Do you want to help me out? I've signed up to do the Basics challenge, and I could use YOUR help in coming up with a list. The challenge is similar to the Fill-in-the-Gaps challenge, except that it asks you to create a genre-specific list. I'm leaning towards choosing 'speculative fiction' as my genre so I can include science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal/horror. So do you have any suggestions for me? Any older titles that are must-reads for the genre? Any books that you think every one should read? Or how about naming specific authors?
Movies this week:
A Knight's Tale (2001)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
What I read in a previous week, but reviewed this week:
The Ask and the Answer. Patrick Ness. 2009. Candlewick Press. 519 pages.
Fearless by Max Lucado. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 221 pages.
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran. 2009. 448 pages. Crown Publishers.
What I read this past week and reviewed:
A Monster's Notes by Laurie Sheck. 2009. 532 pages.
Kilmeny of the Orchard. By L.M. Montgomery. 1910. 144 pages.
The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick. 2009. 560 pages. Sourcebooks.
Lady Susan. Jane Austen. 80 pages.
Look for Me By Moonlight. Mary Downing Hahn. 1995. Houghton Mifflin. 198 pages.
I Love Fall!: A Touch and Feel Board Book by Alison Inches. Simon & Schuster. 2009.
The Birthday Box. Leslie Patricelli. 2009. Candlewick Press.
Helen Oxenbury's All Fall Down/Clap Hands/Say Goodnight/Tickle, Tickle. 2009. Simon & Schuster.
Lucy Cousin's Maisy Dual-Language Books: Maisy's Clothes, Maisy's Food, Maisy's Animals, Maisy's Toys. 2009. Candlewick Press.
Sweet Dreams, Maisy. Lucy Cousins. Candlewick Press. 2009.
Maisy's Snowy Christmas Eve. Lucy Cousins. Candlewick Press. 2009.
What I read this past week and haven't reviewed yet:
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood: A Graphic Novel by Tony Lee, Sam Hart, Artur Fujita
What I've read and really, really need to review:
Ash by Malinda Lo. 2009. Little, Brown. 272 pages.
What I'm currently reading:
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
The Highwayman's Footsteps by Nicola Morgan
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler
What I'm just fooling around that I'm reading:
Putting the Amazing Back Into Grace by Michael Horton
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
What I've abandoned:
Discordia: The Eleventh Dimension by Dena K. Salmon (abandoned after 66 pages)
Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove (abandoned about 120 pages from the end; but couldn't renew)
The Pirates! In An Adventure With Napoleon. Gideon Defoe. (abandoned 91 pages in.)
I still love how The Pirates! opened though:
Soon all the pirates are chiming in with their ideas of what is 'best.' And a fight breaks out.
'The best thing about the seaside,' said the albino pirate, 'is putting seaweed on your head and pretending you're a lady.'
'That's rubbish!' said the pirate with gout. 'The best thing about the seaside is building sexy but intelligent looking mermaids out of sand.' (1)
But before they could really get going the doors to the downstairs of the pirate boat crashed open, and out strode the Pirate Captain himself. If you were to compare the Pirate Captain to a type of sedimentary rock--which after types of tree, creatures, and fonts was the next most popular thing for the pirates to compare stuff to--he would undoubtedly be a slab of polished sandstone, or maybe chert. The pirates all took one look at the Captain and stopped their argument dead in its tracks. Fists froze mid-swing and mouths hung agape. The Pirate Captain often had this effect on the crew, but usually it was because they held him in such high regard or because they were dazzled by his fantastically glossy and luxuriant beard. Today though, their sudden speechlessness had more to do with the fact that the Pirate Captain was wearing only a tiny bright-red swimming costume which left nothing to the imagination. (2)
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
3 comments:
Three that I've read recently and enjoyed are: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (sci-fi,) Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips (spec. fict,) and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (sci-fi.) If you haven't read them, look them up for your challenge.
You've had a really great reading week, Becky. :-D And, gosh, I love A Knight's Tale. It's been so long since I saw that - I think I fell in love with Paul Bettany when I went to see that when it first came out. :-D
Rich is currently reading The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists aloud to the boys...they are so loving it! And I'm loving it from afar because I so enjoy hearing their giggles come floating in from the next room. :D
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