Well, I have decided to venture into some YA books. Y'all on YouTube have been very convincing. I saw this one on YouTube's DPBookReviews and thought it looked interesting.

So, currently reading this as an eBook from my library. I like it very much so far - about half way in.

Update 01/30/2011
My Thoughts

Finished reading this. I really enjoyed it. There are vampires, werewolves, action, romance, steampunk and of course, parasols. The parasol is multifunctional as a sun screen and a weapon when called upon. Humor abounds in this book and Ms. Carriger has done a fantastic job of mixing the action with the humor.

I was disappointed only in the book format. It is available as a mass-market paperback or eBook form. I think the series is good enough for a hard-cover edition or at least a quality paperback.

I did go to Barnes & Noble and purchased this book along with the other two in the series that is currently out: Changeless and Blameless. Is there a fourth in the series?

Definitely a recommended read. I am looking forward to reading the other two.

My opinion is that this book is for ages 15 and older due to some of the romance content.

Book synopsis from the back cover:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. 

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia is responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

The Lost Art of Reading
Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time
David L. Ulin - Sasquatch Books 2010


Reading is a revolutionary act. The siren calls of email, Twitter, smart phones, and iPods conspire to pull us away from the long-form writing of books. For David L. Ulin, this swelling problem (from which he is hardly immune) begged the question: does reading even matter anymore?...

I found this short pocket-sized book very pertinent. Personally I am lured away from reading my books by the internet There is YouTube, forums, Amazon; it is really an endless chain that takes me from one subject to another.

Some of my favorite reading genres are books about books, and books about authors or books about reading. These types of books tend to affect me much like the internet in that it piques my interest in another book that is being written about. So needless to say my wish-list on Amazon is quite large.

This book is about David's reading life mostly in a world before the internet. He writes about several books that has had an effect on him and equates them to events in his life. I like this snippet:

Time, however is the enemy in contemporary culture, less a source of context than constraint. We bridle against its limitations - not existentially but in far more prosaic terms - subdividing it into the merest bits and pieces, translating it into dollars gained or lost.

David does not demean the internet at all, it is not a tirade. It is just amazing how our brain works. It seems to thrive on the bits and pieces - to try to organize them into some continuum. Of course good books do that for us, but we have to pay attention to a single act for a long period of time. It is called concentration. It's hard work sometimes.