New "Avengers" Trailer

New "Avengers" Trailer

Waiting on Wednesday

This is a blog meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine to spotlight upcoming books. This week we're featuring picks chosen by SQT and Jim.



SQT's can't wait to read selection is:

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor



Publisher: Little, Brown

Pages: 304 pages

Date: September 18, 2012



In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed "Daughter of Smoke and Bone," Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.



Daughter of Smoke and Bone was declared a "must read" by Entertainment Weekly, was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, and The New York Times called it "a breath-catching romantic fantasy."



I LOVED Daughter of Smoke and Bone and as soon as I saw that "Days of Blood and Starlight" had a release date I knew I had to put it on the list. I only wish I had the final cover to post and a more complete description-- but I urge anyone who hasn't read "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" to pick up a copy-- it was the best book I read last year.





Jim's can't wait to read selection is:



 A Just Determination by John G. Hemry (Jack Cambell)

Publisher: ACE

Date: March 27, 2012 (reissue)

Pages: 272



Ensign Paul Sinclair is fresh out of the Naval Academy and assigned to the USS Michaelson as the ship's lone legal officer. The warship's mission is to patrol a very large volume of space, enforcing the U.S. claim on valuable transit routes and mineral rich asteroids.

When a South Asian Alliance ship trespasses into U.S. territory and runs from the Michaelson when approached, Captain Pete Wakeman decides to try and catch the intruding vessel before it leaves U.S. space. Wakeman's attempts at communication with the mysterious ship go unanswered, and when he fires a warning shot across the ship's bow, the ship changes its course and begins heading right for the Michaelson. Although the Alliance ship has no visible weapons, Wakeman takes no chances and fires on the ship, destroying it and everyone aboard.

When the Michaelson is ordered to return to port and the captain is court-martialed, young Sinclair must decide whether to keep quiet like everyone else or stand up for what he believes in -- a decision that could ruin his career as well as Wakeman's.





Despite my love of Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, I have yet to branch out and read any of the other novels he's written. This re-release (which was also done recently by ACE for his Stark's War series, but with a much worse cover design, looking like something out of the romance aisle) provides me a nice opportunity to correct that.

Waiting on Wednesday

This is a blog meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine to spotlight upcoming books. This week we're featuring picks chosen by SQT and Jim.



SQT's can't wait to read selection is:

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor



Publisher: Little, Brown

Pages: 304 pages

Date: September 18, 2012



In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed "Daughter of Smoke and Bone," Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.



Daughter of Smoke and Bone was declared a "must read" by Entertainment Weekly, was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, and The New York Times called it "a breath-catching romantic fantasy."



I LOVED Daughter of Smoke and Bone and as soon as I saw that "Days of Blood and Starlight" had a release date I knew I had to put it on the list. I only wish I had the final cover to post and a more complete description-- but I urge anyone who hasn't read "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" to pick up a copy-- it was the best book I read last year.





Jim's can't wait to read selection is:



 A Just Determination by John G. Hemry (Jack Cambell)

Publisher: ACE

Date: March 27, 2012 (reissue)

Pages: 272



Ensign Paul Sinclair is fresh out of the Naval Academy and assigned to the USS Michaelson as the ship's lone legal officer. The warship's mission is to patrol a very large volume of space, enforcing the U.S. claim on valuable transit routes and mineral rich asteroids.

When a South Asian Alliance ship trespasses into U.S. territory and runs from the Michaelson when approached, Captain Pete Wakeman decides to try and catch the intruding vessel before it leaves U.S. space. Wakeman's attempts at communication with the mysterious ship go unanswered, and when he fires a warning shot across the ship's bow, the ship changes its course and begins heading right for the Michaelson. Although the Alliance ship has no visible weapons, Wakeman takes no chances and fires on the ship, destroying it and everyone aboard.

When the Michaelson is ordered to return to port and the captain is court-martialed, young Sinclair must decide whether to keep quiet like everyone else or stand up for what he believes in -- a decision that could ruin his career as well as Wakeman's.





Despite my love of Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, I have yet to branch out and read any of the other novels he's written. This re-release (which was also done recently by ACE for his Stark's War series, but with a much worse cover design, looking like something out of the romance aisle) provides me a nice opportunity to correct that.

Nobody could fake being such an annoying dick all the time.

H'OKAY, SO.


I feel like a fraud because I'm posting outfit photos from so long ago that I could have gotten pregnant and had a baby by now and you wouldn't know it from my blog. (Well. Actually I'm slightly more caught up than that, but only just.)


So here's an outfit I wore at the end of January, which is... not enough time for a baby but definitely enough time to write 12,000+ words of fanfiction for BBC Sherlock. (Yes, between my last post and this one, I've added 1,000 words of uneventful domestic life at 221B Baker Street. I hate myself a little bit.)

Uh... I think I only wore this because I was really excited to be exiting the house that day.

Obviously too excited as evidenced by this over-twee pose. Why am I allowed to take photos of myself.

Which is kind of pathetic even if you don't think about it very hard, but I mean. You can read the amount of time I'm spending working on a computer by the number of procrastinatory* tumblr posts I make per day, and it's very (very (painfully)) obvious that this post-grad, living-at-home, online-classes, virtual-internship lifestyle is SUCKING THE MARROW FROM MY BONES AND NOT EVEN IN A SEXY HANSCHEN WAY.

*According to the squiggly line in my editor, that's not a word, but.** 

**That wasn't a sentence, but this is a picture from backstage at Dolce & Gabbana, and if you haven't seen this season's show yet, I advise you to GET ON IT, because DAMN.

So anyway, I was practicing my double French braids ending in pigtails, but they turned out messier than I intended. (They'd probably be better with Benedict a lot of hair gel and more dexterous hands, but I don't like washing my hair often, and my tendinitis isn't going away, so my head only looked a little bit alien.)

Note about this sweater: I've had it for at least nine years. Or, to put that into perspective, I've had this sweater since before I owned a bra. 

It's, um, a bit small now, but that's what I was going for.

Sweater: ellemenno. Skirt: secondhand, cousin's. Socks: Target. Chelsea boots: Cole Haan. Necklaces: mother's. Ring: estate sale.

Books Received *Updated*

The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett



Vaudeville: mad, mercenary, dreamy, and absurd, a world of clashing cultures and ferocious showmanship and wickedly delightful deceptions.

But sixteen-year-old pianist George Carole has joined vaudeville for one reason only: to find the man he suspects to be his father, the great Heironomo Silenus. Yet as he chases down his father's troupe, he begins to understand that their performances are strange even for vaudeville: for wherever they happen to tour, the very nature of the world seems to change.



Because there is a secret within Silenus's show so ancient and dangerous that it has won him many powerful enemies. And it's not until after he joins them that George realizes the troupe is not simply touring: they are running for their lives.



And soon...he is as well.

Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 1 (The Parasol Protectorate (Manga)) by Gail Carriger



Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.



Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Or will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Timeless by Gail Carriger



Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a damper on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.



Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

The Kingdoms of Dust by Amanda Downum



With her master dead and her oaths foresworn, necromancer and spy Isyllt Iskaldur finds herself in exile. Hounded by assassins, she seeks asylum in Assar, the empire she so recently worked to undermine.

Warlords threaten the empire's fragile peace, and the empress is beset by enemies within the court. Even worse, darkness stirs in the deep desert. Ancient spirits long held captive are waking - spirits that can destroy Assar faster than any army.



Accompanied by an outcast jinn, Isyllt must travel into the heart of the desert to lay the darkness there to rest once more. But her sympathies are torn between the captive spirits and the order of mages sworn to bind them. And whichever choice she makes could raze the empire to dust.

The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan



India Morgan Phelps-Imp to her friends-is schizophrenic. Struggling with her perceptions of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about her encounters with creatures out of myth-or from something far, far stranger...

Carpathia by Matt Forbeck



It's Titanic meets 30 Days of Night.



When the survivors of the Titanic are picked up by the passenger steamship Carpathia, they thought their problems were over.



But something's sleeping in the darkest recesses of the ship. Something old. Something hungry.

Soul Bound by Mari Mancusi



Sunny McDonald and her vampire boyfriend, Magnus, are on the run-accused of treason and wanted alive...or undead. And her twin is the slayer sent to track them down.



Rayne would do anything to save her twin sister, Sunny, from the Vampire Consortium dictator who wants her dead. Instead, she's been commissioned by Slayer Inc. to find Sunny and Magnus and deliver them to the Consortium...which Rayne knows means certain death. She also knows that if she and her boyfriend, Jareth, disobey orders, they are signing not only their own death warrants, but also those of every vampire in the Blood Coven.



As a rival slayer with a personal vendetta moves in, Rayne and Jareth must do something to stop her. So they embark on their most dangerous journey yet, deep beneath the streets of New York City and through the Gates of the Underworld. But when a greedy god demands the ultimate sacrifice, will Rayne be forced to choose between her sister...and the vampire she loves?

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs



Patricia Briggs, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mercy Thompson novels, "always enchants her readers." (Lynn Viehl, New York Times bestselling author) Now her Alpha and Omega series-set in a world of shifting shapes, loyalty, and passion- brings werewolves out of the darkness and into a society where fear and prejudice could make the hunters prey...



They say opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son-and enforcer-of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant alpha. While Anna, an omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.



Now that the werewolves have revealed themselves to humans, they can't afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked in the past must now be punished, and the strain of doing his father's dirty work is taking a toll on Charles.



Nevertheless, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston, when the FBI requests the pack's help on a local serial killer case. They quickly realize that not only the last two victims were werewolves-all of them were. Someone is targeting their kind. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer's sights...

Vampire's Kiss by Veronica Wolff



As someone who has survived her first year as an Acari recruit, Drew's ultimate goal is to become a Watcher and be paired up with a Vampire agent. Except nothing is as it seems. The vampire Alcántara is as sinister as he is sexy, Ronan is more distant than ever, and it turns out there are other vampires out there. Bad ones. They've captured one of the Watcher vamps and are torturing him for information-and Drew is going undercover to rescue him.



But when their vampire prisoner turns out to be a gorgeous bad boy, Drew's first mission quickly turns into more than she bargained for...







Bridge of Dreams by Anne Bishop

When wizards threaten Glorianna Belladonna and her work to keep Ephemera balanced, her brother Lee sacrifices himself in order to save her-and ends up an asylum inmate in the city of Vision.



But a darkness is spreading through Vision, perplexing the Shamans who protect it. And Lee is the only one who can shed any light on its mysteries...

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad, Tara Chace



Everyone said sending teenagers into space would be their opportunity of a lifetime...



It's been decades since anyone last set foot on the moon. But three ordinary teens are about to change that--and their lives--forever. Mia knows this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune. Midori believes it's her way out of her restrictive lifestyle in Japan. And Antoine just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible. But little do they know that something sinister is waiting for them on the dark side of the moon. And in the black vastness of space, no one is coming to save them... Strap yourself in for this chilling adventure from a young Norwegian author on the rise. You'll want to keep your lights on long after you've read the last page.

Wide Open by Deborah Coates



When Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back to South Dakota from Afghanistan on ten days' compassionate leave, her sister Dell's ghost is waiting at the airport to greet her.

The sheriff says that Dell's death was suicide, but Hallie doesn't believe it. Something happened or Dell's ghost wouldn't still be hanging around. Friends and family, mourning Dell's loss, think Hallie's letting her grief interfere with her judgment.



The one person who seems willing to listen is the deputy sheriff, Boyd Davies, who shows up everywhere and helps when he doesn't have to. As Hallie asks more questions, she attracts new ghosts, women who disappeared without a trace. Soon, someone's trying to beat her up, burn down her father's ranch, and stop her investigation.



Hallie's going to need Boyd, her friends, and all the ghosts she can find to defeat an enemy who has an unimaginable ancient power at his command.







Sparks Fly by Katie MacAlister



The First Dragon has Ysolde de Bouchier in his sights demanding

that she right past wrongs. So, with the help of some familiar friends, Ysolde sets into motion an elaborate plan that will have repercussions throughout the mortal and immortal worlds. But when a member of her family is held hostage, no one is safe from the fire of her rage...

Dark Magic by James Swain



Peter Warlock is a magician with a dark secret. Every night, he amazes audiences at his private theater in New York, where he performs feats that boggle the imagination. But his day job is just a cover for his otherworldly pursuits: Peter is a member of an underground group of psychics who gaze into the future to help prevent crimes.



No one, not even his live-in girlfriend, knows the truth about Peter—until the séance when he foresees an unspeakable act of violence that will devastate the city. As Peter and his friends rush to prevent tragedy, Peter discovers that a shadowy cult of evil psychics, the Order of Astrum, know all about his abilities. They are hunting him and his fellow psychics down, one by one, determined to silence them forever.

Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper



The Book of Eador, Abjurations 12:14, is very clear: Suffer ye not the life of a witch. For a thousand years, the Church Knights have obeyed that commandment, sending to the stake anyone who can hear the songs of the earth. There are no exceptions, not even for one of their own.



Novice Knight Gair can hear music no one else can, beautiful, terrible music: music with power. In the Holy City, that can mean only one thing: death by fire—until an unlikely intervention gives him a chance to flee the city and escape the flames.



With the Church Knights and their witchfinder hot on his heels, Gair hasn’t time to learn how to use the power growing inside him, but if he doesn’t master it, that power will tear him apart. His only hope is the secretive Guardians of the Veil, though centuries of persecution have almost destroyed their Order, and the few Guardians left have troubles of their own.



For the Veil between worlds is weakening, and behind it, the Hidden Kingdom, ever-hungry for dominion over the daylight realm, is stirring. Though he is far from ready, Gair will find himself fighting for his own life, for everyone within the Order of the Veil, and for the woman he has come to love.

Touchstone by Melanie Rawn



Cayden Silversun is part Elven, part Fae, part human Wizard—and all rebel. His aristocratic mother would have him follow his father to the Royal Court, to make a high society living off the scraps of kings. But Cade lives and breathes for the theater, and he’s good—very, very good. With his company, he’ll enter the highest reaches of society and power, as an honored artist—or die trying. Cade combines the talents of Merlin, Shakespeare, and John Lennon: a wholly charming character in a remarkably original fantasy world created by a mistress of the art.