Young Adult Book Bloggers

Knock Knock!

2009-02-25T16:17:00.001-08:00

So after I switched Young Adult Book Bloggers to a Ning location, it kind of died. I sent everybody invites, but if you didn't get one, please email me! You can find the new site at

www.youngadultbookbloggers.ning.com

Please head on over, make posts, and have fun!

All Five Stars: Fifth Edition

2008-12-30T07:40:00.000-08:00

Name: Gabbi
Blog: http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com/

Personal News: I just re-watched the '03 remake of Peter Pan for the thousandth time. I love that movie so much, has anyone watched it? The holidays are still going strong, so I'm off school (yay) but there's a couple projects I need to get started on!

Blogging News: On Sunday, I posted a review for Heather Vogel Frederick's Mother-Daughter Book Club. Earlier on, I wrote about all the book gift cards I got for Christmas and wondered if I should get Cassandra Clare's highly praised City of Bones.

Reading News: Right now, I'm reading an ARC of Julia Hoban's Willow...and loving it! It's refreshing to read a love story that isn't so happy-go-lucky, but still full of hope. It comes out April '09 and you better get it!

All Five Stars: Fourth Edition

2008-12-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

Name: Gabbi
Blog: http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com/

Personal News: Lots of interviews and schoolwork and paperwork. Fun! In fact, right now I'm supposed to be fleshing out a holiday-themed essay. Wish me luck!

Blogging News: I've done a couple reviews, as well as some full-on rants. One was about the Jacob vs. Edward debacle and the other was on why I love trashy novels so much. Can't help it! Just read Sara Shepard's 'Wicked,' the latest novel in the Pretty Little Liars series! Not as juicy as the last book, but I still couldn't put it down!

Reading News: Right now, I'm reading 'The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez.' It's quite amazing, but the plot has only just started moving so we'll see how it goes. The titular Sonia is probably the best thing about the book - even if I can't vouch for any of the racial stereotypes she battles, I can still see myself (and lots of people I know) in her.

I'm FINALLY Remembering. :)

2008-11-10T11:04:00.001-08:00

So, it's been a while and I haven't posted for a while, but I'll try to get you updated. :)

Personal News: Same old, same old. Busy and all that crap all the time. I'm pretty sure that my story is the same as everybody else's right now.

Blogging News: I started a new idea on my blog called Cover Craziness. I hope to post one every week of covers that I am in love with. :) I had been in a reading lull and have read one book in just over two weeks, so there haven't been too many new reviews up. I have one on the way... I just have to write it now! lol.

Reading News: As I said up there, I have been in a reading lull and have read one book in just over two weeks, which was Death by Latte by Linda Gerber. This book just made me want to read Death by Denim even more! I can't wait for it. :)

That's it for now. Maybe I'll remember next week. :)

hope.

All Five Stars: Third Edition

2008-10-15T05:12:00.000-07:00

Name: Gabbi
Blog: http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com/

Personal News: Overloaded with homework, good thing my procrastination skills would rival any high school slacker's. The outcome of my fair nation's election: a Conservative minority government. Is this not exactly what we had before? Oh, Stephen Harper. You didn't even look particularly happy at your party. Tsk, tsk.

Blogging News: Just finished up a contest for the YA/chic lit novel, The Celebutantes: On The Avenue. Winner to be announced Sunday. Recently asked the faithful, lovely readers of my blog if they had an idea as to what book I should do a report on for my end-of-term project. Latest review was Amy Belason and Jacob Osborn's Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year.

Reading News: Currently reading Emily Franklin's stand alone novel, At Face Value. It's a modern retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac tale. Except "Cyrano," is a big-nosed, ambitious, and snarktastic teenager named Cyrie. Good so far, but not "WOW!" On the other hand, it's not "WOW! This makes me want to hurl!"

Suggested Topic: My personal favourite point-of-view to read is first person. Second person is extremelly annoying, although I could deal with the odd chapter being written in the "You" format. Third is okay, it can span a lot of characters' emotions, but it makes it hard to really fall in love with a single character.

Book Chic: Eighth Edition

2008-10-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Suggested Topic: I read a TON of good books. I'll keep the list down to just a few.

1) How to Be Bad by Lauren Myracle, Sarah Mlynowski, and E. Lockhart
2) Girlwood by Claire Dean
3) Violet in Private by Melissa Walker
4) Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
5) Getting the Girl by Susan Juby
6) The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
7) Falling Under by Danielle Younge-Ullman
8) Into the Wild and Out of the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
9) Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year by Amy Belasen and Jacob Osburn
10) In Your Room by Jordanna Fraiberg
11) Alive and Well in Prague, New York by Daphne Grab

And yes, that is me just limiting it to a few, lol.

Reading News: I thought last week was low-key, but this week was just dead! I only just finished How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier, which I'd been reading for the past week, and started Dear Julia by Amy Bronwen Zemser tonight. Yeah, it's been a bad week for reading.

Blogging News: Posted a review of HTDYF just like 10 minutes ago- that's really been about it.

Personal News:
1) Had not heard from job, so just assuming I didn't get it. Put in an application for a library assistant position, and got apps to B&N (my third one now) and this local movie theatre for a management position. Did a couple apps online.

2) Had TONS of fun at Maggie Stiefvater's launch party. She brought Krispy Kreme donuts which were very YUM! Got my book signed and was a happy little gay boy. Met up with my friend Lee and his friends at their place and watched the movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was REALLY good and funny, while eating Chinese food. A very laugh-filled night. Spent the night with Lee and then came home the next day. Fun times. Also, unfortunately, no pics up yet of the launch event. :( Hopefully by next Tuesday though!

3) Our cat Maya is in heat and about a week before she started, we took in a male stray cat, so now we have to keep them separated, esp. since they tried to mate last night. Luckily, I pulled him off her before anything really happened and put him back in his room. Probably going to be taking him to the shelter at some point soon.

And I guess that's all for this week!

Harmony Has Finally Remembered!

2008-10-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

Name: Harmony
Website: http://harmonybookreviews.wordpress.com

Personal News: I am SO in over my head right now. It's crazy. I am (still) behind on reviews, though I have been posting more frequently lately. I also have a bunch of personal projects going on. These would include sending care packs to the soldiers, getting ready for a yard sale this weekend, participating in marching band, making Christmas cards for me and soldiers, and working to raise money for the ASPCA's Equine Fund. The last one is definitely the most time consuming. I'm trying to elimate the others so I can dedicate a ton of time to it. But, if you guys want to help (and I'll love you forever if you do), check out myspace.com/charityautographs. I would seriously appreciate it!

Blog News: Um...Well, I haven't exactly been the best blogger lately. I'm working on getting posts scheduled so that they post more frequently, though. I do have a few reviews to type up tonight.

What do you guys think of my new review style?

Also, are there any of you who want to do either a guest blog or interview on my blog?

Reading News: I haven't been the best reader either. As mentioned, I've been pretty busy. BUT, I have managed to read atleast two books a week (I think). Last week I read The Secrets of Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson which I enjoyed but found boring at parts and Extras by Scott Westerfeld which I absolutely loved.

I also recently read The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Holycrap. What a great book. I'm forcing my English teacher to read it right now.

Right now, I'm reading Secrets of my Hollywood Life: Family Affairs and I absolutely love it. It's one of those books that you just fly through because it's so fun.

Suggested Topic: I don't really know. I read a bunch of good ones. I really enjoyed Violet in Private and I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone was great. BUT, if I had to choose, I'd say Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt. Absolutely amazing. Love, love, LOVE it.

The Book Muncher: Third Edition

2008-10-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Rachael
Blog Name/Alias: The Book Muncher
Website URL: http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com/

Personal News:
As some of you may have undoubtedly noticed, I haven’t been blogging on YABB for…a while now. Why? Because I am so darn forgetful. Every week it works like this: Oh, Sunday’s coming, I guess I’ll write a post then. Then Sunday comes and goes and on Monday, I realize that I have forgotten to write my post. Which is why this one has been scheduled about a week in advance!

Sadly, I have limited computer access now because my computer got a virus a while ago. Thankfully it’s fine and I didn’t lose any of my files. Unfortunately, now I have practically NO internet or computer access at all.

Also, I’m doing a little promoting here for the new YA mass contributor blog called Stupid Blog Name (lovely, isn’t it?). It’s a bit similar to several other awesome YA groups blogs like Teen Fiction Café and Books, Boys, Buzz. It was started by the fabulous Michael Grant and his wife Katherine Applegate, and so far there are a lot of amazing contributors, including Meg Cabot (eek!! YA royalty!), Carol Snow (author of Switch), and The [very wonderful] Story Siren, just to name a few. Oh, and did I forget? I am also a contributor, the *only* teen one, a fact I find incredibly cool and one I won’t be able to get over for a while.

Another extremely cool thing just happened to me: my review of The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard (a book I reviewed for Reader Views Kids), was reposted on Reuters! (You know that huge news website?!?!?!) Well, I am beyond thrilled about that :D and I hope you’ll check it out here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/entertainment?bbPostId=CzAIQvvUp5TemBAbNOHE7N2nRCz7EdlIXZH4EJCzDZe7hWWWAhX

Blog News:
All my posts have been scheduled, because it just makes my life so much easier. I’ve got reviews scheduled along with a couple of interviews and RAD. My contest for The Brothers Torres has come to a close, but I should be having a couple more soon, one for Moonstone by Marilee Brothers and another one in celebration of getting 25000 hits (by now it’s almost 30000). I plan to give away some pretty amazing books that pain me to part with (okay, maybe I just want to spread these amazing stories around), which everyone can love.

I’ve just realized just how behind I am in this blog! A while ago (how long I don’t remember), The Book Muncher exceeded the 25000 mark for hits!! Trés exciting for me. My blog was also nominated, along with several others, for Best Young Adult Lit Blog during Book Blogger Appreciation Week. No, I did not win, but it was cool to make it to be a finalist nonetheless.

Reading News:
I seem to have hit sort of a reading slump, which saddens me. I’m actually reading the largest amount of books I’ve ever read at once: 4. That’s right, I usually read only one book at once. But currently, I’m reading Reflections of a Khmer Soul by Navy Phim, a memoir by a Cambodian American who survived the Khmer Rouge regime; The Skull by S.D. Tooley, a mystery about a human child’s skull; Goldengrove by Francine Prose, about a teen girl who is dealing with her sister’s death; and Amor and Summer Secrets by Diana Rodriguez Wallach, which I have just started and probably will finish first (I was also pleasantly surprised to learn my copy was signed!)

Suggested Topic: What’s your favorite book that you read this summer?
Well, I actually don’t know considering I read maybe 40 or 50 books this summer. If I had to narrow it down, my favorites (since I can never just pick one) were How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier; How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle; Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall; and Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers. I bet there’s more that I’ve forgetten.

Simply Books: Second Edition

2008-10-03T16:08:00.001-07:00

Wow, I have not posted in forever! I've been extremely busy, though, with school, homework, tennis, more school, more homework, etc, etc. Anyway, onto my post!

Reading News: Right now I'm reading Tithe by Holly Black, and I hate it. I would stop reading it, but I have to review it for Pulse IT. But a review should be up by tomorow, perhaps? Books I have recently reviewed include City of Bones and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare. Those books are amazing, everyone should read them. I also finished Death By Latte by Linda Gerber, which was pretty good.

Blogging News: Nothing that interesting, except I interviewed an author for the first time! That was exciting. I interviewed SarahBeth Carter, whose debut novel Meeting Lizzy was published a few weeks ago.

Suggested Topic: My favorite book this summer? Ooh, this is a hard one. I really want to say Breaking Dawn, but I think that sounds too cliche, haha. So it's a tie between The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. Both books are excellent.

Toodles!
Megan
Simply Books

Book~Adorer - Third Edition

2008-10-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

Website Name: Book~Adorer
URL: http://book-adorer.blogspot.com

Reading News: I just started reading Breaking Dawn and so far it's allright. It is a little daunting to see how thick it is, though. I love quick reads and try to finish books in one day. This will definitely take me a couple. I finished the Bella's first part which was entertaining. And just started Jacobs, which is not so entertaining. So we'll see how this turns out. I recently finished The Hunger Games and Death by Bikini. The Hunger Games was magnificent. I loved it and I just wanted to suggest it to the rest of you guys. It's not worth passing this one up. I think i'll be reading Zombie Blondes next which i'm excited about, really, just because the cover's awesome. I love looking at it.

Blogging News: Not to much here. I changed my background for a more fallish look. It's more of fall with a fun twist. I love it. It was fun putting it up and stuff. I also have a contest going on for a signed copy of 'I Heart You, You Haunt Me' by Lisa Schroeder. It also comes with a bookmark and postcard that are so cute. So i'm hoping to get a good turn out for that.
Do people not comment anymore? I used to get some people commenting while no one answered my polls. Now I have a couple people a day checking out my poll while no one comments. It just totally switched. But, hey, I guess atleast they're around, huh.

Suggested Topic: My fave book of the summer would have to be between - Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Gehrman , The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (does September count as summer?), The Possibilities of Sainthood by Donna Freitas. Confessions of a..... - because it was hilarious. It was the cutest, laugh-out-loud romance novel and totally perfect for summer. The Hunger Games was just totally different and so enthralling. It captured your attention and left you at the edge of your seat. The Possibilities of Sainthood was more of a personal fave. I really connected with the characters from living overseas and having parents from a different country who acted just like the family from this book. And you just couldn't help caring for the main character and her boy dilemmas. Her main goal (to be a Saint) was also kind of nice to hear instead of the usual - Actress, Rock Star, etc. So, those were my personal favorites this summer.

Thanks, for reading and i'll be keeping in touch. And stop by! Ciao!

Book~Adorer

All Five Stars: Second Edition

2008-10-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Name: Gabbi
Website Name: All Five Stars
Website URL: http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com

Reading News: Currently, I'm reading "Haters," by Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez. It's pretty good; very different than what I expected. There's a bit of an almost fantasy-like aspect thrown in, which I wasn't expecting. Hopefully, I'll have a review up by the end of the week.

Blogging News: I reviewed "Never Play Leapfrog with a Unicorn," and blogged about my adventures during a book fair-type thing in my city - where I was ogled by a semi-famous sci-fi author and met a Holocaust survivor. And that's where it got weird...

Suggested Topic: Personally, my favourite part of my blog is actually writing the reviews. It's amazing how one book can awaken different feelings in different people. I've reviewed books that I - gah, I hate the word "hated," so - really disliked, only to have people comment and say they loved it! It's really fun when the authors get involved, too. Like in the case of my book-shredding review of Who's Your Daddy?

Personal News: Lots of school stuff, studying, no homework (thankfully) and getting published in the school paper for the first time.

Book Chic: Seventh Edition

2008-09-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Suggested Topic: I think my favorite thing would have to be the Ask Book Chic posts and the contests. I love the ABC because it fulfills my need to answer questions (you have no idea how much I love that; it's why I had a really popular advice/question thread on the old Meg Cabot forums before they switched over to the new format) and also it gives my blog readers a chance to get to know me better, which I know they enjoy. I love the contests because I like making people happy and winning a book gives them that. Plus, I love doing the randomizer and figuring out the winners. Yeah, I'm a huge nerd, lol.

Reading News: Pretty low-key this past week. Finished reading Out of the Pocket and Must Love Black, which I started when I posted my entry last week, and also Poison Ink by Christopher Golden. I also started How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier.

Blogging News: Posted reviews of the above books and did a short QnA with Kelly McClymer to accompany that review.

Personal News: Just doing list form for this:

1) No word yet from the job- gonna call them later this week.

2) Saw Mamma Mia at the dollar theatre and loved it, so I now own the soundtrack, lol.

3) Had a date last night (Monday) and had a really wonderful time, and it looks like there'll be a second date hopefully sometime soon! :) YAY!

4) Heading to Richmond, VA on Friday for the launch party of Maggie Stiefvater's book Lament: The Faerie Queen's Prophecy. I'm really looking forward to it, and it should be lots of fun. :) Will try and get pics, but if not, I'll link you guys to someone who will have pics AND video of the event! If anyone else lives near there and is planning on going, shoot me an email or leave a comment and perhaps we could meet up at the signing and hang out! :)

Hope's Bookshelf: Fourth? Edition

2008-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Hope
Website Name: Hope's Bookshelf
Website URL: http://www.princess2293.blogspot.com.

Reading News: I reread Wake by Lisa McMann this week. :D I also finished Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (finally!). I'm working on reading Generation Green right now.

Blogging News: I posted an interview with Elizabeth Scott here. Today I posted the information for my newest idea. It's a annual Young Adult Book Awards. There's a bunch of different categories, and you can nominate three books for each category. In December, you vote. The top five books for each category make it on to the voting. In early January, the winners will be announced. For more information about it, click here.

Suggested Topic: What's Your Favorite Thing About Your Blog?

I don't know if I really do have one favorite thing about my blog. Right now, I will admit that I'm really, really, really excited about the YA Book Awards. I hope they go over well with everybody else. I like the fact that my blog has grown so much in just a short span of time. I started the blog in January, and just in nine short months, the blog has grown a lot. I now have a lot of regular readers, and a lot more incredible books to read. I think that's my favorite thing. And being able to recommend amazing books to amazing readers. :D

Personal News: BUSY. Busy. busy. That's what I am right now. lol. Here's the reason: HOMECOMING WEEK IS HERE! Oh dear. It felt like so long ago when we had just started planning. haha. I have all my regular activities plus a Powderpuff Game, a football game, a dance, and five Spirit Days to plan for. 'Tis shall be interesting. And it doesn't help that I woke up Friday with a cold! The universe is out to get me. lol.

Until next week,
hope.

All Five Stars: First Edition

2008-09-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

Name: Gabbi
Alias: None
Website URL: http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com/

About Me: Um, I'm a teenage girl who loves the Internet, books (naturally...) and tennis. I'm too opinionated about politics that have nothing to do with the country I live in. Reading is my passion, but I also enjoy forensics, anything to with science, and keeping my bookshelf in perfect alphabetical order!

Reading Now: I just started reading Never Play Leapfrog With A Unicorn by Frank Bosworth. I'm not sure it's classified as YA, but it doesn't seem ridiculously inappropriate or anything (which seems to be a hot topic as of late... you know, what is acceptable for young adults to read?) I try not to read more than one book at a time, especially when I plan to review them. It just gets way too confusing for me!

Blog News: I posted a review for Lynda Sandoval's 'Who's Your Daddy?'. My review was...less than glowing, but you can check it out if you want. On Saturday I reviewed 'Keeping The Moon' by the ever amazing Sarah Dessen. Earlier last week, I had my first author interview with Shobhan Bantwal.

On Topic: Fantasy is definitely one of my favourite genres and I think the popularity for it is growing within YA. I hate to admit it, but it's probably due to successful series like Twilight. Fantasy is great because it's usually controversial without ever having to do with the now-cliche, typical and boring topics of sex, drugs, or alcohol. There's just so much room to be creative.

Book Chic: Sixth Edition

2008-09-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Suggested Topic: I love fantasy. One of the first authors I read when I started reading seriously again was Terry Pratchett (and he was pretty much the only author for a while there). He writes a series called Discworld where there's no specific order to read the books in, and each one usually centers around different characters, and these characters are in more than one novel (The Witches are in both Lords and Ladies and Maskerade, along with a few others). I love reading fantasy because it's so much fun. It's a completely different world where magic and mythical creatures abound, but at least in Pratchett's books, the lessons learned or the issues brought up can sometimes provide commentary for the same issue in our own world. The key of good fantasy, in my opinion, is that it's imaginative, but still relateable for the reader and not too out there. In recent news, Terry actually has a new book coming out next Tuesday in the YA section- you can read my review of it here.

Reading News: Finished Death by Latte, Switch, Skinned, Class Favorite, and Total Knockout. Started Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg and Must Love Black by Kelly McClymer.

Blogging News: Posted my reviews of Death by Latte and Switch, along with a QnA with Carol Snow as well as reviews of Skinned, Class Favorite and Total Knockout, along with QnAs with both authors and the September Edition of Ask Book Chic!! So go comment on them if you missed reading any of them! :)

Personal News: Finally had a job interview this past Friday and hopefully I'll get the job. I'll keep you all posted. Also, the guy who interviewed me was WAY hot, and only like a year or so older than me. So some good boss eyecandy, hehe. And tomorrow (Wednesday) I have an interview with the local library for a volunteer position, so hopefully that'll go well. Wish me luck on both! By this time next week, I'll probably hear about both positions, but definitely from the actual job, which is more important anyway since I need money! BADLY.

Bookworm Readers: Second Edition

2008-09-22T10:59:00.001-07:00

Name: Claire

Alias: Bookworm

Blog Name: Bookworm Readers

Blog URL: www.bookwormbooklovers.blogspot.com

Hey YA Book Bloggers! I'm baaaack! I'm currently sick at home, reading like a maniac, so I've decided to make another post. Here goes...

Reading News: I'm currently smack-dab in the middle of Elizabeth Scott's Stealing Heaven, and I can't say that I'm terribly impressed by it. In fact, I'm just ready for it to be over. It's one of those books that doesn't really have a plot, it just plods along. I want it to end already, but I also want to keep on reading. You know? I'm kind of disappointed because I've heard such great things about it from my friends and other book bloggers, but I don't see it in this book. Do you think I should keep on reading? On my shelf I have a whole buttload of ARCs and books sent to me from authors that I need to get crackin' on and review. And last week I finished Shannon and Dean Hale's Rapunzel's Revenge (review coming soon!). I was amazed; it was truly fantastic. Seriously. The artwork was TDF. I've also got a T-O-N of library books: Fresh off the Boat by Melissa De La Cruz, Accidentally Fabulous by Lisa Barham, This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous by Nina Beck, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt, and The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper. And my pal lent me the first Inside Girl book by J. Minter. So I'm going to be pret-ty busy...LOL

Blogging news: I've got 2 new features on Bookworm Readers this week: The Monday Muse was introduced this morning. Every week, I'll have a different author featured through an interview, guest blog, or vlog. Today's was Micol Ostow (check out her blog's release party-it's totally rockin'.) as our first Muse. I'm really excited, it's going to be F-U-N!!!!! Also, there's Friday Flashbacks, which is when I'll review a favorite old picture book. It should be good, it'll bring back some old memories for sure. (;

Personal News: Well, I'm supposed to be "resting" so I can head on back to school tomorrow. I think I'll go eat some Jell-O now....

Keep on Reading!

Claire

a/k/a Bookworm <3

Hope Loves Scheduled Posting. :D

2008-09-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Hope
Website Name: Hope's Bookshelf
Website URL: http://www.princess2293.blogspot.com.

Reading News: I haven't finished any books this week, but I have started Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. I'm about halfway finished and I'm loving it so far. I'm also reading Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, which is freaking huge. I got Generation Green in the mail and I hope to start that one this week too, since it sounds really good.

Blogging News: This week, I changed my backround! Yes! Thanks to Kristi (The Story Siren) for helping me out, because I'm practically clueless about HTML stuff. I posted a list of my favorite blogs for Book Blogger Appreciation Week here. I also posted a review for House of Dance by Beth Kephart here.

Suggested Topic: The Fantasy Genre.

I haven't read too much out of this genre, but I've been getting into it more and more lately. First, I got interested in vampire books. I never knew that there was such a variety of vampire books until I started finding out about more of them. I have also read City of Bones which deals with a lot of fantasy stuff. I'm reading City of Ashes now, and I cannot believe how much I like the fantasy genre - it was never something I read when I was younger.

Personal News: The next few weeks will probably be spare as far as reading goes, sadly. Homecoming is in two weeks (we just got my dress - it's so pretty :D) and I'm on Student Government and we're working our butts off to get everything done on time. I'm co-chair for one of the committees - planning the Pep Rally - and so it shall be interesting. :p In other news, my mom and I went and ordered my Varsity Jacket this week! I'm so excited, because I earned my letter as a freshman for choir and I'll have it as a sophomore. :D

hope.

Booked Books: Third Edition?

2008-09-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

booked-books.blogspot.com
(Rowan)

I think this is my third edition? Can't remember. Yep, let's just go with that.

Anyway, I thought it would be good to drop by and see how you guys are doing!

Personal news: School is insane! I didn't think it would consume that much of my free time. I barely have time to do any reading now, unless you count textbooks, of course. I get around one to three pop quizzes everyday, so I always have to be ready for all my classes at all times. I average about 3 to 5 hours of sleep every night.

The weekends are even crazier. Since my teachers assume that students don't have lives or something, they pile even more work during weekends. I'll try to catch up on blogging stuff soon, but I wouldn't count on it.

So, in short, I haven't been reading (I have around 10 books to review and fifteen more books to read?) and school sucks.

I'm going to be so dead when my clubs start next week...

Suggested topic: Fantasies are awesome. These are actually the types of books I started out reading with when I just started reading books in novel format.

I like my fantasies to have a realistic aspect. I mean just because it's a fantasy, it doesn't mean that the author shouldn't have set rules for their world. I hate it when books break their own rules just to satisfy the plot.

The SS: Second Edition

2008-09-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

Kristi
The Story Siren
http://www.thestorysiren.com/

Yes, I’m back again. I know I can hardly believe it myself! Anyway, on to the topic, “How do you approach authors?

Well, if I want an author for an interview or a guest post. I usually just email them. Most of the time, I mean 99.9% of the time I’ve gotten a response. Whether to kindly decline or to ask for more information. Now that I have a regular feature of author visits I even have some email me to ask to stop by which is pretty cool.

I’ve never asked an author to send me a book to review. I know a lot of other reviewers do, but I’m just not comfortable doing it. I have asked two publishers for a book however, and I actually received the review copies, so it would probably work for an author as well. I don’t think it is wrong to ask, I know that some authors prefer it even, but I’m just the type of person that would rather be asked than to do the asking. I guess I must have an underlying fear of rejection or something.

But I’m going to agree with Book Chic and say that it never hurts to ask. I mean the worse that can happen is that they’ll say no or that you won’t hear back from them.

Book Chic: Fifth Edition

2008-09-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Suggested Topic: In regards to approaching authors, I was much different than other new bloggers. I started my site in late June of last year, just about a month before Jinx by Meg Cabot was released. I wanted to do an interview with Meg on my site, so I figured I had nothing to lose if I just emailed her to ask. Most bloggers are scared to email a regular author, but to email a big name like Meg Cabot right off the bat? Pretty much unheard of. I asked shortly after I made the site because I wanted to have it done in time for Jinx's release and I knew she always got tons of email so I wanted to give her a lot of time to get back to me. So guess when she got back to me? The next night. Yeah, that's right. THE NEXT NIGHT. Not only that, she also offered me a Jinx ARC as well as extra goodies and if anyone's received a package from Meg, they should know that when Meg says "extra goodies", she does not just mean a bookmark or two. She goes ALL OUT. I got a ton of stuff in that package- it seriously made my day and I think it was the first ARC I received from an author. Not only that, but she even remembered me from her book forums since I'm pretty much the only guy on that site. Though I'm not entirely sure how she knew it was me, lol.

So yeah, my advice is that it never hurts to send an email to an author because the worst that can happen is that they don't respond. But more often than not, they will respond, and fairly quickly too.

Reading News: Been doing quite a bit of reading since last week. Finished Dead is the New Black, Popular Vote, Death by Bikini, and Swimming with the Sharks. Almost done with Death by Latte. And recently started Switch and Skinned.

Blogging News: Posted reviews of the books I finished, as well as QnAs with each of the authors. Also, posted my review of Play Me, which I finished early last month so I could do a co-post on Guys Lit Wire with Little Willow. Coming up soon will be reviews of Death by Latte, Skinned, Switch, Class Favorite and Total Knockout by Taylor Morris, as well as the September edition of Ask Book Chic.

Personal News: Finally got around to cleaning up my room (sorta- only did about half of it) and in making my book piles more clean and tidy, I separated them into piles set in a row of books I've read and books I have yet to read (either for review or books I've bought or been given as a gift). I'll probably take a picture of both rows later today and post them some other time so people can see how many books I have- just to prepare people, it's a LOT. REALLY. Some of you may be shocked to see just how many books I own. So you've been warned.

Until next time, have a great week, everyone!!

Carol(ina)

2008-09-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Alias: Bookluver-Carol
Blog: www.bookluver-carol.blogspot.com

Hey guys,

This is the first time I post something here in 1 month and 11 days. Wow that's a long time. I've been really busy esp. on Mondays. There's something about Mondays that make me so lazy. Do Mondays make anyone else feel this way?

Reading News:

Well I've gotten a lot of reading done this past week. I have about 20 books that I read that I have to post reviews on but I've been slacking off. I'm currently reading The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie, Marked by P.C. Cast, Paper Towns by John Green, Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde, and Vent de folie en Californie by Jody Gehrman (I'm trying to practice my French. I just realized that I haven't been taught almost anything in French).

Blogging News:

Well I've been posting some reviews and having some contest. I love contests! I love having them and entering them. But what I love the most? It's winning them, although I haven't won any in a long time. Thanks to school there hasn't been any free time left for me to leave comments in other blogger's blogs. So don't think that I'm ignoring you or that I don't read your posts, cuz I do. :)

Suggested Topic:

How do you write your reviews?

1. Look for the book's pic, save it, upload it and choose on which side to put it at.
2. Look for the best summary (I don't write my own. I find it hard not to add spoilers to my summaries), the copy and paste it. Thank you Amazon!
3. Take a 30 min break. Surf the 'net.
4. Write the first 2 sentences of the review.
5. Take a 10 min break.
6. Write the rest of the review.
7. Read it and edit it.
8.Surf the 'net.
9.Read it yet again, and then edit it some more.
10. Post it and start again.

How do you approach authors?

Well I e-mail them I guess or message them through Myspace, Goodreads, or Facebook. I thought that they would never reply or that they had someone else that read/checked their e-mail. I was way wrong. Mostly I write telling them that I liked/loved their book and if they would be interested in doing an interview. A lot of them actually write back and they're happy that I e-mailed them in the first place.

So I guess that's it for today. Hopefully I'll remember to post something next Monday. :P

Hope's Bookshelf: Third Edition

2008-09-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

Name: Hope
Website Name: Hope's Bookshelf
Website URL: http://www.princess2293.blogspot.com.

Reading News: Since I last posted, I've read one book. It was Death by Bikini and it was really good! I got towards the middle/end on Friday night, but had to go to sleep because I kept falling asleep, and it was so suspenseful that I had dreams about the book that night. haha. When I woke up on Saturday, I immedietly started reading it, and finished that morning. Now, I can't wait to get Death by Latte... but my library doesn't have it yet. :(

Blogging News: There hasn't been too much on the blog since I've gone back to school. I have books to be reviewed here, I just don't have too much time to post. But this week, I posted a review for Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer here. The YouTube video and me and my friend Ashley made for that review can be viewed here if you don't want to read the review. I also posted an interview with Diana Rodriguez Wallach here.

Suggested Topic: How do you contact authors?
I don't really have a set way of contacting them. Most of the time I'm not asking for books or anything, I just want to find out what they thought when they wrote this part of the book, or what their inspiration was, or even just why they wanted to write the book. When I started blogging, I never, ever imagined that I'd be talking to authors. Like... never ever. I didn't even know these wonderful things called ARCs even existed when I started blogging. And, at first, when I contacted authors, I'd be nervous, like, "What if they don't reply...?" I've found that most authors do reply because they like hearing things from their readers, and if they don't, I understand - they have lives, too. So.. yeah. That's pretty much it for this part.

Personal News: I've survived the first full week of school! haha. It wasn't that bad. I am no co-chair of the Pep Assembly Committee and on the Programs Committee for Homecoming. Key Club starts this week. On Saturday, me and my friend hung out and together we made the YouTube video for Eighth Grade Bites, which was really fun. :D

This weekend was fun, but it was rainy the whole weekend. Like, Saturday, it just rained all day and never stopped once - not even kidding. Since Michigan isn't exactly in the path of the hurricanes, we just get all the rain left over. The weather people have said it's supposed to stop raining today, and I hope so, because this weekend seemed really depressing because of all the rain. I couldn't even go to the football game Friday! :( It's not homecoming, but we played our biggest rival school, which is the town right over. We did end up winning, but who would go to a football game in the rain?

I'm going to shut up now, because I have to get ready for school. :D

hope.

Overload!

2008-09-14T19:22:00.001-07:00

Name: Cassandra

Blog: A World in the Pages

URL: http://www.aworldinthepages.blogspot.com/

You might not have seen me for a while. And yes, I have an excuse! School started the week after my first – and last – post, and since then I've been overloaded with homework, sports, and other afterschool stuff. I've been auditioning for plays, trying to keep up with my homework and maintaining my social life. The time I have left over I use to keep myself sane – reading. So of course my blog has been slipping, slowly draining down the hole like water from a bathtub. I just barely manage to keep afloat by writing my posts on the margins of my math homework.

So how does everyone else do it? How do you keep your blogs up through school, where insane French teachers plague you with tests and sadistic English teachers spring papers on you every other day?! Help, please! For the sake of my sanity!

– Cass

Reading Keeps You Sane: 1st Edition

2008-09-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Kelsey
Website Name: Reading Keeps You Sane
Website URL: http://readingkeepsyousane.blogspot.com/ http://www.myspace.com/readingkeepsyousane

About Me: I'm a 13, almost 14, year old in 8th grade. My favorite subject is English, probably because I LOVE to read, write and am a really good speller. I want to be a writer and a veterinarian when I'm an adult. I read Young Adult book mainly but an occasional adult book at hand. I really like romance YA and paranormal YA books, I am not a big fan of fantasy, besides Harry Potter and Twilight (Is that even considered fantasy?). I love creating stories and I designing things, which is why I'm on Polyvore a lot. I am a HUGE television watcher. I watch like 15 shows, almost religiously (I know it's a lot!). Well, I love animals, I have a dog named Tucker and he is the love of my life.

About My Blog: I started my blog at the end of January. It has really grown since then and I am so happy with the way things are going with it. I review mostly YA books. The book blogging community is the best and I'm so happy to be apart of it.

Suggested Topic: How do you approach authors? Well, I generally just email them. I say why I like there books and what books of theirs that I've read and then I give them a link to a review of the book of theirs that I've reviewed. Then I ask them for like an interview or guest blog.

Steph :: Why I Write Negative Reviews

2008-09-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

All right, so I’m one of those people who feels inauthentic when all they do is go orgasmic over something or someone. I know the positive feel to things works well for some readers as well as bloggers. But it doesn’t to me, which is why it’s not my blog’s connotation.

At the risk of sounding heartless, being snarky suits me. Don’t get me wrong—I always feel apprehensive when I’m about to post something less than 100% nice because it is in my bones to be polite to people. But then again, I want to keep the reputation I somehow ended up with, which is telling it like it is. I like receiving book offers with “I want one of your book-shredding reviews”. That’s what I’m about, in essence, more so than being polite. Polite doesn’t cut it sometimes.

Yes, I do think about the author’s feelings, should they—in an entirely unlikely event—come upon my blog and see some book bitching.

Yes, I do know about the repercussions this has on me. I realize my, um, hard honesty might deter authors and publicists from sending to me. But like I said above, I do get offers with people asking for my sarcasm. And that feels great, so I don’t mind the losses.

Now, here are some fun facts:

My negative reviews can go up to 100, maybe 130 immediate direct views depending on how popular the book is.

My positive reviews are lucky to get 30 immediate direct views. Again, depending on how popular the book is.

Anyway, I think it absolutely sucks when I hear about an interesting-sounding book and then see a glowing review of it, buy the book, and can’t for the life of me figure out how a reviewer extracted positivity from the book. Subjectivity is in play a lot, sure, but most books don’t deserve half the praise they get. It’s just a fact of life. I don’t want to be one encouraging people to read what I believe to be crap.

So, in conclusion, I don’t bullshit. For what it’s worth, I’m also really cynical. That may have something to do with it. Make of it what you will.

Steph
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com

First Timer!!

2008-09-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

Name: Kristi
Blog: The Story Siren
Blog URL: http://www.thestorysiren.com

This is my first post here. I realized how bad of a blogger that I am. I’m not only been lacking on my responsibilities at Teen Tuesday but I’ve never even posted here yet, which is utterly pathetic on my part. So I plan to do my weekly Wednesday post as suggest by the lovely Mrs. Magoo. I’ll see you next week. But until then here is my post for this week!

Blog News:

There are a few things going on over at my blog. I have a couple contest going on. The Monthly Contest, the prize is your choice of book from the visiting authors for the month, and the complete Queen Geek series by Laura Preble. Other than that there are some reviews and Elizabeth Scott will be stopping by tomorrow

Personal:

I recently finished Lament: A Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater and am starting War of the Witches by Maite Carranza. It is finally starting to feel like fall here, and I am really excited about that. I can’t wait for apple cider and carving pumpkins!

Topic: How do you write your reviews?

Plain and simple I’m not the best writer in the world. But I get by. I usually start my reviews out with a summary of the book. Did I mention that I absolutely hate summarizing a book. I never know what to include or not to, you don’t want to say too much, you know? But then sometimes I wonder if I’ve said enough. I’ve seriously debated using the jacket flap or the back of the book as the summary every time, I do periodically but most of the time I try to use my own words.

Then next I use theme icons to display the most apparent themes in the novel, like: drama, fantasy, love, friendship, family, coming-of-age, magic, faerie and so on and so forth. I’m a very visual person so I like to look at pretty pictures.

Then I usually try to express what I think about the book. Sometimes I have a lot to say, sometimes I don’t. My reviews are casual so I try to keep the tone that way. I try to keep the SAT words at a minimum too, not that I don’t think my readers aren’t smart, but that’s just now how I talk. Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I read reviews that only consist of those type of words, call me simple minded.... I guess.

If your looking for advice, I would just say to write what is comfortable for you. Hopefully if you enjoy it other people will too!

Book Chic: Fourth Edition

2008-09-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Eep! I almost forgot about doing this entry this week! That would've been bad. :( So here we go:

Suggested Topic: I used to write the summaries along with my reviews unless I couldn't come up with an effective summary. But now I just use the Amazon summaries because it just makes things easier. And then I always try to make my own thoughts about the book as long as the summary because I find it odd when reviewers just write like a sentence or two and the review ends up so short. And my thoughts obviously vary from book to book, so it's not necessarily like I always focus on certain aspects in each and every review.

Reading News: I'm almost done with Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez and just started Popular Vote by Micol Ostow. Gonna be starting these books within this coming week: Skinned by Robin Wasserman, Switch by Carol Snow, Death by Bikini and Death by Latte by Linda Gerber, and Swimming with the Sharks by Debbie Reed Fischer.

Blogging News: Was gone in Seattle until this past Wednesday, and then I ended up posting something new every day for 4 days straight to keep everything on schedule. Posted three reviews and also my Fresh New Voice of YA for September with Terri Clark, author of Sleepless.

Personal News: Went to Richmond for the day this past Sunday with my roomie to visit her bf and we saw the movie Mirrors fairly late at night (10pm showing), which is not a good time for a horror movie. Was REALLY good, but also REALLY freaky. Not fun. But no nightmares, so that's good! :)

And I guess that's about it for now.

Oh, remember that pregnant cat from a few weeks ago? She's now in heat and assuming the position (you know what I'm talking about) all over the apartment, lol. It's kinda funny.

Chelsea/ The Page Flipper

2008-09-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

Name: Chelsea
Website: thepageflipper.com

How do you write your reviews?

Basically, I hate summarizing books. I don't know why -- I just do. I think because it's nearly impossible for me to shorten a 200-something page book into a couple paragraphs. So I leave that responsibility to the professionals and copy the jacket flap. And then I state my opinion in a laid-back way. For Young Adult Books Central, I have to write my own summaries, and I do that in more of a professional way. Obviously, I prefer the former.

I think it's important to write reviews how you want to -- make it fun. Because if you're not having any fun, what's the point?

In Other News...
Lauren (shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com) and I have teamed up with First Book (firstbook.org) to create the "Leave a Mark" charity event -- we'll auction off marked up copies of books (done by the author), and 100% of the proceeds go directly to First Book. We've been working on this for the past month and a half, but we just announced it on our blogs on Monday. A ton of authors are participating, and the event will run from October-December, so make sure to check it out!

Other than that, I've just been doing mass amount of brain-frying schoolwork and enjoying the return of my tv shows (as well as a few new ones!) :)

See you next week!
Chelsea

Harmony Book Reviews: The Catch-Up Edition

2008-09-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

Name: Harmony
Headquarters: http://harmonybookreviews.wordpress.com

Well, I'm bad. Very, very bad. I haven't posted here in atleast three weeks, if not longer, which is absolutely pathetic. I don't even have a decent excuse, other than that fact that I'm swamped with schoolwork.

So I'm going to answer all three topics I missed in one post, plus some other stuff. Here goes:

What inspired you to start book reviewing?
Well, somewhere along the line, I found Teen Book Review on myspace and I thought "Ooh! This is cool!" so I added her to my friendslist and then forgot all about it.

Fastforward a couple years/months and you find me sitting bored to death at my computer, looking at books. Somehow, I remember the blog and search through my myspace friends trying to find it. When I finally do, I go straight to her blog and search through it. I'm beginning to get inspired so I looked at a few others, including The Page Flipper, The Compulsive Reader, and The Story Siren. Then I decided that I HAD to do this. So I started harassing Jocelyn with questions like "How do I do this?!? Where do I get the free books?" and a million others. I was also a regular member on MCMB back then so I posted a question about it and I remember BookChic giving me advice, though I didn't know that it was him back then.

Since Jocelyn is absolutely awesome and responded quickly, I started my blog a few days after. Then, somehow, I remember talking to TCR and TPF a lot and they gave awesome advice. Then I just started looking at other's blogs and networking and all that stuff. I'm glad I did, since I've made a bunch of reviewer-friends, all of whom are awesome, and I get to talk to authors a ton which is cool.

How do you come up with your interview questions?
Um...I don't know?

Honestly, I just sit down, tell myself I HAVE to come up with some questions and I do. I pretty much have the basic questions I always ask and then I try to relate some to the book.

How do you write your reviews?
Well, right now, I write a summary and then a paragraph of what I liked about it.

But that's changing. In the new system, I will be copying the summary from the book or online, rating it, giving my thoughts, and do a "summing it up" sentence in bold for those you just skim, and also a "For Readers Who Enjoyed...." thing. I'm hoping it'll work better and give me less stress because I HATE writing the summaries.

However, for TRT, I have to write my own summaries. Oh well.

Other News....

Well... I've recently become obsessed with autograph collecting (yes, it's a REAL hobby), and I was reading about how some kids raised a ton of money for their school, a charity, etc by auctioning off signed memorbilia from the stars. I'm considering doing it for my library. The problem is, since a lot of people won't see the affect this is having, many people online probably won't want to donate. Someone suggested that I host a local auction and possibly see if I can get some radio coverage or something but I just don't know. I really want to but I'm not sure if anyone else would go for it....

Anyone have suggestions/ideas?

Words Speak Volumes: Number Three

2008-09-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Name: Samantha
Blog: Words Speak Volumes
Blog URL: writeinpen.blogspot.com
MySpace URL: myspace.com/wordsspeakvolumes

Blog News: I have my September Contest up and running. The Elite by Jennifer Banash, everyone! Lots of ways to enter and get points. Check it out. This week, I joined 'Salon Sunday', which I'm pretty excited about. There's a link on my blog just click the picture on the left column to get to the website and join. I am reading Fringe Benefits by Valerie Frankel and I'm on page 237, so almost done. I am also still looking for people to join 'Wired Wednesday' if anybody's interested. Please email me at words.speak.volumes@gmail.com.

Personal News: This next week is going to be very busy for me. I have the following:

3 Volleyball Games (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday)
2 Volleyball Practices (Wednesday and Friday)
1 Football Game to attend (Saturday)
1 Class Meeting (Wednesday)
1 Student Council Meeting (Thursday)
1 Picture Day (Wednesday)

Plus homework from all of my classes, and Tests on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. FUN! Nope. Well, I am almost finished with Fringe Benefits so make sure to comment when I post the review.

Suggested Topic: How do you write your reviews? - I usually write what's on the back of the book or the inside flap to give the readers a sense of how the book went along. Then I tell my take on it. Then I rate it, out of five points. But that's it.

Umm, I guess that's pretty much all I need to write. Check out the contest, get some points, comment my reviews, and email me. Thanks!

Bye

What Vanessa Reads (Third Edition)

2008-09-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

Name: Vanessa

Website Name: What Vanessa Reads

Website URL: whatvanessareads.wordpress.com (hope to see you there!)

MySpace URL: myspace.com/whatvanessareads (add me!)

Like OMG Teens Read Message Board URL: likeomgteensread.com (click Here where it says Looking for the Message Board? and JOIN TODAY!)

Hey there!

Here's what's going on with me.

Contest News: First and foremost, go join my contest for a copy of I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder! :) Click here for rules and comment to enter.

Reading News: In the past week I read The Luxe. Yes, I finally finished it. I'm so proud of myself. Would you like to read the review? Click here. It was so... exceptional and just made me want to get in a car and buy Rumors ASAP. (Which I will buy... eventually.) Right now I'm reading Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. I think for the amount of pages I've read... well I don't know what to think. You'll see when my review comes around.

Blogging News: I totally keep forgetting to post on Teen Tuesday, Teaser Tuesday, and Booking Through Thursday. I think I don't forget YABB because I post on the weekend and when I'm bored on the weekend I remember that today's the day. I haven't reviewed a book in a couple of days (like a week) because of school... you already know how that is. I barely have time now, and if I do have time I think I waste it on the computer or watching TV. Maybe I need an amazing book to pick me up off my feet.

Suggested Topic: How do you write your reviews? Well, I started up a new way to write my reviews and people have commented saying they like it. It normally goes like this now: Contains (I write what it deals on... romance, relationships, drama, mystery, fantasy, etc.), Analysis of Book (on each aspect: Characters, Plot, Writing, and Wow Factor) I rate the book from 1-10. So if the characters were amazing they get a 9 or 10, but if the wow factor just wasn't there then they get a 3 or whatever I feel they deserve. Then goes the Summary (most of the time I write them but for the past 2 reviews I've taken Amazon's). Afterward goes my review which contains no spoilers. This is what you read if you're thinking about reading the book. Then comes My Thoughts which do contains spoilers and its where I rant, be mad, or glorify a book saying specific events and actions and my thoughts with them. You should read the My Thoughts section if you've read the book... if not, its just a way for me to reflect on the material.

Personal News: Well, I've been in school since the 20th, so its kind of routine already... wake up, go to school, learn, come home, do homework, go to sleep, wake up, go to school, learn, come home.......... Of course, where reading is in all of this routine, well I don't know. I have to become more organized with my schedule and be like okay from 3pm to 3:20 you shower, from 3:20 to 5 you do homework, from 5 to 7 you read, from 7 to 8 you eat and watch TV... etc. I just don't have that because I don't discipline myself if I don't follow it. I'm really going to try it now. Beginning on Monday. Wait, nevermind. There might NOT be school Monday due to Hurricane Ike. Even though the hurricane seems to want to hit Cuba instead of us, you just never know. So that's it for me... have a good week!

Vanessa

whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

whatvanessareads@hotmail.com

Bookworm Readers: First Edition

2008-09-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

Name: Claire

Alias: Bookworm

Website URL: www.bookwormbooklovers.blogspot.com

Hey YA Book Bloggers! I'm Claire and I own Bookworm Readers. As you've probably noticed, this is my first post and I'm really excited to be part of this blog!

About My Blog: I've been blogging since October 2007 and I nearly have 300 posts!

In my Reading Queue: Right now I'm currently reading Project Paris by Lisa Barham, the sequel to A Girl Like Moi. Seriously, if you like fun, sweet, and humorous stories about fashion, this is THE perfect book for you! I'm only on page 15, but so far Imogene is still her funny, cute self (in Paris!). I just finished the third Confessions of a Teenage Nanny book by Victoria Ashton (the last one-boo hoo!). Not many people have heard of them, which is a pity because they're amazing reads about the glamorous life of a nanny who babysits one of New York City's most loaded families, and all the crazy predicaments she gets into because of that...(I'm posting the review right now).

And I'm trying to figure out a book to read for my book report! Have any suggestions? I'm thinking The Possibilities of Sainthood by Donna Freitas or maybe Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker (who is so nice!). I've also been told by various pals that I need to read Twilight. Since I'm not a big fantasy fan, I've never really thought about reading it and kind of brushed off the suggestions, but with all the hype about the release of Breaking Dawn, the movie coming out in November, and the online leaking of Midnight Sun, it's kind of hard to forget about the #1 bestseller! So maybe I'll consider it...And I have a whole load of ARCs and books sent to me by authors to read, like La Petite Four, The Elite, Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty, I SO Don't Do Mysteries, How NOT to be Popular, and about twenty more, so I'll be busy this month...

Contests: Check out Sophie's blog, she's giving away a copy of Cherry Cheva's novel She's So Money. Click here to find out how to enter. As for me, well, sometime in the near future I'll be giving away a copy of Theodora Twist by Melissa Senate, and Popular Vote by Micol Ostow in time for its release (oh-and Micol's having a big release party on her blog-check out her livejournal for more info). I'm also planning on having a big 300-post contest, and I'll be giving away a lot of books....(I'm currently gathering them right now!)

Blogging News: Well, I'm always adding more reviews and author interviews to Bookworm Readers, and I'll maybe add some author guest blogs and set up a Bookworm Readers Facebook account. I'm going to sign off now because this post is ridiculously long and I have to eat breakfast!

Claire (:

www.bookwormbooklovers.blogspot.com

Booked Books: Second Edition

2008-09-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

booked-books.blogspot.com

Hi! It's me again. I didn't post last week (I was so busy!), so it felt wrong not to post this week. I think next time I'll do a scheduled post when I'm free or something.

Personal: This past three week have been tiring. During the first two weeks, I wasn't home much, though I did have a lot of fun. This week, school started. Actually, it started yesterday, but yeah. I just had the worst and most exhausting first day of school in my life. It's a really long story...

I actually have school reading and annotating to do too: To Kill A Mockingbird. I've read that book so long ago, I can't even remember what happened.

I'll probably be gone a lot, since I already have a few tests this week (actually, I had a Spanish test on the first day of school too).

So, here we go.

Blogging: I haven't been updating a lot, though I tried to update my current contests sidebar (actually, it's more like a dropdown menu than a sidebar) to let everyone know the contests going on currently.

I haven't been reading the posts here either (sorry, guys), but I'll try to catch up and comment this weekend or so.

This week's topic:
How do you write your reviews?
I honestly don't follow any standard format, except that the book summary has to be the first paragraph. I write everything in my own words, including the summary. It just seems redundant to copy and paste it from Amazon to me.

The only time I use a set format for reviews is when I'm writing a review for Book Divas. They like the summary to be the first paragraph, while your thoughts make up the second paragraph. I leave a note if I review for a group, so you'd know.

One thing I notice about others' reviews is that sometimes the summary tend to be longer than the actual review. I try to stray away from generic commentary, like "I like/love/hate/it", "It was really awesome", "I highly recommend this to everyone", etc. If I want to express myself like that, I word it differently. I also point out what I dislike/like about it.
My reviews always have more commentary (my thoughts) than plot details or at least I try to keep it that way.

I also analyze everything that stood out about the book: style, tone, diction, descriptions, etc.

I also like playing around with words; it's just a habit I acquired from writing a lot of poetry in the past (sadly, I don't have time for it anymore). For example, on a review I wrote about Freezing Point, I wrote: "Mind-boggling, mind-blowing, and mind-numbing enough to give you a brain freeze, Freezing Point is a real eye opener."

So, that's that. See you guy next week (hopefully).

Book~Adorer: Second Edition

2008-09-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

Personal and Reading News: Hey! I just got back from vacation Tuesday and am excited to be home and get some reading done. I so thought i'd get some reading done while I was gone, no such thing happened. I was just so busy, ok and having lots of fun. But now i'm back and am already starting to delve into my reads. Right now I am reading The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees and will be doing an interview afterwards. I will be doing a contest soon for someone to pick me out a cool name for author interview, I really need one plus it's also an excuse to have a contest. So, there's that to look forward to.

Blogger Questions: I have a question for you guys. I am receiving books from authors I never talked to and books that have nothing to do with the YA genre. What baffles me most is how they got my address and real name. I try not to put any of my information out there, and they had everything on there correctly. I don't really like this and just wanted to know if anyone knows how they do this so I can prevent this. I'm guessing i'm going to have to right the companies and say something as it is. But if you guys have any ideas or pointers, i'd really appreciate it.

Bookish.....eh, Problems: My birthday is coming up....well in two months but hey to me that's soon. So i'm putting together a list of books I want but at the same time I have so many to read already that I almost don't want anyone to buy me any. Almost. There's so many books and there's so many new ones I find out about everyday. It's killing me and at the same time it's so hard to stop. And as i've seen everyone is having this problem, it's kind of nice to know that i'm not the only one though. I feel like an addict, haha.

Suggested Topic:
I started blogging because of my love for books. I am a married woman and very busy. I have no time for college right now so I was looking for a way I could still do something with books at any time I wanted to. That's when I started hearing about YA bloggers and I immediately got into it. I am still very busy and can't post as much as others but I enjoy it. Plus, it's so hard for me to find other adults who enjoy the books I do. So it's nice to meet others my age who like YA books. And teens too. It's just so much fun and i'm so happy to be included in the community.

I know that's not the topic for this week but it was while I was gone and I wanted to answer it. For this weeks topic - I just send them the questions and they answer them. I like to send the authors a bunch of questions and tell them they can answer as many as they want and whichever they want. I try not to drag it out to much because alot of the authors don't have alot of time. But I do like them to send me a photo or a little conversational piece to add to the interview.

Ah, well I guess that's just to let you know what's been on my mind now.
It was great to unload. Thanks y'all for reading and i'll hopefully be back next Thursday. Ciao!

B~A

Book Chic: Third Edition

2008-09-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

Look! I made it to the third edition- go me! Luckily, the hotel I'm staying at had internet cables for buying, so I could buy one to hook my laptop up to the complimentary internet service. And so I can actually post on my posting day!

Alright, so here goes with the actual post:

Suggested Topic: I usually get interview questions from either just sitting in front of my interview word document and writing down whatever comes to mind, or by looking at other reviewers' interviews with various authors. But there's always the common questions, like how they got the idea, what they're working on now, etc. to fall back on if you can't think of anything else. I've also been including this favorite jelly bean flavor question after Marissa Doyle asked me it in a myspace message, lol. I started getting curious about other peoples' favorite jelly bean flavor, and thus it is now a staple of my interviews.

However, I don't have to really come up with interview questions all that often now since I decided I won't be doing full interviews except with Fresh New Voice of YA authors. I've been getting more into doing the book QnAs which are very short and don't delve too much beneath the common questions. The reason I'm doing this is because I'm trying to do more reviews to get my TBR cut down considerably.

Reading News: Unfortunately, I've been way busy since coming to Seattle for my sister's wedding that I haven't been able to read much. On the flight over, I read about 100ish pages of Nation by Terry Pratchett, and about 50 pages of Amor and Summer Secrets by Diana Rodriguez Wallach, and one chapter of Sleepless by Terri Clark. I have only read about 15 pages of Diana's book since the flight on Saturday. I'm gonna be doing more reading tonight though since we're done sightseeing for today, and will only be heading for dinner tonight.

Also, my dad bought me the paperback of An Abundance of Katherines by John Green today when we were in the Elliot Bay Bookstore, which is quite honestly the best bookstore I have ever seen. It's got several floors of books and is very spacious on each floor, and has a used section too, which already had a couple 2008 books (Likely Story by David Van Etten and How NOT to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler) on the shelves. That made me sorta sad that those had actually been brought back in. In their new YA section, they had a ton of books that I had not yet seen the actual hardcover copies for, like Cycler, Shift, and a couple others that I can't remember right now.

Blog News: Haven't really done much since I've been in Seattle, but I did post a quick entry about an interview that Bookluver Carol had posted with you, which you can click here to read!

And finally, a tiny bit of Personal News! The reason I'm in Seattle is for my sister's wedding, which was yesterday morning. It was a fairly quick ceremony with a reception right afterward. It was a fun, but busy day.

That's all for me!

Hope's Bookshelf: Second Edition.

2008-09-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Hope
Website: Hope's Bookshelf

Reading News: I had a really good reading week. I was on vacation and though we stayed on the fairgrounds and did about a million things, I still read seven books. I took nine with me, and I didn't expect that I'd read so many. Here's the list of books that I read (that will be reviewed soon):

1. Courage in Patience - Beth Feldaum
2. Unbelievable - Sara Shepard
3. The House of Dance - Beth Kephart
4. The Midnight Twins - Jacquelyn Mitchard
5. City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
6. Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites - Heather Brewer
7. Larry and the Meaning of Life - Janet Tashjian

Blogging News: The fairgrounds (sadly) didn't have Wi-Fi, so there weren't any posts past week on my blog. Today, though, I will be posting an interview with Terri Clark and a review of Courage in Patience by Beth Feldbaum.

Suggested Topic - How do you come up with your interview questions?: I think of questions at really random times, and write them down so I remember them. When I interview an author, I use those questions. I usually ask about ten to twelve questions because I hate making things really long - when I read blog posts that are really long, I tend to just skim, so I try to keep mine on the shorter side.

There is usually one question that I ask regularly: What is your advice to aspiring teen authors? I know there are a lot of them out there, and each author has different advice to give them.

I try to split my interviews half-in-half: one half about their book(s) and the other kind of more personal questions: what kind of music they listen to, what they like to do in their spare time, etc.

Personal News: School. Starts. Tomorrow. I can still remember the last day of school walking out of the class that was my sixth hour exam (Spanish) and walking out of those double doors and riding the bus home. It just seems unreal that September is already here and school is starting again, but it is. My reviewing will most likely get slower now, but I'm going to try and stretch out the seven books I read on vacation for a few weeks so I don't get too behind in my reviewing and there are posts on my blog regularly.

Happy Labor Day to everyone in the U.S. :D

hope.

A How To from Words Speak Volumes

2008-08-30T15:13:00.001-07:00

Name: Samantha
Website: Words Speak Volumes
Website URL: writeinpen.blogspot.com
MySpace URL: myspace.com/blogspot

So this is officially my second edition of the Young Adult Book Bloggers BLOG. Some news is that I am going to (after this post) post my review to LOCK AND KEY by Sarah Dessen. If you're interested, please stop by my blog.

Some Blog News: I have started a new blog called Wired Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I will post a, well, post and it asks some questions about the things I'm doing and my blog. I also have to drink coffee to do this blog so it's a Win-Win. I think that since there's a 'Booking Through Thursday' blog and a 'Teen Tuesday' Blog, we should have something in Wednesday to hype us up and get us over the hump of the week. Of course, it can't be too long and take up a bunch of time, because we won't be in the mood during the middle of the week. Just something short, sweet, and to the point. Soon, I will post the reviews to Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen and Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky.

Some Personal News: Since school starts in like three days, I am already feeling myself get overwhelmed with schoolwork, family stuff, volleyball, student council, babysitting, and one of my favorite opportunities, my career as Words Speak Volumes reviewer. I hope to stay in contact with each and every one of you as I start my four-year-long trip down high school lane. I am very excited.

Suggested Topic: I come up with questions from other blogger's interviews and sometimes I ask questions that have to do with things from a book. If I want to know where an idea came from. Sometimes I just ask things that I'm curious about. If you've seen my interviews, you see that I often ask this-or-that questions. I just want to know what they're really like.

What Vanessa Reads: Second Edition

2008-08-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

Name: Vanessa

Website Name: What Vanessa Reads

Website URL: whatvanessareads.wordpress.com (visit me!)

MySpace URL: myspace.com/whatvanessareads (add me!)

LOTR Message Board: likeomgteensread.com (click Here where it says Looking for the Message Board? and JOIN TODAY!)

Hey YABB!

It's my second edition... yay! What's up bloggers? Hope you're getting lots of reading done (and that those reads are great). Here's an update from me.

Blogging News (and a contest!): I reviewed I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder. Read it here. I am hosting a contest to win a marked-up copy (with little comments throughout the book) of I Heart You, You Haunt Me. Please click here to read the rules and comment the entry to enter. The Luxe is a review that will come very soon, I haven't finished the book yet... but I can tell you it is VERY good. So wait around for it.

Like OMG Teens Read News: OMG! Our Newsletter will debut and be published August 31! I can't wait for everybody to be able to see it. I don't think I've talked about it here but the Like OMG Teens Read Newsletter (LOTR) is a newsletter all about YA literature. It contains YA news, book reviews, a quote of the month, the current month's Book of the Month's coverage (a review and summary on the book), books turned into movies reviews and updates, an Author of the Month, an author interview, a list of books coming out next month and lots lots more. Would you like to subscribe to our monthly Newsletter? Please e-mail us telling us this at likeomgnewsletterstaff@ymail.com and we'll sign you right up. The newsletter is written by members of our message board (link is at top of post). If you would like to write in our Newsletter please join our message board and we'll give you all the info. I hope you like the Newsletter!

Our September 2008 voting for Book of the Month is going on as I speak on our message board. *drums* Here are the nominees:

Being by Kevin Brooks
Got Fangs? by Katie Maxwell
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall
Memoirs of a Teenaged Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Why I Let my Hair Grow Out by Maryrose Woods

If you'd like to be a part in our voting (and other topics) please join our growing message board of over 130 members and 4,000+ posts. We love new faces!

Reading News: Yes, sadly I am still reading The Luxe. It is a 440 page book, but that should be no excuse. As I've said before its amazing, so I'm taking it 30 pages at a time. I am also taking it at 30 pages at a time because of dear old school who doesn't seem to want me to read. Anyway, after this book I think I'm going to be reading Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin and also LOTR's Book of the Month for September.

This post is longer than I intended so I'm sorry if its a lot to take in... hehe.

Keep reading!,

Vanessa

whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

whatvanessareads@hotmail.com

Teen Book Review: First Edition

2008-08-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

Name: Jocelyn
Website Name: Teen Book Review
Website URL: http://teenbookreview.wordpress.com

About Me: I'm a seventeen-year-old high school senior and book blogger. I love words--reading, writing, and talking (too much, some would say)--and I love stories. I have lots and lots of diverse interests and hobbies (from soccer to Bollywood to politics), but I won't go into all of that here. I am currently majorly stressed out about the future and trying to figure out where to apply to college. Helpful advice welcome.

About My Blog: I've been blogging about YA books since July 2006. Right now I'm kind of in a reading and blogging rut. I've been away from home all summer and now that I'm back I'm just trying to get into the rhythm of school (I am hating my chemistry class passionately), but once that settles down, hopefully in the next few weeks, I hope to be back on schedule with tons of reviews, guest blogs, interviews, contests, etc., and I'm still trying to post at least once a week these days.

Suggested Topic: There were various situations in which I thought, "book blogging would be fun." I wrote reviews for other websites, read book blogs, and generally thought the idea was awesome. There was no one factor that caused me to actually start my blog, with its uncreative name, but it was lots of things, and I'm glad I took the leap! I've really loved doing this for the past couple of years.

Words Speak Volumes: First Edition

2008-08-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

Name: Samantha
Website Name: Words Speak Volumes
Website URL: http://www.writeinpen.blogspot.com/
MySpace URL: www.myspace.com/wordsspeakvolumes

Hey!

About Me: My age is fourteen. I'm starting high school in five days. I love to read and review the books I read. Words Speak Volumes is my review site. I am a newer person in the book blogging world. I began my blog at the end of May, before school ended. I plan to continue this as long as I can. I love drinking coffee almost much as I love reading. When I go to Starbucks, I get a grande extra whip vanilla latte. I don't buy Starbucks every time though because it costs a lot. I could sit in Starbucks for hours and read though. My favorite kinds are YA realistic fiction. I love getting comments and emails so feel free to contact me.

words.speak.volumes@gmail.com

Blogging News: I reviewed my last book yesterday. I have twenty-seven reviews on my blog. I am reading Lock and Key right now and I should be finished by the end of the weekend. In September, I am starting to do Author Interviews the first Sunday of each month. Every Wednesday, I have a Wired Wednesday, which is when I drink a cup of coffee as soon as I wake up and answer some questions. I might start doing Reviewer Interviews on the third sunday of each month. I need to find some more people to interview. Interested? Please email me!!

Suggested Topic: I was actually looking for a passage in a book and I came across "And Another Book Read"'s MySpace page. I followed the link to her blog and I found out how many people actually do this. I started that very night, making a gmail, myspace, and blog. The rest is history.

I suppose that's it for now. My story isn't that interesting. Please stop by my blog and become my friend on myspace. Again, I love comments and emails. Most importantly, READ!

Book Chic: Second Edition

2008-08-26T17:46:00.000-07:00

What inspired you to start a book blog?

This is a repost from when someone asked me this same question for an Ask Book Chic edition, so this'll be familiar to some of you regular readers of my blog.

Well, it actually all started with a Simon Pulse author, Lauren Barnholdt, who was trying to get some promo for her book Two-Way Street on livejournals, blogs, Amazon, etc. So I said I'd love to help her out by reviewing her book, and interviewing her. I was originally just going to post both the review and interview on my livejournal. But one day, in the shower (where all great ideas happen :P lol), I was thinking about it and I was like "This interview thing is kind of fun. It'd be cool to expand it and make like a whole website where I do all this stuff." And thus Book Chic was born.

But first, I talked with my friends Lauren and Ally (from the Meg Cabot forums) and had them help me out. Originally, Lauren and I were going to split reviewing duties, but I got greedy and had any authors who wanted their book reviewed to send it to me. lol. Ally helped with the design layout and the default picture and banner, which was a big help, though she was supposed to do something better than what's up there now with the layout, but that never materialized. *shrugs* But that's ok. I don't need anything too flashy. Lauren still helps me with ideas and occasional book review.

So yeah, after I made the site, I just started adding authors and other regular people. And it actually wasn't until I started talking to Meg that I realized I could get ARCs/free books. Because (and this shows the sign of how far in advance I planned, which was not much) I just figured I'd just review books I got out of the library (which would end when I had to go back to school) and interview those authors that I reviewed. So then, I started asking authors for ARCs, which always made me feel bad because it felt kinda selfish, I guess, demanding that I get an ARC (even though I was always polite in asking). But now, authors actually just email me and say "Review my book?" Well, they say more than that, but that's the gist of it. lol.

But yeah, here I am, a year and two months later, still running the site and absolutely loving it!

Blog News: Doing Fresh New Voice of YA for August with Kimberly Pauley and her book, Sucks to be Me! I'm so excited!

Reading News: I'm currently reading Amor and Summer Secrets by Diana Rodriguez Wallach, The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson, and Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin

Personal News: Those of you who read my comment in my last blog entry know that our cat Maya gave birth, but unfortunately she gave birth too early (a week or two early), the exact same night I posted my entry, and all five of her babies were stillborn. We put them on some cloth in a shoebox and buried it in the forest at our alma mater cuz it's a place we'll be coming back to for years to come, so it just seemed fitting.

Book Review Maniac: Third Edition

2008-08-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

What inspired me to become a book blogger?

Well before I had even heard about blogging about books I loved to read. I was always reading a good book. So when my friend told me about her blog, I thought it was a really cool idea. I started blogging and at first my blog was going slow because I was studying for exams and what not. But when exams were over I picked up the pace and now my blog is getting numerous hits a day and I am reading more great books!

Kyle
Book Review Manaic
bookreviewmaniac@gmail.com
bookreviewmaniac.blogspot.com

The Book Muncher: Second Edition

2008-08-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Name: Rachael
Alias/Website Name: The Book Muncher
Website URL: http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com/

Personal News:
Firstly, I feel like the very forgetful person I am because even though I TOLD myself I was going to post last week, I obviously forgot. I think I need to write these things ahead of time and then schedule them (a fool proof system!).

This is really weird, but lately I have been winning a lot of book contests. In fact, in one of the contests I won (from I don’t remember who’s blog), the author of the blog told me how my name always seemed to come up as the winner and sure enough, I won. Freaky. But cool nonetheless. I would totally list all the book contests I’ve won recently (or ever, ‘cause I’ve won a lot), but then I would feel bad. But I have gotten some pretty amazing books from contests. Just out of curiosity, do any of you guys happen to have a lucky streak when entering contests (not necessarily just book contests)?

Blog News:
For some reason, this month I have (so far) read the most books than I have read in any other month this year. Which is why I have a new review up on my blog like every other day. Some of my favorites which I have read recently are The Host by Stephenie Meyer, Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt, The Specialists: Model Spy by Shannon Greenland, Death by Latte by Linda Gerber, Dream Girl by Lauren Mechling, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, and Courage in Patience by Beth Fehlbaum.

Aside from a multitude of reviews that I have been writing, I also have a contest going on about The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees, so if you’ve read the book PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE enter the contest!!! It would make me very sad if no one (or not many people) entered.

Suggested Topic: What inspired you to start a book blog?
I feel like I’ve said this like a million times, but in reality, I probably haven’t. Anyway…it was sometime last December when I discovered (Chelsea) The Page Flipper’s blog (back when she had a blogspot instead of a website) through BookDivas. I remember she was chatting about book blogging and I got really interested. And then I thought, why can’t I do this? So, I set up my own blogspot and The Book Muncher* was born. Yay! And second inspiration came from Book Chic, because he just has an awesome MySpace page and is an awesome person in general

*I really don’t remember how I came up with my blog name. I think I just made something up and stuck to it.

Till next week (if I remember).

What Vanessa Reads: First Edition

2008-08-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Name: Vanessa

Website Name: What Vanessa Reads

Website URL: whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

MySpace URL: myspace.com/whatvanessareads (add me!)

Hi!

About Me: My name is Vanessa. I'm 15 years old. I'm a sophomore. Obviously I love to read. I also review the books I read at whatvanessareads.wordpress.com. I've had two previous book blogs. The first one lasted from Oct 2007 through March 2008 until I forgot my password. The second one (Blawsome Reviews) lasted around a month. Now I have the Wordpress one, and am keeping it. I love the smell of bookstores and new books. I wish I had a money tree to buy every book I lay my eyes on. I read 99% YA, 1% adult. I'm more into realistic fiction... coming-of-age, romance, and drama are my main reads. Check out my blog and leave me comments! If you'd like to contact me for anything (from news to just saying hi) e-mail at whatvanessareads@hotmail.com.

Blogging News: Last book reviewed was Aug. 19! I guess I haven't reviewed any more because school started Wednesday. I took the book I'm reading now (The Luxe) the first day and didn't get to read it at all. My classes don't allow me time for leisure reading, sadly. But yeah. I'm reading The Luxe now... it's so good! I've read around 180 pages. I think I haven't read more because its just one of those books that's really interesting and I want to savor it. Naturally, The Luxe is next to be reviewed, so wait around for it.

Suggested Topic (what inspired you to start a book blog?): I got into reviewing books for myself. Yeah, I guess that sounds kind of selfish... but it's the truth! I was getting more and more into books at the time, and I just wanted a way to keep track of what I read, what I liked, and the thoughts that went through my head about the book. However, as time went on I thought more and more how people could benefit (as well as me) with my book reviews. I went on a hiatus where I didn't feel like reviewing and when I came back I went public. Now my reviews are available for everyone to see :).

I think that's basically it. Visit my blog, add my MySpace, and keep reading amazing books!

Until next time,

Booked Books : First Edition

2008-08-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

Aliases: Rowan, R, or Booked Books (your pick)
Websites: Blogger & Myspace (I need to check up on this more often)

Hey, people! If you must label me with a name, you can call me by any of the aliases above.

A little bit about me: I'm going to be a sophomore (high school) in a few weeks. I do the typical teenager stuff: read, write (poetry!), sing, skate, play with dogs, hang out with friends, do homework, study a whole lot, etc. I'm the type of person who hangs out in the library at lunch to study.

I started reviewing in June, and I'm sorry that my own blog is a bit boring for now. Thankfully, it's summer and I can still find time to update. I wish there were more hours in the day. How do you bloggers find time to read, review, interview authors, hosts contests, etc. while managing your real life?

What inspired me to blog? I stumbled upon Random Buzzers, found more review sites, met a lot of cool bloggers, and decided to join the bandwagon. It's really awesome how you guys get to interview authors, read new books, etc.
By the way, I know Sophie has already mentioned it, but if you haven't joined Random Buzzers, you totally should. Yeah, yeah. It says "Teens @ Random", but that doesn't mean younger kids/adults can't join.

As for how my blog is currently...I've updated some things recently: changed the banner as well as rearranged some of the widgets. I've mentioned this before, but I like to read all my review books at once and review them at once too. I posted up a review for Freezing Point, The Hunt for the Seventh, and The Leanin' Dog all yesterday, if you want to check it out (I love comments!). Also, if anyone's interested, there's a pretty cool Freezing Point contest going on right now, hosted by the author herself.

By the way, I also love doing computer graphics stuff (HTML and the like). I got bored, so I made some buttons to use if you want to link to this site:

Green:

Pink:

Purple:

Blue:

Colorful:

Black and White:

I went a little animation-crazy there...

Temppatt: First Edition

2008-08-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Name: Tempestt
Website: http://temppatt.blogspot.com/

Hello everyone! I am so happy to have my first post here on this wonderful blog. I am sorry that I didn't post sooner but I have been really busy. I love reading what everyone have posted so far, this is truly coming along nicely!

I would love if everyone would head over to my blog and check out my interview with the author of The Elite Jennifer Banash. She was really fun to interview, she is very funny and gives great answers. If you do happen to check it out, feel free to leave a comment.

Lastly, I would just like to say I am glad to be apart of the Young Adult Book Bloggers, hope everyone enjoy the rest of their summer!

Book Chic: First Edition

2008-08-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Name: Book Chic
Website URL: http://www.myspace.com/bookchicclub

Alright, so here's my first post. I'm not entirely sure what to write, so I'll just include some random bits of news.

Personal News: My apartment-mate's cat is having kittens! Shayna (my roomie) and I went to the vet earlier today because we weren't entirely sure if she was pregnant or not. Well, it turns out she is pregnant, and is due for birth NEXT WEEK. Luckily, she doesn't necessarily need us around for it because next week is a bit hectic for us. My roomie is heading home to NJ for a dentist appointment for a couple days and then the same day she comes back, I have to leave to head home to DC so I can get on a flight to Seattle for my sister's wedding and won't be back until Sept. 5. But don't worry, I'll still have stuff posted while I'm gone... possibly. More on that later. But yeah, so we're gonna be having kittens. So we'll see how that goes.

Blog News: OK, when I wrote about how I'd still have stuff posted while I was gone, it occurred to me that I have no idea if Myspace can do future posts like Blogger can. Does anyone know if it's possible? I'll have to check it out and see what I can do. I've never had to do future posts before on myspace.

Reading News: I'm planning on having four reviews posted later this week. I was originally gonna have a review up tonight, but had to push it back cuz since my roomie and her bf are around, I haven't been able to read as much. But it's ok- I'm still doing the same amount of reviews this week. I'm reading Identical by Ellen Hopkins and Falling Under by Danielle Younge-Ullman, and then after that, I'll be moving onto Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head by Nancy Viau and Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin.

Future News: I'm going to reveal the names of my August and September Fresh New Voices of YA here! No one else knows them, aside from myself and the authors themselves, and if you read the Class of 2k8 blog, lol, where I revealed September's in a comment on one of the blog posts. Anyway, the reason I'm revealing both now is because both are happening back to back, so it's not that far away for either one. August's will be Kimberly Pauley, author of Sucks to Be Me, and September's is Terri Clark, author of Sleepless!

Ideas: I'm not sure when weekly themes will come into play, so if there's some issue you'd like me to discuss in a future post, tell me in the comments here! :)

Harmony Book Review: First Edition

2008-08-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Harmony
Blog Name : Harmony Book Reviews
Blog URL: http://harmonybookreviews.wordpress.com

So I didn't post last week. Or the week before. The first week was because I wasn't home. I was at Kingdom Bound with my best friend rocking it out to concerts and attending speakers. It was awesome.

The second week I sorta forgot. Yeah. I'm bad that way. But I also forgot about Teen Tuesday too. So it's not like I just forgot to post here.

Anyway...

I'm Harmony. I'm 13, will be 14 in less than a month, and I like to read, write, and listen to music. I also like boys and horses :)

I also have a problem. I'm completely overwhelmed at the moment. It's like I have all these reviewing things I need to do but I don't have the time or motivation to do them. I have contest winners to contact, books to review, posts I need to write, authors I need to contact, interview questions I need to come up with, and about a zillion other things.

And I don't want to do any of it. Except read. Which is good but I also have like ten reviews I need to write because I haven't posted one in forever. Which makes me a bad reviewer and is NOT something that should be happening. No, no, no, no. Bad.

But you see, I've found something else to occupy my time - crocheting. Yeah. Pathetic, right? But it's also very relaxing and I pretty much put myself to sleep everytime I do it but it's fun. I'm going to make all of my friends scarves for Christmas and then potholders and dishcloths for my grandma and aunts and all the boring adult people.

But I HAVE TO WRITE THE REVIEWS.

So does anyone have any advice? What do you do when you want to everything but stuff for your blog?

Midnight Twilight: Second Edition

2008-08-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone it's Kayla again. I have some good news! You could win a copy of Fabulous Terrible by Sophie Talbot! All you have to do is click on the link below and comment on that post with your name, email address, and favorite book.

http://midnighttwilightsbookblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabulous-terrible-contest.html

In other news i'm starting a new feature on my blog. I read a lot of good books before i started my blog, but i don't have time to write a review for them. So on one of my sidebars i will have a Book Spotlight. Every week i will put a new book in the spotlight and tell why i liked the book and why i think other readers would too.

That's all for now, good luck in my contest.

Hope's Bookshelf: First Edition.

2008-08-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

Name: Hope.
Website Name: Hope's Bookshelf.
Website URL: http://www.princess2293.blogspot.com

Hey, my name is Hope. I live in a really small town in Michigan (the lower peninsula). I'll be fifteen on Friday and I love to read (duh). I've been reviewing books since February of this year. Besides reading, I play the piano (this will be my fifth year), and I take vocal lessons as well as singing in my community choir. I also enjoy writing, but am to shy to really share it with anyone. :p I volunteer at my library and I hope to get hired there soon. I'm not really good at talking about myself, so that's what y'all get. :p

So... that's all I really can think of to post for the first time. Any comments or suggestions for my blog are welcome.

And I won't be posting next week because I'll be on my last vacation before school starts. :( Only two more weeks of summer left -- where did it go?

hope.

Book Review Maniac: Second Edition

2008-08-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Name: Kyle
Alias: Book Review Maniac
Website name: Book Review Maniac
Website URL: bookreviewmaniac.blogspot.com

Hey fellow bloggers!
Sorry I didn't post last week. My excuse is because well I had too much to do, same with today. But I will mention before I go that I have changed my layout on my site, due to a really cool new banner I got from my FarWorld contest. So check it out. Oh and i also set up a survey for my site, the link is on my site.

That is all for now, have to go work on my History Class Summer Assignment.. ugg.

Stumbling through Cyberspace

2008-08-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hello, all ye fellow bloggers/readers-of-blogs! I'm Cassandra, and this (drumroll, please) is my first post ever on a blog that has other people contributing! That might not sound impressive, but I've been going through a lot of firsts recently – to start with, I started throwing stuff out into cyberspace on my blog, aworldinthepages.blogspot.com; then I found out how to put up little pictures into my posts (that one was exciting!), did my first negative review (not so exciting, but infinitely satisfying...) etc, etc. My dream is becoming one of the bloggers that actually has the guts to write to the authors and ask for ARCs and interviews and stuff. Of course, since I've only been out here for two months, that could take a while.

Anywho, if anyone's looking for books either to a) read or b) to run screaming from, you can check out my blog or just surf around – there are plenty of other excellent blogs out there – and if you have a book you want me to read, just post it in my comments!

Stumbling through cyberspace (and still wondering how to get little slideshows of books in the sidebar),

Cassandra

Idea!

2008-08-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

Chelsea (The Page Flipper) had the idea of having a topic a week to post about (like the Buzz girls), since otherwise we might run out of posting ideas after a while. Why don't we brainstorm topics in the comment section of this post, and then I'll make a weekly calendar of the topics on the sidebar. Sound good?

Simply Books: First Edition

2008-08-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

Name: Megan
Alias: simplymegan
Website Name: Simply Books
Website URL: http://wwwsimplymegan.blogspot.com/

Hello everyone! I'm excited; this is my first post on this really cool blog. When I saw this site, I immediately wanted to join. I thought it would be great way to see other peoples' blogs, learn the tricks of the trade and find some awesome books to read.

My blog, Simply Books, is only about a month and a half old, so it's still a baby. I've actually been reviewing books for a year now, and just recently decided to put it on a blog. I eventually want to hold contests and have author interviews, but since I'm still getting on my feet, it might be awhile. I have about 25 reviews currently, but I read fast and new ones are going up every day. I recently reviewed Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, which was an amazing book. I would recommend it to anyone.

But since it's still summer, how's summer reading going for those of us still in school? Since we're all big readers, do you like summer reading? Hate it? Do you review your summer reading books? I personally don't mind summer reading that much. It's actually the work afterwards that I don't like. And I do wish we could pick the books we read. I reviewed my summer reading books, too. I think it's helpful to see what classical literature is good to read, plus it's a great guide to pick out next year's summer reading. What do you think?

Well, that's all I have to say, and hopefully no one fell asleep!

Megan

Mrs. Magoo Reads: Second Edition

2008-08-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Sophie
Alias: Mrs. Magoo
Website Name: Mrs. Magoo Reads
Website URL: www.mrsmagooreads.com

My contests:
Win an ARC of Farworld
Win an awesome shirt (five possible winners)

So, last week, I was on vacation, and didn't have access to a computer on Friday, so there was no post from me... but I'm back!

Contest fun! Who doesn't love a chance to win free books/bookmarks/fun stuff? I'm going to create a link list on this blog's sidebar to all the members' contests. I'm the only admin, so if you are hosting one, email me the link and I will add it. Also, how do you guys usually get people to enter your contests? My current method is simply offering extra entries for linking to it, but I'd love to hear other ways.

Breaking Dawn: What did you think? I liked it... a lot... but I know many people were disappointed/hated it. A side note: Is Stephenie Meyer's MySpace the best way to contact her?

Content or Promotion? Do you focus more on content or on promotion for your blog? For me, it's pretty much half and half. Which do you spend more time on, and which do you think is more productive?

~I want your feedback!~
Click Here to take survey

Book~Adorer: First Edition

2008-08-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hi! I am obviously, the Book~Adorer ( book-adorer.blogspot.com ). I am really excited about doing this and hope to really get to know some of you other bloggers. So here goes the First Edition:

This weekend I am leaving for vacation, actually Tomorrow! I am so excited. I am heading to the East Coast for 2 wks to see my family. I miss them and my wonderful coast so much. But it won't be all play. I do have some 'work' to do. I have 3 books for authors to read while i'm gone. I might not get any done but I at least want to get started on them. The 3 books up for reviewing are: Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky, The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I am very excited about all 3 books. I just hope there all relaxers cuz that's what I need. I'm bringing along another book (not sure which yet, suggestions?) in case they're not. Plus, I don't know if you guys have this problem but whenever I feel like I have to read something, I don't want to read. I'll look at the book and try to talk myself into it but I just can't do it. I used to love the library but recently every time I check something out I feel the due date looming over me and end up returning the book without reading it. If you what i'm talking about and have advice, please, help!

I was thinking about blog tips to give but couldn't really think of anything just one random observation. I love to put up polls but whenever I ask a question about favorite books or genres, or what to read I don't get that votes. But as soon as I put up a question about ex. what to do with the color scheme of my blog I get a pretty good amount. I guess i've noticed people like to give an opinion over just stating which book is their favorite. I guess I was surprised just because the second I ask something not to do with books on a book blog I get answers. It helped me out though, now I know what questions to ask.

Now, I have a question if any of you bloggers want to tackle one. How do I change my background without losing my 2 side bars. Last time I changed my background I ended up having to do extra work adding a 2nd bar because the one I had before disappeared. I want to find a more fall like background, so as soon as I come back from vacation I plan on changing it and it would really help me out (and save me loads of time) if someone could explain it to me.

So, that's it for my First Edition, i'll be checking up on here regularly and hopefully will be able to post again soon. Thanks, Mrs. Magoo for inviting me and i'll see y'all laters!

Steph :: The Absolutely True Lessons of a Part-Time Reviewer

2008-08-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey! My name's Steph (aka Reviewer X). This is my first post here - hopefully it's not a bust =) I'll keep coming back every Wednesday (unless my day changes), but if you want to see what I'm up to in the meantime, go on over to http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/. Enjoy!

--

What Book Reviewing Has Taught Me

This feels oddly like a book report of sorts (but not about books...), so if you see any swearing ahead, know it’s all for good measure. The last thing I wanna do is reenact school on this blog. *disdainful*

Okay, so I’m about to hit the five-month mark for my blog. Crazy stuff. On the one hand, it’s been quite the mix of exhilarating and stressful so far, which makes it feel like it’s been much longer. On the other hand, I’m like, "What?! I don’t want my new reviewer smell to wear off so soon! Hand me my damn novelty back, cruel time!"

In all honesty though, five months isn’t that long, so I’m not freaking out...yet. My first year anniversary will probably be compared to that of a woman entering her thirties. Fun, fun.

Anyhow, in this short-long time I’ve learned some things that would’ve surprised March-’08 me.

Absolutely True Lessons of a Part-Time Reviewer:
(Sadly, I have not actually read this book... I’m so not well-read. Crap.)

CLOSE the Sitemeter/StatCounter window. Yes, checking your stats every five seconds has its perks, like figuring out what was working and what wasn’t. But it’s obsessive. Quit it! True, you’ll never be one of those bloggers who couldn’t care less about their traffic or lack thereof, and you wouldn’t continue if you kept on getting 5 page views a day like you are now. But lighten up and have fun with it—5-month you surely will!

Authors? Yeah, they’re (quite awesome) mortals. That ill-conceived idea that authors were deities? Yeah, well, while some are treated like such (JK Rowling, Philip Pullman [haha, the irony, he’s an atheist] Stephenie Meyer, etc), none of them truly are. They’re people just like you and me, and *gasp* they don’t mind being emailed! Asking to do an interview or something like that is all-right. You’ll even be surprised at who’ll say yes!

Getting all the free books you possibly can is potentially a mistake. Honey, focus less on those free books because five months down the line you’ll have so many of them, you won’t even have time for your own personal stash. See the pile that’s building up? Spend all that time you’re spending networking actually reading them.

Ah, and you know what the refreshing thing is? I’ll probably have a lot more lessons learned in the course of this first year, and then hopefully of the second, third, fourth, etc. However long I keep it up :)

The Book Muncher: First Edition

2008-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Rachael
Alias/Website Name: The Book Muncher
Website URL: http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com/

Actually, I'm not sure if this is the first or second edition. I think I was supposed to post last week, but I, um, forgot. So yeah, quick question to anyone out there: when does each edition cycle around? I'm a little confused here...

So, I thought I'd say a little about myself. My name is Rachael (as seen above), and I'm going to be a junior in high school. I absolutely love all things book (or most things anyway), which is why I became a book reviewer. So far, it's working out fabulously, but as soon as school starts, I may have to be slowing down a little (those AP classes are tough!)

Onto more important stuff, like interesting books I've read lately. Some fantastic books I've read recently that were pretty amazing are How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle; Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall; Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers; and The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees. If you haven't read these books yet, you have to; they really are amazing. In relation to The Brothers Torres, I'm going to have a contest over at my blog about the book. My hint to you: read the book, it'll come in handy for the contest. As for prizes, well, you'll just have to wait and see! :D

Anyway, this last bit doesn't have to do anything with books, so I hope I'm not breaking a Young Adult Book Bloggers law or anything, but (for those of you who haven't seen my blog post about this), I'm going to be on Wheel of Fortune. I'd love to have all of you guys watch me. Just click the link for the details and all that jazz.

I just realized the majority of this post was not book-related. Oh well, I will try better next time!!

Problem

2008-08-08T21:55:00.001-07:00

I think I have a problem. Actually, I know I have a problem. I literally have over 200 unread books. Books just sitting there, screaming at me to read them. And I get at least a few every week in the mail, for free. On a good week, I'll get ten or more. Free. So you'd think I would be satisfied, right?

Wrong.

If I'm in a 5-foot radius of a bookstore, there will be - without a doubt - a significant drop in my bank account. I can't HELP but buy books. Last time, I went to a Half Priced Bookstore and spent over $200. And about ten of those books were like 50 cents each. So, yeah. Addiction.

So, what I want to ask you other bloggers is this -- do you have the same problem? Always wanting more books, no matter how many you have? Or do I just have an extremely materialistic nature? I'm hoping it's not the latter.

In other news, thepageflipper.com is doing alright. Not as good as I'd hoped, but hey, I went on a pretty big hiatus there, so it's to be expected. I have a contest up for a couple bookmark packets, and I'm HOPING I'll be able to do a contest a week. It depends on publishers/authors, really, since I can't afford to ship books once a week. And, um, I'm kind of greedy about my books. If you can't tell from the above paragraphs. Personally, I love contests. More free books! (Oh man, I'm so greedy.) But I like just hosting them, too, so that other readers can earn some books, too! I'm all about spreading the love. :p

So, I hoped you enjoyed my first post!

-Chelsea-
thepageflipper.com

Midnight Twilight: First Edition

2008-08-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Name: Kayla
Alias: Midnight Twilight
Website URL: midnighttwilightsbookblog.blogspot.com

Hi fellow bloggers and blog readers this is Kayla with my first post here at Young Adult Book Bloggers. If you haven't noticed i've been missing lately, the reason is many blogs have at least one post on Breaking Dawn, and i haven't finished the book yet (i know, gasps all around). I don't want to read any spoilers (even though i only have, like, 80 pages left), and i want to finish the book.

How many of you went to Breaking Dawn release parties. I was lucky enough to get a job at Barnes and Noble a few months ago and i got to work at the release party. Me being the new girl got stuck with the easy job, taking pictures. But what was i taking pictures of? Tons of girls with some of the characters from the Twilight Series! There were Carlisle, Jasper, Quil, Laurent, and of course Edward. Of course, because the theme was a wedding party for Edward and Bella (we even had a bouquet and a veil for pictures!) So basically i spent the entire party taking pictures and chatting up the very hot impersonators from 9-midnight then i bought my book and i'm getting paid for it!

Other than Breaking Dawn i am currently reading Model by Cheryl Diamond, though i haven't read enough yet to tell whether i like it or not. There have been some very good books that i've read that are newly released into stores Poison Ink, Dream Girl, Sisters of Misery, The Summoning, and Undone. This summer is definitely one of the best for amazing new young adult books (and authors, have you checked out the class of 2k8? Amazing.)

That's all i've got for now, time to get back to Breaking Dawn.

Bookluver-Carol: First Edition

2008-08-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Name:Carolina or Carol
Alias: Bookluver-Carol
Headquarters: http://bookluver-carol.blogspot.com

I am currently reading Would You by Marthe Jocelyn and it's really good so far. It's about a girl who's sister is in an accident and goes into a coma. Now Natalie must find a way to deal with what's happening and hope her sister gets better. I'm really into it. I have to pry myself away from the book whenever I have to do some chores. So that's a pretty good sign.

I fixed up the colors of my blog. I've been meaning to do that for some while now and I finally figured out how to do that.The old colors looked depressing but the only reason I got that layout was because of the 3 columns. My old layout was just a 2 column and was cluttered with stuff. So I searched for hours only looking for a better layout and I found one! :)Please head over to my blog and let me know what you think.

Currently I joined and helped start up an online book club called Readers United. It's new but we are playing on having book chats and hopefully author chats over at our weebly. The club is opened to anyone and it doesn't matter where you live as long as you read the Book of the Month. This month's book is Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt. I haven't read it yet but I will soon. If you want to join please do so before the 10th of August.There's a page on how to join. You may still join after the 10th but you won't be able to participate in the book & author chats.

This week has been pretty hectic. I know many attend the release of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. I wanted to buy my copy but now I'm not so sure because of all the bad things I've been hearing about it. Most of the reviews over at Amazon.com are negative so I'm not sure if I'm going to read the book. I'm not a Twi-hard but I do like reading the books. They're a good way to pass the time. So please tell me if Breaking Dawn is worth the read or if I should forget about it and make my own ending.So that's it for this week and I'm glad that I'm a part of Young Adult Book Bloggers. :]

Book Review Maniac: First Edition

2008-08-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

First to introduce my self:
Name: Kyle
Alias: Book Review Maniac
Website URL: bookreviewmaniac.blogspot.com

I just got home from volunteering at my library for 4 hours. I like going there because it gives me something to do instead of being bored at home. I saw some books that I want to read, like The Host by Stephenie Meyer. But that one is on hold and I have a ton of books on my shelf I need to read. I am sure I will be able to read it sooner or later. Does anyone know if it is good or not?

I mentioned that I have books I need to read on my shelf. It seems that when I finish reading a books I get two more in the mail, it is like a never ending pile! I am still contemplating on what book I should read next. Either I Wanna be your Joey Ramone or Rogelia's House of Magic. What one should I read first? Please help me decide!

If you haven't looked at my blog lately, you probably haven't seen the poll I just put up on it. The poll is asking you what you want me to add to the blog. Please go and answer it. I also would like feed back on how I am doing with the blog, and if you have any suggestions. Please email me your feed back. I love hearing what you (my readers) think about my blog.

I have also been pondering about doing a monthly book chat. I am probably going to be testing this feature out this month. I am not sure when or what book but right now I think the book will be Undone by Brooke Taylor. If you are interested in me setting up a book talk each month please tell me in your comment so I know if it is a good idea of not.

On Saturday I posted a contest! The winner of the contest will get an ARC of Farworld: Water Keep by J. Scott Savage. I know that there are a lot of other contest going on for Farworld but that just means more chances in winning right? Click here to find out how to enter the contest.

That is all that is going on behind the scenes of my blog. Oh I am in the process of formatting an author interview and the second segment of 'Why do you read?' which is a monthly interview with a fellow book reviewer. The author interview should be up on Thursday and the Why do you read segment I am not sure when I am going to post it, I guess when ever I get done with all the formatting (it can take some time). And I am very glad to be apart of this Young Adult Book Bloggers blog. This should be fun!

Mrs. Magoo Reads: First Edition

2008-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Sophie
Alias: Mrs. Magoo
Website Name: Mrs. Magoo Reads
Website URL: www.mrsmagooreads.com

Well, I'd like to start off by saying that the "rules" of the blog are extremely loose, so feel free to write about whatever you want on your given day, as long as it relates to book blogging.

If you haven't joined Random Buzzers yet I'd definitely recommend it. It's a great way to get ARCs and they often have author chats. I haven't joined Simon Pulse but I just thought I'd mention it.

I'm starting a YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/mrsmagooreads. I was browsing through blogs and noticed that Hope is doing a similar thing. My blog was also recently featured on TV: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/parenting_babies&id=6259552. It's kind of surprising how amazed adults are at tweens/teens book blogging.

I was just blown away by I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert. If you haven't read it yet, definitely pick it up.

Lastly, I'm running a contest on my blog to win an ARC of Farworld: Water Keep by J. Scott Savage. I know he sent a copy to many blogs but if you don't have it, please enter! :)

So, that's it for now... and I can't wait for tomorrow's release of Breaking Dawn!!!

About this blog...

2008-07-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

-Edit- So I see it's kind of been a free for all with the day thing, so if you miss a day or something, just post when it's easiest for you.

This blog is still a work in progress, so any suggestions welcome!

Here we can just give each other tips about book blogging, as well as discussing good books to read, nice authors, whatever.

Steph had the brilliant idea of assigning each person a particular day of the week to post. Please stay on topic. You don't have to post each week, but please don't post on random days. Also, put your blog name in the title. Here's the posting schedule:

Monday: Kyle (Book Review Maniac)
Monday: Carol
Monday: Hope
Tuesday: Kayla
Tuesday: Harmony
Tuesday: Book Chic
Wednesday: Steph (Reviewer X)
Wednesday: Kristi (The Story Siren)
Wednesday: Jocelyn
Thursday: Tempestt
Thursday: Gretsher (Book~Adorer)
Thursday: Kelsey
Friday: Sophie (Mrs. Magoo... me)
Friday: Megan
Friday: Rowan (Booked Books)
Saturday: Chelsea (The Page Flipper)
Saturday: Vanessa
Saturday: Chelsea
Sunday: Rachael (The Book Muncher)
Sunday: Cassandra

How about we start the official posting August 1st. If for some reason your day doesn't work for you, let me know.