Cover Characteristic: Books

The Cover Characteristic meme is hosted at  Sugar and Snark.   Here are the guidelines:

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite covers with that characteristic. If you want to join in and share your 5 favorite covers with the weeks particular characteristic, then just make a post, grab the meme picture (or make your own) and leave your URL in Linky (so we can visit).
You don’t even need to participate, just stopping by and saying hi would be great! Don’t forget to stop by the other participants!

Okay this week all I can say is WHOA!  I had so many books that had pictures of books on the cover.  So I tried my best to narrow it down to 10.  Although some of them have multiple books on one number.  I grouped together series and also I have one grouping of picture books.  So here we go!

10.  Picture books:

  9.

8.  Libraries or Bookstores

 7.

6.

5.

4.

3.  Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde - you'd think all would have books on the cover, but only 4 of the 5 I've read do.

  2.

1.  And my favorite of all is a book by my author friend, Michelle Sodaro.  I'll explain why after you see it.

So you're probably thinking, where is the book?  And this is kind of plain compared to the others. But what I like about it, is that as I read, I found out that this is the cover of the book that is the main part of the story, so I love that about it!

I'll bet you could give me a ton more ideas for covers with books. And there are so many that I will see at the bookstore where I work that I haven't read, or don't know that I'll ever read, so they didn't get included.   

Review: Arianna's Honor by Michelle Sodaro

This is another book by a really good friend of mine, Michelle Sodaro, who also wrote the book Whatever You Make Of It.  You can read my review of that one HERE.  This book is a bit different than that.  It is a fantasy book.  Now, I know I keep saying over and over that fantasy isn't really my number one genre.  But, I just had to read my friend's book!  And to read all that she posts about her stories on Facebook and on her blog, Sodaro's Stories, really got me interested to see just what she'd written.  So about a year or so ago, she had a presentation and signing for this book especially, and I went and bought it, as well as getting an extra copy to giveaway here on my blog.  You can look for that giveaway in August, when I will be celebrating my 5th Blogoversary with a bunch of prizes! 

The main character of Arianna's Honor is, of course, Arianna.  She takes care of her younger brothers since her parents are both dead.  Her father was killed because he supported the king.  And on the day she tried to save him, she was also attacked.  While she had grown up with lessons on fighting, the number of men that day were too many for her by herself.  Since that time she has just lived with her brothers and tried to take care of them, especially as one of them is sickly.  The book starts off when she hears someone screaming for help in the forest.  It turns out it is the Prince, Prince Nicholas.  She takes him to her home until she can get him back to the castle.  But when she goes into town to try to get her carriage back for the trip, she overhears an assassination plot.  One being lead by the very man who has been trying to court her for years.  So she decides she must protect him, because even though she blames the king for her father's death, she also knows that her father died supporting him, so she can't do something that would negate his sacrifice.  Along the way the Prince and Arianna get to know each other.  There is a bit of a romantic/friendship that grows through the stress and danger.  When she first meets him, the Prince is a bit of a blowhard, a womanizer, with no respect for what the real world and real people do every day.  Being with Arianna and her family will change him though.  For the better.  there are gypsies in the story, for the most part they are helpful to Arianna, but she must know which ones to trust. 

One thing I really liked is a description for this that I read that this is the girl saving the Prince, instead of the normal fairy tale which is the other way around.  It leaves a bit of a cliffhanger, a happier ending, but still not out of the woods.  The 2nd book is out this month, so will have to get ahold of that and read on!  If you like a quick fantasy read with a bit of humor in the relationships, then you will enjoy this book. 

Whatever You Make of It by Michelle Sodaro

This is an exciting, yet hard to write review.  This is a book that was self published by a good friend of mine. I worked with Michelle at B. Dalton bookstore, and she also was a teacher at one of the high schools in the same district where I teach.  So it's very exciting to write about a friend's book, yet also hard, because I want to say all positive things, but as an honest reviewer, I owe it to my readers to also list any problems I had with the book.  So hopefully I won't hurt her feelings with anything I say.

The plot of the book is a very neat idea.  The main character is Johnathon.  Johnathon is a lawyer on his way up the career ladder.  His goal is to be the youngest partner in his law firm.  Along the way he has a girlfriend named Rebecca.  As you can imagine a man in this situation, he often doesn't have time for people.  He doesn't really talk to his family, he feels his mom is kind of weird.  Especially when she calls and tells him that his grandmother has asked her if he found the book she left for him yet.  That's weird because his grandmother is dead.  So when his plans with Rebecca for the evening are cancelled when her uncle goes to the hospital, he finally takes out the  book and begins reading.  The characters in the book, Jac and Jyn, seem to have a somewhat similar relationship to Johnathon and Rebecca.  Only they are just friends.  And another weird thing happens, when Johnathon reads something and remarks out loud about it, the characters in the book, some of them, can hear him.  And so he begins to affect the story.  The characters begin talking back and interacting in a way with Johnathon.  If he tries to skip ahead to see what happens next, the pages are blank.  It is as if the words only appear on the pages as he reads them.  And so by reading through the story, and helping Jac to realize how he really feels about Jyn when she is hurt and falls into a coma, Johnathon also begins to figure out how he really feels about Rebecca, and realizes that he may lose her if he doesn't do something now.  It was at this point that I thought the book seemed to be about finished, but still had quite a bit of pages left.  Well, now we hear Rebecca's side of the story.  As Johnathon tries to save their relationship, she now must decide if she should give him another chance.  And to help her, he gives her the book to read.  Rebecca picks up the book, and is brought into Jac and Jyn's world, but it is now a new story.  It's as if the book knows what kind of story is needed for each reader.  So once again, using the characters in the story, helping them with their issues, helps Rebecca to work through her issues.  This part of the book was hard for me, as it starts out with Rebecca going to put her dog to sleep.  Not something easy for me, or probably any animal lover, to read about!  But I kind of skimmed through that part so as not to get to crying to much, and read on for the story.  The characters Jac and Jyn are a bit different in this new story, and it is as if what happened in the story that Johnathon never happened.

As I said, it is a really interesting idea for a story.  I'm sure part of the reason it took me a while to get through was because I've been reading so many YA or more paranormal even type of stories, that this isn't my "usual type" of book these days.  As I've said before with other self published books, I also had trouble with how the dialogue was written.  When people speak, they don't use "proper" English.  They use contractions like "we'll" or "I'm" instead of "we will" or "I am".  I always have trouble reading any story where the speaking parts don't just flow as if I'm actually listening to someone speak.  Also, a few spots needed probably one more editor to catch some errors that I'm sure happened as exciting parts were being written and the actual writing was probably going quite fast.  The names bugged me a bit too.  Seeing the name Johnathon instead of just Jonathan.  It tripped my mental "tongue" as I was reading aloud in my head.  And Jac.  Is it pronounced just like "Jack"?  For some reason in my head I wanted to give it a French sound, like "Jacque".

Those are my cons.  At first I also didn't like the cover.  I thought, wow, is that all you have to pick from for self published books?  Then as you read the story, you realize the cover is like that because that is what the cover of the book they are reading in the story looks like, so I liked it.  Again, I think the book was a neat story.  And it inspires me to get the novel I started several years ago finished soon, and maybe try to self publish it one day.

Featured Blog: Sodaro's Stories

Another friend of mine has graciously volunteered to be a part of my 3rd Blogoversary celebration.  She is a blogger, but again, not really a book blogger, at least not in the way that I am.  My friend Michelle is a writer!  Yes, she does read, but her blog is more about her writing adventures.  I was hoping to be able to surprise her with doing a review of her book with this post, but unfortunately, while I did get started on it last week, I realized I had 2 e-galleys from Netgalley that I wouldn't be able to read after September 1st, so I'll have to save my review for a later day.  I will say that what I've read so far is intriguing!  First Michelle wrote a little paragraph about both how we are friends, as well as her blog.  Then I decided to interview her.  So without further ado, here is her post!


Lisa and I met the way all bibliophiles should meet...at a bookstore. We both worked there and had a connection because not only were we both avid readers, we were also teachers...and we wondered about each other's respective sanity as she taught middle school and I taught high school. My friendship with Lisa reminds me of the friendship I have with my favorite books: I always know that I can pick up the conversation (or the book) and it will be just as intriguing as it ever was. Lisa taught me that there are some really amazing stories out there that are designated as Young Adult that I might not have picked up otherwise...and my life would not be as colorful without those stories. She also inspired me to start a blog.
I started my blog (michellesodaro.wordpress.com) as a way to talk to my readers (though at the time I started it, I didn't have my book published) about the things I think about as a writer, the questions I have, the process I go through when I am taking a story that exists only in my head and putting it in a format that it can exist for others as well. I have had many people (previous students, friends I know in real life, and friends I have made via the internet) tell me that they want to write a book and that my blog helps them. I like the feeling that I get to "talk" to people about writing about being an author. Sometimes I will respond to a quote or a song lyric, sometimes it is a trouble spot in one of my projects, sometimes it is just my thoughts about writing in general. While my blog is only one year in the making, my goal is to keep it going and seeing what it can become. 

1.  So Michelle, where do your ideas for your stories come from?

 Does it sound like I am cheating if I say everywhere? Haha...but honestly my ideas come from my dreams where I might see a snippet of something acted out for my subconscious, my ideas come from bits of conversation that I may or may not be actively involved in (people watching is one of my favorite past times as it helps me make my characters real), and my ideas come from a random question or thought that just appears in my head (what would happen if characters in a book could talk to you, was the premise for Whatever you Make of it, which was the first book I self-published. So, it sounds like I'm cheating, but really anything and anyone could spark a story for me. I've even had stories start because a relationship ended and I start to write about the what ifs...what if he stayed, what if I had said this instead of that...I've joked that writers should come with a warning label that any and all interactions with us could end up in a story. 

2.  Do you feel like your stories model the books you read the most, or are closer to your life experiences?

 Most of the time when I am writing, I try to forget the books I have read and my life experiences, but of course everything plays a role. There are aspects of different characters I have admired in the characters I create, and often I use writing to work through this life experience or that life experience. That is what I wrote my Master's thesis on...the use of writing to work through the things life throws at us. One of the stories I am currently playing with (I call it playing until I am about 10 chapters in because by that time the story has taken hold and has a solid shape) deals with the death of a lover that stems from a similiar experience I went through a couple of years ago. The story will be recognizable for those who went through it with me, but not so much that everyone will see the parallels. 

Mostly...I write stories with characters I would like to meet. I write stories that I would like to read. 

3.  When you begin your stories, do you know how it's all going to end, or do you just write and it all comes out as you write?

 Sometimes I know the ending before I have any idea how I am going to get there. Haha. Sometimes it starts at the beginning and sometimes it even starts with a scene in the middle and I have to figure out not only how to get there, but what to do after that scene. That is actually how my the novel I am self-publishing right now started. There was a scene where the prince suggested to Arianna, the heroine, that she could be his mistress. Her reaction was my first meeting with the story idea and when I finally got to the part in the plot where that scene fit in, I was thrilled. 

4.  Do you set aside time to sit and write every day?  Do you fit in writing whenever something strikes you and needs to be written down?

I really try to write every single day. It may be for 20 minutes or it may be for 5 hours, depending on my schedule, but I really try to put pen to paper every day. It is the best of any kinds of vitamin. 

5.  What made you decide to self publish, and how do you feel that process turned out?  Would you recommend it to others?  Pros and cons?

I had sent out Whatever you Make of It to a few publishers and had gotten back official rejection letters and realized that the Catch-22 that existed in so many aspects of life was also true with publishing. No one wants to publish your work until you are published. I like that I have the ultimate say with my books. I get to design the cover (with amazing help from people with far more skill than I possess). I get to have the final say on how my words look on paper, how my story looks overall...and I like that. I think that more and more people are going to self-publish and even more than that, I think that more and more people are going to strictly e-publish...though I hope for the sake of us bibliophiles that this is not true and paper-copies of books still exist forever. 

Thanks Michelle for stopping by my blog!  And thanks for your answers.  I hope any of my followers that are aspiring writers will take something from your answers!

And if you're interested in checking out Michelle's book, it's called Whatever You Make of It.