Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Top Ten Characters that I want to be my BFFs Just one more day to enter my 1-year blogversary giveaway of  Mistborn and an amazon giftcard ! Top  Ten Five Books If You Like Doctor Who 1.  - if you like Doctor Who, you are probably a fan of bizarre planets and strange alien creatures, but you also probably have a soft spot for human beings being the best they can be. This series has all of those elements, and I highly recommend it. 2. I wasn't a huge fan of this book, but it takes place entirely on a spaceship headed for a new home planet. It involves cryogenesis and conspiracies, both elements that have appeared in Doctor Who (A Christmas Carol). 3. You know that one episode, Silence in the Library, where Donna goes off to a parallel universe and experiences life and love and happiness and then... Spoilers, sweetie . ;) That episod

This is a meme hosted by  Rinn Reads  where anyone can join in and talk about anything Fantasy! This week I'm discussing names in fantasy. One of the reasons I love fantasy is that it's really cool to imagine other worlds, especially ones with magic or creatures that don't exist in ours. That said, sometimes those really cool worlds and characters have such unpronounceable names.  I can see why fantasy names are often so difficult to pronounce - the author wants to build a world different from our own, so obviously the culture and language would be different too. A lot of the times you want exotic names to go with exotic places, but I feel like there ought to be limits on how many consonants you can have in a row for the sake of your reader's sanity. I definitely appreciate pronunciation guides though (thanks, Christopher Paolini!). That said, there are some names that are really gorgeous, and others that fit the culture that they are portrayin

Title:  Red Seas Under Red Skies Author:  Scott Lynch Genre: Fantasy, adult fiction My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean, target the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele—and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior... and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire. But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough. Let me preface this by saying that I absolutely loved the first book in this series, The Lies of Locke Lamora . It was that book that

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Top Ten Characters that I want to be my BFFs Ten more days to enter my 1-year blogversary giveaway of Mistborn and an amazon giftcard ! 1. Sazed from Mistborn - I could relate so much to his love of learning and books. Sazed is a quiet character, and I could relate to not wanting the attention but still being driven and wanting to accomplish things. He's so loyal and is such a great friend to Vin, always putting the needs of other people above his own 2.   Jean Tannen and Locke Lamora from the Gentleman Bastards series - Jean and Locke are my latest fictional crushes, and they have such a great friendship that I want to be in on it too. They pull all sorts of insane heists and manage to survive deadly situations on an almost daily basis, and it's because at the end of they day they've always got each other's backs. 3. Iko from the

Title:  The Burning Sky Author:  Sherry Thomas Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning… Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death. Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal. But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Ban

Title:  Feed Author:  Mira Grant Genre: Science fiction, adult fiction My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary:   The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them. This is definitely more about journalism and politics than it is about zombies. But zombies definitely make things more interesting! Feed takes place in a future America where a worldwide viral epidemic has simultaneously cured the common cold and cancer while causing its victims to crave living flesh. The country is in chaos, and people are equally scared, defensive, and ready for blood. It&

Snowflakes & Spider Silk turns 1 year old today - hooray! I can't believe I've already been blogging for a whole year. I feel like there's still a lot to learn and improve, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it! When I first started blogging, I'd been writing reviews for books on goodreads for a couple of years, but I had no idea how blog tours worked or what blog memes were. Now that I've gotten a few of those things under my belt, I feel way more prepared to take on even more blogging adventures. My goal for this year is to continue posting reviews, Top Ten Tuesday, and Fantasy Friday posts, but I'd like to do more blog tours and more random posts about books and blogging. I finally got on the twitter bandwagon a couple of weeks ago, and I'm hoping to expand my network of fellow book bloggers and bookish people on that front too! Twitter is so much fun - I can't believe what I was missing out on :) I have made a lo

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Bookish things I want to own Before I begin my actual Top Ten Tuesday post, I'd just like to say thanks for making my first year of blogging so much fun! You can find my 1-year blogversary post and giveaway here . 1. This cool bookish nail art 2. This pin from etsy 3. So apparently there's a literary gift company ? YES. 4. This chair makes me so happy :) 5. The engineer in me loves this bookshelf. 6.  Book earrings on etsy ! 7.  I can't imagine how much planning/effort/time this took, but I want one. 8. These bags are so cute! 9. This t-shirt is awesome. and highly accurate. 10. Definitely can't afford this (it's over $800!) but how awesome would it be to snuggle up inside  a book ? Thanks again for stopping by, and I hope you'll continue to be a part of my bookish journey!