TBR blues

One of the downsides of the amazing book-blogging world (and it's just a teensy one, I love you all!) is the tendency to become hyper-focused on the NEXT! BIG! THING! We're all so eagerly posting our WoW books, and scouring the upcoming release catalogs, and pestering our favorite authors to spill about their next books on twitter (is that just me?) that any book that we don't get to within a month or so of its release tends to fall to the wayside. At least for me! Especially since I do my book-reading the cheap and legal way, through my friendly local library!

**disclaimer, I also work for my friendly local library. However, I do not get a monetary bonus for reminding you about the inherent awesomeness of libraries.**

 But that means that the books aren't sitting around my house, they are mostly at the library and once they move from the new display to the general collection is it a lot harder to remember how awesome they were and how I totally planned to read them.

SO! I have been trying to keep an electronic list, a virtual TBR pile that won't drive my clutter-phobic husband up a tree. Each time a new book order rolls in, I peer through, grab the ones I absolutely MUST read (trust me, Black Heart never hit the shelves before I'd checked it out) and then added everything that sounded good as "I Plan to Read" on Shelfari, my handy-dandy internet tool for remembering all the books I read. I have a memory like a sieve, and even before I started slacking on my reviews, I never reviewed EVERYTHING I read. But I don't want to forget them, and I like knowing how many books I've read each year.

Anyway, the point of this is, I've been putting books on there for less than a week, and I already have 20 books on my list. I kind of find it stressful, really. Like they're all looking over my shoulder, and possibly judging.

How do you keep track of books you want to read? Does your TBR pile/list intimidate you?

Waiting on Wednesday: Code Name Verity

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. 

Oh, this week was so easy - the reviews have started pouring in for Code Name Verity, and I am AGOG to get my hands on it.

The Book Smugglers review was the first to seal my fate - I dare you to read it and come away without this book at the top of your TBR pile. Oh, I can't wait!

Code Name Verity comes out May 15, and if my YA-selecting coworker hasn't ordered it yet, I will be poking her about it shortly.

Review: Tuesdays at the Castle

Title: Tuesdays at the Castle
Author: Jessica Day George
Publisher:  Bloomsbury USA Childrens (October 25, 2011) 
Source: library
Rating: 8/10


Tuesdays at Castle Glower are Princess Celie's favorite days. That's because on Tuesdays the castle adds a new room, a turret, or sometimes even an entire wing. No one ever knows what the castle will do next, and no one-other than Celie, that is-takes the time to map out the new additions. But when King and Queen Glower are ambushed and their fate is unknown, it's up to Celie, with her secret knowledge of the castle's never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom. This delightful book from a fan- and bookseller-favorite kicks off a brand-new series sure to become a modern classic.

Review: First Day on Earth

Title: First Day on Earth
Author: Cecil Castelluci
Publisher: Scholastic Press (November 1, 2011)
Source: library
Rating: 9/10

A startling, wonderful novel about the true meaning of being an alien in an equally alien world.

"We are specks. Pieces of dust in this universe. Big nothings. 

"I know what I am."

Mal lives on the fringes of high school. Angry. Misunderstood. Yet loving the world -- or, at least, an idea of the world. 

Then he meets Hooper. Who says he's from another planet. And may be going home very soon.

Sunday Snapshot

Okay, I admit that's not a picture from this Sunday. This was from our trip in Fall 2010 to Iceland. It is a gorgeous, friendly country with the perfect weather for my husband. We had an awesome time, and I'm currently having the craving to plan our next big trip!

I love when places I've traveled to or lived in pop up in books. Iceland shows up (too briefly) in Carrie Jones' Need series, and the road trip in Amy and Roger's Epic Detour winds its way through my college town.

Do you like travel? Where's the most exotic place you've been? What books had you saying "I know that place!"

Sunday Steampunk

After listening to the amazingly well done audiobook of Larklight by Phillip Reeve, and then speeding through the hardback of its sequel, Starcross, I've been in a very British and Steampunk-y mood. So I share a delightfully timely interview with Lev A.C. Rosen, author of All Men of Genius (on the TBR list) about what Steampunk is to him.

"Steampunk elements have crept into many facets of culture, including fashion, art, popular television, and even books that weren't written by me. I think its appeal can be attributed to the aesthetic of the machine. The idea that today, with tiny microchips powering everything, it's difficult to get a grasp on how things work, whereas if you see a giant machine with moving parts, you can quite literally see how they work, and that makes the technology more human."

 Full article here at the Shelfari blog - it's a great read!

Review: Misfit

Title: Misfit
Author: Jon Skovron
Publisher: Amulet Books (August 1, 2011)
Source: library
Rating: 7/10

It can be hard to make friends when you're constantly moving. It's even harder when you're a half-demon with an ex-monk for a father. Jael Thompson has known her mother was a demon since she was 8, and now that she's turned 16, she's finally getting more information from her taciturn father. Of course, with knowledge comes danger - and a giant fish-monster uncle. Of course.

This book was quite fun to read, mostly. It was really well paced and pretty funny at times. I liked Jael a lot - she was easy to relate to and I loved the believable way she dealt with her issues. Her love interest, Rob - oh man, he is so great! I love that he is smart and spiritual (ish) all in his own way - there are just not enough guys like that in books. And he isn't dark and mysterious or brooding - such a relief! The rest of the cast is good, although her friend Britt is kind of a weak spot for me. Even though Jael's dad had a lot of issues and was hardly winning any Parent-of-the-Year awards, the flashbacks help you understand why he acts the way he does. And while I don't want to spoil too much, let me say that my love for her Uncle Dagon far surpassed the love for any previous fish-monster bakers I've loved.

This was a very conflicted read for me, though, which had me waffling between a 6 and a 7 rating for quite a while. The plot was definitely fun and enjoyable. Since I am not a religious person at all, I was not offended by the book's central concept, which was that the church has the completely wrong idea about hell and demons entirely, but I do have a feeling that it would be a bit more of a concern for some people I know. Then again, I live in a fairly religious area, so I could just be more sensitive to it. Also, I was raised Catholic and while most of the super-religious people I know in my current area are more of the Baptist persuasion, I think Catholics would be a bit put off as well. Makes it a little tricky to recommend.

Also, there are a couple scenes near the end that were... well, kind of brutal and violent in a way that I was not expecting or prepared for. Obviously we are dealing with demons, here, and Jael's mother was definitely shown to be not the norm. I never expected a Duke of Hell to be a nice person, but... *shiver* I had a hard time reading for a little while there. I was out at the public desk and the wincing faces were probably putting off patrons.

So. I finally landed on a 7 rating, because I did enjoy the plot and characters and pace. But there is a slight addendum to my recommendation - not for the religiously delicate, or faint of heart.