Monica: Readathon Mini Challenge ("Romancing Your Friendship")

Right! This Mini Challenge comes to us from Star Shadow, and it... was super difficult.

I want you to pick out your favorite book or series where there is a boy/girl boy/boy girl/girl couple that fall in love

Post The Cover of the book and the description of the book on your blog, with the reason you think they should be the top friends to lovers couple

I obviously am way too fond of books where friends end up as lovers. I had to literally fight myself (very dramatic to watch) to keep from listing The Fire's Stone, which I finally decided didn't count since they didn't end up together until literally the last page. That seemed to be cutting it slightly too close.

Anyway, having knocked that one off the list, I've decided on Talia and Dirk, as part of the entire Heralds of Valdemar trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

Their love, guys, is ridiculously epic. It's all:

Book one! They see each other for the first time, and it's fairly nondramatic, and then they become friends, but Dirk is sort of still in the background and Talia is mostly concerned with not getting killed.


Book two! They're separated by a great distance and Talia is all semi-hooked-up with Dirk's best friend, but they're pining for each other and -- gasp! -- are maybe lifebonded?


Book three! There's death and destruction and important people are killed, and Talia needs someone who loves her to pull her back from the brink! But who could it be? Certainly not Dirk, who has never admitted his feelings... until now!!!


Wow. I'm... I'm going to have to reread that entire trilogy immediately, having just reminded myself of how utterly awesome it is....

Monica: Readathon Update 5

Finally finally, I managed to make my way through Seeker by William Nicholson. It gets a solid three and a half stars -- there were parts that sort of... wandered... but Nicholson ended up bringing it home, and cheers of satisfaction were heard throughout the land.

Plus, no lie, I have developed a serious crush on Wildman. If this sucker gets made into a movie, I am there. Although again, it'll be tricky differentiating it from The Seeker, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, Cyber Seeker, The Legend of the Seeker....

Anyway, here. Have this long, long quote from page 375 as a sign of my love.

The priest on duty proceeded to the tanks to collect the evening's tribute. The guards opened the grid door, and the priest pointed to Mercy.
"She's the one."
Mercy rose and made her way up the steps without a moment's hesitation. The Wildman took in what was happening just a few seconds too late.
"No!" he cried. "Not her! Don't take her!"
The grid door dropped down onto him, knocking him to the floor. The heavy bolts slammed home. He was up and hanging from the bars, rattling and screaming, before the priest and the tribute were out of the door.
"Not her!" he screamed. "Not her!"
Mercy turned and looked back and gave him a sweet sad smile. He saw in that look that she was ready, even willing, to die, but all the raging life force in him cried out against it. He turned and howled at the rest of the prisoners, who looked on, silent in the tank.
"Are you dead already? Why don't you shout? Why don't you scream? Don't let them do this! What are you? Chickens? We're going to die anyway! Don't die silent! Die noisy! Die yelling! Die loud!"
He followed this with a great wordless howl of fury.
"Aieee-ee-ee!"

#readathon Bookish Movies Mini-Challenge Answer

I would absolutely LOVE to see Diana Peterfreund's young adult fantasy novel Rampant turned into a movie.

My reasoning for this can be summarized with two words:  Killer.  Unicorns.

Awesome, right?

Or at least, it has the potential to be.  Depending on the special effects used...

Okay, I can't help myself.  Let me say more!

This was my favorite book of 2009.  It was well-written and powerful.  Rampant could pretty much be considered a Buffy the Vampire series for a new generation of girls. The teenage ladies kick many a mythical bum-bum, all while weighing the meaning of virginity, female empowerment and sexuality.

To play our tough, young protagonist, Astrid, I think I'll go with...

Saoirse Ronan (of The Lovely Bones and Atonement).  Mostly because her acting annoys me much less than the lack of acting skills of many other young actresses out there.

Shel: #Readathon Update Six (Complete with Survey Action!)

1. What are you reading right now?

Dusssie by Nancy Springer

2. How many books have you read so far?

Erm...5 ish and 1/2 of two other books-ish (don't be too impressed.  A few were picturebooks!)

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I want to make some progress in The Kayla Chronicles.  I also want to pick Will Grayson, Will Grayson back up.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

Not at all.  Spending the day reading is fairly normal.  I'm just more studious today.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

My main interruption has been the pesky tendency to get hungry.  I don't think there's much anyone can do about that but eat.  I suppose next time around I could plan to have a servant to spoon food into my mouth for me.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

That I've been able to resist taking a nap so far.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

It's great fun as it is!

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

Erm, to be honest, I'm surprised how well it's going this time.  The last readathon felt much more difficult.  This time I think it helped to include some quick reads.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

I'm pretty awake at the moment.  My back is getting tired of me sitting in chairs though.  That actually makes me a little nervous.  I fear reading lying down may lead to sleep, no matter how awake I feel.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Take dancing breaks.  And when you do so, dance like it's still 1987.

Monica: Readathon Mini Challenge ("If the Cover Fits")

Yeeks!

I'm squeaking in under the wire with this one, friends -- it comes by way of eclectic/eccentric.

This time around I am challenging you to find book covers that fit the following categories:
Disturbing
Vibrant
Beautiful
Scary
Moving

Ready?

We've got...
Disturbing


Vibrant (BAM, says this book cover.)


Beautiful


Scary


Moving


Of course, that last one may only be moving to those of us who get giddy about unicorns... ;)

Monica: Readathon Update 4

Aw. No lie, I really enjoyed Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. It was all drama-y and full of intrigue and also hot guys who can turn into cobras. (Tragically, the romance moves slower than molasses in January. There's some cute dancing, though!)

Plus, whoa. You have to approve of a book that takes on ridiculously weighty subjects like prejudice and racism, and which starts out with a twelve-year-old bleeding to death from a stomach wound, and which still manages to include fun, sassy characters.

I do feel, though, like one definitely needs to finish reading the series to get a full idea of the story -- a lot of craziness goes down in the last three pages or so, and it would have been nice to be able to flow right into the next book, as opposed to just BAM having everything end as is.

Hmm.

Okay! On to finishing Seeker, and then... we'll see what's next on my To Be Read pile!

Hope you guys are having as much fun with this as I am. =)

Shel: #Readathon Update Five

I thought it was about time I check back in with all my reading peeps.

How is everyone doing out there?

Well, I managed to finish Blokhedz.  And it has few if any similarities to the X-Men.  But it does have many strengths of its own.

For those of you not in the know, it's the story of Blak who dreams of being a rapper.  He hates that a lot of the other people in the projects think he's soft.  As the story continues, Blak is faced with a choice of seeking revenge, becoming hard, obtaining his dream and realizing the true power of his words, speaking from his heart and helping those he cares about in his community.  It's a complex graphic novel that takes a lot of the common traits of a hero's journey and applies them to the very real tensions of growing up in the projects.  I liked the supernatural elements.  They're subtle enough that the book felt more like realistic fiction or magical realism than outright fantasy.

I have to admit, I initially had a little trouble getting into it.  I think my problem was that 1) the experience of of living in the projects was very foreign to me (what can I say, no matter how open I am to hearing about ways of life different from my own, at the end of the day, it can be hard to escape my white, middle class assumptions about the world).  Most of my knowledge base for the tensions being explored was provided by one unwise and unplanned viewing of the movie Honey.  2)  And that I had some trouble with the slang.  (Of course, I didn't discover that there was a slang glossary until after I'd finished reading the graphic novel.)

As the book went on, I did get into it more and more.  And I was interested enough by the ending that I wanted to continue on with the second book.  Hunting it down may be a little difficult though.  The second volume came out in 2008, but Amazon doesn't seem to know how to get ahold of it (Amazon, why have you failed me?  I do nothing but give you my money!).

But at the very least, I can wander over to this website and watch some of the episodes that chronicle Blak's story of using "the power of hip-hop to conquer evil."

(A fun concept, right?)

Here's the first video.  It sets up the premise for the rest and for the graphic novel.



Dinner Conversation:

"You ready to do this, son?"

"You may not realize it, but your words have power."

"Bwoy yah know dah difference between fate and destiny?...Fate is ah predetermined outcome, but destiny, yah must live ah extraordinary life to fulfill yah destiny."


Any thoughts about this series, peeps?

Well, I'm still not certain I'm in the right mood to dive back into Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

I might hit up Dusssie by Nancy Springer.  I'm feeling the middle grade vibe.  Plus, this book may have a starring role in my dissertation.  But to find out, I'm going to have to read it.

Aaaaaand, AWAY!

Monica: Readathon Update 3

I decided not to finish Seeker right off the bat -- it's... it's pretty super long, and I felt like I wasn't making enough headway to keep up with the rest of y'all and your speedy readings.

So I've flung it to one side, with four chapters left, and now I'm whipping through Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, who I will forever picture as the surly fourteen-year-old on the back of In The Forests Of The Night, despite the fact that she's the same age I am. Sorry, Amelia. That's what you get for being an integral part of my early teen years--you're frozen in time.

Anyway, it's fairly epic so far. The Avians have massive sticks up their collective... self... but Danica looks like she's going to rock out despite her upbringing. I realize I'm probably the last person on earth to read this silly thing, but I'm hoping to have that remedied by dinner time. Then, of course, I'll have to read the other four, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Hooray!

In unrelated news, Quest for Camelot is on TV. Am I the only one who had a massive crush on the blind knight, back when that movie came out? Back me on this, someone....

Shel: #Readathon Update Four

How's it going, fellow readers?  Cheerleaders, you still peppy?


I'm about half-way through Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  And it's getting good.  The two Wills have met.  And sure one is still super-depressed because he realizes he's been fooled by someone that he cares about and the other has finally gotten a little bit of action, but I've also started to reach that point in which I'm getting super-twitchy to have to keep sitting in one spot, reading one book.


So, I've decided to switch it up.  This is now the view from where I'm sitting on my balcony:

(What a lovely day for sitting outside.  Am I right, or am I RIGHT?)


I've also decided to switch off the coffee for a while and go with some juice for a little while.



And now I'm going through Blokhedz:  Genesis.  The first book in a graphic novel series.


I chose it because it seemed like it would have a X-Men vibe.  I'm only a few pages in so far, so I can't really declare yet if my expectations have been met.


But, at this moment, I'm most excited about the fact that it's only about 110-ish pages.  I think a quick read will help stop my brain from deflating (a danger when it feels like I'm using it too much.  Silly rebellious brain).


Stay tuned!

Shel: #Readathon Update Three

I've had to pause my reading to have lunch.  %he three cups of coffee that I've consumed since 9 AM were making me kinda-sorta, a wee-bit, just a little, jumpy.

Mmm, lunch.

Now, I can return to downing my coffee with soy milk and Irish cream (non-alcoholic, I SWEAR!).

I'm still paging through Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  To finish this update, I thought I'd leave you with my favorite line of dialogue of the moment:

"I'm gay, not blind.  Her hair's all poofy and she's got a great nose.  I mean, a great nose.  And, what?  What do you [straight] people like?  Boobs?  She seems to have boobs.  They seem to be of approximately normal boob size.  What else could you want?" (p. 81)

      ~Tiny Cooper, Will Grapyson, Will Grayson, John Green

Monica: Readathon Update 2

Hi friends!

Are you all having a fantastic day so far!? I love that we've got this awesome excuse to sit around reading. It's fairly brilliant.

I'm still plugging away at Seeker by William Nicholson -- stopping to do Mini Challenges has slowed me down somewhat. I'm still really enjoying it -- Wildman, especially, is both hysterical and kind of endearing. I'm interested to see how the book will resolve itself; I know it's the first in a trilogy, but I'm hoping at least *some* of the more overarching plot lines will get tied up before the end.

I *hate* being left hanging....

Now, I'm sorry to say, I must vanish for an hour or so. I've received an invite to go get a massage, and while I will of course try to read at the same time, there's a fairly good chance I'm going to curl up in a happy ball of bliss and purr.

I wanna play too! Book Mini-Challenge Book Title Sentence

Here is my response to this mini-challenge.  Awesome fun!  I may have to make up sentences from book titles more often...

Vegan Virgin Valentine, startled by his furry shorts, repossessed the goats, the rain catchers and George Washington's breakfast.

Monica: Readathon Mini Challenge ("Book Title Sentence")

Ooh, I do love Mini Challenges. Usually about halfway through the day I burn out on them, though, so I figure I'll pack as many in now as I can, while I'm still motivated.
This one, from Bart's Bookshelf, is tricky, because it makes me want to spend long hours coming up with the perfect phrase.
But no.
Instead I just whipped three books off the shelf and called it good.
Voila!

"The virgin and the dinosaur, trespassing, set this house in order."



(Those are the best kind of trespassers, obviously. The ones who clean at the same time.)

In unrelated news, Shel, your idyllic reading spot seems nicer than mine. I'm perched on a pile of laundry, fending off the dog and trying to type and read at the same time.....

Shel: #Readathon Update Two

Here's the idyllic spot where I've been spending the morning reading:

And you may not even believe this is possible, but one of my cats also jumped up to lie on top of the chair.  She has been looking out the window and keeping me company.  And by "keeping me company" I mean that every now and then she loosely wraps her tail around my neck in a vaguely homicidal fashion.  It tickles.  


But despite the potential homicidal intentions of my wee-little cat, this, my reading buddies, is a key page in book heaven.

Also, I've moved on to make some progress on Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  I'm reading a John Green chapter.  Since he's one of the authors I would marry with no questions asked (alas, he is already taken!  John, why didn't you wait for me?!) it's adding to the enjoyment of the moment.

Hope all-ya-alls are having an equally awesome reading moment.

Monica: Readathon Mini Challenge ("And the Nominees Are....")

Throwing Seeker to one side, I figured I'd leap in on a Mini Challenge.
This one comes courtesy of Til We Read Again, and I found it far more difficult than it should have been, due to the way I wanted to list really awesome, classy books, and found myself coming up with nothing but fluff.

I suppose we can see where my reading tastes lie, eh?

Listed below is a series of questions. Please put your nominees for the following categories. Please list the books in which the characters reside;)

Favorite Female Character in a book: Deerskin (née Lissar) from Robin McKinley's Deerskin

Favorite Male Character in a book: Oh, you *know* it's Richard from any one of Terry Goodkind's books.

Favorite Side Kick in a book: That would be Bess Marvin, from The Secret at Shadow Ranch, or any one of Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew books. She's always described as being pretty, and easily-frightened... and slightly plump. I relate. ;)

Favorite Couple in a Book: Aaron and Darvish from The Fire's Stone = omg twoo luv!!

Favorite Book Series: Redwall, by Brian Jacques. Even though I haven't kept up with the more recent books, the countless (and countless and countless) hours I spent reading the first six or seven definitely place the series as my number one. (What? I can't recite all the poems from them, or anything... no....)

Favorite Author: I am a Mercedes Lackey girl through and through--anyone who can keep me busy reading over two decades rocks pretty solid.

Favorite Book Cover: Planet X, Michael Jan Friedman. Guys, this cover is EPIC.

Favorite Book of 2009: Stitches by David Small. I actually read this during the last Readathon, and it is still haunting me.

What about you guys?
What are your fave books?
Head on over to Til We Read Again and answer the questions for yourself!