Sunday, June 23, 2013

Abducted by Sundays In Bed With…6.23.13

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Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been spending my Sunday in bed fighting with my router for not wanting to fully connect with my internet. I have tried sweet talking, bribery and threatening. None of it seems to work. So, if this post doesn't go up until later this evening it is because I had to wait until I was at my parents house to steal internet access from them.

Other then that I am spending my Sunday finishing up the 6th season of The West Wing, my all time favorite show! Taking a 3 hour nap, because that is what Sundays are for! And since I have yet to finish it, I will also be spending time reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater.

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Last night my book club met up to discuss the Raven Boys and it was a pretty lively discussion. Theories on about this series were running a muck! It has left me with a desire to finish The Dream Thieves ASAP and then eagerly await the rest of the series!

download (1)I have also started a new audio book by Jennifer Cruise called All Night With Charlie. So far it is exactly what I would expect from a Cruise novel, romantic comedy fun. However, most of her novels involve characters that hate each other or fight their attraction to each other through out the first 3/4 of the novel and don’t hook up until the end.

In this novel, Ally and Charlie hook up from the get go! Steamy Steamy Steamy!!!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Abducted by The Night Circus

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THE HEADLINE: A magical circus comes to town, but no one is aware of the battle being fought behind the curtains.

downloadTHE ABDUCTOR: Because I listened to the audio version, the abductors in the Night Circus were definitely both Erin Morgenstern and Jim Dale. The combination of Morgenstern’s incredible writing and Dale’s vocal talents was instantly captivating!

TIME IN CAPTIVITY: It may have been because it was Jim Dale reading this book to me, but this book reminded me a lot of the Harry Potter series. The way that Morgenstern and Rowling introduce us to their magical worlds were both instantly visual, I was always right there in the moment with the characters. Of course this was helped by the fact that in Morgenstern’s novel, she included chapters that were written from the perspective of “You walk between the black and white curtains.” “You see a fortune teller and a young girl playing with kittens.”

I found myself caring about the characters and yet at the same time, was never quite sure if I should trust any of them. The basic story follows the characters of Ceila and Marco. We meet them as kids when both of their teachers bind them into a competition against each other, however they don’t meet their opponents until adulthood.

Ceila’s teacher is actually her father, Hector Bowen, and I founimages (2)d his methods of teaching her to be barbaric and harsh. On the other hand Marco was taught by a man named Alexander who selected him from an orphanage. His methods came across to me as uncaring and isolating. As their competition heats up it begins to involve the lives of the people around them they care the most about.

If I were to have anything negative to say about The Night Circus it would be two things. One being that the names and timeline could lead to some confusion. Almost all of the main characters have their own name and a stage name or have a nick name so they were continuously referred to by something different depending on whose perspective was narrating at that moment. And although each chapter began by giving you the exact location and date, when you are listening to the audio version it can easily go unnoticed.

My only other complaint would be that I was not too fond of the ending. Not because I didn’t agree with the climax or the resolution, but because I felt the resolution part went on for far too long. There were several moments that I thought were going to be the end and was disappointed that there were more chapters left. Now I agree that when a book is as enchanting as this one you may never want to leave it, but even in the best of books if the resolution at the end goes on too long then it almost cheapens the actual climax.

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PICK UP LINE: “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

POINT OF ABDUCTION: Pretty much the first 10 minutes. The writing of this book, the rhythm the diction, the tone, instantly abducted me. And that is a real rarity for me. I’m a big character driven person rather then plot driven when it comes to my favorite books. But this book had me before the plot was established or main characters were even introduced.

ABDUCTION RATING: HUGE 5 stars!!! Although the ending sort of faded out for me to the point where I can understand why some people have a hard time with it, the book as a whole was so beautiful that I must have it and must reread it ASAP!


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Abducted by Top Ten Tuesdays…6.18.13

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I was so excited to get back to blogging on Sunday that not only did I forget to title my post with my signature "Abducted by..." introduction, I also forgot to say that Sundays in Bed With is a meme hosted by Kate at Midnightbookgirl!


Sorry Kate!

Today I'm here to participate in the Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

TTT

This week's topic is...

Top Ten Books on your 2013 summer TBR list!!!

Here are the Top FIVE books that I absolutely must finish them this summer (because at some point in time I already somewhat started them and just haven't fully committed to them yet):

(in alphabetical order)


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Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday
Dream Thieves ARC by Maggie Stiefvater
Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb
Songbook by Nick Hornby
Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers by Louise Rennison

And here are the top FIVE books that I just really hope to get to this summer:

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About A Boy by Nick Hornby
First Light by Rebecca Stead
The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

So, what books are on your TBR list this summer?

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sundays in Bed With...6.16.13

Today I am spending my Sunday in Bed With divided by the ARC of The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater and the audio version of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern read to me by Jim Dale!

My book club will be meeting up this coming Saturday and Mandy has picked Raven Boys for her month. I had listened to the audio version this past winter but I went ahead and re-listened to it and of course I loved it just as much the second time around as I did the first. Since my totally awesome friend Andrea picked up the sequel which is The Dream Thieves for me when she went to BEA I am really going to try to finish it before book club too! That way I can brag about knowing what happens next! 

Recently I also started listening to The Night Circus from audible and I am LOVING it!!! I have just under three hours left so I am really going to try to finish it tonight!

So that is what I am spending my Sunday in Bed With!

In other news (since I have been away from the blogging scene for so long) here is what is new with me...

I finished my first semester back at school! Next semester I will only be taking two classes and I am hoping I will have more time for blogging.

Right after school ended and I was just starting to relax into my summer a freaking tornado ripped right
through Moore Oklahoma, which is where I work!
The tornado literally demolished a 7/11 store that was right across the street from my office! I mean the entire building was just gone! The only thing left standing was the sign where they posted the gas prices! My office suffered a lot of damage but we were extremely lucky! I was also lucky because I had left work an hour before the storm hit because I had a doctors appointment. 

Anyway, since my office has had to be closed in order to get the repairs done, I have been floating around and working at different offices in the mean time. Some of the offices I've been working at have just been an extra fifteen or twenty minutes away, but I've also been working at offices in Tulsa and Okmulgee which are cities that are a good hour and a half to two hours away! It has been really stressful and has completely shaken up my summer.

We are hoping to be back into our office in the next couple of weeks but I have settled into a rhythm with all the chaos so I'm really working on getting back into blogging. 

And lastly I just want to say that I have the most amazingly awesome blogger friends in the world! Steph, Kim, Kate, and Andrea have been incredibly supportive, encouraging, and understanding during these last six months! 

The last time that I was posting on my blog was back when I was trying to complete my Levithan Loveathon and even though I have yet to get around to giving the winners their prizes they have been very patient with me! 

So, Steph your gift card prize is coming I promise! Kim, your book prize is sitting on my desk and I will get it in the mail asap! Kate the journal is also sitting on my desk and I will send it to you when I send Kim her prize. And Andrea, I love you and you are awesome!

 
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