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...

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

It's officially November which means it is the first day of National Novel Writing Month (Well it is here in South Korea, you might have to wait a few hours if you live on the other side of the world). I have written about this for the past two years. It's a time for you to challenge yourself to write that novel that you have been thinking about forever. All over the world people are committing themselves to the challenge of writing 50,000 words. There are huge online communities in different areas that are set up to make the solitary life of writing a bit more social. They have write-ins at local cafes, word games both online and in meetup groups and many other activities aimed at socializing but also getting your word count up.  If you have never heard of it before I would suggest you check out their website . It has all the information you need. You can find out if there is a writers group near you (there probably is) and get started. If you have al...

I wanted to share the new trailer for the Morganville Web Series that will be coming out soon. I just watched it and it looks really good. Very true to the books. I think that by going the Kickstarter and webseries route, Rachel Caine, the author was able to keep more of a hand in what was happening. Usually when these books get sold to movie producers they change things and very often screw up the casting just to get someone who has a name that will sell. I really enjoy Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series of books. I think it was a great fresh idea with good characters and plot lines. I have not finished the series yet but will do in the future. In the meantime I will be checking out the series as soon as it becomes available. You can also go to the website  http://www.morganvilletheseries.com/ to find out more about the series. A while ago I reviewed the first book in the series, you can check it out here . 

Well it's November again and as such time for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. This is the time when people all over the world challenge themselves to write 50,000 words. If you are interested in finding out more you can visit the website at www.nanowrimo.org . Best of luck to those involved for 2013 and if you did not get a chance to do it this year why not start thinking about it for next year.

Kiwi Eleanor Catton won the Man Booker Prize for 2013 becoming the youngest author to win, she is 28 years old. Her novel The Luminaries is also the longest book to win the award. This is a great honor for any author and it's awesome to see a fellow New Zealander doing well in the world. 'The Luminaries ' is a mystery set in the West Coast of New Zealand during the Gold Rush of the 19th Century. Follow this link for a full article about the win and to watch Eleanor Catton's acceptance speech on Stuff.co.nz . For another good article about the Man Booker Prize, the other nominees and a more in depth description of 'The Luminaries',   The Telegraph has a good article here .

There are a few movies coming up that are based on supernatural/fantasy/science fiction books that I wanted to mention.  Books from these genres especially the YA ones are now regularly becoming fodder for the Hollywood engine as more and more of them either make it to the big screen or to TV (I guess we can thank Twilight for that - if for nothing else).  I generally prefer the TV series because they are longer so get to tell the story in more depth but I also think that movies often stick more to the plot of the book than TV does.  This is probably for the exact same reason why I like TV more, it's length - when you have to fill so much more time you often have to add filler characters and story lines in order to keep it interesting and not overwork your main actors too much. I really like seeing books that I have read come to life, I do prefer it with ones that are a bit older and have had time to reach a good audience   I don't really see the point o...

Break Curfew! Head on over to Kate Evangelista's blog for you chance to win her new book - Taste.  You can enter the international giveaway  via Rafflecopter to be in to win you very own paperback copy. Rafflecopter Giveaway - Taste by Kate Evangelista Best of Luck Everyone!