Wearing Handmade Wednesday: Vitamina Eu!!

Being the handmade lover that I am, as well as the bookworm, I'm gonna continue mixing both books and handmade items entries in the blog, so Wearing Handmade Wednesday entries will continue to pop up now and then, and this one it's even book related!

You guys might remember an Etsy shop called Vitamina Eu where I got an awesome mug from my twin friend Deb. I fell in love with the "bookworm mug" as I called it, so when she had a 10% discount code for Xmas in July, I decided to indulge myself and get it!

When it arrived home it didn't come alone, Eu ,the super sweet lady behind the shop, had also painted the same design in a bookmark! Aren't they the cutest thing ever?



Also, in case you're wondering, the book used as a prop to show off the mug & bookworm is my ARC copy of Alienated by Melissa Landers!

Mark This Book Monday: Harper Connelly series!

Hi there! How's this new Monday going? I had to work morning shift, but even if I don't like the getting up early, it means I have the whole evening off!

For this Mark This Book Monday I wanna share another book series by Charlaine Harris, the Harper Connelly Mysteries! It's a 4 book series:

- Grave Sight

- Grave Surprise

- An Ice Cold Grave

- Grave Secret

The main character of this series is Harper Connelly, a young woman of 24 that was hit by lightning at 15, and since that day can feel where a dead body is, and once found can see from the dead's perspective what happened to them in the hours leading to their death and how they died. But since it's seen from the perspective of the dead person, you won't see who killed them in the case of a murder, unless the victim knew their murdered or saw them. Harper travels with her step-brother Tolliver, who is not a blood relative, since Harper's mom married Tolliver's dad when they were in their early teens. Their family life was very complicated since their parents were addicts so the kids had to take care of each other and of the two girls born from that marriage.

The books follow the adventures and travels of Harper & Tolliver around the US, since they are hired as consultants to find dead people and what happened to them, Harper being the one that finds them via some sort of buzzing she feels, and Tolliver as his "manager", helper, bodyguard and general helper. We follow their relationship, and also how Harper hopes to eventually find out what happened to Cameron, her sister that disappeared at 18, when she was coming back from HS.

The full story unfolds along the 4 books, and comes full circle and closes down on the last book, Grave Secret. Very quick reads, with bits of supernatural and more bits of mystery. Very recommended!

Mark This Book Monday: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse!!

Monday is here, and one of the joys of being a nurse working shifts is that sometimes Mondays are awesome days, cause they're your weekend! ;) So now, with a nice Latte Macchiato in my hand, I'm gonna share an awesome book with you all for this week's Mark This Book Monday: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.

I got Labyrinth at Heathrows airport in one of my first stops there when going to India to visit Gaurav, and if I remember correctly, it was in one of the stops coming back to Spain. There was this offer, about 3 books for £20 and I remember looking around to see what other books to grab, cause when I saw the cover of the book and read what it was about, I was sold! I wanted to take this book!

Back then, my reading obsession was about the Cathars and all the theories about what happened to them and their so-talked-about treasure after Pope Innocent III called for the Crusade to exterminate their heresy. When there's little information, many theories spring, and so many books and novels can be written.

This book tells us the story of two women separate by many hundreds of years, Alice in present time France, trying to figure out to make of what she's found in a toomb discovered during an archeological dig; and Alais, in thirteenth century France, entrusted with a secret to protect during the Cathar Crusade. We follow Alice looking for answers in the past, and Alais hiding and protecting a secret that is the secret of the Grail, and hiding and protecting herself, cause as a woman and herbalist, she's in danger of being accused of witchcraft, and that would put her mission at risk.

Even if you are not as obsessed with the Cathars and medieval times as I was back then, you'll love this book, cause the dual storytelling and unraveling of the story is great. Kate Mosse really does a great job at jumping from one story to the other, giving little hints from one to the other, and always keeping you on your toes. It's a book where the main character are women, and they are the ones standing their ground, looking for answers and doing the deeds, and I always love a good book where girls are not "fair maidens in distress"! ;) I'm afraid to tell more about the book, cause I might end up spoiling it for you guys, but it's the kinda book that made me want to pack and head to visit the Languedoc and South France! There is a passion about the places and the story that really resonated with me, and I think that will pull at anyone that'd read this book.

An historical novel, full of mystery, withs wrongs rigthed and a little bit of supernatural/pagan/Grail thrown in, with a dash of dangerous romance... sounds like something you'd love? Then go ahead as run to the nearest bookstore or add it to your Holidays gift list! I highly doubt it will fail to spellbound you! ;)

Mark This Book Monday: Juliet by Anne Fortier

Hello, hello, hello! *wipes dust from blog* *sneezes*

Well, it's been a while! I just came back from my last trip to India this Saturday, and I thought that it was indeed about time that I returned to update the blog! I haven't been updating during my vacation cause I was using my Motorola tablet, and though it is awesome to surf the web and comment and things like that... it's way too awkward for me to type blog entries, even more since I'm overly verbose!

So returning to the regular schedule of the blog, it's time to have a new Mark This Book Monday!

Today I want to share with you all Anne Fortier's Juliet , which I am undecided whether to qualify as romantic novel or as an historic one...

Juliet's premise is that the story that our dear old Shakespeare wrote was based on actual events, but distorted and changed by the powers that be, and by the passing of time. There was a real Giulietta and a real Romeo that fell in love and couldn't get married, but unlike in Shakespeare's version is not so much cause both their families were sworn enemies, but more due to political reasons, though there is a mention of two families being in war for the control of the city (which is not Verona, but Sienna). The book mixes the original real story of Romeo & Giulietta and the story of Giulietta's descendants thru her sister, in the present day, when Juliet discovers who she is after the death of her aunt Rose, who had been taking care of her (and her sister) since they lost their parents when they were three.

We keep discovering new things about the original story, and about present day's Juliet story and background with every turn of the page, and Juliet has to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself and her life turn into another tragedy, like that one of the original Giulietta.

It is a very captivating book, with unexpected turns and a very well researched background story. It's the kinda book that despite being not your small novel in size, you simply devour it in a matter of hours! I read it in a pair of days, and that was cause I had to work, and couldn't dedicate as much time to it as I would have liked!

If you like stories with some romance, some history and some mistery, Juliet really IS the book for you!

Mark This Book Monday: The Shiva Trilogy!

Hey everyone! Monday is here again, and this week for me it means days off after a really busy weekend at work, two awesome tops from Label of Hope in the mail, and time to read!

Right now I'm completely hooked on the "A Song Of Fire & Ice" series, and I'm currently on the 4th book, but that'll be another Mark This Book Monday entry, cause today's entry is for The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi, and the two books that are out so far: "The Immortals Of Meluha" & "The Secret Of The Nagas".

I've always been in love with Mythology, be it Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse... it doesn't matter, I love myths, and getting into the possible Anthropological answers behind them is even better for me, since it fulfills one of those basic treats of mine: wanting to know, to understand and to get answers. But just for the pure enjoyment I love when Mythology, Anthropology & Archeology are all mixed up in the form of a good novel, and this series does that with Hindu mythology.

The Shiva Trilogy is the story of Lord Shiva, one of the many Hindu gods, but one of the best known out there, and the premise of the whole series is: What if Shiva once existed but was never a God, but a man that forged his destiny in a way that is now remembered as a God?.

Even if you don't know the first thing about Hindu mythology you'll get wrapped in the story, with the intrigues, the secrets and the path of a normal man that becomes a hero through his karma (call it destiny, call it karma, call it doing what he feels it's right), and if you know at least some Hindu mythology you'll really enjoy the way the author explains and presents the characters and the myths themselves.

I read the first book last year during one of my visits to Delhi, and the second book I finished on my way back from Zurich to Spain, during my flights and layover in Geneva. Thankfully, Deeksha, G's sister was awesome enough to give me her copy of the book, before even reading it herself so I could read it! (Thanks Dee!). I'm now hoping the third book, "The Oath Of The Vayuputras", won't take too long to come out, cause you're left with quite a surprise as the second book ends, and with even more unanswered questions!

A very recommended series, and if after reading it you wonder about Meluha and the Indus Valley Civilization, I'd recommend another great book to learn more about it: The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives.

Mark This Book Monday: The Wess'har Wars Series by Karen Traviss!!

Monday is back again, and this time we're gonna be feeding the mind, not the tummy, so it's time for another Mark This Book Monday feature!


Today I wanna recommend I series I discovered very much by chance, and one series I'm absolutely in love with. It's science fiction and it's also a big wake up call to make us think about where were are going as humankind, and it might sound odd since I'm talking about science fiction, but it's a big reality check.




Let me introduce you to the Wess'har Wars series by Karen Traviss. Six books, with Shan Frankland as the main character. A tough as nails female Environmental Hazard (EnHaz for short) officer with a conscience and a way to do the right thing, even if it's not by the book & ends up not being pretty. The books start with her joining a mission to Cavanah's Star, to check on a bunch of human missionaries that went beyond the stars to start a new community. There are aliens, and not your little grey men type, and their politics & customs are as alien to us as ours are to them. One of them aliens are the Wess'har, a matriarchal society that as described by Shan herself "only have two states: chilled or punching". There are six books in the series, and each one is building on the consequences of the choices of the characters in the previous books.


#1.- City of Pearl
#2.- Crossing The Line
#3.- The World Before
#4.- Matriarch
#5.- Ally
#6.- Judge


One of the best things about Karen Traviss is how real her characters feel, and how much sense their choices make according to themselves, you might like or dislike them, but you can't accuse one of her characters of being two-dimensional or unbelievable. All her characters have a real human depth, and most of the type, it ain't pretty, but that's reality for you. Her vision of humankind as a whole in this books is like a slap on the face, and if it hurts, it's cause it's real. If only we learnt the lesson and stopped behaving like self-righteous & spoiled teenagers, we'll take better care of the world we live in & learn how to deal with those different from us, not better or worse, just different, in a better way than our usual one (nuke'em all!).


One short way to define this books: a study of human nature through science fiction. Also, the fact that the main character is a kick arse female, and that the more prevalent aliens are matriarchal doesn't hurt on my liking them!

Mark This Book Monday: House of Night Series!

New week, new day and new book(s) recommendation!


There's nothing like reading to learn, to have fun & laugh, to cry and to take you on fantastic journeys to faraway lands, real or not!


The House of Night series are a young adults series, and that should be a given since the main character is teenage girl, learning how to be a vampyre in the House of Night (aka Vampyre High).
And in case you are wondering, yes, the different spelling of the world vampyre is totally intentional. These are books about vampires, so if you are not keen on talks about night crawling, fangs and blood, these are not the books for you.




Vampires, young adult series... no, this is nothing like Twilight. Hey, I liked the Twilight books, I've watched all the movies so far, and will watch the two that are left, but I consider Twilight my guilty pleasure. These books are different, they do portray vampyres & vampyre society in a very different way than other vampires series (like the Southern Vampires series aka True Blood), and one point that made me fall in love with the general idea behind this books: vampyres are a matriarchal society! Also, the female main character(s) (and not in the lady in distress kinda way) and a fast writing style that makes you read two books in one night (true story, I did!).


The series start with Zoey Redbird, a teenager whose bigger problem is her geometry exam and her boyfriend's tendency to overindulge in binge drinking, till she is Marked as a vampyre. Biggest difference from any other vampire book out there, the possibility of being a vampyre is latent in all humans, as part of some junk DNA strand, but it's only triggered in some humans during the crazy hormone revolution that is puberty. Vampyre Trackers can find those humans and mark them as fledglings or vampyres to be, if they live through the 4 years that the Change into vampyres take, and not all of them make it. No biting to death and blaming your maker for it. In the House of Night series, vampyres are part of the world and accepted (more or less) by society, and once a human teenager is marked as a fledgling, they have to leave for their nearest House of Night for protection & training & education, but just like in any other boarding school, they can keep in touch with their families and friends if so they wish.


Zoey is part Cherokee on her mother side, and one of my fave characters in the books is her Grandma, Sylvia Redbird, a wonderful medicine woman, and the only real family that Zoey can relate to. There are lots of Cherokee mythology references during the books, as well as many pagan & Wiccan & even Celtic ones in later books, and that definitely increases my enjoyment of this series, I'm really fond of pagan mythology for an atheist! As with all books, there's a fight of Good & Bad, Light & Dark, and not only as opposing forces, but also as part of ourselves, and how our choices make us what we are, and that is valuable lesson we all should be reminded of now and then.


There are 8 books so far: Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed, Hunted, Tempted, Burned & Awakened. According to the Wikipedia page (if you want more info about the books, go there, very complete!) there are a total of 12 planned, the next being Destined, due in November 2011, and I for one, can't wait!

Attack of the Craft Book Club!

Friday is here again!


With the weekend almost here, and some time off coming, what better than curling in your sofa with a good book and a nice cup of tea? At least that's my idea of a lovely relaxing day!




Being the crazy bookworm I am, it was only a question of time till I ended up organizing a book club with other members of the Attack of the Craft, after one of them suggested all the bookworms with similar taste organized one!


For now, we're in the process of people signing up for it, and voting on a book genre poll, and we'll later select a book to read during March. We'll be discussing the book progress weekly on AOTC chat. I'm really excited about this, I've never been part of a book club, but I'm hoping this will be a fun experience and a way to discover new books!


I'll be probably blogging each month about the book we'll choose for the book club, if I can find a good name for my entries... any suggestions?


If you want to join us, head over to the AOTC forum, sign up for it and look for the book section, cause you know... the more the merrier!