“Pandora” by Victoria Turnbull

Here’s the first second illustrated children’s book I’ve read this year.

Genre:

Children’s Fantasy

Pubbed:

2017

Goodreads summary:

Pandora lives alone, in a world of broken things. She makes herself a handsome home, but no one ever comes to visit. Then one day something falls from the sky

. . . a bird with a broken wing.

     Little by little, Pandora helps the bird grow stronger. Little by little, the bird helps Pandora feel less lonely. The bird begins to fly again, and always comes back—bringing seeds and flowers and other small gifts. But then one day, it flies away and doesn’t return. Pandora is heartbroken.

     Until things begin to grow . . .

Here is a stunningly illustrated celebration of connection and renewal. (Goodreads)

Dreamy Book Covers Tag

I’m long overdue to do this tag. I was tagged for it by Chitra of Books and Strips back in April last year (yeah, long time ago) but I kept putting it off because I wanted to take pretty pictures for it to put on IG. (Sigh) I’ve yet to get around to doing that so I’ll just post this without them.

RULES:

• Thank the person who tagged you.
• Mention the creator of this tag: (Tiana @ The Book Raven)
• Use the original tag image in your post.
• At least tag one fellow blogger to do this tag!
• List the rules.

“No Ideas But in Things” — A book cover that perfectly expresses the novel inside it

The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

This is the fourth book in Jordan’s epic fantasy series, Wheel of Time, about a farm boy who must save the world.

My answer for this is all the U.S. covers for the Wheel of Time series that are illustrated by Darrell K. Sweet. Sweet does a great job of capturing a scene from the story on the cover. Some readers don’t like this sort of cover saying it gives away too much of the story, but these are the sort of covers I love best, especially for fantasy novels. They give us a visual representation of the story. I like to look back at such covers as I read to see if it really matches the story. Sweet’s covers definitely do so.

Here’s is the full cover (out in the Aiel Waste). The parts not seen above appear on the back cover.

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to All!!

It’s now become tradition on this blog to do a post like this every Christmas day to honor the holiday on Zezee with Books.

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I always get excited when it comes around. No matter what has happened in the year or if I’ve been sad and angry for the majority of December, I always get happy and excited by Christmas. I love the holiday because it carries with it a sense of unity and community, and there’s always a touch of magic in the air.

Each year I celebrate the holiday on here by featuring a bit of artwork that I think captures the spirit of Christmas. This year, I chose “Christmas in Color,” which features a scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling:

“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick

I watched and enjoyed the 2011 movie adaptation by Martin Scorsese and have just gotten around to reading the actual book. I’ve heard many high praises for Selznick’s illustrations and stories, but have never read anything by him until this book. I wasn’t surprised that I enjoyed what I read, but I appreciated that the illustrations are as integral to the story as the words.

Quick summary:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an illustrated middle-grade historical-fiction novel about a 12-year-old orphan boy named Hugo who maintains the clocks at a busy Paris train station. Hugo’s father, a clock maker, died in a fire, leaving Hugo with a notebook and a broken automaton to remember him by.

Hugo was sent to stay with his uncle, a drunk who managed the clocks at the train station. However, Hugo’s uncle disappeared some time ago leaving Hugo in charge of the station’s clocks and fending for himself. Since Hugo is unable to cash his uncle’s checks, he has resorted to theft to get food and as well as supplies for the automaton, which he hopes will give him a message from his father once fixed.

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to All!!

It’s my favorite holiday of the year: Christmas! 😀

This year, I’m celebrating the holiday on here by featuring this cool illustration that I found on Deviant Art. It was created by Sandara, who does some really cool fantasy pieces (you can see more of her work here).

This one is entitled “Cosfest Christmas.” It seems that she entered it for an art contest. Though it doesn’t say Christmas outright, I think it contains the Christmas spirit: the feeling of unity and sense of enchantment in the air. It also calls to the child within us all, which I think tends to come out when Christmas comes around. Everything is lighter and happier at Christmas. 🙂 Such a wonderful holiday and this illustration does a great job of capturing how I feel about it.

Judging A Book By Its Cover: Lord of the Flies

My beautiful copy of the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition of The Lord of the Flies was featured by Millie, of Milliebots Reads, in her “Judging a Book by Its Cover” post.

The post is a weekly meme where she features beautiful cover designs and packaging of both classic and contemporary books. Check it out!

Milliebot Reads

This is my weekly post where I highlight and appreciate cover designs and the general physical appearance of books. We all judge book covers to some extent. I can’t say that I’ve ever decided against a book with terrible cover art if I liked the sound of the plot, but I have purchased special editions of books or multiple editions of books based on their cover art. If book covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t put out so many beautiful editions!

This week, I’m happy to present a special post – Zezee, from Zezee with Books has photographed her awesome edition of Lord of the Flies so I could feature it here on my blog. She’s informed me it’s a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition (of course!), published this month, ISBN: 9780143129400.

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“This One Summer” by Mariko Tamaki, illus. by Jillian Tamaki

Genre:

Contemporary; young adult

Goodreads overview:

Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. It’s her summer getaway, her refuge. Her friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had, completing her summer family.

But this summer is different.

Rose’s mom and dad won’t stop fighting, and Rose and Windy have gotten tangled up in a tragedy-in-the-making in the small town of Awago Beach. It’s a summer of secrets and heartache, and it’s a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.

Weekend Reads #53: Booktube Bites

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend I’m doing something a little different. I’m borrowing a feature from Rachel’s blog, Life of a Female Bibliophile, called Booktube Bites, a weekly post in which she features bookish videos she finds on the internet. Her most recent Booktube Bites post features a video by Winx & Ink (a booktuber I enjoy listening to) about reading as a form of self care.

The video I’m featuring in this post isn’t book related, but it is a story and as book lovers, one of the many things we love about books, and for many us is the main thing we love about books, is the story within them. I enjoyed listening to this one and watching the graphics and thought it best to share it with you all. Enjoy! 🙂

Weekend Reads #32: Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to all

It’s Christmas again!!! 😀

This year I’m highlighting the holiday with this beautiful piece I found on DeviantArt. It’s called “Christmas” and it was created by Gem (gemlovesyou). On the website, it’s listed under photomanipulation. Isn’t it beautiful?

It doesn’t say Christmas outright, but I think it captures the mystical feeling of the holiday. Just look at those trees with the twinkling lights! They seem so mysterious as they beckon at us to come closer and see what’s hidden in the forest (maybe Santa’s house that the lone reindeer escaped from). I also like that the only pops of color we see are those in the aurora borealis above, which adds to the magical feeling of the picture.

It’s such a beautiful creation. If you like it, you can click on the link on Gem’s name to visit her profile and see more of her work.

I wish you all a wonderful, merry, and magical Christmas this year.

Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

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Oh! And since this is a Weekend Reads post as well, I’ll just quickly say that I doubt I’ll get much reading done this Christmas weekend since I have family visiting. It will be busy, busy.

Anyways, have a happy holiday! 😀

Book News: A Kanye West Bible, Minions, and GRRM’s New Show

It’s a lazy Saturday so I’ve decided to do another book news roundup, my third so far. I hope you enjoy reading them and find something to look forward to.

The Book of Yeezus: the Kanye West bible

As a commentary on today’s worship of celebrity icons, an Etsy shop is selling The Book of Yeezus, a bible in which every mention of God’s name is replaced with Kanye West’s.

With this product, the sellers say they are trying to highlight “the way cultural icons have come to be the contemporary spiritual figures in our information culture.” The book is described as a novelty coffee-table book in black hardcover with a gold-leaf imprinted title on the cover, all for $20 (Hollywood Reporter).