Cover Wars [8]

This week I'm featuring The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale

**those are excellent books, by the way! They're cute, entertaining, and don't take very long to read at all! And unlike a lot of other titles I've reviewed lately, they're pretty common, popular, and easy to find @ bookstores :)

There are currently 4 books in the Bayern series, but I'm only going to do the first three, because the fourth is still going through different covers

Here are the original UK covers:

vs. the US covers:

vs. the new UK covers (these are the ones I have!)

Which do you like best?

Want to participate in Cover Wars? Take your current read (or any other book) and find as many different cover designs as possible!

Teaser Tuesday: SAPPHIQUE

As always, Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.Here's how it works: Grab the current book you're reading- Open up to a random page- share a little "teaser" from somewhere on that page.***Make sure your section is spoiler free!!

This week I'm reading Sapphique, the sequel to Incarceron, and I think I'm enjoying it just a little more! With this book, you've already figured out all the workings of the overall story so you can concentrate more on the plot and on the characters and let your mind relax a little. :)

If you just simply can't wait until 2011 for the US edition, The Book Depository & Amazon UK want to be your best friends!! :)

Here is my teaser, from Sapphique (Incarceron, #2) by Catherine Fisher:

"The Chain-gang waited. It was male, twelve-headed, helmeted, the bodies fused at hand and wrist and hip, linked with umbilical skin-chains from shoulder to shoulder or waist to waist. Keiro had his own firelock out. He levelled it at the centre of the huddled thing. 'No nearer. Keep well away.'"

- Sapphique, pg 127

In My Mailbox [7]

All 3 of the books I got were from a $25 gift card to Amazon from Melissa @ I Swim for Ocean's contest!

• The Hourglass Door - Lisa Mangum
• The Maze Runner - James Dashner
• Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev
• and all 3 of these authors are on Goodreads! YAY!

Yippy! I cannot wait to read all 3 of these - and from what I see/read, they're pretty popular books among the blogging community, too!

And I went a whole week without buying more books! Well, technically I bought a book last Wednesday, but it doesn't really count because it was for a research paper and it was like $2.50. But this weekend I'm going to my grandparents for Easter and I'll be swinging by Half-Price Books! Some people get lured by bars, others by casinos...me, I'm lured by Half Price Books :)

If you have read/reviewed any of these books, I'd love to know what you thought of them!

Quote of the Week...

Should I keep doing these? What do you all think?

IIF turns 3 months!

Last Sunday, March 21st, was my blog's 3 month birthday!

And I'm just now remembering. :)

I've met so many great blog buddies over these last few months - thank you all for the support and friendship. Blogging is such a wonderful experience because of buddies like you all!

Most of the books I've reviewed have been YA - MG and teen, and most of those have been fantasy, with a few "grownup" books here and there. My TBR pile has grown to colossal proportions thanks to all the great reviews I've read from all of you. That's what I love about the book blog community - the sharing of books and opinions and the sense of community - a community of readers! It's so fulfilling to have a little "escape" from life and that's kind of what this site has become for me: a place to get together with other book lovers and share ideas and inspirations with each other.

Thank you all for visiting IIF and making it such a fun place to be. I literally cannot wait to boot up my computer each morning and see what's going on in with all of you - what you're reading, what you think, etc.

Challenge Update

100+ Reading Challenge

One of the fun things about starting a book blog is being able to participate in such awesome challenges! Right now, as April approaches, I've read through 25% of my 100 goal. I forsee a little slacking off in the immediate future, do to scurvy school...but that's what summer's for!

3-4-5 Reading Challenge

Finished!

Contest

I hosted my first contest a little while ago and thank you to everyone who entered and helped spread the word! Contests are definitely a good way to meet new blog buddies and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet so many new cool bloggers! I'll definitely have another contest in May.

IIF is actually not the first blog I've set up... I actually had 2 more before this one, but they didn't really work out (Have any had '2nd try' experiences with blogs, too?). Maybe it's because this is a book review blog, and I love books, but this time around, blogging is definitely more enjoyable!

So THANK YOU so much, all my blog buddies, for making the blogging experience so fun and worthwhile. I just wanted to let you - ALL OF YOU - know how much you mean to me! I love my blog buddies!

Have a great week (quote will be up soon), and HAPPY READING

week in review: Lewis kicks my butt & Riordan saves the day

Spring Break is definitely over...

The transition back to school has been tougher than usual, apparently. Now I know that this is a "book review" blog, not an Amelia Needs to Vent blog, but I do want to apologize for the lack of updates and, you know, reviews. I did read a book this week, but it was for class :(

Usually I'm able to juggle my schoolwork and my personal reading, but this week I just couldn't.

Anybody have any good advice about time-management?

I hope this week was just a readjustment and not a foreshadow of things to come. Last week, during glorious spring break, I even managed to start another story! I love writing - now that takes the place of reading, but that somehow seems excusable: if you're not reading a story, you're inventing one!

So this is the book that kicked my butt this week:

I'm in a CS Lewis class at school and we're going through his fictional books and his apologetic books...and there's seriously a Lewis dichotomy. His writing is so simple in The Space Trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia, and while I thought Mere Christianity was really easy to follow, this book just really beat me. His writing is certainly not simple here - goodness! So yep, it look me all week to figure out this little book, and I still don't really know what he's talking about. Has anybody else had to read this? In my own little opinion, Mere Christianity is much easier to digest if you want to read Lewis' non-fiction works.

and this is the book that saved my sanity last night:

Percy Jackson is a hero after all!

For my Greco-Roman class I'm doing a presentation on the Underworld and this wonderful story came in handy: Asphodel Fields, Elysium, the Isles of the Blest, Tartarus... add that to PJ's awesomeness: it's educational! Now I have no problem being a Nerd, but I have a feeling that my professor may not be very impressed if I march up to the podium next month armed with the DVD of Disney's Hercules and The Lightning Thief in my hand. I guess Homer is still King of Mythology - bummer. But hey, I guess it's true what my roommate says: "once you get Percywarped, you start seeing the PJ series EVERYWHERE."

Looking ahead:

This is the book that I'm going to start in a little while. I have no idea how far I will get, but I predict that for the rest of the semester I will only be able to handle 1 book a week, or maybe 1 book every 2 weeks - term paper deadlines are screaming at me and I need to read for class.

But I do have some stuff coming up! Hopefully sometime during the week I'll finish Sapphique and post my review - I'm already really excited and can't wait to figure out what in the world happens next after the [fun] madness of Incarceron!! And my book club buddies at Goodreads are helping me with a post on Love Triangles. This will hopefully appear in the next few days and will be more of an exploration on the topic and less 'my opinion' (since I don't really think that went over too well last time, ha!)

Have a great weekened, everybody!

Yesterday was TOLKIEN Day!

March 25...which was yesterday...but oh well I'm doing this today!

March 25 is the day associated with the fall of SAURON in Lord of the Rings!!

That's right, padawans! Today is Tolkien Day! This holiday was launched by the Tolkien Society in 2003; the day celebrates the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and their uses in educational and library groups.

And as a fellow "Ringer" (apparently there's a term for people who fan about Lord of the Rings) or "Tolkienite" (haha I like this one!) I had to blog to about my favorite author and his appreciation day!

I was looking on wiki and the extensiveness of Tolkien fandom is really awesome, and incredibly nerdy. There are actual "Tolkienologists" who study Tolkien linguistics and all the histories of the people of Middle Earth. I'll readily admit: that's not me! It was all I could do in school to get through Hebrew and Latin - nevermind Quenya and Sindarin!

So in honor of Tolkien Day (yesterday), I thought I'd talk just a little about this amazing series :)

- The books were published in the 1950s (around the same time as Tolkien's pal Lewis started publishing the Narnia books)

- The books even had an impact on the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. That's right, apparently young people embraced the series and sparked its popularity, and phrases "Frodo Lives!" and "Gandalf for President" became common. Hey, I'm with the hippies: Gandalf would have made an awesome president!

- Anyone like Veggie Tales? Apparently they did a parody of LOTR called Lord of the Beans. OMG!!!! *runs to netflix*

- And of course, the amazing job fellow Ringer Peter Jackson did with the film versions. Thanks, Pete! Those movies are surprisingly faithful to the books, and I actually watched the movies first then went back and read the books...because the books are a little...umm...heavy. :)

- as of now, LOTR is the #1 bestselling series of all time, and ranks after A Tale of Two Cities as the bestselling fiction story, with 150 million copies

Not only did Tolkien write an amazing series full of memorable (and inspiring) characters, but the magnitude of detail in his works is astounding and will probably never be replicated fully. For goodness sake, this man created languages - several of them! His Middle Earth is full of vast cultural exploration and historical facts that further exemplify his brilliance. I'm fangirling out now, I know it, but THIS is the type of author to inspire to.

Now only was Tolkien a great author, he was a great person, and I have read 2 of his biographies to date and was inspired by his personal life: he was a fighter in WWI, an educator, a family man, a religious man... One of my favorite Tolkien stories is not fictional at all - it's the story of his courtship and marriage to Edith Bratt, his wife. Now THAT is a cute story! :)

My favorite LOTR quote:

"War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." (The Two Towers)

- I have this quote on my bulletin board, and it really helps me when I write a fight/battle scene. I think he hit the nail on the head with this one!

"We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming 'sub-creator' and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil."

And this, to me, could easily be the Fantasy Writer's Creed:

"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!"

Yeah! I like realism sometimes, but when I read, I want to escape reality, and so fantasy is my greatest outlet. Thanks, Tolkien!