kiwigirl reads. . . .

The Great American Read from PBS is an eight part series exploring the power of reading. 100 books were chosen as the top 100 most-loved novels in America. PBS conducted a survey asking Americans to name their favorite fiction novel and around 7,200 people participated.  You can find out more about the series, books and how they were chosen on the official website . Here is a list of the 100 books chosen: 1984 - George Orwell A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving A Separate Peace - John Knowles A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Alex Cross Mysteries (Series) - James Patterson Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie And Then There Were None - Agatha Chistie Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery Another Country - James Baldwin Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand Beloved - Toni Morrison Bless Me, Ultima - Ruldolf...

Good news from one of my favorite authors recently. Chaz Brenchley has re-released his Northern Lights duology on Amazon. It's hard to believe but the first one - Dead of Light is 21 years old and the follow up Light Errant is 19 years old. They have snazzy new covers and all. Below is his post from Facebook which I have shared here. You can follow the link to the original. I reviewed Dead of Light a while back on this blog so you can also check that out here . Chaz Brenchley via Facebook: People, you won't believe this, but it's been twenty-one years since the first publication of DEAD OF LIGHT. (My baby's old enough to drink legally in America! Snf!) In due celebration of which, we have published new anniversary editions of both DEAD OF LIGHT and his nineteen-year-old baby brother LIGHT ERRANT, both with lovely new covers by Layla Lawlor. At the moment these are technically Amazon-only, because reasons. However, I do have epub and pdf editions ava...

Not every fairy-tale needs a Prince Charming. When a troll no one else can see attacks her outside the bar on her 30th birthday, Caitlin Moore thinks someone spiked her drink. It isn’t until a team of faeries rescues her and reveals that she has a special Gift that she realizes it’s something worse: she’s just become the star of her own twisted fairy-tale. Her newly awakened Gift of the Warding makes her immune to fae magic, something unheard of in a human. Her rescuers are exiled enemies of the High King who has allowed bestial creatures like the troll to cross the boundary that separates their worlds. They promise to right the King’s wrongs, but first they need her Gift to find the key to breaking their banishment. Unable to a turn blind eye to the danger she now sees in every shadow, Caitlin dives headfirst into their world of crazy. In return for her help they teach her to fight back against the nasties, but she isn’t prepared for the thrill she feels on t...

For those of you who don't live on the internet or twitter like I do you may not have heard - they are making ' The Mortal Instruments ' book series by Cassandra Clare into a TV series called ' Shadowhunters . Wait! Wasn't that a movie? I hear you say. Yes they made it into a movie staring Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower but if you actually went and saw it you will know the problem. It was just not good. They certainly tried but so much was left out and a lot was not explained or explained too much. I was left very disappointed.  Because it did not do very well, plans for the follow up movie have been pushed back and it looks like it will never happen now. Can't say I'm that worried about the decision. What they have done is decided to start again from scratch on TV. The show is from ABC Family and they are casting at the moment. Most of the leads have been announced - here is the link to the Facebook page if you are interested - https://www.f...

Good News! This year I did it, I reached my goal of 50 books for the Goodreads Challenge! I actually went over it by one, so even better.  You might remember in 2013 I was a bit disappointed because I only managed to get to 45. I was so close.  I definitely think I've made a good effort in the past year, I also re-read a few old books and tried some short stories, these ones I didn't count in my overall numbers so I know I read even more than what I set out to do. I have set my 2015 goal to 50 again. I only just reached it so I don't want to push it too much and not be able to achieve the goal. I think 50 is a good number to ensure that I don't get too far off track and just spend all my time watching TV.  My friend sent me this list from the website 9gag.com . I think it sounds like fun so I might try and fit my books into this also. I have put a copy of the list from the website below in case you are interested. The link to the arti...

I have been meaning to put this post up for a bit but am as usual behind. I was very lucky to win a signed Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of the last Lotus War book - Engsinger by Jay Kristoff.  It's my first ARC - exciting. I have not actually had a chance to read it yet. I haven't read the second one in the trilogy so need to get that finished first. I am planning to do a review on the first one Stormdancer in the near future. Endsinger is out now so if you are looking for something a bit different then check it out, the series is kind of steampunk/fantasy set in feudal Japan. I would also recommend you check out Jay Kristoff's blog , he is an Australian author and a funny guy. The blog site is http://misterkristoff.wordpress.com/. This is where I won the ARC from, it was a worldwide competition which was great for me as I live in an obscure part of the world. Also came with a nifty bookmark