news
It's a long way down, in the latest sneak-peek at the film adaptation of Veronica Roth's book Divergent:
Tris (Beatrice) must make the jump if she wants to be accepted into the Dauntless faction. Think you could do it?
This week's You're the Voice visitor is Lucinda:
I'll be honest with you. Up until recently I never understood fandoms. You know, when a bunch girls start screaming because a washed-up celebrity walked in the door. Or why a person would have their birthday cake dedicated to some new young singer?
I had plenty of friends who were interested in things like Justin Bieber and Robert Patterson, yet while I respected their choice and (I'm sorry) in some cases respected the entertainer, I didn't think I knew what it was like to that obsessed.
Until I realised I was a hypocrite.
I'm always on the look out for books with likeminded (read: animals/pets) characters such as myself.
Meet Ivan. He's a gorilla.
He is awesome.
And so is his story.
5 Reasons to Read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.
1. Animals (particularly dogs) are smarter than humans. This is a fact. I read it in the Study of the Homo sapiens society dissertation.
If you've ever judged a book by its cover, then welcome to coverflip!
The background:
Author Maureen Johnson issued this challenge:
1. Take a well-known book. (It’s up to you to define well-known.)
2. Imagine that book was written by an author of the OPPOSITE GENDER. Or a genderqueer author. Imagine all the things you think of when you think GIRL book or BOY book or GENDERLESS book (do they EXIST?).
3. Now, COVERFLIP! Make the new cover and put it online. Tweet or Tumbl it with the tag #coverflip.
(You can read the full challenge on Maureen's tumblr.)
The results:
(click on images to view the original size)
Original: 
Coverflip: 
May is going to be a monster month of Voices! I had some visitors to my kennel (yaaaay!) recently. I was told they're doing "work experience", but really they were here to get my autograph. It's such a hard life, being a rock-star reader. It did give me a chance to talk to them about what they love reading.
This week I'd like to introduce you to Sophie:
A good book is like a girl’s journal, a check list, or it can be like a little kick in the right direction. We have all been in the situation where a book has taken us on some great adventure through Mordor (Lord of The Rings) or have had our heart wrenched out by Charlie (Perks of Being a Wallflower). And I know this may sound cliché, but books really do have the power to make us laugh or cry. With a good book you can easily step into the main characters' shoes. Reading takes me away from the harsh reality of everyday or gives me a new view to what is been seen or is happening in my life.
'Oh Gus you really know a way to a girl's heart, you really shouldn’t have, please dinner is amazing, marry you yes yes'.... Sophie... Wake up, stop kissing your pillow.
Five reasons to read Tim Sinclair's Run:
1. Parkour! aka '...the French art of running away.' I didn't know James Bond was French :)
2. Ever wish you had a super sleuthing IT genius best friend? Jessie is the gal for you.
3. Dee might be awesome at parkour but he's finding out people can be more dangerous than an ill-timed leap.
_Cover.jpg)
It seems like, recently at least, YA Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance books get the bid for movie making. I can understand the appeal - romance, action, adventure and things that go bump in the night - but I did have to wonder: what about the rest?
Well, Sonya Hartnett's Of A Boy has been made in to a movie to show us that diversity is still alive and well (YAY!). To confuse us all however, it is titled The Weight of Elephants.
So I figured that since it’s my last post here, I’d write about the endings of books. Because I’m just clever and extraordinarily witty like that.
Endings are, obviously, one of the most important parts of a book. The beginning is also important, and the middle…okay, it’s all important. But the ending of a book is what the reader remembers – right? So it has to be, well, memorable. It can make an otherwise horrible book okay, and it can make a great book really terrible.
Basically I break it down into two different categories: sad and happy. Really happy endings are things like Harry Potter. I hated the 19 Years Later section. It just felt like a cop-out to me... Yay, everyone marries their childhood sweetheart! I don’t know, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Then you have endings like The Fault in Our Stars. *Slight spoiler* It’s sad. But it somehow doesn’t fall into the sad category. It has hope.
5 reasons to read A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix:
1. Sciiience fiction! Oh yeah! Sing it with me now!
You want spaceships, super-humans, and creepy alien races? Tick, tick, and TICK.
2. Brilliant world-building. Nix has created an entire galaxy for the future of humanity to play in. It's rich in detail, laden with fun tek[nology], and is even linked to an online game (currently in beta-stage).
3. Action! You can't have creepy alien races, super-humans, and new technology without some exciting battles now, can you?
Also: the main character, Prince Khemri, is very literally fighting for his chance to be the next Emperor.
Ironman 3 came out today. Who's already seen it three times?
...
This dog.
But after seeing its greatness I was in a post-Ironman oh no what do I have to look forward to slump. Until I saw the new trailer for the Superman movie. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's angsty Superman!
