Book Blogger Hop October 22-25

In the spirit of the Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky at Crazy-For-Books!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event!

Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

This week's question comes from Becky who blogs at Becky's Barmy Book Blog:

"Where is your favorite place to read? Curled up on the sofa, in bed, in the garden?"

My answer: in bed (or in the tub -- I get a lot of reading done there as well).

A Slew of Zombie Reads for Halloween

It's a zombie-tastic Halloween season this year! Whoa! Thought I'd put together a list of some of the recommended zombie reading for you guys.

First, if you didn't know, AMC's new show, The Walking Dead, premieres on Halloween.

Two oldies but goodies I have on my TBR stack for this month are: World War Z by Max Brooks and Breathers by S.G. Browne, both currently being adapted into film.

Some newbies in my TBR: Pariah by Bob Fingerman, Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and John Dies at the End by David Wong.

On my wishlist: Dust by Joan Frances Turner and Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

And recently read: Autumn by David Moody and Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen (sequel, Flip This Zombie, due out in Jan), and of course, Carrie Ryan's fantastic Forest of Hands and Teeth and Dead Tossed Waves.

And just for fun: Mark Henry's trash-mouthed fashionista zombie heroine, Amanda Feral, always makes for fun reading and the recently released Hungry For Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance looks like a blast!

Not enough walking dead for you. Guess what?! Permuted Press is a publisher devoted to apocalyptic horror (and that means lots of zombies!).

Anywho, I'm working on getting my zombie fix this month. Hope this helps you guys out as well. I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton here, so if you've got a rec to add, feel free!

A Supernatural Read You Shouldn't Miss!

I'm getting into my horror reads of the month, but first I had to post this one. A few weeks ago, I spent an absolutely fantastic day reading Camille DeAngelis's latest, Petty Magic: Being the Memoirs and Confessions of Miss Evelyn Harbinger, Temptress and Troublemaker.

Oh, how can I express to you just how fabulous Evelyn Harbinger is?! She has got to be one of my favorite characters of the year. I'm not kidding. I've read some fantastic books in 2010 and will be narrowing down my best of list very soon, but Evelyn stands out amongst the crowd as just a wonderfully imagined character.

In the story, Evelyn, a 149-year-old beldame (that's witch to the rest of us), still has a good time putting on a pretty facade and seducing single men. Though she can't keep it up for too long, which is unfortunate when she begins to fall for a man over a century her junior. See, in all her years, Evelyn has only once fallen in love. Jonah died after WWII and she can't help but think of him whenever she is around Justin. Meanwhile, Evelyn's sister has been accused of murdering her ex-husband, whose death occurred years ago. Though it will be tough after all these years, Evelyn and her family are determined to prove her innocence.

Petty Magic is funny and magical -- truly one of the best books you could read all year. This is DeAngelis's second release. Her first, Mary Modern, is something of a play on Frankenstein and Mary Shelley.

Weekend Reading Marathon

Wow! So this past weekend was a pretty successful one on the TBR front, especially since I didn't step foot in the bookstore and buy more : )

I was sorely tempted.

Here's the weekend breakdown -- Mike attending our friends' wedding festivities and me holding down the fort: two (yep, two) bad chick flicks (and as I write this, a third UK chick comedy waiting in the wings), dinner with a friend, one yoga class (one is better than none!), and three finished reads. Yep, three! Friday was my bad day as far as making a choice, but I finished one Saturday and two on Sunday (and since I'm preposting, the day's not quite over).

And what's that? No Naughty Bear! Not at all! In fact, I didn't spend all that much time channel surfing, playing Bejeweled, or sitting and staring at the bookshelves either. Well, not too much time staring at the bookshelves. I bought a new shelf on Friday and spent the evening reorganizing. It was productive staring for the most part!

Anywho, the first book knocked out of the stack this weekend was a new historical fiction about the Countess of Bathory. I kind of wasn't sure what to expect from this one. The Countess of Bathory, as you may know, has inspired horrific tales throughout the years (and a horrifically bad horror movie as well -- and why was it set in New Orleans, I'd really like to know?!).

Bathory, a seventeenth century Hungarian countess, was dubbed a vampire and said to have bathed in her servants' blood. Rebecca Johns's book, based on existing records of the time, paints a different picture of the Countess. In The Countess, Erzsebet Bathory was raised in a privileged household and married into her title. Her obsession with keeping an orderly home and making sure that she was viewed and respected as master led her to extreme punishment tactics with her servants.

Interestingly, Johns does touch briefly on the possibility that Bathory's own punishment may have been somewhat politically motivated, but I didn't really feel that it was a strong part of the book. It really is a fascinating look at a woman I didn't know much about, though. I also found it interesting, and maybe I was reading too much into it, that I felt as though there was a hint of perverse obsession with violence in Bathory's husband as well. It's not until he sees Bathory humiliatingly punishing a servant girl that he begins to show interest in his own wife. I don't know. Reminds me of another historic couple... (and I happen to know there's a book coming out about them soon).

The Countess showed, I think, a lot of restraint for Johns. Honestly, the book could have gone so many different ways, playing on the legend of Bathory. All in all, I think it stands on its own feet among other fictional historic bios. Johns's style kept me captivated and Bathory's story is truly fascinating.

New Releases 10/19/10

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

First of State by Robert Greer -- a prequel to the CJ Floyd series

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick -- sequel to Hush, Hush

Nightshade by Andrea Creamer

The Rebel Prince by Celine Kiernan -- third in the Moorehawke Trilogy

Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury

All Jacked Up by Lorelei James

All Clear by Connie Willis

New on DVD:

Predators

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

The Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman

The Perfect Love Song by Patti Callahan Henry

The Cold Ones by J.T. Ellison

Pre Pub Book Buzz -- Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

So I've been using my Saturdays here to post about books that aren't out on shelves yet. Books that I'm particularly jazzed about. Sometimes, I've had the opportunity to read them ahead of time and am able to post my own review here. Most of the time, though, it's a preview for all of us.

Such is the case with Greg Bear's latest, Hull Zero Three. Now, I've not heard much about this one just yet, though it is due out on shelves November 22. But, Orbit in all their fabulousness, posted the first three chapters as a teaser on Tuesday. You can check that out here. And, here's the synopsis from Bear's own website:

A starship hurtles through the emptiness of space. Its destination-unknown. Its purpose-a mystery. Now, one man wakes up. Ripped from a dream of a new home-a new planet and the woman he was meant to love in his arms-he finds himself wet, naked, and freezing to death. The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger.

All he has are questions-- Who is he? Where are they going? What happened to the dream of a new life? What happened to Hull 03?

All will be answered, if he can survive the ship.

HULL ZERO THREE is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride through the darkest reaches of space.

I'm totally intrigued! Sounds slightly in line with Pandorum, no? Well, we'll just have to wait and see. Given the fact that I've enjoyed each Orbit book I've tried, I've no doubt this will be a favorite!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Oh, man! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! And with Halloween, and the wedding, looming in just weeks...

I'm already starting to think Thanksgiving dinner (I seem to collect potential recipes for a month and then whittle them down) and I'm seeing Christmas stuff advertised already. Agh!

I'm also seeing some Christmas themed books hitting shelves, including Patti Callahan Henry's The Perfect Love Song, which hit shelves today.

To go along with the release, Callahan Henry is offering up a super cool contest. Using the lyrics provided in the book, fans can try their hand at writing their own perfect love song. The winner gets a $250 gift card!

Contest begins today and ends December 31, 2010. For more, visit the author's official contest page at: http://patticallahanhenry.com/content/contest.asp

In the book, Jimmy Sullivan writes a song. A love song for his girlfriend Charlotte. A song that's all about undeserved love. When folks start hearing the song played at Jimmy's band's shows, they dub it the perfect Christmas Song, something that gets Jimmy national attention. But as Jimmy's fame grows, he risks losing everything he holds dear.

The Perfect Love Song is a holiday novella that continues a tale begun in When Light Breaks.