13 March, 2010

Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup #11

Hello and welcome to issue #11 of my Weekly Roundup. It is incredible how fast a week pass by. Yesterday I watched Shutter Island - read my impressions. It seems I'm getting busier beside work. Cinema, fitness studio three times per week, watch series on TV - Fringe, CSI, Bones, Flashforward, MD House. And still I find time to read and review books. And yes, I sleep every day several hours (mostly five). On Friday I took part in book giveaway on twitter for the first time. Scroll down to read more. Compared to last week I reduced the number of my unread google reader entries from 1000+ to 800. Enjoy reading....

Bona Fide's Menu

Books
  1. Prize of the week: The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke
  2. A Book Recommendation from James
Blogosphere
  1. Editor's Business: Julie Crisp
  2. Coming up in April: A Sci-Fi Appreciation Month
  3. New Blog: Genre Reader
Movies
  1. SHUTTER ISLAND - First impressions
Quotes
  1. German proverbs, sayings and idioms Spring....

Books

I love books and I love giveaways. Therefore I take part in a lot of giveaways. On Friday (March 12th) I have had a premiere. First the first time I took part in giveaway on Twitter. The giveaways on Twitter are a lot faster. After 70 minutes it was over. Orbitbooks offered 15 copies of The Last Stormlord (2010) [US] [UK] by Glenda Larke. It is the first book in the Watergivers trilogy. To keep it short: I WON one of the 15 signed copies! What a great start in the weekend. Now I wait for the copy.
By the way Gave from NextRead wants to read it too. Now have a look at the cover and read the blurb.
"The Cloudmaster and his stormlords command wealth and power. But can they save themselves from a rogue rainlord?
Terelle is on the run when an old man with the ability to paint pictures on water employs her as his apprentice—and paints her portrait. She thinks she is safe, until she discovers his floating artworks can fix an immutable future for those portrayed in them. She has become a prisoner of her own painted future.
The Cloudmaster and his stormlords keep the land alive with their power over water and rain. However, the current Cloudmaster is dying and has no stormlord heir because all the promising young men and women have died in troubling circumstances.
An expedition mounted to scour the countryside for a potential stormlord locates a young village lad called Shale. Kidnapped and imprisoned, Shale finds himself a tool in a struggle between the warring factions of the land—because whoever commands a stormlord, commands the water of a nation…"[Source]
Like you, dear readers, I follow other blogs and of course I look for recommendations. One of the blogs I follow is James Long's Speculative Horizons. James doesn't give away compliments easily. His reviews are profound and he likes to discuss about book covers. On March 11th he posted a review which ends with following sentence (I censored the title of the book due to dramaturgical reasons):
"XXXXXXXXXX is one of the most emotionally-engaging books I've ever read, and if that's not a good recommendation then I don't know what is." [Source]
Which book impressed James so much? You want to know? Then click here. I can tell you that the book is not on my book list but on the book list of my wife. Anyway after reading Jame's review I know that I have to read this book too.
No, No, No, I won't tell you the title. Go, read James' review and tell me whether it was worth to read the review or not.

Blogosphere

Do you know editors, book editors? Do you know what a book editor has to do?
I must admit I "know" one editor via Twitter and I don't much about the book.
Julie Crisp, queen of Tor UK, is the editor of Col Buchanan - read my review of Farlander - and of Mark Charan Newton - author of Nights of Villjamur and City of Ruin.
Mark Charan Newton has been so kind to interview Julie Crisp. If you want to get to know more about Julie, her job, her relation to authors and her opinion about book covers then I highly recommend to read Interview With My Editor: Julie Crisp.

When you follow the Roundup regularly then you will know that I want to read more science fiction in 2010. One month ago Alec and I have been asked by Mark Chitty to contribute a Sci-Fi-Appreciation Month in April 2010 over at Walker of Worlds. Even we both don't have much time we couldn't deny the request. So we both will contribute. Let me quote Mark's post.
"I'm a sci-fi fan through and through, and while I enjoy fantasy it usually takes a back seat to whatever sci-fi books I have on the stack. So when Mark Newton posted last year on Why SF is Dying (and the follow-up post) I started to think about this and how I felt about what he was saying. There isn't too much to go into really, I think sci-fi has - and will - take a back seat to fantasy, but I don't think it's dying.
While I'm never going to change the world with this blog, I can spread the word on sci-fi books that I love - and that's exactly what I thought I'd do. With the help of fellow bloggers, authors and publishers I'm running an Sci-Fi Appreciation Month during April where myself and others will be posting various things on sci-fi, from reviews to guest posts, to show that there really is plenty out there to enjoy and love. I'm still putting the schedule together, but suffice to say I'm very excited about it!
What I also wanted to do was open this up to you guys, the readers of the blog. What do you enjoy about sci-fi? What are you favourite books and authors? What would you recommend without hesitation, both to hardened veterans and newcomers to the genre? If you want to participate in this (which would be great!) then please email me on mark@walkerofworlds.com. This also goes out to any bloggers, authors and publishers that have anything they'd like to contribute - the more the merrier!" [Source]
When you want to contribute the Sci-Fi Appreciation Month like we do, then contact Mark Chitty. If you can't I'm sure Mark and his contributors will be happy about every visitor and every comment. I really look forward...

Another blog I follow is Jeff's Fantasy Book News & Reviews. Jeff decided to run a new blog because his interests changed a bit. Beside fantasy his love for espionage and mystery is growing. That means he also wants to review books beyond fantasy. But the name of his current blog doesn't go hand in hand with his new interests.
Therefore he decided to run a new blog: Genre Reader - Reviews of Espionage, Mystery & Fantasy Novels.
Some explanantions from Jeff:
"On this new site, you will still get fantasy reviews. However, you will also see many more espionage and mystery reviews..especially “spy novels”. I will also continue to cover ebook related news, and sometimes music as well. The main difference from the old site will really be my coverage of additional genres. And, the fantasy review index will most likely be gone (99% sure of that)." [Source]
I hope you will follow Jeff to his new blog like I do.

Movies

On Friday night (March 12th) my wife and I watched Shutter Island. We haven't been sure whether it is a horror movie or not.

But now we are wiser: SHUTTER ISLAND IS DEFINITELY NO HORROR MOVIE !!
So if you expected this then don't watch Shutter Island under that precondition. If you do it you will be disappointed.

I find it extremely difficult to talk about Shutter Island without giving away too much. But I can tell you when you talk and think about a movie hours after you have left cinema it must have been a good one.

Shutter Island is a gorgeous, intense, gripping and intelligent movie with suspense and full of twist and turns. It is a movie about the psyche of human beings and how people in the 1950's coped with emotional disorders at isolated bedlams. Leonardo DiCaprio and the other actors played intense and emotionally.

Shutter Island starts slow but you get hooked soon. If you like intelligent entertainment which makes you uneasy, which forces you to follow all the twists and turns and where you get the final clue with the very last scene then you should definitely watch Shutter Island.


Quotes

I'm really tired of cold, wet and gray days. I yearn for SPRING.....

" No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
Proverb


"Spring has come when you can put your foot on three daisies.
Proverb


"In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.
Mark Twain, American author (1835 -1910)


"It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
Mark Twain, American author (1835 -1910)

6 comments:

Jeff C said...

Thanks for the plug, Michael! I appreciate it.

ediFanoB said...

Hey Jeff,
glad you liked it. As I said before I look forward to read reviews of espionage and mystery novels.

Krista said...

I'm glad you liked Shutter Island as I really wanna go see it! I love Leo! :)

Great Round up!

ediFanoB said...

Krista,

glad you like my Roundup. I hope you find an opportunity to watch Shutter Island. I couldn't tell more without spoilers.
Leo did a great job. He acts so authentic.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I follow Mark's blog as well so will be watching for your guest post.

And Shutter Island is definitely not horror! For some reason, the trailer gave that impression. But it is an excellent film.

ediFanoB said...

Alex,
I don't know so far when my guest review will be online :)

When my wife and I left cinema we listened to several comments. And there have been people who have been disappointed because they expected to watch a horror movie. I agree with you that the trailer is misleading.