Covering the Cover - Curtsies & Conspiracies, by Gail Carriger

Yesterday, the always fabulous Gail Carriger revealed the cover art for the second book in her new four-book Young Adult series set in the Parasol Protectorate universe - Finishing School - Book the Second: Curtsies & Conspiracies!

The series is set 25 years before Soulless, and follows young Sophronia as she attends a rather unique finishing school, where she and her school mates learn the proper methods for finishing anything - and anyone - as needed.

I think the cover art is amazing, as always, and the detail is incredible.  I'm very excited to read this new series.

Curtsies & Conspiracies is due near the end of 2013, probably in November.  The first book in the series, Etiquette & Espionage, will be released next week, February 5, 2013!

Teaser Tuesday - A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

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Over the weekend I finished The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin, and was finally able to start A Memory of Light.  As some may know, every book in the series starts with the same passage - six sentences that signal the beginning of the new book and links it to all the others in the series.  For me personally, reading this first paragraph of the first chapter always gently eases me back into Jordan's world, and yet gives me chills at the same time. 

The Tease:

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend.  Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.  In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist.  The wind was not the beginning.  There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time.
But is was a beginning."

 -The Wheel of Time, Book 14: A Memory of Light,
by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

What's your Tease?

2012 Reading Recap

I'm a little late getting to the recap this year, and to my disappointment, I find that my reading total has dropped yet again, from 26 books in 2011, down to 21 books in 2012.  Once again there were several novels with higher-page counts, including A Dance With Dragons (1016 pages), 2312 (444 pages), The Casual Vacancy (503 pages), and Blue Remembered Earth (512 pages).

So, for your viewing pleasure, here's the list of books that I finished in 2012, with the date I finished reading the book, and links to reviews.

A Dance with Dragons	George R R Martin	1/28/2012
Explosive Eighteen	Janet Evanovich	2/1/2012
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children	Ransom Riggs	2/7/2012
The Mephisto Club (Rizzoli & Isles #6)	Tess Gerritsen	2/16/2012
The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins	2/20/2012
Ender's Game	Orson Scott Card	2/27/2012
Timeless	Gail Carriger	3/6/2012
A Princess of Mars	Edgar Rice Burroughs	3/13/2012
The Gods of Mars	Edgar Rice Burroughs	3/26/2012
Warlord of Mars	Edgar Rice Burroughs	4/1/2012
Thuvia, Maid of Mars	Edgar Rice Burroughs	4/9/2012
The Chessmen of Mars	Edgar Rice Burroughs	4/24/2012
The Watchers of Ur: Cradle	Lamonte Fowler	5/11/2012
The Desert of Souls	Howard Andrew Jones	5/27/2012
The Seventh Scroll	Wilbur Smith	7/8/2012
2312	Kim Stanley Robinson	8/12/2012
Blue Remembered Earth	Alastair Reynolds	9/11/2012
Shadow of Night	Deborah Harkness	10/21/2012
The Casual Vacancy	J. K. Rowling	11/25/2012
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms	N. K. Jemisin	12/13/2012
The Broken Kingdoms	N. K. Jemisin	12/31/2012

Not a bad list, eh?  Although I'm reminded again just how far behind I am with writing reviews. Something to work on in the new year, I guess!
What did you read in 2012?

Teaser Tuesday - The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

----------

I've arrived, at last, at the third book of N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods.  Time has passed in the mortal world, and the Arameri power is declining.  Sieh, one of the original godlings, befriends the heir to the throne, after being stricken with an curse that is making him mortal.  While trying to find a cure, he has stumbled onto a vast conspiracy...Someone is murdering members of the royal family.  But is it revenge against the powerful family that holds the world together, or merely practice for the murder of the gods themselves?

The Tease:

""It's far too late for you to care about me, Father," he said.
 The word fell into my mind like poison, and the veil on my memory shredded into tatters.
(He) vanished then, and I do not remember what happened after that.  There was a lot of pain.
But when I finally awoke, I was thirty years older."

 -The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin

What's your Tease?

TV News - The Walking Dead Mid-Season 3 Poster

This happened last week, and I somehow forgot about it until today:

February 10, 2013 will be the first of 8 new episodes which will complete Season 3.  I can't wait!!

As for the poster itself?  Meh.  It's not nearly as dynamic and interesting as some of the previous ones, but maybe it fits the tone of the second half of the season?  I guess we'll see!  For more info you can go to AMC.

What do you think?

Teaser Tuesday - The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

----------

I've arrived, at last, at the third book of N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods.  Time has passed in the mortal world, and the Arameri power is declining.  Sieh, one of the original godlings, befriends the heir to the throne, after being stricken with an curse that is making him mortal.  While trying to find a cure, he has stumbled onto a vast conspiracy...Someone is murdering members of the royal family.  But is it revenge against the powerful family that holds the world together, or merely practice for the murder of the gods themselves?

The Tease:

"I was five years older, several centuries chastened, and more hated than ever by my siblings, including the one I'd apparently forgotten.  As first days on the job went...well.
I was still alive.  It remained to be seen whether this was a good thing."

 -The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin

What's your Tease?

Covering the Cover - Steelheart, by Brandon Sanderson

Earlier this week, Entertainment Weekly revealed the cover for a new novel by Brandon Sanderson that is due out in September 2013.  "Steelheart" is the first novel of Young Adult dark dystopian trilogy. 

The blurb from Goodreads:
"Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge."

I'm crazy excited for this novel to come out; the story sounds intriguing, and I'm a big fan of Sanderson's other works, so I can't wait to read this.  The cover is interesting, but doesn't speak much to me about the story itself.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it, either.

What do you think?

My thoughts before reading The Wheel of Time: Book 14 - A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

The day has finally arrived.

Last year when it was announced that A Memory of Light would be released today it seemed soooooooo far away, but now, here we are.  Fourteen books, nearly 20 years, and it's all come down to this very day.

Do you have your copy yet?  I'm going to wait until this weekend to pick up mine, which will give me time to finish the book I'm currently reading, and allow me to focus and concentrate on this long awaited series finale.  But while I wait for Saturday, on the inside, I'm jumping up and down and screaming like a Belieber because I can't wait to start reading A Memory of Light.

But I will have to read it very slowly.  Just because I've been waiting for this ending for almost 20 years doesn't mean that I actually WANT it to end.  Finishing A Memory of Light will be a sad, sad joy, one to be rushed towards by running as slowly as possible.

That's how I'm feeling.  What are your thoughts?

Teaser Tuesday - The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their To Be Read (TBR) Lists if they like your teasers!

----------

I've arrived, at last, at the third book of N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods.  Time has passed in the mortal world, and it seems that the Arameri power may be declining.  Sieh, one of the original godlings befriends the apparent heir to the throne, but is stricken with an unknown curse or disease that seems to be stripping him of his powers and making him mortal.  While trying to find a cure, he may have stumbled onto a vast conspiracy...

The Tease:

"One godling's mischief did not trouble me.  But if many of us were involved, conspiring across generations, implementing some complex plan, it was no longer mischief.
It was a revolt.
...That would mean a second God's war, worse than the first one.  This had been brewing right under my nose for fifty years, and I hadn't had a clue. 
Beyond me, in silent rebuke, the bloody sky went gradually black."

 -The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin

What's your Tease?

Welcome to 2013!

Hello, and Welcome to a brand new year!  We've all survived the Mayan Apocalypse, the Holiday Season (which is always crazy!), New Year's Eve, and it seems that we might not go completely off of some cliff that everyone seems to be obsessed with.  Hooray for us!

No Teaser Tuesday post today (I've spent most of the day putting Christmas away, but the Teasers will continue next week!) but I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you, my Little Reading Addicts, for hanging out and following me through 2012, and hopefully continuing to do so in 2013!  I will try to do a better job of posting interesting things in the coming year - that's sort of a resolution, I guess.

Speaking of resolutions, have you made any for 2013?  New decisions or things you want to try in the coming year?  I'd love to hear them, so please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Happy New Year!!