Friday Reads: 17 Feb 12

"Have you made no contract with the Devil?"

I found this gem, The Salem Witchcraft Delusion by Alice Dickinson, among the discarded library books at a local library. How wonderful is that cover? I am studying Arthur Miller's The Crucible for my American Lit class (I have a test on it on Monday!) so finding this book was very apropos. I couldn't pass it up.

Friday Reads: 10 Feb 12

Where did she go?

As I've been driving around this week I've been listening to Where She Went by Gayle Forman. It's my first audio book of the year! I'm enjoying the story so much that I'm wondering why it took my so long to start listening to it. I'm hoping to finish over the weekend, if studying for my math test doesn't get in the way.

Friday Reads: 03 Feb 12

In a hopeless world, can love prevail?

This week's Friday Reads is a brand new anthology called Brave New Love: 15 Dystopian Tales of Desire edited by Paula Guran. Or, at least, it will be my Friday Reads as soon as I turn to the first page. I pre-ordered this book months ago specifically for Diana Peterfreund's contribution. But I'm excited for the rest of the stories too! How do you beat a premise like dystopian love?

Celebrating the Groundhog & Mid-winter

Happy Groundhog Day! For some strange reason, this day has always appealed to me and has been my favorite holiday since I was a child. Maybe I just enjoy a day that celebrates cute little critters. Or it's because I hate winter, I'm glad of a demarcation of the halfway point until it's over. It's a mix of both, and to celebrate I offer you a list of books of Groundhog Day proportions.

Bill Murray isn't the only one who gets to suffer the joy being in a time loop. Bill Murray isn't the only one who gets to suffer the joy of being in a time loop. A season three episode of Xena: Warrior Princess paid a nice homage to the movie Groundhog Day, when she must repeat the same day until she can break a curse, called "Been There, Done That." I watch this every year on Groundhog Day. Mostly because I don't own the movie Groundhog Day.

In the book 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass, Amanda must repeat her eleventh birthday eleven times. 

Samantha Kingston in Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall repeats the day of her death over and over.

The tagline of Ken Grimwood's Replay is "What if you could live your life over again? And again? And again?" I haven't read this, but Lauren says it's pretty good.

Because we still have some winter left to get through, I present three books from a my shelf on my LibraryThing that I lovingly call "Winter Reads." These are books to read when it's blizzarding outside and you're curled under a fluffy blanket with a mug of Winter Coffee (coffee mixed with hot cocoa.)

Laurie Halse Anderson's wintergirls is probably picked up more often because it tackles the topic of anorexia. But I enjoyed it for how vividly icy and cold it was.

 

Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey is a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen." (The original fairy tale is also recommended reading.)

Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants, inspired by Norse mythology, makes for perfect reading on a wintry day.

Please leave your recommendations of any Winter Reads, books with themes of repetition and time loops, or anything about GROUNDHOGS (because I'd love to know some.) Have a happy and safe Groundhog Day!