Smugglivus 2011 Guest Author (& Giveaway): Kate Noble

Welcome to Smugglivus 2011! Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2011, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2012.

Who: The lovely Kate Noble, author of awesome historical romance novels, including Revealed (one of Ana’s top 10 books of 2009!), Compromised, and The Summer of You.

Recent Work: Kate’s most recent novel is Follow My Lead (which Ana read and loved).

Please give a warm welcome to Kate!

Hello, Smugglers of the world! As an unabashed consumer of entertainment in all forms, it is incredibly difficult for me to narrow down what in 2011 has moved me to the point of squealing to fit into this blog post, but I’m gonna give it a shot.

(please note: all media may not have debuted in the calendar year 2011, but I discovered it then. And it’s my post, so I make the rules. Neener neener neener.)

BOOKS:

Room by Emma Donahue

An absolutely horrifying and yet riveting tale of a woman and child held captive in a room, their daring escape, and life after captivity. It’s told from her 5-year-old son’s perspective, who has never experienced anything beyond the four walls of this Room, his entire world. I listened to it on audiobook on a solo road trip, and I’m lucky I didn’t swerve off the road I was crying so hard.

One Con Glory by Sarah Kuhn

Disclaimer: Sarah Kuhn and I are buds. We watch Revenge together. But I didn’t meet her until 2011, and then decided to read her romantic adventure through the world of Comic Conventions, One Con Glory. Which was balls-out awesome. Insider info: it’s being developed into a movie!

Ready Player One by Ernest Kline

I’m kind of madly in love with this book, and I only get 25% of the references. Set in the near future, a immersion virtual reality game system called the OASIS has become the reality in which most people live and work. But when the Steve Jobs-like creator of the game dies, he sets up a quest as his last will and testament – the player who completes the quest, inherits his fortune. And since the creator grew up in the 70s and 80s, his quest is chock full of trivia and games from that era. It’s like a mind meld of The Matrix and John Hughes movies, while playing Dungeons and Dragons.

And since I’m a romance novelist, here’s my romance novel pick of the year:

Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas

(A 2010 book, but hey, see the rules stipulated above.)
I keep a quick and dirty list of the books that I read, for my own OCD purposes. Here’s what I wrote for Not Quite a Husband: “A difficult story, told beautifully, with incredible detail of the time. And there are moments of true grace.” I think that says it all.

MOVIES:

I absolutely adored 50/50. A love story with adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Check. A love story between him and best friend Seth Rogan as JGL battles cancer? Even better! And no body does a love letter to a city than Woody Allen. But while Pairs is beautiful, in Midnight in Paris, Ernest Hemingway steals the show. I never thought I would say that. But my favorite movie of 2011 is…

Attack the Block. It’s like the anti-Spielberg kids n’ aliens flick, where the kids are thugs who try to mug you, but then graciously help you run from the aliens that are trying to take over their building.

TV:

TV this year is a tie for me. Between two of the most incongruous shows ever: Parks and Recreation and Revenge.

Parks and Rec is *literally* the nicest show on TV. I want to live in Pawnee! Meanwhile, I never, ever want to go to Emily Thorne’s version of the Hamptons, what with the chances I’d end up collateral damage in one of her delicious long-game revenge plots. This is Revenge’s first season so it got me right out of the starting gate, while Parks and Rec is now in it’s fourth – but over those four seasons, it has become the ‘shippiest show on TV – I’m waaaay too invested in Leslie finding happiness with the cute, bow-lipped Ben.

As for what I’m looking forward to in 2012, there is too much to name (from The Dark Knight Returns to The Avengers to the next Sarah MacLean book, etc.) but there is one thing that stands a head above the rest for me:

Brave

One reason, and one reason only: She. Has. My. Hair. We’ve needed a good curly-haired heroine for a while now.

Thank you, Kate! And now for the giveaway!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

We have ONE copy of Follow My Lead up for grabs! The contest is open to ALL and will run until Saturday, December 17 at 11:59 PM (PST). In order to enter, simply leave a comment here. Good luck!