Technically, tonight's Friday Night Movie is about Skyrim, but even if you've never played the game you might find it hilarious, since it applies to pretty much any RPG in any format ever.

Direct link: Skyrim Hoarders

I have, over the last little while, been exploring the world of audiobooks. It's a different experience from sitting down and reading someone, although if the narrator is any good, you can get lost in the story in a very similar way. There are pros and cons to audiobooks: on the one hand, you can't exactly flip pages to find that one passage, or make notes in the margin for yourself. On the up side, though, I can delve a little further in the story every time I walk my kids to school or home again, which is normally time I wouldn't be able to spend with a book. I mean, I wouldn't be the first to read while walking, but it becomes a bit hazardous when you're trying to wrangle three kids across four lanes of traffic. Less so when the book is in my ears instead of on my nose.

I don't think audiobooks will ever be my preferred format, but I do think they have a great value outside of being used by those whose eyes won't let them read directly from the page. Long drive to work? Take your favourite author with you! Going out for a jog? You can enjoy a book along the way just as easily as music. Or listen while you're in the kitchen, cooking dinner. Books at all hours! I don't think I'll ever be able to keep track of a more thought-provoking story via audiobook, but for a lighter or less complex story, I can see chipping away at a book when I don't have time to sit and read, but can stick in a pair of earphones.

So how about you? Have you ever given audiobooks a shot? Do you love the experience of having someone read to you, or do you find it too distracting without the visual words on the page?

So judging from a few recent comments, it's been long enough since I did a big full rant on my dislike of headless book covers that people have either forgotten or not had a chance to read it. The epidemic of cover models with bodies but no heads continues to spread, and continues to annoy me, so let's have it out here.

Look, I know exactly why the publishers use headless cover art. It gives us the suggestion of a person on the cover without being specific enough to inform (or worse, ruin) the image a reader has in their head as they read. It allows people to put their own imagination in place or to insert themselves as the hero if they like. I get the concept. I do.

The thing is, though, that cover models with no heads send heinous messages to me.

( Ranting inside. )

We've got a pretty broad variety of e-book titles on the cheap this week, so dig in! It's tasty.

Blah blah, standard disclaimers. If you've heard this song before, skip ahead to the book deals. All links lead to Amazon, although some deals may be available at other e-book retailers. Some of these deals have expiration dates, so hop on them when you can. Some deals may not be available to readers outside the US. Being listed here is not necessarily a book recommendation, but if you find something that looks interesting and is cheap, do you really need me to tell you if it's worth your time? Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.

-White Tigress by Jade Lee, 0$
-School for Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer, 0.63$
-How Not to Make a Wish by Mindy Klasky, 0.99$
-Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini, 1.13$
-Hereafter by Tara Hudson, 1.13$
-Withering Tights (pre-order) by Louise Rennison, 1.13$
-The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel by David Borgenicht, 1.99$
-What a Scoundrel Wants by Carrie Lofty, 2.55$
-The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton, 2.93$
-Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry, 2.99$
-Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy by Tanya Huff, 2.99$
-Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts, 3.90$
-Dark Whispers by Samantha Garver, 3.99$
-Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sudgen, 3.99$
-Dark Mirror by MJ Putney, 4.68$
-The January Dancer by Michael Flynn, 4.68$
-Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal, 4.70$
-Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines, 4.79$

Publisher: Balzer + Bray, 2012
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Paranormal, YA
Rating: 3 pints of blood



I have to admit, I'm a bit torn on this cover. Gratuitous use of pretty dress AND she has no head? Double foul! But the colours really pop, and I love the swirls, how the girl and her dress are either appearing from or disappearing into the clouds there. It's a really striking image, and I have to admit it does draw me in. It really tells me nothing about the book, though, other than it might have a female protagonist (or it might not; not every pretty dress is a book about a girl). So I guess that's 1 for 2 in the cover department. Pretty and eye-catching, yes. Relevant to the actual book, not so much.

The last time I delved into something marketed as a modern retelling of the Persephone myth, my reaction was a bit mixed. But here we are, trying it again. This version doesn't deal directly with any gods, so obviously I had to see how Ashton was going to pull that one off.

( Obviously. )

Today I don't have a real blog post. Really I just want to point everyone over to Kate Hart, where she's got some amazing infographics about YA cover art in 2011. Most important are the parts about depictions of minorities in cover art. (Hint: the numbers are dismal.)

Also, 14% of YA covers featured a girl in a fancy dress. Frankly, I'm surprised that number isn't higher. But well, we've been over that territory before.

You know what I'm in the mood for? Mesmerizing art in motion. So here, for your Friday movie, have some gorgeous aerial silks:

Publisher: Berkley, 2010
Genre: Romance(ish)
Sub-genre: Historical
Rating: 4 1/2 pints of blood



I love the soft and pretty artwork, the colours, and the whole feel evoked here. It gives you a good idea of what you're getting in the book with cues as to genre, tone, and time period. Of course, the painting depicts Psyche entering Cupid's garden, which is specific enough it's a bit odd to use it for something entirely unrelated, but it is a beautiful piece of artwork and if you don't know the painting it would certainly be enough to draw attention from its place on the bookshelf.

Since it's Mythology Month, I went to the library to find some awesome novels based on myths. I knew fully well it would mean the month was heavy on fantasy novels, so when I found a book in the romance section about the daughter of Odysseus, I was all over that. The only issue is that when I got to reading it, I discovered this really isn't a romance novel. It's really more Xanthe's life story, a coming of age and a study of what life would have been like for the family left behind in the 20 years of Odysseus's adventures, especially for the women, limited as they were in a man's world. There is a love interest, but it's not their story, it's very much Xanthe's story.

( It's a quiet story, especially compared to all the adventures Odysseus was having at this time, but that's not a bad thing. )

Get your clicking fingers ready, because we're off on a fun and exciting tour around the internet's high points!

First, for those of you who loved Mira Grant's Feed as much as I did, Seanan McGuire has written an alternate ending to the novel. (Obviously, massive spoilers are involved for the entire first book in the trilogy.) In her own words, "I've spoken before about my love of fanfic, and how it allows you to do things you can't necessarily do "in canon." One of those things, one of my favorite things, is the alternate universe... I have written an alternate ending to Feed, picking up at what was originally chapter twenty-five. It's called Fed, and I'm very pleased with it, in part because it shows that no, the original ending wasn't the worst possible outcome. This was." And with an introduction like that, who could resist checking the thing out? It's currently being hosted as a Facebook exclusive (you have to "like" the page for Feed to access it), but after a week will be made available to read in other places, likely in pdf format.

If for some reason you're not quite ready to have your heart broken all over again, you could take a look at statistical evidence that the internet did not, in fact, destroy the human ability to read. What's that? People looking at a previous point in history and romanticizing the crap out of it? That's just crazy talk! (Or, y'know, standard for pretty much every period in history ever.)

And whether you're an obsessive reader, an obsessive writer, or both, you're likely to find something to strike your fancy at the annual Brenda Novak auction. All proceeds go to diabetes research, and you can bid on anything from rare ARCs to meet & greets with some of your favourite authors to query or manuscript critiques from various authors, agents and editors. There are some non-bookish prizes in there, too, like jewelery and art. Look, when was the last time you could buy so much awesome and justify it by saying "but it's for charity!"? Go! And let me know what you bid on, ok? Just cuz, y'know, I'm nosy like that.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for a funny book. Sometimes I want something to make me cry. Sometimes I want something complex that will challenge me and make me think, and sometimes I just want brain candy, something fluffy to have fun with. Sometimes I want to explore distant or imaginary worlds, and sometimes I want to stay a little closer to home. Sometimes I just want to visit with old and familiar friends, and sometimes I want someone new to make a striking impression on me. There's really no predicting what I'll be in the mood for ahead of time (which is part of the reason for the size of my TBR pile...), but it hugely affects which book I pick up to read.

Which is why it's so disconcerting when a book is marketed in a misleading way. Whether it's miscategorized (why yes, paranormal romance IS different from urban fantasy) or the plot summary highlights what turns out to be a very minor (or occasionally non-existent) part of the story, I go in expecting one thing and get served something else. And it's not necessarily that the difference is a bad one, but the reading experience is coloured by my expectations, and when I want something funny and fluffy and wind up reading a dark and complex book, well, it's not what I was looking for and I'm not going to respond to it as well as I would have if I'd been in the mood to read what the book actually was instead of what it was marketed as. Conversely, I'm sure there are a lot of books I would have enjoyed that I've missed out on because they were marketed in a way I didn't care for despite being something that was right up my alley. And that makes me sad.