Covers That Change the Genre and/or Gender

For me the best cover songs are ones that the cover artist makes their own, and right now I’m listening to a couple of classical crossover artists covering pop/rock/whatever songs. Whether it’s Josh Groban covering Linkin Park or Katherine Jenkins covering Evanescence, it adds a new aspect to the song not to mention it’s great for writing/character playlists.

Superhero Novels

I love superheroes. I love novels. Sometimes these two great tastes can be found together. A couple I have read:

• The Rise of Renegade X – Chelsea M. Campbell
• Hero – Perry Moore
• Soon I Will Be Invincible – Austin Grossman
• After The Golden Age – Carrie Vaughn

There are more out there: I am looking forward to reading the Masked anthology in particular.

Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me To You

I don’t really read a lot of stuff that’s pure romance, but Kimi Ni Todoke is my major exception. This manga is frustrating in all the right ways – most importantly the part where I eagerly gobble a volume down only to be very upset that I don’t have the next one on me right now.

My eReader

Reasons why I love my ereader:

• It saves on space.
• Books are cheaper.
• Some books are free!
• I don’t have to limit my options when it comes to travelling. TAKE ALL THE BOOKS!
• I can borrow books from the library without leaving the house. And because I have a passport I can borrow books from the Singapore Library as well!
• It’s light and I never have to worry about bookmarks – which is great if I want to read something like The Passage.

My New Layout

Finally I have broken away from the traditional style and this is the result.

Anyway, it’s the 17th of January, and today I have reached the 10% mark of that goal – I finished East by Edith Pattou.

1. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
3. Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice – Pat Lowery Collins (Review)
4. Hero – Perry Moore
5. Fade Out – Rachel Caine
6. The Luxe – Anna Godbersen (Review)
7. Along For The Ride – Sarah Dessen
8. The Changeover – Margaret Mahy (Review)
9. Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones (Review)
10. East – Edith Pattou (Review)

Now that I have reached that marker already, I’m going to slow down the reading a little bit for the rest of the month (I do have a few more books to read for review, with the one I am going to crack open tonight before bed being The Magician Of Hoad by Margaret Mahy) and focus much more on my writing for at least the next week – do a couple of word wars and things like that. I’m a little bit behind already on my Lionheart writing, but not too far that I cannot catch up on. Two days of writing and I’ll be right as rain.

Anyway, I’ll share with you the snippet of Lionheart that I posted over on Open Mic over at the blog of Michelle Zink, author of the wonderful Prophecy of the Sisters.

The lights flashed more and more frequently with each passing second, dancing about the blackness like countless stars moving rapidly across an otherwise empty night sky. There were no recognisable constellations, but as the shining particles moved about a shape began to form: small, delicate.

Human.

It was not until the glowing apparition spoke that Leander was able to recognise it.

“Help me, Leander,” begged the Eithne made of stars. “I don’t know where I am.” Her voice sounded tinny and from far away. “Please. I need your help.”

Voices of shadow strangers could not compel him to speak, nor being torn to shreds by some semi-invisible monster. But the mere sight of his little sister, especially when she was lost and in obvious distress, easily drew a single word from his mouth.

“Eithne?”

“Leander.”

She looked so utterly lost, forlorn and young that Leander instinctively reached out. He wanted to enfold her in his arms and comfort and protect her like he felt a big brother should, but each time he tried to touch her his hands passed straight through. Each time he tried the motion disturbed the shimmering dust particles, forcing them apart. It took a few seconds for them to reorganise themselves, taking longer each time.

Apart from her being a shimmery, off-white colour, and made of an infinite number of visibly separate particles, it was a very good likeness. It was unnerving, really.

“What are you doing here?”

The Eithne made of stars fluttered her eyelids frantically and chewed on her lips; the real Eithne did the same thing whenever she was anxious and scared.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Something’s happened. Something terrible.”

So, I was looking at some posts on Absolute Write where members were discussing books that they had read, and their goal to read 100 books. It inspired me to have a look at all the books I have read this year.

According to my OpenOffice spreadsheet, at this point in time, I have read 43 books so far this year. That comes to about five books a month, which isn’t bad at all when I think about it compared to my life and timetable.

So here, sorted by the author’s first name, is my list.

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side - Beth Fantaskey
Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia - Cindy Pon
Coraline - Coraline
Eternal - Cynthia Leitich Smith
Fortune’s Folly - Deva Fagan
Dreamhunter - Elizabeth Knox
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Night World #1 - L.J. Smith
Night World #2 - L.J. Smith
Secret Circle: Part One - L.J. Smith
Secret Circle: Part Two - L.J. Smith
A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb
Eyes Like Stars Lisa Mantchev
The Tricksters - Margaret Mahy
Airhead - Meg Cabot
Fragile Eternity - Melissa Marr
Ink Exchange - Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
Prophecy of the Sisters - Michelle Zink
Need (Hardcover) by Carrie Jones - Need
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Feast of Fools - Rachel Caine
Glass Houses - Rachel Caine
Midnight Alley - Rachel Caine
The Dead Girls’ Dance - Rachel Caine
The Demon’s Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan
Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Seth Grahame-Smith
The Medusa Project: The Set-Up - Sophie McKenzie
Bloodhound - Tamora Pierce
Cold Fire - Tamora Pierce
Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce
Magic Steps - Tamora Pierce
Melting Stones - Tamora Pierce
Street Magic - Tamora Pierce
The Will of the Empress - Tamora Pierce
Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman

Although not as big as some other bloggers’ piles, I do have a wee bit of a “to read” pile building up. I would take a photo of said pile, except I cannot find my camera.¹ So you are going to have to make do with just an ordinary list. So: which one should I read next?

• Dracula – Bram Stoker
• Children of the Night: Classic Vampire Stories – David Stuart Davies (editor)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
• The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings – Edgar Allan Poe

And now that I have done that, onto the second part of this post: book recommendations! I am looking for books² that fit into one of the following categories (preferably YA, if fiction):

• Fairies, of the non-urban kind. And not the little kind of fairies either. Seelie/Unseelie courts and the like.
• Set in Victorian England, and with a focus on the upperclasses. MC being a female in her late teens/early twenties would be marvellous.
• Anything that would fit in with the general gist of what I have listed above. Other classics like them.

So yeah. Suggest away. This is what I call “fun research”, which I do while letting ideas fester in my head and just reading and changing my reading list slightly, as I cannot simply jump onto yet another project. So I am letting this seed grow, and watering it with good books.

1. Isn’t that the way it always works? You clean your room then cannot find a thing?
2. No need to suggest A Great And Terrible Beauty and sequels, as so many did this afternoon on Twitter. I’ve read the first, did not like it, and so am in no hurry to read the sequels. Anything else is welcome though!

The latest film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel stars Ben Barnes as the titular character, Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton and has Rachel Hurd-Wood as Sibyl Vane – all three being actors I adore and eagerly wait for their next projects. That was how I discovered this movie was in production a long time ago – I was checking out Hurd-Wood’s next projects and this was on the list. And I squeed.

And for those unfamiliar with the tale, Wikipedia’s plot summary for the movie is as follows:

When a naïve young Dorian (Ben Barnes) arrives in Victorian London he is swept into a social whirlwind by the charismatic Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth), who introduces Dorian to the hedonistic pleasures of the city. Henry’s friend, society artist Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) paints a portrait of Dorian to capture the full power of his youthful beauty and when it’s unveiled Dorian makes a flippant pledge: he would give anything to stay as he is in the picture – even his soul.

So tell me, am I the only one excited for this movie? I’d hope not!