Erik is (so not) Dead!

2010 Read Your Name Challenge.

2009-12-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

I'm taking my own challenge this year again, and this is the only one. I barely even started the ones I signed up for last year so I'm not going to bother with any more this year. I'm only going to try to read 36 books this year. I figure that's about three a month, so wish me luck with better reading habits this year!

The names I'm going to be reading for my challenge: Brownie (my dog), and Erik (the phantom of the opera's name.)

Better Part of Darkness, The (by Kelly Gay)
Road Home, The (by Rose Tremain)
Outlaw's Bride (by Lori Copeland)
What Would Jane Austen Do? (by Laurie Brown)
Now & Then (by Jaqueline Sheehan)
Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle (by Rosalind Miles)
Emma's Table: A Novel (by Philip Galanes)

--

Envious Casca (by Georgette Heyer)
Running Mother and Other Stories (by Songfen Guo)
Ireland: A Novel (by Frank Delaney)
Keep Sweet (by Michele Dominguez Green)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-12-31T14:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone, hope it's filled with lots of good books! :)

Hello World, how are you?

2009-12-30T20:08:00.000-08:00

Meh. I had a horrifying reading year this year. I have sort of a plan for next year though. But I won't bore you all with the details. I will however, share my lame crafty project I just made to help me remember when my library books are due.

I know it looks like a first grader made it (especially with my cruddy webcam shot of it! :p) but it is exactly what I need. I had a lot of overdue books this year. Which has always been totally embarrassing no matter what age I am. It's meant to look like a bookshelf and those are books in there. All I have to do is write in the titles and the due dates. (Due dates in pencil of course, in case I have to renew it...) stick it up on the wall by my desk and that's that. Yay. :p

I have three library books staring at me right now so I'm off. Oh, & don't forget to check out my challenge and The Vampire Club - links to both on the right thanks! & Helping of spreading the word on them would be much appreciated. :)

One more thing, my library is having a bag sale on the 9th, fill up a grocery bag with books for five bucks. I'm SUPER excited. I'm also planning on cramming one or two with books. I mean cramming it. lol. Any titles I should try to look out for? Or tips? I don't know how I'm going to choose books, I don't want to be there all day..I'm thinking of going by catchy titles and a quick scan of the synopsis...also I'm going to try to get some books vampire club related so I can have a few giveaways on there if they're in good enough shape...wish me luck! :)

Just wanted to say...

2009-12-24T23:20:00.000-08:00

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE! & I hope you have a safe and happy New Year!

Forgotten (Friday) Finds.

2009-12-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here are my twice forgotten friday finds, though this isn't my official "Friday Finds" post, I don't think I'll remember it this friday either...so I am posting this now. Not too positive I'll remember to go to Miz B's to post the link for it if I scheduled this post for friday, so here ya go! :)

Eye of the Whale: A Novel by Douglas Carlton Abrams
Strangers: A Novel by Anita Brookner
Amigoland: A Novel by Oscar Casares
Pop Tart by Kira Coplin and Julianne Kaye
As God Commands by Niccolò Ammaniti
Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong
Picking Bones from Ash by Marie Mutsuki Mockett
The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson
There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published
Frostbite: A Werewolf Tale by David Wellington
Zombie Raccoons & Killer Bunnies Edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes

Hello Sookie, Nice to Own You!

2009-12-08T20:46:00.001-08:00

It's coming to meee for Christmas! YAY! LOL I'm really excited and thrilled that Amazon has it at such a great price right now! I can barely wait for it to get here. :)

Also a reminder that The Vampire Club is open for sign-ups now! :) & It's not just a reading club for Vamp lovers, there's other categories too so check it out! (Please?) :p

Read Your Name Challenge: 2010.

2009-12-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

I decided to run my challenge again for 2010, so if you're interested head on over and check it out & sign up! :)

The Vampire Club

2009-11-30T16:53:00.001-08:00

Well, I guess I am done with the blog for now. :) so, YAY! LOL

Click on over to check it out and sign-up early if you're interested. :) & Help spread the word if you can!

Working out the Kinks...

2009-11-28T16:13:00.000-08:00

I decided to go ahead with my idea for next year about having a Vampire fiction reading club. But I decided to broaden it, a lot. Vampire is the main fiction target of course and what I myself would like to read more of, but it occurred to me, that with the popularity of vampire-whatever right now, it may not be so easy to get a vampire story each month, especially if you mainly go to the library for your books like I do because you don't have the money to buy new books whenever you feel like it, or if your library has a thousand other people requesting the same book, you may find yourself forced to wait it out and not really be able to participate. I also went through my reading list and found I had a lot more fantasy books on my list than I'd realized. I'd like to finally read them and just plain read more fantasy because I am really intrigued by that genre. So...on with the expansion categories and some authors I had on my list that might be helpful for those wanting to join the club next year but not really knowing where to start looking for such books.

Fiction with the following is acceptable:

Vampires
Werewolves
Paranormal
Time Travel
Travel between other worlds.
Demons
Faeries
Dragons
Any mythical creature(s) really.
YA containing the above is also okay.

(If I've forgotten a category above that you'd like to see and you think would be okay then please leave a comment!)

Some Authors/Books you may want to start with or explore (but certainly not required):

Dracula by Bram Stoker
L.J. Smith
Lara Adrian
Jennifer Stevenson
Martin Millar
Cindy Miles
Melissa Mayhue
Diana Gabaldon
G.A. Aiken
The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance, Paranormal Romance, Time Travel Romance
Shana Abe
Lane Robbins
Kelley Armstrong
C.E. Murphy
Cornelia Funke

(If there's an author you'd like to see in the list that fits, please leave me a comment!)

I'm going to start a blog just for this club sometime (early) next month so look out for it if you're interested. Naturally all of the requirements and sign-ups will be there.

Also if anyone has any suggestions please just leave me a comment or e-mail me. I have a sort of basics outline as far as requirements and club activity:

At least one book from any one of the listed categories must be read each month making a total of twelve books for the year.
It is not required to make a whole blog post about each and every book you read for the club (at least one would be nice though!) but it is required that you stop by and make a quick comment with what book you read and a simple loved it or hated it would be great, so other members can check it out or decide to stay away. Otherwise, what is the point of joining the club really?!
I'll be trying my best to think up monthly discussions (such as favorite other genre, or what's your favorite vamp. etc. movie..) or maybe even memes every two weeks or so.
I've also been debating on finding a message board or just sticking with monthly posts & Mr. Linky's.

That's all I have for now really. I'm still workin' on it. & Suggestions or a polite 'that idea stinks, here's why I think so...' would be appreciated. Leave a comment or e-mail me at: phantombibliophile@gmail.com. :)

Sloops.

2009-11-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't made a post since Halloween! I was trying really hard not to have such a long posting absence between reviews, but the memes weren't doing it for me. I either had no answer at all, or a really simple answer that wasn't really worth sharing...I did finish one amzing book though: The Complete Maus. I was just so blown away, but I wasn't sure how to review that one. So I decided to just leave it.

Anyhoozer, I wanted to talk about a challenge idea I have for February of next year. I'm not sure how interesting it is or if it even makes any sense yet, but I'm going to try my best to work out any kinks. It's called "Fairytale February." Fairytale is just like an umbrella term though. The basics of it are: to read any kind of fantasy or paranormal or vampirey, werewolf, etc. fiction. Also included would be YA stories of the same ingredients and of course, children's fairy tales. :p But it must have characters of origins that aren't well...real.

I got this idea when I first bought my copy of complete Hans Christian Andersen stories. Looking at that huge book thinking I'll never get through this. So I hatched this challenge idea. I'm thinking for reading numbers would be however many you wish. How does it sound so far? Not confusing I hope. :p

I also had another little idea of late, a sort vampire only book club, but I don't know how that would work out since I get stuck in reading trends and then they fizzle out after a while. A reading trend such as the vampire one I'm happily entangled in right now with Sookie Stackhouse and The Vampire Diaries - which I still have yet to read, btw. Ugh. I don't know. I'm not opposed to someone lifting this idea from me, now that I've thought about it this would be a bad idea for me to host, cos if I lost interest I would feel so bad if someone else had joined me on it..so please do run with this idea if you wish!

That's all for now. :)

Just Wanted to Say...

2009-10-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN Everybody!

Book Reviews.

2009-09-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here are all of my book reviews, in alphabetical order by Author; A - Z.

A -
Alcott, Louisa May:

Little Women

Ashley, Jennifer:

The Pirate Next Door

Austen, Jane:

Pride and Prejudice

B -
Black, Lewis:

Boyne, John:

The Boy in the Striped Pajama's
- Audiobook
- Paperback

Brown, Christy:

Buck, Pearl S.:

The Good Earth

Bylin, Victoria:

The Bounty Hunter's Bride

C -
Chabon, Micheal:

Gentlemen of the Road

Crichton, Micheal:

The Lost World

D -
Desarthe, Agnes:

Chez Moi

Dickens, Charles:

A Christmas Carol

Dodd, Christina:

Once A Knight

Doyle, Arthur Conan:

A Study in Scarlet

E -
Echlin, Kim:

Elephant Winter

Ellis, Bret Easton:

American Psycho

F -
Faber, Michel:

Under the Skin

Feather, Jane:

Snowy Night with A Stranger - Anthology

Fielding, Helen:

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

Frank, Dorothea Benton:

The Christmas Pearl

Funke, Cornelia:

Furnivall, Kate:

The Russian Concubine

G -
Garner, Helen:

The Spare Room

H -
Hambleton, Georgina Louise:

Christy Brown: The Life That Inspired My Left Foot

Harris, Charlaine:

Dead Until Dark

Hockett, Kathryn:

Highland Destiny

Hyland, Adrian:

Moonlight Downs

I -

J -
Jenoff, Pam:

K -
Kay, Susan:

Phantom

King, Rachael:

The Sound of Butterflies

L -
Lawrence, D.H.:

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lin, Francie:

The Foreigner

London, Julia:

Low, Robert:

The Whale Road

M -
Montgomery, Lucy Maud:

Anne of the Island

Montgomery, Sadie:

Mulladi, Amulya:

Serving Crazy with Curry

N -

O -

P -
Pella, Judith:

Q -

R -
Roberts, Jeff:

Little Stories

S -
Shelley, Mary:

Frankenstein

Singer, Judy Reene:

Still Life with Elephant

Stein, Garth:

The Art of Racing in the Rain

T -

U -

V -

W -
White, E.B.:

Charlotte's Web

Wiggs, Susan:

The Charm School

Willet, Marcia:

The Courtyard

X -

Y -
Yoshinaka, Shirley:

Deception: A Phantom of the Opera Novel

Z -

2009 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge.

2008-11-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

(To be filled in 2009, of course.) Here is my list for this reading challenge:

The Bounty Hunter's Bride, by Victoria Bylin. [review]
The Foreigner, by Francie Lin. [review]
Snowy Night with A Stranger (Anthology), by Jane Feather, Sabrina Jeffries, & Julia London. [review]
Chez Moi, by Agnes Desarthe. [review]
Christy Brown: The Life That Inspired My Left Foot, by Georgina Louise Hambleton. [review]
The Spare Room, by Helen Garner. [review]
Highland Destiny, by Kathryn Hockett. [review]
The Sound of Butterflies, by Rachael King. [review]
Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris. [review]

Dead Until Dark.

2009-10-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

In Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, (the first Sookie Stackhouse novel) we meet young waitress Sookie Stackhouse and some of the people of her small southern town - Bon Temps. We learn that Vampires are "out of the coffin" and this is not exactly okay with everyone. Also to find out, is that Sookie herself is not exactly normal. While she isn't one of the undead, she has a sort of disability: She can read minds & she would like nothing better than to be able to never do so again. Sookie's adventure begins when the vampire (Bill) walks into the bar she works at, and she saves his life, out in the parking lot when he is being drained by a couple of rats that want to sell his very valuable vampire blood. And before Sookie knows it, she is the target of a vampire disapproving serial killer targeting fang-bangers - women who've been with vampires.
I really enjoyed this book. It was easy and fast paced and there was just enough between important events to where I didn't get bored with the story. I loved the author's humorous writing style, and there were many interesting characters. I loved Sookie, though I had a lot of mixed feelings towards Bill until I started to understand that he mostly always thought of himself as unhuman and he detached himself from humans and their (his) emotions a long time ago. I hope he'll be a more likeable and understandable character in the other books. I also hope to see more of Eric in future books as well, even though he was not in this first one that much at all. I really liked him.
I didn't really think much or try to guess about who the killer was, which was why I was so surprised at who it was. That person seemed...not completely nice and on the road to goody-goody, but decent. In fact it's still sinking in. I never suspected.
I'm planning on reading this again before I have to take it back to the library. I very much recommend this if you are looking for some fun vampire fiction, even if you're not a fan of the True Blood series as I'm not, you might still find yourself liking this first book of the series.

2009 Challenges.

2009-10-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Reading List.

Reading List.

Reading List.

Reading List.

Reading List.

Read-a-Thon Wrap Up.

2009-10-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I knew I wouldn't read a large number of books for the Read-a-Thon, but that is okay, because I did do the most important thing I wanted to get done: I feel really excited about getting to the next book again. Not to just speed through a story, but to sit and concentrate on one book and just get immersed in it.

I positively loved Dead Until Dark. Once I understood what Bon Temps was like and that in that world Vampires were out in the open so to speak, I enjoyed it. After a while it became like a movie playing in my head because I could picture everything perfectly, and I cannot wait to return to Sookie and her friends in the next book. Especially Eric. Even though he had a small role in this one, I hope he has more of a presence in the next books.

That was the only book I completed since I ended up starting so late on the read-a-thon. :\ I did switch at least once though, to Random Acts of Heroic Love. I read 43 pages before I wanted to get right back to what was going on with Sookie. Finishing Dead Until Dark, I read a total of 335 pages. That's a lot for me actually, lol. So I feel pretty good about that. :)

I just want to thank all the cheerleaders that stopped by my blog, and I hope everyone else who took part had a great Read-a-Thon! :)

A Little Break.

2009-10-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well, seeing as how the neighbors and their loud children have ventured outdoors into their front yard where I can all too clearly hear them, and dinner being pretty close to done. I'm taking a little break.

I made it to page 96 of Dead Until Dark, and then I felt like I needed to switch books. So I picked up Random Acts of Heroic Love. Going from page 128 to page 171. I'm feeling pretty good about that. :) I don't expect to have read large amounts when the read-a-thon is over, but I rather hope to have fallen back in touch with my better reading habits. Especially since my reading has been so poor this year. :\

I think I'll do a little better with this once everyone has gone off to bed in a few hours and people have decided to stay in for the night. Then I can concentrate better in the quiet of the late night. :)

I might do one more update and a few more Tweets before my brother hijacks the laptop from me, so, see ya later!

First Read-a-Thon Post.

2009-10-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

So this is hour...nine I believe. I'm actually about to start (I know, I know...), the day is finally settling down for me so I am hiding in my room now getting ready to ignore everyone in the house. They can fend for themselves. :p

I'm starting off with Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1), by Charlaine Harris. Se ya later!

Check My Cookies!

2009-10-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

I usually don't like trying new recipes because I'm scared I'll mess it all up and it'll taste horrifying, but these were actually pretty easy once I realized they're not that different from regular peanut butter cookies. :) And they are SO good! My cook book calls them Peanut Butter Blossoms.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon.

2009-10-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

I went ahead and signed up. YAY! I also picked out some books I may want to read:

I chose some shorter books as was recommended on the site, and some poetry books and short stories (Poe & Tennyson, obviously :p) as well. I also might go to the library on Friday, I'm not sure yet. Mostly these are books that have been sitting on my shelf that I really should get to, and there is no better time than during the Read-a-Thon. :) I guess my start time is 5 AM eek! I hope I wake up on time. :p

To learn more about Dewey's Read-a-Thon, click here.

Musing Mondays.

2009-10-19T18:31:00.001-07:00

This week's Musing Mondays asks:

Are you planning on participating in the upcoming 24 Hour Read-a-thon (either as a reader or cheerleader)? Have you made any preparations for the event? And, veterans out there, any tips you’d like to share with the newbies?

Well, I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now. The last time I signed up, our washing machine broke down and I ended up spending the day at the laundromat with my mother (whom gets upset and feels ignored whenever I read around her) & I didn't read anything and I felt bad about that. So you may guess at why I am on the reluctant side to try this again... I think I might do it though, but I don't think I'll actually sign up - because I don't know what might come up this weekend. But as it gets closer (like, Friday) I may go ahead and sign up for it. :)

Finally...

2009-10-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Finally I get it next, I hope it's not a stinky read! I've read some mixed reviews on it though so I'm a little wary about this book...

Friday Finds.

2009-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

My finds for this week all have something in common: Russia. I'm very interested in Russia right now, & all these stories take place somewhere and sometime in Russia. :)

Alice in Exile by Piers Paul Read
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The House of Kuragin by Constance Heaven
The Astrov Legacy by Constance Heaven
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostevsky
Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andrei Makine
The Industry of Souls by Martin Booth

TBR Thursday.

2009-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

About TBR Thursday:

TBR Thursday is a meme hosted by Drea. TBR Thursday highlights all those books that you physically own but haven’t had the chance to read yet. Or maybe they’ve already been released and you’re dying to grab a copy from the library to read but already have too many books on your table. There can be some old books, some new books, and some that are in between, but they have to be books that you want to read and review!

My pick this week is Catopolis, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Janet Deaver-Pack.

Synopsis from B&N.com: Seventeen original stories about the "city of cats."

Set in a world that exists on the same plane as humans, yet is hidden from us, Catopolis introduces readers to an assortment of cats, ranging from a feline Seer who must take destiny into her own paws to defeat a dictatorial tomcat thug...to a black cat who can call upon the powers of the "big cats" to wage a war against evil...to a cat who would be king...to the ins and outs of cat politics and the perils of using mice as ballots...to a cat burglar looking for a musical treasure for his "boss."

Scandal Week: Revised & Extended.

2009-04-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well. I decided to extend my scandal week into two weeks. & I made that nifty graphic up there. :p Boredom. Yay. Anyhoo, I'm only one chapter into The Book of Scandal, but there is good reason for that; two other reads I have going. I'm really into The Foreigner (which technically, does have a scandal going on it, in it's own way. Very good reading.) And, The Bounty Hunter's Bride, which I'm sort of disliking actually. It's a good story (50 pages in) but I didn't really realize that it was *inspirational* fiction. Ah well though. I'm still willing to keep reading so I guess it's not really that bad. It really has me curious as to how everything is going to turn out.

So, with those other two reads that have been sort of added to my scandalous reading, I needed to extend it so I could finish all of my books I had chosen for it. So. Yay. :p