Sirens 2009: Kristin Cashore's Keynote Speech

Kristin Cashore, author of Graceling and Fire, was a Guest of Honor at Sirens 2009. At Friday afternoon, she gave her keynote speech in which she talked about words, identity and women. I was unable to film the entire speech, but here are some great snippets.

Waiting on Wednesday (8): Sisters Red

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris– the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She’s determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax– but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they’ve worked for.

I have an obsession with Little Red Riding Hood, and I don't know how I can survive until this book is released in June. You can read more about Jackson Pearce at her livejournal. Strawberryluna, the artist who created the amazing cover, can be found here.

Musical Book Covers (1)

Welcome to Musical Book Covers, my new feature in which I talk about why a book cover reminds me of a certain song. I listen to music every day for 5 hours or more so I often associate pictures with songs and vice versa.

The Book

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

The Song I'm Reminded Of

If you remember the 90s, you probably already know what I'm going to say. Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let it linger?

Linger by The Cranberries

You can watch the music video here. Lyrics are in the info box.

Why does the cover remind of this song?

This one is a combo of the title and the cover. When I first heard the title, I thought of the song automatically because it's such a famous song. I think the cover artists did a good job of reflecting the title. The girl seems to be walking away slowly while the wolf lingers to watch her go. The cover evokes the emotions I imagine the characters will feel in this story.

Does the song reflect the story?

Maybe? Maggie has said that Linger is about what happens after you fall in love for the first time. I suspect that means a bit of heartbreak.

Will I listen to this song while I read the book?

Absolutely. I'll put it on just as I crack the spine for the first time. I haven't listened to this song in about ten years, and now it has been stuck in my head for tow days. Maybe that's why I haven't listened to it in ten years.

Princess Bookie's Mystery Contest

Cindy at Princess Bookie is holding a contest for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Right now it is a mystery but she'll be letting us know more in a few days.

To earn extra entries you can blog about the contest. (Like I'm doing right now!) Once she announces the contest formally, no extra entries will be available. The only hints she has given as to what the contest will be like is "8 books total" and she says one of the books has been showing up on many Waiting on Wednesdays.

If you start to follow Princess Bookie, please leave a comment telling her that I referred you, and include me blog link. Thanks and good luck!

In My Mailbox (7): Feed

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted at The Story Siren.

From Amazon:

This brilliantly ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies. The result is a chillingly recognizable consumer society where empty-headed kids are driven by fashion and shopping and the avid pursuit of silly entertainment--even on trips to Mars and the moon--and by constant customized murmurs in their brains of encouragement to buy, buy, buy.

I read Octavian Nothing Vol. 2 by M.T. Anderson recently, and thought he did a brilliant job. I've been meaning to read Feed for years so hopefully it will not disappoint!

What is in your mailbox this week?

The New Percy Jackson Trailer

Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief has a new trailer. I think this one is much funnier and more exciting than the last two.

This one gives me confidence that the movie will have the same tone of the book. However, some things are still confusing me. Why is Persephone in this movie? It takes place in summer, so she should not be in the Underworld. Yet there she is. Uma Thurman as Medusa looks disappointing considering she just looks like beautiful Uma Thurman with hairsnakes instead of a hideous Gorgon. So much can be done with makeup and computers that I don't understand why the filmmakers would choose not to use them to a greater extent.

Brandon T. Jackson seems like the perfect choice for Grover, who is one of my favorite characters in the series. Also, I can't wait to see Percy fight with all of that water!

Win a $100 Borders Gift Card from Robyn's Online World and Our Ordinary Life

Robyn's Online World and Our Ordinary Life are each giving away two $100 gift cards to Borders! As a poor college student who favors Borders, I am all over these contests.

To enter, all you have to do is go to Borders.com and tell the bloggers what toy you remember having as a child and why it is still a good choice for kids today. There are also multiple ways to earn extra entries.

Good luck!

Movie Review: New Moon

Warning: I love to hate the Twilight saga.

The Acting

Rob Pattinson still plays Edward as if he is constantly constipated. That furrowed brow and those pursed lips aren't doing you any favors in the Sexy Department, Rob.

Worried his lady love is in danger or just in need of a restroom?

Kristen Stewart still mumbled through many of her lines, but did show a wider emotional range this time around. Her screaming during Bella's nightmares even made me a bit worried about the character.

Taylor Lautner and the rest of the pack gave solid performances. They definitely had the close friends/wolf pack vibe going on since they could go from vicious in one scene to carefree in the next.

Ashley Greene as Alice was perky and cute in the first half, but lacked the emotion she should have felt when dealing with a life or death situation. She didn't seem liked she cared much about what was going on.

All of the Volturi were smooth operators with the exception of Dakota Fanning. They should have found an age appropriate actress for Jane because Dakota looked ridiculous in that short cloak and she delivered her lines with a blandness that did not hint at a the deeply disturbed and evil character Jane is.

The Special Effects

The werewolf scenes were amazing. I was worried the werewolves would be the size of normal wolves and look to much like anime drawings, but the special effects team did not disappoint. Wolves bigger than people and growls that shook the theater were met with many cheers from the crowd.

As for the floating head of Edward Cullen, a friend of mine put it best: People in the future are going to laugh at us for how dumb that looked.

The fights with the Volturi were somewhat of a let down after the wolf scenes. Pale people fighting at super speed (in slow motion) isn't anything new. At least the make-up department was skilled enough this time around to hide where the pale make-up ends and real skin color begins.

Staying true to the book

I read New Moon over a year ago, and from what I remember the movie is a decent interpretation. It does end at a different point than the book does, but the moment is so full of tension that the filmmakers really leave fans wanting more.

Sadly, they can't change too much about the book. Bella is still a young woman who can't live without a man to support her. Her biggest improvement was when she told Edward to shut up! I almost jumped out of my seat in delight.

Two things that were in the book, but blissfully absent from the movie:

1. Long hair = long fur. This never made sense to me because the wolves do not all have black fur, and the fur sprouts from all over their bodies, not just their heads.

2. Imprinting. I think this concept was introduced in New Moon. I'm just happy I didn't have to listen to it this time around because promising young girls to older men is disgusting.

The Experience

I was with a very enthusiastic crowd of girls, and a few guys, who were all screaming when cute boys appeared on screen, and chanting "Team Edward!" "Team Jacob!" throughout the movie. Not to an annoying point, but to a point that had me laughing and enjoying the movie experience more.

On a final thought, I've been obsessed with Little Red Riding Hood (more than I usually am) for the past few months so all of the themes about being alone in the woods where wolves are roaming, and young women growing old left a haunting impression on me. I suggest keeping the tale in mind when you watch New Moon.

Sirens Videos: Tamora Pierce's Keynote Speech

October 1-4 2009 was Sirens, a conference dedicated to women in fantasy literature. The Guests of Honor were Tamora Pierce, Kristen Cashore, and Sherwood Smith. Today I am posting the videos I took of Tamora Pierce's keynote speech on the evening of October 1st.

I'm doing this out of order and posting the videos out of order with the last part of her speech coming first. Tamora spoke about what she has to say to people who ask her why she keeps writing female heroes. It is one of the most moving things I have ever heard.

Are there tears in your eyes? I cry no matter how many times I watch it. Well, the next two videos are snippets from her speech that are very funny and interesting. Tamora spoke about her early life and how she came to be a writer. I'm sorry I couldn't film the entire speech!

In My Mailbox (6): Sabriel and Tithe

Sabriel by Garth Nix

After receiving a cryptic message from her father, Abhorsen, a necromancer trapped in Death, 18-year-old Sabriel sets off into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands. Unlike other necromancers, who raise the dead, Abhorsen lays the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him--and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father's title and duties--to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible exhaustion, violent confrontations, and terrifying challenges to her supernatural abilities--and her destiny.

I'm reading this one for the fantasy/sci-fi book club at my university. I hear Garth Nix writes wonderful female characters so I'm excited about that.

Tithe by Holly Black

Sixteen-year-old Kaye Fierch is not human, but she doesn't know it. Sure, she knows she's interacted with faeries since she was little--but she never imagined she was one of them, her blond Asian human appearance only a magically crafted cover-up for her true, green-skinned pixie self.

Holly Black will be appearing at Sirens 2010, a conference dedicated to women in fantasy literature, where the 2010 theme will be faeries. I absolutely adore the Spiderwick Chronicles so I am psyched to start this series. I hope it makes a faerie fiction fanatic out of me.

I actually asked my parents to get me the entire modern faerie series for Christmas, but I can't wait until then to read Tithe.

What's in your mailbox this week?

the Waters & the Wild by Francesca Lia Block

From Amazon:

Bee, 13, wants to eat the dirt in her mother's garden; Haze believes that he is half-alien; and Stephanie thinks that she is a reincarnated slave girl from the 1800s whose name was Sarah. One day Bee sees a girl in her room who could be her twin. After the girl says, "You are me," she disappears. Bee usually doesn't talk to anyone, but decides to ask Haze about the vanishing figure. He explains that she is a doppelganger and that seeing one means your eminent death. Bee hears Sarah sing a Billie Holiday song about lynching and talks to her. The three loners become friends. The teens figure out that Bee is a changeling, and the real Bee is desperate to have her body back.

I fell in love with Francesca's Weetzie Bat series in high school and since then have been convinced that nothing she writes can ever top the characters and modern faerie tale stories in those books.

The Waters & The Wild came very close.

The only problem I have with this book is that it is too short. I wish Francesca had written it as a full length novel. By the end, there is so much more to explore. Why was Bee switched for a changeling? How will all of the characters live when so much of what they knew of the world has changed?

If you've ever felt like you don't belong, and all of us have in one way or another, you'll find yourself in this book. I really connected with Bee, Haze and Stephanie, not only because they felt they belonged somewhere else, but that there was a place they needed to get back to. The difference in finding a place to belong and returning to a place where you belong may seem subtle, but I think it is vast. Returning is reclaiming who you used to be, but often times you can't go back unless you go forward. Is that a paradox?

Francesca weaves in other themes such as war. War between the world and war between peers, the outcasts and the popular kids. But it isn't the typical dynamic you see in a lot of books. Bee and her friends aren't afraid of the popular kids. They don't long to be them. They crash their parties and fly away. Francesca's prose is so lyrical I found myself side by side with the characters as they soared and sang and were covered in the earth.

4/5 wingspreads

Book Blogger Holiday Swap

I just signed up for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap. It is a Secret Santa exchange between book bloggers. This is my first year participating and I'm totally psyched to start shopping for whoever my Secret Blogger may be.

The swap is worldwide, but you can let them know if you can only ship within your continent, country, etc. The last day to sign up is November 12th! I'm so happy I heard about today because I'd be upset if I missed out on this. I think it'll be great fun.