The Story

From the back of the book:

Graphic Design: The New Basics brings a much-needed new focus to the study of graphic design. Ellen Lupton, best-selling author of such books as Thinking with Type, and her colleague Jennifer Cole Phillips have developed an up-to-date basic design text for people who want to understand graphic design in a critical, rigorous way, informed by contemporary media, theory, and software systems. Through visual demonstrations and concise commentary, their book looks at structures ranging from point, line, and plane to scale, hierarchy, layers, and transparency. These concepts underlie any work of design, from a logo or letterhead to a complex web site.

In an age when endlessly quoting and recycling popular media has become second nature, artists and designers are hungry to explore visually intensive, form-based thinking in a manner in tune with contemporary art, life, and technology. This colorful, compact, clearly written volume does just that.

The Response

This covered a lot of the same content as another graphic design book that I have read recently (A Primer of Visual Literacy) – points, lines, scale, texture, etc. Only, Graphic Design: The New Basics covered it in a much more interesting and relevant sort of way.

This book was, without a doubt, written for modern day readers. What with our shorter attention spans, it can be hard to grab our attention. This book covers each topic quickly and concisely, then goes on to show many examples of what it just described. It’s easy to understand each concept that’s presented in this book, and provides such a wide variety of examples that one can see how different concepts and techniques can be put to use in different ways.

Because most of these illustrations were done by a variety of designers – a good majority of them students – it gives a huge difference in styles, which keeps the book interesting.

I will definitely be keeping this book, and continuing to flip through it for inspiration when needed.

The Bottom Line

This would be a good introduction to the graphic design field. Highly recommended to those in the field.

1. The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade. Originally Published 2010. LT.
2. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Originally Published 2007. LT.
3. A Madness of Angels: Or, the Resurrection of Matthew Swift by Kate Griffin. Originally Published 2009. LT.
4. The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner. Originally Published 2008. LT.
5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Originally Published 1938. LT.
6. Serenity: Float Out by Patton Oswalt. Originally Published 2010. LT.
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Originally Published 2002. LT.
8. Being Dead by Jim Crace. Originally Published 1999. LT.
9. Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies. Originally Published 1991. LT.
10. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. Originally Published 2005. LT.

What books have you enjoyed where the main character (or one of the main characters) is already dead for the majority of the book?

The Story

From the back of the book:

A soulmate for life… or death

Seventeen-year-old Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life. The daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent politician, she has become a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a world that allows her to travel to many exotic places. But after Clea’s father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, Clea begins to notice eerie, shadowy images in her photos of a strange and beautiful young man – a man she has never seen before.

When fate brings Clea and this man together, she is stunned by the immediate and powerful connection she feels with him. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father’s disappearance, and they discover the centuries-old truth behind their intense bond. Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fates, together they race against time to unravel their pasts in order to save their lives – and their futures.

The Response

Is there anything Hilary Duff CAN’T do? I mean seriously – she sings, she acts, she’s a producer, she writes… Goodness! I’m getting exhausted just thinking about it all.

This is Duff’s first novel, and while you can tell it’s a first novel, it’s still a VERY GOOD first novel. It makes me excited to think of what she’ll be able to do in the future. (Thankfully, I have the second book in this series already on the TBR pile!)

You can tell that there was a lot of planning put into this novel before Duff started writing – the plot and the characters are both so very well developed.

There’s such a variety of characters too. Even the women that Clea had been in her past life were extremely well put together and thought out and are different enough though while they are her past lives, they aren’t exactly her. Clea’s best friend Rayna, however, was by far my favourite of the characters – in the little bit of time that we actually see her in the novel, you can see how well she plays off other characters, especially Clea herself.

I must say, though, as much as I loved most of the characters, Sage really did nothing for me… he didn’t live up to the buildup that was created. Pity. (Ben on the other hand, well, HE was lovely…)

Duff did a really good job of taking the paranormal, (or spiritual, or magical, depending on how you look at it) and tying it into every day life. Even more than the reincarnation, the whole story of the elixir of life, while having been done so many times before, felt fresh and new. She also did a VERY good job with the spooky! I will fully admit that there was a point where I was actually shuddering and really glad that I wasn’t in Clea’s place.

After finishing the book, I have been left with a lot of questions – in particular, does everyone get reincarnated, or just the small group in this book? Does everyone fall in love with the same people over and over again, is everyone always so intertwined? I’m definitely going to need to read more of this series to hopefully answer all of my questions!

The Bottom Line

Looking forward to the next in the series! Recommended to fans of YA fantasy.

The Story

From the back of the book:

At the heart of this wrenching memoir of a teenage girl’s wartime survival is something utterly unexpected: a love story that blazes briefly in one of the darkest corners of occupied Poland.

Judged only as a World War Two survivor’s chronicle, Millie Werber’s story would be remarkable enough. Born in central Poland, in the town of Radom, she found herself, at fourteen, trapped in the ghetto, a slave laborer in an armaments factory in the summer of 1942, transported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944, before being marched to a second armaments factory. She faced death many times; indeed she was certain that she would not survive. But she did.

Many years later, when Millie began to share her past with Eve Keller, the two women rediscovered the world of the teenage girl Millie had been during the war. More important, Millie told Eve her most precious, private memory: of a man to whom she was married for only a few brief months. He was – if not the love of her life – her first great, unconditional passion. He died, leaving Millie with a single photograph taken on their wedding day – which Millie preserved to the war’s end – and two rings of gold that affirm the presence of a great passion in the bleakest imaginable time.

The Response

I’ve put off blogging about this book for around a week now, because I really wanted it to thoroughly sink in, in order to get my thoughts straight about it. And even now I’m having a hard time getting my thoughts out for this one, because what I want to say about the book completely contradicts itself.

It’s an emotional and heartbreaking read (as anything about the Holocaust is) – the fact that humanity could stoop to the levels of genocide, and especially of that proportion. But the book is also an extremely uplifting read – that even in those dark times there was still some good in humanity, that there were other Jews and Germans who would do what they could for a young girl, even if it meant they could have been put to death.

It is both a very hard read and a very easy read. The subject matter makes it so very difficult to get through, just trying to understand why people would do what they did. It’s very easy to imagine yourself in Werber’s place, and it’s utterly terrifying what she had to go through. But the book is written in such a way that it’s presentation of the subject matter doesn’t weigh you down. The way that Keller put together Werber’s experiences made it very easy to keep reading – it’s extremely well written.

I particularly liked how the book isn’t necessarily written in chronological order, but takes a look at one of Weber’s experiences, and follows that thread throughout her life. For example, at times it would mention an a specific event surrounding a specific person, and then go forward a few decades to speak about any experiences Werber had with that person after the war, before going back to the period of the war. If it hadn’t been told in this way, I know for a fact that I would be getting a bunch of different people mixed up, and this helped keep straight in my mind who each person was.

While this isn’t the first book I’ve read about the Holocaust, I think this book is a little bit more accessible for readers to really comprehend, understand and empathize with. Yes, it’s good for us to know statistics of what happened in the war, but statistics don’t have personalities, and by looking at the large numbers we miss out on each person’s experiences. Reading this book helped me to remember all of the horrors that occurred during WWII, and has made me mourn again all of the lives that were lost – this is not a topic we should ever allow ourselves to overlook.

Two Rings was phenomenal and heartbreaking, and one of the best non-fiction books that I’ve read in a long time.

The Bottom Line

If you only read one non-fiction this year, make it this one. It is touching and heartbreaking and wonderful. Loved it.

1. Two Rings: A Story of Love and War by Millie Werber and Eve Keller. Originally Published 2012. LT.
2. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Originally Published 1947. LT.
3. Night by Elie Wiesel. Originally Published 1955. LT.
4. We are Witnesses: Five Diaries Of Teenagers Who Died In The Holocaust by Jacob Boas. Originally Published 1995. LT.
5. The Diary of Peter Ginz by Peter Ginz. Originally Published 2007. LT.
6. An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum. Originally Published 1981. LT.
7. All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. Originally Published 1957. LT.
8. A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal. Originally Published 2007. LT.
9. I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson. Originally Published 1997. LT.
10. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi. Originally Published 1958. LT.

Have you read any books on this topic? What were they and would you recommend them?

The Story

From the back of the book:

The Driftwood Saga continues in an exciting adventure full of ghosts, goddesses, giants, magical creatures, time travel and camp games.

Summoned by the ghost of a slain boy, Driftwood the young magician and her best friend, Rose, journey to Africa to free children from a slave cocoa farm. Another tortured spirit then leads them to China in an attempt to free young factory workers. Meanwhile, Hans Blekansit, Driftwood’s evil father, is turning his employees into giants that roam the country eating forests and mountains to spew out Blekan-Marts, stores which are selling cheap products created by enslaved children. Will Driftwood be able to grapple with the complex problems and monstrous forces that confront her at every turn?

The Response

You know how some stories are really good stories but you still manage to come away from the book learning something new? I really like those kinds of stories.

You know how some stories just read like they are trying to teach you something and that the story is just a means to get there, and so you just feel like what the author wants to teach you is being banged across your forehead with a huge “HEY! THIS IS SOME BAD STUFF!” sign on it? I really don’t like those kinds of stories.

Unfortunately, that was the kind of story that this book was.

I wanted to really like it. I did! I had enjoyed the first and hoped this would be more along those same lines. But it’s hard to really get into something when, even though I totally agree with the author and know he’s right, the book keeps telling me, “hey, have you gotten this yet? Slavery is really Not Cool.” It was so distracting from the actual story, and as a result the character growth and plot development totally suffered.

Which is a pity, because there are so many amazing characters in this book – not just Driftwood and her camp friends, but also the older magic-workers in this book: Old Bart, Murph and Hermit (the Laughing Man). In fact, Hermit’s backstory was by far the most interesting part of this whole book! We get to learn who he really is, and why he decided to give up all his worldly possessions and just live out on the street. Learning who he was in the past added a VERY interesting layer to this series. I cannot wait to see how this plays out in future books. It should be highly entertaining!

The continued development of Driftwood felt a little stilted – she meets her grandparents and her cousin for the first time, and immediately they act like they’ve known each other for years. There’s none of that in-between time where the characters are getting to know each other, and I think Davidge cheated us out of this a little bit. I mean, where’s the mystery, the thrill of learning about a new character, what they’re like, whether they will be there to help our main character out? It didn’t feel REAL.

In fact, the whole in-between stage was missed out on a lot of things in this book. For example, Driftwood finds her mother’s journals, and learns something shocking in them. But it’s not really developed until the very end of the book when Driftwood confronts her uncle about it. We’re told it bothers Driftwood, but we don’t get to actually SEE it bother her. I’m also wondering why the author brought this bit of information about Driftwood’s mother into the story at all – I’m actually really hoping that the author carries this part of the story out further in the series, because it could definitely be developed into something really good.

The Bottom Line

I was disappointed in this one. It’s not as strong as the first in the series, and it felt too much like the author was telling us crazy important stuff, not showing it to us or leading us to the truth about situations. I really hope that I enjoy the third one much better than this.

I scour the shelves for authors I love, or for titles that have already been added to my TBR list.

But I don’t even know when the last time was when I searched for something new that I had never heard of before.

Before I started my book blog, before I started reading other book blogs, I got my book recommendations from a few friends or family members IRL who were readers. So I had to delve through the stacks to find something I had never heard of before that might strike my fancy. I would spend hours in bookstores or the library. Now I’m lucky if I have enough patience to spend more than a half hour looking for books that I’ve read about over and over on blogs or twitter.

This is one of the biggest downfalls that I’ve found has been a side effect of the book blogosphere: there is so much good stuff that I’ve heard about that I don’t feel the need or desire to really hunt for the unknown. And sometimes the unknown is the book or author that’s going to become a favourite…

It’s actually a little depressing to think about all the awesome unknowns I am missing out on, haha.

Do you find that you still have a desire to browse through bookstores to find that one little treasure that you’d never heard of? Or are you like me now, and only grab what you know you’ve heard about?

The Story

From the back of the book:

They may have stolen my past, but I’ll never let them take my future.

When the walls between Man and Fae come crashing down, freeing the insatiable, immortal Unseelie from their icy prison, MacKayla Lane is caught in a deadly trap. Captured by the Fae Lord Master, she is left with no memory of who or what she is: the only sidhe-seer alive who can track the Sinsar Dubh, a book or arcane black magic that holds the key to controlling both worlds.

Clawing her way back from oblivion is only the first step Mac must take down a perilous path, from the battle-filled streets of Dublin to the treacherous politics of an ancient, secret sect, through the tangled lies of men who claim to be her allies into the illusory world of the Fae themselves, where nothing is as it seems – and Mac is forced to face a soul-shattering truth.

Who do you trust when you can’t even trust yourself?

The Response

This is seriously one of the sexiest series’ I’ve read. Goodness, Jericho Banes, what ARE you? You enthrall me like few fictional characters ever have, and I’m left wanting to know more and more and more about you with each installment in this series. Those scenes when Mac was all Pri-ya? SWOOOOONING.

I was a little wary starting this book. The first three have all just been so good, and I had a couple of people tell me that this one wasn’t nearly as good as some of the others. I wasn’t sure how I would respond to this one. But it turns out that I worried for nothing, because I ended up loving it as much as the others – perhaps moreso, just for the first quarter of the book, which was crazy hot and steamy. (Also, I didn’t think it possible for there to be MORE unresolved sexual tension between two characters after the amount of crazy sex they had, but goodness! The UST is thick and heavy and so so so awesome to read through.

This was a much darker installment than the other three in the series so far – as it should be, what with fey running rampant across our world. It had some extremely dark and disturbing parts. One part, in particular, sent utter shivers down my spine. Mac discovers that fey are telling people that if humans consume enough fairy flesh, they could live forever – and in exchange for giving humans some of their flesh to eat, these fey wanted teh sexy time. It was along the same lines of trading sex for drugs, and you can just imagine what kind of chaos that would result in after even just a short period of time. I really wish that Moning had more fully explored the dynamics of human beings interacting with fey, especially those “groupies” who were enamored with fey. That could’ve been extremely beyond interesting.

That said, there was just so much other stuff going on in the book, that even though I wanted to see that situation expanded on, I don’t think it would’ve fit in with everything else. There really isn’t much of a pause in the action at all in this book – between battling fey, trying to discover what’s hidden in the forbidden sidhe-seer libraries, trying to outwit the Lord Master, oh! Not a dull moment at all, which made this book crazy hard to put down.

I have the last book on my TBR pile already. Part of me really wants to start it and part of me really doesn’t want to – I really don’t want this series to end at all!

The Bottom Line

If you’re an urban fantasy fan, and haven’t read this series yet, what are you waiting for? Gah! It’s so good!

I started my book blog about six years ago, so I am only looking at books that I haven’t read in the past six years. Otherwise, this list would get out of control very quickly. As it is, I’ve already had a very hard time picking only ten that I want to throw on this list – there are just so many that I want to reread!

1. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Originally Published 1995. LT
2. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery. Originally Published 1923. LT
3. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Originally Published 1948. LT
4. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Originally Published 1937. LT
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Originally Published 1868. LT
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen. Originally Published 1818. LT
7. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Originally Published 1936. LT
8. Green Rider by Kristen Britain. Originally Published 1998. LT
9. Beyond the Hanging Wall by Sara Douglass. Originally Published 1996. LT
10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Originally Published 1818. LT

Do you reread books? What are some of the ones that you want to reread the most?

The Story

From the book cover:

Maeb Lantofte is lucky, she knows, to have gained a position in the household of the Earl of Pengraic – one of the most powerful men in England, a man whose holdings rival even King Edmond’s. She is lucky that his wife, Adelie, whom Maeb serves, is a kind, pious woman (in contrast to the Earl, whom Maeb finds dark and secretive). But when word arrives that a plague is sweeping through Europe like a human wildfire, everyone in the Earl’s household is put on edge. It is whispered that victims of this plague are spontaneously engulfed in flames – as if the flames of Hell had suddenly leapt up to claim them. It is also whispered that the Devil himself is to blame.

As the disease spreads into England, so too does civil unrest. King Edmond calls his lords and their armies to return to London, and the Earl obeys, leaving Maeb and his family to fend for themselves. But it turns out that the Earl has been hiding far more than simple state secrets, and that his family, left alone, is at risk of losing not only their lives but also their souls. To her horror, Maeb will learn that, indeed, the Devil himself may have arrived on her doorstep. And worse, what he demands may, in fact, be running through her very veins.

The Response

Even now, I greatly mourn the fact that Ms. Douglass has passed away. She definitely left us way too soon. Reading this book was extremely bittersweet – going into it knowing that it was the last novel of hers that I will ever read was heartbreaking, but it’s always so exciting to read a new book by a beloved author. Ms. Douglass was one of my favourite authors, and I don’t like that I will never again get a chance to read one of her novels for the first time. I envy all of you who are only starting to discover her works.

The Devil’s Diadem was a pleasant surprise in a number of ways. First of all, and perhaps most importantly, this is a stand-alone book. It’s not the beginning of a series! I was so afraid that it would be, and then so ecstatic when I found it wasn’t. Douglass has written a couple of other stand-alones, and in my opinion, those are some of her most enjoyable books. The story all gets wrapped up nicely at the end of one book, and you don’t have to wait a year until the next is published, but also because it is a standalone, you don’t really have the resources to develop a huge epic that deals with dozens of people – typically there’s only a couple of main characters in standalones – so you get to know those who the main ones are better, and see them developed more intimately.

The other reason this was a pleasant surprise was due to how different the narration of the story was. It still had the same “cannot put this down, must read just One More Chapter” feeling to it, but there were so many ways it differed.

I’ve mentioned before how a lot of Douglass’ characters are very similar – Axis, Boaz, Brutus and Thomas Neville all seem to be the exact same character at times, only set in different universes. The characters in The Devil’s Diadem were simply so different than anything I have ever seen her write before. The men (aside from Prince Henry) weren’t caustic or arrogant to the point of me wanting to throw the book across the room whenever they graced the pages of the book. And Maeb herself was one of the most innocent, yet real and believable female characters I have read in a long time. Maeb was the helpless victim through all that is going on around her, and yet still managed to maintain her pure likability and non-Mary-Sue-ish-ness.

I really like how Douglass weaves real-life events with the fantastical – in this instance, how the Black Death really WAS something sent to our world by the devil, but also how even faerie weaves into the story. It’s always so enjoyable to see how Douglass can bring together things from so many mythologies and cultures and tie it together so seamlessly. It really gives me even more appreciation for her other works, where she even created these mythologies before bringing them together (ie – how so much stuff from her other works ends up tying together in her Darkglass Mountain series). You can really tell that she not only did a lot of research and planning but it shows exactly how meticulous she is in it.

I am really going to miss reading new stuff by Douglass. The world has lost a great storyteller. I still haven’t read her collection of short stories that was published last year (The Hall of Lost Footsteps) so there is still that to look forward to… but it’s just not the same. Instead, I will go back and reread some of my old favourites from her, methinks.

The Bottom Line

Highly recommended to fantasy fans. I couldn’t put it down. Loved it. So much.