Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Nightstand Books—February

Nightstand Books hosted by Jenelle Schmidt and DJ Edwardson is back! Yay!

Here is my nightstand:


Starting at the top...

Haphazardly Implausible by Jack Lewis Baillot.
I'm re-reading this in preparation for editing Book the Third and am enjoying it SO. MUCH! Jack, if you're reading this: girl, you are talented! This is such a wonderful book—go find it and read it.

Claude Debussy by Paul Roberts.
One of my goals this year is to read one nonfiction a month. This biography was going to be last months... but then I had to read a nonfiction for school (What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis. It was a great book) so I decided that this book would be February's nonfiction.
Claude Debussy was a French composer in the late 1800s-early 1900s. His music was very controversial and inventive for the time.
Here is one of his pieces:


Weirdos from Another Planet by Bill Waterson.
A Calvin and Hobbes comic book. Little known Abbey fact: I love comics. My most-read author is Jim Davis, who writes the Garfield comic. I read all of the Garfield books up through fifty when I was younger.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.
I plan on starting this one tonight... It's February's reading challenge book.
Funny story... we went to the library and I was looking in the youth adult section for Twilight. Normally, I stay far, far away from the young adult section because I don't have a very high regard for YA fiction. That, coupled with the secret knowledge that I was there looking for Twilight (of all books) had me rather jumpy and very embarrassed. Who should show up at that very moment? A librarian from my childhood! She did story time at the library when I was little every week and, somehow, she still remembers me. We run into each other every other year or so... Anyway, that added to my embarrassment. In the end, since the library didn't have it, I ended up buying a cheap copy at the used bookstore (that was embarrassing too... ugh, I had to carry it around!). Maybe I can burn it when I'm finished with it. Haha.
My review for Romeo and Juliet, my first reading challenge book, should be up later this week.

The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer.
This is a steampunk book that I have heard a bit about on youtube's book community. I read the synopsis and it looked interesting (alternate USA where the Revolutionary War never happened? Whoa) so I got it out from the library.

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielson.
This is a book Jack highly recommended, so when I saw it on the shelf, I couldn't resist getting it out from the library.

What are YOU reading?

Live long and prosper.

12 comments:

  1. I'm curious as to your motivation for Twilight. I haven't read it, but just based on reading the movie reviews, I have never had any interest in it. The other books are all new to me. The steampunk one sounds interesting. I enjoy that genre and I was just thinking of an idea for an alternate history novel today. Good stuff.

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    1. I read it once before, when a friend coerced me. Now, I'm re-reading it partly out of curiosity (I remember the writing style keeping me hooked, even if the story didn't), partly because I want to compare it to a classic in it's same genre (Romeo and Juliet... the genre being romance... it's part of a reading challenge I'm doing which you can read about here: http://dollsbooksthingsthatmatter.blogspot.com/2015/01/2015-reading-challenge.html), and partly because I think, as a writer, it's important to keep abreast of what's popular. What about Twilight makes it so appealing to teenage girls? If it's just the romance, how can I translate something similar into my own writing, while still making it God-honoring? I'm asking the same questions about the classics in my challenge.
      Next month (and the month after that) the genre is dystopian, which I am very much looking forward to. Romance is not normally my thing. (Which is another reason why I'm reading Twilight [and why I read Romeo and Juliet]... to read in a genre that I don't usually read in).
      Thanks for asking!
      Steampunk and alternate history stories are so cool! One of my favorites is The Freedom Factor by Gerald N. Lund. A man is thrown into an alternate America where the Constitution was never ratified. Just mentioning it makes me want to read it again.

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  2. You should probably at least put a stake through Twilight when you finish it, just to be certain.

    And you'll enjoy the False Prince, it's very much your type of book. The only issues I had were personal. (I.e. a not so nice character had my last name. That was just ... awkward to read.

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    1. Hahaha! That's a great idea!
      Cool! I can't wait. (Oh no! I hope he/she didn't do anything too evil)

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    2. Chuckling over Kendra's "stake" comment! Too funny!

      Have you read Bram Stoker's "Dracula"? I know you're reading Twilight to compare to Romeo and Juliet, but if you're in the market for a GOOD vampire story, you can't beat Dracula.

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  3. Haphazardly Implausible is wonderful! I love that book! I need to get the sequel.

    Haha, I love YA so much. The first time I read the Twilight books I really enjoyed them. I think it's because they're super easy, quick reads, the words just sort of fly past your face. However, upon later reflection, I couldn't think of a whole lot I enjoyed about the story, the characters (ugh, the characters...), or the dialogue... so I think they're just written at a reading level that makes you fly through them, and it tricks you into thinking you enjoyed the experience.

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    1. The sequel is great too... just beware of the HUGE cliffhanger at the end! You might want to wait until the third book is out just so that you can go straight from #2 to #3. xD

      Maybe I'm just reading the wrong YA books... Nearly every one I pick up I end up thinking, "eh, that was all right, but I don't need to read it again/pick up the sequels." Any recommendations?
      You're totally right about the way Twilight was written! I had the same thing when I read it the first time.

      I haven't read Dracula yet, but I'm planning to for part of my reading challenge/experiment thing. December is a long way off... haha.

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  4. Ooh, I've got Haphazardly Implausible! I need to get to reading that... it looks awesome. :D

    Calvin and Hobbes is delightful!
    That's cool to read a nonfiction a month ... maybe I should start doing that.
    How embarrassing about Twillight. XD

    And I've heard so many good things about The False Prince, from ALL OVER my groups of totally-different friends who read totally different things so I'm verrrry confused and very much looking forward to reading it to try to figure out how it is that such different people love it! o.o

    Awesome post!

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    1. The story and characters are just fabulous! (As are the illustrations)
      I've heard tons of good things about The False Prince too! It does seem to be universally liked. I can't wait to find out why too!
      Thanks for commenting. :)

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  5. I absolutely adored the False Prince too!! It's highly giggle worthy and exciting. x) Aw, don't feel too embarrassed about Twilight! Although I can't really talk because I read it when I was like 19 and I felt mortified getting out this 13-year-olds love story. haah. XD I think I actually got my little sister to borrow it?! I can't remember. Least to say, I'm not ashamed of what I read now. If I want to gobble Twilight, I darn well well. *nods emphatically* I didn't hate it either, but the writing is a bit wordy. *shrugs*
    Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!

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    1. So many rave reviews for The False Prince! Maybe I should read that one next.
      Haha, that's funny. xD Yeah, I've decided not to be ashamed of reading Twilight... not that I'm going to bring it out into public any time soon... Hee hee.

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  6. I know Jack's book. (And I saw you said something about reading The False Prince maybe. You should. Sammy and Clara and I just finished it and we like it lots and it is good and you must read it.) But I showed Jack your comment for you since she wasn;t looking and she smiled and said thank you.

    I don't know the other books you're reading, except Calvin and Hobbes. They are fun. I like them.

    We are reading Unbroken now. We have a small list, because....since we are babies, we don't like to read much. But your list is nice and long which is good and it looks fun.

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