Reading in cool

Sarah, Mark and I have been chatting for some time now about some changes we would like to implement here on MFB going into 2012. I know, it’s crazy that we are already thinking that far ahead but we are proactive little readerly bloggers.
The biggest change will probably be that we will no longer take part in blog tours. Blog tours have had their day as far as we are concerned. They have saturated the blogging community and it is hard work to set up, both for the publicity people and for the authors who are asked to contribute. We have looked at each blog tour very closely and have found that our reviews and interviews with authors are far far far more popular.
A further thing that will be changing for all three of us is that we will definitely be reading an even wider selection of books and will be doing our utmost to not just concentrate on the new and current, but to give some of the older unread and some old favourite books a re-read and review them, and where we can, catch up with the author to see what they have been up to since.
Back when I started MFB, all those dark years ago when blogging was new and publishers thought bloggers were some weird space-aliens and bloggers were terrified of talking to publishers and publicity people, my big aim was that I wanted to highlight books that did not get the chance to be shouted about, not because the publishers weren’t enthusiastic about it, but purely because there was no money to push these books. And that got us thinking. We all three speak to a lot of booksellers and it is these guys’ job to know about not just the big titles but the smaller sneaky titles and so we will be featuring book recommends from our friends over at Foyles and Waterstones and Big Green Books once a month. It’s a crazy idea and I hope we can pull it off.
Basically what I am saying is that MFB will be going back to its roots. We love getting new titles, but there will be a genuine balance now between old and new or rather, not so new. We’ve occasionally tried, because we were asked very nicely by our publicity friends, to review a book by a certain date. At the moment books we receive are added to our shelves and we get to them as and when we can. Mostly we review our books just before or after publishing date - this too will change. It will be even more random than before purely because we don’t want to flood the review stream our readers are seeing with the same thing at the same time. And more importantly, rushing reads are never fun and you can tell by the reviews - and if it is one thing we pride ourselves on, it is our honestly and quality of reviews.
If a book gets highlighted too much by too many people, I tend to leave it be on purpose. I don’t like the hype, but sometimes, sometimes we can’t help but get caught up in the hype because genuinely, you fall for the author and the writing because the story is just that bloody good. Case in point: Daughter of Smoke and Bones. So occasionally, you will be asked to forgive us for our lapse into hype.
I think the blog will still be pretty much divided between adult and younger titles but we will definitely be showcasing more genre novels for all ages. I am really missing my fantasy books and need to immerse myself in their luxurious worlds so prepare for an onslaught soon.
As most of our readers know, all three of us on MFB are aspiring writers. I am sure you may have noticed how many of our questions to authors we interview are about writing and process and their journeys and inspirations. This will continue to be a big focus for us on MFB as I know we have a lot of other aspiring writers reading the site and every bit of inspiration must be shared.
But the big thing behind MFB is still: reading and loving books and introducing new authors and especially shouting about books we think our readers may have missed. All of this will become more apparent as we near 2012 and we draw a line under one of the busiest years on MFB.
As the year progresses there will be more news, about more changes, but that is still in the future. In the meantime, thank you for reading MFB and for all your support!

Bitterblue

Isn't this a gorgeous cover? It belongs to Kristin Cashore’s upcoming new novel Bitterblue. This is of course the US cover and we've not yet seen the UK cover. Personally, I don't care what the cover looks like (weird for fickle me, I know) I am just so excited about reading Bitterblue. Kristin Cashore's writing is dreamy and gorgeous and rich and deep. I loved Fire and I fell in love with Graceling and I just can't come up with enough words to describe how her writing blew me away. I actually told a friend recently that when I grow up, I would love to be able to write like Kristin Cashore.
I digress, more about Ms. Cashore and Bitterblue:
Here is my review of Graceling. Here is my review of Fire.
I was over at Publishers Weekly and the article caught my eye, here's a bit of an excerpt:
“I was thrilled when I saw the keys and that they look a little like weapons,” Cashore told PW in a phone interview. “It’s absolutely the best icon for this book, although I better not say more about that. I love all the covers but this one is my favorite.”
Dial will publish Bitterblue, a companion to Cashore’s bestsellers Graceling (Harcourt, 2008) and Fire (Dial, 2009) on May 1, 2012 but this first look at the cover ought to tantalize her many fans.
The novel, which has an announced first printing of 200,000 copies and clocks in at a hefty 576 pages, picks up eight years after Graceling,with Bitterblue now 18 and the reigning queen of Monsea. Cashore says the story constitutes more of a companion than a strict sequel. Graceling fans, however, will likely be thrilled to learn that the heroine of that book – the different-colored-eyed Katsa – returns in Bitterblue, as does her lover, Po.
For Cashore, the completion of her third novel allows her to take a deep breath – of relief. “Fire was such an emotionally hard book for me to write that when I started Bitterblue I vowed to write something light and fun,” Cashore said. “I was well into it before I had the realization that if light and fun is what you’re after you probably shouldn’t have a main character whose father murdered her mother.”
Indeed, nothing about the process of completing Bitterblue turned out to be light or fun. The first draft took nearly three years to write, and was met with a long revision letter from her editor, Kathy Dawson.
“There was one line [in Dawson’s editorial letter] that nearly caused me to panic, but turned out to be exactly the right piece of advice,” Cashore recalled. “[Kathy] wrote, ‘Would you ever consider starting from scratch?’ And that was what I needed to do. I needed to start over now that I knew exactly where the story was going. The plot didn’t change dramatically but the way everything came together did.”
Cashore certainly is her own tough act to follow. Graceling found a place on three Best Books lists in 2008; Fire received six starred reviews, including one from PW.
“With every book she writes, Kristin becomes a more accomplished writer,” says Dawson, who acquired and published Graceling while at Harcourt, and is now associate publisher and editorial director for fiction at Dial. “For this one, she learned all about codes and ciphers. She even hired a linguist to create an entire language! It felt like a long waiting period, but Bitterblue was worth every single minute.”
If you've not yet read these books...I urge you to go out and buy them immediately. They are aces.

Bitterblue

Isn't this a gorgeous cover? It belongs to Kristin Cashore’s upcoming new novel Bitterblue. This is of course the US cover and we've not yet seen the UK cover. Personally, I don't care what the cover looks like (weird for fickle me, I know) I am just so excited about reading Bitterblue. Kristin Cashore's writing is dreamy and gorgeous and rich and deep. I loved Fire and I fell in love with Graceling and I just can't come up with enough words to describe how her writing blew me away. I actually told a friend recently that when I grow up, I would love to be able to write like Kristin Cashore.
I digress, more about Ms. Cashore and Bitterblue:
Here is my review of Graceling. Here is my review of Fire.
I was over at Publishers Weekly and the article caught my eye, here's a bit of an excerpt:
“I was thrilled when I saw the keys and that they look a little like weapons,” Cashore told PW in a phone interview. “It’s absolutely the best icon for this book, although I better not say more about that. I love all the covers but this one is my favorite.”
Dial will publish Bitterblue, a companion to Cashore’s bestsellers Graceling (Harcourt, 2008) and Fire (Dial, 2009) on May 1, 2012 but this first look at the cover ought to tantalize her many fans.
The novel, which has an announced first printing of 200,000 copies and clocks in at a hefty 576 pages, picks up eight years after Graceling,with Bitterblue now 18 and the reigning queen of Monsea. Cashore says the story constitutes more of a companion than a strict sequel. Graceling fans, however, will likely be thrilled to learn that the heroine of that book – the different-colored-eyed Katsa – returns in Bitterblue, as does her lover, Po.
For Cashore, the completion of her third novel allows her to take a deep breath – of relief. “Fire was such an emotionally hard book for me to write that when I started Bitterblue I vowed to write something light and fun,” Cashore said. “I was well into it before I had the realization that if light and fun is what you’re after you probably shouldn’t have a main character whose father murdered her mother.”
Indeed, nothing about the process of completing Bitterblue turned out to be light or fun. The first draft took nearly three years to write, and was met with a long revision letter from her editor, Kathy Dawson.
“There was one line [in Dawson’s editorial letter] that nearly caused me to panic, but turned out to be exactly the right piece of advice,” Cashore recalled. “[Kathy] wrote, ‘Would you ever consider starting from scratch?’ And that was what I needed to do. I needed to start over now that I knew exactly where the story was going. The plot didn’t change dramatically but the way everything came together did.”
Cashore certainly is her own tough act to follow. Graceling found a place on three Best Books lists in 2008; Fire received six starred reviews, including one from PW.
“With every book she writes, Kristin becomes a more accomplished writer,” says Dawson, who acquired and published Graceling while at Harcourt, and is now associate publisher and editorial director for fiction at Dial. “For this one, she learned all about codes and ciphers. She even hired a linguist to create an entire language! It felt like a long waiting period, but Bitterblue was worth every single minute.”

Robin Hood

In 13th-century England, the legendary figure known by generations as Robin Hood leads an uprising that will forever alter the balance of world power and will make one man of humble beginnings an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.
An expert archer once interested only in self-preservation, Robin now serves in King Richard’s army. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation. There he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion, who is skeptical of the motivations of this mysterious crusader from the forest.
Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and to save the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct the injustices of the sheriff.

The Robin Hood statue as it is in Nottingham
Robin Hood was an outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is now known for “robbing from the rich and giving to the poor”, assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his “Merry Men”.Traditionally Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes. The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.
Robin Hood became a popular folk figure starting in the medieval period continuing through modern literature, films, and television. In the earliest sources Robin Hood is a yeoman, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.
So seriously… doesn’t that sound a lot like Robin Hood? That’s ’cause it is! I kid – but really this audio was all action, all testosterone, strong men who fight for their women…
ahhh… I admit it – I do like the era… I like men who act like men (packing a bow and arrow doesn’t hurt either…) and women who wear the long beautiful dresses but are still tough….
whats not to love?
I have seen the movie Men In Tights (no, I am not proud but there it is…) and probably a cartoon or two in the past, but not this movie as pictured here on the cover of my audio.
And I did enjoy it. I have never read anything about Robin Hood before… haven’t even really sat through a movie about him… so this was really an experience. I wasn’t sure going in if it would be a fit for me but it was funny and full of energy.
Thanks Tanya with Black Stone Audio who hooked me up with one at BEA!

In The Woods

Rob Ryan, along with his partner Cassie Maddox land the biggest murder case of their police careers when a 12-year-old girl has been found murdered in the woods by a Dublin Suburb. For Cassie, this is the career boost of a lifetime…
but for Ryan it is something more…
Twenty years previous, Ryan (then Adam) at the same age that the now murdered girl was, was part of a group of three best friends that entered that same woods feeling their whole lives were before them… Ryan was the only one to leave the woods, his sneakers covered in blood, with no memory as to what happened… the other two children, were never found.
No one knows about Ryan’s's past history with the woods or the connection the two children never found… no one, except Cassie.
Although stir carrying many scars from his own experience, Ryan does his best to push the past back into the past while applying all his skills to find the killer of the present… yet in his subconsciousness, he can not help but wonder if the two are not somehow linked together…
“What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with the truth is fundamental, but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame of every move we make, and we pursue it with strategies painstakingly constructed of lies … and every variation on deception. The truth is the most desirable woman in the world and we are the most jealous lovers, reflexively denying anyone else the slightest glimpse of her. We betray her routinely … This is my job … What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this–two things: I crave truth. And I lie.”
~Opening to In The Woods by Tana French
This audio is a case of internet buzz that brought me make this purchase. I had heard Tana French was an incredible writer, I had heard that the audio was fantastic… knowing that I can get to audio and through audio faster than I can another book on the pile, I went audio.
Diving into this audio I was instantly engrossed in the back story of Ryan’s childhood nightmare and believed this was going to be an incredible story. I have always enjoyed a great murder mystery, probably one of the earliest genres of choice in my youth reading career (oh yes… I feel it is a career
) so I settled in for an amazing ride…
I enjoyed the play back and forth by police partners Ryan and Cassie… I loved that Cassie was not a dopey girly girl but a strong and vile partner to Ryan… what he missed she found, and vise versa.
As the story unfolds into a great and disturbing tale of a family with too many secrets, and the entwining of the two stories both past and present I felt like a kid on the edge of my seat holding the book tight and the blanket up to just below my eyes tighter.
And then just when I was think this book.audio was a rave… the end failed big time for me. It failed so big in fact… I thought I must have missed something. It could not end that way I thought… I have strings left over… they are unraveled… where is my somewhat neat package tied up in a bow?
But no – no package… and no bow.
I even looked at a few other reviews to make sure that I accurate that there was no closure… and its true… at least as far as I am concerned I felt a little cheated in the end, like I was building excitement on this rollercoaster – up,up,up and then…
no exciting drop…. just flat.
Will I read Tana French again? Absolutely… I hear her book The Likeness (also featuring Cassie Maddox) is pretty awesome… so yeah, I will try again.