Farewell

I plan to shut down this blog because I need to concentrate more on my own writing than reviewing other books.  I also don't have time to write reviews often enough to justify my having a book review blog. :(

Thanks for following the Trapper, and keep Book Trapping!

New Fiction Books I've Read in 2011

This list doesn't include any nonfiction, books I started but never finished, or any re-reads, though I recently discovered the importance of re-reading and will write a post on it soon. :)  Anyway...onward to looking backward!

I'm going to organize this list by author's last name.  The rating I gave the book is in parentheses, five is the highest and one is the lowest.  If I read books from more than one series of an author, they will be marked in different colors.  If you have any specific reviews from this list that you want, please let me know as I will not be reviewing all these books.
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Austen, Jane

Persuasion (N/A)

Barry, Dave and Pearson, Ridley

Peter and the Starcatchers (3)

Batson, Wayne Thomas

Isle of Swords (N/A)

Beck, Ian

Pastworld (3.5)

Carlson, Melody

Mixed Bags (1.5)

Carter, Ally

I'll Tell You I Love You, But Then I'll Have to Kill You (3.5)

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (3.5)

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (3.5)

Only the Good Spy Young (3.5)

Heist Society (2)


Collins, Suzanne

The Hunger Games (5)

Catching Fire (5)

Mockingjay (5)

Cramer, Dale

Paradise Valley (3)

Cypess, Leah

Mistwood

Dickens, Charles

David Copperfield (N/A)

Little Dorrit (N/A)

Elliot, Patricia

The Pale Assassin (3)

Fisher, Catherine

Incarceron (5)

Sapphique (4)

Snow-walker (2.5)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

The Great Gatsby (3.5)

Hale, Shannon

Enna Burning

Rapunzel's Revenge

Horowitz, Anthony

Stormbreaker (3.5)

Kirby, Matthew J.
The Clockwork Three (4)

Lace, Kendall J.

Seventeen Silent Secrets (Proof copy, N/A)

Lewis, Beverly

The Parting (3.5)
The Forbidden (3.5)
The Longing (3.5)

Larson, Kirby

Hattie Big Sky (5)

McAllister, M. I.

Urchin of the Riding Stars (5)
Urchin and the Heartstone (5)
The Heir of Mistmantle (4)

McEachern, Sarah

Elevator Music (first draft, N/A)

McKinley, Robin

Spindle's End (2)

Morrill, Stephanie

Me, Just Different (4)
Out with the In Crowd (4)

Ogawa, Yoko

The Housekeeper and the Professor (3.5)

Oppel, Kenneth

Airborne (5)

Skybreaker (4)

Starclimber (3.5)

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska

The Scarlet Pimpernel (5)

Paul, Donita K.
Dragonspell (2.5)

Rowling, J.K.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (4)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (3)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (3.5)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (3)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (3)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (4)

Seilstad, Lorna

Making Waves (3.5)

Smith, Dodie

I Capture The Castle (4)

Sparks, Nicholas

The Last Song (3.5)

Stiefvater, Maggie
The Scorpio Races (4)

Vetsch, Erica

A Bride's Portrait of Dodge City, Kansas (2.5)

Westerfeld, Scott

Leviathan (5)

Behemoth (5)

Goliath (4)

Uglies (3)

Pretties (3)


Wrede, Patricia

Daughter of Witches (3)

Wood, Frances M.
When Molly was a Harvey Girl (2.5)

There we are, folks! What were some of your favorite reads from the year?

The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater

First Line:

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

Summary:

On the island of Thisby, horse racing is the thing, but these islanders don't race ordinary horses.  They capture the wild capaill uisce, carnivorous water horses that live off the coast.  Wherever a capaill uisce goes, bloodshed is not far behind.

In an effort to keep her brother Gabe at home and therefore hold the remaining shambles of her family together, Kate "Puck" Conolly signs up to run in the horse races - not on any capaill, but on her plain island horse, Dove.

Sean Kendrick works at an influential stable, training capaills - he has won the races years in a row with his master's fiery capaill Corr.  More than anything, Sean wants to win his freedom and Corr, whom he loves with all his heart.  

When a skinny little girl shows up on the beach with her pony to try for the title of champion, Sean doesn't imagine that she will be any competition for mighty Corr.  This pair surprises each other, and an unlikely friendship develops between them.  Of course, there is still the race...

My Opinion:

I love Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style.  She connects such unlikely adjectives with ordinary words to make thrilling, effortless description beautiful enough to make me shiver.  Speaking of which, I first discovered Ms. Stiefvater when I read the Amazon preview of her best-selling book Shiver.  I read those first descriptions and fell in love until I realized that the book was all about were wolves.  When I come across a werewolf in the book trapping grounds, I tend to go in the other direction, so I had to put the book down.  I did, however, look her up and that's when I discovered The Scorpio Races.

The world of Thisby is alluring and realistic, although The Scorpio Races was one of those books where I wasn't quite sure what time period it's supposed to be set in.  There are cars, but they seem out of place.   For isolated Thisby, though, it seems right for technology to seem odd and out of place.  

The main characters are also very realistic.  Puck and Sean both have clear objectives, and I totally sympathized with both of them.  

My favorite thing about Puck was that she wasn’t ridiculously brave all the time.  She got scared, but she did what she had to do anyway, and didn't pass up a good opportunity.  I really admired that about her.  Puck didn’t dress up like a boy to enter the races, either, which was another plus! Not that that is overused or anything… 

I also really liked Puck’s brother Finn.  The author made him so real with all his awkward mannerisms so common to a younger brother growing up (I have four of them.). 

Objectionable Content:

A smattering of language.  There were a few crude jokes pertaining to certain body parts that made me squirm, but that was all.  

A Recap:

If you're looking for a horse book with a new twist, and if you thirst for fresh, gritty descriptions, you will love The Scorpio Races.  Hopefully you'll come away from it inspired and starry-eyed, just like I did.

Book Trailer:

This is a great book trailer - the author made the illustrations herself and tied it all together with stop motion animation (don't know what that is? Hint: extreeeemmely difficult).  Anyway, it's quite pretty.

In Which the Trapper Returns Triumphant

I do apologize for being absent without leave, everyone! I stopped blogging on my everyday blog, and since this blog has a lot of the same followers, I didn't bother to leave a message.  I'm sorry!

Anyway, I have now returned at the tail end of a good first semester of college.  I still found a lot of time for reading and I'm keeping a list of all the books I've read this year, which I'll post at the beginning of January.

While I was gone, I trapped such treasures as these....

 

Reviews coming soon!

- Ellyn