Amanda A. Allen's Blog, page 11

July Reads

Do you remember my TBR list?  Here it is again if you don’t.

Did I finish it.  Please.  As. If.  No.  No, I didn’t.

But, this is what I did read and whether I recommend them:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  Recommended?  Yes.  It’s a fun little story.  I’m planning to work my way through the whole series.  We’ll see.  I’m totally a flake with this kind of goal.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.  Recommended?  No, not really  Whateves on this one.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.  Recommended?  Yes.  It’s not fun, but it is amazing.

The Baby Sleep Solution by Suzy Giordano.  I won’t bother to recommend or not.  Non-fiction book about babies sleeping.  Color me exhausted.

The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  Recommended?  This book has a clear polticial purpose which makes it a combination of hard reading and funny.  It’s sort of bi-polar.  But sure.  Read it.

The Book of Mormon.  Recommended?  Yes.  Obviously.  But yay, I met my goal of reading it in a month.

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Recommended?  No, DNF.  So, so boring.  I read the second half via chapter summaries.  Note to self.  This is the second time I haven’t finished.  Meh, self, Meh!  Let’s not have a replay of our association with Wuthering-boredom-I-don’t-give-a-crap-Heights.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  Recommended?  No.  DNF.  I’d like to pretend that I could see the good in this and recommend it to the world, after pushing back my glasses and fluffing my bun.  But, I’m not that girl.  I read classics because my belief is that if it’s still in print 150 years later, there’s probably a reason.  I can see the  reason here.  I just don’t care enough to spend my little reading time trodding this boring, boring road of characters I don’t give a crap about.  My friend pastelninja, however, does not feel the same.  Feel free to agree with her.

Love With a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche.  Recommended?  Yes.  But as it’s a memoir and not a plot driven book, I’d suggest you’d only pick it up if the idea of cruising is enticing to you.

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu.  Recommended?  Yes.  This should have been on my TBR list, but it wasn’t.  I was about 1/2 through it at the end of last month.  I finished it this month.  It brought me to tears, made me pause in admiration, and I thought it was truly wonderful.  I bought, a long time ago, on-the-cheap for kindle. Now, I’m hunting a hardcover too.  Because I just love it that much. So, go.  Read it.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Recommended?  Obviously this was also not on my TBR.  You may be able to tell that I have a theme of my non-TBR books.  It’s because of what I’m writing now.  *wink, wink* (This statement does NOT mean I’m not working on the sequel to my own book.)

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.  Recommended?  Yes.  Though there are many, many F-bombs.  It reads like Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, the early non-trashy Laurell K. Hamiltons.  You know, in that sort of lovely urban fantasy way. If you like those authors, you’ll like this one I think.  (It’s called Midnight Riot in the US if you don’t care about which copy you get. )

The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe.  Recommended.  No.  I realize I should say yes.  It’s Poe!  But mostly its a long, super boring, lesson in crptography.  Amazingly, this was Poe’s best seller.  Um, The Tell-Tale Heart people.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.  Recommended?  Yes.  I’ve read this one before.  Read again for REASONS.  And it was delightful yet again.

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket.  Recommended?  Yes.  This guy can write the pants off middle reader fiction.  Love him.  Loved the series the first time.  Loving it again.

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King.  Recommended?  Yes.  Man, this book was magnificent.  Magnificent and dark, so don’t read it if you’re looking for light and fluffy.

Oh and one more.  Mine:

These Lying Eyes by Amanda A. Allen.  Recommended?  Yes.  You should definitely read it.  You should buy it twice, and again for each of your friends.  Maybe even more times than that.

If you wanted to buy it, you could do so HERE.

~Amanda

August TBR

Maybe this time I won’t sabotage myself.  But I am going to dump the TBRs I failed so miserably at.  I mean, they’ll be there, since I have my giant list with only like 1/3 crossed off.  But my new TBR is an independent thing.  Striking out on its own, shaking off the weight of the past.

And here it is, we’ll start with the obvious:

Cuckoo’s Calling.  Have you heard?  It’s by J.K. Rowling under a pen name.  I’ll be reading it the moment it arrives.  I know lots of people didn’t care for The Casual Vacancy, but I just thought it was horrifically mis-sold.  And there’s no question it was well-done.  I’d have read Cuckoo by now, but my copy hasn’t come yet, darn it!

And for the audios:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Read it before, but not since middle school.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.  By a long shot, this is my LEAST favorite Austen.  But it’s for Austen in August from the Book Rat, and I heart her reviews, so this should be fun.

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola.  It’s a classic.  And I own it.  But I don’t know what it’s about.  I guess we’ll see.

The New World by Patrick Ness.  This one’s a short that chronologically goes before The Knife of Never Letting Go.  Which was a great read.

The Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  Book 2 of the Wizard of Oz series.

The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Book 2 of the Tarzan series.

For the print books:

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin.  Dystopian where chocolate is illegal.

Under the Black Flag.  Non-fiction.  Not a norm for me.

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer.  Middle reader pirate book.  Arrg!

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.  Book 2 after Shiver.

Macrieve by Kresley Cole.

2k to 10k.  A book about writing. I’m mostly finished already.

Outside the Spotlight by Sophie Weeks.  A novella I’m already almost finished with.

Wanted.  Manga!

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff.

The Book of Mormon.  Trying to maintain that balance in my life.  What with writing, kids, work, dogs, etc.

The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye.  This book I’m reading to SmileyPants.  I know she’s too little to follow plots.  Or care.  But I enjoy reading to her, and she enjoys hearing my voice while she gobbles up her nighttime bottle.

But you guys should read this one:

*Evil Grin*

~Amanda

You know what’s unhealthy?

Being able to publish a book and then watch your sales numbers every second of every day.  I’m just saying…not healthy.

Not healthy at all.

Rather like these things:

Valentine’s Day Cake

*These are just random unhealthy food pictures I’ve had in the history of my blog.  You know what else is unhealthy?  Not having one picture of a salad.

Also, perhaps you don’t consider roller coasters unhealthy.  That’s because you’re crazy.  Like me.

But if you wanted to, you too could have a copy of my pretty little book for only $3.99.  Just click HERE.

~Amanda

 

 

Now Available: These Lying Eyes by Amanda A. Allen

Wait!

That’s me.

That’s my book.

Me, it’s me.  It’s me.  I wrote a book.  Like for realzies.  I wrote it.  I re-wrote it approximately 7004 times.  I even paid an editor and rewrote it a time or two after that.  I had it grammar checked.  I rewrote it again.  My good friend formatted it.  Oh my gosh.

Is this happening?  Is it done?

Yes!  It’s done.

Done, done, done, done, done.

DONE.

You can buy it HERE.

Even if you don’t have a kindle, you can read it on smart phones, tablets, and PCs by using the free kindle app found HERE.

If that doesn’t work for you, a paperback and audiobook are coming soon!

Ebooks will, however, be the most economical version of my book.  So cheap in fact, you could buy one for you and one for your friend.  *hint, hint, cheeky grin, hint*

Look!  It’s real.  Oh my gosh, this day FINALLY arrived.

Yay, oh yay, oh yay, yay, yay, yay, yay.

Um, yay!

~Amanda

ps yay!

I am a crazy person.

SPOILER ALERT: This post is somewhat religious.

I’ve been fairly clear about this crazy thing.  And here’s the thing about this crazy thing.  I don’t deal well with change or anxiety.  Now when these things start happening in my life.  I get a little mean.  And spiteful.  And snippy.  I get insanely furious at the person who drives slow across the parking lot at work.  I want to punch the person who stalls my badging in through the work door.

But I don’t like being that person.

And yet, I have a lot of things going right now that are both full of change and cause anxiety.  I finished writing my book.  Now people are reading it for the first time as a “done” thing instead of a “work-in-progress.”  And wow, the anxiety this has started to cause me.  

What if it sucks?  What if it’s terrible?  What if people hate it?  What if I spent eight years writing it and re-writing it only to find that it was a giant-waste-of-time, and I should have got gotten my Master’s Degree?  Gah.

And then there’s the whole, my parents are moving across the country.  My SmileyPants will have to have new people watching her.  And my dogs will be crated all day.  And my mom is my biggest supporter and now she will be 26 hours away (27 in current traffic).  Twenty-six driving hours.  Versus twenty-six steps.  Or so.

Damn it.  Just damn it.

So, being old now.  And certainly not wise, but wiser.  I decided to employ a method of dealing with my crazy that I’ve learned again and again.  Only due to my general slothfulness, laziness, and bookaholicness, I am rarely smart enough to anticipate my crazy and deal with it in advance.

Here it is: I just read the Book of Mormon every day.  (Though I’m sure this would also work The New Testament.  The old language of the Old Testament does not have the same effect because it’s too much work.)  Now, since many of my readers are not Mormon, I should probably preface this part by saying that:

1. I’ve believed in God, like for always.  It was like He spoke to my heart when I was little, and I’ve never stopped believing in Him.

2.  I have not always felt the same about the Book of Mormon and being Mormon.  I mean, do you realize that Mormons have a “Lay Clergy?”  This means that our church is staffed ENTIRELY BY VOLUNTEERS.  Being Mormon and going to church = Having the church leaders ask you to help.  For free.  And that’s fine.  But I wasn’t going to volunteer my time, give up booze, pre-martial sex, and you know…other things or whatever.  I wasn’t going to do that without believing in this church thing myself.

3. So I did the whole read the Book of Mormon thing, pray about it, and I got my answer.  In all earnestness, I believe it to be true.  I believe to be true with my whole heart, mind, and soul.  I believe it in a way that I can’t really explain–because how do you explain something that dwellls in the depths of your heart?  You can only say this is what I believe; this is why I believe; I can only encourage you to travel the same road and see what you think.

So, those three things add up to the Book of Mormon being my security blanket of bookness. I read it when I’ve lost my crap.  I read it to regain balance in my life, when I’m trying harder to be a better person, in order to find answers to prayers.  But I’ve never read it in advance of the crazy to come.

Until now.

This time, I decided to read it when I knew I was *going* to lose my crap.  But I couldn’t.  Because I have a baby now.  And she needs me to lift her with snuggles and kisses in the middle of the night.  Not hysterical tears.  And she needs me to keep up on her laundry despite how she’s crapping an outfit a day and going through two sets of jammas a night.  And she needs me to remember to get her formula.  And not punch the WIC people in the throat.  She needs me to keep my crap together.  So, I decided to be smarter than my crazy and read the Book of Mormon every. single. day.

And I decided I’d go ahead and set the huge goal of reading it in a month.  But I didn’t.  I read it in 18 days.  I wasn’t racing.  I set the month goal, because I knew I could do it.  Without an issue, with just my normal habits.  Because that’s the kind of reader I am.  And though I might currently be a horse ridden by my crazy, I have yet kicked anyone in the back of the knee who makes me re-key my code to get into work.  I totally didn’t punch the WIC person in the throat (though they deserved it, because Vancouver WIC people suck the big suck.)   And every moment with Smiley is a delight.  I count this as a win considering the level of my anxiety right now.  In fact, it’s such a big win, I think I’ll do it again.

~Amanda

PS If you wanted a Book of Mormon of your very own.  You could get a free one here:

http://mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon

Missionaries not required.  :)

My strange flaw.

I have something called stubby thumbs.  I didn’t even know it had a real name, but it’s genetic.  My niece has it, and her boyfriend diagnosed us both.  My aunt has it too.  So Zac and David, should you ever have a daughter, she’ll certainly be adorable.

Except for her thumbs.

Turns out Megan Fox has it too.  So that makes it ok.

 

Now in my entire life, I’ve only cared about having stubby thumbs one time.  When someone told me they were just fat.  And I had to explain that actually, my fingers aren’t as enormous as my butt (or their giant head) due to a “fat” issue.  That was bone.  And a wide nail.  Not a tiny little nail surrounded by a mountain of thumb fat.  Also, stupid person, you suck.

(We won’t talk about how it was a church leader.  Thankfully, I have a well-ground sense of self-esteem and come from a long line of people who don’t give a crap about “authority” figures.  But I could have been a delicate flower.  They didn’t know.)

Anyhow, never have I cared about my short, wide little thumbs.  Not when I was learning the piano.  Not when I had to accept that a ring would never work on that finger.  (Wide top, narrow base.  It’d just slide around.)

Until now.

What you ask has changed?  Well I’ll tell you.

Now I have a giant phone and short, useless thumbs.  It’s like fat man and a little coat.  But with a phone and a thumb.  I actually can not hold my phone in one hand and reach across with my thumb.  Was this a problem with my iPhone?  Never.  Only with the big beautiful screen of my Galaxy.  I wouldn’t have even though this could be a problem.  Until now….

*Sad Face*

I have to text two-handed, or you get nothing but gobbly gook from me.  I tell you.

Life.

It’s full of woes.

~Amanda

Oh, and I finished my book.  Tee.  Hee.

July’s TBR

This is my actual TBR list for July.  Yes, even I, am mocking it.  Oh self: bwahahahahahah.  A bookblogger I read has a constant list of over a 100 books that she just pulls from.   I think I could make one of 300.  My To Read on Goodreads is 773.  I so want to work through some of my book backlog, but honestly…the goodreads list would be even longer since that’s often books I just want to remember that I was interested in and not the books I own but haven’t read.

Anyhow, maybe you needed a good laugh?

What should also be on this list is These Lying Eyes by ME! (me, me, me, me).  Not a lot of reading being done outside of my earbuds since I am spending every waking moment home loving my baby, dogs, and finishing up my book.  I SWEAR it’s almost done.

~Amanda

ps  I won’t be surprised if you don’t believe me.

Oh, did you want to see my book cover?

Tee hee.

I might love it a little bit.

So, did you?  Did you want to see it?

*

*

*

*

*

Ok, maybe it’s time to stop teasing you.  After all I don’t want to make you irritated.  To make you think, this stupid girl, I don’t want to read her dumb book.  That would be bad right?

*

But did you want to see my cover?  Well ok then.  Here it is:

Tee hee. How real is that?  It’s like this is actually happening or something.

~Amanda

Top Books of 2013….so far.

So, I keep seeing these lists of people’s top ten books so far.  And I thought, hey!  I wanna do that…

Here it is.  I will start by saying I totally cheated with Maggie Stiefvater.  I’ve loved all of her books, and I included them in one entry.  Cause that’s just how I roll.  These books are in no particular order.  But, as I look them over, my favorites were The Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Raven Boys.

1.  Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley.  This is book five of the Flavia de Luce series.  Totally go get The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  It’s creepy and fun and as reminiscent of childhood as The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  I anticipate the new Flave from the moment I finish the one previous.  Flavia, Flavia.  I heart your face.  And your creepy little mind.

2.  Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson.  Light, funny.  Loved it, I did.  :)

3.  Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.  Pirates!

4.  Maggie Stiefvater loves.  The Raven Boys, The Scorpio Races and Shiver.   In that order.  :)  I am in…awe…of Maggie Stiefvater as a writer.  She writes to the heart of me and the writer in me.  Someday, maybe, my own craft will be as sharp and wonderful as hers.

 

5.  Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst.  Maybe for those who like high fantasy.  It felt like the fantasy books I loved as a kid, and converted me to Sarah Beth Durst as a writer after what were (for me) two flops.

6.  The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.  Super exciting, a little creepy.

7.  The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.  Interesting, different, so looking forward to the trilogy plus the little side stories.

8.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.  Gaiman speaks for himself right?  Everything I’ve read by him has been super fun, so just go get this one.  It’s my fave of his work.

9.  The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak.  Powerful, just powerful.

10.  Doll Bones by Holly Black.  OMGoodness.  Everything I loved when I was a middle reader but delightful enough for me as an adult.  So great.

 

Moms!

My mom told me yesterday that she looked at my TBR for July.  Then she bwahahahahahah’d.

Fair enough mumma.  But you can shut it.

And also, I know.  I’m not going to make it through all of them.  But I will be choosing from that giant list.  Currently reading The Book of Mormon, Moby Dick, Macrieve, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Did you know that the shoes are SILVER in the book?!?!?!?!?  Also Moby Dick is boring 80% of the time.  The rest of the time it’s incredibly interesting, and it has beautiful language.  If I don’t finish one of these “American Lit” books this summer, it’ll probably be that one.  Then again, haven’t dipped my toes in the others yet.

Anyhoo….

Moms!  Books!  Kids!  Etc!

The most likely reason I won’t finish my TBR, however, is I’M NEARLY DONE WRITING MY OWN BOOK, PEEPS!  NEARLY DONE.  DAYS AWAY IF I CAN ONLY WORK ON IT.  NEARLY DONE. HOLY MOSES.  NEARLY DONE. NEARLY, NEARLY.  Oh the end…you’re in sight.  So looking forward to stomping all of your face.

~Amanda