Thursday, April 26, 2012

Update Thursday #56

Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme of sorts where I post an update of the goings on at my blog, with reading, with writing, and beyond. Feel free to borrow the idea from me for your own bookish musings.

~*~

Reading...

Books I finished this week:
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Classics Challenge)

Books I'm reading now (and some still):

322 of 1026 E.E. Cummings poems finished (14 this week)
Writing...

I finished my redo of the 10,051 words I originally wrote of If Only We. I'm quite pleased with the results, and I like the direction I've headed with it. As promised, here is the new grand total after the revised revision and additional scenes written: 17,129! All I can say is WOOT!

Other than finishing that up, I didn't do much else. I read through a little more of Before We Knew and typed out a couple little scene ideas I came up with. They probably won't be in the final draft as is, but elements of the scenes will be. I'll be working on a detailed outline for this story since I have some new ideas in mind for it and don't want to forget them (and the order my mind has them in). If Only We is priority though, so I'll be continuing to focus on that most.

Otherwise...

Starting this week is my first 3 day work week! I am so excited to be back to only 3 days a week. So much less stress and so much more time to do stuff. I have three days off in a row--yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I spent a lot of time online yesterday playing catch up and working on some posts. Once I got off the computer, I had given myself a headache from looking at the screen for so long. So what do I do? Go into my room and get on my laptop to write reviews. Lol. I never learn. I ended up getting bored yesterday, but I think it's because I lacked motivation to do anything that needed to be done. Today should be better. I feel more awake.


Until next time...

~Jessica

Review: Survival by A.M.Hargrove

Title: Survival
Author: A.M. Hargrove
Source: Purchased
Genre: Young Adult
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

.
"Maybe I was caught between the two worlds. I was having serious trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality."

While on a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, nineteen-year-old Maddie Pearce finds her world has been thrown into a vortex and is madly spinning toward the impossible. Abducted by a mad psychopath, Maddie narrowly escapes with her life. But that is only the beginning. Her mysterious rescuer introduces her to a world that Maddie has difficulty accepting as reality. Will this strikingly gorgeous stranger be the key to her future or will she return to her mundane world, scarred from her experience? Follow Maddie as she is forced to make difficult decisions that carry her to mysterious places.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I ended up getting this one by chance upon looking up the blog tour for this book. The idea of it was interesting and I thought it was worth reading. And I was right! The story is told in four parts: first from Maddie’s POV, second from Rayn’s, then the last two are told in the third person. I’m usually not a fan of multiple points of view, or the third person, but I was okay with it this time. Maybe it’s because it needed to be told this way. In any case, it worked.

The beginning told us mostly about Maddie’s life prior to and at college. She doesn’t have her parents anymore and is on her own now. It was a lot of background and not very interesting until it got to the point where she gets abducted. Then things get complicated and very intriguing, because… enter Rayn.

His people wish to save her after she gets attacked. And he is drawn to her, as she is to him. Even though it should be simple for two people who feel this way, it won’t be simple for him. Because of who he is, he is not allowed to be with her. They try to stay away, but can’t. They go together, and you can feel it come across the page with how he speaks to, comforts, and holds her. They have something deeper and want it to continue. This of course will not be an easy task. They begin the journey and you hope alongside them for a happy ending. And you guys know how much I love swoon worthy scenes… there were plenty of those moments throughout the book.

The parts dealing with the guardians, their background, was different than I’m used to. When there are a lot of details for stories like these, it’s like learning a new subject. Eventually you get the hang of it, but when you’re unfamiliar with the genre it’s confusing at first.

Despite that, I really enjoyed Survival. You can’t help but keep reading because you want to know what happens next for them. When I finished it, I was left with a cliffhanger that made me want to get right into the sequel. I adored the love between Maddie and Rayn, even though it happened a little fast. And although Maddie was sometimes really silly in the things she said, she was still relatable. I can’t wait to dive into A.M. Hargrove’s sequel to Survival called Resurrection, and the prequel, Beginnings.


My Rating:

Very Good: Stay up late

Excerpt from Survival by A.M. Hargrove and Giveaway of Resurrection!


I am participating in the blog tour for A.M. Hargrove's Survival! Check out the other blogs participating in this tour on the What's Your Story Book Tours website. Today you will get to read an excerpt from this novel AND get an opportunity to win an ebook copy of the sequel, Resurrection.


Survival by A.M. Hargrove
~Add it to your Goodreads shelf~

Currently available for FREE (so get your own copy today!):
~Barnes & Noble~ * ~Amazon~
.
"Maybe I was caught between the two worlds. I was having serious trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality."

While on a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, nineteen-year-old Maddie Pearce finds her world has been thrown into a vortex and is madly spinning toward the impossible. Abducted by a mad psychopath, Maddie narrowly escapes with her life. But that is only the beginning. Her mysterious rescuer introduces her to a world that Maddie has difficulty accepting as reality. Will this strikingly gorgeous stranger be the key to her future or will she return to her mundane world, scarred from her experience? Follow Maddie as she is forced to make difficult decisions that carry her to mysterious places.
.

~*~*~*~

~EXCERPT from SURVIVAL

.
I heard someone screaming, and I wanted it to stop. The noise reminded me of a wounded animal; it was ear-splitting and unnerving. It never occurred to me that I was the one producing the horrific noise.


Suddenly, the strangers moved aside to make way for another person. I became aware of someone touching my arms. Then came soothing words in a language I didn’t understand.


“Madeline, look at me!” he commanded.


I ignored him, still squirming and trying to free myself. I once again felt like a trapped animal.


Louder still he commanded, “Madeline, look at me! Look into my eyes!”


I was shaking my head from side to side, not wanting to see this person who held me prisoner.


I felt him firmly take my chin in his hand and once again command, “Madeline, I command you to look into my eyes!” He placed his hand on my forehead, and I felt the inability to ignore him. The fight in me simply fled.


Oddly, I felt peaceful and calm. I no longer felt the terror that had only moments before held me in its grip. Then, something else bizarre happened. I inhaled deeply, and my senses were filled with the most wonderful of fragrances. It was the forest of pines again—that delicious woodsy, earthy scent. I felt my nostrils flaring with the intensity of it. My curiosity had me now, so I dared allow myself to look at the person responsible for this tranquility.


I lifted my gaze, and my eyes locked onto an exceptionally tall boy. No, not a boy at all, or not like any of the boys with which I hung out. This was a man of the likes I’d never seen—an unbelievably amazing man.

His long and wavy thick black hair brushed the tops of his broad shoulders, and he had one long, thin braid hanging down past his chest, which looked strangely out of place. A lock of his hair hung down his forehead, and my fingers itched to brush it back in place.

His facial features looked like they had been drawn by a brilliant artist, and then molded to perfection by the most talented of sculptors. Everything was perfectly shaped, but his mouth was absurdly beautiful. His full and sensuous lips grabbed my attention and refused to release it. I suddenly had visions of touching them and… tasting them. Whatever was I thinking? I had never been affected by anyone like this… ever!



~*~*~*~

 
About the Author, A.M. Hargrove:
.
One day on her way home from work as a sales manager, A. M. Hargrove realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn’t do something soon, it would quickly be too late to write that work of fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life. So, she rolled down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and tossed out her leather briefcase. Luckily, the pedestrian in the direct line of fire was a dodgeball pro and had über quick reflexes enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head. Feeling a tad guilty about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated piece-of-you-know-what laptop out the window. She breathed a liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone and hit #4 on her speed dial.


“Hello.”
“Boss, is that you?”
“Why yes A. M., who else would be answering my phone?”
“Er… right. Well, I’m calling to let you know you can pick up my luxury Ford Focus at Starbucks near the interstate because I quit.”


A. M. hit the end button and speed dialed her husband.
“Hi yummy hubby, can you pick me up at Starbucks?”
“Sure honey bunny… having some car trouble?”
“Not at all. I need a ride because I just quit my job.”
“You WHAT?!”
“It’s time for a new career and I am going to be a very famous novelist.”


So began A. M. Hargrove’s career as a young adult paranormal romance author of self-published ebooks. 


Well, it didn’t happen exactly like that. The real story is that after years as a successful sales manager in the world of pharmaceuticals, her company was gobbled up by a larger one and her career came to a screeching halt. Always one to look at the glass as being half full, she took the job loss as an opportunity to forge down the path of her life-long dream– that of becoming a writer. Her series, The Guardians of Vesturon, centers around a family of six siblings and is a mix of humor, mystery, suspense and of course, love. Survival is her first book in the series and her second, Resurrection will be released in January 2012.
.

Where you can find A.M. Hargrove online:


~GIVEAWAY~


Since you can snag a copy of Survival for FREE on Barnes & Noble and Amazon, I am pleased to offer ONE ebook copy of the sequel, Resurrection, to you! (Copy will be provided through the author via email.)

Rules:
1. You must be a follower.
2. You must be over 15 years old.
3. This is open to international followers.
4. This contest runs from April 26th to May 2nd (ending at midnight).
5. Winner will be selected on May 3rd and notified via blog post announcement and email.

PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM TO ENTER!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

How what you say will reflect not only on you, but your blog

What a fiasco. (Ha, unintentional Elizabethtown reference.)

If you don't know what I'm referring to, you must have been on vacation or unable to access the internet for a few days. Long story short: A well-known book blogger was accused of plagiarism and a massive war in the book blogging community ensued. I'm not going to go into detail on the plagiarism aspect of this situation, as it is not the focus of my post. This post is going to focus on book bloggers.

As a book blogger myself, I take pride in my blog and try my best to make my content as fun and up to date as I can. I appreciate all the authors and publishers that contact me with review requests. I love to share my love of books with all of you. I love visiting your blogs and discussing great books. It's a very awesome community of people that I am part of.

However, after everything that had happened was revealed to the community, something horrible happened. Everyone publicly chose sides and blatantly posted hateful remarks about not only the person accused but about the people who weren't on their side.

When I first learned of the original situation, I spent probably half an hour searching through links on different sites and Googling it. I just wanted to understand what happened. On one of the sites, I read that someone said something about a Twitter hashtag being started. My first thought was, "What?!" So I went to Twitter and looked.

I was appalled.

There were all sorts of hurtful things being thrown around by numerous book bloggers. People outright telling others what they should do and that they are essentially stupid if they don't. I couldn't believe it. Here we are, all of us book lovers and reviewers and friends, and THIS happens to someone pretty much all of us know (or know of), and a bunch of us decide to start a war. Yes, somebody did something that is not acceptable to people in this community. I get that. But did all these people have to go out there with torches and scream hateful things to each other? No. It was sickening.

There's nothing wrong with having an opinion, or even voicing it in some way online. Here's where the problem lies:

What you choose to say online will reflect on you and your blog.

All these people choosing sides and making it known, how does it reflect on you? How will your followers feel about you? How will publishers and authors view you? If you’re not handling yourself in a professional manner in regard to this situation, people may not respect you and they may not want to follow you either. Do you want to lose followers and review requests? I'm sure the answer to that is probably no. Like I said above, I enjoy blogging and all the people I'm in association with. Why would any of us want to lose any of it?

Here's what it comes down to: We all have to make the decision ON OUR OWN without hurting others. If people want to continue to follow this person, that is their choice. If people want to unfollow this person, that is their choice. Nobody should push their choice on others. Do your own research and make your own choice.

To all of my friends in the book blogging community: Please take this to heart. Remember that what we post online will always be there. Even if you delete it--it is still there, it was still said. Let's not hurt each other with negative talk. We are all friends and we should show each other love and respect.

Much love to my followers for reading my thoughts on the recent uproar. Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts.

XOXO~Jessica

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Review: It's Always Something by Gilda Radner

Title: It's Always Something
Author: Gilda Radner
Source: Purchased
Genre: Memoir
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

.
"I had wanted to wrap this book up in a neat little package. I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end."

The world fondly remembers the many faces of Gilda Radner: the adamant but misinformed Emily Litella; the hyperkinetic Girl Scout Judy Miller; the irrepressibly nerdy Lisa Loopner; the gross-out queen of local network news, Rosanne Rosannadanna. A supremely funny performer, Gilda lost a long and painful struggle in May 1989 to "the most unfunny thing in the world"--cancer. But the face she showed the world during this dark time was one of great courage and hope. "It's Always Something is the story of her struggle told in Gilda's own remarkable words--a personal chronicle of strength and indomitable spirit and love undiminished by the cruel ravages of disease.

This is Gilda, with whom we laughed on Saturday Night Live: warm, big-hearted, outrageous, and real. This is Gilda's last gift to us: the magnificent final performance of an incomparable entertainer whose life, though tragically brief, enriched our own lives beyond measure.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I have always loved Gilda Radner. Her humor and ability to make people laugh, she was just one of the coolest people. When she wrote this book, she was facing a battle with ovarian cancer. Sadly, she did not survive this battle. But her story, what she went through and how she faced it with a determination in spite of her own insecurities and struggles, is one of the most amazing and empowering stories I’ve read. I’ve never dealt with cancer personally or with somebody I’m close to. After reading this, I can understand a lot more of the little details of what it feels like to have this directly affect you or someone you love.

She starts out with the story of her and Gene Wilder falling in love and getting married. I never knew much about it until now. As the book progresses, you can see how they were perfect for each other. There was much more to them than comedy. She goes on to talk about their attempts at conceiving a child, the various movies she and Gene were in together, their trips to France, and all about their dog, Sparkle. Then comes the time when she finds out she has cancer.

This part of the story is a rollercoaster of emotions. Gilda has major ups and downs when faced with her own mortality. After some time, she gives in and goes to a support group for people with cancer at a place called The Wellness Community. This is when her attitude changes. She becomes more optimistic and continuously says things to herself to keep upbeat and positive. She had a brief remission, but not much later the cancer returned. She kept thinking that she would be able to end this book on a positive note, that she fought cancer and won. At the end of the book, she still had cancer. But she mentions something from the middle of the book that one of her friends said to her, which I am going to share with you now:

"The more I protested about this ambiguity, the more Joanna pointed out to me that it was both a terrible and wonderful part of life: terrible because you can't count on anything for sure--like certain good health and no possibility of cancer; wonderful because no human being knows when another is going to die--no doctor can absolutely predict the outcome of a disease. The only thing that is certain is change. Joanna calls all of this 'delicious ambiguity.' 'Couldn't there be comfort and freedom in no one knowing the outcome of anything and all things being possible?' she asked. Was I convinced? Not completely. I still wanted to believe in magic thinking. But I was intrigued."

You can’t control everything. We all have to deal with unknowns. It’s not the thing any one of us wants to hear, but it’s life. We need to live it, and then face whatever comes to us when it comes to us.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading It’s Always Something. I only knew so much about Gilda Radner prior to this book, but after it, I know so much more about her. Gilda became a real person to me, someone I could have known personally and been great friends with. Her journey created in her an attitude to aspire to have. She never lost her sense of humor. Even though she faced moments of depression, she always pulled through in the end with something to laugh about. And that is something we all need, the ability to laugh despite difficulties.


My Rating:

Very Good: Stay up late


Here's one of the great Saturday Night Live sketches featuring the wonderful Gilda Radner in her hilarious glory. Enjoy!
  
 
My Rating:
Very Good: Stay up late

Monday, April 23, 2012

Question Of The Moment: Do you spread the word? (3)


As a book blogger, I’ve come to learn how quickly news of a book can spread in the blogosphere. One person posts on their blog about a book they have read. Their readers read this post. Some of them add it to their (oh-so-never-ending) to be read shelf. The whole process repeats itself. It doesn’t take long for many book lovers to hear about a good book.

Outside of the book blogging and Goodreads world, I don’t have many friends that read like I do. Until I started my blog, I didn’t have people to talk to about books. Then not long ago I let a friend borrow the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher since I believe the book has a powerful message that everyone needs to hear. She loved it. We ended up getting into an interesting discussion about how society views depression and suicide. It felt good to actually talk about a book with someone I know in person. I let her borrow Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver after that. I hope she enjoys that too so we can continue to talk about books.

How about you?

Do you share the love of a book with friends in real life? Do you give your non-obsessive reader friends a little bit of a nudge to read a good book? Do they ever read it?

~Jessica

PS: I thought I had scheduled this last week, but I didn't because I had not found a picture yet. *facepalm* Anyways...

Friday, April 20, 2012

Calling all indie authors for blog post series opportunity!


So far I have three but have decided to open up this opportunity to any other indie authors who have published a novel as an ebook. I have a blog post series idea featuring indie authors answering questions for writers working toward publication in the works. It's coming along nicely so far. I would like to see if I could get two more indie authors to participate. Please send me an email at impulsivities[at]gmail[dot]com and I will send you more details. As a thank you for all authors who participate, there will be a blog post dedicated to them (including links and pictures of their books, etc). So... free advertisement!

If more than two get in touch with me, I will go with the first two who contact me. But don't despair! I can probably still work out something else for you to guest post/interview for on my blog to spread the word about your novel. ^_^ (Because I love indie authors!)

I am aiming for this blog post series to begin in June. If you're interested, please try to contact me within the next two weeks. I'll be leaving for vacation in the middle of May, so it would be great to have all the answers back by the time I get home so I can start this series up right when summer starts.

So, for all my readers (especially those trying to publish their own novel), stay tuned--this summer is going to be great for you!

~Jessica

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Update Thursday #55

Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme of sorts where I post an update of the goings on at my blog, with reading, with writing, and beyond. Feel free to borrow the idea from me for your own bookish musings.

~*~

Reading...

Books I finished this week:
 Hana by Lauren Oliver (E-Book Challenge)

Books I'm reading now (and some still):
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Classics Challenge)

308 of 1026 E.E. Cummings poems finished (32 this week)

Writing...

Oh my goodness. Last Thursday and Friday were EPIC writing days for me. I printed off my (awful) first draft of If Only We. Then sat down in front of the laptop and started revising and writing out some important scenes. And then, I restarted from the beginning (like I said I was going to) to fix the flashback situation. I actually made it halfway through fixing the beginning, which is pretty amazing. I stopped at a spot where I wanted to completely change an aspect of the story. Still figuring out that part. BUT I figured out a great way for my MC to make amends, which added another scene to my scene file. Once I finish fixing the beginning, I'll share my word count with you. It's a little off right now with all the adjustments, and part of it is going down while the other part is shooting up. It is above my last total (which you can see on the sidebar was 10,051) which is excitement squared for me.

I also pulled out my other story, Before We Knew, to browse through it and compare the writing between my two stories. It's funny, I didn't realize that I could pull off characters with different voices. I always thought I made them all sound the same. It could just be the tone of the story--If Only We is serious and deep so my MC takes things seriously, Before We Knew has more of a sarcastic and breezy feel to it so my MC comes off as weirdly hilarious. I unintentionally came up with some dialogue for Before We Knew because of looking it over. Can't wait to get back to that one.

I've been trying to work on a better synopsis of the current WIP, jotting down ideas into my phone when certain words and sentences come to mind to describe it. It's getting better, but not exactly what I'm looking for. It needs to show the depth of the plot enough to make it intriguing but not give away all the details. That's the most important feature of this story for me: there's so much to the story that I can't share half of the plot in a synopsis for fear of taking away from the true meaning. It's frustrating, but I'll keep at it.

Otherwise...

You're probably wondering, "Where has Jessica been? She didn't post any reviews or discussion posts this week." That's because I realized I didn't have anything scheduled this weekend and didn't have enough time to hurry up and post anything before I had to restart my work week. Lol. I've been working on it this week. I'll be back on track next week. Plus, I have a massive summer project in the works. I'll be posting for additional help on that tomorrow. ;)


Until next time...

~Jessica

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Review: PineLight by Jillian Peery

Title: PineLight
Author: Jillian Peery
Source: Won in giveaway
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

.
I loved him—that was my torment.
And I was losing him all over again.

Walls crumbled all around me. An undeniable force pulled at my core.
I tried to fight it, I tried to deny it the power, but I was weak.
I felt pain in my side, and I knew that this dark force was winning.
My veins started to burn, and I screamed, but it didn’t stop.

Thrilling and seductive, PINELIGHT is a bittersweet love story submerged in a dark and beautiful world.

~synopsis from Barnes & Noble

My Thoughts:

I had mixed feelings about this story throughout. It seemed to bounce from one scene to a completely bizarre change of events out of nowhere. There were almost too many genres rolled into one that I could barely keep track. I got lost for awhile, then understood for the most part. The religious aspect was, eh. *shrugs shoulders* But the fairy tale-esque part was nice. It made more sense.

One thing I always love is those parts where guys try to seduce the girl. Getting close to her, almost kissing her. Even though that was all over the place and you weren’t sure who was supposed to be the good guy. There’s still just something about boys when they make you swoon.

It was the quick and sudden transitions that lost and frustrated me. I was staring with a scrunched nose wondering what happened and why, and then boom! One minute she’s coming home from school, the next minute she’s in another country. A-whaaaa?  I was never sure who was good or bad, who Clara was really, and oh wait, here’s another love interest… I suppose that’s what makes a decent story, when it’s not completely predictable.

Originally I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy PineLight. But the end was good, so I did like it after all even though it was all over the place. Jillian Peery can tell a good story, and I would probably be willing to read another story of hers someday.


My Rating:

Pretty Good: Stay up until your bedtime

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Update Thursday #54

Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme of sorts where I post an update of the goings on at my blog, with reading, with writing, and beyond. Feel free to borrow the idea from me for your own bookish musings.

~*~

Reading...

Books I finished this week:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Books I'm reading now (and some still):
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Classics Challenge)
 Hana by Lauren Oliver (E-Book Challenge)

276 of 1026 E.E. Cummings poems finished (10 this week)

Writing...

I will be printing the first draft out today. First chance I've had all week to do it, so YAY! I was scrolling through it to see if I left unnecessary space in certain spots between chapters to ensure I'm not wasting paper. I found some scenes and thoughts that I jotted down before and after chapters that started triggering my inspiration of the story to begin with. It's good that I'm printing it out. Now I can easily find those little thoughts I came up with later in the writing of the book (like personality traits I took note of to incorporate earlier into the book, etc.).

Otherwise...

Don't mess with Lady Conductors.
The plan for last Saturday didn't end up working out, SOOO it got moved to this Sunday, and moved to Indiana. Lol. This time it's carved in stone. But last Saturday and Sunday, some local friends and my brother and I went to the park and goofed off. We took some funny pictures. The one on the side is me in some sort of wooden truck. I have no idea what I'm trying to do for the photo, but I didn't want to do the whole 'normal smiling because I'm posing in a wooden truck' thing. Earlier we had posed in the wooden train that was there too. My brother's friend made the comment: "Lady conductors? Matt doesn't think so." So my mom said about this picture: "It's the 'Don't mess with the lady conductor' face." Oh, mom. Classic.


Until next time...

~Jessica

Monday, April 9, 2012

Question Of The Moment: Do you ever reward yourself? (2)


In the middle of my massive room organizing slash cleaning, I found myself needing to do something fun. I wanted to keep reading my current book. At the time, it was Divergent, and OMG every time I picked it up I didn’t want to set it down. Yet I couldn’t stop my project. Especially since I’m actually relatively motivated to do it. And, trust me, when the motivation comes along, I need to jump on it before it is gone.

I started a system: Every time I completed a task, I rewarded myself with either a chapter or two in Divergent or a little bit of writing or reading a some of a magazine. But mostly the book reading. It was a strong motivational tool. And a necessary one because if I don’t keep up with my reading (due to either the room thing or my writing WIP), I’m going to fall behind. And who wants to fall behind on reading such good books?

How about you?

Ever have something you need to do when you really want to finish a book? Have you ever done a reward system to get yourself motivated to do something?

Sunday, April 8, 2012

In My Mailbox #18: March Edition

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

It's where we post about the latest books we've purchased, gotten from the library, or received for review... it doesn't necessarily have to be ones you got in the mail. Although a lot of mine DO come from my mailbox. :)

I went Nook Book crazy, mostly because I have a gift card and it's easy to go overboard when you do. Plus I needed some of these hard copies for the sake of my library and my incessant need to read books NOT on my challenges, LOL. I won't be finishing my TBR pile challenge this year for sure! A couple of these were for my reference section, and HOLY MOLY are they ginormous books.



Amazon, B&N, Online Store, or Other Store:

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Physicians' Desk Reference by PDR Staff
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV by American Psychiatric Association
Welcome To Your Brain by Sandra Aamodt, Sam Wang
Dictionary Of Word Origins by Joseph Twadell Shipley
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Nook Book: 

Codename: Dancer by Amanda Brice
Northanger Alibi by Jenni James
White Cat (Curse Workers Series #1) by Holly Black
Survival (The Guardians of Vesturon Series, Book #1) by A.M. Hargrove
Hana (Delirium Series) by Lauren Oliver
Flame Of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille
Virtue by Amanda Hocking
Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan
The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen
Wander Dust by Michelle Warren


So! What did you get in YOUR mailbox?

~Jessica

Friday, April 6, 2012

Guest Who - Stand Alone Vs. Series with Molli from Once Upon A Prologue


Guest Who? is a feature that Molli at Once Upon A Prologue does monthly. It's a guest post swap between her and other bloggers. She has kindly allowed me to join in on the fun of this feature by having us both write on the topic of Stand Alone novels versus Series novels. If you would be interested in taking part in one of Molli's features, check out this link for details.

 

So, of course, my wonderful guest blogger for today is Molli at Once Upon A Prologue!


About Molli: Whimsical. Dreamer. Avid Reader. Coffee addict. Twitter-obsessed. Blogger. Romantic. I can be found with a book in my hand most anytime.


Find Molli: ~Twitter~ ~Goodreads~ ~Facebook~
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It’s no secret I’m a huge book geek; in fact, I’m THAT girl who squees when a package arrives in the mail and it’s a book or books I’ve been anxiously awaiting. I make these embarrassing little flap-y gestures and get ridiculously excited – yes, all over a new book. But in the last year, there’s something different I’ve been craving: more stand-alone books.

Now, that’s not to say that I don’t love a good series. If there’s an amazingly swoon-worthy hero or heroes (especially a tortured hero) and if the plot holds my attention and keeps me guessing, and if the author knows how to play up the suspense and heart-ache in a string of novels, there is (clearly) nothing better than not just one book, but several books about characters I love. If you want to make my fangirl heart pound, give me four or five books with a couple I truly love (think Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, or Clay and Elena from Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series, or the ultimate book pairing, Daemon and Janelle from Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy) and I am the happiest girl in the world. There’s nothing quite like the high of knowing the new book in the series is out, and that I get to read about the further adventures of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, or the Lords of the Underworld. (Mmmm, Rhage, Tohr, Gideon, and Kane! P.S. If you don’t know those names…you should!)

However, here’s where it all goes bad. Said author starts a series, and gets a few books in; suddenly, the novelty (hahaha) wears off and the author has all these loose ends to tie up before the series ends, or they realize they’ve painted themselves into the proverbial corner. Where my love for series gets a bit sour is when the author does a few things I can’t stand, such as killing off all the best characters (yes, I’ve seen it happen) in order to write a new trilogy, or ending the book sloppily (I’m looking at you, Stephenie Meyer…we still need to talk about Breaking Dawn) by trying to please everyone with a too-neat, too-shiny ending. I want authors who take chances, authors who aren’t afraid to leave an ending open, authors who laugh at the need to keep drawing out a story past its prime.

Hence, stand-alones.

Victoria Schwab did it in an incredibly spooky and clever way with The Near Witch. Jess Rothenberg gave us an emotional, heart-breaking, laugh-out-loud story of love and life after death with The Catastrophic History of You & Me. Hannah Harrington did it in a soul-healing way with Saving June. Lauren Oliver shattered my heart, and then painstakingly pieced it back together with Before I Fall. Jodi Picoult made me see red, made me cry, made me grieve, and made me FEEL with Mercy. Kate Morton did it in a family-secrets-to-tingle-your-spine way with The Forgotten Garden.

There is no rule that says your book has to have a sequel. However there should be a rule that says your book must have a need FOR a sequel. Authors who write a self-contained story don’t always need to draw out the ending. It’s okay – it can be brave, even – to end it with the end of a single book. It isn’t necessarily always kind or gutsy to write a sequel or sequels. Sometimes it’s just plain silly. A good question to ask yourself is, are you serving your readers by writing a sequel, or are you serving yourself? We all get attached to those characters, but sometimes…the time comes to bid them farewell. Charlaine Harris could spin her Sookie Stackhouse series out forever, yet she’s wisely ending it within the next few years, while there’s still a good level of interest in the series, and stories left to tell. That, to me, is the real test. If you’re reaching blindly to fill the pages, then it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate.

It’s all up to the individual author, and again, I do love a fabulous series that throws in enough twists and turns to leave me a bit dizzy. I love it when I can’t figure out what an author is up to, and I love spending years reading about my beloved characters. But the saying goes “all good things must come to an end” for a reason, and I’d love to see a few more author try their hands at stand-alones. It gets to be a lot of pressure to finish reading this series and that, when there are new books coming out every month from a dozen new authors I’d love to try…and I think there’s something to be said for leaving something to the imagination, for closing a book and realizing: no, the author didn’t tell you EVERYTHING that happened…but he or she told a damn good story that it’s going to take you awhile to recover from, and they left off in a way that you get to imagine a bit of your own ending. That, to me, is better than any series.

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Thank you so much for this great post Molli! You really hit all the best points about the greatness of stand alone novels. What do you guys think? Stand alones versus series? What is your opinion of them?

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Update Thursday #53


Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme of sorts where I post an update of the goings on at my blog, with reading, with writing, and beyond. Feel free to borrow the idea from me for your own bookish musings.

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Reading...

Books I finished this week:
Survival by A.M. Hargrove (E-Book Challenge)

Books I'm reading now (and some still):
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Classics Challenge)

266 of 1026 E.E. Cummings poems finished (32 this week)
Writing...

Well, I bought more paper to print my first draft, but need to buy the ink tomorrow so I can print it out. I was reading on an author's blog the other night about naming everything in your story before you start writing it otherwise you'll find yourself stopping abruptly trying to come up with names for things you forgot to name, etc. I feel this is definitely necessary for me to do now. I discussed it before on another UT post, but didn't really get anywhere with it. I have a ton of index cards (for coming up with and tracking names of things and my characters) and have gotten some colored ones to help organize the order of thoughts (especially those pesky flashbacks). So, I suppose I didn't get far this last week.

Otherwise...

I have a FOUR DAY WEEKEND!!! So excited. And I talked to my boss about me looking for another job, and since then he's been trying to do things to lessen my stress at work (including lowering my hours). Too little, too late. But I do appreciate it. In any case, I'm spending this weekend catching up on EVERYTHING (including organizing all the writing things mentioned above). I need to get these things taken care of and not waste time like I usually do. I will hopefully have some friends from out of town coming over Saturday night, which will definitely brighten my day. So, this weekend will be great times ten!

Speaking of which, I'm posting this so I can go DO things that need done! ^_^


Until next time...

~Jessica

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Review: Confessions Of A Call Center Gal by Lisa Lim

Title: Confessions Of A Call Center Gal
Author: Lisa Lim
Source: Won in giveaway
Genre: Chick Lit
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

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Bridget Jones's Diary meets The Office. Madison Lee is a fresh college grad, ready to take on the world of print media. But she has zero luck landing a job. Unemployment is at ten percent and on the rise. Desperate and left with no other options, she accepts a position as a service rep at a call center in Pocatello, Idaho. At the Lightning Speed call center in Spudsville, Maddy plunges into the wild and dysfunctional world of customer service where Sales is prided over Service and an eight hour shift is equivalent to eight hours of callers bashing her over the phone. Oh sure, the calls are bad. But Maddy manages to find humor on the phone and off the phone. And with all the salacious drama behind the calls, there is never a dull moment at the Lightning Speed call center.
 

Lately . . . Maddy has been pining for her smolderingly gorgeous co-worker Mika Harket. Now things are heating up on the phone--and elsewhere. Don't hang up on this novel. Working at a call center has never been this garish . . . or this delightful.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

This book is a combination of Sex And The City and every chick lit book ever written. Which isn’t exactly my thing. I can take some chick lit and the like, but this was like an overload. There were a lot of innuendos and pop culture references throughout. For the most part, the references were not things I cared about. I appreciated the reference to George Michael and my beloved SNL, but the rest was just all over the place and everywhere. It became too much sometimes. I mean, it seemed like one fourth of the book relied mostly on jokes and references to pop culture.

Madison’s relationship with her best friend, Karsynn, was cute. They went through their ups and downs, but they still loved each other. The guy (her love interest), Mika, was a sweet guy. Her friend at the call center, Truong, was funny at times, although quite crude in some places.

The reality of customer service is a nightmare. It’s a lot like any job dealing with the public, even pharmacy. This is by far worse than my job though. I could almost believe that it’s not possible people could be so rude and vulgar, but then I realize I’m just fooling myself. There is a whole lot of swearing and sex talk. It’s more graphic in dialogue than in describing things actually happening.

I thought Confessions Of A Call Center Gal was okay, and I realize why I don’t go for much chick lit. I appreciated the customer service aspect in the sense that it thoroughly amused me how stupid and silly people are. Lisa Lim is a good writer, so if you enjoy chick lit and pop culture, this should be an enjoyable experience for you.


My Rating:

Pretty Good: Stay up until your bedtime

Monday, April 2, 2012

Inspired Creations: Handmade Bookmarks (1)

While I was trying to come up with good posts for my blog, one of the topics I considered was talking about bookmarks. I mean, we all have to use something as a bookmark since we all love to read books. I was usually just using whatever scrap of paper I could find nearby, even though I do own bookmarks. Why should I use random pieces of paper when I have real bookmarks?

Then I got to thinking, I bet there's a bunch of awesome handmade bookmarks available on Etsy (same site I used for my Twilight Jewelry guest post). I started to browse around (talk about losing track of time!) and found a lot of sweet bookmarks. I just thought I'd take a moment to share some of them with you.

To view where the bookmark is found, click the link listed in the caption under its picture.

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Cats!


~When I was a kid, I would buy all kinds of cat bookmarks. I was cat obsessed.
So I had to find and share at least one cat themed bookmark.~

Inspire / Dream
And look at that gorgeous hand stamped art!~

Ecofriendly Hearts

Plus it's all recycled paper pieces.~

Recycled Paper

So simple, yet so pretty.~

Butterflies!
You can't help but love 'em.~

Read Me

Butterflies and a gorgeous background.~

Corner Bookmark

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87273806/origami-bookmark-dream

~I have one corner bookmark but I'm not as fond of it as this one.
I like how it's very airy and, well, dreamy.~

Mixed Media

Great use of that book page!~

Book Flowers
http://www.etsy.com/listing/72181729/origami-recycled-vintage-book-flowers

~These are soooo cool! I love the use of the paper.
And how different it is as a bookmark.~

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~Jessica

PS: All pictures have been removed on 08/03/2012. Refer to link to see pictures.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Winners of the Blogoversary Giveaway are...


.....(drumroll please).....

CONGRATULATIONS

Noely Jeleen Balmeo
You just won a book of choice from the Book Depository!
&
 Kimberly Lim

You just won a book swag pack!


I have sent emails to both of you for your addresses.


Thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaway! You guys are spectacular. I don't know what I would do without you wonderful and lovely people. *many hugs*

~Jessica