In My Mailbox (3) and other news

This meme is hosted by The Story Siren.

I got two books for review this week: The Prophecy of Sisters by Michelle Zink and Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow--thank you to the publicists at Penguin and Hachette. My curiosity has been thoroughly piqued by Zink's book as I've watched other bloggers struggle with their reviews. Many have confessed "something not right" about it, and others have professed undying love for the story. Aimee gave it a rave this week on My Fluttering Heart, and Michelle Zink herself stopped by to say thank you. What will my reaction be, I wonder? I do love a challenging story and characters so I'll be getting stuck into this one shortly. For fans of Ms Crow, the sequel to Strange Angels, Betrayals, will be out in Australia on October 26.

From eBay I scored L.J. Smith's Dark Visions trilogy. The review for The Strange Power will be up shortly--the first of my RIP IV reviews. I got stuck at a luncheon this week, up the back at the book sales table and read most of it chowing down on some very yummy bread and butter pudding. Not a bad way to spend a rainy Friday--except for all the loading and unloading of boxes in the wet. Monster by Christopher Pike is another title for the RIP challenge. Monster has been given such a good rap by Ana and Thea at The Book Smugglers and I always liked his Last Vampire series.

From the library I got Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, Need by Carrie Jones, Stories by Oscar Wilde because I want to read 'The Canterville Ghost', and a middle-grade Aussie classic, Finders Keepers by Emily Rodda. I loved this as a kid and want to see if it's as good as I remember. It's sort of speculative--Finders Keepers is a game show that straddles the barrier between two worlds.

In other news Richelle Mead will be at Dymocks 234 Collins Street on September 15, 5.30 pm, talking about Blood Promise. I didn't intend on going when I first got the invitation, by Tina at Fantastic Book Review talked me into giving this series another go. I've heard so many good things about this series but my reaction to the first few chapters of Vampire Academy was decidedly MEH. I'm willing to admit I could be wrong and give it another chance--and what's the harm in picking up a signed copy as I go?

On Friday night I fag-hagged it up at Gay Shame, a monthly irreverant dress-up party at the Glasshouse in Collingwood. My friend Rob had his debut performance as Bobby I (that's Bobby the First). This is how he desribes himself on his MySpace page (where you can also listen to samples of his tracks):

BOBBY I is a singer, songwriter, producer and high-kickin' show pony.

The music? Pop/dance, plus occasional dalliances with electrofolk and indie. Imagine if Jareth the Goblin King and Alison Goldfrapp had a very *special* child, who was then adopted by Madonna.

That's a hell of a pedigree!

Gay Shame's theme was HOSPITAL this month and there was lots of gore and bandages. Here's Bobby I on stage with his backup dancers.

Gore-tastic. He's shortly to be catapulted into superstardom.