Favorite Summer Reads Blogfest - part 2

 

This is my second installment for Cherie Reich's Favorite Summer Reads Blogfest. I couldn't help but pick more than one book. There's so many great books out there right now.

Fantasy:

George R.R. Martin is one of the greatest fantasy authors out there today. He's brilliant. Bloody brilliant! He breaks all the rules and makes it work. A Dance With Dragons is the latest installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I've waited a long time for the book to come out. It didn't disappoint. He's a genius world creator and can twist a plot like you wouldn't believe. Then his characters, oh, his characters. I've met him and attended a few seminars at a convention where he was on the panel. I like that he says "there are no good guys or bad guys in my books. There are only characters with flaws." Some characters that you hate at the beginning of the series, you start to like as it goes on. Ones you thought were good turn out to be not so good. You don't expect it. Martin does what you least expect and it makes his series epic.

Urban Fantasy:

You can never go wrong with the Dresden Files. Ghost Story is the latest book in Jim Butcher's spectacular urban fantasy series. It's funny, dark, magical, amazing, and something I can't talk about it. Yes, it seems weird, but if I even describe the premise of this book, it would give spoilers as to what happened previously in the series. Let's just say that Harry Dresden is In Between and a lot of weird, scary stuff happens.

The summer isn't over yet! I have two books I'm waiting for from the library:
1) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I've heard fantastic things about the book. The cover is creepy and the book trailer, well, you have to watch it for yourself!
2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I realize I'm a little late getting on board with her trilogy, but a baby keeps you busy!

Teaser Tuesday for July 26th

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!

I'm reading A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. Awesome epic fantasy. He's absolutely brilliant. This book also has the POV's of my favorite characters in the series: Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion. I love Arya's storyline, too, but she's not in this one.

Here's the teaser:
Viserion hissed again. Smoke rose between his teeth, and deep down in his throat they could see gold fire churning. (page 670)

Asking advice on critiquing something good

I finished Smokin' Seventeen last night and I finally got my copy of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. Oh, I've been waiting years for this. In terms of fantasy, grit, world building, characterization, and breaking all the rules, Martin is my idol.

I have to set the book aside for the moment and focus on critiquing a few short stories for my writer's group. We're meeting this Saturday. Sometimes it's hard to critique stories. I'll find a few technical errors, but the story is sound. I offer my compliments. Then that's it. I feel like I'm not doing my job as a critique partner. Yet I don't know what else to say! Any advice?

I got one of my short zombie stories short listed yesterday. It's a medieval zombie story from a zombie's point of view. It would be cool to get published.