What Should I Read First?!?

So..... as you probably know I've been collecting a lot of the "Must-Read" YA books recently. Haven't exactly had the chance to read many of them yet but I'm so darn excited, that when I do get the chance to read them, I have no idea where to start! I want to read them all at the same exact time! 

So that's where I need your help! You guys, I'm sure, have read a lot of these and can help me decide what is a:

-MUST READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-MUST READ

-must read! 

I'd like to create a ultimate Young Adult TBR stack for myself! People are raving about all of these, where do I start? Also, what am I missing! These aren't all the YA books I have but I want to make sure I'm good and education on the state of MUST READ YA.

So what order would you recommend reading these in? 

Happy Halloween!!!

Lookalikes 18

Blackbox by Julie Schumacher

Let The Right One In movie poster

I like these because they are almost the same but from opposite sides of the glass. My vote is going to to go the movie poster because of the hint of face you can see, they are both awesome though!

How about you?

Thanks to Khyrinthia for pointing out this lookalike!

Booking Through Thursday: Conditioning

Mariel suggested this week’s question.

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

Oh no NO! Spine breaking is about the worst thing you can do to a book! I accidentally put a crease in a spine of a book I was taking pictures of for a school project and I felt horrible! I just looked at it, poor book! I may have dog-eared in the past, but not for many many years, or maybe I'm thinking I used to do that and I didn't really! I would never do that now though!

 I like to keep my books in the condition I got them in, if they were new they stay new if they were used they stay the same level of used. I would never buy a book with a cracked spine unless it was like 25 cents and I book I really wanted to read! It totally bothers me when I get smudges all over the covers but I don't know how not too. Sometimes with paperbacks the covers bow but once I'm done they go back into the shelves and straighten themselves out. I always remove dust jackets when reading a hardcover book. I do take a book on the bus with me but it has it's own pocket in my bag so it stays pretty protected. 

You know it's funny, just the other day I saw someone dog-ear a page on the bus and I flinched!

How do you feel about the condition of your books?

"Waiting On" Wednesday! 2

Something Happened by Greg Logsted

Product Description from Amazon.com:

"All around me I see people laughing, joking, and walking around with these huge, goofy smiles plastered on their faces. I've begun to wonder how they do it, and more important, will I ever be able to be like that again?"

Five months after his dad's unexpected death, Billy Romero is still struggling with the loss. Billy's mom spends more time talking to her Bluetooth than to him, and his best friend, Ziggy, just doesn't get it. There's no one who understands how alone Billy feels...except his new English teacher, the young and beautiful Miss Gate.

Miss Gate offers support and friendship, even giving Billy extra help with his writing outside of school. Billy isn't really sure how he feels about spending so much time with his teacher. It's a little weird, but it's also kind of exciting that someone like Miss Gate wants to hang out with him. But the closer they get, the more Billy wonders what kind of friendship this really is....

Released on November 4th 2008.

This is one of those books I feel like I shouldn't be excited to read because of the content but it just looks so good. And from the product description, that cover is spot on! And I'm not the only one, look what Khyrinthia had to say about books like this!

What can't you wait to be released?

"Waiting On" Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine!

Tuesday Thingers!

This week's question: Legacy libraries. With which legacy libraries do you share books? Tell us a little about a couple of them and what you share.

To find which books you share with Legacy Libraries, click on "Statistics" from either your profile or your home page; then click on "Legacy Libraries" in the second row of clickable choices.

So I share a good number of books with a good number of people. With Ernest Hemingway I share 20 books. What's strange though is that there are multiples of the same title, does anyone else have that happening too?  A few of the things we share are: A Mixture of Frailties, Tender is the Night, Madame Bovary. A lot of classics I have but haven't read mostly! I share several books with F. Scott Fitzgerald, mostly his own books! And no books with Marie Antoinette which makes me sad. 

Several of the people I share books with, I don't know, how horrible is that! Can you tell history wasn't my favorite subject!

Are any of the people you share books with unfamiliar to you?

Lookalikes 17

Poison by Chris Wooding

Nightmare by Joan Lowery Nixon

Thanks to J. Kaye for pointing this lookalike out! 

It's interesting that the freckles were removed on the Poison cover, it sort of removes some of the dimension in the girl's face. Truthfully, neither of these covers do it for me how about you?

My Favorite Commercial

I never considered the fact that I could have a favorite commercial but I saw this Saturday night and fell in love! It's totally clever and made me grin! Totally excited about the upcoming holiday season!

Do you have a favorite commercial?

Holidays On Ice by David Sedaris

From the dust jacket:

If the very thought of Christmas makes you want to run screaming for a wig or yarmulke, consider including David Sedaris's new and updated Holidays On Ice in your disguise kit. It's light, portable, and easy to hide beneath a tallis or foot-long beard. And now with six additional holiday-themed stories, including one never before published, it is the ideal companion with which to pass long hours besides the menorah.

Even if you take it straight-up Christian, if you choose to spend the holidays glazing hams, say, or baking cookies shaped like hobos, you will find this book indispensable. Here is the timeless "SantaLand Diaries," which immortalized the struggle of department store elves the world over. Here is "Dinah the Christmas Whore," in which the Sedaris family opens their hearts to an unexpected, almost Mary Magdalene-like visitor.

These and four other favorites are jointed by six new tales detailing the nuances of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French ("Jesus Shaves"), what Halloween looks like at the medical examiner's office ("The Monster Mash"), the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations ("Six to Eight Black Men"), and a brand-new story about a barnyard Secret Santa scheme gone awry ("The Cow and the Turkey").

No matter what your favorite holiday, you won't want to miss celebrating year-round with the writer Entertainment Weekly has called "the preeminent humorist of his generation."

I read the original version of this collection a few years ago and really enjoyed it so I jumped at the chance of reading the stories again and the new additional stories! The new stories are definitely a welcome addition!

Of the original stories, The SantaLand Diaries starts the collection off on a hilarious note. You get to read bout the inner workings of being a department store Christmas elf. The crazy santas, elves and customers! Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!! starts off innocently enough as a family holiday letter and quickly takes a turn for the hilariously insane, like a lot of Sedaris's stories.

Of the new stories, Jesus Shaves is by far my favorite. It had me crying from laughing so hard. I don't want to give anything away, so just trust me, it's hilarious. Six to Eight Black Men was also hilarious along the same line. Definitely learned things I didn't know about how other countries celebrate to holidays.

I wasn't totally fond of The Monster Mash, about a trip to a medical examiner's office, it spoke to my weak stomach and my stomach said no thank you. But it still had it's funny moments.

All in all this is a hilarious holiday collection and the new stories are a welcome addition helping add additional holidays to this collection.

4/5 Stars
Review copy provided by publisher

P.S. Does this cover remind anyone else of Sarah Vowell's covers? I love them!

Meet Delaney by Jackie Mahaney

From the back cover:

Jackie Mahaney is the author of this entertaining peek into the life of a single woman. It's the tale of Delaney, an intelligent, pretty young woman who is suddenly dumped by her then "love of her life" husband. Panic, joy, sadness, laughter ensue as Delaney dives into the singles world, from the "rebound guy" to online dating. We follow Delaney as she navigates through all of the twists and turns of being a single woman today. It's all here as we meet Delaney's colorful friends, and go through all of the wacky and sometimes deeply touching moments of her single life. So read along as Delaney desperately tries to find happiness and meaning in her world.

This is another one of those "following a person through their life" stories, but in this case more specifically single/dating life, told straight from Delaney's mouth. Delaney's husband asks her for a divorce and it tears her up inside but she eventually figures out how to get on with life. She makes new friends, starts going to places to meet men and have fun and starts to get comfortable being single.

I actually liked this book a bit more than I originally suspected I would. It's sort of gimmicky talking about all the different ways single people can go about finding a relationship but I actually liked having all the possibilities put out in front of me. It makes it really hard to get bored with this book because Delaney is always doing something new, keeps it exciting.

Delaney has a dog named Abby who I absolutely loved, she's definitely a friend for Delaney when she thought she had no one.

Two things I didn't like were how upset Delaney was in a few cases about being single, almost thinking it wasn't an option to not find a husband as soon as possible and also a list of "the top 10 things that women do when they become too comfortable in a relationship" I really sort of hoped the author was joking with a few of the items on the list. I would have also liked to know more about her job, she talks about it, but I didn't feel like there was enough back story for all the pieces to fall together.

What's your favorite single-gal story?

3.5/5 Stars
Review copy provided by marketing firm

7 Random Things Meme

Mrs. V tagged me to share 7 random things you probably don't know about me!

1. My favorite animal is the tapir. I actually like tapirs so much I've done at least two projects in college involving them. Including the screen print shown, entitled "Isadora and her pet tapir Crystal"

2. I'm left handed. 

3. I have some crazy laughs. Some are really loud and one of them actually sounds like a quack according to some people. I've had friends try and coax it out of be before!

4. More than a year ago me and several friends created a zine called "Ink Engine". We made 100 copies and sold it at a zine fest. Wish we could get organized and do issue two! They are also being sold in a few local stores, yay for pushiness!

5. I'm about as obsessed with dvds as I am with books. Which pretty much reveals that yes I am a packrat!

6. I have a degree in graphic design and a minor in photography. 

7. I love those little sponges that start out as pill shaped and dissolve into little sponges! Ok that was really random!!!!

I'm going to tag: Hope's Bookshelf, Shooting Stars Mag, S. Krishna's Books, Reviewer X, and Diary of An Eccentric.

Everyone else feel free to play along too!!!

This Week In Books Or This Sort Of Makes Up For Last Week

Much calmer than last week! Definitely got some GOOD things this week!

Monday: Got a trio of young adult books from one lovely bookmoocher! Thanks!

I Received: 

Read My Lips

Hex Education

Girl v. Boy

Tuesday: nothing

Wednesday: nothing

Thursday: Remember last week when I said there was this cart full of awesome paperback books at the library store? Well I figured it was some sort of temporary overflow cart. But today on the side of it there was a sign that said "Notable Fiction $1-$3 Restocked Every Thursday" How cool is that! Every week there is potential for something new and exciting! Instead of the same stuff I've picked over for several weeks!

This Week I Got:

Love Walked In 

Water For Elephants

Friday: Couldn't resist seeing what was shaking at Borders, where I picked up the holiday themed anthology, Mistletoe. (I'm hoping to read it and Let It Snow as near to the holidays as possible!) They had some live music playing it was nice!

Saturday: Got two more young adult books from another bookmoocher!

I Received:

Queen Geek Social Club

Alpha Dog

What did you get this week?

Lookalikes 16

At Face Value by Emily Franklin

Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph

So I really really like these covers, like a lot! And I was trying to figure out why. And then I remembered......

I painted these in either 9th or 10th grade. If I remember correctly they are based on a portrait of Julia Roberts of one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People Issues. Thankfully I've gotten a bit better at painting since then! Though I haven't painted in several years :(

I like that these covers are similar but basically show what the other cover doesn't. It's like if you moved up the image on At Face Value a bit more you would see Shrinking Violet, well minus the nose.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Here's another fun one I just found! Love it!

Finding Grace by Alyssa Brugman

UPDATE: 1/24/09 Australian cover for the Adoration of Jenna Fox via Persnickety Snark

Rolling Stone got a makeover!

Got home and saw the newest issue of Rolling Stone in my room. At first, because of the size I assumed it was some sort of election special issue. But no, it's a new format and I LOVE IT!

Rolling Stone has gone from an oversized staple bound, crappy paper magazine to a smaller, perfect bound, really nice feeling paper magazine! I will definitely be carrying Rolling Stone around a lot more with me now. It's so much more portable! They have also added more pages to bulk up each section!

Apparently last summer they produced an issue in this current size and sent it to 3,000 subscribers to see what people thought and people loved it. I definitely have to agree, this is a great move on their part! They even mentioned using a adhesive sticky address label instead of printing onto the  cover itself. I'm a total dork for details!

Any Rolling Stone readers out there? What do you think of the change?

Booking Through Thursday!

Monica suggested this one:
Got this idea from Literary Feline during her recent contest:
“Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.”

I definitely can't pick just one so here are a few:

-Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter Series)
-Nick and Norah (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist)
-Cecilia and Robbie (Atonement)
-Holly and Gerry (P.S. I Love You)

I don't know really how to explain why i like these couples so much besides squealing "They are just so cute!" for one reason or another.

Who's your favorite literary couple?

Lookalikes 15

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King

Swinging Mademoiselles: Groovy French Sounds From the 60s

Swinging Mademoiselles Deux: More Groovy French Pop From the 60s

So this was a totally random find. I was looking in the world music section of Borders seeing if they had a soundtrack I'm trying to track down and I saw this second cd. 

When you see the illustrator in the context of 60s music it does look sort of retro but when you look at it on the book cover it doesn't give that same retro vibe within the context, in my opinion. Definitely interesting.

What do you think?

"Waiting On" Wednesday! 1

The last few weeks I've noticed several people participating in "Waiting On" Wednesday so I thought I would give it a go! "Waiting On" Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine!

College Girl by Patricia Weitz

Product Description from Amazon.com:

College Girl is a vivid portrait of life on a college campus and a poignant look at what happens to a twenty-year-old college senior (and her self-esteem) when she loses her virginity and falls for the wrong guy.

Just as Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling Prep drew us into the world of boarding school and its social relationships, College Girl perfectly captures the experience of college, of being a student at a big state university— complete with its jocks and hipsters, frats and sororities, drinking rituals and cafeteria food, its economic, academic, and social pressures—and how it gets funneled into the campus culture of collegiate sex and dating. In particular, College Girl reveals what all this means for a girl inexperienced in sex and romance, dealing with the demons she’s brought from home.

College senior Natalie Bloom is beautiful and ambitious, but also incredibly insecure and painfully uncomfortable with the subject of sex—let alone the act. She’s awkward at developing friendships with girls, but it’s sexual attention from boys that really makes her lose her cool. At age twenty, she’s a virgin—never having had a boyfriend. Avoiding her peers, Natalie hides out most weekends in the library. That is, until she meets Patrick, her fantasy (she thinks) of a cultured, intellectual Prince Charming—and everything changes. But the more time they spend together, the more Patrick brings out her worst insecurities. Natalie loses her virginity before she’s ready, and as their sexual activity escalates, Natalie’s emotional responses become dangerously self-destructive. Ultimately, she must take extreme measures to reclaim her sense of self, her confidence, and her ambition.

An insightful, moving, and achingly self-aware novel that offers the psychological and emotional insight of Judy Blume and Ann Brashares, College Girl will resonate with anyone who remembers the often awkward transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Graduating from college about a year and a half ago I think I'm gravitating towards anything college related because I miss it! This definitely sounds like an interesting study of the character, Natalie.

I can't wait for College Girl to be released December 26th! I think I will get over my strong dislike of hardcovers and buy this one the day it comes out!

Tuesday Thingers!

Today's question: Series. Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in LT to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?

I heart series! I do collect and or read a lot of series. Because of the state of my TBR pile I have collected a lot I haven't yet read. I definitely use the series feature on Librarything, I think it's just fun to look at! According to it I have 86 series covering 149 books. It has actually clumped together books that I didn't realized were considered series! My series range from fiction to chick lit to young adult to art to comics! I think two of the largest series I have are the Best American Short Stories and Harry Potter and the largest that I don't own is A Series of Unfortunate Events (I still haven't read the last 2-3 books and at this point I think I should just start over!) The feature is also helpful to figure out the order of a series if I'm unsure!

How about you, are you a series person?

My Husband's Sweethearts by Bridget Asher

From the dust jacket:

When Lucy discovered that her charming, cheating husband was dying, she came home, opened up his little black book, and decided she wasn’t going through this alone. After all, Artie’s sweethearts were there for the good times—is it fair that Lucy should have to manage the hard times herself? In this wise, wickedly funny new novel, Lucy dials up the women in Artie’s black book and invites them for one last visit. The last thing she expects is that any will actually show up.

But one by one, they do show up: The one who hates him. The one who owes her life to him. The one he turned into a lesbian, and the one he taught to dance. And among them is a visitor with the strangest story of all: the young man who may or may not be Artie’s long-lost son.

For Lucy, the jaw-dropping procession of women is an education in the man she can’t forgive and couldn’t leave. And as the women find themselves sharing secrets and sharing tears, they start to discover kindred spirits—and even something that’s a lot like family. But Lucy knows one thing for certain: the biggest surprises are yet to come….

Full of heart, Bridget Asher’s unforgettable novel is about mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and the deep friendships between women. It’s about sweet liars and tenderhearted cheaters—about loving those we love for reasons we can’t always fully rationalize, and about the sort of forgiveness that can change someone’s entire life in the most unexpected and extraordinary ways.

This was a bittersweet story. Humorous yet sad. I think my favorite character was that of Artie's maybe son, John Bessom. I liked his interactions with Lucy, where they talked about Artie. As for the rest of the characters I wish I had gotten to know them better, I didn't feel like I knew that much about most of them besides one of the sweethearts, Elspa. Since the story is told from Lucy's perspective I found myself actually forgetting her name. I would have liked to see more interactions between Lucy and Artie and found out a little more about Artie. You could definitely sense his love for Lucy through the little notes he sent her while she was away on business/avoiding him. I just wanted to see it a bit more when they actually came face to face.

I really liked the idea of a revolving door of sweethearts and really liked the part where several of them were described including a mother and daughter! Again, would have loved to hear about more of them! I think it would have added to the humor of the book. I also liked the idea of women that could potentially be at each other's throats developing a friendship and helping each other grow and prepare for losing Artie.

I definitely knew how the book was going to end but that's the ending I was really hoping for so it was pretty darn satisfying! I hate endings that set you up and then go into a totally different direction! This was a sweet, rather light read!

3/5 Stars
Review copy provided by publisher

I Lied Or I Actually Got A Few More Books Then I Let Onto

So you know how I go to the library book sale every week? Well this week I decided to finally pick up one of their 20 books for 2 dollars grab bags. Those things haunt me every week when I go. I figured I'd just donate or put on bookmooch whatever I didn't want, which was most of it. I just love anything having to do with grab bags! So the one I got was a "Teen Girl"bag. 

The most interesting thing inside of it was one of the books from Meg Cabot's Mediator series which I know nothing about really. I got Reunion, the third book in the series. So what I'm wondering is if anyone has read any of the books in this series? And if so, are they worth hunting down the first two or worth checking out from the library? I can't start with book 3 so I'm just trying to figure out how to go about getting the first two.

I didn't include any of this into my This Week In Books post because I didn't actually get a chance to really look at the books til last night! I think I'm also going to hold onto two Nancy Drew books and a book called Bird by Angela Johnson.

Thoughts on Meg Cabot's Mediator Series or grab bags in general? 

Sneak Peek: Bible Illuminated The New Testament

I have been given probably the most exciting opportunity, related to my blog, to review the upcoming book, Bible Illuminated. The book isn't actually being released until October 28th. But I've been allowed a sneak peek of the book for now, with a full review to come later on.

Having a background in design and photography this book is very very interesting to me. Instantly it reminds me of some of my favorite books including Matthew Barney's The Cremaster Cycle and Richard Avedon's Photographs 1947-1977. Books that give me the chills!

Bible Illuminated juxtaposes powerful editorial and fashion images with the text of the New Testament bringing it into a contemporary setting. The book is laid out like a magazine with different pieces of the text called out, highlighted, and used as captions. 

I'm going to be upfront, I've never read the Bible but was instantly attracted to this approach. I think that this book can be a great tool to get people interested in reading the Bible, even if just to educate themselves to see what the Bible is all about, it's very easily approachable. This is a fantastic concept. 

To put that better, this is the Illuminated World Mission (straight from their website):

Illuminated World seeks to introduce today’s audience to a revolutionary contemporary Bible, one that encourages dialogue and is culturally relevant, accessible and easily digestible for any reader regardless of religious, economic, racial or social background.

We have no religious agenda nor do we support a specific faith. Bible Illuminated is intended to be a unique vehicle for reacquainting today’s reader with one of the most important historical, and cultural texts ever written.

Bible Illuminated: The New Testament will be released October 28th.

You can visit the Bible Illuminated website here. The Old Testament will be released in 2009. The New and Old Testament were originally released in 2007 in Sweden. 

Look for my full review in the coming weeks.

This Week In Books Or *SHAME* Now I've Really Done It!

Er... yeah, bought some books as you can see!

Monday: nothing

Tuesday: According to my sister I didn't get anything and then hiding on the stairs I found two books from bookmooch! How It's Done and Pug Hill!

Wednesday: Holidays on Ice and The Smart One and the Pretty One came in the mail. Thanks Miriam!

Thursday: Popped over to the library and hit the jackpot! They had a whole cart of "new" paperbacks. No idea where they came from but there was some good stuff! I rode home on the overflowing 15+ extra people bus with two bags of books!

I got (gonna do a list!):

Shopaholic Ties the Knot

All About Vee

On Beauty

English As A Second Language

Going Home

The Hindi Bindi Club

If You Could See Me Now

The Autobiography of Vivian

Saturday

Friday: nothing

Saturday: Before I hit the jackpot at the library me and my sister had decided to go to two of our favorite used bookstores this weekend. We went anyways, i had coupons!

At Half Price Books I picked up:

Lipstick Jihad

Inner Circle

Flash Fiction Forward

Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location

The Truth About Forever

The Cinderella Pact

The Late Bloomer's Revolution

Sheer Abandon

Andy Warhol: Fashion

(most of these were under 4 dollars, how do you say no!)

At the other used bookstore:

Family Sold Separately

This Year's Model

Tales From the Teachers' Lounge

Microthrills

So that was embarrassing... what did you get/buy/find this week?

Lookalikes 14

Shelter Me by Alex McAulay

Midnighters #2 Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld

Thanks goes to Khyrinthia for pointing this lookalikes out! This is another great example, like this one, of using the same image to create completely different moods.

My vote goes about 1,000 % to the first cover, Shelter Me. How about you?

And oh, P.S. anyone super interested in lookalikes might want to click here.

Lookalikes 13

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Ivy by Julie Hearn

Thanks to both Amee and Khyrinthia for pointing this lookalike out!

Isn't it funny how different an image can look when it's flipped? I think I like the first one better, probably because I saw that one first!

Thanks to Steph for pointing out that the above Ivy cover is probably an import cover. This is the one being used in the US. Thanks Steph!

She sort of looks like the girl that played Claire on Six Feet Under, no?

UPDATE: 2/28/09 Thanks to Deborah for pointing out the below covers! The first one is exactly the same as the above! And I definitely think the second one is the same girl. Not so sure about the last two, what do you think?

Booking Through Thursday!

Okay–here was an interesting article by Christopher Schoppa in the Washington Post.

Avid readers know all too well how easy it is to acquire books — it’s the letting go that’s the difficult part. … During the past 20 years, in which books have played a significant role in both my personal and professional lives, I’ve certainly had my fair share of them (and some might say several others’ shares) in my library. Many were read and saved for posterity, others eventually, but still reluctantly, sent back out into the world.

But there is also a category of titles that I’ve clung to for years, as they survived numerous purges, frequent library donations and countless changes of residence. I’ve yet to read them, but am absolutely certain I will. And should. When, I’m not sure, as I’m constantly distracted by the recent, just published and soon to be published works.

So, the question is his: “What tomes are waiting patiently on your shelves?"

Well.... i have a pretty big to be read pile lately. It's grown to 350+ *SHAME*. There are a lot of things that I've had than more than a few years including.... The Best American Short Stories Series and Best American Non-Required Reading Series. I've been collecting them since around 2003. I haven't bought the last 2 since I have barely read any of the other ones I bought! I've been holding onto The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for several years and really look forward to reading it. I've had Animal Farm since I was probably 9 years old I think, it was a gift.

There is a lot more where that came from....what's one book you have been hanging onto for years that's still to be read?

Silliness or This is for J. Kaye!

J. Kaye was talking about Simpsonize Me today so I thought I would dig up some avatars I've made of myself! I mean who doesn't want to see me as an M&M!

I think I made my Simpson a different way, I remember trying to Simpsonize myself but didn't have a photo that worked so I used a different Simpson maker else. I think it was related to the movie release!

Ok, who else has got some silliness to share!

Tuesday Thingers!

Today's question: Early Reviewers- do you participate? How many books (approximately) have you received through the program? Have you liked them generally? What's your favorite ER book? Do you participate in the discussion group on LT?

I totally participate! I somehow wasn't so obsessed with Librarything at the time that I didn't find out about the program until it's second month. I think this was before I joined any of the Groups on Librarything and literally just used it to catalog my books.

I didn't get any books my first several months and then they started coming in one after another after another. Now I'm back to not receiving anything for 2-3 months. I don't mind at all, the program is so exciting, it's just fun belonging!

I have received 7 books so far and they are (in order, I think):

Gifted-Review

Gossip of the Starlings-Review

Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club-Review

Love Marriage-Review

Loose Girl, which finally just came!-Review

Summer Blowout-Review

American Wife-Review

I've actually also hunted down several other books that I didn't end up getting through the program because I really wanted to read them!

The Early Reviewer's Program is actually what got me to start writing reviews. It also was the first hints of my blog becoming more book related. 

For the most part I've enjoyed the books I've received from the program. I actually didn't really care for my first two but since then they have all been pretty good. It would be hard to pick a favorite so I'll settle on Loose Girl and American Wife.

I totally participate in the discussions. You can find me on the Early Reviewers. Bookmooch, and ARC Junkies boards most frequently!

I Was Finally Convinced...

to join Twitter! Come follow me here! Thanks to Steph and Lenore for the final nudge I needed to actually do it! Who else is on here? Someone yell at me when I forget to update for days!

Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen

From the publishers website:

Kerry Cohen is eleven years old when she recognizes the power of her body in the leer of a grown man. Her parents are recently divorced and it doesn’t take long before their lassitude and Kerry’s desire to stand out—to be memorable in some way—combine to lead her down a path she knows she shouldn’t take. Kerry wanted attention. She wanted love. But not really understanding what love was, not really knowing how to get it, she reached for sex instead.

Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen’s captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction—not just to sex, but to male attention—Loose Girl is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning. It didn’t matter who he was. It was their movement that mattered, their being together. And for a while, that was enough.

From the early rush of exploration to the day she learned to quiet the desperation and allow herself to love and be loved, Kerry’s story is never less than riveting. In rich and immediate detail, Loose Girl re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment, when a girl tries to control a boy by handing over her body, when the touch of that boy seems to offer proof of something, but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness.

Kerry Cohen’s journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is a cautionary tale and a revelation for girls young and old. The unforgettable memoir of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, Loose Girl will speak to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love.

Loose Girl: a memoir of promiscuity was engaging from beginning to end. I can tell I enjoy something when I can read for at least 30 minutes straight without paying attention to anything else (I usually get distracted very easily). This book hooks you and doesn't let go of you until the end. Around the age of 11-12 Kerry discovers the world of boys and how she can capture their attention and hopefully love as well. She basically becomes addicted to boys and eventually sex as well. She reflects it back onto her upbringing, her mom basically leaving her and her sister behind to start her own life and her father that basically let her do whatever she wanted. I actually identified more so with Kerry's sister, Tyler so it was interesting to read about how Kerry didn't understand her sister and her behavior.

Seeing what Kerry has gone through and what she has achieved in her life definitely makes her a role model. People can't be "cured" of their addictions with the snap of their finger. She realizes that she can take it day by day and can still be OK. She has written fiction and also is a practicing psychotherapist.

I do wish the ending/resolution didn't happen so quickly but this is a memoir so she wrote it how it happened. Maybe I would have liked the book to extend a bit further into her life than where it stopped. All and all a very engaging and important memoir.

4/5 stars
ARC provided by LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program

This is another of many great memoirs, what is one of your favorites?

Side note: I tried something a little bit different this time. I used the official summary for the book instead of my own very short and holes filled summary and gave a star rating. I haven't done this before but I thought maybe it would give a bit more completeness to the review. Anyone have thoughts on this? What do you think works best?

Entertainment Weekly: The Photo Issue

I don't think I've talked about one of my favorite magazines, Entertainment Weekly in a long time. Probably since before any of you were reading lol! Well I have several favorite issues, one of them being the photo issue. This is a pretty good one!

There is a Hollywood at Work section featuring Tina Fey on the set of 30 Rock! Another great piece is The Hardest Working Actors in Showbiz, which features all those actors that you remember from this and that but you can never remember their names! It's a great article including Tina Majorino from Napoleon Dynamite among other things, Stephen Tobolowsky who has a whole movie that's him telling stories about his life in the movies, Stephen Toblowsky's Birthday Party and John Slattery from Mad Men. I love watching a show or movie and screaming, usually to myself "Oh that guy!" Another great feature is The Year's Best Outtakes from their photo shoots throughout the year. 

Past issues have included themed photo shoots with actors and other great things. I miss those. I think this issue has gotten slimmer each year but it's definitely still worth checking out!

This is one of my favorite magazines, what's one of yours?

Matrimony Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone that entered my third giveaway!

Random.org has selected Veena!

Congratulations!

I have left you a message on your blog so please email me with your contact information so I can send it onto the author!

Thanks again to everyone that entered and helped promote this giveaway!

A big thank you also goes to author, Joshua Henkin!

This Week In Books Or I Didn't Overdose On Books This Week! *pats self on back*

This was a calmer week in books. Still got some very potentially interesting things!

Monday: Best American Comics 2008 and Let It Snow came (the rest of my Amazon order). Anyone else obsessed with any of the Best American Series books? I also enjoy the Short Stories one and Non-Required Reading one. I've held off on buying the last two editions because of my massive TBR pile. Figured I should read all the others from the series that are sitting on my shelf. I also received from a bookmoocher, Find Your Inner Ugly Betty! Thanks Melissa!

Tuesday: nothing

Wednesday: Received Off The Menu for an upcoming Blog Tour. It will be my first!

Thursday: Weekly Library trip found me Vamps. I really know nothing about this book, series, author. Apparently I cannot leave without buying something. Anyone know anything about it? All I know is teenage girl vampires. In the mail from a bookmoocher came I Love You, Beth Cooper.

Friday: Going Down South arrived from author, Bonnie Glover.

Saturday: Lenore suggested Never Let Me Go on her blog this week. I took a peek inside and immediately snapped it up!

What did you get this week? Is your TBR pile taking over your life? Is your great goal in life to conquer your TBR pile and tell it who's boss? 

I HEART your blog!! Take 2

Thanks also goes to Gabbi of All Five Stars for sharing the love! I love your blog too :D

Booking Through Thursday!

I’ve seen this series of questions floating around the ‘net the last few days, and thought it looked like a good one for us!

What was the last book you bought?
Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman, since than, books I ordered a bit ago have come.

Name a book you have read MORE than once
Ghost World, the graphic novel

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?
Not that i can think of

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews
I'm first attracted to the cover and then the summary usually, if the summary doesn't get me it goes back on the shelf. If I read a review of a book over and over again from different sources and it seems interesting it usually sticks in the front of my mind.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?
Fiction

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?
Plot over writing

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)
That's a hard one!  Off the top of my head I'll say Harry Potter!

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?
The Wordy Shipmates and My Husband's Sweethearts

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?
Loose Girl, finished it last night!

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?
Off the top of my head, I gave up on The Bell Jar closer to the end then the half-way point. I remember taking a whole summer to read it and then giving up because it was too depressing. That was sometime in high school!

Lookalikes 12

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

BIBLE ILLUMINATED: The Book: New Testament

These kind of scare me in a good way, I think. The second

one is almost more scary with the eye not looking directly at you, I've actually been looking at it for so long it's starting to abstract before my eyes. You know like when you look at or write the same word several times, it starts to look weird. This is definitely some powerful photography. What do you think?

EDIT: 10/11/08 Check out this alternate cover for Scott Westerfield's Peeps, that Lenore pointed out! Totally the same image!

Peeps Scott Westerfeld

EDIT: 11/2/08 J. Kaye has pointed out this cover that also shares the same image! Props to this designer for pulling out the green of the eye in the author's name!

Dark to Mortal Eyes by Eric Wilson

EDIT: 1/2/08 Here's another one, found by J. Kaye!

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

And one found by Julia!

Demon In My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Update: 2/1/09 Here's one found by Deborah!

Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli

UPDATE: 2/18/09 Here's another!

Waiting to Surface by Emily Listfield

Tuesday Thingers!

This week's question: -LibraryThing's Recently Added feature: do you look at it? Do you use it for ideas? Is there something listed there now that looks interesting to you? What have you added to your LT library recently?

I definitely do look at that. I look at my own recently added to make sure I add everything to my This Week In Books Posts. When I run over 17-18 books a week I gotta make sure I get them all! I think it only shows that many.

I also enjoy looking at friends and similar libraries recently added. I often click on the ones that look interesting, usually the ones with cute covers! It's a fun way to learn about new books! I actually see a lot of comics coming through the recently added which I love!

One thing that looks interesting right now is The Burma Chronicles, which our lovely Tuesday Thingers host, Marie recently added! I keep seeing this one around but know nothing about it so I'll probably click it!

The last book I added myself was the short stories collection called Let It Snow by three young adult authors. I also received two other books yesterday but I'll save them for my This Week In Books post at the end of the week :D

How about yourself, do you use this feature?

Arsenic Soup For Lovers by Georgia Z. Post

Arsenic Soup For Lovers: When Chicken Soup Doesn't Work Very Very Very Short Stories for Very Very Very Busy People is a collection of just that, stories that are 2-4 pages long!

These are clever stories always with some sort of twist at the ending. Be it sweet, hilarious or evil! Personally I liked the sweet stories, people confessing their love to each other or role playing spouses. Some of the plotting cheating spouses stories were rather funny too. I always looked forward to the ending of each story and I didn't have to wait very long to get to it, a matter of minutes! I guess my only problem with this collection was in several cases the endings didn't make sense to me, they left me puzzled.

This would have been a great book for my bus rides but I actually read this over the weekend so it didn't happen for me. The subtitle of this book is very true, anyone can make time for a little reading with this book! Over the weekend I watched the movie, Married Life which I think was a great pairing with this book because of the plot of the movie and the plot of several of these stories.

At 62 pages this may have been the shortest book I have ever read. What's the shortest book you have read?

3/5 Stars
Review copy provided by author