Busy days... here's a video instead

I know I've missed a couple posts lately.  Let's just say things have taken a turn for the crazy!  Hot weather, prepping to be a witness in a criminal misdemeanor trial (I turned in a drunk driver) and oh, yeah, we're going to Disneyland next week.  And I just found out yesterday! 

Anyway, I don't know if I'll have time to post before I leave next week, so just in case I don't, here's a video to keep you entertained while I'm gone.

A couple 4th of Julys ago, I posted a YouTube video from a group called Soomo Publishing.  It was a new take on "Too Late to Apologize" by One Republic, where they took the song and twisted it around to match the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  If you haven't seen that yet, check out the original post to see it (it's really good).

Well, the same people have done it again, this time with women's suffrage.  It's a remix of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance".  Pretty neat (and a little freaky) and actually quite historically accurate.  Check it out:

Waiting on Wednesday: Love Disguised

Today's Waiting on Wednesday pick again brings us back to Shakespeare.  But this time it pulls towards that historical fiction side I love, rather than a retelling of one of his plays:

Love Disguised by Lisa Klein

About the Book: "Will Shakespeare is about to meet the girl who will change his life forever. After a mixed-up courtship with the Hathaway sisters ends badly, Will jumps at the chance to go to London, where he can pursue his dream of becoming an actor. There, Will meets the unusually tall (and strong) Meg who has earned the nickname "Long Meg" for her height. She's also fleeing her own past as an orphan turned thief. Disguised as "Mack," Meg was once a member of a band of boy thieves who betrayed her. When Will is robbed by those same villains, Meg disguises herself as "Mack" again--telling Will that Mack is her twin brother--in order to help Will recover his money. As Mack, she finds true friendship with Will. But is there more? And who is Meg really fooling with her disguise?

What ensues is a tale involving love triangles, mistaken identities, and the pursuit of hapless villains, as Shakespeare becomes a key player in a lively drama that could have sprung from his own pen."

Hmmm... sounds kind of like a YA version of Shakespeare in Love?  I have to say, I love Lisa Klein's books.  Now, Klein has already proved she can do a good job with Shakespeare, with her books Ophelia and Lady Macbeth's Daughter.  But she also does a good job with actual historical events like in Two Girls of Gettysburg, and Cate of the Lost Colony.  So perhaps this 5th book, which seems to combine both elements, will be a hit out of the park? 

This also reminds me a bit of Carolyn Meyer's Loving Will Shakespeare, and Carolyn Meyer is probably my other favorite YA historical author. 

Now, about that cover... what do you think?  I'm not a fan.  It's certainly eye catching, but the mismatched random body parts in the diamonds seem weird to me.  Good thing I head about this one before the cover was released, since I'm totally a "judge a book by it's cover" girl. 

Love Disguised will be available in the US at the end of the month, on July 30th.

Available at Amazon.com in Hardcover or Kindle
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Check availability on Paperbackswap.com

Waiting on Wednesday: Still Star-Crossed

This week's Waiting on Wednesday post ventures once again into the realm of retellings/sequels, but this time instead of fairy tales, we're doing Shakespeare.

Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub

About the Book: "Romeo and Juliet are gone. Will love live on? Despite the glooming peace that's settled on Verona after the recent tragedy, Montagues and Capulets are brawling in the streets. Faced with more bloody battles, Prince Escalus concludes that the only way to truly marry the fortunes of these two families is to literally marry them together. 

Everyone is skeptical, but none more so than the pair selected, for the most eligible Montague bachelor is Benvolio, Romeo's best friend, still anguished by the loss of his companions, and the chosen Capulet maid is Juliet's older cousin Rosaline, the girl Romeo first loved and whose refusal of Romeo's affection paved the way for bloodshed. Contrary to their late cousins, there's no love lost between Benvolio and Rosaline, yet they forge a bond to end the renewed feud not only to escape their forced betrothal, but to save their lives and the city of Verona itself."

So, I'm kind of an oddball in that I actually do enjoy some of Shakespeare's plays a lot.  However, Romeo and Juliet was never one of my favorites.  I like happy endings, not tradegy.  But for some reason, I seem to love retellings of Romeo and Juliet, so this one is right up my alley.  

By the way, if anyone wants to see a hilarous animated move retelling of Romeo and Juliet with an actual happy ending, I highly recommend Disney's Gnomeo & Juliet.  This movie had me and my brother rolling.  

Getting back to the book, I have another book on my shelf that's written from Romeo's point of view called Romeo's Ex.  I haven't read it yet (towering To Be Read pile and all that) but perhaps this is the time to pull it down and jump into it.  I have a feeling these two books will either compliment each other nicely, or totally clash.  

Still Star-Crossed will be available in the US starting July 9th, 2013, just a few days away.
  
Available at Amazon.com in Hardcover  or  Kindle 
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Check availability on Paperbackswap.com

Sync Audiobooks 2013: Week 5

Oops, missed a week.  So that's why I wanted to pop in this week really quick and make sure I told you about the free audiobooks Sync has for download this week.

This week's theme is dead bodies, or the walking dead, zombies.... something like that.  The YA title is Daniel Kraus' book Rotters,which I've never actually heard of but sounds like it might be interesting.  I know I'm going to have to download this one regardless, because the audiobook is read by Kirby Heyborne, which is one of my brother's favorite people.  So I know he'll want to listen to it at some point.

And what classic pairing goes better with the theme of the rising dead than Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  I've never actually read Frankenstein, although I know the book is way different than the movies and typical Hollywood green monsters you see running out (thank you Wishbone! see, you can learn things from watching TV).

Head over to download both titles if you wanna snag them soon, since they will be replaced on the 4th of July