Trigger warning: abuse. Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 came out last week in the US (and a few days before that in the UK). I watched it last Wednesday and have been thinking about it ever since. For…
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Smugglers Ponderings
6 Rated Books Book Reviews Smugglers Ponderings Writing Women
Writing Women: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Warning: Spoilers! I’ve been thinking a lot about The Girl on the Train and the ways that we write about women. Touted as the new Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train has been everywhere here in the UK…
3 Rated Books Book Reviews Smugglers Ponderings
Smuggler’s Ponderings: Gaming, Female Empowerment, Gold Farming and the problematic White Saviour Complex in Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang’s In Real Life.
Warning: incoming Caps Lock of Fury. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. In Real Life, this new graphic novel written by Cory Doctorow with art by Jen Wang is full of them. In its heartfelt introduction,…
The finalists for the 2014 Hugo Awards (and finalists for the 1939 Retrospective Hugo Awards) were announced last Saturday AND WE ARE ONE OF THEM: we are delighted to say that The Book Smugglers is on the ballot for…
So…I’ve been thinking. This post started (as many things these days do) as a Twitter rant, which was then followed by a very thoughtful conversation between many parties (storify here). Actually, let me backtrack a little bit. This all…
Book Reviews Smugglers Ponderings
Smuggler’s Ponderings: thoughts on The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson Arthur A. Levine, March 2013, HC: 289 pages. Bought. A heart-stopping story of love, death, technology, and art set amid the tropics of a futuristic Brazil. The lush city of Palmares Três…
6 Rated Books 7 Rated Books Book Reviews Smugglers Ponderings
Smugglers’ Ponderings: On the Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch
WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES. I read (and loved) Rivers of London/Midnight Riot (Gollancz (UK)/Del Rey (US), 2011, 400 pages) the first book in Ben Aaronovitch’s UF series in early 2011 and have been meaning to…
BEA Appreciation Week Smugglers Ponderings
Book Expo America and BEA Bloggers Conference 2013: A Recap
Last week was our (now annual) Official Book Smuggler Get Together in which Ana travelled to NY to hang out with Thea. In between visits to The Strand and Barnes & Noble (SO.Many.Books), late night marathons of Parks and…
Book Reviews DNF Books Smugglers Ponderings
Smuggler’s Ponderings: thoughts on Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway Alfred A. Knopf/ Vintage, February 2012, HC/PB: 568 pages From the acclaimed author of “The Gone-Away World”, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of…
The original plan was to write a joint review of Stormdancer but considering the many issues we had with the novel, we decided to write a Ponderings post instead. Stormdancer (Lotus War #1) by Jay Kristoff Thomas Dunne Books…
This week, we Smugglers Assembled! …to attend the BEA Book Blogger Conference on Monday and Book Expo America on Tuesday through Thursday. It was a hectic week full of meetings, get-togethers, parties, and book signings. And, while we are…
This post is part of An Unconventional Blog Tour – as the title suggests, this is not your typical blog tour. The purpose of this week is to tackle some of the more sensitive and difficult issues that arise…
Title: Wonder Author: R.J. Palacio Genre: Contemporary, Middle Grade Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (US) / Bodley Head (UK) Publication date: February 14 2012 / March 1 2012 Hardcover: 320 pages I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re…
8 Rated Books Book Reviews Smugglers Ponderings
Smuggler’s Ponderings: Thoughts on The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Warning: this post contains ALL THE SPOILERS. This is another entry in the Ana-is-catching-up-with-the-fantasy-classics-which-were-not-available-to-her-as-a-child-growing-up-in-Brazil series. So, The Last Unicorn. A book that has been published over 40 years ago (in fact, my edition celebrates its 40th anniversary) and which…
BEA Appreciation Week Smugglers Ponderings
Smugglers’ Ponderings: on the Book Blogger Convention and the relationship between Bloggers and Publishers
Welcome to BEA Appreciation Week 2011! As is our annual tradition, this week we bring you reviews of some of the titles we have scooped up at BEA, as well as some general news and ponderings concerning the trade…
Book Reviews Smugglers Ponderings
Smuggler’s Ponderings: Thoughts on The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
Warning: some spoilers ahead We were supposed to be posting our joint review of The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham today but alas, Real Life has conspired against us and Thea was unable to finish the book in time.…
With this issue of Smugglers’ Ponderings, we would like to take a moment to examine hype. There are a number of titles that have been touted as OMG THE FANTASY DEBUT OF 2011!1 or THE MOST GRIPPING DYSTOPIAN NOVEL…
I was on Twitter, as I usually am, and saw someone RT a link to a book being sold on Amazon. The book is called: The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure and its description says: This is my…
I often feel compelled to write these Ponderings posts. To me they are a useful tool to help me understand my reading habits and how these affect my reviewing and I believe this to be a good thing. So.…
Being here and writing reviews almost every day, reading other blogs and other reviews often make me ponder about the act of reading itself, and how I approach books and eventually how I review them. It also makes me…
A Bit of Background: The Internets are full of rage again as Bloomsbury Publishing finds itself at the center of yet another book cover controversy. Remember the furore surrounding the cover of Liar by Justine Larbalestier? When readers found…
Gollancz, the FANTABULOUS Sci-fi/Fantasy imprint of Orion Books has a new line of Paranormal Romance coming to the UK in 2010. I have known about this since their Autumn party and since then have waited with abated breath to…
I am suffering from genre exhaustion. When someone reads as much as I do (about 3-4 books per week), it is inevitable that I sometimes hit the proverbial reading slump, even amongst the genres I most love (as in…
Today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its final revised guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials. While this usually would not be of interest or concern us in any way, these revised guidelines have a new stipulation covering bloggers and…
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…