Random Thoughts on a Couple Books (Rather Than A Whole Review)

I've read a few books lately and jotted down some thoughts on them.  I'm not always 'moved' to write a whole review on the books, but sometimes I like to remember my lasting impressions.  So here goes - follow the links:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/383205377

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/395137747

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/414874191

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/404600652

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/421237545 - And I know I'll have more to say on this one later.... full review coming soon! (because I literally just finished it!)

The Week's Obsession (Oct 23)

Welcome to a new feature I'm going to try to update on every week (or other week...) What has been stirring in my mad mind this week?  Halloween!!  I'm trying to work out my costume - I'm going steampunk - and also working on the 3 kids costumes.  I'm actually quite pleased and surprised that my 14 and 12 year old boys still want to dress up :)  Last year they were Santa Claus and a hunchback, and my darling daughter dearest was Frankie-stein, the cheerleader from Monster High.  So what do they want to be this year?  Boys?-'Uhhhhhhhhh...........   ??'  and Girl?- 'A crazy cat lady! NO!  The scream monster.... NO! Scream Monster with crazy cats all over......'  Leave it to my girl to be unique :) (Oh and me? I was Katniss - to be cool before it was cool to be cool....)


Well, to start on my costume I'm going to get all crafty and attempt to make this:

 

This is a nerf gun, all painted up and added-on to look steampunky.  I found the idea on pinterest.... Doesn't look too hard, right?  Now where's my glue gun???

I also like to have a scary movie marathon during the weekends every October.  The last few years they've been strictly vampire movies only.  This year I want to keep the Masters Vampire Movie Marathon tradition - with a twist - I'm going to watch new-to-me vampire movies.  This will be a bit of a challenge, because I've watched a lot of vampire movies, tv, cartoons...  So I'm compiling a list of new ones to watch:

So far, in no particular order :

Dark Shadows - with Johnny Depp :) I surprised I haven't watched this yet, actually.....

Blade trilogy - I know?!?  Where have I been hiding with these ones?

The Hunger -  an interesting looking movie from 1983

Let Me In - the American version of Let the Right One In, which I enjoyed last year

Hotel Transylvania - because I can't resist a funny kid show with vampires in it too :)

Vampire Hunter D - anime... need I say more??

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - the title alone makes me laugh 'Really??? Vampire hunter?'  But I'm curious and I'm going to watch it without reading the book! *GASP*

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant - I heard this was actually good! So I'll see.....

And I may watch some Buffy - because, weirdly, I'd never gotten into that series! (I have watched the movie, though)

Am I also going to read vampire books? Probably - when am I not reading vampire books?  LOL  But the next series on my horizon is actually a YA sci fi murder mystery in space (that's how the author, Beth Revis describes it!) and a dystopian series from Ally Condie.... whether vampires show up in those, is a mystery to me! Not sure what I want to read after those, though, so that's probably where the vampire will come in :)

And I'm officially finished pinning on the Shadow of Night Read-Along Pinterest board!  Nominations are open for the fantasy casting for all the new characters.... see it here.

And, one last thing rattling around my mad mind - CHRISTMAS !!
YES - I have officially started my Christmas shopping, making my list, and planning where Clan Masters is invading this holiday season :)  I did the grand dinner last year, so I suspect that someone else will be in control this year.....


And that's pretty much it, for now.... trying NOT to think about the upcoming daily schedule of children's extra-curricular activities where I'll have to juggle 1 club soccer schedule AND practices, 1 volleyball schedule, and 2 different kung fu classes and try to fit that in with the spouses' soccer and cello lessons and gym and my work schedule plus various Dr appointments. My head is going to EXPLODE.... again......

Please send a rescue team if you see my twitching on the sidewalk outside my door......( or chocolate)

Smart Chicks Kick It Tour Hits Edmonton

On Thursday, Sept 13 I joined the Edmonton Book Bloggers at Westside Chapters for this groundbreaking event. Not knowing what to expect, we had a plan to get in line as early as possible.  I arrived around 3:30, and found that our group was at the head of the line! WOO HOO Thanks to Kristilyn, that meant front row seats!!  I made badges for everyone in the group, and another EBB, Rola,  made the wonderful poster :) We hoped to get some recognition from the authors as well as recruit new members, and it worked! We found one at the event and a couple more later that night as we were all tweeting about it online.  We now have 15 members in our group! WOW!!

Front row!!

There's quite a crowd! Hi Rola ;) Excited much?

The time was passed very quickly - we never run out of things to talk about!  The staff at Westside Chapters were very accommodating to us - even allowing us to add Leanne and her mom to the group when they arrived late, and they helped us by taking group pictures with all our cameras.  We felt famous... almost!  LOL- I wonder if they were just as surprised by our little group as we were ourselves??  Who knew there'd be so many of us? Well, we ended up on the twitter event page, so maybe we are semi-famous now? ( or infamous.... I'll have to think on it...)  A few of the authors mentioned us on their blogs as well - Charles DeLint was taking pics of us!!  (I get ahead of myself... LOL)

GROUP SHOT!

 So after all the Smart Chicks, and one smart Chuck were introduced, we got to play a little game where we guessed 'who said that' - The three I remembered the most was that Charles was raised by crows, Beth has double jointed shoulders (and demonstrated for us OUCH!) and Veronica is scared of spiders! LOL  Margaret Stohl was the life of the party - she is absolutely hilarious!  She also hosted the 'lightning round' We could ask them any question that could also be asked of anyone in the room, and they all had to answer the first thing that came to mind!  Questions were things like favorite author, music, and my favorite "Fifty Shades: Yay or Nay?" (Most said nay - one gave a kind of iffy yay!  Hahaha)

Here's Margaret!

From the left, this is Charles DeLint, Veronica Roth, Margaret Stohl, Melissa Marr... 

cont...  Kelley Armstrong, Beth Revis, and Ally Condie WHEW! Fantastic lineup!

 Veronica Roth - author of Divergent, Insurgent and 'Detergent' 

 Allie Condie - Author of Crossed and Matched

 Kelley Armstrong - Canadian author of many books, including the Darkest Powers Trilogy and Women of the Otherworld

 Beth Revis - author of Across the Universe and A Million Suns 

 Margaret Stohl - co-author of  Beautiful Creatures series

 Charles DeLint - Canadian author of many, most recently Under My Skin

 Melissa Marr - author of Wicked Lovely series and Carnival of Souls, and others

So we finally got our chance to meet and greet! Yay!!  I look stupified in all my pics, but I'm sure that's not the fault of my lovely personal photographer! (ie, the Chapters staffmember that followed me with my camera down the line!  She was great! She even asked me what pics I wanted and which author's I wanted the most pictures of. And she did it! I forgot to ask her her name (bad me!!) but THANK YOU SO MUCH!!)  I was third in line and totally unprepared for what I would say - I was concentrating more on getting the books in the right order  HAHAHA

I really wish I had books from every author, but I can only buy so many at once!  Hahaha.  The ones I didn't have books for, I at least said Hi, and grabbed signed bookmarks. Everyone was so nice! Charles was the only one to ask about my blog, and I think I mumbled something about it - can't remember what it was!  OIIII I probably sounded challenged   

I had a fun conversation with Veronica about how I was on Team Amity when all the promos for Insurgent were going on - and BTW Team Amity won!  Can I pick them or what?

 I  love how she's a south paw :)

Wow, so, because we were only allowed to have 3 books per author, and my friend, Sarah was still en route to the event, I hoped back into line to wait for her and hold a place.  Turns out there were 750 people waiting there!  That was the largest Smart Chicks turn out so far!  I really hope that this sends a message to all the publishers out there that Edmontonians love their authors!   We want more events like this!  We love to read! (I mean, what else have we got to do during 9 months of winter???)

Thank you so much to Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr for organizing this tour, which all the authors funded themselves, I might add, and they picked which cities they wanted to come to :)  I hope you change your minds about this being the last year for Smart Chicks!

And another huge HURRAH!!! to Westside Chapters, for the wonderful, well organized, fun event!  You guys rocked!  And it wasn't just because of the DJ........