Flickr Photo Meme

I saw this meme several places, but I didn't decide to do it until Felicity from Look Books did it. It was fun and different than most of the other memes going around recently. I just wish I could have had my original choices for numbers 1 and 6 (the people who owned those two chose not to allow them to be used that way).

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into flickr search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? (As "Ink")

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush/hero?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name. (I just used "Ink Mage" since I don't have a Flickr account)

1. Ink in Water Details, 2. CHICKEN TANDOORI, 3. I’m not truant – I’m Homeschooled, 4. Color me lonely...color me blue, 5. Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (Raoul Walsh, 1951), 6. Egg nog, 7. topsail schooner pride of baltimore ll sailing near diamond head hawaii by bill mcallen © all rights reserved, 8. Peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce., 9. Unsure Undecided Vague, 10. I'm not just a music freak. I can read too!, 11. 51*366/Each One Unique..., 12. AFTER bluedragon02

Fewer Posts...Maybe

I wanted to let all of you know that there might be a bit fewer posts to this blog in the future (unless of course I can get Tyto Alba to take up some of the slack). Right about...now my first day of work is beginning. Hooray. I hope I like it at least a little more then I think I will.
Usually writing reviews doesn't take me that long, but the problem will be that I won't have as much time for reading. And if any of you happened to have looked at my reading list for the year, you'll know I only recommend a small percentage of what I read.
But perhaps it will make me become more selective in my reading, so I put down the books I don't enjoy so much, who knows. Major life changes scare me. :-)
Hopefully with the new scheduled posts feature, I'll be able to post something at least every once in a while.

Everlost

by Neal Shusterman

A crash, flight through a dark tunnel, landing, sleep.
Nick and Allie are each in one of the cars involved in a head-on collision, and when they wake they’ve been forgotten in the nearby woods, but they’re still alive. Or are they?
When they meet a boy with no name, they are told that they have entered the world of Everlost and become Afterlights. Would you believe that if someone told you? Neither do Allie and Nick...until no one seems to see them and a bus passes right through Allie.
The two decide to make their ways towards home, to see whether their family members survived. Attacked by a gang of bullies along the way, the companions find refuge in the Everlost versions of the Twin Towers, a dead-spot that has become an Afterlight haven.
But soon Allie notices the pleasant way of life is strangely repetitive, and she knows she must find out why. Throw in a underhanded age-old six-year-old called the Haunter, who can actually lift and move living objects, and a legendary Everlost monster called the McGill (who reminded me of Disney’s Davy Jones), and you’ve got one adventurous and original book.

Everlost played almost like a movie in my head, and there is, in fact, a movie scheduled for adaptation with a 2009 release. The author created a very unique afterlife, the plot is well paced—with some unexpected twists—and the characters change believably throughout the story. However there were several unexplained questions that came up that I wish had been answered, like why don’t many animals cross into Everlost? And why do things such as Everlost balls sink into the ground of the living, while the boats of Everlost don’t sink through living water?
Overall, Everlost was really good and I’d recommend it to anyone. I wouldn’t say it was amazing, but then again I’m very selective about books.

Promise of the Wolves

by Dorothy Hearst

Once, long ago, a youngwolf kept company with a human child, and brought war and destruction to the land. Now there is a law against association with humans, as well as one to kill all pups with Outsider blood.
The wolflets of Neesa are such pups, and they must be killed. But Kaala fights back when the pack leader, Ruuqo, is about to end her life. And amazingly, the Greatwolves (the wolf-lords of the valley) want her to live; perhaps she is the one the Ancients have chosen to restore the Balance. Or perhaps not.
Although Kaala is officially part of the pack, that doesn’t make Ruuqo or his pups accept her any better. Kaala is determined not to become the curl-tail of the pack, which is especially hard when she is the outcast. And when she comes in contact with a human girl, she is strangely and powerfully drawn to the hairless animals she was taught to fear. It will take all the help and advice her friends Tlittoo, the raven trickster, and Ázzuen can give to keep her from doing something too stupid.
But what if “stupid” can save the lives of every human and wolf in the valley?

Dorothy Hearst’s debut novel is very unique and well researched. Each animal has a voice that humans can relate to, and yet one that is distinctly untamed and suited for the animal’s characteristics. Promise of the Wolves creates a great premise for the rest of the trilogy, and I hope to read the second book of The Wolf Chronicles very soon.

Saving Juliet

by Suzanne Selfors

Starring as Juliet opposite the handsome Troy Summer, everyone’s attention on her, wearing dresses fit for a princess, should be Mimi’s dream, right? Unfortunately for Mimi Wallingford (a name often followed by “great-granddaughter of Adelaide Wallingford,” founder of the family theatre), Troy is an arrogant dolt who can’t act his way out of a paper bag, she dreams of a medical career, and now she’s getting major stage fright.
About to snap in two with the pressure, Mimi takes Troy’s suggestion and goes to Verona, but not intentionally and not in the modern day world. Fleeing her over-controlling mother just before a performance, Mimi rushes out the backstage door and into...a sixteenth century Verona populated by Montagues and Capulets. This just might be worse than performing in front of a large audience—especially when one is dressed in the Capulet colors and yet is falling for the dashing Benvolio Montague, Troy’s total opposite.
But soon Mimi is on running for her life for trying to save the real Juliet from marrying the horrible Paris Calchetto IV, and she does not know how to get back to Manhattan.

From the cover I didn’t expect much, but Saving Juliet really surprised me. It had romance, depth, an original storyline and characters, and several pretty hilarious bits. The plot had a few interesting twists, and those with any Shakespearian knowledge will enjoy seeing their favorite quotes as chapter titles. I very much look forward to future books by Suzanne Selfors.

Author Meme

I have been tagged with another meme! And by three people (Dominique, Jordyn, and Nicole B.), too. I must be getting more popular or something. Tyto Alba was also tagged (by Nicole and Jordyn), but declined filling in the meme. For which I'm kind of glad, because while our tastes are similar, they wouldn't be so alike that common favorite authors would be easy to figure out like Nicole challenged us to. Anyway...

Rules: Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Who’s you all-time favorite author and why?
That's a really hard question; I read so many different genres and have so many different favorites in all of them that I doubt I could ever choose. So I'll just name some: Alex Flinn, Tamora Pierce, L.M. Elliot, Laurence Yep, Celia Rees.

Who was your first favorite author and why? Do you still consider him/her among your favorites?
I honestly do not remember. I'm not sure exactly when I began reading, but somewhere around the age of 4 comes to mind. So maybe it was Arnold Lobel (Frog and Toad series) or Helen Oxenbury (Tom and Pippo books). And no, neither of them are still included in my favorites. I can safely say I completely outgrew them, although if I have children in the future I will definitely introduce them.

Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
It just might be Beth Kephart. I very recently read her books Undercover and House of Dance and enjoyed them both so much. I love how she pauses, adds just another word or two, describes something ordinary so well that you can picture it perfectly in your mind.

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
Well I've already named some that would definitely "pop out," but a couple others come to mind now. Clare B. Dunkle, Lois Lowry, and Monica Furlong.

My memes never seem to be very exciting. :-(
I'll tag...gosh, it has to be six people?! *Tries to come up with people who haven't already been tagged.*
1. Chloe
2. Aella Siofra
3. Kayla
4. Stephanie
5. The Compulsive Reader
6. Maribeth Kayla

Phew, I did it. I think. Some of you have probably been tagged already.