bloggiesta - i'm doing it!

Oh yes - that title speaks the truth.  I have finally decided, after 3+ years of blogging and watching from the sidelines, to participate in Bloggiesta.  Bloggiesta is a ‘work on your blog’ sort of event (hosted this year by Suey at It’s All About Books and Danielle at There’s A Book) and the point is to improve, spiff up, or just get caught up on some book blog-related things.  And to do so in the company of the rest of the book blogging community – like a big internet work party.  At least, I hope it’s like that!  We shall see.

What tipped the scales?  I kept seeing cool links to mini-challenges.  Things I didn’t even know I could do suddenly looked awesome and imperative.  My Bloggiesta To Do List was born.

General Items:

Write and schedule 3 book review posts

Write and schedule 2 food recipe posts

Plan a steampunk theme week for later in the spring

Listen to a steampunk podcast

Mini-Challenges:

Update the HTML to make my email clickable on the ‘Contact’ page

Update five posts for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Make (at least) 2 themed pages for my blog

Comment on at least 5 participating blogs

I shall probably add more as I go, but this is it for now.  Wish me luck!  Also, please do tell: what mini-challenges or tasks have you set for yourself?  

winterling

With some books I develop an instant affinity. I need only see the cover art to realize that it is ‘my sort’ of book. With others, I read the synopsis, and then I think to myself, ‘that sounds lovely.’ Still more books, not quite so lucky, get pushed to the outer reaches of my mind and may never be found again unless I’m vigorously prodded out of my current way of thinking. To give you an idea of what insta-love Cecelia Bedelia-style looks like, please see Exhibit A: Sarah Prineas’ Winterling.

With her boundless curiosity and wild spirit, Fer has always felt that she doesn’t belong. Not when the forest is calling to her, when the rush of wind through branches feels more real than school or the quiet farms near her house. Then she saves an injured creature—he looks like a boy, but he’s really something else. He knows who Fer truly is, and invites her through the Way, a passage to a strange, dangerous land.

Fer feels an instant attachment to this realm, where magic is real and oaths forge bonds stronger than iron. But a powerful huntress named the Mor rules here, and Fer can sense that the land is perilously out of balance. Fer must unlock the secrets about the parents she never knew and claim her true place before the worlds on both sides of the Way descend into endless winter.

Sarah Prineas captivates in this fantasy-adventure about a girl who must find within herself the power to set right a terrible evil.

Since I knew that I’d love this book, I asked for Winterling for Christmas (and got it). I should start off by saying that it fully lived up to my expectations. This is an ADVENTURE, all-caps. It’s fairyland and winter and magic and mystery and finding a way to fix the world while remaining true to right and good.

Fer is a misfit, and she knows it. She’s also an orphan, and is somewhat content living with her grandmother until she discovers that another world lies just beyond our own. When she visits that land and finds even more mysteries, nothing will stop her until she’s unraveled it all and done her part to help the wounded and hurting.

Though it is very much a middle grade book as far as content goes, Winterling is an engrossing and excellent fantasy. It reminded me of Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, if that makes any sense. The complexity of Winterling’s magical creatures is part of the reason that it is so engaging – they’re never quite what you’d think (and thus, quite fey).

Prineas’ world-building is also top-notch, and her characterization of Fer, her fearful grandmother and the denizens of the other world are outstanding. I’ll look forward to more of Fer, Rook, and further adventures in other lands the next in this series.

Recommended for: fans of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Ellen Potter’s The Humming Room, those who like middle grade and fantasy (all ages), and anyone who enjoys a brave, feisty hero(ine) who doesn’t hesitate to do what’s right, no matter how hard or how high the cost.

waiting on wednesday (25)

I’m participating today in "Waiting On" Wednesday. It is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, and its purpose is to spotlight eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

Last fall I took up a magical book, and it both broke and healed my heart.   It was full of the beauty and care of excellent fantastical writing.  Which is to say: Catherynne M. Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making was quite good at turning my emotions inside out, and sending them back to me with an extra helping of ‘well, wasn’t that WONDROUS?’  It is no surprise, then, that I am looking forward with glee and expectation to a second novel-length adventure in Fairyland.  Valente’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There releases on October 2, 2012 from Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan).

You’ve been waiting for another adventure in Fairyland... 

And now it’s finally here! Valente’s fans will be thrilled to revel in the lush settings, rich characters, and evocative language of September’s newest sojourn in Fairyland. 

After all the waiting, dreaming, and planning, September has made it back to Fairyland. However, all is not well there. The last time she visited Fairyland, September sacrificed her shadow to save another. Now, that shadow has become Halloween, the Hollow Queen. As ruler of Fairyland Below, Halloween is stealing shadows from the folk of Fairyland, and with them, their magic. September, determined to set things right, embarks upon a quest to Fairyland Below, a dark, wild place where everything is “slantways, sideways, and upside-down” – even the shadows of her dearest friends, Ell the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday.

What books are you waiting on?

retro friday – heir apparent

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted at Angieville that focuses on reviewing books from the past. These can be old favorites, under-the-radar treasures that deserve more attention, woefully out-of-print books, and so on. Everyone is welcome to participate!

These days I carefully curate my reading based on recommendations from fellow book bloggers and award lists. In the past (before blogging), I used to leave book selection method up to chance. I’d wander the library shelves or browse the bookstore tables until a title called my name or an intriguing book cover caught my eye. That’s how I discovered Vivian Vande Velde’s Heir Apparent.

In Heir Apparent there are as many ways to win as there are to get killed.

Giannine can testify to how many ways there are to die—it's about all she's been able to do since she started playing. Now all she has to do is get the magic ring, find the stolen treasure, answer the dwarf's dumb riddles, come up with a poem for the head-chopping statue, cope with the army of ghosts, outmaneuver her half brothers, and defeat the man-eating dragon.

If she can do all of that, why, she just might save her own life!

Giannine is a fourteen-year-old with distant parents, a penchant for gaming, and a gift certificate burning a hole in her pocket. She’s also living in a not-too-distant future where buses are automated and ‘gaming’ means fully immersive experiences in a virtual world that doesn’t seem, well, virtual. When she chooses to play the game Heir Apparent, she enters an alternate medieval reality where survival (and being named king) depends on making the right choices. To complicate matters, protesters in the real world have damaged the machinery, and unless she can play her way out of the game, Giannine is facing her last adventure – virtual or otherwise.

Heir Apparent is based on that ubiquitous staple of middle grade years – the choose your own adventure book. Of course, it’s also based on RPGs (role playing games), but in its 'infinite ways to solve the puzzle' I always thought of it in relation to the choose-your-destiny books. Which I hated, by the way. But what I DO like? Watching someone else making the choices and gleaning hints about their character from their choices. Which is probably why I once watched a roommate play 50+ hours of Zelda, without once ever taking a controller myself. I like watching. Weird, I know.

In any case, what we learn about Giannine is that she’s plucky, stubborn in her determination to succeed, a problem-solver, and a mean strategist. She’s also just a young girl who is having a hard time of it – but you get the feeling that with her skills and attitude, she’ll find a way to win in life. The rest of the characters receive less airtime, as it were, but each add interesting elements to the game (and the book).

Though I know the ‘ending,’ I’ve enjoyed reading Heir Apparent multiple times – and I continue to appreciate its clever plotting, Giannine’s resourcefulness, and the bit-by-bit reveal that marks a well-written fantasy/mystery.

Recommended for: fans of choose your own adventure novels and gaming, young adult and middle grade fantasy and science fiction enthusiasts, and anyone who likes a good adventure, admires quick-thinking, and recognizes that sometimes you don’t get it right – on the first, second, or even third time – but the important thing is to keep trying. Enjoy!