tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44140652568591816752024-03-05T14:20:58.968-06:00The Mantis ConnectionA Personal Blog. For my book blog, please go here: <a href="http://theoverstuffedbookcase.blogspot.com">The Overstuffed Bookcase</a>. Thanks!Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-66956661344391931472012-01-14T23:33:00.000-06:002012-01-14T23:33:31.915-06:00The Overstuffed Bookcase is Now Live!<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hello all! I just wanted to let you know that my new book blog, <a href="http://www.theoverstuffedbookcase.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Overstuffed Bookcase</a>, is now live! So far I only have one post and a few pages on there, but my first review, for The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, will be up soon! I plan on dedicating a lot more time to that blog than to this one, which will remain a personal blog. So please follow the new blog if you're interested in my book reviews. I appreciate it!</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-39412516950516835602012-01-10T14:18:00.000-06:002012-01-10T14:18:05.940-06:00John Green Week: The Fault in Our Stars Release!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/2011/11/john-green-week-january-3rd-10th.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgkaGrVXSQ5phGvRvQWSIo3wAjeJz52iKMNgkhZWDmI4KrJDJEdh9x4ZWflkfLr-gLxKKl-5TLLsXJ3kD72EpFsUeRQc6H4OuohEl2lIrTgdbLgDcUc1vm6mqYxYHN48arF6ByYonuB1H7/s1600/JohnGreenButton.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Happy <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11870085-the-fault-in-our-stars" target="_blank">The Fault in Our Stars</a> Release Day (also known as Alaska Young Day), everyone! I have decided that my first review for my new blog will be for The Fault in Our Stars! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, while many of you have picked up your copy from your local book store or are patiently awaiting the delivery of your copy, I was a doofus and selected standard shipping when I pre-ordered from Amazon. I believe my line of thought, way back in August, was "I'll have already waited so long, I can wait a few more days." Stupid. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So yesterday when I checked my account and saw that the expected delivery date for my copy was January 13th-January 17th, I thought, "Well, I'll just change the shipping." But it was too late for that - there wasn't even an option to change the shipping. Then I thought, "I'll cancel my order and make a new order and do overnight shipping." But when I tried that, it said that the cancellation couldn't be guaranteed, because it was so close to the ship date. Which I understand - they probably had it already boxed and labeled and ready to ship. So this morning I got an email from Amazon saying that my order had shipped and the expected delivery date was Thursday, January 12th. Which is only two more days, of course, but one of my friends has already gotten hers and I want to read it NOW! (Oh, boohoo, Andrea, suck it up.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So all this basically means is that my first review on my new book blog won't be posted until probably Saturday or Sunday. But that's okay. As long as I have read the book <i>before </i>the 21st (when my friends and I are going to the Tour de Nerdfighting in Austin, TX!), I'll be okay. And then, while there, I'll be getting two more copies (one for my spot at the event and one for my hubby's spot, although I don't think he'll be able to go because it's so late and it'll be past our son's bed time) that I'll most likely be giving away on my new blog!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Today I'm also excited about the release of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10345927-a-million-suns" target="_blank">A Million Suns</a> by Beth Revis, which I should also be getting in the mail on Thursday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I hope you all enjoy your nice, new, shiny signed copies of The Fault in Our Stars, and be on the lookout - I'll post here when my new book blog officially goes online!</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-73448077544403379782012-01-08T14:35:00.000-06:002012-01-08T14:35:22.247-06:00In My Mailbox (1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXC4xx_VM4IBPFxP2WLZ6WhHES2hyiAFIB-Ds8rxC4FEYActR_8Xyd7MYKgTPiymKpiQ4NOqXTb47PiqlZB3AcrtB26do7lyGRO4MO9p4ke2UZ2KEuJxb3a82QL1wUcZKjQ-Nx9WipfG54/s1600/mailbox1-300x277.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXC4xx_VM4IBPFxP2WLZ6WhHES2hyiAFIB-Ds8rxC4FEYActR_8Xyd7MYKgTPiymKpiQ4NOqXTb47PiqlZB3AcrtB26do7lyGRO4MO9p4ke2UZ2KEuJxb3a82QL1wUcZKjQ-Nx9WipfG54/s1600/mailbox1-300x277.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.thestorysiren.com/2012/01/in-my-mailbox-157.html" target="_blank">In My Mailbox</a> is a meme hosted by <a href="http://www.thestorysiren.com/" target="_blank">The Story Siren</a> where bloggers can share the books they've received/bought/borrowed each week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My new book blog is in the process of being made right now, and this blog will turn into a personal/writing blog (which is pretty much what it is already). But I really wanted to participate in this week's In My Mailbox, because I got a lot of book goodies over the past couple of weeks. It's my first IMM, and I know a lot of people do them every week, but I plan on only participating every once in a while on my new blog. So this one is not only for the past week, but for the past couple of weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbE7CpqpZbZmrBmXV62vxqqeyGafxfEOzkSIbBbjJVr6suCf_rQYV3qlSUGAR0eGTJcuwn8mFxOuSMgSUygPcXGrxB3QhhjcyFCnZUKA7vRseS0zuQxnQklQD3YIMsDR8-FMnjL5ernHb/s1600/IMM+1+-+books.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbE7CpqpZbZmrBmXV62vxqqeyGafxfEOzkSIbBbjJVr6suCf_rQYV3qlSUGAR0eGTJcuwn8mFxOuSMgSUygPcXGrxB3QhhjcyFCnZUKA7vRseS0zuQxnQklQD3YIMsDR8-FMnjL5ernHb/s320/IMM+1+-+books.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Christmas Gifts</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From my parents I received:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7631105-the-scorch-trials" target="_blank">The Scorch Trials</a> by James Dashner</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7864437-the-death-cure" target="_blank">The Death Cure</a> by James Dashner</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10594929-out-of-oz" target="_blank">Out of Oz</a> by Gregory Maguire</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Thanks, Mom and Dad!)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From my brother and his wife I received a Barnes & Noble gift card and with it bought:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9802372-the-name-of-the-star" target="_blank">The Name of the Star</a> by Maureen Johnson</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8490112-daughter-of-smoke-and-bone" target="_blank">Daughter of Smoke and Bone</a> by Laini Taylor</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Thanks T & K!)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Bought</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With some leftover Christmas money I bought:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5287473-hex-hall" target="_blank">Hex Hall</a> by Rachel Hawkins (found this at a used bookstore in town for $6!)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8591107-the-unbecoming-of-mara-dyer" target="_blank">The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer</a> by Michelle Hodkin</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>From the Library</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Finally got my book club book in that I had on hold:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10589.Bag_of_Bones" target="_blank">Bag of Bones</a> by Stephen King</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>In the Mail/Delivered</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And then, what I was really excited about, was my Christmas gift from my hubby:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHG6MbrDcBngxIJS71EJSJQrEehJFps5yXF7wlxhrSYqr_nJG2sPJGq9XtIKFxEgt8epngzEvE7Met1koosSS_fe1l2LY__wqkJZ63kDkJHHY9MF0waRwwYv9_0sXkpyrKoSr4GzLPRN5/s1600/IMM+1+-+bookcases.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHG6MbrDcBngxIJS71EJSJQrEehJFps5yXF7wlxhrSYqr_nJG2sPJGq9XtIKFxEgt8epngzEvE7Met1koosSS_fe1l2LY__wqkJZ63kDkJHHY9MF0waRwwYv9_0sXkpyrKoSr4GzLPRN5/s320/IMM+1+-+bookcases.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yea!!! New bookcases! I needed those!!! Thanks, Jeremy!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So what kind of bookish things did you get this week (or couple of weeks or month or whatever)? Let me know if you participated in this week's IMM and I'll check out your blog!</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-47562093383055977602012-01-06T14:12:00.002-06:002012-01-06T14:17:41.590-06:00John Green Week: My Favorite Videos<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've decided to make a whole new book blog soon (this one is too personal, I think). It's in the works, but until then, I'm still participating in <a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/2011/11/john-green-week-january-3rd-10th.html" target="_blank">John Green Week</a>, hosted by <a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/" target="_blank">I Eat Words</a> and a whole lot of other bloggers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/2011/11/john-green-week-january-3rd-10th.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgkaGrVXSQ5phGvRvQWSIo3wAjeJz52iKMNgkhZWDmI4KrJDJEdh9x4ZWflkfLr-gLxKKl-5TLLsXJ3kD72EpFsUeRQc6H4OuohEl2lIrTgdbLgDcUc1vm6mqYxYHN48arF6ByYonuB1H7/s1600/JohnGreenButton.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A little background for you about John Green: he's an author, and has written several beautiful, heartwarming, and poignant YA contemporary novels. His new novel, </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11870085-the-fault-in-our-stars" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">The Fault in Our Stars</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, is coming out on Tuesday (eeek!), thus the reason for John Green Week. Also, he and his brother, Hank, make extremely awesome videos each week on their YouTube channel, </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers?blend=1&ob=4" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Vlogbrothers</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. The fans of these blogs are called Nerdfighters (and basically all that being a Nerdfighter means is that you're made of awesome).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Okay, so some background into how I was introduced to the awesomeness that is John Green and Vlogbrothers: I'm in a book club, and a couple of the girls in the book club are huge YA readers. I myself have now become a huge fan of YA (thanks Tracy and Mandy!). Anyway, at one book club meeting, my friend Tracy, who had read all of John's books, got on a computer and told us that we MUST watch a couple videos. A little background to the videos: John and Hank set a schedule (it changes sometimes at the beginning of the year) as to when they will post videos. If they fail to post a video at the scheduled time, the Nerdfighters can come up with punishments for them. These two videos are punishments that Hank and John had to do for missing a post. I'll show you those videos now (they also happen to be some of my favorites).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This one is of Hank trying to put on makeup like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games:</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EOdvBYlAliw" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And this one is of John doing some Nerd exercises:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7H0ctnAL3jo" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If those videos aren't a great introduction to Vlogbrothers, I don't know what is! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So this summer I set out to watch ALL the Vlogbrothers videos, from the beginning, in order. It took me a while, but I finished! And I had a blast watching them! Now I've read all of John's books (except for <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3213286-let-it-snow" target="_blank">Let It Snow</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10268370-zombicorns" target="_blank">Zombicorns</a>. And The Fault in Our Stars, of course!) and I really enjoyed them all!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are a couple of my other favorite videos from the Vlogbrothers:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is the origin of Nerdfighters, where John misreads a video game called Aero Fighters:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="301" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tuvCb5eBbjE" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And here's one from Hank that made me so happy - I correct people about some of these things all the time, especially the first one:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nIvrDsnKuQ8" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And one more funny one from Hank - I love when he says "Marchy times":</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x-dGPLfsU-4" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I hope you enjoyed my favorite videos. What are some of your favorite Vlogbrothers videos?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(I just realized that in just over two weeks I will be seeing both John and Hank in the Tour de Nerdfighting in Austin, TX! Woooohoooo!)</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-89924726638871426702012-01-05T15:01:00.000-06:002012-01-05T15:01:33.588-06:00Questioning...<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A couple of days ago, I decided that I wanted to make my blog more of a priority in my life this year. I also decided that I wanted my blog to focus on book reviews, mostly YA. And I wanted to make my blog grow. So I set out to do that. I signed up for a few reading challenges, along with my own goal of reading 80 books this year. Then I started browsing other book blogs, and started following quite a few of them. My Google Reader is extremely full right now, but I'm steadily pecking away at it, hence the new comments on many bloggers' older posts. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm reading blogs, following, commenting, getting ideas for my blog and learning a few dos and don'ts along the way. But I still feel like I'm doing all the newbie things that older bloggers roll their eyes at. Yes, I know I'll make mistakes. And yes, I know it's a learning process. But I still feel way, way behind. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Luckily I signed up for the event <a href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/busting-newbie-blues-is-back.html" target="_blank">Busting the Newbie Blues</a>, hosted by <a href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Small Review</a>. It's a way for us new YA book bloggers to meet others like us, and get advice from old and new bloggers as well. And I guess that's exactly what I'm going through - the Newbie Blues.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So here are the things that I'm questioning with my blog, and I'd really like your opinions and advice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do I really want to go full-throttle with this thing, and make a fancy Review Policy where I try to get publishers to send me their books, and list what I will and won't review, etc.? This seems like the thing to do if you're serious about book blogging. So far I've only been reviewing books that I've bought or borrowed (with the exception of the Glow ARC I received from a Goodreads giveaway). I also haven't had very in-depth book reviews, which I definitely plan on rectifying in the future, no matter if I do the whole Review Policy thing or not. I'm still going to stay away from anything that might be spoilerish, but my reviews will be much more than just saying if I liked the book or not. But I'd also love to become more of a part of this community, and I'd love to be able to someday go to conferences and meet other bloggers (and authors!). That would be awesome!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Should I change my blog name? I really think this should be done. The Mantis Connection conveys nothing about books, and so I feel like the name should be changed. Of course, if I simply change the name of the blog the URL would stay the same. Unless I made a completely new blog, in which case I feel like I would lose those old posts, which I wouldn't be happy about (unless my husband or others know how to fix this!). Just the reviews, mind you. I wouldn't take all my soap-box rants over there. Nor would this post make its way to the new blog. It would be all reviews, reader challenges, and book related memes. Maybe a bit of writing. Or maybe I could keep this blog as a personal blog/writing blog and then the new one could be book reviews. That sounds like a pretty good idea. Also, I have NO idea what to name the blog. Something book related of course, but I don't know... </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think, even if I just change the name and the URL stays the same, I would need a new layout. I can draw, but boy do I fail at art on the computer. At one time I thought I would like to be a graphic designer, but once I took a class in high school I realized that it was not for me. So I'd need someone to fancify the blog...</span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These are all things that can be done, of course. This is just a problem of mine - I jump into things before I think them out sometimes and then I get overwhelmed with everything. And I go over everything in my head, but writing/blogging about it helps to figure it out. Plus, I'd appreciate the advice from my friends and followers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some people might wonder if I have the time to commit to something like this, and believe me, this has crossed my mind. I am a stay-at-home mom of a 2-year-old, so I don't have a typical 9-5 job, but that doesn't mean I have tons of time to sit in front of a computer. Basically I have a few hours during the day to read, blog, shower, whatever, while he's taking a nap. And then I have my evenings when my husband comes home (and weekends, of course). But we love to watch TV and I enjoy spending time with my husband. Then I also have <a href="http://www.reviewsin5.com/" target="_blank">Reviews in 5</a> (a movie blog), which is also time-consuming. I also write fiction, and while I'm not writing so much right now, I'd like to write more this year. And then there's my social life. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I think, because I read so much, that I have time to take a few hours after finishing a book to write a thoughtful review post, and also to occasionally participate in a few memes. And I feel like this year can be a sort of trial period, and if it's beginning to seem like too much, I can take a step back.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyway, what do you guys think? Should I go all out for this? Or just continue to do what I've been doing, but focus more on book reviews? Any ideas for new blog names (I'm looking at you, Kate. You came up with that awesome name for Courtney's blog - <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Abducted by Books</a> - and yours is great, too - <a href="http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/" target="_blank">Midnight Book Girl</a>.)? Any other advice or sage wisdom you'd like to dispense? Thanks in advance!</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-24077713665078924152012-01-04T15:08:00.001-06:002012-01-04T16:23:23.124-06:00"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Whoa, Andrea, more than one post in a day? What's happening here? - I told you I'm going to take my blog more seriously this year! Let's get to it!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So this post kills two birds with one stone (or kills two memes with one blog post) - I'm participating in the "Waiting On" Wednesday meme hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Breaking the Spine</a> and I'm also participating in <a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/2011/11/john-green-week-january-3rd-10th.html" target="_blank">John Green Week</a>, hosted by <a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/" target="_blank">I Eat Words</a> and several other blogs!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3W96NlMfoxaIxHPpn9I2G0nDmXeJnP7E_DMNcygl6kGDXNsQkapbw_IU-jtJEb1TJjHpQBctI4mObudMPR7w4ySxehWMnZ_QM8hTtrioqfKjIPFvHf_juRuTZ49MVYmL_kReDcDTyyi-e/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" /></a><a href="http://www.ieatwords.com/2011/11/john-green-week-january-3rd-10th.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO5gg2LeO70KNRGHk-cb8F7SrMMwIlM3vBDaUynXhZAd1oCf2C8kBgWWnIw6Z9ta4jNOPPFgxdr8VY5rsalU4qUGhTz5a4KdBnBM_PEff1QkCxiqHKD4THChOOSqh7hNzYL6qpl8EjunNV/s1600/JohnGreenButton.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZdNIIkUz8BD3An0qqZdA3MrLqVTQZMxR-4pBoicEzZgKe0MGgESgoj_-dUUHLZ1M3KxoH9z2UqIrYZAGZkqSBSvzuLb7Sm6Gzk1N2BxDtBSHJTvxN_DMg4AMN1sFaCipC8WnbONmTifrA/s1600/The+Fault+in+Our+Stars+cover+-+penguin+group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZdNIIkUz8BD3An0qqZdA3MrLqVTQZMxR-4pBoicEzZgKe0MGgESgoj_-dUUHLZ1M3KxoH9z2UqIrYZAGZkqSBSvzuLb7Sm6Gzk1N2BxDtBSHJTvxN_DMg4AMN1sFaCipC8WnbONmTifrA/s320/The+Fault+in+Our+Stars+cover+-+penguin+group.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo copyright Penguin Group</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>The Fault in Our Stars</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By John Green</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Publication Date: January 10, 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From Goodreads: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
N<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ow some might say this is the easy way to start John Green Week, but let me just tell you, I CANNOT WAIT for this book to come out! I've only been a Nerdfighter now for a little while, but I've watched all the videos, and I've read all of John's books except for <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3213286-let-it-snow" target="_blank">Let it Snow</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10268370-zombicorns" target="_blank">Zombicorns</a>. I am a huge fan of his writing, and I really respect him as well as his brother, Hank.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Luckily The Fault in Our Stars is coming out in just 6 short days - the wait is almost over! I pre-ordered my copy from Amazon months ago, and I hope it gets here at least by Wednesday, if not on Tuesday. My friends Courtney, from <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Abducted by Books</a>, and Tracy, from <a href="http://tracy-d74.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">All About the Three R's</a>, and I, along with my husband and son, are going out of state for one of the book signings! We're all super excited and are even making our own DFTBA t-shirts. (Laugh all you want, but we're Nerdfighters and it's cool to be nerdy!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, for anyone who doesn't know, John Green is an author and has published several YA Contemporary novels (<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99561.Looking_for_Alaska" target="_blank">Looking for Alaska</a>; <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49750.An_Abundance_of_Katherines" target="_blank">An Abundance of Katherines</a>; <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2914097-paper-towns" target="_blank">Paper Towns</a>; and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6567017-will-grayson-will-grayson" target="_blank">Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan</a> are the others that I didn't mention above). The Fault in Our Stars is his widely anticipated new novel, and with that plot plus John's beautiful writing, it's sure to be a wonderful book!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John and his brother, Hank, also make hilariously funny, heartwarming, and awesome vlogs every week. You can see their videos on their YouTube page, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers" target="_blank">Vlogbrothers</a>. I plan on posting later this week with a few of my favorites of their videos. (Also FYI, fans of these vlogs are called Nerdfighers, in case you were wondering what the heck I was talking about above.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, let me know, what book are you waiting on right now?</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-64808698792818443502012-01-04T13:40:00.001-06:002012-01-04T13:42:56.934-06:00Busting the Newbie Blues<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This year, I've decided to make my blog more of a priority. I've had this blog since December of 2009 (Yikes! Two whole years!) and it started out without any kind of direction. I posted about random things in my life, got up on my soap box for a few things, etc. Then last year I started reading a lot more and most of my posts were book reviews. However, I didn't post on any type of schedule, and I only had about 30 posts last year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So this year, I've decided to make this blog more about book reviews, mainly YA books, since that's a lot of what I read. I'll still probably have posts about writing here and there as I try to figure out what I'm going to do with my current story, and I may also have a few off-topic posts. But mostly I'm going to shoot for book reviews. I also would like my blog to grow - to find some followers that I don't know in real life (although I still love the fact that my friends follow my blog). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The first thing I did to start this new phase of my blog was to sign up for some reading challenges (you can see my post on this <a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012-reading-challenges.html" target="_blank">here</a>). Then I realized that I myself only followed the blogs of my friends and a few other big-time blogs. So I set out to find other book bloggers and I started following some cool sites. I'm going to try to commit to commenting on several posts a week as well - I've been lagging in this department, too. :( </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then I came across <a href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Small Review</a>, who is hosting a great event throughout January, just for book bloggers, called <a href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/busting-newbie-blues-is-back.html" target="_blank">Busting the Newbie Blues</a>. New and Old YA book bloggers can sign up, meet other bloggers, and get advice and tips on blogging. This is perfect for me! I've been blogging for a while, but still have only a small amount of followers, and I'm pumped to actually become a part of the book blogging community!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So here are my answers to the questionnaire for this event - I have chosen the one for new bloggers since my blog is still so small.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/busting-newbie-blues-is-back.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/25updae.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>1. When did you start your blog?</b></span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b> </b>December, 2009.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>2. Why did you start your blog?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b> </b>I just wanted to have a blog. I didn't know what I would blog about or anything, but I've always been a writer, so I thought blogging would at least be a good kind of writing exercise. But now I'd like my blog to have more direction, and to focus on book reviews, mostly YA books.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b> </b>When I first started out, I had no theme for my blog, so it was hard to come up with topics to write about. Once I started reading a lot more, book reviews became an obvious topic. Now I'd say the hardest thing is making sure that I post regularly, and also to find more followers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>4. What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> No followers! :( I love my friends and I'm so glad that they follow my blog - without them I probably would have quit a long time ago. But I'd like to see my blog grow even more.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>5. What do you find most encouraging?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> On my blog - comments. It lets me know that at least someone is reading what I've written! (Note to self - comments go both ways!) In the blogging community - other book bloggers are really encouraging. I see all these great sites with wonderful reviews and great humor and it makes me feel like one of these days my blog could grow.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>6. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Well, I just started following more than a couple book blogs, but as far as my friends' blogs that I've been reading for a while, I just love their humor and their honest reviews. I always try to put humor into my posts (and in my life), but sometimes that might not always come across. And I always give honest reviews, and I try to make them positive even if I didn't like the book. I am a writer myself and someday when I have a book published, I'd like to read kind reviews, even if the reviewer really didn't like my book.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>7. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?</b><br />
<b> </b>Spoilers! And yes, I really try to avoid this. I'm crazy about spoilers - I only read the description of a book once, then put it on my to-read list if I want to read it, and then once I have the book I don't read the back or the blurbs again. I know with reading others' reviews sometimes I'm going to find out more than I wished to know before reading the book, but I'm okay with it as long as it's not a major spoiler.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>8. Any advice for other new bloggers?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b> </b>I'm not sure I have any advice, because even though I've had this blog for a while, I still don't know what I'm doing and feel like I might be doing it wrong. But I guess I can say that if others feel this way, just know that you're not alone! And we'll get the hang of it eventually!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>9. Any questions you'd like to ask newbie or established bloggers?</b><br />
<b> </b>Of course I'd like to know how to get ARCs (I've gotten one through Goodreads before, and I know of some of the ARC tour websites, but I'm curious if there are other ways to get them). And also I'd just like to know how they keep themselves posting on a regular basis, and just any other tips and tricks of the trade that they can pass along. And also a good way to find more followers. I'm starting to sound like I'm desperate here - I don't expect to have a hugely popular blog or anything, but I would like my readership to grow.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>10. Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog? Feel free to link a few of your favorite posts or posts you wish had more comments.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> I am a huge Harry Potter nerd, so Harry Potter comes up a lot in my posts. I also love The Hunger Games, and one of my favorite posts that I've done was where I picked my dream cast for the movie. Of course, the movie is already in production but if you're a fan of the books and would like to see my picks, you can check out that post <a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/01/finally-my-cast-picks-for-hunger-games.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I also write fiction, and participate in NaNoWriMo each year, so I talk about that sometimes in my posts. NaNoWriMo is awesome and if you don't know about it and you write fiction, go check out their <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank">website</a>!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So there you have it. I'm excited to read some new book blogs and to become a part of this awesome community! Please let me know if you are participating in this event and I'll check out your blog, too!</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-18144026600646925782012-01-03T14:14:00.003-06:002012-01-03T14:46:42.855-06:002012 Reading Challenges<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last year I participated in one reading challenge: Bookish Ardour's <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663" target="_blank">Off the Shelf Challenge</a>. She's hosting this challenge again this year, and I'm not participating again, but if you'd like to, you can go <a href="http://bookishardour.com/off-the-shelf/" target="_blank">here and sign up</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This year, I've decided to participate in a few reading challenges, so this post is all about which ones I'm going to attempt for 2012. Here they are...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/2011/11/abducted-by-2012-challenge.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">15,000 Page Challenge</span></a> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/2011/11/abducted-by-2012-challenge.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="abductedbybooks.blogspot.com" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVXsB4X4fKFMuob4XLNsfIYhgG3xZlHSVeXPRbpLqgPUJqjzhmEl7iZLKa_xsQMKfUz-pz2JpnJzNQ9W7TylD43lUWZTMeGIWtIr2ACO08BE4M6w-3fr1A-T5UFNnG_Tygs95Ud1gorzE/s200/15000button.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This one is being hosted by my friend, Courtney, over at <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Abducted By Books</a>. The rules are simple: read 15,000 pages in 2012. The cool thing is, any book you read in 2012 counts, unless it's a graphic novel. And she's giving away prizes! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/2012/01/read-me-baby-one-more-time-in-2012.html" target="_blank">2012 Read Me Baby, One More Time Challenge</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/2012/01/read-me-baby-one-more-time-in-2012.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2y_J4_TqdD9Lwf1KsJuvzVAJBMXNicjknqeuWFzPTlCYBycF-KDktpZZIj1hBwxflAZyhHZXTC2HLbS07y0-GTim9J_D_WZbwmtoy0PdcK2wRw-1nCDsIrjGyTEiQPkT21Vd7e5dLBB-F/s1600/readmebutton.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_282828361"></span><span id="goog_282828362"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is hosted by my friend Kate, a.k.a. <a href="http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/" target="_blank">Midnight Book Girl</a>. I'm officially going to go for the "Reliving the Past" level, which is re-reading 4-8 books. I'm already planning on re-reading at least 3 books, so I thought I'd try for 4-8. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.com/2011/12/stephanie-plum-reading-challenge.html" target="_blank">Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.com/2011/12/stephanie-plum-reading-challenge.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihyEn2Abha3Ii7Bq0Ij5dc8sE9n7cV7eyy7Eqqj3rH0pFgF5FOfOx0rabm2qmTnw_H6eQJG08EH6p8gYINNwq_Gt4fxNZvAweCo5zNzLFHasBJt-t4WvpZzjZxKZlupWxCJ1XxNY5Jfzo/s400/Stephanie+Plum+Reading+Challenge.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I just happened to stumble across this one while I was looking at challenges on <a href="http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Novel Challenge</a>, and it works perfectly for me! My friend Holly over at <a href="http://travelingduewest.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Traveling Due West</a> was getting rid of some of her books a few months ago, and I took home three bags full, including several of the Stephanie Plum books. I knew that I would want to re-read One for the Money before the movie came out (which works for Kate's challenge above), and reading the rest of the series would help out with Courtney's 15,000 page challenge. And the nice thing about this challenge is that it's a perpetual challenge, meaning there is no end date! So I won't feel too bad if I don't get through every single one of those Plum books by the end of 2012. This one is hosted by Darlene at <a href="http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Darlene's Book Nook</a>.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have also challenged myself on Goodreads to read 80 books this year. In 2010, I read 30 books, so last year I challenged myself on Goodreads to read 35 books. I flew by that number in the middle of the year and ended up reading 76 books! So this year, I'm just going to set a goal of 80 books, and hopefully I'll reach that goal. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So there are my reading challenges for 2012. I'm hoping to reach each one of those goals this year, and I also plan on writing more blog posts. I kind of have to, to keep up with those challenges! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ALSO - I may be having a giveaway sometime this year, so be on the lookout for that, and be sure to share my blog with your friends! I need more followers! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-16076275676932100192011-12-27T22:40:00.001-06:002011-12-27T23:13:52.694-06:002011 End of Year Book Survey<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last year, I participated in </span><a href="http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2010/12/end-of-2010-survey.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Perpetual Page-Turner's End of 2010 Survey</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (you can see my post </span><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-and-worst-of-2010-books.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">here</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">), and this year, she has updated and expanded this survey, and I'm excited to participate again!</span><br />
<div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2011/12/2nd-annual-end-of-year-book-survey-2011.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxlWWpcUVmqC1TJg8yOPnSAUqENT8JJPXYw03ZbebnpbM0MzMN37QBOPVSVV8oxF7loZHeZ2PBPoJ5CVA7myEYEyBc93izb7Djy4VmY63pEX3Axzuz_qwY7wkVYI5F1ivBFYoZJCxpKMdN/s1600/booksurveygraphic.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
So here they are, my answers to the <a href="http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2011/12/2nd-annual-end-of-year-book-survey-2011.html">2011 End of Year Book Survey</a>:<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>1. Best Book You Read In 2011?</b><br />
I read quite a few books that I LOVED this year, and I can't really narrow it down to just one, so I'll narrow it down to five: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Maze Runner series by James Dashner, Hourglass by Myra McEntire, and Divergent by Veronica Roth. All YA SF. (And yes, I realize this is actually 10 books, since the Uglies series has four books and The Maze Runner series has 3 books, but I can't whittle it down any more than this.)</span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Probably Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was one of my picks for book club, and I was expecting it to be a lot more than it was. I still enjoyed it, just not as much as I had hoped I would. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I guess that would have to be Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Several of my friends had read it and loved it, and one friend basically made me borrow it. ;) I'm not normally someone who loves Chick Lit, and this is YA Chick Lit, so I thought I would be groaning and rolling my eyes the whole time, but I ended up loving it! I also really loved the companion novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and I look forward to reading the third companion, Isla and the Happily Ever After.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Book you recommended to people most in 2011?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I definitely think that would be Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan. I received an ARC from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway, and not only was I ecstatic to have won an ARC, but I really, really LOVED that book! I can't wait for the sequel!<br />
<br />
<b>5. Best series you discovered in 2011?</b><br />
Well, the three series that I read in their entirety this year were The Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld and The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner (although he's releasing a prequel to this series next year, so I guess I didn't read the ENTIRE series). I really enjoyed The Hitchhiker's guide series, although I didn't enjoy the last few books as much as the first couple. But I LOVED the Uglies series and The Maze Runner trilogy! I highly recommend both! I also read most of The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa (I read the first book, The Iron King, in 2010 but re-read it and then read all the other books this year, and I'm currently reading the 4th book, The Iron Knight) and I really enjoyed those as well. But I've also read quite a few books this year that are the first books of series, and the other books have yet to come out, like Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Divergent by Veronica Roth, and Hourglass by Myra McEntire. Then I also read the first books of a few series that have sequels that have been published, like The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, The Line by Teri Hall, Alanna by Tamora Pierce, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Storm Front by Jim Butcher, and Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder. I enjoyed all these books and hope to read some of the rest of each of these series next year.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Scott Westerfeld, James Dashner, and John Green. I'd add Amy Kathleen Ryan, Beth Revis, Myra McEntire and Veronica Roth to that list, but I've only read one of their books each, so I'll save their names until after I've read more of their books next year.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?</b><br />
I had never read any Steam Punk, so Boneshaker by Cherie Priest would be a good answer for this question. Also, I hadn't read a lot of YA Contemporary before, and I enjoyed all of John Green's books (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson). And I also hadn't read much Adult Chick Lit/Romance before, and I thoroughly enjoyed One Day by David Nicholls.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?</b><br />
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and all of the books in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?</b></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, I don't really know the answer to this one. I mean, I was looking forward to The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, but it wasn't like I couldn't wait for them to come out. I think the books that I most wanted to get my hands on this year were The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure, books 2 and 3 respectively in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner. Once I read The Maze Runner, I had to have those other books ASAP!</span><br />
<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</b><br />
<div><b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2011?</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That would have to be Hourglass by Myra McEntire. The next book in the series, Timepiece, has a great cover too! I'm excited to read that one next year!</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7LJw2VITM2Q_APKucfvkV6S13ifzECkWaV2mlAfvqUaR0SfNoNW3OKEQFGiVlDJ4dmlxzvg5zVsz_1W7G895VRzBLBu-AqAJZm8w-Ke9wq_M0ZjpVfoh0hlCGzfWEu9MiULhDBTTw_jqw/s1600/Hourglass+by+Myra+McEntire+book+cover+-+yareadsdotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7LJw2VITM2Q_APKucfvkV6S13ifzECkWaV2mlAfvqUaR0SfNoNW3OKEQFGiVlDJ4dmlxzvg5zVsz_1W7G895VRzBLBu-AqAJZm8w-Ke9wq_M0ZjpVfoh0hlCGzfWEu9MiULhDBTTw_jqw/s320/Hourglass+by+Myra+McEntire+book+cover+-+yareadsdotcom.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of yareads.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa7aRDUQ9WkoOLOX-u0hLlOXs4D82Z3lR8dCTpbFLAjM5RxWT6_JEVvOSdrOHpuLddzHbHlbQeUgZvhpbubWsc7qW5DxN03JaHdO2Q5IvSE1V5-ax6ABE7ZQfMPSr8RERuKJo10-QurTN/s1600/Timepiece+by+Myra+McEntire+book+cover+-+hypabledotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa7aRDUQ9WkoOLOX-u0hLlOXs4D82Z3lR8dCTpbFLAjM5RxWT6_JEVvOSdrOHpuLddzHbHlbQeUgZvhpbubWsc7qW5DxN03JaHdO2Q5IvSE1V5-ax6ABE7ZQfMPSr8RERuKJo10-QurTN/s320/Timepiece+by+Myra+McEntire+book+cover+-+hypabledotcom.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of hypable.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">11. Most memorable character in 2011? </b></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hmm, I can't really think of any one character that stood out. I enjoyed most of the protagonists, but I always find myself really loving side characters. Like Bob the Skull in Storm Front by Jim Butcher.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>12. Most beautifully written book read in 2011?</b><br />
All of John Green's books. He is such a beautiful writer, and he knows how to craft a sentence in a way that I can only dream of. Plus, he's better at grammar than I will ever be, and I'm okay with that.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2011? </b><br />
I would say Night by Elie Wiesel, but I had to basically trick myself into believing that it was fiction so that I could get through it, so it didn't hit me as hard as it might have. But it still was an amazing story, and one that everyone should read.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>14. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2011 to finally read? </b><br />
All the Hitchhiker's Guide books, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 1984 by George Orwell, Night by Elie Wiesel, and The Giver by Lois Lowry. Most of those qualified for my Off the Shelf challenge, though, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading them.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2011? </b><br />
Hmm, I hardly write down specific quotes except for the books that I read for book club, and I couldn't find any great quotes in my notes from this year. But I did star one part from John Green's Paper Towns that I really loved because it remind me of my time in high school:</span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks above various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock. I'd had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise. If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>16. Book That You Read In 2011 That Would Be Most Likely To Reread In 2012? </b><br />
Probably Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan. Or Divergent by Veronica Roth, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, or Hourglass by Myra McEntire, all because the second books in these series come out next year, and I'll probably want to reread the first books before reading the next ones. Also I can see myself rereading The Maze Runner trilogy before the prequel, The Kill Order, comes out.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To </b><b>Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. </b><b>etc.) Be careful of spoilers! </b><br />
Um, The Maze Runner series. I really want one of my friends to read this series so we can go to lunch or dinner or something and talk all about it.<br />
<br />
<b>Book Blogging/Reading Life in 2011 (optional)</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm not going to answer the questions in this part because, even though I have a blog where I review books sometimes, it isn't very consistent and reviewing books isn't the only thing I do on the blog. Next year, however, I plan on writing a lot more reviews.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I do want to answer one question from this section:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yes! I set one goal of reading 35 books this year (I read 30 books last year - it was the first year I really started reading A LOT, so I wanted to at least surpass that number) and, as I'm writing this, I've read 76 books so far this year, and I'll probably finish one more before the year ends. So I read more than twice my goal! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also participated in the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">2011 Off the Shelf Challenge by Bookish Ardour</a>, where I challenged myself to read 15 books that were sitting on my shelf prior to the beginning of this year that I had yet to read. And I completed that challenge as well! I think that's pretty good for my first challenge, and my first year of setting any kind of reading goal!<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Looking Ahead... </b><br />
<br />
<b>1. One Book You Didn't Get To In 2011 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2012?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, I have lots of books to read next year, and several of them are kind of prioritized as to when I will read them, so the books that I answer for this question might not be the first books I read in 2012, but I will definitely get to them. That said, the books I didn't read this year but will read next year are Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire, The Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. <br />
<br />
<b>2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2012?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm definitely looking forward to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. My friends and I are even traveling out of state to go to his book tour! It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait! I'm also really psyched for A Million Suns by Beth Revis, Insurgent by Veronica Roth, Timepiece by Myra McEntire, and Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan. Oh, and The Kill Order by James Dashner.<br />
<br />
<b>3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2012?</b><br />
My friend Courtney at <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Abducted by Books</a> is hosting a reading challenge next year, called the <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/2011/11/abducted-by-2012-challenge.html" target="_blank">15,000 Page Challenge</a>. The goal is in the title - read15,000 pages in 2012. And she's going to give away a couple of prizes! Since I'll be participating in this challenge, I'll need to blog a lot more to show my updated page counts. So I plan on trying to review many more books next year, which is also a nice challenge for myself. My blog will hopefully grow because of it!</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So there they are, my answers to the 2011 End of Year Book Survey. I apologize for the extremely long post. It's so hard to have just one answer for most of the questions! Let me know in the comments if you completed the survey as well, and I'll hop on over to your blog and take a look! Happy reading in 2012!</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-73054611110441784602011-12-27T12:51:00.000-06:002011-12-27T12:51:05.953-06:00Book Review: The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oh, man, this is when I wish I had come up with a more clever name for my blog, like my friend Courtney's, <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Abducted by Books</a> (isn't that a great blog name?), because I really felt like I was abducted by <a href="http://www.jamesdashner.com/" target="_blank">The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnJmMprBua-vERDtI0sbtCxQhkIOHubYTo43qcHbQJiDfoj8sCR9cJ61Dq58tyP13iRfoj799oPdFL0EKxJda8xcm1nAt4xFIRzh590wrMn3UBdeBMYLPEmdTNyDnO_FZKCVrbYG_95oi/s1600/The+Maze+Runner+cover+-+endotwikipediadotorg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnJmMprBua-vERDtI0sbtCxQhkIOHubYTo43qcHbQJiDfoj8sCR9cJ61Dq58tyP13iRfoj799oPdFL0EKxJda8xcm1nAt4xFIRzh590wrMn3UBdeBMYLPEmdTNyDnO_FZKCVrbYG_95oi/s320/The+Maze+Runner+cover+-+endotwikipediadotorg.png" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The first book in the series, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Maze-Runner-Trilogy-Book/dp/0385737955/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325007896&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Maze Runner</a>, had been on my to-read list for quite some time, and then at some point I bought the book (I can't remember if I bought it this year or last year, but either way, it's been sitting on my shelf for some time, waiting to be read). This year, I've read 76 books so far (more than twice my goal of 35 books!), and I've ended up loving quite a few of them. I realized that many of these books that I've loved this year, that I've given 5 star ratings to on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> and have added to my favorites list, have been Young Adult Science Fiction stories. And The Maze Runner trilogy is no exception.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Maze Runner starts off with the protagonist, Thomas, waking up in complete darkness, with most of his memories erased. He knows his name, can remember things, but can't remember people or specific events. Then the small square room he is in starts to move upward, revealing itself to be an elevator in an extremely tall shaft. Once it stops, doors open at the top of the shaft and Thomas finds himself in the middle of a huge maze with other teenage boys who have each had their memories erased, as well. Their mission - to find a way out of the maze. Only there are a few problems. There are openings on each side of the middle of the maze (or The Glade, as they call it), but these openings are actually doors, which close each night. And you don't want to get caught outside the doors at night, or you'll be killed by these grotesque creatures called Grievers. And then, in the morning, once the doors have opened again, all the walls in the outer parts of the maze have changed, making you start all over again. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And I won't say any more than that, because I hate spoilers - so much so that I read the descriptions of the books once, put them on my to-read list if I'm interested, and then once I get the book I don't read those descriptions again, nor do I read any of the blurbs on the book, because I've been spoiled by those before, too. Anyway, I digress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqiOot8wZ6RBy06Gi9gRGRaX_ToTVywv9HLh14a_GS27H_aLKIiKy5Cdh2AyczsfAxMwx-nMT5pUVe4D9XUYbKgcM5m7rt9HGRiVu6CqAPjlzJl3683_JKPf6AdlriMP_DCzxJTy9SCbP/s1600/The+Scorch+Trials+cover+-+endotwikipediadotorg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqiOot8wZ6RBy06Gi9gRGRaX_ToTVywv9HLh14a_GS27H_aLKIiKy5Cdh2AyczsfAxMwx-nMT5pUVe4D9XUYbKgcM5m7rt9HGRiVu6CqAPjlzJl3683_JKPf6AdlriMP_DCzxJTy9SCbP/s320/The+Scorch+Trials+cover+-+endotwikipediadotorg.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I LOVED The Maze Runner. It is so my kind of book that I just want to read it over and over again. I finished it on the 13th of December, but I knew before I finished it that I wanted to read the other two books in the series, so I put them on my Christmas list. And I got them! I was in the middle of reading another book, but I couldn't wait! So on December 23rd (the day my family had our Christmas) I started reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scorch-Trials-Maze-Runner-Trilogy/dp/0385738765/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325009061&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Scorch Trials</a>. I finished it on Christmas Day and started <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Death-Cure-Maze-Runner-Trilogy/dp/0385738773/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325009111&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Death Cure</a> right after. I finished The Death Cure last night, on the 26th. I've only been able to read a few books in a day in my life, so that was quite an accomplishment. And it also speaks volumes about the books themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCSzxTL-L1DN-dTCE3GekWIO_ybn3vI4CNuzrpRH4aKx03slPPQ4hCBF-rqI9_lc_SzlpKe9huoixTJlZ0fjrUMyyYu_uAgvg6ctQKaz3sgzHv9qJFYShfNALJrMTLFX_5mHMc_5Kh_DO/s1600/The+Death+Cure+cover+-+barnesandnobledotcom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCSzxTL-L1DN-dTCE3GekWIO_ybn3vI4CNuzrpRH4aKx03slPPQ4hCBF-rqI9_lc_SzlpKe9huoixTJlZ0fjrUMyyYu_uAgvg6ctQKaz3sgzHv9qJFYShfNALJrMTLFX_5mHMc_5Kh_DO/s320/The+Death+Cure+cover+-+barnesandnobledotcom.JPG" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of barnesandnoble.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Maze Runner is probably always going to be my favorite out of the three. I really loved The Scorch Trials, too, and although I also loved The Death Cure, I had a few problems with it. The Scorch Trials kind of revealed a different twist to this story (it was hinted at in The Maze Runner, but I didn't really get it until The Scorch Trials). No, I'm not going to tell you what it was. But I'll say that it didn't seem out of place in this world to me, but it kind of made me stop short for a second when I realized what was going on, and made me say, "Hey...." But then The Death Cure happened, and I kind of felt similar to how I felt with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mockingjay-Hunger-Games-Book-3/dp/0439023513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325010143&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Mockingjay</a>, the final book in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Trilogy-Boxed-Set/dp/0545265355/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325010181&sr=1-2" target="_blank">The Hunger Games series</a>. With that series, I loved each of the books, too, and gave each of them 5 stars, but I was a bit disappointed with the ending of Mockingjay. I didn't hate it like some readers, but it wasn't what I had expected or wanted. And I felt the same with The Death Cure. The Death Cure was a really fast-paced read with a lot of action, but I was kind of pissed at Thomas for this one thing (if you've read it you probably know what I'm talking about - the big thing HE DIDN'T DO!), and the ending left me kind of disappointed. I kept waiting for something else to happen, and when it didn't, I was upset. I know this is all so vague and I'm sorry - you'll all just have to read the series and we can talk about it in detail, because I really don't want to spoil anyone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But regardless, I still loved this series and it has moved up to my #3 favorite series of all time. Right under The Hunger Games (which is right under the Holy Grail of series, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Paperback-Box-Books/dp/0545162076/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325010260&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a>). I'm so glad I read these books, and I'll definitely read Dashner's prequel to the series, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Order-James-Dashner/dp/0385742886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325010317&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Kill Order</a>, when it comes out in August. I'm also excited about the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790864/" target="_blank">movie adaptation of The Maze Runner</a> that is set to be released in 2013, although it is being directed by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0362566/" target="_blank">Catherine Hardwicke</a>, and I'm not a huge fan of her films. Hopefully the fact that James Dashner is co-writing the screenplay will keep the film very true to the book. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I highly recommend these books to anyone who enjoys Young Adult Science Fiction, especially if you enjoy books like The Hunger Games series, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Divergent-Veronica-Roth/dp/0062024027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325010453&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Divergent</a>, and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uglies-Boxed-Set-Pretties-Specials/dp/1416936408/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325010479&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Uglies series</a>.</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-80521565107785749192011-11-26T12:32:00.000-06:002011-11-26T12:32:00.279-06:00NaNoWriMo Fail....Maybe<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here it is, the 26th of November and I'm nearing the end of my third National Novel Writing Month (<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank">NaNoWriMo</a>). I went into this month excited and all ready to re-write my 2010 NaNo novel. I was pumped. I wanted to get through NaNo with a fresh draft, maybe edit it one more time soon after, and then send it out to beta readers. Then, my goal was to edit and edit and edit some more during the next year, and to send it out to agents by the end of 2012. It was a lovely, wonderful, sweet plan.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then it all went to hell.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were HUGE plot holes in my story. Things that I couldn't get past. Things that were integral to my plot - things that were integral to this story becoming two books, maybe even three. Things that I MAYBE could have figured out as I wrote, but everything else that I wrote relied on me figuring those things out. Also, there was absolutely no action in my story. Well, one car wreck scene, but that was it. The rest was people explaining things to others. A lot of telling, instead of showing. Yes, these are things that can be fixed in future edits, but it just wasn't working. I was bored of my story (although I still like much of the idea), and I felt like nothing was happening. Nothing was moving forward.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I changed it. I made it much more YA. I made it more supernatural. Then I decided to read a couple of published novels that were similar to mine. I know, I know, people say not do to this. We should steer clear of novels that might resemble what we are currently writing. But I wanted to read them to make sure that my novel wasn't too much like them. So with one, I was okay. My story was different enough that I wasn't worried. But then I read the other one, and it was like, yeesh. That's almost exactly what I'm writing.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I changed it again. Now, mind you, I haven't been deleting anything, so my NaNo word count still includes what I wrote for the first two stories. But with this one, I only wrote about 1,000 words and got bored. Again.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I haven't written a single word on my NaNo novel (novels?) since the 17th. I'm currently sitting at 14,540 words. Which is less than I did my first year, where I got around 15,000 words. Last year I won. This year, I have to write over 7,000 words a day to reach the 50,000-word goal. I'm thinking this isn't going to happen. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For the past few days I've been really discouraged about my writing. I pretty much decided that this story, this idea that I've been working on and changing and brainstorming about for the past year needs to be set aside. Maybe someday I'll figure out what to do with it. But for now, I figured I'd just start a whole new story, keeping my current word count, of course. But I was at a loss as to what to write. I looked on the NaNo forums, where they have this great Adoption Society, where you can "adopt" plots or characters or whatever. But nothing struck my fancy. I was out of inspiration. So I got more discouraged.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But today, I read some posts by Maureen Johnson (she's the Agony Aunt this year of NaNo - kind of like a Dear Abby columnist) where she talks about just <a href="http://maureenjohnsonbooks.tumblr.com/post/13205711607/ask-auntie-mj-there-is-no-spoon" target="_blank">jumping into your novel</a>, and where she <a href="http://maureenjohnsonbooks.tumblr.com/post/13298288463/ask-auntie-mj-lets-go-to-beardy-mountain" target="_blank">helps writers who have lost that fun relationship with writing</a>. Maureen Johnson has helped me all throughout this month. She seems to know exactly what questions to answer at the right time. I think she might be psychic. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also hopped on my Twitter account (I don't do that very often - I only was compelled to go there today because I got an email that someone new was following me) and browsed some tweets by literary agent <a href="http://www.twitter.com/hroot" target="_blank">Holly Root</a>. She had one on there about an author she represents who wrote a post about her experience finding an agent. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's weird. Things like this open my eyes and light a fire under me and make me wonder why I ever questioned my writing. I've been writing ever since I can remember. Before I could physically write myself, I would tell my mom little stories and she would type them up for me. I have always been a writer. And I have always wanted to someday be published. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So what if that original NaNo idea never becomes anything publishable? I love to write, and stories are always coming to me. I just need to remember that I don't have to have the next huge hit idea, and that I don't have to even have to have an outline before I start writing. Actually, it's better, for me, if I don't do too much planning, because otherwise I think that I have to have everything perfectly planned out before I can even begin. This does not work. I just need a little spark of an idea. A character trait, a world, an image - something that will get me started. And then I just need to let it go from there.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I may not finish NaNo this year. I may not get to put a shiny Winner badge on my next blog post. But right now, after I finish this post, I'm going to go back to that Adoption Society forum and find something - some little glimmer, some quirk or scene or line or name or setting - SOMETHING to get the ball rolling. I'm in the writing mood today. And we'll see how far I can get when I have no plan, no plot, and no direction. This actually will probably be fun.</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-54638205208944013072011-11-25T13:39:00.000-06:002011-11-25T13:39:23.644-06:00"Off the Shelf" Reading Challenge Complete!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was the first reading challenge I've participated in, and thankfully, with a month to spare, I've completed it!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I took the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Off the Shelf Challenge</a> by Bookish Ardour, who is hosting several challenges next year as well, including the 2012 Off the Shelf Challenge. Go <a href="http://bookishardour.com/challenges/" target="_blank">here</a> to check out those challenges!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So for this challenge, I chose to read 15 books that I owned that had just been sitting there, waiting to be read for months or even years. I took the challenge quite seriously, and all of the books that I read for this challenge were purchased before 2011. Which was hard, because I was given LOTS of books this year by a couple of friends who were cleaning up their shelves, and I bought quite a few as well - more than I normally would have because of Borders closing. But I've read lots of other books this year, not just the 15 for this challenge.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And I prevailed! Here is a complete list of the 15 books that I read for this challenge, with links to my reviews:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<br />
<ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-115-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a></i> by Douglas Adams</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-215-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Restaurant at the End of the Universe</a></i> by Douglas Adams</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-315-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">To Kill a Mockingbird</a></i> by Harper Lee</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/03/book-415-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Life, the Universe and Everything</a></i> by Douglas Adams</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-515-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Great Gatsby</a></i> by F. Scott Fitzgerald</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-615-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Notebook</a></i> by Nicholas Sparks</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/05/book-715-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Time Machine</a></i> by H.G. Wells</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-815-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish</a></i> by Douglas Adams</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/08/book-915-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank"><i>Lullaby</i></a> by Chuck Palahniuk</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-1015-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Night</a></i> by Elie Wiesel</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-1115-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set</a></i> by J.K. Rowling</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-1215-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Harry Potter: Film Wizardry</a></i> by Brian Sibley</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-1315-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</a></i> by L. Frank Baum</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/11/book-1415-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Mostly Harmless</a></i> by Douglas Adams</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/11/book-1515-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book One)</a></i> by Rick Riordan</span></li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now, a few of those books might seem like really easy reads. And some of them really were. But regardless of how long or short, easy or hard, these were all books that have been on my bookshelf for a while, and I've wanted to read them, but never did for one reason or another. And now, I'm glad to say that I've read them! Thanks, Bookish Ardour, for hosting a challenge that I really needed and enjoyed!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Next year I won't be participating in this challenge again, but I'll be doing a completely new challenge by my good friend Courtney from <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Abducted by Books</a>! She'll be hosting the <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/2011/11/abducted-by-2012-challenge.html" target="_blank">15,000 Page Challenge</a>. The goal is to read 15,000 pages in 2012, and she'll be giving away prizes for the person who reaches the goal by reading the least amount of books (like if someone reads 15 1,000-page books) and also to the person who reaches the goal by reading the most amount of books (like if someone reads 100 150-page books). I'm going for the latter option, and I've already got tons of books picked out! That prize is mine! (Maybe.)</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-86502055418760089912011-11-25T12:43:00.000-06:002011-11-25T12:43:03.931-06:00Book 15/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC5c9SWsaCoEWNgDBQnJ1EicIAHDR4XLZzv6JhB4so9O9I-a7KQdbdITdTi7urvy1qDSVxRx5uE1rinL_wTaD9PvF4bZbsdgVwKGdXoxagMAjlR-S-F_7kFRj88WK9fBOVbTfxHgJNAUoA/s1600/The+Lightning+Thief+book+cover+-+bookwormsreadmorebooksdotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC5c9SWsaCoEWNgDBQnJ1EicIAHDR4XLZzv6JhB4so9O9I-a7KQdbdITdTi7urvy1qDSVxRx5uE1rinL_wTaD9PvF4bZbsdgVwKGdXoxagMAjlR-S-F_7kFRj88WK9fBOVbTfxHgJNAUoA/s320/The+Lightning+Thief+book+cover+-+bookwormsreadmorebooksdotcom.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of bookwormsreadmorebooks.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For my 15th and final book to read for this year's <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">Off the Shelf Challenge</a>, I read Book One of the <i>Percy Jackson & The Olympians</i> series: <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Thief-Percy-Jackson-Olympians/dp/0786838655" target="_blank">The Lightning Thief</a>, </i>by Rick Riordan.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had been wanting to read this series for a while, but never got around to it, although I had seen the movie adaptation of this novel. I kind of wished I hadn't seen the movie first, because I knew some of the ending, and I am one of those people who does NOT like to be spoiled. But I still enjoyed reading the book and I hope to read the rest soon - I'll definitely read the rest of the books before seeing the movies.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were quite a few differences between the book and the movie (that I can remember), but I knew this going in, because a friend of mine, Tracy, as well as my husband, had read the book and told me about a few of the differences. I liked the movie, but I enjoyed the book a lot more. I think that's normally how it goes, though.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were also a lot of similarities between this book and the Harry Potter series, and I am a total HP nerd. But I wasn't irritated by the similarities. I think it's just the nature of the stories. Both involve quests, both involve boys who realize that they are part of a different world, and both boys are the keys to saving that new world, as well as the rest of the world, from destruction by a power-hungry bad guy. So yes, there are quite a few similarities. But these are two different, interesting, adventuresome series in their own right. I LOVE the Harry Potter series with a passion, and I really enjoyed the first installment of Percy Jackson. But, who knows? I may grow to love this series, too, once I've read the other books. However, I don't know that any book or series will ever surpass my love for Harry Potter.</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-43046154974976106152011-11-06T00:30:00.001-05:002011-11-06T00:32:03.877-05:00Book 14/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yea! I'm almost done with my <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663" target="_blank">Off the Shelf Challenge</a>! Just one more to go!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsBC-rd8r8WWU0D6mkPIZXmsGpVxf7eIdtTl5LC5JhbX7NuGDrbS_pDTX3wEg4HaH-jupH83UH8RJIsQXPcNM926Ul2JIqO-pUkNf95I__ctr0YNJYdWKgkpN6vZL0yQHT3xUuNxqN6z6/s1600/Mostly+Harmless+book+cover+-+endotwikipediadotorg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsBC-rd8r8WWU0D6mkPIZXmsGpVxf7eIdtTl5LC5JhbX7NuGDrbS_pDTX3wEg4HaH-jupH83UH8RJIsQXPcNM926Ul2JIqO-pUkNf95I__ctr0YNJYdWKgkpN6vZL0yQHT3xUuNxqN6z6/s320/Mostly+Harmless+book+cover+-+endotwikipediadotorg.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So for my second-to-last book for this challenge, I decided to go ahead and wrap up the <i>Hitchhiker's Guide</i> series by reading <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mostly-Harmless-Douglas-Adams/dp/0345418778" target="_blank">Mostly Harmless</a></i> by Douglas Adams.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I didn't like this book as much as some of the others in the series, but I still enjoyed it. I really liked the bit that dealt with Elvis, and I liked the end, although I would assume that many fans might not like it so much. I don't want to go into too much detail for those who haven't yet read the book, but I will say that this installment lacked the pep and humor that is abundant throughout the rest of the series. Yes, there was humor, along with the seemingly random tangents that Mr. Adams loves to take, but I just didn't feel like there was as much humor in this one as the others.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I really enjoyed this series as a whole, although the first two books, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-115-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-215-off-shelf-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Restaurant at the End of the Universe</a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, were my favorites of the five.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On a side note, I finished reading <i>Mostly Harmless</i> mere minutes before a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook my whole house. Now, mind you, I live in Oklahoma. We don't get earthquakes very often here. Well, at least not the kind you feel. We got one about a year ago, but it was much smaller. And apparently I missed one while I was asleep this morning, but it was also smaller. No damage as far as I can tell, but it was still very unnerving! And, if you've read <i>Mostly Harmless</i>, you'll understand that reading the last few pages and then being in an earthquake can really creep you out!</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-89817454257557109112011-10-28T14:15:00.000-05:002011-10-28T14:15:25.348-05:00Book 13/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ua4Fr1bzsuhGXK0dGCy0bm08BFLCmmLSq7zGen8SQixEcudUD54IxucH1njevaS2UAfnUnXW9XQpe3agFDd85SRVpE7DJyng6tNrzQtq6JqAMU900BStaXB0VsXzdGRkvQVkhGxkOoLM/s1600/The+Wonderful+Wizard+of+Oz+cover+-+wikifirsteditionsdotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ua4Fr1bzsuhGXK0dGCy0bm08BFLCmmLSq7zGen8SQixEcudUD54IxucH1njevaS2UAfnUnXW9XQpe3agFDd85SRVpE7DJyng6tNrzQtq6JqAMU900BStaXB0VsXzdGRkvQVkhGxkOoLM/s1600/The+Wonderful+Wizard+of+Oz+cover+-+wikifirsteditionsdotcom.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of wikifirsteditions.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In an attempt to get another book out of the way for the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663">Off the Shelf Challenge</a> before the start of <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>, I chose a small, quick read: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wonderful-Wizard-Oz-Anniversary-Wonder/dp/0060293233"><i>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</i></a>, by L. Frank Baum.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have always loved the story of Oz, and really enjoyed the classic film from 1939, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/">The Wizard of Oz</a>. But the 1985 sequel, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089908/">Return to Oz</a>, was my favorite movie as a child, and remains one of my favorite movies to this day. I also really love The Wicked Years series by Gregory Maguire: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Life-Times-Witch-West/dp/0060391448/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_h?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319827092&sr=1-1"><i>Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West</i></a>; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Son-Witch-Gregory-Maguire/dp/0060548932/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_h?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319827224&sr=1-1"><i>Son of a Witch</i></a>; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Among-Wicked-Years-Book/dp/B0035G01ZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319827270&sr=1-1"><i>A Lion Among Men</i></a>; and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Out-Oz-Final-Wicked-Years/dp/0060548940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319827302&sr=1-1"><i>Out of Oz</i></a>. I knew that <i>Out of Oz </i>was going to be released soon, but I thought it was sometime next year. Just now, while looking it up for this post, I found out that the release date is November 1st! Um, I know what I want for Christmas!!! And how funny is it that I read this book and wrote this post right before the release of that book! I've never seen the musical <i><a href="http://www.wickedthemusical.com/">Wicked</a>, </i>which is based off of the first book from Maguire's series, but hopefully I can see it someday!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyway, I don't think I ever read <i>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</i> as a kid, even though I was such a big fan of Return to Oz. And, reading it now, I was surprised to find that it is so different from the 1939 movie adaptation! I mean, I know that something is always lost when a book is adapted into a movie, but for some reason, I didn't think it would be that way with this book. But there were plenty of differences. First of all, there is much more to the story than in the movie (and of course that is to be expected). Also, there is no mention of it all being Dorothy's dream. At least, it wasn't in this book. L. Frank Baum went on to write several more Oz stories, so some of the things in the movie could have been from those books. Also, the shoes Dorothy gets from the Wicked Witch of the East were "silver shoes," not "ruby slippers." I'm assuming that for the film, since they were using the new technology of Technicolor, they wanted the shoes to stand out, so they made them bright red instead of silver.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, I was pleased to see that some of the characters and things that Gregory Maguire used in his retellings were actually in this story, like the character of Boq, the Winkies, and the Quadlings. I don't think these were mentioned in the film, and I always assumed that Maguire had made them up himself. So it was really nice to see that Maguire had obviously done a lot of research before writing his novels. I always assumed that he had done a huge amount of research, but I think he probably did a lot more than most people realize.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I'm glad I finally read it, although I really think that I like Gregory Maguire's stories better, and I'm looking forward to reading <i>Out of Oz</i>!</span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-88087523931250634232011-10-25T22:00:00.001-05:002011-10-25T22:02:08.437-05:00Book 12/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a> is coming up (in one week!), and I wanted to try to get a couple of my books read for the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663">Off the Shelf Challenge</a> before heading into a month full of writing and not much reading. I still had 4 books left to read for this challenge, and the deadline is at the end of the year, so I really needed to get to it!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtIrYHTebWihNXz6vue43OmXZLpcj6nqQMVQ83OhviRKtxu-CIMQwFzH2x6F4CD74Ed5KQsGNvNUrL_F2FCCGMnwSFIuMqatcH6nCZufjT5Cc9qhlK2OVTxnAyZotKnZ-PbDMHwpnaT3S/s1600/Harry+Potter+Film+Wizardry+-+barnesandnobledotcom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtIrYHTebWihNXz6vue43OmXZLpcj6nqQMVQ83OhviRKtxu-CIMQwFzH2x6F4CD74Ed5KQsGNvNUrL_F2FCCGMnwSFIuMqatcH6nCZufjT5Cc9qhlK2OVTxnAyZotKnZ-PbDMHwpnaT3S/s1600/Harry+Potter+Film+Wizardry+-+barnesandnobledotcom.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of barnesandnoble.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I finally finished <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Wizardry-Brian-Sibley/dp/0061997811/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319594862&sr=8-1"><i>Harry Potter Film Wizardry</i></a> by Brian Sibley, which I blogged about back in October of last year (you can see that post <a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-want-wednesday-write-every-day.html">here</a> - I was trying out a new meme called "I Want" Wednesday - boy, that meme really lasted on my blog, didn't it?). I've had <i>Film Wizardry</i> on my <a href="http://goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a> currently-reading list all year long, although I haven't been reading it all year. It's not a hard book to read; it just isn't like a novel, where you can tear through the pages. I (obviously) took my sweet time reading it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Film Wizardry </i>is a gorgeous book full of artists' renderings, photos, and inside information on what went into creating all eight Harry Potter films. Since I'm a die-hard fan of the Harry Potter books, and a huge fan of the films, I found the book to be really fascinating. It's crazy how much time and effort goes into everything in the films, from the storyboards and concept art, to the wardrobes and makeup, to the intricate set designs and special effects.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6S08qloVFVfzilFDq1py7jIsUe10bCv7_ArFaDYOlBR2c4KlRq2jRySWc6JIPgVh2J7v6-_FwgWUw1ZJJ9jeqHaO86oKkjT1oCpEL5xXs_OpnJGoLMhyphenhyphenokGmiCoycpMeY-PMQsCQso8Yo/s1600/Extras+from+Harry+Potter+Film+Wizardry.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6S08qloVFVfzilFDq1py7jIsUe10bCv7_ArFaDYOlBR2c4KlRq2jRySWc6JIPgVh2J7v6-_FwgWUw1ZJJ9jeqHaO86oKkjT1oCpEL5xXs_OpnJGoLMhyphenhyphenokGmiCoycpMeY-PMQsCQso8Yo/s320/Extras+from+Harry+Potter+Film+Wizardry.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another thing that I really love about this book is that there are several items included within the pages that you can actually remove from envelopes and hold in your hands: a replica of Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, catalogs for Borgin and Burkes and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (those don't actually come out - they're attached to the book), a program for the 422nd Quidditch World Cup (also attached), and my personal favorite - a fold-out copy of The Maruader's Map, among others.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This book is a great read for any fan of the Harry Potter films, and I'm glad to have it my collection.</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-45949295989227784392011-10-04T15:18:00.000-05:002011-10-04T15:18:26.345-05:00Book 11/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are a couple of books that have been on my <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a> "currently reading" shelf all year long. I haven't actually been reading them all year; I simply set them aside while I read tons of other books. I got both books late last year, and even though they haven't been on my physical book shelf for that long, they still count for the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663">"Off the Shelf" Challenge</a>, since they were on my shelf before I started said challenge.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The two books in question were the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Schoolbooks-Fantastic-Quidditch/dp/043932162X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1317756818&sr=8-4">Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set</a> (which actually has two books, but I counted them as one), and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Wizardry-Brian-Sibley/dp/0061997811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317756866&sr=1-1"><i>Harry Potter: Film Wizardry</i></a>. I'm still reading <i>Film Wizardry</i>, so I'll leave that one for a later post.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8GXMNmCUW-XD6eUUQji4mpnrkJcxbarB0BZD3zd0Y8hcr3sfURNvw-XINiYZHdAViMJ9gbSUQYbOrE3X-Tx20Em6vOp8lzzPkZwz-iL3hI9hprghJhvgWmZwBIm1Fx-DIPLq2IgXzGXH/s1600/Harry+Potter+Schoolbooks+Box+Set+-+judyozdotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8GXMNmCUW-XD6eUUQji4mpnrkJcxbarB0BZD3zd0Y8hcr3sfURNvw-XINiYZHdAViMJ9gbSUQYbOrE3X-Tx20Em6vOp8lzzPkZwz-iL3hI9hprghJhvgWmZwBIm1Fx-DIPLq2IgXzGXH/s320/Harry+Potter+Schoolbooks+Box+Set+-+judyozdotcom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of judyoz.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last year, my book club had a Christmas party where, instead of reading a specific book that month, we had a potluck dinner and played board games and had a gift exchange. We all bought a book under a certain amount, and the idea was to play Dirty Santa, where you can steal one another's gifts. Apparently we're bad at that game, because not much stealing went on (I don't know if anyone stole anything, actually), and I loved the gift I brought so much, that when it was my turn to choose a gift to open, I opened my own! And that gift was the Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set includes two books that are featured in the Harry Potter novels: <i>Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</i>, and <i>Quidditch Through the Ages</i>. J.K. Rowling wrote both and proceeds from the sale of the box set went to a fund for needy children through the charity <a href="http://www.comicrelief.com/">Comic Relief</a>. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them </i>was a book written by Newt Scamander that Harry and all the other first years were required to purchase in <i>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone</i>. It reads like a textbook, which is maybe why I didn't like it as much as <i>Quidditch Through the Ages</i>. Several magical beasts are listed and described, complete with a Ministry of Magic rating as to how dangerous each specific beast is. The cool thing about the copy of <i>Fantastic Beasts </i>in this box set is that it is supposed to be the one owned by Harry Potter himself, and has been written in by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. There are also a few doodles of some of the beasts, but I wish there had been more, because it was hard for me to picture some of these strange animals.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Quidditch Through the Ages</i>, by Kennilworthy Whisp,<i> </i>is a library book that Hermione has checked out in <i>Sorcerer's Stone</i>, which Harry then borrows from her. So the book in the box set is made to look like a library book, complete with a list of students who have checked the book out and the date that it was due back. The book tells the history of the sport of Quidditch, from its early rough stages in Queerditch Marsh in the eleventh century, right up to the late twentieth century. It lists the rules, national teams, and famous moves. This book was a lot easier for me to read than <i>Fantastic Beasts</i>, and I'm not even particularly a big fan of Quidditch. I mean, if I was at Hogwarts, I'd go to the matches, but I'm with Hermione - it's just a game. But I liked the book and it was really neat to see J.K. Rowling's extensive imagination at work in the way that the game was formed.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Overall, I gave this box set 4/5 stars on Goodreads. I am a huge Harry Potter nerd and I think that others like me would love to have this in their collection. And I'm glad I finally got around to finishing these books!</span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-3223420196108823232011-09-28T14:56:00.000-05:002011-09-28T14:56:36.465-05:00Banned Books Week: The Giver<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yesterday I wrote a post about one of the books I read for <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm">Banned Books Week</a>: <i>And Tango Makes Three</i>. You can see the post <a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/09/banned-books-week-and-tango-makes-three.html">here</a>.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqrVV4TGDgNuscl_ytCie00o7PTlm_De-Xhg4ePSOKWO6H1RnVsFSKCWguUOeMxQSbUIEn4bK8fkUo0JJ1CGXXXQ_w8ZcCnhwJckmRLfijHrChy4HpQHKbIWLbs3GBLJ-NxYbRZqDLiYpt/s1600/the+giver+-+goodreads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqrVV4TGDgNuscl_ytCie00o7PTlm_De-Xhg4ePSOKWO6H1RnVsFSKCWguUOeMxQSbUIEn4bK8fkUo0JJ1CGXXXQ_w8ZcCnhwJckmRLfijHrChy4HpQHKbIWLbs3GBLJ-NxYbRZqDLiYpt/s1600/the+giver+-+goodreads.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of goodreads.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The other book I read for BBW was <i>The Giver</i>, by Lois Lowry. I can't believe I had never read it before! Well, it was published in 1993, which was a part of my "reading isn't cool" phase. So that makes sense. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The Giver </i>is a story about a boy, Jonas, who lives in a utopian society. Let me add a little note - I think this story is more about a negative utopia than a dystopia, because with dystopias, the community is bad. I mean really bad. With this story, the community is overwhelmingly good, but it has bad elements, therefore a negative utopia. Anyway, Jonas's community is very structured. People apply for spouses, and once given one, can apply for a child after a few years. Only two children per couple - one male and one female. The children are lumped into groups by their age, or rather by their year of birth. Each year they have a ceremony, where the children become a year older, and are given new responsibilities, like volunteer hours. Jonas is an Eleven, and is about to be Assigned to a job during the ceremony when he becomes a Twelve. But Jonas's Assignment is totally different than any of the others. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't want to get into too much detail here, because I'm not a fan of spoilers. But there are some interesting things going on in this story, and in Jonas's community. Some really great things and some really awful things. So I can kind of see why someone would want to ban this book. Don't get me wrong - I think banning books is wrong, and I think you should decide for yourself and for your own kids what you should or shouldn't read. But this book speaks about some things that I don't even know how I feel about. I mean, I know how I feel about some of it, but other things I'm a bit undecided. So I can see how someone might think this is unsuited to the age group. Unlike with <i>And Tango Makes Three</i>, the American Library Association didn't have a list of reasons why <i>The Giver </i>was challenged. But I'm assuming that "unsuited to age group" was one of them. (I know what a couple of the other reasons probably were, but I won't discuss them because they'll be spoilery.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, let me just say that I think that books like this help to get children thinking about certain issues. I think that as long as they think critically about them - and that the teachers who might include these kinds of books in their curriculum try to touch on all sides of the issues, rather than just touting their own beliefs, or the beliefs that are included in the book - that kids will get a lot out of them.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpDh87yFpwaeTnSr4qxFWYYJtXqM09FsZUklsizt9OmfIP1ZpsD3UCQkcR_brJVY5-LF84TvcqYTayCOOBIhMIhIYWRb_zoeMZSn-H-1xjhGpbYUmUxt7Eiw2hM6PxP9yBKixS97U9QJc/s1600/bbw11poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpDh87yFpwaeTnSr4qxFWYYJtXqM09FsZUklsizt9OmfIP1ZpsD3UCQkcR_brJVY5-LF84TvcqYTayCOOBIhMIhIYWRb_zoeMZSn-H-1xjhGpbYUmUxt7Eiw2hM6PxP9yBKixS97U9QJc/s320/bbw11poster.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Overall, I really enjoyed <i>The Giver</i>. I gave it 5 stars on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a>. I love dystopias/negative utopias/speculative fiction. So the story had me right at the beginning. I'm unsure of the ending, and I know there were lots of symbols in the story, but I'd have to go back and read it again to really understand all of them. The only (kind of) bad thing about reading this book - I had "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer in my head for a couple of days. Not a bad song to have in your head, but still. (And now you guys have it in your heads, too. Ha!) But I loved the story and I think that I'll definitely want my son to read it when he gets to be a teenager (or earlier, depending on his maturity level).</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-68730406772507906992011-09-27T22:23:00.001-05:002011-09-27T22:40:17.297-05:00Banned Books Week: And Tango Makes Three<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I finished my two books for <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm">Banned Books Week</a> earlier than I thought, so now I'll have more than one post in a day. It's an Autumn miracle!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I read <i>And Tango Makes Three </i>and <i>The Giver</i> for Banned Books Week. I'll start with <i>And Tango Makes Three</i>, and then I'll do a separate post on <i>The Giver</i>. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRAD8gbEMPanfLDHHw3p2BTUjA4PLtiIBV9KAHxgvmjj_idcY1bvZncoN2huBDt4XwM0RogBPGmVzUYFsPFvfiBnq9iIEhP4T8NLgmaolc20IGa25e_1InJmev0UzsNDOFEyCmR5ZR-2NQ/s1600/And+Tango+Makes+Three+-+goodreadsdotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRAD8gbEMPanfLDHHw3p2BTUjA4PLtiIBV9KAHxgvmjj_idcY1bvZncoN2huBDt4XwM0RogBPGmVzUYFsPFvfiBnq9iIEhP4T8NLgmaolc20IGa25e_1InJmev0UzsNDOFEyCmR5ZR-2NQ/s1600/And+Tango+Makes+Three+-+goodreadsdotcom.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Goodreads.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>And Tango Makes Three</i> is a children's picture book by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, and is illustrated by Henry Cole. It's a true story about two male penguins who loved each other and together they raised a baby penguin from egg to birth and beyond. It was published in 2005 and has been on the American Library Association's Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books List for each year beginning with 2006, and every year it has been in the number one slot, except for 2009, when it fell to number two. The reasons that this book has been challenged have been listed on ALA's website as "unsuited to age group," "sexism," "anti-ethnic," "religious viewpoint," "anti-family," and "homosexuality." Let's take these one-by-one, shall we? Oy, this is going to turn into one of my infamous soapbox rants. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So we'll start off with "unsuited to age group." I'm not sure what the exact target age is for this book, but it's a children's picture book, so we'll say, um, birth to 8 and be generous? I mean, kids don't actually read until they're 4 or 5 (unless parents do that Baby Can Read thing, which is a topic for another post, I think), but parents read to them. And although I don't really read anything other than board books to my two-year-old son (he tears up the pages otherwise), many parents read these books to kids at all early ages, even while they're in the womb. And by the time kids are 7 or 8 they're on to chapter books, I think. I'm not sure exactly how this goes. Give me a few years and I'll see what happens with my own son. But anyway, it's a book for kids. And yes, I can see how sexuality is not a subject that you really want to teach your kids until they're older. But you can teach them about love, right? Kids are taught about boys and girls liking each other, and thinking the other is cute; all that stuff is taught without a thought at a young age. All that simply has to be said to teach homosexuality at a young age is that some boys like boys and some girls like girls. Lots of people talk about the horrors of children learning about homosexuality in schools at a young age, and they always seem to think that this kind of talk has to include information about sex itself. Sex doesn't come into the teaching of heterosexuality at a young age, so why should it come into the conversation when talking about homosexuality? Besides, this book says nothing about the reproductive cycle except that the male and female penguin couples had babies of their own and Roy and Silo (the two male penguins) didn't, so their keeper gave them an egg to care for when it couldn't be cared for by its own parents. I don't think this book is unsuited for the age group at all.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Next, "sexism." How in the world is this sexist? No, really, someone read this book and tell me how it's sexist. I really don't know how it could be considered sexist.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As for "anti-ethnic," I really don't know what they're going with here. There were people of all colors illustrated in this book as going to the zoo to see the animals. I mean, there was only one type of penguin in the book, chinstrap penguins, but surely these people aren't claiming that it was anti-ethnic because there was only one kind of penguin represented? I really don't know what anti-ethnic means, either. But I found a funny blog post while looking this up: <a href="http://sjlibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/and-tango-makes-three-anti-ethnic-penguins/">And Tango Makes Three: anti-ethnic penguins?</a> They don't seem to know what it means, either.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Religious viewpoint" is the next reason that this book has been challenged. Now, does that mean that the book has an offensive religious viewpoint, or that the person who is challenging the book is saying that it is offensive to their own religious viewpoint? It has to be the latter, because this book has no mention of religion in it whatsoever. So I guess this person is basically saying that it has homosexuality in it, which is against their religious viewpoint. Newsflash, people. It's a free country. And freedom of religion is one of the major freedoms in America. Freedom to be whichever religion you wish, or to have no religion at all. Your religion does not make the rules of this country. No religion does. So therefore, a book that does not go along with your religious viewpoint isn't going to be banned for that reason. Sorry.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Moving on to "anti-family." I wrote a whole post on this a year ago, aptly called <a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2010/09/soapbox-rant.html">Soapbox Rant</a>. Basically I talked about how many politicians talk about "family values" as if their opponents, or people in the other political party (they're Republicans talking about Democrats, mostly) don't have any type of family values. It's quite ridiculous. Just because some people don't limit a "family" to a marriage of one man and one woman and their biological children doesn't mean they don't have a sense of what family is, and it definitely doesn't mean that they don't have morals. <i>And Tango Makes Three</i> is all about family. It's about a not-so-typical penguin family, but the overwhelming, blatant theme in the book is family. So this reason for challenging the book does not make sense at all.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And finally, we have "homosexuality." Yep. They're homosexual penguins. So this reason makes sense, but I still think it's wrong. First of all, banning books is wrong. Decide for yourself what you want to read to your children. If you don't like it, don't read it, and don't let your kids read it. Second of all, the fact that something contains homosexuality does not make it bad. You disagree with homosexuality? I think you're going to have to get over it, because it's not going away.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpDh87yFpwaeTnSr4qxFWYYJtXqM09FsZUklsizt9OmfIP1ZpsD3UCQkcR_brJVY5-LF84TvcqYTayCOOBIhMIhIYWRb_zoeMZSn-H-1xjhGpbYUmUxt7Eiw2hM6PxP9yBKixS97U9QJc/s1600/bbw11poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpDh87yFpwaeTnSr4qxFWYYJtXqM09FsZUklsizt9OmfIP1ZpsD3UCQkcR_brJVY5-LF84TvcqYTayCOOBIhMIhIYWRb_zoeMZSn-H-1xjhGpbYUmUxt7Eiw2hM6PxP9yBKixS97U9QJc/s320/bbw11poster.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Deep breath, rant over. <i>And Tango Makes Three</i> is a sweet story about family and love. The illustrations are cute, and the story itself is warm and fuzzy. The fact that it is a true story makes it all the more wonderful. I, for one, think we need <i>more</i> books like this for children, and I will definitely be reading it to my son (once he gets over that whole tearing-book-pages thing).</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-16869464805701454772011-09-27T12:53:00.000-05:002011-09-27T12:53:48.356-05:00Pottermore and Banned Books Week<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NkBMWtoYj7KSUG1EL3bejAwYai2FwyheODJT_89itD28mDZ-ru_uXtQg2uPdRVNT15RCSLz9y_KlQsvp2kUSjP8mtiYQ6r8trOj37f53KfJOit3zZX9sJkoI_4BchVY5uMu1K5vMCW-m/s1600/Ravenclaw+shield+-+hp-lexicondotorg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NkBMWtoYj7KSUG1EL3bejAwYai2FwyheODJT_89itD28mDZ-ru_uXtQg2uPdRVNT15RCSLz9y_KlQsvp2kUSjP8mtiYQ6r8trOj37f53KfJOit3zZX9sJkoI_4BchVY5uMu1K5vMCW-m/s1600/Ravenclaw+shield+-+hp-lexicondotorg.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of hp-lexicon.org</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now that all of the 1 million beta testers have been sent their Pottermore welcome emails, I thought I'd reveal what I can't believe I hadn't already posted on here: I'm in Ravenclaw!!! I was so excited, even though I thought that I would be in Hufflepuff. I mean, most of the online tests that I've taken have given me the highest compatibility percentage in Hufflepuff, with Ravenclaw being the 2nd highest percentage. But those tests weren't made by J.K. Rowling herself, so I consider the Pottermore sorting quiz to be official.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I mean, I knew I wasn't going to be in Slytherin. And I was pretty darn sure that I was too much of a wuss to be in Gryffindor. But I figured I'd be in Hufflepuff, and also hoped that either it or Ravenclaw would become my house. But now that I've been sorted, my allegiance is to Ravenclaw all the way! Now I want a Ravenclaw key chain, a scarf, a pin for my computer bag; basically anything that I can find in blue and bronze.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My husband, by the way, who I assumed to be in Gryffindor, was sorted into Slytherin! But I know that he's one of the good guys in green, and would never turn to dark magic! ;) (Yes, I realize how big of a dork I'm being right now...)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In other news, it's <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm">Banned Books Week</a>! In honor of BBW, I'm reading <i>The Giver</i> by Lois Lowry, and I hope to pick up <i>And Tango Makes Three </i>by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson at my local library in the next couple of days. I'll write a post on these books once I'm finished with them, which will hopefully be by Saturday, which is the last day of Banned Books Week.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So what house do you call home in Pottermore? Are you happy with where you were sorted? And if you're participating in Banned Books Week, what are you reading?</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-52103920137817095672011-09-22T15:45:00.000-05:002011-09-22T15:45:12.775-05:00Top 100 YA List<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d4d0bb; line-height: 20px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My friend Kate (a.k.a. <a href="http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/">Midnight Book Girl</a>) did a post yesterday, where she stole a list of the top 100 YA books from this site: <a href="http://www.thehopelessbibliophile.com/2011/09/top-100-ya-books.html">The Hopeless Bibliophile</a>. So I thought I'd steal it from her. (I know, I know, it's a meme, it's not really stealing.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Basically you've got this list (not sure exactly who made the list in the first place, or when it was made, because I think it's missing quite a few great YA books), and you indicate which of them you've read and which you'd like to read. So I'll go with Kate's color-coding scheme: those I've read will be in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">blue</span>, those I haven't read but would like to read will be in <i style="color: purple;">purple italics</i>, and those I don't really care to read will remain in black. I'm pretty sure my list will be mostly made up of <i style="color: purple;">purple italics</i>. Oh, and my personal notes will be <b>[bracketed in bold]</b>. You can see Kate's list here: <a href="http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/2011/09/top-100-ya-list.html">Midnight Book Girl: Top 100 YA List</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here we go:</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d4d0bb; line-height: 20px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>1. Alex Finn – Beastly</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>2. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. Ally Carter – Callagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4) <b>[Not interested in this series, but I'm interested in the Heist Society series also by Ally Carter.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="color: purple;">4. Ally Condie – Matched (1, 2) </i><b>[I added the numbers 1 and 2 in there, since the second book is going to come out soon.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5. Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>6. Anastasia Hopcus – Shadow Hills</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7. Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">8. Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">9. Anna Godbersen – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">10. Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1,</span></i> 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) <b>[I'm interested in trying the first one at least. If I like that one, I'll read the others.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="color: purple;">11. Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">12. Becca Fitzpatrick – Hush, Hush (1, 2) <b>[I was told that I SHOULD NOT read this by one of my best friends, Courtney, over at <a href="http://abductedbybooks.blogspot.com/">Abducted by Books</a>. I trust her judgement, and she gave a very persuasive argument as to why the first book, at least, wasn't worth my time.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">13. Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1,</span></i> 2, 3, 4, 5) <b>[Alright, I've seen these books all over the place and I guess I'm willing to give at least the first one a chance, seeing as they have such good ratings on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a>.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="color: purple;">14. Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret </i><b>[Just looked this one up on Goodreads, and the description had me with the first two sentences.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>15. Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">16. Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>17. Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>18. Christopher Paolini – Inheritance (1, 2, 3, 4)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">19. Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>20. Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">21. Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">22. Ellen Hopkins – Impulse</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>23. Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">24. Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">25. Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1,</span></i> 2, 3) <b>[I'll try the first one.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>26. Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">27. Gail Carson Levine – Fairest</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>28. Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">29. J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>[Haha! Finally something on this list that I've read and it happens to be my favorite series of all time! Harry Potter FTW!]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>30. James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">31. James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>32. Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>33. Jeanne DuPrau – Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">34. Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>35. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>36. John Green – An Abundance of Katherines</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">37. John Green – Looking for Alaska</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="color: purple;">38. John Green – Paper Towns </i><b>[I'm also interested in reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, and also The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I'm such a Nerdfighter.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>39. Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">40. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1,</span> <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">2)</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">41. Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>42. Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1, 2)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">43. Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">44. Lemony Snicket – Series of Unfortunate Events (1,</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"><i>2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>45. Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">46. Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1,</span></i> 2, 3) <b>[I'll give the first one a try.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">47. Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1,</span></i> 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) <b>[I'll try the first one, since my aforementioned friend, Courtney, liked it a lot.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>48. M.T. Anderson – Feed</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>49. Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">50. Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">51. Maria V. Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>52. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>53. Markus Zusak – I am the Messenger</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>54. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">55. Mary Ting – Crossroads</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>56. Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelope (1, 2)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">57. Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">58. Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">59. Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>60. Meg Rosoff – How I Live Now</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">61. Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1,</span> 2, 3, 4, 5) <b>[I was given the first one to read and review, and I don't plan on reading the others. Not my kind of books. But I would like to read her other book, Bumped.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">62. Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1</span></i>, 2, 3, 4) <b>[My friend Holly, over at <a href="http://travelingduewest.blogspot.com/">Traveling Due West</a>, gave the first one 5 stars on Goodreads. So I'll definitely check it out.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>63. Melina Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">64. Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">65. Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">66. Michael Grant – Gone (1,</span></i> 2, 3, 4) <b>[Sounds a lot like one of my favorite books of all time, The Girl Who Owned a City, by O.T. Nelson, which I read in sixth grade. But I'll give the first book in this series a try.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">67. Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>68. Neal Shusterman – Unwind</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>69. Neil Gaiman – Coraline</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>70. Neil Gaiman – Stardust</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>71. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">72. P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>73. Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">74. Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1,</span></i> 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>75. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">76. Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>77. Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">78. Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere carnal over 40 winks</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">79. S.L. Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">80. Sabrina Bryan & Julia DeVillers – Princess of Gossip</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">81. Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">82. Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">83. Sarah Dessen – The Truth about Forever</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">84. Sara Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>85. Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan (1, 2)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">86. Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (1, 2, 3, 4) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>[I added the number 4 in there, because Extras is technically part of the series.]</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">87. Shannon Hale – Book of a Thousand Days</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">88. Shannon Hale – Princess Academy</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">89. Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">90. Sherman Alexie & Ellen Forney – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">91. Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1,</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"> 2, 3)</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">92. Stephanie Meyer – The Host </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">93. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga (1, 2, 3, 4)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>94. Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>95. Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">96. Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>97. Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>98. Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">99. Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>100. Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yeesh. That took a bit. Of course, I was looking at the descriptions on Goodreads before I decided if I wanted to put them in purple italics or not, so that took some time. So, as I predicted, the majority of this list is in purple italics. 51 out of 100 were in purple italics (want to read), 39 were in black (not interested in), and only 10 were in blue (already read). But I assure you, I've ready many more books, and definitely some of them have been YA. Also, just because I left a book in black doesn't mean I'll never read it. It simply means that I'm not really interested in it right now, but if someone has a compelling argument, I might read that book.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some great YA books that I think deserve to be on this list: Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan; Hourglass, by Myra McEntire; and Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins. I'm sure there are several more that I've read that I would include on a YA best list, but I can't think of any at the moment.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In other news, I have finally caught up with the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers">Vlogbrothers</a> videos! Now I've watched them all! Hoo Ha Nerdfighters! Now I'm going to go make a profile on their<a href="http://nerdfighters.ning.com/"> Nerdfighters website</a>. DFTBA to all you fellow Nerdfighters out there!</span></div></span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-3946432177176774192011-09-06T19:51:00.000-05:002011-09-06T19:51:05.492-05:00Book 10/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yesterday I was looking at my book shelves and my husband came up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was trying to figure out which book I should read next for my <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663">"Off the Shelf" Challenge</a>, since I only have 4 months left to finish and I still needed to read 6 more books. I told him that I wanted it to be kind of small, because I have a lot of other books that I want to read soon. He randomly grabbed a book from the shelf and held it out. It was small (120 pages), and it happened to be a book that qualifies for the challenge.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKQweUgF5-OgmmzrQIOxJNFrjTo6UxFH5RvMMH_LTjV759HZBCuy_fAgZVKHztpP-ZeaYIvCy8-_Z1qwZCbUaKz-HIKVE69xMWW5THPN9F9N5_qaiZI0CMkhMRSAIoS7oVGI6mZywD8sbi/s1600/Night+book+cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKQweUgF5-OgmmzrQIOxJNFrjTo6UxFH5RvMMH_LTjV759HZBCuy_fAgZVKHztpP-ZeaYIvCy8-_Z1qwZCbUaKz-HIKVE69xMWW5THPN9F9N5_qaiZI0CMkhMRSAIoS7oVGI6mZywD8sbi/s1600/Night+book+cover.JPG" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was <i>Night</i>, by Elie Wiesel. I grimaced and said, "But that's just depressing." Handing it to me, my husband said, "Oh, just get it over with." So I did. I started it last night and finished it today, which isn't something that happens very often with me. I have gotten faster with my reading in the past few years, but it still takes me a few days to read even the smallest of books, or even the quickest-paced, most engulfing reads (like <i><a href="http://themantisconnection.blogspot.com/2011/08/pottermore-glow-writing-and-more.html">Glow</a></i>). </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For those of you who don't know, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he, along with his family, was forced into concentration camps during the Holocaust. <i>Night</i> is his first-hand account of all that he went through during that time. Not the happiest of stories. I knew that it was a true story going in, thus the "But that's just depressing" comment above. But since I read so much fiction, I realized once I was a few pages into this book that I was treating it like it <i>was </i>fiction. My subconscious was taking in these characters, scenes, and events and making me think that they were part of a fictional tale. I <i>knew </i>it was a true story, but I flew through it, almost pretending that it wasn't true. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm not sure if I'm articulating this well. Let me just say that, while this book is not explicitly graphic, there are a lot of horrendous (and I mean <i>horrendous</i>) events mentioned throughout. Some of which dealt with small children. Actually, the first horrible event that is told in this story has to do with atrocious things happening to small children. And my brain just kind of clicked, tricking myself into temporarily pretending that this was all a tale of fiction. Occasionally something would happen and I would stop and think, "Whoa, that person was actually real. And he actually did and said that." But my mind would kind of shake away the thought and go back into novel-mode.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm sure my psychologist friends would say this was a kind of coping mechanism or something. Something to keep me from thinking too hard about such a depressing subject. I agree. That's totally what happened. I <i>couldn't </i>think too deeply about these things that he described, because I would unravel and then I wouldn't have been able to finish this wonderful book.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now, here, I want to clarify something. The fact that I couldn't think too hard about the events in this book <i>in no way</i> means that I think that this book was fiction. I know it was what actually happened to the author. I know that all of these horrible things (and countless others) <i>actually happened to millions of people.</i> I think the people who deny the Holocaust or say that it was a hoax have got to be the most ignorant people in the entire world. And obviously, it goes without saying that Hitler, and the Nazis, were some of the most evil, messed-up people in the entire history of the human race.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also want to say that, although I am not Jewish and I do not have any direct link to people who were killed or persecuted during the Holocaust, the way I read this book was in no way trying to belittle what happened to them. I will never know their pain, but I feel for them as strongly as anyone else. I also do not wish to go against Mr. Wiesel's impetus for writing this book: so that we don't forget, and so that it never happens again. The fact that I couldn't think too deeply about the events in this book as I read it does not mean that I will forget what happened, or that I will ever tolerate anything similar. The Holocaust goes against everything that I stand for as a person. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And even though I couldn't bring myself to think about the events in the book too deeply, I always knew that it was a true story, and that it was a story that needed to be told, and one that I needed to read. One that everyone needs to read.</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-23752854720412970712011-08-18T12:21:00.000-05:002011-08-18T12:21:34.866-05:00Book 9/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7L8VzNkYxLc-nOsQ5CtAoOMY4_WBIl1fqgiq3bM9GEGLDnEiyoCbkgqGOeMMLANy1Ym4mjWxQ14rgixh9wvj2f1ynCtDE_MNdbF9YkR_ztyWztujrMJLZoKR5noxyiU3SgFJDmJoQKOUK/s1600/lullaby+chuck+palahniuk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7L8VzNkYxLc-nOsQ5CtAoOMY4_WBIl1fqgiq3bM9GEGLDnEiyoCbkgqGOeMMLANy1Ym4mjWxQ14rgixh9wvj2f1ynCtDE_MNdbF9YkR_ztyWztujrMJLZoKR5noxyiU3SgFJDmJoQKOUK/s320/lullaby+chuck+palahniuk.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book Cover Photo courtesy of illiterarty.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The ninth book I read for the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663">"Off the Shelf" Challenge</a> was Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a <i>long, long </i>time. I saw <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/">Fight Club</a> in theaters when it came out in 1999, and soon after, I purchased the book that it was based on. I loved the movie, and enjoyed the book as well, and so a few years later, when I saw Lullaby on the shelf, I bought it as well. But I didn't read very much back then, and when I actually tried to read it I just couldn't get into it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then a few years later I tried reading it again, but I still couldn't get into it. I tried reading it just a couple years ago, but I was either pregnant at the time, or had just had my son, and so the fact that there are a lot of babies dying in the book made me put it down again.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So the other day, when I realized I only had 4 1/2 months to read 7 more books for this challenge, I remembered this book was sitting on the shelf. I had just re-watched Fight Club for a post I wrote over at Reviewsin5.com (<a href="http://reviewsin5.com/fillers-by-andrea/top-5-david-fincher-movies/">Top 5 David Fincher Movies</a>), and I thought, "Yeah, I should finally read that."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So the beginning was hard, because, like I said before, several babies die in the first part of the book. Now, it's not graphic but it's still hard to read when you're a parent, especially a parent of a young child. Here's a little background about the book before I go any further: Carl Streator is a journalist who has been assigned a story about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), but while investigating, he notices that most of the crime scenes include a book open to the same page. On the page is an African culling song, a lullaby that was traditionally read to the terminally ill, in hopes that they would die a peaceful death. So Streator goes hunting for all the books, along with a few other odd-ball characters, trying to destroy them all before the lullaby kills too many people. The problem is, he's got the lullaby in his head, and is inadvertantly killing people, simply by thinking the words to himself.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So the plot line, I think, is pretty cool. A lullaby that, said aloud (or even thought), can kill? And luckily the dead babies only appear at the beginning and at the very end, so once I got in the meat of the book I really enjoyed it. However, a lot of creepy stuff happens here and there, and the end is pretty messed up. I wish that some of the gross stuff had been left out, because I really don't think the story needed most of it. Although, I guess it wouldn't be Chuck Palahniuk without it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another thing I noticed when reading the book, is that there is a very strong voice throughout. Palahniuk's phrasing of sentences, his informal style, is such that, if I were to open one of his books without knowing the author, I would realize it was his work right from the beginning. I mean, that could be a good or a bad thing. He's got his own style, which sets him apart from others. But unfortunately, it could limit his writing. If all of his books <i>sound</i> the same, if they have the same <i>voice</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, then that voice becomes Palahniuk's voice, not the voice of his characters. Which means that either all his characters end up sounding the same, or the voice sounds weird on certain characters. Does this make any sense? It makes sense to me, but it's hard for me to articulate. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm really glad I finally got through this book. I mean, it's been sitting on my shelf for at least 6 years. But overall, I have to give this a 3/5, a medium ranking. While some of the story is great, I really didn't like certain parts. I would reccomend this book to others, but only to people who have read and loved other books by Chuck Palahniuk.</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-10610566573538236852011-08-11T20:20:00.002-05:002011-08-11T20:29:22.078-05:00Pottermore, Glow, Writing, and More...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wow, how long has it been since I've written a post? The beginning of June? Jeez. Well, we've been pretty busy over at <a href="http://reviewsin5.com/">reviewsin5.com</a>, so writing on my own blog which really has no major theme has fallen by the wayside...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, what has been happening? Well, if you've been under a rock you've missed the whole awesomeness that is <a href="http://www.pottermore.com/">Pottermore</a>! Basically it's an interactive website that allows Harry Potter fans (like me!) to explore the books and material in a new way. Highlights: you get to be sorted into a Hogwarts house and get a wand, both of which J.K. Rowling created the processes herself! Now I'll finally get to officially see if I'm a Hufflepuff like I think I am...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So Pottermore opens to all in October, but recently there was this thing called The Magical Quill challenge, where fans could solve clues to gain early access to the site. I was one of the lucky few to gain this early access (as were several of my friends)! Now we just have to wait until we get our Welcome email that will let us know that we can go ahead and get onto the site. Man, I try to be a very patient person, but it's proving to be quite hard waiting for that email!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've also been doing A LOT of reading. So far this year I've read 45 books! Granted, 17 of those were Sweet Valley High books, which are only around 150 pages each. But some of the other books have been pretty hefty! My original goal was to read 35 books this year, and I reached that number in May! Woohoo! Unfortunately, my other reading goal was to complete the <a href="http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/off-shelf-challenge.html#IDComment124035663">2011 Off the Shelf Challenge</a> by reading 15 books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while, waiting to be read. So far I've only read 8 for that challenge. But I still have 4 1/2 months to reach that goal!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsF3m3GilTAWFnkuR9SOo4RWAAgwivsOOYbByib1nIuplAD6-2RxllVaJFwPc7S0saXhOE1xRcjX-aTA6mlufjerDdhuNhg4jDYBp-FxFCo7QIdx469mFpLk14Cw103Wa1CBDXnYau_zv4/s1600/Glow+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsF3m3GilTAWFnkuR9SOo4RWAAgwivsOOYbByib1nIuplAD6-2RxllVaJFwPc7S0saXhOE1xRcjX-aTA6mlufjerDdhuNhg4jDYBp-FxFCo7QIdx469mFpLk14Cw103Wa1CBDXnYau_zv4/s1600/Glow+book+cover.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo copyright St. Martin's Press</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm super excited about one of the books I read recently. It's called <a href="http://www.amykathleenryan.com/glow.php"><i>Glow</i>, by Amy Kathleen Ryan.</a> I received an ARC through a giveaway on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a>, and the book will be released in late September. <i>Glow</i> is a young adult novel set in the future, where two spaceships are on course to "New Earth," where they hope to preserve the human race. The story revolves around two teenagers, Waverly and Kieran, who are poised to be the next leaders of their ship, the Empyrean. But when the inhabitants of their sister ship, the New Horizon, invade the Empyrean and kidnap some of the children, the ships' course changes and an impending battle thrusts Waverly and Kieran into those leadership roles earlier than they expected.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here's my review from Goodreads: </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">WOW! I LOVED this book! There is so much action and suspense throughout the whole novel that it was really hard for me to put it down, so I only stopped reading when I absolutely had to! </span></span> </blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">The characters are very complex; just when you think you have a character figured out, Amy Kathleen Ryan throws a wrench in your theory. I really found myself liking a lot of the characters, and even having sympathy for the antagonists. </span> </blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">There are a lot of themes going on in this book, the obvious ones being one's duty to their community, and morality vs. faith or lack thereof. The religion aspect gets a bit heavy near the end of the book, but I think Ryan did a good job with showing the advantages and disadvantages of both organized religion and atheism/agnosticism. </span> </blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19px;">The only problem I really had with the book is that it's not even published yet, and the ending is left wide open for sequels, which means fans will most likely have a LONG time to wait for the second book in the series.</span> </span></blockquote><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I <i>highly</i> recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA books, especially those who also love Science Fiction!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, I just (finally!) started editing my 2010 <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a> novel. I'm really excited about this book and I hope to have this 2nd draft ready for beta readers within the next few months. But I really have no idea how long it will take me to get this draft done...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Other than that I've been taking care of my nearly two-year-old son and working hard on <a href="http://www.reviewsin5.com/">Reviews in 5.</a> The site has been live for about 4 1/2 months now, and so far it's going great! Please visit the site and be sure to "like" us on Facebook! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That's all for now. Hopefully my next post won't be two months from now!</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4414065256859181675.post-4485967328744176062011-06-05T20:19:00.002-05:002011-11-06T00:58:10.524-05:00Book 8/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pandora.ca/pictures17/108509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.pandora.ca/pictures17/108509.jpg" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of pandora.ca</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In honor of <a href="http://towelday.org/">Towel Day</a> a week and a half ago, I decided that for my next book in the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, I would read the next book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams - <i>So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish</i>.</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I didn't like this one as much as I liked the first two in the series, and I guess it was about as good as the third. I still love Douglas Adams and his humor, but I just think the plots aren't quite up to par with the first two stories.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I really, really enjoyed the part about the sandwiches in British pubs being horrible. I mean, seriously, this is just great: "There is a feeling which persists in England that making a sandwich interesting, attractive, or in any way pleasant to eat is something sinful that only foreigners do." Hilarious! And then, couple paragraphs later: </span></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It is by eating sandwiches in pubs at Saturday lunchtime that the British seek to atone for whatever their national sins have been. They're not altogether clear what those sins are, and don't want to know either. Sins are not the sort of things one wants to know about. But whatever sins there are are amply atoned for by the sandwiches they make themselves eat.</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This man really is a comedic genius, as well as a writing genius! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also really enjoyed the story that Arthur told Fenchurch about the time a man ate his biscuits.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPDOypALTbAMenuTa53KQaowMEgknZzGcdUecGTaHk9Hfz4VTl_fl1tyo4xv6Xp8V9w0NIAK16r6nGAy8wpquKkKJTQkugkCneVmNLK3cw4-ZRG653hEZL8g5R7ofifnjSK5De5iJcZY_/s1600/So+long+and+thanks+for+all+the+fish+shirt+-+snorgteesdotcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPDOypALTbAMenuTa53KQaowMEgknZzGcdUecGTaHk9Hfz4VTl_fl1tyo4xv6Xp8V9w0NIAK16r6nGAy8wpquKkKJTQkugkCneVmNLK3cw4-ZRG653hEZL8g5R7ofifnjSK5De5iJcZY_/s320/So+long+and+thanks+for+all+the+fish+shirt+-+snorgteesdotcom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from my shirt - courtesy of snorgtees.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All in all, I still love these books and the stories and characters in them, but this one, along with <i>Life, the Universe and Everything, </i>just weren't as good as <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i> and <i>The Restaurant at the End of the Universe</i>. I <i>do</i>, however, have a shirt with this book's title on it - I bought it after seeing the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/">2005 movie version of <i>Hitchhiker's Guide</i></a>, and since I love that movie so much, I couldn't <i>not </i>buy the shirt when I saw it. Unfortunately, I've gained some weight since then and my goal is to get back into that shirt!</span>Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcasehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09536790368678245670noreply@blogger.com2