Day 09 – Best scene ever

No pressure or anything! But okay. I categorised my favourites into three groups:

a) funny scenes, like for example in Page by Tamora Pierce when Neal, the boy with the green eyes and drawl, sarcastic master of all, to get back on the bullies that claim that they’re just friends with Kel because she’s a whore drawls: “Joren is so pretty. Say, Garvey, are you two friends because you can have him?”, or in The Demon’s Covenant when Nick says “Oh, call anytime, I love to chat”, or “You know me, I fret” (only funny if you know Nick’s personality, though), or, oooh when he COOKS FOR THEM. Ahem. Ending fan girling moment here. (I am also, by the way, very fond of Tansy’s sentence “Ashiol was lying in a pile of idiots”.)

b) unexpected scenes that make you exclaim OH MY GOD out loud (I do that kind of a lot). Examples: In Deerskin, when you realise that Lissar is pregnant, or in Dairy Queen, when you find out Amber’s secret. The very end of Tender Morsela fits in here too.

c) emotional scenes that make you feel like you were run over by truck, except in a good way. Example: The whole story Singing my sister down by Margo Lanagan. It’s so powerful I haven’t been able to read the rest of the stories yet. I’ll do it one of these days, though. Really.

And that’s as specific as I’m going to get.

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Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I should know better than to doubt books that Tansy gave me, but I totally did. Because it’s about American football, which is the number one sport I do not understand. Except after this book I kind of do, and I think that rugby or cricket or something has taken the number one spot. Nooo, wait, CURLING. That is a weird sport.

But this is a lovely book I’ve reviewed at length before, so I’m not going to go all into it. But D.J., the main character has a lovely language, talks like a farm girl really do and I really love that about this book. Also, it’s a lot less about football than you might think.

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Day 11 – A book that disappointed you

I guess I could say The Good Fairies of New York, which has a brilliant opening sentence, and only goes downhill from there. Basically two Scottish fairies try to get two people to fall in love; a fat, mean, forever masturbating in front of porn (and they actually spell out what the girls SAY on this channel, the language is so bad that *I* am uncomfortable and I swear more than most people), and a nice girl that hates herself because she has Crohns. (No, it doesn’t make sense.) I don’t even remember how the book ended, that’s how bad it is.

I had high hopes for this book because there was a foreword by Neil Gaiman that said it was absolutely brilliant and I figured “he’s a busy person, he must only read the books he REALLY like”. Wrong. Apparently he reads books much worse than he writes.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the Harry Potter-series by J.K. Rowling.
Page, the second book in The Protector of the Small-series by Tamora Pierce.
Airhead, the first book in the Airhead-series by Meg Cabot.
Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally), the third book in the Gracie Faltrain-series by Cath Crowley.
Dairy Queen, the first book in the Dairy Queen-series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
Valiant, the second book in the A Modern Faerietale-series by Holly Black.
Always MacKenzie, the fourth book in the Girlfriend Fiction-series by lots of different authors (this one is by Kate Constable).
The Demon’s Covenant, the second book in The Demon’s Lexicon-series by Sarah Rees Brennan.

A couple of series that would’ve made the list, had more than one book come out from each series:

The Curse Workers by Holly Black
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

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Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise

When a person describes as the only one in their family without a magical power, just to find out they’re the most powerful wizard/witch/magician/insert-magicky-thing-here of all times. I do realise that this cuts out a lot of books, but I LOVE getting the non-magical persons view here! It’s half the fun.

I’m also very tired of the token gay friend. I think I read four books in a row that had that, and towards the end I wanted to toss an absolutely brilliant book out the window just because I was so sick of it.

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Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once

This one makes no sense for any of you, because these are all Swedish books, but have some shiny pics:

Any book by Peter Pohl, but the ones I recommend doesn’t exist in English.

Any book by Astrid Lindgren, but preferably The Lion Heart Brothers or Mio my son, both which are more serious and fantasy/fairytale hybrids, rather that the fun and games of Pippi and Lotta.

Any book by Maria Gripe, also hasn’t been translated whatsoever.

Any book by Lennart Hellsing, who has also not been translated. He writes awesome, witty little poems about regular day things for kids. So yes, children’s book! (And I know a certain someone who will be given this book with translations written in pencil… if I ever get my arse to the post office.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Tamora Pierce writes about that thing with everybody saying that there’s not enough books with boys as protags. She doesn’t agree, of course, and this bit is actually quite interesting:

Why do publishers appear to publish so many books for girls? Because girls buy books. That’s it, clear and simple. Guys don’t. They take books out of the library, or they borrow books from girls, but they don’t buy. Not like girls do.

The person who commented on Moskowitz’s blog who mentioned the need for sex in books for teen boys is right. We also need it in books for teen girls. Too many of our teens are going into the world uninformed–we writers of girl heroes can and do manage to do some good there.

But make no mistake about it: there are still more books for guys out there than there are for girls. It’s fine that people write guy heroes. But please don’t knock those of us who know that being a girl, and a woman, is a lifelong fight, on the shelves and off. This debate comes up every ten years or so in publishing circles, and that it’s important not to work on the guys at the expense of the girls. Both need heroes, and both need books.

From the post Why I write girl heroes for the most part.

So, when Tansy wrote her best of Doctor Who this season thing I was like “over thirty points, no way I can bother doing that oh wouldn’t it be awesome with a best of VIDEO?”

So I set about to watch all thirteen episode, write down my favourite scenes, cut it into a video and upload it for you. It took me ten days. See, my lazy knows no bounds and it gets me into trouble.

And of course, when I’d finally gotten it all sorted and won over iMovie and all that? I had to try three websites before finding one that didn’t immediately delete it for copyright violations… Not sure how long these will stay up, really, and I won’t embed just in case. If they’re gone when you go to watch, let me know, I can sendspace them to you or whatever.

Kaia’s best bits of season 5, part 1.

Kaia’s best bits of season 5, part 2.

You will notice the following:

- I don’t bother with the facing and winning over the monsters thing. It’s the least interesting part of the series.
- Episodes with River Song has the most clips.
- I love Amy, but she’s kind of an asshole in the first video.
- I love Rory even more.
- Something weird happened with the “I’m the bloody queen mate, basically, I rule”. I don’t even know why, but it refused to be widescreen and thus heads are partly chopped off and everyone is really long-faced. Sorry about that.

PS. This is my sixth blog post today. Three here, two at FA blog, one at Swedish blog. I also did two hours of sewing, listened to six podcasts and edited three chapters. I’m TIRED.

Also, might need surgery or other scary procedure on my wisdom tooth. It’s horribly broken, not quite pushed up, laying on its SIDE and the roots are all fucked up. Fun times! Waiting for the referral while ouching about another wisdom tooth I pulled yesterday. Only one left after I get this one out. Maybe done with scary after that.

Not feeling too well this week, teeth aside. I’ve been working on various project, done some sewing and tomorrow Mum and I are going to the museum! But right now I just want to sleep and meh and read a book. Oh and eat something. But not in that order.

I think I’m going to eat strawberries for dinner. With icecream.

I skipped a few days and I’m therefore doing a quick recap of the last three. I have been blogging these every day in my Swedish blog, double posting was too bothersome. So, quick, quick, quick.

Day 03 – The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan and Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Tender Morsels was fourteen months ago, and I’m terribly biased regarding Power and Majesty having read it several times before it was published (and Ashiol is MINE, hands off!), but I still love them more than what is probably healthy for me. For totally different reasons too.

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Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever

Peter Pohl. Converted this to my favourite author because when I went to look up the two books of his that I love more than anything it turned out the series had FIVE books of which I only had read two, and then I fell into nostalgia about all these OTHER books of his that I love and… yeah. Sorry, though, he’s Swedish and only a few books of his are translated, and not the ones I love. Most of them exist in German though, if that helps. (It probably doesn’t.)

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Day 05 – A book or series you hate

I should really save this for later in the month because I’m not going to say a specific book here. I hate beating down on individual books, but here’s some things I hate:

Books where the woman has to be rescued/have limited choices/never makes a choice apart from what man to sleep with.
Books where sexual orientation is used as a plot device/to show oh-look-we’re-inclusive/is horribly stereotyped.
Books that claim to be feminist and or woman friendly but is really stinking of patriarchy.
Books where the heroine is doing many things (violent, tough, takes care of herself) ONLY because of sexual violence towards her in her past.
Books that could have been brilliant, had they been properly executed.
Books with endings that don’t measure up to the rest of the story. That’s just sad.

Ahem. I think you can probably guess a few books this is referring to.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Today it’s time for: A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about. And you know, my first impulse was to say The Demon’s Lexicon Trilogy. Except that when I ordered the second book, The Demon’s Covenant, from Book Depository they told me that it had a sales rank of roughly 600 (now it’s 900, I suppose sales have gone down a bit), so it’s not exactly doing badly.

So I thought a bit and came up with these two books. (And yes, I know I’m cheating. Shut up.)

Going Bovine by Libba Bray.

It’s a gorgeous first-person-present-tense (which is hard!) adventure by a boy named Cameron. He’s your average lazy, sulky, pot smoking teenage boy who you rather dislike in the beginning. The story starts just as he falls ill with Mad Cow disease and you really can’t tell if the rest of the book is a) reality, b) hallucination because of the disease, or c) a bad trip.

Of course, I don’t think you CAN trip on just weed, but that’s a question for another day.

The voice in this book is unique, driven and feels so damn true. This is really how teenagers talk, except not as obnoxious. It’s funny and sad and crazy and everything in between, all at once. There’s a very amusing sidekick too, with the craziest little quirks, and really, I could read these two talking all day long, adventure or no adventure.

So yes, I’d recommend this book to anyone, except that it’s not out in paperback just yet. Still, Book Depository is ridiculous cheap and ships anywhere at no charge.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier.

This is a book I read last year and loved. It’s a bit hard to talk about because like the one above you can’t tell what’s truth and what’s not, but it’s really the reason I love it so much. This one is about Micah who is a compulsive liar. You think you’ve figured her out every twenty pages, and then she turns it all upside down and you have to start from scratch. It’s equal parts fascinating and frustrating. More fascinating, actually.

I love the voice in this book too, the lying is interesting and actually I should make a list of books with unreliable narrators in because I love them so much. Maybe after this whole blogging adventure is over. I do have a third book I’d like to put on this list, but I think I’ll save it for later in the month.

Keeping you on your toes and all. (Though, if you know me you can probably figure out which one it is.)

(Full list with links to all posts.)

For today I am going to write about A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!). And let me start by saying that I always feel mean about saying that books are lacking in any way because there’s SO MUCH WORK put into each one, but I have come up with one (and a half) series that I wish would’ve ended earlier, and one that I need moooore of already.

The Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce (First Test, Page, Squire and Lady Knight) is a suite of books that I believe would’ve been way stronger if there had only been three, or maybe even two of them. I like the main character, Kel, a lot and especially the second and third book are quite good, but… yes. The first one is interesting but a bit longwinded, and the fourth one feels a bit after-the-fact.

(I do love that she doesn’t do the whole “fall in love with one person and living happily after” bit, and I adore Neal, Kel’s best friend. I just want to state that for the record.)

I know that Tamora Pierce is huge and that her books have an enormous following, so I feel a bit like I’m “swearing in church” as us Swedes like to say about this sort of statements, but I do think this is true! Being a bit more tightly written, and featuring a few less battles, caring of horses and riding through the kingdom might have been very good for this particular series. Brilliant even.

I also wish that J.K. Rowling had stopped at seven. I love the actual Harry Potter books, but the extra books, Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Beedle the Bard? I don’t know, they’re too much. Having fictional characters writing forewords and pretending like this is a favourite book of theirs only makes me cringe. Cringe, I tell you!

So, yes. Thank you, JKR for not writing another series in the same universe, but do you have to make reference books, fake fairytales and lexicons? Please stop. I love Harry Potter, I want to keep feeling that way!

As for books I wish would go on and on? I’m going to say that I wish that Siren Beat by TansyRR would become a real book (it was released as a novella from Twelfth Planet Press), or preferably a whole bunch of books. And no, I’m not just saying that because she’s my bestie. Honest.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Tansy is an enabler. I so want to do this. I am however not crazy and won’t do it every day. I will try to do most of them, but I’m likely to miss a day or a hundred so it will be interesting to see how long it will take me to get through this whole list…

30 Days of Books (created by alg)

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 – A book or series you hate
Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 – A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve watched more than five times
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 – Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 – Your “comfort” book
Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 – Favorite kiss
Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 – Most annoying character ever
Day 24 – Best quote from a novel
Day 25 – Any five books from your “to be read” stack
Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 – If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 – First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 – Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 – What book are you reading right now?

I’m so sad to see Eduardo leave Arsenal. He used to be this razor sharp player. He used to be somebody people looked at and said “he’s going to become something special”. That is, until he had his leg shattered by Martin Taylor from Birmingham City in 2008. The tackle was so horrendous that Sky didn’t show any repeats (sound familiar?), but if you do a Google search on his full name, Eduardo da Silva, you get a thousand hits of it. This pic was on the THIRD PAGE, because it was all injury time. And no, I’m not putting any of those on my blog because it’s nothing for those of you with a weak stomach. Here’s an example, though.. Only look if you can stomach it, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Long story short, he was back last season, but his game had changed for the worst. It looked like he was afraid to throw himself into the game, like he avoided tackles at all costs. And sure, it’s not hard to see why, but it was heartbreaking to see. He’s not gotten better, and you could (and I do) say that the injury ruined his career. It robbed him of his touch, his ability to turn quickly and be that precise, amazing football player he once was. And now it’s offical. He’s moving to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, which is a big step down.

It’s so sad, and it makes me hate football. It can be amazing and beautiful and the best sport out there, but the ugly sides are so… ugly. I don’t just mean the injuries. The media plays a big part too, especially when they run about proclaiming over and over that “oh, it wasn’t on purpose, he’s not that kind of player”.

Tough shit. When you ruin another players career this way YOU ARE THAT KIND OF PLAYER. It doesn’t matter if you meant it or not. It’s only in sports that “I didn’t mean to” counts as an excuse. The rest of us grew out of it in middle school. And if you want to know why this sort of media coverage is so hurtful, do read Tansy’s old post on it, written right after another player of ours had HIS leg chopped off. (And there’s that theme again!)

So, yes. I’m incredibly sad to see Eduardo go, but once a gooner always a gooner. I’m pretty sure the only exception to that rule is named Ashley Cole.