Shelf Love: Best Bookish Gifts

Hey guys! This month's topic was best bookish gifts. Hmmm.... This is kind of a difficult topic, because all bookish gifts that I've gotten so far are good. The best one has to be the Harry Potter series. I know, kind of cliche, right?

A photo posted by Ruby (@rubys.books) on Aug 13, 2015 at 2:08pm PDT

A photo posted by Ruby (@rubys.books) on Aug 13, 2015 at 12:46pm PDT

I got the first 6 books from my aunt and uncle every Christmas and they're the best of the best bookish gifts ever. This is probably why I associate Harry Potter with winter and with Christmas and why each year I feel the need to reread it around that time. The last book I got it myself as a HS graduation gift.

What about you? What are the best bookish gifts you ever got?  

*Disclaimer: Photos taken from my Instagram account

Wednesday Chatter #11: Would You Still Like Your Favorites?

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

 

I was thinking recently about my reading reading habit and how I love to reread. In the blog post I linked you to I said that one of the reasons I love rereading is because I know the book won't let me down and that I know I'll love the book, since I read it the first time. I stand by what I said, because I have been rereading a lot recently and I did enjoy reading those books. This however is about the books I don't think I'll ever reread, despite having loved them.

There are tons of books that I loved, both books that I've reviewed and that I haven't reviewed. Some I've reread tons of times, like Vampire Academy or Harry Potter or any Sophie Kinsella book. Some, however, I have not. Take Divergent, for example. I loved the first book. I was mildly disappointed with the second. Won't be reading the third one because I don't feel the need to finish the story. And to be honest with you, I don't know if I'll like the book as much as I did the first time.

Another good example is The Two Towers from Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The first time I read it, back in high school, I think I read it in three, four days. Now however, I've been stuck at Frodo and Sam's journey for weeks. It is possible this is because I am so used to reading fast paced books, that that second part of the book is too slow for me right now. 

So my question for you is this: would you like your favorite books if you were to reread them? Or have you found yourself rereading a loved book that you didn't enjoy as much on a second read?

Obsessed With Covers #25: Immortal, Prized, Ember

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

So, here are the prettiest covers I've seen this week.

 Gosh, this is so pretty! *makes heart eyes* I love that pendant! I need something so pretty in my life! And the rippling water is so amazing! The details of the water are just gorgeous. Now that I looked more carefully, the entire series has gorgeous covers. I now need to read this book. Badly.










Immortal - Gillian Shields

 This is yer another gorgeous cover. I love the swirls on the door. It makes me think of hobbits. And the smoke is great. I love how everything is surrounded by smoke, except the center of the picture. Also, is that another pendant? (If you can't tell already, I'm obsessed with unique jewelry)

Prized - Caragh M. O'Brien

This cover is so simple and so gorgeous. I love that the butterfly is the only thing that is in color, besides the title and the author's name. I love the font used for the title. And the rain drops add to the feeling of mystery that this cover gives me. The butterfly also looks like it has it's own light.










Ember - Carol Oates



So what about you guys? Did you see any pretty covers this week?

Book Review: The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: N/A
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: Wattpad
Blurb (from Goodreads):

The Dead List is a full standalone novel, coming in at roughly 93,000 words. It’s a Young Adult Romantic Suspense Yes. Lots of Romance. Sort of like Don’t Look Back, but a throwback to movies like Scream and the sort of campy fun ones. Think I Know What You Did Last Summer meets Scream. But with more romance.

There are authors out there that stick with you. They have a certain writing style that you fall in love with and you always feel the need to keep reading their stories no matter what. One of those authors for me is Jennifer L. Armentrout. Something in her writing style makes me want to keep coming back, regardless of what genre she writes in, no matter if it's YA or New Adult. I need to read every book she's ever written.

The Dead List is pretty creepy. You might not know this about me, but I'm not one of those people scared of clowns. I don't particularly like them, but they don't freak me out. If I'm at a carnival and some random dude is dressed as a clown, I don't run away screaming. (I know, I might be the only human that doesn't get freaked out by them...). However, this book managed to make me fear the creatures a little bit.

You can easily figure out that something bad happened to one of the characters. It's in the tone of the story, it makes sense. But what happened and why remained a mystery until the very end for me. I liked the pacing of the book a lot. There's a movie-esque feeling to it, with really important parts being separated by flash-backs.

Ella was an interesting character. I love how JLA wrote her as a strong character. I loved the fact that Ella decides to not be a victim, but instead she chooses to find means to defend herself. Of course, JLA never fails at writing strong women in her books, so this character is no different.

I honestly didn't imagine the ending being what it was. The twists were interesting and really made it feel like I was watching a thriller. I loved this book a lot. I can't wait for more books like this one by Armentrout.

Wednesday Chatter #10: Things Movies and TV Shows Have That Books Need

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Things Movies And TV Shows Have That Books Need
~or in which I prove I'm a huge nerd~

I've been thinking lately about why I love movies and TV shows. Sure, it's about the subject itself, but sometimes it's more than that. It's about all the extra stuff that movies and TV shows get to have. Though it's movies that get the cake (so unfair in certain cases). I know other bloggers have done this, but I thought I'd throw in my own opinion. So without further ado here are things that movies have that I want my books to have as well:

• Video Games

You might not know this about me, but I'm a gamer. I love video games. Epic video games. Big games that occupy a huge chunk of your time. Games like Diablo, Heroes of Might and Magic, Zeus (and other history themed builder games). I remember when I got my hands on the Battle for Middle Earth II I didn't resurface in the real world for...oh, about the entire summer I had it. A friend from high school had given me his game and I was ecstatic. Especially since you could play both as the good guys and as the bad guys and with playing for the bad side I GOT TO HAVE MY OWN BALROG!!!

 

I also remember being very, very pissed off that in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone I couldn't find all the trading cards. I'm still sore about that one! 

But anyway. Imagine having a Vampire Academy/Bloodlines video game. Where you get to be Rose and train with Dimitri, kick Strigoi ass, travel to Siberia and back, have epic missions, especially the final test from book 4. Or you could be Sydney and get to navigate the world of vampires as an Alchemist. Or even better, you could play as Adrian and aside from being awesome, you could learn how to control Spirit.

Or you could have the Throne of Glass video game and be Celaena and get to kick everyone's ass and you could have Chaol in front of you *dreamy sigh*. Don't even get me started on a Dark Hunter or a Demonica/Lords of Deliverance video game.

 

 
• Deleted Scenes

I know that sometimes, scenes get cut in movies and TV shows, and in some really cool cases, they include some of those on the DVDs. I need this from books too. There are some awesome authors that share some of these deleted scenes, but I need more. I'm greedy!

• Bloopers

My favorite part about TV shows. Bloopers. I live to see bloopers. If they're as funny as the ones from Supernatural, even better. I don't know how this could happen with books, but I'm just throwing it out there, in case someone with much more intelligence than I have can figure this one out.

• Character Interviews

I don't mean like the ones done for blog tours. I mean like the ones where actor pairs (couples in tv shows/movies) do the "Newlyweds" or "Know Your Co-star" type of interviews. I would so, so, so love to see some of my book OTPs do interviews like these.

• Extra Videos 

Here's what I mean by extra videos. I got my hands on a Collector's Edition of The Two Towers (thank you, thrift shops!). And there's tons of videos about how they made some of the sets, how they decided which scenes to include in the movie, how they used the source material for the movie. Same with the Arrow DVD. And many, many other TV shows and movies do this. I know there are Reading guides and Insider's Guides for certain book series, but the ones that I've read so far are basically just a short version of the books themselves. They just go over everything that happened already, without giving any extra material. I want Insider's Guides to have new material. And I don't mean character physical descriptions, either. 

• Epic collector's items

I would do whatever it takes to get my hands on the Lord of the Rings Mattel collector's dolls, just like I would do whatever it takes to get my hands on Amma's (The Caster Chronicles) special tarot cards deck. Or on some Women of the Otherworld dolls and/or wolf figurines. Thankfully, some of the special, book inspired items than one can dream of are on this magical website called Etsy. But I need more.

What about you? What are the things that movies and TV shows get that you want books to have too?

Book Review: Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon

Author: Hollis Seamon
Series: N/A
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Release Date: September 3rd 201
My Rating: 4 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Chemo, radiation, a zillion surgeries, watching my mom age twenty years in twenty months: if that’s part of the Big Dude’s plan, then it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Somebody Up There Hates You.

SUTHY has landed me here in this hospice, where we—that’s me and Sylvie—are the only people under 30 in the whole place, sweartogod. But I’m not dead yet. I still need to keep things interesting. Sylvie, too. I mean, we’re kids, hospice-hostages or not. We freak out visitors; I get my uncle to sneak me out for one insane Halloween night. Stuff like that. And Sylvie wants to make things even more interesting. That girl’s got big plans.

Only Sylvie’s father is so nuclear-blasted by what’s happened to his little girl, he glows orange, I swear. That’s one scary man, and he’s not real fond of me. So we got a major family feud going on, right here in hospice. DO NOT CROSS line running down the middle of the hall, me on one side, her on the other. It’s crazy.

In the middle of all of this, really, there’s just me and Sylvie, a guy and a girl. And we want to live, in our way, by our own rules, in whatever time we’ve got. We will pack in some living before we go, trust me.

If you follow my blog you know that I usually stay away from sad books. Sure, I might read books about tortured characters, but all in all my books end on a happy note. With a HEA for our main character(s). You know that I also like to experiment with my books once in a while, that I try to change things up a little. I'm trying to grow as a reader, is what I'm trying to say. So while I was looking at the books on my shelves trying to decide which one to read for a beach read, Somebody Up There Hates You stood out.

First, I have to say that I read this book over a period of three weeks. This is strange, because usually I read books kind of fast. The problem was that at some points, I had to stop reading. Mentally, I needed a break. The story would suck me in, and I'd forget where I was and then BAM! it reminded me that Richard was sick. And I don't do well with sick children, so I needed breaks.

The story broke my heart into tiny little pieces at times. At times it was like I was in the hospice room with Richard, seeing him. I liked his voice, I liked how he told the story. What broke my heart even more was the fact that he would try to assure people that he'd get better. Sylvie too, she'd talk about the future. Of course, they both knew that it couldn't happen, which is why it was so heartbreaking.

At times I understood the other characters' frustration with Richard and Sylvie. I really could put myself in their shoes and understand their perspective. It was strange, because usually with 1st person narration that doesn't happen to me.

Of course, I can't help but wonder if he and Sylvie would've still fell in love had they not been in hospice, had they been school mates. Makes me wonder if maybe that is why the ending was left as it was.

I loved the ending. I usually don't like books to be open-ended, but in this case I liked it. I don't think I would've been okay with a closed ending, with one of them dying. I'm sure one of them (maybe both) dies in the end, but it was better to not know for sure. Who knows, maybe they do get better and live happily ever after.