Shoot That Book: How to Save a Life

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

Shoot That Book nail polish edition is back! I always take advantage of cheaper nail salon rates whenever I’m in Manila. Everything is much more expensive in Singapore so I’ve never gotten a haircut or had my nails done here. I went to a nail salon with my friend and she said she was getting a colored French tip and it looked nice so I got the same thing. Incidentally, the colors that I picked matched the cover of a book that I recently received: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr.

This book reminds me of The Fray song that has the same title. Wonder if it fits the story? My nail polish posts are easy – I just choose a book that has a cover that matches the colors of the nail polish that I have on. I wanted to highlight a blogger who does amazing nail art. Mandee is the girl behind The Bookish Manicurist and she does beautiful artwork with her nails. What’s even better is she matches her nails to the covers of the books that she reads. I love all of the nail art that she’s posted because they all look so pretty and nail art based on books – what’s not to like? You have to drop by her blog to check it out. I wish I was half as good as she is when it comes to painting nails.

Shoot That Book: Laura Florand’s Chocolate Series

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

My good friend Michelle of See Michelle Read recommended Laura Florand’s contemporary romance novels when I met up with her a few weeks ago. I hadn’t heard of this author before but was immediately curious when Michelle mentioned that the books are all about chocolate, romance and Paris. What’s not to like? Fortunately, I was able to order copies of The Chocolate Thief and The Chocolate Kiss before flying back to Singapore. I’m still in the middle of The Chocolate Thief and thoroughly enjoying this decadent read. Since I think the covers for both novels are pretty, I wanted to feature them here on the blog. I like how the two covers match each other:

The iconic Eiffel Tower is included in The Chocolate Thief’s cover to represent the setting:

I like the details of the two covers – how one woman is (almost) holding a bag of chocolates and the other a stack of macarons (yep, another favorite dessert aside from chocolates):

And of course, I had to include a snapshot of the French word for chocolate:

Lovely covers, don’t you think? I always like covers when they fit the story within the book. It kind of makes me sad that the third book in the series doesn’t match these two:

I’m still excited to read it though! Have you read Laura Florand’s novels? Would love to hear what you think of them if you have.

Shoot That Book: Just One More Day

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

I’ve been savoring Gayle Forman’s Just One Day for the past few days. I just finished reading it a few minutes ago. I’m still processing what I think of the book but hopefully, I can review it soon. It reminds me of other contemporary YA novels that I’ve enjoyed before: Graffiti Moon because of the one day/night thing, Anna and the French Kiss because it’s also set in Paris and Wanderlove because of the meeting a guy and traveling with him aspect.

Just One Day on top of my suitcase, I thought it would be fitting

Initially, I wasn’t a fan of the cover. I thought it could have gotten a better design but now that I’ve read the book, I feel like the cover fits the story. It represents Allyson’s thoughtful moments while traveling around Europe – because it shows a girl hanging out in a cafe and thinking about life while enjoying a cup of coffee (or is that tea). Even the gigantic watch plays a part in Allyson’s story. I also like that the picture shows a hazy reflection of what she can see outside the window.

What about you, what are you reading right now? Have you paid any attention to how the cover of that book relates to the story?

Shoot That Book: MNL to SIN Stash Part 3

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

Aside from the books from my recent shopping spree, I was able to include a couple more in my luggage back to Singapore. I was actually a bit surprised that I was able to squeeze in so many. Once I realized that I hadn’t reached the luggage limit, I just kept adding books to increase my suitcase’s weight. Here’s the final pile:

Deerskin by Robin McKinley (my last unread McKinley novel)
The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer
The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart
Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart
Blood Red Horse by K.M. Grant
Green Jasper by K.M. Grant
Blaze of Silver by K.M. Grant
Nine Uses for an Ex-Boyfriend by Sarra Manning
Leaving Unknown by Kerry Reichs
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (yep, haven’t read this yet)
Eon by Alison Goodman
Eona by Alison Goodman

Now, I just need to re-arrange stuff in my room to find space for these books. I wonder when I’ll have time to read these? Next time I go home, I probably won’t get a big luggage limit (also because I had a hard time lugging my suitcase around) so I can prioritize reading these. Any particular titles that you think I should bump up?

Shoot That Book: Dorothy Sayers

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

I have recently decided that I need Dorothy Sayers in my life. I’ve heard good things about her books from Sounis so I know it must be an excellent series. Looks like Lord Peter Wimsey is a great character. These are the Dorothy Sayers books that I have copies of:

I asked around and heard that it would be good to start with Strong Poison, which is why I bought a used copy ages ago. Check out the old school cover:

According to credible sources, I should bump this up the TBR pile because the romance between Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane is comparable to the love story in my favorite YA series of all time: the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. Shouldn’t be surprising since I did mention that I heard about the books through Sounis.

So now I want to grab copies of the three other Peter-Harriet titles (Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon) because I want to read them together. Unfortunately, the books aren’t available in the library here in Singapore. I even dropped by two bookstores today to see if they have copies but they’re out of stock. I need to find out if these are available in Manila – otherwise, I’d just order them from the Book Depository. Have you read Dorothy Sayers’ books? Feel free to share your thoughts about them.

Shoot That Book: LOTR map

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

When I got my my Lord of the Rings stamp pendant, I was already planning to take pictures of it with one of the books in the series. I got the chance to do that when I went home a few weeks ago. Here’s the stamp with the cover of The Fellowship of the Ring as its background:

The pendant is a glass-covered stamp that features a map of Middle-Earth. It was a UK stamp released in 2004 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings. Here’s the pendant with the accompanying map in my hardcover edition:

I think I need to get this All Seeing Eye shirt from Threadless to go with this pendant. I could wear both of them when I watch the movie adaptation of The Hobbit.

Image from the Threadless website

Shoot That Book: Amplified and Harmonic Feedback

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

Since I had Tara Kelly’s Amplified and Harmonic Feedback borrowed from the library, I thought it would be a good idea to take pictures and feature them this week. Both books have characters who are very into music and I like how the covers and illustrations highlight that.

Amplified and Harmonic Feedback book spines

Amplified’s title page, love the guitar and amp because they’re relevant to Jasmine’s story

Even the chapter headings have music-themed illustrations

I really enjoyed reading Amplified and I’m planning to review it soon. I hope I enjoy reading Harmonic Feedback just as much. Have you read these books? Let me know what you think of them if you have.

Shoot That Book: Fury

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

I’ve been a really slow reader lately, I’ve only managed to finish one book a week by squeezing in reading time while traveling on the train. So maybe I should just feature the current book that I’m reading on my weekly Shoot That Book posts then? I apologize if I haven’t been that creative with these photos lately. I’ve also been pretty bad about keeping up with reviews so this is my way of featuring the books that I’m reading. If I can’t review them, I can at least take pictures and put them up here.

I’m now in the middle of Fury by Shirley Marr. I’m thankful that I got to borrow this Aussie YA novel from the library. Look how pretty the cover is:

Library copy of Fury in the train

I also like the illustration in between the chapters:

Chapter illustrations

What about you, what book is keeping you busy these days?

Shoot That Book: Crazy Beautiful

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

I’m a sucker for Beauty and the Beast retellings which is why Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted has been on my wishlist for a while. I grabbed it as soon as I saw that it’s available in the library. It’s been a few days since I started reading it but I’m not done yet. Here it is on the train:

And I took a picture of this little bit saying “we discuss books and life” because I liked it:

What about you, what book is keeping you entertained now? Also, what’s your favorite fairy tale retelling? I have several – Beauty by Robin McKinley, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Would love to discover more.

Shoot That Book: Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland

Shoot That Book combines my passion for books and my tendency to become trigger happy with a camera. My lack of photography skills is compensated by my enthusiasm. Basically, I like taking pictures of books.

Remember when I mentioned last week that I mostly read on my Kindle? Well, I just started The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente for a readalong with blog friends Janice and Holly. It feels good to read an actual book again! I realized that I’ve missed the feel of a book in my hands and it’s such a gorgeous book too, I had to take pictures:

I’m having a hard time reading on the train though because it’s so packed. I don’t mind though, I’m really enjoying reading this. I keep wanting to highlight the passages that I like. Here’s a fairly spoiler-free excerpt early on:

“…all children are Heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb high trees and say shocking things and leap so very high grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.)”

The trailer for this is delightful, you have to check it out if you haven’t seen it yet:

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll fall in love with this book! Have you read Fairyland (the whole title is quite a mouthful) yet? Let me know what you think if you have.