Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Colour in the Titles

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is Books with Colours in the Title.

When I looked at my books read spreadsheet, I realised that I could have done entire Top Ten lists of red and blue books. Instead, I am going to focus on the primary colours - red blue and yellow - to make up my list for this week.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chinamanda Ngozi Adiche - I have long had an interest in reading books set in Nigeria. This was a particularly good one.

The Girl in the Yellow Vest by Loretta Hill - This is a book features a female engineer working in a construction environment in Queensland. I really enjoyed Loretta Hill's writing. It doesn't look like she is writing anymore which is a shame.

The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey - I do enjoy a book set in Ireland. This one is set in Northern Ireland in the early years of the 1900's which was quite a tumultuous time.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland  - This book follows a painting of a girl (in hyacinth blue) through the years from owner to owner. I really enjoyed this book!

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - This is the third book in the Graceling YA fantasy series. Just thinking about this book makes me want to revist the series.

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith - This is the seventh book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and features a pair of talking shoes.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - This book holds a special place in my blogging heart. I read this book and I just wanted to talk to someone about it and it become the first book I wrote a review of. When I read it years later it wasn't a great review but it was the start of this blogging journey.

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan - Shaun Tan writes and illustrates the most amazing books. Whilst The Arrival is my favourite, and probably always will be, this was an enjoyable.

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley - Among the many series that I keep on saying I really need to get back to soon is the Flavia de Luce mystery series, featuring a precocious young girl as the sleuth. This is book 3 in the series.

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett - I am cheating for this last book because once you have all the primary colours you can make all the other colours, which quite frankly is magic!

What colourful reads do you have on your Top Ten list.

Tuesday Teaser: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

One of my most anticipated new releases for 2012 has been Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. It has felt as though we have been waiting for this book for ages and ages. Last year Kristin came to Melbourne and I went and bought Fire and Graceling to get signed and the question on everyones lips was 'when will Bitterblue be out?'. Finally, that time has come.

When I went to the library to pick this book up, I was really, really surprised at how big this book is. At nearly 550 pages, it is much bigger than both of the previous books but luckily I like big books. Not as much as I used to because there was a time that I bought my books based on how thick they were, but I am still happy to invest time into a big story and hopefully get lost in the pages.  I wasn't quite so appreciative when I chose this to be my commute book over the weekend when I was going to the convention I was at and had to carry it around all day! Should have chosen a smaller book for that but never mind.

So far, I am enjoying the story although the reader is only slowly being drawn into what is happening in the book but to be fair, the main character, Queen Bitterblue, is only slowly finding out what exactly went on in her kingdom previously and what is going on in her kingdom now.

For the teaser today, I thought I would share a section from pages 126-127

"How is your puzzle going?"

"Dreadfully," she said, grateful to him for remembering. "I have lords like Danzhol, who stole for Leck, connecting with thieves who are stealing the things back, connecting with a strange piece of misinformation about gargoyles my advisers gave me, connecting with other kinds of knowledge my advisers seem to prefer to discourage, connecting with knowledge the thieves would like to keep from me as well, such as why someone would stick knives in their guts. I don't understand the courtyard decoration either," she said grouchily, glaring at the shrubberies that a moment before had been delighting her.

"Hm," said Giddon. "I confess, it doesn't sound very illuminating.

"It's a disaster," Bitterblue said.

"Well," said Giddon with mild amusement. "Your great courtyard is lovely in the rain."

I am looking forward to reading more and getting lost in Bitterblue's kingdom when I get back on the train tomorrow morning!

Three things that make me happy

I love Elizabeth Hoyt's books so I would have been reading this book anyway, but the trailer for the upcoming Scandalous Desires made me laugh!




This makes me laugh every time I see it! And believe me, I have watched it quite a few times!




And in good news, we have a cover and a release date for Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore! The book comes out in May 2012 and I can't wait to read it!

*This post is bought to you due to the fact that I am procrastinating instead of finishing the reading so that I can write my readalong post for The Lantern Readalong post. It will be up tomorrow instead! Whoops.

Sunday Salon: That was the week that was!

In last week's Sunday Salon I talked about the week I had coming up. I said it was going to be busy and I was right!

I was out every night this week as well as trying to do Armchair BEA. I had so much fun participating in Armchair BEA again this week, but I did run out of steam by the end of the week. I had pre written 3 posts, plus a couple of reviews, but with not being home I didn't get time to write the final two posts. I do want in particular to address the question about community, but I will save that for a future Sunday Salon post I think.

I was lucky enough to be interviewed not once, but twice, and I won a book that I have really wanted to read ever since it started to be blogged about so that was great too! Firstly, I was interviewed over at the Armchair BEA site as part of a group of four international bloggers. I talked a LOT, but then again that probably won't be a surprise to any of my regular readers. Also, I was interviewed by Rebecca from Kindle Fever, and finally I was lucky enough to be given a shout out by The Book Gatherer as well!

Last week I mentioned that I was doing a couple of book related things. First of all, I went to see Cassandra Clare in person. The event was held at Westgarth Theatre, which is a gorgeous venue. The theatre has an art deco vibe and the interior is very much an old fashioned theatre - big comfy, plush seats, loads of leg room,  and little trays in between each seat where you can put your drink.

The evening started off with a drama presentation of one of the earliest scenes in City of Bones, where Clary has just come to the Institute with Jace and there is opposition. It must have been a lot of fun for Cassandra Clare to see that, although with the movie casting news coming thick and fast, I am sure that it is something that she will be getting used to!

Local author Leanne Hall dressed up as Magnus and interviewed Cassandra Clare, who did really well to get up on the stage in the first place. The stairs were a little precarious, and she was wearing high heels despite the fact that she currently has a broken toe. What a trooper! Then again, I gave up wearing high heels except when I absolutely have to years ago!

Among some of the things that were discussed was the movie process, and about how involved or otherwise the author is in the casting process. She also talked about her future plans in terms of the books she would like to write. There will be more books set in the same world as her current series, and there are some plans for a YA adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and maybe some kids books as well.

A lot of the discussion centred around the themes of the latest trilogy set in the Shadowhunter world, and amongst those there will be an exploration of the theme of falling from grace. There will also be some page space given to the fact that Jace really needs to discover who he is after the revelations of the last book in the previous trilogy.

There were lots of people in the audience who went all out in dressing up for the appearance, something I would never, ever do, but I do admire those who have the bravado to do that kind of thing!

I did buy the two latest books with the intention of getting them signed, but the place in the queue where I stood looked like it was going to be more than an hours wait, so I had to decide between standing in the queue for more than an hour in my not so comfortable boots, or actually get home at a reasonable time. It is a sign of my advancing maturity that I chose to go home!

As usual, my photos from this event are very average!

On Thursday night, we attempted to have a Melbourne book blogger meet up. Bree and I had a great time chatting, but that's about all I will say about that.

Friday night after work I went to go and see Kristin Cashore. There was a short time where she was signing books at the State Library so I went and got both Graceling and Fire. Of course, once I was standing in front of her, I couldn't think of a single thing to say to her. She was very gracious in taking the time to talk to everyone in the queue and I managed to get a photo too. Of course, if I look like I might have just rushed from one end of the city to the other, it would be because I had! Never mind!

This weekend, I managed to hurt my back getting washing out of the washing machine today and have house guests arriving soon. A quiet weekend was what I needed after a very busy week, but I could do with being able to move at least a little bit!

Teaser Tuesday: Fire by Kristin Cashore

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Earlier this year, I teased from  Kristin Cashore's debut novel Graceling. Now I am reading Fire, which is kind of a prequel, in that it is set in a nearby Kingdom to Graceling, but it is pretty much stand alone.

I am going to share a couple of teasers. The first comes from the beginning of Chapter 1 on page 17. I was going to do share this for Book Beginnings on Fridays which is hosted at Page Turners but then I had a dilemna because whilst this is the first two sentences of Chapter 1, there is quite a long prologue, which I have yet to find how it connects to the main story.

It did not surprise Fire that the man in the forest shot her. What surprised her was that he shot her by accident.

The other teaser comes from page 115:

Bathing in a cold lake posed some unforeseen challenges - like the little monster fish, for example, that swarmed around her when she dunked her hair, and the monster bugs that tried to eat her alive, and the need for a special guard of archers just in case of predators. But despite the production of it all, it was good to be clean.

I already know that I am looking forward to the next book from this author!

Teaser Tuesday - Graceling

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Why is it so hard to find a teaser some times. I had to flick through quite a few pages of Graceling by Kristin Cashore before I found something that was suitable. Even then, I am going to actually use four sentences instead of two. This teaser comes from page 102:

She had trusted him. She had trusted him, and she should not have. He had misrepresented himself, misrepesented his Grace. And that was the same as if he'd lied.