Adding to my Wish List (5)

This book has been written a million times but so many writers can’t be wrong . . . I can’t wait to read it!

Goodreads blurb:

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.
When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

My To-Be-Read pile (TBR)

Yesterday I posted about the 100 top YA books of all time.  I also mentioned that I have only read 10 of them. 

All of that made me think of my own TBR pile.  How many books do I really have waiting patiently to be read?  I don’t know. 

So I sat down and made a list  (which took a looooong time).  Took out all my books . . . sorted through the books on my kindle and decided which ones were most likely to be read.

My list has 68 books . . . I thinned it out a bit.  Realistically there are some books that I will just have to skip.  My list will probably change every week as new ones are added and read ones removed . . . but I love lists, so I will keep it going.  :)  

My top 10 books to be read are:

1    Bed of Thorns and Roses by Sondra Allan Carr
2    Tangled Memories by Jan Scarbrough
3    Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson
4    Juliet Immortal  by Stacey Jay
5    Fools Rush In (Weddings by Bella #1) by Janice Thompson
6   Those that wake by Jesse Karpe
7    Demon (The Fallen #2) by Kristina Douglas
8    The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie (Highland Pleasures #1)        by Jennifer Ashley
9    Honeybun in Hell (Honeybun Hunks #4) by Sam Cheever
10    Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

How long is your TBR list?

100 Best YA Books

 

Shelag from Word Fiend posted this list with the 100 top YA books that have been going around blogs for the last few months and since I absolutely LOVE lists, I had to re-post.  I have only read 10 out of the 100 (highlighted) . . . mmmmm looks like I am missing out!  How many have you read?

1. Alex Finn – Beastly
2. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
3. Ally Carter – Gallagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4)
4. Ally Condie – Matched
5. Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
6. Anastasia Hopcus – Shadow Hills
7. Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
8. Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4)
9. Anna Godbersen – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)
10. Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
11. Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)
12. Becca Fitzpatrick – Hush, Hush (1, 2)
13. Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
14. Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret
15. Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)
16. Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)
17. Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3, 4)
18. Christopher Paolini – Inheritance (1, 2, 3, 4)
19. Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)
20. Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2)
21. Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)
22. Ellen Hopkins – Impulse
23. Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
24. Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply
25. Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1, 2, 3)
26. Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere
27. Gail Carson Levine – Fairest
28. Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)
29. J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
30. James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2)
31. James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
32. Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
33. Jeanne DuPrau – Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)
34. Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
35. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
36. John Green – An Abundance of Katherines
37. John Green – Looking for Alaska
38. John Green – Paper Towns
39. Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)
40. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1, 2)
41. Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)
42. Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1, 2)
43. Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)
44. Lemony Snicket – Series of Unfortunate Events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
45. Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3)
46. Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1, 2, 3)
47. Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
48. M.T. Anderson – Feed
49. Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)
50. Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
51. Maria V. Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)
52. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief
53. Markus Zusak – I am the Messenger
54. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
55. Mary Ting – Crossroads
56. Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelope (1, 2)
57. Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)
58. Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
59. Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
60. Meg Rosoff – How I Live Now
61. Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
62. Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1, 2, 3, 4)
63. Melina Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road
64. Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
65. Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
66. Michael Grant – Gone (1, 2, 3, 4)
67. Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion
68. Neal Shusterman – Unwind
69. Neil Gaiman – Coraline
70. Neil Gaiman – Stardust
71. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
72. P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
73. Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)
74. Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
75. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
76. Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
77. Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
78. Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere Carnal Over 40 Winks
79. S.L. Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)
80. Sabrina Bryan & Julia DeVillers – Princess of Gossip
81. Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride
82. Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key
83. Sarah Dessen – The Truth about Forever
84. Sara Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
85. Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan (1, 2)
86. Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (1, 2, 3)
87. Shannon Hale – Books of a Thousand Days
88. Shannon Hale – Princess Academy
89. Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)
90. Sherman Alexie & Ellen Forney – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
91. Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1, 2, 3)
92. Stephenie Meyer – The Host
93. Stephenie Meyer – Twilight Saga (1, 2, 3, 4)
94. Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees
95. Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)
96. Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games (1, 2, 3)
97. Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
98. Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)
99. Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)
100. Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped

This list has inspired me to make a list of my TBR-pile . . . wonder how many books it really is.  Watch this space – will be posting soon.

I am terrible at telling jokes . . .

. . . I really am . . . terrible!  I always seem to mess up the punch line . . . or worse, forget the punch line.  LoL  But I LOVE jokes or funny sayings.  And funny quotes from books are so much fun when you have read the book. 

I am reading Outpost by Adam Baker at the moment.  It is a serious book.  So image my surprised laughter when a joke appeared before me on the pages – it came out of nowhere.  One of the characters were reminiscing about happier times and this joke that her boyfriend told at the Christmas table:

“What is brown and sticky?”

. . . .

“A stick . . . “

LoL – I know terrible . . . but so funny!!  Well done, Mr Baker!

Do you enjoy jokes?  Do you have a favourite?  Or a funny quote?  Please share!

Movie Review: 127 Hours

 

Title:  127 Hours
Starring:  James Franco

This review contain spoilers!!

What an amazing movie! This is the true story of Aron Ralston that got trapped in a canyon by a freak rock fall which pins his arm between a rock and the wall of the canyon.  Off course Aron didn’t tell anyone where he was going.  No-one is looking for him and there isn’t anyone for miles. 

I must admit that I did not like Aron at all.  He seemed a bit full of himself.  But I still could not help getting swept into the dark emotions filling the screen as the hours stretches into days.  He starts debating the inevitable with himself and begin to fall into hallucinations. 

Off course there is the scene when he starts cutting his arm off . . . it was filmed very spectacularly and a lot is left to your imagination and the sounds filling the screen.  But I still see James Franco’s face when he had to cut the nerves and tendons and my heart aches.

This is a very heavy drama and not suitable for a Friday evening but you HAVE to see it!  So make time on a Saturday afternoon . . .

Adding to my Wish List (4)

When I was younger, I used to read everything by Stephen King and Dean Koontz but in the last few years I have started taking other roads.  Yesterday I saw this book (novella) by Stephen King and the blurb reminds me of how I used to love his horror books.

Goodreads blurb:

At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.

Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.

Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.

Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon

Guest post and Give-Away by author Amanda McNeil

Ever notice how a lot of paranormal romance tends to take place in the American South?  I’m a huge fan of the genre, so when I decided to write my own novella series, making the main character a northerner born and raised was a no-brainer.

Tova Gallagher embodies the best and worst of northern women.  She’s fiercely independent, brassy, and some would say tactless.  Attempts at being fashionable sometimes fall to the wayside in order to stay warm and/or dry in fierce Boston winters.  Bourbon is always on hand, and she gives men a bit of a run for their money when it comes to drinking at the pubs.  But she’s also loyal to a fault and has a soft heart under the tough exterior.  Her stress levels running an independent bookstore with her best friend and being perpetually boyfriendless may be high, but her biting Yankee sense of humor helps her keep a positive outlook.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a paranormal romance if Tova was just a typical northern woman, would it?  She’s also half-demon.  The result of the supe world attempting to determine of humans or demons will win in the endtimes.  Whichever half Tova and other halvesies allow to control their lives is supposed to help predict this future.  Personally, Tova thinks this whole issue has more to do with demons being unable to keep it in their pants around humans, but her demon cousin Bartleby always shoots down this theory.  You’d think choosing sides would be easy, but demon magic can be really tempting to use.  Even more so when a mysterious stranger shows up that makes her tingle in more ways than one.

The Tova Gallagher series will consist entirely of bite-sized novellas for the busy paranormal romance fan.  New entries will release every two to three months. 

The first entry, Ecstatic Evil, was released on July 7th.

Amanda has generously offered an eCopy of her book to a lucky commenter.  So go ahead and leave you details with a message to Amanda and I will draw a lucky winner on 15 September 2011.

Author Bio:
Amanda is an energetic, masters degree educated, 20-something happily living in an attic apartment in Boston with her shelter-adopted cat.  She writes horror, dystopian scifi, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy.

You may find her online at her blog http://opinionsofawolf.wordpress.com or request to follow her on twitter http://twitter.com/amandamcneil. You may also contact her at opinionsofawolf@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting, Amanda!