Sunday, September 6, 2009

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.

21 comments:

  1. Great titles and you got Dark Visions with the original covers ... I'm a huge fan of LJ Smith.



    Peace

    Michelle
    (http://windowpane-memoirs.com/)

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  2. haha this is hilarious
    Finders Keepers - loved it! wasn't there a show based on it once? Maybe on ABC?
    L.J.Smith - I loved her 'Night World' series when i was young - but ive heard her new books i.e. the vampire diaries is just cashing in on the Twilight craze. I hope to god its not true!

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  3. and i am so interested in hearing what you think of prophecy - its so controversial!

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  4. NO NO NO!!!! The Vampire Diaries were written WAY before Twilight! The first was out in 1991, and after ten year hiatus from writing she's announced a new Vampire Diaries trilogy. This may have had something to do with the success of Twilight, of course. But she was,and always will be for me, the Paranormal Romance Queen.

    Phew. Got that off my chest.

    Yes Finders Keepers was a very cute series starrring Grant Piro and showed on Saturday mornings on ABC during Couch Potato. Those were the days!!

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  5. Great books you got this week. Need is a pretty good book. And I totally loved Finder's Keepers I think in the end I read that book about five times. The sequel wasn't as good though. Hope you enjoy reading all your books.

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  6. I'm now picturing your life as a kind of extended episode of The Secret Life of Us. Lucky!

    I got The Prophecy of the Sisters this week too, so I'll look forward to reading what you think of that one.

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  7. Can't wait to read your thoughts on Prophecy of the Sisters as I was one of the ones that really liked it. It's a slower build that the typical YA but I think the precision and planning involved in it is fantastic. I particularly like that the protagonist isn't a modern gal in the past. Happy reading.

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  8. Yes, do continue reading the Vampire Academy series. And I hope you get to like it! :)

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  9. Oh my God Rhiannon - I LOVE L.J Smith.
    My favorite is Secret Circle Trilogy...hmmm...slightly lame. Soraya xx

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  10. awesome books and it looks as though you had a great week! hope you enjoy them all! happy reading!

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  11. Yeay! you had a great amount of books. I have to admit the first Vampire Academy book was a slow process of reading for me. It did not grab me as I would have liked but towards the end I was hooked enough to read the next FROSTBITE and I was totally hooked but the end. When It came to SHADOW KISS I was such a fan girl, although it broke my heart, but wait till BLOOD PROMISE...YOWZA!!!! Let me know what you think about it as hopefully continue to read them :)

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  12. Prophecy of the Sisters looks like a good read, I'll have to pick up a copy. Happy reading!

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  13. You have the best luck on eBay with book!! Oh my god! I never thought to look there until you posted once about getting, erm, a Tamora Pierce series maybe? So I checked it out and there were books I would have loved, which were like $1.50 but then it was $15 to SHIP it to Canada and I was all, Hell no!

    Seeing those original L.J. Smith books makes me drool with envy! I would much rather have those than the whomping big trilogy book I have on my shelf. Although it IS pretty and black with purple. ;)

    I envy your eBay skillz! ;)

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  14. I've just bought The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike and I'm looking forward to reading it. I haven't read any of the Vampire Academy series yet but do intend too. All your other books look great. Have fun reading them all :)

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  15. Prophecy of the Sisters and Need are really good. You should definitely give the VA series another go. They're brilliant.

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  16. Great set of books!
    Especially Prophecy of the Sisters, Need, and Strange Angels! (Cant wait to read them)
    Also, Wintergirls was good, kind of disturbing, but if can get past that it was really good.
    Happy Reading.

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  17. Soraya, I knew you would, you have fantastic taste! I also have the secret circle trilogy--so not lame!

    Kristi--thank you!

    Ravenous reader--I'm gonna give them another go, I've only heard good things.

    Cat--I wanted the original covers so I didn't mind the shipping to Oz!

    And thanks for stopping by and commenting, everyone else. Happy reading to you too :)

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  18. Yay Wintergirls! :) I think you'll like it.

    And I can say that because on Goodreads, our taste is 92% compatible. ;)

    Kelly from http://yannabe.com

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  19. Really Kelly? That's so cool! I'll have to look up how to work that out.

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  20. I can't wait to hear what you think about Need! I really enjoyed it :)

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  21. three cheers for Christopher Pike. I have a huge collection of his books thanks to the used bookstore and bookmooch.

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