The Book Smugglers have been bestowed with not one but TWO (!?!?!?!) awards for Book Blogger Appreciation Week:

When we found out the news, both of us were ecstatic. Rapturous. Freaking delirious! And, at the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy, we really owe it all to you folks that read our tiny little corner of the vastness that is the internet. We’re thrilled that our Graphic Novel reviews have gone over so well (and we vow to review more of them in the future – just wait, next week we’ll have a review coming your way), and we cannot think of a better award to win than one for Best Collaborative Blog!

So folks, this one is all for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! A million times over, thank you for reading our site, and for motivating us to continue to write reviews, compile lists, run contests, ramble on ponderings, etc. Y’all rock. And a huge thanks once again to Amy and the crew for their tireless work in putting together BBAW. If you haven’t been over to the website, you should hop on over and grab a badge to show your appreciation:

It’s been a great week.

Today we are supposed to talk about our goals for our blog, to say what we like best about it, and to explain where would we like our blog to be one year from now. Given how there seem to be a plethora of Blogging Agendas and Manifesto posts popping up across blogland, we’ve decided to make our own for BBAW with today’s blogging prompt in mind.

Behold,

The Book Smugglers’ Blogging Agenda

Blogging Agenda the First: Take over the world.

Blogging Agenda the Second: To accomplish Article the First by suckering in readers via excessively long, in-depth reviews and promotional materials, and then by planting secret Book Smuggler brainwashing deathrays within aforementioned reviews and materials such that any and all readers will become addicted to books and will start obsessively buying ungodly amounts books, thereby creating an unparalleled tsunami of publishing revenue and thus reviving the World Economy by way of book-reading and book-buying, finally bringing the world to worship us as The Book Smugglers: The Glorious Duo Who Saved The World By Blogging About The Books They Loved.

Presto Manifesto.

(Ok, seriously, we review and blog because we love it and we will keep on doing so for as long as we can. That’s our goal. No other agenda. Not really.)

Today’s suggested BBAW topic is:

Today we encourage you to blog about a book you read only because you discovered it on another book blog. Preferably, this will be a book you loved! You might also write a bit about the blog you discovered it on!

For this fourth day of the glorious celebration of all things Book Blogger, we give you our list of favorite book discoveries we’ve made through other bloggers!

Thea: I’m cheating and not just picking one book or one blogger, because there are so many wonderful bloggers out there who have recommended many gems. My favorite discovers are as follows:

The Miles Vorkosigan Books from Li, Me and My Books

Li’s blog is one of the first I discovered when Ana and I started The Book Smugglers, and her taste in fantasy/speculative fiction was a perfect match for my own. And she was always going on and on about this Miles Vorkosigan character, from Lois McMaster Bujold. Now, I had read some of Ms. Bujold’s fantasy work (her Sharing Knife books most recently), and with Li’s emphatic recommendations, I decided to give her science fiction a try with The Warrior’s Apprentice…and of course, I absolutely loved it! I’m slowly working my way through the Vorkosigan backlist and loving every single book and novella.

Life as we Knew it from Meljean, Meljean Brook

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as we Knew it was my favorite read of 2008 – and since my first read, I’ve gone on to reread it at least twice this year. This is easily one of my favorite apocalypse novels, PERIOD (never mind the YA label, this thing is deep and soul-searching)…and it’s all thanks to author Meljean Brook. She posted a short review about this book that immediately caught my interest (I believe she called it “THE ROAD-lite” – which it is, kind of, only I actually preferred it to Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel), and the rest as they say is history. I love this book. And Meljean totally rules.

The Amelia Peabody Books from Li, Me and My Books

Li strikes again! After I read and loved Vor Lord Miles so much, I decided I just HAD to discover this Amelia Peabody character too that Li is always saying something about. So, I made an executive decision, flexed my intimidation muscles and got Ana to agree to do Crocodile on the Sandbank for a joint review. And OH DEAR LORD was it awesome. Amelia Peabody is a veritable force of nature. She’s sensible, ever-ready with her steel-tipped parasol and utility belt, but also prone to flights of romantic sensibility (though she would never, EVER admit that in her sparkling narratives). Elizabeth Peters has created one of my all time favorite heroines in this Victorian Egyptologist – I cannot express enough my pure, unfiltered love for this series.

Richelle Mead from Li, Me and My Books

Li, again! Same story – though I had seen Richelle Mead’s Georgina Kincaid series and Vampire Academy books in my local store, I probably would not have picked either up if it wasn’t for Li’s honest reviews. And go figure, Richelle Mead’s ongoing series’ are amongst my most highly anticipated books each year!

The Works of Linnea Sinclair from Katiebabs, Babbling About Books and More!

When we first started blogging, the friendly, delightful Katiebabs was around to help us out with suggestions for other blogs and authors. Linnea Sinclair was a totally unknown author to me (and to Ana) at the time, but at KB’s insistence, we gave Gabriel’s Ghost a try – and we both instantly fell in love with Linnea Sinclair’s Science Fiction Romances. A truly great voice in this niche genre, Linnea Sinclair has since been a Book Smuggler staple. Plus, Linnea is just a sweetheart all around.

The Raine Benares Books from Tia, Fantasy Debut

Tia’s many posts about the wonderful world of Elvish seeker in a whole lot of trouble, Raine Benares, caught my eye. And after reading her wonderful interviews with author Lisa Shearin, I decided to give Magic Lost, Trouble Found a go. And, yep, it was awesome. Raine’s books are narrated in a first person Urban Fantasy style even though the stories are of the high fantasy variety…and well, the combination is pretty cool. I’ve been hooked on the series since, having loved both Armed and Magical and this year’s The Trouble With Demons.

Generation Dead/Forest of Hands and Teeth from Karen, Karen Mahoney

Kaz, as we’ve mentioned numerous times before, is not only a new author but a bonafide book pimp. It is because of her that I’ve bought many, many books and these two zombie-themed YA titles are amongst my favorite reads of 2009. I must confess that if it was not for Karen, there’s no way in hell I’d have picked up Daniel Waters’s Generation Dead – the cover looks, to be blunt, stupid. But pick it up I did, and I really, *really* loved it – it’s surprisingly dark and thought-provoking. Book 2, Kiss of Life (similarly cheesy cover that has nothing to do with the story) is even better. And then of course, there’s Carrie Ryan’s beautiful debut novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth which is in the running for best book I’ve read in 2009. I knew about the book before Karen teased us with the fact that she’d read it and loved it, but because of her we were able to score an early copy. I bow down at the unparalleled awesomeness that is Kaz!

Diana Peterfreund from Li & Angie, Me and My Books/Angieville

Both Li and Angie read and reviewed Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society books around the same time, and as two of my favorite blogs, I took these recommendations to heart! I honestly would not have picked up Secret Society Girl had it not been for these two prolific bloggers and their awesome reviews for the series. Again, I found myself loving protagonist Amy Haskell and the delectable (and completely alien) world of secret societies. More than that, Li and Angie’s recommendation led me to discover a completely new author in Diana Peterfreund, who now is one of my daily favorites for blog entries, recommendations, and writing in general. Her debut YA novel, Rampant, about killer unicorns and the girls who are responsible for the safety of our world, totally rocked. Speaking of Diana…

Assorted YA Goodness from Diana, Diana Peterfreund

Diana’s posts about M.T. Anderson, Scott Westerfeld, Sarah Cross, and many more finally got me to get off my ass and give them a read for our YA Appreciation Month. Holy crow, I absolutely loved Feed, the Uglies trilogy, and Dull Boy. Not to mention, I’ve got a list of other post-apocalyptic dystopian type novels to read from Diana’s suggestion!

The Orphan’s Tales/Feast of Souls from Kristen, Fantasy Cafe

Kristen is one of my favorite book reviewers, by a long shot. In addition to being informative and in-depth, her taste in books is pretty awesome. Just recently, I picked up Catherynne Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden because of her review and praise for the novel, and I loved it (another one in the running for favorite reads of 2009). She’s also introduced me to authors like C.S. Friedman, Sarah Monette, and Lynne Robbins.

Tomorrow Series/Obernewtyn from Rhiannon, Rhiannon Hart

Ok, so I had read these books before discovering Rhiannon online, but her wicked Dystopian Challenge totally got me in the mood for rereads. Not only did I love Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden and Obernewtyn from Isobelle Carmody, but reading along with many of my own favorites and new reads with Rhiannon was awesome.

Clockwork Heart, A Curse Dark as Gold, Lady Julia Gray, Shannon Hale, etc etc etc from Angie, Angieville

I’ve probably received the most recommendations from the incredible Angie of Angieville over the year and some that I’ve been blogging. Everything from the YA works of seasoned authors such as Juliet Marillier and Shannon Hale to the debut efforts of Elizabeth C. Bunce, to the dangerous and mysterious world of Lady Julia Grey, or even to a realm of steampunk future where Icarii take messages by flying on metal wings…well, you get the picture. Angie’s recommendations are the best.

Books I Don’t Want to Read but End up Loving from the one and only Ana Grilo

Seriously, if it wasn’t for Ana, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. I most certainly never would have read a single romance novel in my life – and even though I’m immature and probably will never really be a romance reader, I’ve discovered some lovely, unexpected gems in the mix. If not for Ana, I’d never have read Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, or discovered the beauty of the Wallflowers books or Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas. I’d never have known the wonderful world of Meljean Brook’s nuanced Demon Angel, or Nalini Singh’s Angels’ Blood. Heck, I’d probably be without classics like Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, or modern gems like Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind and Patrick Suskind’s Perfume if not for dear Ana. For this and for so many other things, I owe my largest reading debt to my wonderful partner in crime, the unparalleled Ana Grilo!

Ana:There is no way I can go with only one either so I will cheat as well. Some of my favourite are as follows:

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas and Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase from Kristie J, Ramblings on Romance

When I first started reading Romance novels in August 2007, Ramblings on Romance was one of the first blogs I found and my go–to place for romantic recommendations. It was Kristie’s love for Derek Craven, the hero of Dreaming of You that led me to discover the wonders of Lisa Kleypas’ novels and it was the fact that Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase is listed as one of her favourite books of all time that made me pick it up. The result is that Lord of Scoundrels is MY all-time favourite romance novel and Loretta Chase and Lisa Kleypas along with Julia Quinn, are my Holy Trinity of Romance Writers. Not to mention that it was Kristie’s blog that made me want to start my own!

Books by Linnea Sinclair, Meljean Brook, CL Wilson and Nalini Singh from Katiebabs, Babbling about Books and more

Now, this woman is really a force to be reckoned with. At first, I only read Historical romance but because of the Adorable KB, aka the Great Book Pimp, I decided to try out Fantasy/Romance, Scifi/Romance, and PNR and OH MY GOD. That was a whole new world in front of me. She was the one who sent me Gabriel’s Ghost in the post (my first ever gift from a fellow blogger) and dared me to read it. I loved it. I went on to read ALL of Linnea Sinclair’s books and as with Thea, became an instant fan. It was because of her love for Lord of the Fading Lands which made her top 10 list of 2007 that made me pick it up. I LOVED it.. The third book in this series, King of Sword and Sky was my favourite read of 2008.

But the main genre that KB introduced me to, was Paranormal Romance via the amazing, extraordinary Psy/Changeling books by Nalini Singh and the Guardian books by Meljean Brook. Seriously, these books are amongst my favourite series. If you never read or dared to read (I know, the covers don’t help do they?) Paranormal Romance, these are a good place to start. The worlds that these two created are FANTASTIC. It also helps that all of them: Linnea, Meljean, Nalini and CL Wilson are Very Cool People and I can only be thankful to KB for introducing me to their words.

Julie James’s novels from Stacy, Stacy’s Place on Earth

If Kristie J introduced me to the wonders of Historical romance and KB to the wonders of PNR, Stacy was the responsible for yet another discovery: Contemporary Romance, the last frontier. I had vowed I would not pick up contemporary novels (because, really did I need yet another genre to add to my TBR mountain?) but her love for Julie James’ books made me pick up Just the Sexiest Man Alive and again HOLY CRAPOLES, love at first sight. Julie James’ books are so cool, her heroines are so strong, her dialogue perfect and funny. Plus, her books are love letters to old time Screwball Comedies that I so adore.

The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran from Ann Aguirre

Yet another awesome discovery in the world of Romance Novels. In the beginning of 2008 author Ann Aguirre read and loved a book by a newbie called Meredith Duran and proceeded to promote the book every change she’s got. The book was called The Duke of Shadows and I bought it, even though I loathe the cover. I cannot begin to stress how well Meredith Duran writes, I was completely captivated by her prose. This is Romance at its best and she went on to write another two excellent books: Bound by Your Touch and Written on Your Skin.

(And now this list? It’s reminding me of how much I love Romance)

Numerous YA books from the Fantastic Four: The Story Siren, Presenting Lenore, Bookshelves of Doom and YA Fabulous

I check these blogs every.single.day for YA recommendations. My TBR pile is nearly eating me alive because I have bought a LOT of books based on these guys’ recommendations. I am also suffering from Cart Overload – my Amazon cart is right now, over 12 pages long because I keep adding and adding books I found on their blogs. Visit them as soon as you can but proceed at your own risk.

The Laurentine Spy from Liviu, Fantasy Book Critic

I love Liviu’s reviews and Fantasy Book Critic is one of ours favourite Fantasy Blogs. When I read their review of The Laurentine Spy, I kid you not, I was overcome with Book Lust, I just HAD to read it. I got, I read it, I loved it.

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan from Karen, Karen Mahoney

Karen Mahoney, Official Honorary Book Smuggler and someone who has become a true, dear friend of mine, told me about Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demon Lexicon as soon as she read it. Her pimpage worked: I got the book and I devoured it. I am now a huge fan of Sarah Rees Brennan – not only her book rocked my world this year but I also love her livejournal.

The Queen’s Thief books from Angie, Angieville

Ah, Angie. Angie, Angie, Angie. Confession time: I have a crush on Angieville. Thea already said how many books she got recommended from Angie. So have I: from Scarlet Johnson’s books to ALL the books she recommends on her Retro Fridays feature, I recently got a pad and pen and went through every single page of her blog writing down everything that took my fancy (ie most of them). What prompted my love for Angieville? Her amazing, heartfelt review of books she deeply, truly loves. Her love for the act of reading itself leaps from the pages and her adoration for Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief books made me read them and I can only say this: she was right. These books are incredibly good and I am SO thankful for her for making me want read them. They are my top reads of 2009 (along with The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss) .

Far too many books to count from Thea James, The Book Smugglers

Have you got any idea what is like to share a blog with Thea? I will tell you what it’s like: it’s the best thing in the world. She not only shares this immense love for reading and for books but also the sheer obsession that blogging has become to both of us. She is the sole responsible for making me go outside my comfort zone in more ways that I can count. She is the one that made me start reading YA (the genre I love the most at the moment) and to go through my Fantasy revival. I read Thea’s reviews and I want to read the book – it doesn’t matter that it’s from a genre I don’t usually read: she reviews it ergo I want it. She made me discover Juliet Marillier, Alex Bell, Elizabeth Peters; Graphic Novels such the amazing Fables and The Dark Knight Returns; One of her favourites books of all time is Mara, Daughter of the Nile , a book I would never have picked up if it wasn’t for her: now, it’s one of my own favourites. Hell, Thea introduced me to Melissa Marr and we all know how that turned out. She even made me into a Zombie lover.

Yes, she did that. For that and so much more, I love my Thea-Bear and I am immensely grateful that she said “yes” when I invited her to blog with me.

____
Phew. Now it’s back at you: which books have you found via a blog?

It is no secret that we love Neil Gaiman (heck, we even had a full on “Neil Gaiman Appreciation Week” last year).  When The Graveyard Book was first released last year (in Hardcover) , we bought it as soon as we could and totally loved it. Since then, the book, which tells the tale of a boy named Nobody Owens who is adopted and raised by the occupants of a graveyard, has won several major Awards like the 2009 Hugo, the Newbery Medal, and a Locus Award as well as making it into Ana and Thea’s Most Excellent Books of 2008 list (which we all know is the most prestigious award of them all.)

More About the Book:

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family. . .

Book Trailler narrated by Neil Gaiman:

Giveaway Details:

In celebration of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week and the paperback release of the book in October, we are giving away two paperback copies. All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment here answering the question:

“Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?”

Contest is open to all and runs untill Saturday 19th, 11:59 PM Pacific Time. We will announce the two winners in our Sunday stash. Good luck to all!

Today the BBAW suggested daily topic is:

Reading Meme

We encourage you to be creative with this! Please choose one or two questions to answer or try to answer all the questions in five words or less. Or choose a picture to answer a question! Brevity is the goal of today!

We chose to answer only one question:

Q: Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

Ana and Thea: HELL YES and that would be His Holy Awesomeness, Neil Gaiman.

We find that there is really only one word that can possibly describe how awesome he is and that word is: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Thea: Or “Ineffable.” You know, in the spirit of Good Omens.)

And, friends, this about as brief as it’s going to get. In part to celebrate making it on the shortlist for Best Graphic Novel Blog, we will take this meme opportunity to turn today into a Neil Gaiman Spotlight, and offer a joint review of Murder Mysteries. Here goes…

Title: Murder Mysteries

Author: Neil Gaiman (Writer) and P. Craig Russell (Illustrator)

Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy

Publisher: Dark Horse
Publishing Date: June 2002
Hardcover: 64 Pages

Stand alone or series: This graphic novel is actually an adaptation of a short story by Neil Gaiman in his Angels and Visitations and Smoke and Mirrors anthologies, of the same title. It was also adapted earlier into a radio drama – narrated by none other than Michael Emerson (aka Benjamin “Bug-eyed Bastard” Linus, from LOST).

Why did we read the book: Because it’s Neil Gaiman.

Summary: (from amazon.com)

Constructing and maintaining all of heaven and earth is an immense task, which God has divided up amongst the various ranks and stations of angels. As with any such huge effort, there are bound to be casualties. This unique passion play sheds light on the hands behind creation, as well as one lonely man in Los Angeles who gets to hear the whole story of a most unspeakable crime: a murder in paradise!

REVIEW

First Impressions:

Ana: Murder Mysteries was first published as a short story in the Smoke and Mirrors anthology which I read and reviewed last year. I loved the anthology as a whole but Murder Mysteries was my favourite story. As soon as I finished reading it, I found out that it had made into a Graphic Novel and I immediately bought it but haven’t read it until now. What can say about it? It works even better in Graphic Novel format with the added visual to a most powerful story. This is not only a very good, traditional whodunit but also with gravitas and age-old discussion of Free Will versus Determination. Murder Mysteries stays with the reader long after you finish reading it (and Neil Gaiman is a freaking genius).

Thea: After Ana read Smoke and Mirrors for our Neil Gaiman Week last year and was drooling over the graphic novel adaptation of “Murder Mysteries,” I, of course, has to have it too. And so, I bought the hardcover. It languished on my TBR for a very long time, but finally we found the perfect opportunity to do a joint review. I started Murder Mysteries and wasn’t expecting too much – I’ll be honest. Neil Gaiman is a master (clearly) and one of my favorite authors, but I’m not completely stoked by P. Craig Russell’s art (sorry!), and at a slim 65 pages, I wasn’t expecting as much from this stand alone book. Well, I was wrong. Murder Mysteries is a deceptively deep story. About the first murder in the creation of the universe, this book tackles a lot of old questions (as Ana says, Fate vs. Free Will), and sets the stage for the inevitable battle to come. It also has a somewhat open-for-interpretation ending, which is fantastic. This is Gaiman at his classic best.

On the Plot:

Ana: A young man recounts his time in LA ten years ago, when his flight to London kept being delayed for almost a week. On the last night before returning to London, he meets Tink, a beautiful woman he remembers from years ago in London, with whom he had a fling with. They have a brief sexual encounter and although he can’t remember part of the night after that, he knows that he left her place and unable to sleep, he goes for a walk. He sits down on a bench for a smoke when a homeless man sits next to him. In exchange for a cigarette, the homeless man tells him a story: a story that starts with the Word. In the beginning of times when Angels were helping the Creation, we learn that the Angel Raguel, the Vengeance of the Lord is awakened to investigate the first-ever murder.

Murder Mysteries is one of my favourite stories by Neil Gaiman – it is everything that he can be, condensed in less than 60 pages. Just like with The Sandman, everything within Murder Mysteries matters – when you reach the end, you realise how all and every single information (relayed here in panels) is relevant.

The storytelling is effective and there are two stories being told at the same time, although you think one of them does not matter: it is a story within a story and the title says everything you need to know: it is in the plural, isn’t it? The main whodunit is expertly handled by the Angel of Vengeance, who acts like a Poirot-like figure, investigating the crime. But it is the very nature of the crime that makes this book so freaking brilliant – and where Neil Gaiman’s imaginative signature comes into play: because we are talking about the first crime EVER, committed in Paradise at a time where human beings did not even exist and the Angels were busy thinking about concepts such as “love” or “hate” . There is a thread of theology in the story as Gaiman once again, brings Lucifer and his role in the Creation to the forefront. It is all part of the story, of both stories.

With regards to the illustrations: I like the added visual to a story I already loved but I am not crazy about the artwork – I think it lacks something MORE as though the figures are way too simplistic for such a complex story.

Thea: Murder Mysteries tells the story of the first death in the creation of the universe; it’s the original murder mystery (for which the book is titled). Who killed Carasel? And for what reason? This is the sole purpose of Raguel, or Vengeance – to discover the facts behind the death of an immortal, whether it was self-inflicted or murder. And, as his name suggests, to exact the Lord’s Vengeance upon the perpetrator.

Plot-wise, Murder Mysteries seems straightforward – the heart of the story is the homeless man (who claims to be Vengeance) and his tale to the narrator of the book, as payment for a cigarette and matchbook. The beginning of the book, as the narrator recounts his short layover in Los Angeles years back, seems almost negligible; an unimportant detail to get to the meat and potatoes of the book. At least, that’s how I saw it, initially. Of course, nothing in a Neil Gaiman book is a throwaway – everything has significance, from the location of the story (my hometown and aptly set City of Angels), to the serpentine shape of freeways, to the image of a child’s painting, to the payment for a cigarette. The parallel stories of the nameless bespectacled traveller to the angel’s tale overlap beautifully, and by the end of the book, everything comes together and makes perfect sense. As always, I find myself awed by Neil Gaiman’s skill at telling stories – even a seemingly simple story, such as this one.

Though I’m not a huge fan of P. Craig Russell’s art here (I wasn’t crazy on his interpretation of Coraline either – I much prefer Dave McKean’s print-like surreal inks in the prose novel), I cannot deny that the images he uses to tell the story, from the city of Heaven to Los Angeles itself, are thoughtful and compliment the tale perfectly.

Then, of course, there’s the thematic concept of fate versus free will. It is executed beautifully in the book, and raises some interesting questions….but more on that later.

On The Characters:

Thea: There are two main characters to this dual story – the nameless narrator, and the angel Raguel, or Vengeance. We don’t know much about the nameless narrator initially…not until the end of the book do things become clear. But he exudes a sense of discomforting detachment (reinforced again by Mr. Russell’s decision to give him symbolic glinting, reflective glasses). Raguel, on the other hand, is nothing but forthrightness. He has been created for one purpose and one purpose only – as a tool of his master, to exact vengeance on those who deserve it…but is it that simple? Raguel shares thoughts of his own which challenge the determination angle, and seems to be able to make his own way (or rather, he is permitted to find his own way). This leads to more theological pondering, but, again, more on that later.

The other standout character, as Ana will most assuredly gush about, is Lucifer – the Authority’s second in command. If you’ve read the Sandman books, you will be familiar with Lucifer and his role in Neil Gaiman’s work – and indeed this early invocation of Lucifer seems very close to the Lucifer that Morpheus encounters. There’s something so beautiful and heartbreaking about Lucifer, especially in this portrayal. His loyalty, his tears, his beginning to question things…it’s damn near flawless. Really good stuff.

Ana: Ah, Lucifer Morningstar. My heart bleeds for you every time Neil Gaiman writes you. The author manages to portray Lucifer as a tragic figure instead of a pure evil one. In Murder Mysteries, his role, his demeanour are heartbreaking, because he dares. He questions, he thinks about the box and because of that, he has a role to play in the Creation – a role that has not being chosen by him, but which is solely based on his very own personality. The very principle of Free Will x Fate clashes in Lucifer: his Free Will is the very thing that condemns him to his Fate. It is a sad and beautiful thing. In here as in The Sandman, I find myself having sympathy for the devil above any other character.

Murder Mysteries is Lucifer’s story – he is at the centre of it all. That makes all the other characters pale in comparison. That’s my story and I will stick to it.

Final Thoughts, Observations and Rating:

Ana: Murder Mysteries is one the best Neil Gaiman stories I’ve ever read and it’s sheer brilliance for all its depth and intensity. This book can be profoundly disturbing and it provokes the reader to think. The ending is open for interpretation and the outcome of it comes solely from the reader’s own beliefs and how they clash (or not) with what they read. For such a small story it sure does packs a punch but then again, that’s Neil Gaiman for you.

Thea: Murder Mysteries isn’t the best Neil Gaiman book I’ve ever read, but it is a fantastic standalone comic. I was immersed in it, I was ambushed by its depth and beauty, and I loved it. If you haven’t read anything by Neil Gaiman before and want a quick, fast read to see what he’s all about, Murder Mysteries is a great place to start.

Notable Quotes/Parts:

Ana: The moment when Lucifer QUESTIONS the Creator. Awesome stuff.

Thea: Following the classic Poirot-esque method of the Dramatic Parlor Room trope, the ultimate reveal of the murderer – who did it, and why they did it – is fantastic.

Additional Thoughts: On Fate (or Determinism) versus Free Will…

It’s a common enough dilemma, one that has been debated between philosophers and especially in religious connotations throughout history. Heck, it’s even a main theme in one of our all time favorite shows, LOST.

(And yeah, we didn’t include a picture of his holiness Jack, even though he’s our supposed “Man of Science” to Locke’s “Man of Faith”…)

So…with that theme in mind, we have a brief, SPOILERY DISCUSSION of the open ending:

WE REPEAT. SPOILERS BELOW. (To read, highlight the white space)

Thea: The way I interpreted the ending was that the English narrator killed Tink’s flatmate, Tink, and her daughter Susan – and Raguel, the homeless man, absolved him at least temporarily of his sin. My initial reaction was that Vengeance took pity on the man (because he gave him a “gift,” the same one he refused from God) because of how he felt after he smote the Saraquael. It’s a gift only temporarily for the narrator, absolution for only the time of his short life, but i do think he’ll “go down” the elevator later when he dies. (How could he not? Vengeance is the tool during life, but in death i’m sure the big man upstairs won’t be too happy with him, and send him to good ol’ Lucifer. Heck maybe that’s more of God’s cold planning in the book – temporary absolution, then to yank it away for eternity after death). And he can do all this because everything happens according to the big man’s will, right?

I’m not a philosopher and I don’t care for theological doctrine really, but the idea of a world that runs solely according to predetermination sits unwell with me. I like to think that Raguel turned his back on Heaven, but offers choice in his exaction of “vengeance.”

Ana: I interpreted in a very similar way as Thea did. I do think that Raguel , is still the Angel of Vengeance – after all he did not “Fall”. But he does offer the guy a reprieve by granting his forgetfulness until he eventually goes “down” to meet Lucifer. But everybody is still very much playing their roles as stipulated in the Master Plan.

The main thing about the book for me though is this: if the first Murder was committed so that Lucifer Fell according to The plan, then every single murder after that is ALSO according to the Plan. If God is the culprit of the first murder then he is the de facto culprit of every single murder after that – because he knows all, and is everywhere and has this Plan. In that sense, even Raguel’s gift is also according to the Plan. Where there is a master plan engineered by an omniscient and omnipresent being there is absolutely NO possibility of Free Will. And that sucks huge donkey balls. Excuse my French.

Rating:

Ana: 8 – Excellent – missing out being a 9/10 solely because I am not a fan of the art

Thea: 8 – Excellent

Next in our Neil Gaiman mini-special: come back later today for a chance to win one of two copies of one of our favorite books of 2008, The Graveyard Book!

Reading Next: The Declaration by Gemma Malley

Welcome to the second day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Today’s topic is Blogger Interview Swaps! We are extremely happy that were paired up with Sheri from A Novel Menagerie, which was a new-to-us blog and now is a regular in our lineup of must-read sites.

A Novel Menagerie is a blog with not only book and entertainment reviews, but also great features such as the “Monday’s Movie“. And we so love her special banners for each section like this one for the Monday’s Movie feature:

Isn’t it cute? We have banner envy. It’s such a great idea. But we digress. We had a great chat with Sheri and here is what she has to say:

Ana and Thea: Hi Sheri, it is great to have you here!

Sheri: I’m thrilled to be here! Really… I am! I recently discovered your blog through BBAW and I just can’t believe that I’ve been under a rock so long. How could I have not known about your blog? But, now that The Book Smugglers are added to my Google Reader, it’s safe to say that I will be visiting here much more often.

Ana and Thea: Can you please tell us a bit more about you, The Person Behind The Blog?

Sheri: Now, that’s a scary question!

In my “real life,” I am a single mom of twin 12-year old daughters. We have a house filled with way too many animals: 2 dogs (Tori & Claire), 3 cats (Tommy, Oliver & Dante), and 3 fish aquariums… hence, my menagerie! “A nearing-40-year-old soccer mom with an addiction to key lime martinis,” can also adequately describe me. For those who know me, they would agree that I’m a complete nerd, an animal lover, and can most times be found with my nose in a book as I try to escape the unrelenting hormones of my tweenie-daughters.

Ana and Thea: The Origin: How and why did you decide to become a blogger?

Sheri: I’m a fairly new blogger and have been doing it for just a tad over a year now. If you can believe it, I didn’t even know what a blog was in July 2008. How sad is that? I became a blogger after meeting the fabulous Lisa of Books On The Brain/TLC Book Tours. Ever since I started blogging, the person that I am has changed considerably. Instead of being tethered to my computer for work, I’m married to it because of my passion for reading and writing. All of this came out of losing my professional career in 2008. I am currently enrolled in school and working towards my college degree.

Ana and Thea: You review mostly Literary Fiction – Is it safe to say that it is your favourite genre? Do you read other genres as well?

Sheri: You noticed! (“My name is Sheri and I’m addicted to novels.” )

Due to J. Kaye’s 100+ Reading Challenge, I have read soooo much in the past year. I used to mainly read ChickLit & women’s fiction. But, in the past year, I have read everything from historical fiction to mysteries to “How-To’s” to YA. It has changed me as a reader. I found that I really do enjoy all kinds of books. Being a member of a book club has also forced me to read some books that I would have otherwise said “no” to.

All of this reading, I hope, has helped me to become a more well-rounded reader. I’m finding that I have a passion for memoirs in addition to fiction. My readers will get to read about some non-fiction this fall, as well as some cookbooks.

Ana and Thea : How do you approach your reviews? Like for example: how do you pick the books for review? Do you have a reviewing process?

Sheri: When I first started blogging my book reviews, I only reviewed what I purchased. There’s a certain amount of ownership you tend to take when you are picking out books, you know? In my beginning months as a blogger my mentor, Lisa, helped me to discover the world of reviewing for publishers and authors. Over time, I have built my relationships with the publishing community and I do review provided books more than 50% of the time. I still make my monthly purchases from Amazon.com (love love love Amazon.com) and check out books from the local library. Oh, and I do review books for TLC Book Tours and a few select book tour groups.

When the books arrive at the doorstep (*oh, don’t you just love those days?*), I enter them all into a spreadsheet. I enter when they were received, their date of publish, and whether or not they are for a book tour. I keep my spreadsheet updated when I write my Sunday Salon post on Sundays. This color-coded sheet helps to keep me up-to-date on cross posting my reviews on Amazon.com and The Library Thing. It serves as a great database that I can sort by type, author, rating, date, and origin. With the use of this spreadsheet, I try to use it as a tool to force me to read the books in date order (by when it was received or when it is being published). But, every now and again… I cheat. There are just some books that come in that are too hard to resist!

When I review, there are some things that are very important to me:

Reading the entire book… even if I want to put it down. I’ve only “partially read” one book that I’ve reviewed. I feel good about this because I’ve reviewed over 150 books in the past year. I have found that some books get really good after you’re ½ way through with them. Give the book a chance. Give the author a chance.

Find the good in every book… I’m such a “wanna-be” writer. I truly am! I’ve started writing “my great novel,” but who knows if and when it will ever be finished. My hat goes off to anybody who can write and publish a book. That’s such an accomplishment of mind and heart. I want to try to honor authors by always saying something positive about their book. And, my “positives” are always honest!

Write honest reviews… If I was not true to my readers, and myself for that matter, the reviews would not come across as authentic and true. If I didn’t love a book that everybody else did… so be it. That’s okay. And, vice versa! It’s totally okay in my book to love-love-love a light-weight ChickLit escape book.

Ana and Thea: We are very nosy like that so we would like to ask: are you happy with the way things are for your blog? You stats? Your readership? Would you wish to change anything if you could?

Sheri: That’s totally not nosy! Man, your questions are freakin’ awesome… you’re killing me!

Am I happy? Well, I get bored with the look of my blog frequently. I think it’s because I am looking at it too much. I’m considering a re-design… partially in-thanks to you guys! I love your design and artwork!

My stats… yes… and no. I have changed URL’s 3 times over the course of 1 year. Because of this, I’ve lost readers. However, I’m totally set and will never change my URL ever again! I see that my stats are high Sunday-Wednesday. I don’t know what happens to my readers, but they go away Thursday through Saturday. I always wonder why. Of course, we all want higher stats… but, I’m thrilled to have received as many visitors as I have.

My readers… I love my readers! But, you know… you only really get to know your readers through their comments. I can’t thank my readers enough for their comments! I make and effort to spend the time reciprocating on as many blogs as I can.

Ana and Thea: You are quite the prolific blogger: you post book and movie reviews and you take part in several challenges, plus you have children and several assorted pets: how do you keep up with all that? Would you say you are one of us – Obsessive Bloggers Anonymous?

Sheri: The thing is, as a woman, I love to be entertained. I love juicy gossip on movies, tv, and books. When I go to play Bunko with my girlfriends or talk to moms on the soccer team, these are the things that I like to talk about. Why not blog about them? I decided earlier in the year that my goal was to provide my readers with an overall “entertainment review” blog. Therefore, my focus became to provide movie reviews, television reviews, music reviews, and book reviews. I also throw in juicy current headlines when I can. My passion is my series called The Writer’s Block in which I write personal articles about my life. What I hope is that I can appeal to a range of readers…

All of that being said… you want to know how I manage to keep up such an active blog? Well, I’m an insomniac. I also have not been working 80 hours a week, like I used to. When I go through some life changes this fall with full-time work and school, I’m sure that my blogging activity will suffer. I will try to pre-post as much as I can on the weekends or nights when I can’t sleep. Also, my kids are older… they hang in the same room as me and watch tv or play games while I pound away at the keyboard. We’re all in the same room… I’m just not watching tv with them. I do make it a point to take the dogs and girls to the park, beach, and out and about.

But, in all truth, I do belong to your club. I’m a most Obsessive Blogger! Only, now I’m not anonymous.

Ana and Thea: A Novel Menagerie has been around for just about one year – looking back at your first year, did it work well for you? Do you have any regrets?

Sheri: I hope y’all are still reading this. I feel so long-winded… SORRY!

My first year was probably typical to what most bloggers encounter… it was a learning curve year. I mean… I didn’t even know what CSS or HTML were a year ago! (Let alone a RSS feed…). I blew up my blog… I fixed my blog. I messed up my URLs… I fixed my URLs. I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth plenty of times. But, I also made friends. In the past year… I’ve made new friends. That’s amazing to me. No regrets.

Ana and Thea: What do you think is the best thing about blogging?

Sheri: OMG! The best thing? It’s a tie. For me, it’s the creative release that blogging provides and the people. By people, I mean other bloggers in the community and the readers. On the creative release… I should share that my creative side had been stifled and completely hibernating for over a decade. It feels great to play with art, design, and to write! Oh… to write! I love it!

Ana and Thea: If there was a zombie apocalypse and you could only save 5 books and 5 movies – which would they be?

Sheri: If there were a zombie apocalypse, I’d cal l you guys. You’d know exactly what to do!

After that… the books I’d save: Gone With the Wind, Life of Pi, The Holy Bible, The Glass Castle, and Snow Flower & The Secret Fan.
The movies I’d save: Gone With The Wind, The Notebook, Forrest Gump, Always, and Kingpin.

Ana and Thea: And finally A Very Important Question: you know how we are so obsessed with books and keep buying and buying them and then had to resort to have them delivered to our offices so that we could smuggle them home undetected in order to escape admonishment from our Significant Others? Did you ever suffer similar plight? Come on, share with us: Are YOU a book smuggler?

Sheri: I wish I could be a smuggler. I don’t have a S.O. I would like to have a S.O., but just can’t find a silver-haired hottie! Do you guys know anybody 41-48 in Orange County, California? I would dig some romance in my life!

But, the minute that I become a smuggler, I’m totally going to tell you guys. The thing is… once I find romance, will there be time to read?

________

Our reply to Sheri is…hell yes! There is ALWAYS time to read. And thanks Sheri for the great chat!

Now, make sure to stop by her place to see our answers to her fabulous questions!

Also, check on the BBAW website to see more Blog Interview Swaps!

Today is the official start of Book Blogger Appreciation Week…

…in which over 1000 blogs get together to celebrate books and blogging (The Book Smugglers’ most favorite things in the whole wide world). As you probably know by now, there are suggested daily topics that everyone can follow, and today, bearing in mind the Awards, we are encouraged to write about blogs that did not make the final ballot. There are many, MANY blogs that we love (just check out our blogroll *points to the left*) and these are just a few of the many that we think deserve a shout out:

Author blogs:

Some of our favorite authors also have ridiculously awesome blogs:

• Karen Mahoney
• Diana Peterfreund
• Meljean Brook
• Sarah Rees Brennan
• Patrick Rothfuss

Ana: Yes, they sometimes talk about serious, writerly things but mostly they are just great fun to read; these authors are like, our author crushes because they are SO cool in their geekyness and it’s no wonder we love their books. I mean, Sarah Rees Brennan writes GREAT movie parodies, Karen Mahoney is a total geek, Meljean Brook is full-on a Batman/Wonder Woman shipper and Diana Peterfreund went to DragonCon dressed as a clockwork can can dancer and Patrick Rothfuss, well, Patrick Rothfuss is just made of awesome and he loves me.

Thea: What Ana said! On top of writing kickass stories about unicorn slayers and equally venomous ivy league secret societies, Diana Peterfreund also writes an awesome blog in which she divulges the history of the unicorn, the love story Ballad of Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, and Zombie Bo Peep/Steampunk CanCan/Zombie Bride chic. I don’t think it gets any better than that! Meljean Brook is my moviegoing soulmate, with her love for horror, for Mulder and Scully, Nazi Zombies, and everything Dark City, not to mention her kickass Wonder Woman love posts.

And Karen Mahoney, ahh dearest Kaz! Book pimp, honorary Smuggler and all around cool lady who loves Neil Gaiman just as much as Ana and I do. She’s so full of awesome that I can almost forgive her for writing about books that I want but cannot afford in her addictive Friday Five posts…

Most chatty:

This is one of our favorite categories – just check out what it is all about:

This blogger has a very “chatty” style. You feel like you could be sitting together, sipping wine, and chatting about life.

We feel that way every time we visit Carolyn Jean’s blog Thrillionth Page, Christine at The Happily Ever After, and Kris from Kris ‘n’ Good Books.

Best Speculative Fiction Review Blog:

Ana: Definitely Fantasy Book Critic, our Go-To site for all things Fantasy. Most of the Spec Fiction books we want to read, we found out via this blog.

Thea: I think this is the category where I’m the most disappointed in the final ballot – probably because my reader is chock-full of SF Review Blogs, and I’m really sad to see some of them didn’t make the shortlist. In addition to the incredible crew at Fantasy Book Critic (seriously, I have MAJOR blog envy for the folks that run that site), I also highly recommend:

• Fantasy Cafe – Kristen writes some of the very best reviews out there, in-depth without spoiling. And her taste is impeccable! I’ve picked up many a book because of her awesome recommendations.
• Fantasy Debut – Tia and Mulluane do a fantastic job of running this smart, savvy niche blog that celebrates debut fantasy/speculative fiction authors. Their debut spotlights are the reason for many of my bookstore picks.
• Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review – I don’t think they make bloggers any cooler than Graeme. He posts reviews and contests nearly every day, and he has a great variety of coverage. One of the few SF bloggers I know that reviews horror, I can always count on great titles and fun, engaging posts from Graeme.

Best Collaborative Blog:

Ana: (And also one of the coolest blogs EVER): Alert Nerd – Matt, Jeff, Chris, and Sarah are 4 supergeeks that talk about all things awesome: comics, TV Shows, Movies, Books, etc. We lurves them.

Thea: What Ana said! Alert Nerd is effing sweet, and I can’t believe we only discovered it this year (after their wonderful “What’s Your Scott and Jean” bonanza). And of course, I gotta add Fantasy Book Critic to this category too.

Best YA Blog:

The shortlisted nominees are all wonderful, but I can’t help but wish that Presenting Lenore made the ballot. She has some awesome coverage of YA titles.

AND two of my new favorite blogs that I think should be included on multiple categories including this one are Angie of the superb Angieville and new to me blogger Rhiannon Hart, who has wicked good taste in dystopian YA lit.

What about you? Which blogs do you think deserved to be shortlisted?

Hello there! Are we ready for another stash? Here we go!

Oh, oopsie. How did this happen? (And how could we forget Dean in our Bad Boy Weekend Poll yesterday??? Jaysus. Bad Smugglers, Bad Smugglers ).

Ok, ok, let’s get to work!

This Week On The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, we have a joint review of a new YA book: Give Up The Ghost by Megan Crewe.

On Tuesday, Thea reviews Forest Born by Shannon Hale, the fourth book in the Books of Bayern series…

On Wednesday we will have a mini Neil Gaiman special! Woohoo! We have been shortlisted for Best Graphic Novel for the BBAW so we decided to celebrate with a joint review of Murder Mysteries, a graphic novel we both have on our TBRs since like, forever. Also, on Wednesday, we will be giving away two copies of The Graveyard Book one of our favourite reads of 2008, in celebration of the upcoming release of the paperback edition. Stay tuned!

On Thursday, Thea reviews Cape Storm by Rachel Caine, book 8 in the Weather Warden series.

On Friday Ana reviews another upcoming YA book: Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Finally, on Saturday, it’s the Return of THE DARE! It’s been a while since we dared each other to read anything so we decided: no more. We are not going to chicken out! So, Ana gets to read The Drawing of the Three , book 2 in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King,Thea’s all-time favourite series; and Thea has to read Perfume by Patrick Suskind – one of Ana’s favourites. Bring.It.On.

Plus, throughout the week, we will be doing short posts (and some giveaways) connected to the Book Blogger Appreciation Week, as per the suggested daily blogging topics. Check them out and take part: we are all invited to the party!

Other news:

Our Catching Fire giveaway is still open! It runs till September 15th and it’s open to residents of Canada and US only – go here to enter and good luck!

Mary Pearson, author of The Adoration of Jenna Fox,a book that Thea read and loved (reviewed here) wrote an absolutely fantastic article for the Tor.com blog on Young Adult novels addressing questions such as: YA: Who writes it? Why do they write it? Who should read it? Who shouldn’t? What are the author’s responsibilities? What should their responsibilities be? What is YA lit? What is it not? Is it “safe” literature, and she basically voiced everything we think about the genre. Here is an excerpt:

“Recently I’ve heard some discussion about the “responsibility” of YA books and YA authors. Oh, I hate that word when it comes to books. I’ve heard complaints at both ends of the spectrum, far left and far right, wanting books to “guide” readers one way or the other. Their way, I imagine. Or not include sex or language or whatever, and sometimes the whatever is pretty ridiculous, under the guise that we must “protect” young minds. I have to say, I have seen just as much harm come to children who are over-protected as those who are not paid any mind at all. I have seen parents who sequester their children away from the world in order to protect them, but hey, the world is there, and one day the kid will be out in it. Do they really want to spring it on them cold turkey? Often the results aren’t pretty. Or wouldn’t they rather have their child test the waters while they are still under their wings and can come to them with questions?”

The article is here – make sure to read it because it is pretty damn good.

Also, we stumbled across these awesome Steampunk-ified Star Wars figurines from Sillof’s Workshop (via Aidan at A Dribble of Ink) and were immediately smitten. (Thea: I love Leia’s dress and Artoo’s awesome new look! And Vader’s lightsaber! And BOBA FETT’S HELMET! EEEE! I want them all.) Click to enlarge all images.

And look at how awesome Wedge Antilles looks! And Ewoks get NASTY!

This guy’s work is pretty awesome. Check out his Star Wars circa 1942 figurines too, or his Victorian Avengers while you’re at it!

On our Radar:

Contemporary Romance: (no one does it better than Julie James – BEST repartee in the style of old screwball comedies)

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it’s no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension…

YA: Cinderella retold

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

YA: contemporary

At Fairfield High, everyone knows that south siders and north siders aren’t exactly compatible elements. So when cheerleader Brittany Ellis and gang member Alex Fuentes are forced to be lab partners, the results are bound to be explosive.

Neither teen is prepared for the most surprising chemical reaction of all – love. Can they break through the stereotypes and misconceptions that threaten to keep them apart?

YA: contemporary

For months, Cass Meyer has heard her best friend Julia, a wannabe Broadway composer, whispering about a top-secret project. Then Julia is killed in a sudden car accident, and while Cass is still reeling from her death, Julia’s boyfriend and her other drama friends make it their mission to bring to fruition the nearly-completed secret project: a musical about an orphaned ninja princess entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.

Cass isn’t one of the drama people. She doesn’t feel at home with Julia’s drama friends, and she doesn’t see a place for her in the play. Things only get worse when she finds out that Heather Galloway, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school, has been cast as the ninja princess.

Cass can’t take a summer of swallowing her pride and painting sets, so she decides to follow her original plan for a cross-country road trip with Julia. Even if she has a touring bicycle instead of a driver’s license, and even if Julia’s ashes are coming along in Tupperware.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend is a story about friendship. About love. About traveling a thousand miles just to find yourself. About making peace with the past, and making sense of it. And it’s a story about the bloodiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

Fantasy

Once, all power in the Vin Lands was held by the prince-mages, who alone could craft spellwines, and selfishly used them to increase their own wealth and influence. But their abuse of power caused a demigod to break the Vine, shattering the power of the mages. Now, fourteen centuries later, it is the humble Vinearts who hold the secret of crafting spells from wines, the source of magic, and they are prohibited from holding power.

But now rumors come of a new darkness rising in the vineyards. Strange, terrifying creatures, sudden plagues, and mysterious disappearances threaten the land. Only one Vineart senses the danger, and he has only one weapon to use against it: a young slave. His name is Jerzy, and his origins are unknown, even to him. Yet his uncanny sense of the Vinearts’ craft offers a hint of greater magics within — magics that his Master, the Vineart Malech, must cultivate and grow. But time is running out. If Malech cannot teach his new apprentice the secrets of the spellwines, and if Jerzy cannot master his own untapped powers, the Vin Lands shall surely be destroyed.

In Flesh and Fire, first in a spellbinding new trilogy, Laura Anne Gilman conjures a story as powerful as magic itself, as intoxicating as the finest of wines, and as timeless as the greatest legends ever told.

Fantasy

With their forces gathered, the revolutionary leaders within Lescar begin their bid to win the minds and hearts of the people, as well as the lands of the rival dukedoms.

Fantasy

Hoping for a better life, five war veterans colonize an abandoned island. They take with them everything they could possibly need – food, clothes, tools, weapons, even wives.

But an unanticipated discovery shatters their dream and replaces it with a very different one. The colonists feel sure that their friendship will keep them together. Only then do they begin to realize that they’ve brought with them rather more than they bargained for.

For one of them, it seems, has been hiding a terrible secret from the rest of the company. And when the truth begins to emerge, it soon becomes clear that the war is far from over.

With masterful storytelling, irresistible wit, and extraordinary insight into human nature, K.J. Parker is widely acknowledged as one of the most original and exciting fantasy writers of modern times. THE COMPANY, K.J. Parker’s first stand-alone novel, is a tour de force from an author who is changing the face of the fantasy genre.

And that’s it from us today, have a great week!
~ Your Friendly Neigborhood Book Smugglers

Yesterday the shortlists for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards were released and we made the final ballot for three categories!! (Woohoo! Yay! Oba!) They are (if you click on each of them you will be able to see examples of posts for each category) :

Best Graphic Novel Review Blog
Best Collaborative Blog
Most Humorous/Funniest

How cool is that? We love the categories we have been shortlisted for and it is a great honor to be nominated amongst these blogs. You can check all of the other categories here – and then show your appreciation for your favourites! Voting closes Saturday September 12 at 11:59 PM EST.

So, we are here to celebrate our inclusion on the final ballot, but mostly we would like to give our own two cents about the Awards and about BBAW and why we are 100% behind the whole thing.

On The Awards

We are sure a lot of people are wondering about the awards, especially about the fairness of the nominations and the final shortlists (especially given the numerous online brouhahas). We can certainly understand some of the misgivings – there should have been more information about the process available on the official website (for example, what are the criteria for nominations and exactly how the blogs are being judged to the public). There were also some concern about the way some of the nominees were contacted as though it was assumed that the entire Internets knew what the BBAW were – which is an unreasonable assumption of course, given how the Internets is like, IMMENSE.

But you know what? BBAW is in its infancy and as such it’s still going through a trial period and a lot of things need to be tweaked. We believe that to completely dismiss it as “only another one of those meaningless awards” is to use an inaccurate description – because it’s not. This is not a Premio Dardos award or a Kreativ Blog award – these awards are really nice and everything, but are memes based mostly on an individual’s choice (and usually along the lines of, “Well, [so and so blogger] has not gotten this meme/award yet, so I’ll give it to him/her”). BBAW Awards, on the other hand, are honest to goodness awards with open nominations and a judging panel of impartial volunteers who go through an extensive process to rank each nominee.

We Book Smugglers are in no way connected with the official organization of the BBAW Awards, but we were involved with the shortlisting process. Both Thea and Ana were invited to be judging panelists (and no, we were not judging categories that we were nominated for!) – Ana was on the panel for Best Mystery Blog and Thea was on the panel for Best Cultural Review Blog. When we accepted we had no idea at how much work was involved. Seriously, people, you have NO IDEA how strenuous the process is. We know there were other 4 judges on the panel with us (it’s 5 per category), but we have NO IDEA who they were. Rest assured, we did not trade secret emails, currying favorites amongst the nominees.

We each received an Excel spreadsheet with all the blogs nominated – and this means EVERY. SINGLE. NOMINEE. Many of which were inappropriate for the category, we might add! – and the 5 links they submitted for evaluation. Ana’s spreadsheet had more than 40 blogs and Thea’s more than 50. Then each blog had to be evaluated according to 16 different criteria ranging from ’spelling/grammar,’ ‘original content’ and ‘fresh perspective’ to ‘ease of navigation’ and ‘audience engagement.’ It was a lot of work, and we think it was a pretty fair process given the anonymity of the panelists, not to mention the fact we were judging book blogs that are outside of our normal range of reads (so we were not tempted to play favorites with bloggers we already knew). We’d assign each blog a numerical score for each criterion, and the sum totals of all the judges’ scorecards determined the who made the shortlist nominations.

We are sure someone somewhere is thinking: “But who makes these decisions? Who chose the judging criteria?” Which is fair enough, and these questions should be asked if we aim for an honest award that means something. The judging criteria were compiled by Amy and the wonderful crew of tireless BBAW runners, and ultimately the shortlists are a numbers game – the blogs with the highest scores make it on to the final ballot. Is this a completely fail-proof process? NO. Are there flaws? YES.

But, the thing is, the Awards? They are only a part, a SMALL part, of what Book Blogger Appreciation Week is all about. And to concentrate on them is really to lose sight of what really matters here.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

The title says it all. Book Blogger Appreciation Week is a week-long event to celebrate books, reading, and most of all blogging. Simple as that. It started last year in 2008 and it was run by the [wonderful!stupendous!herculean!] Amy from the blog My Friend Amy, and it has expanded in such a way that this year (the mere second year of its existence, BBAW v2.0) has over 1000 blogs taking part. That’s a lot of blogs. Did we mention that those participating are all volunteers, doing this out of a genuine love for reading, writing and blogging? That’s a lot of work!

Over the course of the week, the aim is to celebrate what we book bloggers are all about. There are suggested daily blogging topics that EVERYONE can participate in by way of adding your post links at the BBAW official website every day.

For example, on Monday, you can talk about your favorite blogs that did not make the final award ballots. On Tuesday, there will be blogger interview swaps, and so on and so forth. For the entire list of suggestions, check out the official list HERE.

We will be posting every day following the daily topics and we encourage all of you to participate! You do not have to vote for the awards, or be nominated for an award, or have anything to do with the awards to be a part of BBAW! In fact, you can pretty much ignore the awards and make it all about connecting with other like-minded people, if you want. The awards are the icing on the cake, the last leg of BBAW – as with, say, the RWA Nationals each year, the awards are part of the closing ceremony at the end of the convention. They’re a great way to celebrate, but the real fun is in the convention itself.

The spirit of Book Blogger Appreciation Week is to connect, make new blogging buddies, and discover new, wonderful blogs in this vast ocean that is the Internets. It is about celebrating our community and communicating with people you wouldn’t otherwise know, and sharing our experiences and ideas – it is an extrapolation or rather, a concentration of everything NICE and AWESOME that blogging is supposed to be in ONE SINGLE WEEK.

In short, it is about having FUN. Isn’t that why we are all here anyways?

(Now, please go vote for us! Pretty Please?)

Inspired by Kmont’s wonderful post, we Book Smugglers decided to have our very own book blogger appreciation post, in honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week.

To keep things fun, we decided to do this Fantasy Draft style. Five picks alternating picks each, with a coin toss to determine who goes first.

Thea: Call it. Heads or Tails.

Ana: Heads.

Thea: (&^447392)@*;#^$%!!!(*&) *expletives* Ok. You go first. Who do you take as the overall #1 pick in the draft?

Ana: Woohoo! Ok, first up is Lurve ala Mode! I am a huge fan of Kmont’s posts. She is one of the craziest, funniest bloggers out there and I shamelessly admit that I am a stalker – hers is the first blog I check every morning and I refresh the page very often throughout the day. Her reviews are awesome, I love that she lets her imagination run wild when she writes and she is always very honest in her opinions. Plus, we share a common obsession with the Tairen Souls series.

Thea: I’ll take Me and My Books. I love Li’s site and her concise, informative reviews. I get a whole bunch of book recommendations from her blog, everything from science fiction like Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series to the hilarious mystery endeavors of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody. Plus, I love a blogger that will call ‘em like s/he sees ‘em–Li’s not afraid to let you know if a particular book didn’t work for her, and why.

Ana: Ramblings on Romance! They were the source of inspiration behind the idea to start my own blog. Their reviews are really good and they have so many “exclusive” news and cool features and are the best book pimps out there – I started reading Meljean Brook, Nalini Singh, Lisa Kleypas, CL Wilson and Linnea Sinclair because of them and they have become my favorite writers. But those are not the main reasons for loving the blog – Kristie and Katie are simply the sweetest, coolest bloggers out there.

Thea: I’ll take Angieville. Seriously, I probably get a good majority of my book recommendations/ideas from Li and Angie. Angie’s reviews are also well written, informative, and she has this great knack for being concise. Half of the books Angie reviews are ones I have never heard of before, and I make a point of it to check out many of her recommendations. Recently, I have read and loved the books Clockwork Heart and A Curse Dark as Gold based on Angie’s reviews. Not to mention, her blog layout is so pretty! One of my favorite book review blogs out there.

Ana: I will pick Ciaralira next! I discovered her blog very recently and never looked back. She does amazing reviews (and has some amazing recommendations) but I think the best thing about her blog is her very in-depth and knowledgeable thoughts and tips on writing – event though I am not a writer myself (nor want to become one) , it is very interesting to read about it, it helps with the reviews and some of them have changed my perception of things. Plus she describes herself as a nerd – therefore, a sister in arms.

Thea: OOH! You bitch! That was my next pick! Ok. I’ll take Fantasy Debut. Tia’s blog is my favorite niche blog out there–again, I am constantly writing down book recs from her many great suggestions and author showcases. On Tia’s recommendation, I have read and loved Lisa Shearin’s Raine Benares books, and currently have a huge heap of other books sitting on my TBR mountain. I also love the interviews Tia has with debut authors. Really, I can’t say enough good things about this fantastic blog.

Ana: The Galaxy Express! Hands down one the best niche blogs out there – with musings about Sci-Fi Romance, practically a love celebration of the genre. There are not only reflections about the sci-fi -romance and its roots but it also showcases new writers. There are interviews, reviews and she also talks about TV Shows and Movies. I love it.

Thea: Next up, Urban Fantasy Land. I love this website, not so much for book reviews, but rather for the wealth of information the gals that run the site provide. This year marked my growing obsession with the UF genre–and after reading the Anita Blake, Mercy Thompson and Rachel Morgan books, I wasn’t really sure where to turn…that is, until I found this wonderful resource. Urban Fantasy Land does it all, providing upcoming release dates, new covers, author news, interviews, links to book reviews & giveaways, and other news for all things UF.

Ana: I have to go with CJ’s blog – The Thrillionth Page. She does reviews but in a different format which I happen to love: she posts her thoughts on the books she reads, as she goes along, and they are usually so interesting and stimulating , it is easily one of my favorite blogs.

Thea: For my final pick, I’ll take The Happily Ever After. Christine’s blog focuses on book reviews for romance, fantasy and young adult genres, but she also injects a whole lot of personality into every post. Christine, simply put, is a sweetheart. I love all her posts, whether they be instructions on how to make a watermelon-lemonade martini, pictures of her and her daughters going berry picking, or just damn good book reviews.

We present you with our 2008 BBAW Team!

So! Now that the draft is done, we want to give a shoutout to some honorable mentions.

The Book Binge – Loads of romance (all sub-genres) reviews and fantastic interviews and give-aways.

Fantasy Cafe – Provides incredibly thoughtful and well-written reviews of speculative fiction.

Meljean Brook’s Blog – Both of us luuurve Meljean, and stalk her blog on the daily. From Wonder Woman to book news, Meljean’s blog has got it going on.

Realms of Speculative Fiction – This four-person team writes some of the best speculative fiction reviews on the web. Plus, they do some movie and video game coverage as well, which is a great plus.

A Dribble of Ink – Aidan Moher’s blog also focuses on speculative fiction, providing book reviews and great author interviews. Also, he writes some damn good articles about blogging in general.

Karen Mahoney’s Blog – Karen is awesome, a fellow book nut, comic book fiend, and Gaiman fanatic. Naturally, we get along! She’s also an aspiring author (who just closed her first deal!) and her blog offers great writerly insights, book news, and blog pimpage too.

Thanks to all of you book bloggers out there! This one’s for you!