Early to Death, Early to Rise- Kim Harrison

Early to Death, Early to Rise, Madison gets her first chance at seeing if she can change how the Dark versus Light save souls. Barnabas, Nakita and Grace are on board to help but convincing them to change centuries old practices will take skill and subtlety. Will Madison be able to pull it off while Ron and his apprentice attempt to stop her and the Seraphs watch to see if she can be successful?

So the story is coming together a bit more for me now. I’ve largely sorted out the basic working of this whole light versus dark timekeeper, light versus dark reaper business. Mostly. Of course I’m still finding that Kim Harrison occasionally launches the reader into these fast paced scenes that end up being confusing rather than nail biting.  For a veteran writer I feel like her writing should be far more fluid than it is, it’s been hard for me to pinpoint but I think Madison’s first person thoughts on the matter are part of what confuse these scenes. If i'm only as knowledgable as her, than by golly she's pretty lost!

And Great and Merciful God! If she uses one more of her “Son of a Puppy” or “Puppy accidents on the Carpet” 1001 variations one more time I’ll start to scream. Seriously, it felt like she used one of them half a dozen times each chapter, and it was awkward and annoying every single time! Considering she used Crap on several occasions I didn’t get the impression she was trying to avoid swearing, but honestly, whatever her intention with it, I have sincerely wished (for 240 pages) her editor had put her foot down at some point about it.

In its favour? The story really is shaping up better than the first; I found the story arc of this book way more compelling than the Once Dead, Twice Shy. I’m still finding it hard to get into the characters, and the jokes (I think they're jokes) are falling flat for me. Would I keep reading this series? Borrowed probably, but I certainly won’t be chasing it down. I’m curious where Kim Harrison is going, but I can’t say I’m enjoying the journey enough to recommend to others or to pursue it financially.

Early to Death, Early to Rise, By Kim Harrison
Published by HarperCollins, May 2010

Once Dead, Twice Shy

I was completely unfamiliar with Kim Harrison’s work until the Supernatural Tour back in May; and after her reading from Early to Death, Early to Rise, and seeing that a good 80% of the folks there were there just to see her, my good friend Jenna and I decided it was time to sink our teeth into her new YA series.
Madison Avery is dead, but still enjoying teenage life with the added difference that she has a Light Reaper, Barnabas as a constant companion now. There’s a slightly complicated story line about Light Reapers versus Dark Reapers, Light Timekeepers versus Dark Timekeepers and choice versus fate in human life. Wrapped into all of this there is the greater story of why Madison was killed by a Dark Reaper and why she’s dead but still functioning almost completely normally.

My very first comment on this story is it took me most of the book before I really wrapped my mind around what Kim Harrison was getting at. I felt like there needed to be a much clearer set up early on to explain the workings of her fantasy world. My second comment is I read the whole book and didn’t come away with an attachment to any of the characters.
Honestly.
None of them.
And thirdly, although it’s a rapid fire book I was never particularly drawn into the action, repeatedly putting it down in the middle of important big moments. At a very brief 256 pages I should have breezed through this story in a couple of days, tops. Instead I was carrying it around with me for a good 5 days or so.

Not a great read, however, trooper that I am, I carried on to book two in the hopes most of the wrinkles would be ironed out and I’d get down to why Kim Harrison is such a popular author.

Once Dead, Twice Shy, By Kim Harrison
Published by HarperCollins, April 2010

Political Cats- Feline Fridays

So the Great and Horrible G20 overtakes Toronto this lovely, super overheated, weekend.  Besides being trapped in the pandemonium (all the highways and express ways that surround the city will be shut down on and off all weekend for motorcades, without warning), being overtaken with every kind of cop, crowd control, and security team within the province, and the possibilities of herds of crazy protesters, we can also look forward to limited access to the core of the city, transit shut downs and possibly another earthquake aftershock or locally touching down tornado.   It sounds suspiciously like the Armageddon doesn't it?
Oh did I mention the soaring 36+ degree heat after the humidex?

Anywho, all this talk of politics (did you know Obama has a sister in Mississauga??) has got me thinking about the plethora of pets that have been in the White house over the years.  But most especially the cats.  Everyone's heard of Socks, but did you know that Bush had almost as many cats as dogs in the White house? (and incidentally, a cow?)  Or that Abe Lincoln introduced the first cat to the White house?

So for those of you interested in American politicians that enjoy a good kitty, here's the list of past White house felines.

6th President, Abraham Lincoln: Tabby. The first White House cat.

19th President, Rutherford Hayes: Siam. A gift from the American Consul in Bangkok; this cat was the first Siamese to reach the United States (1878).

26th President, Theodore Roosevelt: Slippers and Tom Quartz.

29th President, Calvin Coolidge: Smokey, Blackie, Timmy and Tiger. Tiger was a grey stripped stray who used to be carried around the White House by the president, around his neck.

35th President, John Kennedy: Tom Kitten. When the cat died in 1962, he was given an obituary notice by the press.

38th President, Gerald Ford: Shan.

39th President, Jimmy Carter: A Siamese, Misty Malarky Ying Yang.

40th President, Ronald Reagan: Cleo & Sara, Tortoiseshell strays, also several unnamed cats.

42nd President, Bill Clinton: Socks and Buddy.

43rd President, George W. Bush: Ernie and India  "Willie" Bush.

A third cat, Cowboy, said to be the president's favourite, died of a kidney disease in February 2000 at the age of 12. 

The Big Reveal

So the Lost Hero now has a cover! And for us joe schmos who couldn't make it to the BEA (grrr) we finally get the code to unlock the first two chapters of the book.  But seriously, I still wish I'd gotten the coin, especially now that I know what it does!!

I ate up the chapters and was dying by the last sentence,  Percy is WHAT??!! Yes, Yes, I know, now you're dying to know too.  Hahahahahahahah! All part of the diabolical plan.

To read them yourself head on over to the Lost Hero Subsite and use the password newhero.  Then you can join me on the dying to read the whole thing team.

before i fall

As I've mentioned, a ways back in the postings, I won this fine book from Lenore over at Presenting Lenore back in early May.  I had been eyeing it up for sometime and I couldn't have been more excited when it winged itself to me in the mail from Germany, signed by the author even!
Albeit it does read : Dear Lucky Winner- Isn't Lenore the BEST?? Happy reading- I hope you enjoy!! Lauren Oliver.  Hahahaha, so Lenore gets a tiny little bit of marketing in my library from here on in!

The first thing I must tell you is: I fell for it, yes, I fell for this book hard.  Lauren Oliver has written a truly lovely first novel, which almost waxes lyrical at times about the every day beauties of life.  This book starts as a teen story and ends as an ode to living life, with a bit of a redemption story mixed in.  But like Going Bovine, the story I walked away with was the reminder to love life, every second of it, good or bad, and to make the most of what you have.

So let me back track for a second, before i fall is about Sam, one of the more popular seniors in her high school.  She's far from perfect, and in fact has fallen into the stereotypical traps of high school popularity.  It's Cupid day, February 12, and a Friday; her plans include: hopefully getting a record number of roses from friends and admirers, going to a party, and ending her virginity with her boyfriend. In that order.  Unfortunately a car crash puts an end to her plans, and her life, until she wakes up the next morning to realise it's Friday February 12th again.  Sounds like Groundhog day right?  Except it isn't, it's actually really enjoyable (I loathed that stupid movie!).

I was pretty sure, during the first run through of the day, I wasn't going to like this book.  I didn't like Sam and I really didn't like her nasty, shallow friends.  The whole thing was written so similar to things I remember about high school (Lauren, we had a cupid day with roses being delivered every period too!), that in all honestly the ugliness was too real and was putting me off.    But as the story progressed I liked that we were shown all the ways these girls were just trying to make up for their own messed up lives, hide in the spotlight as it were.  I also really appreciated that although Sam comes to a realisation of the harm they've inflicted and tries to make up for it, she also still loves her friends despite their faults and can see the good side to each of them. In turn making you see the good in them. See? Redemption.

Fair warning, I cried, a significant amount at the end (and a couple of times close to the end).
Now I can't wait for Lauren's next book, Delirium

before i fall, By Lauren Oliver
Published by Harper Collins, March  2010

For more reviews of this book, check out:
Presenting Lenore
Books by Their Covers
DeRaps Reads

Hobbes, one of my favorite cats ever!- Feline Fridays

So I know I've said it before, but seriously, Calvin and Hobbes is still the best ever (even if there's no more new stuff).  And as far as literary cats go, Hobbes is my all time favorite.  The cartoon strips about Hobbes, as well as the ones where Calvin becomes a tiger too, are worth their weight in gold.

The Necromancer- Book 4 in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series

With awesome covers and an intriguing story these books have fascinated me since the day I picked the first one up (with absolutely no idea this was part one of six! ugh).  I'd be lying though if I didn't say I've struggled with them, and I just couldn't pin point why.  I love the story, it's action packed and full of great reveals and monsters.  There's an intriguing cast of characters, many of whom are immortal and have rich histories for Michael Scott to divulge at his leisure.  So what is it, exactly, that rubs me the wrong way about these books?  Why is it I feel kind of unsatisfied every time I finish one?

At first I thought it was because although I was intrigued by the characters I didn't like any of them.  Especially the Twins, Josh and Sophie, who are sort of the Hero's of the story.  There's nothing worse than when an author, in attempt to be gritty and realistic, ends up taking away all the redeeming factors from a character leaving you with some unlikable, often cruel, protagonist.  But while reading The Necromancer I decided that although Michael Scott repeatedly makes Josh a whinny temperamental teenager (ugh, my least favorite, their bad enough in person! please don't follow me into my reading too!), and insists on hinting at Nicholas and Pernelles potentially less than heroic past (I think he's just trying to be mysterious and keep you guessing but really it just gets frustrating), the real problem is the pacing of the books coupled with the one year breaks between them.

Four books into a six part series, Michael Scott has only covered 7 days.  They have been an astoundingly action packed seven days, honestly it's shocking when you get reminded of just how little time has gone by, but if you think of it this way, it means he's averaging less than two days per book.  With each book spread apart by a year.  See what I mean?
And that is what I think the problem is.
Take a series that is gogogogogogo, and cut it off right in the middle of something big, annnnnnnnnnnd, wait for a year to read the next two days of gogogogogogogo, annnnnnnnnd, wait for another year to jump right back into the action and gogogogogogogo.

Honestly, I think this series has awesome potential, once it's fully released in two more years.  Until then, it just sort of drives me crazy, and i doubt I'm enjoying the full scope of it reading it as it releases each year.  Will I keep buying it as it comes out? Yes.  Do I recommend it? Yes, at this point four of the six books are out, so it's a good time to jump on board.  But for us suckers who started with the first book?  Honestly it just isn't working for me.  I'm pretty sure I'll feel differently about it once I double back and read it in one go, but since the ending of The Necromancer was completely annoying(seriously does it always have to end on such a cliff hanger?) I'm not in any hurry to go back to them right away.

The Necromancer, Book 4 in The Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series, By Michael Scott
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers,  April 2010

Birthday books and wishes!

So today is the hubby's big Birthday, and by big I don't mean number wise just that it's the annual big day.  Of course I've bought him some books;  Christmas and Birthday's just aren't the same without at least one book!

On the list of hot Amazon arrivals for his big day are:
Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Volume 5, by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
and Awkward Family Photos, by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack

The hubby's been greatly enjoying the Ultimate Collection of Invincible for awhile now, and Ryan Ottley's blog makes him weepy with jealousy over his artistic talents (which is insane, my hubby is an unbelievably talented artist, check out his deviant art page).  These stupid Ultimate Collections are a bugger to get in Canada though, one of those weird Canadian publishing things i guess, so I thought it was a good time to grab it for him on Amazon.

Lamb has been on my radar to buy him since it's original publishing date way back when.  There is a cool fake leather version that actually looks like a Bible, but I'm going cheaper with the straight up paperback so that I can throw in a fun silly book as well.

Which would be Awkward Family Photos!  Hysterical, laugh out loud fun.  We ran into this at Chapters a couple of weeks ago and the hubby was still giggling at the thought of it the other day.  So what the hey?! It's his birthday, time to keep the smile on his face right?

All of these would make great fathers day gifts if you're still in need, though gift cards aren't a bad idea either (who says they're a bad gift??!!). Check out these great links on Amazon for some additional Dad ideas:
Gift Cards
Kindle (I don't want one, but dads are notoriously tech covetous)
and the ever popular Lawn and Garden stuff.

But most of all, help me wish the lovely boy in my life a wonderful day! Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Book Clubs, are you in one?

I'm not, though it always kind of sounded like fun.  But if you live in Toronto, local Rep Theater The Revue (on Roncesvalles) might just have the answer for you.  The Book Revue: From Page to Screen is their new monthly feature with Toronto Star Critic Geoff Pevere, and book blogger Bruce Macdonald (http://www.ways2skinastory.blogspot.com/).  They're inviting people to buy the book, read it, come watch the movie and then discuss, post-screening, what makes a film adaptation successful.

The first book/movie combo is No Country for Old Men, and it airs June 22, doors open at 6:30pm, film starting around 7pm.  Advance Tickets are available at Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Ave. $8 advance/seniors, $10 at the door, $6 for groups of five or more, so they're suggesting you bring your book club.

For more information check out their site: www.revuecinema.ca

In Good Company- Feline Fridays

I realize, as an owner of 3 cats and the foster home of a rotating 4th, I tend to be perceived as the crazy cat lady.  I am crazy about my cats after all, loving each one as a small furry child, but I draw the line at the cat sweaters and other paraphernalia.  But because the hubby and I are outnumbered by our furry friends, we tend to be viewed as the crazy cat people all the same.    Of course what you might not realize is in the literary world I am in very good company!  


The first to come to mind is always Ernest Hemmingway, I mean lets face it.  He bequeathed his house to his cats AND had a type of cat named after him.  There are however, many others.  One of my favorites being the exceedingly eccentric, Edward Gorey.  I have a book of interviews with him called Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey, and one of my favorites is the interview by Cat Magazine just two short months before I was born on May 1978.  Today I leave you with a portion of that interview.

"I got my first cat when I was about seven.  Apart from when I was at Harvard and in the Army, I've always had cats, all of them shorthairs.  I can't conceive of life without cats.  I don't believe I've ever forgotten any cat I had, even if circumstances conspired that I only had it for a short time. On the other hand, I don't have too many specific memories of people who are no longer around either."

"For years, I used to try to keep their number down to three, because of my one-room apartment.  But then, as one does, I knew other people with cats.  You find a cat on the street and try to foist it off on somebody else.  My various blackmailing ventures like that have come home to roost.  People will call me and say, 'Listen, we don't like to bother you, but we've got this cat.  And if you don't take it, we're going to put it in the oven.'  So, thought I live on the same street as Bide-a-Wee, I'v never had cause to stop in.  And Following more than one of these ventures, I ended up with six."

"Between three and four, before I took in the fifth, didn't seem much difference.  Between four and five didn't seem much difference.  Strangely enough, between five and six I suddenly felt it's not just six cats, it's six cats making up a kind of phalanx.  Not that the six banded together.  To the contrary, there were all sorts of internecine relationships.  But somehow six cats seem a lot more, disproportionately more, than five."

"I name them whatever strikes me at the time.  The name usually turn out to be wildly unsuitable.  For example, Agrippina couldn't be less like the original (wife of emperor Claudius; Nero's mother).  Most of their names are from The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki.  At present I feel Genji is inexhaustible, though obviously when the name is hard to pronounce, un-japanese nicknames creep in.  The cats all have about six nicknames."

"The Abyssinian, going on seventeen, was given to me by friends who had her mother, a perplexing cat, quite indescribable.  She was very pretty.  Who has ever seen and Abyssinian who wasn't?  But she seemed to have absolutely no character.  She wasn't shy, she wasn't outgoing, she wasn't withdrawn, she wasn't happy, she wasn't sad, she wasn't anything- she was just there.   When they offered me a kitten I said, 'Oh, I'm not sure.'  They realized exactly what I was intimating. 'Oh listen,' they said, 'we'll give you the kitten that has personality.'  And indeed she does.  She's diminutive.  She's all personality and crazed charm.  She's spent her whole life torn between being incredibly shy and incredibly friendly.  You can watch her go into paroxysms of 'Shall I run up the bookcase and disappear; or shall i come over and talk to somebody?'  She learned to purr when she was ten years old.  She was always affectionate with me, but her purring was delayed.  Now of course she never stops and she's become more friendly than she used to be."

"The most intelligent cat I've ever had was twelve in August.  Kanzuke is a brilliant cat, very friendly and emotionally distressed.  when worked up, he bites and scratches.  He feuds with one of his sisters."

"The house my cousins and I have at the Cape is at the head of a marina, where Koko had been living on boats.  She has one black-ribbed eye, and one orange-ribbed eye.  She is very sweet and she purrs a lot, but totally brainless as far as I can gather.  She's never shown the slightest sign of intelligence.  She's very domestic looking and enormous."

"To No Chun is a pale ginger car, very long, very thin and bony.  This one I felt sorry for at the vet's one day, and adopted.  My vet always has a cage on display.  I was talking to him about the ginger cat, without any intention of taking it.  Then the vet said, 'Anybody who takes that cat ha better see beforehand how badly crippled it is.' 'Oooh, poor little thing, what is the matter with him? I'll take him.  I'll take him,' I said, figuring nobody else would.  he'd fallen or been pushed off a terrace.  His back leg had been broken and twisted so that when sitting up one back leg would stick out.  He has worn off all the fur off the back of it because of the odd way he has to sit down.  He'd been inside the cage for a couple of days already.  When they dumped him out, he slithered along the floor.  I thought 'Oh my God, What have I done?  My other cats will kill him because he's not agile and fast like the others.'  I took him home anyway, expecting he wouldn't be able to get up on anything.  Well he's a perfect demon.  I think what he did was- he didn't fall off the terrace, he probably sailed off it, in a great fit of euphoria.  He wants to sit on my shoulder all the time. he flings himself up.  I'm glad I took him in because he's a sweet cat and a peacemaker, compatible with the other four."

"If you have just one cat, it tends to fade when the owner is not around.  But among several cats- though mine seem to seep a great deal of the day too- there is a complex of relationships going on.  One cat will allow the other cats to sleep up against it.  There's also a pecking order, which is funny to watch.  Kanzuke has ruled the house for years and years, although a couple of the lady cats will occasionally assert themselves.  Agrippina is bullied by everybody, but once a year she runs amok- 'I'm not having any more of this'- and sets to skirmishing with everybody, a situation lasting about a week.  Kanzuke tries to bully Stubbs, but Stubbs will have nothing to do with it.  he lays his ears back and shuts his eyes, sitting still as a statue, which nonplusses Kanzuke.  They're actually fond of each other.  Koko is basically indifferent to the others, but amiable.  Stubbs and Maude like each other quite well.  Agrippina makes friends, but she is sometimes pushed from the food dish, poor dear."

"Days when I'm at home they may pay me no attention at all. Which is better than the days when they decided they all want to sit on the drawing-board, no matter what I'm doing.  Sometimes there is the full complement of five of them draped on the drawing-board, and there used to be six.  They slither to the center and put their claws out to attract my notice."

"None of my cats go out-of-doors at all, even at the Cape.  In Murray Hill, it's not ledge nonsense for me- I'm far too neurotic about it.  Thought they have their times for looking out the windows, the cats don't seem to do it excessively, or enough to make me feel guilty they are in one room.  Indoor cats don't lose their wildness, which is one of the reasons I am so fascinated by them.  They seem to retain all their jungly qualities no matter waht."

Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey, Interviews selected and edited by Karen Wilkin.
Published by Harcourt Books, 2001 

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner- By Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer's 5th and, not likely, last entry into the The Twilight Saga, follows bit character Bree Tanner.  Don't remember her?  She existed for only a few short pages in the big ending of Eclipse.
So how did she get her own story in the series?
According to Stephenie Meyer's introduction to the book, she's not sure why.  No seriously.  She says she just became intrigued and started writing a bit of back story to flesh out the newborns and got carried away.  Sounds like the famed Midnight Sun but finished right?
It is and it isn't.


The first thing I noticed about the story, and I haven't decided if I liked this or not yet, was there were no breaks.
Not one.
No chapters, no natural story breaks, basically no place to breath if you read it out loud.  And in one way it makes you rush right through it to the end like a roller-coaster, and in another way it makes me feel like it needed a bit of editing before becoming a Novella.  Even the unfinished, just for fun, Midnight Sun has chapters and story breaks.


Because I read this over a day and a half (I do work, and cook suppers ect.  you know, living life things, between bouts of reading after all) the no breaks thing was a bit difficult.  Honestly, every time I picked it up again I had to back track to adjust to the abrupt re-entry.  This had to have been done to intentionally make you read it in one sitting, but that's a bit frustrating, I mean how often does the average reader clear 178 pages in one go?  I'm no average reader and I don't do it all that often.


Secondly, for a brief novella, it took me a surprising amount of time to care about the characters.  I know she's talking about a violent, crazy, newborn army and all, but it was nearing the end before I was invested enough in these characters to worry about what was happening.  I don't remember that being the case with the Twilight books.


On the other hand, the things I liked about The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, I really liked.  I loved the closer look at the whole newborn army stuff.  Of all her twists to the vampire mythology my favorite were Jaspers stories of the newborn armies and the epic fights for humans.  The thought that the American civil war wasn't what it appeared to be was really really cool when I read it.


I also really enjoyed seeing the Cullens, and Bella from a completely disconnected third party perspective.  When she realizes the red head is the mind reader and thanks him in her mind for killing Victoria and Riley, I was totally satisfied.


The Novella made me do what Midnight sun made me do, open up my Twilight books to re-read the opposite side of the scene.  And now I'm tempted to just read all four all over again and see if they live up to how much I enjoyed them the first time.  I really want to know if Fred makes an appearance in Breaking Dawn, but it will take a full re-read to know for sure.


All of Stephenie Meyer's books are two things, a compulsive read, and good fun.  Nobody will ever credit her with being a poet with words, or even with coming up with a one of a kind idea (though she did manage to make the very over done vampire thing all her own) but the woman knows what women want (and yes, the occasional odd ball boy) and she gives it to them in full in her books.  And although The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner doesn't do that itself, it is part of a greater whole which is why it works.  On it's own I don't believe it would stand up to much scrutiny.


The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, By Stephenie Meyer
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers, June 2010

The Undrowned Child- By Michelle Lovric

Back in March I ran into this book during a children's and YA book sale. I won't lie, this book has the most beautiful cover art of any book I've ever seen, and that would be one hundred percent why I picked it up.  Even the end pages were gorgeous!
But then I picked it up and read the blurb, it was set in Venice!  One of my dream European cities.  Ok, so the premise sounded like it had promise too, but really, I might have bought it anyhow.
Venice + Pretty book= sold.


It's nice to have no real expectations about a book when you start.  I've never seen this book in a bookstore before or since I picked up (i grabbed the only copy at chapters) and I've never heard of the author or seen a review for this or any of her other books.  So it was a perfect clean slate.


The first thing I noticed was what a distinctive and unusual voice it had.  Set over a few short days in June of 1899, this book is written with a lovely lilting prose that never talks down to it's readers.  The eloquence of the two children is starkly contrasted by the supremely fun slang of the the mermaids.  "Keep yer noggin' mouf shut, ye great dafty!" or "My gib was atwitch, I might of knowed it.  Human childer smell most peculiar, I do declare freely".  Between the prose and the world Michelle Lovric has created I was quickly swept away.


The premise is simple, Teodora, and Lorenzo (super great names!), must save Venice from the machinations of the evil Bajamonte Tiepolo (seriously, I need a bunch of cats that I can give some great old Italian names too).  Otherwise known as Il Traditore,  Bajamonte Tiepolo was banished from Venice for his crimes against Her in 1310, but his ghost is back for revenge and he is building a fierce-some army of pirates, ghosts, vampire eels and a sea monster who can destroy the city of water.


With a great deal of action and adventure, reams of fun characters, (honestly when is the last time you read about mermaids?) and the fascinating history of Venice itself, it may have been impossible for Michelle Lovric to go astray with The Undrowned Child.  She's managed to create a very unique story in the world of children's lit, which, considering the broad range out there, is impressive in and of itself.


Obviously a huge lover of Venice (she lives there herself these days), the story also reads as a love letter to Venice.  I was already fascinated by Her colourful history and unique setting but I think Michelle will inspire many others in a fascination with the floating city.

After perusing her website, I was surprised to learn The Undrowned Child will have a sequel.  A fully complete story in itself I'm not sure what the next book will cover, but I can't wait to find out.  The Mourning Emporium (I'm telling you, this woman has a way with words! another fab title) is set to release November 4th in the states and December 15th in Canada (how obnoxious!).  It looks every bit as pretty as the first!


The Undrowned Child, By Michelle Lovric
Published by Orion Books, February 2010

Exciting new books, out now and coming up!!

So it's been a surprisingly exciting week for new books.  Apparently I've been missing out on some important release announcements and didn't know it!  But what a nice surprise when you get to the book store for a sale and run into them all!!

Released yesterday, Stephenie Meyers latest book in the Twilight world, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.  You have two options for this book
1-buy it to add to your bookshelf and round out the Twilight collection or
2- read it online for free starting June 7th.  Either way Stephenie Meyer has posted her play list for it already (they're lots of fun reading too so I highly recommend it).  At 192 pages (amazon's number, I'm pretty sure my copy only had 167 or something)  it really can only be considered a little palette cleanser between books but hey, I'm looking forward to it.  If you live in Canada Chapters/Indigo will sell it to you for 9.99$ when you purchase it with another teen book (until June 16th), and if you do it before close today you'll get an extra 20% off of that!  At 7.99$  I feel a lot less guilty about not just reading it online, I do so hate reading books online after all.

Released May 25th (almost two whole weeks ago, how did I miss it??!) The Necromancer, part 4 inThe Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.  Now listen, I run hot and cold on this series.  I have moments where I don't like any of the characters, but the action is great and if I wasn't reading these babies with a year between books then I think I would dig them a lot more.  The break in between cliff hangers is kind of killing the suspense for me, and also I think the character redemption's are getting lost in the time lapse too.  I'll probably dig into this book shortly then double back to read the others and see how it holds up now that there are 4 I can read in one go. 
I'm guessing part of why I missed this announcement would be the fact that random house's sub site for the series doesn't actually have any info on this book...seriously!  It just contains the mysterious question mark cover with BOOK 4 on it, very very odd.  For more thorough info visit Michael Scotts site directly.

Released April 27th (gack!! over a month ago!!! how come this is only hitting the front shelves now??!) Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel.  It's been two years since Ysabel, and a monstrously huge new Guy Gavriel Kay book sitting on the bookshelf makes me about as happy as can be.  Unfortunately it has monstrously huge price tag too (37.00$ Canadian) so try to get it on sale or off amazon, the sale I mentioned earlier applies to this book until the end of today at Chapters and Indigo, and it'll save you 50% making it much more reasonably priced. 
My only regret is that I didn't hit upon it sooner as it would have been an awesome add on to my Canadian Author month (he was born in Saskatchewan folks, just like me!) and also he did several events around town recently that I missed. grrr.

Releasing July 20th (later in the States) The Artemis Fowl & The Atlantis Complex.  Yay!! with his break for his Hitchhikers novel I've been dying for more Artemis Fowl. Seriously, I love the little bugger and his crazy antics with the LEPrecon.  I'm still bummed about not hearing Eoin Colfer speak this past fall, stupid staff meetings anyhow!

So, obviously I came home with MORE new books yesterday.  Time to pick up the reading speed and get down to business!  Currently I'm about two thirds of the way of a really neat little book called The Undrowned Child, by Michelle Lovric.  It has the most all time beautiful cover art and the story ain't too shabby either.  In all likely hood you can expect a nice little review by Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest.  Until then, happy book shopping!

A cause you can get on board with- Feline Fridays

Earlier this week, Libba Bray broke her cone of multiple deadline silence, to talk about 

A. protesting to save the New York public library system and

B. the oil spill.

Now I don't live in the states, and although I live close by, I'm not financially set up to rent a car and drive to Brooklyn for read-in's to save their library system... but if I could, I would.  I mean how cool is a Read in with Libba Bray??!

And the oil spill, well I freely admit it makes me so sick to my stomach I just avoid reading about it now.

That being said, I found her blog really inspiring in the, get out and fight for what you believe in way.  She talks about her parent’s boycott of Nestle, and grape farmers when she was a child, which amounted to no grapes or chocolate chips, which she didn't understand.  And her parents answer was lovely, the sort of thing I wish my mom had told me growing up “Sometimes you do something because it is the right thing to do.”.

Her blog not only got me thinking about what I could do to help save the New York public library system, but also what I've cared about enough over the years to do something about.

It started simply enough, at the age of about 24 or 25, me and my now Hubby started boycotting Walmart.  We weren't exactly rolling in money as two aspiring artists in a big city, but we made the decision one day that we couldn't condone all their various infractions weather it be the death of independent businesses around them who just couldn't price beat them or the way they treated their staff.  It seemed like a difficult thing at the time, but it's a good 6 years later and I still haven't bought anything there.

As I got older, I started getting much more involved than just simply boycotting places.  It's funny how a single event can really change how you view things.

Obviously, or maybe not obviously because you can currently see all the cats lounging around my house sweating out the heat wave, I'm a bit of crazy cat lady.  It pretty much took affect around the time I could vocalize my own thoughts so I'm thinking it's a genetic thing (likely from my dad who loves a good cat).  Over the years I had eventually become the proud parent of three beautiful fuzzy kids.  Topaz was my first, and I flew her out with me (under my seat, she loved it!) when I moved out here.  Several years after moving here I was inspired to get my first kitty with the hubby, and that's when we adopted our little grump Deliah from Annex Cat Rescue.  I wanted a rescued cat, because I already had very strong feelings about the whole thing, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't bring a sick cat into the house with Topaz, which is what lead me to Annex instead of the Humane Society, or Animal Services.  

When Deliah was one and a half I was laid off, and in a fit of loneliness (it was the dead of cold winter and I was spending 8 hours alone at home everyday, until the hubby came home), I insisted on our third cat Cheddar Cheese, an adoption from Toronto Cat Rescue.  I often refer to him as the best impulse purchase of my life.  Until he came along Topaz and Deliah tolerated each other, but there was no real love lost between them.  Cheddar brought everyone together and made them a team.  He's a charmer who loves nothing better than to look after both people and kitties.

So I had more than enough cats, three was plentiful but not yet full on nuts and was where we were going to draw the line.  The constant plight of rescue groups in need of foster homes touched my heart but I thought it unlikely I could bring a kitty in need into my house and then adopt it to someone else.  I knew I'd just end up with fuzzy kid number 4, or a broken heart.  I just couldn't do it.

Then one may long weekend this wonderful cat started hanging around our house, we live on a very busy street, and I was worried about it's safety.  I hummed and hawed about what to do, but in the end decided I wouldn't take him in since every time I "rescued" a cat it turned out they lived right near by and the owner didn't care about it running around on a busy street.  Unfortunately this was the one time  I would be wrong (and hopefully the last).  The next morning I turned out of our house to walk up to work and he was lying there, on the sidewalk.  He'd been hit by a car, who'd then had the curtsey to pick him off the street but not the kindness to try and rush him to the vet.  He'd died, right before I found him.

I was inconsolable, it was my fault, I should have brought him in!  Who cares about the owner, I was the one who thought I should do something and I was the one who didn't.  Eventually missing cat posters went up and we had to phone his owner and let her know.

At that point I decided it didn't matter what I thought it would feel like for me, I owed at least one cat a safe haven to make up for this cat who had been hit.  I applied to foster for Annex Cat Rescue, fully thinking it would either break my heart or we'd end up with cat number 4.

I was wrong; it was hard when our first, Pashmina, got adopted.  But it was also wonderful.  The adopters came to our house, we got to watch them fall in love with her, and her with them.  And to this day I keep in contact with them, occasionally hearing updates on her.

I've been a foster parent for Annex for three years this summer; we're currently fostering cat number 15.  

15 cats I've helped not only save their lives but also give them the best possible life, the kind I would give them if they were mine.  And sometimes its a bit sad, me and Cheddar tend to kick around the house for a few days after they leave missing them and wanting the distraction of a new foster to distract us.  But mostly it's rewarding and fulfilling.

We've only adopted one of our fosters, number 14, Baxter.  When Topaz passed away a couple of weeks ago he was our foster, and I loved him too much to let him go.  So we made something good out of something bad and adopted him.  He had a rough go of it for his first three years, out on the street and then almost euthanized, but he's going to have the ultimate good life now for the rest of his days.

A year into fostering, I went to Annex Cat Rescues, Annual General Meeting and was blown away by what its members were doing every day for the welfare of cats in Toronto.  I decided I wanted to do more; my fostering was such a drop in the bucket.  So I started Coordinating Events for them, I arrange all varieties of craft sales and tables all over the city where we sell donated goods, cat toys, cat beds and try to inform the public about spaying and neutering their cats.  It's a great deal of work, and sometimes it can suck up my life and make me crazy.  But I've just finished my second year, and when I look back at the money we've earned to support the organization I feel fulfilled.

Would I have thought that as an adult my most fulfilling role would be as a volunteer and not through my work?  Nope.  My mom and dad weren’t the types to boycott or volunteer for causes.  But nowadays it's one of my proudest achievements. 

My recommendation this Feline Friday?  Sit down and think about what's important to you, a cause you can get on board with.  Then give it a try! You don't have to jump in with both feet, but dip your toe in and see how it feels.  I'm telling you, it's a great way to feel like you've done something important at the end of every day.