Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Really Want to Meet (Besides Kevin Hearne)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Books That I Would Really Like to Meet



1. Kevin Hearne
Author of The Iron Druid Chornicles
I fangirl for him so hard, that I'm surprised that he hasn't put a restraining order against me. Well, maybe if I COULD ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO A DAMNED SIGNING (!!!) he would. *sigh* The closest he's came to me is Dallas, but something always comes up. One day, I'll make it, and I'm sure there will be millions of people in line because he's so awesome.

Sad Kayla is sad.





2. Neil Gaiman
Author of Coraline, Neverwhere, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, American Gods, Sandman and many more terrific books
I loved Good Omens first out of all of his books, but I think The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the only one that I've read that I didn't love. I also love love love The Doctor's Wife, the episode of Doctor Who that he wrote. (I didn't care for Nightmare in Silver as much, but it's probably because I hate Clara.) Anywho, he's a handsome man who writes good stuff.

Audiobook Review: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Title: A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)
Author: George R.R. Martin
Narrator: Roy Dotrice
Publisher: Bantam Spectra (Random House)
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Release Date: November 16, 1998
George R. R. Martin, a writer of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination, has created a landmark of fantasy fiction. In his widely acclaimed A Game of Thrones, he introduced us to an extraordinary world of wonder, intrigue, and adventure. Now, in the eagerly awaited second volume in this epic saga, he once again proves himself a master myth-maker, setting a standard against which all other fantasy novels will be measured for years to come.

Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead...victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.

As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky—a comet the color of blood and flame—six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard’s son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King’s Landing. Robert’s two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.

A Clash of Kings transports us into a magnificent, forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare. It is a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, brother plots against brother, and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside.

Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel . . . and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.

Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment—a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.

My Review

You can read my review of book one, A Game of Thrones, HERE.

If you are wondering about the look of concentration on my face and the strange little dance that I'm doing, that would just be me kicking myself in the ass for not picking up these books sooner. Yes, these volumes are large and intimidating, but A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the best fantasy series that I've ever read.

Audiobook Review: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Title: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)
Author: George R.R. Martin
Narrator: Roy Dotrice
Publisher: Bantam Spectra (Random House)
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Release Date: August 6, 1996
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

My Review

Hello there, am I late to the party?

*looks around*

I suspected as much.

Yes, I realize that I'm coming into a series nearly two decades after its ascent into awesomedom, but I finally made it you guys! That's what counts, right? I mean, I'm one of those people who wants to wait until the series is finished to begin it because, hello? After eighteen years, there are only five books out. Kayla is not patient enough to wait so long to find out what happens to characters. But that's neither here nor there.

Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors Read In 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2013



1. Harper Lee
Author of To Kill a Mockingbird
I can’t believe I waited until after I graduated from law school and became a lawyer before I ever read this book. This really is a book that everyone should read as it displays the best and worst of humans in general and Americans in particular – bravery and honesty and racism and hatred.

Reading with No Expectations

First of all, why do I get ideas to write a post when I’m about to fall asleep and have nowhere to write? I wrote pretty much this whole post last night and now I only remember bits and pieces… GAH!

Second of all, I should be working instead of writing this. But if I do, I’d have forgotten even more of what I wanted to say. So… PROCRASTINATION ON! *whirring sound*

I’ve been reading a book recently called Wild Cards, an anthology edited by George R.R. Martin. The idea sounded interesting, with ordinary people gaining super powers. The editor is famous and supposedly a REALLY good writer. (Confession time – I have never read anything by Mr. Martin... Now I feel dirty...) Yes, I recognized the names of some of the authors in the anthology, such as George R.R. Martin, Roger Zelazny, so on and so forth. So it should have been an enjoyable experience, right?