique.

Monica of Monniblog has a review up for the final installment of Terry Goodknd's Sword of Truth series, Confessor.

Swapna Krishna offered up a great review for Small Favor by Jim Butcher, the tenth in the series revolving around Harry Dresden, a wizard who investigates cases that link to the paranormal world.

Beth of BethFishReads has a wonderful review for the 10th installment in MC Beaton's Hamish Macbeth, Death of a Charming Man. This is indeed a wonderful series and if you haven't checked it out yet, do so!

I also got some submissions for full series or bigger parts of series.

Jodie from Book Gazing has reviews for the first two books in the Temeraire series:
Temeraire by Naomi Novick
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novick

Heather from Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books reviewed all 8 books of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series. In order the books are:
The Beekeper's Apprentice
A Monstrous Regiment of Women
A Letter of Mary
The Moor
O Jerusalem
Justice Hall
The Game
Locked Rooms
The Language of Bees

And then Jo of Ink and Paper also sent me a long e-mail with lots and lots of reviews for series she read, and I'm not going to keep any to myself.

Weather Wardens Series by Rachel Caine
Ill Wind (Weather Wardens Book 1)
Heat Stroke (Weather Wardens Book 2)

Cassie Palmer Series by Karen Chance
Touch the Dark (Cassie Palmer Book 1)
Claimed by Shadow (Cassie Palmer Book 2)
Embrace the Night (Cassie Palmer Book 3)
Curse the Dawn (Cassie Palmer Book 4)

Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost
Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress Book 1)
One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress Book 2)
At Grave's End (Night Huntress Book 3)
Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress Book 4)

Wicked Series by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié
Witch & Curse (Wicked Omnibus 1) - Part 1: Witch
Witch & Curse (Wicked Omnibus 1) - Part 2: Curse

Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely Book 1)
Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely Book 2)
Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely Book 3)

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy Book 1)
Frostbite (Vampire Academy Book 2)

Raine Benares Series by Lisa Shearin
Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares Book 1)
Armed and Magical (Raine Benares Book 2)
The Trouble with Demons (Raine Benares Book 3)

Shifters Series by Rachel Vincent
Stray (Shifters Book 1)
Rogue (Shifters Book 2)
Pride (Shifters Book 3)

Monica of Monniblog also has reviewed quite some chunks of series.

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
Uglies and Pretties
Extras
Specials

The Tudor Court novels by Philippa Gregory
The Constant Princess
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Boleyn Inheritance
The Queen's Fool

The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn

XYZ series by Karen Rivers
X in Flight
Y in the Shadows

Marg of ReadingAdventures wrote one long review for the books in Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series.

Gilion of Rose City Reader also reads a few series:
Cara Black's Aimee Leduc series, which is set in France.
James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series
Lee Child's Jack Reacher series featuring the famous former military police man turned PI.
John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy series
Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series (We all have heard of Gorky Park, I believe?)
Julia Spencer-Fleming's Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne series starring a former army pilot turned Episcopalian priest and the local police chief.

And last, but certainly not least, Beth from BethFishReads has a good review of Chris Grabenstein's John Ceepack series featuring John Ceepak, a fromer MP serving in Iraq who retired from the army with PTSD.

Monica of Monniblog even sent in her answers to the questions I asked along with my call for submissions:

What is it about series you like most?
I think it's the continuation of the story. If it's a good story, you want to know more and more about the characters and continue on the journey with them.

And do you remember the first series you read?
To be honest, the first types of series I fell in love with were movies. I was in love with trilogies as a kid: original Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones.

Do you prefer to have something on the covers that links the books (like the yellow background and the comic-style guy on the “for Dummies” books to give only one example) or don’t the covers matter to you that much?
After studying design, I find that I enjoy a similar style, especially in font. I think that Harry Potter managed this well.

Phew, that's it for the submissions! I hope you enjoyed all the series and maybe even found a few new ones you'd like to try.

Also check out the next editions of the Bookworms Carnival (and maybe submit some reviews):
Edition 46 hosted by: Beth at Beth Fish Reads
Deadline for submission: January 23, 2010
Theme: Books about food or books that feature food (I’d accept culinary mysteries for example or novels centered around food)
To submit a post, email: bfish.reads AT gmail DOT com

Edition 47 hosted by: Jessica at the Bluestocking Society
Deadline for submission: February 12, 2010
Theme: Books to Movies
To submit a post, email: thebluestockingsociety at gmail dot com

Bloggiesta - the first update

2010-01-08T07:06:00.000-08:00

So, it's about time for my first Bloggiesta update.

So far I have taken care of the blog rolls both here and at my German blog. If you want to be on my blog roll and I have missed you (sorry, it's been a bit crazy with all the names), please let me know!

And then I finally got myself a gravatar! You can also see it in my profile on blogger and on twitter. (By the way, follow me on twitter, if you'd like!)

Now I'm off to write a review, before I have to really get back to my work for university (I have an essay due next Friday on travel lit and a book I haven't read in quite a while and four presentations on four very different subjects the week after.)

good or bad? I can't make up my mind...

2010-01-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Dang, sometimes living outside an English-speaking country can be annoying! I pre-ordered Courtney Summers' Some Girls Are a short while ago, and usually the pre-ordered books arrive at my place the day they're out, but not this time. This time, I will have to wait until the end of January, because the book is not even in Germany yet. I really wished they would have shipped a few copies at least, so that I wouldn't have to wait so long.

On the bright side, I don't have much reading time during the next two weeks (I have one essay due January 15 and four presentations the week after), so it would be really hard to have another new book lying around, knowing I'd feel very, very guilty if I started reading it before all the other things are done!

The 2nd Bloggiesta is coming up!

2010-01-02T01:05:00.000-08:00

I can't begin to tell you how glad I am the 2nd Bloggiesta hosted by Natasha @ Maw Books Blog is coming up next weekend: January 8 through 10!

Now that I have started blogging both in English and German in early 2009, I have two blogs to maintain, which has been a bit tricky at times.

For this blog, I have to do the following:

write reviews (or at least reviewlets for the older books) for the following books:

Robert Fate: Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption

Harry Kemelman: Sunday The Rabbi Stayed Home

Peter O'Donnell & Jim Holdaway: Modesty Blaise - The Gabriel Set-Up

Sam Savage: Firmin

Karen Tei Yamashita: Tropic of Orange

Cormac McCarthy: The Road

Rachel Caine: Glass Houses

MaryJanice Davidson: Undead and Unreturnable

Will Eisner: The Spirit

Alan Bennett: The Uncommon Reader

Martin Millar: Lonely Werewolf Girl

P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Marked

Agatha Christie: Star Over Bethlehem

Gene Luen Yang: American Born Chinese

Hester Browne: The Little Lady Agency

Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar

Sarah Mayberry: She's Got It Bad

Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jill Shalvis & Rhonda Nelson: Better Naughty Than Nice

~~update blog roll~~

~~work on review template~~

~~get gravatar (finally!)~~

prepare template posts for future reads including picture & links

For my German blog:

finally transfer old posts to new blog

~~update blog roll~~

~~work on review template~~

That should be far more than I can handle, so I'll leave it at that.

year's end summary - part 2: books bought

2010-01-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Now, this is the far too long list of books I acquired during the past 12 months. I can only hope 2010 will be a better year!

Striked through titles are those I already read AND reviewed or deleted from Mt. TBR for other reasons.

1) Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey and Other Works
~~2) Sheila Connolly: One Bad Apple~~
~~3) Laura Childs: Eggs In Purgatory~~
4) Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
5) Charlotte Bronte: The Professor
~~6) Elizabeth Young: Asking For Trouble~~
~~7) Merline Lovelace: A Question of Intent~~
~~8) Marie Ferrarella: Protecting His Witness~~
~~9) Dani Sinclair: Secret Cinderella~~
~~10) Charlotte Douglas: Mystique~~
11) Libba Bray: A Great and Terrible Beauty
12) Jim Butcher: Storm Front
13) Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness
~~14) Meg Cabot: Jinx~~
15) Kathryn Lilley: A Killer Workout
16) Alice Kimberly: The Ghost and Haunted Mansion
17) Jin Xing: Shanghai Tango (audio)
18) John Katzenbach: The Analyst (audio)
~~19) Nalini Singh: Slave to Sensation & Vision of Heat~~
20) Rhys Bowen: Evan's Gate
21) John Sandford: Rules of Prey
~~22) Natalie Anderson: Bought - One Night, One Marriage~~
~~23) Suzanne Brockman: Prince Joe~~
~~24) Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis 1 (gift card)~~
~~25) Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis 2~~
26) Tohko Mizuno: In A Distant Time 10
~~27) Rutu Modan: Exit Wounds~~
~~28) Jill Shalvis: Instant Attraction~~
29) Rachel Gibson: Tangled Up In You
30) Cindy Gerard: Show No Mercy
~~31) Merline Lovelace: Devlin and the Deep Blue Sea~~
~~32) Marie Ferrarella: The Bride With No Name~~
~~33) Jill Shalvis & Jacquie D'Alessandro & Jame Sobrato: Heating up the Holidays~~
~~34) Maureen Child: An Officer And A Millionaire~~
~~35) Jennifer LaBrecque: Yule Be Mine~~
~~36) Cara Summers: Come Toy With Me~~
~~37) Lori Wilde: Lethal Exposure~~
~~38) Richard Yates: Revolutionary Road~~
39) Stephenie Meyer: New Moon
40) J.R. Ward: Dark Lover
~~41) Nancy Horan: Loving Frank~~
42) Holly Robinson Peete: Get Your Own Damn Beer, I'm Watching The Game! A Woman's Guide to Loving Pro Football
43) Rhys Bowen: Evans Above
~~44) Amy Tan: Hundred Secret Senses~~
45) Lorna Barrett: Murder Is Binding
46) Margaret Grace: Malice In Miniature
47) German book on ADD
48) Steve Mosby: The 50/50 Killer
~~49) Tess Gerritsen: The Mephisto Club~~
~~50) Janice Kay Johnson: Snowbound~~
51) Florentine Dame & Elizabeth Weydt: An Grenzen
52) Lora Leigh: Nauti Boy
53) Lisa Kleypas: It Happened One Autumn
54) Julie James: Practice Makes Perfect
~~55) Julie James: Just The Sexiest Man Alive~~
~~56) Jill Shalvis: Flashpoint~~
57) Bram Stocker: Dracula (for university)
~~58) Poppy Z. Brite: Lost Souls (for university)~~
59) Julia Hoban: Willow
60) Michael Karpin: Tightrope - Six Centuries Of A Jewish Dynasty
61) William Boyd: Restless (Bookcrossing)
62) Adriana Trigiani: Lucia, Lucia (Bookcrossing)
63) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half Of A Yellow Sun (Bookcrossing)
64) Philip Roth: American Pastoral (for university)
~~65) Cormac McCarthy: The Road (for university)~~
~~66) Karen Tei Yamashita: Tropic Of Orange (for university)~~
67) Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband
68) Italian language learning mystery: Dottor Bianchis Letzter Wille (Dottor Bianchi's Last Will)
69) Paul Robertson: Road To Nowhere (Bookcrossing)
~~70) Abby Gaines: Married By Mistake~~
71) Michail Bulgakov: The Master & Margerita (birthday gift from dear friends)
72) Virginia Woolf: To The Lighthouse (won during 24 Hour Read-A-Thon)
~~73) Jay Asher: Thirteen Reasons Why (won during 24 Hour Read-A-Thon)~~
74) Emily Listfield: Best Intentions (review copy)
~~75) Alan Bennett: An Uncommon Reader~~
76) Sophie Kinsella: Remember Me?
77) Stephenie Meyer: Eclipse
78) Randy Pausch: The Last Lecture
79) John Boyne: The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
80) Emily Dickinson: Wilde Nächte (The Letters of Emily Dickinson) (gift)
~~81) Scott Sigler: Infected (gift certificate)~~
~~82) Sam Savage: Firmin (gift certificate)~~
83) Ann Aguirre: Grimspace (gift certificate)
84) Lisa Jackson: Twice Kissed
85) Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends & Influence People
~~86) Beth Andrews: A Not-So-Perfect Past~~
~~87) Jill Shalvis: Flashback~~
88) Scott Westerfeld: Uglies
~~89) Lawrence Kaplan: House Of Ghosts (review copy)~~
~~90) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 6~~
~~91) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 7~~
92) Natsuo Kirino: Real World
93) Jean Hager: Blooming Murder (Bookcrossing)
94) Nadine Dajani: Cutting Loose (review copy)
95) Sally Koslow: The Late, Lamented Molly Marx (review copy)
96) Susan Crosby: The Rancher's Surprise Marriage
97) Sarah Dunn: Secrets Of Happiness (won - thanks Beth)
98) Robert Fate: Baby Shark's Jugglers At The Border (review copy)
~~99) Allison Leigh: A Weaver Wedding~~
100) Jeanine Frost: Halfway To The Grave
~~101) Dirk Bernemann: Ich hab die Unschuld kotzen sehen Teil 2 (German)~~
~~102) Patricia Davids: A Military Match~~
103) Kristan Higgins: Fools Rush In
104) Jill Shalvis: Double Play
~~105) D.D. Barant: Dying Bites~~
~~106) Rachel Caine: Glass Houses~~
107) MaryJanice Davidson: Undead and Unpopular
108) MaryJanice Davidson: Undead and Uneasy
109) Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
~~110) Nick Sagan: Idlewild~~
111) Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase
~~112) MaryJanice Davidson: Undead and Unreturnable~~
113) Kristan Higgins: Too Good To Be True
~~114) Dan Brown: The Lost Symbol~~
115) Rhonda Nelson - The Hell-Raiser
116) Lisa Kleypas - Mine Till Midnight
117) Rachel Caine - Midnight Alley
118) Benyamin Cohen - My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith
119) Tanya Huff - Blood Trail
120) Amanda Quick - I Thee Wed (Bookcrossing)
121) Jon Krakauer - Under The Banner Of Heaven
122) Jill Shalvis: Instant Gratification
~~123) Sara Orwig: Wyoming Marriage~~
124) Sarah Mayberry: She's Got It Bad
125) Patricia Davids: Speed Trap (can I blame the author? she told me about it and I couldn't resist LOL)
126) Tzipi Caton: Miracle Ride - A True Story of Illness, Fate, Humor - And Triumph
~~127) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Marked (review copy)~~
128) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Betrayed (review copy)
129) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast:Chosen (review copy)
130) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast:Untamed (review copy)
131) Josh Bazell: Beat the Reeper (review copy)
132) Nick Sagan: Edenborn
133) Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
134) Melissa Marr: Wicked Lovely
~~135) Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance~~
136) Wolfgang Schorlau: Das München-Komplott (German mystery)
~~137) Ralf Schmitz: Schmitz' Katze (German book by comedian)~~
138) Eckard von Hirschhausen: Die Leber wächst mit ihren Aufgaben (German book by comedian)
139) Lernkrimi Italienisch: Mord in der Scala (Language Practice Italian: Murder at the Scala)
140) Jeffery Deaver: The Vanished Man
141) Melissa De La Cruz: Masquerade
142) Georges Simenon: Maigret et le clochard
143) Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jill Shalvis, Rhonda Nelson: Better Naughty Than Nice
~~144) Gene Luen Yang: American Born Chinese~~
145) Michael Anthony: Mass Casualties (review copy)
146) Dan Brown: Da Vinci Code (in French, gift from a dear friend!)
148) Danielle Joseph: Shrinking Violet (German holiday swap - Buecherblogs)
149) Elizabeth Scott: Living Dead Girl (Holiday Swap)
150) Cindy Pon: Silver Phoenix (Holiday Swap)
151) Hester Browne: The Little Lady Agency
152) Haruki Murakami: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
153) Alyson Noel: Evermore (mixed up Evermore and Evernight, which I actually wanted to get - oh well!)
154) Charlaine Harris: Living Dead In Dallas
155) Kenneth Oppel: Silverwing (Christmas present from a dear friend)
156) Catherine Clément: Le voyage de Théo (for university)
157) Nick Sagan: Everfree
158) Joy Fielding: Still Life (another Christmas present)
159) Lev Grossman: The Magician
160) Laura Schaefer: The Teashop Girls (pre-ordered in May)
161) Janet Evanovich: Naughty Neighbor (Bookcrossing)
162) J.K Rowling The Tales Of Beedle The Bard (secret santa - Literaturschock)
163) Ally Carter: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (secret santa - Literaturschock, yes, I did get 2 books)

As a result, I added 107 books to Mt. TBR for 2010 *sigh*

year's end summary - part 1: books read

2010-01-01T02:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, that was a close call... I can't believe I read so "few" books - compared to previous years...

A short note on the side: I will update the links as I write the reviews. I'm still waaay behind, sorry!

1) Oscar Wilde: A Woman of No Importance
2) Patricia Davids: Military Daddy
3) Linwood Barclay: No Time For Goodbye (audio)
4) Meg Cabot: Jinx
5) Vicki Myron: Dewey
6) Marie Ferrarella: Protecting His Witness
7) Natalie Anderson: Bought - One Night, One Marriage
8) Suzanne Brockmann: Prince Joe
9) Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis 1
10) Johann Maier: Judentum & Judentum - Reader
11) Jill Shalvis & Jacquie D'Alessandro & Jamie Sobrato: Heating Up The Holidays
12) Merline Lovelace: Devlin and the Deep Blue Sea
13) Marie Ferrarella: The Bride With No Name
14) Rutu Modan: Exit Wounds
15) Naomi Alderman: Disobedience
16) MaryJanice Davidson: Undead and Unappreciated
17) Nalini Singh: Slave to Sensation
18) Agatha Christie: The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side
19) Robert Fate: Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues
20) Meg Cabot: How To Be Popular
21) Robert Fate: Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption
22) Marco von Münchhausen: Zeit gewinnen mit dem inneren Schweinehund (time management)
23) Lori Wilde: Lethal Exposure
24) Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis 2
25) Eun-Ah Park: Sweet & Sensitive 4
26) Eun-Ah Park: Sweet & Sensitive 5
27) Tess Gerritsen: The Mephisto Club
28) Meg Cabot: The Princess Diares - To The Nines
29) Harry Kemelman: Sunday The Rabbi Stayed Home
30) Elie Wiesel: Night
31) Jill Shalvis: Flashpoint
32) Jennifer LaBrecque: Yule Be Mine
33) Cara Summers: Come Toy With Me
34) Leslie Kelly: Slow Hands
35) Abby Gaines: Married By Mistake
36) Peter O'Donnell & Jim Holdaway: Modesty Blaise - The Gabriel Set-Up
37) Beth Andrews: A Not-So-Perfect Past
38) Sam Savage: Firmin
39) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 4
40) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 5
41) Gosho Aoyama: Detective Conan 15
42) Maju Sakai: Rockin' Heaven Vol. 2
43) Gosho Aoyama: Case Closed Vol. 16
44) Gosho Aoyama: Case Closed Vol. 17
45) Gosho Aoyama: Case Closed Vol. 18
46) Tomoko Hayakawa: Perfect Girl Vol. 6
47) Maki Minami: Special A Vol. 1
48) Maki Minami: Special A Vol. 2
49) Maki Minami: Special A Vol. 3
50) Yuna Kagesaki: Cheeky Vampire Vol. 7
51) Lawrence Kaplan: House Of Ghosts
52) Yuna Kagesaki: Cheeky Vampire Vol. 8
53) Jong Eun Lee: Shi Hwa Mong Vol.1
54) Susan Crosby: The Rancher's Surprise Marriage
55) Jacqueline Baird: Marriage At His Convenience
56) Tomoko Hayakawa: Perfect Girl Vol. 7
57) Tomoko Hayakawa: Perfect Girl Vol. 8
58) Maju Shinjo: Kaikan Phrase Vol. 5
59) Tomoko Hayakawa: Perfect Girl Vol. 9
60) Kristan Higgins: Just One Of The Guys
61) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 6
62) Tachibana Higuchi: Alice Academy Vol. 7
63) Karen Tei Yamashita: Tropic Of Orange
64) Allison Leigh: A Weaver Wedding
65) Janice Kay Johnson: Snowbound
66) Cormac McCarthy: The Road
67) Jill Shalvis: Flashback
68) Merline Lovelace: A Question Of Intent
69) M. Reufsteck/J. Stoeckle: Die kleine House-Apotheke
70) Charlotte Douglas: Mystique
71) Elizabeth Young: Asking For Trouble
72) Jill Shalvis: Instant Attraction
73) Carly Phillips: Hot Property
74) Dani Sinclair: Secret Cinderella
75) Julie James: Just The Sexiest Man Alive
76) Donna Kauffman: The Cinderella Rules
77) Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Heaven, Texas
78) Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Lady Be Good
79) Nalini Singh: Visions Of Heat
80) Rachel Caine: Glass Houses
81) Patricia Davids: A Military Match
82) Nick Sagan - Idlewild
83) D.D. Barrant - Dying Bites
84) Jill Shalvis - Storm Front
85) Sara Orwig: Wyoming Marriage
86) Friedrich Duerrenmatt: Die Panne
87) MaryJanice Davidson: Undead and Unreturnable
88) Jay Asher: 13 Reasons Why
89) Will Eisner: The Spirit
90) Alan Bennett: The Uncommon Reader
91) a great book you'll hear more about as soon as possible!
92) a great book you'll hear more about as soon as possible! (not the same as #91 in October!)
93) Martin Millar: Lonely Werewolf Girl
94) Cassandra Clare: City of Bones
95) Gareth P. Jones: The Thornthwaite Inheritance
96) Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child: Reliquary (audio)
97) Yasushi Inoue: Memoirs of the Priest Honkaku
98) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Marked
99) Agatha Christie: Star Over Bethlehem
100) Gene Luen Yang: American Born Chinese
101) Hester Browne: The Little Lady Agency
102) Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
103) Ralf Schmitz: Schmitz' Katze
104) Sarah Mayberry: She's Got It Bad
105) Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jill Shalvis & Rhonda Nelson: Better Naughty Than Nice

December summary

2010-01-01T01:22:00.000-08:00

Added
148) Danielle Joseph: Shrinking Violet (German holiday swap - Buecherblogs)
149) Elizabeth Scott: Living Dead Girl (Book Blogger Holiday Swap)
150) Cindy Pon: Silver Phoenix (Book Blogger Holiday Swap)
151) Hester Browne: The Little Lady Agency
152) Haruki Murakami: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
153) Alyson Noel: Evermore (mixed up Evermore and Evernight, which I actually wanted to get - oh well!)
154) Charlaine Harris: Living Dead In Dallas
155) Kenneth Oppel: Silverwing (Christmas present from a dear friend)
156) Catherine Clément: Le voyage de Théo (for university)
157) Nick Sagan: Everfree
158) Joy Fielding: Still Life (another Christmas present)
159) Lev Grossman: The Magician
160) Laura Schaefer: The Teashop Girls (pre-ordered in May)
161) Janet Evanovich: Naughty Neighbor (Bookcrossing)
162) J.K Rowling The Tales Of Beedle The Bard (secret santa - Literaturschock)
163) Ally Carter: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (secret santa - Literaturschock, yes, I did get 2 books)

Read
98) P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast: Marked
99) Agatha Christie: Star Over Bethlehem
100) Gene Luen Yang: American Born Chinese
101) Hester Browne: The Little Lady Agency
102) Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
103) Ralf Schmitz: Schmitz' Katze
104) Sarah Mayberry: She's Got It Bad
105) Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jill Shalvis & Rhonda Nelson: Better Naughty Than Nice

DNF
7) Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife

the one with the look-out at 2010 - part 1

2009-12-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

Let me be up front: I pre-order books. I can’t help it. When I hear about a book that is not yet out, but still interests me because of the plot, I sometimes can’t wait for a review or two. I am just so excited about the book that I need to pre-order it.

Granted, I have had some bad luck with that in the past. Remember Dan Brown’s latest? The Lost Symbol? I pre-ordered it, paid an awful lot of money and ended up not even getting past page 50! (In case someone’s interested, let me know ;-) )

But earlier this week, I went on one of those pre-order book-shopping sprees again. 2010 soon begins and I couldn’t resist, I heard about some books that will be out January through March 2010 and I just have to have them as soon as possible!

So here is the list (and some additional info) on the books I will be getting rather sooner than later:

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Thanks, Lenore! The bookmark for this one was part of my gift from secret santa and as soon as I checked out the book (or more, the trilogy), I was hooked!
Meghan was six years old when she saw her father disappear right before her eyes. Ever since then, her life has felt slightly off, but what she would never have guessed is that she is the daughter of a faery king and a pawn in a deadly war.

The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard
Romeo and Juliet in the 21st century!
Colt and Julia have been meeting secretly for a year. Colt is from the wrong side of the tracks while Julia is from an upper-class neighborhood. No one would have understood their relationship. But then Julia dies unexpectedly and Colt can't show his mourning for her. After all, no one knows how close they have been.

Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt
Ever since I read The Princess Diaries I've been hooked on teenage princesses, so when I read the summary for this one, it was clear I had to check it out:
When an flawlessly dressed woman steps out of an iridescent bubble and wants to asks Desi Bascomb whether she would like to become a substitute princess, Desi, who’s been longing for a bit of glamour in her Idaho life, says yes! She even has a magical ability that helps her transform temporarily into the exact lookalike of any princess who needs her subbing services.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Sixteen-year-old Hanna is in search for her mother who abandoned her at birth. This search leads her to Portero, a small Texas town with flesh-eating creatures and parasitical spirits.
I might just as well blame this one on HJ, who got me to read my first zombie books in a while. That one was good enough to make me want to read Bleeding Violet.

The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
This one, as well, goes with a thanks to Lenore (her review can be found here!).
Head cheerleader Tessa is also the head of a super-secret organization - the Society of Smitten Kittens - that investigates boys possibly cheating on their girlfriends. Tessa knows her own boyfriend Aiden would never cheat though... or would he?

The Mark by Jen Nadol
And another thanks to Lenore who reviewed this book a short while ago!
Sixteen-year old Cassie Renfield has seen the mark since forever: a glow around certain people as if a candle were held behind their back. The one time she pointed it out taught her not to do it again, so Cassie has kept quiet, considering its rare appearances odd, but insignificant. Until the day she watches a man die. Mining her memories, Cassie realizes she can see a person's imminent death. Not how or where, only when: today.
Cassie searches her past, her philosophy lessons, even her new boyfriend for answers, always careful to hide her secret. How does the mark work? Why her? Most importantly, if you know today is someone's last, should you tell?
There is, in fact, an excerpt you can read.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T16:01:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Have a wonderful 2010 with luck, success, health, love and great books!

reviewlets - SEP: LADY BE GOOD; Nalini Singh: VISIONS OF HEAT; Donna Kauffman: THE CINDERELLA RULES

2009-12-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

It has been months since I read the following books and I still haven't reviewed a bunch of books, so I'll give you some reviewlets of those I don't remember too well anymore. I'll try to sort them by genre or topic, as good as possible, but I won't promise anything ;-)

Susan Elizabeth Phillips
LADY BE GOOD
414 pages

I have no clue how many times I have read this book already. It has become one of the few reads I'm reading again and again. I just like SEP's writing, the story and the hilarious characters. There's nothing that lifts my mood as good as the women and men in these chick lit/romance novels. In Lady be Good, British Lady Emma Wells-Finch travels to Texas to meet with the only man who might be able to help her ruin her impeccable reputation: Kenny Traveler. Only he has no intention of helping her, as exactly this would probably mean the end of his pro-golfing career. You see, Kenny has a similar problem as Tiger Woods currently has: he has been seeing far too many women. And on top of that, Kenny also has been in a few bar fights, which upset the organizer of the pro-golf tour so much he suspended him from playing. Now these two very opposite characters with there most definitely completely opposite agendas meet (Emma wants to lose her reputation in order to avoid a truly disgusting man who wants to marry her for exactly that reputation and tries to pressure her into complying) and worlds clash.

Nalini Singh
VISIONS OF HEAT
380 pages

I'm sure I'm one of the last people in the world who like were-whatever (what's the correct term again, when it's not just werewolves?) and a little romance plus lots of suspense that started reading Nalini Singh's books. In this installment, Faith Nightstar can predict the future dangerously accurate, but when a murder turns her life upside down. She sees the murders in scary details, but has no clue who the killer could possibly be, so in order to stay safe, in order to not be locked up in a cell, she turns to the only people she thinks might be able to help her.

Donna Kauffman
THE CINDERELLA RULES
462 pages

When Darby Landon's sister asks her to fill in for her and take care of one of their father's client, Darby is in big trouble. She has been as far away from high society as she possibly could for the past years - on her grandfather's farm in a very rural area of Montana. Now she has to go back to Washington and figure out how to act like the societal butterfly her father's client is expecting. For her to be able to pull it off, her sister Pepper even hired the Glass Slipper Inc., a company that is all set on helping people dress right, behave right, etc - like the fairy godmother in Cinderella.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, not only because the story was hilarious, but because Kauffman added a mystery, a spy story in the background.

Saying Goodbye to one of our own

2009-12-28T16:47:00.000-08:00

Today we said a last Goodbye to one of our own. The son of family friends died December 22nd, or, more specifically, was found dead in his bed by his mother. His heart simply stopped beating, it stopped and he is gone and won't ever be back. From what I know his death certificate reads "natural cause", which is ridiculous. What's natural about the heart of a 24 year old to stop beating?

He was a year younger than me and I wasn't exceptionally close to him, but it still shocked me so much I haven't really talked about it so far. We only saw each other when we were at the same parties in our hometown, the town I haven't lived in for the past 5 years. But so far, whenever I came back for one of the parties, I knew exactly who I was going to see - now it's one person less, one person I didn't know well, sadly, but I did know him enough to link him with "home". I knew him to be a good person.

In this time, I feel with his family, his parents, whom I've come to like as I've been hanging out with them every now and then, and his older brother (probably a year older than me), who mixed my drinks at least a couple dozen times in the last years and was always in a good mood. And of course with his friends, who gathered all their strenght to carry him on his last way.

F.L., this one's for you - you'll be sorely missed!

Nur die Besten sterben jung (Only the best die young) by Böhse Onkelz

translated lyrics:
we were more than friends
we were like brothers
many years we sang the same songs
only the best die young
you were the best
only memories
tell me why
only the best die young
only the best die young

the time heals wounds
but I can't forget
the time heals wounds
but I think about you often
no matter where you are
you know a well as I do
one day we'll see again
in my dreams
in our songs
only the best die young
only the best die young

tell me why
only the best die young
only the best die young
too young
only the best die young
far, far too young
far too young

Martin Millar: LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL

2009-12-28T09:07:00.000-08:00

Martin Millar
LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL
751 pages
Soft Skull Press
ISBN: 978-0-979-66366-6

Werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is a fugitive - from her family! After attacking her father, she was banned from her clan and werewolf hunters are out to get her. She finds a hide-out with two young students in London, Moonglow and Daniel, but she can't shake off the past that easily and both Moonglow and Daniel are drawn into the family feud.

I absolutely loved this book! I pretty much raced through the 751 pages (of my German copy) and when I brought it to class with me, I even infected a friend. Millar's characters are hilarious, he knows how to create wonderfully funny scenes that - if read in public - might cause some awkward scenes, because trust me, people are very sensitive when it comes to people laughing very loud in public.

Millar develops the characters very well over the whole 751 pages and it will be a real treat to see what will happen further as we proceed to the second book.

Gareth P. Jones: THE THORNTHWAITE INHERITANCE

2009-12-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

Gareth P. Jones
THE THORNTHWAITE INHERITANCE
263 pages
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978-0-7475-9982-1

Thirteen-year-old twins Lorelli and Ovid Thornthwaite are not your average kids. They live in a huge, creepy mansion, are homeschooled, are heirs to a vast fortune - and for as long as they can remember, they have been trying to kill each other. But on the day of their thirteenth birthday they call a truce and call off all their murderous sibling rivalry. Now if only the attempts at their lives would also stop! But what is behind the trouble - or more exactly, who?

This book was such a great book, I can't gush enough! I absolutely loved the writing, Jones really made me want more and more and I could not put the book down at all. The story kept flying by and before I could look, I was at the end of the story. Lorelli and Ovid are quirky, menacing and somehow sweet at the same time. They take sibling rivalry to the next level, that's for sure, because who could think up an unhinged bicycle seat that incidentally attrackts a bear - just to make sure? And that is only one small view into the world of death traps created by Lorelli and Ovid! The story itself is simply brilliantly twisted and lovingly created.

Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic - OLD VERSION!

New blog url!!!

This blog is under allergies *wink*

In My Mailbox Monday (Apr 18)

blame game time (April 16)

Book Review: Literary Murder by Batya Gur

books, books, and more books - currently reading and not reading

Book Review: My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman

In My Mailbox Monday (Apr 11) and what else I got this week

Read-A-Thon woes

Happy birthday to me!

blame game time (April 9)

Happy 4th Blogiversary!

out for a day or two

The Book List (Apr 6): Regretable Book Covers

Book Review: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

Busy week ahead

In My Mailbox Monday (Apr 4)

blame game time (April 1)

March summary

New background color

best laid plans...

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 28)

The Book List: Books you loved as a child (Mar 23)

Hidden Treasures (April through May)

An award!

Book Review: Alphatudes by Michele Wahlder

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 21)

Look who's won!

Unplugged for a day!

blame game time (March 12)

Reading For A Cure - I'm in, are you?

What I'm up to...

The Book List: Books that take you back to High School (Mar 9)

New layout and new header

50 Followers Contest - now with 5 winners!

In My Mailbox Monday (Mar 7)

Book Blogger Blog Hop

Dear Anonymous Spammer

Geeky Me?

update on 50 Followers contest

The Book List: Best / Worst Sidekicks to a Hero in a Book

February summary

Book Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

In My Mailbox Monday (Feb 28)

Book Review: Betrayed by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Book Review: All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

Busy weeks followed by a busy weekend

blame game time (February 26)

Book Review: Marked by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Podcast Review: Books on the Nightstand - recommendations

The Book List (Feb 23): Books that should be made into Movies

The 50 follower contest is growing!

In My Mailbox Monday (Feb 21)

blame game time (February 19)

Podcast Review: Books on the Nightstand

50 Followers Contest!

In My Mailbox (Feb 14)

blame game time (February 13)

blame game time (February 12)

In My Mailbox (Feb 7)

comments

In My Mailbox (Feb 1)

News on the Blogging front

Japanese Music

January summary

Japanese Literature Challenge III - my results

Book Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (graphic novel)

blame game time (January 29)

too much in too short a time

Hidden Treasures (February through March)

In My Mailbox (Jan 25)

Under construction!

Review Survey - help me make them better!

Book Review: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

Friday Follow

blame game time!

Book Review: Mass Casualties by Michael Anthony

Book Review & Win a Copy: Collision of Evil by John J. LeBeau

The Book List (Jan 19) & Tuesday Teasers (Jan 19)

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