Yep I'm still here.

Life gets in the way once again and delayed me from finishing up my last book in a timely fashion. However, I've finished it now! Yippee!!!!

The Best Tales of Edgar Allen Poe is exactly what it sounds like. A collection of (what the author felt) was Poe's best works separated by categories. At the start of each new category there was a brief explanation as to what the following stories would entail as well as their significance in the timeline of Poe's life. I found that to be most informative as my interest lies not only with his works but with the man himself. Several of the stories were just what I thought they would be based off of the few I had already read in school. They were dark, macabre, chilling, and grotesque.  A few were downright gory (and I loved it!). What I found delightfully surprising was his use of humor to break up the terror of what he was writing about (in most cases death). Also, it turns out he was a great lover of nature and landscape gardening and the last section was devoted to that (my least favorite of the entire collection to be honest). If you want an all-encompassing view of his works then this is definitely the book for you.

Whenever I hear that a film is being adapted from a book I feel a burning desire to snatch up the book and read it. (I'm one of those people that look for inconsistencies in films and chuckle gleefully when I inevitably find them. Deal with it.) So when I found out that one of my favorite actors was going to be in a film called Twelve Years a Slave and that it was based off of a book I made it a priority on my reading list. Twelve Years a Slave is the true account of a black man named Solomon Northup who was born free, kidnapped, and sold into slavery for 12 years. The book came out right after Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and reinforced the reality that was slave labor on southern plantations at the time. I have no doubt that I'll find it a riveting (and eyeopening) read.

Shifting Gears

There are some books that you start reading and you just know that you're going to love it pretty much from the very beginning. Warm Bodies was that type of book for me. If you'll notice, this update is coming pretty hard on the heels of the last one because I devoured it (actually I would have been done sooner but I didn't want it to end).  This book isn't so much a fantasy story about zombies. I mean, there are LOADS of zombies but it's more than that. It's a commentary on our world and the consequences of our actions on this planet. It's about hope and never giving up on being the change that makes this world a better place. And it's about zombies.  GO READ IT.

I was at a bit of a loss at first about what I would follow this up with because I was so blown away but then I remembered buying a dusty little copy of The Best Tales of Edgar Allen Poe a few months back. I don't think this needs much explanation. Most people, including myself, are most familiar with "The Raven". I seem to recall reading another short story about a beating heart in the floorboards of an old house. Other than that, I'm woefully lacking in all things Poe. I'll fix that immediately and forthwith.


Note: I'm already trying to figure out how I can get my hands on Isaac Marion's prequel to Warm Bodies which is titled The New Hunger. Pretty sure it's only available through one eBook publisher but where there's a will there's a way!!

Note x2: Why is Warm Bodies categorized as a young adult novel? Is it because the main characters are "young adults"?  That's lame.