Love Struck

I found myself at a middle school gym this past weekend, falling in love once again with Melissa Marr's faery tales.  Love her!  If you haven't read Wicked Lovely, then you should purchase the series and start now.  The movie is in early production stages and as I've mentioned in earlier posts, the series is best read continuously.  Anyhow...I forgot to bring a book to read in between my son's basketball games, so I did what I said I'd probably never do...I downloaded the iBooks app and purchased a book to read.  Now, granted, I didn't purchase anything I'd want to keep forever, I simply searched for authors I usually enjoy and discovered that Melissa Marr has released several short stories lately.  I jumped right in and purchased a $2 story entitled, "Love Struck" and set to reading. 

Once again I was thrown into the fantasy world Marr creates so brilliantly.  This time, our story opens on a beach at night...a handsome young man and an edgy, brilliant, attractive Alana.  Right away I was drawn into the story...Marr has a way of hypnotizing you with her male characters.  I was just like Alana...terrified and intrigued at the same time!  
Marr uses the faery world as the setting for her stories and I love how she breaks the barriers between realistic fiction and fantasy.  Nice hybrid.  If you decide to pick up this short story, you'll have to get it at iBooks...it's the only place I've been able to find it.  It's not even mentioned on her website.  You'll enjoy learning more about the mystical creatures known as selchies.  


This book counts as #4 of 113!!!


Happy Reading!
RC

The Amulet of Samarkand

Ashamed isn't even the word I should use to describe how bad I feel about my personal reading habits lately.  I've failed as a librarian!  No, not really.  But I haven't read as much as I normally do lately.  I started this series right before Christmas and haven't finished.  I know...it's been 3 months.  (One of my excuses for not reading is that we've had only 1 snow day and I had to clean my house that day!  NO snow days means NO free reading days.) 

Oh well, let me go ahead and review this book...I already know what you're thinking...the cover is atrocious.  I agree.  Not typically my kind of book, but I agreed to read it with one of my sixth grade students so we could discuss it.  And then...he abandoned it.  So then I went looking for another student to read it with...an 8th grader this time.  He also abandoned it after a few pages.  You see, it has to do with the fact that the protagonist is a demon.  Yep.  A demon.  I don't like it much either...but I'm going to finish.  The book is well-written.  The author does have an issue with point of view...(like I obviously have an issue with elipses---I like them, okay?!).  Stroud switches point of view without appropriate transitions and it's difficult for my middle school kiddos to keep up.  I think that's what loses them.  The plot is action-packed, though, I'll give him credit for that. 

Perhaps in an urban middle school, this book would sprout wings and fly off of the shelves, but not here in our rural Kentucky school.  And I'm not complaining.

So, I wouldn't necessarily suggest this book to just any reader...those tweens who like Cirque du Freak, maybe. 

Happy Reading!
RC

The DNA of Relationships

It's been waaaayyyy too long since my last post.  I'm convinced that I've been too busy keeping all of life's juggling balls airborne.  And that's the way it should be... I read for a living, though, and so I always do feel a bit guilty when I neglect my reading!  So, without further ado, here's my latest read and I absolutely loved it.  It's nonfiction.  A self-help book to help me with all of the relationships in my life.  I highly recommend it.

The truth is, we all could use a lot of help managing the relationships in our life.  I took the personality test on the website today and doggone it, it nailed my weaknesses and strengths to the wall!  Perfect!  I want to know what my weaknesses are in relationships so I can be a better daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, coworker, friend...don't you?

Happy Reading!
RC