Last year, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines concerning “Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsements“. There was a bit of a kerfuffle in the Blogosphere–how dare the FTC try to regulate the Internet!? I’m sure someone will try a legal challenge sooner or later, but until then, I’d like to keep my ass covered.
ReadingBackwards is [...]

By Kate Perry
Forever
Kate Perry is a pretty kickass chick. Her childhood dream was to be a ninja, and she’s now a seventh degree Kung Fu blackbelt. The serious study required in kung fu appears to have colored her novel, giving the ‘paranormal’ elements of this paranormal romance a more grounded feel than most Asian-inspired material [...]

By Marni Bates
HCI Teens
Louder Than Words is a series aimed at teenagers about teenage experiences. Atypically, the volumes are also written by teenagers. It may seem bizarre to ask teenagers to write memoirs—as Marni says, her siblings laughed—but Louder Than Words is dedicated to “reinforce[ing] the message that the experiences of teenagers and their perceptions [...]

It was a fairly decent year, book-wise. On the one hand, I feel that I should’ve read more, as I certainly had the time… On the other, some great choices.
I spent time with some excellent authors, read some classics, and dipped into quite a few excellent comics.
See the 50 Book Challenge list for 2009
I now [...]

On Dec 2nd, Alan Elsner, the author of Romance Language wrote an entry on the Huffington Post called How Romance Novels Take the Romance out of Romance. Inspired by misinterpretations of his own book (which is a novel with romance in it, but not romance genre fiction) to pick up a selection of genre romances [...]

Every so often, a piece of software is created that genuinely makes the lives of its users easier. It ain’t for nothing that TVtropes.com has defined something they call the archive binge (no one ever binges on TVtropes.com, of course…).
Archive Binge is when you find a new comic, blog, video channel, or any other sort [...]

Reviewed for the Feminist Review
By Alaya Dawn Johnson
Bolden
Racing the Dark is unique among fantasy books. The world draws upon Pacific Island and East Asian cultures to create a rich blend very different from fantasy canon—an island nation with an animist religion centering on sacrifice and binding. Though a young adult novel, Johnson is unafraid [...]

I just powered my way through a ton of books over the past month+… a lot of them in the last week or so, as a nasty cold has got me down. I am a very bad person, as I did not jump on reviewing them, as I should have. So, instead, I must torture [...]

By Commander Pants
Read: October 2009
Rating: Fun
What could be more appropriate than to talk about god and mental illness? Even better, how about people who aren’t as ill as they seem?
Commander Pants (yes, that’s his nom de plume) has written a novel that cleverly forces one to question human nature while making us laugh. Reminiscent of [...]

By Will Hartzell-Baird
Read: September 2009
Rating: Clever
Do you see that adorable little pyramid thing dusting the title on the book cover? You see that? That’s the most adorable killer robot you will ever see.  Its name is XR-36, but it secretly thinks of itself as Octavius. It can’t announce this because XR-36 is a highly desirable [...]

A note, in case anyone should care.
I believe that comics are a wholly valid artform, and can be amazing pieces of literature. I also acknowledge that one page of a graphic novel isn’t necessarily equal to one page of prose, as far as ‘amount.’ Maybe ‘mass’ is the word I want?
When I add a graphic [...]

By Allan Appel
Read: August 2009
Rating: Disappointing
The back copy for The Hebrew Tutor paints a picture that is enticing:
Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two [Norman and Bayla] forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies of the road, Bayla [...]

When I was very young, our town had an Encore books. It was a special kind of bliss, because it was like the library, but all the books were new. It’s from this book store that I got my set of the Chronicles of Narnia. I spent hours browsing their selection of Babysitters Club volumes. [...]

Shen The RB Git: I have to finish reading Negotiating With the Dead, then Julie & Julia. And hopefully that will take me to the end of August and Nonfiction Month will be over.
Sreya (of the Pocket): Hahahaha
Sreya (of the Pocket): I could’ve recommended to you SO MANY GOOD NONFICTION books
Sreya (of [...]

By Lauren Lipton
Read: June 2009
Rating: Urgh?
For the Feminist Review
At its core, Mating Rituals of the North American WASP is wholly typical. Girl goes to Vegas. Girl gets drunk. Girl wakes up to find she married some stranger. Girl flees back to New York. Boy calls her up to tell her that, yes, they’re legally married. [...]

Go me, I finally fixed the category display that was bugging me! The categories are now in nice collapsible menus. You can now see the author tag cloud without any problem. And there’s only one search bar. It only takes me a forever to fix these things.
Now I have to find a new book. Guh.

I am WAY behind in reviews, so the new handful are going to be short and sweet.
I blame it all on J.R. Ward and her incredibly engrossing vampires. Damn sexy vampires. More on them when I’m not supposed to be in bed.

So, another year is winding down. A lot happened this year. I’ve officially finished my work for college and ‘graduated’. That means no more books I’m forced to read for classes. I also finished writing my senior thesis, which was a piece of fiction.
In other news, I finished the 50 Book Challenge for this year [...]

Translated by Ivan Morris
Read: November 2008
Rating: Most delightful.
I think I like Sei Shonagon herself more than I like her writing. She’s a fantastic character in and of herself–willful, witty, clever, eager to entertain, proud, and quick to judge. All of this comes across through her own recounts of her days, which are honest in that [...]

This summer I have managed to do quite a bit of reading, for which I am very, very happy. I have also done quite a bit of writing, which also makes me happy. But the summer is winding down now, and that means school obligations are going to start encroaching. Which probably means less frequent [...]

By St. Augustine
Read: Jan/Feb 2008
Rating: MAKE IT STOP.
Every time a new semester starts, I try to be really on the ball and keep up with everything. Take lots of notes, etc. This slowly falls away as things progress and I get comfortable. Unfortunately, this was the first book assigned to my memoir class.
Is it sinful [...]

I know, I know, I totally lied about catching up. Now I’m looking at the lists of things to write about and it’s getting scary. Goddamn.
I’m going to do my best to blast through a few, nevermind the intricate reviews and close readings. (I hate that term, ‘close reading.’)  My professors would be shamed.
And LOOK, [...]

Really!
School always knocks me for a loop. On the other hand, you’ll get some nice reviews caught up over winter break, including Oryx & Crake, Jitterbug Perfume, some plays, a little Shakespeare… Oh, and fantastic chick lit that was so good I bought the series. Yeah, THAT good.
See you in ~one month! -ish!

A Great and Terrible Beauty’s continuation (book 3), the Sweet Far Thing, will be released on December 26, 2007.
This makes me sad, because I wanted to give the trilogy to my mother for Xmas. But, we must soldier on! She can have an IOU.
Mwah to Libba!

By Kurt Vonnegut.
Available @Amazon.com (but I’m too lazy to link right now)
Read: September 2007
Rating: PHWOAR.
See the cat, see the cradle?
Book is farking brilliant. My apologies that I’m not more coherent about it, but I thought it was brilliant.
Vonnegut is my new personal hero. In the course of Cat’s Cradle he needles modern science, scientists, and [...]

This summer was rather slow, and I know it. It was all those blasted Harry Potters. That and lounging around online instead of reading. Bad me.
The fall semester has started now and I’ve got my books all lined up. I’m planning reviews of:

Cat’s Cradle (begun, LOVE)
Oryx & Crake by Atwood
Fun Home (comic)
And a bunch of [...]

Crapmonkies, I knew it had been a while since I updated, but APRIL to AUGUST? Geh.
I’m not dead. Or ill. Just lazy.
I have been reading–in fact I reread Harry Potter this summer. I’ll post about Deathly Hallows later. And probably ramble on quite a bit about my thoughts on the series as a whole. It [...]