Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Author: Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
Series: ---
Publisher: Quirk Publishing
How Received: library

[courtesy of Barnes and Noble's website]
As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton — and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers — and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry?

I'll admit - just like the original Pride and Prejudice, I didn't get through the entire book. This time, however, it was because of a lack-of-time, not from a lack of interest.

This book is /funny/. It's well written and original (yes, original) and just so, so much fun to read.

I wish I had had a chance to finish it!

Go read it. Do it. Now.

~ Nicole

The Life And Times Of Blogger Nicki

I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday season! (In case you're following my other blog or my deviantArt, I posted this there, as well. May be why it seems so familiar to some of you, eh?)

What gifts did y'all receive? Some of my highlights were a Kodak camera and digital frame (expect some vlogs coming soon!), Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series (which I've wanted to buy for a very long time, yay!), and some gorgeous new t-shirts.

Oh, and a Matthew Morrison personalized autograph. ;] My mother = magical.

It's been an interesting past week. I haven't had much chance to read lately - as you can tell by my lack of reviews. I had school up until Christmas Eve, and then I was running around like a goon, buying last minute presents, seeing famazing movies like Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, dealing with my exboyfriend and his relationship with one of my best friends (long story! but it's all good.), and preparing for the family visit on Sunday.

My favorite books of '09 will be announced at the end of the week. What would you choose as your favorite book of the year?

And prepare for my New Year's Day post. Not only will New Year's Eve start with a very sparkling, fanged giveaway, but New Year's Day will list all my resolutions for the upcoming year - the easy, the difficult, the profound, and the silly.

And so that's an update from the life of Nicki.

How's your life going?

Sherlock Holmes

I caught the new Sherlock Holmes movie on Christmas.

I knew that RDJ was playing a different Holmes - one a bit rougher around the edges, a fighter, a romantic. I wasn't sure how it would work. I had friends who refused to see it because they're so attached to the original Holmes.

I'm not so attached.

And I ADORED it.

For all you Holmes fans (and even those of you who just like a good mystery!) I'd go see it. It has it's flaws, as does every movie, but it's overall a fantastic and fun film. (And hey. RDJ and Jude Law. Ow-ow!)

A Very Merry Friday - R.J. Anderson

May your Christmas be filled with joy, happiness, and a lack of zombie attacks.

On this glorious day, we have a very special visitor to cap off this month's list of authors. R.J. Anderson, author of the Faery Rebels series, has generously agreed to stop by today to chat about books, woodchucks, and the upcoming year.

You can order R.J.'s books online by going to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.

N: The world is relying on your ability to choose a favorite author or book. With the fate of the world on your shoulders - what do you select?

I'm going to assume you mean a favorite author or book for teens specifically, in which case I'll have to say Megan Whalen Turner -- her Thief of Eddis books are brilliant.

N: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck was a faery?

Depends on whether the woodchuck-faery can chuck the wood without getting eaten by a crow first...

N: What's been your favorite scene in all of the books you've written?

My favorite scene so far is in REBEL a.k.a. WAYFARER, but I can't talk about that yet without spoiling the book! So I'll have to say the part in KNIFE a.k.a. SPELL HUNTER where Knife peeks through Paul's window and sees him lifting weights, and realizes hey, I'm attracted to this guy, what's up with that?

N: Who would you cast to play you in a movie about yourself? Your love interest?

Me! I love acting. I doubt I could convince my husband to play along, however...

N: What's the best part about having a blog? The worst?

Best: Hearing from new people and having fascinating conversations with them in the comments. Worst: Trying to think of interesting topics to write about!

N: If you could have one faery quality, what would it be?

Faeries are much stronger than humans for their size. I'd think that would be pretty handy! Although being able to fly would be fantastic too...

N: I vote for flying. Why did you choose to write under "R.J." rather than Rebecca?

I grew up reading C.S. Lewis, E. Nesbit, J.R.R. Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton, so using my initials just seemed like the writerly thing to do.

N: I'd have to agree. Who wouldn't want to be J.K. Rowling? What are you looking forward to this New Year?

Starting to write my third faery book, ARROW, which is scheduled for UK release in January 2011. I can't wait to find out what my characters have been up to -- and how they're going to get out of the trouble I've put them in!


Thanks for stopping by, R.J.!

May everybody find what they want under their tree today - and for those of you who don't celebrate it, may you have a fantasmagorical day otherwise.

~ Nicole

300 Followers & Facebook

Omigod! I made it to three hundred followers!

I suppose I must fill January up with oodles and oodles of awesome contests!

On another note.

I realized I never fully announced that yes - WORD for Teens DOES have a Facebook page! Not only does joining the fan page give you a chance at extra entries in giveaways, but participating in the discussion boards gives you major brownie points.

We've currently got three discussions going on - Author Recommendations (which comes with it's own photo folder); Book Recommendations (which comes with it's own photo folder); and Twilight? - obviously, a place to debate about Twilight.

I've also got another photo folder - Nicole's Must Read Books - that has, as is rather self explanatory, all of my favorite books. There's also a whole page of important links, like interviews and contests and what have you.

I mean, who wouldn't want to check it out?

Is it me...

... or does Sweeney Todd have a lot of versions?

- books
-- Sweeney Todd: The Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Peter Haining
-- Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Robert Mack
-- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Mark Salisbury
- play
- musical
- movie

For those of you who know it, which is your favorite? I love the movie myself.

Avatar

I saw Avatar last night.

For all you fantasy/sci-fi/good plotline/good characterization people out there: GO SEE IT.

It's freaking fantastic.
Consider me a nicely converted little fangirl.

I could talk about it more, but go see it for yourself. You'll understand.