Damn, that's fast! I thought the street date for Heartless was 7/1!

Occasionally Amazon sends me things early, and I get very excited.

I don't blame you! I know it's awful for author sales tracking, but I get SO HAPPY whenever an ebook releases a day early.

When my sister worked at Borders, they would get books early, of course, and would have to sit on them for the street date...

She was usually extremely rigid about it, but once or twice I bludgeoned her into letting me see a copy early (she wouldn't sell it to me until the street date, but she did slip me a couple of ARC's for an afternoon, and I sucked them down with joy.)

Screw state secrets -- there's nothing more exciting than reading a new book before it hits the streets.

I'm tapping my fingers for the new Jacqueline Carey on Wednesday.

I really like the Uglies series, although I *love* his Midnighters trilogy even more.

Oooh! Amazon just told me that my copy of the next Parasol Protectorate book has shipped!

I have that on hold at the library! Which reminds me...Jilli, it was you who recommended Crocodile on the Sandbank (and the rest of the Amelia Peabody) books in a GCS column, right? Because I'm reading Crocodile on the Sandbank right now and LOVING it. I'm amused at the many, MANY similarities between Amelia Peabody and Alexia Maccon (nee Tarabotti).

Yes, it was me, when a reader was asking me for interesting gothic-flavored books with no supernatural element.

The similarities between Amelia and Alexia are vast. I don't know if anyone has asked Gail Carriger if she ever read the Amelia Peabody series, but I would love to know the answer.

I don't know if anyone has asked Gail Carriger if she ever read the Amelia Peabody series, but I would love to know the answer.

Me, too. I'm really loving it so far.

I didn't like Uglies at all. I didn't continue the series after the first book. The main character was just so blah to me.

I decided not to read Uglies after reading the sample first chapter on Amazon. I do, however, adore Westerfeld's Leviathan series.

I really liked the Uglies series, in part because the action sequences are awesome. Man knows how to keep you on the edge of your hoverboard.

I will give him that. I wasn't entirely sure what the hell was really going on during some of the hoverboard sequences, but I could still feel what was going on.

Because the third book is called Specials, I was hoping there would be superpowers involved, but I just got introduced to the Specials, and there are no superpowers. BUT the story just became more interesting and intriguing, so that's good.

Tally is a rather maddening protagonist, though, because she's so IN that world and believes all the bullshit that's been fed to her, even though we as readers know that it's wrong. I find the whole concept fascinating, and I hope it's explored in a compelling way without being anvilicious. I want to know more about how this society developed and why.

Also, we do run into the same Hunger Games problem on an even smaller scale: what about the rest of the world? We have an Uglyville and a New Pretty Town, but...surely this is not the only civilization in existence on the planet, right? Are there multiple Uglyvilles and New Pretty Towns? (Obvs, these are rhetorical questions.)

I liked Uglies but didn't love it. It's definitely no Hunger Games.