Fury of the Phoenix

March has been a drive-by month for me--I have a dozen posts in the queue, but none of them written. I've been reading (or re-reading) The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, a book on Disney animation, Frankenstein, Beezus and Ramona, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Moribito, Mare's War, and Out of My Mind, and I've never written up a review of StarCrossed or using a NookColor. Except for Frankenstein, which is more interesting for its history and structure than its readability (for me), it's been a string of compelling reads. (Of those, I especially enjoyed The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, StarCrossed of the Elizabeth C. Bunce sort, and Mare's War.)

But, speaking of good books, maybe you read Cindy Pon's wuxia fantasy, Silver Phoenix (I did!) If you want a bit of the feeling of the book, check out this trailer:




Or, you can visit her site to read the first seventy pages for free. And now, in just a few days, the sequel, Fury of the Phoenix, will be out too!




I have been avoiding, avoiding, avoiding spoilers. Don't spoil me! So, while I don't have any review for now--and boy, do I have a lot to catch up on!--I will review something a little bit related. Cindy is a talented brush artist. I got some cards from her Etsy shop, and you can see the carefully handcrafted, finely made haul below. I want to take a nice bite out of that marshmallowy panda! Anyway, I draw stick people, so I admire any sort of artistic talent.