Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Last year's Cruel Beauty  was one of my favorite reads of 2014. I had rather high expectations for Crimson Bound  as a result, and they were well and truly met. Rachelle was her aunt's apprentice, learning the trade of a woodwife and how to protect her village from the forestborn. Rachelle is obedient but also restless and annoyed with her aunt's lack of determination to fight the Devourer she knows is rising again. Overconfident and thinking she can control the situation, Rachelle strays from the past and begins conversing with a forestborn. This leads to her downfall and her becoming a bloodbound-a murderer with blood on her hands bound to become a forestborn herself. Before that fate can befall her, Rachelle is determined to take as many forestborn down as she can and joins the King's elite guard of bloodbound soldiers. She immerses herself in fighting as many forces of the forest as she can, but she knows time is running out. The world is growing dark. The Devou...

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Topic: Books Which Feature Characters Who___________ I'm choosing to fill in the blank with "Girls Who Run Their Worlds" Whether they are countries, businesses, homes, wherever these girls have made a place for themselves in the world, they own it and run it beautifully. The Queen of Attolia and the The Queen of Eddis from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief Series: These queens and the way they rule their countries are incredibly different, but they are both incredibly good at what they do, are dedicated to the well-being of their people, and want to see their countries prosper.  Princess Eilonwy from The Chronicles of Prydain: Whether it's keeping house from one old man and his pig keeper, practicing magic, or learning to be a princess, Eilonwy is the master of everything she does and controls her own destiny.  Queen Elisa from the Girl of Fire and T...

 My kids birthdays are coming up in May. Here are some of the books they will be receiving as presents. For Bit (turning 11):   For LM (turning 7): Looking forward to the celebrations, and can not believe my kids are both this old. Time flies. I also have a birthday in  May that will hopefully yield some bookish joy for me. I'll keep you posted. 

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Topic: All Time Favorite Authors Keeping this at 10 was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. ETA: OKAY. I don't know how I managed to do this and leave Dorothy Sayers off of it, but that is all kinds of wrong. It's probably because I was distracted watching Parks and Recreation while I was making it. But Dorothy Sayers belongs on it. So if I were doing it properly again the first time, Connie Willis would be moved off as honorable mention. I seriously don't know what happened there. I KNOW I added an image of Gaudy Night to this post when I was doing it. Sigh. What are your favorite authors?

My Life in Dioramas  by Tara Altebrando is a wonderful heart-warming MG story about change, friendship, and family told with humor and realism. Kate has lived her entire life in Big Red, the old farmhouse her parents own. Now half way through her 7th grade year they tell her they are moving. Worse, they are moving in with her grandparents because they are in financial trouble. Kate has to leave her school, dance class, friends, and the only life she has ever known. But Kate isn't going down without a fight. She hatches a number of schemes to turn off potential buyers, everything from causing a terrible stench to having her teenage neighbor play loud music. As time goes on, Kate realizes that more might be at stake than just her house though, and as she begins to feel more desperate and lost she makes a series of dioramas illustrating her life in the home she loves. Kate's voice is absolutely perfect for the story being told here. She is a wonderful combination of vulnerabl...

Omega City  is Diana Peterfreund's first MG novel. Billed on Goodreads as City of Ember  meets The Goonies , my expectations were pretty high. The Goonies  is one of my all time favorite movies. And this book delivered on that promise. Big time. Gillian's father is in disgrace. He wrote a book about famous scientist Aloysius Underberg that was immediately discredited and that he couldn't back up because a broken pipe destroyed all of his research. Now the only job he has is teaching conspiracy theory nights. When Gillian discovers mysterious files on his new girlfriend's computer that have too much to do with her father's research, she knows something is terribly wrong and she begins to attempt to solve an old code that Underberg left behind. With the help of her brother, Eric, her best friend, Savannah, and an astronomy obsessed classmate named Howard, they figure out where Underberg buried his final gift to humanity. They magnate to convince Howard's older b...

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Topic: Inspiring/Meaningful/Challenging/ Quotes "Safety is an illusion." "Oh, that," said the king, "That isn't your honor, Costis. That's the public perception of your honor. It has noting to do with anything important, except perhaps for manipulating fools who mistake honor for its bright shiny trappings. You can always change the perceptions of fools" "Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?" "So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober." "Fight with realistic hope, not to destroy all the world's wrong, but to renew its good." "And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back-if we didn't know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and these are that day." "If you ...

I don't review graphic novels on the blog very often, which is in no way a reflection of their importance in the Painter home. Bit is a huge fan of graphic novels. Baby Mouse was integral in her early chapter book reading years. She owns and reads the Amulet books, anything by Raina Telgemeier, and the Zita the Spacegirl books regularly. She has declared Roller Girl  by Victoria Jamieson the best graphic novel she's ever read. She insisted I read it. Then she proceeded to plop it in my lap every time I sat down. And constantly asking if I read it yet. My own child was stalking me with a book. So I read it and I wholeheartedly concur. This is a fabulous book. Astrid's mom takes her and her best friend, Nichole, to a roller derby match one night, and Astrid comes away with stars in her eyes. When she discovers there is an opportunity to go to a derby summer camp, she jumps at it. Astrid assumes Nichole will be there with her, but Nichole has already made plans to go to ball...

Gone Crazy in Alabama  by Rita Williams Garcia is the final book in the trilogy about the Gaither Sisters of Brooklyn, NY. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern and are spending the summer in Alabama with Big Ma. Cows, chickens, and encounters with the KKK are far cry from the streets of the city they're used to. It's also a far cry from their last summer experience in Oakland, CA. It's not entirely bad though as the girls learn more of their family's history. But things in the family are far from perfect. There are many divisions, rivalries, and long-standing resentments that need to be faced and dealt with. It will take a tragic turn of events to bring everyone together again. Delphine is still trying to adjust to the changes in her life the past year has wrought. Things are changing more than ever now as their dad's wife is pregnant, and she will be entering junior high. The conflicts between her and Vonetta are becoming more frequent too. Despite the lessons learned...

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Topic: Characters I Want to Check in With I love characters and here are some I would really love to glimpse how their lives are going. Melina Marchetta writes the best characters and I find myself thinking about them a lot. Taylor and Jonah in Jellicoe Road  are a lot of people's favorites, but I want to know what is going on with Chaz and Raffy. I would pretty much give anything for a Chaz and Raffy book. I also want to know how all the characters in Saving Francesca/The Piper's Son  are getting along as adults. Know I'm not alone here. R.J. Anderson is another author whose characters I can't get enough of. I want to see how Tori, Milo, Alison, and Sebastian are faring even if it would hurt my heart. And I could read as many of her faery books as she wants to write, but I would love for a glimpse into the future of the all the characters from the five books written that...