Best Books We've Read in 2012

Top 10 of 2012 is a fun-filled week where we look back at some of the best of “all things books” of 2012 and what books we’re looking forward to in 2013, co-hosted by: Rachel from Fiktshun, Lisa from A Life Bound By Books, Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic, Jaime from Two Chicks on Books, Mindy from Magical Urban Fantasy Reads.

Because GReeps Through the Shelves is a group blog with 10 different bloggers, we've decided to challenge ourselves to pick only one book each! Today we'll each share our favorite book we read this year.

Lolita's Pick:

Fever series
by Karen Marie Moning 

I just love this series. I have read the last 3 books at the beginning of this year and later this year I re-read the entire series (something I almost never do). I also actually bought the e-book version of the whole series, while I already owned the paperbacks.
I love the world the author has created and the characters and the story. And it surprised me that I even enjoyed the series more when re-reading it.

Find this book on Goodreads

Emmalee's Pick:

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

 I was hugely surprised that I loved this book as much as I did. It was a great take on a classic fairytale. What little girl doesn't love Cinderella?  And this version is so modern and unique that I couldn't help fall in love with it.  

Find this on Goodreads

Jen's Pick:

The First Days (As The World Dies #1)

by Rhiannon Frater

I can be so indicisive when it comes to choosing things like this so it was really tough for me to pick just one. After a LOT of debate I decided to go with The First Days as the best book I've read in 2012. It really is a great book and it will grab you right from the beginning.

Find this on Goodreads
 

Ashley's Pick:

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)
by George R. R. Martin

This was an incredible book.  The word "epic" comes to mind when I think of it. I read the entire series this year and while the first three are fabulous the last two have been pretty lackluster.  Even so, A Game of Thrones is one of only two books I gave five stars in 2012 (Kevin Hearne's Tricked being the other)

Find this on Goodreads

Renée's Pick:

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)

by Robin LaFevers

After reading this I spammed about this book EVERYWHERE! Believe me when I say that I forced my fellow Greeps to read this.

Find this on Goodreads

Kate's Pick:

Froi of the Exiles (Lumatere Chronicles #2)

by Melina Marchetta

I have to pick one?? *brain explodes* Fine. I don't guarantee that Froi was my favorite book, but I really loved it, and it had everything I want in a book: mystery, suspense, magic, byzantine plots, great characters, and a little bit of romance. So there you are.

Find this on Goodreads

Sonnie's Pick:

Deity (Covenant #3)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Unless you've been hiding under a rock this past year, then you've probably experienced the JLA Fandom Craze. And she desereves it! While I'm a huge Lux fan, I have to say, JLA's Covenant series, was just beyond awesome. And with this latest novel, OH EM GEE! It was epic! And while I read a lot of amazing books this year, Mrs. Armentrout's won out.

Find this on Goodreads

Britt's Pick:

Cast in Ruin (Chronicles of Elantra #7)

by Michelle Sagara

This is a hard pick but I'll choose Cast in Ruin. A fantastic series that always has me dying to read more. Filled with characters of very different races and a heroine you can really empathize with this is one of my favourite series. If you enjoy a book with a well-developed world, intrigue, magic and character growth then try these, I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

Find this on Goodreads

Emma's Pick:

Seer of Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters #5)

by Juliet Marillier

Like many my co-bloggers, picking my favourite book I read this year is almost impossible. I have read a lot of little jewels and held many beautiful covers. But, as always, Juliet Marillier touches me in a way other writers haven't been able to so far. I feel so involved when reading her books. It's just amazing. Try her, she has the ability to make you feel everything.

Find this on Goodreads

Krista's Pick:

The Crimson Crown
by Cinda Williams Chima 

The Crimson Crown brought the end to The Seven Realms series, and what an ending it was. This is my favorite high fantasy series, and I had been not-so-patiently waiting for a year to see what would happen to characters that I've grown to love - Han, Raisa, Dancer, Micah. The ending was nothing short of wonderful. It made me laugh, cry and cheer - it was the best and most satisfying end to any series I've ever read.

Find this book on Goodreads

Follow Friday #3

 

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee. They ask a question, in which you answer on your own blog, and then you link back up with them. After you post, you can go back to the other links to discover new blogs and friends!

Q: What have you learned from book blogging that you didn't know before about the publishing industry?

Hmmm... I think one of the most important things I've learned is how dependant publishers can be on the book blogging community. I never realized how much they researched blogs to find the perfect bloggers to promote their books. I also discovered how generous they are by giving out early ARC books to really eager fans of a particular author.

 

What about you guys?

 



Girls Rule

In this speech (which you should definitely watch, because it's excellent and also not very long), Joss Whedon talks about his responses when interviewers ask why he writes such strong female characters.* Possibly the most telling of his myriad answers: "Because you're still asking me that question." This is one of the many reasons Joss Whedon is awesome (the others being Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, The Avengers...), but it also says something important that people do keep asking. So, dear readers, now I bring the matter before you: why do people still ask that question?

*From now on we're just going to abbreviate that to SFCs. "Strong female characters" takes a long time to type.

Since this is a blog and it would probably be a bad decision to wait for your answers, I'm going to keep talking despite the violation of the rules of etiquette.

I was never very good at etiquette anyway. Do we really need three of each utensil?
Wait, there are only two spoons. I was never very good at counting either.

But wait, girls are supposed to be good at that fancy stuff, right? We're supposed to be polite and demure and modest and I think other things that I can't remember. We're expected to eat but not be pigs, converse but not be bitches, have sex but not be whores. I believe the technical term is "a lady in the street, but a freak in the bed." Yippee. Years of Disney indoctrination tell us that someday our princes will come and we'll live happily ever after. Now don't get me wrong -- I love Disney movies -- but they're no way for a girl to grow up. How many Disney princesses save the world? And is marriage and babies all that happens ever after?

So there's something of a hole when it comes to the most ubiquitous of childhood tales and SFCs. You can absolutely find SFCs in kids' stories if you look, but you have to look. And you shouldn't.

"I...I think I see one! Oh, never mind, just a guy with long hair."

I think another problem we have with strong female characters is a misunderstanding of what the word "strong" means. Most people who write Mary Sues probably think they are writing SFCs. But the word "strong" isn't referring to physical strength or supernatural ability. "Strong" means empowered, determined, confident, resilient. It's not overcoming challenges with brute force or the wave of a hand. Just as courage means nothing without fear, strength is empty without real obstacles, whether physical, mental, or emotional.

Where do we find SFCs? You'd think that, with so many female authors, they'd be all over the urban fantasy scene, but unfortunately, that's not always the case. It's probably safe to assume that nearly everyone reading this blog has read both Twilight and Harry Potter, so that's what I'll use as the main examples. If you haven't read them, fair warning: spoilers, sweetie.

To everyone who just read that in her voice: you're awesome.

First, let's take a look at Bella. She is beautiful but doesn't know it (great, now that stupid song is stuck in my head), and she is in love with a vampire. That is pretty much her entire character. I know that criticizing Twilight is so common as to be beyond cliché at this point, but is this really the role model we want thousands of teenage girls to look up to?

"But," the Twihards wail, "Bella is strong! Look how she defends everyone in the last book! She worked really hard to do that!" Okay, maybe she did. But that's still more like the confusion of strength and power I was talking about before. She had an innate ability, she practiced, she got better. Practice takes discipline, which is certainly one aspect of strength, but still only one.

That wasn't her weakest moment, either. Remember when she spent months and months as a zombie because her boyfriend left her? Remember when it took the help of another male character to bring her back to some semblance of life? Strength doesn't mean you never fall apart, but it does mean you pull yourself together again. It doesn't mean that you don't love and rely on other people, but it does mean that you're not so dependent on them that your whole world collapses when they leave.

Unless that person is Batman.

Now compare Bella to Hermione. Hermione is smart but not pretty or popular. She's an incredibly talented witch, but at Hogwarts that's almost as much a liability as an asset: the other students make fun of her for her frizzy hair, her awkward teeth, her eagerness in class, and even her best friends call her a bossy know-it-all. But look at what she does. She stands up for what's right: despite almost universal opposition, she organizes a civil rights group to effect freedom for house elves. She doesn't let people bully her: she slaps Draco Malfoy, and it's brilliant. She makes really difficult choices: she's worried that Voldemort might harm her parents to get to her, so she erases herself from their memories and sends them to Australia. Holy crap. Hermione is awesome.

Random note: apparently I like semicolons today. Here is
a picture of a husky playing in the snow. You're welcome.

So how do we get people to write characters who are more like Hermione than Bella? My first answer is to say, look for the books that have SFCs and don't read the ones that don't, keep writing those reviews that say, "yes, this book has an amazing female lead -- she can take care of herself, she can overcome difficulties," go out and write those books ourselves if we have to.

But I'm currently listening to some very triumphant film scores, so I'll do you one better: the way to get more SFCs written is to be strong females. Be the kind of women people write stories about. Be confident and assertive and yourself, and make those bimbo characters so absurd that editors laugh them out of the house when the manuscripts appear on their desks. Because girls really do rule.

A Walk Through My Literary Life

For those of you, like me, who read a lot - I mean A LOT - I have a question. Were you always like that? Did you always love to read, or is it a more recent development?

I have always loved reading. I remember getting so excited in elementary school on the days when our Scholastic book orders came in, and all those pretty books were lined up in the back of the room. Back then, my favorites were the Sweet Valley High books. Not those new ones - the old school ones where Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield were wholesome and good.

When I was in middle school, I found a box of my mom's old Nancy Drew books in the attic. I tried one, loved it, and before too long, I had read all of them. This was the beginning of my mystery/horror phase. Although I didn't read as much in high school (you know - boys took up a lot of my time then), I did try out some Dean Koontz (and some Danielle Steele in some weaker moments). In the late '90s, I read my one and only Steven King book - The Stand.

I, honestly, didn't start reading as voraciously as I do now until I was well into my 20s. And, I blame it all on Diana Gabaldon. Her Outlander series was recommended to me by some good friends, and once I read the first one, I didn't slow down until I had read all of the books in the series that were out.

Then came a little phenomenon called Harry Potter. The first few movies were already out, and I was curious about the books. I wondered if they were as good as the movies were. So, on a whim, I went to a book store one day and bought the first two in the series. I stared at them on the shelf for a few months before I actually read the first one. Why had I waited so long?!

The rest is history. I joined Goodreads, met an amazing group of women with incredible taste in books, and I've found myself reading more now than I ever have before.

What's even more exciting is that I'm seeing my 6-year-old daughter following in my footsteps. She read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to me tonight, and she did a fantastic job. A chip off the old block. :)

Indoor Snowballs

Alright, so I might be the resident author, but that doesn't mean all I do is write.

I also really like to craft, so please do not mind me as I hijack the blog for a non-book related blog post. 

I am a mom as well as everything else, and I live where it is cold for a few months every year, and by cold I do not mean put on a coat and you are okay. I mean snow-pants, big coat, hat, mittens, two pairs of socks, boots, a second hat...etc.   

My kids are still pretty young, and I am not a big play in the snow person. I really do not like being cold. So I came up with an easy alternative to the traditional winter snowball fight.

We made indoor snowballs. 

Yes, that is right, we have big snow battles in my house, mostly in the living room, but we have been known to pummel people as they walk through the front door unsuspecting the snow war that is about to be bestowed upon them.

And it's fun for all ages!  My grandma got into the fun a few years ago on Christmas Eve when we took our snowballs to her house.  We had an all out war that night, cousins, aunts and uncles, my kids, my parents, we were all in on it and it was huge! There was not a safe place in the whole house to hide from it!

How you might ask, do we accomplish this without slush piles all over the inside of the house.

I promise, besides a new askew photo frames we have not damaged anything.  

Its super simple to make these, 

and I am going to share my secret with you.

The two supplies you will need:

A bag of batting (find it in your local walmart in the crafting area or at your local craft store)

Mens white socks. (i bought a ten pack on clearance for like $2.00)

That's it. 

To make the snowballs...

1. Take a handful of batting

2. Cram batting into the toe area of socks

3. Fold extra sock over the "Ball" of batting

4. Tuck the opening around the sock to close it.

5. Repeat four billion more times (or so it feels like) until all your socks are done

6. Once you are done stuffing and folding. Let the snow ball fight begin!!!

The best part... they are washable! I throw mine in the wash with our towels when they get messy from the kids playing to much. 

Enjoy!

~M

Upcoming Releases - December 17th & 18th

This week I decided to highlight some upcoming releases. I included releases in multiple genres so hopefully there's something for everyone. I know I'm definitely eyeing up some of these!

DECEMBER 17^th

My Bluegrass Baby by Molly Harper

Hollywood Hook by Marnie Center

Leashing the Tempest by Jenn Bennett (Arcadia Bell #2.5)

Blood and Bone (Malazan Empire #5) by Ian Cameron Esslemont

DECEMBER 18^th

Scent of Magic (Healer #2) by Maria V. Snyder

Indigo Awakening (The Hunted #1) by Jordan Dane

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Trouble in Texas (Deep in the Heart of Texas #4) by Katie Lane

Deadly Little Lessons (Touch #5) by Laurie Faria Stolarz

The Girl in the Wall by Daphne Denedis-Grab

Betrayed by Shadows (Moonlight #7) by Nancy Gideon

Aftershock by Jill Sorenson

Highlander Claimed (Clan Mackenzie #1) by Juliette Miller

Which of these are you looking forward to?

Emotions in books: which books make you cry?

Today I want to talk about emotions in books. I often hear from people that they cried during reading a book. I do get emotional when reading a book, but I usually don't cry. There are only a few things that can make me cry in a book and this usually involves: the death of someone or the death of the love interest.
So far as I can remember these are the only two books which made me cry:

Damaged by Cathy Glass is a book I got when I was on vacation in the UK and one of my first english books I read. If you read the blurb, you can probably understand why this is a book that makes someone cry.
Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3) by Richelle Mead, has an emotional ending. And everyone who read this book, will probably know why I cried at this book. I am not going to give more details because I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who haven't read it.

I also came close to crying by a few books that involved death scenes, it's not like every death scene makes me cry, it is more about how authors write such a scene and the emotions are invoked and some authors do a much better job at this than others. I do like it when authors can invoke emotions, but for some reason I hate crying about books.

So enough about me now, which books made you cry or get very emotional about?