2010 December » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Mini-Reviews: Libyrinth, Conan Doyle Detective, Chinatown Death Cloud Peril

Posted by Anastasia on December 17, 2010 1 Response »

Dec 172010

I have to catch up on my reviews SOMEHOW, so I’ll be doing more mini-reviews this month. Although these ones didn’t turn out as “mini” as I set out to make them. Er.

224. Libyrinth by Pearl North
Publication: Tor Teen (July 7, 2009), Hardcover, 336pp / ISBN 0765320967
Genre: YA Fantasy/Sci-fi
Rating: Buy it
Read: November 25, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

In her debut novel, Pearl North takes readers centuries into the future, to a forgotten colony of Earth where technology masquerades as magic and wars are fought over books.

Haly is a Libyrarian, one of a group of people dedicated to preserving and protecting the knowledge passed down from the Ancients and stored in the endless maze of books known as the Libyrinth. But Haly has a secret: The books speak to her.

When the threat of the rival Eradicants drives her from her home, Haly learns that things are not all she thinks they are. Taken prisoner by the Eradicants, who believe the written word to be evil, she sees the world through their eyes and comes to understand that they are not the book-burning monsters that she has known her entire life.

Review

I really liked Libyrinth! Well, how could I not? It’s a futuristic, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi/fantasy world with a massive library as a major location, strong female characters and lots of action and adventure. I really enjoyed the writing, too! It was just perfect for the sort of topics Libyrinth covered– love, hate, religion, history, friendship, family! Continue reading »

Happy birthday, Jane Austen!

Posted by Anastasia on December 16, 2010 1 Response »

Dec 162010

Google's logo for today!

Yeah, so, technically I’m on a small blogging break until next week– I finished my finals yesterday and I’m exhausted– but I just wanted to post quickly about Jane Austen’s birthday, and about all the free ebooks Sourcebooks is giving away!

That’s right, tons of free ebooks of both Jane Austen’s books (which are technically public domain and thus free anyway) AND Jane Austen-inspired books (aka fanfic)! Ten inspired-by books plus Austen’s own six books, available from a variety of stores (and devices) for FREE, right here, for today and tomorrow only. Apparently it’s only for people in the US (and Canada?), though, which is silly and, I know, disappointing for those of you outside of the US/Canada. Still, you can download Austen’s books for free from Girlebooks, so…yay?

Thank you to Austenprose for posting about this first!

Chronicle Books’ Happy Haul-idays winner = not me

Posted by Anastasia on December 13, 2010 1 Response »

Dec 132010

So I didn’t win the Chronicle Books’ Happy Haul-idays contest. Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, etc. (Congratulations to the person who won, though! Totally jealous, yes.)

But! As a thank you for participating the peeps at Chronicle have seen me this special promo code for my readers (i.e. you) to use!

35% off + free shipping through December 16, 2011
Use this promo code at checkout: HAULIDAYS

I think I’m going to splurge and buy myself one (1) book. I can’t resist free shipping! Which book do you think I should buy?

Anyway, back to prepping for finals. Only two days more to go until I’m done!

TSS (Dec. 12)

Posted by Anastasia on December 12, 2010 12 Responses »

Dec 122010

Big news! Birdbrain(ed) is now self-hosted! Yay!

Yesterday I decided to actually use the hosting plan I bought for my other blog (that I never use) for this one (which I use all the time). And so the past 48 hours or so have been spent trying to set everything up. I think it’s mostly done, except for some problems with the spacing on the sidebar and some weird thing the title is doing on every page but the front. I’ll figure it out eventually, I expect. Continue reading »

Review: Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare

Posted by Anastasia on December 8, 2010 7 Responses »

Dec 082010

220. Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare Publication: HarperCollins (April 1991), originally published 1939, Paperback, 246pp / ISBN 0060806362
Genre: Mystery
Rating: Buy it
Read: November 19-21, 2010
Source: Freebie table at Bubonicon 2010
Summary from ~~Amazon~~ the back cover:

Disappointed with the accommodations, the meals, and the service at the country hotel of Pendlebury Old Hall, Inspector Mallett is looking forward to the end of his holiday. He must endure only one more trial: the hotel boor, whose family once owned the country house, sits down at Mallett’s table and unburdens himself. The next day the man is dead, an apparent suicide. The suspicious death interrupts Mallett’s rural reverie and inadvertently embroils him in family passions and murder.

Review

Picture of ME with my own personal copy, because apparently there aren’t any good pictures of it already online? Yay for laptops with cameras in them! (I have to buy a new digital camera before our trip to Disney World in January– my old one is completely dead now.)

I got my copy from the last Bubonicon; there was a bunch of free books and magazines and other swank on a table and I grabbed whatever I could stuff into my bag, including, obviously, Suicide Excepted! I didn’t even really pay attention to what it was really about– I sort of just skimmed the back, saw it was a mystery with a police detective, and shoved it into my bag before someone else grabbed it. I’m VERY bad with free things, although I will try to be better at BEA. I swear it! Continue reading »

Birdwatching: Governesses!

Posted by Anastasia on December 7, 2010 12 Responses »

Dec 072010

Reading Agnes Grey has got me thinking about governesses, especially about the governesses I’ve read about in other books. I’m pretty sure they all had easier charges than poor Agnes does (I’ve gotten to chapter five, and now I never want to be an au pair). I’m also pretty sure I’ve read only about good governesses– do you know of any books with mean ones?

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (1934).
The Incorrigible Children series by Maryrose Wood (2010-future years).
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (1964).
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones (1988).
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847).
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868).
The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin & Nicola Kraus (2002).
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (1850). (obviously)

Links are to Amazon. Thanks to Once Upon a Bookshelf for the list-y inspiration!

Classics Circuit Review: Mr Scarborough’s Family by Anthony Trollope

Posted by Anastasia on December 6, 2010 9 Responses »

Dec 062010

Not Mr Scarborough

228. Mr Scarborough’s Family by Anthony Trollope
Publication: originally published 1883, ebook published 2004
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Rating: Borrow it
Read: September 8-December 3, 2010
Source: Project Gutenberg
Summary from VictorianWeb:
“MR SCARBOROUGH, WEALTHY owner of Tretton Park in Staffordshire, is dying. His eldest son and heir Mountjoy has gambled away his inheritance to avaricious money-lenders who hold post-obits to the entire value of the estate. As the story opens, Mr Scarborough astonishes Society by declaring Mountjoy illegitimate. He claims that he only married his wife shortly before the birth of his second (remarkably unattractive) son Augustus, thus making him the real heir. Mountjoy’s creditors threaten vain law suits against the estate; and the odious Augustus assumes his place as heir.”

Today’s fellow Circuiters: Things Mean a Lot | 2,606 Books and counting……

Review

I’ve been wanting to do a Classics Circuit for a while, but nothing ever worked out until this one, the Anthony Trollope circuit. I’ll admit I’m not overly familiar with Anthony Trollope. I read Rebecca’s review of Can You Forgive Her? and thought he sounded like a boring old fart, but he’s written SO many books that I thought I’d give him a chance and try at least one of his books. I decided on trying one of his lesser-known books for the Circuit because a) I assumed everyone else would be reading some of his more famous books anyway and b) I have a soft spot for forgotten books (it’s why I like Girlebooks and Persephone Books so much) and wanted to try highlighting something somewhat unknown.

Anyway. Instead of a boring old fart, Trollope’s really a money-obsessed, repetitive, prejudiced and possibly bigoted old fart. Or at least that’s how he comes across based on the two books I’ve read– this one I’m reviewing here and Miss Mackenzie! And I honestly don’t know if I can work up the stamina to get through another. I mean there’s only so many times I can read about how much someone got a year and why that makes him better than the other fellow who only gets this much a year, and will he marry that lady who has a small inheritance but is hella shrewish or will he marry the nice but poor lady, etc etc. It’s tiring, especially because I really don’t give a crap how much someone has (or makes) a year, at least not to the extent that Trollope blathers on about it.

Mr Scarborough’s Family was actually the lesser of two evils, by which I mean I enjoyed it more although it was miles too long. So:

On the one hand, the characters are quite a lot of fun. The characters are, I think, the best part of Mr Scarborough’s Family. They’re why I kept reading it even when everything else was annoying me, because I wanted to see what would happen to Harry and Florence, and whether Augustus would get his comeuppance and whether Mountjoy would finally break his gambling habit.
Continue reading »