August....So Long!

I am so sorry for the lack of updates to the blog. I wish I could say that I have been traveling around Europe or something, but I have mainly been devoteing a lot of my time to job searching. I figure since I am an education major and school starts uh...very soon that I should really devote a lot of my time towards that.

Also, I read a post on zenleaf.blogspot.com (the blog is gone) that really made book blogging and reality hit home for me. She had a very long post about how she became a well known book blogger and spent a ton of time doing it and let her life kind of get out of control because of it. It was definitely a wake up call to me as a newbie book blogger. It made me think of how I spent my summer in both positive and negative ways...

That being said, I also have not been reading a lot lately. That TBR list that I made for August...yeah, I didn't get through much of it. At all. But I am back and on the reading kick.

Kiersten Writes: So, This Happened:

Kiersten Writes: So, This Happened:: "Variety broke the news that Ray Kay is attached to direct the Paranormalcy movie. Ray Kay is a music video director who works with really ..."

Vampire Diaries Season 3

Who's excited yet?

Kiersten White's Paranormalcy Made Into a Movie? Heck Yes!

"P-p-p-Paranormalcy!

Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa fans, rejoice! The guy who directed the Baby and Poker Face music videos will be making his feature film debut with Paranormalcy!

Director Ray Kay has signed on to direct the supernatural thriller based on Kiertsen White's book about "a teen who works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency and discovers she may be at the center of a dark prophecy predicting the destruction of all paranormal creatures."

We'll be VERY curious to see how Ray Kay does with a full length film! His music videos for Baby and Poker Face have 602.9 million and 97.2 million views on YouTube respectively…if he can attract audiences like that to go see his movie, he'll be alllllllllll set!

Will U go check out the music video director's feature film debut??"

Thanks from Perez Hilton

Now if we can please just have Anna and the French Kiss also made into a movie my life will be made...err for the next hour or so. Come on, those two always go together with everything it seems like...

To Read List for August

I have seen a lot of bloggers starting to post what they are planning to read for the last couple of months and I decided that I wanted to follow suit. I realize that we are almost halfway through August, but I feel like this will be a good way for me to organize and prioritize what I want to read during this month. This will also hold me accountable and finally, mention more book titles that I want to get to. I am going to try to keep this list realistic, but I know that I will be adding way more books than I will get to.

Right now I am reading It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

I hope to get my hands on a copy of We'll Always Have Summer and read it while it is still summer...

Hereafter- Tara Hudson
Nevermore- Kelly Creagh
Divergent- Veronica Roth
Die For Me- Amy Plum
Delirium- Lauren Oliver
If I Stay- Gayle Forman

I also want to get to Sarra Manning's kiss series, but I don't thikn that will be happening for August. I will be lucky if I finish three more books this month.
French Kiss
Kiss and Make Up
Sealed With a Kiss

Waiting on Wednesday (6) Shatter Me- Tahereh Mafi

Waiting on Wednesday (5)- Shatter Me- Tahereh Mafi
"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that I’m eagerly anticipating.


I want to do this a little differently since there are so many books that I seem to be waiting on. I want to highlight a book that is very close to coming out (next two months) and a little further out (3 months and beyond). If I get in the mood I might include even more than two books…

“Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old-girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.” (Good Reads)

November 15, 2011 HarperTeen

I have been hearing many good things about this book from bloggers who attended the BEA and were able to get their hands on an ARC of this.I’m not sure about the cover. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the covers that are coming out with a girl wearing a fancy dress, but with the premise of this book I am not sure this needs to be one. The pose that the model is doing is also a little awkward. To be honest I had planned out a story that had people with superpowers much like this one has, but then the t.v. show Hero’s came along…it’s really hard to capture the action that takes place when you have superpowers involved with the characters. I might have to revisit those notes someday…

Review The Summer I Turned Pretty- Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty –Jenny Han

“Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.” ( Good Reads)

I have to start off by saying that I absolutely adored this book. This is a series that never would have touched. I guess I have to thank the ladies at ieatwords for making me interesting in reading this book. This is a book that I would never have picked up simply because I used to feel like the summer romance books were a dime a dozen. There are so many of them out there, and lets face it, I need more lead up and relationship time for a genuine romance to start up between my couple before the summer is over and the school year begins again. And I don’t want an ending where the summer obviously comes to a close and the couple decides that it was better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all…yeah, garbage. We also don’t want one of the people to randomly move to attend high school with the other person. Can we say creeper?

But this book is different because Jenny Han gets around that (at least for me) because Isabel (Belly), the female protagonist goes to the same beach house (Cousins) to stay with her mother’s best friend. The mother’s best friend, Susannah happens to have two sons named Conrad and Jeremiah. Right from the start of the novel it is made clear that Susannah wants Belly to fall in love and marry one of her sons. I am such a sucker for crap like that.

The only thing that got a little confusing was how the book was laid out. The chapters go back and forth between the actual summer and past summers from when she was younger. So, if you have to walk away for the book for any amount of time it’s difficult to tell if it is the present summer that she is recalling a memory from. The reason for this is because Belly does have these little annoying qualities (and thank God) that she is only starting to grow up from. For one, she is really insecure and has an awkward time because of how she is changing and maturing. Also, she has to fight the urge to not stick her tongue out at the boys or tattle on them. She was kept apart from when her brother, Steve, would hang out with Conrad and Jeremiah so where does she belong now? These little flashbacks do help get background information about the characters personalities and also help explain why summer is such a special time.

This book is the ultimate summer time book. It does encompass what a lot of people think about the summer months even if you don’t have a fancy beach house to spend the summer at. I think that a lot of people will be able to relate towards this book at the same time. It helps that Belly is a great character. Trust me, this isn’t just a book that deals with who some girl is going to date. It’s much more than that. Who didn’t have that that awkward time when you invited a friend with you on vacation and you just…wish you didn’t? Only me? Right. Anyway, this book is about a lot more than who will Belly chose to be with. I even get the feeling that she won’t be with either one by the end of the third book, but who knows. I loved Conrad and Jeremiah for different reasons and I also loved Cam. I love how it even captures those bittersweet feelings of things coming to an end towards the end of the novel.

I checked this book out from the library and cannot wait to get my hands on the next two because I want to read while were still in the summer months. Get your hands on a copy of this book now!

IMM (6)

This in my mailbox is a little late this week because I was out of town for the weekend. IMM is hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren. This is a weekly meme that I really enjoy because it highlights a lot of books that I am interested in reading, but don’t have the time to read and/or write a review for.

From hometown library:
Everafter- Tara Hudson

I have been waiting to get my hands on this book and my library in WI does not have it, so I got it while in MN while I was in town visiting my family. Yep, I am sneaky like that.

Purchased:

The Summer I Turned Pretty-Jenny Han

It’s Not Summer Without You-Jenny Han

I have already read The Summer I Turned Pretty and loved it, so I will be purchasing this entire series. I am waiting for the last one to come out in paperback so that my set matches. I am anal like that.

Anna and the French Kiss-Stephanie Perkins

I have been waiting for this book to come out in paperback forever and now I have it. I am actually thinking about buying a second copy because I know that this one will probably get too much lovin.

The Vampire Diaries: Stephan’s Diary #3 Craving –L.J. Smith
I don’t think that this is L.J. Smith, but it is Vampire Diaries.

Waiting on Wednesday-The Name of the Star

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that I’m eagerly anticipating.

The Name of the Star- Maureen Johnson
“The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.

Soon "Rippermania" takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.” Taken from Good Reads

Maureen Johnson-Check

Jack the Ripper- Check

London-I’m In.

Out September 20th 2011

IMM (5)

IMM (5)

This in my mailbox is a little late this week because I was out of town for the weekend. IMM is hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren. This is a weekly meme that I really enjoy because it highlights a lot of books that I am interested in reading, but don’t have the time to read and/or write a review for.

This week from childhood library:

Imaginary Girls-Nova Ren Suma
Falling Under- Gwen Hayes

From new library:
Divergent- Veronica Roth
The Goddess Test-Aimee Carter

I also picked up a couple of audio books at the library because I have never used them and I think that with all the driving I do that is a little absurd. In fact, I am a little angry at myself for never checking any audio books back when I was in college and had to drive around everywhere…

Anyway, I picked up:
Twilight-Stephanie Meyer
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim-David Sedaris
Eat, Pray, Love- Elizabeth Gilbert

I am about half way through the audio version of Twilight and will probably finish it on my drive home this weekend.
This week was a little interesting because I am back in my hometown for hospital check-ups and wedding planning. I put a couple of books on reserve at my old childhood library because I can get them faster there. Apparently not as many people want to read YA Lit there since the town is about the same size is where I live now…

Borrowed from my brother because I am a Disney freak:
Brainstorm- Don Hahn
Walt Disney- Bob Thomas
Purchased:
The Witching Hour- Anne Rice

I know that I will be in the mood to read this come September/October and there is no way I can read the whole thing in the time that the library would allow me to have it for. I could not find any of the other two copies I own so I went to a used book store and bought another to bring back with me.