It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet? [14]

"It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet?" is inspired by the #fridayreads Twitter meme, Book Journey's "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", Should Be Reading's "WWW Wednesdays", Tynga's Reviews "Stacking the Shelves" and the various other book haul memes, and probably a few others I can't remember right now.

All covers/book title links lead to Goodreads.

Still reading it. City of a Thousand Dolls put me in a high fantasy mood, so I have a feeling I'll be setting Rowdy aside before finishing soon.

Started reading Mistborn a couple months ago, but wasn't in a high fantasy mood at the time, so I set it aside. Now I'm itching to read ALL THE HIGH FANTASY, and decided this shall be first.

Stolen just came out Tuesday, and I am so excited! Post-apocalyptic! Dragons! Melissa de la Cruz! Eep!

I've had this on my shelf forever, and since I'll be reading about dragons in Stolen, I figure I'll continue the theme with Seraphina. (Plus, I've heard it's ah-mazing.)

I really, really liked it! I felt like it was a bit slow in the beginning, but the end definitely made up for it. Itching to get my hands on the (newly-released!) companion novel, Empire of Shadows.

(Books/Stuff that came in the mail.)

Nothing came in the mail this week. :(

(Books I bought/borrowed.)

From Barnes & Noble:

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Stolen by Melissa de la Cruz & Michael Johnston

And that's everything! See you all next week!

It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet? [13]

"It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet?" is inspired by the #fridayreads Twitter meme, Book Journey's "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", Should Be Reading's "WWW Wednesdays", Tynga's Reviews "Stacking the Shelves" and the various other book haul memes, and probably a few others I can't remember right now.

All covers/book title links lead to Goodreads.

With the companion novel releasing last week, and accompanying buzz about the series, I decided it was finally time to start this. About half-way through, and quite liking it so far!

I'm really liking it, but for some reason I just can't lose myself in the story like I could with the other books in the series.

I haven't read any of the Bane Chronicles stories because I was waiting for bind-up, and it's finally here! Definitely plan on spending some quality time with Magnus soon.

My friend Lisa lent this to me forever ago, and I've decided I really need to get around to reading it.

Instead of reading Crown of Midnight like I said I was going to, I decided to read The Assassin's Blade instead, though I just couldn't bring myself to re-read the last novella because SAAAAAM. (It goes without saying that I loved them all, right?)

                         (Books/Stuff that came in the mail.)         (Books I bought/borrowed.)

I forgot to separate the books when I took the picture, so the two "Book Faery" categories are combined this week. It is also all of the books I collected over the last two weeks.

From Claire Legrand:

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

From Stacie:

Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz

From Cynthia Leitich Smith/Candlewick:

Feral Nights by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Feral Curse by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Feral Pride by Cynthia Leitich Smith (ARC)

From Bookish Broads:

Clariel by Garth Nix (ARC)

The Young Elites by Marie Lu (ARC)

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper (ARC)

Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant (ARC)

17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen (ARC)

Atlantia by Ally Condie (ARC)

From Tera Lynn Childs:

Straight Stalk by Tera Lynn Childs (signed)

From Alyxandra Harvey:

Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey (signed)

From Love at First Page:

Every Breath by Ellie Marney

Bought/Ordered:

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling

Crave by Melissa Darnell

Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld

Lirael by Garth Nix

Blood & Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, & Sarah Rees Brennan (signed)

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Origin by Jennifer L Armentrout

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy

Revel by Maurissa Guibord

The Lost Code by Kevin Emerson

Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales: Challenge by Melissa Marr & Xian Nu Studio

Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales: Resolve by Melissa Marr & Xian Nu Studio

Rowdy by Jay Crownover (not pictured)

See you all next week!

Kitchen Adventures (2): Triple-Chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie Cookies

Hey all! I know I skipped a couple weeks of baking, but yesterday I got together with friends Lisa and Amanda, and we baked away! I made Triple-Chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie Cookies from Chelsea's Messy Apron, while Amanda & Lisa made bread from Alexandra Cooks' recipe (the bread won't be featured in this post, though it was delicious). My cousin, Kendra, also hung around most of the time, so it was a fun girl's morning with chatting and nail polish-painting included.

Prepare yourselves for picture overload, because mine didn't turn out blurry this time, and Lisa took some. :)

Left: Me, about to add pudding mix to the bowl. Please ignore my scary face.
Right: Adding the hot fudge to the other ingredients.
(Photos courtesy of Lisa)

These cookies were super easy to make—you just mix all the ingredients together, form little cookie balls, then bake.

Left: Our workstation, with me mixing everything together in the back. (Photo courtesy of Lisa)
Right: Chocolate chip time!

Left: The cookies right before they went into the oven.

Right: FRESH COOKIES.

The recipe says to add chocolate chips to the top before you bake, if you want them looking extra pretty, and next time I make these I think I'm going to do that; the chips will make them look that much better!

And now for the cookie "glamour" shots!

All in all, a pretty lovely morning.

L to R: Me, Lisa, Amanda

Until next time!