Saturday, October 30, 2010

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi over at The Story Siren and all you have to do is post about what books you received that week by mail, library, or store.

First of all, Happy Halloween! I hope yours will be better than mine. The hubs worked all day Saturday and I have to work Halloween night..boo. If you dressed up, I would LOVE to see pictures so that way I can live through you. Mark these words, I WILL dress up next year.



I made two trips out solely for books this past week. Trip #1 had me going to Books-A-Million on Tuesday to pick up the newest David Levithan and Rachel Cohn collaboration titled Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. This book just sounds like it would be a fun read and I can't wait to get started on it. Also? The cover makes me happy. While at BAM I decided to browse the bargain section and came across Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I also purchased.

I had been jonesing to take another trip to that used bookstore I mentioned a few weeks ago, so Thursday ended up being that day. While there I made sure I limited myself to four books so that I could use my store credit without paying out of my pocket. I succeeded! I picked up Crank by Ellen Hopkins, Rebel Angels by Libba Bray, The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin, and Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater.

While I was adding these new books to my shelves, I decided I needed to have an Excel sheet listing all my books (title, author, series, book #, signed copy) and while I was doing THAT, I decided that I needed to do a bit of rearranging. I might do a separate post later this week on that.

What do you think of the books I bought? Have you read any of them? Want to or not interested?

Sunday, October 17, 2010

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi over at The Story Siren and all you have to do is post about what books you received that week by mail, library, or store.

This past week I got two books that I have been itching to read, weirdly enough, I haven't started either yet. I'm trying to be good and finish the book I'm reading now.

First, I received Mindi Scott's debut novel Freefall. I completely forgot that I signed up for an ARC tour of this back in July so one day last week it just appeared in my mailbox and I had to pull a Veronica Mars and find out where it came from. Luckily, I was able to. Anymoo (yes, moo), a few days before I received the ARC, the husband and I had gone to Books-A-Million so I could look for it. They didn't have any copies but ordered me one and it came in Friday so now I have my very own copy. The universe just KNEW how much I wanted to read this book. Thanks Universe!

I also got Rick Riordan's first book of a new Percy Jackson related series called The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero. If you ever read my other blog, you'll know that I fell in love with the Percy Jackson series and almost cried when I finished it. Rick Riordan must have known my anguish because he decided he wasn't done with Percy and Co. The hubs ordered some stuff from Amazon on Tuesday so I told him to add this book since it had been sitting in my cart since July. Two days later when it was delivered, my life became just a tad more complete.

Are you planning on reading either of these? What did you get this past week?

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Veronica Mars

A few weeks ago my cousin and my mom came over to watch The Vampire Diaries and have dinner. While we were waiting on VD (no, not to see if anyone had spontaneously contracted the disease), my cousin told me that I should watch Veronica Mars because he thought I would really like it.

This came after I made him sit down and watch Supernatural (which was a success!) and when I told him I had added Veronica Mars to my Netflix queue a few months ago, we decided to watch the first episode. Oh, streaming for the Wii how I'm glad you came into my life.

I enjoyed it after watching an episode but it wasn't until last week that I really started watching it. I always heard about what a good show it was and always intended to watch it and I even tried watching an episode while it was still airing but I figured I would just wait and watch the dvds. Why did I wait so long?!

You should know that I have a job that is in its slow season right now, therefore I only work weekends; yesterday and today were spent with me sitting in front of my tv getting sucked into Veronica's world. I kid you not. I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was turn on my Wii and tv. I stayed up til the wee hours this morning and am doing it again tonight. I think it's safe to say I've become obsessed and I'm sad to know my journey is almost over. I don't understand why this show was canceled.

I absolutely love the stories and the characters, especially Logan. I didn't understand his appeal until approximately 24 hours ago, and it wasn't only due to his actions but because of his line, "dream on Jumpstreet." Logan, you can be SUCH a douche but you are so damn complex and interesting. I find it very hard not to love this character.

Now that I've got that out, back to Veronica Mars!

ETA: I'm back to watching and I just had to add that this show officially has my heart after referring to Ghost World. If you know me, one of my screen names is a combination of things that happened in the movie.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

SPEAK Winner

Wow, you guys. I can't believe I've waited this long to post the winner of the Speak Giveaway! Usually I stay up til midnight and pick a winner as soon as I can.

Anyway, the winner of a gently used copy of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is

Asenath

Congratulations! You have 48 hours to reply to my email with your mailing address otherwise a new winner will be picked. Thanks to everyone who entered. Check back soon for a book swag giveaway.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

In My Mailbox (2)

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi over at The Story Siren and all you have to do is post about what books you received that week by mail, library, or store.

I went back to the used bookstore Wednesday and traded some stuff in for store credit. While I was checking out the YA section, two employees were putting some books on the shelves near me when a woman came up to them. She started asking if they had any copies of Hunger Games and my heart started singing. I quickly told them that I had not seen any copies of the book on the shelves but that they were totally worth reading and that they were some of my favorite books. One of the employees and I started talking (ok, I started telling him what Hunger Games was about because he said he liked books where people get fight/get killed) and after a minute or so he tells me that I seem to know a lot and that I should work there. Oh, book guy. If only you knew how big my love of books really is.

Anyway, I only got three books while I was there.

gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I've been wanting to get a copy of Joshilyn Jackson's book after Anna raved about her panel at DBF.

What books did you get this past week? Do you think I should apply for a job at that bookstore? I'm considering it.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Banned Book Week

Ok guys, don't hate me. I kind of slacked a little bit this week on featuring a banned book a day. Part of the reason was because I got a bit behind but also because I had a very hard time picking which books I wanted to feature. Now that Banned Books Week is drawing to a close, I decided I would just go ahead and list a few more of my favorites.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Harper Lee's only published novel and an Alabama native. This year Monroeville, AL, where Lee still lives, celebrated the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird.

2. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
One of my favorites. Especially the poem Crowded Tub. I can STILL recite this one from memory.

3. The Jessica Darling Series by Megan McCafferty
 MarcusFlutieMarcusFlutieMarcusFlutie! Marcus Flutie wearing Backstreet Boys t-shirts. LASSODICKING!

4. Looking for Alaska by John Green
 Another Alabama author and it was SO weird reading about places I know/see/drive ALL the time.

5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Dystopian that focuses on sleep-learning and reproduction. Read this in my College World Lit class and was so much fun to discuss.


What are some of your favorite banned books?

Friday, October 1, 2010

Banned Books Week Discussion

We all have our favorite banned books and as writers, readers, bloggers, agents, publishers and anyone else who has a hand in anything book related, we have strong feelings regarding book banning.


The two most publicized cases of the last few weeks have been surrounding two amazing authors: Ellen Hopkins and Laurie Halse Anderson.

Ellen Hopkins had been invited and uninvited to TeenLitFest in Humble, TX after a librarian (of all people) decided she didn't think it was appropriate for Ellen to speak to her students based on the content of her books. After Hopkins was uninvited, some of the other authors pulled out in support of her (Kudos to them!) and although the festival has been canceled, I am so happy to see these authors standing up against censorship.

As for Laurie Halse Anderson, Wesley Scroggins stated that Laurie's book Speak should be considered soft pornography due to the scenes of rape. I won't get started on that again.

I don't think there could be a better time for these things to happen than around Banned Book Week. We're already trying to get the word out about why books shouldn't be banned and here are two perfectly good examples of fantastic books that are being challenged that should be left alone.

The most important thing about books like these is that it reaches out to people who may be going through the same thing and are looking for comfort or strength. Maybe they aren't even looking for anything but get an epiphany about themselves and their lives once they read it. I was reading an article earlier about this from Ellen Hopkins and think it's definitely worth sharing. Her manifesto, which is found at the bottom, is pretty awesome too. Click here to read it.

You know what the saying is though, no press is bad press. Both of these authors have been on my radar for quite sometime, I just have not gotten around to their books yet. The funny thing? All this drama has made me want to read them even more than I already did. So here's my question to you:

Do you think the act of banning makes books more or less desirable to readers? Do you think school systems that ban a specific books have more students seeking out that particular book in their free time?

Anything else about Banned Books Week you'd like to add or discuss? Feel free to leave it in the comments section, I'd love to hear what you have to say!