Training your Cat- Feline Fridays

So have you always wished you could train your cats to vacuum the house or do the dishes?  Maybe you just wished you could stop them from scratching the couch or jumping on the counter and stealing the Turkey at Thanksgiving? 

 Either way, master trainer, Gregory Popovich (yup the guy from the late show, the Leno show, the late late show, animal planet etc.) has written a book that promises basic training as well as fancier tricks.  And who better to tell you than the guy who's been training cats for years for TV and Vegas?!

You CAN Train Your Cat: Secrets of a Master Cat Trainer, looks to be a 100% fun read for soon to be, or long ago defeated, cat owners. In general I tend to have success in the no scratching/no jumping on tables basic training.  Which isn't to say I have 100% success (my couch bears witness to that) or that my way works on all the cats through our house (lets be fair, as a foster home for the past four years I'm ALWAYS training cats, again, the couch bears witness to that), but I would love to train my cats to do tricks!  How much fun would that be??!

I won't lie, my cats are cute, but I'm sick of dog owners showing me up with their cute little puppy tricks. 

So for this reason alone You CAN Train Your Cat: Secrets of a Master Cat Trainer is going on my wish list.  Besides, I could use a new career and Master Cat Trainer sounds like a good one!

Hopefully I'll have video footage of cats jumping through hoops up here on a Feline Friday in the not-too-distant future.

You CAN Train Your Cat: Secrets of a Master Cat Trainer, by Gregory Popovich

Published by St. Martin's Griffin, Oct 2009

A Con I can seriously get pee-your-pants excited about!

This morning I randomly discovered the most exciting Con I've ever heard of!  The Leaky Con 2011, a Harry Potter extravaganza, happening in Florida in and around the Theme Park.
But wait! It gets better!  There's a Lit Day!  Arranged and organised by Maureen Johnson, it already has a stellar list of Authors and Agents. The great and magnificent Libba Bray and her husband the super agent are both already listed as attendees.

"Reserve your spot at the biggest Harry Potter party IN HISTORY: watch the final film with your fellow fans, revel in wizard rock and special guest appearances, take part in this spectacular community while raising money for worthwhile causes."

I'm literally dancing around in my seat in anticipation of rushing home tonight to book me and the hubby Rock Star passes (yup the whole deal people, why fly to Florida for anything less?).  We were planning on doing Venice next year but boy oh boy! Does Harry Potter ever take precedence!

Prices go up in September, so get in early and pre-buy your tickets, I hope to see all of you there!

American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot- By Craig Ferguson

An off the cuff birthday present from the hubby, American on Purpose landed in my lap without my even knowing it existed.  I'm a big Craig Ferguson fan, and I love the Late Late show but am generally far to old, responsible and sleepy to stay up for it these days (I mean it doesn't start until midnight local time out here).  So I missed any mention of him writing a biography.

Well lucky me! Because what a terrific, surprising read it was.

Obviously I've been on a huge YA bender lately, barely mixing it up with the occasional Middle school book and the even more occasional historical book.  But I tossed everything to the side for Craig and jumped right in to it. 

Refreshing, hysterical, completely honest without being awful to those he's hurt in his life, Craig tells the story of his childhood in Scotland, his alcholism, his struggles with employment etc. right up until nowish in his life.  It was oddly uplifting, I mean he's come out pretty good, and gosh, if he can clear through 250,000$ + of debt then the rest of us should be able to deal with whatever paltry sums we have owing on homes, student loans, credit cards etc. right?! 

More than anything though he made me laugh out loud, a lot.  And that's an accomplishment with a book, few are funny enough to get passed the grin stages and into the embarrassing guffaws in public.  But if I wasn't laughing I was almost always smiling, even his bad times are filled with stories of the great people who cared enough to help him and the positive funny things that happened.

So if your stuck in a rut with your reading, or if you love Craig Ferguson, or even if you just want to laugh out loud, I highly recommend you pick up American on Purpose today. 

American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, by Craig Ferguson
Published by It books, May 2010

The loss of a great Bloggers really great cat- Feline Fridays

Most book bloggers, and book blog readers know about the lovely Lenore at Presenting Lenore.  And many of us have eagerly sought out her blog each and every Tuesday to see her weekly post on her adorable Fuzzy kids, Emmy and Finn.

Sadly, Finn passed away suddenly over the weekend.

Since Feline Fridays was partially inspired by the fact that Lenore's tuesday cat posting was hugely popular (ie- i wouldn't be deemed the crazy cat lady to do a weekly cat type post of my own), it seems only fitting that I would honor Finn here this Friday.

To Finn, a greatly entertaining cat, who's managed to put a smile on my face every week despite the fact he lives half way across the world from me and I've never met him.  May we all go on to have equally as joyful experiences with our pets as Lenore and Daniel had with Finn over the past year and a half.

Spells, By Aprilynne Pike

Book 2 in the series, Spells delves deeper into what it means for Laurel to be a faerie, starting off with an 8 week course in Avalon to correct her woeful lack of studies as a Fall Faerie.  I refuse to get into more of the plot line because
A) it's not necessary to the review, and
B) why give away anything about a book I know you're DYING to read anyhow (or at least I hope you are, because dude! I was!).

Coming into this series I only knew two things about it.
1- It was about Faeries and
2-Aprilynne Pike puts a caste system into her faerie mythology.
 At the Supernatural Tour (where I first heard of the series) Aprilynne did a reading from Spells; specifically from a part talking about the caste issues. The reading was the main reason my good friend Jenna and I were intrigued by the books in the first place, and we haven't been disappointed.

Fast paced, and full of complications brought on by the life of being a Faerie pretending to be a human, Laurel's story is still very absorbing in book two.  Her developing love triangle springing from her two very different lives adds that little bit of tension that we all love so much, and a big cliff hanger for the ending!  But most of all I really enjoy Aprilynnes take on the mythology, the caste system, the wars with the Trolls, the blossoms, these are all things done differently enough I don't feel like I'm just reading another Faerie book.  It's fun and refreshing when there's an entirely new spin on something and she's managed to do that in an engaging, page turning way.

Now honestly, how am I going to hold out for the next two books?

Spells, by Aprilynne Pike
Published by HarperTeen May 2010

The Time Quake, the final book in the Gideon Trilogy- By Linda Buckley-Archer

I won't lie, I picked up The Time Travelers, part one in the Gideon trilogy, mainly because it had awesome cover art.  James Jean is such a deadly awesome artist, and I was so excited that he'd illustrated a middle school book, I just had to read it.

As a first book, The Time Travelers was a bit cumbersome.  The story was a lot of fun and I was digging the characters, but I found her style was a bit stilted.  It was almost as if she was attributing a 7 year olds' way of reading to her 9-13 year old age category. Lets face it, Harry Potter wasn't talking down to kids and they ate it up like candy, so why should anyone else have to?

The second book, The Time Thief, was a huge improvement.  She seemed to have found her stride and the book was sounding a lot less like a young children's book and a lot more like a confident middle school book.  The time travel aspect was getting just the tiniest bit complicated but I liked where she was going and enjoyed the time flip from the first book.

The Time Quake, the third and final part of the series was definitely her piece de resistance.  All the complicated ins and outs of the time travel were set up, so although it remained complicated, it was by no means confusing, the characters were finally and fully fleshed out in a revealing and interesting way, and the adventure was fast paced and page turning.  Full confidence was given to her audience, and not only did she not dumb it down but covered almost adult level historical material, in such a way that many kids will thank her for.

Although not one of my all time top ten middle school series, I look forward to  Linda Buckley-Archer's next book or series.  She's definitely an author to look out for.

The Time Quake, By Linda Buckley-Archer

Published by Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, October 2009

P.S- I have to point out that Entertainment weekly's review tag line for these books "for kids who love Harry Potter" is a bit of a stretch.  It's not in anyway similar either in it's subject matter or the way the story is told. Obviously a kid who read Harry Potter (i.e 90% of children) could love this book, but I wouldn't say it's a given.  And it certainly wouldn't be my number one suggestion to a parent who was looking for their kids next great read based on the fact they loved Harry Potter.  So be warned!

The Cats House, by Bob Walker on Feline Fridays!

Last friday was my, urm... well I'm telling everyone it was my 22nd year on this earth.  And since all my friends and family know there are three things I love on earth, books, cooking and cats (not necessarily in that order), I did well in all three categories!  Well ok, nobody gave to my adopt Thurman fund but , I got a book about cats!

The Cats' House, by Bob Walker, is an awesome, awesome photo book of possibly my dream house.  Bob and his wife are cat and art collectors living in San Diego, who've spent years turning their house into an art piece for humans and a giant wild jungle gym for their fuzzy kids.  I've never seen anything so cat friendly that's also attractive, come on... kitty condo's might be some of the most fun investments for feline friends but they're seriously nasty home decor.

It's a little whimsical read, with Bob talking about their various adoptees, how they got into building all the walkways, lounge areas and toys, the adoption center they support and how to build similar things for your cats.  It's a really fun book for anyone interested in cats, unusual architecture or for those who just like the odd ball coffee table books.  And Hey! I think we all should get busy and come up with something similar for our fuzzy kids, looks like heaven from the looks on Bob's cats faces!

Happy Feline Friday!

The Cats' House, By Bob Walker
Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, April 2009

13 days down, 2 to go!

So the hubby and I are nearing the end of a mega family visit.  My mom has been here for 13 days and his mom, step dad, and brother all arrived yesterday evening.  Needless to say a lot of sleep, quiet time, and a big booze up, will be needed to equilibrate come sunday evening!

My reading has been, quite obviously from my posts, sadly thin on the ground.  And as per usual my apology involves a cute cat episode.  Today I've posted my first Utube video, if a cat playing with an iPad can garner 300,000 hits then surely my cuties can do the same.

I present you with Thurman, our current foster (who incidentally the hubby and I really, really want to keep, but seriously, do I want to be the 4 cat girl??!).  I suppose when you have enough cats in the house (my mom is visiting with hers, so our number is at 5 right now), then it's only natural for them to start to specialize in various areas.  Thurman has become the household masseuse.  And our recently adopted cat Baxter, truly loves reaping the rewards of Thurman's talents.  I present you with the Kitten Massage parlor

And because I haven't completely stopped reading, I can promise that in the next few days I'll be rolling out reviews for The Time Quake (Gideon Trilogy), and Spells!  Enjoy, and happy Thursday!

City of Fallen Angels- July excerpt

Cassandra Clare has introduced this as being as hot as the weather, oh boy!

Clary made a surprised noise, but didn’t protest, even when Jace lifted her up and carried her over to the bed.



They sprawled onto it together, crushing some of the letters, Jace knocking the box itself aside to make room for them. His heart was hammering against the inside of his ribs. They had never been in bed together like this before, not really — there had been that night in her room in Idris, but they had barely touched. Jocelyn was careful never to let either of them spend the night where the other one lived. She didn’t care much for him, Jace suspected, and he could hardly blame her. He doubted he would have liked himself much, in her position.


“I love you,” Clary whispered. She had his shirt off, and her fingertips were tracing the scars on his back, and the star-shaped scar on his shoulder than was the twin of her own, a relic of the angel whose blood they both shared. “I don’t ever want to lose you.”


He slid his hand down her cheek, to her throat, to the top button of her blouse. "

Yup almost 42 degrees steamy! Don't forget, available March 2011 (seems far but oddly only 8 months away!).

2010 Debut Author Challenge, over at the Story Siren!

Well Ladies and Gents, while catching up on other blogs this weekend, I stumbled across The Story Siren's Debut Author Challenge.  Now I'm not entirely sure how I've missed this in previous weeks and months but with the number of debut author's I've read I thought I better join up pronto.  Two wonderful reasons you should as well, you ask me? 
1. Debut Authors are some appreciative folks who love your plugs for their books.  And who could be more deserving than those who are trying to make their first mark on the reading world?
2. Fantastic chances, every month, for amazing prize packs, including more debut author works!

So here's my official starter proposal for the Debut books I'm going to try and get to before December 31st:
1- before i fall, By Lauren Oliver
2- The Body Finder, By Kimberly Derting
3- The Iron King, By Julie Kagawa
4- Knightley Academy, By Violet Haberdasher
5- Tyger Tyger, By Kersten Hamilton
6- The Clockwork Three, By Matthew Kirby

Obviously I'll add more as I can but this seems  like a nice healthy starter proposal (you'll notice I've cheated a little tiny bit by putting in before i fall which I've already read, you just have to do that sometimes with lists people!  It makes them feel less daunting!).  I'm going to link my reviews to this post, as opposed to when I link them to Amazon for your purchasing pleasure.  Follow through to the review and all the links to the authors blog and Amazon will be as per usual.

Ernest Hemingway's Cats- Feline Friday

I recently stumbled upon a really neat looking book called Hemingway's Cats: An Illustrated Biography and thought it would be appropriate to share it with you this Feline Friday. 

Now as you probably know, and I've definitely mentioned, Ernest Hemingway was one of the most famous literary cat lovers that I can think of.  He not only had a spectacular number of them, and had a breed named after him but he also provided for them in his will meaning that even today you can visit his Florida Keys home and meet descendant's of his beloved cats.

So well cruising the great world wide interweb, I stumbled upon this intriguing book talking specifically, about the relationship Hemingway had with his various feline friends.  The following great quotes have me looking forward to the day I can page through this book myself!

Ernest took great pleasure in writing to his family about his cats and how they were getting along. By 1943, Ernest and third wife Martha had eleven cats at Finca Vigia. "One cat just leads to another . . ." he wrote to his first wife, Hadley Mowrer. "The place is so damned big it doesn’t really seem as though there were many cats until you see them all moving like a mass migration at feeding time. . .

By the time Papa’s fourth wife to be, Mary Welsh, moved into the Finca in 1945, Ernest had twenty-three cats and five dogs. They were treated as royalty. The cats slept in the guest bedroom and later lived in a room on the second floor of the white tower Papa had built for his pets at one end of the terrace. He and Mary called the cats "purr factories" and "love sponges" that soaked up their love and in return gave them comfort and companionship.

The Hemingway Museum also has a great couple of pages about the cats that live there now. I was chortling away over their description of the yearly vaccination round up.

The whole procedure is somewhat like a "cat rodeo," with cats being rounded up by means of treats, and the vet administering shots as fast as possible with the help of staff members. The job must be done rapidly, since the cats soon sense that something is amiss and will begin howling warnings, and slinking and scurrying in all directions. The vast majority are vaccinated the first day and their names are checked off on a list to avoid confusion.

The truly amusing part? There's a cat cam!!
Anyhow, the next time I find myself in the Florida Key's I'm heading over.

Hemingway's Cats: An Illustrated Biography, By Carlene Fredericka Brennen
Published by Pineapple Press Inc, March 2006

PS- Reading up on some of the things I wasn't familiar with in Hemingway's career highlighted something I didn't know about him. He briefly lived in Toronto, and wrote for the Toronto Star for a number of years! Which would be my personal 9 degrees of separation from the great Ernest Hemingway.

Summer heat wave, and summer reading

So you may have heard, my part of the world is suffering through summer more akin to those in India than Canada.  I won't lie, i'm waiting for my books and clothes to start to rot from the extreme heat and humidity.  And as I suffer through the 45 degree days with humidity I find that one of the few things that still appeal to me is reading (absolutely the most shocking answer I know! But its true).  Granted I have family visiting this week and next so it limits the reading (my mom is reading eclipse again though, seems she never realized there was a fourth book in the twilight series, hahahahah), but I have to say all I spend my days wanting to do is to curl up in a hammock with an icy glass of something to drink and a book.

Now several blogs have brought up what your favorite summer reading is, and in fact Lauren Oliver (of before i fall) even ran a contest about it, and I was seriously gratified to see that I was far from the only person who's number one favorite summer read was Harry Potter.  But it got me to thinking about why some books were my "summer" books and why others were more my "winter" books.  My theory is it's a bit of nostalgia for the first time you read them, Harry Potter was always (as far as I can remember anyhow) released in the summer.  And every time there was a new one, I would read it, then go back to the begining and read them all including the newest one.  Meaning I was, by about book 4, spending several weeks in a summer entirely consumed by Hogwarts, or at Hogwarts as the hubby is fond of saying.  So now it just doesn't seem like a complete summer without a good old sit down with Harry, Ron, Hermione and the gang.

The same with Percy Jackson and the Olympians, super summer read that now seems like a necessary part of the summer repertoire.  I can't wait to see if one of my new books will become part of the must reads of summer!

So what is it you'll be reading this summer?

Cassandra Clare and Clockwork Angel News!

So three major bits of news were announced on Cassandra Clare's blog Saturday afternoon.

First off, the prize she offered out last year at her Bryant Park signing in New York is now available to everyone! Jocelyns back story, from her point of view.  And yes, its's more detailed than the blurb in City of Glass, and yes it's full of spoilers if you haven't completed The Mortal Instruments Series yet.  Want to read it?  Check it out here: Jocelyn's Story, by Cassandra Clare

Secondly Cassandra is doing a Q & A, and signing at Barnes and Nobles (Union Square location NYC) on August 4th.  She'll be making the, now annual, announcements about all her top secret up and coming projects.  But best of all she'll be doing an online Q & A plus announcements at 5pm Est the same day for all of us who can't pop up in New York for a one day signing.
 I'd be a big fat, pants on fire, liar if I told you I had any idea how these live stream things work.  But boy oh boy I'm going to figure it out because those RSVP'd are entered for a fab prize pack (honestly the three runner ups get the WAY better prize).  So head on over to USTREAM.TV/SIMONANDSCHUSTER (i'm  guessing dot com), and sign up for your chance to win.

Finally, for those of you following the supposedly monthly excerpts and teasers leading up to the August 31st release of The Clockwork Angel, the second last one is posted.  It's brief and not very fufilling, I'm just warning you! Check it out here: The Clockwork Angel June Excerpt, by Cassandra Clare.

Wings, by Aprilynne Pike

After reading countless reviews about this book several months back I have to say I was a bit leery of Wings. I’d read, what seems to me now, a lot of disappointed or downright negative reviews of this book. And after whipping through it in just a couple of days and thoroughly enjoying the ride, I can’t really fathom what people didn’t like about it.

Laurel is 15 and a half, and starting public school for the first time. She’s led a secluded life being home schooled on a beautiful property roughly in the middle of nowhere. But now her dad has fulfilled his dream of owning a book store, which means upgrading to a bigger town and an entirely different lifestyle than they’ve had to date. She’s expecting change, but not the magnitude that’s winging its way towards her (I heard you groan! I thought it was funny!). After a large and intricate flower explodes out of her back, Laurel will have to come to terms with a lot more than just public school.

Although the high school girl suddenly discovers she’s a….fill in the blank here,  fantasy story is starting to be a well worn (bordering on worn out) story set up, I have to say, I still enjoy it.  Even though when I tell the hubby what it's about he laughs and says "haven't you read that already?".  I liked that Aprilynne Pike injected novel aspects to the whole thing to keep it fresh.  I won't go into what exactly, don't want to spoil it for you! But lets just say she has an unusual spin on the Fairy twist.

The story was enjoyable enough that I'm jonesing for Spells, book two in the series (it's my birthday end of this week, hint, hint), where Laurel travels to Avalon for Fairy boot camp about her background and heritage.  It's a fun read people, I recommend it.

Wings, by Aprilynne Pike
Published by HarperTeen, April 2010

Brandon Mull's new book cover art revealed!

Not quite as cool as the cover art for Fablehaven, but exciting sounding story!  Yay! More great books to look forward too!


The synopsis:

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be less predictable—until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank into a strange, imperiled world. Lyrian holds dangers and challenges unlike anyplace Jason has ever known. The people all live in fear of their malicious wizard emperor, Maldor. The brave resistors who once opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes.

Releasing March 2011!

Feline Fridays and my 100th Post!

Today I will share with you the antics of my week.  I have three cats, and one foster kitten currently, all infested with Beaver Fever.  It's not what you would think.
It's a very persistent parasite, communicable to people (yes, sigh, I have it too!) and it's treated with, apparently, the most disgusting tasting medicine on earth (I'm just going on my cats reaction to it folks!), twice a day for seven days.
So after much fighting and running away, we finally completed the cycle yesterday, only to be faced with bathing them all as a final precaution.

Did I mention that my mom is flying in tonight? or that the hubbies mom is coming in a week?  Yah, bad timing!  So in the midst of house cleaning, there was kitty cleaning.

As you can see, everyone was thoroughly impressed by the ordeal (you should have seen them when I then brought out the vacuum!).

Hoping your week was slightly less eventful,
Happy Feline Fridays!

Tempestuous- Lesley Livingston's third and final book in the Wondrous Strange Series!

OK, so she did leak the title at our Supernatural signing, so I knew it was coming, but the cover art is new to me.  I took me a few minutes to figure out if it was the same model they used for the first two books, I think it is, I think she just looks different because this photo is straight on.

Word from Lesley, a month back, was this book should come out shortly before or shortly after Christmas.  I have my fingers crossed that her invite to her release party will still stand by then!

Just another great book coming out between September and January! How will I fit them all on to my bookshelves!