Where Is Your Bookmark? (A Peek Into Magic Slays & and Halloween Bookish Fun)

In between my War and Peace reading (I reached page 1000!), I have finally picked up Ilona Andrews Magic Slays and am loving it (is anyone really surprised though?). It is the fifth book in the Kate Daniels series.

A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. Hosted by the wonderful Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader.

The ringing of the phone jerked me from my sleep. I clawed my eyes open and rolled off my bed. For some reason, someone had moved the floor several feet lower than I had expected, and I fell and crashed with a thud. 

Ow. 

A blond head popped over the side of the bed, and a familiar male voice asked, "Are you okay down there?"

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A weekly meme in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading. Hosted by the wonderful Freda of Freda's Voice.

Andrea held out her hand. "You'll jinx it."

I put the camera into her hand and crouched, trying to get a look at the floor under the body. 

"No drip?" Andrea asked. 

"Nope. You smell anything? Decomp, blood . . . " 

She wrinkled her nose. "Cayenne pepper. The place reeks of it. It drowns out everything else."  [page 56]

My thoughts: I am so glad to be diving back into this series again. It is one of my favorites!


What do you think? Does this sound like a book you would be interested in reading? 

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Originally hosted by Books by Proxy, Friday Face Off is now hosted by the fabulous Lynn of  Lynn’s Book Blog. Participants are asked to feature two more more covers of the same book with the week's assigned theme, and pick a favorite. 

This week the theme is a book whose Trick or treat – A Halloween inspired cover

Nothing says Halloween quite like Dracula. It took me years to read the book as I was not impressed with any of the movies. But Bram Stoker's Dracula was an entirely different matter. I loved it.

I am really bad at the having-to-pick-a-favorite part. Several of these covers appeal to me, from the artwork to the photos. They all capture the mood of the book in their own ways. I was particularly drawn to these two covers below, one blue and the other read. It is the background that caught my eye. There is a scene in the novel that jumped out at me when I read the novel initially and both of these scenes depict the image I have in my head. They capture the isolation and Gothic feel so well, I think.

If I have to pick a favorite, I am going to go with this one:

Which cover do you prefer? 

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Everyone has a favorite and then we also have something we dislike. Like a coin, there are two sides to every question. Each week, Carrie at The Butterfly Reads and Laura from Blue Eye Books ask participants to list what they like and don't like about that week's topic.

This week's topic is Scary Book/Movie You Want to Read/Watch

I have heard wonderful things about Shirley Jackson's novels and with the recent release of the television series, The Haunting of Hill House, my interest in the book with the same title has only intensified. I have not read or watched it. Yet. Both are definitely on my must read/watch list!

What scary book do you want to read? What scary movie would you like to watch? 

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© 2018, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Where Is Your Bookmark? (A Peek Into The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel & More Bookish Fun)

I am still reading Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven, which I featured last week, and so I thought I would share a teaser or two from the next book on my TBR pile, The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A story of Sleepy Hollow by Alyssa Palombo. It is perfect for the fall season, I think. Just in time for Halloween.

A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. Hosted by the wonderful Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader.

The first paragraph of the Prologue:

Washington Irving got it wrong. I don't know what secondhand version of Katrina Van Tassel's story he heard, but it was all wrong. Oh, he got the names right: Ichabod Crane. Brom Bones. The Headless Horesman. But he left out the important parts of the story--the parts that matter most. 

Opening of Chapter 1:

It was an early summer of my eighteenth year that my destiny arrived, and despite my fancy for premonitions he took me quite by surprise. 

My thoughts: The opening of the prologue immediately got my attention. What is Katrina Van Tassel's story then, I wondered? As for the first sentence of the first chapter, well, I have a feeling I know who she is referring to and I cannot wait to meet him myself. And what is it she means by premonitions? Ooo! This sounds like it will be good!

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A weekly meme in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading. Hosted by the wonderful Freda of Freda's Voice.

She knelt beside me, an arm wrapped around my shoulders. "We wait to hear what Ichabod's mother tells Giles." she said, her voice faint. "And we . . . we wait. We wait to see if he comes back."

Charlotte helped me to the daybed so I might lie down, and went to fix me some more skullcap tea. The whole while, all I could hear were her last few words. 

We wait. We wait to see if he comes back. 

If he comes back. 

  [56%]

My thoughts: If you are familiar with Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, you might well know what has become of Ichabod Crane (or do you?).  I can tell from these passages that Katrina is worried about Ichabod and I find myself worrying as well.


What do you think? Does this sound like a book you would be interested in reading? 

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Originally hosted by Books by Proxy, Friday Face Off is now hosted by the fabulous Lynn of  Lynn’s Book Blog. Participants are asked to feature two more more covers of the same book with the week's assigned theme, and pick a favorite. 

This week the theme is a book whose cover features eyes ~ Eyes wide shut. 

The particular book I am featuring today, Laini Taylor's Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2), has multiple covers with eyes on them as you can see.  There is a definite effort to draw attention to the eye in several of these covers.

Not all of the covers feature eyes, however.

I like the look of many of these covers, and am hard-pressed to pick a favorite. Of the covers with the eye, I think the first is my favorite. However, I am partial to a couple of the covers without eyes even more. Especially the one with the archway--I even prefer the font on that one best as it compliments the picture.

Which cover do you prefer? 

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Everyone has a favorite and then we also have something we dislike. Like a coin, there are two sides to every question. Each week, Carrie at The Butterfly Reads and Laura from Blue Eye Books ask participants to list what they like and don't like about that week's topic.

This week's topic is Favorite Book With the Most/Least Ratings

I used Goodreads to determine which books of mine fit today's theme. One of my all-time favorite books has 2,447,190 ratings, which is not too surprising given how well read it is.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

My favorite book with the least amount of ratings on the Goodreads site only has 718 ratings:

The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary (Why haven't you read this book?!)

What are your favorite books with the most/least ratings? 

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Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Do you sneak a peek at the number of views your posts have gotten? (submitted by Elizabeth @Silver's Reviews)

No. In fact, I cannot even remember the last time I looked at my number of page views. When I first began blogging over 12 years ago, I fell down the rabbit hole of blog stats, and all it brought me was stress and burn out. I came to the conclusion that paying attention to the numbers was not how I wanted to blog.

I do understand the need to be seen and heard, something that isn't quite as easy today as it was when I got my start in blogging. The book blogging community is huge now. If you are just starting out as a blogger, it can be tough. You want to build an audience and find your niche, after all. I still get a thrill with each and every comment on my blog. And I am ever so grateful to my return visitors, most of whom I consider friends.

Everyone has their own reason and purpose for blogging, as well as his or her own way of doing it. Each blogger has to do what works best for them. I got into book blogging because I wanted to have a place where I could talk about the books I read and to share my thoughts with others. I like to think of my blog as a kitchen table where everyone comes to enjoy each other's company. Hopefully you will enjoy your visit while you are here.

What about you? Do you pay attention to your blog stats?

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© 2018, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Where Is Your Bookmark? (A Peek Into Phoenix Unbound/Cloudy Covers/Polygamous Reading)

I am just over halfway through Lyndsay Faye's Jane Steele and enjoying it quite a bit. Unfortunately, I was in a position yesterday in which I didn't have my copy handy (it's a trade paperback), and so I started reading Grace Draven's Phoenix Unbound on my phone.  I am already hooked.

A woman with power over fire and illusion and an enslaved son of a chieftain battle a corrupt empire in this powerful and deeply emotional romantic fantasy from the USA Today bestselling author of Radiance.

Every year, each village is required to send a young woman to the Empire's capital--her fate to be burned alive for the entertainment of the masses. For the last five years, one small village's tithe has been the same woman. Gilene's sacrifice protects all the other young women of her village, and her secret to staying alive lies with the magic only she possesses.

But this year is different.

Azarion, the Empire's most famous gladiator, has somehow seen through her illusion--and is set on blackmailing Gilene into using her abilities to help him escape his life of slavery. And unknown to Gilene, he also wants to reclaim the birthright of his clan.

To protect her family and village, she will risk everything to return to the Empire--and burn once more.  [Goodreads Summary]

A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. Hosted by the wonderful Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader.

For Gilene, spring was the season neither of rain or planting, but of suffering. 

She waited beside her mother, sister, and brothers as the caravan of shackled women plodded down Beroe's market street toward the town square. The slavers of the Empire guided the line, shoving their cargo forward with harsh commands and the occasional warning crack of a whip. 

My thoughts: Already the oppressiveness of living under the Empire's rule can be felt in just those first two paragraphs.

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A weekly meme in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading. Hosted by the wonderful Freda of Freda's Voice.

Summer had finally settled hard on the steppes, chasing away the rains that had lingered for weeks and turned the land into a vast quagmire. The relentless wet had left everyone and everything a soggy, miserable pile of foul-smelling wool. The people, the sheep, the qaras, They all reeked and were in desperate need of drying out. Only the horse herds and the wandering chickens escaped the stench. Today was the first dry day, and the wind galloping across the plains was finally dry instead of damp.  [56%]

My thoughts: I feel miserable just reading this scene. Wet and uncomfortable. It seems like they are in for some relief, at least weather wise.


What do you think? Does this sound like book you would be interested in reading? 

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Originally hosted by Books by Proxy, Friday Face Off is now hosted by the fabulous Lynn of  Lynn’s Book Blog. Participants are asked to feature two more more covers of the same book with the week's assigned theme, and pick a favorite. 

This week the theme is a book whose cover features clouds ~ I wandered lonely as a cloud.

I read She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb years ago. I remember being really moved by it.

I found quite a few covers for this one, not all of which I included believe it or not. My personal copy of the book matches the cover in the last row on the left, the head surrounded by water coming out of the water. My favorite of the covers is actually the top middle one with the blue dress. It's simple and yet detailed, and I just love the blue hues. 

Which cover do you prefer? 

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Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Do you like to finish one book before starting the next or do you read several at once? (submitted by Cathy @What Cathy Read Next)

I used to be a monogamous reader, preferring to finish one book before starting another. When I began listening to audiobooks, I realized that was not very realistic, especially given how long it takes me to get through just one audiobook. And then I began juggling more than one book at a time, depending on where I was at any given moment and how best to sneak in some reading time. A paper book, a book on my e-reader and another on my phone perhaps? Sometimes it's a matter of wanting something quick to read while in the middle of a longer book. Or something funny and light to take the edge of a more serious or depressing read.

I currently am taking part in two different year long read-alongs, one for Les Misérables and another for War and Peace. As a result, I have had at least three books going at once, sometimes more (four right now, in fact), since the beginning of the year. My fear of forgetting or not being able to keep a story straight hasn't been a problem, thankfully, even when the books are in similar genres. Sometimes I do struggle with which book to read when they all are good

What about you?

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© 2018, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Where Is Your Bookmark? (A Peek Into Jane Steele, My Favorite Fictional School, and a Wolfish Cover)

Today I am featuring my current read, which also happens to be my September TBR List poll winner:

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

“Reader, I murdered him.” 

A sensitive orphan, Jane Steele suffers first at the hands of her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, then at a grim school where she fights for her very life until escaping to London, leaving the corpses of her tormentors behind her. After years of hiding from the law while penning macabre “last confessions” of the recently hanged, Jane thrills at discovering an advertisement. Her aunt has died and her childhood home has a new master: Mr. Charles Thornfield, who seeks a governess.

Burning to know whether she is in fact the rightful heir, Jane takes the position incognito, and learns that Highgate House is full of marvelously strange new residents—the fascinating but caustic Mr. Thornfield, an army doctor returned from the Sikh Wars, and the gracious Sikh butler Mr. Sardar Singh, whose history with Mr. Thornfield appears far deeper and darker than they pretend. As Jane catches ominous glimpses of the pair’s violent history and falls in love with the gruffly tragic Mr. Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him—body, soul, and secrets—without revealing her own murderous past? 

A satirical romance about identity, guilt, goodness, and the nature of lies, by a writer who Matthew Pearl calls “superstar-caliber” and whose previous works Gillian Flynn declared “spectacular,” Jane Steele is a brilliant and deeply absorbing book inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre. [Goodreads Summary]

A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. Hosted by the wonderful Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader.

Of all my many murders, committed for love and for better reasons, the first was the most important. 

My thoughts: And with that, I have to know what put her on her current path. Talk about a hook!

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A weekly meme in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading. Hosted by the wonderful Freda of Freda's Voice.

"Poor little mouse has been on a diet of water and brimstone for four entire days now, after the larder raid," Taylor explained, sounding bored.

"The new girl," Clarke's tiny voice called. "Please don't punish her, for I hardly know her name. Steele, I think, and she was very tired, as she only arrived today. Miss Lilyvale told her to say her prayers, and she . . . didn't, sir. She fell asleep." [page 56]

My thoughts: I haven't yet reached this scene, but it appears are Jane Steele has had a rough childhood. I do not care much for Taylor.


What do you think? Does this sound like book you would be interested in reading? 

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Originally hosted by Books by Proxy, Friday Face Off is now hosted by the fabulous Lynn of  Lynn’s Book Blog. Participants are asked to feature two more more covers of the same book with the week's assigned theme, and pick a favorite. 

This week the theme is a book whose cover features a wolf or wolves. 

I chose one of my favorites from Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, Bitten. 

My eye is most drawn to the night scene with the wolf in the distance, framed by the tree and brush, a silhouette of a kind. I am less sure of the font used for the title, but I can live with it.

Which cover do you prefer? 

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Everyone has a favorite and then we also have something we dislike. Like a coin, there are two sides to every question. Each week, Carrie at The Butterfly Reads and Laura from Blue Eye Books ask participants to list what they like and don't like about that week's topic.

This week's topic is Favorite/Least Favorite Book Set in a School 

I probably should try and pick a lesser known book, but let's be honest. Most of us would go to Hogwarts if we could, even if only to walk its halls and explore the grounds. And I just love all of J.K. Rowlings characters and the world she created in the Harry Potter novels.

My least favorite is a bit tougher. There are plenty of schools I am glad I never attended, but for this selection, I went with a book I just could not get into. The Awakening by L.J. Smith, the first in the Vampire Diaries. I barely finished it. I really liked the television show, however--at least what I saw of it.

Have you read these? What would you say is your favorite book set in a school? Your least favorite?

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© 2018, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Where Is Your Bookmark? (The Impossible Girl & Goblins)

Happy Friday! Where is your bookmark today? Mine is waiting to go in the next book, but in the meantime, I thought I would share a bit of the next book I hope to read, Lydia Kang's The Impossible Girl.

Manhattan, 1850. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy socialite and a nameless immigrant, Cora Lee can mingle with the rich just as easily as she can slip unnoticed into the slums and graveyards of the city. As the only female resurrectionist in New York, she’s carved out a niche procuring bodies afflicted with the strangest of anomalies. Anatomists will pay exorbitant sums for such specimens—dissecting and displaying them for the eager public. Cora’s specialty is not only profitable, it’s a means to keep a finger on the pulse of those searching for her. She’s the girl born with two hearts—a legend among grave robbers and anatomists—sought after as an endangered prize. Now, as a series of murders unfolds closer and closer to Cora, she can no longer trust those she holds dear, including the young medical student she’s fallen for. Because someone has no intention of waiting for Cora to die a natural death. [Goodreads Summary]

A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. Hosted by the wonderful Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader.

The baby was small. Not so small as to concern Charlotte, but small enough to announce itself as precious. 

My thoughts: A telling opening, don't you think, of someone who will do great things?

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A weekly meme in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading. Hosted by the wonderful Freda of Freda's Voice.

"Can you believe her? Wanting to do a series of medical lectures. For ladies! For both unmarried and married ladies. It's absurd. No one will have her. We certainly shan't." He mopped his face again. "There is nothing more disobliging than discussion of bills, Miss Lee. I apologize that they took me away from you."

"Oh, I . . . "

"With your face, you ought never to have to worry about money. Never."

The compliment gave Cora the orge to wash her ears out. With lye.  

[56%]

 My thoughts: Nothing like a man who has a strong view of a woman's place. I feel for Cora.


What do you think? Does this sound like a book you would be interested in reading? 

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Originally hosted by Books by Proxy, Friday Face Off is now hosted by the fabulous Lynn of  Lynn’s Book Blog. Participants are asked to feature two more more covers of the same book with the week's assigned theme, and pick a favorite. 

This week the theme is a book whose cover features a goblin or dwarves. My chosen book just happens to be one that is on my TBR pile and would probably fit in well with Carole's Books from the Backlog feature: Goblin Quest (#1) by J.C. Hines.

I have to be honest. None of these covers are particularly appealing to me. I guess it is good this book comes recommended and the synopsis grabbed my attention. If I had to pick, it would be the first one if only because the color contrasts, the font of the title, and the image of such a tiny goblin going up against a big dragon.

Which of these covers do you prefer?

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Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Do you have a YouTube channel? If so, do you post book review vlogs? (submitted by Billy @Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer)

YouTube is evidently all the rage. My husband swears nearly every young person out there dreams about making a fortune on YouTube. And so many of them have their own stations. It is not something I have gotten into myself. I am too self-conscious to create a vlog (I won't even video chat with anyone but my daughter and husband). So, my short answer is no, I do not have a YouTube channel. I will stick the written word, thank you very much.

What about you?

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© 2018, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.