Heartless

Great line!

RoseBlood

By AG Howard

It's a Phantom of the Opera retelling. That's not a favorite of mine to begin with. I didn't love it.

The characters were okay - but Rune especially was kind of obnoxious. The concept was interesting and the setting was neat- but I just didn't really buy the romance or care much about what happened.

The text was red, so that was cool.

Unhooked

Neverland/Peter Pan retelling

It wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't bad. I liked the idea that the island stole memories. I disliked the Queen - her character and her role in the story.

Research class reading

Doing homework for my first PhD class - research. Came across this term: Paradigm Wars.
Sounds awesome.
I need to work it in a story somehow.

Soulless

By Gail Carriger

Paperback
370 pages

This book was a gift from my Owlcrate Secret Santa.

I had never heard of the series before (this is #1) but I am in love!

It's set in Victorian England - and is deliciously steampunky.

The protagonist is a spinster - not beautiful in the way that society demands. She's also smart (a bluestocking) assertive, and completely lacking in soul (- it has perks!).

Society has embraced werewolves, vampires, and ghosts; however while stealing a quiet moment at a ball, Alexia is rudely accosted by a vampire who has no apparent knowledge of manners, acceptable dress, or the rules of comportment.

She kills him in self defense. With her hair stick. And parasol.

And thus is she sucked into the mystery of where he came from, where others have disappeared to, and how the supernatural are made. Along the way, she is helped (and is distracted by) the local Alpha Werewolf.

The book made me laugh, I'm a good way, and I'm definitely interested in reading the other books - although the story did come to a satisfactory conclusion.

This book is what I wanted Jane and the Damned to be.

Vindictive Punctuation (poem)

Poisoned Apple's
Poetry by Christie Heppermann

Illuminae

By Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Hardback

599 pages

I've been reading this book for weeks. I read 6 other books while I read this book.

On the surface - it's amazing; I especially love the crazy formatting.

Kady Grant - whose name I often forgot while reading and usually just mentally revered to as ByteMe - is part of a tag tag fugitive fleet...

Wait, it's not Battlestar Galactica.

Anyway, the refugee fleet is laboriously trying to survive and make it to safety while another ship hunts them down.

But - there is a contagion spreading through the fleet. Also, the battleship guarding them suffered major damage during the initial skirmish, rendering their systems faulty.

I had some trouble getting into it. Everything about it did seem compelling, but the way it was told - through transcripts etc. - gave me a bit too much distance from the characters. It didn't feel urgent to me. 

However, it did keep me coming back to it, and the last third is when I really got into the swing of it.

I know that there is a sequel/second book (oh, this is the start of a trilogy) however, I don't know that I feel the burning need to go get the next installment.

Baking Buttermilk bread-

Today I woke up and knew that all I wanted to do was bake and read.

So I tried to make buttermilk honey bread.

I used this recipe - which was literally the first one to come up on a Google search.

http://www.restlesschipotle.com/buttermilk-bread/

First, I couldn't find the yeast.
Well I found the jar in the spice cabinet - expired and open and unrefrigerated. Thought about using it anyway - but then I found the new and sealed and unexpired jar hiding in the pantry. Yay!

So I threw out the foamy experiment of old yeast and started fresh.

Next I needed to add buttermilk. Our powdered buttermilk had gone bad.
I threw it away.
I considered giving up.
I looked up substitutes for buttermilk.
You can do it, apparently, by adding a little white vinegar to normal milk.
Weird.

So I made bread.

I burned the tops a bit - but I like it that way.

Yum.

Howl's Moving Castle

By Diana Wynne Jones

I read this book today. I got up around 9 and alternated between reading and baking bread. 6 hours later - done.

It was cute, though I wish it hasn't turned out so love story in the end.

A Monster Calls

By Ness

The protagonist is a 13 year old boy whose mother has cancer. He has horrible nightmares and starts talking to monster who manifests from the yew tree in his back yard.

It made me cry.
So much.

...such an amazing book.

And it is also full of pretty art.

Throne of Glass Series

Also Maas

All of them up through Empire of Storms - but not Assassin's Blade (prequel novellas).

Interesting plot, but a bit basic - light versus dark blah blah blah. The characters are neat - I love Manon the Ironteeth Witch so much! - and there is some complexity to the storyline.

What a cliffhanger!
And I don't think that the next one is out until September 2017. Pout.

A Court of...

Thorns and Roses
Mist and Fury

By Maas

Good books! I found the fairy tale retelling elements to the first one kind of distracting - but the world is great and I adore some of the characters.
Excited to read the next one in May.