Endings are Bittersweet

The last two books that I have read have been endings to some of my favorite series. The Return of the King, and Goliath. I am sure pretty much everyone reading this is familiar with the former, but the latter, for those who don't know is the third book in the Leviathan trilogy by Scot Westerfeld. It is a YA Steampunk that I just adore! now I am not going to review either of these, first of all because they are both 10 out of 5s for me and it would only be a total lovefest, which I do sometimes, but I'll just have this be conjoined, and second of all (for Lord of the Rings) I have made it a rule not to review Classics, and LOTR in my opinion is a Classic.

About Goliath, I just have to say: WOW. The ending was everything I hoped it would be. You know how sometimes you read a book, and you love the series, but the finale is so different from what you expected, and not in a good way, that it is jarring to read? Well, Goliath is not like that. I won't give anything away for those who plan on reading it, but if you love the series and just haven't had the chance to get your hands on a copy yet, I would suggest you do at the very next opportunity. And if you weren't acquainted with Mr. Westerfeld's Steampunk trilogy, now you are and I HIGHLY recommend them for anyone who likes that genre even a bit.

p.s. If you've never read a Steampunk novel before, they are pretty freakin' awesome, so why not let this series be your first?

Anyway, I hope you all are having a great week!

~ Larissa

Follow Friday and New Favicon

Q. What book that hasn't been turned into a movie (yet) would you most like to see make it to the big screen, and who would you like cast as your favorite character?

A. There are so many, and like one of the features answers one of them is If I Stay and Where She Went. But since I just finished them I am going to say that I would like the books from the Leviathan Trilogy to be made into movies. One of my favorite characters in these books is Deryn/Dylan Sharp. (Deryn is a girl who has to pretend to be a boy and goes by Dylan). I would definitely want her played by Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, Hanna). And she already has a lilting accent, so it's perfect!!!


P.S. If you would look up at the URL box (or whatever its called) for a moment you will notice that my ravenous little turtle ate the Blogger B and now resides in the Favicon box!


I'd love to hear your answer for follow friday this week!!!

Follow Friday

Q. Do you have a favorite series that you read over and over again? Tell us a bit about it and why you keep on revisiting it?

A. Seeing as I never have enough time to read as it is, and seeing how so many great new books come out all the time, I don't reread books much unless there is a movie coming out of it. One series that I can think of retracing for non-movie purposes is The Mortal Instruments series. I reread the first three while I waited for the fourth to come out (the wait about killed me, and I'm not in that much better shape for the fifth). I reread them because I love them. Pure and simple!

What did you choose this week? I'd love to hear your answer!

I have been tagged!

The Rules: list ten facts about yourself, link back to your tagger, and then tag five more people!

I was tagged by the awesome Amanda @ Truth, Justice, and Other Stuff

Ten Facts:
1. I am allergic to gluten. (Which is in a lot more stuff than you would think).
2. I have a twin, but we are fraternal. So we could never play pranks on teachers by wearing the same clothing and switching our names or anything like that.
3. My favorite number is 19
4. I have a bad habit of biting my nails, but every time I try to use nail clippers I cut myself down to the quick so I revert back to biting.
5. There has never been a time in my life when I haven't had a pet.
6. I have a thing for movie trailer music, and have several albums of it on my ipod. (I love how there are groups that just do music for movie trailers!)
7. I decided that I wanted to be a bookworm when I was four.
8. If I could spend a day shopping for clothes with a fictional character, it would either be with Cinna or Magnus Bane.
9. Autumn is my favorite season
10. My favorite food is pho, the vietnamese soup. Man that stuff is AMAZING!

My tagees:

1. A Novella's Tale
2. An Alleged Author
3. Fragments of Fiction
4. The Sagacity Quest
5. The Non Reluctant Reader

Good Movie, but a mini-rant/ discussion is in order

This weekend I saw the movie Contagion. For the most part it was a great film, the writing and dialogue were good, the pacing was great, and it was so star-studded that it could make the Milky Way feel incompetent. But it had something that I disliked and took away some of the enjoyment (if that's what you call it when you watch a film about a killer disease) for me. Jude Laws's character plays a freelance writer/blogger, and I don't want to give away anything for those who haven't yet seen this film, but he is criticized and portrayed in such a way that makes independent journalists and bloggers look bad. At one point in the movie a scientist says that blogs are nothing more than 'graffiti with punctuation'. Now I know book blogging isn't exactly the same thing as political blogging, but I do have a respect for those writers. And yes, sometimes you have to wade through some obvious rubbish to find stories of intrigue, but it isn't as if the national newspapers are the gods of information either. If "all the news that's fit to print" really fit in my copy of the New York Times, it would probably take a tank to pull one to my house and the amazon rainforest would have bit the dust a long time ago.

Anyway, now that that's out of my system, I would love to hear what your two cents about all this is. (If you have seen the movie and don't agree with me I'd love it if you'd say so too, the world would be a boring place if we agreed with each other all the time).

I hope you guys have a great week!

~ Larissa

200+ Followers!!!

I can't believe! I now have over 200 followers!!! I just want to thank everyone who has read my blog and liked it enough to follow. I love you all for your encouragement and support in my reading/writing endeavors, you have made some days that were really crummy a whole lot better for me!

Anyway, thanks again!

Happy reading!!!

~Larissa

Follow Friday

Q.It's that pesky magic book fairy again! She has another wish: What imaginary book world would you like to make a reality?

A. Wow, hmm *scans GoodReads Read pile and crosses out all dystopian* I would love to have the world of the Shadowhunters be real (as long as I were a shadowhunter too and not a helpless Mundie). Also being in the world of The Golden Compass would be awesome! I would have my own daemon!! If the magical book fairy could open up a portal for me to a realm that isn't an altered version of our Earth, I would want to go to Middle Earth though!

What did you choose? I'd love to hear your answer, so please feel free to leave a link!

Follow Friday

Q. Have you ever wanted a villain to win at the end of a story? If so, which one?

A. Wow that's a tough one, but so far I'm pretty sure the answer is no. There are nuanced characters who aren't all bad who I think were treated too harshly, but that's not really the question. I imagine I would start rooting for a villain if the main character REALLY bugged me to the point where I didn't care anymore. But I think this question is really hard because characters aren't black and white, so it isn't always clear who is 'good and who is 'bad'.

I would love to hear some specific answers since I am drawing a blank on any of my own! Please don't be shy to share a link!

My Review was Featured!

Some of you may remember that I gave a 5 star review for Nichole Chase's Mortal Obligation a little while back. Well, recently Ms. Chase contacted me via GoodReads and told me that her book was going to be featured on The Frugal eReader and wanted to use my review on her feature. I was only too happy to agree and she told me she would email me when the post went live. I just got that email today, so I am super excited to have a review of mine posted on someone else's blog!

Thanks again to Nichole Chase, and to the Frugal eReader!

Here is the link if anyone is interested to check it out: Feature Link

Follow Friday

Q. If you could change the ending of any book (or series), which book would you choose? Why and to what?

A. Hm. there are a few that I might want changed, the major two that I can think of is I wish that Gale wouldn't have been such an *insert word of choice here - I am going with insensitive idiot* at the end of Mockingjay. Also at the end of the Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy by Libba Bray, I was super unhappy about Kartik, all I could think was 'Really?!? I wait an entire trilogy just for that to happen to him?' sorry, I don't want to give anything away, but if you have read those books I think you know what I mean.

What was your answer? I'd love to know so please leave a link!