I don’t actually have time to write a proper Thursday Tea post right now because today is the day we load all of our boxes into the pod thingies! And charities are coming to pick up furniture! And then we have to clean! So!
Please do leave me the links to your own TT posts and I’ll be sure to come visit/list them here once the madness has stopped. Happy Thursday, everyone!
164. Pastworld by Ian Beck
Publication: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (September 29, 2009), ebook, 368pp / ISBN 1599900408
Genre: YA Sci-fi
Read: December 8-10, 2011
Source: Singapore Public Library
Summary from Amazon:
What if all of London were really an amusement park—a whole city returned to Victorian times to entertain visitors from the twenty-first century? That’s the wildly original premise of Ian Beck’s Pastworld, a high-stakes mystery set in a simulated past.
Eve is a lifelong resident of Pastworld who doesn’t know she’s living in a theme park until a mysterious threat forces her to leave home. Caleb is a visiting tourist who finds the lawlessness of the past thrilling—until he suddenly becomes a fugitive from an antiquated justice system. And in the midst of it all, in the thick London fog a dark and deadly figure prowls, claiming victim after victim. He’s the Fantom, a creature both of the past and of the present, in whose dark purpose Caleb and Eve will find their destinies combined.
Page-turning, complex, and haunting, Pastworld masterfully exposes the human experience of the past, of violence, of technology, and of entertainment.
I’ve been wanting to read Pastworld for a while now, since I keep seeing so many good reviews about it. Now that I’ve read it I’m sort of…underwhelmed. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been let down by all the positive hype, or because I was expecting it to be something different, or if it’s just one of those things where I don’t exactly love a book everyone else seems to adore, but I only feel a little bit positive about Pastworld instead of absolutely in love. Continue reading »
I don’t know if it’s just because I’m super stressed about moving, or if I’ve actually gone off book blogging, but lately I’ve been wishing I didn’t have a book blog at all. It feels like it’s an obligation, like I’ve trapped myself into this thing that I don’t want to do but I have to keep doing it because otherwise I’ll be a failure. It’s like I have to read so many books a week, and I have to review them all, and I have to network/comment on other blogs/go to book events/etc. to make the expense and the time I’ve put into my blog worth it. I can’t even properly go on hiatus because then every day I DON’T blog I’ll be wasting the money spent to host this thing in the first place.
Which is kind of a ridiculous thing to think! And I’m sure that as soon as we’ve actually made the move and that stress is gone, I’ll be fine and loving my blog again and I’ll want to read a million books and review them all. But right now I feel terrible. Continue reading »
Not being on Twitter/Tumlbr has made it slightly harder to find interesting articles…but I’ve still got some good stuff to share with y’all!
Missing Doctor Who episodes found @ BoingBoing
When authors attack @ Book Journey
Staying On The Road By Working @ Art of Backpacking
Amazon Aims to Empty Competitor Shelves of Indie Ebooks:
From the time an author enrolls their book in the program, they cannot distribute or sell their book anywhere else. Not the Apple iBookstore, not Barnes & Noble, not Smashwords, not Kobo, not Sony, not even the author’s own personal blog or web site. The book must be 100% exclusive to Amazon.
Young Adult: A Review by Maureen Johnson:
I’m just saying… this film should not be taken to demonstrate what YA writers are like. And I’m saying this because just this morning, three people asked jokingly me “Hey, is that writer in Young Adult based on you? Har har har!” This is going to be a thing. I can feel it.
Brains vs. Brawn: The Battle for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes1:
That the film isn’t thoughtful is largely irrelevant—it’s cracking good fun, and most critics agreed that the fact things hardly ever exploded in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s sixty-tale series is no reason why things should not explode now. Sherlock Holmes, he of the masterful intellect and the cherrywood pipe, can exist in a world where things explode indiscriminately and not suffer much by it. The question now seems to be, will Sherlockians remain pleased with Downey’s manic wit and the explosions surrounding him, when the BBC series Sherlock is also cracking good fun, and deeply thoughtful to boot?
Note: I won’t be able to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie until January, so if y’all could keep from spoiler-ing me, I’d really appreciate it. 
No Sex Please, We’re Victorian: A Handy-Dandy Guide to Code Words @ The Little Professor
Growth of ‘mystery’ wishing trees in Portmeirion @ BBC News
Footnotes
163. Hunted by Cheryl Rainfield
Publication: WestSide Books (December 15, 2011), eArc, 370pp / ISBN 1934813621
Genre: YA Sci-fi/Paranormal
Read: December 6-8, 2011
Source: Author (thank you!)
Summary from Goodreads:
Caitlyn, a telepath, lives in a world where all paranormal talents are illegal. She is on the run from government ParaTroopers. When Caitlyn falls for Alex, a Normal, and discovers dangerous renegade Paranormals, she must choose between staying in hiding to protect herself or taking a stand to save the world.
Hunted is a somewhat atypical paranormal/dystopian book. It’s set sometime in the future, though I don’t think we’re ever told exactly how far in the future it is. It’s sort of dystopian, but only for the “paras,” really. It’s an exciting story, with some conspiracy things going on and a lot of omg-what’s-going-to-happen moments. The characters were pretty good, especially Caitlyn, who doesn’t really waste any time getting in the action. She’s a very active paranormal/dystopian heroine, which is great because normally I think the typical p-heroine is passive for at least the first half of the book. Continue reading »
Hello, people! Sorry for the mess last week, especially if you did a TT post and has no where to link it. If you want to link last week’s post as well as this week’s, that’s totally fine.
The book: I’m about 41% into Anna and the French Kiss, which I started reading to calm down from all the stress. It’s working WONDERS. Holy crap, this is a cute book. I mean, I know basically everyone SAID it was adorable, but it really is adorable. Anna? Adorable. St. Clair? Adorable. THE ENTIRE BOOK SO FAR! Adorable.
Also! Don’t you think Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn is, like, the perfect song for this book? y/n?
The tea: Hahaha, yeah. I’m drinking coffee. I’ve actually been having trouble going to sleep/staying asleep/waking up at a decent time, so I’ve only been drinking a cup of coffee each day. To sort of…cut down on the caffeine? idk.
Do they go together? Yes, actually! Anna and her friends drink a lot of coffee in the book– way more than I do, really.
Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!
Woohoo! I’ve finally gotten everything fixed and the blog should be working perfectly now/again. If anything goes wonky, please let me know, eh?
If you’re wondering what happened, basically I screwed up a lot. I regained access to my domain name yesterday and spent a few hours re-uploading things so they’d work again, and now I’m really tired and just want to go back to sleep. But I can’t. Because I have to pack.
I’d meant to get back straight to posting/reviewing/etc. but I am moving to California in less than two weeks now! And I still have a lot of stuff to do! So the end of the year may be less awesome for blog posts than I’d originally planned. I do have some posts ready to go, though, so there won’t be nothing for the next two weeks. I’ll probably be posting a bit less than I thought I would, though, so be on the lookout for that!
Anyway, I’ve got some posts that were scheduled for last week that published themselves at the same time (I think). They’re probably in your feedreader, but if you missed them here they are:
Please read and/or comment on them if you can! It’ll make me feel better. 
More about my rating guide, including the buy/borrow/bin rating system used Sept. 2010-May 2011.
An explanation of the various ads and affiliates whatevers can be found on this new page I just made.
Be sure also to check out my Disclosure Policy:
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