In My Mailbox - June 15

This was a wonderful week for me. I received a lot of books I requested and bought a couple I had my eyes on! In My Mailbox is brought to you courtesy of The Story Siren.

Bought
I bought two books this week. I had a gift card and a coupon that were burning a hole in my pocket.

Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard - The Amazing Dancer thought the story sounded great and loved the cover so we got it.

The Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - I've been hearing a lot about these books so I got the first one to read at the end of summer break.

Begged For
Hollywood is Like High School With Money by Zoey Dean - from Hachette

from Waterbrook/Multnomah
The Veil by Diane Noble
Tomorrow's Treasure by Linda Lee Chaikin

Kurt Wallander Mystery Series by Henry Mankell - from BookDivas

Freaked by JT Dutton - this is on my I Wanna Read It list and the author asked to send me one! How cool is that!

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - I'm a fan of Mistborn and the Alacatraz books so I put this on my list and received this beautiful book from Tor! Brandon Sanderson says:

The concept of color as life fascinated me. When something dies in our world, the color fades from it—green plants become brown and human bodies lose their color, becoming pale as the blood drains to the bottom of the corpse. In a lot of ways, color is a representation of life itself.

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiana - Thanks to J from Harper for this! Read it in one sitting and it was awesome. Look for my teaser next week and review closer to pub date. Picking up all of her books to read!

The Bystander by James Preller - Yeah! E from Feiwel and Friends sent us TEN copies! The teachers and I were so excited - Every copy is being read right now, except mine - I finished it -and it was even better than I thought it would be. Look for a review closer to pub date.

Borrowed
The Big Stone Gap series by Adriana Trigiana
Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil - possible Newbery

Well - those are the great books I received this week. What did you receive?

Friday Five - June 12

Happy Friday! I'm sorta kinda but not really finished at work this week. I still have to type up my report and clean things up. I've decided to go in when the Amazing Dancer girl goes to visit her cousins for a week! Let's get right to it shall we?

1. Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani - last week I raved that I wanted to read this because it's set in my present hometown. Guess what? HarperTeen sent me an ARC! I received and read it all last night. I loved it. Look for my review during the Bloggiesta! What is the Bloggiesta?

2. Bloggiesta - @mawbooks will be hosting a bloggiesta next weekend. This is to give us bloggers the chance to catch up on blog-related items - reviews, interviews, backup posts, feature fixes, icon making, any blog items that you are behind on really. Personally, I need to work on reviews, fix some slow-loading problems, get some interview questions together, find out what happened to my favicon, etc. You can do anything except read! Sign up if you're interested.

3. I Heart Daily - i love this newsletter. They introduced me to Fred Flare where I got a cool LIBRARIAN pin. Please sign up. Cute and cool. Just like me. j/k

4. Audiobooks - getting my HP fix by listening to HP and the Deathly Hallows. Been awhile since I read this one. Wish it was on Itunes so I could put it on my Itouch. Harder to remember to bring the CDs with me but well worth the effort!

5. National Give a Girlfriend A Book Day - a group of authors and others on Facebook are sponsoring this day. Not only are you encouraged to give a book to someone but you can join the group and win a book. Check them out and answer the question: Which story have you loved that a girlfriend might love?

Bonus: Answer the question here and be entered for a chance to win Shannon Hale's new book - The Actor and The Housewife. This book made me laugh and cry. I read it in two nights - staying up way later than I should have but it was hard to put down. When I finished, I just wanted to read it again! I'll give you until 11:59 pm, June 14th to enter! 1 entry per person. US Residents only. Not a lot of time so enter now! Contest Extended until 11:59pm June 15th!!

Friday Five - June 5

It's The Friday Five! Welcome - come on in!

1. Viola in Reel Life - check out this summary from PW:

"...Adriana Trigiani’s Viola in Reel Life. The first YA book from bestselling author Trigiani, the novel is the first in a series featuring Brooklyn teenager Viola Chesterton. Chesterton, a funny teen whose parents are globe-trotting documentary filmmakers, is forced to attend her mother’s alma mater, a stuffy boarding school in South Bend, Ind., called the Prefect Academy. Convinced she’ll hate Prefect and South Bend, Viola, who largely views the world from behind her camera, learns unexpected things about herself—and starts a romance—as a result of the move..."

People, I live in South Bend, Indiana!! IRL! OMW! This is a total must read for me. And..it just moved Very Valentine closer to the top of the reading pile! This is so rad!

2. Twitter Party - yes, you read that right! I'm going to a twitter party tonight! Come join @sarahockler for a night of fun and good times with to kickoff your summer of reading. We'll be discussing Twenty Boy Summer! What? You haven't read it? Get off the computer and read it!! NOW! This will be here when you get back! See you at the Twitter Party at 7pm EST!

3. 48 hr Book Challenge - I'll be starting this later today. Watch for my beginning post. I will be donating books from their wishlist to Color Online's Summer Book Drive. If you'd like to help out they have a wish list at Powell's. If you can't find their wishlist - use their email address - cora_litgroup@yahoo.com.

For each book I finish, I will buy them a book from the list.

4. Jane Carter Solution - seriously thinking of locing my hair. Right now it's twisted and I always undo it before it locs. Twisting takes about 2 hrs and my hair is short! Still, it's an easy do. I think I'm going to take the plunge sometime this summer...thoughts? Also, if you go to JCS - turn down the sound, it talks automatically!

5. 20 Must Reads - Last year I posted 20 YA books I wanted to read over summer. I've read 17, not too bad. Here are 18 more plus 2 from my previous list:

• Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
• My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
• Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
  
• The Rock and The River by Kekla Magoon
• Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
• Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
  
• Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
• Return to Sender by Julie Alvarez
• Ash by Malina Lo
  
• Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange
• Hate List by Jennifer Brown
• Happy Face by Stephen Emond
  
• Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
  
• Diego by Carmen T. Bernier-Grande
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, 1 by MT Anderson
• Never Slow Dance With a Zombie by E. Van Lowe
  
• My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson
• Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice by Phillip Hoose
  

You will note that a couple of these haven't come out yet - giving me a little leeway! What's on your must read list?

Well, that's the Friday Five today. I'll be posting an awful lot over the next few months so I hope you stick with me! Look for my first Contest Monday on...Monday!! Have a great weekend!

PS - Apologies to E. Van Lowe - I have 2 ARCs of your book right here!! I was just typing too fast. Please forgive!

In My Mailbox - April 26

Hello! This is my last official IMM! I'm going to start doing Library Loot and just putting in any other books as I receive them. I'm hoping this will cut down on the time I'm doing these types of posts and increase the time to do actual reviews!!!

So here's where I share what I bought, borrowed, begged for, or other ways I was able to get my grubby little hands on books!!! If you want some more titles to add to your to 2 read list, check out the Story Siren, she's the one that interested me in this.

Bought
It was a bad week for me. I bought books at Barnes and Noble, both online and in the store, Amazon, and Powell's. The good part of this is that I'd won a gift card at Amazon - so I only spent abt 2 bucks. The Powell's haven't come in yet - but I used virtual credit for those!!


Vamped by Lucienne Diver - this is for my daughter Jess. She loved the cover.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - read this in Sept., lent my copy to a student and haven't received it back yet. Need to read for last 8th grade book discussion group.

Heartbreakers by Pamela Wells - one of my favorite students recommended I read this.

Far From You by Lisa Schroeder - read I Heart You, I Haunt You and wanted to read this one plus the cover rocks.

Death By Bikini by Linda Gerber - great title and for some reason I already bought Death by Latte so I needed to get this, it's the first book.

Initiation by Susan Fine - first, the cover attracted me, then it reminds me of Spud and Catcher in the Rye because it's about boys at all boy schools but is written by a woman...that's intriguing! Susan Fine is doing this cool 44 goals things at her blog. Sounds like a neat idea.

Lesson Learned by Earl Sewell - bought this for J because she liked The Kayla Chronicles. Also, it's a guy writing about girls. And he's from South Holland, Il - that's a hop skip and a jump from Chicago! Also, Mr. Sewell is on Twitter! Follow him here. According to his website, he'll be in Chicago in June so I will try to have this read by then so that I can go and meet him.

Borrowed
I have way too many books from the library (19!) with 5 more on the hold list! So I did not even go to the library this week! Even though Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani is in. I'm sure I will go later now that I think about it! Plus, Ms. Trigiani has a YA book coming out in Sept called Viola in Reel Life that looks pretty good!

Begged for
Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita
I got this one from Book Divas on Twitter. Ms. Calonita is going to be on their blog from May 4 - May 8. You can go there and put questions in for Ms. Calonita to answer when she is there!! The Book Divas has lots of information on authors and writing as well as cool contests. Please check them out.



Well, hope you found something to add to your TBR pile!! And don't forget to tell me What's In Your Mailbox!