Booking Through Thursday: Generosity and Treat

Do you give books as gifts?
To everyone? Or only to select people?
How do you feel about receiving books as gifts?

Yes I do! I only give them to people that express interest in reading though. Which is a lot of people, except for my mom! I usually like to give books but if a friend or family member doesn't really read much I won't force a book on them :P 

I like getting books for presents, but for a lot of people they have no idea what i like or would want. So it's good to have a wishlist if they really want to get me a book! 

What is the best book you ever bought for yourself?
And, why? What made it the best? What made it so special?

Best book I bought myself? I don't know if this is the best but I was pretty proud of my purchase... I bought myself Matthew Barney's companion book to The Cremaster Cycle. It retails for $75! I was making my own money for the first time and had a really good 40% off coupon so I ended up buying it at Borders! (Should have bought it on Amazon, lol!) It's a beautiful book with great photography! I was just so excited I could buy myself something like this!

What's a special book you have bought for yourself? What books are you buying for gifts this holiday season?

Gossip Girl the abridged audio book vs. Gossip Girl the tv show

So I bought Season One of Gossip Girl on dvd last week and was very excited that it included the audio book of the first book in the series. Only after I finished listening and during the credits did I find out I had just spend several hours listening to an abridged version! Abridged=EVIL! It said nothing about that anywhere in the packaging. If only it had come in the packaging pictured above!

So instead of doing a review (since I have no idea what was cut out) I thought I'd do some comparing and contrasting! This weekend I did a refresher on the show and watched the first few episodes.

Compare and Contrast:

-The characters for the most part seem to have the same personalities. 

-Vanessa is a lot more important in the books than on the show. She goes to the same school as the girls and sounds more badass.

-Eric is Serena's older brother in the books and away at college and on the show he is her younger brother and lives at home with Serena.

-Chuck is scarf boy in both the show and the book.

-Seems they use more drugs in the book than the show. After the first episode you don't really see any to my recollection.

- Jenny has "big boobs" in the book and they don't let you forget it!

-Dan and Jenny's dad Rufus seems maybe not as nice in the books and is wealthy.

- Serena's and Chuck's parents are both still together in the first book, I think?

- Blair's mother has a boyfriend in the book and not in the first few episodes. Her father has left her for a man in both.

- Dan smokes in the book but not on the show.

- Serena and Dan meet in a totally different way on the show than in the book but the night ends the same way.

-Blair and Nate's relationship seems about the same in both.

So that's what I got. I'm sure there is more. What have you noticed?

Here are a few questions I have:

Do we ever find out what body part of Serena's was plastered in the ads in the book? I don't recall them ever saying what it was in the book, maybe it was abridged out! Or in the second book?

Did anyone else notice that Blair's mom is a totally different person between the Pilot and Episode two?

And who the heck are the people on the cover of the book? 

What did you notice when comparing the tv show and the first book? Which do you like better?

"Waiting On" Wednesday! 9

Geek Charming by Robin Palmer

Amazon.com Product Description:

Dylan Shoenfield is the princess of L.A.’s posh Castle Heights High. She has the coolest boyfriend, the most popular friends, and a brand-new “it” bag that everyone covets. But when she accidentally tosses her bag into a fountain, this princess comes face-to-face with her own personal frog: selfprofessed film geek Josh Rosen. In return for rescuing Dylan’s bag, Josh convinces Dylan to let him film her for his documentary on high school popularity. Reluctantly, Dylan lets F-list Josh into her A-list world, and is shocked to realize that sometimes nerds can be pretty cool. But when Dylan’s so-called prince charming of a boyfriend dumps her flat, her life—and her social status— comes to a crashing halt. Can Dylan—with Josh’s help—pull the pieces together to create her own happily-ever-after? 

Released on February 5th 2009.

Geek alert? Film geek alert? Yes, could me in! I can't wait to see Josh win over Dylan's heart and spout some great film references in the process! Yay!

What are you waiting on to be released?

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

HOLY WOW! Lookalikes!

Thanks to Liv for pointing me into the direction of this Lookalikes post by Scott Westerfeld, where he just so happens to mention me! Tell me I'm not dreaming! And also thanks to everyone that writes to me with suggestions for Lookalikes, I couldn't do it without you! I love you guys for it :D 

Tuesday Thingers!

Today's Question: The LT Home Page feature. How are you liking it? Or not? Do you go here when you log into LT or do you use your profile page more?

At first when the page was changed I was all disoriented but now that I've gotten used to it I like it a lot. I actually don't pay attention to a lot of the features, maybe someday. I basically look at my Recently Added to help with my This Week In Books posts and Connection News to see what others have recently added to their library or rated or reviewed! I usually access my groups from my profile page though, not sure why, well I know why I think, since it's up higher on the profile page than the homepage, so I don't have to scroll. Weird answer, I know! So I guess I used to use my profile page a lot more and now I split my usage more evenly between my profile page and the homepage.

*Don't mind the random illustration. Just trying to get them all up before the holidays are over! :P 

Hardcover vs. Paperback 7

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Hardcover and Paperback

Paperback

Paperback

Amazon.com Product Description:

Virginia Shreves has a "larger-than-average" body and a medium-sized inferiority complex. Her mum is an exercise fiend, her dad whistles at skinny women, and her siblings are gorgeous, clever, and impossible to live up to. They're all people Virginia thinks the world of. In fact, Virginia thinks the world of everyone but herself. Then, a phone call changes everything...

This book has tons of covers! I find the last two pretty interesting, they are almost the same cover but not. I'm trying to figure out the reasoning behind it, anyone have a guess?

Hardcover or Paperback or Paperback?

Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun

From Amazon.com:

Teenage Joon is a Korean immigrant living in the Bronx of the 1980s. Her parents have crumbled under the weight of her father’s infidelity; he has left the family, and mental illness has rendered her mother nearly catatonic. So Joon, at the age of thirteen, decides she would be better off on her own, a choice that commences a harrowing and often tragic journey that exposes the painful difficulties of a life lived on the margins. Joon’s adolescent years take her from a homeless shelter to an escort club, through struggles with addiction, to jobs selling newspapers and cosmetics, committing petty crimes, and, finally, toward something resembling hope.

In raw and beautiful prose, Nami Mun delivers the story of a young woman who is at once tough and vulnerable, world-weary and naive, faced with insurmountable odds and yet fiercely determined to survive. In the process, Mun creates one of the most indelible characters in recent fiction and establishes herself as an extraordinarily talented new voice.

Brutally honest, linguistically inventive, and profoundly moving, Miles from Nowhere is a work of fiction that will haunt and inspire a generation of readers.

I discussed this book to a pretty great length with several other readers and because of that lots of questions came up for me and I was able to think about this book in greater depth but it also left me with a lot of questions that I don't know the answers to!

The book started off great for me, Joon has runaway and makes a few friends in the shelter she is staying at. Great first few chapters that include working as a dance hostest and meeting a variety of other characters and doing some sort of crazy things.

Strange things start to happen, like Joon seeing what she thinks are angels and things with her family, things that didn't make total sense to me. I guess maybe I don't do so well with stories that aren't concrete because I definitely had a hard time deciding what was real and what she was seeing in her own mind. That was probably on purpose but I like to know what's going on!

I did like the way this book was written, in little fragments, similar I thought to 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, over Joon's teen years. We get to revisit characters from the beginning of the book and meet new ones. But also, because of that some of the characters are mentioned so briefly we don't really get to know them and understand their purpose in the book.

I wasn't very happy with the ending. It just ended and I wasn't really sure where things were left. So I guess I liked the premise and the beginning of the book and towards the end things didn't work for me as much.

Check out the Noontime Chats from last week to see some of our discussions!

Miles From Nowhere is released on December 26th!

3/5 Stars
ARC provided by publisher

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

From the author's website:

When “Perfect” Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter’s High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher’s pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?

Parker doesn’t want to talk about it. She’d just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her counselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there’s a nice guy falling in love with her and he’s making her feel things again when she’d really rather not be feeling anything at all.
Nobody would have guessed she’s turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.

Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.

I have no idea how to express my feelings about this book. It's powerful, emotional, important, and really spoke to me.

The book takes place a good time after some sort of upsetting event has occurred. Everyone has gotten over it to the best they could except for Parker and that's because she finds herself guilty for some reason and no one else knows about it.

When reading this book you literally see Parker fighting with her memories. Everyday things bring up the memories of that night and we only get a little taste before they are pushed back out of her mind. Because of the way this is written you can't put the book down and also can't pinpoint what this upsetting event is. You can guess, but you are probably wrong.

I was so wrapped up in this book that in the end when that night is fully explained and I found out just what has happened, I sat up and said out loud, "Oh My God" for me that moment of understanding Parker was very powerful. Everything came full circle and I found myself identifying (to a less severe degree) with her feelings of guilt and loss of control.

This book is amazing. Just read it, immediately. I could talk about the tons of other things I liked, like Parker's sassy Veronica Mars-like attitude, the great secondary characters etc. but I rather you read the book and fall in love with it just the way I did!

5/5 Stars
ARC provided by LibraryThing Early Reviewer's Program

Cracked Up to Be will be released on December 23rd!

What's the last book you really identified with?

I HEART your blog!! Take 4

Thanks to Zoealea of Zoe's Book Reviews for nominating me for the I heart your blog award! I love that inside of her name is my name! LOL! You guys don't know how much it means to me that people actually want to read what I have to say. It makes me so happy! Love you guys! Hope you are having a nice weekend!

This Week In Books Or You Might Want to Look Away *SHAME*

So this happened to be the week I hit up 2 of my favorite used book stores and the library had everything for 25 cents so because of that I got ALOT of books this week!

Monday: 

Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

Diary of a Chav by Grace Dent

Beedle the Bard came from Amazon and Diary of a Chav from Bookmooch!

Tuesday:

Going to See the Elephant by Rodes Fishburne

Got this from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program. Two books in less than a week from Early Reviewer's!

Wednesday:

I'm Sorry You Feel That Way by Diana Joseph

Got this from the publisher for review.

Thursday:

Dial L For Loser by Lisi Harrison

Girls On Film by Zoey Dean

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

The After Life by Daniel Ehrenhaft

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan

A Song For Summer by Eva Ibbotson

Mates, Dates, and Sizzling Summers by Cathy Hopkins

Teen Idol by Meg Cabot

Summer in the City by Robyn Sisman

So these were all from the library sale where everything was 25 cents. I got Dial L For Loser and Girls On Film in case my sister didn't have those two, she had one and the other she wasn't sure if she even wanted. So they are mine for now. Empress of the World was part of a Lookalikes post awhile back, check it out here. I keep hearing about Eva Ibbotson so I thought it would be wise to scoop up one of her books. And I also keep hearing Cathy Hopkins's series is sort of like the Georgia Nicolson series!

Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year by Amy Belasen and Jacob Osborn

Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Jenny Green came from bookmooch and Persistence of Memory for possible review.

Friday:

Lessons In Love by Emily Franklin

You Have to Kiss A Lot of Frogs by Laurie Graff

Those Girls by Sara Lawrence

Dancing In My Nuddy-Pants by Louise Rennison

The Upper Class by Hobson Brown, Taylor Materne and Caroline Says

Geek Abroad by Piper Banks

Under the Rose by Diana Peterfreund

Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund

Invitation Only by Kate Brian

Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman

Breaking Up by Aimee Friedman

Got these from the Barnes and Noble used section! Everything under $5

Mates, Dates and Inflatable Bras by Cathy Hopkins

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Little Things by Jeffrey Brown

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

The World's Shortest Stories edited by Steve Moss

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

These were from Half Price Books. Don't think I've ever gone to Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble on the same day, because look what happens! Glass Houses and Speak were strongly suggested by Steph over at Reviewer X. My goal for this trip was to get the coupon calendar for next year. Probably a bad idea, shouldn't ever go there but we all know that's never going to happen so may as well save a few bucks when i go!

How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle

Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson

Kisses and Lies by Lauren Henderson

How to Be Bad came from the very sweet Sharon of Sharon Loves Books and Cats who found it for me last weekend while she was out book shopping in NYC. Thanks again Sharon! Kiss Me Kill Me and Kisses and Lies came for review!

Saturday:

The Misadventures of Oliver Booth by David Desmond

Misadventures came for possible review.

So what did you get this week? Been buying a lot of books for gifts? I know I have! Got a whole order of books for gifts in from Amazon this week! What books are you buying for gifts? I got, for my sister who decided a few specific books that she wanted were ok to buy her, the latest Gossip Girl book. For my grandma American Wife and for my dad an Obama book among other things. A few weeks ago I gave my friend Twilight *snickers* can't wait to see what she says about it. 

1. Well I'm off to try and make some room for all of these books :P And read of course!
   

A Note for the Novel Adventures Winners!

Just wanted to let you who have won know that I got word that your books are in the mail to you right now via Priority Mail! Let me know when you get them and enjoy!

So who's doing something fun this weekend? Let's hear it! I'm hoping to do some reading (The Teashop Girls and The Grift) and that's about as far as I've thought ahead! Ooh and I'm going to watch The Dark Knight! This cold weather is sure making me want to stay indoors!

Noontime Chat Day Five: Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun

Today's chat is happening at all four of our blogs! So by now we probably have all finished the book or are close.

I really liked the At the Employment Agency chapter. How Joon decided she wanted a job no matter what it was. And waited it out until she left with one. I guess that made the ending a bit more optimistic. 

I know everyone was sort of uncertain how it would end. Will Joon die, stay in her cycle of drugs or end up off the streets with a home and a job among other things. 

Well I personally have no idea what to think of the ending. Because it literally just ended. I guess I didn't see any concrete evidence of what happened to Joon in the end. She just is. Whatever that may be. The ending reminded me of the endings of a lot of the short stories I've read lately. They just end with nothing really learned or gained more of a snapshot of life. So I'm not really sure what to think!

This is a scheduled post because I'm off to the doctor so I'll chat back later on today or tonight sometime! 

Here's the schedule:

Monday: J Kaye's Book Blog

Tuesday: Right here, Pop Culture Junkie

Wednesday: Presenting Lenore

Thursday: Worducopia

Friday: All of us!

Lookalikes 25

The Other Mother by Gwendolen Gross

One More Year (Advance Reader Copy) by Sana Krasikov

One More Year by Sana Krasikov

I really like this one because this lookalike is with an advance reader copy and not the actual final copy of One More Year. I do like that image and cropping of the women's face though. I think the final cover of One More Year makes more sense for the stories in the book.

Which is your favorite?

Booking Through Thursday: Time Is Of the Essence

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?
(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

1. Heck No! I basically read on the bus during the week. And when I'm lucky about 15 minutes at night before I fall asleep! I usually hardly read on the weekend which I hate- it just never happens! I definitely wish I could read more on the weekend!

2. Well in general I would read the 100s of books in my TBR pile! And more specifically all the young adult lit and graphic novels I have purchased over the last year or so! 

Noontime Chat Day Four: Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun

I'm participating in my first Noontime Chat this week, started by the lovely J. Kaye of J Kaye.'s Book Blog. There are 4 of us participating in the chat this week, J. Kaye, myself, Lenore of Presenting Lenore, and Alison of Worducopia. Each day one of us with host the discussion with us all wrapping up on Friday!

Here's the schedule:

Monday: J Kaye's Book Blog

Tuesday: Right here, Pop Culture Junkie

Wednesday: Presenting Lenore

Thursday: Worducopia

Friday: All of us!

So today head over to Alison's the join in the chat! We'd love to have you!

Noontime Chat Day Three: Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun

I'm participating in my first Noontime Chat this week, started by the lovely J. Kaye of J Kaye.'s Book Blog. There are 4 of us participating in the chat this week, J. Kaye, myself, Lenore of Presenting Lenore, and Alison of Worducopia. Each day one of us with host the discussion with us all wrapping up on Friday!

Here's the schedule:

Monday: J Kaye's Book Blog

Tuesday: Right here, Pop Culture Junkie

Wednesday: Presenting Lenore

Thursday: Worducopia

Friday: All of us!

So today head over to Lenore's the join in the chat! We'd love to have you!

"Waiting On" Wednesday! 8

Chasing Boys by Karen Tayleur

Amazon.com Product Description:

An insightful coming-of-age novel for girls with no interest in being “Pretty in Pink”.

El Marini just isn’t fitting into the new life she’s been forced to create without her dad. Her mom and sister have accepted his absence and moved on, but El is convinced things will get back to normal if she just keeps her feelings of loss to herself and waits it out.

Life at her new public school would have been unbearable if weren’t for Eric Callahan. As her crush grows to epic proportions, she’ll do anything to be more like the popular girls he notices, even buying the first pink top she’s ever owned. But then she meets Dylan, a quiet artistic-type who is both unnerving and annoying as he shines a light on El’s misguided attempts to attract Eric. El’s need for acceptance will hit home with teens as she finally sees that chasing boys has distracted her from making peace with the past and finding herself.

Released on January 6th 2009.

Did someone say artistic-type? Squeeeeeeeeeee. I just know this is going to be good. Cute, artistic boy challenging the main character's actions? Awhile back this type of storyline was brought up again and again on Reviewer X's blog in the comment's section, check it out! In college my art classes were filled with cute artistic-type boys. Swoon.

What are you waiting on to be released?

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

Tuesday Thingers!

Most of us book bloggers like to write book reviews- if we don't love to write book reviews- but here's today's question. When it comes to LT (and your blog), do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.?

I do review every book I read-now. It all started long long time ago (more than a year ago) when I had this here blog (wasn't really a book blog) and also was a member of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's program. Back then I only wrote reviews for books I was selected for through the program and posted a few on my blog as well eventually. And then once I decided to join the book blogging community I started posting reviews for all the books I read. If you look at my Read In 2008 sidebar thingy you'll see a lot of the beginning ones don't have reviews. So yes, I review all books I read all the way through currently. 

I usually write my reviews on the weekends and post one Sunday and maybe Monday if I have another one. I do it then because that's when I have the most time. I'm sure sometimes I forget things I wanted to talk about in my reviews- I need to start making notes. 

Right now I post my reviews here, on LibraryThing and Amazon. I was a bit freaked out about posting them on Amazon but I haven't had anything wonky happen over there that I know of. But MAN some of the stories you hear about Amazon. 

How about you? What do you review and where do you post it?

Noontime Chat Day Two: Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun

Today's Noontime Chat is happening right here today! So WELCOME! Yesterday over at J. Kaye's we talked about the beginning few chapters of the book. Also we talked about Joon's personality and the structure of the book among other things.

Today I have a few questions that take us a bit further into the book. I personally really liked the chapter, Club Orchid. In Club Orchid Joon gets a job working at a erm... Not sure exactly what you would call it. But there are a whole bunch of new characters that are introduced including one named Lana whom Joon seems to take an instant liking to. Why do you think that is? Joon the person who sort of just goes along with everything gives up her room for the night to stay with Lana. 

In the chapter, Knowledge we get to learn a bit more about the character Knowledge. Including the fact that she almost robbed a bank for her boyfriend and then decided against it partially because he didn't know how to spell the word money. I like the character of Knowledge and find her rather humorous (the whole exchange with the lady and the wallet). Do you like Knowledge?

I don't really have a specific question but thought maybe we could talk a bit about the section in the chapter, On the Bus where Joon goes out with the rink guard. 

Ok that's what I got! Time for some chatting!

Monday: J Kaye's Book Blog

Tuesday: Right here, Pop Culture Junkie

Wednesday: Presenting Lenore

Thursday: Worducopia

Friday: All of us!

Hardcover vs. Paperback 6

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs

Hardcover

Paperback

Amazon.com Product Description:

A modern girl’s comedic odyssey in a school filled with the descendants of Greek gods.

When Phoebe’s mom returns from Greece with a new husband and moves them to an island in the Aegean, Phoebe’s plans for her senior year and track season are ancient history. Now she must attend the uberexclusive academy, where admission depends on pedigree, namely, ancestry from Zeus, Hera, and other Greek gods. That’s right, they’re real, not myth, and their teen descendants are like the classical heroes—supersmart and superbeautiful with a few superpowers. And now they’re on her track team! Armed only with her Nikes and the will to win, Phoebe races to find her place among the gods.

I was never too fond of the hardcover so when I saw the paperback, and I liked it, I was so happy! I like that the colors were maintained but used with a different image! The image is much cuter and I love the addition of the sparkles!

Hardcover or Paperback?