Life. Sometimes the drama forces you to assess things more clearly, you know?

In other news, I finally read Neil Gaiman's Stardust yesterday and it was fabulous! For those of you that haven't read it, it's a fantasy/faerie tale/quest novel featuring a cusp-of-adulthood young man searching for a fallen star. It was a pretty quick read; I finished it in one (pretty slow) shift at the boy's house. I loved the fairy tale tone of it. It's hard to hit on that tone and still maintain a complicated plot and multi-faceted characters. He did an excellent job though. I wasn't sucked in immediately, but all of a sudden I was like half way through the book and couldn't put it down. I definitely had some straight up hand-to-mouth gasps at certain points of the action, and it also had a whole lot of heart. I always love watching completely disparate plot threads converge, and I was so satisfied with the ending of this one. He didn't cop out; the ending followed the plotlines that he'd set in motion; but he did it so elegantly. It was a true pleasure and I highly recommend it. :)

I've been reading some really excellent things lately, both novels and some Yuletide stuff, and I wanted to share my squee! I'm stilling working through Yuletide, so I'll post those in a day or two, but for now, have some book talk! I also have a couple more books I want to talk about, but I figured I'd go ahead and post this now.

Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder. Fantasy, Adult/YA. ♥♥♥♥. Highly Recommended.

( Read more... )

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Sci Fi/Future, Adult/YA. ♥♥♥♥♥. Highly Recommended.

( Read more... )

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh. Non-fiction. ♥♥♥♥. Highly Recommended.

( Read more... )

In other news, I'm out visiting my boy in Pittsburgh and it's really nice. :)

And, final unrelated random question...I'm considering changing my default to this one of Hermione I used here. Thoughts?

It's summer, which means I've had time to read again.

( Three under the cut )

I plan on doing this every three books. Just writeups about what I like and don't like about things I've been reading.

( Hero, by Perry Moore; Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron; Assassin's Apprentice, by Robin Hobb )

My dad got a new book in the mail today. Wide Awake, by David Levithan. Some of you might have heard me squee about David Levithan before, but, in case you haven't, he is omgsogood. Like, amazingly good. Incredibly good. REALLY REALLY GOOD, OK. And this book is about. about government. and politics. campaigns and road trips and rallies and phone banks and speeches and omg *ded* I LOVE IT I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT'S SO GOOD I'M GOING TO CRY WASKDFSLDKJFKJFDIERUWJKLFSDSDA

*flails*

That was the short squee. The longer and more coherent one is ( here )

The book isn't out yet; this is a (signed! oh my god!) pre-release*. It's scheduled publication date is September 12, which is my birthday! If you want to really do something for me--buy this book. Read it. Loan it to your friends. Buy it for your library. Talk about it. This book--this book is a beautiful painting of what could be. Let's make it true. Let's make this future happen.

*although we might get a few more pre-releases in a few weeks...I'll keep you updated.