Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts

Sunday, September 4, 2011

In My Mailbox #11: Monthly 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. :)


This is actually not bad for a month. Not too overboard. A bunch were on sale and clearance priced. I'm planning on cutting back until I get caught up. ^_^


Amazon:

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler (really excited about this one)
Nightlight: A Parody by Harvard Lampoon
Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs (book 3 in the Temperance Brennan series)
City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare
City Of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
City Of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Falling In Love With English Boys by Melissa Jensen
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson
Rosebush by Michele Jaffe
Fantasy Encyclopedia by Judy Allen & Richard Hook (for reference for a couple book ideas I have)

Nook Book:

Dream Smashers by Angela Carlie

Thrift Store:

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene
The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares
I Want To Be The Kitty: Mutts 8 by Patrick McDonnell 
Bratfest At Tiffany's by Lisi Harrison
P.S. I Loathe You by Lisi Harrison
The Secret Language of Girls by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Into the Wild (Warriors #1) by Erin Hunter


Library:

So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti


Won In A Contest:

PineLight by Jillian Peery


 What did you get this week/this month?

~Jessica

Sunday, August 7, 2011

In My Mailbox #10 (Super 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. :)


This will be a pretty big one, since I haven’t done this in a LOOOOONG time (like, more than a month). Let’s break it down, shall we?





My Borders Haul:


Seventh Garfield Fat Cat 3-Pack by Jim Davis *Goodreads*
Elements Of Fiction Writing: Characters And Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card *Goodreads*
The Facts On File Dictionary Of Cliches by Christine Ammer *Goodreads*
The Betrayal Of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate *Goodreads*
One Night That Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt *Goodreads*
Love Bites (Vampire Kisses 7) by Ellen Schreiber *Goodreads*
Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar *Goodreads*
You Know You Love Me (Gossip Girl #2) by Cecily von Ziegesar *Goodreads*


Nook Books:
Switched by Amanda Hocking *Goodreads*
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot *Goodreads*
Breathless by Jessica Warman *Goodreads*
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler *Goodreads*
Waterfall (River Of Time #1) by Lisa Tawn Bergren *Goodreads*


Amazon:


Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers *Goodreads*
Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers *Goodreads*
Take Our Cat, Please by Darby Conley *Goodreads*


Barnes & Noble:


The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath *Goodreads*
Last Chapter And Worse by Gary Larson *Goodreads*
Cows Of Our Planet by Gary Larson *Goodreads*
The Days Are Just Packed by Bill Watterson *Goodreads*
There’s Treasure Everywhere by Bill Watterson *Goodreads*


Borrowed From Library:

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar *Goodreads*
Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Wehr *Goodreads*
Afterlife by Claudia Gray *Goodreads*
Real Live Boyfriends (Ruby Oliver #4) by E. Lockhart *Goodreads*


Won In A Contest:
Confessions Of A Call Center Gal by Lisa Lim (Nook book) *Goodreads*


PHEW! That took way too long. But at least this is everything from literally a month ago. Makes me feel less... crazy? I did get all those Nook books for cheap, some of them might still be on sale in case somebody else is wanting one. ^_^ And it was the first contest I won so far! So it's been good for me book-wise this last month. I did put back at least 3 or 4 books while at Borders. I didn't go too overboard, even though I wanted to. I'm excited to have Twenty Boy Summer finally--I can read it during Banned Books Week!

How was YOUR week/month? Link me up, I'd like to see!

~Jessica

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Booking Through Thursday #8 & Update Thursday #13

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Deb @ BTT. This week's question asks the following:


What’s the largest your personal library has ever been? What’s the greatest number of books you’ve ever owned at one time? (Estimates are fine.)
Is your collection NOW the biggest it’s ever been? Or have you down-sized?
What’s the fewest number of books you’ve ever owned (not counting your pre-reading years)?

Apparently, after my quick count, it is approximately 350 (or more). Which is the largest it's ever been (I am including all of my books, by the way, not just fiction). I've downsized over the years periodically, but only a handful of books at a time. The fewest number of books I've owned... when I was younger and starting out with reading, my brother and I had about 25-30 books. Then when I got into the Baby Sitter's Club and Sweet Valley Twins (and my dad found a bunch at garage sales for me) I probably had around 50-60. When I first started with the YA novels, I usually just got the ones I really, really, really wanted, and those totaled to about 20 at that time (which isn't counting my childhood books, plus nonfiction books and dictionaries). So... I'm not really sure when it's been at it's fewest. But there's a general idea.

~*~


Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme (but feel free to use it if you'd like) that I started to keep track of everything going on in my book blogging/writing/own world. Basically, I list off a few different things that have happened in the last week.

1. I have finally caught up on all of Ellen Hopkins books last night. Fallout was a great way to close up the story from Crank and Glass. Her next YA novel, Perfect, is coming out in September. And she has a book geared more toward adults called Triangles coming out in October. ELLEN HOPKINS OVERLOAD! Yay!

2. I was up until 2 AM reading last night, finishing Fallout and catching up on My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking. I'm almost done with the latter. As I was reading on her site, she used words from an E.E. Cummings (or e.e. cummings as some fans like to write out his name) poem for the titles in that series (the poem is titled "Since Feeling Is First"). I love Love LOVE E.E. Cummings. I really enjoyed reading on my Nook last night. It didn't hurt my eyes or anything!

3. I had to return The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson to the library last weekend before I could read it. The library I go to is interconnected with several other libraries and you can request books from any of those libraries. Apparently, the one I had got put on hold for somebody because they wouldn't let me renew it. I don't want that to happen again, so I'm working on getting the rest of the library books read.

4. I need to get moving on my Summer Romance Challenge ASAP. Stupid library distracting me with their awesome books available! Once I'm done with My Blood Approves, I think I'll start one of the Nook books I chose for that challenge, like The Other Boy by Hailey Abbott (haven't read one of her books in awhile).

5. I distracted myself a little bit this week by watching Seinfeld episodes with my brother. We haven't been watching the syndicated reruns on TV for a couple years now (prior to that we had probably seen literally every episode 10 times each, if not some of them more), so watching them again was too much to handle. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe.

6. Remember when I said I was holding off on buying stuff in that cart I put together on Amazon? Well, I waited... and waited... and ALMOST went ahead to check out a few days ago. But THEN. I check it out Tuesday night. EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. DOUBLED. IN. PRICE. Blast! That's what I always get for trying to be good. There are those days when I'll fill up a cart of bargain books, then say to myself, "Do I really want all of these? Or am I just throwing books in this cart just to get the free shipping?" So I sleep on it. And then one or more books are sold out in the morning. In any case, I just went ahead and bought Gossip Girl Season 2 only from an Amazon seller. I was getting way too anxious. I had to give in.

7. I decided to not do the Wannabe Writers thing this week. I'll just give the gist of my writing update via my Update Thursday instead. I don't have much to report. My word count hasn't increased any since last week. I've been spending my time working on compiling all the background/scene/dialogue information into spiral notebooks. I need to better develop my characters and their personalities so I can make the story more believable. And I'm changing my main character's name. I have been thinking about and working on my other book idea, which isn't as light a story as the first one. The first one has the whole story planned out, the second one has more of a general plot planned. Which has been developing nicely in my mind. I hope to get at least a little bit more written out by next week.


That's it for this week!

~Jessica

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Booking Through Thursday #4, Update Thursday #9, Library Quick Reviews #1

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Deb @ BTT. This week's question asks the following:

Do you read book reviews? Whose do you trust? Do they affect your reading habits? Your buying habits?

My answer: I will scan down my whole list of blog updates every day. If something strikes me, like a book I've read or want to read or just bought or sounds interesting, I'll click on it and read it. I have no particulars on favorite bloggers, because everyone's got some great opinions about books. Even if someone were to post a "this book was dumb" kind of review and I wanted to read it, I'd still read it. I like to form my own opinion. If someone posts a "this book was amazing and it changed my life you have to read it" kind of review, it just makes me want to read it more!


~*~


Update Thursday!

This week, I have a LOT of things to share. I've been bottling them all up and saving them for this moment...

1. I've been slacking off in the book review/book reading department... again... but for good reason! (Again!) I've been writing... and actually writing well. My story is beginning to come to life. I had this inspiration on Sunday for the one scene, so I wrote out a brief overview of it on the notepad in my phone (wasn't at home at the time), got home, wrote it out. Then every night since then, still writing. Monday I wrote out the beginning of the story. Tuesday I revised the intro more. Wednesday I completed a dialogue I came up with during the day. I am just so excited! I've never written so much in such a short time. I think this year will definitely be the year for NaNoWriMo for me!

2. Still anxiously awaiting on my Nook. I was hoping to get it today. I have a feeling it may be later in the afternoon or tomorrow according to the tracking number. I cannot cannot cannot wait! I have a list of books to download. I'm sticking with the cheaper ones at the moment, since the Nook wasn't cheap, lol.

3. Finished Hold Still by Nina LaCour last night. Talk about an AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING book! Here's the link to the Goodreads synopsis. If you read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and appreciated the message, Hold Still will do the same, and more, since it goes through the grieving process over the course of a year. The connections of the different people that are affected, directly and indirectly, by a tragedy like that are astounding. You never really think about it until you read this.

4. There was a question on Reading Lark that I wanted to answer, but didn't want to post yet another post last night... the question: Is there a book you feel you should have read by now, but you've just never picked up? My answer: Persuasion by Jane Austen. With as much of a fan that I am of the movie (the Masterpiece Theater version, amazing, I consider it my favorite movie of all time), I have never read the book. Or any of Jane Austen's books. I feel this is pathetic. I must remedy this. And soon.

5. I just found out about a new reading challenge... and I want to participate! It's the 2011 Summer Romance Reading Challenge hosted by Book Chick City. I'll be posting something later about my official signing up. In the meantime, check it out yourself. You may want to do it too!

6. I will be participating in the What's Your Status? contest. Here's a link to the contest info. Basically I will host on one day, others will host on other days, then there will be a poll to vote on the best posting format. If I win (which would be awesome), I get to host WYS for a few weeks! So, just to let you all know, I'll be hosting it on the 25th of this month on a Saturday. Don't miss it! ^_^


~*~


Library Quick Reviews

Now for quick reviews of the library books from my last library trip! If I have a full review up, I'll link to it.



Where She Went by Gayle Forman
* A very, very well written sequel that I could not put down. Nor could I keep the tears from welling up. Sometimes sequels just make the story end poorly. This one did not. It made the story complete. I’ll write out a whole review at some point, once I’ve written one up for If I Stay.

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
* Already posted review here.

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey
* Already posted review here.

A Tale Of Two Pretties by Lisi Harrison
* A great end to a much enjoyed series. A little cheesy in some ways but the integrity of the characters and original story line kept it from straying off to a unnatural ending. I still need to read the prequel and the summer series.

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
* I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that bad, it kept me interested enough, but it wasn’t something I could really get into. I’m not sure why. I’m glad I finally got to read it. I may or may not books that follow this.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
* I started out a little irritated with the characters, but then I began to love it. It was right after the section that I took my teaser from a few weeks back. I grew to love the back and forth and the overwhelming sexual tension. That’s what makes or breaks a book. Cannot wait to read Crescendo!

Shiver by Maggie Steifvater
* Very intriguing and captivating, it definitely kept me interested. There was a line from the same chapter I took my teaser from that got me, where she touched the wolf’s fur for the first time. That got me. You could sense the love story was real throughout, not just a dull excuse to build a love story from. Gotta read Linger soon!

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
* It was intense and interesting, having a good main story and side stories, and love triangles. Somehow I wasn’t that impressed. I’m unsure if I’ll read the next book. More likely to read the next one in this series than The Dark Diving series.


Happy reading and have a great Thursday! ^_^

~Jessica

Monday, May 16, 2011

Musing Monday #3

Musing Monday is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading and here's our question for today:

The local Catholic school board is closing its school libraries, and parents and teachers –and even the students– are in an uproar. Budget cuts demanded that the board choose something to get rid of… they choose libraries. As such, many librarians have lost their jobs. And, the board is moving the books to the classrooms, instead. They feel that it is a good solution.

What do you think? Should the schools be without an actual “library” room? Is this a good solution?

Oh man, do not get me started on schools and "budget cuts". When it comes to schools having to cut activities, the activities are always the ones involving creativity. Never sports. Ever. Yeah, I understand that sports "draw a bigger crowd", but where's the fairness? I didn't do sports in school (of course I was only in high school for one year, then homeschooled), so if they took away my library, I would have had nothing.

I understand that schools are under a lot of pressure these days. Teachers are either underpaid, or they get fired, or if another teacher gets fired it means they have a handful more kids per classroom. There are smaller logical ways to save money, and there's even the option to RAISE money with fundraisers as well. It's just a "quick fix" to cut a program rather than find other avenues to solve money problems.

The library that I frequent by my workplace had to cut it's hours. They used to be open M-F from 9-9, but now it's cut to 10-8:30 M-Tu, 9-6 W-F. It used to be so convenient to just stop by after work, but now I can only make it there once a week if I need something, sometimes not even once a month. Last time I was in there they had a bunch of various items for sale--candies, bookmarks, etc--to raise money for the library. It shouldn't have to get to that point.

It just comes down to being really sad that things get to that point.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Follow Friday #2 and In My Mailbox #2



Alright! Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and is a way for book bloggers to get to know each other better. Just go to her page and follow the directions, and you'll be making some new friends! This week's blogger is Al @ Magnet 4 Books.


Q. Circle time! Time to share. What character in a book would you most like to be, what character in a book would you most like to date?

Oh my! What a question... give me a minute... okay, after much deliberation staring at my shelves and holding a battle in my mind, I've decided to be an old school romantic. I would like to be Flip from And Both Were Young by Madeleine L'Engle, and the character I would like to date would be Paul from the same novel. Flip (or Philippa, I love that name!) is real and brave and kind. And Paul is sweet and believes in you and talks to you. All the wonderful things you want in another person. *sigh*


To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers -http://magnet4books.blogspot.com/
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you're new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!



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. :)

This week, I didn't buy any books, but I DID go to the library as I mentioned yesterday. Here's what I got!



Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
A Tale Of Two Pretties by Lisi Harrison
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Time You Let Me In: 25 poets under 25
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer


I've read two of them already, working on the rest. I only have two more weeks, unless I want to renew, which I have the tendency to do depending on how many books I borrow, lol.


That's all for today folks! Expect a review or two this weekend if I have a moment to post one.

~Jessica