In My Mailbox (30)

In My Mailbox highlights all the good stuff we've received throughout the week. It is hosted by Kristi The Story Siren. This week I actually got more finished books than arcs for once!

~Still Sucks to be Me-Kimberly Pauley

~XVI-Julia Karr

~Pushin'-L. Devine

~Sucks to be Me-Kimberly Pauley

~Rival by Sara Bennet Wealer

~The Liar Society-Lisa & Laura Roecker

~Babe in Boyland-Jody Gehrman

What did you get???

The Secret Book Blogger

Something has occurred to me over the past few months. Does anyone in your personal life (friends, family) know that you have a book blog? I come across a lot of blogs and I see thousands of followers. Do you personally know anyone who is in your followers list? I'll answer for myself. TWO. Out of my 570 followers I personally know two of them lol. Now I come to another question, are you embarrassed to show your friends and family that you have one? My boyfriend knows I have one and he teases me all the time but I don't care. Could that be the reason we don't shout it to the world that we have one? Afraid to be called a nerd? 

Ironically, most YA book blogs are written by those over 18 so aren't we a little old to still be bothered by that? Or is it that we don't tell everyone because our blogs are our babies and we're very sensitive about them? An intern at my office last summer (teenager) somehow found my blog and showed the other interns. I felt...exposed I guess lol. It's silly but my blog is my private thoughts on books. People come to my blog to read about it, not to make fun of me. I suppose it's easier to "be a nerd" online than it is in person. What do you guys think? 

Recently after making this discovery, I've begun telling people I personally know about my baby. I've handed them my business cards to show them that it's not a joke.Sometimes I've gotten laughed at and other times I've gotten great feedback. Sometimes even a look of shock. I suppose when people think of blogger or bookie they think of glasses, and a real homebody with no life (so I've been told). Yes I used to wear glasses but I LOVE to party also and then there are times when I'm content with just being home with a good book. I've tried explaining that all book bloggers are DIFFERENT. 

I love the blogosphere and I want the people I love to know it!! If you are that secret blogger afraid to tell your friends and family about your affair with books and our whole community think about it. You shouldn't have to live a secret blogger lifestyle. I challenge you to tell ONE person.

In My Mailbox (29)

In My Mailbox highlights all the good stuff we've received throughout the week. It is hosted by Kristi The Story Siren.

~The Locket by Stacey Jay

~So Shelly by Ty Roth

~Queen of the Dead by Stacey Kade

~The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

~Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

~Out for Blood by Alyxandra Harvey

~Miles from Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams

~The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Audiobooks this week 

~Knightley Academy by Violet Haberdasher

~Bitter Melon by Cara Chow 

~Reaper by Rachel Vincent

What an amazing week!  I don't even know where to start...

Book Blogger Hop (13)

Haven't done one of these in forever! I really miss it though. Book Blogger Hop is a fun meme hosted by Jennifer @ Crazy For Books. This is a great way to discover new blogs and connect with more people. If you'd like to participate, visit Crazy For Books where she explains how it works.

This week's question is:

"Why do you read the genre that you do?  What draws you to it?"

Of course the genre I'm in love with is YA. YA Contemporary Fiction, YA Historical Fiction, and YA Paranormal. I started back reading YA about a year and a half ago. To be honest I can't stop reading young adult books because a lot of them still pertain to my age group (early 20's). They are sooo much more mature than the teen books that were out when I was actually a teen. In other words the House of Night series is a whole lot different from Sweet Valley High or The Babysitters Club. 

I think YA is evolving right along with the teens of today. For instance, if you took a walk through a typical high school you'd probably see couples making out in a corner and hear things that you'd never repeat in front of your mom. YA is now reflecting the real deal of what's going on and not sugar coating it to make parents happy. We're talking about sex, drugs, rape, abuse, suicide......all these things are really happening! Authors don't just pull these thoughts from thin air. That's why I read YA...because it's real.  

If you're visiting from the Hop let me know so I can come check you out!

Blogging and Reading Goals for 2011

 LOL so uh yea I know it's 2011 already! That's okay, I still feel like I need to post my goals to make it real. 

• Tweeting More- 2010 I was a quiet tweeter. This year I want my voice to be HEARD.
• Better Time Management-By the time I get home from work in the evenings and have cooked dinner I'm completely spent which sometimes leaves blogging on the burner. I will be doing most of my posts on weekends and scheduling them to give myself some breathing room.
• Less ARC tours!!! They've been my drug of choice over the past year. Since more and more have set up I have a gone a bit crazy to where I look around and my tbr is steady growing instead of getting lower. That's no good so unless a site has a book that I am truly dying for I will pass.
• More Reviews-Need I say more? At least 1-2 a week shouldn't kill me. 
• Discussion Posts- I want to know a lot more about my followers and what makes you guys tick! So I've made a list of topics that I wonder about myself that I want to know your opinion on.
• Read a lot more- I've decided that it's taking me way too long to finish books. I've made a designated time to read at night.
• Mini Reviews-I will be sprinkling in some of my Adult book reviews but grouping at least 3 together.
• Blog Tours-I plan to do a lot more of these and have so many scheduled already so stay tuned.

She Smells the Dead by E. J. Stevens + Giveaway

Publication Date: September 9, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

It's the beginning of senior year and Yuki's psychic awareness of ghostly spirits is threatening to ruin her life. Her ability to sense spirits of the dead isn't glamorous like on TV. SHE SMELLS THE DEAD. Yuki is being visited in her dreams and suspects that her friend Calvin is involved in something strange. Will Yuki be able to save the spirits and herself?

My Two Cents:

To be honest I was a little skeptical about this one. The title is a little weird for me because I've never heard of anyone "smelling" the dead. Though I like the way the girl on the cover looks so I figured I'd give it a try. Yuki doesn't actually smell the rotting corpse of someone, but she smells something symbolic to them. The only way to stop the smell from driving her nuts is to follow her nose pretty much and try to figure out what the spirit is trying to tell her.

Straight from the beginning we are pulled into a mystery about a guy that Yuki has "smelled". She's trying to find out if he died naturally or was actually killed. I thought this was pretty much the story. Boy was I wrong. It felt like I was reading 3 stories inside of one. We start off on the mystery of Mr. Green (the dead guy) then when we're finally getting somewhere with that we switch over to Calvin and Yuki's relationship which appears out of thin air, then the mystery of Calvin and somehow the whole middle of the book is not about Yuki but about Calvin. That was pretty strange...as was the dialect in this book. The most overused phrases were "yah" and "son of a dung beetle". I think if this was told from alternate point of views between Yuki and Calvin it might have went over better. Also there were way too many clues that made it extremely obvious what was going on with Yuki's best friend Calvin. I would've liked it if we were made to just use our brains and figure it out or even let it be a surprise. The ending was just a complete cliffhanger. It was not dark like I was expecting from the summary and the cover but pretty light.

Rating:

I've seen a lot of good reviews on this but it just wasn't for me but perhaps this sounds like something you might be into? If so please enter my giveaway for a signed copy of this.

• US Residents Only
• You do not have to be a follower to enter
• Ends 1/30

In My Mailbox (28)

  In My Mailbox highlights all the good stuff we've received throughout the week. It is hosted by Kristi The Story Siren.

~Jazz in Love by Neesha Meminger

~Shadowspell by Jenna Black

~Jealousy by Lili St. Crow

~Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan

~The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

~The Trust by Tom Dolby