26 September, 2013

Feature and Follow Friday #9


Increase Blog Followers 

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

 This Week's Activity: 

Reading Nook Tour: Give us a tour of your favorite reading spots.

My favorite reading spots include my bed and a chair in our back room. They're both extremely comfortable.


24 September, 2013

Teaser Tuesday #4

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


 My Teasers:

"In his long practice of being aware of six things at once, he noticed that Elizabeth Platt wasn't merely passing around candy. She was giving out picture books. Time to reign her in before a village elder threw her down the well. Merciful Christ, women on a political junket. It was going to take all his finesse.

Excusing himself from Astoria, he made it to the book wagon just as the village tahsildar strode up to bark at the children and confiscate the books. Old rascal didn't want the children educated, nor women either, come to that." - page 108, A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenton

"Colette, Tucker's mom, was from another planet. France, specifically. She was exotic, glamorous, and the only person I knew whose parties required cocktail attire. Or were catered, for that matter.

Tuck never had any food in the fridge, but he always had designer clothes on his back-his appearance was the one thing about him that held Colette's interest. But that was no surprise. Tuck made pretty much every female pause and smooth down her hair." - Page 2, Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson.

23 September, 2013

Musing Monday #2

http://shouldbereading.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/musingmondays51.jpg 
Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits. • Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s). • What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!  • Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it. • Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us! • Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My Musing:

I recently bought  The Left-Hander's 2014 Calendar for myself and thus far have found it amusing. Despite the calendar not officially starting until January of 2014, each page is designed for lefties (like me). Set up with all the pages of dates and space to write on the left side, this planner is reversed from a normal book and offers a bunch of tidbits, facts, and interesting helpful items that left-handed people might need. 

Want something else for left-handers? There's websites full of items reversed to make life easier for us, as well as a handbook. Also, don't forget an entire day dedicated to being Left Handed.
  

19 September, 2013

Feature and Follow Friday #8




Increase Blog Followers 

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This Week's Question:
What were some of your favorite picture books as a kid? If you have kids, what are your favorites to read to them?  



http://blogs.cio.com/sites/cio.com/files/u6/little_golden_the_little_engine_that_could2.jpg http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780060539603_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG

As a child I spent a fair amount of time reading Little Golden Books as they were what my mum had read as a child and what had been saved to pass down to me. Some of my favorites though include The Poky Little Puppy and The Little Engine That Could. I was also into the Little Critter series. I don't have children yet, but I feel like if or when I have them I'll probably pass down some of these books to them.

Review: Inhuman (Fetch #1) by Kat Falls

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Summary: In a world ravaged by mutation, a teenage girl must travel into the forbidden Savage Zone to recover lost artifacts or her father’s life is forfeit.

America has been ravaged by a war that has left the eastern half of the country riddled with mutation. Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plantlife has gone feral.

Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artifacts—he is a Fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding—until he’s caught.

Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his latest job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb—and her very DNA—in the Savage Zone. But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of “manimal” mutation, he’s hardly civilized . . . and he may not be trustworthy.

Offered as a promotional item on Netgalley, Inhuman was promoted to have a similar theme to that of the popular series The Hunger Games. Beyond the similarities of Dystopian America and the idea of sacrificing yourself to save loved ones, the novels hold very little in common. 

The theme of this book is a common one; Lane, our main character, finds herself whisked out of her comfortable, nonthreatening and clean life to retrieve something from the very unsafe world beyond the wall that separates civilized humanity from the Ferae infested groups on the other side. With her father's fate in the balance, Lane sets off to do a 'Fetch' or retrieve a left behind item before time runs out to save his life. The problem is she doesn't have any real experience for surviving on this side of the wall. To make matters worse, she's got a limited amount of days to do the fetch before her way back into the West is closed potentially for good. 

As this advance copy is unedited, I can only hope that the formatting issues that arose with the kindle edition will be resolved. There were many times that sentences were split oddly (in the middle of people's dialogue) as well as dialogue running together. 

I was ultimately displeased with the ending of the book, while it appears to be the first book in a series, the ending of the book felt like there was no lead in for a second novel. I must also admit that I am not overly pleased with the fact that everything seemed to work out for the Main Character. She looses two friends, yes, however ultimately her father and she are cleared of all crimes and are on their way to have his leg treated on the Western side of the wall away from the Feral Zone. 

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for a captivating novel, but if you want a quick read, this could fall into that category.

12 September, 2013

Feature and Follow Friday #7

Increase Blog Followers

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

Since I failed to get it up last week as well, I'll post both September 6th and September 13th activities here this week.

Things to Look Forward to: Video Game Edition

Video games, time consuming enhancements that supposedly keeps children, teens, and adults away from reading. That, in itself, I could write a whole article on and probably not exhaust the topic of how I think they can enhance reading and open it up to others out there. That said, I've got a few games that I'm desperately looking forward to with their eventual or recent releases.

Upcoming and Recently Released Games:

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix - 
Release Date: September 10, 2013, Platform: Playstation 3

Description: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix includes both Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Re:Chain of Memories in high-definition and trophy support. Additionally, the collection features Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days in a Theater Mode, spanning 2 hours and 50 minutes of HD remastered cinematics from the original game, as well as new scenes. The 358/2 Days cinematic also has trophy support.




Whether you've been with the series since it began in 2002 or just recently joined in the magic, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix is something that might be worth investing in. This installment of the series offers a way for players to reconnect with the original game including materials that were previously unreleased outside of Japan, as well as the remake of the first handheld game Chain of Memories. Also available for viewing but not playing, is the 358/2, one of the later handheld games that runs parallel with the Chain of Memories time line.

Overall, I'll have to hope that the Playstation 4 will have the capability to play previous generation games if I wish to play this game.

Pokemon X and Y - 
Release Date: October 12, 2013, Platform: Nintendo 3DS

Description: Pokémon X and Y are role-playing video games with adventure elements, presented in a third-person, overhead perspective. The player controls a young trainer who goes on a quest to catch and train creatures known as Pokémon, and win battles against other trainers. By defeating enemy Pokémon in turn-based battles, the player's Pokémon gains experience, allowing them to level up and increase their battle statistics, learn new abilities, and in some cases, evolve into more powerful Pokémon. Alternatively, players can capture wild Pokémon, found during random encounters, by weakening them in battle and catching them with Poké Balls, allowing them to be added to their party. Players are also able to battle and trade Pokémon with other human players using the Nintendo 3DS's connectivity features. Like in previous games in the series, certain Pokémon are only obtainable in either X or Y, with players encouraged to trade with others in order to obtain all Pokémon from both versions.



Pokemon games were my own introduction into the world of gaming, and I'm not certain I have any other games that have been around quite as long as them. These quaint games tend to have the same story line, but each generation introduces new Pokemon to capture, new places to see, and of course new features. In this game, players will be able to use the 3DS's interface to interact with their pokemon on a personal level, participate in 'sky battles' and connect with players all over the world to reach the goal of collecting them all. 

I definitely will be getting my hands on a copy of both games, if only for the ability to collect promotional pokemon and to see what the differences between the versions are.

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds -
Release Date: November 22, 2013, Platform: Nintendo 3DS

Description: The game takes place in the same world as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, a 1991 game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Its Japanese name (translated to Triforce of the Gods 2) is closely related to the Japanese title for A Link to the Past, Triforce of the Gods. According to Satoru Iwata, the game takes place six generations after the death of Ganon, the ultimate antagonist of A Link to the Past.




This game certainly looks fun, though I'm afraid I've not played the game that it's supposed to follow up. Legend of Zelda has been around since the 80s, with lots of growth and development with every generation of gaming system. Several of the games have been re-released as new technology comes available, however, we still get excited when a new game is released. The game itself follows the same basic guidelines, save the world from evil but like Pokemon, it introduces new places within the Hyrule and follows the growth and demise of different kingdoms in the area.

I'll be asking this for Christmas I think.

Child of Light - 
Release Date: 2014, Platform: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Computer

Description: Child of Light is a platforming role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game puts players in the shoes of Aurora, a child stolen from her home, who, in her quest to return, must bring back the sun, the moon and the stars held captive by the mysterious Queen of the Night. Helped by her playable companion Igniculus the firefly and several unlikely allies, Aurora will face her darkest fears in this modern take on a coming-of-age story.



This game's trailer was circling on Tumblr recently, and it caught my attention immediately. The artwork reminds me of the game Okami, though both are produced by two separate companies. Still, the game play and the music of the trailer are enough to make me itch to play this game and is worth keeping an eye out as more news becomes available.

Kingdom Hearts III -
Release Date: Unknown, Platform: Playstation 4, supposedly Xbox One

Description: Sora will once again be the protagonist of the game. The game will also see the return of Riku, Donald Duck, Goofy, and King Mickey, as well as the inclusion of familiar Disney characters. Continuing from Dream Drop Distance, Sora, Donald and Goofy will attempt to search for seven guardians of light and the "Key to Return Hearts", while King Mickey and Riku search for previous Keyblade wielders, in an attempt to stop Master Xehanort's plan to balance the light and darkness, which may ultimately lead to the final showdown between Sora and Master Xehanort.



To round out my things to look forward to, we'll revisit the Kingdom Hearts series. The long awaited third Console game, Kingdom Hearts III is to be the end of the Xehanort saga which has stretched from the original game in 2002. To be fair, it's possibly a good thing there's not a release date quite yet since I'd recommend playing or at least watching a play-through of all the previous games so you're not completely lost. All new worlds, higher definition graphics, and of course the balance between light and dark are all draws into this game. 

I'll definitely be looking out for this game and all the news related to it.

10 September, 2013

Teaser Tuesday #3

 
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My Teasers:

"Mahindra sat upon the platform, legs crossed beneath him. he had been sitting so long he could no longer feel the pain." - pg. 46, A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon

"Irewen did her best to surpress a shiver. She rolled to her side and pulled the heavy wool cloak tighter against her body in a feeble attempt to keep out the winter chill.The campfire had begun to die long ago; she could hear the faint sizzle of the last remaining embers clinging desperately to life." - pg. 12, Silevethiel by Andi O'Connor