Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2013

I'm not big on the book news; I tend to be pretty clueless about what's coming out and when, but there are some books I can't wait to get my hands on in 2013...

1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 2 (currently untitled) by Ransom Riggs. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children almost became one of my favourite books... until it ended on a massive cliffhanger that drove me nuts. So needless to say I've been waiting for the sequel for awhile.

2. Just One Day by Gayle Forman. I looooved If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman, so I've been eagerly anticipating her next book.

3. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris. OK, I haven't been excited about the Sookie Stackhouse books for awhile. But I'm excited for this one because it will finally bring the series to an end, and answer the question once and for all - will Sookie end up with Eric? She better.

4. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins. I love, love, loved Anna and the French Kiss and really enjoyed Lola and the Boy Next Door, so I predict good things for the final book in Perkins' trilogy.

5. The Hybrid Chronicles 2 (currently untitled) by Kat Zhang. I really enjoyed Zhang's debut novel, What's Left of Me, when I read it recently, and I can't wait for the sequel.

6. The Boss by Abigail Barnette. Not content with pointing out how terrible 50 Shades of Grey is in her hilarious, brilliant recaps, Jennifer Armintrout (under the name Abigail Barnette) has decided to publish a feminist romance as the antithesis to the abusive dynamics found in the popular tome. Best of all? She's publishing it for free on her website, in serial form. It sounds awesome.

7. Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff. The plot sounds really intriguing - a young girl is haunted by her best friend, who pushes her to investigate her death and the other mysterious murders in their town. Plus the cover is super pretty, and I'm superficial like that.

8. Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak. The Book Thief is one of my favourite books, and this will be Zusak's follow up. It's been a long time coming, and I anticipate amazingness.

9. Prodigy by Marie Lu. The first book in this series, Legend, was pretty decent, and I've heard the sequel is even better.

10. When We Wake by Karen Healey. About a girl who gets cryogenically frozen and reanimated 100 years later, this is one dystopian/sci-fi that sounds unique and has a lot of potential.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Friday Link Dump: So Many Trailers! And Some Other Stuff

Stephanie Meyer hasn't ruled out more Twilight books - in fact, apparently she's already plotted out a few more focusing on Renesmee and Jacob. Ick. No word on whether the rest of The Host series is coming any time soon, but the trailer for the movie has just been released. It doesn't look amazing, except for Max Irons. Dayum.

A UK charity for abuse victims asked for donations of 50 Shades of Grey so they could use it to wipe their bums. Which is kind of hilarious. Not so hilarious is the fact that one woman is blaming the book for the disintegration of her marriage. Oh dear...

Should I read Beautiful Creatures? For some reason it's passed under my radar until recently, but now the internet is kinda exploding over the movie trailer. The cast is great but the story doesn't totally grab me from the trailer alone. Bit over paranormal romance TBH, though it's good to see the guy as the mortal for a change.

Another trailer that's making the rounds is the one for Warm Bodies. When I first heard about it I thought it was just cashing in on Twilight (with zombies) but it actually looks kinda good. The comments about R having the kind of face that could mean he's in his 20s, but could also mean he's a teenager, are particularly funny in light of the author's minor tantrum over the fact that his book isn't YA, even though it looks like it is to a lot of people.

Then there's the City of Bones trailer (what is the, Trailer Week?). I wasn't a massive fan of the book, but the movie looks pretty good. The cast looks right - even Jamie Campbell Bower. I wasn't convinced when they cast him, but judging by the trailer he does a good job as Jace.

I'm not fussed on Sookie's new "love interest" for the next season of True Blood. I guess this means they're not using Quinn, which I can't say I'm sad about. I never really liked him in the books. But ugh, enough with the faeries! Just have hot vampire sex with non-amnesiac Eric already!

Speaking of Sookie, the synopsis for the final book in Charlaine Harris' series has been released. The stuff about Eric being distant is annoying but unsurprising. I just hope they end up together in the end. Because all the other guys blow. 

The Oatmeal's latest comic on writing and content creation is both hilarious and insightful. His analogy of inspiration as a river is great, as is his advice for reading feedback and comments online (basically, it's not a good idea *cough*SPAs*cough*).

The Oxford American Dictionary has named the word of the year: GIF. Given my love of gifs, I appreciate this, but it's especially great considering the other contender was YOLO. Which I think we can all agree needs to live up to its meaning and go die.

You know how action figures/celeb dolls often look kinda fugly? This guy repaints them so they're more realistic, and they're absolutely amazing.

Will Smith still knows every word to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air rap. And it's awesome. 

I'm pretty sure Andrew Garfield is my favourite human being right now. Watch him do 10 different dances - with no music - for charity on Ellen.


This gif set is pretty much the story of my life.

YouTube Clip of the Week

Review: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Warning: Spoilers for previous books.

I read most of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series in a binge a couple of years ago when I was going into massive True Blood withdrawal. While I much preferred the show, I enjoyed the series and eagerly awaited the next book. I got my hands on Dead Reckoning as soon as I could, but I was left extremely unsatisfied. As a result I wasn't exactly hanging to read Deadlocked, the latest installment in this seemingly never-ending series. The fact that it got pretty "meh" reviews didn't help. But when a friend gave me a copy I figured I may as well get it over and done with. So here we are.

Deadlocked has cemented the fact that I'm well and truly over this series. Harris needs to wrap this shit up. I feel like it should have ended at least three books ago - she could have even kept the storyline in tact, coz if you remove all the inane and pointless details you cut at least a third off the length. I got so sick of reading about Sookie's chores and whether her grass was dry or her tyres were flat. At this point it doesn't even add anything to her character, other than to reinforce that without her supe buddies she's incredibly mundane.

The story, such as it was, focuses on the fairy and vampire political problems that were introduced in previous books. Unfortunately, the main characters in these situations - Claude, Niall and Eric - were notably absent from the majority of the book and much of the action happens off screen. What we're left with is a whole lot of Sookie wondering what the hell is going on, talking to various people on the phone and sometimes face to face and, well, paying bills, cooking, cleaning... sleeping. Oh, wait, that was just me, halfway through the book. There weren't even any sexy times to keep things mildly entertaining. 

I've never been a fan of the fairy plot, and was happy when I heard it would be resolved in Deadlocked. Too bad the resolution is the most anti-climactic thing I've read since Breaking Dawn. Seriously, Charlaine Harris? We had to put up with this fairy crap through multiple books for that?! So not worth it.

As for the vamp sitch, I thought the whole murder investigation and Eric's attempts to escape both being arrested and being married off would make for an interesting plot. I thought wrong. As I've already mentioned, Eric is mostly absent from the book and the plotline didn't really go anywhere. BILL was in Deadlocked more, and I wanted to throw things when Sookie started getting all friendly with him again. He freaking RAPED her. He should have stayed in Peru. I was also disappointed to see Quinn reappear. And Sam is just so dopey. I know many suspect he will be Sookie's endgame, and if that's the case I may have to hurt a book.

I'll read the next in the series, because it's the last and I want to see how everything comes together. Or if it does. But it's just not fun anymore.

Rating: 2/5

Eye Candy
At least this gave me a good excuse to post these pics (like I need one):

Bookish Buys: Costume Fun

Man, I wish we celebrated Halloween in Australia. It seems like so much fun. Just look at these costume ideas!

Mad-Eye Moody (in possibly the scariest interpretation of a Harry Potter costume ever)

Sookie Stackhouse Merlotte's Tee

Dread Pirate Roberts Mask

Austen Character Regency Dress (*siiiiiiiigh*)

Queen of Hearts Costume

Robin Hood Pet Costume (Hee!)

Complete Jacob Black Costume

So, if you're doing the Halloween thing, let me live vicariously through you - tell me what you're dressing up as!

Pash, Pick or Pass: Sookie Stackhouse's Boy Besties

Time to play Pash, Pick or Pass (a.k.a. Date, Do or Ditch) - a weekly game I feature where we pick from a random book trio and say who we'd pash (and dash), who we'd pick for a relationship and who we'd pass on all together.


The Contenders
Sookie Stackhouse's non-vamp friends...

Her brother, Jason

Her crush buddy, Alcide

Her boss, Sam

My Choices

Pash: Jason. The boy is fine, and with all his experience in the sack I'm sure he'd know a thing or two about pashing. But he's dumber than a bag of hammers and a box of rocks put together, so I couldn't deal with him for longer than that.

Pick: Alcide. Now that's a man. That scene with him cooking steak (for breakfast, of course) in season three of True Blood? MAN. Hot, hot MAN. The kind I'd want to keep around the house. I'm being selective, of course, and picking Alcide from the show/early books - coz he's a bit of a douche by the end. But for now he's all mine.

Pass: Sam. He just does not do it for me at all. In the books or the show. Pass!

Who would you pash, pick and pass?

PS Who do you want to play with next time?

Bookish Buys: True Blood Edition

Yes, I've got True Blood on the brain this week. I still haven't seen the new episode yet and I'm getting seriously twitchy. So I have to get my fix in other ways - like looking at this cool merch.

I actually own this necklace from Corso Studio, and it's like a True Blood fan detection device - when I wear it, I get knowing smiles from those who are fans, and strange looks from those who aren't.

I expect the same thing would happen with this necklace. Even non-Truebies would probably get it, but they might still raise an eyebrow.

This one makes me smile, because I freaking love Pam. Even though when she said this line, she was interrupting this.

 

I thought this necklace - inspired by Godric's tattoo - was pretty clever. Not sure I'd wear it myself, but props for uniqueness.


 

Here's another cool decal, this time from Mac Appeal. Apple should seriously sponsor these people, because I totally want to buy their products, just so I can decorate them.

I loved cross stitch as a kid and only recently embraced my inner nanna and got into it again. I'm currently finishing off a Peter Rabbit bookmark (yes, alongside my inner nanna sits an inner six-year-old) and have already ordered this awesome Pretty in Pink pattern for my next attempt, but if I haven't run out of steam by then I might just give this one a go - at least you only need one colour!

And I've saved the best for last. It's a Bill Compton voodoo doll! I need this, like, now, to release all my Beel-inspired aggression. I have a lot of it. Even better would be an Eric Northman stress doll that I could hug and squeeze to my heart's content. What? Get your minds out of the gutter, people!

Pash, Pick or Pass: Sookie's Harem

In honour of True Blood returning to TV this week, the contenders for Pash, Pick or Pass will be selected from amongst Sookie Stackhouse's many admirers:

My Choices

Pash: Alcide. Why? Well...

'Nuff said.

Pick: Eric, because he's sexy, powerful, intelligent, passionate, cheeky, protective, caring and, ahem, good in bed:

Pass: Bill, because I hate him so freaking much. He's manipulative, selfish and whiney. In the first book/season of the show, I actually really liked him, but as both versions of the series progressed he just got more and more douchey and waaay less attractive:

Want to play?
Go here if you want more info on Pash, Pick or Pass. Join in by sharing who out of Bill, Eric and Alcide you'd: 1) pash and dash; 2) pick for a long-term relationship; and 3) pass on altogether. Create your own post (linking back to this one) and share the direct link here, or simply comment below with your choices!

Mag Monday: True Blood Stars Cover EW

FINALLY, season four of True Blood is here! Well, not here here, but there here, as it hit US screens last night. I'm tossing up whether I want to a) stay spoiler-free and wait until I can see all the shows in one go, as I have in past years; b) read spoilers and still wait until I can see all the shows in one hit; or, c) give in to my impatience and watch each ep as it becomes available, so I won't have to worry about spoilers. I'm leaning towards the latter, because I'm dying to see how the season pans out - I hope it stays faithful to the fourth book (my fave), or I might just get stabby.

Anyway, what this ramble is eventually bringing me to is this: I love the Entertainment Weekly covers this week! The Alexander Skarsgard one is my favourite, of course - his expression cracks me up. Know what else cracks me up? Stephen Moyer's shoulder pads.