Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Tune in Tuesday (5)



Tune in Tuesdays at GReads! is a weekly feature hosted by Ginger from GReads! that showcases music - her other passion in life besides books! Each week she posts a new or old song in hopes to gain more interest. Let's help Ginger in spreading the love of music!

For this first week of a month-long Soundtrack Edition set of Tune in Tuesday, my choice is inspired by my husband. I didn't really know he liked this song until recently, when I tripped over it on iTunes and played it. I, myself, was not familiar with The Pixies even though I was a teenager in the 90's and that means I should have been, particularly since I liked The Breeders. (Remember the Deal sisters?) Anywho, give it a listen. IMHO and to paraphrase Doctor Who, this song is cool.


Saturday, October 1, 2011

Happy Birthday Jen!



We hope you have a FANTABULOUS day :D

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Tune in Tuesday (4)


Tune in Tuesdays at GReads! is a weekly feature hosted by Ginger from GReads! that showcases music - her other passion in life besides books! Each week she posts a new or old song in hopes to gain more interest. Let's help Ginger in spreading the love of music!

Since last Tuesday was all crazy-like and I couldn't find five minutes to post the videos I wanted, I'll do it today. I feel like such a ding-bat sometimes, digging through my brain trying to think of some music I'd like to share, and then it all becomes so obvious: Barenaked Ladies! The Big Bang Theory started up again last week and one of my favorite things about that show is the theme song. I remember cheering the first time I watched it, hearing one of my favorite bands at the opening.

 


I got to see them live in 2001 but I got so excited and lost in the music that I barely remember the concert at all :) Somebody get me a hypnotist! Anyway, here's some of my favorite songs from these fellas from Canada. Enjoy!






Sunday, September 25, 2011

Book Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle's body bears the telltale marks of a comarré -- a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world...and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now, Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

Blood Rights by Kristen Painter is a fresh take on a genre that has been done...and done...and done. Vampires and their culture has been around for so long that so many readers (including me) is getting pretty sick of them. However, Painter's new series has me sticking with vampires a while longer.

In Blood Rights, vampires believe that they are the superior race. Their society structure is based on status determined by wealth and strength but the pinnacle of said status is truly gained by the quality of their comarré and the price in which they paid. These quality blood servants who are born in an academy of sorts and trained to be the best of the best go to live in their new master's households as a cherished member of the family. Comarré are raised without family ties, without even knowing who their parents were, so that their identity truly is supposed to be influenced by whoever purchases them. The comarré need to be fed upon - their bodies are unable to self-monitor and control the amount of blood in their veins like regular humans - and so their relationship with their masters, while usually impersonal, is a necessary one. Comarré are trained all their lives to fight vampires but they are not allowed to let anyone know so in essence, the comarre are like foxes in the vampires' henhouses. (And here the vampires think they're the biggest bad in all the land. I love the irony.) Chrysabelle is incomparable; she is considered to be the highest achievement in comarré lineage. Accomplished in everything, she is purchased by the master of the most prestigious House and has lived a satisfactory life until recently, when she decides to leave. This is where Chrysabelle's troubles begin when her master is found murdered in their home. She flees and becomes a fugitive.

Being a cursed vampire who is tormented by the guilt and voices of everyone he has killed in his long vampire life, Malkolm now spends his time searching for a way to break his curse. He refuses to drink blood straight from the source and when he sees Chrysabelle, a comarré in disguise walking around in a vampire night club, he realizes that he's in deep trouble: she's beautiful, her blood sings to him, and she's a damsel in distress. So he tries to help her and after a rather rocky introduction, they end up working together in an unsure alliance to find out who killed her master.

I really liked Blood Rights. It felt more like Malkolm's story to me than Chrysabelle's, much to my delight; in comparison, Malkolm's life has been much more interesting. So much of the plot is wrapped up in his history whereas Chrysabelle's life is really just beginning. Neither Mal nor Chrysabelle are in a position to be feeling romantic and I appreciated that the chemistry between these two is kept in check. The villain is a bit of the evil monologing-"I've got you in my clutches" type but it meshes rather well with the black humor and dark tone. All in all, I am most certainly going to be reading book two, Flesh and Blood, out on October 25th. 

Thanks to Hachette and Netgalley for letting me read this book.


Other reviews:

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tune in Tuesday (3)


Tune in Tuesdays at GReads! is a weekly feature hosted by Ginger from GReads! that showcases music - her other passion in life besides books! Each week she posts a new or old song in hopes to gain more interest. Let's help Ginger in spreading the love of music!

My nephew, we'll call him "J", loves Beethoven. For all you parents out there who have been told by someone or another that the Baby Einstein videos for children do more harm than good, I am here to say baloney. J is not only smart for his age (he is six) but those movies cultured a love for classical music in him which I think is just the coolest thing EVER. I know that if I'm going to have him in the car with me he's going to ask for Beethoven. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in particular. There are a few others, of course, but this one is his favorite. J's interest in Beethoven has also sparked some in me as well and I find myself appreciating more and more classical music these days. I picked this clip from Fantasia 2000 to have something to watch and while it's a bit faster-paced than I'm used to, it's still worth a listen.