time of your life

Well summer officially ended last Tuesday, and so I suppose it's time to make my end-of-summer-reading post. Overall I read a decent amount, and got most of the main books on my personal summer reading list read, with the exception of Jacqueline Carey's Naamah's Kiss, of which I still have about 75 pages to go, unfortunately.....I intended this to be the summer of Jacqueline Carey and Richelle Mead, my two favorite authors at the moment, because I was reading more than one book by each author this summer, but my reading list got unexpectedly hijacked by Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire or Sookie Stackhouse series, all 9 of which I also ended up reading this summer, while I also caught up with season 1 of TB and watched all of season 2--so one could say that this past summer was the "Summer of Sookie," just as I've dubbed some past summers as "The Summer of Buffy" (when I watched Buffy seasons 1-5 for the first time) or "The Summer of Harry Potter" (when both the 7th book and the 5th movie came out within a few weeks of each other and I got into FictionAlleyPark)! ;) Or, given the vampiric nature of the majority of the books I read by Richelle Mead, my viewing of the British series "Being Human" for the first time, and all the NM trailers and news, perhaps it could just be summed up as "The Summer of Vampires", period. :p

( My Summer Reading List 2009 )

I'm not sure when I'll be able to finish that book or City of Bones, since I'm so busy now....but yeah, I decided to check out The Mortal Instruments series as well, checking out the first book from the library, since I have heard so much about it on BF and around fandom....I'm halfway through the first book and it's gotten better, and is certainly intriguing, although I'm not fond of the overly-descriptive and flowery writing style, and think that it is definitely "inspired" by Harry Potter (which of course we all *know* Clare has read!). I still can't get over the fact that an infamous fanfic author and BNF like her is now actually writing published original fiction...

But back to Vampire Academy: It took me a little while to get into the first book, but once I did I was hooked, and it was quite an exciting read....I love that I was actually shocked by *two* plot twists at the end, it's nice to have unpredictability like that in a novel these days, especially a YA one! And the rest of the series has gotten progressively better with each book, with the latest two books, SK and BP being particularly fantastic and epic. I actually think I liked the fourth VA book better than the fourth GK book in fact, which is pretty significant since overall I have so far enjoyed and liked the GK series better than the VA books, even though the VA series is great as well! I would highly recommend it, don't judge it by its cheesy-sounding name, it's very a very smart and interesting series, with some memorable characters, just like GK. My favorites are Adrian, Christian, and Dimitri (in that order); I did not like Rose at first, but she has now grown on me....

( Spoilery Review of Blood Promise )

Oh and I was also lucky enough to actually get to see Richelle Mead in person at a signing a few weeks ago on September 9!!! It was wonderful to be able to meet her in person (especially after having met my other fave author, Carey, a couple of years ago), and to get books signed by her (I got GK 1 and 3 and VA, SK and BP signed, with BP personalized). I may get around to loading pictures and more someday....

Well I've now seen the latest HP movie twice (once the evening of the day it came out, a few Weds ago, and a second time last Friday night), and against all odds, despite loathing the book that it's based on, I really enjoyed the movie! I remember remarking after OOTP (the best movie to date then, and perhaps now, not quite sure how I rank HBP yet in comparison) that if anyone could make a decent movie out of the weakest, cheesiest, and dullest volume of the series it was Yates, and I proved myself right--he is absolutely brilliant, improving upon the book in almost every way and taking a book in which not a whole lot happens and making it actually interesting and entertaining!

More spoilery comments on the movie below....

( Alan Rickman is a Sexy Beast and since when did the Weasleys move to the middle of a cornfield? )

Also in other news I finally read and finished (in two days) Jacqueline Carey's (first) new release, Santa Olivia, the one in a new verse and genre. It was very good and a fast read, I was glad that Carey remains an author who never disappoints! :) Perhaps a more detailed review will follow if I feel up to it.....I still also have to read JC's other new release, Naamah's Kiss, the beginning of a new series set in the Kushiel verse many generations later. Right now I'm finishing up From Dead to Worse (#8 Sookie Stackhouse series), soon I'll be all caught up on that front!

So on Tuesday I finally got my hands on the latest book in the Georgina Kincaid series by Richelle Mead, Succubus Heat, and as usual sped through it in record time, finishing it yesterday afternoon!  For the most part it met my expectations of what I hoped would happen and was about as utterly entertaining and enjoyable to read as the rest, though naturally a little more serious than the others before it.  There were a few surprises for me though....

My (long) thoughts on Book 4, as well as Book 3, since I never got around to posting them here:

( Spoilers for Succubus Heat (GA bk 4), Succubus Dreams (bk 3), and my own speculations about future books )

In any case, this marks the first big release on my summer reading list that I've read!

I am also about 100 pages into Vampire Academy, the first book in another of Mead's series which I've been meaning to read for a while since I love the GA books so much!  I decided to read it in Spanish, so that i could be practicing my Spanish at the same time as reading a book I've wanted to read this summer anyway.  It's a very interesting experience, and for the most part I can understand and keep up with it just fine.  It will be strange reading the rest of the books in English though after this!

While buying Succubus Heat the other day I also picked up the latest release from Jacqueline Carey (another favorite author of mine as mentioned here previously), Santa Olivia, a cool futuristic sci-fi-ish novel that kind of a take on the superhero genre apparently--I can't wait to read that soon as well, not to mention the first book in Carey's new Naamah series set generations later in the same verse as the Kushiel series, Naamah's Kiss, coming out later this month--between these two big releases, SH, and catching up on all the VA books this really will be the summer of Jacqueline Carey and Richelle Mead for me!