Monday, April 30, 2012

April 2012 Wrap-Up

Here's a summary of my book-related activity for April. The read-a-thon made this quite a successful month!

Books I read (linked to the reviews)


Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers (NetGalley)
Starrise at Corrivale by Diane Duane (TBR pile - did not finish)
The Twits by Roald Dahl (TBR pile)
Coraline by Neil Gaiman (TBR pile)
Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke (TBR pile)
The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin (review copy)
Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis (TBR pile)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl (TBR pile)
The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa (NetGalley)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (TBR pile)

Books I bought

Into the Jaws of Doom
by R.L. Stine

Earth Geeks Must Go!
by R.L. Stine
The Twisted Tale of Tiki
Island by R.L. Stine
Ship of Ghouls by R.L. Stine
Revenge of the Living
Dummy by R.L. Stine
Ghost in the Mirror
by R.L. Stine

Blind Date by R.L. Stine
Brain Juice by R.L. Stine
Scream School by R.L. Stine

The Big Blueberry Barf-Off!
by R.L. Stine
Liar Liar by R.L. Stine
It Came From Ohio! by
R.L. Stine and Joe Arthur

Fear Games by R.L. Stine
Who Let the Ghosts Out?
by R.L. Stine
What Scares You the Most?
by R.L. Stine
Have You Met My
Ghoulfriend? by R.L. Stine

Trapped by R.L. Stine
Welcome to Horrorland: A
Survival Guide by R.L. Stine


Books I've been approved for on NetGalley


The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Final Crossing by Carter Wilson
Auraria by Tim Westover


The Marrying Kind by Ken O'Neill


Other e-books I received for review


The Dark Victorian: Risen
by Elizabeth Watasin

Progress on challenges


The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was my April book for the Read Your OWN Library! Challenge.

Starrise at Corrivale was my April Random Read.

I completed the following letters for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge: A and R

I read 6 books for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge! (Yay me!)

I read 0 books for the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge. You can still sign up!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Title: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publication Date: 2002
Length: 162 pages

When Coraline goes through a doorway in her house, one which is supposed to be a bricked off doorway between her flat and an unoccupied one, she finds herself in a flat much like her own, where she has an other mother and an other father, who want her to stay with them forever.

This story is delightfully creepy. Neil Gaiman's excellent writing and really weird imagination had me giggling and shuddering throughout. I really liked how Coraline's other mother started off being described as just like her real mother, but with buttons for eyes, and as the story progressed she was described as less and less human (and the illustrations get creepier and creepier to match).

I definitely recommend this for any Neil Gaiman fans who haven't already read it (I can't believe it took me this long), as well as anyone else who enjoys pleasantly disturbing stories. 5 stars!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Twits by Roald Dahl

Title: The Twits
Author: Roald Dahl
Publication Date: 1980
Length: 96 pages

The Twits is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Twit, who are such horrible people that they have become very ugly from all their bad thoughts. They capture birds once a week to make bird pie, and train monkeys to perform in an upside down circus. So the monkeys decide to pay the Twits back for their cruelty.

This was a truly delightful story. Just like Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this book was a quick read that had me giggling throughout.

Since I can't help but read everything through a feminist lense, right away I was worried that this story was going to use tired tropes about ugly people always being the bad guys. But then I read this page:

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

That last bit really won me over. It makes it clear that it's not "ugly" features that make you ugly, but rather being a horrible person, like the Twits.

5 stars! Good for all ages!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Operation: TBR Reduction

Operation TBR Reduction Button


Blogs I follow just keep coming out with more challenges and stuff for me to join! Once Upon a Chapter just started Operation: TBR Reduction, and it's like this challenge was made for me.

When I started The Towering Pile, I honestly believed my TBR pile was going to steadily shrink, or at the very least stop growing. Boy, was I wrong. It's gone up pretty steadily over the past several months! I seriously have a problem. I don't know how it happens. It seems like I've cut way down on my book buying, and I'm reading more than ever. But then there's NetGalley... So yeah, I need this challenge.

I already keep track of all the books I read and add to my pile in my monthly wrap-up posts, so all I'll be adding to that is the number by which my pile has gone up or (preferably) down. Mostly, this challenge will just give me people to whom I'll be accountable. :)

It's already clear that my TBR pile at the end of this month will be bigger than at the beginning of the month, but the challenge starts on May 1, and I'm hoping that at that point my pile will start to decrease. Wish me luck!!

Oh, and when the challenge starts, I'll post pictures of my TBR pile. I've been meaning to do that for a while, anyway. It's rather epic.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Bella & Daph's Epic Review Month

Loving Books

I just found out that Bella from Cheezyfeet Books and Daph from Loving Books are hosting a month-long event, during which participants will try extra hard to get through their piles of review copies (or other books, if you don't have a pile of review copies).

It just so happens that I recently went a little bit crazy on NetGalley (seriously, I don't even browse the catalogue anymore, because I find so many just from the emails they send me!), so I suddenly find myself with a pile of review copies that should be read fairly soon! Therefore, this challenge is perfect for me right now.

There's going to be a read-a-thon (one of those weekend-long ones, that I never really know what to make of), and giveaways, and other fun things!

It starts on May 1, so I'll post then with my list of review copies that I hope to get through.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Starrise at Corrivale by Diane Duane: DNF

Title: Starrise at Corrivale (Harbinger #1)
Author: Diane Duane
Publication Date: 1998
Length: 377 pages

I should have known I wouldn't like this one. Just look at the cover. It is the opposite of what I would call "so me". But it's by Diane Duane! And Diane Duane writes the Young Wizards books, which I LOVE! And this book was written when she was about halfway through that series, so it's not like her writing style would have changed.

I read about 60 pages. It took me days to get that far. Nothing was happening. So I gave up.

Also, the writing was bad. What the heck, Diane Duane?! What happened when you wrote this book?

I rarely give up on books, so it was tough. But I've got a TBR pile that never ends, so I can't waste time on duds.

Read-a-thon: End of Event meme

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I think it was around 20 to 23.
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Coraline by Neil Gaiman was perfect!
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I'd like more lead-up hype to get everyone excited. This time around the website wasn't even updated with the info about the next read-a-thon.
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I think everything went pretty smoothly.
  5. How many books did you read? 5 (almost 6! So close!)
  6. What were the names of the books you read?
    1. The Twits by Roald Dahl
    2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
    3. Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke
    4. The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin
    5. Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis
    6. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl (didn't quite finish this one - only 16 pages left!)
  7. Which book did you enjoy most? That's a tough one... I'll go with the Charmed graphic novel.
  8. Which did you enjoy least? I liked them all, but Against the Fall of Night took me too long, which made me get a bit grumpy.
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was not a cheerleader, but my advice to cheerleaders is always to take an extra moment to personalise your comments! It's so much nicer than a generic cheer.
  10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I will definitely participate again as a reader, and I'd consider doing a mini-challenge, if I could think of an idea for one!

And now the sun has risen, it looks like a beautiful day... and I'm off to bed. :P Thanks to everyone who followed my progress, cheered me on, or just entertained me with their own great posts!

Now, time to start planning my pile for October... haha, just joking!

Read-a-thon hour 24: 6:00 - 7:00

What are you reading right now? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl


How's that going? I just managed to finish Lucky Break, which is the story of how Roald Dahl became a writer. It was really good, and the perfect way to finish off the read-a-thon!


Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis


Pages read this hour: 46


Total pages read so far: 831


Food consumed this hour: None.


Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

Just 16 pages short of six books! Ah well. Even though I somehow read quite a bit less than the last read-a-thon, I still consider this one a success. After all, I'm finally caught up on the Goodreads Reading Challenge! :D

Read-a-thon hour 23: 5:00 - 6:00

What are you reading right now? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl

How's that going? I'm actually on the Henry Sugar story now, and it's quite good!

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis

Pages read this hour: 40

Total pages read so far: 785

Food consumed this hour: None.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

If I finish the read-a-thon just like 20 pages short of finishing my sixth book I'm gonna be annoyed! It's time for a sprint to the finish line! :D

Read-a-thon hour 22: 4:00 - 5:00

What are you reading right now? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl

How's that going? Pretty good. Not my favourite Roald Dahl book, that's for sure, but not bad.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis

Pages read this hour: 28

Total pages read so far: 745

Food consumed this hour: None. I feel like food might help me stay awake, but I have no appetite.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

2 hours to go! I'd like to finish this sixth book in that time, but I'm not sure of my chances on that. Best get back to reading!

Read-a-thon hour 21: 3:00 - 4:00

What are you reading right now? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl

How's that going? Alright. Roald Dahl writes a very strange mix of delightful kids' stories and stories that are so disturbing that I wouldn't describe them as appropriate for any age group (including mine!).

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis

Pages read this hour: 45

Total pages read so far: 717

Food consumed this hour: None.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

Some of these stories are seriously gonna give me nightmares. Also I'm tired!

Read-a-thon hour 20: 2:00 - 3:00

What are you reading right now? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl

How's that going? It's kind of hit and miss, which is usually how I feel about short story collections.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis

Pages read this hour: 31

Total pages read so far: 672

Food consumed this hour: Pull-n-Peels

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

Exhaustion is suddenly hitting me. So I'm moving to a more upright position with snacks and ginger ale! So much for that energy drink having much of an effect. :P But there are only 4 hours to go and there's no way I'm giving up now!

Read-a-thon hour 19: 1:00 - 2:00

What are you reading right now? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl

How's that going? I just started, but good so far!

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis

Pages read this hour: 80

Total pages read so far: 641

Food consumed this hour: None.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

That Charmed graphic novel was so good! Just as good as the Buffy Season 8 comics, I'd say!

Read-a-thon hour 18: 00:00 - 1:00

What are you reading right now? Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis

How's that going? Really good! It's neat to see more of what happens to the sisters after the show, find out the names of their kids, etc. But as usual with graphic novels, I'm a bit disappointed with the artwork.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

Pages read this hour: 89!

Total pages read so far: 561

Food consumed this hour: More of the tomato and cheese salad thingy. Om nom nom.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

It feels SO GOOD to be reading a graphic novel! I really should have planned for more of these. Also, I just recently finished rewatching Charmed, so this is perfect timing for me to read this continuation of the show. I'm loving it!

Read-a-thon hour 17: 23:00 - 24:00

What are you reading right now? I just finished The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, and I'm about to start Charmed Season 9 Volume 1.

How's that going? Risen ended up being really good! And now I'm looking forward to this graphic novel for a change of pace.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

Pages read this hour: 15

Total pages read so far: 472

Food consumed this hour: The rest of my energy drink (and I'm feelin' fine!)

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

The last two books I read were a bit slower going, just because of being "grown-up" books, and having somewhat longer pages. A graphic novel is just the thing right now for a refreshing change of pace! And then perhaps some more Roald Dahl. :)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Read-a-thon hour 16: 22:00 - 23:00

What are you reading right now? The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

How's that going? Quite good, and nearly done.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Pages read this hour: 14

Total pages read so far: 457

Food consumed this hour: Most of an energy drink.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

I definitely picked a good time for my energy drink, because I'm just starting to feel pretty tired, and the drink should kick in any time now. :)

I'm rather disappointed with my pages read right now. :( I'm nowhere near on track to read 1200 pages.

Read-a-thon hour 15: 21:00 - 22:00

What are you reading right now? The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

How's that going? Quite good!

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Pages read this hour: 15

Total pages read so far: 458

Food consumed this hour: An orange.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

I'm not dozing off while reading yet, but I am starting to feel a bit sluggish. I'll probably drink the energy drink some time in the next hour.

Read-a-thon hour 14: 20:00 - 21:00

What are you reading right now? The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

How's that going? Quite good!

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Pages read this hour: 20

Total pages read so far: 443

Food consumed this hour: Still nothing!

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

My page counts are low, I think because the pages are long. But I have gotten quite into this book, so at least I'm enjoying myself now. :)

Read-a-thon hour 13: 19:00 - 20:00

What are you reading right now? The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

How's that going? Good. I'm not sure what an artificial ghost is, though... she (the main character) kind of seems like a regular ghost.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Pages read this hour: 15

Total pages read so far: 423

Food consumed this hour: A few more chocolate-covered mini doughnuts.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!, Mid-Event Survey

I seem to have slowed down, a lot! I'm nowhere near on track to read 1200 pages. :( But the read-a-thon is still young, so we'll see!

Read-a-thon: Mid-event survey

We're halfway through, and it's time for the mid-event survey!

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired? Still going strong! :)

2) What have you finished reading? I've read The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke.

3) What is your favorite read so far? Coraline, as is to be expected from a Neil Gaiman novel, was great!

4) What about your favorite snacks? The celery sticks with peanut butter were good!

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love! I've just been following the blogs I normally follow. It's not the same without Raych!

Read-a-thon hour 12: 18:00 - 19:00

What are you reading right now? The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

How's that going? Too soon to tell; just started.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Pages read this hour: 12

Total pages read so far: 408

Food consumed this hour: None.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

Mr. Towering Pile got home, and was distracting, so this wasn't a very productive hour! Maybe he'll make me snacks now, though!

Read-a-thon hour 11: 17:00 - 18:00

What are you reading right now? I just finished Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, and I'm about to start The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin

How's that going? Against the Fall of Night was pretty good, and I'm looking forward to Risen!

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Pages read this hour: 30

Total pages read so far: 396

Food consumed this hour: Celery sticks with peanut butter. I thought I should get some actual nutrition in me at some point today. :P

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

It's high time to move onto a nice, short book! Risen is only 97 pages. Ah, sweet sense of accomplishment!

Read-a-thon hour 10: 16:00 - 17:00

What are you reading right now? Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke (almost done!)

How's that going? Still good.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 32

Total pages read so far: 366

Food consumed this hour: None. My appetite kind of went away.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

If I can keep this speed up, I should be done this book in an hour. I've enjoyed it, but I'll be glad to move onto something else. Read-a-thons really shorten my attention span!

Read-a-thon hour 9: 15:00 - 16:00

What are you reading right now? Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

How's that going? Still good! My goodness, though, people used an awful lot of male pronouns in the 50s. Ugh. I guess sci fi authors were too busy thinking up robots and transporters to realise that people should be less sexist millions of years in the future.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 22

Total pages read so far: 334

Food consumed this hour: Chocolate covered mini doughnuts.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

I'm starting to get that feeling you get when a book is too long for a read-a-thon. Which is ridiculous, because this book is only 159 pages! Oh well. Only 62 pages to go.

Read-a-thon hour 8: 14:00 - 15:00

What are you reading right now? Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

How's that going? It's good, but I keep feeling like I can barely keep my eyes open. Not the book's fault, though, I think.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 12

Total pages read so far: 312

Food consumed this hour: Some Pull-n-Peels, Triscuits.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

We're 1/3 of the way through now! I've noticed a pattern. Lay down on the couch to read -> read very few pages. So sitting up it is! And maybe a nice refreshing ginger ale is in order!

Read-a-thon hour 7: 13:00 - 14:00

What are you reading right now? Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

How's that going? Really good! I don't read enough of this old timely sci fi.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 30

Total pages read so far: 300

Food consumed this hour: None

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

Dancing to Lip Gloss really helped! I was wide awake this whole last hour. :) And the book I'm reading is quite good!

Read-a-thon hour 6: 12:00 - 13:00

What are you reading right now? Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

How's that going? Really good.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 14

Total pages read so far: 270

Food consumed this hour: Some of that salad with the cheese and tomatoes that has become my staple read-a-thon food. Some more orange juice.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence, Book Appetit!

We're 1/4 of the way through!! This last hour was hard for me. I don't usually get tired at this point, but I did this time. I must have read the same paragraph 50 times. So now I'm going to dance to Lip Gloss by Lil Mama. I think that will help.

Read-a-thon hour 5: 11:00 - 12:00

What are you reading right now? Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

How's that going? I think I'm going to like it.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 18

Total pages read so far: 256

Food consumed this hour: A Pull-n-Peel.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page, Book Sentence

I didn't get much reading done this hour! It took me awhile to do the Book Sentence mini-challenge, and I also responded to the comments on my blog.

Read-a-thon: Book Sentence mini-challenge

The Book Sentence mini-challenge is hosted by On the Wings of Books. This was a tough one!


"All families are psychotic behind the bedroom wall. Go ask Alice!"

Haha! Well, it makes grammatical sense anyway! :P It was fun running around my apartment searching for books that had anything but a noun phrase for a title.

Read-a-thon hour 4: 10:00 - 11:00

What are you reading right now? I just finished Coraline, and I'm about to start Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke.

How's that going? Coraline was wonderful!

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl, Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Pages read this hour: 58

Total pages read so far: 238

Food consumed this hour: A mug of hot chocolate and a few Triscuits.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation, Turn to Page

Read-a-thon hour 3: 9:00 - 10:00

What are you reading right now? Coraline by Neil Gaiman

How's that going? Funny and creepy and a little scary.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl

Pages read this hour: 56

Total pages read so far: 180

Food consumed this hour: None. I'm getting a bit hungry!

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation

I got dressed and brushed my teeth, so I feel a bit more alert now. I see some snacking in the near future.

Read-a-thon hour 2: 8:00 - 9:00

What are you reading right now? Coraline by Neil Gaiman

How's that going? Wonderfully! It's been too long since I read Neil Gaiman. He's so delightful. Best line so far: "Spiders made Coraline intensely uncomfortable."

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl

Pages read this hour: 48

Total pages read so far: 124

Food consumed this hour: Gummy bears.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme, Reading in Translation

This updating every hour thing definitely cuts down on reading time! Maybe I was smarter last time with my updates every 2 hours. It is nice to keep up with the challenges and stuff, though.

Also, I totally forgot to make my fruit salad last night! :( Maybe when Mr. Towering Pile gets home from work he'll make it for me. I don't think he knows how to cut a pineapple, though...

Read-a-thon: Reading in Translation mini-challenge

It's time for a mini-challenge! The Reading in Translation mini-challenge is being hosted by Reading Through Life.

If I could read any translated book in its original language, I'd probably pick The Dwarves (Die Zwerge) by Markus Heitz. The translation is beautiful, but I'd still love to read the original!

German cover

English cover
I like the English cover better, but maybe just because it's what I'm used to!

Read-a-thon hour 1: 7:00 - 8:00

What are you reading right now? Coraline by Neil Gaiman

How's that going? I actually just started. I spent most of the hour reading The Twits.

Books finished so far: The Twits by Roald Dahl

Pages read this hour: 76 (not bad, considering I also wrote the Introduction Meme and commented on the blogs I'm following!)

Total pages read so far: 76 (I do math good!)

Food consumed this hour: A glass of orange juice.

Mini Challenges completed so far: Introduction Meme

My eyes are finally staying open without a lot of effort, so yay! And it feels good to already have a book finished. The day is starting off wonderfully!

Read-a-thon Introductory Meme

I'm slightly late on the intro meme, because I jumped right into reading! But here it is!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I'm reading in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? That would probably be Coraline by Neil Gaiman, which I can't believe I haven't read before now!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Celery sticks with peanut butter, mmm...

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! One of the things I'm looking forward to as summer approaches is visiting cemeteries, because I'm a genealogist and we're weird like that.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? This is my second read-a-thon, and what I learned last time is this: For the love of all things beautiful don't read non-fiction!!

Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon begins!

Good morning! Or whatever greeting is appropriate in your time zone! Here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it is 7:00, which is not a time I like, but it's ok because I went to bed early! Kind of!

For those of you who don't know what's going on here, I'm participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, which means I'll be reading (with breaks only for blogging my updates) for the next 24 hours straight!

My goals for this read-a-thon are the following:
  • Don't fall asleep! (Last time I fell asleep, but only for about 15 minutes, so I'm almost there!)
  • Read 1200 pages (More than my goal last time, but less than I actually read, so doable!)
  • Squeeze a couple of mini challenges.
  • Do more commenting! Last time I just read other people's blogs and didn't comment enough.
  • Don't get a tummy ache from poor choices of snack foods.

My reading list, in no particular order:
  • Charmed Season 9 Volume 1 by Paul Ruditis (graphic novel) (150 pages)
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman (162 pages)
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl (225 pages)
  • The Twits by Roald Dahl (76 pages)
  • Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke (155 pages)
  • The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin (e-book) (97 pages)
  • Bandwidth by Angus Morrison (e-book) (232 pages)
  • Anything else on my shelves that I feel like reading!
My book pile is so wimpy this time!



In the last read-a-thon, I just updated one long post every two hours, because I was blogging on my genealogy blog and didn't want to annoy my readers with a whole bunch of off-topic posts. But this time, I have a book blog! So I'll be posting separate posts every hour, and flooding everyone's feed readers. :)

Without further ado, let the reading begin! I'll be starting off with The Twits by Roald Dahl, because it's early and Roald Dahl is delightful.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers

Title: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)
Author: R.L. LaFevers
Publication Date: April 3, 2012
Length: 528 pages

Ismae is a daughter of Mortain, the God of Death, and at the start of this story, she is living in a small village where her abusive father is marrying her off to a husband who's no better. But then she is taken away to a convent, where she will serve Mortain by assassinating those who bear his marque.

This book was not really what I was expecting. There isn't really a whole lot of assassinating in it, and there's more than a little politics and romance. At times I felt like it was going too slowly. Over time, though, I became more interested in the politics, and it became really interesting. I'm not really sure of this book's target audience, though. It's marketed as young adult (and sexy times are appropriately glossed over), yet I imagine most teenagers being rather bored.

I really liked how Ismae's understanding of Mortain and her role as his handmaiden developed throughout the story. At the beginning I was already poking holes in the convent's explanation of things, and was pleased to see Ismae question things as well.

I quite enjoyed the romance. I'm not really a romance kind of person when it comes to books, but if it's done well (read: if it's just the right amount of sexy, and is realistic), I can enjoy it. One thing I did not like, however, was Ismae's whole conception of her sexuality. It's weird. First of all, she conveniently skips most of her classes at the convent on the "womanly arts", so she seems to have little idea of how romance, seduction, love, and sex even work. And seriously, for like two thirds of the book, she's all jumpy every time the guy touches her (he helps her off her horse, she hurriedly pushes his hands away), and she doesn't seem to understand her feelings. She's all "oh goodness, why is my heart fluttering, and why are my loins a-quivering?!" (I paraphrase, but you get the point).

But yes, political intrigue! Assassin nuns who have cool powers because their father is the god of death! Recommended for fans of historical fiction with just a touch of fantasy.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

John Dies at the End by David Wong

This is the cover folded out; the front cover alone didn't do it justice!
Title: John Dies at the End
Author: David Wong
Publication Date: October 2009
Length: 375 pages

It's hard to even summarise what this book is about. OK, so there's this drug known as Soy Sauce. Taking it either allows you to see weird things that don't belong in this world, or possibly actually opens a hole to let those things in. The main characters, David and John, use the sauce to try to defend the Earth against these various weird alternate dimension things. Basically this book is just really, really weird.

The whole thing is basically a series of weird things happening. Sometimes they are also disgusting things. There are lots of monsters made entirely of bugs, and stuff like that (one monster made entirely of cuts of meat from a freezer).

The overarching story (if you can call it that) is that John is telling his story to a reporter. As the reporter gets more and more incredulous, but out of morbid curiosity or something still chooses to keep listening, John talks about a series of events that are roughly broken into 3 bigger stories... I'm doing a bad job at this, because seriously, it's just very random and kind of hard to explain.

I liked it! It was weird, and occasionally I would either laugh out loud or visibly shudder in public. You may or may not like it. It will depend on your personality way more than the average book does! But I recommend it.

This has been a vague review by Lianne Lavoie! 4 stars.

This book counts towards the Read Your OWN Library! Challenge (hosted by The Beauty of Eclecticism) for March. For April, my book for the challenge will be The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. This book also counts for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

WWW Wednesday - April 18

WWW Wednesdays is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. To participate, simply answer these questions three:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you'll read next?

1. I am currently reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson.

2. I recently read Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by R.L. LaFevers.

3. Books I'm planning to read soon include Bandwidth by Angus Morrison, The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin, and a whole bunch of stuff for the read-a-thon this weekend! (So excited!)

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Hunger Games movie review

Why is Gabe on the poster?
He's like barely a character in the book...
I can't even with the love triangles...
I've decided to add a new occasional feature to The Towering Pile! From now on, whenever I see a movie that's based on a book (that I've already read), I'll review the movie, based on both its general merit as a movie, and how well it represents the book. I love seeing movies based on books I like, but also love to pick at every little thing they messed up, so I should have plenty to talk about on this subject!

Warning: Movie reviews will almost certainly contain spoilers!

My first movie review is for The Hunger Games! People seem to have no shortage of opinions on this movie, and I am no different. For starters, overall I enjoyed the movie. My main complaint was that everything felt kind of rushed. At the end, I was thinking they had hurried the story along too much. Then I looked at my watch and realised that it was a 2.5 hour movie. Holy mackerel! It felt more like 1.5 hours! So I guess they couldn't really have made the movie any longer, and it's not the kind of story you can split in two, as is often does these days.

Now, the casting: Katniss was pretty alright. Jennifer Lawrence played the part very well, though she doesn't have me fangirling or anything. Also, I personally wouldn't have cast a white actor for the part, but it's true that her race wasn't really specified so I guess that's alright. I thought the actors who played Peeta and Gale were great for their parts, but as I said in my review of the book, neither of those characters really did anything for me anyway, so whatever. I know my opinion of the casting doesn't seem that high so far, but the fact is, every other character was cast absolutely perfectly. So overall, I think the casting was excellent

Yum...
Woody Harrelson was great as Haymitch (I had my doubts going in), and I blame the writers/directors/whatever, not him, for making Haymitch waaaaay too sober. When I first heard Lenny Kravitz was gonna play Cinna, I was like what? Lenny Kravitz acts? But then he totally had me swooning. I think the romance in this series should probably be based around Cinna, as he's way hotter than Peeta or Gale.

She seriously looks like a fox!
I love Stanley Tucci in anything, so of course I thought he was a great pic as Caesar. Weirdly, I pictured Andy Hallett (yes I'm aware he's no longer living). All the other tributes were exactly how I expected them. Foxface looked like they took her right out of my brain when I was reading the book!

And Rue. Oh my goodness, Rue. Amandla Stenberg was PERFECT. She's just how I imagined her, and so adorable. When (here come those spoilers I warned you about!) she died, I was like sobbing in the theatre. I really wish she'd had a bigger part. That's one of the things that made me think the movie was too short!

Oh, that beard.
 Last but not least, Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane (is he even named in the first book?). That beard... that's all I really have to say. I love his beard. While I was watching the movie I kept wondering why this guy was so familiar... then I looked it up later and he's from American Beauty! (Bit of a tangent there, but I found it exciting.)

I really liked how you get to see more in the movie than in the book. (I wonder if that's stuff you learn in the rest of the trilogy, or if some of it was just made up for the movie...) It probably contributed to the movie being really long and simultaneously hurried, but it was really neat to see how the games are controlled, and the interactions between the game maker, President Snow, Haymitch, the sponsors, etc. Very cool.

Now, it's time for some nitpicking. I'll start at the end. What the heck is up with Cato being all changed at the end? In the book, he's all career tribute right up until he falls down with those beast things. But in the movie, his last few lines are him saying that he didn't understand until now that he was going to die, and he seemed to realise how horrible the whole thing was. I thought that was a weird thing to change.

Why did they take out the scene where District 11 sends Katniss bread?! That just made me sad. Instead, they showed the district rebelling, which, slight segue here, brings me to what the heck is with the spoilers from the second book?! As if the internet isn't trying hard enough to give me spoilers, the movie has to too, with the uprising, and at the end with Seneca and the berries! I should have read the whole trilogy before the movie, apparently!

Anywho. I was also sad that Thresh's part was shortened. I know he doesn't have many lines in the book, either, but they were cut even shorter in the movie. I really liked that part in the book, when Katniss tells him how she sang to Rue and covered her with flowers.

One last thing. For some reason, both scenes in which people give that salute to Katniss made me cry like a baby. Sometimes my emotions confuse me.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Getting ready for the read-a-thon!

Who's ready for 24 hours of non-stop reading, blogging, tweeting, and general fun times?! I know I sure am! It's less than a week away; I'm so excited!

This will only be my second read-a-thon, but I wanted to share a couple of lessons I learned during my first one. So if you're participating for the first time this time, here are some thing to keep in mind:
  1. Read short, non-fiction books. I know some people prefer to read one long book, but I am not one of those people. So unless you have a crazy long attention span, I don't recommend it. And last time I read one non-fiction book, just a little short one, and it was horrible. I recommend middle grade or young adult books, graphic novels, or other very short novels. And graphic novels are especially nice for a change of pace if you're getting tired of looking at a wall of text.
  2. If you're going to drink an energy drink, drink it at the right time! Know how long that energy drink will last and plan accordingly. Last time, I drank one with about 4 hours to go, and I was still wired when the read-a-thon was over, so I had trouble sleeping! I hadn't realised that energy drinks have improved over the years (I only drink them at read-a-thons and programming competitions), and they no longer make you crash after a couple hours. So I'm thinking I'll try drinking one with around 8 hours to go this time.
  3.  Have so many snacks! I actually did have enough last time, but still, it's worth repeating. Your appetite will not be normal. You are staying up, hardly moving at all, for 24 hours. Your body will be confused and will want food.
I just started picking out my books yesterday! So far I've only got 5 books picked out, so I'll have to look for a few more:
  • Charmed Volume 1 (graphic novel)
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl
  • The Twits by Roald Dahl
  • Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke
So that's 1 graphic novel, 2 kids' books, 1 young adult or maybe easy adult book, and 1 short sci fi book. I should easily be able to get through all these, and hopefully more, so like I said, this pile is not final!

Have you started planning what you're going to read in this read-a-thon? It's worth doing ahead of time, so you don't waste time perusing your bookshelves when you should be reading! :)

Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publication Date: 2008
Length: 374 pages

Note: Movie review coming soon!

When Katniss Everdeen's younger sister is selected to participate in the Hunger Games, an annual fight to the death between 24 children from the districts of Panem, she volunteers to take her place. She is sent to the Capitol, where the people see the disturbing, dystopian version of reality television as the highest form of entertainment. Much violence ensues, along with some adorableness (Rue!) and a little bit of romance.

I could not put this book down. (Warning: I'm probably about to get really vague. I accidentally waited too long before writing this review and now all that left is SO MUCH EMOTION.) What can I say, it was just SO GOOD. This is a great dystopian novel, because it manages to be a terrifying picture of what the world could become, and it's believable. No fantasy required. And the setting is really interesting: North America has become a single country, consisting of a capitol and 12 districts, with the capitol ruling cruelly over the districts while pretending to be taking care of them. In other words, colonialism! See what I mean, with the disturbing realism?

Katniss is a great main character. She's a female lead who kicks ass, so that's already enough for me to like her. She's kind and caring, but is also willing to do what needs to be done to survive, to get back to her family that depends on her. Peeta and Gale, to be honest, don't have me feeling much of anything. I've heard that the second book gets more love triangle-y, which I'm kind of dreading. As you may have noticed, I'm not a big romance fan. And rarely do I enjoy a love triangle. I'd be perfectly happy if Katniss just kept on being a butt-kicking single gal. But I'm probably the minority in that.

My favourite character is Rue. A 12 year old girl selected from District 11, she instantly has your sympathy. And when she (minor spoilers ahead!) surprisingly scores a 7 in training, and says in her interview that "if they can't catch me, they can't kill me", you know she's going to be more than meets the eye.

I can't really say much more while avoiding major spoilers. If you haven't read the book yet, you should!

5 stars. I didn't even do it justice with this review, but it's so good!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Piling Up on Friday - April 13


Piling Up on Friday is a weekly meme from Finding Your Gibbee. All you have to do is list the books you've added to your to read shelf in the last week.

My books this week are from The Book Fair, a used book store that I don't visit nearly often enough. I happened to be in the area with some time to kill, so I popped by. I didn't have my list with me (the one that tells me what R.L. Stine books I need), but they kindly let me check my Goodreads on their computer! How lovely. :)

Give Yourself Goosebumps Special Edition
#1: Into the Jaws of Doom
Goosebumps Series 2000 #24:
Earth Geeks Must Go!
Goosebumps Series 2000 #25:
Ghost in the Mirror
Give Yourself Goosebumps #21:
The Twisted Tale of Tiki Island
Goosebumps Horrorland #1:
Revenge of the Living Dummy
Give Yourself Goosebumps
#36: Ship of Ghouls

Sunday, April 1, 2012

April Random Reads selection

It's time to select my Random Read for April! Last month, my Random Read was John Dies at the End by David Wong.

So it's off to the random number generator. I have 666 books on my TBR shelf at the moment, so I enter 1 as the min and 666 as the max, and hit Generate.

Drum roll, please!



For April's Random Read I'll be reading Starrise at Corrivale (Harbinger #1) by Diane Duane. It's been on my TBR shelf since February 9, 2012. This is one of my newest books! Kinda takes the fun out of it, really. I contemplated picking another one, but decided to just go with it. At least this is one book that will never make it to the pile of books I've had forever but haven't read. :)