Memes » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Thursday Tea (Mar. 22): Lord of the Changing Winds

Posted by Anastasia on March 22, 2012 1 Response »

Mar 222012

The book: I finally finished reading Burn Mark last night– I went through a reading slump earlier this week, which means I’m about two or three books behind on my reading schedule. So I hope the book I’m reading right now, Lord of the Changing Winds, turns out to be good!

I’ve had it on my eTBR pile for at least a year, and I can’t really remember what it’s about except for that it’s got griffins. And possibly mages.

The tea: I’ve got a bit of a headache, so I hope I’ve got a tea that will help. Google tells me that some sort of mint tea might help! Anyone know for sure?

Do they go together? Honestly, I’ve only read, like two pages of my book so far, so I can’t really say. Have any of you read the Griffin Mage books? Do you think they go with mint tea?

Other tea drinkers

Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 18): Lots of books in a small room

Posted by Anastasia on March 18, 2012 12 Responses »

Mar 182012

Hello! Happy Sunday evening, everyone. I’ve completely forgotten what it was I was originally going to write about for today’s post, so instead let’s talk about bedroom decor.

We’re fairly certain we’re going to get the house we’ve found, so that means I can start planning how I’m going to decorate my room! Now, my new room is about half the size of my Albuquerque room, which means I’ll need to change how I’d normally decorate. For instance: I don’t think I can have three or four tall bookshelves in my room now, because I’d feel like they were about to fall on me and/or the walls were closing in, etc. I’m also planning on painting my walls, doing something fancy with my closet organization– basically, I want my new room to be much more interesting than my old room was.

So! Those of you with small rooms: how do you deal with your books? I can keep most of them in the “media room,” so that’s no problem, but I’d still like to have at least one shelf for favorite books/TBR books. What sort of shelf would be best for a small room? I’m kind of thinking something like this would be good. What do you think?

Besides that whole thing, I’m trying to figure out which sort of bed would be best: should I go for a futon mattress, which I can fold away during the day and thus clear up a lot of room, or should I get a daybed, with drawers underneath for extra storage? Choices, choices… Continue reading »

Thursday Tea (Mar. 15): Artemis Fowl

Posted by Anastasia on March 15, 2012 4 Responses »

Mar 152012

The book: This is probably my fifth or sixth time reading Artemis Fowl by now– including the two times I read it on audiobook– and it’s still one of my favorite books ever. How can you not like a book with kick-ass fairy police, a (believable!) teenage criminal mastermind, giant bodyguards with hearts of gold, and TONS of thriller-y action. I read somewhere that someone said Artemis Fowl was basically Die Hard with fairies: totally agree. It’s geared more towards the MG/YA set, sure! But still: Die Hard with fairies.

Technically all my Artemis Fowl books are in storage, waiting for me to drag them out and line them up on my new shelves (which I don’t have yet but hopefully will within a month or so!). The eighth (and final) Artemis Fowl book is coming out in July, however, and so Disney Hyperion is doing a promo on NetGalley where each month they’re releasing two Artemis Fowl books for people to download/read/review/etc. Yay!

The tea: Y’know, after two and a half months of living in hotels, I’ve finally caved and tried that generic orange pekoe tea they’ve got in nearly every room. It’s actually not that bad? I don’t know why I was so afraid of it all these years I’ve been staying in hotels.

Do they go together? Eh. I’d think Artemis would go for a more “refined” tea, y’know, like some posh blend of things that cost $50/bag. Fairies might like the orange pekoe, though, if they even drink tea. (I think they DO? Can’t remember, though. It’s been ages since I read an Artemis Fowl book!)

Other tea drinkers

Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 11): Tiny reviews of Death of an Obnoxious Tourist, Penumbra, Kitchen Confidential

Posted by Anastasia on March 11, 2012 7 Responses »

Mar 112012

Okay, so here’s the deal: I’m getting a little tired of my usual blogging practices. Normally I write 3-10 reviews a week, depending on how far behind I am. Keeping up with that? Is kind of tiring. Especially since I want to try doing other, non-review posts sometimes. Writing the reviews, though, takes up most of my blogging time and that’s annoying.

What I’m going to try to do instead is sort of like what I did back in November/December when I was trying to read a book a day: I’ll do tiny reviews of the books I’ve read in the previous week for my Salon post. Longer reviews (and therefor separate review posts) will be saved for review books and books that I just have a lot of feelings for. And then hopefully I’ll have more time/energy to write other blog posts! Like, say, more tips for blogger newbies posts. Or reading journal-y posts! Or other exciting stuff!

Basically I guess I just don’t want to be trapped into doing a million review posts a week. Because feeling trapped is not fun, and I want to have fun! Continue reading »

Thursday Tea (Mar. 8): Shadows on the Moon

Posted by Anastasia on March 8, 2012 1 Response »

Mar 082012

The book: I’ve actually just finished Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott, but it was SO. GOOD. I actually started it a few weeks ago and then put it down because I hated the first three pages– it’s got that thing that annoys me where it’s got a lot of non-English words in it for no real reason other than to establish location– and when I started it again last night I had no idea how good of a good it’d turn out to be. It’s got drama, it’s got action, it’s go romance and death and magic! And, despite the fact that it’s set in a fantasy Japan-that-is-not-actually-Japan (another thing that annoys me), it’s got a great atmosphere and location.

So basically, I loved it. My review won’t be showing up until next month, though when Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott is released in the US!

The tea: Probably everyone but me has already had boba/bubble tea, right? Although actually my boba tea was a boba smoothie: a lychee boba smoothie, in fact! It was really sweet (almost too sweet), and the boba was fun to chew.

Do they go together? Eh. Shadows on the Moon is set in a pseudo-historical not-Japan place, and bubble tea is pretty popular in Japan right now. So…maybe?

Other tea drinkers

Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 4): LA Times Festival of Books

Posted by Anastasia on March 4, 2012 13 Responses »

Mar 042012

So the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is coming up next month! I’m planning on going for at least one day, although if I can find a cheap hostel (or temporary roomate?) I may go for both days. Since it’ll be my first time being in LA and my first time at the festival– does anyone have any tips for me? What sort of things go on at the festival? Are there any special blogger meet-ups happening?

LA kind of intimidates me for some reason. I was completely fine with going to NYC for BEA last year, but going to LA by myself scares me. I suppose I’ve seen too many of those “gangs of LA” shows, haha!

It’ll be very exciting to meet/see the authors, though! Here’s who I’m really excited about: Julie Andrews, Judy Blume, Libba Bray, Cecil Castellucci, Cornelia Funke, Jack Gantos, John Green, Lev Grossman, Maureen Johnson, Robin LaFevers, Lauren Myracle, Patrick Ness, Shawn Thomas Odyssey, Mal Peet, and Jacqueline Woodson! What about you? Who are you excited to see? Continue reading »

Thursday Tea (Mar. 1): Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye

Posted by Anastasia on March 1, 2012 2 Responses »

Mar 012012

The book: So I’m reading an audiobook: Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye. I got this one free from Audible a while ago, and since I’ve been meaning to read an audiobook for a while now (…over a year, actually) I thought I’d figure out a way to actually do it. I’ve been listening to a half hour or so each night and so far it’s been going pretty well!

I mean, yeah, there’s way too many unnecessary details and some things are super boring. Like, do I really need to listen to five minutes of Abby choosing which shirt to wear for her date? This is one of the downsides of an audiobook– I’d totally would have skimmed over that part if I was reading this in paper/ebook format. Soooo.

Hopefully the actual mystery part shows up soon. I’m about an hour in with seven or so more to go, and while I’m liking the lighthearted cuteness of it my annoyance level at the boring bits is steadily rising. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll wait for it to get completely entertaining.

The ~~tea~~ coffee: I totally splurged at Starbucks today and got a white chocolate mocha. YUMMY. Expensive, but yummy.

Do they go together? Actually, there was this whole thing where Abby says she’s like French Vanilla ice cream instead of, like, Rocky Road or something (even though she’s a psychic investigator?), so I suppose that if we extend that metaphor to coffee Abby would be more like an Americano than my white chocolate mocha. So…no, they don’t go together? But maybe Abby turns into a white chocolate mocha by the end of the book, idk.