What's New?
This week was relatively easy on the budget book-wise, not food-wise though. I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in eleven years. I had forgotten how much work that is! Phew! It was tons of fun and I have tons of leftovers. Hope yours was grand as well.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. Unabridged audiobook on 15 compact discs, 17 hours. Read by Kevin T. Collins, Hachette Audio, November, 2012. 9781619698437.
Publisher synopsis:
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
I have such a long, sad story about this book. It has been on TOM forever (seriously, it's the arc). I don't know why I never got around to reading it. I think it was a combination of being a bit done with paranormal and the fact that it seemed more geared to a high school audience than a middle school one. Eventually, I downloaded the audiobook to my iPad a few years ago and actually started listening to it, but the book didn't download properly; I didn't have time to troubleshoot it and I forgot about it. Some time went by, I re-downloaded, same glitch. I sent an email to iTunes but too much time had passed and the store no longer had the book in their collection, so I received credit toward another book. Then, I found that it was available on Playaway in just two libraries in my cooperative and one was very close! The Playaway appeared dead. I changed the battery and nothing so I returned it and let the librarian know. The other copy was checked out. No other libraries in the cooperative had it on CD and, both Playaways have been checked out every time I checked!
I'm not sure why I finally decided to buy it on CD, but was surprised to find that it was on sale, so I sprang for it - again. I think it was on sale to promote the movie since the CD cover was changed to an ensemble photograph of the cast. Sigh. I hate those covers. Really, what is wrong with this?
Sigh.
Pure Vanilla: irresistible recipes and essential techniques by Shauna Sever. 159 p. Quirk Publishing, October, 2012. 9781594745966.
Didn't I post something about never needing to buy another cookbook just last week? When I bought two? And here's a third? Yeah. I'm normal. I don't even remember where I read about this one but it wasn't available to borrow through my library cooperative and, well, just look at that cover! And vanilla! I love the smell of vanilla!
So, that's what's new with me. What's new with you? Happy reading!
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. Unabridged audiobook on 15 compact discs, 17 hours. Read by Kevin T. Collins, Hachette Audio, November, 2012. 9781619698437.
Publisher synopsis:
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
I have such a long, sad story about this book. It has been on TOM forever (seriously, it's the arc). I don't know why I never got around to reading it. I think it was a combination of being a bit done with paranormal and the fact that it seemed more geared to a high school audience than a middle school one. Eventually, I downloaded the audiobook to my iPad a few years ago and actually started listening to it, but the book didn't download properly; I didn't have time to troubleshoot it and I forgot about it. Some time went by, I re-downloaded, same glitch. I sent an email to iTunes but too much time had passed and the store no longer had the book in their collection, so I received credit toward another book. Then, I found that it was available on Playaway in just two libraries in my cooperative and one was very close! The Playaway appeared dead. I changed the battery and nothing so I returned it and let the librarian know. The other copy was checked out. No other libraries in the cooperative had it on CD and, both Playaways have been checked out every time I checked!
I'm not sure why I finally decided to buy it on CD, but was surprised to find that it was on sale, so I sprang for it - again. I think it was on sale to promote the movie since the CD cover was changed to an ensemble photograph of the cast. Sigh. I hate those covers. Really, what is wrong with this?
Sigh.
Pure Vanilla: irresistible recipes and essential techniques by Shauna Sever. 159 p. Quirk Publishing, October, 2012. 9781594745966.
Didn't I post something about never needing to buy another cookbook just last week? When I bought two? And here's a third? Yeah. I'm normal. I don't even remember where I read about this one but it wasn't available to borrow through my library cooperative and, well, just look at that cover! And vanilla! I love the smell of vanilla!
So, that's what's new with me. What's new with you? Happy reading!