Bonus Sized Blog Watch Wednesday + Great eBook deals!

Reviews Posted:

On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming - 4/5 stars - short stories, horror, supernatural

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - 3/5 stars - young-adult, fantasy

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley - 4/5 stars - historical fiction, supernatural

Vengeance by Ian Irvine - 5/5 stars - fantasy

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke - 4/5 stars - young-adult, fantasy

Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston - 1/5 stars - science fiction, young-adult

Midnight City by J. Barton Mitchell - 3.5/5 stars - young-adult, science fiction, post-apocalyptic

Fun Stuff:

Harry Potter-inspired neckties for school uniforms! I support this endeavor! Dress all the kids up like they've been sorted into a House!

The reading lists of favorite fictional bookworms.

Don't miss the only existing video footage of American literary giant, Mark Twain.

Before they were famous: Sci-fi/fantasy cameos from stars of today. Andrew Garfield + Doctor Who! And more!

The 100 Most 'Valuable' Stars of today. RDJ!! This is a pretty cool article - I was engrossed.

10 Unintentionally Hilarious Lines from Sf/F movies. I love the Legolas bit. He was pretty, but not too smart. 

Classic movie posters -- with a cartoon makeover! The Indiana Jones one is definitely my personal favorite.

Because a BWW isn't complete without a Tom Hiddleston link -don't miss his impromptu performance of the monologue from Henry V. That man is sex.

And another, because this man is amazing: Tom Hiddleston "Lokis!" MTV News.

Michael Caine does the best Michael Caine impression you'll ever hear. I want to spend a day with this man and just soak up all the awesome.

Watch Justin Bieber. Kristen Stewart, Katy Perry and other (not annoying) celebs read out mean tweets about themselves.

Ten literary devices and where you can find them in the sci/fi and fantasy genres.

The Greg Louganis Guide to Diving.

A lovely article bidding Michael Phelps a fond farewell from competitive swimming.

The 12 Best Ads of the '12 Olympics. 

Usain Bolt proves he's not entirely made of pure ego. Seriously classy - I'm impressed.

This is awful - 8 years after Athens Olympics, many venues are left to rot.

The side of Chinese Olympic training that will made you sad and angry. That poor girl and her poor parents.

I'm still pissed that NBC cut the 7/7 tribute from the Opening Ceremony. And for such STUPID REASONS. You should be ashamed, NBC.

If you needed a smile, check out these gifs of Christopher Turk, MD, dancing. And/or this supercut of the same. I love you, internet. And I love you Turk Turkleton!

The 170 most successful indie authors, with 50,000+ copies sold. Some of the name on there surprised me.

Celebrate Harry P and JKR's birthdays with watching her impressive and poignant speech at Harvard graduation from 2008.

The myth of "boy books" and "girl books" and how it affects readers.

Proof that Tom Hardy has: a. been around longer than you might suspect and b. can pull of creepy in a myriad amount of ways.

And here he is, rapping with his baby strapped to his chest. A man of many talents, that Tom Hardy. And not to hard on the eyes, either. 

In the debate over GR's changing ways and guidelines - GoodReads versus LibraryThing. 

If 30 Rock characters had Game of Thrones-type  family sigils.  I love the quote used for House Lemon and the picture for House Donaghy.

A Pixar-Themed Alphabet! Seriously adorable. Even Carl.

This made my week: Stop the STGRB Bullies! You are made of win, site.Your hypocrisy is showing, indeed.

Stephanie Perkins of Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door announces new two book deal.... for slasher novels?! In the vein of SCREAM? I'm sold.

Thoughtful and insightful post on why women keep silent about harassment and abuse.

Throught-provoking: How Americans spend their money, by class.

Gunman kills six, wounds others in an attack on a Wisconsin Sikh temple. My thoughts are with all involved. Let the violence stop, please.

Hans Zimmer composes a song in dedication of the Aurora tragedy victims. A classy man.

The CW wants to make a TV show out of Battle Royal? STAY THIS MADNESS! Stick to hot men running around in classic cars, CW!

The 9 Coolest Secret Subway Station in the world! My goal is now to go to at least 5 of these in my life.

The cost of being Iron Man. Batman got off easy!

17 Now-Famous Actors You Didn't Know Where in Movies You've Seen. Captain Mal? In Saving Private Ryan? He's so young and handsome.

Joss Whedon's 15 Greatest Musical Moments.

Really Fun Stuff aka Cheap eBooks!

Blood Rock by Anthony Francis (Skindancer #2) -- $1.99 for Amazon Kindle (reviewed here)

Dakota Frost is back, and the ink is about to hit the fan-again.

Graffiti comes to life in the dark heart of Atlanta’s oldest cemetery, slaying one of the city’s best loved vampires before the eyes of his friend Dakota Frost. Deadly magick is at work on the city’s walls, challenging even the amazing power of Dakota’s tattoos to contain it. The hungry, graffiti magick loves to kill, and the Edgeworld is no longer safe from its own kind.

Dakota begins a harrowing journey to save those she loves and to discover the truth behind the spreading graffiti-even if that truth offends the vampires, alienates the werekin and creates police suspicion of her every action.

Saving Atlanta may cost her everything, including custody of her “adopted” weretiger daughter, Cinnamon. But failure is not an option. If the graffiti isn’t stopped, Cinnamon could be the next victim.

Enclave by Ann Aguirre (Razorland #1) - $2.99 for both B&N Nook and Amazon Kindle

 WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.

As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.

Down below, deviation from the rules is punished swiftly and harshly, and Fade doesn’t like following orders. At first Deuce thinks he’s crazy, but as death stalks their sanctuary, and it becomes clear the elders don’t always know best, Deuce wonders if Fade might be telling the truth. Her partner confuses her; she’s never known a boy like him before, as prone to touching her gently as using his knives with feral grace.

As Deuce’s perception shifts, so does the balance in the constant battle for survival. The mindless Freaks, once considered a threat only due to their sheer numbers, show signs of cunning and strategy… but the elders refuse to heed any warnings. Despite imminent disaster, the enclave puts their faith in strictures and sacrifice instead. No matter how she tries, Deuce cannot stem the dark tide that carries her far from the only world she’s ever known.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli - $3.99 for B&N Nook and Amazon Kindle

A unique and sweeping debut novel of an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War, as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men.


On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend.

Tatjana Soli paints a searing portrait of an American woman’s struggle and triumph in Vietnam, a stirring canvas contrasting the wrenching horror of war and the treacherous narcotic of obsession with the redemptive power of love. Readers will be transfixed by this stunning novel of passion, duty and ambition among the ruins of war.

The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair - $2.99 for Amazon Kindle

A subversive, macabre novel of a young Indian man’s misadventures in Victorian London as the city is racked by a series of murders

In a small Bihari village, Captain William T. Meadows finds just the man to further his phrenological research back home: Amir Ali, confessed member of the infamous Thugee cult. With tales of a murderous youth redeemed, Ali gains passage to England, his villainously shaped skull there to be studied. Only Ali knows just how embroidered his story is, so when a killer begins depriving London’s underclass of their heads, suspicion naturally falls on the “thug.” With help from fellow immigrants led by a shrewd Punjabi woman, Ali journeys deep into a hostile city in an attempt to save himself and end the gruesome murders.

Ranging from skull-lined mansions to underground tunnels a ghostly people call home, The Thing about Thugs is a feat of imagination to rival Wilkie Collins or Michael Chabon. Short-listed for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, this sly Victorian role reversal marks the arrival of a compelling new Indian novelist to North America.

The Girl Who Was On Fire - Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy -$4.87 for B&N Nook and $1.99 for Amazon Kindle

Katniss Everdeen's adventures may have come to an end, but her story continues to blaze in the hearts of millions worldwide.

In The Girl Who Was on Fire, thirteen YA authors take you back to Panem with moving, dark, and funny pieces on Katniss, the Games, Gale and Peeta, reality TV, survival, and more. From the trilogy's darker themes of violence and social control to fashion and weaponry, the collection's exploration of the Hunger Games reveals exactly how rich, and how perilous, protagonist Katniss' world really is.

• How does the way the Games affect the brain explain Haymitch's drinking, Annie's distraction, and Wiress' speech problems?
• What does the rebellion have in common with the War on Terror?
• Why isn't the answer to "Peeta or Gale?" as interesting as the question itself?
• What should Panem have learned from the fates of other hedonistic societies throughout history and what can we?

The Girl Who Was On Fire covers all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy.

The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker (The Weepers #1) - $1.99 for Amazon Kindle

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life.

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ - rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin (Birthright #1) -  $2.99 for B&N Nook and Amazon Kindle

Sixteen year-old Anya becomes the head of a mafia family after her parents are both murdered by rival gangs. Although Anya is embroiled in the criminal world, she is determined to keep her brother and sister out of the mafia family, but her father’s relatives aren’t so keen to let them go. When Anya’s violent ex-boyfriend is poisoned with contaminated chocolate – chocolate that is produced illegally by Anya’s mafia family – she is arrested for attempted murder and sent to the notorious jail on Manhattan Island.

Eventually she is freed by the new D.A. in town, who believes she has been framed. But this D.A. is the father of Win, a boy at school to whom Anya feels irresistibly drawn, and her freedom comes with conditions. Win’s father wants to be mayor, and he can’t risk having his ambition jeopardized by rumors spreading that his son is seeing a member of a notorious crime family. Anya knows she risks the safety of her family by seeing Win again, but the feeling between them may be too strong to resist...

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber - $1.99 for B&N Nook and $1.59 for Amazon Kindle  (reviewed here)

The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

New York City, 1880. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing...

Jonathan Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen - $2.99 for Amazon Kindle  (reviewed here)

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

 Storm by Brigid Kemmerer (Elemental #1) - $2.99 for Amazon Kindle

Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys - all the ones she doesn't want. Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her. Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They're powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death.

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

Secrets are hard to keep when your life's at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who's hiding the most dangerous truth of all.

The storm is coming.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (Necromancer #1) - $2.99 for B&N Nook and Amazon Kindle

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he's doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.

With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

Out of these, I bought All These Things I've Done, Storm, and Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. I have an ARC of The Thing About Thugs and can't wait to read it! I also own The Lotus Eaters in paperback, but have yet to crack a cover on it. Any of these appeal to you? What did you buy this week?