Book Haul

As always, I bought way more books than I read which isn't helping my TBR piles at all! I'm happy with what I have though so here they are!

1. Extras - Scott Westerfeld
2. We Bought A Zoo - Benjamin Mee
3. Death Cure - James Dashner
4. The Good Guy - Dean Koontz
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1 - Alan Moore
6. Future Games - Orson, Scott, Card & Others.
7. Of Light & Darkness - Shayne Leighton
8. The Scent of Magic - Maria V Snyder
9. Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult
10. Inheritance - Christopher Paolini
11. Twined - A.L.Collins
12. Tempestuous - Kim Askew & Amy Helmes

Some of these aren't available to buy yet but I have a feeling they're going to be great, so make sure you check out the books from this haul if you're curious.

Apologies!

Just a quick one to apologise for the lack of activity over here at Loaded Shelves recently.
I'm so busy with real life that I just haven't had time to immerse myself in my (preferred) fictional life.
I'm behind with author requested reviews and all other kinds of reviews (and everything else!) so please bare with me and hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can bring things up to date.
I hope you've all been reading some awesome things!
~ Cazz

Top Ten Tuesday | Kick-Ass Heroines

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is: Kick-Ass Heroines

There are so many strong female characters out there; this is going to be tricky.

1. Hazel from John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.

2. Yelena from Maria Snyder's Poison Study.

3. Katniss from Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games.

4. Anna from Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper.

5. Tris from Veronica Roth's Divergent.

6. Kahlen from Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule.

7. Offred from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

8. Claire Danvers from Rachel Caine's Morganville.

9. Hermione Granger from J.Rowling's Harry Potter.

10. Cordelia from Shakespeare's King Lear.

There are so many more that I could have added to this list. Each of these heroines are brave, courageous and loyal despite the challenges that lay ahead of them. They each show that being a young woman does not mean that you are inferior in anyway or too weak to face dangers, but instead that they are intelligent and independent and will do whatever it takes to make things right!

Review // Sherlock Holmes (3 stories) - Arthur Conan Doyle

Today's review is a 3-in-1 featuring three of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories.

A Scandal in Bohemia

This was by far my favourite Sherlock Holmes story that i've read so far. It was fast reading, intriguing and had me flipping the metaphorical (kindle) pages furiously.  I loved Holmes' commentary on Watson's recent marriage though i'm a little concerned about how easy it is for Watson to take off from his life in order to accompany Holmes!

As a fan of BBC's Sherlock, I couldn't help but compare the text to the TV adaptation and I was pleasantly surprised. The two were remarkably well connected and i'm looking forward to re-watching the episode in light of reading the story. I loved the opening narrative by Watson describing Irene Adler as the woman - as that is exactly what she is. A Scandal in Bohemia reminded me a lot of Poe's The Purloined Letter which I recently reviewed so it was interesting to see how Detective Fiction grew.

The Man With the Twisted Lip

This story was probably the most surprising one out of the three. I didn't guess the outcome and like the previous story, I was interested throughout and read it in just a couple of minutes! I was intrigued by the fact that there didn't seem to be any actual crime, which in my recent readings of this type of literature is quite strange. It kind of gave me the idea that greed and wealth is just as much a crime as murder.

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

I think this story might be one that I will need to read again because it wasn't...great. I enjoyed the others so much that after reading this I felt like it was more to do with me and my understanding of the story than the story itself.
I liked that Miss Hunter was a strong, capable woman but the mystery just didn't work for me. Although all of the stories end abruptly, this one just didn't really end for me.

Top Ten Tuesday | Halloween

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is: Books for Halloween

I thnk most people are doing their Top Ten Halloween related books they love but I haven't actually read many that would fit under here! So here's my Top Ten Halloween related books that I *want* to read.

1. Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead

2. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

3. The Diviners - Libba Bray

4.  The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice

5. The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

6. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies - Seth Grahame-Smith

7. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

8. Dracula - Bram Stoker

9. The Madness Underneath - Maureen Johnson
10. The Demonata Series - Darren Shan

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays, as the name suggests, is a weekly book related Q&A held by Should Be Reading.


Do you ever get crushes on fictional characters? Name one (or a few), and tell what you liked…

Oh all the time! It happens less often now but I definitely have crushes on fictional characters. There's Valek from Maria Snyder's 'Study Series', who is protective, strong, intriguing and more importantly I think, mysterious.  
Damon Salvatore from L.J.Smith's The Vampire Diaries. who is not your typical bad boy. He's dark and dangerous but there's also a side to him that is sweet and caring and wants the best for the people he cares about, even if he doesn't act like it!
Dash from Levithan & Cohn's Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. He loves language and words and again is just a wonderful character and every aspect of him is likeable.
Tobias/Four from Roth's Divergent (and Insurgent). I don't even think this one needs an explanation!
Shane Collins from Caine's Morganville series though is probably my biggest fictional crush. Again, he's really strong and confident on the front but he's actually a sensitive, torn up man. I absolutely love his characterisation and will be devastated when the series is over.

Also, I got to meet the author who gave me Shane she very kindly signed my book with this:

Needless to say my obsession only got worse after this ;)


There are so many well written characters out there that it's hard not to fall for them. The beauty of a written character rather than a real life person is that you get to see the parts of them that they wouldn't usually share; their thoughts, emotions and real attitudes towards people.

I'm sure that for as long as i'm reading, I will find new fictional crushes, and i'm okay with that.

Top Ten Tuesday | Books Read In 2011

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is: Top Ten Books I Read In 2011

(I may be cheating a little by lumping series' together :P)

1. Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine

2. Wintercraft - Jenna Burtenshaw

3. Paper Towns - John Green

4. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green

5. Evermore - Alyson Noel

6. Beastly - Alex Flinn

7. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

8. Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys

9. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

10. Let It Snow - Green, Johnson & Myracle

I'm in no way disrespecting any of these authors as I love them ALL, but 2011 wasn't a great year for my reading pile! I pretty just much read series' of books rather than stand-a-lones so it was difficult to choose. I read ELEVEN of Caine's books in 2011! Hopefully when it comes to posting my 2012 reading list, it will be a little more varied :)

Review // The Purloined Letter - Edgar Allan Poe

Published - 23rd December 2010
Format - Kindle
Goodreads Synopsis - The Purloined Letter is the third of the three stories featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Roget. These stories are considered important forerunners of the modern detective story. The method Poe's detective, Dupin, uses to solve the crime was quite innovative. He tried to identify with the criminal and to "think like he would." In May of 1844 Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell that he considered it "perhaps the best of my tales of ratiocination."

 (Not the actual cover of my version)

I originally gave this short story a low star rating of 2/5 but on reflection i've bumped it up to a much more suitable 4/5. I rarely change my mind on books but this one had me thinking long past the last page. 

Having recently reviewed The Murders in Rue Morgue as a guest post (which you can read here), I jumped straight into The Purloined Letter. For those interested - I have intentionally missed out the middle story in this collection but I intend to go back at a later date to read it! This review will vaguely come in two parts as I talk about my first impressions and then the reasons why I changed my rating.

Unlike The Murders in Rue Morgue, this story was more plot driven than explanation of Dupin's analysis process. The Purloined Letter was shorter and easy to read and I strangely enough, I think this was partly why I found myself enjoying it less. Don't get me wrong, I DID like it - I just felt like I was missing something. Everything seemed easy and straightforward. I'm new to detective fiction but even I know that there needs to be a twist of some kind. So I finished it, rated it and moved on.

Although I didn't really move on. I had a class about Poe's work and then I spent some time googling, as you do, and I think I finally got what i'd been missing. Revenge.
The Purloined Letter, though seemingly easy and simplistic is actually darker and more mysterious than The Murders of  Rue Morgue, or even anything that i've read lately. It plays heavily on revenge and deceit. Looking back, I have no idea how I missed it in the first place, but I re-read the last few pages to make sense of it in this new light. With this in mind, I enjoyed the story much more and I felt I needed to adjust my star rating accordingly.  When I have more time, I plan on reading all three Dupin stories again as it seems to me that more is hidden underneath just waiting to be discovered!

If you've read either The Murders of Rue Morgue or The Purloined Letter, i'd love to know what your thoughts are! Also if there are any other short stories by Poe you recommend, let me know those too.

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays, as the name suggests, is a weekly book related Q&A held by Should Be Reading.
I discovered this meme through Escape Into Fiction so don't forget to stop by there as well :)

This week's question:
Do you have a system as to which books to read from your “requested review pile? What is it? What about when there are too many to read in a certain time frame? {apologies to those who don’t review}

At the moment, I don't get that many requested reviews so I tend to review them in the order that I get them. I'm also a full-time lit student and I work part-time so my time is limited! However, if i'm contacted by an author who has an upcoming release then i'll make every effort to read theirs first to coincide with release dates. So far I haven't had too many to read in a short space of time (averaging 1-3 requested reviews a month) so I don't have to worry about not being able to get them all done in time.

Cover Release Fractured - Teri Terry!

Back in June I wrote a review for Teri Terry's novel Slated which you can read here - Slated Review.
I absolutely adored this book and have been keeping a watchful eye out for news of the second book in the series Fractured.Well...

The cover art for Fractured is released!

I am so pleased that the style of the cover art matches perfectly with Slated. It's beautiful and I love the splash of colour which fits in with how I imagine the book becoming more colourful with the release of more memories and Kyla's story. I am SO excited to read this book.

Fractured is released May 2013.