Stuff as Dreams are Made on

Hey everyone…I’ve moved once again, but I promise this is the last time. My blog can now be found at http://dreamstuffbooks.com/blog. This site is NOT redirecting to the new site right now because I have to transfer my archives still. So if you wouldn’t mind changing my link on your blogroll and on your feed readers, I’d GREATLY appreciate it! I’ll see you on the new site! Same content, just different place

Actually this isn’t that bad. This is my preliminary pile for the Once Upon a Time Challenge. After these are read, I’ll start a new pile and post more book porn! But this is all the bookporn you get for now :p If I posted every fantasy book I have, well….we’d be here all day. So this is what I plan to read for the first part of the Once Upon a Time Challenge. From top to bottom:

1. Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary by Brandon Mull – This one needs to be read like yesterday. But I’m about halfway through right now and it’s fantastic so far! It’ll be my first read for the challenge. Seriously, this series just keeps getting better.

2. Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling – Somebody PLEASE PUT THE BONE DOLL’S TWIN ON YOUR ONCE UPON A TIME LIST!! Seriously, if there’s one fantasy book that I think is absolutely amazing and everyone should read but no one knows about, it would be The Bone Doll’s Twin. It’s so amazing! Gave me chills. Hidden Warrior is the sequel to Bone Doll’s Twin. Can’t wait for it!

3. The Little Country by Charles De Lint – Just because I want to read some more de Lint and it seems like everyone who has read this one has loved it…but then again, is it possible to not love a de Lint book?

4. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey – Aren’t you proud of me Pat?! Now that I have this in a manageable paperback size, I can’t wait to read it!! I’m hoping to read at least two of the Pern books during the challenge as I know that the third one is Deslily’s favorite!

5. We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter Beagle – I just love Peter Beagle…he’s such a damn good writer and his stories move me so much. I’ll be using this one as my first book for the short story weekends. Then I’d like to read some of the anthologies that I have lying around like The Faery Reel and The Green Man among others.

6. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan – I feel like she’s a favorite author of mine and I haven’t even read this book yet. I just know that it’s going to be good and I’m going to love it. The cover alone tells me that.

7. The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum – This is an ARC that Shadow Mountain sent me and it looks so good! Sadly, it doesn’t come out until May, so everyone will just have to salivate over it until then

8. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs – Finally! I’ve been wanting to read this one for so long and I’m finally reading it now. I think I’m the last person to start this series. I peeked at the first few pages yesterday but put it aside until I can devote my sole attention to it!

9. Lux the Poet by Martin Millar – I really need to read this one too! It’s another review copy from Soft Skull Press and it also doesn’t come out until May :/ Sorry….

10. The Stranger by Max Frei – And yet another ARC that sounds absolutely amazing!!! Can’t wait to dig into this one as well.

I just started reading The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie on my iPhone and I’m totally loving it!! It’s a YA title and I’m really surprised that I haven’t heard more about this one from anyone! Becky reviewed it awhile ago and I’ve been wanting to read it ever since…cool book. Oh, and Becky…I still need you to send me your email address so that I can get Sorrow by John Lawson over to you!!

So excited! Carl has announced his Once Upon a Time III Challenge! Along with RIP, it’s my favorite challenge of the year. If you read this blog, then of course you know that I absolutely LOVE fantasy literature. It will never cease to be a favorite genre of mine. So these three months in which the challenge runs are always like a big love fest of reading for me. It’s like a three month long celebration. My TBR pile has gotten so out of control that it would be impossible for me to make even a pool of books at this point! But I have lots of fun fantasy lined up, so stay tuned for reviews. I’m most looking forward to sinking my teeth into some more de Lint. After reading Little Grrl Lost, I’ve been craving more. I’ve never read The Little Country and I’ve heard such great things about it…maybe I’ll start with that one.

I did see that Carl mentioned hosting a couple of mini-challenges in Dewey’s honor and I’m hoping that one of them is for the Dewey’s Books Reading Challenge! The Out of this World mini challenge went over really well and I’d love to see him do something like that again.

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I’ve always equated Spring with change. Spring just seems to resonate a sense of rebirth and new beginnings. It’s a time to grow, a time to branch out. In celebration of that, I’ll be announcing my new website soon…probably this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled for the announcement. I say this because it will mean a change of my URL. And it won’t redirect from this blog. So I’m asking ahead of time if you wouldn’t mind changing your links to me and your feed reader subscription when I announce the new URL. I know…I’m such a pain! Sorry guys, but I wanted a shorter URL than the current one. For those who have been with me since the beginning this is now the THIRD blog that I’ve had! But you know what they say…third time’s a charm I’m sticking with this new site. I put a lot of time and energy to it and I’m going to make it last! I’ll probably announce it this Sunday.

Take care everyone and happy reading!

Join Kim Hanks, author of the fantasy novel, Save The Best For Last (Raider Publishing International, November ‘08), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in March on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

About the Author

Kim Hanks is the author of Save The Best For Last, a fantasy adventure debut from the author! Critics have compared this book to an example of hugely popular genres and reality in the novelists craft and have described it as a strong, good, and multilayered fantasy adventure written with a hand that is both sure and light.
Kim has a full time job and is a graduate of Cambridge International College with a degree in Human Resource Management. He lives in Dubai.
For more information please visit his website at http://www.kimhanks.net/

About the Book

Zwick Lamps, a secret admirer to Whitney Barnes, got targeted by a genius son of the past evil family that had lived in Green Oasis Town. However, it was once before that Zwick had finally discovered his supernatural powers that were only known by the isolated old woman Tabitha, a misfortuned lady whose husband died on their wedding day.

SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘09 will officially begin on March 2 and end on March 31. You can visit Kim’s blog stops at http://www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/ in March to find out more about this great book and talented author!

Win Prizes

As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors’ blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available

PR Specialist and Tour Coordinator
Pump Up Your Book Promotion
“We take book promotion to the virtual level!”

A few things that I have to catch up on/update everyone on:

1. I totally forgot to draw the winner for the copy of John Lawson’s Sorrow!! I swear, I don’t know what’s happened to my brain lately. But anyway…the winner is: Bart at Bart’s Bookshelf!! Woohoo! Congrats Bart, you’ll love it I’m sure. Do you want me to just send it to the email address that I emailed you on or is there another one you’d prefer? Let me know! OK…what would I do without Nymeth who has saved me TWICE today! Bart already bought this book, so I’m drawing another winner…and it’s Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews! Send me your email Becky and I’ll send the book to you! And Bart, to be fair, I’m sending you a Bookmooch point so you can get another book that you’d want!

2. I just updated the Dewey’s Book Challenge blog with a new post containing the winners of Nymeth’s first giveaways, a reminder about Jill’s mini-challenge, and the announcement of a new random giveaway. Head on over there to read all about it!

3. Finally, the next 24 hour read-a-thon has been announced!!! And it’s now aptly named, Dewey’s Read-A-Thon. I just know it will be fantastic and it’ll be very bittersweet doing this in her memory. I think I’m actually off of work that weekend too, so score!

4. Trish has posted an update on the proposed Book Blogger Retreat! I want to go so bad…anyone else thinking about going???

Just felt like blogging with nothing in particular to say, but what the hell….

ARCs…I love them. I really do. But sometimes you just get a dud, huh? I’m reading a book right now that I was scheduled to review on March 19th (this Thursday) but I think I’m going to have to back out of it. I’m sorry dear promotional rep! You’re one of my favorite people and I really don’t mean to make your life hell by doing this, but I just couldn’t review this one in a positive light with a clear conscience. I just didn’t like it at all…in fact, I’m not even going to mention what book it is because I hate giving authors a bad name. But the writing was pretty bad and there were literally about 10 typos on every page. Where are the editors??

In other news, I bought my own server last night :0 It’s exciting to be able to finally use java script widgets and other fun stuff again through wordpress.org, but lord is it ever confusing!! I need to figure all this stuff up. So eventually, Stuff as Dreams are Made on will be moving, but it may be a little while before that happens. I need to get the site to look just how I want it to before that happens. Right now, I’m having a helluva time trying to import my blog posts to that blog! They make it seem so easy “just download this file and upload it to the other blog” but it never works Maybe I should try it on the PC in the house…maybe it’s a MAC issue. Who knows. But one of these days I’ll have it done.

As for reading, I’m in the middle of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County and I’m loving it! Such a great surprise…really good book. Have you read it yet? I’m about to start the next Fablehaven book and am really excited about that one too! I love that series…it’s so good! I feel the same way about that series as I did with Harry Potter. I know there are those who are not a fan of it, but I got hooked on it. Anyway, there’s only one book left in the series after this one, so for those waiting until the whole series is out, you may want to give it a go now! By the time you read all of them the whole series will be out.

I’ll be updating the Dewey’s Book Challenge blog soon with the winners of Nymeth’s first contest, a reminder about Jill’s mini challenge and a new random giveaway, so keep your eyes open for that.

And finally, HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!! Hope you’re wearing your green!

I did much better this week! Or worse if you look at it that way :p Here’s what came into the house over the past week…this includes 1 library book by the way, so I’m only keeping 8 of them :p

1. Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary by Brandon Mull – The fourth book in the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull which will be released on March 24th! Excited about this one. Look for my review of it on March 23rd and a really exciting interview with Brandon Mull featuring movie news on the books release date, March 24th.

2. Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman – No explanation needed really. It’s a new Gaiman book. Loved it!

3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy – This is quite possibly the book that’s been on my wishlist the longest. CJ is the person responsible for this one!! Point to CJ!

4. On Chesil Beach by Ian McKewan – Somebody is responsible for this one…just can’t remember who! Remind me if you are

5. Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale – This one sounded really cool! Point to miss Quixotic for this one!

6. We Never Talk About my Brother by Peter Beagle – SO excited about this one!! Go buy it!

7. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell – I’ve been wanting this one for awhile too. Someone is at fault for this one as well, but I don’t remember who again :/ It was someone who went to high school with Julie Powell though…is that you? Let me know! This one was a surprise! I just mentioned wanting to read it on Twitter and the publisher was kind enough to send it to me. Thanks guys!

8. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris – I had heard a lot about this series but never paid much attention to it. Then I heard an interview with Charlaine Harris and a reading of the first chapter on XM radio on the books channel. Then I had to have it :p

9. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County – This is my library book and I wish it weren’t! I’m really enjoying this one…it’s truly fantastic…reminds me of books like The Thirteenth Tale and Big fish. Great read so far!

Wow! That’s a whole bad bloggers post without a point for Nymeth! What happened? Fear not…she’ll be getting like 5 points next week :p

Are you playing along with bad bloggers? If so, please leave a comment on this post!

What a week it’s been! It’s been a good one aside from the sleep study, which I’ll talk about later. On the reading front, I’ve got to say that I’m quite proud of myself! I read 5 books this week! That may be a record for me…yes, I believe it is. One was a picture book, but even so, 4 books is pretty good. Here’s what I read:

19. Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice, 2003, 112 pgs., 4.75/5
20. As Shadows Fade by Colleen Gleason, 2009, 342 pgs., 5/5
21. Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, 2009, 32 pgs., 5/5
22. Sorrow: A Witch Ember Tale by John Lawson, 2009, 239 pgs., 5/5
23. Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint, 2007, 271 pgs., 4.5/5

Not so bad, eh? I really can’t pick a favorite out of all of the above either. There’s been so many good books lately! I probably shouldn’t use a rating system, because I’m a very unbiased reader :p If I love it, it’s getting a 5/5. Kailana mentioned in the comments of one of these posts that I’ve given out so many 5/5s already this year and it’s going to be hard to pick favorites at the end of the year. Probably so. But I’m enjoying myself in the meantime.

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Last night I tried to read The Little Giant of Aberdeen County while at my sleep study, but I just couldn’t get into it. It may have been the distraction of 1000 devices hooked up to me. Just saying. So I’m going to give it another go tonight and see if I like it better. I hope I do..I had high hopes for that one!

The sleep study was awful. I had numerous things hooked up to me, including many little electrodes all over my face and in my hair (applied with glue, no less), on my chest, and my legs; a tube in my nose; and two giants straps going across my chest and stomach. Needless to say, I did not get a good night’s sleep. Very restless and waking up all night while in a strange room. Luckily I was observed only by a video camera, not by an actual person sitting in the room like I thought it would be. The best part is when they get you up in the morning and tell you you can go…and you have to walk through the whole hospital with glue in your hair as the nurses are all reporting to work…nice. Here’s a lovely picture of me before they finished putting everything on me:

Looks like a sci-fi movie, neh? If only that were the worst of it….

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Needless to say, when I got home, I crashed for 4 or 5 hours of real sleep. Then I woke up and went to see Watchmen with my little brother on IMAX!! It was incredible. Really, if you haven’t seen this yet, you really need to see it. It’s an intelligent person’s comic book movie as it is an intelligent comic book and I just loved it. Though as I said over Twitter, I’ve seen enough big blue penis for the rest of my life.

And on that note, I’m going to bed because I have to be at work for 7 tomorrow morning…oh, when can I sleep again cruel world!

Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint
271 Pages
2007
4.5/5

T.J. is a girl who was forced to move to the suburbs when her father takes a job in the city after being raised on a farm. She’s had to give up her beloved horse, Red, and all of her friends and now lives in a place where she just doesn’t feel like she fits in. While laying in her bed one night, she hears some squeaking or scratching behind her wall. Whenever she turns her light on, the sound goes away. So she decides to leave the lights off and sleep on the floor closer to the sound. The sound comes again and she starts to notice that it sounds like voices. And her suspicions are confirmed when the baseboard opens up like a door and an angry girl about six inches tall walks out.

Meet Elizabeth. She’s a “little”. Littles are tiny folk who inhabit our world in secret. Elizabeth also feels like she doesn’t fit in as she doesn’t follow her family’s ideals. And she’s sure to not fit in with them now once they move after learning that Elizabeth has been discovered by a human. Elizabeth makes all of her clothes, prefering clothes that are short, revealing, full of safety pins and make a statement. And her hair is blue and worn in pigtails. Total opposite of T.J. Once Elizabeth is abandoned by her family, she has no choice but to make nice with T.J. and the two quickly become friends.

T.J. does some research on littles and learns of a local author who seems to know of them. She also learns that littles are descended from birds and there’s a way for them to change back into birds. This interests Elizabeth. Sheri Piper, the aforementioned author is doing a signing nearby and Elizabeth and T.J. can’t pass up the opportunity to meet her. So T.J. dresses Elizabeth in an old teddy bear and sticks her in her backpack. But the way to the bookstore isn’t so easy. T.J. gets attacked by a group of boys who steal her backpack…and when she finds it, Elizabeth is gone.

The rest of the story deals with Elizabeth and TJ trying to find each other again and trying to find themselves. Various Fey folk and love interests are involved in the story to make it that much more interesting! The “Lost” part of the title has a number of meanings to this novel. Obviously, it talks of the fact that Elizabeth literally goes missing, but it also speaks of both Elizabeth and T.J. trying to find their true selves. T.J. always feeling awkward and Elizabeth not knowing where exactly her place is in the world as a little.  And De Lint handles this perfectly with amazing insight into the minds of these two girls.

The only thing that bugged me about this one is the way one of these characters is treated. There was a character that I really liked that comes to the rescue of T.J. when she’s attacked by the group of boys and he quickly becomes a friend and ally of hers. But when he doesn’t believe her story about littles, she gets very upset…which may be understandable. But then she just totally trashes him and continues to do so, as do her parents and brother and it stays that way throughout the novel. His character is never redeemed which I thought was pretty crappy. He’s a good guy.

Aside from that, this novel was perfect! But de Lint sadly loses half a point because of that. It’s another wonderful young adult tale by de lint that rivals his other YA book that I’ve read, The Blue Girl. De Lint has such a wonderful talent at writing fantasy set in our modern world and I feel like I’d never get sick of reading his books. Lucky for me, there are lots of them!

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As you read this, I’m hooked up to numerous wires at a hospital and am being observed. I’m writing this early, but not posting it until around 8 pm so that my review of Blueberry Girl doesn’t get ignored :p I have to do a sleep study tonight and I’m dreading it! Here’s the problem…I’ve been tired all the time for as long as I can remember. Like, I can literally take a nap whenever I want to. We’ve run numerous blood tests, etc and they all come back normal. So my doctor wants to see if maybe it’s sleep apnea. So I’m doing the sleep study.

Why am I dreading it you ask? Well…they hook you up to a whole bunch of wires (including something in your nose) and then just tell you to go to sleep while they watch you…at 7:30 in the evening. Considering that I don’t normally go to bed until around three in the morning, I don’t know how this is going to work. And they can’t give you a sleeping pill because they want your natural sleep patterns. Sheesh…I’m going to be up all night. I need Mr. Sandman to pay a visit. Send some sleepy vibes my way, will you?

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Friday Fill Ins

1. When I look to the left, I see a pile of books that includes The Watchmen, The New Fablehaven Book, Lux the Poet by Martin Millar and The Stranger by Max Frei; an alarm clock; my Nabaztag rabbit; and a coffee (which I really shouldn’t be drinking with a sleep study tonight!).

2. None of them is the room that has the best view in my home. The view in this house is really poor.

3. Let it work itself out…there’s only so much you’re in control of.

4. Get your book buying done dirt cheap! Go to bookcloseouts.com

5. Having respect for your fellow citizens is a responsibility that all qualified citizens must share.

6. If you have any advice on how to sleep while hooked up to numerous devices and being stared at feel free to send it my way.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to absolutely nothing at all, tomorrow my plans include catching up on sleep missed tonight and Sunday, I want to not go to work…but that won’t happen!