The Beauty of Covers in YA

So, last week, The Book Smugglers did the cover reveal for The City's Son, US version. My thoughts- YAY! Pen :) Yay-her scars :)  And then I thought, why aren't there many scars/unconventially beautiful people on covers? We've already had this discussion with whitewashing, but I thought it would be interesting to bring up a different issue.

Body image and self esteem is an important topic.
I believe that everyone should be proud of what they look like, and not worry about weight, blemishes etc. But there's a lot of people who feel insecure about their looks, society  does not help by promoting that beauty=key to getting partner=happiness, and I'm wondering if YA book covers are doing anything to help.

I've been asking the internet about books with main characters  who don't typically conform to society's  standards of beauty, and I have a list. Thank you people! (You're all listed at the bottom). With the covers, I take either the one I've seen most often in the UK or the first one that came up in Google Images.

So what happens with books with main characters who aren't typically beautiful?

1. Publishers get it right. They get portrayed accurately.

The City's Son by Tom Pollock.	Mortal Instruments by Philip Reeve.

2. They get shown in shadow, they're covered up, or you see the character but you can't tell that they don't fit society's ideals. 

Jepp Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh. I've been told that  the main character is a dwarf, but the lack of scenery gives you nothing to compare him to.	The Days of Judy B by Rose Heiney. I believe the issue here is weight. The skirt and hand could be anyone.
Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid. Rebecca, the sister with Treacher Collins Syndrome, is in shadow.	Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon. Henry has a lot of scars for reasons you'll find out, and the cover hints at this, but doesn't make it clear.
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headly. Terra has a large birthmark on her cheek.	Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry. After the incident, Echo has scars up and down her arms.
Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carlson. Not only this an example of whitewashing, you don't get a full picture of Elisa.	Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham. Jane's attack meant that her right arm was amputated, we only see her left here.
Skin Deep by Laura Jarrat. Jenna is in a car crash that leaves her face scarred. These have magically disappeared (I doubt that a car crash would leave scars on just one side. Correct me if I'm wrong)	The Duff by Kody Keplinger. Bianca gets called the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and her esteem suffers as a result.
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. Scarlett is scarred and missing an eye.	Wonder by RJ Palacio. The big one. August has a facial deformity. This cover doesn't really say that he's deformed, and doesn't say he isn't.

3. Symbols or  other abstract things are used on the cover, and the character isn't depicted at all.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Hazel's cancer visibly takes its toll and Augustus had his leg amputated.	Fat Vampire by Adam Rex. I'm assuming that weight's the issue here.
Pure by Julianna Baggott. Apparently, it's full of scarred characters.

So why is this done? It may be for practicality reasons-obtaining models etc. It may be because it is just better for the book-Black Heart Blue and Henry Franks both have covers that suit them. But the reason those who are less than ideal-looking aren't shown on covers is:  Publishers or cover designers don't think that they'll sell. It may not be that person's personal view. It probably isn't.

 But it is society's. Magazines aimed at teen girls are often full of tips to look better, clothes and makeup pages-sometimes for other people's benefit. I have nothing against looking good, and taking pride in your appearance. But we're being the sold the message that those who don't look "perfect" won't get anywhere. And this leads to problems in people's psych, lead them to feeling worthless.

School's might try and help. At mine an all girl's school. I think we get (the same) talks in years 7,9,10, or around age 12 and then again 13-15.  Other girls  get less than this. The sample of the few teenage boys I know tell me that they don't get this at all.

Stories are an important part in people's lives. They have the power to take your to another world and to change your thinking, your ideology. Teenagers are easily impressable.

So what kind of message are we getting when the majority of covers try to avoid the fact that they are centred around someone who isn't traditionally picture perfect?

---

Thank you to: Laura Ferguson, Cait from The Cait Files, Cicely Loves Books, Laure Eve, Jace McCoy, Kim Curran, Ellie from Curiosity Killed The Bookworm, Tom Pollock, Clover from Fluttering Butterflies, Keris from UKYA, Melissa Maria, Sean Cummings,Laura Sister Spooky, Philip Reeve, Lucy  Queen of Contemporary, Rhys from Fiction Thirst, Bella/Cheezyfeet,  Caroline from Portrait of Woman, Emily datawesomeunicorn, Faye, Cara, and Sarah mindspiel for giving me different viewpoints, suggesting awesome books and making my tbr list grow.

PS. This post should not have taken five hours to put together. It did. XD Please comment!

Plagiarism

So yesterday afternoon, I found this huge huge storm about highly (as in one of the main sites you think of) respected blogger stealing half of her posts from others... I'm here to share my thoughts.

First, it's bad enough that she stole posts, slightly rewrote them, and passed them off as her own.
The fact that she's somebody EVERYONE goes to EVERY WEEK (she's the hoster of IMM) and is, er was, well respected, and has SPOKEN AGAINST PLAGIARISM is just as bad.

Plagiarism =not cool.
Plagiarism=not cool.
Plagiarism=not cool.

Somehow, all this happened in January. But we're only hearing it three months later.

It's really upsetting for everybody when someone takes somebody else's work and passes it off as their own. For the person it's taken from, for the readers of the taker (dishonesty, it's not the original work that they thought they'd be getting) and, hopefully, for the taker.

As book bloggers, we work hard on this stuff. Seriously hard. I personally take a few hours to read a book, a lot of time to think about writing a review and then half an hour to write and type the review. Discussion posts are much harder to write.

But that's not the point. The point is, she took content from somebody else and claimed it as her own. Avoid Kristi Diehm, or The Story Siren, as much as possible.

Most in-depth article-here http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/plagiarism-and-the-story-siren

Waiting on Wednesday #37 Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we show off books that we want to read but have not been published yet. 

Title:  Sweet Evil
Author:  Wendy Higgins
Release Date: 1 May 2012  (HarperTeen)
Link to / Summary from Goodreads:  What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil. 
Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna. 
A cross-country trip to meet her father forces Anna to face the reality that hope and love are not options for her kind. When she confronts her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?
Why I want it:  Children of fallen angels that have to be kind of evil? Demons, angels and (from existing reviews) a new take on everything? Definitely my kind of thing. Oh, and that cover? Gorgeous.

And some news-y stuff.

My book club friend Lillian has started her own blog!  She’s not really done much...but she’s only been going for five days. Go check her blog, Good Reading Lists, out, and let us both know what you think!

And...Our librarian is a traitor. Really.  Well, maybe not. But we were planning to go as a book club to see  The Hunger Games together. The whole book club. All of us. Because it worked with Harry Potter (without her). But, we all wanted to see it together.  So I ask her about when we’ll go see it. She says “I’m seeing it on Friday.” Strike one. Then “I’m going with a friend.” Understandable. Strike two. Then... “I couldn’t possibly be seen going with you”. Strike three. It’s not like we’d be insane and show her up, would we?

Happy World Book Day

Happy World Book Day, everyone!
Due to my amazing organisation skills, I haven't prepared a full post for today. But anyway, celebrate!

Final Post of 2011.... Stats, brief history and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So, it’s been a long year. Lots of things have happened to everyone everywhere. I could go on and on about things that have happened in the year politically/personally or some other way, but seeing as this is my book blog, then I’m going to focus on what’s happened this year with Death Books and Tea.

Katy and I began this blog on 23 February 2011. We’d been thinking of starting one like Stephanie (whose blog is here), but couldn’t think of what we were going to call it. Somewhere along the line we though Death Books and Tea would sum us up quite well. Then we had doubts as to who would remember it, but then we left them and got set up.

We then decided we wanted a rating system that was a little different, and we went with tea. But we couldn’t decide exactly what to do, as we were thinking about having “English breakfast” being excellent and “chamomile” meaning terrible. Then we realised that 1. We’d easily forget this and 2. Some of you might love chamomile and hate English Breakfast. And some of you might not like tea at all. so I thought of having a numerical system, neither of us could think  up a better one, and now you have the tea rating system.

We got set up quite quickly, and as the follower count was around 1-20 I was still getting my bearings around the designy thing. I had my heart set on a grim reaper with tea reading, and I drew something, the attempt of which turned out very badly. Then Katy drew something, which turned out quite well. Then Miley/Emily (their blog is here and their deviantART account is here) offered to draw something, which turned out amazing and is now the grim reaper we put in various places. I knew I wanted a pink-light-hearted colour scheme to go against the darkness of the title. By mid-April I’d sorted out the design to what you have today.

And so we carried on with this, with me running it mainly and Katy adding when her computer wasn’t locking her out of Death Books and Tea because we put “Death” in the title/refusing to do things/broken. And there you have Death Books and Tea.

And now for some statistics that I’m quite proud of. This is what we’ve done this year!

• 256 posts
• 127 book reviews
• 20 books read for Parajunkee! I finished!
• 20,400 pageviews
• 3,790 Unique Visitors from months of April-December, excluding August because Google Analyctics went wrong
• 791 comments
• 304 Google friend connect followers
• 9  Feedburner readers
• 221 books read (according to Goodreads)
• 61894 pages (according to Goodreads)
• 1530  books on my Goodreads wishlist

A big thanks to EVERYONE who visits and reads these mad ramblings, and we hope that you’ll  continue to read books and settle down with us into the new year!

Happy New Year Everybody!!

End of Year List #1- New things I've discovered in 2011

So, this week is going to be full of lists to do with 2011 and 2012 and possibly other things...

So to kick it off, here’s a list of five  awesome new things that I’ve discovered in 2011.
1. Dystopia. I was reading dystopia a little before, such as The Hunger Games, but only in 2011 was I aware that it was an actual genre, that more people were writing it, and that it was awesome!  It also helps that there’s been a tonne of new stuff out this year, such as Divergent, Delirium and so on.
2. Indie authors.  I knew they existed, but never cared about them, due to the fact that I never spent my life on the computer reading/doing booky related things, so I never looked beyone the books that were in my library, to see if there was a sequel, and to then force the library to buy those books. Now I know about these, I now read a lot more stuff. And cost the library a lot more. Dear Bethany (woman who I think is the person who deals with item requests), thank you!
3. The joy of book trailers. I still don’t understand why a book (paper based) would have a video (multiple picture based) promotional tool, but i do watch them sometimes and think how the director has seen it differently, something quite interesting.
4. Goodreads. Actually, I discovered Goodreads ages ago, when I was playing around with my hotmail account and found there was something called goodreads. And so I signed up, spammed my friends who also had hotmail with the information that I wanted to read all these books, then didn’t understand why you’d put as you were reading it that you were reading it, and forgot about it. Then, when I started blogging, I realised this would be something useful, so I signed up again, and used it properly. And I don’t know how long I’ve spent my life on that site...
5. How amazing you guys (the blogging/publishing community) are! You’re all so nice and welcoming and willing to talk and be friends and so on. when I started, I wasn’t really sure as to how we’d be perceived- two teenagers that read weird stuff and feel the need to have a grim reaper at the top of our blog. But you guys are all so nice, and it’s been a great year!

Our Trip to the British Library

This is kind of a more personal post, chartering last Friday. Why? Because, Katy, me and the rest of my "book club" went to the British Library. And I'm going to tell you what happened. You ready?


Well, technically this isn't at the British Library, but to start with, we spent 20 minutes walking from school to the train station. As we were crossing the bridge above the tracks, we saw the train coming. So what did we do? Caused a stampede. And then we accidentally got on the train in the QUIET ZONE. Quiet. Right. Actually it was quite fun. Me, Baka, Mimz and Katy wrote on paper and to eachother and actually stayed quieter than could be expected.

So we got off at Marylebone station. And then we were told we would have to WALK to the library. Cue complaining. A lot of it. So we walked, in the freezing cold, and we got fairly excited about the fact that there was real grass in a block somewhere. We are easily excited.

Finally, we got to the library. And we took photos and we blocked up the entire pavement.
There, we waited in the courtyard. Now think. Book club + biggest library in England. What were we excited about? Yep, you guessed it. The fact there was somewhere selling warm stuff.  Warm food. After complaining about the fact the parent supervisors were getting coffee and we weren’t, we went inside.

And got overexcited about a bench. Because it was a seriously cool one. It was in the shape of a book with a metal chain. And then we went downstairs to where there was a locker. And the thing that caught our attention most. It was this art thing, 3D, when looking at it from a certain angle looked flat with the most amazing perspective work in it. We spent most of our time walking back and forth looking at it from different angles. Paradoxymoron, go look it up. It is amazing.

Then Julian Walker met us and took us round the lower bit. We saw a printing press and he explained how it worked. Then we all had a  go at folding paper so that all the pages were in the right order. We weren’t told until we were halfway through it that it wouldn’t be readable as the fold at the top was closed.

Then we went up to the gallery with lots of original manuscripts. I can’t begin to describe how awesome it was to see these things that we’re somewhat familiar with in the author’s own handwriting.

Then we were told to go and look at one case in particular and see what we could learn from it. Katy and I chose the music case and realised that our own composing in Sibelius were totally readable compared to the originals of things like Handel’s Messiah. We also learnt the Beatles couldn’t read sheet music.

Another group of four told us about the technology of books. We decided scrolls were cool, and that stone slabs were useful for hitting people around the head with. Of course the day was productive.

After a final get together with the whole group and Julian, we got to the most important, and looked forwards part of the day. Lunch. We went a little crazy (crazier) in the lunch room, before being chucked out as the next school wanted to come in.

Then it was time for the shopping, and we all jsut stood around and wrote in Narcissa’s copy of Mess. So now, whenever she opens it, it falls open at the right page for her to lose the game.

Finally it was time to go home. Back to school. As we ended up on the train a little earlier than expected, we sat and waved out of the window at passers by.  It was a good day.

Yep, we do have photos. And yes, we do have videos. But you can't see them because we'd rather you didn't track us down. And as a final note, names have been changed to protect the not-at-all-innocent.

Challenges, Competitions, Chemistry and other stuff...

So...a lot of things have been happening in the past week full of Japanese Young Adult Novels. Did you enjoy it?  Caroline and I certainly did.

So, here's what I want to say has been going on round here...

CHALLENGE

I'm going to participate in the 2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge. I need to. And because I don't know exactly what is on my TBR pile, then I'm going to go for level 1, a firm handshake. But hopefully I'll get further than that.
Here's all the rules from Evie....

• This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012.
• As we would like to see quality reviews linked up to our monthly wrap-ups, only bloggers can enter. Sorry about that!
• Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2011 and earlier! NO ARCs and 2012 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!
• You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
• When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge (You need to include the info + host list + challenge button. You can also grab the button code and add it to your sidebar!)
• You can move up levels, but no moving down.
• Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2012, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
• At the end of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it's unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It's open to INTERNATIONALS. For participating in the mini-challenge you will get +1 entry.
• If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;)
• December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - 12 books, 12 winners, INTERNATIONAL.
• You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!

Look interesting? I know I've got tonnes of stuff on my top shelf that has been completely neglected....but I'll probably forget to  do wrap up posts. Oh well.

And if I can find another challenge to do, I'll probably join that too...

COMPETITION

Do you want to win a manuscript critique from someone already established in the industry? 

Book Wish Foundation is giving you the chance to get it from one of six somewhat-known authors and agents if you write a 500 essay about a short story in the anthology, What You Wish For. You can enter many times, so you could win all six.

For more details, go to the Book Wish website.

STRANGE CHEMISTRY
You might not know it from what I review, but one of my favourite imprints is Angry Robot, the side that deals with "SF, F and WTF" (the reason I haven't reviewed much of their stuff is cos it's somewhat inappropriate. And the final part of the description I think fits perfectly). Guess how happy I was when I heard there's going to be a subset of AR dealing specifically with Young Adult of that stuff! It's called Strange Chemistry and will get properly going in September 2012, publishing both in England and America. Looks good? I think so.

OTHER STUFF

• Katy and I went to the British Library on Friday with our "book" club. A full account will come soon....
• I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of commenting on your blogs. Sorry.
• Less than two weeks till Christmas! Have fun in the run up, the day, and in the new year!

I'm Back!! And a lot of things have happened...

So I had my week long hiatus. In which I crossposted I think 5 reviews, read almost everything Google Reader told me that I needed to, replied to two emails that I needed to, organised next week, read two books, reviewed none, found five handwritten reviews that need typing,  and FINISHED NANO.
Yes, two hours each night was spent writing. And yesterday I was rewarded by the counter on NaNo telling me that I had gone 10 words over the 50,000 words that I was planning. And I was very happy and I texted my friends and family thanking them for the support, advice and for allowing me to kill them off in somewhat inventive ways. And then I went and ate pasta.
I am still not quite near the end of the plot, I really want to rearrange the structure of everything, and don't get me started on the grammar and spelling errors I have in this thing. But I made it!
As for December, we have a bit to look forwards to. I'll be getting somewhere back on schedule over the next few days, and then next week (5th December onwards), Caroline and I are having our Japanese Young Adult Novel week. Sorry if you were expecting it to be slightly earlier on in the month, but I was busy writing and Caroline gave me the choice of pushing back the week or using physical violence to get her to read. And seeing as the second is impossible, illegal and not very nice, we pushed it back. So you have that to look forwards to.
Then we'll have Christmas and then it'll be 2012... December will be a busy month. Oh yes.

I'll be back...

With NaNoWriMo, homework, the fact that the book review archive is nowhere near up-to-date and the insane amount of posts Google Reader is telling me  I have to read from you,  I'm stopping posting blogging for a little while. Probably a week. I'll carry on reading, answering email and doing little jobs around the site that I have let pile up massively, but there won't be any new posts from me for a little while.
See you all soon x

End of Halloween, NaNoWriMo and more

So, October's been a busy month. We've done a lot...reviewed a few books, found out about Zombie Appreciation Month, and had a great time with our Halloween week. Same time next year?

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.  We're still trying to sort out all the entries, so the announcement and emails should come within the next few days.

November looks to be interesting. Caroline and us will be having a Japanese Young Adult Novel week from 21-27 November. We read enough manga, why not the books that originate from Japan? And no, we're not reading it in original Japanese(I'm not. Caroline might.) Join us?

And for some crazy reason, I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo. Writing 50,000 words of story in a month. Yes I know I'm mad. But so is almost everyone else I'm seeing around! Want to stop in on me? My NaNoWriMo page is here.
From ViligentMeadow, on dA, here's a general life plan for this coming month....

Seems like fun, yes? I'll try not to neglect this blog too much... But Katy's here, right? 

Everyone, enjoy the month ahead! 

Half Term Holiday Reading aka In My Mailbox

It's Half Term for Katy and I! So as well as homework and preparing for one of the best days ever on Saturday, we'll be reading.
Katy will be reading books that we got for review, and some other stuff.
I will be reading books we got for review when on my computer. When I'm not, I'll be reading this stuff, which is the stuff I got from the library yesterday.

• Goliath by Scott Westerfeld (nearly finished this one. Love it to bits)
• The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (the second book I ever added as to-read on goodreads. Been waiting for this a long time)
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (again. This is an awesome book. Re-reading so I can review it for the YA Japanese week I'm doing with Caroline-more on that later)
• L Change The World by M (again. Also for YA Japanese week. Loved the film. Book mediocre.)
• This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel (Frankenstein prequel- epic win.)

The reason I actually remembered this week to do IMM is because of this awesome pile of books. And the fact that by making it known that I have these, I'm slightly more likely to remember to review these. So keep checking back for the reviews.


And keep checking back this coming week for the Halloween week. Reviews, posts and a giveaway await anyone who comes by!

Enjoy the week ahead xxx

Cover to Cover- Battle Royale around the World

Before we get going, just like to say, I'm part of Spinebreakers now! An online book club with pretty much everything? Definately my kind of thing. This'll be fun....


Another installment of Cover to Cover. And this time, it's the Around the World type, where I take one book with editions that have different covers depending on where you are, then decide what book edtion I'd rather have.  And this time, I'm doing it for Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, one of my favourite ever books.

Picture heavy.

Zombie Appreciation Month! And Book Sale!!

So I was somewhat stuck as to what to post today, but then I found an email from Ross Payton about something rather interesting....
OCTOBER IS ZOMBIE APPRECIATION MONTH!!!

And to celebrate, Ross is having a book sale of Zombies of the World!

• $5 has been knocked off the cover price and books will be shipped free to USA
• $2 has been knocked off the price of e-books
• And all other Zombies of the World merch has been knocked down too! 

Read on for more details....

Tea Time Talk-Halloween week coming!!

Only four weeks until Halloween? Got sweets? Got costumes? Got a pile of scary books to read?

Katy and I won’t be going trick or treating this year-instead we’re having a tea party with our friends. And we’re also having a week long event just before!

The Death Books and Tea Halloween Event 2011 (we plan for there to be more next year) will be a week full of reviews of properly scary, chill up your spine scary, books, a couple of posts from both of us on scary books  today, and an international giveaway at the end as part of Paranormal Wasteland’s Zombapocalypse event!

We’ll be kicking off on 24 October and the giveaway will begin on 28th October, so check back then for more!

If you like, spread the word with this amazing button made by Lilia from Horror Shock Lolipop. Go visit them too!

<a href="http://deathbooksandtea.blogspot.com/search/label/Halloween%20Event%202011"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8cZoy50owQiLVFvvW8hnDkgDVMQFe9xGedcD5vIC3fAEJqwlAK1s81MjIcriYjuuMcvjbr8G8YHa1mZa6CR2wPG4Vp2Fzg3GG7O075LD_j1g-YRDFK04rU0RoLey1ys6ha6DxUT0qWE/s320/dbthalloween.jpg" alt="Death Books and Tea Halloween Event 2011"></a>

Looking forwards to seeing you in the week before Halloween....if you dare, that is!

Waiting on Wednesday #22 The Vanishing Game by Kat Kae Myers.... and a rant to anons

Welcome to Death Books and Tea

Now before we start, I’d just like to say something about the various comments we received yesterday.

To anon 1, the random guy, thank you very much for spending x amount of your life writing a very long winded complaint about this blog, in particularly my review of Angel Sanctuary, which is manga, which is fiction, which is something I hardly think is worth you ranting for longer than the review went on.  All points have been received and noted, and will not be acted upon. Maybe they’d be given slightly more weight if you had not felt the need to hide behind anonymity. Thank you for voicing your opinion.

To anon 2, erm...thank you?

To anon 3, you receive google alerts for this sort of thing? Ok.... I honestly have no idea what to say.

To all three of you, will you please take your swearing and hating on everyone else somewhere else?

To everyone else, I’m sure the majority of you are nice people. And I’m sure none of you feel the need to hide behind anonymity. The comments have now been deleted and I’m disabling anonymous comments (not sure why I didn’t from the start. Oh well). Because some people can’t be trusted not to be cowardly and flame everyone else. Thank you for putting up with me. Now onto the fun....

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we show off books that we want to read but have not been published yet. 

Title:  The Vanishing Game
Author: Kate Kae Myers
Release Date: 14 February 2012
Link to / Summary from Goodreads: Jocelyn's twin brother Jack was the only family she had growing up in a world of foster homes-and now he's dead, and she has nothing. Then she gets a cryptic letter from "Jason December"-the code name her brother used to use when they were children at Seale House, a terrifying foster home that they believed had dark powers. Only one other person knows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush and their only real friend among the troubled children at Seale House.

But when Jocelyn returns to Seale House and the city where she last saw Noah, she gets more than she bargained for. Turns out the house's powers weren't just a figment of a childish imagination. And someone is following Jocelyn. Is Jack still alive? And if he is, what kind of trouble is he in? The answer is revealed in a shocking twist that turns this story on its head and will send readers straight back to page 1 to read the book in a whole new light.

Why I want it: Foster homes? Mystery? Cryptic letters? Houses with dark powers? Stalkers? A shocking twist? Excellent. And the cover is very good too.

What are YOU waiting on this week?

The End of Summer

Yep...last day of freedom. Doesn’t seem like yesterday that I was saying about how I had much to read and everything... but it’s been six weeks. So here’s a final summer round-up as to what I’ve read and what I haven’t.

READ FROM ORIGINAL LIST

1. Teeth, Vampire Tales  (review here)
2. The Bell Jar (review here)
3. How to Be A Woman (mini review here)
4. The Vampire Blog (review here)
5. Lord of the Flies (review here)
6. Acadia (e-book) (review here)
7. Vampire Doll vol 1 (review here)
8. Dead Streets
9. Mail vol 2
10. Black Swan Rising (review here)
11. Zombies of the World (review here)
12. Descended by Blood (review here)
13. Quest of the Demon (review to come)
14. Dr Faustus
15. Empire of the Rising Sun
16. Pride and Prejudice
17. To Kill A Mockingbird (review to come)
18. Tantalise (review to come)
19. Skin Hunger (review to come)
20. Halo  (review to come)
21. Spooks-the Apprentice (review to come)
22. The Invention of Murder
23. Monster Island
24. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer(review here)
25. The Undertaker’s Gift
26. Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? (review here)
27. Angel Sanctuary (review here)
28. Godchild (review here)
29. Think of a Number
30. Crescendo (review to come)
31. The Resistance (review to come)
32. Undead and Unwelcome
33. Mercy (review here)
34. Periodic Tales
35. Life as We Knew It (review to come)
36. A Study in Scarlet
37. Much Ado About Nothing (graphic novel)
38. Virals (review here)
39. Haruhi 3
40. Haruhi 4
41. Haruhi 5

AND I READ BECAUSE I FOUND IT SOMEWHERE AND DEEMED IT MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT I  HAD AND/OR HAD NOTHING ELSE (in my mind) TO READ

42. Slights by Kaaron Warren
43. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick
44. Schoolgirl Milky Crisis by Jonathan Clements
45. King of Thorn vol 1 by Yuji Iwahara (review to come)
46. How Hard Can It Be? By Jeremy Clarkson
47. Death: At Death’s Door by Jill Thomson and (kind of)Neil Gaiman (review to come)
48. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (review to come)
49. Texas Gothic  by Rosemary Clement-Moore (review to come)
50. The Legend of Sakura-Hime by Arina Tanemura

DIDN’T READ

• Catalyst (e-book)
• Carrie
• Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus
• Wish Me Dead

STILL HALFWAY THROUGH

• The Divine Comedy

NOT GOT YET

• Hetalia 1

I think I did pretty well here...

Back!!

Well one of us is. Katy'll be back in a few days. I'll let her do a I'm back post on her own if she wants to...
Did you miss us? What happened while we were away? Anything exciting? (asking because scrolling through the 1000+ Google reader posts this morning got a little tedious so I'm not sure if I took everything in right). Please leave links of anything you want me to look at properly.
I've certainly had a good time in France. Even if I was constantly melting-35 degrees c is a temperature only describable as ridiculously hot.

As I'd hoped, there was plenty of time for reading. In addition to the books I packed, there was an excellent selection of books there. Here's what I read in the week, and their tea strengths...

• Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer, 5, full review some day
• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 2
• Slights by Kaaron Warren, 2
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip , 3, full review some day
• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 4, full review some day
• The Resistance by Gemma Malley, 4, full review some day

I got halfway through the final book I packed, Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard.
And I bought

• Hereafter by Tara Hudson
• Vampire Doll vol 2 by Erika Kari. The French edition, not the English one. So when I review it some day, if I didn't understand the plotline or jokes, blame it on my (non-existant) French skills.

When I was away, I did schedule some reviews...links if you didn’t notice!

• Zombies of the World by Ross Payton
• Dante's Journey by JC Marino
• Hetalia Axis Powers by Hidekaz Himaruya
• Descended By Blood by Angeline Kace

Normal service shall resume once I’ve sorted everything out… such as a stop on the blog tour for The Pearl Wars (Skyship Academy #1), as well as our normal reviews etc...you'll see later...

There's still time to enter a giveaway for Alexander Gordon Smith's LOCKDOWN, which I thought was a good book. More info here.

I think that's covered everything...It's good to be back! Enjoy the week ahead!

And We're Off....

Both of us are going on holiday at the same time. So the blog will be kind of inactive. I say that. We have a couple of posts scheduled, but replies to comments and emails and things will have to wait until 28th August. But please, do keep us informed about things. Comment on this post, e-mail us, put something into the chatbox; when we get back, we’d love to have lots of stuff waiting for us.

Of course, while we’re away, we’ll be doing a lot of reading! Here’s our holiday piles...

Nina
- The Last Survivors- Life As we Knew it by Susan Pfeffer
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Resistance by Gemma Malley

Katy
- The Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille
- The Eye of the Crystal Ball by T.P.Boje
- Century by Sarah Singleton
- Numbers, the Chaos by Rachel Ward
- Ties that Bind, Ties that Break by Lensey Namioka

So...hope everyone stays safe and carries on enjoying life while we’re away...we’ll be back soon!

Summer Reading Update 2/In my Mailbox

And again… listed  in pink is what I got this week…it’s kind of an In my Mailbox

READ

• Teeth, Vampire Tales  (review here)
• The Bell Jar (review here)
• How to Be A Woman (mini review here)
• The Vampire Blog (review to come)
• Lord of the Flies (review here)
• Acadia (e-book) (review here)
• Vampire Doll vol 1 (review to come)
• Dead Streets
• Mail vol 2
• Black Swan Rising (review coming)
• Haruhi 3
• Haruhi 4
• Haruhi 5
• Much Ado About Nothing manga version
• Johannes Cabal the Necromancer  (review coming)
• Montmorency (reviewcoming)
• Tantalise (review coming)
• A Study in Scarlet graphic novel (review coming)

READING

• The Invention of Murder
• Zombies of the World (e-book)

ON MY PILE TO BE READ

• Descended by Blood (e-book)
• Catalyst (e-book)
• Quest of the Demon (e-book)
• Dr Faustus
• Empire of the Rising Sun
• Pride and Prejudice
• To Kill A Mockingbird
• Carrie
• Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus
• Skin Hunger
• Halo
• Spooks-the Apprentice
• Monster Island
• Wish Me Dead
• The Undertaker’s Gift
• Godchild
• Think of a Number
• Crescendo
• The Divine Comedy
• The Resistance
• Undead and Unwelcome
• Mercy
• Periodic Tales
• Life as We Knew It
• Virals
• Death-At Death’s Door (bought)

NOT GOT YET

• Hetalia 1
• Texas Gothic
•  Angel Sanctuary

ALSO REVIEWED THIS WEEK

Nina

• Nekropolis
• Divergent

Katy

• Mostly Harmless
• Tins

Think I’m doing ok so far?