Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Be sure to comment with a link to your Tuesday Teaser post (or if you don't have a blog, share your teasers in a comment) so I can see what you're reading =)

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Title: Fallen

Author: Lauren Kate

"Just before she ducked into her first class, she dared to glance back. His face was blank, but there was no mistaking it -- he was watching her go."

Page 41

Musing Monday #1

Musing Monday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. She asks a question, and we answer, simple as that!

Question: How many books did you read in 2010? If you had a reading goal, did you meet it? What books are you most looking forward to reading for 2011 (either new, OR ones that have sat on your shelves for a while)?

My Answer:  I didn't really have any reading goals set in mind for 2010, nor did I start counting how many books I'd read until about the end of May.... according to my count on Shelfari, I've read 45 books since then. There are several books I'm looking forward to reading in 2011 (both old and new); it'd be impossible to list them all, so here's just a few.


From my bookshelf:

• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

New releases & Books I don't own yet:

• Firelight by Sophie Jordan
• City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
• Matched by Ally Condie

Movie Monday! #1

It's obvious that I love books, but I also love movies and music too! So when I saw a Music / Movie Monday post on Butterfly Feet Walking on Life's blog, I thought "hey, that's a cool idea! I wanna do a post like that too!" Every few weeks (most likely on a Monday, hence the title... we loveeee alliterations in our memes, don't we? lol) I'll post this, in which I'll rave (or rant) about some movies/CDs that I did or didn't like.

So here it is:

Title: Dogs Decoded
Genre: TV Documentary
Channel: PBS
Time: 53 minutes

Synopsis: "Dogs Decoded" reveals the science behind the remarkable bond between humans and their dogs and investigates new discoveries in genetics that are illuminating the origin of dogs—with surprising implications for the evolution of human culture. Other research is proving what dog lovers have suspected all along: Dogs have an uncanny ability to read and respond to human emotions. Humans, in turn, respond to dogs with the same hormone responsible for bonding mothers to their babies. How did this incredible relationship between humans and dogs come to be? And how can dogs, so closely related to fearsome wild wolves, behave so differently?

My Rating: 5 stars

In My Mailbox #1

 In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren in order to show off new books we've gotten recently.

For Christmas I got a B&N giftcard from my mom.  I was in heaven, of course, squeee! See I have this thing about giftcards... I love them because then I don't feel bad about purchasing lots of stuff that I wouldn't have bought sans said giftcard; I justify these actions by telling myself that the money had to be spent at that store eventually, so it's really not that bad after all. & I was still in need of a new calendar for 2011, so I decided to see what B&N.com had to offer. I wound up buying a Claude Monet 2011 calendar (one of my favorite artists) from their after-holiday sale. Then, as I went to click on my cart to pay for the item I saw "just spend $25 dollars to receive FREE shipping!"

giftcard... books... SALE!... FREE SHIPPING!!

Four things a bookaholic college student loves to see. So I did my little giftcard-justification-mind-battle thing, and then excitedly decided to browse the books at the after-holiday sale. My purchases were (as shown in the picture above):

What's Your Status? 1/1/11

What's Your Status is a weekly meme hosted by Butterfly Feet Walking on Life, in which we talk about: 1) what books we've finished in the past week 2) what books we're currently reading and how far we are 3) what's up next on our TBR list and 4) books we plan to buy/get from the library, etc

First off: HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope everyone had a great night with family & friends =)

Books I've finished

Fire by Kristin Cashore - Click to read my review

Books I'm Reading

• Fallen by Lauren Kate - on page 1
• Chronicles of Narnia Book 2: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe  by C.S. Lewis - on page 53

Books I Plan to Buy/Get

• My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent (buy)
• Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs (library)

I usually don't choose what book I plan to read next until I actually get around to reading it - I'm weird like that... so I'm not gonna put any "up next on my reading list" section for this week, since I haven't decided yet haha. 

So, what's your status this week?

Fire - Review

Title: Fire 
Author: Kristin Cashore
Source: Library ; Hardcover: 461 pages
Interest: Companion to Graceling (which I loved!!)

Official Blurb:

She is the last of her kind...

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

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My Rating: 3.75/5 stars (lol I was really torn between 3 stars or 4) ★★★★

My Review: 
This paled in comparison to Graceling. The prologue chapter was excellent: very intriguing and tied-in well with the plot of Graceling. After that; however, the story seemed to drag up until about half way through, contrary to the consistent action-packed plot of Graceling. Thankfully, the pace did pick up eventually. I thought the concept of "monsters" was very unique and enjoyable. I also liked how Cashore slowly unraveled the past via Fire's memories and reminiscences throughout the book, kind of like a puzzle coming together piece by piece. Besides the slow plot, I have two other criticisms of the book:

1. I thought that Leck's role in the novel seemed disconnected from the main storyline.  I understand he is a crucial character to Graceling, but I thought his side-plot could have been taken out of the book and the story wouldn't have suffered. I just didn't think that it fit all that well with everything else that was going on. ....Speaking of Leck, I'd recommend reading Graceling before Fire, as not to spoil the plot of Graceling.
2. So many illegitimate pregnancies! It was as if someone took an episode of 16 and Pregnant and combined it with a "Who's the Father?" episode of Maury.

Overall, it was a good read, but probably not something I'd read again. I definitely think Graceling was a better book... but perhaps I was just setting my expectations too high for Fire.

Books like this: Graceling by Kristin Cashore; Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce

Shifters Series by Rachel Vincent - Review

This isn't necessarily a "just-read" review (although I did finish the last book of the series fairly recently), but I have really enjoyed Rachel Vincent's Shifters series, and I wanted to spread the word to any of you who might not be familiar with it yet [and as I've said, I've been cooped up in my house due to the snow, so I've got a lot of free time on my hands lol]. I'll try and present this in a semi-organized manner, seeing as it's different than an ordinary review for a single book... well, here goes:

Book One: Stray

My Rating: 5/5 stars & ♥ (favorite) ★★★★★

My Thoughts: 
I stumbled upon Stray when I was browsing B&N's website for cheap e-books (*shrugs* hey, I'm a currently-jobless college sophomore; I'm on a pretty low book-budget lol) to read on my brand-spankin'-new NOOK & the first thing that I noticed was the awesome cover [I'll admit it... I'm a cover whore. I'm ten times more likely to read a book if it has a cover that catches my eye].

As if the hot cover wasn't enough of a selling point, I proceeded to read the book blurb, which turned out to be just as intriguing:

     "I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

      Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

     I'd been warned about Strays—werecats without a Pride—constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

     This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back…for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever—and whoever—I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays—'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them…."

 After reading the book, I knew this was gonna be a series that I'd absolutely love. First off, I liked the idea of werecats versus the commonplace (yet still cool) werewolves. Faythe is a strong, kick-butt heroine, which I loved. The plot was action-packed, and the characters were all people I wish I knew in real life (well... maybe not every character; I definitely would not want to meet any of those rogue werecats). I wanted to be a werecat [member of the South Central Pride, of course]. I was hooked!