John Green Week: The Fault in Our Stars Release!

Happy The Fault in Our Stars 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!  


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.  


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.)


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 before 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!


Today I'm also excited about the release of A Million Suns by Beth Revis, which I should also be getting in the mail on Thursday.


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!

John Green Week: My Favorite Videos

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 John Green Week, hosted by I Eat Words and a whole lot of other bloggers.

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, The Fault in Our Stars, 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, Vlogbrothers.  The fans of these blogs are called Nerdfighters (and basically all that being a Nerdfighter means is that you're made of awesome).


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).


This one is of Hank trying to put on makeup like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games:

And this one is of John doing some Nerd exercises:

If those videos aren't a great introduction to Vlogbrothers, I don't know what is!  

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 Let It Snow and Zombicorns.  And The Fault in Our Stars, of course!) and I really enjoyed them all!

Here are a couple of my other favorite videos from the Vlogbrothers:

This is the origin of Nerdfighters, where John misreads a video game called Aero Fighters:

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:

And one more funny one from Hank - I love when he says "Marchy times":

I hope you enjoyed my favorite videos.  What are some of your favorite Vlogbrothers videos?

(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!)

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

(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!)


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 Breaking the Spine and I'm also participating in John Green Week, hosted by I Eat Words and several other blogs!

Photo copyright Penguin Group

The Fault in Our Stars
By John Green
Publication Date:  January 10, 2012

From Goodreads:  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.

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.

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.

Now 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 Let it Snow and Zombicorns.  I am a huge fan of his writing, and I really respect him as well as his brother, Hank.


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 Abducted by Books, and Tracy, from All About the Three R's, 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!)


So, for anyone who doesn't know, John Green is an author and has published several YA Contemporary novels (Looking for Alaska; An Abundance of Katherines; Paper Towns; and Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan 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!


John and his brother, Hank, also make hilariously funny, heartwarming, and awesome vlogs every week.  You can see their videos on their YouTube page, Vlogbrothers.  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.)


So, let me know, what book are you waiting on right now?