In My Mailbox II

Meme hosted by The Story Siren

Two books bought from Costco:

Mockingjay by Susan Collins (I HAVEN'T READ THIS YET, SPOIL AND DIE)
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Devoured this for readathon, it was amazing)

Pictures later, must speedily work on school assignments now.

What did y'all get this week?

Mini Challenge: Friendship

eta1: challenge closed! will pick a winner shortly!
eta2: Winner is Kayla. Expect an email from me shortly!

Welcome readathoners! It's Hour 15, I hope everyone's readings are going along speedily.

The theme of this hour's mini-challenge is Friendship. Often an aspect that sadly falls to the wayside when we review/talk about books, let's all take a moment to celebrate a good depiction of the blossoming of friendship for the first time. Who doesn't recall vividly the moment when Anne and Diana from Canada's beloved children's series Anne of Green Gables declared themselves kindred spirits? A show of the first time we make friends can stay with us.

This mini-challenge invites you to share a memorable friendship forming moment in any of the books you've read in your life. The moment when two people click, and they knew they were going to be friends for ever. Please leave the name of title/author of the book, the name of the characters, and explain why you liked this moment.

As one should lead by example, here's mine:

My absolute favourite friendship forming moment is in one middle-grade book (which I suspect may be not very well known) called Losing Forever by Gayle Friesen. I loved her flashback moment of how Dell and Jes became friends as kids. It was just so sweet, so perfect, and Friesen's perfect spot on writing made everything stick that much more in my head, her last lines of that flashback floating in my head over and over the first time I read it. It still has that effect on me. Will quote the passage-

Dell and I became friends in grade three. Until then I had mostly hung out with same, but he was going through his "girls are yucky" phase and I was stranded. When the teacher had changed the seating arrangement in the classroom, Dell and I were seated next to each other. I admired her curly, red hair because it looked like campfire and I told her so.

Her eyebrows shot way up and I thought at first I'd insulted her, but she dove for a notepad in her backpack and I saw her scribbling down my compliment word for word. I noticed her "p" was backward.

"That was descriptive," she whispered.

"Good word," I whispered back.

The teacher made us stay in at recess for talking and Dell drilled me with questions as we cleared the chalk brushes. Where did I live? What was my favorite color? (Hers was fuchsia.) Wasn't Basketball Ballerina the best book ever? (I didn't know, but I said I'd read it.) How many brothers and sisters did I have? (She had a very mean sister named Pammy.)

I'd grown silent for a second, but then I told her what I had not yet said out loud to another person. "My sister died."

All of eight years old, she had wrapped her arm around my shoulder. She'd said nothing, but I saw a big tear fall to the floor. Our friendship was forged on chalk dust and a tear. (pg. 19-20)

 That last line. It gets to me, every time.<3

Please leave your answer in the comments with a valid email address as a way of contacting you and a winner will be chosen with Random.Org.

Prizes: A mystery (possibly lightly used) book that has friendship as a central theme, along with some bookmark swag. Ships internationally.

Readathon October 2011 masterpost

Placeholder. Will be working for the next 8 hours so no reading done then, but I hope to at least finish some of my manga/manhwa I've neglected....

Hour 11: So I just got back from work+dinner eating and I can finally NOW START THE READATHON.

So on my way back from work I couldn't resist buying The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, and am probably gonna abandon all plans of manga/manhwa reading in favour of this book. I'm just a weak person, I know.

I love the Hour 11 challenge, book trailers are such an interesting medium, imo.

I hope everyone's having a good readathon!

Hour 14: Finished The Scorpio Races. Words cannot express how much I love this book. Won't stop me from trying though. Will attempt a review sometime this week.

Waiting for Wednesday I

This meme is hosted at Breaking the Spine.

A girl and a vampire fall in love... The girl's best friend is deeply unimpressed.

You know how sometimes you're interested in a book, but you need that extra something for that book to go from your maybe-check-it-out list to your MUST READ ASAP list?! In this case, it is entirely the cover. I need to own this book with this particular cover to know that this book is real.

Of course there's other interesting draws to this book. The whole parody/comedic aspect of it, friendship storyline, etc. Also Justine Larbalestier always has the most excellent story ideas, and combined that with Sarah Rees Brennan's humour, it should make for a good late night read. Can't wait till Spring 2012!!

It's Monday What Are You Reading I

This meme is hosted by Sheila from Book Journey

Note: all books marked by * indicates that I'm reading it in French.
 
Finished:

The Traitor and the Tunnel (The Agency #3) by Y. S. Lee
The Royal Doll Orchestra t.1 par Yuki Kaori*
Amusing Myself by Li Bai

Currently reading:

Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Lo Kuan-chung
Ancient Air (39) by Li Bai
Les Belles endormies par Yasunari Kawabata*
The Royal Doll Orchestra t.2 par Yuki Kaori* 
Zen & Sukhavati par Patriarche Yin Kouang*

Review(s) Written: Tell Us We're Home by Marina Budhos

So, what have y'all read last week? =D

In My Mailbox I

Meme hosted by The Story Siren

This week is a gift from a friend:

Aesop's Fables

Pretty self explanatory, I feel. Have had some of these fables read to me as a kid, but never read a whole collection on my own. lol got out of that English major before I had to, I suppose. According to the backcover there's 600 stories in here, so I guess there's something to keep me busy during my commutes. Should be interesting. =D

What did you get in your IMMs?

Review: Tell Us We're Home

Title: Tell Us We're Home

Author: Marina Budhos

Category/Genre/Themes: Middle Grade, Contemporary, Friendship, Immigration

Publisher: Atheneum Books

Author's Website: http://www.marinabudhos.com/

Summary: Jaya, Maria, and Lola are just like the other eighth-grade girls in the wealthy suburb of Meadowbrook, New Jersey. They want to go to the spring dance, they love spending time with their best friends after school, sharing frappés and complaining about the other kids. But there’s one big difference: all three are daughters of maids and nannies. And they go to school with the very same kids whose families their mothers work for. (taken from the author's website)

First Line: Meadowbrook, New Jersey, looks like it's right out of an old-time postcard.

The Skinny: Budhos' next book in the MG market reveals her full mastery of the pen, outshining her MG debut Ask Us No Questions by a landslide. Some other authors who take a more ambitious storytelling angle flounder at the unravelling of too many story threads. Budhos, on the other hand, flourishes with the added textures to her story. Filled with moments of kindness, love, heartbreak, and fear, it's message of friends, family, and home shine like a blaze against a backdrop of a world that doesn't want them.