Friday Link Dump: Bookish Manicures, Game of Thrones Videos and Cute Babies

-Mandee from Vegan YA Nerds has created a new blog dedicated to her book-inspired manicures. They're amazing.

-Mandee has also teamed up with Rey and Trinity for a brilliant podcast called Ladies of YA.

-Cuddlebuggery has a new feature: In 10 Lines. Their first micro-summary is for Hush, Hush. It's predictably hilarious.

-This is what Game of Thrones would have looked like if it came out in 1995. And this is what it would look like if it was set in a modern high school.

-Zoe Kravitz will give her dad a run for his dystopian money after being cast in Divergent.

-I giggled at Book Riot's post on whether popular YA is secretly fanfiction.

-YA Highway has a great post about writing through depression.

-Laini Taylor's post about her brain being a jerk is a bit old but still brilliant.

-The blogging world has had a bit if a meltdown this week over news that Google is killing its Reader in a couple of months. Here's a handy lists of the alternatives.

-You've heard of Better Book Titles, but now there's alternate movie titles to keep us entertained.

-This talented dude harmonises (with himself) about what happened to the Disney princesses after their Happily Ever After. It's pretty great.

-The trailer for Kick-Ass 2 is here and I am excited.


-A law-defying artist has taken to defiling decorating five dollar notes in creative ways.

-I'm not the only one who had a mad crush on Devon Sawa as a pre-teen. That spin!

-Ever wondered about all the things Carrie wondered about on Sex and the City? Wonder no more. Here's a list of them all.

-Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon performed a barbershop quarter version of Sexyback and it was great.

-Cute babies being cute and discovering new things about the world are pretty, well, cute.

-Buzzfeed gives evidence for what we already know: Zac Efron is perfect.

-So this is what dogs get up to when they're home alone.

-Cadbury Cream Egg pudding. 'Nuff said.

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Well, that was disappointing.

When Divergent came out in 2011, there was a ridonkulous amount of hype around it. Every review I read said it was ah-mazing. Some said it was as good as or better than fellow YA dystopia The Hunger Games. Needless to say, I had very high expectations. They were definitely not met.

In an unspecified future, society has been divided up into five factions, with each one placing one particular value above all others. Tris has grown up in Abnegation, where selflessness rules, but she's always been fascinated by the brave Dauntless. When the time comes for her to choose the faction she will spend the rest of her life with, she discovers she's actually Divergent, excelling in more than one area. It's dangerous to be Divergent, apparently.

I didn't buy it. The worldbuilding was very weak and didn't make sense to me at all. Why would society divide into factions to keep peace, when division brings the opposite? Moreover, why is being Divergent so rare, when in reality most people are good at and do value more than one thing? It's more rare to find someone who only has one strength! After all bravery, intelligence, honesty, selflessness and peacefulness are not all mutually exclusive.

Divergent was slow to start with, and the majority of the plot is taken up with training and tests that kind of go nowhere. It picks up towards the end, but takes awhile to get there. I really didn't like Tris at first - she seemed cold and unkind. She grew on me a bit but I didn't love her. The chemistry between her and Four, the love interest, was great in a couple of scenes but it all felt very predictable, like I'd read it 50 times before.

It was entertaining overall but OK at best. I really don't see what all the fuss is about.

Rating: 3/5

Eye Candy
I saw Teresa Palmer as Tris and Zac Efron as Four.

Fine Print
Genre Young Adult Dystopia
Published: 2011, Harper Collins
Get It: Book Depository

Friday Link Dump: Catching Fire, Floating Bookstores and Zac Efron's Butt.

The butt is in the last link. I'm not all about the butts. Just mostly.

This week I got Under the Covers with Jo from one of my favourite book blogs, Wear the Old Coat, and shared the stories behind two very special books on my shelf.

Entertainment Weekly has the first stills from Catching Fire and they look awesome. Especially Sam Claflin as Finnick, he is exactly as I pictured him when I was reading the book. My one gripe is that Peeta and Gale look like they have the same hair colour. P.S. Jennifer Lawrence won a People's Choice Award for The Hunger Games and was totally adorable in her acceptance speech.

Wendy Darling is doing a Cost of Book Blogging survey, to get some figures on the value of book blogging. Take part if you're a book blogger!

Want your very own Harry Potter-inspired magical wand? Here's how to make one. Clever!

The world's largest floating bookstore. I want to go to there.

I love discovering book inscriptions in old, used books. Which is why I loved discovering a blog full of them!

The Victorians didn't like to smile in photographs, but apparently they did like to appear headless.  Creepy.

I love this dollhouse-inside-a-guitar. Kinda makes me want to be a "miniature maker" myself. (It's just an excuse for grown-ups to play with dollhouses, right?)

You know what's strangely mesmerising? This male model being hit repeatedly with water balloons. 

Also Zac Efron's butt. What I'm getting from this gif set is that the Zefron spends a lot of time in The Paperboy wearing nothing but tighty whiteys. Which is enough to make me want to see it.

Ten Reasons To Read The Sea Of Tranquility By Katja Millay

 

1. Katja Millay's lovely, emotive writing. It's raw and real; romantic without being cheesy; touching without being maudlin; and contains just the right amount of humour mixed in with the more harrowing elements of the story.

2. Josh, one of the two narrators. He's had everyone he's loved taken from him, and isolates himself as a result, but underneath all the hurt is a big, adorable heart. He's creative with wood (get your mind out of the gutter! Oh, is that just mine?) and makes beautiful furniture. Plus he's easy on the eyes. In my mind, kinda like this:

3. Nastya, the other narrator. She's even more messed up than Josh, and is hell-bent on getting revenge on the boy who attacked her and robbed her of her passion - her ability to play piano. She's fierce and furious; her anger is palpable and and her hurt is heartbreaking. You can't help but be pulled in to her story as it intertwines with Josh's and they both begin the journey to healing together.

4. The narration switches between Nastya and Josh's perspectives; I know not everyone likes dual narrators, but it really works for this story. With two such damaged protagonists who don't necessarily let other people see their real selves, it's helpful to get inside both of their heads. It makes it all the more interesting to see each one from the other's perspective, and contrast their view of themselves with how the other sees them.

5. The secondary characters. They're richly developed and not only important to Josh and Nastya's story, but also have their own subplots happening that make the narrative feel all the more real. I especially liked Drew, who turns out to have more charm and depth than your average douchey jock.

6. It's an addictive book; you'll start reading and the next thing you know five hours have passed and you haven't moved, except to turn the page.

7. The characters and story are so powerful that they stick in your head even when you're not reading it, and hang around for a long time after you've finished.

8. It's about love and family and grief and loss and identity and death and ice cream and creativity and everything that's important in life.

9. It's incredibly painful at times and will put you through an emotional wringer, but in the end there's a lovely sense of peace and closure.

10. The cover is not only gorgeous, it's relevant to the story and highlights the rich symbolism to be found throughout.

Rating: 4.5/5

Fine Print
Published: Atria Books, November 2012 (Kindle edition)
Source: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
Get It: Amazon

Review: Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

In the heady days after I finished the Twilight series, I binged on anything and everything I could get that was vampire-related. I wanted to recapture that heart-racing, page-turning, delicious (and slightly delirous) craze that Edward Cullen had drawn me in to. I discovered the Vampire Academy series, which was awesome, and the Blue Bloods series, which was not. I raced through the Southern Vampire series. I dabbled with The Vampire Diaries. I reread Twilight. And I overdosed.

Once the Cullen-induced haze had lifted, I found myself so incredibly sick of vampires. I wasn't just sick of reading them - I was sick of seeing them. It seemed like every second book was vampire-related. I cringed away from them all in protest of the (over)saturation. I was put off by the money-grabbing appearance of it all, and I was incredibly tired of the many Twilight imitations that watered down the vampire mythology till it had as much blood in it as a tofurkey. Of course I still had a place in my heart for VA, TVD (the TV version) and Sookie Stackhouse (well, Eric Northman, at least), but I wasn't interested in taking on any new vamp stories. So when Drink, Slay, Love came out I rolled my eyes. Judging from the cover alone, it seemed to me to be cashing in on not one but two overdone phenomena (vampires and Eat, Pray, Love) and I didn't want a bar of it.

Then I learnt about the plot, and I started to think, OK, maybe there was more to this book than meets the eye. Like UNICORNS. You add a unicorn to something and it automatically makes it more awesome. Forget vampires - why aren't unicorns in every second book?! Anyway, learning that Eat, Pray, Love was about a vamp girl getting staked by a unicorn's horn and suddenly waking up able to walk in the sun and feeling pangs of conscience definitely piqued my interest, though I was still a bit turned off by the daywalking, deep-thinking tropes I'd seen all-too-much of. Then I read reviews. Many reviews. Many glowing reviews. I was still a bit cynical, but I trusted the reviewers in question, so I got the book and put it on my bookshelf. There it sat for oh, about a year. I considered reading it from time, but was still not that keen on new vampire books, so I passed it over. Finally the day came when, in search for something light and fun to read, Drink, Slay, Love caught my eye. I somehow skipped over the fact that it was about vampires and only remembered that it was about UNICORNS. And what could be more light and fun than that?!

I'll tell you what - VAMPIRES. Specifically, vampires who drink blood and view humans as food. And then get staked by unicorns and get all these FEELS that they don't want to deal with. But they actually do deal with them rather than being all, like, angsty and broody. OK, I should stop saying "they" because really I'm just talking about Pearl. She's so awesome. I'll admit it was a little confronting at first to be inside her head when she was hunting and viewing humans as prey and all, but I still immediately loved her strength, confidence, power, self-respect and snarky sense of humour. She's a refreshing heroine, and a refreshing kind of vampire. Even when the day-walking wangst started, it worked for me - because it wasn't stale. Pearl really struggled with it, and openly talked about how lame it was. It was the kind of wink wink, nudge nudge humour that appeared throughout, and that I love.

The secondary characters were also great. Pearl's family were hella creepy in the way vampires should be, and her new friends at school were likable and funny. Evan, the love interest, was ridiculously perfect, just like every other YA paranormal love interest, but the cliché is cleverly subverted by a certain spoilery part of the plot. And yes, the whole unicorn thing was a bit campy and absurd, but I think that was kind of the point. The whole thing parodies the many were-animals we see in vamp stories, while at the same time making the device more awesome. Because it's UNICORNS.

While Drink, Slay, Love is a parody, it's not so ridiculous that it undermines its own story; you still connect with the characters and feel for Pearl as she navigates her new situation and tries to balance her duty to her family (and, y'know, trying not to be killed by them) and her feelings for her new human friends. It provides a hilarious critique of paranormal romances while at the same time becoming a fun and fresh addition to the genre. It may just have got me hooked on bloodsuckers again. As long as they're as awesome as Pearl.

Rating: 4.5/5

Eye Candy
I pictured Crystal Reed as the kick-ass beauty Pearl, and Zac Efron as Evan, because he's supposed to be perfect-looking and the Zefron is the most perfect-looking human being on Earth.

Fine Print
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal Romance
Published: 2011, Allen & Unwin
Get It: Angus & Robertson

Friday Link Dump: Banned Books, Cute Animals and Zac Efron

 
A very talented teenager created these cool covers for Hogwarts textbooks. Kids these days...

This collection of photographs of the real-life people who inspired famous literary characters is fascinating. My favourite is the "real" Dorian Gray. He is very pretty.

Read famous authors' responses to their books being banned. It will make you smile and/or clap.

Did you know you can get Game of Thrones cons? They're pretty ugly. Much cuter merch can be found here. Ahem.
 
This piece on hate blogs is really fascinating, especially in light of recent book blogging dramz.

Everyone needs some Daily Animals in their life. Especially because, according to Science, looking at baby animals boosts your productivity. And makes your heart burst with squee. This website has taken the idea and run with it. You get a new cute kitteh picture for every hundred words you write. They should totally make a Ryan Gosling version. Forget Nanowrimo, I'd get that shit done in a day.

This genie IS a web genius. He guessed every single person I was thinking of. It's like he was IN MY MIND.

I'm totally addicted to making sound buttons. Here's one I prepared earlier.

This is what happens if you try to visit Dawson's actual creek. Eek.

This piece on Jezebel about a real-life baby beauty pageant experience is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying. Much like Toddlers and Tiaras, but more self-aware.

This real-life anime girl is kind of mind-blowing. Not necessarily in a good way.

This is the prettiest cheesecake I have ever seen. Mmm, cheesecake...
  
YouTube Clip of the Week
So adorable. Elmo ain't bad either.

 

Mag Monday: Zac Efron in BlackBook Oct/Nov 2012

Zac Efron with cute baby animals? I gotta get my hands on this magazine.

"Why yes, that is a bunny in my pocket."

"Did someone say fox? Oh, I brought an animal along too."

I have nothing remotely clever to say about this. It's too cute for words.

I will not say anything dirty. Definitely nothing about trouser snakes. Ahem.

My Book Boyfriend: Roger Sullivan

 

My Book Boyfriend is hosted by the lovely Missie at The Unread Reader. This week I'm a bit obsessed with Roger from Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, coz:

• He's super hot: "The guy coming toward me was shockingly good-looking. He had broad shoulders, light brown hair, dark eyes, and he was already smiling at me." I pictured him as Zac Efron.
• He's confident and friendly, never lies and never says "goodbye".
• He's sensitive and a great listener.
• He wears glasses to drive, especially at night, which makes him adorkable.
• He's a bit of a history buff, loves discovering new things and dreams of being an explorer.
• He has great taste in music (see playlists here).

Swoon-Worthy Quotes

“He stood and looked at me for a moment, taking in my outfit. 'You look hot.'
'What? Me?' I stammered, completely flummoxed.
'Yeah,' he said, still looking at me.
'Oh. Um, thank you. I mean, not that you don’t, but I’m not sure that you should—I mean …'
'Oh, no,' Roger said quickly, and I could see that he was blushing again. 'No. I mean—I meant what you’re wearing. Are you going to be too warm?'"

"He looked over at me. 'We're doing this?' he asked. And for the first time since the trip began, it felt like we were doing something. The two of us, making a choice, taking a leap, together.
I nodded. 'We're doing this.'"

"'God,' he murmered into my hair when we broke away...'I've been wanting to do that for a long time.'
'Really?' I asked, almost afraid to believe this.
'Oh yes,' he said. 'Since Kansas. At LEAST.'"

“'The best discoveries always happened to the people who weren't looking for them. Columbus and America. Pinzón, who stumbled on Brazil while looking for the West Indies. Stanley happening on Victoria Falls. And you. Amy Curry, when I was least expecting her.'
I smiled back at him while feeling sharply just how much I was going to miss him. It was almost a physical pain. 'I'm on that list?'
'You're at the top of that list.'"

Review: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

There are some books that are so lovely, they actually make you do a happy sigh and smile as you close them. This is one of them.

That's not to say it's all fairy floss, sunshine and unicorns. Quite the opposite - Amy and Roger's Epic Detour tackles some pretty serious issues - like heartbreak, death and grief - but it does so in such a tender, realistic way that it's not morbid or depressing at all. The story focuses on Amy, who is just barely recovering from her father's death in a car accident three months prior. She hasn't gotten in a car since, let alone behind the wheel, so when she has to get their car across the country, Amy's mum enlists Roger, an old family friend, to drive.

Roger and Amy haven't seen each other since they were kids, but being crammed in a car together for hours on end certainly helps them get to know each other pretty damn quick. They're both dealing with their own issues, but as they open up on their crazy detour, they make discoveries about themselves and are able to move towards feeling better - not to mention towards each other. Ahem.

Before reading this I was worried it would be a bit angsty and emo, given the subject matter, but as Roger and Amy zig-zag across America, they encounter a lot of amazing places and quirky characters, and it's actually a really fun ride. Amy and Roger are themselves very likable characters, and Matson's writing is clean, straightforward and well-paced. I loved the scrapbooky details scattered throughout - the photos, playlists and random notes enhanced the story and enforced the feeling that you're taking this journey along with Amy and Roger. In fact, this book will totally make you want to take a road trip. And see America. And listen to new music. And make awesome playlists. And eat lots of junk food. And kiss cute boys. And cry a little. And smile a lot.

Rating: 4/5

Eye Candy
Roger is supposed to be jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and the guy who instantly came to mind was Zac Efron. Swooon... Amy, meanwhile, is a cute redhead, so who else could I picture but my favourite adorable redhead, Emma Stone?! Nobody, that's who, coz Emma Stone is the shizz.

Source

Source

Fine Print
Genre: Young Adult
Published: Simon and Schuster, 2011
Get It: Book Depository

Related
Some awesome people have handily compiled Roger and Amy's playlists on YouTube. Listen while you read for extra fun.

• Roger Playlist #1: "Leaving California" aka "Hitting the Road" aka "Snacks Are Important, But Not Quite as Important as Tunes"
• Roger Playlist #2: "What Do You Mean We're STILL in California?!" aka "The Very Long and Winding Road" aka "The Ballad of Amy's Lost Sunglasses"
• Roger Playlist #3: "Road to Nowhere" aka "Cruise Control on Highway 50"
• Roger Playlist #4: "Hillary & Edmund Hit the Highway" aka "People Who Take Pictures of Trees"
• Roger Playlist #5: "No Place Like Home" or "Why Won't Amy Buy Sunglasses?" or "The Sunflower State"
• Roger Playlist #6: "Tornado Season??" aka "Ice Cream Frozen Custard Headache"
• Roger Playlist #7: "Missouri-Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky" aka "When will Amy be the DJ? WHEN?" aka "1500 miles on 400 dollars..."
• Amy Playlist #1: "Going to Graceland" aka "Roger Gets an Introduction to Musical Theater"
• Roger's Last Playlist: "Pennsylvania, Here We Come" aka "Journey's End"

My Book Boyfriend: Cross Sugarman

It's My Book Boyfriend time! This is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Missie at The Unread Reader, focusing on fictional boys that we wish were not so fictional. This week I've chosen Cross Sugarman from Prep by Curtis Sittenfield. OK, so he's a D-grade douche, but hey, he's freaking hot.* He's the star basketballer you crush on in high school but never get (except Lee does kinda get him, but they both do stupid things and it all gets kinda awkward). So he's not so much My Book Boyfriend as My Book Boy-I'd-Totally-Bang.

*There's a 90 per cent chance I chose him because to me he looks like Zac Efron, and I wanted to post shirtless pics.

Swoon-worthy Quotes

"The reality of Cross before me was jarring: his tallness, his pale skin and cropped brown hair, his blue eyes, which seemed to contain both intelligence and boredom... Cross Sugarman was the best-looking boy I had ever sat so close to. And this fact was both thrilling and mortifying."

"His hand cupped my shoulder, and there was the slightest pull, a pull toward him. I gave into it. My body fell against his: my leg pressed to his leg, my arm filling the hollow between us, the top of my head just below his collarbone... He touched my hair, first so briefly that it felt accidental; then his fingers raked through and started over again, and every so often, he rubbed the back of my neck with his thumb. My whole body was hot liquid; I felt beholden to him, and painfully happy."

"'I like your bed,' he said. How had this happened? Why was he here? And what if I did something wrong and he left? 'Except,' he added, 'it’s kind of hot. Hang on.' He pushed back the covers, raised his torso as if doing a sit-up, crossed his arms, lifted his sweater and T-shirt over his head, and tossed them away. 'There. Much better.' When he lay back down and pulled up the covers again, relief washed over me - I’d been afraid he was leaving altogether, but now (his shirt was off!) it seemed he was settling in."

"That was when, not unlike the way he had that rainy evening in the taxi three years before, he began to stroke my hair. He set his fingers against the top of my forehead and ran them back, smoothing out my hair against the pillow, then set his fingers against my forehead again. Over and over, back through my hair, the glide of his fingertips - I think that maybe nothing else in my life ever felt that purely, uncomplicatedly good. I couldn’t speak because I was afraid if I did, I might start crying, or he might stop doing it. I shut my eyes. After a long time, he said, 'You have nice hair. It’s really soft.' He ran his knuckles along the line of my jaw, over my lips. 'Are you awake?' 'Sort of,' I murmured. It was an effort to speak. 'Can I kiss you?'"

Bookish Fun: Hot Guys Reading Books

I love this site. It's a Tumblr devoted entirely to images of hot guys reading books. What could be better than that? OK, so some of the guys aren't exactly what I'd call hot, but even their looks are somewhat improved thanks to the books they're holding. I think they're onto something... so I went on an intensive Google image search for further evidence. Let me tell you, it was hard work. Ahem. Look what I found!

 

Excuse me while I go wipe the drool off my keyboard...