Savvy by Ingrid Law

I had been dying to read this one since I first saw the cover:


(Is it not one of the most gorgeous covers you've ever seen?)

But it kept getting pushed back by other books. Eventually, last Christmas Break, my sister made me take her copy back with me to school. I started reading it on the plane, continued on the taxi and sat to read it in my room after dragging my bags up. It was, of course, amazing.

I think my favorite part of the book is Mibs's use of words. Like on page one, when she describes how moving away from the coast hurt more than when she fell off her pink bike and the hurt was under the skin. (Okay, bad paraphrasing)

I also love the combination (juxtaposition?) or the supernatural (the Beaumonts and their savvies) and the more mundane (needing swimsuits for the hotel pool). I mean, I do love high fantasy and whatnot, but it does annoy me when reality isn't accounted for. Like in Captain Planet - what did the parents of the kids think? What did the kids tell them? What did the kids tell the school boards?

That was another thing I liked about the world in Savvy - although Mibs and her brothers and the pastor's kids were running off, there were adults as well.

Review: Child of the Air

Child of the Air is an old-school sci-fi book. It fits in perfectly with the books I was devouring when I was 12. Sort of fitting into the whole H.M. Hoover style. Except that this book is very obviously set in a whole different universe, really more of a science fiction and fantasy blend. But it follows more of the science fiction pattern.

Mylanfyndra and her brother Brevan live on the mesa, a forlorn chunk of rock inhabited by fire birds (totally forget what they were actually called) and hit by a firestorm (the glair, if I remember that correctly) for about thirty days every summer.

The children have always been different, living up on the hill outside of the village with their grandfather (kinda like Heidi, only with two kids in a fantastical world). But when the old man dies, the evil, narrow-minded oppressors (what good sci-fi book is without those?) send Myl and Brevan to live in the slave quarters in town with the other orphans and poor people.

The children, before sneak out at night and go up to the grove where they hid their prized possessions: strange amulets and bracelets. And where they practice flying.

They eventually discover that the world is far, far bigger than their tiny island of rock, and discover people who can fly, just like they can.

Overall, I liked this book. A lot. My 12-year-old self approves. My only disappointment was it wasn't epic enough, but that's the spoiled 20-year-old me who is used to The Books of Pellinor and Lord of the Rings and the books about Zamonia and the like. Plus the book leaves ample room for a sequel (even almost sets it up, what with where it ends). But there isn't one. As far as I was able to determine on Amazon.

Facebook Favorites

In addition to my green sprial-bound notebook, I also keep track of what I read using the weRead app (formerly the iRead app) on facebook. I like my green notebook because I use it to write down when I read something, whereas with the weRead app, I can mark how much I liked that something.

I don't have too many lower-stars for books I've read - most of the ones that earned one or two stars were books I had to read in school. I do have a large number of favorite books. I usually mark a book as one of my favorites based on how much I liked reading it at that point in time. Maybe a better way would be to come back three months (or however long) after I've read the book to see how it stands up to time.

I find myself thinking of some books long after others. The Adoration of Jenna Fox, for example. Whereas some that I've favorited I only recall from time-to-time, usually when I'm trying to recall the chronology of the series (pretty much any of the Redwall books. But they still are some of my favorites).

That being said, I thought that from time-to-time I could feature one of my facebook favorites. As of today, I've got 77 favorites out of 397 books read. We'll see how well I remember some of those favorites.

reviews and stuff

So... reviews... right now I'm trying to come up with a "To Be Reviewed" list, and then go through that book by book. We'll see how that actually works out

Review: Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce

First, let me say that I loved this book. Like, really. I think my favorite part about it was the world-building. It was deep and rich and definitely a world I'd love to explore (although maybe not so much the political intrigue. I'd chicken out and run from that).

I especially loved the slang. Like how they mush "super" with an adjective to form words such as "supereasy" or "superbusy." (I can't actually think of any examples from the book).

Flora is one of my favorite heroines in a while. She knows what she wants, but she's also well aware of what her family might think of such career ambitions (perhaps I liked that because I'm finding this applicable to my life. Especially as the "real world" looms larger and larger with each passing month). She's a trouble maker and rebel, but not too rebellious, and has a certain fondness for sweets.

Um... I'm gonna have to edit this some more. I hope I remember before it actually gets posted. Ding!

I think I rated this 5 stars on my Facebook weRead app. I don't remember. I hope I favorited too. I'll have to check on that...

Thursday Routines

So, I again went to return books, in order to semi-declutter my room. And of course I got out five more. That wouldn't be so bad if three of them were more than 400 pages each (one of which is 700-some). I also got out two books on CD.

The List:

January's Read-On Count

I'll probably do a more in-depth summary of January's books at some point this weekend whilst procrastinating.

January's Count: 21
Read-On 09 Count: 21
2009 Count: 21

Thursday Routines

I take harp lessons on Mondays this semester, and, as I don't have a semester's tuition to spare on a harp of my own, I need to go practice on the harp in the Music Building. I could take the shuttle, but walking from campus brings me through the Loop: past Starbucks, Panera, and the like. And most importantly, the library. Not the college library, but a Real Live Public Library. The library lies between campus and the music building, so I usually try to stop by on my way back from practicing the harp and drop off books I've finished that week.

What actually happens is I stop in the library first (cuz returning all those books will make my bag lighter). I return the books... and then I go look upstairs for books I want to read. Before I know it, my arms are filled with a stack of 10+ books (and dvds), and my bag is twice as heavy as before. And I have no time left to get harp practice in.

Today, by some miracle, I managed to go to the library after I got a good solid 1/2 hour of harp in. But I still checked out 10 books. And still have 6 to read from last time I went to the library. In addition to the good 15 I've got out of the school library.

Anyway, today I checked out:

Plus the audio book of Scott Adams' Stick to Drawing Cartoons, Monkey Brain!, as well as 3 movies. I'm excited. I'm just not going to have time to read/watch them all this week :(

(Cuz I still need to finish The Outcast, Moribito, The Wind in the Willows, and The Legend of Thunderfoot. And I should probably do homework/projects so I don't fail out of school. I'm sure my parents would appreciate me not doing that. I mean not-failing they would appreciate, not me not-doing-homework)

SLMS's Read-On Challenge

I love this challenge. I am soooo glad that they're splitting up the middle school after my sister gets to high school. That way I've got three glorious years to try and read as much as I can. Well, two more, including this one.

Basically, the premise is that the middle-schoolers have to read as many books (on-level or above level for them, but I'll share my views on that later) from January 1st to March 31st. The grade (6th-8th) with the most books read gets some prize or something. In turn, there're four sponsors (I forget who they got this year) that donate money to the Child Advocacy Program (or something like that) for each book read. The family of the middle schooler also gets to count the books they read (during the three months) toward the grade, and I think also the student. I'm pretty sure the student in each class with the most books wins something, too.

Last year the sixth grade (nor my sister) did not win, but I got 45 books read. Which, apart from spending the summer listening to audio books, comprised the bulk of my actual reading. I think I only read... less than 15 books last semester.

So far, I'm up to 15 this month, and I'm aiming for 75. Of course, I am counting audio books and books read for class (this semester I'm taking German Lit, so that's 10 books right there) towards my final. I don't know how many books the audio books are actually going to contribute: I've been stuck on the eighth disc of Twilight for the past week. Which is much better than being stuck on page 50 for the entire summer (and then having to return it to my friend and starting the book over when I got it on audio in December).

Anyway, I really have to go, as I still have to finish doing a piece for Moving Images and Sound. Though I'm really tempted to put that off until this evening, when everyone else is going to be using the 3-computer lab. Hmm....