Author Cage Match
Drew and I were talking about who our Top Five Favorite Authors would be. And I said that to get mine down to just five would be a cage match of epic proportions. So, then he made me do it. I ended up with two lists because the final cut actually made me kind of sick to my stomach. And then, I realized that there was an easy workaround. So I took it and made two lists. Because two is better than one… Usually.
The Rules:
Must consider works only during my at the bookstore (2006 – present)Author must have published at least two books.
You must consider all books written
Mary Robinette Kowal
Photo from the Author’s website
My Preliminary List:
Jonathan Maberry
Nick Harkaway
Mary Robinette Kowal
Tamora Pierce
Dan Wells
Kerry Greenwood
Jonathan Howard
Gail Carriger
R.L. Lafevers
Mira Grant
Nick Harkaway
Photo from the author’s website
My Final List:
Nick Harkaway
Tamora Pierce
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mira Grant
And now I have a cage match between
Jonathan Maberry/Dan Wells/Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Greenwood – I’ve read all the Phryne Fisher and all the Corinna Chapman books. I’ve probably read some of the books five times in the last six years.
Dan Wells
Photo from the author’s website
Dan Wells – I haven’t finished all of his books. (I’m a terrible, terrible person. I haven’t read Fragments or Ruins yet. Yes, I have a copy of Ruins and I haven’t read it yet. I’m fired from life.) I just haven’t been in a dystopian mood for a while.
Jonathan & Rosie at a book signing
Photo from wikipedia
Jonathan Maberry – He’s kind of my hero. Buuuuuuuuuuut… I haven’t finished the Benny Imura series. And I can’t finish Dead of Night. It’s really really really good. But, I know how it ends and I know how I am when I try to read books like that. I get all mopey and depressed for days. And I’m sorry, but I just don’t have time for that right now. So, I haven’t read it.
Kerry Greenwood
Photo from Wikipedia
Ok… I’m kicking Kerry Greenwood out because although I love her, I don’t get quite as… flustered? about her. She’s wonderful, and I can read her any time. I can read her when I’m sad she will cheer me up. I can read her when I’m happy and I will be more happy. But… I don’t clutch her books to my chest and cuddle them like puppies, which I do with works from the rest of the authors on my list.
Now we come to an author that I’ve babbled at incoherently and an author for whom I have actually mugged a sales rep to get an advance copy of his next book. I’ve also caused a rep in New York to go infiltrate the Griffin offices to get me a bound ARC that they weren’t officially admitting was available. So, you understand, I have strong feelings about both of these authors.
At the end of the day, I’m going to have to, with great reluctance, declare for Jonathan Maberry. (I’m sorry Dan. I’ll make you a bacon pecan pie to make it up to you.)
Now, if we change the requirements to only authors I have discovered in the last seven years, then Tamora Pierce gracefully bows out and takes her position with authors like Diana Wynn Jones, Eva Ibbitson, and Jane Austen.
Mira Grant
Photo from the Author’s website
So my list of Favorite Authors Discovered in the last 7 Years:
Jonathan Maberry
Dan Wells
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mira Grant
Nick Harkaway
Daniel Polansky
Photo from the author’s website
Drew’s Preliminary List:
Daniel Polansky
Stephen King
Tana French
Nick Harkaway
Max Barry
Jonathan Howard
Joe Hill
Drew’s Final List:
Stephen King
Daniel Polansky
Tana French
Nick Harkaway
Joe Hill
Bout of Books 9.0 Progress
Books Started:
Books Completed:
Bout of Books 9.0 – Day 3
I’ve been busy reading and knitting and that hasn’t left as much time for blogging. Sorry guys!
But I’m here to update you on how Bout of Books 9.0 is going.
I’ve read three picture books, finished one novella and started two novels. None of the aforementioned are The Taste of Apple Seeds, which is the only thing I’d actually planned to read. After completing Monday’s Mad Libs challenge I got distracted by Jane Austen, so I started looking into other Jane Austen spin-offs.
I also got an email that Ashes and Alchemy by Cindy Spencer Pape was out. It’s #6 in the Gaslight Chronicles, which are Steampunk ebooks I started reading last year. The stories are all romances, with more or less heat depending on the story.
This particular story centers around Minerva Shaw, who is desperately searching for help for her sick daughter. Ivy is the latest in a series of children from her school who has come down with a strange illness that people are starting to call the Black Death. It isn’t the bubonic plague, or London’s infamous Black Lung. It’s an illness that causes it’s victims to sweat out a sooty substance before they succumb to the violence of the accompanying fever.
In the dense London fog, Minerva mistakes Police Inspector Sebastian Brown’s house for the doctor who lives next door. Sebastian, for reasons he can’t quite pin down, takes responsibility for Minerva and her daughter. However when they reach Minerva’s flat they discover that someone has broken in and killed Ivy’s babysitter, but Ivy herself was safely hidden.
Neither Sebastian or Minerva can figure out why anyone would try to rob her flat. Neither she nor Jane, the victim, have anything worth stealing and the only unusual thing has been Ivy’s illness…
While I did enjoy this story, I felt like it was incomplete. The romance was a little rushed. At only 82 pages there isn’t a lot of time for things to develop, but I’m a little more used to Pape drawing things out. The big problem for me is the speed with which the central mystery gets wrapped up. The mystery is solved and the lesser players are tidied away, although there are intimations of shadowy figures in the background that will probably be addressed in a later installment.
Which is fine.
I guess.
But it’s not the usual pattern with her books and it left me a little unsatisfied. Hopefully, the next story in the series will be out soon!
Books Completed
Books Started
Bout of Books 9.0 – Day 1
It’s also day 1 of my new job. I got to read to several classes of young kids and check out some books. It was, I will not deny, pretty awesome. I get to do it again tomorrow, so I’m pretty happy about that.
However, I also had to work the library job and the bookstore job today. And I’m trying to finish up a knitting project, so I’ve been listening to an audiobook as time allows.
I’m also participating in one of the challenges for Bout of Books today.
The first one is Cheap Thrills’ Mad Libs challenge. I decided to do mine Austen-themed:
character name – An Assembly Such as This, Fitzwilliam Darcy #1 by Pamela Aiden
adjective1 – The Bad Miss Bennett by Jean Burnett
adjective2 – Jane and the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron
item – Lady Catherine’s Necklace by Joan Aiken
occupation – Becoming Jane by Anne Newgarden
act of violence – The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
adjective3 – Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
noun1 – Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
noun2 – Death Comes to Pemerly by P.D. James
I just read the greatest book!
This guy Fitzwilliam ends up in the middle of a bad conspiracy. Turns out his ancestors were pirates, and he might be the key to finding the wandering necklace. It’s a mythic artifact that disappeared centuries ago, and now a shadowy group of becomings are looking for it. No one knows what uncovering it might do, but these guys are willing to mislay for it.
I won’t say anything else. But believe me, if you like incorrigible stories with shades and death, you have to read this one.
Bout of Books Progress Report
Books completed today:
Books started today:
Bout of Books 9.0 – Goals
It’s looking to be a freezing night here in Birmingham. What a perfect night to start a Bout of Books Read-a-Thon!
I plan to read at least an hour a day, which is not actually that much for me, but I’m starting a new job this week, so that’s going to slow me down a bit.
I don’t have many books picked out, but I know I want to read The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena. It comes out from William Morrow in February.
The novel was originally published in German and has been very popular so far in Europe. From what I can tell it seems to fall into the magical realism category in line with Chocolat or Garden Spells.
Iris has inherited her grandmother’s farmhouse in the German countryside. The house has been in the family for generations, but Iris hasn’t been back there for years. The house holds the memory of so many tragedies that it can be hard to see the present through the past. The yard has current bushes that are white and taste of tears. 
The cellar is filled with moonstone colored current jam that the captures the essence of the year it is made. The jars from 1945 were donated to a museum because they were too bitter to eat.
Iris must find a way to come to terms with her family and her past before she can hope to move forward.
I’ll let you know how it goes and what else I pick up in the meantime. And if any of you are in areas affected by the weather, please stay safe!
Author Intro: Alan Bradley
I know, I’m running late, but even three cups of tea, a scarf, and two hoodies couldn’t beat the chill last night. (Ok, I live in Alabama. It’s insanely cold if it gets into the 20’s. Yes, I know it gets colder in other places. I’ve even lived in some of them. But, the point is, my house is hard to heat, my fingers were freezing, and I got into bed with all three of my pets in order to share body heat. That also happens in the summer, which is not awesome, but what can I say, they love me. Or my mattress.)
I thought today I would introduce you to one of my favorite mystery authors, Alan Bradley. Alan is a fabulous gentleman (I can say that because I got to interview him once) who writes mystery novels about a young girl named Flavia de Luce.
Flavia lives in England in 1950 in a big, ramshackle house with her father and her terrible sisters. Flavia also has an incurable curiosity, which gets her involved with chemistry, bicycling, and murder.
In the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Flavia’s father is arrested for murder. This is patently ridiculous as Mr. de Luce doesn’t leave his stamp collecting long enough to prevent his daughters from trying to murder each other, much less taking the time to kill someone himself.
Flavia, distressed at the obtuseness of the local constabulary, takes it upon herself to solve the murder, 
which she manages with a bit of assistance from her bicycle, Gladys, and her scientific knowledge.
Flavia’s adventures continue in The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Speaking From Among the Bones, and the 6th book, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches will be out on January 14th.
Flavia is an eleven year old girl and the first book is absolutely something that I would and have given to younger readers. The victim was a bad man to start with, and the murder itself happens off stage. Flavia is perfectly composed when she discovers the body.
However, I would caution parents about the later books. There are some more adult themes and slightly more gruesome deaths. Some
kids will be able to roll with the content and some won’t. You know your kids better than I do. I recommend that you read the books yourself (which I recommend anyway, because they’re awesome!) and decide from there.
What to Read #9
This is also a bit in the nature of a year in review post.
2013 has been a year, much like others. The biggest news I’ve got is that I have a new job! I’ll still be at the bookstore, but starting January 6 I will also be the new librarian at Creative Montessori here in Homewood. I’m so excited about it. I went out and joined the ALA the day I got hired. Some kids played house when they were little, I played library, so it works out pretty well for me.
In sad news, Stephanie Daniel, the audiobook narrator for the Phryne Fisher books has passed away. I’ve spent countless hours with her telling me those delightful stories. She will be missed.
According to Goodreads I have read 140 books this year. Not all of those were new to me, but I did complete my goal of 110, so yay for that! The last book I finished this year was Aunt Dimity’s Death by Nancy Atherton. I think I listened to it twice this year. It’s like comfort food for me.
The last new book I finished is also this week’s recommendation: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent which was actually written by Marie Brennan.
The book is set in an alternate world, which is heavily based on Victorian Europe. Isabella, our heroine, starts off as a young girl with a burning interest in natural history, especially as it pertains to dragons. She risks censure and punishment from her parents in order to learn such unladylike subjects.
The bulk of the novel takes place after her marriage to a fellow scholar. Isabella, now Mrs. Camhurst, travels with her husband and a scientific expedition to the mountainous region of Vystrana (analogous to Hungary perhaps) in search of the local dragon breed. Once there, she discovers that dragons may not be the most dangerous thing she’ll have to face.
I listened to the audio version, but I also bought the hardcover. I tend to do that anyway, but this particular book comes with Isabella’s illustrations and those are not something that can be conveyed through a recording. The paperback version comes out fairly soon (February 4), as does the next volume, titled The Tropic of Serpents (March 4).
Isabella is not always likeable, but she is understandable. She is a woman, albeit a privileged one, in a restrictive time and she has an overarching passion she is not free to fully explore. Isabella’s need to understand dragons will lead her much further from home and convention than Vystrana. And I, for one, will be right there to read about her adventures.
12 Days of Christmas Winners
The giveaways are all done. The winners have been chosen. Some of you have gotten back to me, but if you haven’t please email your address to: medusasmirror@gmail.com so I can send off your prizes. If I don’t hear back by January 6th I’ll choose and alternate winner.
His Majesty’s Dragon winner – Emily RagsdaleRot & Ruin winner – Jason Tucker
Wednesdays in the Tower winner – Soonhee Blackburn
House of Many Ways winner – No entries (I’ll extend this one out until New Year’s Day)
Soulless manga winner – Michelle
Chimes at Midnight winner – Catherine Brennan
The Human Division winner – Lingeorge
Magic Next Door winner – Isa Delgado
Proof of Guilt winner – Jasmine
Steelheart winner – Stephanie F.
Lowtown/Angelmaker winner – Evan
Glamourist Histories winner – Hope
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas…
Ok, we’ve made it. Christmas is tomorrow. I’ve managed to get a blog out every day for twelve days. I’m impressed with me. I don’t know if you’re impressed with me, but that’s ok.
So, to celebrate the last day of the Christmas blog I’m giving away the complete set of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamourist Histories.
This will include Shades of Milk & Honey, Glamour in Glass, and Without a Summer.
These are alternate history, Regency-era fantasy novels. They’re amazing. And I love them. So very, very much. If you’ve seen any of the rest of this blog, you’ll know that. I’ve talked about Mary once or twice.
To enter my giveaway, just tell me what alternate version of history you’d like to live in. I especially like steampunk.
Thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaways!
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas…
Sara was very late posting her blog because holidays in retail meet food poisoning. (Sara also likes to refer to herself in the third person because it makes her feel important.) It’s been kind of a rough day. So, to make myself feel better, I’m giving away not one, but two of my favorite books!Today, you can get Lowtown by Daniel Polansky AND Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway. These are amazing books, and I’ve gushed about both of them before, so I’m not going to take the time.
Elevator pitch: 
Lowtown is Raymond Chandler set in George R.R. Martin’s Westeros.
Angelmaker is a little bit Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and a little bit cold-war, steampunk, spy thriller.
And they both rock my socks. They should rock yours too!
To enter, leave a comment below. I’m too tired to think of anything clever so just tell me anything! This contest will run until December 28. Have a look back at the previous posts to enter earlier giveaways!
On the Tenth Day of Christmas…
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson!
It’s now three shopping days before Christmas and the bookstore is slammed, so I’m just going to quote you the text from my Top 10 List:
Steelheart takes place in a world after Calamity. Calamity being some form of celestial event which gave rise to superpowered individuals known as Epics. Epics live up to the motto: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Chicago is ruled by the Epic known as Steelheart. His power is that he can turn anything non-living into steel. He is said to be invincible, but David has seen Steelheart bleed. Steelheart bled on the same day that Chicago’s ruling Epic murdered David’s father. David has spent the years since that day planning the Epic’s downfall.
The only people brave enough to fight the Epics are the Recokners. David has gathered enough information on their practices to be fairly sure of when their next hit will take place. He just has to get there, survive the fight between the Reckoners and their target, and avoid getting killed as a spy. No problem.
I got an early copy of this book and it was fantastic. It does end on, not so much a cliff hanger, as a sense that you need the next book soon. Luckily, the next book is already in the works.
To enter, leave a comment below telling me what superpower you’ve always wanted.
Here are the other giveaways that are still available:
Proof of Guilt by Charles Todd
The Magic Next Door series by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
The Human Brigade by John Scalzi
Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
Medusa's Library 