Top 5 Sundays – Most Swoon-Worthy Covers!

This feature was thought up by the awesome Larissa's Bookish Life
Rules:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3 - Fell free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.5 - If you don't have a blog to post, just leave your list in the coments =)

Top 5 Sundays - Most Swoon-Worthy Covers
In no particular order, here are some very swoon worthy covers.  :)

One, fine looking druid.  :)

Quite the swoon worthy couple.

Yet another swoon worthy pose, gotta love that Kitty's the one always holding a gun.

If the cover's any indication then this anthology should be full of some swoon-worthy stories.

What can I say, gotta love the always swoon-worthy Winchester brothers especially the blue shirts on this cover. :)

Borders Bargains

I went to Borders again, I can't seem to stay away from their going out of business sale.  I did find a couple of good buys though because most of the stuff I buy is 20% off now.

I bought these zombie-tastic books because I read My Life as a White Trash Zombie recently and loved it and after reading the first book Feed by Mira Grant I knew I had to read the sequel. :)

Zombie-tastic Zombie

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

* This great zombie cover was created by the very talented Dan Dos Santos.  I love this cover and it really makes the book stand out and goes along well with the story.

* Read via the public library.  This is one library book that I'll definitely be buying.

This book gets a zombietastic 5 out of 5 gnomes for having a great story where the zombie is a main character and not a villain.  This is a great take on the whole finding and bettering yourself kind of story.  It also was a great read with a character who is definitely flawed but really fun to read about.   

Angel Crawford is well, to put it nicely, a loser.  Things actually start to improve for her after she dies.  The story actually opens up with her waking up in the hospital after an overdose.  Things get weirder from there though because her memories don't match up with what she's told has happened.

She's not sure what to believe at first and thinks that she may be going crazy.  Her lifestyle before waking up in the hospital mostly consisted of doing drugs, drinking, and hanging out with her boyfriend.  The boyfriend isn't exactly the greatest influence either, he's kind of a slacker/enabler.  Angel is someone that you might not think has a chance seeing as she's the daughter of a crazy mother and an alcoholic father.  She's been making some bad choices since high school at least but her new state that she finds herself in means that alcohol and drugs don't have the same effect that they used to.

A mysterious note tells her to get a job at the morgue and do the job for at least a month or she'll go to jail.  To her own amazement she actually likes her new job.  The job at the morgue is gross yet intriguing because she gets to see death up close and personal.  This job also gives her access to a lot of brains, which is pretty darn important to her survival.

If you read the title of the book then you already know what Angel has been turned in to.  Knowing that just adds to the reading experience as you see her discovering what she now is and everything that entails.  She's a quick learner and her new strong stomach means that nothing seems to bother her during autopsies or while picking up a body.

Even the minor characters are portrayed well and will leave you wanting to know even more about their stories.  Everybody from her father to the cops she meets feels like they are important.  One of the most entertaining parts is getting to see how Angel changes through the various people she connects with at work and a potential love interest.

Now you may be thinking about the weirdness of zombie love and picturing something disgusting.  In this world though the act isn't really necrophilia like as long as the zombie has recently eaten brains.  If they haven't eaten recently though then zombie sex probably would be rather messy/horrifying.

This book has something for everyone.  The story is a mash of zombies, overcoming adversity, mysterious circumstances, and a serial killer.  The ending line will make you laugh out loud and does set up some interesting developments for the next book.  All of those things blended together make for one fresh zombie read.  It's even hard to figure out who the bad guy is, there are lots of clues along the way to what's going on but I know I sure didn't figure everything out.  Angel is one heck of a character and I can't wait to see what happens next.

My Favorite Quotes/Lines
"So maybe there were different degrees of monster.  I was a monster with a mushy heart."

"I smiled my best bad-bitch smile.  Oh, yeah.  I was about to burn me some brains."

"And nothing fell off that wasn't supposed to."

Sentence Sneak Peek - My Life as a White Trash Zombie

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

The first sentence from each chapter of My Life as a White Trash Zombie, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)

This great zombie cover was created by the very talented Dan Dos Santos.  I love this cover and it really makes the book stand out and goes along well with the story.

"You should be dead," the ER nurse stated as she ad-justed something on my IV."

"I made it home from the hospital and obediently set my alarm for 7:30 A.M."

"Three hours ago I was in bed, I thought miserably."

"It was after five P.M. by the time I finally left the morgue and climbed into my Honda."

"Despite the failure of Xanax, I managed to get a good night's sleep, and actually got out of bed when my alarm went off."

"The ringing of my phone jerked me out of a nightmare—rotting flesh and crawling maggots, reaching hands and flesh dripping off bones."

"More than ready to get the hell out of there, I had the dead guy bagged, on the stretcher, and shoved into the back of the van in record time."

"My stress levels were so high that when my cell phone rang I let out a shriek and damned near threw the bag containing the tub of brains into the air."

"The Top Cow Café, situated in a slightly crummy section of Tucker Point, was a cramped little hole-in-the-wall with a sign out front so weatherworn it was barely read-able and waitresses who didn't waste their time with little things like courtesy and smiles."

"All next week I was the goddamn model of a good worker."

"Angel."

"I gazed morosely at the contents of the little fridge in my room."

"I practically sang for joy when I got the call at six A.M. to pick up a body."

"You're certainly raring to go, Angel."

"As annoyed as I was at Kang and his no-more-info-for-you bullshit, the entire incident had clued me in to sev-eral hugely important facts."

"The third morgue tech, Jerry, was sitting at the computer in the morgue when I came in the next morning."

"My decent mood lasted until I pulled up to the house and saw my dad sitting on the porch."

"As soon as the cops left with my dad I retrieved my lunchbox from my car and scarfed down a jar of brain soup."

"Dad called the next morning."

"I was starting to figure out that Derrel had a sixth sense-thing going on, where he knew exactly what to say to make people feel better."

"What the hell happened to this guy?"

"Double Ds was actually the Double Dime Dinner, but no one bothered to call it that, even though the nickname made it sound like a strip club."

"After parting ways with Marcus and Ed, I drove home."

"My cell phone chimed with an incoming text message as I was carefully writing the date on the side of a jar."

"I finished up my paperwork, then checked the computer to see if there were any bodies scheduled to be picked up by a funeral home today."

"I drove home in a cold sweat, arguing with myself the whole way."

"Hunger prodded me, as if to taunt me about the loss of my brains."

"I sat in my car and bit my lower lip as I considered my situation."

"I headed into the morgue early, hoping to god that an-other body had been brought in while I was off."

"As soon as Dr. Leblanc finished up and returned to the main building I called Scott Funeral Home and asked for Kang, only to be told he wasn't coming in until noon and no, they could not give me his personal information or cell phone number."

"Making my getaway was the first step."

"After checking the styrofoam cooler to be sure every-thing was still pretty frozen, I headed to the hospital."

"I ended up going back to the diner, simply because I couldn't think of anywhere else to go where I would have the room to spread out and look everything over."

"Herbert Singleton wasn't a zombie—just an asshole who could only get laid if the girl was too wasted to say no."

"I've never been anything remotely resembling "ath-letic."

"Oh, Ed did his best to shoot me again, but I'd just gob-bled down two brains worth of brainsicle, and I was fast."

"Together we managed to get my Honda unstuck, but be-fore we headed back to town we returned to where the four-wheelers were parked."

"My dad and I raked up beer cans for the last couple of hours of daylight, then I headed back over to Marcus's house."

"Waiting On" Wednesday

"Waiting On"  Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking  the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 

This week I'm waiting on...

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Book will be released on November 15, 2011

Here's the book trailer:


I can't wait to read this book, just seeing the cover and reading the description makes it look like an exciting read.

Happy Book Birthday to Wolfsbane, Supernaturally, and Wildefire.

To celebrate the release of these great titles, I've decided to give a character from each book a present that they might need:

For Ansel: a book on how to make good decisions, because lets just say I kind of questioned his decision making skills after reading Wolfsbane. :)

*

For Evie: a new TV show for her to obsess over that might remind her of Easton Heights because she'll probably need a pleasant diversion or two.

To Ashline: A book that could come in very handy and teach her something about herself.

*

Once again I want to wish a very happy Book Birthday to all of these books.  :)

Merchandise Monday

Here's some of the latest Harry Potter merchandise that I either have bought or can't wait to buy.

I love the Harry Potter games even though they differ from the books and movies.  This game looks great and I can't wait to see how it plays.

This is one of the cutest Harry Potter related shirts that I've seen out there.  I of course ordered one after hearing about it via @ReadingTeen on Twitter.

Lately at the Library

This is where I work while the library is being remodeled.  Not exactly convenient, I've taken to calling it the Mini Library.

It's been quite the adventure so far because most students see this space and ask, "Is this the library."  I'm just trying to go with the flow but the plans for the new space make me nervous, it sounds like a lot's going on but the communication tends to be lacking.  I just have to hope for the best and that the new remodeled arrangement actually works although it's easy to feel pessimistic when we already know that the shelves won't be here in time for the opening.   

Sometimes I have to work on Saturdays and yesterday was one of those days.  It was a slow day at first but then a student showed up looking for help with their paper.  This would have been find but the person that works in the writing center (which is connected to the library) didn't show up today.  Even though I told her the person wasn't there and when the other writing centers opened, she stayed for the whole day.  I showed her how to cite everything and tried to help her out with her paper.  It was fine for awhile and I made sure to emphasize that she should double check everything.  Not sure that it was the best paper but it seemed to work for her.

Then later in the afternoon after she saw that I got a sandwich from Jimmy Johns, she and another lady in the room wanted to know how to order sandwiches.  So I ended up promoting Jimmy Johns at work today.  :)

The "best" part came at the end.  She said because I had been so nice and helped her with her paper that she wanted to reward me.  This reward was her reading every single page of her paper out loud to me.  This was one of those cringe inducing moments because you don't want to say NO, don't read the paper to me and make the person feel dumb.  I ended up listening to her read me the paper right up until closing time.

Overall quite the weird day.

Book Bargains and Finds

I bought Kindling the Moon at the Borders sale, I thought it would be more than 10% off but they are slow to mark things down I guess.  Still I was very glad to find it there because it looks like it'll be a great read.

I was very happy to see Wildefire out early at Barnes & Noble.  I can't wait to read this book and just check out the cover, it looks even better in person.

Decidedly Deft Detective

Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis

* Received this book from the author for review
* Will be released July 26, 2011

This book gets a grand 4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for having an old school detective story type atmosphere and for being full of paranormal goodness.  Hard Spell was so much fun to read and would make for an excellent TV show or movie. The cover may look a tad cheese-tastic but it really fits will with the spirit of the story.

I of course wanted to read this book because it takes place in Scranton, PA (the home of one of my favorite TV shows, The Office).  The setting and tone of the book make it a must read.  It reads like a film noir type novel in places but also happens to have a lot of f-bombs and some great humor which makes for an exceptionally enjoyable read.  It’s kind of like NYPD Blue, Psych, and Supernatural  all blended together to make some kind of beautiful demon baby.  I found myself giggling in the first chapter when they are called to a crime scene that features meth addicted goblins robbing a store.

Stan Markowski is a cop who solves crimes that deal with supernatural beings.  He seems like the quintessential hard-boiled detective who knows how to get the job done.  He and his partner Karl have a lot to do when a case takes a weirder turn then usual.  If they don’t solve this case it could be the end of the world, for real.  

There are a wide range of paranormal creatures/beings in the story.  Vampires, Sorcerers, and witches are prominently featured.  All of the magic mixed with everything else makes for quite the wild ride.  

There are some potential love interests but they don’t go beyond potential, at least for now anyway.  It was great to see the different people that Stan cares about and watch relationships develop.  Stan’s a character who actually seems to grow wiser and more tolerant as the book goes along.

Like any great mystery there are some red herrings and danger aplenty.  The duo of Stan and Karl are almost killed multiple times and kept guessing about what exactly is going on.  

This book has an extremely satisfying ending and I know I can’t wait to see what happens next.

My favorite quotes:
"I was never a Boy Scout, but "Be Prepared" is still a good motto to live by. Especially if you plan to keep on living."

"Speaking of the devil doesn't necessarily make him appear – but it might."

You've read the review and seen my favorite quotes so now take a look at the book trailer for Hard Spell.

Tee-rific Thursday - Booky Goodness

Here are some great book related shirts that I think are great for anyone.

This one's called Shelf Life, it was created by PixelPants and can by found at shirt.woot!
I love everything about this shirt and the minute I saw it I knew I had to buy it.  There's so much detail in it and it's one of those shirts that looks even better in person.  It also reminds me of the show Reading Rainbow, which is always a good thing. :)

This shirt's called Epic Battle, it was created by jlegos and can be found at shirt.woot!
This shirt is full of awesome for those who love HarryPotter, The Lord of the Rings or both.  So it would be great for anyone that has ever questioned which wizard it better.

Bye Borders

I know I'll really miss my Borders store when they're gone.  I've been going to the store for the longest time pretty much for as long as I can remember.  I bought books there back when a book was $4.99 at the most, which was quite a while a go.  I waited in line there for more than one Harry Potter book and even went to the party there and the really long wait in line for the last book.  Borders will be missed and will probably push me to shop more online for books then I already do because the other stores aren't as convenient.

Here are some pictures of my door which is kind of like a shrine to Borders and a testament to all the time and money that I've spent there.  :)

Humbling Hunger

* Read via NetGalley

This book definitely gets a 4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for having a contemporary type feel with quite the paranormal twist.  This is a really genius way to look at the mythology of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  

Intense is the best word to describe this book.  Lisabeth Lewis is one truly troubled main character and will have you cringing at the way she sees herself yet wanting to help her at the same time.  This book was hard to read at times because of how she viewed herself and food.  I know I felt like a bad person when her description of cheese made me really hungry.  The book really makes you think and look at the world through a different set of eyes.  

You will think that you know where this book is going and then, WAM you're going to be in for a lot of surprises.  I actually thought I wasn't going to like the book at first because it looked like it was going to be extremely depressing but it exceeded my expectations 100%.  You probably wouldn’t think that the four horsemen of the apocalypse had redeeming qualities but in this world it looks like they just might.  While reading you get to see the different riders and how widely their personalities differ.  The most interesting besides Lisabeth was Death who’s in the guise of Kurt Cobain and likes to sing.

Lisabeth learns a lot about herself and the true power of hunger.  It’s not all doom and gloom though, Famine’s horse is pretty entertaining.  This is not an easy book to read but you’ll be glad that you did.  

Overall this was a truly unique way of writing about a story that most have at least a cursory knowledge of.  I know I can’t wait to read about the other riders of the Apocalypse.  I was expecting a book that was going to be sad all the way through but I really like that it ends on a hopeful note.  I know I'm intrigued enough that I will be buying the next book in this series.

Sentence Sneak Peek - Hunger

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

The first sentence from each chapter of Hunger, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Read via NetGalley
* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)

"Lisabeth Lewis didn't mean to become Famine."

"Famine?"

"Her voice gave out, and her mouth gaped as she stared at the set of scales on the table."

"Even before she accidentally turned the food to ash, Lisa knew that going to the diner was a mistake."

"Leaning against the front door, Lisa blew out a shaky breath and mopped her forehead."

"The words didn't make any sense."

"The world before her blurred like half-forgotten memories, all browns and greens and blues, smeared in a finger-painted land-scape."

"The woman loomed like a metallic beast, gleaming in silver armor from head to toe."

"Lisa woke up the next morning with a spike twisting through her guts."

"What is she doing here?"

"They galloped across the skies, the world streaking beneath them in colorful waves that rippled when Lisa glanced down."

"The black horse set Famine down outside the human's house, as she'd requested."

"Lisa walked out of Tammy's house in a daze, her head cottony thick, her chest heavy."

"Lisa walks amidst green and yellow fields, the stalks standing a little taller as she passes by."

"They traveled."

"Oh God."

"Lisa was too tired to be afraid."

"When Lisa opened the door to her house forty-six days later, James and Suzanne nearly bowled her over as they shouted, "Welcome home!"