2009 October 29 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Library Loot (#4)

Posted by Anastasia on October 29, 2009 No Responses »

Oct 292009

Library Loot meme Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Eva and Marg that encourage bloggers to talk about what books they’ve gotten from their library during the week. Anyone can participate any time during the week, so feel free to write up your own post and link it using Eva’s (or Marg’s) Mr Linky!

I sort of deluded myself for the last few weeks that I didn’t need to do a LL post because I wasn’t checking books out from the library until I brought back most of the ones I already had out. Except, uh, I did. Whoops?

But I DID bring back a lot of books and now I only have 20 out, instead of 30ish. Yay? Anyway, here’s what I’ve got out as of today. A few more are supposed to be coming in (holds and ILL requsts, dontchaknow), but that’ll be posted next week.

Click on the cover to go to the Amazon page of that book.

King of the Middle March by Kevin Crossley-Holland (just finished it, actually). The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo. The Naming by Alison Croggon (currently reading).

The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous by Suzanna Crowley. Crossing to Paradise by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Codex by Lev Grossman.

The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell.

No cover: Happily Ever After by Stacy Chandler (self-published and out of print, apparently. Yay libraries! Yay my library for having this!).

Left over loot:
The Shield Ring, Frontier Wolf, Knight’s Fee, The Shining Company, Dawn Wind, The Capricorn Bracelet, Darkling, Hunger, The Charioteer, A Curse as Dark as Gold

Thursday Tea: October 29 (The Naming)

Posted by Anastasia on October 29, 2009 No Responses »

Oct 292009

Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

Doing things a little different this week.

The book: This week I’ve fallen under the lureof Arthurian legends and pseudo-Celtic high fantasies. I sort of expected the Arthurian stuff, since I’m interested in them already. The high fantasies? Didn’t expect that so much. I’ve never been a fan of Tolkien (I’m a little embarrassed by that) and though I liked Sabriel I’m having a hard time getting into anything else like it.

The Naming small But! I came across the Pellinor series by Alison Croggon on the library shelf this week, and I originally picked it up because I thought it was an Arthurian thing (it’s not). It looked really good, though, and once I finished with the Arthur trilogy by Kevin Crossley-Holland (review up tomorrow) I figured I might as well read the first Pellinor book and see if I liked it.

So far I do– it’s slow-going, but it’s not annoying me (as high fantasies are wont to do) and I like the surly main character. I’m about 70 pages in, so hopefully I like the rest of the book as well.

Numi Berry Black The tea: My campus has their own deli/grocery store thing that’s horribly expensive but very convenient, and they have packets of tea you can buy. Sort of like how Starbucks has individual packets of Tazo tea? My campus has individual packets of Numi tea. I’ve never tried it before, but I thought I would today. They had a lot of interesting flavors, and I went with Berry Black (subtitle: Fruitea Darjeeling Black Tea). It says it’s got some strawberry/raspberry kind of thing, and I can taste that. it’s very subtle, though, and not strong even though I brewed it for, like, ten minutes. Maybe it needs more sugar.

I really like the packaging, too. It’s got that kind of organic-environmentally friendly-save the whales kind of feel to it, which makes me feel very indie and 20-something college student-y (which I am).

Do they go together? I’m gonna say yes. The fruit flavor makes me think of bards being all natural and…stuff. And tea is a very bard-y thing to drink, isn’t it? Or maybe I’m just imprinting Tolkien onto the Pellinor book– when I think Tolkien, I think tea.

It’s all very confusing, but I enjoy it.

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?