The Thorn and the Blossom is a book unlike anything that I have ever read before. In fact it was its unusual format that attracted me to it and thanks to the people at Quirk Books I got my hands on a copy.

The Thorn and the Blossom tells the story of Evelyn Morgan, a young American studying at Oxford decides to take a short holiday in the Cornish village of Clews. There while on a walk around the village she walks into Thorne & Son, a bookstore in which she meets the love of her life, Brendan Thorne. And when he hands her The Book of the Green Knight, a medieval poem, he doesn’t realize that it will change both of their lives forever.

What makes The Thorn and the Blossom so special is that it doesn’t have a spine, and that’s because it instead has a unique accordion-fold binding. Why you ask? Well because the book tells the story both from Evelyn and Brendan’s perspective. So you can not only decide which side to read first, but then all you need to do is turn the book around and start all over again. And here’s the kicker, no matter which side you read first, there will be a surprise when you read the other one.

I personally started reading Evelyn’s side first because that’s the side Goss wrote first (even though she went back and forth between the stories to make them match after that) and I guess I wanted to read the female perspective first. Now that I’ve read both side, I think I made the right choice because it was nice knowing about Evelyn when reading Brendan’s side, that said I probably would have said the same thing if I had started with Brendan.

If I’m being honest when I first read Evelyn’s side, I thought the story was ok, and by the end of it, I wondered what more the other side could bring. Well turns out it kind of gave a new meaning to what I had just read. Don’t expect some grand revelation, but there is definitely an element that ties it all together.

I had a lot of fun reading The Thorn and the Blossom, it’s really well crafted and it was a different reading experience not just in the story, but also physically in holding the book, which is like an accordion. So if you’re looking for something new and exciting and quick to read (did I mention each side is only about 40 pages long), you should definitely get yourself a copy of The Thorn and the Blossom.

I want to leave you with a video for The Thorn and the Blossom which will give you a visual idea of what the book looks like. Also be on the lookout for an interview with author Theodora Goss early next week.

You can purchase ‘The Thorn and the Blossom’ on Amazon

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Quirk Books | Pages: 82 | Source: Publisher

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I need to start by saying that The Night Circus is officially the best book I have read last year and I read 43 books last year, so that’s saying something. I found out about it during the Editors Buzz at this year’s BEA (Book Expo America) and I am so glad I attended because I would have never picked it up otherwise.

The Night Circus follows two young magicians, Celia and Marco who have been trained from their early childhood to participate in a duel with each other. The duel is orchestrated by two powerful magicians who have been at it for hundreds of years. However this one might turn out different when love comes in the mix. I don’t want to give too much away in terms of the story, but let’s just say that their duel involves a very mysterious circus called Le Cirque des Reves (translated The Circus of Dreams). And before I say anything more, I want to first share how the first page starts:

The circus arrives without warning.
No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

Now if that doesn’t spark an interest, then this might not be a book for you. However, if you like me got tingly with excitement after reading it and can’t wait to find out what happens next, then you’re in for an amazing ride.

What is really fantastic about The Night Circus is not only its story, which in itself is really captivating and original, but the way Erin Morgenstern structured the whole book made it that much more engaging.

Chapters are fairly short, which I sometimes like because there is a sense of movement in the story, and all start with a place and a year. As you read through the chapters and keep track of the years start to figure out how they relate to each other little by little, which is pretty exciting when you realize the connection a previous chapter had to the one you’re currently reading. In addition, the excitement continues as new characters are introduced throughout the book and their part in the story is slowly divulged. Let’s just say that everything is interwoven and related and Morgenstern has created a masterful web that will keep you awake late at night to be able to connect all the dots together.

Amazing, magical, beautiful. These words describe The Night Circus perfectly and if you haven’t read it yet, I urge you to go out and get it now, you’ll love it.

You can purchase ‘The Night Circus’ on Amazon

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Doubleday | Pages: 387 | Source: BEA

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I read Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur when I was sixteen and fell in love wtih the book. I’ve always been a huge fan of The Arthurian legend (something I can thank my mother for; we’d listen to the Camelot soundtrack almost daily), and when I was offered the chance to review Peter Ackroyd’s retelling of the classic in The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend I was immediately excited.

We all know the story of King Arthur and Camelot (or at least some version of the story) and his Knights of the Round Table that went in search of the Holy Grail. We’re all familiar with Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, and who hasn’t heard of the wizard Merlin? While we know the story, it can be difficult to pick up Malory’s Le Morte d’Athur, which is where Ackroyd’s retelling comes in. He brings Arthurian legend to a new generation, and does it in language that we find familiar.

However, in making the language a little more modern, Ackroyd sacrifices the lilting and poetic meter that made Malory’s story so beautiful. The Death of King Arthur also made it difficult to feel any sympathy for the Knights of the Round table. The faults of all the Knights (and the king himself) are laid out for everyone to see and pick at, without the beauty of the early English language.

Not to say that Lancelot and Arthur were always in the right with their actions. Lancelot, without thinking twice, spends the night with Guinevere (who is married to the king), and Arthur meets his quota of bad choices as well. These are all issues that readers and followers of Arthurian legend are aware of, it just sounds… prettier in Malory’s prose.

While Ackroyd’s retelling doesn’t hurt the overall story of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Merlin and everyone else, it lacks a certain poetry and mystery that generally surround the Camelot tales. I will say that Ackroyd’s version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is a very, VERY easy read compared to Malory’s telling. If Ackroyd was attempting to bring King Arthur’s tale to a new group of readers, (much like he did with his retelling of The Canterbury Tales) he succeeded.

I believe that Ackroyd’s re-telling of Le Morte d’Arthur has the potential to drive readers to Malory’s tale, which is what a retelling of anything (movie, book, etc) should do. Ultimately, I enjoyed this quick read (which is not something you hear often about an Authian book) and would recommend it to anyone just getting started in the world of Camelot.

You can purchase ‘The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend’ on Amazon.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Viking Adult | Pages: 366 | Source: Publisher

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One of my favorite things about science fiction and fantasy—one of those things that has those genres apart from many others—is the ability to poke fun at themselves with a good heart. The best writers of the genre will embark on a twisted tale and something magical happens. The movie Galaxy Quest is one example and authors Robert Aspirin and Terry Pratchett are two of the stars, two of the brightest shining lights of this little slice of magic.

Well, they were until now.

Their place in the galaxy is being threatened by a new and brightly shining star—Michael J. Tresca—whose debut novel The Well of Stars is everything a fan of fantasy could want, with added humor, a side or dry wit and a dash of snowboarding Eskimos.

The Well of Stars offers us the question—what would have happened if the heroes had done something other than be heroic and destroyed the evil artifact that could end the world? The answer, of course, is things get ugly, very ugly. But never fear! There is help at hand. Well…Sort of… Yeah, they count as help. It’s a motely crew that sets out to save the world. Since the heroes couldn’t be counted on, a group of second string, um, heroes, comes into play. The Ranger is a little lost—and I mean that literally. The dwarf is a bit hard to understand. There might be a few zombies. And the world rests in the hands of these very unlikely people, who are in turn heroes.

Tresca shows that he has a great love of the genre. This book is full of the detail that fantasy readers love, full of the language and sense of scale I expect from epic fantasy. More than that, he does it with such glowing humor I found myself laughing on page one, and I kept up the chuckling straight through. I was halfway down page one in fact, when the dwarf was giving a speech and I thought “What the heck! I can’t understand a word this guy is saying!!!” The very next line in the book is another of our stalwart heroes saying “What the heck! I can’t understand a word you are saying!”

It was love at first page.

I hope, oh how I hope, that Tresca, best known in the sci fi/fantasy community as a gaming guru, casts aside his game guides and only turns out fantasy books. This is by far the best book of its kind since I first stumbled across Another Fine Myth by Robert Aspirin. Yes, it’s that good. So run, fly, gallop or snowboard out and get The Well of Stars right now! You don’t need to eat! You don’t need to sleep. You need to read this book. I promise you will be in love too.

You can purchase ‘The Well of Stars’ on Amazon

By Muffy Morrigan – Follow me @muffymorrigan

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Three Ravens | Pages: 316 | Source: Publisher

Normally books that I review have a very specific plot that they follow. Not so with Gig Posters Volume 2. Instead of a story, this is the second installment of posters from various artists displaying different musical artists. It was awesome!

This volume is huge – 11 x 14, and not only is it 208 pages of amazing artwork, you also get 101 posters that are perforated, ready to be torn from the pages of the book for framing and hanging on your walls! It’s a book that doubles as a decorating tool! I have every intention of hanging a few of these babies around my home.

Gig Posters Volume 2 arrives two years after the initial installment of Gig Posters and features 101 new artists for our visual enjoyment. They come straight from the vaults of www.gigposters.com, which is the go to place to purchase Rock and Roll art work. Some of the bands that you’ll see featured include (but aren’t limited to) The Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Snow Patrol, Flight of the Conchords, Ice-T, Norah Jones, Queens of the Stone Age, and Wilco… and that’s just a few of the 700 posters showcased in this beautiful book.

I really enjoyed the way Gig Posters was laid out. On the front of each page there is a full sized poster, on the back are six small illustration and comments regarding the designer. Each page can be removed and -BAM! You easily have 101 posters ready to frame. I’m in love with this book and will probably purchase one just to have sitting on my coffee table.

You can purchase ‘Gig Posters Volume 2′ on Amazon.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Quirk Books | Pages: 208 | Source: Publisher

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Are you a fan of random facts? Do you find yourself constantly buying new editions of the Bathroom reader? Do you like surprising people with stories that make you seem smart at parties? Then mental_floss: The Book: The Greatest Lists in the History Listory might be just what you need.

I can’t say that I have always been a fact freak, although I had always enjoy hearing about fun anecdotes or history facts. But nowadays, I find myself looking for new interesting facts or stories that either make you think or are just pure entertainment.

That’s why I loved mental_floss: The Book: The Greatest Lists in the History Listory. The book is a result of 10 years of hunting and compiling the world’s rarest facts thanks to the people from mental_floss Magazine, which resulted in this collection.

mental_floss: The Book is a pretty large book with 300+ pages of facts and facts and facts, and more facts. But the cool thing is it’s broken up into themed sections that each contain 10 different lists.

So let’s say you’re not a big sports fan and couldn’t care less about those facts, you can just skip that section and instead head over to the book section, in this case wittingly named “10 Lists for People Who Can’t Write Good” and since we’re amongst book lovers, you might be intrigued to know that this specific section includes these 10 lists:

- Six Works of Literature That Were Really Hard to Write
- What 10 Fictional Characters Were Almost Called
- What Eight Classic Books Were Almost Called
- Eight Latin Phrases You Pretend to Understand
- Six Words Invented by Authors
- The Little-Known Stories of Five Famous Authors
- Five Famous Phrases People Own
- The Nautical Roots of Six Common Phrases
- Nine Things Mark Twain Didn’t Say (And Nine He Did)
- 10 “Q” Words That Aren’t “Q-U” Words

Intriguing isn’t it? And that’s only one section. There are 14 sections total each including 10 lists, that’s a total of 140 lists. Not so bad!

Some of my personal favorite sections included the food section (“10 Food Lists To Make Your Mouth Water”), the pop culture section list (“10 Pop Culture Lists To Break Out On The Red Carpet”) and the business section (“10 Lists That Mean Business”). But there is definitely something for everyone.

So if you feel like enriching your knowledge with facts that probably very few people know, this is the book for you.

You can purchase mental_floss: The Book on Amazon. And if you can’t get enough of those lists, you should visit the mental_floss website.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars | Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks | Pages: 320 | Source: Publisher

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Books written in verse can easily go terribly, terribly wrong. When YA books are written in verse, however, it often makes them more accessible; you really feel like you’re flipping through a teen’s journal.

In Love and Lefotver, Marcie’s whole life is uprooted when her dad comes out. Now he has a boyfriend and her mom is having a mental breakdown. She drags Marcie from her home in Idaho to her mom’s childhood home in New Hampshire. At first Marcie pines for home and all that goes with it- her best friend Katie, her boyfriend Linus, and her group of misfit friends that call themselves the Leftovers. But when school starts in New Hampshire one of the cute, popular boys starts paying attention to her, and despite her boyfriend back home, she can’t deny she’s interested in him as well. And just as she’s settling in to life in New Hampshire, her dad comes to bring her back to Idaho, where the life she left might not be waiting for her.

I loved how unpredictable this book was. I didn’t know until the very end which guy she’d end up with, or if she’d end up alone. The author also does a great job of portraying a teen wrestling with two different emotions about her situations. She loves her mom and realizes she’s in a dark place she might need help getting out of, but she’s also frustrated with her for not being the mother and taking care of her. She loves her father and knows he loves her, but she hates him for what he’s doing to her family.

I also really appreciate when a YA book works in technology in a realistic way. From the IM conversations between and her best friend, to her boyfriend’s band’s YouTube videos of songs written in her honor, Internet culture is woven in without the self-consciousness some books suffer from.

There were a few issues I took with this novel. The story of her friend who had had a baby and decided to give it up, but was still struggling with the decision was an interesting plot line, but in the end it seemed too removed from the main story and just diverted attention away from it. On the other hand Katie’s story of falling quickly in teen lust seemed to feed the main narrative, giving Marcie something to envy even as she didn’t quite understand it.

Even at over 400 pages this book is a quick read, one that really brings you in, up close and personal with the protagonist. I’d suggest it to fans of Sonya Sones, Tregay does a great job with the writing in verse.

Love and Lefotver will be released on December 27th, 2011. You can pre-order it on Amazon.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books | Pages: 448 | Source: ARC

What kid hasn’t dreamed about bringing Batman to life? Even the non comic book reading children know who the iconic Dark Knight is, and I’d wager you’d be hard pressed to find a child who, hadn’t (at some point) pretended to be the Caped Crusader saving Gotham from the Joker. While this is a childhood dream, how many adults can step up and say they actually achieved it? In The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir, Michael Uslan does just that.

From the first pages of his memoir, Uslan draws in the reader with antidotes of growing up in a middle class family in New Jersey, his love for comic books, and how he took his fanboy vision to Hollywood. It has to be said, though, that Ulsan’s story isn’t just about the glitz and glam of Hollywood. When he first pitched the idea of a Batman film, studios basically laughed at him. How would a comic book translate to the big movie screen? With a lot of determination, passion, and sacrifice, Uslan was able to make his childhood dream a reality.

What I loved most about The Boy Who Loved Batman was the message that Uslan gives readers. He not only allows us to see how he bent the rules and thought outside the box; but encourages those reading his story to do the same. Nothing that Uslan earned came easily, but his ability to wade through the rejection allows him to share lessons that will carry over into any reader’s life.

I have nothing bad to say about this memoir. It was entertaining, heartwarming, and at some points hilariously funny. I’m an avid comic book reader (Batman being my favorite) so the subject matter really appealed to me as well. However it is not necessary to be a comic fan to enjoy The Boy Who Loved Batman. I feel that everyone should pick up this book. The images are wonderful and Uslan tells an amazing tale of his achievements. It would me a perfect gift for the comic lover on your Holiday list!

You can purchase ‘The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir’ on Amazon

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Chronicle Books | Pages: 256 | Source: Publisher

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It’s 1996. Josh and Emma stumble into their own Facebook page from the future. That’s pretty much the premise of The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. And it’s that premise which intrigued me.

This is another BEA book and I am glad that I picked it up because it was an original, fun and quick read. In short, it’s the perfect book to read over the Holidays.

There are millions ways you could go with such a premise, in addition to the fact it also makes the reader wonder, “what would I do?”

In this case, Josh and Emma are childhood friends, who had been growing apart in the last 6 months after something happened between them. When Josh brings an AOL CD-Rom to Emma, she soon finds herself faced with the Facebook homepage after installing it, years before Facebook was even created. Even crazier, she logs in to her own Facebook account from the future. When Emma and Josh rule out the possibility of this whole thing being a prank, they soon realize any knowledge they get from Facebook could affect their future and they have to decide what they want to do.

I was a bit afraid when I picked up The Future of Us that such a great concept might not be explored the way it could be, and while it’s impossible to touch on every single side of the issue, I thoroughly enjoyed the directions Asher and Mackler decided to go in.

When reading The Future of Us, don’t expect any philosophical exploration of the concept, but what you can expect is a really nice story (and yes there is some romance), grounded in the idea of what happens when you know about your future and whether you should (or want) to affect the outcome.

The chapters switched between Josh and Emma’s point of view, which gives a good balance to the story. But what I loved most about The Future of Us is how they explored these characters barely getting a dial-up and then trying to figure Facebook out. It definitely made me wonder what I would have thought if I had found my Facebook page in 1996. Not sure it would have made as much as sense as it did to these characters, plus I’m not really a sharer, so I would have been a bit useless to my past self. Still it’s fun to ponder while realizing that only 15 years ago, Google, Facebook, Kindle, and iPhone, didn’t even exist. Heck even DVDs were slowly starting to be introduced at the time.

I would recommend The Future of Us to fans of Facebook who enjoy YA novels and are in the mood for something light and quick to read, I’m pretty sure you’ll be entertained.

You can purchase ‘The Future of Us’ on Amazon

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Razorbill | Pages: 356 | Source: BEA (Book Expo America)

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You know how people always tell you to face your fears? Well, what if your fears are so crippling that even your doctor can help you get past them? Such in the story of Dark Eden by Patrick Carman.

More psychological than horror, Dark Eden follows the story of seven teens that are sent on a retreat to face their phobias. Will Besting is one of the patients, with a fear of being around groups of people. Will is reluctant at first (who wouldn’t be reluctant to join a group when your fear IS groups?) to head off to the retreat, but is out voted by his parents. They feel some time at Fort Eden will be exactly what Will needs to cure his phobia.

What Will and his parents don’t know is that something much more sinister is going on at Fort Eden. When he sneaks away from the group to explore his new surroundings, Will comes across hidden rooms, camera, and puzzles and attempts to figure out just how Fort Eden is helping patients cope with their phobias.

What these seven children don’t realize is that they’re about to pay a large price for being cured of their greatest fears.

Dark Eden was a great psychological thriller. With six main chapters, one for each of the teens (two boys are doubled into one chapter), Carman throws his audience into these character’s fears and makes the reader experience their journey right along with the group. Each chapter shines a little more light on each character and gives readers clues into their phobias along with why they experience them.

While the writing style isn’t my favorite, it’s obvious that Dark Eden was written for young adults, it will be an easy read for those that don’t necessarily find themselves devouring books. Even though it was a little simple for me, Dark Eden was a great psychological thriller that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books | Pages: 336 | Source: Publisher | Buy on Amazon

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