Mags' book blog

Well, I have a working computer for the first time in a couple weeks. My dad loaned me his old mini laptop so I could get my midterms done this week. The thing has a heart attack if there's a couple gifs on the page or I open too many tabs BUT it's a functional computer and my midterms are over so everything's gravy. I'm happy that I get to catch up on everyone's reviews, along with getting some more reading in. I've only managed to finish two books since finishing the Fever series at the beginning of the month. SO. SAD.

Not as good as I was hoping, not as bad as I feared. Dani had her annoying moments and her ego needs to be taken down, but fact is teenage girls are the devil. If she didn't have moments where I wanted to punch her in the face she wouldn't be an accurate 14 year old.

As for everyone else, Christian was crazy and I wanted to punch him in the face. Ryo was an ass and I wanted to punch him in the face. Both of them circling each other like a pair of stray dogs made me want to punch everyone in the face. 1. Fighting so you can stake a claim on a 14 year old girl based on her "potential" make me want to punch things 2. So does trying to decide who gets the woman without oh idk maybe HER getting a vote? Ugh. Jo, Jayne, Kat, all did some really stupid shit that made me want to hit them too. Punches in the face for everyone except Dancer. Last sane man left it seems.

My computer's still down, boo. Trying to type on this darn kindle sucks, I misspell every other word lol. The only good part's been having more reading time. I'm done with the main fever series and Im shaking in the corner like a junkie while waiting to read Iced. I'm terrified that I'll hate Christian after reading it :(

Hi. I'm Mags, and I'm an unapologetic book pusher. If you're friends with me I've tried to make you read at least one series of books. If you know me in real life I've bought you books for a birthday or holiday. Happy Easter, read this book now. And this Christmas I'll be buying people the Fever series.

Bloodfever is the second book in Moning's fantastic series. Mackayla Lane's been fored to grow up quite a bit in the past few months. After her sister is brutally murdered Mac journies to Dublin in search of her sister's killer. She gets a whole lot more than she bargained for; Dublin is host to a swarm of Fae and their presence awakens her latent talents. She is a shide-seer, one of the few people who can see through a fae's glamour.

Mac is rapidly becoming one of my favorite heroines. She's grown so much since the first book, morphed into the kickass woman that is Mac 2.0, and I can't wait to see how she contines to grow. The universe's been dumping all kinds of shit on her head, and I love that she's both growing stronger and keeping her sense of humor. 

One of the things that's stood out to me the most is the relationship between Mac and her sister. The way Moning writes about Mac going through the greaving process is so real anx emotional that sometimes I want to give Moning a hug and ask her who she's lost. I'm trying to avoid spoilers but there's one scene in particular inolving Mac and fae prince/jerckface V'lane that made me bawl my eyes out.

Overall I just can't say enough good things about this series. The worldbuilding is great and everything's totally believable. The characters are real people and not caricatures. It's got a dark tone but there's enough humor and hope to keep it from being depressing.

And can I just say, all the Barrons' hype I heard before reading this series? TOTALLY. JUSTIFIED. The definition of tall, dark, handsome, mysterious....Barrons just turns me into a squeeing fangirl. 

Just a quick heads up. Shockingly enough there's more than one person out there with the name Becca. ;) So I'll be going by Mags from now on just to avoid confusion. It's a shortened version of the user name I use for abous everything, Magnificience (misspelled on purpose lol) 

Just a quick hello to everyone following me. Hi guys! I should have some reviews up in the next couple of days. I'm on pain pills for a minor injury and it's hard to write when your brain is going "That's a shiny object over there, I wonder what cats dream about, wait why is the ceiling moving?"    

There are quite a few tutorials on how to change the layout of your BookLikes blog. I figured it's good to have them all in one post, and I'd like to thank all who put a lot of work into making them so others can enjoy BookLikes. 

Starting out the morning with a bit of spoken word poetry. It's a bit of a cheat since it's not a book but it's good enough that I'm giving it a pass ;)

PERFECT

___________________

Regarding info about authors in reviews

I don’t really like to talk about ‘rights’, but I should be able to say what I want, to decide what’s relevant to me. If other people don’t feel the same way, it’s ok. They can ignore what I say! It’s as simple as that. And if I go too far and others mostly disagree with me and think I post bullshit, I won’t have any friends/likes/views… And no one will hear me.  But it’s readers that should decide. Besides, it’s terribly condescending. I am able to read a review and say ‘those facts matter to me, those facts don’t’, I appreciate getting all the facts someone thought relevant, and then deciding what of it is important for me.

And to people that say ‘personal information about the author is irrelevant’ I say WHAT THE ACTUALL FUCK? I will not go to Chris Brown concert or buy his CD precisely because who an artist is matters. I care if a shoe-shop owner is a misogynist. I care if that cleaning lady abuses her dog.  I choose who I’m doing business with based on who people are.  If you get a horrible customer service in a restaurant, you complain and don’t come back. More than that, you warn all your friends! But… but food was great, and restaurants are about food, right? No, it’s about the whole experience. So why do people flip about it all right now when books are the thing in question?

From an internet article: “We are all bullied by hyperbole, rants, unstated bias, and ill-informed accusation.” Oh, fuck off, will you? Life’s not fair. That’s all normal stuff human beings in general have to deal with in their lives on daily basis! You’re not a special snowflake. And you have issues when it happens over the internet? WTF is wrong with you? I have a problem if my boss acts like that, not strangers on the internet.

Yes, there are some ‘trolls’ that do inappropriate things. There always will be. But mostly reviewers don’t go to an author’s site just to say ‘you’re an asshole’ for no good reason (when they don’t like a book, they write a review. About a book.). It’s the author that comes in and start’s talking bullshit on reviewer’s page! And when we, the readers, retaliate in only way we can – by spreading the word and voting with our wallets – suddenly it’s called ‘bullying’. We really don’t go after authors because we dislike their books. We’re just defending ourselves from their invasive nosiness.If they don’t go around spouting venom at any and all critical statements regarding their work, we don’t go hating on them as people. We focus on their work until given a reason to do otherwise.

This is what you'll get:

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Well. My books imported from Goodreads, but they didn't get sorted into shelves. Bleh. But at least this'll give me a chance to edit stars and dump some books from my 'to read' list. 

As I'm sure everyone is aware by now Goodreads rolled out some new policy on Friday that limits what a reader can put in a review or on a shelf. For anyone that's missed the post you can find it here. 

And then Goodreads promptly started deleting reviews and shelves that violated this policy without giving users a chance to change their reviews or shelves

I have no issue with deleting things that really inappropriate. But I should be able to make a shelf for MYSELF that says something like 'Won't read due to Author'. Author behavior IS something I take into consideration when buying a book, and if an author's been an asshat I want to know. Seems like Goodread's sweeping everything under the rug because author's are an income source and we're not. 

I've been on Goodreads for about a year and a half now. Most of that time has been spent lurking. I will straight up admit that I have a hard time writing reviews. I try condensing the thoughts and feelings I have for a book into a neat little review that's informative and entertaining, but mostly my brain explodes and I end up just jumping into another book. >.>

I may have sat inside my little lurker cave most of the time but it didn't matter much. I found amazing reviewers through the site. People who liked the same kinds of books I liked, who wrote amazing and funny and informative reviews. I love watching my status updates because I knew something entertaining would pop up soon. I came to Goodreads to find new books to read, and because of these reviewers I did. Heck, the book I'm reading right now, Bloodfever, is one I only found through Goodreads reviewers. 

Many of the people I follow had reviews or shelves deleted without warning. Hours of work just gone, poof. And it makes me seriously mad that Goodreads had so little consideration for its users. 

I'm still going to hang around Goodreads. But I don't think I'll bother posting reviews anymore. Why bother posting even my piddly little reviews on a site that doesn't seem to value them? 

Here are two great posts on the subject- http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4917309-an-open-letter-to-goodreads and http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1499741-important-note-regarding-reviews?page=44#comment_83507648

(Reposting from Goodreads just because)

This book is horrifying. No, I'm not saying it's bad. The writting couldn't be better. The world building? Amazing. The characters? The words 'real', 'complex' and 'vivid' come to mind. And the plot? Engaging. I stayed up until 3am last night reading; I just couldn't put it down. No, the book being horrifying has nothing to do with its quality. The horror comes from the creeping realization you get as you read and realize that the future described here could easily be our own. The corps, splicing, compounds, pleebland, even the pigoons; all these elements are great because you can easily imagine them being real. 

“He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo.”

Jimmy and Snowman. They're the same person. Mostly. Snowman lives in the present where the world's already ended. The book follows him as he makes a journey looking for extra supplies. When he reminisces and the focus shifts to the past he's Jimmy. Crake was his best friend, Oryx his love. This is about as boring and generic as you can get with a book description and yet it's as discriptive as I want to get. The way Atwood reveals her story is straight up masterful. Each time she peels back a layer the story becomes richer and more vibrant. And just when you're ready to fling yourself off a roof from how depressed you are she hands you a nugget of hope.

Now for the downsides. If you're looking for a fast paced book this is not it. There's no fight scenes or villians to destroy or what have you. None of this stopped me from loving it. 

This is the quote that both made the book and scared the daylights out of me. And in many ways is the best summary of the book I could come up with.

"Let's suppose for the sake of the argument," said Crake one evening, "that civilization as we know it gets destroyed. Want some popcorn?"

"Is that real butter?" said Jimmy.

"Nothing but the best at Watson-Crick" said Crake. "Once it's flattened, it could never be rebuilt."

"Because why? Got any salt?"

"Because all the available surfact metals have already been mined," said Crake."Without which, no iron age, no bronze age, no age of steel, and all the rest of it. There's metals farther down, but the advanced technology we need for extracting those would have been obliterated."

"It could be put back together," said Jimmy, chewing. It was so long since he'd tasted popcorn this good. "They'd still have the instructions."

"Actually not," said Crake. "It's not the like wheel, it's too complex now. Suppose the instructions survived, suppose there were any people left with the knowledge to read them. Those people would be few and far between, and they wouldn't have the tools. Remember, no electricity. Then once those people died, that would be it. They'd have no apprentices, they'd have no successors. Want a beer?

"Is it cold?"

"All it takes," said Crake, "is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it's game over forever."

"Speaking of games," said Jimmy, "it's your move."

This'll be boring while I import stuff from Goodreads.