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I have been totally striking out with my reads lately! I thought about reviewing Julie Kagawa's The Iron King and Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry but since they mostly would've come down to grousing about how they were totally not awesome and how much it sucks when you get all hyped for a book only to be disappointed I did not bother. However! I just signed up for the 24 hour read-a-thon and I am going to do my best to read ONLY awesome things. =D First up is Mary Hoffman's City of Masks. I'm loving the cover redesign, it's completely gorgeous.
Oct. 9th, 2010
Finished my first book of the read-a-thon! It was interesting doing a reread for something I'd read so long ago. The politics were considerably less complex than I remembered them being which is probably due to my first reading this in middle school when I had less experience with these kind of books. Basic plot of the story follows Lucien, a boy with cancer transported from our world to Talia, an alternate universe sixteenth century Italy. While there he runs into Arianna, a girl illegally camped out in the city of Belazza pretending to be a boy so she can get herself hired as one of the city's gondoliers. This plan goes down the tubes when she sees Lucien and gives him her clothes so he won't be identified as the non-Belazzan he clearly is and be executed. Lucien ends up getting the gondolier position she was hoping for and from there they get entangled in city politics that involve lots of body doubles, murder, and sixteenth century mathematicians.
My favourite character of the book was the Duchessa, a ruthless clever politician who enjoys escaping murder plots and allowing the perpetrators to squirm uncomfortably for hours by not letting him know whether he's about to die or not. Other interests include tightly holding on to her secrets, thwarting the ambitions of certain political families plotting to take control of her city and generally knowing more about what's going on then at least half the cast at any given time. I cannot at all remember the plot of the next book in series, City of Stars, but I hope she makes a reappearance.
This is a definite step up from my last two reads in terms of not boring me out of my skull. The plot moved at a good pace and what romance there was did not consist of the hero trying to murder the heroine and her getting past that because of how pretty he is. Not that I'm accusing any of my recent reads of doing this. *cough*TheIronKing*cough* Plus whenever I wanted a break I could simply stare at the cover for a few minutes which is seriously one of the nicest I've seen in awhile. I probably won't be reading the sequel so quickly because the copy I have has the old cover which is okay but not nearly as pretty as the resdesign. All in all, a decent start to my day of books.
Plus now that I've finished City of Masks I've picked out a selection of eight books I'll be choosing my reading from for the rest of the day. My next review may be on:
Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi
Wayfarer by R. J. Anderson
Along the River: A Chinese Cinderella Novel by Adeline Yen Mah
Standing for Socks by Elissa Brent Weissman
Forever Rose by Hilary McKay
Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson
Bakuman Volume 1 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Stravaganza: City of Stars by Mary Hoffman
I reserve the right to change my mind at any moment and pick some book not on this list at all! But I probably won't. :)
My favourite character of the book was the Duchessa, a ruthless clever politician who enjoys escaping murder plots and allowing the perpetrators to squirm uncomfortably for hours by not letting him know whether he's about to die or not. Other interests include tightly holding on to her secrets, thwarting the ambitions of certain political families plotting to take control of her city and generally knowing more about what's going on then at least half the cast at any given time. I cannot at all remember the plot of the next book in series, City of Stars, but I hope she makes a reappearance.
This is a definite step up from my last two reads in terms of not boring me out of my skull. The plot moved at a good pace and what romance there was did not consist of the hero trying to murder the heroine and her getting past that because of how pretty he is. Not that I'm accusing any of my recent reads of doing this. *cough*TheIronKing*cough* Plus whenever I wanted a break I could simply stare at the cover for a few minutes which is seriously one of the nicest I've seen in awhile. I probably won't be reading the sequel so quickly because the copy I have has the old cover which is okay but not nearly as pretty as the resdesign. All in all, a decent start to my day of books.
Plus now that I've finished City of Masks I've picked out a selection of eight books I'll be choosing my reading from for the rest of the day. My next review may be on:
Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi
Wayfarer by R. J. Anderson
Along the River: A Chinese Cinderella Novel by Adeline Yen Mah
Standing for Socks by Elissa Brent Weissman
Forever Rose by Hilary McKay
Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson
Bakuman Volume 1 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Stravaganza: City of Stars by Mary Hoffman
I reserve the right to change my mind at any moment and pick some book not on this list at all! But I probably won't. :)
A manga about an author/artist high school duo who aspire to become successful manga artists! Who spend a lot of time referencing Death Note! It's not self-referential at all, Ohba and Obata have no idea why you would think so. o:)
This was actually pretty fun though very very boys centric. At the beginning I thought Mashiro reminded me a bit of a non-sociopathic Light with his whole life is so boring shtick but now that I'm done I think maybe Akito is more similar. Mostly because there was this bit where he gave out his Very Intelligent Theory of How Girls Work and I was like 'ooh hey Light Yagami's ridiculous belief in his ability to analyze all people everywhere! Haven't seen you in awhile, how's it going?' Also I had a brief moment where I was like you know I don't remember this weird view of intelligence and tendency to sort of skewed ideas of what's acceptable in girls in Hikaru no Go, what's up with that? Seems like a step backward. But then I remembered that while Takeshi Obata did the art for all three series, it was Yumi Hotta who did the writing for Hikaru no Go.
And now I am going to take a break to watch episode 3.05 of Merlin, The One Where Arthur and Gwen Hold Each Other and Are Amazing And I Think It's Possible One of Them Was Crying. There might be other stuff going on there too, idk.
This was actually pretty fun though very very boys centric. At the beginning I thought Mashiro reminded me a bit of a non-sociopathic Light with his whole life is so boring shtick but now that I'm done I think maybe Akito is more similar. Mostly because there was this bit where he gave out his Very Intelligent Theory of How Girls Work and I was like 'ooh hey Light Yagami's ridiculous belief in his ability to analyze all people everywhere! Haven't seen you in awhile, how's it going?' Also I had a brief moment where I was like you know I don't remember this weird view of intelligence and tendency to sort of skewed ideas of what's acceptable in girls in Hikaru no Go, what's up with that? Seems like a step backward. But then I remembered that while Takeshi Obata did the art for all three series, it was Yumi Hotta who did the writing for Hikaru no Go.
And now I am going to take a break to watch episode 3.05 of Merlin, The One Where Arthur and Gwen Hold Each Other and Are Amazing And I Think It's Possible One of Them Was Crying. There might be other stuff going on there too, idk.
It's 10:30 and I'm still going strong! But this may have something to do with the fact that I have kind of spent a substantial amount of today doing things that were not reading, whoops. ^^ Well now that I know about the read-a-thon next year I'll plan it out so I actually do nothing all day but read.
FARA: Oops, got one of my socks wet this morning, guess I'll just switch it out for another.
JODY: Hey Fara did you know your socks aren't matching?
FARA: You're right! Ehh, no big deal really.
ENTIRE SCHOOL: Hey Fara we're digging the mismatching socks!
FARA: You know, now that I think about it why should socks always match? Express individuality! Bring down the matching sock tyranny! TOMORROW I AM GOING TO WEAR POLKA DOTS WITH STRIPES.
FARA'S MISMATCHED SOCKS: Become a thing.
FARA: So guys, I'm pretty socially active and into charity and environmental concerns and you know what I think might provide a great platform for me to express these interests? Running for student council president!
FRIENDS: Vote Fara, she's Fair-a!
SCHOOL: Hey it's sock girl! Hi sock girl!
FARA: Hi school! I'd like to talk to you about my plans to get recycling bins put in all the hallways.
SCHOOL: That's great and we're totally interested! But before you tell us about that, what colour socks are you wearing today? We've got a betting system going on you see.
FARA: I AM GETTING PRETTY SICK OF BEING DEFINED BY MY SOCKS NOW. :<
FARA: All this fame I've gained from my mismatched socks will probably be handy when election time comes! But I am starting to feel like my socks are getting alot more attention then I am.
FARA'S SOCKS: Oh come on, it's not so bad, you're the one wearing us!
FARA: Yesterday when I was sick Jody took you to school in my place and our teacher gave you a gold star for being quiet and well behaved.
FARA'S SOCKS: Oh. Umm. Well we wanted to spare your feelings but I guess the truth had to come out eventually. If it helps, we think you totally make a better accessory then the empty air we had to go with yesterday.
ELECTION TIME: Draws closer.
FARA'S SOCK RELATED PUBLICITY: Grows.
DIRTY POLITICS: Happen.
THE QUESTION OF WHO WILL WIN THE ELECTION, FARA ROSS OR MELODEE SIMON: Is resolved with surprising results!
FARA: Oops, got one of my socks wet this morning, guess I'll just switch it out for another.
JODY: Hey Fara did you know your socks aren't matching?
FARA: You're right! Ehh, no big deal really.
ENTIRE SCHOOL: Hey Fara we're digging the mismatching socks!
FARA: You know, now that I think about it why should socks always match? Express individuality! Bring down the matching sock tyranny! TOMORROW I AM GOING TO WEAR POLKA DOTS WITH STRIPES.
FARA'S MISMATCHED SOCKS: Become a thing.
FARA: So guys, I'm pretty socially active and into charity and environmental concerns and you know what I think might provide a great platform for me to express these interests? Running for student council president!
FRIENDS: Vote Fara, she's Fair-a!
SCHOOL: Hey it's sock girl! Hi sock girl!
FARA: Hi school! I'd like to talk to you about my plans to get recycling bins put in all the hallways.
SCHOOL: That's great and we're totally interested! But before you tell us about that, what colour socks are you wearing today? We've got a betting system going on you see.
FARA: I AM GETTING PRETTY SICK OF BEING DEFINED BY MY SOCKS NOW. :<
FARA: All this fame I've gained from my mismatched socks will probably be handy when election time comes! But I am starting to feel like my socks are getting alot more attention then I am.
FARA'S SOCKS: Oh come on, it's not so bad, you're the one wearing us!
FARA: Yesterday when I was sick Jody took you to school in my place and our teacher gave you a gold star for being quiet and well behaved.
FARA'S SOCKS: Oh. Umm. Well we wanted to spare your feelings but I guess the truth had to come out eventually. If it helps, we think you totally make a better accessory then the empty air we had to go with yesterday.
ELECTION TIME: Draws closer.
FARA'S SOCK RELATED PUBLICITY: Grows.
DIRTY POLITICS: Happen.
THE QUESTION OF WHO WILL WIN THE ELECTION, FARA ROSS OR MELODEE SIMON: Is resolved with surprising results!