In My Mailbox (11)

I really did not mean to get any books these week (yes, I know I always say that), but Fully Booked Eastwood is on sale…so how can I resist? It’s not like Cyber Monday, but still. Resistance against books is always, always futile.

Oh, and I got some awesome galleys and some books I won arrived this week…and that’s totally free. I can’t help that too, right? ;)

In My Mailbox is a weekly book meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren, where bloggers post about what books received that week, be it via  mailbox, library or store. Here’s this week’s stash!

BOUGHT:

  1. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. I got the UK edition after Chachic, Aaron and I browsed it in Fully Booked Gateway during the last FBB meet up. This hardly looks like a book at all, with its layout and designs inside. Plus it’s pretty cheap for somewhat of a “hardcover”.  Look:
  2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Grace and I were browsing through the 80% off table in Fully Booked Eastwood when I saw a very familiar spine. I picked it up and yes! It’s this book! Hard cover, 80% off! :) Of course I had to get it. Talk about steal. :P
  3. Naermyth by Karen Francisco. I was originally planning to get The Giver by Lois Lowry (yes, I haven’t read that yet!), but when I wandered over to the Filipiniana section in Fully Booked and saw this. I read the blurb and my pulse quickened — could it be? Local dystopian fantasy? It seems like it! I started reading this yesterday but my copy had a printing error so I returned it to Fully Booked. Now I have a proper copy and I can continue reading. Watch out for my review soon. :)

WON:

On the Edge and Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews

I got great news almost a month ago that I won Dee’s 100+ Follower Giveaway. I get to pick any book (or books) worth $15 from Book Depository sponsored by The Book Quoter. I was wondering when the package would arrive and I was kind of worried, too, since we moved to an apartment and I don’t know if they would get delivered to me. Friday was a good day, though, when I saw the packages waiting at my dresser. Yay! I now have more Ilona Andrews books to read! Thanks again Dee and Book Quoter. :)

FOR REVIEW:

Lots of awesome books from Netgalley and Simon & Schuster! :)

  • The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa (currently reading The Iron Daughter, review of The Iron King up!)
  • My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent (must finish reading My Soul to Keep)
  • Wither by Lauren DeStefano
  • Choker by Elizabeth Woods
  • Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
  • Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves
  • Haven by Kristi Cook
  • Deadly by Julie Chibbaro

So many books, so little time! :o I have no idea when I’ll be able to read this and my mountain of TBR…but I guess I should be used to that already, right?

What’s in your mailbox this week? :)

The Iron King

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Iron Fey # 1
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Number of pages: 363
My copy: ebook

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

* * *

I never read any YA fiction that had faeries in it because I never found them interesting. Just like my avoidance for paranormal romance in YA, I felt like faery fiction was just the same as the others. No offense to any Twilight fans, but I don’t really want to read another variation of a Bella Swan head over heels on a variation of an Edward Cullen who isn’t a vampire. I thought: vampires = angels = fairies = meh. So I avoided them.

However, after reading Paranormalcy, I got curious about the faerie folklore after reading about Reth and the Seelie and the Unseelie Courts, and how there are true names and such. I wanted to read more, so I finally decided to get The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. It seemed like the most popular in the recent releases, so I thought, “Why not?”

Truth be told, I was wary at first. I don’t really give up on the books I read, and I try as much as I can to finish them out of respect. I was more than ready to just finish this book and not pick up the next books in the series, if only to satiate my curiosity for faeries.

Fortunately, The Iron King proved me wrong. :) The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series, and it tells the story of Meghan Chase, who never quite fit in at school or at home, but it could be any kind of teenage thing. But on her sixteenth birthday, things get stranger: her best friend is extra protective, some weird things happen at school, and her brother gets kidnapped by a mysterious creatures and replaced by a changeling. As her eyes are opened to the other world that exists with hers and the true personality of her best friend, she enters the faery world to rescue her brother only to find out that she’s actually the daughter of a faery king, and that she is wanted by different faery courts for reasons yet to be revealed to her.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed The Iron King. I’m not knowledgeable with faery stories (I have never read Midsummer Night’s Dream) so I was impressed with the world building that the author put in the story. I liked how the faery world had an ethereal and magical feel to it but without losing the dangerous edge that reminds not only Meghan but the readers that faeries are not just pretty creatures but wily, cunning ones too. It was like imagination overdrive as I was introduced to the Summer Court — I can imagine all the bright colors and different creatures and personalities introduced but it wasn’t very overwhelming that I miss the story altogether. There was little about the Winter Court here (but I think that’s the focus of The Iron Daughter), but I really liked the concept of the Iron Court.

The characters in The Iron King all had their different voices so it’s easy get the hang of them after they were introduced. I like that Meghan grew into a stronger heroine, from being helpless at the start to someone who can play the games that the fey do. I liked most of the characters in The Iron King but I think my favorite of all is Grimalkin the cat! I love books with talking animals, and Grimalkin is just so much fun to read about! I love the way he talks to Meghan, and how he helped her, and his expression, “I am a cat.” :)

The romance in the story is already given in the blurb, so it wasn’t really a surprise for me. I wasn’t floored by it either, but maybe it’s because I have insanely high standards for romance in a book. While I saw the development between Meghan and Ash from a mile away, I kind of felt that their first romantic encounter was too abrupt. But then again, that may be my insanely high romantic standards speaking. I liked the Ash and Meghan love team…but I can’t help but feel sorry for Puck, too (enter Best Friend vs. Other Guy theory).  I hope there would be more Puck in the next book?

The overall message of the book is a bit off-putting, though, much thanks to The Book Smugglers for pointing it out. It seems like the real enemy that everyone seems to be pointing to in the book is technology, but I’m sure we all agree that not all technology (computers, system memory, etc) is bad. Perhaps the need for more is, but not just technology. I sure hope this would be tackled further in the next books because I’m curious to how this will be addressed. Regardless, though, I really enjoyed The Iron King, and I think it is a good start to a series. I look forward to reading The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen.

Rating: [rating=4]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 100 out of 100 for 2010 (!!!)

Cover image & Blurb: Goodreads

Other Reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook
The Book Smugglers
Steph Su Reads

Kindle Ebook Gifting Program

Earlier today I was contemplating on splurging on some ebooks on Amazon and I was just about to get one when I saw a very curious button, one I have never seen before:

Kindle give ebook as gift

Hmm...what does this button do?

Give as a gift? I wondered. So I tested it and got to this screen:

Give as gift place order page

Sending a Kindle ebook as a gift

Imagine my excitement when I understood what this meant! Yes! It is possible to give an ebook as a gift from the Amazon Kindle Store!

From the press release (source):

Beginning today, just in time for the holiday season, customers can give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address—no Kindle required. Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. For more information or to give a Kindle Book as a gift, go to www.amazon.com/givekindlebooks.

“We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “We’re making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone – not just Kindle owners.”

To give a Kindle Book as a gift, customers simply choose a book in the Kindle Store, select “Give as a Gift” and send their gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.

But what if you don’t have a Kindle, or the person you’re giving to doesn’t have a Kindle? According to the website, Kindle ebooks can be given as gifts as long as the recipient has an email address. The ebook can still be read through any of the free Kindle apps on PCs, Macs, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Android Phones.

All ebooks available in the Kindle Store can be given as gifts, and in case the recipient doesn’t like or want the gift, it can be exchanged for Amazon.com gift cards.

This ebook gifting is a great way to save on shipping, IMO. It doesn’t beat receiving real books in post, of course, but it would be a great gift idea for friends who have Kindles or likes ebooks.

You know what this means, right? Time to start building my Amazon Kindle ebook wish list! :)

Want Books: Five Flavors of Dumb


Want Books? is a weekly meme hosted at Chachic’s Book Nook and features released books that you want but you can’t have for some reason. It can be because it’s not available in your country, in your library or you don’t have the money for it right now.

I normally don’t judge books by their covers, but this one just stands out:

Pretty, right? I saw this book featured in That Cover Girl and I thought the cover looked nice, but I did not pay attention to the blurb until later, when people started adding it to their Goodreads wish lists. When I read it, I knew I wanted it:

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

THE CHALLENGE: Piper has one month to get a paying gig for Dumb—the hottest new rock band in school.

THE DEAL: If she does it, she’ll become manager of the band and get her share of the profits, which she desperately needs since her parents raided her college fund.

THE CATCH: Managing one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl who is ready to beat her up. And doing it all when she’s deaf. With growing self-confidence, an unexpected romance, and a new understanding of her family’s decision to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, Piper just may discover her own inner rock star.

This reminds me so much of Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, which I absolutely adored. :) I just read the excerpt is available at the author’s website and it seems to be a very fun read! This was released last week, and I’m contemplating on getting the Kindle version first because of the lack of shelf space in the apartment…but the cover! The cover is so pretty! This would look very pretty on my (future) shelf! :)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Number of pages: 230
My copy: hardbound, bought from National Bookstore

Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live.

* * *

I’m not going to lie – I only got this book because of two things: The Book Smugglers review and Neil Gaiman’s praise was the first thing you’ll see at the back of the book. Okay wait, make it three things: the hardcover version was cheaper than the paperback version. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I was hungry for something contemporary over the weekend so I dug this out from the plastic bags that currently house my books.

Junior has had a hard life. The book immediately starts with one of the things that has made Junior’s life hard, that he was born with water in his brain. Junior then narrates how unfortunate he was with his health, and how unlucky he was with the other things that white people take for granted because he is an Indian living on the Spokane Indian Reservation (simply called “rez” throughout the book). Despite all the unfortunate things Junior had to deal with in his life, however, it was very clear that there was something special about him, something that made him different from all other Indians in the rez. This was seen by his geometry teacher, Mr. P, who, after getting hit on the face by a Junior’s geometry book that used to belong to his mother, convinces Junior to leave the reservation and study somewhere else if he wanted to get ahead with his life.

And so Junior leaves, with little resistance from his family and a lot from his fellow Indians. This is where Junior’s adventures start, as he becomes the first and only Indian to study in an all-white school. Junior believes the white people have it better than he does (and they do) and that they would be out to get him for being different (surprisingly, they weren’t). Here we see Junior punch a guy in the face expecting a fight but instead gets respect, “fall in love” with a girl who has her own problems, be a basketball star and do many other things that he never thought he would get to do because he was Indian. We also see Junior deal with racism from unexpected people, lose his best friend and experience deaths (yes, deaths!) and grief, yet he always bounces back somehow.

Resilient is the best word to describe Junior. He has been so used to his life that even if bad things happen to him in succession, he always learns to bounce back. He tells his story in such a matter-of-fact tone that sometimes it hurts to read that someone just accepts a sad fate like that without ever trying to get out of it. But Junior tries to get out of it, despite how the world seemed to want to push him back to where he thought he used to belong. And as you go along, you’d find that you want Junior to succeed. Together with Junior, I realized that the world is not always black and white, or broken into colors or tribes, but by…well, I think the author wrote it very eloquently here:

“I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,” I said. “By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn’t true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not”.

I cannot help but compare this book to Stephen Emond‘s Happyface. They both have the same tone, the same quirky lead character, and artwork (even if Happyface is more artwork than text). However, in terms of problems, Junior definitely carries the bigger weight. Happyface is a victim of his circumstance while Junior is a victim of a fate that people before him had long determined. This is not to say that Happyface is shallow, though — his problems were totally legit. However, if you put them beside Junior’s, they definitely look smaller and more insignificant than what Junior had to deal with all his life.

But maybe that’s also a lesson in perspective too. Some of us may be Happyfaces, some of us may be Juniors, but that doesn’t mean that one problem is lesser than the other. I think what matters more is how we deal with these problems and how we try to rise up from it. Because that’s really the most important thing, right? How we keep on standing up no matter how many times we fall, or no matter how many times others make us fall. Happyface just happened to live in a different kind of rez compared to Junior, IMHO.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian teaches us that there is more to life than what we know of our own reservations, be it figurative or literal ones. Junior said it quite well: “Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know? Indians were supposed to move onto reservations and die. We were supposed to disappear. But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps.” This book teaches us that we must not be satisfied to stay within our own death camps, and hope that we find enough courage, arrogance and craziness to leave them.

This book is real, honest, funny, heartbreaking and inspiring. This is one book that I am pretty sure one of us will relate to in one way or the other. A definite must-read. :)

Rating: [rating=5]

Other Reviews:
The Book Smugglers
Love YA Lit
Angieville
Persnickety Snark